The Golden Core sprouted!
The cracks at its top continued to expand, and the new flower bud grew rapidly. Around it, the reincarnation spiritual energy began to swirl into the cracks, forming a vortex of energy.
As the flower bud grew to a certain stage, it began to bloom.
At the same time, the Golden Core below shattered abruptly. Gu An's body emerged, fully naked, his skin pure and flawless, as though he was the most perfect creation in the world.
His figure began to grow, transforming back into his original size.
The Dao fruit within him also bloomed, transforming into the Dao fruit of the Golden Immortal, signaling his successful breakthrough.
At this point, he had become an early-stage innate Golden Immortal, his magical power transforming into innate divine power, vast and boundless, like the primal chaos at the dawn of the universe.
The anomaly caused by the lifespan barrier reached another stage, affecting all the heavens and worlds. Spiritual energies from various realms began to sink, while the rules of the Great Dao outside the heavens twisted.
Major powers from all realms began to take action, investigating the cause, or preparing to flee.
Chaos!
This was the scene in many great realms.
Far away in the Heavenly Spirit Great Heaven, the Tai Xuan Sect was also thrown into disorder. Lü Baitian even led people into the Third Medicine Valley to search for Gu An's whereabouts.
They hoped that An Xin could contact Gu An. Even if not, they at least wanted him to reveal the truth behind the celestial anomaly to give them peace of mind.
Unfortunately, An Xin knew nothing. After much back-and-forth, Lü Baitian and the others had no choice but to leave in regret.
Long Qing came to An Xin's side and, together, they gazed at the direction where Lü Baitian and the others had departed. He asked, "Senior Sister, do you really think Master will leave Tai Xuan Sect?"
This time, Gu An's absence had lasted too long, so long that even the disciples within the Third Medicine Valley began to worry that he might leave the Tai Xuan Sect.
An Xin looked at Long Qing with a smile and asked, "If Master leaves, what will you choose?"
"Of course I'll follow him. What other choice do I have?" Long Qing answered without hesitation.
An Xin then asked, "If you follow Master, you will never leave the world again. You'll only be able to cultivate in isolation, cut off from the world. Are you willing?"
Long Qing fell silent.
An Xin continued, "The reason you can focus now is because you seek to improve your cultivation. But if you gain that cultivation, will you still be able to focus? Don't rush to answer. I'm talking about forever, tens of thousands of years."
Long Qing opened his mouth, but words failed him.
Living in this world, isn't cultivation meant to improve one's life?
In his view, life was about integrating with the world, or the world of cultivation.
At this moment, other disciples in the valley were also discussing their future. If Master really left, where would they go? It was something they had to consider carefully.
The heavens above continued to twist, and occasional strange light rainbows appeared. The spiritual energy of the earth continued to sink, causing slight tremors in the ground. The tense atmosphere in the world only seemed to be intensifying.
...
It was unclear how much time had passed.
Gu An, still naked, slowly opened his eyes. Instinctively, he pulled up the lifespan barrier consumption page and saw that he had already consumed five hundred million years of lifespan, while his cultivation had reached the mid-stage of the innate Golden Immortal.
He still had nearly seven hundred million years of lifespan remaining!
For his next breakthrough, wouldn't the lifespan barrier consumption reach billions of years?
Gu An sighed inwardly, but didn't feel distressed. After all, he had already reached a very high level of cultivation.
How many beings spent their entire lives and still couldn't reach the realm of the Free Immortal, let alone break through to the Dao fruit stage?
Gu An continued to wait for his cultivation to increase. He had already gained some understanding of the innate Golden Immortal.
As the Dao fruit bloomed, the great spell of eternal life, born from the Dao fruit, underwent its own transformation. Following his expectations, it gave birth to more mysteries.
As for the world created by the Golden Immortal's Dao fruit, it would require further study.
He wondered whether his own world, in which he planted medicinal herbs, could seize lifespan?
The world born from the Dao fruit was inherently a part of him, meaning it could not take lifespan from itself. Moreover, this world could not directly bring external objects into it; it also needed a long time to evolve and couldn't be formed instantaneously.
The Golden Immortal's world could be an illusion or reality.
If it could not grant him an increase in lifespan, then he would not solidify it into reality, but instead leave it for use in Dao cultivation.
Gu An raised his eyes and saw a massive presence emerging from the depths of darkness. Its aura was as strong as that of a perfected Profound Origin Free Immortal.
Indeed, the Land of Reincarnation was more terrifying than the universe. During his breakthrough, he had already encountered several auras of Profound Origin Free Immortals, and even a Vast Heaven Free Immortal.
I hope I don't run into any innate Golden Immortals.
Gu An had just broken through to this vast realm and didn't want to immediately encounter others of the same level.
He realized that he still couldn't use the lifespan check on the powerful presence that appeared. It seemed that there were no living beings in the Land of Reincarnation.
No, not just no living beings.
Wait a minute!
Gu An suddenly thought of something, and a chill ran down his spine.
Could it be that the Land of Reincarnation he entered was the Dao Fruit world of some powerful being, so everything he was seeing was an illusion, close to a real world?
He had previously tried checking the lifespan of beings without a lifespan, and he could at least detect their realm. But now, he couldn't even sense the realm of passersby.
Gu An's wariness of the Land of Reincarnation grew, but he was inside the lifespan barrier and felt no fear.
If there was indeed some powerful will behind this illusory world, and it had been disturbed by him, it should have acted long ago. It wouldn't have left him alone until now.
"The universe has the Heavenly Spirit Gods, but the Land of Reincarnation has even more mysterious beings. No matter how you look at it, the Heavenly Spirit Great Heaven is still safer."
Gu An thought to himself. He decided that he would still open the Dao place in the Heavenly Spirit Great Heaven, but not in Tai Xuan Sect.
He planned to hide among the common people again, waiting for the next epoch to pass.
From the current state of the world, a massive invasion from the War Court was inevitable in the future, and it might even alarm the Heavenly Spirit Gods. Gu An didn't want to be in the open, or to be seen as a thorn in the eyes of these beings.
Moreover, if he didn't make a move, the evolution of the world's situation would slow down, giving him more time to grow stronger.
"Just right. They've long wanted to go out and see the world."
Gu An's lips curled up as he thought about Tian Yao'er and the other two women. His mood lifted, and he closed his eyes, continuing to wait for his cultivation to rise.
About half an hour later, his cultivation had reached the peak of the innate Golden Immortal realm, with a little over one hundred million years of lifespan remaining.
He stood up, his robes appearing around him. Soon after, his belt and Immortal King crown appeared as well, and he quickly dressed himself. Taking advantage of the fact that the reincarnation anomaly hadn't dissipated yet, he stepped forward and directly entered the reincarnation vortex. One step further, and he landed in a mountainous area within the Heavenly Spirit Great Heaven.
He stood on the cliff, facing the wind. He then raised his arms, enjoying the breeze of the world.
The heavens above were still twisting. The wind was present only because the spiritual energy was sinking.
And the person responsible for all these anomalies had already completed his breakthrough, as if none of it was related to him anymore.
After becoming an innate Golden Immortal, the Heavenly Spirit Great Heaven seemed very small to him. Everything in the world, he could observe simultaneously. In fact, as long as he wanted, the speed at which all things evolved in his eyes would slow down significantly.
He stretched his muscles for a while, then turned and descended the mountain.
The reason he had come to this mountain range was that it was far from the Immortal Dynasty and the Sacred Court, situated at the edge of the Heavenly Spirit Great Heaven. Compared to other places, it was relatively peaceful here.
Several dozen miles away, there was a small town. Within a radius of a hundred million miles, the cultivation level of immortals was low, and there wasn't a single immortal-level cultivator or demon.
The most important thing was that there was a reincarnated old acquaintance here.
As Gu An entered the forest, the celestial anomalies began to slow down. The insects' chirping in the forest gradually returned to normal. Sunlight filtered through the gaps in the leaves, casting patches of light on the ground.