Fang Han's nascent core grew brighter and heavier, its aura swelling like a rising sun. Any stellar force that touched him was instantly devoured and funneled into the Limitless Tome of Stars, then refined and redistributed to strengthen his other star-based arts. Techniques like Star-Sand Thunder Tempering, Meteor-Slaying Blade, Extinction Meteor Shower, Big Dipper Hand Seal, Star King Descent—all of them surged in power.
Xingmie Xie's control over the Starry Sect's paradise was now completely useless against him.
The Limitless Tome of Stars was a cosmic art—born from the far reaches of the astral abyss, rooted in the ancient Immeasurable Star Palace. It wasn't merely a counter to the Starry Sect's arts. It was their origin. No wonder the Star Lord had been shaken to the core the first time he saw Fang Han wield it—so shocked he nearly broke composure.
Obtaining this scripture had cost the Star Lord a thousand years of lifespan as he struggled to decipher its ultimate meaning. Even now, Fang Han doubted the Star Lord had fully unraveled it. He would likely need to seclude himself again—or join forces with the sect's highest elders—to truly decode the Tome's pinnacle secrets.
But that would be a matter for the distant future, after Fang Han himself stepped into the Longevity Realm.
Once there, he would rebuild his divine arts from scratch. The Limitless Tome of Stars would not remain within his body. He planned to purge it, seal it into a personal artifact, and forge a true life-bound treasure. His core path lay in the Five Emperors Demon Arts—and eventually in the ninety-nine supreme reincarnation techniques of the Yellow Springs Emperor hidden deep within the Yellow Springs Vault.
Every cultivator who entered the Longevity Realm had to rebuild their life-bound arts and refine a single artifact to carry their excess techniques. Fang Han had long planned that Eightfold Pagoda would become his own life-bound treasure, housing all unnecessary divine arts. As for the Yellow Springs Diagram—though powerful, it wasn't crafted by him, and it held secrets linked to Yan. And deep down, Fang Han didn't trust Yan completely.
Not because Yan had done anything wrong.
But because the cultivation path demanded absolute independence. One's core had to be self. Heaven and earth existed for me. The sun and moon moved because I willed it. Attachment and dependency were fatal weaknesses.
Every true divine arts master carried this belief. Without it, they could never accomplish anything great.
"With me as the axis—condense the Golden Core. Heaven moves because of me. Sun and moon rotate because of me. Winds rise, clouds scatter—because of me. Gold endures eternally, and so shall I!"
Fang Han's voice rolled across the heaven like a sovereign decree.
The entire inner world trembled. His words resonated with the void itself, as though proclaiming to all existence that a Golden Core containing ninety divine arts was about to be born.
Neither the Burning Lamp Buddha Umbrella, nor Xingmie Xie's astral body, nor his indestructible physique could resist the pressure. Fang Han's forming Golden Core forced them downward, as if pressing them to the ground in surrender.
"You dare… form a Golden Core here?!" Xingmie Xie thrust his spear—but it did nothing.
The Buddha Umbrella shone with golden radiance—useless.
The celestial paradise surged with star-force—still useless.
His entire body curled up involuntarily, like a giant turtle crushed beneath a mountain. Even his astral soul-body was forced back into his physical form. He had never, in his entire life, felt humiliation like this.
"I refuse to believe you have enough essence to complete a ninety-art Golden Core! Even if you do—I'm not leaving without a fight! Burning Lamp Extinction! Heavenly Demon Extinction! Five million fiends—annihilate!"
Xingmie Xie knew he had already lost. Fang Han wouldn't kill him—that wasn't the issue. The issue was humiliation. And a man like him could not endure that.
He unleashed his final trump card.
Inside the Buddha Umbrella, the five million heavenly demons—even the countless demon kings—began burning themselves in reverent sacrifice, chanting ancient mantras as their bodies dissolved into pure annihilative force.
The umbrella wasn't like the Five Prison King Cauldron, which could only hold ethereal fiends. This treasure was a mid-grade Dao artifact with its own internal space—capable of housing demon kings in corporeal form.
When they burned, the destructive power they birthed was horrifying.
A strange force—neither life nor death—exploded outward, slowly coalescing into a monstrous embryonic shape. No mortal description could capture its terror.
"Out of energy already?"
Just then, Fang Han's accumulated essence ran dry. His Golden Core had yet to fully solidify. And he sensed Xingmie Xie forming a terrifying killing move.
But Fang Han had prepared for this moment long ago.
"Four hundred fifty-one Blackwater King Serpents—detonate!"
His mind flicked, and in the Yellow Springs Diagram, all the Blackwater King Serpents resting in Forget-Emotion Water burst at once. Their purified blood essence and qi surged forth like a crimson tide and flooded straight into his forming core.
He had been saving them for exactly this critical moment.
Each serpent was equivalent to a divine-ability beast—some even comparable to fourth-layer cultivators. If auctioned in Great Xuan Empire, their combined worth would rival Nirvana Pills.
Now all of them exploded, forming a roaring blood dragon that merged into his core.
Hiss—!
It was like dumping a lake of oil onto a volcanic flame.
The Golden Core blazed with crystalline radiance so intense that the entire paradise erupted in blinding white light.
"Extinction Thunder!"
BOOM!
From the sacrificed demons erupted a golden mountain of thunder, the collective annihilation force of five million heavenly demons. This golden annihilation lightning could injure even a Longevity master if taken head-on.
It was Xingmie Xie's strongest killing move—his final gambit.
And for a moment, it actually stood toe-to-toe with Fang Han's forming Golden Core.
"Dragon God Pills!"
Without hesitation, Fang Han produced a gourd and released the last five Dragon God Pills. Though originally nine, he had consumed one, and three others had gone to his companions. Now the last five dissolved instantly into pure essence, merging with the serpents' blood.
ROAR!
Each pill birthed the shadow of a dragon, which fused into the core like fuel thrown onto divine fire.
HUMMMM—!
At that moment, Fang Han's Golden Core finally had enough essence.
It solidified.
Fully.
Completely.
His entire body vanished—drawn into the core's radiant heart.
During Golden Core formation, a cultivator's physical body and all their divine arts merged, reforging each other. The result was expanded lifespan and dramatically enhanced power.
Fang Han felt his ninety divine arts fuse into his flesh and soul, forming a strange unity.
His lifespan—he sensed it clearly—now exceeded nine thousand years. He could feel the distant boundary of the Ten-Thousand-Year Law.
His physical body transformed rapidly. Muscle, bone, skin, sinew—even each strand of hair gained terrifying strength. A single hair refined from his body could become a deadly flying needle. A single drop of his sweat now held the essence of Water Emperor Gang Qi.
The golden annihilation thunder exploded—
—but his solid Golden Core didn't even budge.
The core's outer light rippled, but its heart remained untouched.
This was no illusionary core.
It was a true, fully condensed Golden Core.
Fang Han had stepped into the seventh realm, the Golden Core Realm—becoming one of the era's great rising powers. And with ninety divine arts, he was already brushing the threshold of an eternal giant.
Had he only possessed fifty-six divine arts, the extinction thunder might have harmed him. But now?
Impossible.
BOOM—
The thunder dissipated. Fang Han descended from the shining core, which shrank and slipped into his mind-sea. All pressure vanished—but everyone present felt only dread. Facing him was like facing an ancient immortal overlord. Their hearts involuntarily quaked.
"Xingmie Xie," Fang Han said, stepping forward, "are you still not admitting defeat?"