A daily divination, from family tortoise shells to immortal clans.

It's hard to say whether the Floating Cloud Sect would still be willing to use a competition to decide the jurisdiction of Guanzhou if it had two Nascent Soul cultivators.

"Fellow Daoist Chen, the sect is in dire need of Golden Core families, which most likely means they want us to engage in a battle."

"According to what I know, both the Floating Cloud Sect and the Heavenly Fire Sect have more than one Golden Core cultivator in their Golden Core families, including some in the mid-stage and late-stage Golden Core. However, I guess the patriarchs of these families with such cultivation levels will not participate in the battle, otherwise there would be no need for this competition."

After Chu Jing broke through to the Golden Core realm, his ability to gather information was significantly stronger than before.

He now has a general understanding of the strength of the other two Golden Core families, and this information is very useful to Chen Qingmo.

Seeing Chen Qingmo listening intently, Chu Jing continued, "Fellow Daoist Chen, I'll be frank. Although you've just broken through to the Golden Core stage, your combat strength is definitely greater than mine."

"If the competition ultimately turns out to be a normal duel, I hope you can take care of Chu Yi and let Chu Yi choose a weaker opponent."

After Chu Jing finished speaking, he stared at Chen Qingmo's reaction.

He knew this was a bad thing, but he really had no confidence that he could beat anyone.

The Golden Core families of the other two sects have been developing for over a thousand years, while the original Golden Core families of the Yuanjian Sect joined the sect after the old sect leader passed away, becoming clans within the sect.

Only one family chose to establish its own sect, but after operating for hundreds of years, it disappeared into the annals of history.

After thousands of years of development, the Golden Core families that remained in the sect had already established themselves firmly within the sect. They would certainly be unwilling to become subordinate families of the sect.

This is why all the things that have happened now have led to Chen Qingmo and Chu Jingshen taking on heavy responsibilities.

After listening to Chu Jing's words, Chen Qingmo pondered for a moment but did not reply.

The two knew each other, but their relationship wasn't that good. It was obviously impossible for Chu Jing to ask him to do these things without any explanation.

After a long silence, he shook his head: "Fellow Daoist Chu, you overestimate me. I've only just broken through to the Golden Core realm; my cultivation isn't even stable yet. How can I talk about having great combat power?"

"I think it's better to wait for the sect to make a decision."

Upon hearing this, Chu Jing's expression froze.

He sighed and finally nodded.

Chen Qingmo's refusal was not surprising. Chu Jing only wanted to give it a try, so it was fine if he disagreed.

The two then chatted for a while, and Chu Jing left a congratulatory gift before bowing and taking his leave.

Chen Qingmo pondered the information he had received from Chu Jing, feeling uneasy.

His only skill was in array formations, which had reached the seventh rank, but he had focused on breaking through to the next level for decades and had not studied it in depth.

Chen Qingmo's current understanding of array formations is only slightly better than it was when he reached the Foundation Establishment stage decades ago.

No matter what competition method the sect set, he didn't know how to win.

Now we can only take it one step at a time.

Chen Qingmo shook his head and returned to his cave to prepare to stabilize his cultivation.

Ten days later, inside the Yuanjian Sect.

Ning Hexing appeared above the Hall of Ten Thousand Swords, accompanied by a fairy dressed in red.

Upon seeing this attire, Shen Xun and Xiao Wujian immediately recognized the person as Song Hongfei.

At this moment, Song Hongfei was holding Ning Hexing's arm, with a faint smile on her face, looking radiant and beautiful.

The two, uncle and nephew, exchanged a glance, their eyes both filled with smiles. Xiao Wujian cupped his hands and said, "Greetings, Fairy Song. You and your senior brother..."

He didn't finish his sentence, but his meaning was clear.

"Junior brother, can't you tell? Senior Brother Ning and I have already become Daoist partners." Song Hongfei glanced at Xiao Wujian with dissatisfaction.

The two were acting intimately; wasn't Xiao Wujian asking a question he already knew the answer to?

"Hehe! Junior brother congratulates senior brother in advance." Xiao Wujian was rebuffed and laughed awkwardly.

"Hahaha! Excellent! Miss Song and my Hexing are a match made in heaven. The sect should celebrate this marriage." Shen Xun also spoke up at this moment, smiling as he looked at the two juniors.

Facing Shen Xun, Song Hongfei became noticeably more amiable and appeared well-mannered. She bowed slightly to Shen Xun, saying, "Hongfei thanks Elder Shen for his kind words!"

Seeing this scene, Xiao Wujian felt a pang of unease.

"Why do they treat my uncle and me differently? Could it be that my senior brother is talking badly about me?" Xiao Wujian couldn't help but mutter to himself.

He usually acted very lazy in front of Ning Hexing, and his senior brother didn't think he had a very good image.

Xiao Wujian looked at Ning Hexing, only to find him calm and showing no sign of distress.

"Hongfei, my junior brother and I have some things to discuss. Would you like to wander around the Yuanjian Sect by yourself?" Ning Hexing said softly, pulling his arm away from Song Hongfei's grasp.

"Okay!" Song Hongfei nodded slightly.

Ning Hexing wanted to discuss serious matters, and since she was still a member of the Floating Cloud Sect, it was not appropriate to disturb her.

After Song Hongfei left, Xiao Wujian couldn't help but ask, "Senior brother, even if you promised Song Hongfei that you would become her Daoist partner, why did you bring her back to the sect now?"

Upon hearing this, Shen Xun raised his finger and lightly tapped the back of Xiao Wujian's head, chuckling, "Wujian, don't ask questions you shouldn't ask."

Xiao Wujian was somewhat puzzled, but under the warning look from his martial uncle, he stopped asking about it.

"He Xing, tell me, what are the plans of the Floating Cloud Sect and the Heavenly Fire Sect?" Shen Xun asked, inquiring about the most important matter.

"Uncle-Master, the Floating Cloud Sect and the Heavenly Fire Sect have agreed to the competition and are preparing to use the Starry Sky Disc as the competition venue," Ning Hexing said in a deep voice.

"Star Compass? The Floating Cloud Sect is quite generous. This compass can suppress a cultivator's realm. If a Nascent Soul cultivator activates it, those below the Nascent Soul stage are powerless to resist. If this thing were used on the battlefield, it would be a deadly weapon."

"It's said that activating this disk is quite troublesome, so why is the Floating Cloud Sect using it in this competition?"

Shen Xun looked puzzled. He had lived for nearly five hundred years and had some understanding of the situation of various sects. Could it be that his nephew had agreed to some conditions for the Floating Cloud Sect to use this treasure?

Seeing Shen Xun's expression, Ning Hexing immediately understood what his martial uncle was thinking. He gently shook his head and said, "Martial Uncle, it's not my fault."

"Guess who I met at the Floating Cloud Sect?"

Seeing his junior apprentice's mysterious expression, Shen Xun's curiosity was piqued, and he quickly said, "Why are you learning from Wujian? Stop being mysterious and just say what you want to say!"

"Uncle-Master, I'm not trying to keep you in suspense, but this matter is truly shocking. Do you know anyone named Feng Liuying?"

"Feng Liuying? Isn't that the genius sect leader of the Floating Cloud Sect who disappeared thousands of years ago? Is what you're talking about related to her?" Shen Xun's expression suddenly realized. If it really was Feng Liuying's whereabouts afterward, then it was indeed something to be curious about.

But why would the Floating Cloud Sect talk about such things with Ning Hexing out of the blue?

Before Shen Xun could voice his question, Ning Hexing continued, "Uncle-Master, Feng Liuying is currently inside the Floating Cloud Sect. I sense that her strength is even greater than Senior Song's; I estimate she's at the late Nascent Soul stage."

"What!? Readers are buzzing: What exactly happened? Come join the discussion." Hearing this, even Shen Xun, who was usually so composed, couldn't hide his shock.

Xiao Wujian, standing to the side, was equally stunned, his face filled with disbelief.

"Feng Liuying possessed his body?" With Shen Xun's knowledge, this was the first thing he thought of.

"But that's not right. Even if she had possessed someone else's body, Feng Liuying's lifespan shouldn't have been this long."

Shen Xun couldn't understand how a cultivator from thousands of years ago could still be alive today.

After a cultivator possesses another's body, their lifespan remains the same as before, and is not calculated based on the lifespan of the person whose body was possessed.

With Feng Liuying's cultivation at the Nascent Soul stage, she could only live for a maximum of 1,500 years.

"There was no possession. As for how this Senior Feng survived, I don't know, but her opportunities were absolutely amazing."

"Her remaining lifespan is almost the same as when she disappeared according to the records. In other words, the Floating Cloud Sect has a Nascent Soul late-stage cultivator with a long lifespan."

After Ning Hexing finished speaking, he sighed.

Even though he is now at the Nascent Soul stage, he was still shocked by this.

"That makes sense now. It's relatively simple for a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator to activate the Star Disc." Shen Xun nodded, but the surprise in his heart had not disappeared.

The three talked for a long time until they finished telling their story, and then Ning Hexing used telepathy to summon the Golden Core elders.

……

Mount Taixuan.

Chen Qingmo looked at the message from Yuanjian Sect with a solemn expression.

The final competition method was still a contest of magic, but it was relatively fairer.

According to the sect's description, the Star Chart can suppress the cultivation levels of these Golden Core cultivators to the same realm.

In this way, the competition will be based on everyone's combat experience, proficiency in using spells, and the strength of their spiritual sense.

Even though Chen Qingmo and Chu Jing had almost no combat experience at the Golden Core stage, this was already the best method.

The Yuanjian Sect's hasty desire to recapture Guanzhou was an unavoidable situation.

To our delight, the sect sent some miraculous elixirs and magical treasures in exchange for our victory in the competition.

Although Chen Qingmo's Five Elements Profound Cloud Sword was barely upgraded to the level of a magic weapon when he broke through.

However, Chen Qingmo did not use new materials to reforge his natal immortal sword, so the Five Elements Mystic Cloud Sword is considered to be in a relatively weak category among magical treasures.

The magical treasures sent by the Yuanjian Sect were sufficient for cultivators in the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, demonstrating the importance the sect placed on the competition.

If it weren't for the fear that the Floating Cloud Sect and the Heavenly Fire Sect would notice something amiss and cause trouble, the Yuan Sword Sect would have even wanted to bestow upon Chen Qingmo and the early Golden Core stage cultivators, even those at the peak of the Golden Core stage, magical treasures.

Chen Qingmo picked up the magical artifact embryo in front of him and dripped his own blood essence into it to establish a connection.

He then sent a wisp of his divine consciousness into the core of the magic weapon, making it recognize him as its master.

This magical artifact is a small ruler called the Mountain and River Ruler.

One side is engraved with towering mountains, and the other side is engraved with a surging river.

After refining the Mountain and River Ruler, Chen Qingmo naturally learned some of its uses.

Activating the magic ruler can summon illusory images of mountains and rivers to suppress enemies; its power is immense and astonishing.

It is a magic weapon that combines offense and defense.

At this point, the ruler had not yet fully integrated with Chen Qingmo's true essence and still needed to be refined repeatedly.

But it is, after all, a powerful magic weapon, far superior to the current Five Elements Mystic Cloud Sword.

Chen Qingmo planned to use the ruler as a sword to activate the Green Mountain Sword Technique.

The powerful true energy was poured into the Mountain and River Ruler, and the sharp sword energy of the Green Mountain Sword Technique appeared on the ruler.

"It's barely usable," Chen Qingmo commented after waving the pen a few times.

Ultimately, ruler-shaped magic weapons and sword-shaped magic weapons are not quite the same, and the circulation path of true essence within them is different.

Using the Mountain and River Ruler to unleash the Green Mountain Sword Technique, even managing to unleash six or seven tenths of its power would be beyond expectations.

Fortunately, the Mountain and River Ruler itself possesses extraordinary supernatural powers, so Chen Qingmo doesn't need to worry about the magic weapon's power.

He stored the Mountain and River Ruler inside his dantian, intending to nurture it until the day of the competition.

With the matter of the magical artifact resolved, Chen Qingmo now needs to make some other preparations.

The Gengjin Exorcising Array in his hand is an eighth-grade array. Although he can use his own true essence to activate the array after breaking through to the Golden Core stage, the array is quite precious, and he is somewhat reluctant to part with it.

The storage bag left behind by True Lord Yuheng still contained a lot of array-setting materials. Before the competition, Chen Qingmo was confident that he could refine two or three seventh-grade arrays.

With this thought in mind, he immediately went into seclusion to prepare for the matter.

Inside the cave, Chen Qingmo searched through the seventh-grade formations left behind by True Monarch Yuheng. One of them, called the Six Ding Yin Fire Formation, caught his attention.

This formation can summon underground ghost fire, which specifically burns the spirit and soul, but causes less damage to the physical body.

To set up the Six Ding Yin Fire Formation, six Six Ding Soul-Guiding Banners need to be crafted. Each banner requires spirit sand mixed with the essence blood of a demon beast and corresponding talismans drawn on it.

The making of the banners is relatively simple; the difficulty lies in drawing the talismans.

The six banners are identical, but the symbols on each banner are different.

All the talismans must be able to be connected as a whole; otherwise, even if they are drawn on, the Six Ding Yin Fire Array cannot be activated.

Chen Qingmo looked serious and didn't find the requirements of this formation difficult.

Formations that can attack with divine sense are indeed rare, so he can accept that they are more troublesome to create.

After all, not everyone cultivates spiritual power. Once the Six Ding Yin Fire Formation is activated, even if the Golden Core cultivators from the other two sects have strong spiritual powers, they will inevitably suffer injuries.

When the tide turns and one side gains or loses, there will be an opportunity to win.

The sect is willing to provide their magical treasures to help them in the competition, and there will be rewards after they win. As long as they don't reveal their trump cards, Chen Qingmo is also willing to lend a hand.

It took nearly a month to complete the crafting of the Six Ding Soul-Guiding Banner.

Next came the drawing of the talismans. Chen Qingmo set up the spirit-gathering and energy-transforming array he had used during his seclusion and began to draw the talismans.

He was very careful with every stroke of his pen, afraid of making the slightest mistake.

Two more months passed, and the final drawing of the talisman was completed.

Chen Qingmo exhaled a long breath, looked happily at the Dharma banner on the table, and put it into his storage bag.

The Six Ding Yin Fire Array took longer to refine than expected, and at this point he was no longer able to refine a relatively powerful seventh-grade array.

Chen Qingmo chose a relatively easy trapping formation and spent more than a month refining it.

A considerable amount of time has passed, and the day of the competition is fast approaching.

The Yuanjian Sect sent another message, summoning Chen Qingmo and Chu Jing to join the sect.

At the summit of Mount Taixuan, Chen Mingzheng and Master Tiejian stood before Chen Qingmo, their faces filled with concern.

"Qingmo, in a battle between Golden Core cultivators, you must be extremely careful with every move. Protecting yourself is the most important thing. Don't harm yourself for the sake of your sect's benefit."

The two elders were most concerned about the younger generation in front of them; matters of the sect were not of great importance to them.