I run a casino in the immortal realm.

For more than eight months, the Dragon-Slaying Stone in the deepest stone chamber behind Xiaoyao Palace has still not risen.

In the square outside the side hall, fifteen figures sat cross-legged, their bodies surging with spiritual energy, all of them at the early stage of the Golden Core realm.

Sitting at the front were Li Jianfeng, the chief disciple of the Sword Pavilion of the Qingyun Sect, and Wang Changsheng, the chief disciple of the Array Pavilion. They broke through one after another while Zheng Yifei was in seclusion, making a total of fifteen people. There were also ten people in seclusion.

These twenty-five core disciples of the Qingyun Sect were among the first to be switched at Blood Soul Valley. Before coming to Xiaoyao Palace, most of them were at the late Foundation Establishment stage, with only Li Jianfeng and Wang Changsheng at the peak of Foundation Establishment.

After arriving at Xiaoyao Palace, Zheng Yifei provided them with a massive amount of spirit stones and medicinal herbs, enabling them to reach the Foundation Establishment stage within two years.

Previously in the Qingyun Sect, reaching the peak of Foundation Establishment was the highest achievement; even obtaining a low-grade Golden Core required queuing up and accumulating experience.

In normal cultivation, most of them would have to waste more than ten years, or even never hope to reach the Golden Core stage in their entire lives.

But now, they've all broken through.

"Senior Sister Su, why hasn't Senior Brother Yifei emerged from seclusion yet?"

Li Jianfeng stared at the tightly closed stone door, his eyes filled with undisguised fervor.

Not only him, but all fifteen Golden Core cultivators in the square were looking at the stone gate with remarkably consistent gazes.

The Qingyun Sect was destroyed, and the seven major families were uprooted by Hu Lie. Their elders and clansmen were either killed or had their cultivation abolished and imprisoned in dungeons.

They felt only deep-seated hatred for the Qingyun Sect now.

It was Zheng Yifei who rescued them from the Xuantian Sect's territory, and it was also Zheng Yifei who gave them top-grade pills and transformed them.

In their hearts, the old Qingyun Sect was dead, and Zheng Yifei was the only person they were loyal to.

Everyone was waiting, waiting for the stone gate to open, waiting for Zheng Yifei to lead them back to Qingyun Sect.

"I don't know either."

Su Wanqing shook her head; she was more worried about Zheng Yifei than anyone else.

Zhao Wenyuan emerged from the side hall, his brows furrowed. "Eight months. Chen Sanlinbao broke through in a month, Wanqing in three months, and Yifei has been here for eight months now, without even a trace of spiritual energy fluctuation. Are you sure something won't happen?"

Zhao Ling sat at the stone table arranging the spiritual herbs without looking up: "Brother Yifei cultivates the Five Elements Spiritual Root, so it naturally takes him a long time."

"That's too long."

Zhao Wenyuan muttered to himself.

An underground chamber.

In the darkness, only a faint, multicolored light flickered.

The original color of the bluestone bricks on the floor of the secret room was no longer visible; a thick layer of grayish-white powder covered the floor, reaching above the ankles.

This is the residue left after fifty million low-grade spirit stones were drained of their spiritual energy.

Scattered around the stone bed are thousands of empty jade boxes, which once contained rare spiritual herbs of the fourth or even fifth rank.

Zheng Yifei sat cross-legged on the stone bed with his eyes closed.

A transformation that would overturn all common sense about the cultivation world was taking place within him.

For ordinary cultivators, forming a golden core involves continuously compressing the liquid spiritual energy within their dantian until it condenses into a single golden core.

Five golden pills were floating inside Zheng Yifei's dantian at this moment.

Gold, cyan, blue, red, and yellow.

The five golden pills correspond to the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth, and rotate slowly within the dantian according to the generating and restraining relationship.

The five spiritual roots are considered useless in the cultivation world because they absorb spiritual energy in a chaotic manner, making it difficult to purify and break through bottlenecks. However, Zheng Yifei, relying on the "Five Elements Technique" and a wealth of resources, managed to purify the spiritual power of each of the five attributes to their extreme.

Eight months and fifteen days.

Fifty million spirit stones, over a thousand kinds of high-grade spiritual herbs, five top-grade Golden Core Pills, and five top-grade Barrier Breaking Pills.

These resources, enough to power more than a dozen ordinary Golden Core cultivators, were all consumed by him alone, barely enough to feed these five Golden Cores.

"Buzz".

The five golden pills suddenly accelerated their rotation.

Zheng Yifei opened his eyes, and a flash of five-colored light disappeared from his pupils.

The moment he opened his eyes, the sky over Tianmo City changed.

The originally sunny afternoon suddenly darkened, not because of dark clouds, but because the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from all directions was frantically pressing towards the direction of Xiaoyao Palace in an extremely violent manner.

Within a radius of ten miles, a hundred miles, or a thousand miles.

Ultimately, the impact spread over an astonishing range of thousands of miles.

Inside the Heavenly Demon City, countless cultivators looked up in terror. They felt the surrounding spiritual energy being instantly drained, making even breathing difficult.

Above Xiaoyao Palace, the spiritual energy was so dense that it became tangible.

Red fire spirit energy, blue water spirit energy, cyan wood spirit energy, golden metal spirit energy, and yellow earth spirit energy.

Five colors of spiritual energy converged in mid-air, forming a huge five-colored vortex that covered the entire inner city of the Heavenly Demon City.

The center of the vortex points directly to the back mountain of Xiaoyao Palace.

"boom!"

Deep within the Xiaoyao Palace, a black beam of light shot into the sky and hovered in mid-air.

Ye Tianqiong stood with his hands behind his back, his black robe fluttering in the storm of spiritual energy. He looked at the multicolored vortex above his head, his eyes filled with horror.

"The five elements converge, and the spiritual energy surges across thousands of miles. Is this the formation of the Golden Core?"

Ye Tianqiong took a deep breath. When he broke through to the Nascent Soul stage, the resulting fluctuations in spiritual energy only covered eight hundred miles.

"Master Ye."

Two figures broke through the air from two other directions of Tianmo City and stopped beside Ye Tianqiong.

The man on the left wore a blood-red robe, had a sinister face, and was surrounded by a dense aura of malevolence. He was Li Hun, the vice sect leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect.

On the right is a woman in a red dress, with a seductive figure and a half-silver mask on her face. She is Yu Luosha, the vice sect leader of the Heavenly Demon Sect.

"Old Ye, is someone in Xiaoyao Palace breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage?" Li Hun stared at the five-colored vortex below, his voice hoarse.

"Not a Nascent Soul."

Ye Tianqiong said calmly, "It's that kid Yifei who's forming his core."

Li Hun and Yu Luo Sha exchanged a glance.

Zheng Yifei has reached the Core Formation stage?

Who could summon the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from thousands of miles away just to reach the Core Formation stage? The oppressive force contained within this five-colored vortex even made these two Nascent Soul cultivators feel a slight tremor in their hearts.

"It seems this kid has great potential."

Jade Raksha couldn't help but sigh.

It was just a Golden Core cultivator; the two weren't very interested and turned to leave.

Back Hill Square.

Su Wanqing, Zhao Wenyuan, Su Chenyuan and others sat cross-legged, focusing their energy on absorbing the gathered spiritual energy tide.

Such opportunities are extremely rare. When cultivators break through to the Golden Core or Nascent Soul stages, it causes a surge of spiritual energy. As long as Foundation Establishment or Qi Refining cultivators cultivate nearby, their cultivation effects will multiply, and some may even be able to break through to the next realm directly.

However, the spiritual energy surge generated when a cultivator breaks through to the Golden Core stage generally has a smaller range and shorter duration. It is somewhat useful to Qi Refining stage cultivators nearby, but not very effective for Foundation Establishment stage cultivators and above.

However, the surge of spiritual energy brought about by Zheng Yifei's breakthrough was too powerful, comparable to the surge of spiritual energy caused by the breakthrough from Golden Core to Nascent Soul, which led everyone to cultivate frantically.

"Fifth Elder, what's all this commotion about Yifei...?"

Zhang Biao swallowed hard. In just one hour, his cultivation level had increased from the mid-Foundation Establishment stage to the late-Foundation Establishment stage. In another year or two, with the help of the resources of the Free and Unfettered Palace, he could reach the peak of Foundation Establishment and form his core.

Su Chenyuan looked up, his aged face full of shock: "Five elements spiritual root, invincible among those of the same level. The ancient records are indeed true. With his foundation, once he forms his core, even ordinary late-stage Golden Core cultivators would probably be no match for him."

The colorful vortex lasted for a full hour and a half.

With a final, deafening roar, the vortex transformed into a multicolored beam of light as thick as a water vat, crashing into the underground chamber.

The spiritual energy between heaven and earth instantly returned to calm.

Sunlight once again bathed the Heavenly Demon City.

The square behind the mountain was deathly silent.

"Click click click..."

A dull creak of machinery sounded.

The Dragon-Slaying Stone, which had been sealed for eight and a half months, slowly rose up.

A faint wisp of dust drifted out from inside the stone gate.

The sound of footsteps grew louder as they approached.

Zheng Yifei emerged from the darkness.

He wore an ordinary black robe, without any magical artifacts, and there were no astonishing fluctuations of spiritual power, no outward pressure, and even his breathing was extremely soft.

He stood there, yet gave the illusion of facing an abyss.

Su Chenyuan looked at him, his pupils suddenly contracting. With his Golden Core stage divine sense, he couldn't detect Zheng Yifei's true strength at all.

"Yi Fei." Su Wanqing stepped forward.

Zheng Yifei nodded slightly.

His gaze swept across the square.

Su Wanqing, Zhao Ling, Chen San, and Lin Bao are all at the early stage of the Golden Core realm.

Later, Wang Changsheng and fifteen other former members of the Qingyun Sect were all at the early stage of the Golden Core realm.

Including him and Su Chenyuan.

Twenty Golden Core cultivators.

This force is already comparable to the current Qingyun Sect, but it is still far behind the Xuantian Sect and cannot be shaken in the short term.