SSS-Rank 10x Reward System: Accepting Disciples to Live Forever-Chapter 200: Forged Reality

Wang Chen looked at Li Mie with a faint smile, the kind that belonged to someone who had just committed a crime and gotten away with it. Inside, he was insufferably smug.

A regressor from the Upper Realm. Someone who had lived once, died once, and come crawling back armed with memories of a higher heaven. And he had just fooled her with what he considered glorified nonsense.

The more he replayed the conversation in his head, the more pleased he felt. It was ridiculous. He had thrown together half-formed theories, stitched them with vague profundity, and presented them like ancient scripture. Yet Li Mie had listened with burning eyes, absorbing every word as if it were a heavenly decree.

He almost laughed.

But the smile on his face slowly became subtler, more restrained.

If someone else had said the same words, would Li Mie have believed them?

Not a chance.

Words, in isolation, are empty shells. They gain weight from the person who speaks them. The exact same sentence can sound like madness from one mouth and revelation from another. Authority is not in the vocabulary. It is in the speaker.

Wang Chen might believe he had been spewing pure nonsense, but that was only because he underestimated himself.

His comprehension of worldly laws, his grasp over multiple Authorities, his perspective shaped by experiences that even Upper Realm regressors could not fathom... all of that seeped unconsciously into his speech. Even when he thought he was improvising, fragments of genuine insight bled into his words.

His "bullshit" was not ordinary bullshit.

It carried weight.

While Wang Chen drifted through these thoughts, Li Mie stood not far away, her eyes glowing with a sharp, almost feverish light.

Eternal Flame Core... 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The term echoed within her sea of consciousness like a forbidden mantra.

No.

Her expression tightened. She forcibly steadied her breathing and corrected herself. Reaching for something beyond her current capacity was nothing but arrogance. In her past life, she had learned the price of overreaching.

For now, the Divine Golden Core was the true threshold.

Only after achieving that foundation could she even dare to glimpse something like the Eternal Flame Core.

Once her thoughts aligned with that more grounded goal, the frenzy in her eyes slowly condensed into something sharper.

Determination.

Her Golden Core had already reached a level that surpassed most cultivators of this era, but it was not enough. Not for someone who had once seen the Upper Realm. Not for someone who had died once already.

If there was even the slightest possibility to push her Golden Core into a higher form before breaking into the Nascent Soul Realm, she would seize it.

She had to.

With renewed resolve burning in her chest, Li Mie turned and left. Her figure moved swiftly across the courtyard, robes fluttering, steps light yet firm.

Wang Chen watched her departing silhouette until it vanished beyond the stone corridor.

The smugness on his face faded, replaced by a contemplative calm.

Can she truly transform her Golden Core?

To an outside observer, it might have seemed as though he had casually revealed the existence of the Eternal Flame Golden Core level without purpose. As if it were merely a whim.

But Wang Chen rarely did anything without layers.

When he mentioned that, in the distant future, someone might even surpass the Eternal Flame Core... he had not been speculating idly.

He had been speaking about himself.

The thought did not inflate him with pride. Instead, it settled into him with a quiet gravity.

A faint, solemn smile curved his lips.

If Li Mie and Lin Huang can both push their Golden Cores to the Divine Core level before stepping into the Nascent Soul Realm... there is a chance.

His mind shifted toward the system’s mechanism.

The 10x Reward.

It was not something that triggered randomly. It required extreme conditions. Alignment. Synchronization. Some kind of unseen resonance between his disciples’ breakthroughs and his own cultivation path.

If two of them achieved Divine Golden Cores before forming their Nascent Souls...

Would the reward activate?

And if it did—

Would his Eternal Flame Divine Core evolve once more?

The thought lingered in the air like an ember refusing to die.

He could feel it in his bones. The possibility existed. The system was never straightforward. It rewarded extremes, defied mediocrity, and demanded variables to converge in absurd ways.

But it would not be simple.

Divine Golden Cores were already legendary within this realm. Pushing two individuals to that level simultaneously, under the constraints of destiny and karma, was akin to threading a needle while standing in a storm.

Yet storms had never truly frightened him.

Time continued its indifferent march.

The Phoenix and Dragon Dojo gradually returned to its usual rhythm. Disciples trained in the outer courtyards. Spiritual energy drifted like thin mist through tiled rooftops. The distant hum of cultivation techniques occasionally rippled through the air before fading back into stillness.

The city beyond the dojo walls was similarly calm. Merchants reopened their stalls. Patrols resumed routine rotations. Whatever ripples had been stirred by recent events began to smooth out on the surface.

On the surface.

Wang Chen stood alone in the quiet courtyard for a long moment.

The breeze brushed against the hem of his robes. Fallen leaves scraped faintly against stone.

To any observer, it looked like peace.

But beneath that calm, threads were tightening.

Li Mie was chasing the Divine Golden Core.

Lin Huang was not far behind.

And he...

He was preparing for something even the Upper Realm had never witnessed.

The world believed it understood the limits of the Golden Core realm.

Wang Chen knew better.

And somewhere deep within his spiritual space, the Eternal Flame Divine Core flickered, as if it, too, was waiting.

News that the Phoenix and Dragon Dojo’s "immortal" had returned spread like wildfire across the Azure Dragon Continent.

Reverence replaced fear. Awe replaced doubt.

Within days, Phoenix and Dragon City was drowning in visitors. Merchants, cultivators, mortals with trembling knees, entire caravans bearing tribute. Thousands traveled across mountains and rivers just to kneel outside the dojo gates and offer thanks. Some burned incense. Some wept. Some simply stared at the courtyard walls as if enlightenment might leak through the bricks.

In their minds, Wang Chen was no longer a man.

He was a living god.

For the people of the continent, Phoenix and Dragon City had transformed into a pilgrimage site. A place one must visit at least once before death, lest one’s cultivation path remain incomplete.

Wang Chen, of course, did not care in the slightest.

Faith did not strengthen his spiritual space. Incense did not increase his Authority. Kneeling mortals did not accelerate the Infinite Record.