After a round of careful reading, Luo Chen set down the scroll recording Transcending Cage with some regret. The art from Ailao Mountain indeed had its own unique merits. Its core concept centered on treating the body as a cage and using one's breath and vital essence to forge the core. Only by breaking through this self-made prison could one truly embark upon the Dao of Golden Core. It embodied the old saying that to swallow the golden core was to seize one's fate, to claim that life belonged to oneself, not to the heavens. 2

However, the art's core concept bore similarities to the Dragon-Phoenix Tribulation of the Ice Fortress. Both required assistance from external medicinal power to cultivate a seed of the Golden Core. The preliminary steps were fairly straightforward. As long as one had the proper pills, forming the core's embryonic stage wasn't difficult.0

But the success rate was far from ideal. Even after forming the Golden Core seed, one still needed to absorb enough spirit energy over time to fully manifest into a Golden Core, and the abilities of an Adept would still be beyond reach in the meantime. It paled in comparison to Beaded Curtain Lock, which promised one...0