Chapter Fifty-Nine: The Timing Is Not Right

However, this thought only lingered in her mind for a moment before she dismissed it herself. Anyone who could make it to this stage would not be so naive. Besides, judging from Zhou Yi’s expression, if his confusion was truly an act, it would only mean his performance was nothing short of masterful!

If she thought of it that way, it meant he really didn’t know.

“So, what is the amplification of your innate true intent?” After a moment’s hesitation, the woman in gauze, as if struck by a sudden impulse, asked Zhou Yi a question that could only be called idiotic.

She had actually asked her enemy a question about his own strength—just how foolish could she be?

Anyone would know that the rank of one’s innate true intent was a deeply personal matter, never to be shared with others, much less with an enemy.

“Onefold.”

“What?” Yet, when Zhou Yi’s light reply reached the woman’s ears, she was instantly gripped by the suspicion that she must have misheard.

She had thought the question itself was foolish enough, but she never imagined Zhou Yi would actually answer it!

Yet, after the initial shock, she was once again stunned by his words—onefold!

A onefold amplification of innate true intent? If she hadn’t misunderstood, that was precisely what Zhou Yi meant!

“What was her question just now?” It wasn’t just her—even the white-haired elder, who had remained unmoved as a mountain and calm despite Zhou Yi’s earlier display of strength, had now lost his composure and stared blankly at the purple-robed man beside him.

“Uh!” The man in purple was equally dumbfounded. He had watched the woman in gauze ask that private question and was just about to ridicule her inwardly when Zhou Yi’s unexpected and casual answer left his mind in chaos. At the elder’s question, he failed to react for a moment.

“If I’m not mistaken, she just asked about innate true intent!” The purple-robed man’s face twisted in disbelief at his own words.

“A onefold amplification of strength!” Hearing this, the white-haired elder’s face froze, and he could do nothing but repeat it in a daze.

“Is this really about innate true intent?” the old man asked himself. “A onefold amplification—could this possibly be a joke?”

“……”

“That’s right!” After a moment, the white-haired elder was the first to recover, adjusting his mood and looking at Zhou Yi with a complicated gaze. “What you’ve cultivated must be the legendary Supreme Innate True Intent!”

“Supreme Innate True Intent?” Zhou Yi looked puzzled. After his answer, these three had all seemed to lose their souls, and then they spoke such bizarre words. None of it made sense to him.

During this time, Zhou Yi had thought of making a move, but ultimately held back—not out of any sense of chivalry, but simply because he wasn’t confident he’d succeed.

Although the others seemed distracted and absent-minded, Zhou Yi could sense that any wrong move would instantly snap them out of their daze. After all his years wandering the martial world, if he lacked this basic level of vigilance, his bones would long since have grown cold—he wouldn’t be standing here now.

Still, although he hadn’t acted, their expressions of shock and the white-haired elder’s words had stirred something in Zhou Yi. Linking their words and reactions together, he suddenly began to understand.

“It seems the innate true intent I condensed after breaking through is truly extraordinary!” Zhou Yi mused, pondering until he reached this conclusion. From their words, it seemed that his innate true intent was of a very high grade—perhaps this so-called Supreme Innate True Intent!

Supreme? Did that mean there were also High, Middle, and Low grades beneath it?

“If one follows the usual classifications, that’s likely the case,” Zhou Yi thought, gradually growing certain of his guess.

“I think I understand now why, despite your strength, the Island of Peerless Existence issued a kill order for you!” The woman in gauze had also regained her composure, looking at Zhou Yi with the same complicated gaze. Supreme Innate True Intent!

This was practically a ticket into the Pseudo-Core realm. Given enough time, stepping into Pseudo-Core would be almost a certainty!

How could he possibly end up like them—brilliant for half a lifetime, frustrated for the other half, with Pseudo-Core always out of reach?

“If not for the irresistible rewards offered by the Island of Peerless Existence, I wouldn’t even want to make things difficult for you, solely because you’ve achieved Supreme Innate True Intent!” The man in purple slowly drew a violet folding fan from his robes, gazing at Zhou Yi with a sigh.

The moment the fan appeared, the temperature around them soared instantly. In the blink of an eye, it felt as though they were standing at the mouth of a volcano; the searing air burned painfully as it was drawn into their lungs.

“These are desperate times,” the man in purple murmured, glancing down at the fan in his hand as he channeled all his inner strength into it, causing the air to grow even hotter.

“Under ordinary circumstances, with Supreme Innate True Intent, the entire martial world would treasure you as a peerless gem. But alas…” Pseudo-Core was simply too distant, so remote that the path ahead seemed invisible.

The allure of Pseudo-Core was irresistible—not just for incredible power or the chance to survive the demonic tribulation, but for something that drove all martial artists to madness: longevity!

Yes, in the martial world, no matter how strong, how profound one’s cultivation, even if you reached the state of Unity with Heaven and mastered peerless arts, at most you could live to two hundred years.

Unless one attained Pseudo-Core, life would never extend beyond two centuries!

But once that threshold was crossed, and Pseudo-Core was achieved, one’s lifespan would leap straight to a thousand years!

With Pseudo-Core, one could live a millennium—barring accidents, a full thousand years!

A thousand years—what did that mean?

The world would change beyond recognition, and who wouldn’t wish to live longer? The longer one existed in this world, the more reluctant one became to leave it, the more one wished for just a little more time, to linger in this life just a bit longer!

But sadly, unless you broke into Pseudo-Core, it was nothing but a dream.

“I don’t want your heads for their own sake, nor am I truly fixated on surviving the demonic tribulation. I only hope that by taking your heads, I may open a path for myself—I only wish to reach Pseudo-Core!” The man in purple gazed at his fan, speaking silently to himself. He had already reached the pinnacle of the martial world.

Ahead, the road was lost to sight; his only hope lay with the Island of Peerless Existence. He wished to present the heads of Zhou Yi and his companion, to gain entry to the island, and thereby seize a chance—just a sliver—to advance, to step into that long-dreamed-of realm!

Not only him—the woman in gauze, the white-haired elder—they all shared the same desire!