Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

He bent down and put away the three storage bags. When his divine sense swept over Liu Yuan's bag, his fingertips paused slightly—two spiritual herbs lay quietly inside, their stems and leaves shrouded in second-tier spiritual light, as if they had just sprouted from the soil.

It's unclear whether he gathered it himself or stole it from someone else. The woman who was with him earlier has disappeared.

He took stock of his contents in his storage bag—several magical artifacts shimmering with spiritual light were of excellent quality, and the spirit stones and pills were mixed but not disorderly. The storage bag, which had been empty because he had purchased pills from the Azure Sea Pavilion, was now full again.

The speed at which this wealth is accumulated is truly astonishing. No wonder some people choose to become cultivators who have undergone tribulations.

He carefully put away the array plate and array flags of the Spirit-Suppressing Array. First-tier top-grade arrays are always priceless on the market.

Although the giant shield with its tortoise-shell pattern was shattered, its material still radiated a warm, spiritual light, and he collected all the fragments. As for the robe, it had already turned to ashes in the final blow and could no longer be found.

I hadn't felt it during the fierce battle, but now, looking back, a faint sense of regret crossed my mind—two top-grade magical artifacts, one destroyed and the other damaged in an instant. But this thought, like ripples on water, quickly subsided.

"Perhaps Master Mingxuan has a way to repair this shield," he thought to himself, looking at the fragments. A second-tier array master should possess such abilities. He hoped so.

He tidied up the clutter and began to reflect on the entire battle.

He had no personal grudge against Liu Yuan. Everything started with that old matter involving Liu Yifeng, after which they went their separate ways. What truly pushed them to a dead end was the rigid structure of Qingfeng Market, where two equally powerful families could not coexist.

The market town is too small, and resources are too scarce. Unless one side is willing to venture deep into the Cloud Mist Mountains to explore, hunt demons, and seize those marked resource points.

But that would mean the loss of at least a generation—and right now, the Lin family elders are at a critical moment in their attempt to break through to the Foundation Establishment stage; to back down would be tantamount to severing their own life force.

Therefore, from the moment Liu Yuan identified the Lin family as a threat and revealed his murderous intent, there was only one path left for both sides.

There was no probing, no need for words; the attack was all-out.

"Profit is the eternal driving force in the cultivation world."

Lin Zhao closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them again. Her eyes held neither emotion nor pleasure, only a cold indifference born of a profound understanding of the world.

He carefully erased all traces of the scene, then transformed into a streak of green and sped towards the central area of ​​the secret realm.

The closer you get to the center, the more horrifying the scene becomes.

The earth was riddled with deep ravines, and the scorched earth still carried the lingering heat of years past. Huge and unfamiliar metallic or rocky remains lay half-buried underground, like the skeletons of some colossal creature.

A faint sense of oppression permeated the air, as if this place had once been an ancient battlefield where the heavens and earth had collapsed.

Upon entering the central area, countless array formations and restrictions intertwine and cover the area like a spider web—the complete array resembles an inverted giant glass bowl, shimmering with spiritual light;

Countless chaotic restrictions transformed into an energy barrier, emitting alarming fluctuations.

Most of the cultivators who had entered the secret realm had gathered here. Cultivators in various colored robes were either forming formations to launch a fierce attack, and the sounds of magical artifacts whistling and spiritual light bursting could be heard incessantly.

Second-tier spiritual herbs mostly grow on the nodes of spiritual veins where these formations converge, and there is competition for every weak point in the formation.

Further away, the hazy outline of a cluster of palaces could be seen faintly behind the barrier; that was the true core of the secret realm.

However, the road leading to the palace had long been sealed off by layers of ancient formations.

Once you get here, personal cultivation level becomes secondary. What's more important is understanding the weaknesses of each market's formations and having intelligence on safe routes. This is the key to whether you can penetrate deep into the core palace.

Lin Zhao only paused briefly at the edge of the crowd, and after several gazes fell on him, he quietly withdrew.

Following the information given by Master Mingxuan, he turned towards a remote and desolate place.

This place has few formations and almost no life force; only a dark stone forest stands like a tombstone on the vast plain.

Hundreds of dark stone pillars, varying in height, appear chaotic yet subtly form a strange and eerie pattern.

Above the stone forest, the light seemed to be distorted and absorbed, making it exceptionally dark.

As soon as Lin Zhao approached the outer perimeter, he felt an invisible force field pressing down like a tide.

The extended divine sense felt like touching needles and felt a fine, stinging pain; if it were to be forcibly extended further, there was an even greater terror of being torn apart and devoured.

"What a terrifying force field!" Lin Zhao's expression changed slightly. Master Mingxuan had said that even Foundation Establishment cultivators who dared to force their way in would die inside.

This place is utterly worthless and extremely dangerous, so there is no sign of any other cultivators.

"I can only pray that Master Mingxuan's intelligence this time will be reliable." Lin Zhao took a deep breath, recalling the incantation that Master Mingxuan had passed on to him.

He formed a hand seal, and the spiritual energy he released flowed along a unique path, slowly condensing into a soft white sphere of light in front of his chest.

The halo spread out, enveloping him within ten steps.

An astonishing change occurred—wherever the halo reached, the terrifying aura receded like a tide.

It was as if the ball of light had achieved some kind of wonderful balance with the force field, or rather, it had temporarily merged into the force field.

He tried to extend his divine sense beyond the range of the light sphere and immediately felt that intense stinging sensation again.

"It works!" Lin Zhao's spirits lifted, and his previous impression of Master Mingxuan as unreliable changed slightly.

"It seems this Foundation Establishment cultivator isn't always so unreliable. It's just that the map information in this outer area is indeed quite outdated."

Without further hesitation, he cautiously stepped into the black stone forest that had been silent for countless years, using only a small amount of magic power to maintain the white sphere of light.

The interior of the Stone Forest is even more eerie than the exterior.

Beneath my feet lay black dust that had accumulated for countless years, soft and silent underfoot.

The cold, black stone pillars stood like silent giants, staring at the uninvited guests.

Within a few hundred steps, he saw many traces of a fight—carvings on stone pillars, charred shallow pits on the ground, and several skeletons almost the same color as the black dust.

The skeletons were either sitting against pillars or crawling on the ground. The magical artifacts and storage bags beside them were long gone, indicating that someone had come many years ago and taken away valuable items.

There were still traces of a battle around them, and Lin Zhao carefully avoided them.

The presence of these corpses confirmed the danger here and made Lin Zhao even more vigilant.

His steps slowed, his gaze sweeping over every shadow, bypassing all suspicious remnants, like a green leaf, silently gliding into the depths of the stone forest.

Lin Zhao maintained his white sphere of light and cautiously advanced through the desolate black stone forest.

The closer one gets to the center of the stone forest, the stronger that invisible force field seems to become.

Even while protected by the white sphere of light, he could still feel the oppressive force emanating from the outside.