Chapter 326: A Streak Of Golden Light

For a brief moment, silence stretched between both sides. Chianxu could even hear her own heartbeat.

At last, the white-haired man finally spoke. “It seems the core did not go entirely to waste on you,” he said calmly. “Still… one more breakthrough would have been preferable. If you had reached that level, resolving your current predicament would have been effortless.”

Logan’s eyes widened. “You mean… I could have reached the Martial Emperor Realm if I had refined that core properly?”

The man did not answer. Instead, he began walking toward them at an unhurried pace.

Chianxu’s legs trembled. She could feel it.

This person in front of them was no ordinary being. He may have looked like a human, but she was certain he wasn’t.

As a cultivator, she could at least sense a person’s aura — if not their exact realm. But the presence before her now… it was beyond anything she had ever encountered.

She felt nothing. And that terrified her. It was as though the man standing before them was ancient… otherworldly. His aura was calm — like the gentle ripples of a quiet river, soothing to behold — yet beneath that tranquility lay a storm capable of annihilating everything in its path.

Chianxu wanted to step back. But she did not dare.

It felt as if moving even a single inch would be an act of disrespect — and disrespect toward such a being could very well mean death.

The man stopped directly before Logan. “You are still not strong enough to fully refine that essence,” he said evenly, “nor are you capable of activating even the first level of Dragon Awakening. But without it, you stand no chance of emerging from what lies ahead unscathed.”

He paused briefly before continuing. “I will assist you in refining a portion of the essence — only to the extent your current body can withstand. After that, I will allow you to borrow a fragment of my power so you may temporarily activate the first level of Dragon Awakening.”

His gaze sharpened slightly. “But understand this — it will not be permanent. Consider it… a tasting. Only after you reach at least the Martial Emperor Realm and fully consume the remaining essence will you be able to activate the first level of Dragon Awakening at will and without time restriction.”

Logan blinked. He understood almost none of it.

’First level of Dragon Awakening? The inheritance I am about to receive… it has levels?’ His thoughts churned in confusion.

Chianxu was no different. She knew of the Golden Dragon, the supreme deity said to rule one of the Upper Heavens. But this ’Dragon Awakening’… and its levels… were things she had never once heard of.

Her eyes shifted between the mysterious man and Logan, afraid to miss even a single word.

Because whatever was happening now…

Would change everything.

Amid the haze of confusion and curiosity, the man slowly raised his hand, gesturing for Logan to hand something over.

Logan glanced at his own hand and immediately understood what the white-haired man wanted.

Without hesitation, he offered the translucent jar.

After all, this person had already helped him once. A treasure like the Dragon Core, one that had allowed him to break through two realms at once, was priceless. No amount of wealth could measure its true value. And if the man before him wished to take the jar by force, Logan knew there was no possible way he could resist.

The man merely moved his index finger. The jar slipped from Logan’s grasp and floated gracefully into his palm, hovering above it as though weightless.

With a casual wave of his left index finger, the lid of the jar lifted on its own.

The blood essence rose into the air.

Almost instantly, a soothing sensation spread through the surroundings. The air grew dense with spiritual energy — rich, pure… and laced with something even more profound. Something ancient. Something overwhelmingly powerful.

Logan and Chianxu stared at it, momentarily forgetting everything else.

To witness such a treasure… such a miraculous existence…

It was breathtaking.

The man discarded the empty jar without a second glance. It shattered somewhere in the distance as the blood essence continued to hover above his left palm.

The man stepped closer to Logan.

Chianxu instinctively took a step back, her body reacting before her mind could.

And then…

Something happened. Something that neither Logan nor Chianxu had expected.

Without warning, the man raised his right hand.

His fingers straightened like a blade.

And in the next instant…

He pierced through Logan’s chest.

It happened so fast that Logan did not even have time to react.

He only realized what had occurred when he looked down and saw blood slowly dripping from the wound… the man’s hand still embedded within his chest.

“What…?” Logan looked at the man again. “W… why?” He forced the words out, each syllable heavy with disbelief and pain. He grabbed the man’s hand and tried to force it out. ’Did I misjudge him?’ Logan wondered as his head felt lightweight.

“Nooooo!” Chianxu also snapped out of her stunned state and screamed, panic flooding her voice.

“Relax.” The white-haired man did not even flinch, as though piercing through Logan’s chest moments ago was nothing out of the ordinary.

“You are being far too dramatic,” he added calmly, slowly withdrawing his hand from Logan’s chest.

Logan instinctively tried to stagger back, but the man placed his right palm firmly on his shoulder, holding him in place with effortless strength.

Then…

He raised the hovering blood essence and positioned it directly before the wound in Logan’s chest.

What happened next defied logic.

The blood dripping from Logan’s wound suddenly reacted. Instead of falling in liquid drops, it twisted and stretched into fine crimson threads, as though guided by an unseen force. Those threads reached outward… and made contact with the blood essence.

As if their own, they began drawing it inward.

Slowly. Steadily. The blood essence was being pulled into Logan’s chest.

The scene eased Logan’s earlier worries a little.

Meanwhile, Chianxu could only stare with her eyes wide open.

The man released his hands completely and stepped around to Logan’s back.

“Sit down and close your eyes,” he instructed. “Feel the essence. Feel the energy — the life flowing within it. Match its rhythm. Synchronize your heartbeat with its pulse.”

Logan was still bewildered. Yet, strangely… he obeyed without resistance.

For reasons he could not explain, standing before this man gave him an inexplicable sense of security — as though he had known him for a very long time.

He sat down in a lotus position and closed his eyes.

Thump! Thump!

He could hear his own heartbeat. And beneath it… something else. The pulse of the blood essence.

Though it was merely a fragment of a living being, it felt more alive than anything he had ever encountered.

He focused. Instead of letting confusion, or rather curiosity, consume him, he followed the instructions precisely.

Gradually, without even realizing it, his consciousness began to drift.

And then…

He opened his eyes. The surroundings were no longer the same. Both the man and Chianxu were gone. So was the entrance of the cave he was standing before. At present, he was hovering in a void. He looked around.

There was nothing.

Not even darkness.

Just an endless, boundless emptiness.

Then suddenly…

A streak of golden light appeared in the distance, racing toward him at lightning speed.

Logan’s eyes widened.

“What the hell is that?”

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