Fantasy: I'm in a discarded alchemy room, but I can turn trash into treasure!

The spiritual energy here is getting stronger and stronger.

With each step Qin Mo took, the Qiankun Transformation Furnace would rotate once, absorbing the surrounding immortal spiritual energy into his body.

The hidden injuries caused by the divine sense of the Nascent Soul stage were also rapidly recovering under the nourishment of the immortal spiritual energy.

Qin Mo looked towards the end of the Path to Heaven.

The entrance to the core secret realm is now clearly visible.

Inside the Qiankun Transformation Furnace, Xiao Chengyue's golden elixir was suspended below the furnace opening.

Once he enters the core secret realm, this golden core should become part of his cultivation level.

The higher you go on the road to heaven, the heavier the pressure on your body becomes.

As Qin Mo took a step, a circle of white light lit up on the stone steps beneath his feet.

The pressure seeped into the leg bones from the soles of the feet and then pressed up the spine.

His shoulders slumped slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

Hua Meiniang, who was behind, stopped first.

Her meridians, which had just been repaired, had not fully recovered, and as she walked here, her chest began to feel tight.

Each time I inhale, the wound twitches.

"Qin Mo, don't worry about me, you go first."

Hua Meiniang supported herself against the stone pillar.

Qin Mo turned to look at her.

"Stay close to the group and walk slowly."

Hua Meiniang pursed her lips and took another step.

After climbing several dozen more steps, Cang Wuyue slowed down.

Her dantian was still recovering, and the spiritual energy in her body could not circulate smoothly, so she could only rely on her physical body to endure it.

Luo Xiaoman's situation is even worse.

The wound from the dream well is still on his arm, and the beast soul bag has not been fully repaired.

With each step she took up a stone step, her arm would tremble slightly.

Cang Wuyue reached out to support her.

"I can walk."

Luo Xiaoman pushed her hand away, but her feet wobbled twice.

Cang Wuyue grabbed her sleeve.

Don't be reckless.

Luo Xiaoman gritted her teeth and didn't shake him off again.

Sikong Ji, who was ahead, turned around and glanced back.

Her purple lightning had returned, but the pressure of the Heavenly Path still fell on her.

However, since she cultivates thunder magic, her physical body is stronger than Hua Meiniang and the others, and her speed has not yet slowed down.

Qin Mo walked at the very front.

The Five Elements Golden Body slowly rotated, dispersing the falling pressure throughout the muscles and bones.

The Qiankun Transformation Furnace was also rotating in the dantian, absorbing some of the power that had entered the body.

His steps remained steady.

Grayish-purple mist gradually rose from both sides of the stone steps.

The fog didn't rush towards the group; it simply crawled forward along the ground.

As he passed a rogue cultivator, the man swayed, his long sword falling onto the steps, before he closed his eyes and walked forward.

Luo Zhengnan and his sister caught up from behind.

Luo Zhengnan carried a medicine bag on his back, his forehead covered in sweat.

Luo Hongyao held three silver needles in her hand, the tips of which gleamed with a pale green luster.

"There's a phantom poison ahead."

Luo Hongyao pressed down on her wrist.

Qin Mo glanced at the gray mist on the ground.

"Can you handle this?"

"able."

Luo Hongyao nodded.

Qin Mo stepped aside to make way for him.

"You follow behind, and you can handle the phantom poison along the way."

Luo Zhengnan patted the medicine pouch.

"Then let's continue our cooperation."

Qin Mo didn't say anything more and turned to continue climbing the steps.

The Luo siblings remained in the middle of the group.

Whenever the gray fog approached, Luo Hongyao would flick out silver needles, while Luo Zhengnan would release several small blue insects.

The insects burrowed into the fog, and the gray fog quickly dissipated.

With two people dealing with the illusion poison, the team's speed increased significantly.

When she reached the halfway point of the mountain, Hua Meiniang was no longer able to circulate her inner energy.

Her face grew paler and paler, and cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

Qin Mo stopped and handed her a Qi-Nourishing Pill.

"Swallow it, don't activate your spiritual power."

Hua Meiniang accepted the elixir.

"How much faster are you going to walk?"

Qin Mo looked up.

"Reaching the end."

Hua Meiniang didn't ask any more questions and put the pill in her mouth.

The group continued upwards.

Just then, heavy footsteps came from the stone steps ahead.

A man dressed in the Xiao Clan Battle Hall robes walked down from above.

He was tall and imposing, carrying Xiao Chengyue's corpse on his shoulder, the thick-backed sword at his waist clanging with each step.

It was Xiao Qian.

He walked to a spot ten feet away from the group, stopped, and placed the corpse on the stone steps.

Xiao Chengyue's chest caved in, and his golden armored body was shattered beyond recognition.

Xiao Qian raised his hand and placed it on his dantian. He probed into it with his divine sense for a moment, and his expression gradually turned ugly.

It was completely empty inside.

The golden elixir has disappeared.

Xiao Qian looked up and his gaze fell on Qin Mo.

"Xiao Chengyue's golden elixir is in your hands."

Xiao Qian gripped the hilt of the knife.

Qin Mo handed Hua Meiniang to Sikong Ji, then walked to the middle of the stone steps, blocking the way down.

"His body is at your feet; find it yourself."

Xiao Qian's five fingers tightened.

"Stop beating around the bush. Your dantian has been hollowed out, and you took your storage ring. You know best where your golden core went."

Qin Mo lowered the ancient broken sword.

"If you can't find it, it doesn't exist."

Xiao Qian took a step forward.

A white light immediately shone beneath their feet, and the restrictions on the stone steps began to float.

Xiao Qian stopped in place, his fingers slowly leaving the hilt of the knife.

Qin Mo looked at him.

"There are rules on the Path to Heaven. Nascent Soul cultivators are not allowed to attack lower-level trial participants. If you dare to make a move, the Immortal Sect will execute you first."

Xiao Qian's facial muscles twitched.

"Are you using the rules to protect your life?"

Qin Mo raised his eyelids.

"That's enough for now."

Xiao Qian stared at him for a moment, his golden core essence surging within him.

But as soon as those forces approached the stone steps, they were suppressed by the white light.

High-level cultivators are not allowed to act arbitrarily on this path.

Even if a Nascent Soul cultivator personally descends the mountain, they still have to avoid the trial participants.

Xiao Qian finally withdrew his true energy.

He bent down and carried Xiao Chengyue on his back, deliberately pausing as he passed Qin Mo.

"Once you enter the core secret realm, the rules of the Ascension Path will no longer protect you."

Xiao Qian turned his head to the side.

"Chu Wuming, you will die at the hands of the Xiao family."

Qin Mo did not back down.

"Then let's go inside and settle the score."

Xiao Qian's gaze lingered on him for a moment before he carried the corpse down the mountain.

Five cultivators from the Xiao clan followed behind him, all keeping their heads down as they passed Qin Mo.

They dared not approach, nor dared to look too closely.

Luo Zhengnan picked up a piece of gravel from the ground and looked in the direction Xiao Qian had left.

"These people are really good at enduring things."

Luo Zhengnan withdrew his hand.

Qin Mo looked away.

"They dare not move."

"What happens once we get into the core?"

Luo Hongyao pulled out the silver needle from the stone steps.

"There are no restrictions on the path to heaven inside the core."

Qin Mo looked ahead.

That's why we need to hurry up and get there.

The team set off again.

Upon reaching a higher position, the stone steps had been washed white by the celestial energy.

With each step, the body endures new pressure.

Hua Meiniang supported Sikong Ji's arm, while Cang Wuyue led Luo Xiaoman behind them.

As the Luo siblings continued to process the grayish-purple hallucinogenic poison, their speed gradually slowed down.

Qin Mo was still walking in front.

Just as he stepped onto the next stone step, a tremor came from outside the core entrance.

Several lines of ancient red characters emerged from the bronze immortal gate.

A voice pierced through the celestial gate and landed along the entire path to heaven.

"Disciples of the Xiao family, heed my command!"

The voice came from Xiao Xuance.

Qin Mo paused for a moment.

The divine sense outside the immortal gate condensed again, but the oppressive aura did not descend; it only sent in the sound.

"Upon entering the core secret realm and encountering Chu Wuming, all of you will attack and kill him. Whoever retrieves the seven flying swords and the Ancestral Master's Token and takes his life will receive a high-grade spiritual artifact from the Xiao family and enter the ancestral land for three years of cultivation."

The Xiao clan cultivators on the path to heaven all looked up.