53: Chapter 53 Refining the Golden Core

"Wait, how do you know I'm going to Wan Province?" Yun Ming raised an eyebrow in surprise.

Zhao Zheng said indifferently, "Your business is known to everyone in Wan Province. They're all eagerly awaiting your arrival." He paused, then added, "Of course, it's not just the Disciples of your Sunset Glow Sect. The demonic cultivators of the Heavenly Demon Hall are also looking forward to it."

"Just because killing me would grant them the nascent soul chapter of the 'Wanling Guixu Scroll'?" Yun Ming tilted his head.

"It seems you know quite a bit," Zhao Zheng said with a faint, ambiguous smile. "This is no small matter. But I just can't figure out why it has to be you they want to kill. That's why I asked earlier if you stole the nascent soul chapter of the 'Wanling Guixu Scroll'."

Yun Ming spread his hands helplessly. "Do I look like someone capable of that to you?"

Zhao Zheng looked him up and down. "No, you don't."

"Then why are you taking me to Wan Province City?" Yun Ming asked, puzzled. "Why not just kill me now and go claim the reward?"

"You're too sought-after right now," Zhao Zheng said, tightening his grip on Yun Ming's arm. "Besides me, there are over a dozen Golden Core cultivators watching you. If I pause even for a moment, someone will catch up. I have no choice but to take you directly to Wan Province City to complete the task."

"Over a dozen?" Yun Ming drew a sharp breath. "Are you joking? How many Golden Core cultivators are there in the entire Great Qian? Don't tell me Golden Cores from other countries have come to kill me too?"

"See, you're underestimating the words 'nascent soul chapter'," Zhao Zheng shook his head. "And you're underestimating the Demonic Technique that is the 'Wanling Guixu Scroll'. The Heavenly Demon Hall has gone all out this time, spreading a technique of this level. The entry barrier is low, progress is astonishingly fast, and it only requires killing some Mortals. No one in the entire Great Qian knows how many people have cultivated this Demonic Technique. If not for the Demon Suppression Order, there would probably be even more."

Yun Ming fell silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "Then if they killed everyone in Great Qian, wouldn't that allow them to Breakthrough to Nascent Soul?"

Zhao Zheng snorted coldly. "If it were that simple, Great Qian would have been wiped out long ago. Once you reach the end of cultivating the 'Wanling Guixu', you can no longer refine Divine Souls, and your cultivation stagnates. Killing more people is useless."

Yun Ming sighed. Unknowingly, he seemed to have become a pawn, and he didn't even know whose pawn he was. This feeling was truly frustrating.

He disliked this sense of passivity.

"What's your name?" Yun Ming suddenly asked.

"Zhao Zheng, the Wanling Immortal Master!" Zhao Zheng declared.

"What... what's your Body Refining Realm?"

"Hmph, even if I had no Body Refining Realm to speak of, a mere Qi Refining Stage brat like you couldn't hope to harm me."

"Is that so?" Yun Ming suddenly clenched his fist. "There's one move I'd like to try."

Zhao Zheng intended to warn Yun Ming not to act rashly, reminding him that he could kill him at any moment. But before the words could leave his mouth, he saw a fist the size of a sandbag coming straight for his face.

Yun Ming threw a punch. It seemed ordinary, slow, and utterly unremarkable.

Yet, the surrounding Spiritual Qi, space, and light were all instantly and imperceptibly compressed into a mass, clinging tightly to the force of his fist.

Zhao Zheng felt his breath catch, his Spiritual Qi stagnate. Before his eyes, it was as if a dazzling sun had risen.

A gentle call echoed in his ears—the voice of his mother, who had passed away many years ago.

BOOM!!!" A violent explosion sounded.

Zhao Zheng's protective Spiritual Qi was instantly shattered. Various defensive Magical Artifacts turned to dust as their Spiritual Qi was exhausted. He himself was sent flying, crashing through two mountain peaks before finally coming to a stop.

His condition, whether alive or dead, was unknown.

Looking back at Yun Ming, he wasn't faring well either. His entire body was falling freely towards the ground. His entire right arm hung limply, like a piece of ragged cloth.

The Serious Punch had not let him down. However, his own Body Refining Realm was still too low to withstand such immense power. His bones were essentially shattered.

He pulled out a large handful of spring return pills and swallowed them. The pain only then began to ease slightly.

Then, Yun Ming channeled all his energy into operating the Fuli Heaven-Concealing Record, completely masking all his aura. This caused everyone tracking him to come to an abrupt halt.

They all had the same thought:

"This kid... couldn't he have been killed?"

This was precisely the effect Yun Ming wanted. He wanted everyone to think he was dead, to disrupt all their plans.

Unfortunately, Yun Ming also overestimated his own importance. His death alone could not determine the course of the entire conflict. Instead, it caused all plans to be initiated ahead of schedule.

The sea of clouds churned like angry waves. Two streaks of escaping light tore through the vast sky, chasing after over a dozen fleeing black shadows ahead like meteors racing the moon.

Daoist Danxia's robes fluttered fiercely. Beside him, Immortal Master Fuxia's expression was calm. With a gentle lift of her fair hand—in that instant, the dozen or so demonic cultivators at the Early Golden Core Stage knew something was amiss.

"Split up and run!"

The leading demonic cultivator screamed hoarsely. Before his words even finished, the group scattered like birds and beasts.

However, Immortal Master Fuxia had already formed a seal with her fingertips. A green light suddenly bloomed from the Storage Pouch at her waist.

Sixty-four large Formation Flags filed out in succession!

Each flagpole was made from thousand-year cold iron, with snow-white satin for the banner. Vermillion cinnabar Talisman scripts snaked across the banner surfaces like serpents, with over a dozen layers of spiritual Talismans superimposed and suppressing one another.

These spiritual Talismans either gleamed with golden light or contained purple lightning. Clearly, they were drawn by Immortal Master Fuxia over a century of painstaking effort, then personally engraved with Formation patterns by her own Master Zhenxia.

Now, freed from the pouch, they were like trapped Dragons soaring to the heavens!

"Suppress!"

Immortal Master Fuxia's clear command rang out like a chime. The sixty-four Formation Flags swelled violently in the wind, transforming in the blink of an eye into hundred-zhang giants that slammed down onto the peaks of the surrounding mountains! The flagpoles pierced the rock as if it were rotten earth. Instantly, the mountains trembled, and countless trees rustled mournfully.

In the next moment, the spiritual Talismans on all the banners simultaneously blazed with light.

Red, gold, azure, blue, and purple radiance shot into the sky. Every line on the Talismans seemed to come alive, writhing like Dragons, intertwining to form a gigantic net that blotted out the sky and sun.

The sea of clouds was torn apart, the mountain winds were imprisoned, and even the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi stagnated at this moment—the Eight Desolates Immortal-Trapping Talisman Formation was complete!

Among the mountain peaks, an isolated killing ground had been created.

The demonic cultivators' escaping lights came to an abrupt halt, crashing against an invisible barrier like moths to a flame.

Some frantically bombarded the Formation's luminous walls with demonic arts. Spells exploded in rippling layers, yet not even a single crack appeared.

This terrified the demonic cultivators, shattering their courage.

And at this moment, Daoist Danxia moved.

He spread his sleeves and opened his mouth, spitting out a stream of crimson-gold light.

The light hovered mid-air, slowly unfurling—it was actually a three-legged, two-eared bronze Pill Furnace!

The furnace body was mottled, inscribed with scenes of ancient ascended Immortals practicing Alchemy and seeking the Dao. The furnace lid was carved into a coiling Dragon holding a pearl in its mouth. At this moment, the Dragon's eyes were slowly opening.

Lifebound Treasure: The Nine Revolutions Sky-Scorching Furnace.

"Demonic scum, today is the day you meet your end."

Daoist Danxia's voice resonated like a deep bell. He formed a single-handed seal. The Nine Revolutions Sky-Scorching Furnace soared into the air, its lid clanging open! Instantly, a torrent of crimson flame, like a heavenly river pouring down, gushed forth from the furnace.

This was no ordinary fire.

It was the Sky-Scorching Karmic Fire, refined by Daoist Danxia over three hundred years using the Nine Revolutions Pill Art, after gathering molten essence from the earth's core and fusing it with the Li Fire of the Nine Heavens. Where the flames passed, the Void Realm twisted, mountain rocks melted, and even the air was scorched into a sheet of crimson.

The dozen or so Golden Core demonic cultivators, in their fear and desperation, shouted, "Fight him with everything we've got!"

Some summoned bone banners, unleashing the wails of ten thousand ghosts and a chilling wind that swept the ground. Others hurled demonic blades, their edges poisoned, gleaming with a sinister light. Still others bit their tongues, using essence blood to fuel forbidden arts, transforming into ferocious, three-headed, six-armed Dharma manifestations that roared as they lunged at Daoist Danxia.

Yet, it was all in vain.