SSS-Rank 10x Reward System: Accepting Disciples to Live Forever-Chapter 199: New era

And people only did that when something had shifted.

On the other side of the courtyard, Fang Zhirou clapped her hands happily.

"Senior is back!"

Her thoughts were far simpler. With Wang Chen around, the atmosphere felt livelier. There would be more excitement, more stories, more opportunities to tag along somewhere interesting.

Fang Biyu, in contrast, stood quietly, but her eyes burned with renewed anticipation.

It had been days since she had received personal instruction from Wang Chen. His guidance was unlike anyone else’s—direct, sharp, and strangely profound. Each word he spoke seemed casual, yet later would unfold into layers of meaning.

She found herself looking forward to what lay ahead.

Under the clear sky of the Phoenix and Dragon Dojo, subtle currents shifted.

Li Mie pondered dragons and inheritance.

Ming Yao questioned existence itself.

Zi Han reevaluated her relationship with a man she could no longer read.

And Wang Chen stood calmly at the center of it all, unaware that by erasing himself from fate, he had become even more enigmatic than before.

In the days that followed, Wang Chen remained within the Phoenix and Dragon Dojo and patiently answered every doubt Li Mie raised about her breakthrough.

Outwardly, he appeared composed, measured, and endlessly knowledgeable.

Inwardly, however, he was extremely alert.

Every answer had to be carefully structured. Every explanation needed to sound profound yet reasonable. The cultivation knowledge of this world was restrictive and fragmented; as long as he did not contradict established principles too blatantly, he could shape the narrative however he wished. Still, he could not afford to slip. Li Mie was no ordinary disciple. Her questions were sharp, layered, and sometimes dangerously close to truths he did not want to expose.

Most of her doubts were manageable.

Until one question caused him to pause.

"Teacher," Li Mie said slowly, her brows slightly furrowed, "while breaking through, I had a feeling that the top-tier Golden Core with one-meter diameter was not the limit. I felt there was something beyond it..."

Her expression held a faintly enchanted look, as though she were reaching for a memory just out of grasp. It was not blind curiosity; it was intuition forged from experience.

Wang Chen’s eyes sharpened almost imperceptibly.

So she felt it too.

He immediately adopted what could only be called the Hidden-Expert-Template-101 posture. His gaze turned distant, as if recalling ancient secrets long buried under time.

"Of course," he began calmly, "my disciple, I do not expect you to grasp everything at once. Cultivate at the pace of your heart; that is for the best. However, now that you have stepped into the Golden Core Realm, I do not mind sharing a little more."

He let the words settle before continuing.

"Above the so-called top-tier Golden Core lies a stage even more grand and elusive. It is referred to as the Divine Golden Core."

Li Mie’s pupils contracted slightly.

"Divine Golden Core..." she repeated, the words leaving her lips almost in a whisper.

This was not a question she asked lightly. In her previous life, she had reached the Eternal Emperor Realm and had access to immense resources and archives. Yet even with all that, she had never gone beyond a mid-grade Golden Core in her foundation. That limitation had shackled her future potential from the very beginning. It was one of the reasons she eventually hit a ceiling.

During her research back then, she had uncovered fragments—records hinting at top-tier Golden Cores, and even scattered rumors of something beyond.

But rumors were one thing. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Confirmation was another.

Now Wang Chen was speaking of it casually, as though it were simply a natural step in cultivation.

A trace of disappointment flickered across her face.

If she had known this earlier in her previous life... perhaps things would have been different.

Wang Chen noticed the shift in her expression and let out a soft chuckle.

"Do not dwell on the past," he said lightly. "You still have time. I am certain you will be able to transform your current core into a Divine Core before reaching the Nascent Soul Realm. What you lack is not talent, but opportunity."

Li Mie looked up, her eyes regaining clarity.

Before she could respond, Wang Chen added in an almost casual tone, "Since we are already discussing this, I might as well tell you something further. Even above the Divine Golden Core... there exists another level."

This time, Li Mie’s composure truly cracked.

Only she knew how much effort it took to compress the Qi Sea to a one-meter diameter. The pressure alone was enough to break most geniuses. Even forming a Divine Golden Core sounded absurdly difficult.

And now he was telling her there was a level above that?

Her lips parted slightly.

"This is... insane."

Wang Chen sighed, though his eyes carried a peculiar glint.

"My little disciple," he said gently but firmly, "although you are sensible most of the time, you must remember one thing. The first requirement on the path of cultivation is a humble heart."

He gestured around them.

"To an ant, this dojo might be the entire world. It cannot comprehend what lies beyond its small patch of soil. Likewise, you must look beyond this lower realm, beyond even the Upper Realm."

His voice deepened slightly.

"The universe is vast beyond imagination. There are geniuses who have shaped eras, individuals who pushed every known limit simply because they refused to accept what was called impossible. If someone could reach the Divine Golden Core, why would that necessarily be the end?"

Li Mie listened in silence, her heartbeat accelerating.

"For now," Wang Chen continued, "the highest known level beyond Divine is the Eternal Flame Golden Core. That is the last recorded stage in ancient fragments. But who can say what the future holds? Perhaps one day someone will go even further and give birth to an entirely new era."

"Eternal Flame Golden Core..."

The name struck her like thunder.

A powerful tremor rippled through her chest, and for a brief moment, her Golden Core pulsed as if responding to that concept.

She had never heard of such a level in her previous life.

Not even whispers.

The realization dawned on her slowly.

She was standing before a man who casually revealed secrets that entire Upper Realm factions had never uncovered.

An unprecedented wave of awe rose within her.

For the first time since her reincarnation, Li Mie felt as though she had touched a fragment of the universe’s deepest mysteries.

And Wang Chen, standing before her with calm composure, looked every bit the ancient existence she had imagined.