The Cold and Aloof Palace Master's Daily Demon-Slaying Life

Qingzhu Peak is one of the seventy-two main peaks of the Yuntai Mountain Range and Taihua Gate.

It was late spring, yet there was no sign of dryness in the mountains.

Thousands of bamboo stalks swayed in the breeze, the rustling of the bamboo leaves like a gentle drizzle, enveloping the entire mountain in a serene and tranquil blue hue.

Deep in the bamboo forest, a naturally formed stone platform hangs on the side of a cliff, with a bottomless sea of ​​clouds surging like a tide below. Occasionally, a crane flaps its wings and flies by, leaving behind a string of clear and melodious calls.

At the edge of the stone platform, a simple green jade table is casually placed, with two jade wine cups facing each other.

Du Qing sat cross-legged, his blue robe already damp with mountain mist at the shoulders, but he didn't seem to care. He picked up his wine cup, tilted his head back and drank it all in one gulp, letting out a satisfied sigh as his Adam's apple bobbed.

"Senior Brother Yu, your 'Bamboo Dew Gel' is truly wonderful!" Du Qing placed the empty cup back on the table, his eyes already slightly tipsy. "It is brewed with the first drop of dew from a thousand-year-old purple bamboo in the morning, and aged for sixty years in the cold spring at the foot of Green Bamboo Peak... This taste is probably no better than the Sect Leader's 'Cloud and Mist Brew'."

Upon hearing this, Yu Yuanfeng, sitting opposite him, stroked his long, white beard, a hint of smugness flashing in his eyes, yet he feigned indifference: "Junior Brother Du is too kind. It's merely a pastime in my spare time. For cultivators, the desires of the palate are ultimately trivial matters."

Even so, he still picked up his wine cup and took a small sip. The wine entered his throat, turning into a warm current that spread throughout his body, making his spiritual energy more vibrant.

Yu Yuanfeng had cultivated for over 270 years, reaching the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment. To the younger generation of Qi Refining cultivators outside, this was naturally considered a great Foundation Establishment cultivator, but within the Taihua Sect, where powerful figures were numerous, it was not considered a significant achievement. However, as he grew older and his lifespan approached, he still had no hope of advancing to the late stage, so he increasingly devoted himself to these refined pursuits.

The bamboo forest on Qingzhu Peak and his winemaking skills are the culmination of half a lifetime of hard work.

Du Qing, however, looked much younger. He appeared to be only in his twenties, but was actually over seventy. However, since the lifespan of a Foundation Establishment cultivator is three hundred years, seventy years old is less than a third of the total lifespan, so he naturally looked young.

In his own words, at the early stage of foundation building in his seventies, he was at the time of great ambition and progress.

Du Qing sensed the desolation in Yu Yuanfeng's words and was about to say something to comfort him when he suddenly felt the wine cup in his hand tremble slightly.

At first, there was only a very slight tremor, and the wine in the cup rippled outwards. But after only three or five breaths, the tremor became violent, the entire stone platform began to shake, and the wine pot and cups on the table jingled and clattered, even showing signs of tipping over.

"The earth shook?" Du Qing's expression turned serious, and he instinctively tried to use his qi to rise up.

"No!" Yu Yuanfeng suddenly stood up, his long, white eyebrows furrowed, and his cloudy old eyes instantly became clear as lightning.

He wasn't looking at the trembling rocks beneath his feet, but rather gazing up at the sky.

Du Qing followed his gaze and immediately gasped.

Above Green Bamboo Peak, the once clear blue sky was now rippling with layers of waves. These were not clouds, but rather visible fluctuations of spiritual energy formed by the pulling and stirring of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth by some unimaginable force.

Centered on Zixu Peak, which is dozens of miles east of Qingzhu Peak, spiritual energy from hundreds of miles around converges like rivers flowing into the sea.

A deep rumble echoed through the heavens and earth, the sound not originating from the eardrums, but vibrating directly into the depths of one's soul. Du Qing felt the spiritual energy around his body surging uncontrollably, as if it were about to burst out of his body and plunge into the vortex of spiritual energy. He hurriedly circulated his cultivation technique, forcibly stabilizing his inner energy, and fine beads of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.

Looking at the place where spiritual energy converges, the scene is even more terrifying.

Above Purple Void Peak, a colossal vortex with a diameter exceeding a thousand feet had formed. The vortex slowly rotated, frantically devouring spiritual energy from all directions. This was not the ordinary flow of spiritual energy generated during cultivation, but an extremely violent [spiritual energy tide]—like a giant wave engulfing the coast during a tsunami. At this moment, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth was surging towards a single point on an unprecedented scale and at an unprecedented speed.

At the center of the vortex, a myriad of colors swirled endlessly. Crimson like lava, indigo like the deep sea, golden like the sun, silvery like moonlight, and jet black like eternal night… The five colors intertwined, collided, and merged, spreading out a curtain of light stretching for dozens of miles across the sky. The light was not dazzling, but rather possessed an eerie softness, yet each ray of light that streaked across the sky left behind a lingering ripple in space, as if the sky itself had been torn apart and distorted by this power.

"This...this is..." Du Qing opened his mouth, his voice dry, "On Purple Void Peak, which senior brother or sister is breaking through to the Purple Mansion realm?"

He had heard of the unusual phenomena that occurred when cultivators at the Purple Mansion Realm broke through.

That is the qualitative leap from Foundation Establishment to Purple Mansion, requiring one to communicate with heaven and earth through the divine soul, drawing in the spiritual energy within a radius of a hundred miles to form a massive vortex of spiritual power, and opening up the inner landscape of the "Purple Mansion" within the body to accommodate the primordial spirit. Success will increase lifespan to 1,200 years, greatly enhance supernatural powers, and one can be called a True Person.

But the scene before us was far too horrifying.

The area covered by that vortex of spiritual energy was far more than a hundred miles; it was probably over a thousand miles! The five-colored radiance and the power that almost tore the sky apart were not something that could be caused by an ordinary opening of the Purple Mansion.

Yu Yuanfeng stared intently at the sky, every wrinkle on his aged face twitching slightly. He had lived for nearly three hundred years and had witnessed the breakthroughs of three Purple Mansion cultivators from the Taihua Sect. Even two cycles of sixty years ago, he had watched from afar as the exceptionally talented Purple Void True Person broke through to the Purple Mansion realm.

But those things, compared to what's before us, are like fireflies compared to the bright moon.

"No..." Yu Yuanfeng's voice trembled, not with fear, but with an almost suffocating shock. "This isn't a breakthrough to the Purple Mansion realm... I've seen the extraordinary phenomena of Purple Mansion breakthroughs, but none are as vast as this, much less... none possess this awe-inspiring divine might!"

He suddenly grabbed Du Qing's arm, his fingers like iron clamps: "Junior Brother Du, look at the swirling center, the trajectory of the five-colored light—that's the spontaneous evolution and rotation of the five elements' spiritual power! And look at the sky above, the clouds are parted by an invisible force, and there's a faint thunder brewing high up... That's the law of heaven and earth responding! This is... this is someone using [metal element] to communicate with [fruition], attempting to attain the Golden Core!"

"Golden nature?" Du Qing's pupils constricted sharply. "Achievement level? Golden Core?!"

These two words were both familiar and unfamiliar to him.

The familiarity stems from the fact that every disciple of the Taihua Sect knows the cultivation stages from the moment they enter: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Purple Mansion, and Golden Core. The Golden Core True Lord is a legendary being, with a lifespan of ten thousand years and immense supernatural powers, enough to establish a sect and dominate a region.

The reason for this unfamiliarity is that the entire Taihua Sect has not produced a Golden Core True Monarch for ten thousand years. The last one was the [Nine-Flower True Monarch], recorded in the sect's annals. Ten thousand years ago, after the [Nine-Flower True Monarch] passed away, the sect's highest combat strength was only at the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion Realm, represented by the Ten Elders.

Furthermore, "metal nature" and "fruition" are the most core mysteries of the Golden Elixir Way.

According to ancient records, in order to achieve the Golden Core, a cultivator in the Purple Mansion needs to refine a bit of "golden nature" in the Purple Mansion. This gold is not the gold of the Five Elements, but rather takes the meaning of "gold" as immortal and indestructible, which is a bit of innate and indestructible spiritual light.

Once the metal is refined, it can be used to communicate with the manifestation of a certain "Dao" in the world—that is, "Fruit Position." Only by aligning one's own Dao with the Fruit Position can one condense the Golden Elixir within the body and attain the position of True Lord.

But how easy is it to talk about?

The forging of metal requires great perseverance, great opportunity, and great enlightenment. It often takes hundreds or even thousands of years of hard work, and one may not even be able to grasp the key.

Furthermore, the number of attainment positions is even more limited—there are three thousand Great Daos in the world, but the number of "attainment positions" that can be communicated with and borne by cultivators is fixed. A Great Dao often has only a few, or even just one, attainment positions. Once an attainment position is taken, those who come later have no hope of attaining it unless they wait for the former to perish.

Throughout the entire Old Earth Continent, across the five directions of east, west, south, north, and center, there are countless cultivators, numbering in the hundreds of millions. Yet, on the surface, the number of Golden Core True Monarchs is only a handful. Each one is a powerful figure, presiding over a super sect, their influence spanning millions of miles of mountains and rivers.

Now, someone inside Taihua Gate is actually trying to break through to the Golden Core stage?

The two exchanged a glance and blurted out almost simultaneously:

"Master Zixu!"

No wonder they were so certain, and so shocked.

This is certain because Zixu Peak was established two 60-year cycles ago. Back then, Zuo Qingqiu, who appeared out of nowhere, attained the Purple Mansion Realm at the age of one hundred, shaking the entire Taihua Sect. The Sect Master personally bestowed upon him the title "Zixu" and created a separate peak on the side of the main ridge of the Yuntai Mountains, allowing him to establish his own lineage.

Over the past two cycles of sixty years, the number of disciples on Zixu Peak has dwindled significantly. Apart from Zuo Qingqiu, there are only two deputy peak masters at the early stage of the Purple Mansion realm, who were assigned to Zuo Qingqiu by the sect leader at the time of the peak's establishment to maintain appearances. The only peak master on the entire Zixu Peak who possesses extraordinary talent had already reached the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion realm sixty years ago, meeting the requirements for breaking through to the Golden Core stage.

The surprise comes from the fact that it is so fast, so fast that it defies common sense.

Zuo Qingqiu, whose Daoist name is Zixu, is indeed the most dazzling genius of the Taihua Sect in this era. He sensed Qi at the age of six, established his foundation at twenty-five, reached the Purple Mansion realm at one hundred, and achieved the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion realm at just over one hundred and sixty years old, standing shoulder to shoulder with the sect's veteran elders who have cultivated for seven or eight hundred years. His cultivation speed is arguably the fastest in the ten thousand years since the founding of the Taihua Sect.

Even so, no one dared to imagine that she could reach the threshold of the Golden Core stage in just sixty years.

How difficult it is to forge the essence of gold.

Even ordinary cultivators at the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion realm might spend three to five hundred years refining their skills and still not be able to condense a rudimentary form. Even those True Monarchs and powerful figures recorded in ancient texts who ultimately succeeded in attaining the Golden Core took an average of three hundred years from the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion realm to successfully forming their core. Zuo Qingqiu has only been at the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion realm for sixty years. Sixty years is but a fleeting moment in the twelve-hundred-year lifespan of a Purple Mansion cultivator. Many people, within this time, cannot even touch the threshold of the Golden Nature realm.

However, the overwhelming spiritual energy tide before our eyes, the magnificent evolution of the five elements like the might of heaven, and the terrifying phenomenon that faintly resonates with the laws of heaven and earth... there is no other explanation but that someone is attempting to break through to the Golden Core stage.

"Is it really... True Person Zixu?" Du Qing was still somewhat incredulous, his voice dry. "Sixty years... How could she have forged her golden nature and discovered a suitable unclaimed fruit position within sixty years?"

Yu Yuanfeng gripped his beard tightly, his nails digging into his flesh: "Who else could it be but her? On Zixu Peak, she's the only one at the Great Perfection of the Purple Mansion realm. And...did you feel it? In that tide of spiritual energy, there's a faint interplay of destructive and life-giving lightning... True Person Zixu cultivates the 'Nine Heavens Responding to the Origin Thunder Technique'!"

As if to confirm his words, a silent bolt of lightning suddenly exploded in the five-colored radiance of the sky.

The lightning was not the usual silvery-white, but a deep purplish-black. It flashed by in an instant, yet it caused a momentary tremor in the hearts of all living beings within a radius of tens of thousands of miles.

Du Qing finally stopped doubting.

He stared at the vortex of spiritual energy that covered the entire sky, and at the increasingly bright and terrifying spiritual energy node at the center of the vortex. He felt his throat go dry and a complex emotion that was hard to describe welled up in his heart.

It was awe, shock, disbelief, and even a hint of... humble envy.

Among fellow practitioners, some spend their entire lives trapped in the Foundation Establishment stage, their lifespan limited to three hundred years, before ultimately turning into a handful of dust.

Some, however, can advance triumphantly, reaching the legendary Golden Core realm at the age of over two hundred, and thus enjoy eternal bliss.

How unjust is the way of Heaven!

Yet how magnificent it is.

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