With the Eight Immortals' magical treasures in hand, even a mortal like myself! Ha!

At this moment, the cultivators defending the arena all closed their eyes to rest, clearly very confident in their abilities. Seeing this, Gu Qing also leaped onto an empty arena, then sat down cross-legged, waiting for the competition to officially begin.

Seeing Gu Qing jump onto the arena immediately attracted the attention of many people. However, everyone sensed the solid magical power emanating from Gu Qing and knew at a glance that he was not someone to be trifled with, so they quickly looked away.

However, Gu Qing still noticed several gazes fixed on him, which must be the cultivators Wang Yuan had mentioned who would take special care of him.

Gu Qing opened his eyes and looked over, only to see three or four cultivators in the mid-to-late stages of Foundation Establishment gathered together, talking in hushed tones.

Seeing Gu Qing looking over, one of the late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators, who was burly but short, made a throat-slitting gesture at him, his expression extremely arrogant, clearly targeting Gu Qing.

Faced with such provocation, Gu Qing simply smiled faintly—the more arrogant a person is, the harder they will be beaten later.

Just then, several streaks of light fell from the sky, and when the light dissipated, the figures of several middle-aged people appeared.

Upon seeing the newcomer, all the cultivators present bowed respectfully and said, "Greetings, Island Lord, Deputy Island Lord, and all seniors."

Gu Qing also turned his gaze in that direction and noticed that there were quite a few Core Formation cultivators who had come this time.

The middle-aged man in the very center with slightly graying temples appears to be the island master of Kui Xing Island, Master Mu Long, who has a rather otherworldly air about him.

Gu Qing recognized the two people beside him; they were Yuan Jun, the deputy island lord, and his Daoist partner, Kanqin Zhenren.

Standing on the right were Tieguai Li and Han Xiangzi, while Xin Ruyin stood behind them, craning her neck to look at Gu Qing and even winking secretly.

To the right of Tieguai Li and Han Xiangzi were two other people, namely Elder Gu and Elder Miao, the two elders of the Six-Linked Hall.

A competition for Foundation Establishment cultivators has attracted seven Core Formation cultivators; such a scene is quite rare.

The Foundation Establishment cultivators on the field were already feeling considerable pressure, after all, there was a huge gap in spiritual energy and magical power between Core Formation cultivators and Foundation Establishment cultivators.

At this moment, Master Mulong's divine sense swept over the group of Foundation Establishment cultivators. He felt the overall quality of this batch of Foundation Establishment cultivators and was quite satisfied. A rare look of satisfaction appeared on his face.

Finally, Master Mulong's gaze lingered on Gu Qing for a moment before he spoke, "The once-in-a-decade mountain peak competition now begins! Each of you may choose your favorite mountain to challenge. In this contest of immortal techniques, let it end when the point is reached!"

As soon as Master Mulong finished speaking, the Foundation Establishment cultivators began to wander between the various arenas, looking for suitable opponents.

Meanwhile, the people around Master Mulong began to talk. "Senior Li, that must be your junior disciple, right? Judging from his profound cultivation, he's probably close to entering the Pseudo-Core stage."

"Hehehe, that's about it. I'll have to ask the gentlemen of Kui Xing Island to go easy on me then." Tieguai Li replied with a smile, his expression amiable and without any airs. If it weren't for the powerful magic emanating from him, he would probably be mistaken for an ordinary disabled man.

"Hahaha, fellow Daoist, you jest." True Man Mulong also laughed, giving Elder Gu a meaningful look. Elder Gu and Elder Miao quickly smiled in accompaniment.

As the group chatted and laughed, a tall, thin middle-aged cultivator leaped onto the arena where Gu Qing was standing. After recognizing the cultivator's mid-Foundation Establishment stage cultivation, Gu Qing said bluntly, "Go down. You are no match for me."

"Hmph, how do you know if you haven't competed? Don't look down on me!" the tall, thin middle-aged man retorted somewhat unconvinced.

Seeing that the other party had failed to understand his goodwill, Gu Qing said no more. With a wave of his hand, he threw out more than a dozen fireball talismans. His palm then transformed into a sword finger, and the fireball talismans instantly turned into raging fireballs.

Gu Qingjian pointed at the tall, thin middle-aged man, and the fireball, under his control, roared towards him.

Seeing that Gu Qing immediately unleashed a set of low-level spells, the tall, thin middle-aged man was clearly displeased and shouted, "Who do you think you are? Show me your true skills!"

As he spoke, the tall, thin middle-aged man conjured a square shield with four corners, which transformed into a shield of light, completely protecting him. The first fireball struck the square shield and vanished instantly, failing to even budge the shield in the slightest.

Then, a second, a third, and even four, five, six, or seven fireballs rained down in succession, but still failed to have any effect on the four-corner shields.

"Useless! These low-level spells can't break my Heavenly Shield at all. This is a top-tier magic artifact!" the tall, thin middle-aged man said smugly.

Gu Qing did not stop after hearing this, and continued to control the fireball talisman to launch an attack. The fireballs hit the pale blue light shield like exploding fireworks, accompanied by a wisp of smoke, obscuring the surrounding vision.

After more than a dozen fireballs slammed into the tall, thin man's light shield, Gu Qing finally changed tactics, summoning the octagonal mirror. This mirror belonged to Duobao Nu of the Hidden Moon Sect; it was said to be a replica of a magical artifact, capable of instantly rendering any magical weapon useless upon being reflected in it. Gu Qing had used it against enemies many times with excellent results.

A beam of light shot out from the octagonal mirror in Gu Qing's hand, striking the tall, thin middle-aged man's Heavenly Shield. The next moment, the Heavenly Shield dimmed instantly, unable to even maintain its most basic shield-like form.

This sudden turn of events startled the tall, thin middle-aged man. Before he could react, three or four fireballs had already struck him.

The tall, thin middle-aged man was humiliated and knocked off the stage by a low-level spell, and the match ended just like that.

"Damn it!" The tall, thin middle-aged man glanced at Gu Qing unwillingly, clearly still unconvinced, but a loss is a loss, and there was no way to start over.

Seeing that Gu Qing had defeated a mid-Foundation Establishment cultivator so easily, the other Foundation Establishment cultivators who had been eyeing him all turned to other arenas.

However, a few Foundation Establishment cultivators remained standing in place; they were the same people who had provoked Gu Qing from the very beginning.

The short cultivator whispered a few instructions to a Foundation Establishment cultivator beside him. The Foundation Establishment cultivator nodded, then leaped onto the arena, cupped his hands in greeting to Gu Qing, and said, "I am Long Hua, greetings, fellow Daoist."

Before Gu Qing could even respond, he struck first, brandishing a pair of long whips that transformed into two serpents, attacking Gu Qing from the left and right. The serpents were incredibly fast, reaching Gu Qing in the blink of an eye.

Gu Qing calmly took a step back and shone the octagonal mirror at the two spirit snakes. Instantly, the two arm-thick spirit snakes lost their spirit and collapsed to the ground like dead snakes.

Longhua was shocked to see this, never expecting that the mirror in Gu Qing's hand was so powerful.

Before Longhua could unleash his next magical artifact, three or four fireballs flew over and struck him squarely, knocking him off the stage in a sorry state.

Gu Qing put away the octagonal mirror and said with a smile, "You flatter me."

At this point, Gu Qing had defeated two opponents in a row. If he could defeat three more, he would be able to successfully defend his title.

Gu Qing's gaze involuntarily fell upon the short cultivator below the arena. The short cultivator frowned as he looked over, clearly realizing that the mirror in Gu Qing's hand was quite troublesome. But soon, he smiled, regaining his previous confidence.