Cultivation begins in Qingfeng Market.

To the gray-robed man, a Core Formation cultivator challenging a Nascent Soul cultivator was nothing short of a joke.

Lin Zhao's strategy was simple.

Taking advantage of the opportunity to fight, he briefly trapped the opponent with an array for a few breaths, and then used the teleportation ability of a fourth-tier magic weapon to forcibly leave.

They don't need to be trapped for long, just a few breaths will suffice.

Lin Zhao and the gray-robed man arrived at a deserted sea area.

This sea area is desolate, with no islands nearby, only some reefs.

The gray-robed man hovered above the sea, the seawater beneath his feet pressed into a smooth concave surface by his spiritual power.

He stood with his hands behind his back, his gray robe motionless in the sea breeze.

"Let's get started."

The gray-robed man spoke in a detached tone, even with a hint of nonchalance.

He's wasted so much of his time today, he should check what kind of person this sword cultivator is.

If someone is all show and no substance, he'll slap them to death for wasting a Nascent Soul True Monarch's time.

Below the Nascent Soul stage, all are ants.

This is absolutely not just empty talk.

Lin Zhao gripped the hilt of the Azure Lotus Sword, and the sword emitted a clear, melodious sound.

Before the sound had faded, Lin Zhao's Dharma Domain had already expanded dramatically, covering an area of ​​seventy miles in radius.

The sword intent surged forth from his body.

This time he didn't hold back; he released all his sword intent.

Then, endless cyan sword energy surged from his body.

Ten, a hundred, ten thousand—in the end, fifty thousand sword energies hung in the domain.

Each one was as solid as a real sword, three feet long and two fingers wide, with a bluish-green body and an extremely sharp edge, as if it could cut through anything.

Within the sword domain, sword energy was densely packed, like an inverted sea of ​​swords, obscuring the sky and the sun.

Lin Zhao clasped her hands together.

The Great Five Elements Sword Technique is activated.

Fifty thousand cyan sword energies trembled simultaneously, emitting a buzzing metallic resonance.

The cyan sword energy began to transform into the most extreme five elements attributes.

The Geng Metal sword energy is extremely strong and sharp, the Li Fire sword energy is intense and violent, the Qing Wood sword energy is inexhaustible, the Xuan Water sword energy is extremely soft and cold, and the Hou Earth sword energy is deep, solid, and heavy.

The five-colored sword energy swirled and intertwined within the domain, returning to its proper place according to the five elements.

Metal (庚) resides in the west, Fire (离) in the south, Wood (青木) in the east, Water (玄水) in the north, and Earth (厚土) in the center.

The five elements of sword energy intertwined, and spiritual light leaped between the swords, weaving a vast sword array covering dozens of miles.

The array patterns are composed of countless sword energies. Each array pattern is a chain of light formed by hundreds of sword energies connected end to end. The chains of light intersect and nest, layer upon layer.

The spiritual energy between heaven and earth was being frantically drawn out by the sword formation, and the spiritual light at the center of the formation was so bright that it was impossible to look directly at it.

Five Elements Returning to Origin Sword Formation.

The moment the sword formation was completed, the sea surface within the formation was pressed into a smooth concave surface with a diameter of tens of miles. The seawater at the edge tried to surge towards the center, but was blocked by the powerful sword energy.

The gray-robed man stood in the center of the sword formation, looked around with some surprise.

This Five Elements Sword Formation is indeed quite ingenious.

An ordinary peak Core Formation cultivator would likely suffer a great loss if they were to deal with this.

Then he looked away, his expression returning to normal.

He is a Nascent Soul cultivator.

Nascent Soul and Core Formation are two completely different things.

Lin Zhao took a deep breath.

This was his first direct confrontation with a Nascent Soul cultivator—whether it was a Dharma Body or a True Body, a Nascent Soul was still a Nascent Soul.

He wanted to see how big the gap was.

The main body has stopped cultivating and is ready to descend upon the sea of ​​consciousness with the Heavenly Heart Dharma Wheel to provide support at any time.

He brandished the Azure Lotus Sword, and the sword formation completely enveloped the gray-robed man.

The five elements of sword energy poured down, transforming into five sword rivers that simultaneously bombarded from five directions.

Wherever the sword river passed, the air was distorted by the power of the five elements, and the sea surface was torn open with five deep trenches by the pressure of the sword.

The man in the gray robe remained motionless.

The protective aura alone was enough to block the full force of the five sword rivers.

The sword river collided with the spiritual light, exploding into a sky full of five-colored spiritual light, blooming around him like fireworks.

The gray-robed man stood right in the center of the attack, his robes remaining perfectly still, all attacks blocked by his protective aura.

He even reached out and casually scooped up five streams of Five Elements Sword Qi from the Five Rivers of Swords.

The Five Elements Sword Qi struggled and pulsed in his palm, emitting a sharp sword cry. He glanced down at it, as if looking at some interesting little trinket.

Then he flicked his finger, infusing each of the five sword energies with a wisp of Nascent Soul mana. The grayish-black mana spread along the sword energies.

In an instant, the five cyan sword energies turned into five gray sword energies, their density increasing several times over.

Five gray sword energies changed direction and shot towards Lin Zhao.

It was extremely fast, so fast that by the time Lin Zhao's divine sense caught it, the sword energy was already a hundred feet away.

Lin Zhao only had time to mobilize the thousands of Five Elements Sword Qi swirling around him, weaving them into ten sword qi light shields in front of him.

The light shield is woven from countless fine sword energies of the five elements.

The gray sword energy collided with the first light shield without a sound. The shield cracked from the center, and the cracks spread like a spider web before shattering.

The second and third shields—the gray sword energy pierced through all five shields before being exhausted and dissipating on the surface of the sixth shield.

A fine layer of sweat appeared on Lin Zhao's back.

A chill ran up my spine.

This is the Nascent Soul.

The five sword energies opposite were not particularly powerful.

However, Lin Zhao used a sword aura hundreds of times greater than his opponent's to condense a shield.

Even if the opponent injects Nascent Soul power, the difference in spiritual power is at most ten times, based purely on the level of mathematical power.

But the enemy easily broke through his five-sided shield.

In other words, the same amount of magical power in the hands of a Nascent Soul cultivator has five times the instantaneous explosive power.

Lin Zhao's true form is also a being who has comprehended the Nascent Soul realm and can complete the transformation of matter and energy, but he does not have such exaggerated explosive power.

There is only one answer—divine consciousness.

The manifestation of divine consciousness at the Nascent Soul stage grants them control and explosive power far exceeding those at the Core Formation stage.

The strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator has undergone a qualitative change, no wonder Nascent Soul cultivators don't take Core Formation cultivators seriously.

Lin Zhao stopped testing the waters.

He clasped his hands together, and five-colored sword energy surged from all directions toward the center, merging together.

The five elements of sword energy collided and intertwined, transforming into a massive sword energy storm around the gray-robed man.

The storm slowly rotated around the gray-robed man, and with each rotation, thousands of sword energies slashed at the spiritual energy shield.

The sword energy slashed upwards, bounced off, was sucked back in by the storm, and then slashed upwards again.

The storm spun faster and faster, the sword energy grew denser and denser, and the gray-robed man was enveloped in a vortex of flowing, five-colored sword energy.

The vortex of sword energy spun continuously, cutting away at all living things within it.

The man in the gray robe raised his hand.

A powerful gray magical force surged from his palm, like an invisible giant hand, instantly striking the center of the storm.

There were no fancy techniques involved; it was just a simple palm strike.

The massive storm of sword energy was mostly dispersed by this palm strike, with tens of thousands of sword energies scattering and flying in all directions like sand blown by the wind.

Lin Zhao attempted to reassemble the scattered sword energy.

The gray-robed man pressed down with his hand.

A terrifying force descended from the sky, crushing the scattered sword energy and destroying most of the sword energy released by Lin Zhao.

This is the true power of a Nascent Soul True Monarch.