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

Inside the Six-Linked Hall, Manager Cao was in charge of receiving Gu Qing. He was surprised to see that Gu Qing had successfully formed his core in just twenty years.

Naturally, this was followed by words of congratulations.

Gu Qing didn't beat around the bush and asked directly, "I heard your esteemed establishment has found a rare tree. What does it look like?"

"Senior Gu, please wait a moment. The rare wood is currently in Elder Gu's hands. I have already sent a message to Elder Gu, and I believe he will arrive soon. Senior Gu, please have some tea first." Manager Cao said respectfully from the side.

Gu Qing wasn't in a hurry after hearing this, and began to carefully savor the tea from the Six-Linked Palace. It was indeed good tea, but it was still slightly inferior to the tea leaves grown by Xin Ruyin.

Xin Ruyin also brought her tea-growing skills with her, so she planted quite a lot of tea on her own mountain.

Gu Qing chatted with Manager Cao casually for a while, and finally Elder Gu returned.

When Elder Gu saw Gu Qing's Core Formation cultivation level, he was also taken aback for a moment, and even blurted out, "Young fellow Daoist, you actually broke through to Foundation Establishment and successfully formed your Core?"

Clearly, Elder Gu found it hard to believe—it had taken him a full century to form his core, while Gu Qing's speed was significantly faster.

"Hehehe, I have to thank the Deputy Island Master for those Hundred Flower Wines. They are truly wonderful, saving me decades of effort in achieving Core Formation," Gu Qing said modestly.

Elder Gu shook his head slightly after hearing this, then smiled and said, "Young friend, no, I should say that your talent is truly rare, otherwise you wouldn't have broken through to the Core Formation stage so quickly."

"It was all luck, pure luck!" Gu Qing quickly waved his hand. He wasn't lying; his breakthrough to the Core Formation stage did indeed involve some element of luck.

"Alright, let's not talk about these unimportant things. I heard that the Six-Linked Palace found a rare tree. I wonder where it is?" Gu Qing asked curiously.

Seeing Gu Qing's eagerness, Elder Gu smiled and took out a wooden box, handing it to him.

Gu Qing felt a surge of excitement—with this wondrous wood, he could now create a second clone. During this time, he had truly experienced the wonders of clones; his cultivation speed was at least one or two times faster than usual.

Even more remarkably, one's own body can inherit certain properties of wood.

Just like now, Gu Qing's body inherited the hardness and sturdiness of ironwood, and ordinary top-level magic weapons could not harm his body in the slightest.

I just don't know what characteristics this strange tree will have.

With a hint of anticipation, Gu Qing opened the wooden box. Inside was an ordinary piece of wood, which looked like a section of willow root. As for what was so special about it, he couldn't tell for a moment.

"Is there any special significance to this wood?" Gu Qing couldn't tell what kind of wood it was, so he asked directly.

Elder Gu said with a smile, "This is a branch from the Nine-Tailed River Tree."

Gu Qing shook his head, indicating that he had never heard of any Nine-Tailed River Tree.

Seeing this, Elder Gu didn't waste any words. He took out a small knife and made a small cut in the wood. Immediately, a small bud sprouted from the cut.

This scene surprised Gu Qing somewhat; he hadn't expected the Nine-Tailed River Tree to have such a powerful life force.

"As you can see, this Nine-Tailed River Tree has extremely vigorous vitality, and its sap has the effect of curing all poisons. I just don't know if it matches the extraordinary tree you mentioned," Elder Gu asked.

Looking at the tender buds on the log, a glint of light flashed in Gu Qing's eyes, but he then said casually, "It is quite a peculiar piece of wood, but I wonder what the price is."

"Hehehe, we're old friends, why bother talking about prices? This branch of the Nine-Tailed River Tree is naturally a gift for you, fellow Daoist." Elder Gu spoke very generously, but a calculation was hidden beneath his eyelids.

However, Gu Qing knew that free things are often the most expensive, so he didn't rush to put the wooden box into his storage bag. Instead, he asked, "If you don't explain yourself clearly, I dare not accept this."

"Hehehe, fellow Daoist is indeed cautious. Alright, I'll get straight to the point—our Six Linked Palaces recently found a level six demonic beast and would like to invite you to go hunting with us. There will be a generous reward after the hunt is complete," Elder Gu said.

Upon hearing the words "Six-in-One Palace" and "hunting demonic beasts," Gu Qing instantly understood what kind of demonic beast the other party wanted to hunt—it was the Infant Carp Beast, whose strength at level six was comparable to that of a level seven demonic beast, thanks to its water-based supernatural abilities.

It seems that the Six-Hall Palace has not changed its original course because of my appearance, and still wants to hunt the Infant Carp Beast.

Seeing Gu Qing remain silent, Elder Gu hurriedly said, "Fellow Daoist, brother, we've been tracking this demonic beast for almost half a year. You can't try to take it from us."

"How could that be? If we need demonic beasts, we have our own ways of hunting them. Why would we steal the prey of the Six-Linked Palace?" Gu Qing reassured him.

Elder Gu laughed upon hearing this: "We know you are a capable person, and you certainly wouldn't care about our level six demon beast. We should thank you for your generosity this time."

The Six-Linked Palace once acquired a batch of level 5, 6, and 7 monster materials from Tieguai Li. That time, almost all of the palace's funds were mobilized. It was also on that occasion that the Six-Linked Palace fulfilled its promise and allowed Tieguai Li to transport the batch of monster materials to Tianxing City.

Most importantly, the materials from level seven demon beasts are extremely valuable, more than enough to make magical artifacts.

It was through that incident that Liuliandian realized that Tieguai Li and his group must have some special hunting methods.

Unfortunately, after that hunt, Tieguai Li and his group never went again. Liulian Palace wanted to secretly find out what method they used to hunt so many monsters, but they never found a clue.

"A level six demon beast? Fine, I agree." Gu Qing already understood, and finally agreed, but he didn't know if he would encounter someone named Wu Chou this time.

The thought of Wu Chou inevitably brings to mind Ji Yin Island; and the thought of Ji Yin Island, in turn, brings to mind the Blood Jade Spiders—Han Xiangzi still keeps three Blood Jade Spiders.

More than a decade has passed, and these Blood Jade Spiders should have reached the fourth or fifth level of cultivation by now.

"Then thank you very much, fellow Daoist. Hahaha, we will let you know in advance when we set sail," Elder Gu said with a smile.

The two chatted for a while longer before Gu Qing took his leave. Having promised the Six-Linked Palace to hunt monsters together, and to prevent the Six-Linked Palace from losing him, Gu Qing didn't continue his secluded cultivation but instead chose to nurture the Nine-Tailed River Tree branch in his hand.

Instead of rushing to mature the Nine-tailed River tree branches, he used Lan Caihe's flower basket to cultivate them.

The flower basket contains a spirit-gathering array; a single mid-grade spirit stone is enough to generate a small amount of green liquid. This green liquid can accelerate the growth of spirit plants and herbs, and from the outside, it's impossible to tell what kind of plants are growing inside the flower basket.