Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Back at his cave dwelling on Tianxing Peak, Lin Zhao sorted out the things he had gained from this trip, one by one.

The Fire Spirit Shield, needless to say, is a near-fourth-tier magic weapon.

Unfortunately, this was the natal magic weapon of the Yan family patriarch, and it required several third-tier spiritual water purifications before it could be used properly. Lin Zhao used twenty Cloud Sea Jade Talismans to completely control this treasure.

Fortunately, he gained fifty jade talismans from this mission, and together with the previous ones, he still had eighty Cloud Sea Jade Talismans.

The spoils of killing the leader of the Jiexiu were—in the end, only a precious mirror remained.

This is a top-grade, third-tier magic weapon that can release twelve spirit puppets with the combat power of Core Formation cultivators.

Unfortunately, the silver mirror was badly damaged by the Five Elements Extinction Divine Arrow, and its spiritual light was much dimmer than when it was at its peak.

Fortunately, this magical artifact can absorb spiritual energy and slowly repair itself, and it can also be repaired faster using third-tier materials.

Lin Zhao tossed it onto Zhaoyang Peak, placing it in the Daoist temple along with the Precious Lotus Spirit-Nourishing Plate to be nurtured. It should recover in a few decades.

He didn't intend to spend extra resources on this magic weapon—he didn't even have enough resources for his own cultivation, so where would he get extra third-tier spiritual items to feed a magic weapon that wasn't even a necessity?

The storage rings of the leader of the Jiexiu sect and the patriarch of the Yan family also contained some good items.

Cultivation techniques, jade slips, elixirs, and spiritual objects.

Lin Zhao selected the parts that were useful to her.

These resources, along with the hundreds of third-tier pills he already possessed, were enough for him to cultivate to the mid-stage of Core Formation.

He mentally recalculated that he would reach the peak of the early Core Formation stage before the age of ninety, and advance to the mid-Core Formation stage before the age of one hundred.

He didn't need the rest, so he used his authority in the Crimson Nether Mountain Expeditionary Force to complete one last transaction.

All these resources were replaced with metal-attribute spiritual items.

There are tens of thousands of species in the first order, more than 700 species in the second order, and twelve species in the third order.

Each one is a different metal—red copper, black iron, cold silver, thunder gold, star sand, meteorite iron, earth vein gold essence, celestial black iron... from ordinary iron to spirit ore, from fingernail-sized fragments to millstone-sized ore.

The cultivators of the expeditionary force even whispered among themselves, wondering if this jinx had some kind of peculiar fetish.

Lin Zhao had his reasons for doing what he did.

The Five Sacred Mountains Dharma Body needs to comprehend the rules of the Five Elements, and Lin Zhao chose to start with the rules of Metal.

The rules of gold are best embodied in various metals—different hardness, toughness, spiritual energy conductivity, and attribute biases. Each metal contains a tiny manifestation of the rules of gold.

He estimated that by collecting over a hundred kinds of third-tier metal-attribute spiritual objects and relying on the powerful deductive ability of the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel, he could comprehend a portion of the rules of metal.

The process will be lengthy and will consume a significant amount of resources.

There are hundreds of different Tier 3 materials, each of which is quite valuable.

He temporarily replaced it with first- and second-tier materials, which is just a bit slower.

Although the power of rules contained in tens of thousands of first-order metals is shallow, the quantity is large, and its deduction may not be much worse than that of third-order materials.

Only someone like him, who has grasped the rules of matter, is qualified to walk this path.

Ordinary Nascent Soul cultivators, let alone third-tier spiritual items, even if given hundreds of fourth-tier spiritual items, simply cannot comprehend the rules.

This is like math—if you understand it, you understand it; if you don't understand it, you don't understand it.

As for the rules of fire, Lin Zhao plans to start with the Fire Spirit Shield.

The crimson-gold spirit pattern on the shield is a mark left by the Earth Flame True Fire. Each time the fire pattern flows, it is an indirect manifestation of the fire attribute rules.

He planned to pass on the rules of water to his Azure Lotus clone, whose first stop on his journey would be the Endless Demon Sea.

He may not be able to directly comprehend the rules of water, but he can transmit everything he sees to the Five Sacred Mountains Dharma Body, which can then use the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel to deduce the truth.

We are advancing in three directions simultaneously, and we have already made some progress in the areas of metal, fire, and water.

As for the rules of wood and earth, there are no clues yet.

The power of rules is something that only Nascent Soul Heavenly Lords can comprehend; it is not something that ordinary cultivators can understand.

If Lin Zhao didn't possess the supreme divine power of the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel, she would never be plotting against the rules and the Dharma Realm right now.

The Azure Lotus clone did not return to the sect with them.

He quietly left halfway there.

-----

Yunzhou has twenty-three immortal cities.

Five of them are directly under the jurisdiction of the sect.

Tianling Immortal City is the place with the most mortals in Yunzhou. Near the city are five great imperial dynasties and hundreds of large and small mortal dynasties, with a population of hundreds of billions.

Nine Spirits Immortal City, known as the region with the most cultivators in Yunzhou, is the ancestral home of spiritual veins.

Legend has it that tens of thousands of years ago, a Celestial Lord who had transformed into a deity appeared—and then nothing more.

Yunzhou will always be the Yunzhou of the Cangming Sect of the Cloud Sea.

Outside the Desolate Sea Immortal City lies a spiritually desolate region. Legend has it that an extraterrestrial insect plague descended upon the area. After being destroyed by the sect, the remaining insect swarms could not be eradicated. The sect then drained the spiritual veins for 100,000 miles, turning it into a spiritually desolate land.

The Demon-Suppressing Immortal City is said to have a huge underground canyon connecting to the Western Demon Abyss. The Immortal City suppresses the invasion of the demon race, and some people say that you can be directly teleported to the Western Wilderness through there.

Baichuan Immortal City is the closest immortal city in Yunzhou to the Endless Demon Sea. All cultivators heading to the Endless Demon Sea depart from there.

The Azure Lotus clone planned to go to Nine Spirits Immortal City first, and then travel downstream along the Tongming River.

The Tongming River traverses a large part of Yunzhou, originating from the Jiuling Mountains and stretching for tens of thousands of miles before finally flowing into the outer sea of ​​the Endless Demon Sea near Baichuan Immortal City.

He then boarded a boat and went out to sea.

He didn't plan to use the teleportation array; he intended to go there himself.

Speaking of which, when Lin Zhao was in the Qi Refining stage, he was active in the Yunxia Mountains. Because of his low strength, he was afraid of disturbing the demon beasts, so he had to be careful even when flying.

Those in the Foundation Establishment stage are busy improving their cultivation and come and go in a hurry.

In the past few years since he reached the Core Formation stage, he has been busy refining magical artifacts and taking on tasks for the Yan family, so he hasn't had much free time.

This was the first time I'd ever traveled the world alone like this.

The Azure Lotus clone summoned the Azure Lotus Sword, its blade as smooth as jade, with azure spiritual light shimmering upon it.

He flew onto the sword, his entire body transforming into a pale blue sword light.

He took off on his sword.

The sea of ​​clouds unfolded beneath him, and the mountains rushed past on either side of the sword light.

Below are rolling mountains, with dark green forests covering the slopes, occasionally revealing a few bare rocks that gleam grayish-white in the sunlight.

A flock of white cranes flew by below.

He swept directly past the flock of white cranes, who scattered in fright, flapping their wings and flying to both sides. A few of the bolder ones chased after his sword light for a while, but were left behind by the sword light, letting out a reluctant cry.

The wind brushed against his face, blowing his robes until they clung tightly to his body.

He passed through a rain cloud, the mist inside feeling cool and dense against his face. The moment he passed through, the sword light left a long white trail, cutting the entire rain cloud in half.

Sunlight streamed down from the clouds, casting a small rainbow around the sword.

Ahead lay a lake that stretched for thousands of miles.

The lake surface shimmered like scattered silver under the sunlight, and in the center of the lake were several small islands covered with dawn redwoods, their canopies forming a deep green floating island.

He pressed down with the Azure Lotus Sword, and his entire body plummeted rapidly from a height of ten thousand feet.

The lake rapidly expanded in view, and the sound of the wind changed from a hissing to a roar.

Just as he was about to touch the water, he suddenly pulled up, the sword light skimming across the water's surface, cleaving two waves more than ten feet high behind him.

The waves surged on both sides, splashing him all over, but he didn't care. He wiped the water off his face and laughed loudly.

He would occasionally sway the sword, causing the Azure Lotus Sword to swerve left and right, and his entire body would trace various arcs on the water's surface.

He suddenly made a sharp turn, tilting the sword to the side, and his palm swept across the water, creating a spray of water.