For cultivators, what could truly be called the most powerful attack? Was it an overwhelming barrage of spells, the unrivaled might of enchanted treasures, or an unavoidable divine soul attack?

Truth be told, it was none of these. The most terrifying attack was one that even the cultivator could no longer control, one capable of reducing dozens of li to ruins and sending shockwaves across regions hundreds of li away.

Self-detonation!

That was especially true for Adepts. Once they deliberately shattered their Golden Core, the resulting explosion was outright cataclysmic. Even higher-tier cultivators would avoid such an explosion at all costs. 

A Golden Core was the culmination of countless days and nights spent refining mana and tempering cultivation. Once all of that accumulated power was released at once, the resulting destruction became almost impossible to withstand. Unless they had been driven into absolute despair with no hope of escape, no Adept would willingly choose such an end. 

In fact, many never even considered detonating their Golden Core, even when pushed to the brink of death. Once it exploded, death was all but certain. There was no possibility of survival, and the instinct to avoid such a fate was so deeply ingrained that few cultivators could ever bring themselves to make that choice.

Over the years, Luo Chen had only known of two such cases. The first took place during the Frontier War launched by the Falling Cloud Sect in the Eastern Wilderness, when the Supreme Elder of the Myriad Phenomena Sect detonated his Golden Core while surrounded by Demon Kings to buy time for his disciples to escape. The second happened after Luo Chen arrived in the Northern Sea. At...