Chapter 627: Probing Each Other

The more Qian Desolation Lord investigated the intelligence about the Nine Provinces, the more he felt they were unfathomably deep. Facing the Nine Provinces, even he—a peak Tribulation Transcendence Stage expert who had always been lawless—felt his heart palpitate with fear.

“Truly worthy of being the Nine Provinces. Even if their current strength can’t compare to when the Celestial Ascension Ladder still existed, their accumulated foundation is enough to make one’s courage turn to ice. However, our Eight Desolations aren’t pushovers either.” Qian Desolation Lord muttered to himself, calculating something.

“It’s time for the Golden Core Stage.” Qian Desolation Lord’s expression remained unchanged, everything proceeding as normal. They had already lost three out of seven matches, so victory or defeat no longer mattered. What was important was how much intelligence about the Nine Provinces they could obtain through the competition to prepare for future events.

In the face of the grand scheme, what did losing one match or suffering one loss of face amount to?

The one who laughs last laughs best.

“The Golden Core Stage expert we sent out is anything but ordinary—he possesses a Yin-Yang Golden Core. With two-colored cores rotating, he can be called invincible among peers.” Qian Desolation Lord said proudly.

The Yin-Yang Golden Core could resist spiritual sense attacks and greatly weaken Spiritual Treasure attacks. This way, the advantages of Nine Provinces cultivators would completely vanish.

Even if they didn’t care about victory or defeat, they still needed to win at least one match.

Hearing Qian Desolation Lord’s boasting, the group of Unity Stage experts showed peculiar expressions.

“The Yin-Yang Golden Core is indeed quite good.” Jiang Li took out the “Golden Core Collection” and found the corresponding golden core type.

It described in detail the advantages, weaknesses, and cultivation methods of the Yin-Yang Golden Core—far more than what Qian Desolation Lord understood.

Qian Desolation Lord’s heart jumped with surprise. He glanced at the “Golden Core Collection” and saw it recorded not just the Yin-Yang Golden Core.

There were also Seven-Colored Golden Cores, Nine-Colored Golden Cores, Colorless Golden Cores, and so on.

The variety of golden core types completely exceeded his expectations. Just how many core formation methods had the Nine Provinces mastered?

On the competition field, the Nine Provinces’ Golden Core cultivator was somewhat surprised to see his opponent summon a Yin-Yang Golden Core, immediately dismissing any thoughts of using Spiritual Treasure attacks or spiritual sense attacks.

He never expected someone would actually form their core exactly according to the textbook.

The “Golden Core Collection” was everywhere in the Nine Provinces, with every Golden Core cultivator owning a copy.

Due to the popularity of the “Golden Core Collection,” anyone wanting to form a distinctive golden core would use it as a blueprint, modifying their core’s appearance to avoid having the exact same golden core as described in the collection.

The “Golden Core Collection” listed the weaknesses of various golden cores. Forming one according to the book was no different from exposing your weaknesses.

Only a fool would do such a thing.

“I never thought someone would actually form a Yin-Yang Golden Core completely identical to the description in the ‘Golden Core Collection.'”

The Nine Provinces’ Golden Core cultivator grinned widely, following the book’s instructions to exploit the Yin-Yang Golden Core’s weaknesses and defeat his opponent.

“Winning was so effortless.” This Golden Core cultivator had prepared multiple combat methods for today’s match, but ended up not needing to use any of them.

Qian Desolation Lord couldn’t understand the Nine Provinces’ behavior. Whoever formed a Yin-Yang Golden Core would keep it hidden as a trump card to defeat enemies in one move. Why would the Nine Provinces compile various golden cores into a book and print it?

Wasn’t this voluntarily exposing secrets?

Facing Qian Desolation Lord’s confusion, Jiang Li said, “What secrets? After making them public, everyone can discuss them together, identify omissions and deficiencies, and improve upon the weaknesses. Isn’t this more beneficial for Golden Core Stage cultivation? I was the one who facilitated the creation of this ‘Golden Core Collection.'”

After hearing Jiang Li’s explanation, Qian Desolation Lord became even more perplexed.

As an unprecedented Mahayana Stage expert, why would he care about how Golden Core Stage practitioners cultivated? Wasn’t this just idle meddling?

What kind of strong person cared about the weak?

If strong people treated these as obligations and bore so many responsibilities, who would still want to become strong?

Didn’t strong people seek freedom and unrestrained living?

Seeing that Qian Desolation Lord didn’t understand him, Jiang Li didn’t offer further explanation. Having cultivated to his current level, his perspective on matters was already set—it couldn’t be conveyed through a few simple words.

Continuing would only lead to endless arguments without resolution.

Why add unnecessary troubles?

The Eight Desolations’ Golden Core Stage practitioners had no shortage of variety in their techniques, but none exceeded the scope covered in the “Golden Core Collection,” allowing Nine Provinces cultivators to handle them with ease.

Qian Desolation Lord realized that in terms of knowledge and experience, they still couldn’t match the Nine Provinces.

In eleven Golden Core Stage matches, the Eight Desolations suffered complete defeat, not winning a single one.

In Spiritual Treasures, cultivation progress, and knowledge—the Nine Provinces comprehensively crushed the Eight Desolations.

With four wins out of seven matches already secured, there was no need to continue competing.

“Well then, shall we continue?” Jiang Li looked at the eight Desolation Lords with keen interest.

The eight Desolation Lords showed varied expressions, with the other seven all looking toward Qian Desolation Lord for his decision.

Qian Desolation Lord didn’t appear discouraged by the defeat. He smiled and said, “Let’s simply complete the remaining matches and treat it as an exchange—a friendly competition.”

“Very well, this arrangement suits my intentions perfectly.” Since the Eight Desolations wanted to continue competing, Jiang Li didn’t stop them.

“Then it’s time for the Nascent Soul Stage. Kongkong, it’s your turn to take the stage.” Jiang Li called Ji Kongkong’s name.

For this competition, Jiang Li had called the Human Sovereign candidates back from the Ten Thousand Languages World, planning for them to continue building that world after participating in the matches.

Among the Human Sovereign candidates, Ji Kongkong, Luo Ying, and Luo Zhu had started relatively late and were still at the Nascent Soul Stage, while the others had all reached Spirit Transformation Stage.

Battling against outstanding talents from other worlds was quite rare. Ji Kongkong licked her lips, appearing somewhat excited.

In the Ten Thousand Languages World, she frequently challenged various Human Sovereign candidates, with both victories and defeats.

With Jiang Li absent, she had indulged freely in combat.

Ji Zhi massaged his forehead, feeling that Ji Kongkong was developing a tendency toward becoming like Yu Yin—a battle maniac.

She wasn’t like this as a child.

“Could it be that she developed a liking for combat in pursuit of excitement?”

Ji Kongkong’s eyes turned vacant as she saw the future.

“I see it, I will achieve victory… Wait, I’m looking too far ahead, let’s focus closer.”

Ji Kongkong knew her opponent’s next move. She took out her nine-section whip and forcefully whipped it, creating loud cracking sounds.

Her opponent was the Eight Desolations’ most outstanding Nascent Soul Stage expert—a closed-door disciple of one of the Desolation Lords, whose combat prowess couldn’t be underestimated.

The opponent discovered that Ji Kongkong seemed able to see the future, predicting in advance and dodging every attack while whipping him, causing sharp pain.

The eight Desolation Lords also couldn’t understand what Ji Kongkong was doing—they knew nothing about the Dao of Time.

In their understanding, the Dao of Time was something profound that only Golden Immortals could touch.

Ji Kongkong fought with increasing ferocity. As the battle progressed, she simply increased her own difficulty by no longer looking into the future and fighting directly.

Otherwise, victory would be too boring.

“How is this actually accomplished?” If before Qian Desolation Lord could still detect clues and understand the differences, now he was completely dumbfounded, unable to discern anything.

Jiang Li smiled without speaking.

At one end of the judges’ platform, the three Rulers communicated via spiritual sense transmission, discussing quietly.

“Don’t you think Sect Master Bai Hongtu has been particularly quiet today?”

“Right, right! I was wondering why I felt something was missing and somewhat uncomfortable—it turns out we’re missing Sect Master Bai’s noise.”

Entropy Increase Ruler looked at his two blind brothers and sighed, saying, “Haven’t you realized? Mr. Jiang Li, Sect Master Bai Hongtu, and Empress Yu Yin aren’t actually here.”

“What?!” Entropy Decrease and Entropy Balance Rulers glanced at Jiang Li’s group, seeing them sitting right there.

Entropy Increase Ruler continued, “Your observation still isn’t detailed enough. Those sitting here now are merely their clones. As for their true bodies, if I’m not mistaken, they probably went to the Eight Desolations long ago.”

The Eight Desolations were investigating the Nine Provinces, but weren’t the Nine Provinces also investigating them?