Chapter 306: Primordial Golden Dragon

After exiting the cave, He Pingsheng did not leave immediately.

He stood on a rock not far from the cave, his brow tightly furrowed.

The seemingly simple exchange of attacks just now was enough to make He Pingsheng ponder for a long time.

First, the opponent was truly a Golden Core cultivator.

He was only at Foundation Establishment eleventh layer.

Why was this guy so weak?

That was the first question.

He Pingsheng did not deny that he was powerful—within Foundation Establishment, he could sweep away all opponents.

But if he encountered a Golden Core cultivator or beast, without using his spiritual sense techniques, relying solely on raw combat, he did not believe he could win.

The best outcome would be a stalemate across realms.

No victory, no defeat.

Yet in this battle just now, the opponent clearly seemed too weak.

Why?

He Pingsheng did not know, but he had a guess.

First, it was due to suppression.

His lightning power perfectly suppressed the demon creature.

Second, the demon creature was not a true demon race, but merely a lifeform conjured by the yin-sha energy of the earth's yin veins, with low spiritual awareness.

Not only was its awareness low, it also lacked powerful cultivation arts, spells, or divine techniques.

Its attacks, defenses, advances, and retreats relied entirely on instinct.

Though these instincts were potent under the pressure of its realm, they paled far in power compared to true spells and divine techniques.

"Hmm…" After thinking for a while, He Pingsheng took a deep breath and nodded to himself: "Perhaps this is why I was able to defeat that Golden Core yin-sha demon!"

Once he understood, He Pingsheng tidied himself slightly, then prepared to leave.

But at that moment, the six people who had followed him, lagging half an hour behind, finally rushed up in haste.

A woman, accompanied by five men, arrived before He Pingsheng.

All six wore the royal-exclusive pale moon-white robes.

"Who are you?" The commandery princess regarded He Pingsheng with hostile eyes: "Why are you here?"

He Pingsheng glanced at the six royal disciples, then unleashed his spiritual sense, sweeping over them.

The strongest among them was the woman before him—Foundation Establishment twelfth layer, and seemingly in a pseudo-Golden Core state.

The other five ranged from eleventh to twelfth layer.

"I'm just an ordinary person!" He Pingsheng replied. "As for why I'm here, I simply followed the ravine all the way."

"Did you enter this cave?" The princess pointed to the cave He Pingsheng had just exited.

He Pingsheng smiled. "I did."

"Is it forbidden to enter?"

The princess's expression hardened immediately. "May I ask, what did you obtain inside?"

He Pingsheng said: "I have no obligation to answer you."

With that, he moved his foot, ready to leave.

Instantly, the other five men blocked his path.

He Pingsheng did not wish to cause trouble or offend the imperial family—further antagonizing the Liang imperial house would mean more trouble.

So he suddenly released a burst of golden light, his body accelerating fivefold, breaking through the five men's encirclement.

"Stop right there…"

The princess gritted her teeth, but flight was forbidden here—they could not match He Pingsheng's speed.

"Your Highness!" One subordinate bowed. "Shall we go after him and…?"

The subordinate made a slashing motion with his hand.

The princess shook her head. "Forget him. Focus on our mission—follow me into the cave!"

"Even if he entered, what could he possibly do?"

"I refuse to believe one man could take the Extreme Yin Black Gold!"

"Don't forget—there was a Golden Core demon guarding it!"

"Go!"

As she spoke, the princess led her subordinates straight into the cave.

…

He Pingsheng returned to the main valley of the Five Dragon Ravine realm.

Before him surged thick clouds of metal-element spiritual energy.

This time, he did not take the winding, treacherous branches—he moved swiftly forward.

Because He Pingsheng had no special needs.

His goal was simple: obtain the Black-and-White Lotus Root.

It was said the Five Dragon Ravine consisted of five elements—metal, wood, water, fire, earth—each connected end to end.

The entire realm opened for fifty days.

The first was the metal-element Golden Ravine; the last would be the Earth Dragon Ravine.

Within the Earth Dragon Ravine lay the Xuan-Huang Black-and-White Lotus Root.

Hurry!

If you're late, you won't get it.

He Pingsheng pressed forward.

After roughly two days and nights, he finally reached the end of the Golden Ravine.

Here was an open stretch of land encircled by mountains.

A great river surged down from upstream.

Along its banks, one side was extremely narrow, the other extremely wide.

On the wide bank, a towering golden divine light hovered in the air, radiating torrents of metal-element magic power that continuously erupted from it.

He Pingsheng looked up in surprise at the golden light.

Only after closer inspection did he realize it was not divine light, but a metallic substance.

The object was about one foot thick and one zhang long, standing upright in the air like a slightly curled golden root.

Countless metal-element spiritual energies shot upward as beams, piercing the heavens and spreading in all directions.

"This is…" He Pingsheng narrowed his eyes: "Is this the Golden Dragon the imperial family speaks of?"

Legend said each Dragon Ravine contained a dragon.

This dragon was the primordial force of its elemental attribute.

Thus, this golden light in the air was naturally the primordial force of metal.

At this moment, He Pingsheng was not alone here.

On the ground beneath the golden light sat more than twenty people.

All of them sat cross-legged, gazing at the golden primordial force—some meditating, some observing, some absorbing metal spiritual energy to cultivate.

Each in their own way.

He Pingsheng shook his head.

Because he felt it was utterly meaningless.

Contemplating the Daoic forces upon the primordial source required connection through a Dao root.

Not to mention Foundation Establishment—even Golden Core cultivators had no Dao root.

As for absorbing metal spiritual energy to cultivate?

Perhaps it could work!

After all, the concentration of metal spiritual energy here was a hundred times greater than outside.

One day of cultivation here equaled one hundred days outside.

Ten days here would equal roughly three years outside—perhaps even allowing two layers of advancement.

But…

It was impractical.

Most who reached here were already eleventh or twelfth layer, long past their bottleneck—absorbing metal spiritual energy might push past ordinary layers, but not the bottleneck.

Also, to absorb this metal spiritual energy, one must possess a metal elemental root—and specifically a single metal elemental root.

He Pingsheng's five-element root was useless, no matter how dense the energy.

His root was too weak to absorb it.

He cultivated through pills.

So all this was meaningless to him.

What mattered to him was finding the exit.

How could he enter the next Dragon Ravine—the Wood Dragon Ravine?