Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Tongming Immortal City.

The city was built along a large river.

The city walls were not ordinary bricks and stones, but a special material with a dark golden metallic luster. Each brick was densely covered with array formations and restrictions.

Even a full-force attack from an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator might not leave a mark on this city wall.

Even more breathtaking are the thirty-six silver-white giant towers surrounding the immortal city.

Each one is over a hundred feet tall, with a slender and straight body, like thirty-six sharp swords piercing the sky.

At the top of the tower, a complex psionic device slowly rotates. With each rotation, a visible ripple spreads through the void, eventually forming an invisible giant net that covers the entire immortal city and the surrounding thousands of miles.

The immortal city also has an anti-flight formation.

The outside world stretches out as far as the eye can see, a vast, fertile plain crisscrossed by a network of rivers. Scattered throughout are villages and towns, densely populated with people.

Within the Tongming Domain, there are nearly twenty dynasties of mortals, the largest of which is known as the "Chengtian Dynasty," which is said to have been established for three thousand years and is supported by the national treasure bestowed upon it by the Immortal City.

The number of cultivators residing in the Immortal City exceeds one million.

This immortal city is equivalent to more than a dozen sects.

Beneath the Immortal City, numerous sects stand within the Tongming Domain, with twenty-six of them boasting Core Formation True Persons in charge.

Among them, the "Xutian Pavilion" is the most powerful and is known as the top sect.

Standing at the pinnacle, ruling over the entire Tongming Domain, are two Nascent Soul cultivators.

The lineage of "Tongming Zhenjun," the lord of the Immortal City, and "Taixu Zhenjun" of the Void Heaven Pavilion.

On the surface, the city and the pavilion appeared to be at peace, but underneath, all sorts of things were constantly happening.

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Lin Zhao has been in the Immortal City for half a year.

The previous times I passed by, it was all to use the teleportation array to return to the sect, so I came and went in a hurry and didn't take a closer look.

It was only after settling in that I discovered that the true core of the Immortal City was in the inner city—that small area built on the river, supported by tens of thousands of stone pillars, with the entire district suspended above the waves.

The river water rushes past below, and its spiritual energy is several times more concentrated than that of the outer city.

The inner city is specifically for Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators to live and cultivate.

Lin Zhao was also assigned a small courtyard. It wasn't big, but it was quiet. Opening the window revealed the surging river. At night, you could see phosphorescence floating on the water's surface, which was the result of schools of spirit fish swimming by.

Seven arched bridges, each several hundred feet long, connect the inner and outer cities.

The bridge itself is a powerful Tier 3 magic weapon.

Having just obtained the Spirit-Nourishing Lotus Plate, Lin Zhao became much more sensitive to the aura of third-tier magic treasures.

The first time I stepped onto the bridge, I sensed something was wrong—the bridge was inlaid with extremely complex restrictions, which echoed the thirty-six silver towers outside the city, forming a complete immortal city formation system.

If anyone uses spiritual power beyond the limit within the city, the Seven Bridges and Thirty-Six Towers will instantly lock down that space.

Especially when it comes to the Dharma Domain, the moment a Core Formation cultivator unleashes their Dharma Domain, the suppressive power of the array will be like a mountain pressing down, forcibly crushing the Dharma Domain completely.

With a Nascent Soul True Monarch from the Immortal City in charge, and this formation in place, no matter how many Core Formation cultivators come, they will have to kneel down.

Lin Zhao had heard people whisper that over a hundred years ago, a late-stage Core Formation cultivator from elsewhere, defying superstition, attacked the Immortal City on the spot, only to be simultaneously suppressed by the seven bridges.

He knelt down on the spot and shattered the bluestone slab. Later, he was imprisoned by the True Lord Tongming for ten years. When he was released, his cultivation was completely destroyed, and he passed away not long after.

Core Formation cultivators are generally not willing to stay in the Immortal City for long, firstly because there are Nascent Soul True Monarchs there, and secondly because there are arrays suppressing them—who wants to have two swords hanging over their head at all times?

There are hundreds of Core Formation cultivators in the Tongming Domain, while there are only thirty or so in the Immortal City, most of whom belong to the lineage of True Monarch Tongming.

But the Foundation Establishment cultivators were quite comfortable there.

Several thousand Foundation Establishment cultivators, plus a million Qi Refining cultivators, transformed the Immortal City into a giant marketplace.

In the past six months, Lin Zhao has traveled to all forty-eight districts of the Immortal City. He has seen Qi Refining stage cultivators selling second-tier talismans at stalls, and he has seen Foundation Establishment stage cultivators arguing in the street over a three-hundred-year-old spiritual herb.

I've also seen mortal merchants come to the Immortal City to make purchases—theoretically, you can buy anything here as long as you have the spirit stones.

The work of the Sky Surveyor is indeed relatively leisurely.

The immortal city's anti-flight formation operates around the clock, meaning that even Foundation Establishment cultivators are not many who can fly.

The Core Formation forces under the command of True Monarch Tongming, core members of various sects, and the Sky Patrol Guards.

As a Sky Patrol Guard, Lin Zhao naturally possessed a flight token.

Occasionally, it would fly low overhead, and the Qi Refining cultivators below would look up at it with a mixture of envy and indifference in their eyes.

He usually wanders around the area he is responsible for, mediating conflicts between Foundation Establishment cultivators.

The Immortal City is divided into forty-eight districts, with ten Sky Patrol Guards in each district, each with a captain.

The captain of Lin Zhao's team was Cui Jun, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. He wore a magnificent robe and three high-quality jade pendants and magical artifacts. He walked with a swagger, clearly a young master from a wealthy family.

He really is.

Cui Jun is not only a disciple of the Yunhai Cangming Sect, but also a direct descendant of the Cui family of Immortal City—the Cui family has a Core Formation Ancestor in charge.

He was able to become the team leader because of two things: his status as a disciple of a sect and his family background in the Immortal City where he had formed a Core Formation stage.

Lin Zhao has gotten along well with him over the past six months.

At this moment, Lin Zhao was sitting in a teahouse by the river in the outer city, by the window, with a pot of second-grade spiritual tea called "Azure Cloud Mist" in front of him. The tea was emerald green, and when the steam rose, it turned into tiny cloud patterns that swirled for a moment before dissipating.

He held his teacup, staring blankly at the river outside the window, his mind racing with the gains of the past six months.

The immortal city is indeed prosperous, but obtaining resources is not so easy.

Previously in the sect, I would easily obtain third-tier spiritual items—from the Zhenhai Cliff quest, my master's rewards, and Cloud Tower contribution points.

Upon arriving in Tongming Immortal City, I realized that the discrepancy was too great.

Even though this is the most prosperous place in the Tongming Domain, third-tier spiritual items are still rare commodities, and each one is tightly controlled by the Core Formation forces.

All the resources available for second-tier foundation building were completely divided up.

The Immortal City has hundreds of forces, large and small, openly displaying various goods, but secretly all of these goods are bound by various agreements.

First-tier materials for refining are easy to obtain, but second-tier materials are more difficult.

Individual cultivators who want to buy Foundation Establishment Pills either have to spend several times more spirit stones or join one of the major factions.

Even if you buy something, you might not be able to take it with you if you don't have a powerful background—they'll take care of things within a thousand miles of the Immortal City, but it's hard to say what will happen beyond that.

Lin Zhao is not a rogue cultivator, but his status as a member of a sect in the Immortal City is not necessarily effective. Even in the Immortal City where a Nascent Soul True Monarch resides, sects need to show him a certain degree of respect and cannot easily interfere.

He hasn't found an opportunity to acquire a large amount of cultivation resources yet.

Just as he was thinking this, the Sky Patrol Guard talisman at his waist suddenly vibrated three times.

Lin Zhao probed with her spiritual power, and Cui Jun's voice rang out: "Gather at the usual place, someone's causing trouble."

He put down his teacup, paid the bill, and left.

The teahouse owner was an old man at the seventh level of Qi Refining. Seeing Lin Zhao about to leave, he smiled and bowed, saying, "Please take care, sir."

Lin Zhao nodded, went out the door, slapped the token on his waist, and his figure soared into the air, skimming low over the inner city buildings—the Sky Patrol Guard's flying token was effective, but the altitude could not exceed 100 zhang, otherwise the formation would still suppress it.

In the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, Lin Zhao landed at the exit of a large inner city bridge.