Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

Before leaving, he also participated in a Foundation Establishment level flight competition.

The objective is to fly around the Nine Spirits Mountain Range once; the reward is a second-tier top-grade spiritual item.

He mingled among a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators and "struggled" to win the championship.

When it was time to receive the award, Lin Zhao stood on the award stage, glanced at the second-tier top-grade spiritual item, and smiled.

Then he stopped suppressing his aura, and spiritual energy fluctuations at the Core Formation level surged from his body, causing his entire body to suddenly light up.

The expressions of the several Core Formation cultivators on the awards stage changed simultaneously.

Lin Zhao transformed into a streak of azure light, soaring into the sky and disappearing a hundred miles away in the blink of an eye.

The Core Formation cultivators who were hosting the competition looked at each other in bewilderment.

Then one of the oldest ones shook his head helplessly.

Core Formation cultivators have long lifespans and often do unexpected things.

That Daoist Qingfeng still gave them face; at least he didn't take the reward with him.

Being able to conceal one's identity in full view of others is itself a demonstration of strength.

Lin Zhao's appearance did not diminish the value of the flying competition; on the contrary, it made it even more popular.

Those who participated in that year can later say, "I competed with a Core Formation Realm cultivator and almost won."

-----

At this moment, Lin Zhao had already left the Nine Spirits Mountain Range.

The Jiuling Mountains are high in altitude, and countless streams emerge from the mountains, flowing downstream and converging to form the upper reaches of the Tongming River.

The upper reaches of the Tongming River are in the Nine Spirits Domain, while the Tongming Immortal City is in the middle reaches, a hundred thousand miles away.

Lin Zhao did not fly on her own again.

He released the beast-patterned spirit boat—no, it should now be called the azure-patterned spirit boat.

In the Nine Spirits Immortal City, he met a third-tier weapon refiner named Liu Cang.

The two met at a shop selling spiritual materials. They chatted for a while and hit it off, and later went out for drinks a few times.

When Liu Cang heard that Lin Zhao planned to travel by spirit boat, he patted his chest and said that he was currently studying spirit boat crafting and would use his spirit boat as practice material, offering to modify it for free.

When Lin Zhao took out the third-tier spirit boat, Liu Cang was completely dumbfounded.

If he were to get a free upgrade to a Tier 3 spirit boat, he'd be willing to pay the price with his underwear.

He gritted his teeth and forced out, "I said it's free... so it's free."

Lin Zhao suppressed a smile, but in the end, she still took out spirit stones and asked him to help change the appearance. She didn't let him lose money; in fact, she made a small profit.

The animal patterns on the surface of the spirit boat have been repainted, giving it a more elegant look.

It should now be called the Azure-Patterned Spirit Boat.

This is yet another magic weapon to conceal one's identity.

The spirit boat was normally over a hundred feet long, but he shrunk to five feet in size, lay inside, and drifted downstream.

The river gently lifted the spirit boat, which then swayed along the current.

The sound of rushing water could be heard on both sides, and a cool breeze blew in from the hatch. He lay inside, not thinking about anything.

He suddenly understood why Qingyuan Zhenjun liked sleeping so much.

When there are no things rushing around, a good night's sleep is really comforting.

Tongming River.

Although it is called a river, it is still more than ten miles wide at its narrowest point and more than a hundred miles wide at its widest point, nourishing countless ordinary people on both banks.

With the Tongming River as its main stream, thousands of tributaries extend upstream and downstream, irrigating nearly ten surrounding areas.

This river is the source of life for dozens of dynasties and hundreds of billions of lives over a distance of more than 100,000 miles.

Lin Zhao drifted on the Tongming River for several months.

When they're tired, they sleep; when they wake up, they catch fish to eat.

There are countless spirit fish in the river. First-tier fish can be caught with a flick of the wrist, and second-tier fish are also available, but they are rare.

They even managed to catch a big one, a third-tier spirit fish. The spirit fish wasn't a demonic beast; it was only about ten feet long and didn't even have a demon core.

The fish was extremely delicious, and he ate it with great relish.

From the upper reaches to the middle reaches, the river widens, and the towns and villages on both banks become more and more densely packed.

You can see women washing clothes by the river, fishermen casting nets, and children chasing each other on the shallows.

Of course, there are also plenty of anglers.

Occasionally, ordinary people would see the spirit boat passing by on the river and would stop what they were doing to look carefully into the distance.

At the same time, some special spirit boats began to appear on the river.

The ship was dark blue, and a large flag with the words "Tongming" on it was planted at the bow.

That was the Tongming Army, the strongest cultivator force in Tongming Immortal City, consisting of thirty Tier 3 spirit boats, over a thousand Tier 2 spirit boats, and one hundred thousand cultivators.

It is centered around Tongming Immortal City and consists of several nearby smaller domains.

Their mission is not to wage war, but to maintain the Tongming River basin for tens of thousands of miles, reinforce and dredge the waterway, drive away and kill monsters, and protect hundreds of millions of people.

Tongming Immortal City, backed by the Tongming River, directly controls the foundation of survival for beings in several regions, and the cultivation resources derived from it are astronomical.

Of course, these are not unique to Tongming Immortal City; a portion must also be shared with cultivators from other domains.

The Taixu Pavilion joined forces with twenty-six Core Formation sects to form a sect alliance, a move they learned from Tongming Immortal City.

The Tongming Army is the true foundation of Tongming Immortal City.

On the way, he also saw the Tongming Army digging a branch river several miles wide.

He asked the nearby monks and learned that a nearby dynasty was suffering from a severe water shortage, and many people had died in recent years due to the drought.

In the last hundred years, a Core Formation cultivator emerged, and he discussed with Tongming Immortal City the possibility of building a massive canal five thousand miles long to divert the river water there.

A massive project, several miles wide and five thousand miles long, would be an impossible task for mortals to complete in countless generations, but for the Tongming Army, which possessed cultivators, it was merely a matter of time.

He knew about these things when he served as a Sky Patrol Guard in the Immortal City.

But at that time, my mind was focused on cultivation, and I didn't pay much attention to the affairs of mortals under the command of the Immortal City.

Lin Zhao stood at the bow of the ship for a long time.

Those cultivators used magic to dig the soil and used magical artifacts to move it, pushing the river forward zhang by zhang.

He recalled the successive Nascent Soul True Monarchs of Tongming Immortal City.

There is no shortage of swift and decisive measures.

For example, three thousand years ago, he forcefully killed the King of Loulan, and even moved mountains and seas, cutting off all the dozens of Tongming River tributaries leading to Loulan.

Fertile fields turned into deserts, and a population of one billion was reduced to only two hundred million a thousand years later.

The nascent soul was severed for three thousand years.

It also has a gentle side, having maintained the Tongming River for nearly seven thousand years, allowing billions of ordinary people on both banks to live peacefully.

There's a reason why the Tongming lineage has been able to control the Immortal City for nearly seven thousand years.

Both swift action and gentle persuasion demonstrate true skill.

No wonder that even with two Nascent Soul True Monarchs—the Taixu Pavilion and the newly born King of Loulan—fighting one against one, they still dared not easily attack Tongming Immortal City.

A power that has existed for seven thousand years will indeed have various accumulated problems.

But given its achievements in protecting the lives of hundreds of billions of people along the Tongming River over the past seven thousand years, it's not so easy for it to fall.

More than half a year later, Lin Zhao arrived near Tongming Immortal City.

He stood at the bow of the boat and glanced around.

The immortal city is still as prosperous as ever.

The docks outside the city were filled with all kinds of spirit boats; as far as the eye could see, masts stood tall, intertwined with spiritual light, numbering in the thousands.

He didn't go in.

Speaking of which, he also has a villa in Tongming Immortal City.

It was a gift from Cui Jun, a friend I met at the Sky Patrol Guard years ago. In the Ziyang Domain, there is also a villa and five shops.

He now owns his own business.

In Xu Chuan's words, Lin Zhao has also become a "big dog" – the kind who can collect rent.