Senior White replied, “I have never been the Wielder of the Will, so I have no idea what I would do if I got tired of the position. Hmm… I feel that with my personality, I would probably look for something interesting to do.”

If there aren’t any interesting things around me, I’ll make stuff interesting myself.

Song Shuhang speculatively asked, “Then, Senior White, would you choose to resign?”

“How could that be?” Senior White replied decisively. “It isn’t easy to become the Wielder of the Will, why would I resign? After becoming the Wielder of the Will, I would be able to tinker with things that normal practitioners would never have a chance of playing with even if they wanted to. The universe is so big, and there are tens of thousands of worlds. Fun and interesting things would have no end. There are even some places that only the Wielder of the Will can enter and ordinary practitioners can’t access. For example, the Wielder’s small black room that we’re in right now, and other similar spaces. If I were to resign from such a position, I would probably become even more bored.”

Song Shuhang pinched his chin, and said, “That makes sense.”

The Wielder of the Heaven’s Will was the existence with the highest authority, and with that, they could enter all of the secret areas. If they were to leave their post, they would lose the ability to enter those secret areas.

Therefore, could the penultimate Wielder of the Will, the one that Shuhang suspected to be Senior White Two’s counterpart, have left for some other reason?

There had been so many Wielders of the Hevean’s Will throughout history, and all of them eventually chose to leave their position. Could it be possible that the position wasn’t as great as people thought? Could it be some sort of trap?

Or, could it be that after getting their hands on the position, they discovered an even higher and farther place, and then went after it? Perhaps after having acquired a greater goal, the previous Wielders of the Will looked for a way to resign from their position and find a way to reach beyond the realm of ‘Wielder of the Heaven’s Will’…

Or again, after becoming the Wielder of the Will and becoming ‘eternal’, they chose to leave their position and continue to do whatever they wanted to do… Like Fairy Skylark with her bone of eternity.

Senior White curiously asked, “By the way, Shuhang, why did you suddenly ask me this?”

On the side, Soft Feather suddenly raised her hand, and said, “Senior White, don’t you think that you might be the child of a Wielder of the Will?”

Senior White: “…”

“Shuhang, have you ascended to the Fifth Stage?” Su Clan’s Sixteen noticed Song Shuhang’s change.

At the center of Song Shuhang’s eyebrows, golden mental energy was faintly visible. This was a result of his mental energy having greatly improved after ascending to the Fifth Stage. As he was still unable to control it as he pleased, some of it ended up leaking.

In addition, the ‘innate true yuan’ in Song Shuhang’s body had undergone a transformation and changed into the spiritual power of a Fifth Stage Spiritual Emperor. The golden core in his body began to slowly transform his physical body. After a period of meditation, the golden core and spiritual power would allow a Fifth Stage practitioner’s physical body to ‘evolve’, and eventually become a [Spiritual Emperor’s Body].

The Fifth Stage was like a watershed.

For practitioners, the First Stage was a hurdle, which distinguished them from ordinary people as they had officially ‘transcended humanity’.

The Second Stage was also a hurdle. After this realm, the power in the practitioner’s body would change from the illusory power of blood and qi energy to true qi, and their lifespan would increase to over 200 years.

The Fifth Stage Realm was a moat, and the golden core would set one’s path. The golden core was the core of a practitioner, and it would transform all of their innate true yuan into ‘spiritual power’. In this realm, the practitioner had transcended the need to eat or sleep. The Spiritual Emperor’s Body was the biggest watershed between practitioners and ordinary people.

The difference between a Fifth Stage practitioner and an ordinary person was not too obvious in human practitioners.

However, it could be clearly seen in monster cultivators as they would experience a major change in this realm. A Fifth Stage Great Monster would be able to finally change their form.

“Yes, I was forced to ascend to the Fifth Stage Realm under the onslaught of Fairy Skylark’s heavenly tribulation and demonic tribulation.” Song Shuhang still had lingering fear in his mind.

This time, if it weren’t for everything having taken place in Senior White Two’s domain, it was truly unknown as to what would have transpired. The Combined Magical Treasure wouldn’t have been assembled. Perhaps he would have failed to transcend his tribulation as well and died. After all, he had yet to make any preparations for transcending the heavenly tribulation.

“The Fifth Stage in four and a half months…” Senior White pinched his chin and looked at Song Shuhang.

Once they got out of the ‘Wielder’s small black room’, how great would the pressure that the fellow daoists of the Nine Provinces Number One Group felt after finding out that Song Shuhang was already at the Fifth Stage be?

Soft Feather said, “Senior Song, you are definitely the child of some Wielder of the Will.” After saying that, she suddenly sensed something. “Demon Sage T-Trannical Scholar?”

“There are no hidden dangers, right? T-Trannical Scholar?” Su Clan’s Sixteen said with some worry.

Song Shuhang: “…”

Can you stop saying that?

Song Shuhang sighed, and said, “Don’t worry, I’m completely fine. My will is strong. In addition, you have also seen for yourself that I now have a demon name, Demon Sage Tyrannical Scholar. This was the reward for overcoming the demonic tribulation.”

“Did I miss something interesting again?” Soft Feather looked regretful, and asked, “By the way, what about your dragon patterns? Senior Song, you hadn’t made any preparations for the tribulation, right? Did any problems occur with your core patterns?”

Song Shuhang replied, “My golden core is in a rather special state. I suspect that I originally should have had a patternless golden core.”

“Patternless?” Soft Feather asked in doubt. “How could that be possible? A golden core should at least have a single pattern.”

Song Shuhang said, “Blank golden cores actually exist. Um… Senior White, do you know about patternless golden cores?”

There was a deep relationship between Senior White and Senior White Two. Since Senior White Two had a patternless golden core back then, Senior White probably also had a patternless golden core.

“I don’t. I’ve never heard of patternless golden cores.” Senior White shook his head.

Su Clan’s Sixteen curiously asked, “Senior White, how many patterns does your golden core have? I’ve never seen anyone in the group chat talk about it.”

“That’s because my golden core is quite special, and so I never mentioned it to anyone in the group,” Senior White replied. “However, it doesn’t matter if I tell you. I had 10 patterns on my golden core at that time.”

Su Clan’s Sixteen was taken aback. “Isn’t the maximum number of patterns on a golden core nine?”

Nine patterns was the upper limit—even the Scholarly Sage who had been able to suppress the entire universe only had nine patterns on his Fifth Stage golden core.

What was with Senior White’s ten-patterned golden core?

Senior White squeezed his chin, and said, “When I ascended to the Fifth Stage, it was extremely difficult to transcend the heavenly tribulation. After transcending it, my illusory core turned into a golden core, and I had to wait for the core patterns to appear. The core patterns appeared very slowly. The golden core kept on changing and spinning… and then.”

Song Shuhang, Su Clan’s Sixteen, Soft Feather, the virtuous lamia, as well as Scarlet Heaven Sword in her abdomen, all perked up their ears to listen to what followed.

Senior White said, “Then, I felt that it was a waste of time to sit and wait for the core patterns to appear, so I closed up and didn’t bother checking it for over a year or so. When I woke up, I checked my golden core and discovered that there were 10 core patterns on it. I thought I had counted wrong, but I counted it several times and it was still 10.”

Song Shuhang subconsciously said, “Senior White, did you paint your 10th core pattern?”

“Pfff, how do you draw something like a core pattern?” Senior White laughed.

“With a brush, and you can make it so that it doesn’t fade.” Song Shuhang looked up at the sky, and said, “Don’t ask me how I know about this. My core patterns were painted by someone else.”

Soft Feather responded, “Huh?”

Su Clan’s Sixteen said, “Huh?”

Song Shuhang said, “My golden core is a bit weird. I don’t know why, but the illusory core I had condensed when I was at the Fourth Stage took on the appearance of a fat whale.”

Su Clan’s Sixteen and Senior White both nodded as they knew about this.

Song Shuhang said, “Then, when I ascended to the Fifth Stage, the fat whale illusory core became a fat whale golden core. At first, there were three core patterns on it.”

Su Clan’s Sixteen was puzzled, and asked, “Then, what did you mean by patternless golden core?”

Soft Feather said, “Only three?”

That should be impossible. With Senior Song having reached the Fifth Stage in four and a half months, no matter how bad his talent was, it was impossible for him to only have three dragon patterns! Senior Song’s talent was definitely not too bad… If a person really didn’t have any talent for cultivation, even if he was given unlimited resources, it would be impossible for them to achieve a miracle like reaching the Fifth Stage in four and a half months.

Song Shuhang replied, “Those three dragon patterns weren’t from my own talent; one was given by my Combined Magical Treasure, and another was given to me by the virtuous lamia and the Sage Seal. Then, the last one was given by the ❮Scholarly Indestructible Body of the Buddha❯ and the ❮Holy Ape Dragon Power Technique❯. This means that… If the three bonuses were to be disregarded, I would not have a single dragon pattern.”

Su Clan’s Sixteen asked, “What special characteristic does a patternless golden core have?”

Song Shuhang said, “It should be very special… but it has nothing to do with me now as I have nine patterns. The place where I transcended my tribulation was the Demonic Tribulation Realm, which happened to be that senior’s territory. And so, he made a move and gave me six more dragon patterns, which he painted on my golden core with a brush.” ​

“Just like that?” Su Clan’s Sixteen could only feel that this information was huge, and her worldview was somewhat shattered from hearing it.

Senior White heard this, pinched his chin, and fell into thought.

Core patterns drawn with a brush…

Patternless gold core…

Senior White asked, “Did you ask that senior of yours if he could just give you 10 dragon patterns?”

Song Shuhang was suddenly taken aback.

Yes, if the core patterns could be drawn on, maybe he could have requested 10, 11, or even more dragon patterns?

Senior White here was the proof that the limit of nine dragon patterns could be broken.

“I never asked him. I had thought that nine dragon patterns was the limit, so I only asked for nine.” Song Shuhang sighed. “I feel like I’ve missed a huge opportunity.”

“Senior Song, can you let me see your nine ‘painted’ dragon patterns?” Soft Feather became curious.

Song Shuhang heard this and smiled. “You want to take a look? In that case, direct your mental energy towards me. I will guide it toward my whale core so that you can have a look. Hehehehe.”

Soft Feather said, “I wanna see, I wanna see.”

Su Clan’s Sixteen said, “Shuhang, your smile right now looks strange.”

Song Shuhang said, “It’s fine. In a while, Sixteen, you can come in and take a look at the patterns on my golden core as well. They’re really interesting.”

After a while.

Soft Feather released her mental energy, directing it towards Song Shuhang’s body.

Song Shuhang dragged Soft Feather’s mental energy, and used the inner sight to enter the location where the whale core was located.

Soft Feather said, “Eh? Senior Song, did your whale core eat too much? Or is it pregnant?”