Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Even if all the pills and magical artifacts are taken, this set of formations and artifacts, which have been tested over three hundred years, is still a genuine treasure and is quite valuable.

Zhou Yuan took a deep breath and took out the cave dwelling token from his pocket. The token was about the size of a palm and felt slightly cool to the touch.

He infused his spiritual power into the token, which glowed faintly, and runes appeared on the stone wall, but quickly faded away.

He tried several times, but it didn't budge.

As expected, the token was useless.

To truly open the cave, one needs the ancient family's bloodline secret techniques; the token is merely a trigger, only locating the entrance.

Zhou Yuan was not discouraged. He put away the token and took out a jade pendant from his storage bag.

The jade pendant is about the size of a palm, milky white all over, with a faint shimmering light flowing inside.

This is his trump card for survival—a life-saving technique bestowed upon him by the Core Formation Ancestor, containing the power of the Ancestor's natal magic weapon, the "White Rainbow Pearl." When fully activated, it can unleash a Core Formation-level attack.

Although it can only be used once, it's worth a try now.

Zhou Yuan poured his spiritual power into the jade tablet, which suddenly glowed. A magical artifact aura was drawn out and condensed in mid-air into a fist-sized white pearl phantom.

The pearl hovered, slowly rotating, emitting a warm halo.

Wherever the halo passed, the fog was forced back, and the decaying leaves and insects on the surface of the swamp instantly turned to ashes.

"go."

Zhou Yuan gave a low shout, and the illusory image of the precious pearl slowly pressed down on the mountain wall.

Just as it touched a certain spot, the formation activated in response.

A pale white light curtain appeared out of thin air, covering the entire mountain wall. Dense runes flowed across the light curtain.

The instant the illusory pearl made contact with the light barrier, white and blue light intertwined, and the two forces collided in mid-air, producing a muffled roar.

The fluctuations of spiritual energy formed visible ripples that spread outwards in concentric circles, stirring up the mist within a radius of several miles and creating a huge vortex.

The wind howled, and stones flew everywhere.

Zhou Yuan could clearly sense that the aura of the illusory pearl was slowly dissipating before his very eyes.

The light barrier of the formation dimmed slightly, but was quickly replenished by the spiritual energy surging from below.

The stalemate lasted for fifteen minutes.

Cold sweat beaded on Zhou Yuan's forehead. He gritted his teeth to maintain his spiritual energy output, but he had already made up his mind—

Forcing its way through might be possible, but it would require fully unleashing the orb's power.

The power of this attack will be enough to blast open the formation, but the formation itself will inevitably be severely damaged. It's hard to say how much of the formation and magical artifacts inside will be left.

Moreover, this jade tablet was his only means of preserving his life through Core Formation, so it was quite valuable.

Trading it for a potentially damaged third-tier formation is too risky a gamble.

He could only shake his head and wave his hand to put away the jade tablet. The jade tablet had only drawn on a portion of the power, consuming less than one-tenth of the power, and its light had dimmed slightly.

It seems this is the only way for now.

Go back and ask the ancestor to come in person so that he can break through the formation head-on with his Core Formation cultivation. Perhaps then we'll have a chance to obtain the formation.

But how easy is it to invite a Core Formation True Person?

One message talisman isn't enough; he has to go back in person to explain the situation before he can possibly get it activated.

This round trip, plus the time the patriarch spent arranging his affairs, would take at least half a month.

Half a month later... Lin Zhao and Cui Jun also kept an eye on this place.

We can only hope that they won't act too quickly.

He took one last look at the stone mountain, then soared into the air, transforming into a beam of light and disappearing into the mist.

Half an hour later, another figure quietly landed at the foot of the mountain.

Cui Jun.

He had arrived long ago and had been hiding behind a nearby boulder using a secret technique, watching Zhou Yuan's actions from beginning to end.

His cultivation level was the highest among the three, and his concealment skills were also quite good; Zhou Yuan didn't notice him at all.

Cui Jun only appeared after Zhou Yuan left.

He circled the stone mountain several times, trying various methods to break the formation—spiritual energy impact, magical artifact probing, and even taking out the formation plate to try and find the formation's core—but without exception, all of them were blocked by the formation.

He stood at the foot of the mountain, looking at the unresponsive cave, and gritted his teeth.

No, time waits for no one.

He turned and left, waving his hand to summon a white jade cloud chariot. Five puppet white horses soared into the air, transforming into five streaks of white light and speeding away, heading straight for the Immortal City.

We need to find someone quickly. Zhou Yuan will also go back to find someone, so let's see who can do it faster.

The Cui family also has a Core Formation ancestor. As long as he goes back and reports first, this cave dwelling will belong to the Cui family.

As for Lin Zhao, he is not a local of Immortal City after all, and he cannot find manpower in a short period of time. Even if he knows that there is treasure in the cave, he probably can't do anything... Maybe he really went back to Immortal City?

Another half hour passed, the mist rippled slightly, and another figure appeared.

It was Lin Zhao.

He had been there the whole time, watching the two fight, but he didn't let out a single trace of his presence.

Although his cultivation level was not the highest, his spiritual sense was the most powerful.

Using the Spiritual Sense Technique to suppress his aura to the lowest level, combined with his divine sense comparable to the peak of Foundation Establishment, neither Zhou Yuan nor Cui Jun detected him.

He watched the direction the two had left, his gaze indifferent.

The three were from the same school and had a decent relationship, but that was all.

If I encounter an opportunity, I won't stab you in the back, but I'll never give it up easily either.

It's only right that everyone relies on their own abilities.

If Fang Yue and Xu Chuan were here, they might directly discuss the distribution plan, determining ownership based on merit.

But not everyone can have that kind of friendship that lasted for ten years.

Lin Zhao snapped out of his thoughts, stood up, and looked at the rocky mountain in front of him.

Neither Cui Jun nor the Zhou family member were able to open their Foundation Establishment stages, not because they couldn't, but because they were unwilling to expend their Core Formation techniques.

That thing is one less you can use each time; it's for saving your life in critical moments.

If we use it to break the formation, what if it's empty inside? We'll have nowhere to cry then.

But Lin Zhao was different.

He doesn't need to use any trump cards to save his life.

Lin Zhao took a deep breath and stopped suppressing his breathing.

The domain of law suddenly unfolded.

An invisible force emanated from his body—the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind intertwined, and the phantom images of five mountains appeared and disappeared.

The fog that stretched for miles was instantly dispersed, forming a huge void, and the moonlight shone straight down on him.

The force field of the Five Sacred Mountains' domain pressed down on the cave, engaging in a silent standoff with the formation.

The air began to distort.

The dispelled mist surged violently at the edge of the domain, as if it had crashed into an invisible wall.

The ground trembled slightly, the pebbles bounced, and fine ripples spread across the surface of the swamp.

The spiritual energy fluctuations formed a vortex again, even more violently than before, with a low hum coming from the center of the vortex, like the panting of a giant beast.

Lin Zhao closed her eyes.

The domain of magic seeped into the formation like mercury spilling onto the ground, sensing the spiritual energy channels and energy nodes inch by inch.

At first, the formation felt completely seamless to him, and he couldn't find any flaws.

But he was in no hurry. His domain continued to penetrate, his mind sank into his sea of ​​consciousness, and at the same time, he summoned Lin Zhao of the Heavens from the depths of his sea of ​​consciousness to descend upon the Divine Soul Sword Tower.

At the top of the tower, a golden light shone.

The golden light spread rapidly, like a golden sun descending, dispelling all distracting thoughts.

The sword intent drives the sword tower, stabilizing the ego—and then, borrowing that transcendent power.

The state of heaven.

He opened his eyes.

A fleeting glint of indifference flashed deep within his pupils; humanity faded, leaving only pure rationality.

At that moment, the world changed in his eyes.

The formation transformed into countless flowing lines and fluctuating energy points.

The formation was no longer an impenetrable whole; everything became clearly visible.

The terrifying deductive abilities granted by his innate divine powers were now operating at full capacity.