Chapter 7: Elder Jin Sacrifices His Golden Core

"Explode."

In truth, just now the two envoys from the north and south could have also self-detonated their Golden Cores. Both were in the late stage of the Golden Core realm, and the force of their self-destruction would have been enough to seriously wound the Peony Fairy. Their deaths would have given the Celestial Jiuyou and Elder Jin a chance to slay her. Yet they lacked the resolve and never imagined that the Peony Fairy's "Suppress" Talisman would possess such formidable power.

Unprepared for her assault, they were struck down in a single move, with no time to detonate their own Golden Cores.

In contrast, as soon as Elder Jin uttered the word "explode," his entire body was blasted apart, his golden robe disintegrating into ashes. Fragments of flesh and cloth mingled, becoming a haze that drifted midair. From within the mist, his Golden Core, the size of a pigeon egg, shot out toward the Peony Fairy.

Without warning, with a loud "bang!" Elder Jin's Golden Core detonated five meters from the Peony Fairy. Fortunately, Meiling was a scenic area with no residents for a hundred miles. Though there were many tourists, the park closed to visitors after midnight, and the staff were resting, so no one noticed the disturbance.

Even so, the explosion of Elder Jin’s Golden Core reverberated with the force of an intercontinental missile from the mundane world. The Peony Fairy stood very close. Though she had prepared her defenses, she was still caught in the blast. The overwhelming power pressed in, as if heaven and earth themselves pinned her in place.

Her spiritual energy surged instinctively, forming a protective shield around her body. Despite her profound cultivation, the Peony Fairy was still slightly injured. She felt a sweetness rise in her throat, her chest heaving as blood trickled from the corner of her lips, making her already striking features even more captivating.

The spring waterfall nearby had already been reduced to ruins by the explosions from the deaths of the two envoys. Now, with Elder Jin’s Golden Core self-detonating, the place was rendered even more devastated.

At the heart of the explosion, the ground caved in, leaving a crater nearly nine meters deep. The vastness of the area could not contain the blast's energy, and intense heat ignited the trees within a hundred meters. As the flames began to spread, threatening to engulf a full kilometer, the Peony Fairy, unable to bear the destruction, ignored the blood at her lips and produced a Rejuvenation Pill to quickly suppress the surging energy within her. This pill was a common restorative used by cultivators to replenish spiritual power.

Once she had stabilized her energy, she raised her right hand, sending forth a talisman inscribed with the character for "Rain." It soared a hundred meters into the air, and in an instant, a heavy downpour fell over a kilometer radius, centered on her. The fire, still in its infancy, was swiftly doused; the talisman’s purpose fulfilled, it disintegrated into fragments.

Elder Jin’s soul had not escaped the blast, shattering and dissipating into nothingness. He hadn’t anticipated that his soul would be unable to flee in time after his Golden Core exploded. At the very final moment of his existence, his last thought was to flay and torture the one who had leaked the information from the mundane world.

But regardless of his regrets, his soul, too, faded from this world.

"Elder Jin!" cried the Celestial Jiuyou in grief, witnessing his companion’s utter annihilation. The fate that had befallen Elder Jin could soon be his own.

Jiuyou’s face was etched with remorse. The loss of three late-stage Golden Core cultivators in one stroke meant the Hundred Poisons Sect was grievously wounded. Under his leadership, the sect was now doomed to fall from the ranks of the top ten, and even if he escaped, he would have no face before the Supreme Elders.

He could not help but mock himself. On their way here, he and his companions had strategized every detail, believing the Peony Fairy was already within their grasp. Never before had they faced a Nascent Soul cultivator, and they had not realized how terrifyingly vast the gap in power and cultivation could be.

Four of them set out; three had fallen in the opening exchange, yet the Peony Fairy remained with power to spare. None of them had expected the chasm between the Nascent Soul and Golden Core realms to be so profound—separated by but a single layer, yet as distant as two shores divided by a great abyss.

Now, with all four about to perish here, all prior schemes were nothing but foolish dreams.

"Fairy, show mercy so we may meet again another day!" Jiuyou pleaded. He could see that though Elder Jin’s self-detonation was powerful, it had failed to inflict serious harm upon the Peony Fairy. If he pressed on, his own fate would be no better.

"Wicked fiend, how many female cultivators have you and your kindtormented in the cultivation world? Did you ever spare them?" the Peony Fairy declared, her voice righteous and unyielding. "Today, I will eradicate the four of you, and when I return to the cultivation world, not a single member of the Hundred Poisons Sect shall be left alive. I will uproot your sect to the very last remnant."

In the cultivation world, it was not enough to mind one’s own affairs; all were duty-bound to destroy the demonic sects. For a sect to thrive, it need not gather thousands of disciples, but among the thousands, the vast majority would be of lower ranks. Disciples began from the most basic stages, and the demonic sects, ever eager to kill and plunder, saw the weak as stepping stones.

If one struggled to train a genius disciple only to see them cut down by such evil, who would not cough blood in fury? Moreover, if high-ranking cultivators from righteous sects did not exterminate the wicked, low-ranking disciples would not be safe when adventuring outside. Without such experiences, the overall strength of the sect would inevitably decline.

Jiuyou pleaded bitterly for his life, but seeing the Peony Fairy unmoved, despair overwhelmed him. In silence, with nothing left to lose, he pushed back the hood of his black robe, revealing his face.

He appeared as a middle-aged man, his features gentle, long hair falling to his shoulders—not at all like the flamboyant styles of the modern day. Who could imagine that this was the leader of the Hundred Poisons Sect, one of the three great demonic sects of the cultivation world?

Yet within his eyes flickered a bloodthirsty glow, his entire being radiating a murderous aura. It was clear that this man had built his cultivation atop a mountain of mortal corpses.