Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

He first took three kinds of pills to enhance his energy and spirit.

The Golden Elixir melted instantly upon entering the abdomen, its scalding medicinal power sweeping through the limbs and bones, while the dormant spiritual energy surged and roared wildly in the meridians.

The Hundred Meridians Condensing Essence Pill followed closely behind, its medicinal power penetrating the muscles, bones, and flesh, covering the meridians with a warm and protective film, firmly stabilizing the surging spiritual power.

The last Spirit-Strengthening Pill went straight into his sea of ​​consciousness, cleansing his soul. His divine sense instantly became clear and transparent, and his perception became much sharper.

The magical power within Lin Zhao's dantian surged and boiled, and his aura rose steadily, instantly surpassing the limit of the peak of the Foundation Establishment stage.

He no longer suppressed his cultivation and frantically absorbed the thick, milky-white spiritual mist in the cave. At the same time, he separated five divine senses, drawing upon the five elements of spiritual objects, each extracting a wisp of their original essence, and merging it with his own essence, energy, and spirit.

Within the dantian and dantian, a vast amount of spiritual energy gathered into a boundless ocean, with the Azure Lotus Dao Foundation quietly suspended in the center. Its entire body was like a piece of carved jade, with lotus platform patterns appearing and disappearing, and the five elements of light flowing endlessly.

Above the Dao Foundation, the Ruins Furnace slowly rotated, its opening radiating brilliant spiritual light. The incoming spiritual energy was all tempered, compressed, and purified, leaving only the purest essence.

Using the furnace as its core, Lin Zhao fused the essence of the five elements with his spirit and began to condense the nascent elixir.

In just three days, a pure white nascent core appeared above the Azure Lotus Dao Foundation, like a piece of glass or jade, and began to take the form of a low-grade golden core.

But for him, this was just the beginning.

He did not stop, using his spiritual power to repeatedly wash and polish, smoothing out the edges and filling in the flaws, working tirelessly day and night.

A month later, the nascent core solidified and transformed into a brilliant gold, reaching the rank of mid-grade Golden Core, with minimal energy consumption throughout the process.

Three months later, the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel in the Sea of ​​Consciousness slowly turned, and the runes around his body lit up one by one, controlling a massive amount of spiritual power and refining the nascent core again and again.

Once the elixir is perfectly round and flawless, radiating a golden halo, it has reached the state of a superior golden elixir, with only 10% of its spiritual energy and spiritual resources consumed.

The blessing of the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel enabled him to control his own spiritual power with unbelievable precision.

Every wisp of spiritual energy, every degree of compression, and every level of tempering was under his control, with not a single ounce wasted.

The world outside has already sensed this.

Above Tianxing Peak, dark clouds quietly gathered, and lightning flashed within them, disappearing in an instant. The Heavenly Tribulation of Core Formation was quietly brewing.

Lin Zhao had sealed his aura so tightly that not a trace leaked out, and the will of heaven and earth could not lock him in. The dark clouds could only linger in vain in the sky and could not fall for a long time.

Lin Zhao was not in a hurry to form his core.

The Five Elements Return to the Void True Technique contains a special secret technique used to assist in the formation of the Golden Core: the Five Elements Forging Yuan Technique.

During the condensation of the nascent core, the five elements are activated to simultaneously forge the physical body and the golden core in an extremely painful manner, making them more stable and increasing the success rate of core formation and the quality of the golden core.

But with Lin Zhao's background and strength, he naturally has a better way.

He had already used the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel to deduce another, more suitable secret technique.

The Five Elements Gathering Technique produces a golden elixir called the Five Elements Gathering Golden Elixir.

He activated the secret technique and focused intently on refining it once more. This seclusion lasted another nine months, bringing the total time spent in seclusion to a full year.

This nascent elixir has finally reached its true ultimate perfection.

His golden core was perfectly formed and flawless, with five-colored halos flowing endlessly around his body. Each halo was completely synchronized with his breathing, heartbeat, and spiritual fluctuations, forming a seamless whole.

This golden elixir has surpassed the scope of a superior-grade golden elixir.

If we're being honest, it's a masterpiece, something Lin Zhao tailored for herself that no one else could possibly replicate.

No wonder the cultivation world generally only speaks of high-grade golden cores—because a top-grade golden core is unique to one person, perfectly matching their own innate talent, and there is no possibility of replicating it.

At this time, less than 30% of the five elemental spirits had been consumed.

The strange phenomena from the outside world could no longer be suppressed.

The strange phenomenon that had persisted for a whole year without finding its target finally detected Lin Zhao's presence.

Dark clouds began to gather above Tianxing Peak.

The calamity clouds suddenly gathered and spread outwards with the force of thunder. The clouds swirled and pressed down, instantly covering an area of ​​dozens of miles, and were still expanding.

Deep within the clouds, lightning danced wildly, and muffled thunder rumbled. Each flash of lightning illuminated the entire mountain peak in a ghastly white light, and the deep rumble of thunder sounded like the growl of a giant beast, its oppressive force overwhelming the heavens and the earth.

In a short while, the range of the tribulation clouds expanded to a hundred miles, far exceeding that of an ordinary Core Formation Heavenly Tribulation.

The lightning in the clouds also lost its silvery white color, transforming into a strange divine thunder that intertwined crimson gold and dark purple. As the lightning collided, circular electric arcs exploded, and the evaporated clouds reassembled, displaying a terrifying divine power.

Beneath the calamity clouds, hundreds of miles outside Tianxing Peak, dozens of figures flew out from several spiritual peaks. They were people from the nearby Zhenchuan Peak who, sensing the change in the heavenly power, came out to investigate.

Qingyuan Zhenjun had somehow appeared in mid-air, gazing at the sky filled with tribulation clouds, then looking towards the mountain peak, and uttered only three words: "Stay away."

No one dared to delay, and they immediately retreated hundreds of miles away to observe from a distance.

The protective array of Tianxing Peak has long been closed—the Heavenly Tribulation is a test of cultivators by the Heavenly Dao, and the more external forces one relies on, the stronger the Heavenly Tribulation becomes.

Lin Zhao began the final step of forming his core.

He took a deep breath, and the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel in his sea of ​​consciousness spun rapidly. The rich spiritual energy within the cave, the essence of all the five elements spiritual objects, the medicinal power of all the pills, and the spiritual power of hundreds of high-grade spirit stones all surged in at the same time and were absorbed into his dantian.

The Ruins Furnace was the first to merge into his dantian, followed closely by the Azure Lotus Dao Foundation. Both were originally part of his Dao Foundation Origin. Now that their mission was complete, they transformed into the purest Origin Power and merged entirely into his illusory core.

The illusory core suddenly contracted under the infusion of massive power, completely transforming from illusory to real.

The transformation from the nascent elixir to the golden elixir proceeded without any hindrance, a testament to his years of accumulated experience and formidable foundation.

The process of forming the core itself was not difficult for him.

In less than half an hour, the golden elixir was completely formed.

Immediately afterwards, the essence of life rapidly sublimated, and Lin Zhao's divine sense expanded wildly, directly leaping from the early stage of Core Formation to the peak of the middle stage of Core Formation. The range of his divine sense reached fifty miles, and his magical power increased exponentially.

Within the dantian, the top-grade golden core slowly rotated, its five-colored light flowing around it. With each rotation, a halo of light spread outwards. The magical power contained within it, roughly calculated, was ten times that of a Core Formation cultivator of the same level.

He did not get up, but remained sitting cross-legged, completely merging the golden core energy with his soul and body to stabilize his realm.

Three days later, all preparations were completed, and Lin Zhao was now a true Core Formation cultivator.

-----

For three days, the hundred-mile-long tribulation cloud continuously devoured the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, growing increasingly dense and heavy. At the core of the cloud layer, the lightning was as thick as liquid, transforming into a terrifying pool of lightning suspended in the sky.

The world was plunged into darkness as if an eternal night had fallen, with only the lightning within the tribulation clouds flashing incessantly, illuminating the surrounding area for hundreds of miles.

The heavenly tribulation had accumulated to its peak.

"They're here."

"Qingyuan Zhenjun said calmly."