Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Lin Zhao remained standing in the air, his robes fluttering in the wind, but there was not a trace of murderous intent about him.

The cultivators of the Tribulation Cultivation Alliance completely collapsed at this moment.

Some clever cultivators started running before Lin Zhao even showed up.

Some fled outwards, plunging into the deep valleys and crevices of the Crimson Nether Mountains.

Some fled to the Twelve Peaks base camp, attempting to rely on the formation to fight a desperate battle.

Some looked around blankly, only to be overtaken by the expeditionary force's Core Formation cultivators and beheaded.

The cultivators of the expeditionary force began a thousand-mile pursuit, with Core Formation cultivators chasing Core Formation cultivators and Foundation Establishment cultivators chasing Foundation Establishment cultivators, using Qi Refining Battle Formations to encircle and annihilate the scattered Tribulation cultivators.

What remains is no longer a battle, but the wrap-up.

Thousands of feet underground, the Yan family patriarch opened his eyes.

He could sense the spiritual energy storm above—the intensity of the Five Elements power could only belong to Lin Zhao.

The aura of the leader of the Jiexiu clan rapidly diminished in the storm, and then disappeared completely.

What a terrifying young man.

Immediately afterwards, the withered fingers of the Yan family patriarch trembled slightly. He had waited for so many years, and this moment had finally arrived.

He placed his palm on the array in front of him, and the Fire Elemental Shield floated beside him, the flame patterns on the shield's surface beginning to pulsate violently.

The grayish-white array light fluctuated violently beneath his palm.

The defensive power of a third-tier top-grade formation was beyond his ability to break through head-on, but he had been studying this formation for a long time, decades ago.

To be precise, a hundred years ago, the so-called Tribulation Cultivator Alliance was secretly created by him and four other Core Formation cultivators more than a hundred years ago for the purpose of collecting resources.

Fifty years later, the spiritual vein suddenly stirred, and the five of them discovered this underground cave. At that time, the Earth Flame True Fire was still in its infancy and had not yet fully formed.

Then a series of complicated and unspeakable events occurred, and three of the five people died.

The two remaining eventually broke off their relationship.

The leader of the Jiexiu sect became the master of this mountain range.

The Yan family patriarch was expelled, but then, with the help of his sect, he led a massive expeditionary force back in a vengeance.

Over the past twenty years, the Yan family patriarch has completely erased any trace of his past as a cultivator who had undergone tribulation.

Aside from the leader of the Jiexiu sect, no one knew anything about it. Now, with his death, everything has been buried in history.

This formation was originally brought by him at the beginning of the Tribulation Cultivator Alliance, but it was actually set up by the Tribulation Cultivator leader.

Over the decades, the formation has been modified again and again, but its basic structure has remained unchanged.

He had been secretly studying the formation for many years. He couldn't break through it head-on, but finding a weak point and forcibly tearing a hole in it was not difficult.

His palm moved slowly along the edge of the array, and when he reached a specific position...

A barely perceptible fluctuation appeared in the array's spiritual light—this was the array's most vulnerable spiritual energy node.

The Yan family patriarch held the Fire Elemental Shield in front of him and then crashed into it.

The backlash from the formation pressed in from all directions, and the fire patterns on the surface of the Fire Elemental Shield suddenly lit up, shielding him from the formation's backlash.

The Fire Elemental Shield carried his body little by little into the formation. The spiritual light on the shield's surface shattered layer by layer, only to coalesce again.

After a while, he passed through the array barrier and entered the cave.

He didn't have time to stand up properly, and after catching his breath, he looked up. The temperature inside the cave was very high.

In the center of the cave, the fourth-tier spiritual creature, Earth Flame True Fire, floated in mid-air.

It was a deep red flame that pulsed like a heart as it burned, with each pulse...

The rock strata on the cave walls emitted a faint, dark red glow, and the air around the flames was distorted by the intense heat.

The Earth Flame True Fire doesn't look like fire; it looks more like a piece of red jade that is melting.

The Yan family patriarch stood up and held the Fire Element Spirit Shield in his hands.

The fire patterns on the shield surface began to circulate autonomously after sensing the aura of the Earth Flame True Fire, and the fluctuations of spiritual light became increasingly intense.

The shield's color changed from deep red to dark red, and then from dark red to crimson gold, faintly showing signs of becoming a fourth-tier magic weapon.

He held up the Fire Elemental Shield with both hands and slowly approached the Earth Flame True Fire.

The shield's fire patterns began to pulse in sync with the pulse of the Earth Flame True Fire; with each pulse, the fire patterns brightened a little more.

The fusion of the magic weapon and the fourth-order true fire has begun.

The temperature inside the cave rose sharply.

Outside the formation, the Azure Lotus clone's hand had already touched the hilt of the Starry Sky Rift Sword.

He had waited so long for this moment.

After an incense stick has burned.

Half of the Fire Elemental Shield had already been fused with the Earth Flame True Fire. The fire patterns on the shield surface and the flames of the Earth Flame True Fire began to intertwine, and a crimson-gold spirit pattern appeared on the shield, running from front to back—that was the prototype of a fourth-tier magic weapon.

Just then, Lin Zhao made his move, and the starlight on the Starry Sky Rift Sword began to flow.

He slashed his sword into the weak spot where the Yan family patriarch had just entered, and the terrifying power of the Starry Sky Rift Sword directly tore the formation apart.

The spiritual energy exploded inwards at the point where the formation was hit, and cracks instantly spread across the entire formation barrier like a spider web.

Then the entire Tier 3 top-grade formation collapsed with a roar.

The backlash from the shattered formation, along with the flame fluctuations of the Earth Flame True Fire, swept outwards in all directions.

The Earth Flame True Fire was directly shaken by the shockwave from the collapse of the formation.

Like a startled wild beast, its crimson-gold flames instantly expanded, releasing a terrifying wave of fire.

The Fire Elemental Shield was at the most critical moment of its fusion when it was hit head-on by this attack.

The shield was ejected from the Earth Flame True Fire, tumbling dozens of times in the air before crashing into the rock wall at the edge of the cave, creating a crater several meters deep.

The patriarch of the Yan family suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood.

He was completely focused on the fusion process and didn't expect to be attacked from behind like that.

The backlash from the formation, the fluctuations of the Earth Flame True Fire, and the blow that knocked away the Fire Element Spirit Shield all struck him simultaneously.

His internal organs felt as if they were being burned at the same time.

He stood up, leaning against the rock wall, his white hair disheveled, and blood still lingering at the corner of his mouth.

After the aftershocks subsided, the Earth Flame True Fire temporarily returned to calm.

Its pulsation slowed down, its color changed from crimson to deep red, and the dark red glow on the cave walls also changed from intense to faint.

The Yan family patriarch saw the person standing beneath the Earth Flame True Fire.

Compared to Lin Zhao's main body and the Five Mountains clones, the Azure Lotus clone had a more refined appearance, but his facial features remained unchanged, and the Yan family patriarch recognized him.

Lin Zhao turned around and looked at the Yan family patriarch.

The firelight in the cave reflected on his face, his expression calm and extremely indifferent.

"From the moment your Yan family sought help from the sect, the ownership of this fourth-tier spiritual object has belonged to the sect."

His voice wasn't loud, but it sounded exceptionally clear in the echoes of the cave.

"Today you have used a fourth-tier treasure of the sect without authorization, Yan Ce, do you know your crime?"

Yan family patriarch, Yan Ce

He didn't understand why Lin Zhao was here.

The person on the battlefield was clearly Lin Zhao, and the person in front of me was also Lin Zhao.

Spiritual body or Dharma body.

But that doesn't make sense; his combat strength couldn't possibly be as strong as his original body.

That attack just now was definitely from a peak Core Formation stage cultivator.

Why is this happening?

He really couldn't figure it out, but now was not the time to think about it.

A pleading expression appeared on the face of the Yan family patriarch.