The black carp struggled and leapt high, then flipped and fell to the ground, revealing its other side. Its scales were covered in white frost, as if it had just been taken out of a freezer.

"This..." Eric Dawson gasped, feeling that things were a bit surreal. How could there be something that's half braised and half cold—no, half scorched by fire and half frozen by ice?

Just as he was about to turn and run, the black carp stopped struggling. The area where char and frost coexisted quickly cracked along the grain, revealing the scene inside its belly.

It was as if a bright moon was hidden there, pure and cold, radiating a gentle glow, casting a dreamlike and mysterious light all around.

Eric Dawson instinctively halted his steps and looked over, only to see a spherical object inside the fish's belly, seemingly formed by intertwining bits of ice crystals. Looking closer, it resembled a reflection of the universe, a swirling, vast nebula. Each ice crystal was like a planet, orbiting around faint purple "flames," where ice and fire achieved the most harmonious unity.

After staring for a moment, Eric Dawson furrowed his brow and muttered to himself:

"Why does it look like a golden core from a xianxia novel?"

The dreamy, spherical nebula stood quietly, stirring up anticipation and greed in Eric Dawson's heart. But after thinking it over, he still took out his phone, opened the web app, entered the search page, and began searching for entries related to golden core and inner core.

Don't touch things that belong to strangers!

Don't touch things of unknown origin either!

He wasn't too worried before searching, but after searching, he was startled. Eric Dawson saw that an authoritative martial arts website mentioned in passing:

"In ancient times, martial artists once split into factions. Some sought to break through the limits of life and attain the immortality of myth and legend, so they retreated into the mountains, transformed martial arts, and called themselves cultivators of immortality. After a thousand or two thousand years, through clues from befriending their families and finding cave relics, we discovered that although they achieved great success in cultivating inner cores, their lineage was still completely severed. As for immortality, human effort has its limits..."

"Human effort has its limits..." Eric Dawson murmured, feeling a strange sense of emotion.

So it really is an "inner core," perhaps left behind by the last cultivator, which the black carp accidentally swallowed in a cave but couldn't withstand.

Could this be his own stroke of luck?

Or could it be hiding danger, making him end up like the black carp?

In a person's life, there may only be one or two chances to change their fate. If missed, they never come again. Is this his opportunity, or a destined calamity?

After much deliberation, Eric Dawson took a deep breath, took off his jacket, wrapped his right hand, and quickly approached, planning to pick it up carefully.

Don't take opportunities lightly, but always tread as if on thin ice, staying alert for any change!

Chapter 005: In a Single Thought

The evening breeze was slightly cool, late autumn growing colder, but Eric Dawson, having taken off his jacket, didn't shiver at all. Instead, he felt a strange heat, like facing a string of problems beyond his ability during the college entrance exam.

He approached the crystalline, dreamlike "golden core." He held his breath, bent down cautiously, and carefully extended his right hand wrapped in the thin jacket. The sensation was solid, giving a sense of weight, yet the cold and heat visible to the naked eye seemed to be mere illusions, not present in reality.

Eric Dawson applied a little force, and the "golden core" rose with it, light as a feather, completely different from the sensation in his hand.

This contradictory feeling made Eric Dawson pause in surprise. Focusing his gaze, he saw it lying quietly in his jacket-wrapped palm, gently spinning at the center, stirring bits of ice crystal and flame, showing none of the previous violence and terror that had burned and frozen the black carp.

"What a truly magical thing..." Eric Dawson couldn't help but think, searching for a reason for its change in his heart. "Maybe the lingering resentment inside the 'golden core' was all drawn out and consumed by the black carp..."

With the danger temporarily resolved, Eric Dawson began to consider what to do next. The thing before him couldn't be confirmed as a "golden core" based on a few words alone. Even if it could, he had no idea what it actually did. Should he hand it over to the state for a small, risk-free reward, or hide it, research it slowly, and try to seize the greatest benefit, changing his ordinary fate—though that might carry great risk, or perhaps yield nothing at all in his lifetime?

If he wanted to take and hide it, where should he put it? How should he keep it safe?

Thoughts swirled and clashed fiercely, but the one bit of clarity Eric Dawson had told him that, no matter what he decided, this was not a place to linger. He had to leave quickly to avoid any further accidents or changes.

Suddenly, he felt the "golden core" in his palm slowly expanding and contracting, like a human's breathing, and the frequency seemed to be constantly adjusting.

Adjusting?

Eric Dawson froze, his mind blank, only able to feel his own breathing. And the rhythm of his breath unexpectedly matched the expansion and contraction of the "golden core"—they resonated!

Resonance?

The thought had just formed in his mind when he saw the "golden core" suddenly become even more ethereal, then transform into a stream of light and burrow into his palm, passing through the thin jacket without the slightest resistance!

How is that possible?

"This, this!" Eric Dawson was startled, a surge of fear welling up inside him, his mind filled with the tragic image of the black carp.