Chapter 15: The Golden Core Ascension, the Grand Tang Capital of Chang’an, and the Immortal Gathering

The sea breeze that swept across the eastern maritime borders of the Central Divine Continent carried no trace of the salt-crusted dampness of the outer oceans. Instead, it was laden with the deep, intoxicating perfume of ancient pine forests, mountain spirit-veins, and the faint, metallic hum of millions of circulating dantians.

Behind the nine flying warships of the Lin-Su Alliance, the treacherous waters of the Sea of Nine Illusions lay completely tranquil, its dark fogs shattered and its fierce maritime pirates silenced. Ahead, rising out of the horizon like a sleeping primordial dragon, stood the grand coastline of the Central Divine Continent.

Here, the mountains were not mere piles of earth and rock; they were monumental pillars of purple jade and dark Star-Steel that thrust six thousand feet into the cloud layer, their peaks crowned with floating pavilions and white dragon-stone palaces. Cascading waterfalls of pure, liquid spirit-liquor tumbled down vertical cliffs, creating perpetual rainbow arches that stretched across three-mile gaps between floating mountain peaks.

Standing at the bow of the Grand Azure Sovereign, Lin Chen looked out over the endless landmass. His white crane-down robe flapped gently against his tall, poised frame, his dark green silk tunic gleaming under the mid-day sun.

Beside him, Su Qingyao held her long sword in her left hand, her icy blue eyes taking in the staggering density of the continental origin energy.

“The ambient spirit energy here,” Su Qingyao observed softly, “is at least twelve times denser than that of the Central Capital back in the Eastern Province. Merely standing on this deck, my meridians are absorbing energy at a rate equivalent to sitting inside a second-grade spirit array.”

“And this is merely the outer border province of Grand Tang,” Lin Chen smiled, his golden-tinged eyes catching the distant shimmer of floating defensive arrays along the mountain ranges. “The ancient dynasties built their seats of power directly over the primary dragon-veins of the continent. By the time we reach Chang’an, the origin vapor will be thick enough to condense into natural liquid dew on our robes every evening.”

Huang Yanyan stepped up beside Lin Chen, leaning her head against his arm while tapping her red fan against her chin. “Husband… look over there. The news of our arrival has already traveled faster than our sails.”

Lin Chen looked in the direction she indicated.

Floating five miles off their port bow, suspended in the high clouds, were over three dozen small, sleek flying vessels belonging to various continental news guilds, merchant scouts, and regional sect observers. These ships kept a cautious distance, their deck crews using high-grade optical array stones to scan the nine majestic warships of the Lin-Su Alliance.

Voices carried across the high winds from the observation vessels:

“Look at those battle cannons mounted along the hulls! Are those Fourth-Grade Void-Cracking Thunder Cannons?!”

“Is it true?! The Blood-Shark Maritime Alliance… thirty war-junks… completely wiped out in three seconds?!”

“That young man in white robes standing at the bow… is that really Lin Chen?! The provincial young master who made Yin Tianming kneel in the Heavenly Dao Pavilion?!”

“He looks barely twenty years old! Yet his aura… I can’t even perceive his true cultivation depth!”

Lin Chen paid no heed to the murmurs of the distant scouts. He turned his gaze toward the sky directly above the flagship.

[System Interface Active: Environmental Origin Analysis]

[Continental Node Reached: Grand Tang Imperial Domain]

[Atmospheric Energy Density: High (Optimal for Golden Core Ascension)]

[Heavenly Tribulation Alignment: Stabilized]

[Host Readiness: 100%]

The time had finally come.

During the eight days of sailing across the Boundary Sea, Lin Chen had continuously refined his foundation using the Nine-Illuminations Cauldron, condensing his origin energy until his dantian was packed with liquid golden light. His Third-Level Foundation Establishment had reached such an absolute, absurd peak of purity that suppressing the Golden Core breakthrough any longer would cause his meridians to overflow.

“Qingyao, Yanyan, Zhao Ling,” Lin Chen said smoothly, his voice calm yet carrying an unshakeable command. “Prepare the fleet to anchor in the high sky thirty miles outside the border city of Dragon-Gate Pass. I am going into seclusion inside the Ninth Tier of the Pagoda to complete my Golden Core Ascension.”

Zhao Ling immediately slammed her fist across her silver chest armor. “Understood, Young Master! I will deploy the six escort ships in a high-sky defensive hexagram! Not even a bird from the Central Continent will enter within twenty miles of the flagship!”

Su Qingyao looked into his eyes, her expression warm and full of deep trust. “Go, Lin Chen. We will guard the world for you outside.”

Lin Chen nodded gently. He raised his right hand, the gold-and-silver pagoda mark on his skin flashing with a soft, brilliant silver beam.

SWISH!

In a gentle ripple of folding spatial starlight, Lin Chen’s figure vanished completely from the quarterdeck of the flagship!

Inside the Ninth Tier of the Heavenly Dao Pagoda:

The space was vast, silent, and limitless.

Unlike the lower tiers, which contained grand libraries, herbal gardens, and martial arenas, the Ninth Tier was a pure, white expanse of boundless spatial realm. Floating in the center of this void was an ancient, thirty-yard circular altar forged from dark Void-Origin Steel, surrounding which hovered thirty-six massive Void-Origin Crystal Pillars.

The moment Lin Chen materialized on the altar, the entire pocket realm gave a deep, harmonic hum!

He sat down cross-legged at the center of the Void-Origin altar. He closed his eyes, took a long, deep breath, and loosened the final barrier holding back his dantian’s origin energy!

BOOM!

Inside Lin Chen’s body, a terrifying explosion of golden fire erupted!

The solid, dragon-eye-sized sphere of golden-and-silver origin energy at the center of his dantian began to spin at staggering, astronomical speed! Millions of tiny golden runes emerged from the walls of his dantians, drawn toward the spinning core like iron filings to a supreme magnetic pole!

[System Notification: Golden Core Ascension Initiated!]

[Consuming Reserve Fate Value Points: -10,000 Points]

[Activating Innate Heavenly Furnace Mastery…]

[Activating Flawless Heavenly-Vein Golden Core Pill…]

From his sleeve, the sealed jade vial containing the Flawless-Grade pill he had refined during the voyage flew out automatically, shattering into fine dust! The glowing amber pill inside melted into a thread of liquid golden starlight that entered Lin Chen’s lips, descending directly into his dantian!

RUMBLE!

Outside the Heavenly Dao Pagoda—in the real sky thirty miles above Dragon-Gate Pass:

The bright afternoon sun was suddenly obscured by an astonishing, terrifying astronomical phenomenon!

Within three breaths, a five-hundred-mile circle of clear sky turned pitch black! Millions of dark, swirling storm clouds descended from the upper atmosphere, coalescing into a colossal, rotating vortex directly above the anchored fleet of the Lin-Su Alliance!

Inside that five-hundred-mile vortex, nine colors of divine lightning—gold, silver, red, blue, purple, black, white, green, and yellow—began to weave together, forming a terrifying, ancient divine face looking down upon the earth!

Down in the border city of Dragon-Gate Pass, millions of cultivators, city lords, and imperial guards rushed out into the streets, looking up at the sky in total, speechless terror!

“A Nine-Color Heavenly Tribulation?!” an ancient Golden Core elder of the city guard screamed, his jaw dropping so wide it nearly unhinged. “Nine colors?! Even when our Grand Tang Imperial Princes break through to the Golden Core Realm, they only trigger a Three-Color Tribulation! Who… WHO IS UNDERGOING ASCENSION IN THAT SKY?!”

“Look at the cloud span! Five hundred miles!” another elder gasped, clutching his chest in panic. “A five-hundred-mile tribulation cloud is the mark of a legendary Sovereign-Grade Core Ascension! That is a phenomenon recorded only in ancient myths from ten thousand years ago!”

High in the sky, inside the Ninth Tier:

Lin Chen sat untouched by the chaos outside. The Innate Heavenly Furnace inside his chest roared with divine, absolute authority.

When the first wave of Nine-Color Lightning tore through the spatial boundary of the pagoda to strike his body, Lin Chen did not even raise his hands to block it!

BOOM!

The destructive divine lightning struck his shoulders, but instead of shattering his flesh or burning his meridians, the lightning was instantly drawn into his Innate Heavenly Furnace, refined into pure, harmless origin essence, and fed directly into his emerging core!

First Ring formed!

Second Ring formed!

Third Ring formed!

As the nine waves of Heavenly Tribulation Lightning struck one after another, the golden core in Lin Chen’s dantian absorbed every single drop of celestial punishment!

Around the flawless, mirror-smooth surface of his Golden Core, one glowing ring of spatial light after another snapped into existence with crisp, divine resonance!

Fourth Ring! Fifth Ring! Sixth Ring! Seventh Ring! Eighth Ring!

And finally—

When the Ninth Wave of Nine-Color Lightning descended like a cosmic hammer, Lin Chen opened his eyes, his golden pupils flashing with a light that rivaled the creation of a galaxy!

CLANG!

The Ninth Spatial Ring locked smoothly into place around his Golden Core!

[System Notification: Golden Core Ascension Complete!]

[Host Cultivation Level: First Level Golden Core Realm (Nine-Ring Sovereign Core)]

[Dantian Capacity Expanded: x50 Times!]

[Spatial Law Domain Unlocked: Sovereign Void World (Level 1)]

[Fate Value Points Balance: 15,800 Points]

A massive, invisible wave of sovereign pressure erupted from Lin Chen’s body!

The five-hundred-mile tribulation cloud in the sky outside was instantly blown away, dissolved into nothingness by a single, casual exhale of Lin Chen’s newly formed Golden Core energy! The bright afternoon sun returned to the sky, bathing the nine flying warships in warm, radiant gold!

SWISH!

Lin Chen stepped out of the spatial void, reappearing smoothly onto the quarterdeck of the Grand Azure Sovereign.

He looked exactly the same as before—his white crane-down robe clean, his dark hair neat, his handsome face calm. Yet the aura radiating from his body had completely transformed. He no longer felt like a powerful human cultivator; he felt like an ancient mountain, an eternal sea, a sovereign lord who stood above the laws of the mortal world!

Su Qingyao and Huang Yanyan walked up to him, their eyes glowing with profound, unfeigned admiration and joy.

“Congratulations on your Ascension, Husband,” Huang Yanyan purred, stepping close to wrap her arms around his waist, feeling the immense, warm golden energy pulsing beneath his skin.

“First Level Golden Core…” Su Qingyao smiled gently, hand resting on her sword hilt. “Yet your power… I fear even a Peak Golden Core Master from the ancient sanctuaries would be crushed by a single wave of your hand.”

Lin Chen gently smoothed Huang Yanyan’s long crimson hair, looking toward the distant horizon where the vast imperial plains of Grand Tang stretched into the sun.

“The core is formed. The path is open,” Lin Chen declared smoothly, his voice carrying the calm, absolute authority of a sovereign king. “Order the fleet to advance.”

“Next stop… Chang’an!”

Three days later:

The nine flying warships of the Lin-Su Alliance crossed the final mountain ridge of the Grand Tang Imperial Province, entering the vast, fertile expanse of the Central Wei Valley.

And there, standing in the middle of the golden plain, was the grandest city in the known world: Chang’an, the Imperial Capital of the Grand Tang Divine Dynasty!

Calling Chang’an a “city” was an understatement of cosmic proportions.

It was a colossal, square metropolis spanning over three hundred miles on each side! Its outer walls were built from blocks of polished black dragon-stone eighty feet high, inlaid with continuous glowing gold runes that formed a Fourth-Rank Imperial Defensive Array capable of withstanding attacks from Nascent Soul ancestors!

Inside the city, millions of grand pavilions, high-rise spirit-towers, wide marble avenues, and bustling canal networks stretched as far as the eye could see. Above the central district hovered the Imperial Palace Archipelago—seven massive floating islands connected by golden arched bridges, where the Grand Tang Imperial Court resided.

In the sky above the eastern gate of Chang’an, hundreds of flying vessels, spirit-carriages, and mounted cultivators were lined up in neat, orderly queue lanes, entering the capital under the watchful eyes of thousands of heavily armored Imperial Dragon Guards.

When the nine massive, dark-blue warships of the Lin-Su Alliance appeared over the horizon, the entire eastern sky was filled with their imposing, majestic presence!

The surrounding merchant vessels and regional sect fleets immediately scattered to both sides, opening a wide, respectful aerial lane for the Alliance fleet!

“Look at those blue warships! It’s the fleet from the Eastern Province!”

“That’s the Lin-Su Alliance! The ones who destroyed the Blood-Shark Maritime Alliance!”

“Look at their flagship! The pressure radiating from that young master standing at the bow is terrifying!”

Suddenly—

DRUM-ROLL!

From the central floating island of the Imperial Palace Archipelago, a grand, golden-winged dragon vessel shot into the high clouds, flying directly toward the Lin-Su Alliance fleet at staggering speed!

Standing at the bow of the golden dragon vessel, dressed in her grand imperial crimson-and-gold gown, was Princess Li Zhaoyang!

Behind her stood a ceremonial band of fifty imperial musicians holding silver trumpets and gold drums, as well as a honor guard of one hundred Golden Core Imperial Commanders!

The golden dragon vessel came to a gentle halt fifty yards in front of the Grand Azure Sovereign.

Princess Li Zhaoyang stepped to the bow railing, her beautiful face illuminated by a brilliant, radiant smile as she bowed deeply to Lin Chen.

“Princess Li Zhaoyang, on behalf of the Grand Tang Imperial House, welcomes Young Master Lin Chen and the Lin-Su Alliance to Chang’an!” her clear, joyous voice echoed across the sky.

Lin Chen stepped to the front railing of his flagship, bowing politely in return with a pleasant, magnetic smile.

“Princess Li,” Lin Chen greeted smoothly. “We have arrived as promised.”

Li Zhaoyang’s sharp eyes scanned Lin Chen’s figure, and her heart gave a sudden, violent leap!

As a Late-Stage Golden Core master, she possessed exceptional spiritual perception. Three months ago, when she met Lin Chen in the Eastern Province, he was at the Third Level of Foundation Establishment. But now… looking at him, she felt an absolute, suffocating spiritual pressure that made her own Golden Core tremble with instinctual awe!

He broke through to the Golden Core Realm! Li Zhaoyang realized with profound shock. And his core quality… it’s far beyond anything I have ever witnessed in my life!

She quickly composed herself, her smile growing even more respectful and warm.

“Young Master Lin,” Princess Li Zhaoyang announced clearly, “my royal father has personally designated the Royal Dragon Pavilion on the Third Floating Island as the official residence for the Lin-Su Alliance during the Immortals’ Gathering! Please allow my vessel to lead your fleet into the imperial airspace!”

“Lead the way, Princess,” Lin Chen smiled warmly.

An hour later, the nine warships of the Lin-Su Alliance were safely docked at the private sky-docks of the Royal Dragon Pavilion.

The pavilion was a grand, luxurious estate built from white jade and red cedar, surrounded by private spirit-herb gardens, hot spring pools, and training grounds capable of housing three thousand people with ease.

While Zhao Ling and the Alliance guards began securing the perimeter and unloading the supply chests, Lin Chen, Su Qingyao, and Huang Yanyan sat in the grand reception hall of the pavilion alongside Princess Li Zhaoyang.

A maid served high-grade Imperial Dragon-Well Tea, the aromatic steam filling the spacious, beautifully decorated room.

“Young Master Lin,” Princess Li Zhaoyang said, setting down her teacup and adopting a serious, diplomatic expression. “Now that you have arrived in Chang’an, there are several crucial matters regarding the Grand Central Immortals’ Gathering that I must apprise you of.”

“I am listening, Princess,” Lin Chen said smoothly, taking a sip of his tea.

“The gathering will officially commence in three days at the Imperial Martial Arena,” Li Zhaoyang explained. “It is divided into three primary competitions: the Young Geniuses Martial Tournament, the Grand Alchemy Master Challenge, and the Continental Resource Monopoly Auction.”

Her expression turned slightly grave as she continued.

“Yesterday morning, the delegation from the Imperial Sun Sanctuary arrived in Chang’an,” Li Zhaoyang revealed softly. “They are led personally by their Grand Elder, Yin Fearless—the father of Yin Tianming! He is an ancient Peak Golden Core Master who has reached the half-step Nascent Soul threshold!”

Huang Yanyan let out a soft, amused chuckle, twirling her red lace fan. “Yin Fearless? What a charming name. Did Lord Blood-Shark deliver Husband’s token to him yet?”

Princess Li Zhaoyang nodded, her eyes filled with complex emotions. “He did. And when Grand Elder Yin Fearless received the token and heard that his thirty pirate vessels were annihilated… he smashed a hundred-year-old marble table into dust in front of the imperial court!”

“He has openly declared,” Li Zhaoyang warned, looking straight at Lin Chen, “that during the Alchemy Challenge and the Martial Tournament… the Imperial Sun Sanctuary will spare no effort to destroy the Lin-Su Alliance!”

Lin Chen set his teacup down onto the small wooden table with a soft, quiet CLINK.

He looked at Princess Li Zhaoyang, his handsome face lit by a serene, unshakeable confidence that seemed to make the very air in the room bow in reverence.

“Destroy the Lin-Su Alliance?” Lin Chen murmured, a magnetic, sovereign smile appearing on his lips.

He looked out the window toward the high, floating peaks of the Imperial City, his golden pupils flashing with an ancient, grand ambition.

“Princess Li…” Lin Chen said softly, “…tell Grand Elder Yin Fearless not to disappoint me.”

“Because in three days…”

“…I will show him what happens when an ant attempts to challenge the Sun.”

[End of Chapter 15]