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

Gu Qing was in seclusion and therefore did not attend this once-in-a-decade competition.

However, with two Core Formation cultivators, Tieguai Li and Han Xiangzi, present, I believe the island lord wouldn't have any objections, much less dare to.

Now, after fifteen years of cultivation, both Tieguai Li and Han Xiangzi have broken through the late stage of Core Formation and reached the Nascent Soul stage.

Over fifteen years, with 361 days a year, earning three mid-grade spirit stones per day, that's 1,083 mid-grade spirit stones per year.

Over fifteen years, that amounted to 16,245 mid-grade spirit stones.

Before Gu Qing went into seclusion, the two of them combined were only 12,000 mid-grade spirit stones away from breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage, so as long as they didn't slack off—

Hmm! It should be said that if Tieguai Li hadn't been slacking off, he should have had a surplus of four thousand mid-grade spirit stones.

In addition to the materials from the monsters he had hunted and the pills made from the monster cores, Tieguai Li's cultivation should have reached the mid-Nascent Soul stage by now.

However, Tieguai Li is currently only at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm. It is unclear whether he was being lazy or splitting the spirit stones equally with Han Xiangzi, which is why both of them are now at the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm.

Tieguai Li, who was accompanying the island lord Mulong Zhenren to watch the competition, suddenly felt something and turned his gaze to a certain mountain peak among the thirty-six peaks, and a smile appeared on his face.

Seeing this, Master Mulong felt a little strange and asked curiously, "What's wrong, fellow Daoist?"

Following Tieguai Li's gaze, Master Mulong saw that the once cloudless sky had suddenly become covered with dark clouds, and for some unknown reason, a strong wind suddenly arose, eventually forming a vortex of spiritual energy.

At the same time, a buzzing sound emanated from the center of the vortex, and the spiritual energy within a radius of dozens of miles was completely drained and continuously poured into the center of the vortex.

"Is someone breaking through to the Core Formation stage? This direction... Hehehe, I see. Congratulations, fellow Daoist." Master Mulong instantly understood the reason. It must be Tieguai Li's grand-nephew breaking through to the Golden Core stage, which is why he showed such a smile.

Upon seeing this, the two deputy island lords stepped forward to offer their congratulations.

The other Foundation Establishment cultivators who were fighting all showed envious expressions when they saw this scene.

On Yuxia Peak, Gu Qing had a strange expression on his face. He himself couldn't tell whether he had successfully formed his core or not.

Fifteen years of cultivation gave him hope of forming a golden core. He originally estimated that in another ten or twenty years, when he was in his sixties or seventies, he would be able to form a golden core.

But today, an unexpected event occurred—his Ironwood clone suddenly condensed a golden core, and then this golden core was transferred into his body. Now he has become a Golden Core cultivator with a golden core.

"Strange, really strange!" Gu Qing muttered to himself.

Gu Qing fiddled with the golden core within his body and discovered that after the golden core entered his body, the aura of the Ironwood clone decreased, returning to the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage, which is the cultivation level of the Pseudo-Core stage.

Gu Qing wanted to transfer the Golden Core back to the Ironwood Avatar, but found that the Golden Core was already fixed in his body and was slowly assimilating the liquid mana in his body, causing the mana to quickly solidify and gather on the Golden Core.

This gave Gu Qing the illusion that his golden core had become more solid than before, and his own magical power had indeed made a qualitative leap.

"What on earth is going on? I should have known better than to cultivate such an incomplete technique," Gu Qing muttered to himself.

Indeed, the cultivation technique he practiced was incomplete, ending only at the Nascent Soul stage. However, it now appears that this incomplete technique was by no means an ordinary thing.

This reminded Gu Qing of what Linghu Laozu had said—if he encountered a bottleneck in his cultivation, he could go to him at any time. At that time, Linghu Laozu had also given him something like a brocade pouch.

Thinking of this, Gu Qing quickly took out the brocade pouch, thankfully he hadn't thrown it away. He hesitated for a moment, then opened the pouch. Inside was only a slip of paper with two lines of text written on it.

Upon reading the words on the note, Gu Qing's face immediately darkened: "So the cultivation technique wasn't incomplete at all; the second half was always in the hands of Old Ancestor Linghu. What a cunning old fox!"

If I were to break through to the Nascent Soul stage in the future and want to go even further, I would either have to ask Ancestor Linghu for the second half of the cultivation technique, or I would have to switch to another cultivation technique.

Now it seems the best solution is to switch to other cultivation methods so that he won't be held back by Patriarch Linghu.

If we're talking about where the best and most abundant cultivation techniques are, then Xinggong is the place to be.

"It seems I still need to cultivate a good relationship with that junior sister I'm taking advantage of," Gu Qing thought to himself.

It's just unknown whether Ling Yuling has returned to Tianxing City in these fifteen years. If he were Ling Yuling, he probably would have gone back long ago—Kui Xing Island simply doesn't have enough resources for Ling Yuling to improve her cultivation.

Gu Qing withdrew his thoughts and focused his mind into the Eight Immortals painting. Guided by his divine sense, he saw a flower basket float out from within the painting.

Seeing this, Gu Qing finally realized that he had indeed broken through to the Core Formation stage—only by breaking through to the Core Formation stage could he reactivate the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea Diagram.

Gu Qing looked at the flower basket in her hand and couldn't help but smile, thinking that the flower basket had come at just the right time.

Lan Caihe's flower basket was all-encompassing, containing celestial flowers, magical herbs, and divine fruits.

Although Han Xiangzi can accelerate the growth of spiritual herbs, he can only accelerate them to a thousand years old at most. However, Lan Caihe's flower basket can continue to accelerate growth and can also store a large number of spiritual herbs inside, making it practically a large spatial storage bag.

No, it's much more powerful than a storage bag—because a flower basket can also hold living creatures.

With this flower basket, the cultivation of the spiritual herbs can be done more discreetly.

"The most important thing now is to find a Core Formation stage body for Lan Caihe," Gu Qing thought to himself.

It would be most appropriate to give this flower basket to Lan Caihe; otherwise, it would be inappropriate for a grown man to carry a flower basket all day long.

It's just unknown whether the bodies of the Li brothers, who were turned into corpse puppets by Tieguai Li, are still usable.

Gu Qing packed his things and prepared to go see Tieguai Li. Stepping out of the cave, he saw the communication talismans floating in the air, and put them into his hands one by one. He then examined them one by one, his face sometimes frowning and sometimes showing a smile.

All I can say is that the message contained both good news and less-than-good news.

However, there wasn't any really bad news. The only slightly good news was that Ling Yuling had indeed returned to Tianxing City five years ago and left a letter for Gu Qing, inviting him to visit Tianxing City when he had time.

The good news is that Han Xiangzi helped find Yuan Yao and Yan Li. Yan Li is nothing special, but Yuan Yao's constitution seems to be very special, which may be used to avoid heavenly tribulations in the future.

Now, both women have been taken in as disciples by Han Xiangzi and are being trained by his side.

This put an end to Gu Qing's worries, but he was even more eager to meet his new junior sister.

Since he was going to meet his junior sister, he should prepare some gifts. Gu Qing subconsciously touched his storage bag, which contained only a few top-tier magical artifacts that he frequently used, and a Heavenly Imperial Boat.

Now that I have reached the Core Formation stage, I can give this Heavenly Imperial Boat as a gift.

Thinking of the Heavenly Imperial Boat, Gu Qing remembered that he still owed the Six-Linked Palace a promise, and wondered if that promise had been fulfilled after so many years.

With a heavy heart, Gu Qing piloted his flying boat away from his cave. Little did he know that the once-a-decade battle for the Thirty-Six Peaks was underway.

Therefore, Gu Qing directly piloted his flying boat to Kui Xing City. After traveling for more than ten miles, he arrived at Tian Du Street. He wondered if it was just his imagination, but Tian Du Street seemed even more prosperous than before.

After walking through the streets, Gu Qing arrived at Baxian Pavilion. The usual bustle outside the store was gone, and the interior was even more deserted.

It seems that Tieguai Li has indeed been slacking off lately; otherwise, given his reputation as a Core Formation cultivator, his shop wouldn't be so deserted.

As soon as Gu Qing entered the shop, a pleasant voice rang out: "Sir, what would you like to order?"