Chapter Ninety-Eight: The Hidden Secrets of Peerless Island

Setting everything else aside, just one thing—inner power—was enough to leave Zhou Yi tormented, utterly at a loss as to what he was supposed to do.

Up to this point, how much effort had he spent, how much suffering had he endured, just to reach what he had now? Five hundred years of pure inner power, enough to match a thousand years of another man’s. By rights, he had every reason to be proud of that. After all, the body he now inhabited was still young, and he had not even been cultivating for long.

To possess five hundred years of inner power was already enough to mark him as a genius of extraordinary caliber.

But that depended on whom he was compared with. If measured against the people of the martial world, there was no doubt at all: he was a genius, and not merely a genius, but a genius among geniuses.

Yet if compared with the people of Peerless Island, he still did not know the full extent of that place, but from what the old monk had already described, the six false-core stages made the answer painfully clear.

At his present pace, how long would it take him to accumulate enough inner power to reach perfection in the first false-core stage? And that was not even considering whether, after inner power was transformed into magical power, it would shrink in the process. After all, the two were not the same thing; it was a qualitative change.

On that point, Zhou Yi harbored no wishful thinking. It would almost certainly shrink.

But as for how much it would shrink, to be honest, Zhou Yi no longer cared much. Compared with the amount of magical power required for the six false-core stages, even if it did not shrink at all, so what? It would still be a drop in the bucket.

It would be useless.

"Well, then," the old monk asked softly, looking up at the two men, both of whom had been badly shaken, "do you still have the confidence to achieve the golden core?"

His voice was calm, with not the slightest hint of mockery. It was just an ordinary question.

Yet as Zhou Yi heard it, he felt thoroughly stifled inside.

Confidence? It had vanished long ago. Forget the golden core; he did not even have much confidence that he could make it through the six false-core stages.

After all, the sixth false-core stage required a staggering three hundred sixty-five billion years of magical power. For him now, that number was practically beyond the reach of the heavens. To hope to attain it was no different from dreaming.

"In truth, you need not be too disheartened. Though you have no hope of the golden core, you may still have a chance at the fourth false-core stage, or even the fifth," the old monk said with a smile, trying to comfort them as he looked at the defeated expressions on their faces.

"Hm? A chance? You must be joking," Zhou Yi thought, glancing at the old monk and silently shaking his head. He did not believe a word of it.

The fourth false-core stage meant the acupoints becoming a hall. One hall required one hundred thousand years of magical power, and to reach perfection would require thirty-six and a half million years. How was he supposed to come up with that much? Was he meant to cultivate for more than thirty-six million years? Setting aside whether he could even live that long, just the passage of time alone would be enough to break a person.

Even the fourth stage was already this difficult, let alone the fifth false-core stage. That one meant the acupoints becoming a palace. One palace required one million years of magical power, and to reach perfection demanded three hundred sixty-five million years.

"Do not be disheartened. At the very least, your talent is there. Once you step into the false core, your acupoints may directly reach the pool level, and perhaps even the cavern level. That would not be impossible."

"Hm?" Zhou Yi was jolted awake by those words. From the old monk's explanation, he suddenly realized something; it seemed he had been thinking about one point in the wrong way all along.

"These six false-core stages—are they not meant to be passed one after another?" Having thought of it, he asked directly, looking at the old monk.

"One after another?" The old monk was startled, then gave a rueful laugh and shook his head. "If one could truly proceed stage by stage, I would not be so utterly desperate now."

"Even the whole martial world would not have fallen into its present state."

Zhou Yi's heart suddenly skipped a beat. Few though the old monk's words were, they seemed to pull at some earthshaking secret, making Zhou Yi feel a chill run down his back.

"The martial world? Fallen into what?" Zhou Yi seized on the key words sharply. From the old monk's tone, he seemed to have caught sight of something.

"Your present strength is still not enough to understand that. When you truly enter Peerless Island, so long as you do not die, you will naturally come to know. For now, there is no need to think about it further. It means nothing."

The old monk did not answer, only shook his head and spoke softly.

"Right now, I will first tell you some common knowledge about the false-core realm. I hope that perhaps you will be able to do what we have always wanted to do, but never could."

"But you need not overthink it. If you can do it, then do it. If you cannot, that is fine as well." Before the two could respond, the old monk continued on his own. In the end, his last words were so low they seemed almost to vanish into the air: "After all, we have already grown used to it."

Zhou Yi and Song Hai exchanged a look, both silent. You have not even told us what it is we are supposed to do, so how do you already know we cannot do it? Do you really have so little confidence in us?

But when it came to confidence, Zhou Yi suddenly no longer wanted to speak. He had once been just like this himself—full of confidence—only to be slapped in the face immediately after, hard and repeatedly.

Now he had learned his lesson. Even if he had ideas, he would not voice them. He would wait until he had truly done it, and only then say so. That way, he would not have to fear another public humiliation.

Had the monk not said it? All questions could be answered on Peerless Island. Once they went there, they would surely find the answers.

While Zhou Yi's mind raced in all directions, the old monk had already gone on speaking.

"The six false-core stages—these six barriers are not gates to be passed through, but heavenly barriers."

"What does a heavenly barrier mean? It means that once you stop, you will remain at that level for the rest of your life."

"The acupoints of the human body are naturally only so large. After entering the false core, each person forms acupoints of different ranks according to the foundation he laid before reaching it. The lowest is the aperture, the highest the cavern. The later hall, palace, and heaven must all be cultivated after entering the false core."

"Peerless Island contains all manner of dangers, all manner of trials, and all manner of treasures. At the same time, it also contains all kinds of techniques. According to the grade of the technique, each time one cultivates a technique to perfection, it will condense into a true seed of that technique. If one is willing, then once the true seed takes shape, it can be dissolved, nourishing the acupoints and allowing them to evolve."

"If one truly possesses great perseverance, then even the sixth false-core stage, the heavenly barrier, is not impossible. But the techniques required along the way, the time required, and the talent required are enough to make anyone despair."

"Of course, if you feel that you do not possess that level of talent or that kind of perseverance, you may choose your own limit. Among the six false-core stages, you may choose any one of them, infuse it with magical power, and afterward the acupoints will naturally stabilize, losing the ability to grow further. From then on, you may focus entirely on cultivating magical power until you reach perfection."

"Naturally, because the six false-core stages differ so vastly, once perfection is reached, the resulting strength will vary enormously."

"After the false core, there are two ways for strength to grow. First is the growth of the false-core acupoints: with each stage advanced, strength will naturally increase greatly. Second is the perfection of the false-core acupoints. Once you have determined your limit, infusing magical power into the acupoints will cause your strength to soar at once."

"One path emphasizes foundation; the other emphasizes raw strength."

"That is why the strength gained by those who infuse their acupoints is far greater than the strength gained through acupoint growth."

"When I said before that your strength had reached the first false-core pool, I was referring precisely to the strength gained by using the method of growing false-core acupoints until they reached the pool level."

"But that is all it is. If one uses the method of infusing magical power, then you would probably amount to only the strength of the first false-core stage, with the first acupoint infused."