Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

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A seemingly ordinary sword aura, yet it caused Lin Zhao's own consciousness to sting.

It burst forth from his fingertips, silently penetrating the protective shield of the quiet room, leaving an extremely tiny, yet bottomless, hole in the wall.

Lin Zhao withdrew her finger and carefully sensed it.

This sword energy is not merely a combination of spiritual power and sharpness. It contains a faint trace of "will," giving it a certain degree of destructive power even against divine sense.

Moreover, with the blessing of "sword intent", the penetrating power and destructiveness of this sword energy have increased by nearly 50% compared to before!

"This is just the beginning..." Lin Zhao suppressed the turmoil in his heart, but his eyes shone with an astonishing light.

As his mastery of sword intent becomes more refined, and as his will is honed and strengthened with his cultivation and experience, the combat power he can unleash with the same magical power will be incomparable to what it was before.

This is the real gain he made from this major test.

Before reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, he opened the Gate of Sword Intent.

Deep within his sea of ​​consciousness, the indifferent phantom of "Lin Zhao of Heaven" suddenly opened his eyes. Spiritual light flowed around him, causing the entire sea of ​​divine consciousness to tremble.

At the same time, the newly born sword intent, like a tenacious flame, danced in the sea of ​​mist; it was the will, determination, and sharpness of "humanity."

One is like the heavens, indifferent and ruthless.

One is like a person, preferring to break rather than bend.

In this silent standoff, Lin Zhao finally realized that the vast yet dangerous "Lin Zhao of Heaven" must be controlled with the unwavering "Sword Intent of Man".

This marks the beginning of him taking control of his innate supernatural powers through his own will.

The initial emergence of sword intent brought changes beyond just increased strength. Lin Zhao could feel that the transformation of his essence, energy, and spirit became exceptionally smooth, with the sword intent subtly connecting the three.

The path to Foundation Establishment was already within his grasp.

However, to obtain a high-grade Dao Foundation, one still needs enough points to exchange for Foundation Establishment Pills and spiritual items.

He went into seclusion and unknowingly spent two months there.

The identity token contained a multitude of messages, most of which were from Xu Chuan, clearly indicating that something was amiss.

Lin Zhao didn't rush to reply. He rested for two days and, after comprehending the sword intent, felt much more relaxed.

Xu Chuan also arrived in a flurry of activity.

"You've finally come out!" Xu Chuan exclaimed excitedly. "The sect has opened a new building—the Cloud Tower!"

According to Xu Chuan, this cloud tower is located within the Cloud Sea Immortal City and is a trial ground constructed by the sect using special methods.

The tower can conjure up phantom images of disciples who actually existed in the sect's history as opponents for players to challenge.

There are ten floors in total. You get a points reward for each floor you clear, and it's a huge amount of points!

"First floor, one thousand! Second floor, three thousand! Third floor, ten thousand! Fourth floor... fifty thousand!"

Ten floors means you have ten chances to earn points.

Xu Chuan gestured with his ring finger, his eyes gleaming. "This is clearly a benefit for us who are preparing to establish our foundation!"

Upon hearing this, Lin Zhao's previously calm heart immediately jumped.

He's really short on points! He currently has a little over four thousand, not to mention the unattainable fifty thousand points for the fourth level.

As long as he can pass the third level and get 10,000 points, it will be enough for him to get the Foundation Establishment Pill and the Foundation Establishment Spiritual Item at the same time, and he can establish his foundation immediately!

"Quick, take me to see! What are the specific rules?" Lin Zhao immediately stood up.

Xu Chuan chuckled: "Oh, who just said they weren't in a hurry? You changed your tune so quickly!"

The two laughed and joked as they teleported back to Cloud Sea Immortal City via the Azure Jade Tree.

At the edge of the Immortal City Square, a magnificent building had indeed appeared. The Cloud Tower soared into the clouds, its body shimmering with faint silver runes.

Outside the tower, a huge light screen floats, displaying the leaderboard for those who have completed the challenges.

Lin Zhao glanced at it, a slight chill running down his spine.

The list on the third level is densely packed, with over a hundred people—the vast majority of whom are already established foundations.

However, upon passing through the fourth layer of the list, there was only one name: Qin Tianjun.

"Starting from the fourth level, it's the Foundation Establishment stage, which is extremely rare."

Xu Chuan explained from the side, "Each challenge has a 15-minute time limit. You must completely defeat your opponent to pass. If you exceed the time limit or are defeated, you will be teleported out."

Lin Zhao nodded. It seemed that the Cloud Tower was quite difficult.

In three months, out of hundreds of Foundation Establishment cultivators, only Qin Tianjun managed to pass the fourth level.

However, this only fueled his fighting spirit—his sword intent was just beginning to take shape and needed real combat experience to hone it! This cloud tower had come at just the right time.

Without further hesitation, he applied to enter the Cloud Tower using his disciple token.

The moment you step inside the tower, the space transforms abruptly. From the outside, the cloud tower appears to be only a hundred feet tall, but the interior space is far larger than you could have imagined!

Before me stretched an endless expanse of verdant grassland, the scent of earth and grass filling the air. Above me lay a clear, azure sky.

"What a realistic illusion..." Lin Zhao squatted down and casually plucked a small, pale purple flower.

But the moment his fingertips left, the flower transformed into a wisp of cloud. The Cloud Tower's methods were truly miraculous.

It should be noted that Lin Zhao was not the only one inside the Cloud Tower; there were at least a hundred people inside attempting to pass the test.

Clearly, the Cloud Tower uses spatial expansion magic, enabling it to accommodate the challenges of a large number of disciples simultaneously.

"First floor, begin." A cold voice rang out in his mind.

A hundred feet ahead, clouds gathered and condensed into a human figure.

The newcomer's face was blurry, but his figure, clothing, magical artifacts, and the spiritual energy fluctuations emanating from the seventh level of the Refining Qi were all incredibly real.

The battle began. His opponent on the first level possessed considerable swordsmanship and a solid foundation, but compared to Lin Zhao's current cultivation level of the twelfth level of Qi Refining, he was no match. He shattered his opponent's body with a single sword strike.

"Passed. Points +1000." The voice sounded again, and Lin Zhao was teleported to another scene.

The second opponent was at the tenth level of Qi Refining. This time, the opponent was significantly stronger, with skillful coordination between spells and sword techniques, balanced offense and defense, and higher quality spiritual energy. Lin Zhao became slightly more serious, enhancing his sword qi attacks with sword intent, and steadily defeated the opponent.

But after winning, Lin Zhao frowned slightly. "This strength... is quite impressive."

He secretly assessed that if he were the same person before joining the sect, the outcome against this second-level opponent would probably be only fifty-fifty.

"Could it be that the images conjured by this cloud tower are all illusory figures of the sect's most outstanding disciples from its history?"

A hypothesis emerged: "The sect has existed for 70,000 years, with one major event every ten years, and a single session with 10,000 participants..."

That adds up to seventy million disciples! How many exceptionally talented individuals will emerge from among them?

Their combat data...were they all recorded by this cloud tower?

The thought made Lin Zhao's lips twitch involuntarily. It was terrifying.

No time to think it through, the third level of challenge begins.

This figure's cultivation had reached the twelfth level of Qi Refining! Moreover, he was a sword cultivator, and a faint golden luster flowed around him, clearly indicating that he possessed some kind of spiritual body!

As soon as the battle began, Lin Zhao felt immense pressure, but his opponent seemed to have an incredibly rich combat experience, unleashing countless sword energies with each swing of his longsword.