Brother Who Determines the Fate of the Nation: My Great Emperor's Cultivation Level Exposed by

The muffled sound of the cave gate closing at Alchemy Peak carried for three miles.

Su Xuan made a hand seal, and the five layers of defensive array lit up in sequence.

A five-colored light curtain of blue, white, gold, red, and yellow enveloped the entire cave, making it completely airtight. The outermost killing array patterns hummed and entered a standby state, preventing even a flying insect from getting within thirty feet.

To shut oneself in seclusion.

Zhou Yuan stood at the foot of the mountain, looked up at the five layers of light screen, his lips moved, but he didn't say anything, and turned to leave.

A secret chamber in a cave.

Su Xuan sat down cross-legged, flipped his right hand, and a fist-sized yellow crystal core floated above his palm from his storage ring.

He unlocked the four layers of restrictions one by one, and the fluctuations of earth-elemental spiritual power became more and more intense with each layer.

The moment the last layer of restrictions shattered, the air in the entire secret room became heavy, as if a mountain was pressing down on them.

The core of thick earth.

The last of the Five Elements Sacred Objects.

Water is the Netherworld's Cold Spring, Fire is the Nine Heavens' Burning Sun Flame, Metal is the Taibai Essence Gold Marrow, and Wood is the Source of All Life.

He spent twenty years collecting the first four types, each of which he acquired at the cost of his life.

Now, the very essence of earth lies before him.

Su Xuan took a deep breath, and all four elements of spiritual energy surged out from his dantian at the same time.

Support the core of the thick earth and slowly guide it towards the core of the five elements circulation in the very center of the dantian.

The instant they made contact, earth-yellow spiritual energy surged from the surface of the crystal core and rushed into his meridians.

pain.

It wasn't ordinary pain; it was the kind of pain where your bone marrow is crushed and then recast.

The five elements of spiritual energy collided wildly in his dantian. Water countered fire, fire countered metal, metal countered wood, wood countered earth, and earth countered water. The backlash from the mutual restraint of the five elements stirred up a storm within his body.

Su Xuan gritted his teeth and remained silent.

But the moment the earth elemental essence merged into the five elements cycle, his heart skipped a beat.

It's not because of pain.

It's intuition.

Something was approaching him.

It was huge, it was fast, and he couldn't stop it.

Su Xuan frowned for a moment, then relaxed.

Even if it can't be stopped, it has to be stopped. The process of unifying the five elements cannot be stopped. Once it is interrupted, the backlash from the five primordial spiritual energies will be enough to blow his dantian to ruins.

The only option is to gamble.

They were betting that he could break through to the Golden Core stage before disaster struck.

Blue Star, Dragon Kingdom Live Stream Room.

The scene on the screen switched to a panoramic view of Su Xuan's seclusion. A five-colored light curtain enveloped the cave, and in the secret chamber, the gray-robed youth sat cross-legged motionless, his face ashen, and a vein bulging on his forehead.

A few comments scrolled by.

"Su Shen has finally gone into seclusion. He's probably about to break through to the Golden Core stage."

"All five sacred artifacts have been gathered. Is this a sign of the five elements unifying?"

"Wait, look at Su Shen's expression, he seems to be in a lot of pain."

"Nonsense, if all five attributes were poured into the body at the same time, wouldn't that be excruciatingly painful?"

The images on the screen began to speed up.

Sunrise and sunset, sunrise and sunset, Su Xuan remained motionless in the secret chamber.

The five-colored spiritual light on his body flickered, and occasionally a burst of spiritual energy would burst out of his body, leaving a scorch mark on the wall of the secret chamber.

The time marker in the corner of the screen is jumping.

One month.

Three months.

Half a year.

The content of the comments section has changed.

"Have you seen what happened to the Vajra Sect?"

"The Divine Sword Sect wiped out the Vajra Sect's mining exploration team in the Third Secret Realm of the Eastern Wilderness!"

"Not only that, fighting has broken out on the western slope spiritual vein as well, and two Golden Core elders of the Vajra Sect have died."

A side screen was split off from the sky, and the scene switched to the world outside the Vajra Sect.

Eastern Wilderness, entrance to Secret Realm No. 3.

Seven corpses dressed in the inner robes of the Vajra Sect lay outside the cave entrance, their bloodstains still damp, and magical artifacts scattered on the ground. A banner embroidered with crossed swords was planted beside the corpses, bearing the three characters—Divine Sword Sect.

The other side screen, the spiritual vein of the western foothills.

The Vajra Sect's mining camp was burned to ashes, and more than a dozen disciples were either killed or injured. A cultivator wearing a silver sword robe stood in the center of the ruins, his long sword still dripping blood.

The live chat exploded.

"Is the Divine Sword Sect about to launch a full-scale war against the Vajra Sect?"

"That madman, the Lord of Thunder City, has really gone to the Divine Sword Sect. He's using someone else to do his dirty work."

"The Vajra Sect dragged the entire sect into this mess just to protect Su Xuan."

The time on the celestial screen continued to tick.

Eight months.

The Vajra Sect's council hall.

The sect leader sat in the main seat with a gloomy expression, while more than a dozen elders sat on either side of him, creating an atmosphere that was as cold as ice.

The First Elder, Li Xuanfeng, stood to the right of the Sect Master. His black robe was still stained with blood, a result of his battle with the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Divine Sword Sect three days ago at Falling Star Cliff.

An elder with a gray beard spoke first: "Sect Master, in the past six months, we have fought against the Divine Sword Sect eleven times, losing six Golden Core cultivators and thirty-seven Foundation Establishment cultivators. We have lost the Western Mountain Spirit Vein and the mining rights for the Third Secret Realm. If this continues, the foundation of our sect will be shaken."

Another elder chimed in, "The key question is, why are we fighting? Just for a late-stage Foundation Establishment alchemist?"

The elder raised his eyelids slightly.

The elder shrank back, but still finished speaking: "Elder, I'm not saying Elder Su is bad. His alchemy skills are indeed genius-level. But the problem is, he's currently in seclusion. We don't know when he'll come out, or whether he can break through. Meanwhile, our people are dying one after another."

The sect leader didn't speak, but tapped his fingers on the armrest repeatedly.

The Grand Elder glanced around the hall and snorted, "If you're afraid of death, just say so. Don't use righteousness as a fig leaf."

The elder's face turned a deep purplish-red, but he didn't dare to retort.

Just then, a beam of light slashed down from outside the hall, and an inner disciple tumbled and crawled into the hall, his face covered in blood and his voice distorted.

"Reporting to the Sect Master! News has come from the Divine Sword Sect that their Nascent Soul stage ancestor, who has been in seclusion for a thousand years, has emerged!"

The entire hall fell silent.

A deathly silence.

Transformation stage.

That's a realm higher than the Nascent Soul stage. There haven't been any Nascent Soul cultivators in the Eastern Wilderness for hundreds of years. The Vajra Sect's strongest force consists of five Nascent Soul ancestors, while a Nascent Soul cultivator could crush five early-stage Nascent Soul cultivators like ants.

The sect leader stopped tapping the armrest.

The First Elder's expression turned ugly for the first time.

The white-bearded elder who had been arguing earlier now seemed to have lost all his strength, slumped in his chair, his lips moving but unable to utter a single word.

Three breaths later, the white-bearded elder stood up, his voice hoarse: "Sect Master, hand over the person."

"One Su Xuan was exchanged for the lives of three thousand disciples of the Vajra Sect. Everyone can see the value of that."