I am in Yellow Maple Valley, and I have a demonic beast clone!

In a secluded quiet room on the west side of the Lingmu Peak cave.

The spiritual energy here is so dense that it is almost tangible. Wisps of white spiritual mist flow slowly in the air. The walls, floor, and even the dome of the quiet room are engraved with intricate patterns for gathering and concentrating spiritual energy, completely isolating this place from the outside world and creating a small world of its own.

Zhou Jin sat cross-legged on a futon in the center of the quiet room, his eyes closed and his face solemn.

He was dressed in a simple gray outfit, with five colors of light—crimson, dark gold, dark green, azure, and earth yellow—flowing around him. His aura was deep and composed, yet it also revealed an inner ferocity, like a live volcano about to erupt.

It's been ten years.

With Zhou Ding's extravagant and cost-inducing investment, this special avatar, crafted using the "Evil Pill Technique," has made rapid progress in its cultivation, leaping from the mid-Foundation Establishment stage to the late-Foundation Establishment stage, and now stands at the threshold of condensing the Golden Core.

Zhou Ding appeared silently at the door of the quiet room.

He looked at Zhou Jin, who was sitting quietly, and a hint of expectation flashed in his eyes.

"It's time," Zhou Ding murmured, stepping into the quiet room.

With a flick of his wrist, five pills of different colors, each the size of a pigeon egg, appeared in his palm, exuding a chillingly fierce and bloody aura and a surge of powerful vital energy.

The pill's surface was smooth as jade, and inside, it seemed as if a blood-red mist was flowing, with five colors: red, gold, green, blue, and brown.

It was the "Blood Coagulation Five Elements Pill" obtained from the Yue Kingdom's royal palace!

At the same time, a small, smooth white jade box appeared in his other hand.

The moment the box was opened, a refreshing and vibrant fragrance wafted out. Inside, a pale golden, gelatinous substance lay quietly—the rare treasure "Heavenly Fire Liquid," which aids in the formation of the Golden Core.

Zhou Ding walked up to Zhou Jin and placed five Blood Condensation Five Elements Pills and a jade box containing Heavenly Fire Liquid on the low table in front of him. He said in a deep voice, "Take the pills, condense the evil energy, and form the core. Whether you succeed or not depends on fate."

Zhou Jin, who was sitting cross-legged, suddenly opened his eyes. There was no emotional fluctuation in his eyes. He reached out and grabbed the five Blood Condensation Five Elements Pills that were overflowing with fierce energy. Without the slightest hesitation, he opened his mouth and swallowed them all!

"boom--!"

The moment the pill entered his stomach, the five-colored light that had been flowing alternately around Zhou Jin's body suddenly became extremely intense!

Crimson red like erupting magma, dark gold like divine weapons unsheathed, dark green like ancient trees reaching the sky, azure blue like raging sea waves, and earthy yellow like the collapse of the earth!

Five blood essences, each with distinct attributes yet equally violent and ferocious, exploded within his body like five unleashed ferocious dragons, colliding wildly!

Zhou Jin groaned, his face instantly turning blood red, veins bulging on his forehead and neck, his body trembling uncontrollably, as if countless little mice were scurrying under his skin, and his bones making a "clucking" sound as if they were about to collapse under the strain.

The Blood Condensation Five Elements Pill was too domineering. If his physical body had not been made from a puppet and had a special foundation, an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator would have had his meridians burst instantly and turned into blood mist.

Despite the excruciating pain that felt like his meridians were about to burst and his soul was being burned, Zhou Jin exerted all his strength to circulate the secret technique "Sha Dan Jue".

Within his dantian, the viscous mana that had nearly liquefied began to spin wildly, forming a bottomless vortex that generated a powerful suction force, desperately drawing in and binding the five rampaging blood essences, attempting to bring them back on track and fuse, purify, and compress them with his own mana.

Time slipped away bit by bit amidst this silent torment and fierce internal struggle.

In the main hall of the cave, Xin Ruyin put down the array diagram in her hand and looked somewhat uneasy in the direction of Zhou Jin's secluded meditation room.

Although separated by stone doors and numerous restrictions, her keen senses still faintly detected an unusual, suppressed, and violent fluctuation.

Xiao Mei also stopped drawing talismans and peeked out from her talisman-making room, holding the quiet purple electric sable in her arms. Her little face showed a hint of unease: "Miss, why do I feel... a little stuffy? Like the feeling before a big thunderstorm."

Xin Ruyin nodded gently and said softly, "It's Zhou Jin... He's at a critical juncture. Let's wait patiently and not disturb him."

……

A month later.

In his private talisman-making room, Zhou Ding was concentrating on comprehending a mid-to-high-level talisman called "Xun Wind Thunder Fire Talisman" recorded in the "Heavenly Talisman Scripture".

This talisman contains the transformations of the three attributes of wind, thunder, and fire, making it extremely powerful. However, drawing it requires precise timing in terms of controlling one's consciousness and infusing spiritual power.

He dipped his fingertips in specially made spiritual ink and slowly traced lines on a light blue high-grade talisman paper. His divine sense was as fine as silk, carefully guiding the violent energy in the spiritual ink to form profound rune trajectories.

Just as one of the crucial, pivotal runes connecting the power of wind and thunder was about to be completed—

"Buzz!"

Zhou Ding's mind jolted!

It wasn't a mistake made by the talisman brush in his hand, but rather stemmed from the deep connection between his soul and Zhou Jin's, an inseparable spiritual connection!

In the quiet room next door, Zhou Jin's aura, which had been gradually stabilizing and merging under the suppression of the secret technique, suddenly underwent a dramatic change!

An indescribable, chaotic, and violent force, driven by a powerful will, was contracting, condensing, and sublimating inward, like a world-destroying beast that had been suppressed to its limit and was about to break free from all restraints, suddenly erupted!

In the quiet room, Zhou Jin, who was sitting cross-legged, suddenly burst out with dazzling five-colored blood light!

The light did not spread outwards; instead, it strangely collapsed inwards from him as the center!

The futon beneath him, the low table around him, and even the array patterns engraved on the floor of the quiet room all silently turned to dust at this moment!

A distorted force field, visible to the naked eye and about ten feet in diameter, enveloped him. The light within the force field was dim, the five elements were disordered, and even space itself seemed to become unstable.

"Is it finally starting...?"

Zhou Ding's eyes flashed with a sharp light. Without hesitation, he put down the talisman brush in his hand. The "Wind and Fire Talisman" that he had drawn at the critical moment spontaneously combusted with a "poof" due to the sudden interruption of spiritual power, turning into a small pile of ashes. He didn't even look at it.

With a flash, he appeared in the main hall of the cave like a ghost.

Almost at the same time, Xin Ruyin and Xiao Mei also sensed something and quickly walked out of their respective rooms.

Xin Ruyin's face was solemn and concerned, while Xiao Mei looked nervous. The purple electric ferret in her arms also perked up its ears and squeaked uneasily.

"Don't panic."

Zhou Ding's voice was calm and powerful, instantly calming the slightly anxious atmosphere in the cave: "It's Zhou Jin who is about to form his core. The commotion might be a bit loud, but with the formation in place, it's fine."

Upon hearing this, Xin Ruyin and Xiao Mei felt somewhat relieved.

They already knew that Zhou Jin was the incarnation of Zhou Ding. Now, upon hearing that it was such a major event on the path of cultivation as Core Formation, they were shocked, but also filled with intense curiosity and anticipation.

The phenomenon of Core Formation is not something that can be seen often.

The two exchanged a glance and stood beside Zhou Ding in tacit agreement, ready to witness this crucial moment.

However, the tranquility within the cave lasted for less than three breaths.

"BOOM!!!"

A dull, loud bang, not originating from the material world, but directly and violently resounded throughout the spiritual realm of all living beings within a radius of dozens of miles around Spiritwood Peak, exploding without warning!

The sound seemed to roar from the deepest part of the Netherworld, or to be the fury of a god at the top of the sky. It carried a majestic and chaotic aura that made the soul tremble. Ignoring all physical barriers and low-level restrictions, it crashed into the consciousness of every life with divine sense or spiritual awareness!

Those cultivators below the Foundation Establishment level all felt a "buzz" in their heads, their blood and qi churning, their vision going black, and they almost couldn't stand up.

Even Foundation Establishment cultivators felt their minds waver, as if their sea of ​​consciousness had been struck by a heavy hammer, and their expressions changed in horror.

Before the echoes of the loud noise had even faded, the world outside had already changed color!

It was just past noon, the sky was clear and cloudless, and the sun was shining brightly.

But at the very moment that earth-shattering explosion occurred, countless gray-black and dark red clouds surged forth from nowhere, centered on the sky above Spiritwood Peak, as if opening a passage to the underworld!

These clouds rolled, gathered, and tangled at an unimaginable speed, and in the blink of an eye, they formed a thick, inky black cloud that covered an area of ​​more than fifteen miles and hung low as if about to fall!

The clouds were not still, but were surging and swirling violently, their edges tinged with an ominous dark red, as if soaked in blood.

"Crack! Boom—!"

Within the clouds, silver snakes danced wildly! It was not the bright white of ordinary lightning, but an eerie bolt of lightning mixed with streaks of blood and five-colored spots. They violently tore through the thick darkness, accompanied by deafening thunderclaps that seemed to split the heavens and earth and destroy everything!

Thunder rumbled, as if thousands of gods and demons were roaring and fighting in the clouds, causing the mountains below to tremble and the trees to rustle.

What's even more unsettling is the violent surge of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth!

The spiritual energy from all directions, as if under the command of a supreme monarch, or as if being frantically torn and seized by an invisible force, transformed into visible streams of milky-white energy that emitted a "whooshing" sound. They surged and converged wildly from all parts of the Qingyun Mountains, and even from the direction of Kuixing City further away, toward Lingmu Peak and the location of Zhou Ding's cave!

These spiritual energy flows are extremely fast and vast in scale. Under the thick black clouds above Spiritwood Peak, they collide, merge, and rotate with each other, forming a giant milky-white spiritual energy vortex with a diameter of more than five miles. It slowly rotates and exudes a suffocatingly powerful pressure!

At the center of the vortex, the bottomless eye of the vortex faces the cave below, as if connecting to another world, frantically devouring the massive amount of spiritual energy that gathers in, and then pouring it down!

The vortex slowly rotated, causing the dark clouds above to swirl as well. Silver snakes and blood-red lightning surged wildly between the cloud vortex and the spiritual energy vortex, creating a terrifying scene reminiscent of the end of the world, enveloping the entire Spiritwood Peak and the surrounding area.

"This...this is...the celestial phenomenon of Core Formation?!"

In a cultivator's cave slightly closer to Spiritwood Peak, someone was the first to recover from the shock to their soul. Looking up at the sky, they let out an incredulous exclamation, their voice distorted by extreme shock.

"Someone has formed their Core here?! Judging from the location... they're from Spiritwood Peak?"

"What a terrifying spectacle! This vortex of spiritual energy... these tribulation clouds..."

"Why is there blood-red light in the tribulation clouds? The lightning is also unusual... Could the Core Formation cultivator be practicing some rare, even unorthodox, demonic technique?"

Exclamations and horrified discussions exploded like drops of water thrown into boiling oil throughout the Qingyun Mountains!

Whether they were in seclusion cultivating diligently, handling miscellaneous affairs, or visiting friends to discuss the Dao, as long as their cultivation level was above the mid-stage of Qi Refining, they were all startled by this terrifying phenomenon that enveloped the heavens and the earth. They rushed out of their caves, houses, and pavilions, looked up at the sky above Spiritwood Peak, and their faces were filled with extreme shock.

After a brief moment of stunned silence, someone shouted, "Go check it out!"

The next moment, a loud whooshing sound suddenly rang out!

Streams of light of various colors, like countless fireflies startled into flight in the night sky, rose impatiently from every corner of the Qingyun Mountains, tracing arcs as they sped toward Lingmu Peak and toward the center of that extraordinary phenomenon!

In just a few dozen breaths, the sky around Spiritwood Peak was already adorned with hundreds of streaks of light, and more and more points of light were constantly joining this torrent of "watching" from afar.

Core Formation cultivator!

Whether in the resource-scarce and fiercely competitive Tiannan region, or in the vast and boundless Chaotic Star Sea teeming with powerful figures, they have truly stepped into the threshold of high-level cultivators, enough to establish their own sects, dominate a region, and become an existence that no force can underestimate.

The emergence of each new Core Formation cultivator may signify a redistribution of interests, a reshuffling of resource allocation, and the rise of new powers.

Who wouldn't be curious about such a momentous event that captivates so many hearts?

Inside the cave, Zhou Ding's divine sense had already spread out like mercury, taking in everything outside.

As he watched the countless streaks of light fly across the sky and gathered in ever-growing numbers, and felt the probing divine senses projected towards him, a barely perceptible smile curved the corners of his lips.

"It's quite lively," he muttered to himself, his tone flat, revealing no emotion.

Xin Ruyin looked towards the entrance of the cave with some worry. Although there were walls and restrictions in between, she could imagine what the outside world was like at this moment.

Xiao Mei instinctively hugged the purple electric sable in her arms, her face turning pale, seemingly frightened by the huge commotion caused by the "Core Formation".

"It's alright."

Zhou Ding patted Xin Ruyin's hand, his gaze sweeping over the complex and profound array light that subtly flowed around the cave. His tone was filled with strong confidence: "With the upgraded 'Inverted Five Elements Array' protecting us, let alone these onlookers, even a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator would have to put in a lot of effort to break the array and disturb Zhou Jin."

It was precisely because of the existence of the upgraded version of the Reversed Five Elements Formation that Zhou Ding dared to let Zhou Jin attempt to form his core here.

At this moment, outside Lingmu Peak, about two or three miles from Zhou Ding's cave, more than two hundred cultivators had gathered in the air, and the number was still increasing.

The later cultivators consciously kept a certain distance from those who arrived first, hovering in the air, some standing on magical artifacts, others dangling in mid-air. All eyes were fixed on the mountain wall shrouded in a faint halo, its scenery slightly distorted and blurred.

That was the entrance to Zhou Ding's cave, and also the core of the terrifying vortex of spiritual energy in the sky.

"I wonder which master is cultivating here in seclusion? I have never heard of such a powerful figure on Spiritwood Peak before."

"Perhaps they are visiting cultivators who deliberately chose Kui Xing Island to break through their bottlenecks, seeking some peace and quiet?"

"Peaceful? Heh heh, this is anything but peaceful now. After reaching the Core Formation stage, this newly promoted True Person will likely become a guest of honor for all factions, and the power structure of Kui Xing Island... might very well change."

Just as everyone was whispering and discussing, several particularly swift and significantly stronger sounds of air being torn apart suddenly came from the horizon!

Following the sound, everyone looked and saw several streaks of different colors, but all with extremely solid and dazzling spiritual light, flying from the direction of Kui Xing City at a speed far exceeding that of most of the cultivators present. In the blink of an eye, they had already flown over the crowd.

The light faded, revealing several figures who stood in mid-air, naturally hovering at the forefront of all the onlookers, displaying their transcendent status.

The appearance of these people immediately attracted more attention and a chorus of hushed gasps.

"Look! It's several managers from the Six-Linked Palace!"

"That's Cao Lu, the manager of Baishui Tower! He's a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator and has been in charge of Baishui Tower for over sixty years!"

"Manager Ouyang Gong of Yuhuanju is here too! He's a master alchemist!"

"Look! It's several managers from the Six-Linked Palace!"

"That's Cao Lu, the manager of Baishui Tower! He's a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator and has been in charge of Baishui Tower for over sixty years!"

"Manager Ouyang Gong of Yuhuanju is here too! He's a master alchemist!"

"And there's Manager Liu from Shan Hai Ge, Manager Ma from Xing Chen Dian, Manager Zhao from Ting Chao Xuan... Good heavens, almost five of the six managers from the Six Linked Palaces' branches on Kui Xing Island are here!"

"Not only that! Look at that senior in purple robes at the head... she's Senior Feng San Niang, the chief steward of the Six-Linked Palace stationed on Kui Xing Island! She's a master of the Pseudo-Core Formation realm, and it's said she's only one step away from Core Formation!"

The newcomer was a middle-aged woman dressed in a magnificent purple palace gown, possessing an elegant and noble demeanor, a beautiful face like that of a woman in her thirties, yet with an air of authority and competence that came from long holding a high position.