Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

The entire battlefield was ravaged, with terrifying traces left by supernatural powers and magical treasures everywhere.

As the hour drew to a close, Lin Zhao finished working on the magic weapon and its supernatural power, and prepared to wrap things up.

He activated his spiritual body and summoned a third-tier beast-patterned spirit boat.

The spirit boat soared into the air, expanding to a hundred feet in length, its body covered in flashing beast patterns, its bow locked firmly onto the projection of the middle-aged cultivator trapped within the domain.

The spiritual light at the bow of the ship quickly condensed, forming a roaring bullet ten feet in size. Its color eventually changed from silver-gray to blazing white, and a terrifying aura continued to rise.

The next moment, the Roaring Bullet was launched with a roar!

Trailing a long, fiery tail, it struck its target with a deafening roar. The ten-foot-long roaring bullet exploded, its violent energy sweeping in all directions, tearing apart the opponent's defenses and causing its figure to shake violently.

The second and third shots followed in quick succession!

Under the barrage of three consecutive Roaring Bullets, the projection of the middle-aged cultivator could no longer hold on, and his body completely shattered, turning into a sky full of spiritual light and dissipating into the cloud tower space.

As it dissipated, the five spirit incarnations also began to dim, transforming into five beams of light that flew back into Lin Zhao's body.

The sword energy of the Flying Swallow Sword Seal was exhausted and returned to the avatar's hand. The Azure Jade Ring shrank into a halo of light and flew back. The Thick Earth Shield shrank and landed back in his palm.

The silver shuttle spirit boat retracted its beast patterns, shrinking to the size of a palm. The Spirit Origin Palace descended from the sky, spinning and shrinking.

Lin Zhao stood still and exhaled a breath of stale air.

His golden core rotated at a speed far exceeding normal levels, directly depleting more than half of his magical power.

Only someone with spiritual power ten times greater than other cultivators of the same level would dare to squander his magical power so recklessly, using various supernatural abilities and magical treasures.

If it were an ordinary Core Formation cultivator, using supernatural powers and magical treasures in this way, bombarding them relentlessly, their spiritual energy would be exhausted and their magical power depleted within a quarter of an hour.

The surrounding land was ravaged and there was not an inch of intact land for dozens of miles.

However, the Cloud Tower space is part of the Dharma Realm, and it will soon return to its original state.

Lin Zhao suppressed all his thoughts, concealed his aura, and requested to be teleported.

With a flicker of light and shadow beneath his feet, his figure instantly detached from the seventh floor of the Cloud Tower. When he opened his eyes again, he was already standing in front of the cave entrance on Tianxing Peak.

Lin Zhao returned to his cultivation cave and sat cross-legged on the jade platform.

He wasn't in a hurry to continue the challenge.

The seventh floor is basically just for warming up.

The eighth floor is the toughest challenge. Based on previous experience, the opponents there are comparable to those at the peak of the Core Formation stage.

Even he has to give it his all.

He rested properly for three days.

Three days later, Lin Zhao entered the eighth level of the Heavenly Gate once again.

As soon as he entered the arena, he went all out!

As the Heavenly Heart Wheel turned, the Five Prisons Suppressing Heavenly Dragon instantly appeared in the world, its body bursting with five-colored spiritual light, and its hundred-zhang-long dragon body took shape directly.

The Golden Core, the Dharma Domain, and the Five Sacred Mountains Spiritual Body are combined into one, and the dragon's body is covered with the power of the Five Elements' annihilation and reincarnation.

His domain of power instantly expanded, and he forcibly reversed all the spiritual energy attributes within the area.

Five prisons emerged from the void one by one, and the five elements were further divided into yin and yang, hard and soft, evolving into ten distinctive phenomena.

With the Heavenly Dragon roaming freely and the Five Prisons following, the entire hundred-mile-long domain of law and order was completely transformed into Lin Zhao's territory.

This time, the opponent is a projection of a sword cultivator.

Despite only having a mid-stage Core Formation realm, his true combat strength is comparable to a peak Core Formation cultivator, making him a true prodigy of the sect.

The two immediately started fighting.

Lin Zhao used the Five Prisons Suppressing Heavenly Dragon to suppress his opponent, and the power of the Five Prisons attacked in turn.

The sword forest of Vajra Prison pierced out from beneath his feet, the vines of Green Wood Prison entangled his sword blade, the inextinguishable fire of Flaming Sun Prison pressed down from above, the dark currents of Xuan Water Prison wrapped around his body, and the gravity of Hou Tu Prison slowed him down.

The attack was flawless.

But the sword cultivator projection was indeed a prodigy of the sect. Every sword strike was precisely timed to the turning point of the Five Prisons, forcibly tearing open a gap to escape.

He broke open the five prisons, closed them, and broke them open again, over and over again.

Several times, the opponent's extremely refined sword light almost cleaved the Five Prisons in two from the inside.

An hour later, Lin Zhao failed and had no choice but to withdraw from the eighth floor of the Cloud Tower.

The challenge for Core Formation stage cultivators lasts only one hour.

Lin Zhao did not kill the projection of the prodigy within an hour.

Lin Zhao shook his head. He could understand that; he had only recently formed his core and was currently only at the early stage of core formation.

Over the next two weeks, he attempted to reach the eighth floor five times in a row.

As it turns out, with his current strength, he can suppress or even defeat ordinary peak Core Formation cultivators.

However, battles after a cultivator forms their core take too long—their domains are constantly being drained, their divine senses are clashing, and their magical power is being used to fight. A single battle can easily last a full hour.

Lin Zhao even used his strongest divine power, the Five Elements Extinction Divine Arrow.

The Five Prisons trapped the opponent, and divine arrows were fired one after another, making the opponent jump up and down. Unfortunately, it was still not enough. The sect's genius had too many ways to escape and his vitality was as tenacious as a cockroach.

Even with his current combat strength, he cannot resolve this quickly.

Moreover, his magic weapon also held him back.

Although he had many third-tier magic weapons, they were still somewhat ineffective in battles comparable to those at the peak of the Core Formation stage.

Supernatural powers and magical treasures cannot work together. The Five Prisons Suppressing Heavenly Dragon can suppress its opponent, but it cannot end the battle.

His cultivation level was ultimately too low.

Lin Zhao gritted her teeth, "You're forcing me to cheat, aren't you?"

He turned and went back to his cave.

The Starry Sky Rift Sword hung on the jade platform, absorbing and releasing spiritual energy.

Lin Zhao is already a Core Formation True Person, and his magical power is ten times that of other cultivators of the same level, comparable to an ordinary late-stage Core Formation cultivator. He can already barely use a fourth-tier magic weapon.

He grabbed the sword hilt, and the blade emitted a clear, melodious sound.

After resting, Lin Zhao once again stepped into the eighth floor of the Cloud Tower.

The Five Prisons Suppressing Heavenly Dragon was unleashed, descending upon a hundred-mile-long domain, with the Five Prisons rotating to trap the opponent within.

Lin Zhao stood on the dragon's head, his left hand pressing on the sword hilt, and the spiritual liquid from the Nine Luminaries Thunder Pool poured into the sword.

The runes on the sword lit up one by one, spreading from the hilt to the tip.

Silvery-white starlight surged from the gemstone, merging with pale blue flowing light, and the space around the blade began to distort slightly.

Endless star power was frantically compressed and gathered into sword energy, condensing into a ball of starlight several meters long in front of the sword.

The starlight appeared calm on the outside, but inside, countless sword energies surged and churned, like a silver star compressed to its limit.

Starburst.

Lin Zhao raised his longsword high and slashed down fiercely!

The compressed starlight crashed down with a thunderous roar, trailing a long silver-blue flame, and blasted into the Five Hells!

The explosion's light briefly drained the color from the entire Cloud Realm. The shockwave swept outwards from the point of impact, causing the Five Hells to tremble violently, yet they did not shatter.

The Five Prisons began to rotate—the Blazing Sun Prison recovered the dissipated energy, the Earth Prison removed the impact gravity, and the Mysterious Water Prison absorbed the aftershocks of spiritual energy. The Five Prisons completely stabilized the battlefield.

Lin Zhao gave the other side no chance to breathe.

Second shot! Third shot!

Three bursts of starlight rained down in succession, each one more powerful than the last!

The powerful Star Sword Qi explosion attack, coupled with the terrifying suppression force of the Five Prisons, was unstoppable.

The projection of that prodigy finally couldn't withstand it any longer and shattered instantly, turning into clouds that vanished into nothingness.

Cloud Tower Level 8 cleared!