The Taiji rotation continued.

The two forces chased each other endlessly through the countless crystalline root threads, neither colliding nor separating.

Su Bai could feel it clearly now.

His Yin and Yang had not truly merged.

They were cooperating in the strangest way possible. But they had not become one inside a Golden Core like ordinary cultivators.

That was still a problem.

Inside the Infinite Void Dantian, the Ashen-Frost Blight Flame detonated again.

The pale-grey supernova spread through the void one last time.

Extreme cold struck the Yin-Crystal Asteroid Dao Pedestal.

Then... the cold-forging stopped.

Su Bai’s consciousness focused inward.

The Yin-Crystal Asteroid was gone.

In its place floated a sphere.

It was not golden. It was not even close to golden.

It was jet-black. It radiated a cold so absolute that even the surrounding void seemed unwilling to approach it.

Countless needle-like fragments of condensed solid Qi orbited around its equator like a high-speed asteroid belt.

The crystalline tree was also welded into it.

The base of the reversed crystal tree had fused permanently into the black sphere, like a crystal sword driven into a starless stone.

Su Bai stared at the black sphere.

A name appeared in his mind.

Black-Ice Core.

It was dense, stable, and terrifying.

It was also incomplete.

The moment Su Bai realized that, a heavy headache struck his mind.

His brows tightened.

It contained his Dantian’s extreme Yin. But where was the Yang?

If things remained like this, he had only created a terrifying pure Yin core embryo.

Su Bai’s thoughts sharpened.

And just then...

The Taiji rotation suddenly surged.

Pure Yang from his body rushed through the crystalline root network and plunged into the Dantian.

This time, it did not merely brush past the Black-Ice Core.

It entered.

The Yang vitality sank straight into the center of the jet-black sphere.

In that instant, a golden light appeared inside the Black-Ice Core.

A small golden Yang sun lit up within the absolute blackness.

At the same time, the extreme Yin of the Black-Ice Core flowed through the root network and entered Su Bai’s physical body.

His veins frosted faintly. His bones cooled. His organs steadied. His burning Yang body no longer overheated.

Su Bai froze.

The two forces were still not mixed in the normal sense. But they moved so quickly, so continuously, and so perfectly through the crystal network that they blurred into a single cycle.

Then he realized what his body had just created.

His Golden Core was not only in the Dantian. His physical body was not only a vessel.

The Black-Ice Core was the Yin engine hidden in the void. His physical body was the Yang casing, the outer furnace, and the living exhaust.

The crystalline root network was the channel.

The Taiji rotation was the mechanism.

Su Bai’s breathing stopped for half a breath.

His physical body... was the other half of his Golden Core.

This realization was so absurd that Su Bai nearly lost focus.

A normal Golden Core was a self-contained inner universe.

His was not self-contained. His was open-circuit.

The core in his Dantian and the Yang of his body formed one continuous engine.

The Golden Core was not a single object. It was a system.

Su Bai’s eyelid twitched inwardly.

This did not feel like condensing a Golden Core. This felt like accidentally building an immortal machinery prototype inside his own abdomen.

He carefully observed again, afraid that he had misunderstood.

The Black-Ice Core remained at the center of the Infinite Void Dantian.

Inside it, the golden Yang sun burned quietly.

The crystalline tree pierced through the core.

The pale-grey flame canopy above acted like a distributor, firing waves of Yin cold outward.

The roots below carried that force through the void and into the body.

Around the core’s equator, countless solid Qi needles continued orbiting rapidly, unobstructed by the tree.

The entire structure was strange.

But it was stable.

The Yin-Yang exchange did not stop.

Yang entered the core. Yin entered the body.

The body warmed the core. The core cooled the body.

The two sides nourished each other in a loop.

Su Bai’s mind moved again.

If his body was now half of the Golden Core system, then what did injury mean?

He looked at the circulation.

A thought appeared.

If an enemy slashed an ordinary Golden Core cultivator’s body, the body would bleed. The Golden Core would remain hidden inside the Dantian unless the injury reached deep enough.

But if someone slashed Su Bai’s body...

Would they be slashing the outer casing of his Golden Core?

The thought was strange.

But the circulation confirmed it.

His body and Dantian were no longer completely separate.

The moment his physical body was damaged, the Black-Ice Core would detect a leak through the root network. It would pump Yin cold through the bridge to stabilize the injury, while the Yang body would surge vitality to restore the damaged flesh.

The loop would correct the wound.

Not because he had ordinary healing. But because the system could not allow one side of the engine to leak.

Su Bai silently absorbed this realization.

His durability had changed.

To truly crack his Golden Core, an enemy could not merely stab him. They would need to disrupt the entire rotational force between his body and Dantian.

They would need to stop the loop.

Su Bai was pleased.

Then he became worried.

Because anything that sounded this unreasonable would definitely attract trouble.

"Is this... a success?"

The thought had just appeared when the world answered.

Boom.

The sky above the main peak thundered so loudly that the entire region shook.

The protective arrays trembled.

The Peak Masters looked upward at the same time.

The tribulation clouds had changed.

Earlier, they had been watching. Now, they had made a decision.

Purple-white lightning gathered in the center of the clouds. It compressed, thickened, then brightened.

The pressure falling from the sky became so heavy that many disciples outside felt their knees weaken.

Outside the formation, Lu Canghai’s expression changed.

"Already?"

Peak Master Yao Ding’s face stiffened.

"That is the first bolt?"

The lightning forming above did not look like a normal Golden Core tribulation bolt.

It was thick as a water barrel.

Purple and white light twisted together inside it, filled with the intent to destroy.

Even Shen Youran’s eyes widened slightly.

Sect Master Li Xuanzong was just as shocked.

"The heavens are furious."

No one knew who muttered it.

The words spread through the surrounding silence like cold wind.

Lu Canghai’s face darkened.

"Hold the array."

The Peak Masters immediately poured Qi into the formations.

Layer after layer of protective light rose above Su Bai.

The entire training ground became a fortress.

Then...

The first tribulation bolt descended.

Purple-white lightning tore through the sky and struck the protective dome.

The first layer shattered.

Then the second.

Then the third.

The lightning passed through the arrays as if the formations were paper soaked in rain.

Peak Master Hou Yan roared and pressed both palms forward.

Another defensive array rose.

It cracked instantly.

Yao Ding’s expression twisted.

"Impossible!"

Li Xuanzong’s sleeve moved.

A final layer of sect master authority descended over the formation.

The lightning slowed for the briefest instant.

Then it broke through.

At the center of the training ground, Su Bai looked up.

His pupils shrank.

It was too fast and too thick.

Even with the Tribulation Lightning Bead chain sharpening his nerves, he knew he could not dodge.

If it had been as thin as an arm, perhaps he could have shifted, redirected, or used movement to reduce the impact.

But this?

This was not lightning.

This was a heavenly pillar with anger issues.

The purple-white bolt struck Su Bai directly.

"Ugh!"

His body shook violently.

The lightning tore into his flesh. Blood vessels burst. Skin split. Muscles charred and froze at the same time.

The pain was overwhelming.

The bolt did not vanish after one instant.

It continued pouring down for more than a breath, as if the heavens had decided that one strike should be long enough to make a point.

Outside the formation, Lu Canghai took half a step forward.

Li Xuanzong lifted one hand to stop him.

"Wait."

Lu Canghai’s eyes were cold.

Inside the lightning, Su Bai gritted his teeth.

His temporary Tribulation Lightning Bead chain crackled madly. The six beads absorbed a tiny portion of the tribulation power, but compared to the full bolt, they were like six bowls trying to catch a waterfall.

Still, even that little helped.

His reaction sharpened.

His mind remained clear.

Then the real change happened.

Because Su Bai’s body was now the Yang casing of the Golden Core system, the Black-Ice Core immediately detected the damage.

The loop reacted.

Extreme Yin surged from the core through the crystal network and rushed into the wounded body.

The torn flesh cooled.

The scorched muscles steadied.

The burst blood vessels sealed under frost-like spiritual light.

At the same time, Yang vitality surged from the body and refilled the damaged outer furnace.

The injury began repairing.

Then... the lightning invaded his Dantian.

For a normal cultivator, that would have been disastrous.

For Su Bai, the Reversal Body activated again.

Violent destruction twisted. The deadly tribulation force changed. The destructive lightning became massive spiritual nourishment.

"Oof!"

Su Bai’s back straightened involuntarily.

His soul shook.

His body screamed.

His Black-Ice Core absorbed a trace of purple-white lightning.

A thin tribulation mark appeared across its surface.

The golden Yang sun inside the core flared.

The solid Qi needles in the asteroid belt spun faster.

The lightning finally faded.

Su Bai remained seated.

His robes were torn.

His skin smoked.

Frost mist and warm vapor rose from his body at the same time.

But he was alive. More than alive.

His aura had grown heavier.

The watching elders stared with wide eyes.

Peak Master Huo Yan’s mouth slowly opened.

"He... tanked it?"

Jian Wushuang’s eyes were sharp.

"No. He was damaged."

Lu Canghai looked at Su Bai’s rapidly repairing body.

"Then he healed faster than the damage could finish."

The Peak Masters fell silent.

That sentence was somehow worse.

Above them, the heavens rumbled again. 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

The sound was deeper this time as if the sky had expected ashes and instead found a seated problem.

The second tribulation bolt formed.

It was larger.

The purple-white light gathered again, thicker than before.

The second bolt descended.

This time, Su Bai did not try to dodge.

There was no point.

He adjusted the Taiji circulation instead.

The second bolt struck.

Boom!

The lightning hit Su Bai again.

His body tore. Then repaired.

More spiritual nourishment poured into the Black-Ice Core.

A second tribulation mark appeared.

The frozen core embryo became heavier.

The golden sun inside burned brighter.

Su Bai trembled violently. But he remained seated.

Outside, the watching elders no longer knew what expressions to make.

Peak Master Yao Ding whispered, "This is not crossing tribulation."

Hou Yan asked dryly, "Then what is it?"

Yao Ding stared at Su Bai.

"It looks like he is being beaten into shape."

Lu Canghai pressed his fingers between his brows again.

For some reason, that description was also accurate.

The heavens rumbled again.

But this time, the rumble changed.

It did not immediately gather a third destructive bolt.

The clouds above the main peak paused.

The purple-white lightning flickered uncertainly.

Su Bai looked up.

He sensed something. The heavenly pressure was still there. But it had shifted.

It was no longer only destructive.

It was observing.

Then, to everyone’s shock, the dark tribulation clouds began to recede.

Peak Master Huo Yan frowned.

"It stopped?"

Yao Ding did not relax.

"No. Look carefully."

The clouds did not vanish.

They rearranged.

The dark layers folded away, revealing thick white clouds above them.

Those clouds were not gentle.

They were full of vitality.

A vast healing energy spread from the sky, pure, bright, and full of life.

Golden-white lightning began forming inside the clouds.

It crackled softly. It looked holy. It looked like the exact opposite of the destructive purple-white lightning.

Su Bai’s eyes widened.

His body, which had endured destruction, suddenly felt a strange warning from the Reversal Body.

The purple-white lightning had been dangerous. But it had been destructive.

Destruction could be reversed into nourishment.

This golden-white lightning was different.

It carried vitality, restoration, and blessing.

For other cultivators, this might be heavenly grace after tribulation.

For Su Bai...

His face slowly changed.

"Uh oh."