The long, narrow corridor became a perfect battlefield for a single defender. The sound of footsteps and the roars of the "Holy Children" grew closer and closer, as urgent as war drums.
Lam Minh stood firm like a mountain, sword in one hand, his cold gaze fixed on the darkness ahead. Behind him were the frightened children, the reason he could not retreat.
The first wave of "Holy Children" appeared. Leading the charge were not the grotesque mutants, but those who looked most human, perhaps the first-generation experimental products or those with a low level of fusion. There were about twenty of them, their cultivation levels ranging from Early to Mid-stage Foundation Establishment.
Seeing Lam Minh standing there alone, they roared, their arrogance resurfacing.
"He's alone! Kill him!"
They charged forward like a swarm of moths to a flame.
Lam Minh didn't move. He simply raised his Thuan Thien sword, channeled his spiritual energy, and slashed a horizontal line in front of him.
Primeval Dragon God Art – Second Form: Dragon's Tail Sweep!
A stream of jade-green sword qi, as wide as the entire corridor, swept out like a giant dragon's tail.
The Early and Mid-stage Foundation Establishment creatures charging at the front had no power to resist and were cut in half by the sword qi. Black blood and internal organs splattered everywhere, staining the metal walls red.
With just one move, more than ten of them had fallen.
The brutality and absolute power of the attack made the remaining ones freeze in horror.
But before they could collect themselves, Lam Minh took the initiative and charged forward. He was no longer defending. He was attacking.
He plunged into the crowd, the Thuan Thien sword in his hand becoming a deadly whirlwind. With every swing of his sword, a life was taken. He no longer used flashy techniques, just the most basic chops, stabs, and slashes, but they were fast, powerful, and absolutely precise.
The battle turned into a one-sided slaughter.
In less than a minute, all the "small fry" had been cleaned up. The corridor was now filled with blood and corpses.
Lam Minh stood amidst the pile of bodies, not a single drop of blood on him. He looked towards the end of the corridor.
From the darkness, the Deacon in the white lab coat slowly walked out. Following him were about ten other "Holy Children." This was the remaining elite force of the base. Their cultivation was all at Late-stage Foundation Establishment, each with a different mutation, looking extremely ferocious.
The Deacon looked at the scene before him, at the pile of slaughtered subordinates, but there was not a trace of anger on his face. On the contrary, he was even smiling.
"Excellent," he said, his voice still gentle and calm. "You truly did not disappoint. Your strength is truly worth studying."
He looked at Lam Minh as a scientist would a rare specimen. "I misjudged you. You are not a warrior, but a perfect assassin. Infiltrating alone, disabling the system, feinting in one direction to attack another, and then slaughtering my subordinates. A nearly perfect plan."
"Nearly?" Lam Minh frowned.
"Yes, nearly," the Deacon smiled. "You made one mistake. A very human mistake."
He pointed towards the laboratory behind Lam Minh. "You let your emotions, the foolish compassion of your human race, control you. If you had abandoned those children, killed all of us, and then left, you would have succeeded. But no, you chose to stay and protect them. You have turned yourself from a hunter into a caged prey."
He waved his hand. "Surround him. But do not attack the laboratory. I want him captured alive. A perfect specimen like this cannot be wasted."
The ten Late-stage Foundation Establishment creatures immediately spread out, surrounding Lam Minh, sealing all escape routes.
Lam Minh looked at the Deacon, then at the mutants around him. He laughed.
"You think you can capture me?"
"I know you are very strong," the Deacon said. "Perhaps you are strong enough to kill all of us here. But while you're doing that, with just a thought, I can detonate this entire base. You might survive, but what about the children behind you? Do you... dare to bet on it?"
This was a threat, a psychological gambit. He was using Lam Minh's "very human" weakness against him.
Lam Minh stopped laughing. His eyes turned cold. This Deacon was far more cunning and ruthless than Black Shadow.
The confrontation was no longer just about strength, but about willpower and choice.
Lam Minh knew he couldn't let the children be endangered. But he also couldn't let himself be captured.
He glanced at the tunnel he had dug, then at the frightened children huddled in a corner of the room.
He needed time. Just a few minutes for them to escape.
And to get those few minutes, he had only one way.
He looked at the Deacon, a defiant smile returning to his lips.
"Alright. You want to play psychological games?" he said. "Then let's see what my trump card is."
With that, he didn't attack, nor did he defend. He did something no one could have ever expected.
He plunged his Thuan Thien sword into the ground, then sat down cross-legged right in the middle of the corridor, in front of the ten "Holy Children" and the Deacon.
He closed his eyes.
He began... to break through.
Breaking through to the Golden Core Realm, right in the middle of the enemy's encirclement.
...
Lam Minh's action stunned all his enemies.
Sitting down to break through? Right in the middle of an encirclement of dozens of powerful enemies?
What kind of action was this? Suicide? Or the ultimate form of contempt?
The Deacon, who had always been confident in his own intellect, was also dumbfounded for a moment. He had considered hundreds of scenarios, but none as insane as this.
"What... what is he doing?" a "Holy Child" stammered.
"Don't be fooled!" the Deacon snapped back to his senses, roaring. "This is definitely a trap! He's trying to get us to attack to trigger something! Everyone, stand your ground! Observe!"
He didn't believe that anyone would be foolish enough to choose to break through a major realm in this situation. It was a process that required absolute tranquility; any disturbance could lead to qi deviation, resulting in a crippled cultivation at best, or death by explosion at worst. He believed this was another of Lam Minh's psychological ploys.
His suspicion, once again, gave Lam Minh the precious time he needed.
Lam Minh paid no attention to the enemy's reaction. He had bet everything on this gamble. His mind was completely immersed within his body, ignoring everything around him.
He looked at his status panel.
[Immortality Points: 408,120/400,000]
"It's enough."
[Host has accumulated enough points! Beginning breakthrough to the EARLY GOLDEN CORE REALM!]
[WARNING: THE GOLDEN CORE CONDENSATION PROCESS WILL RECONSTRUCT THE ENTIRE BODY AND SOUL. THE PAIN WILL FAR EXCEED ALL PREVIOUS EXPERIENCES. IS THE HOST CERTAIN THEY WISH TO CONTINUE?]
"CONTINUE!" Lam Minh's will resounded without a hint of hesitation.
Instantly, a huge vortex of energy formed inside his dantian. The diamond-like transparent Primary Core, which had already been tempered to its limit, began to vibrate violently.
All 400,000 Immortality Points, a terrifying amount of energy, were pumped into the Primary Core.
The Primary Core couldn't withstand the pressure and began to crack.
CRACK... CRACK...
A pain that could not be described in words, as if his soul was being torn apart, washed over him. Lam Minh gritted his teeth, sweat poured out like rain, and his body trembled uncontrollably.
"He... he's really breaking through!" the Deacon screamed in horror. He could feel the chaotic yet incredibly powerful energy exploding from Lam Minh. "Kill him! Quickly! Don't let him succeed!"
The "Holy Children" snapped out of their stupor and charged frantically towards Lam Minh.
But just as they got close, a golden Dragon qi suddenly burst out from Lam Minh's body, forming a cocoon of light that enveloped him.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
All of their attacks were blocked when they hit the cocoon of light. The cocoon shook violently, but did not break. This was the instinctive protection of the Dragon God bloodline when its host was at the most critical moment.
Inside the cocoon, Lam Minh's Primary Core had completely shattered.
But it didn't disappear. It turned into a cloud of the purest energy dust, spinning at high speed. Under the control of Lam Minh's will and the "Primeval Dragon God Art," this energy dust began to condense.
This process was a true "shedding of the mortal coil."
His entire body was being reconstructed from the microscopic level. Old cells were destroyed, and new, stronger, more resilient cells were born. His bones were engraved with faint dragon patterns, becoming as hard as divine metal. His bloodline was completely "dragonized," the blood flowing in his veins now shimmering with a golden light.
His soul was also cleansed, becoming more solid and powerful than ever before.
And in his dantian, the energy dust had condensed, forming a golden core.
A golden core that wasn't the usual yellow. It was a brilliant gold, with a small, coiling dragon carved on it, radiating a kingly and domineering aura.
The Primeval Dragon God Golden Core!
The moment the Golden Core formed, it began to frantically absorb the spiritual energy from heaven and earth. A huge vortex of spiritual energy was created, sucking up all the energy in the base, even piercing through the ground to draw in spiritual energy from the outside.
The cocoon of light enveloping Lam Minh shattered.
He slowly opened his eyes.
In that instant, an earth-shattering aura, the absolute suppression of a major realm, exploded from him.
The "Holy Children" who had been frantically attacking suddenly froze, then all of them knelt on the ground, trembling. They couldn't withstand the pressure from a true Golden Core cultivator, especially one as absurdly powerful as Lam Minh.
The Deacon was the only one who could remain standing, but his legs were also shaking, his face drained of all color.
Lam Minh slowly stood up. The clothes on his body had been turned to ash during the breakthrough. He looked at his new body, a perfect body, filled with power.
He gently clenched his fist. He felt that now, with just one punch, he could collapse this entire mountain, could blow away an entire city.
This was the power of the Golden Core Realm. A complete metamorphosis.
He looked up at the terrified Deacon and smiled.
"Thanks for giving me the time," he said. "This bet, it seems I've won."
He looked at the children, still safe in the laboratory. He looked at the prison cells filled with his own kind.
"Now then," he said, his voice no longer that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, but with the majesty of a true expert, echoing throughout the base.
"It's time... to clean up the trash."