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

In just a moment, Ling Yuling's flying boat actually overtook Gu Qing. Gu Qing was slightly surprised, and then added spirit stones to his flying boat, barely managing to keep pace with Ling Yuling.

Seeing this, Ling Yuling couldn't help but say, "How about we communicate telepathically and tell them to stop fighting and come join us?"

"No problem! We have no grudge against each other." Gu Qing nodded in agreement, sending out a communication talisman while piloting the flying boat.

Seeing this, Ling Yuling did not hesitate and sent out a sound transmission talisman with her slender jade hand.

After the two finished doing all this, the speed of the flying boat under their feet did not stop at all; on the contrary, it increased by half a step under the impetus of magic.

The reason Gu Qing and Ling Yuling acted this way was because something was chasing them from behind—a group of maggot-like beasts.

One of them was enormous, and judging from its appearance, it should have a cultivation level of seven.

The horizon dozens of miles behind us was a dark, oppressive mass, teeming with countless monstrous beasts.

This inevitably reminded Gu Qing of one of the three great natural disasters of the Chaotic Star Sea—the beast tide. He was probably encountering a beast tide at the moment, but he didn't know what caused it.

However, the direction from which the beast tide was coming seemed to be the same direction from which the stench of the demon-attracting grass was drifting.

Gu Qing had a strange feeling: Could it be that he had forced the three demon-attracting herbs to mature to a thousand years old, which triggered this beast tide?

What would happen if a thousand-year-old demon-attracting grass were thrown into the sea at this moment? He had heard that a daring Nascent Soul cultivator had wandered around the sea with a thousand-year-old demon-attracting grass, which resulted in a beast tide and almost killed him.

So after thinking it over, Gu Qing still didn't dare to be reckless and didn't throw the demon-attracting grass into the sea.

Soon, Gu Qing and Ling Yuling arrived at the place where Han Xiangzi and the others were fighting. By this time, the group had stopped fighting, but their expressions were somewhat serious.

Even Nascent Soul cultivators can perish in the face of a beast tide; such things are often heard of in the Chaotic Star Sea.

Even Nascent Soul cultivators can perish, which is why the beast tide has become one of the natural disasters of the Chaotic Star Sea.

"How could there be a beast tide here? That shouldn't be happening!" Elder Jin Yao said, somewhat puzzled.

The brown-robed elder beside him reminded him anxiously, "Elder Jin Yao, this is not the time to think about these things. The important thing is to get the young master away quickly."

Reminded, Elder Jin Yao looked up at Gu Qing and his two companions in the distance, where they were all on a flying boat.

Then, something astonishing happened—he had no idea when the young master had fallen into their hands.

"Young Master! Release the Young Master!" Elder Jin Yao transformed his spiritual power into a giant net, which descended upon the young master.

But when the huge net fell, it only covered a blurry image.

Tieguai Li had already used the Shrinking Earth technique to leave the original spot, which annoyed Elder Jin Yao, who immediately gave chase.

Unfortunately, no matter how fast Elder Jin Yao chased after him, he couldn't outrun Tieguai Li's ability to shrink the distance to an inch.

In just a few breaths, Tieguai Li had already traveled tens of thousands of miles, completely escaping the range of the beast tide.

Even if Elder Jin Yao flew at full speed, it would take him several hours to catch up.

"You've got some nerve, daring to run away with us." Gu Qing looked at Ling Yuling, a smile creeping onto his face.

Ling Yuling was indeed bold, and she remained very calm as she said, "I thought the chances of escaping with you all were greater, and now it seems I was right."

"So you just abandoned your subordinates like that?" Gu Qing asked curiously.

Ling Yuling shook her head and denied it, saying, "Without me, Elder Jin Yao would have had a better chance of escaping."

Gu Qing nodded in agreement: "Although you're right, aren't you afraid we might do something to you? We've had conflicts before."

Ling Yuling produced a fan from somewhere and gently waved it, saying, "With my master here, what do I have to be afraid of?"

As she spoke, she looked at Han Xiangzi. Upon hearing this, Han Xiangzi immediately chuckled, "Since you've acknowledged me as your master, I will naturally protect you."

"Alright, send a message to that elder and tell him we won't make things difficult for you." Gu Qing didn't want to fall out with the Star Palace so soon after arriving in the Chaotic Star Sea—after all, his cave dwelling was still on the Star Palace's territory.

"Alright, I'll send a message to Elder Jin Yao right away. By the way, may I ask how this senior brother is addressed?" Ling Yuling spoke in a very familiar manner.

Gu Qing said calmly, "You can leave now. Do you still want to stay with us?"

"I've been training with my master for a while now, so what, is there a problem?" Ling Yuling asked back, and then stood behind Han Xiangzi.

"Hehehe! I really like this girl." Han Xiangzi said, looking at Gu Qing.

After listening, Gu Qing pondered for a moment, not wanting to offend Han Xiangzi, and finally could only nod in agreement.

Months later, the group successfully avoided the beast tide and returned to Kui Xing Island unharmed. Upon arriving at Kui Xing Island, Gu Qing gave the demon beast materials to Tieguai Li to sell, so that he could exchange them for spirit stones to improve his cultivation.

Gu Qing returned directly to his cave dwelling, activated the formation, and then went into seclusion.

After this farce, Gu Qing realized that his strength was far too weak—aside from dealing with the corpses of demonic beasts, he could do almost nothing else. So he decided to calm down and go into seclusion to break through his current realm.

Inside the cave, Gu Qing summoned the Ironwood clone to his body, then fed it a few drops of Heavenly Fire Liquid and a large amount of Qi-Nourishing Pills.

He also swallowed a few drops of Heavenly Fire Liquid and a large amount of Qi-Nourishing Pills, intending to first raise his cultivation to the Perfect Realm before attempting a breakthrough.

His current cultivation level is the late Foundation Establishment stage, which is the so-called perfect stage, or Pseudo-Core Formation stage. Gu Qing estimates that he can break through to the Pseudo-Core Formation stage in another four or five years of cultivation, and at that time, the probability of breaking through to the Core Formation stage will be even higher.

After swallowing a few drops of Heavenly Fire Liquid and a large amount of Qi-Nourishing Pills, Gu Qing felt his true essence boiling and rapidly circulating along his meridians.

He hadn't expected that the Heavenly Fire Liquid would have such an effect, accelerating the circulation of his cultivation technique.

Gu Qing endured the slight stinging pain from the rapid circulation of his cultivation technique and began to circulate the Nightmare Wood Technique to break through the bottleneck in his cultivation realm.

Once he breaks through to the fourth level of the Nightmare Wood Technique, he will be able to successfully form his core.

He just didn't know that after he successfully formed his core, his Ironwood clone would also naturally break through to the core formation stage.

If that were the case, wouldn't Gu Qing have two golden cores in his body? His magical power would also be much stronger than others.

Of course, all of this is still unknown.

And so, time passed little by little, spring turned to winter. Fifteen years later, Qingyun Mountain remained as tranquil as ever.

On one of the peaks of Qingyun Mountain, a once-every-ten-year competition for the thirty-six peaks is underway.

This time, four arenas on the Thirty-Six Peaks are empty again—everyone knows who occupies the mountain peaks behind these four arenas.