Dual cultivation makes you stronger, everyone else is a prodigy, and I'm the only one slacking

After teleporting, they successfully landed on a mountain range.

Yu Luoning stood on the mountaintop and looked north, where he saw the spiritual energy of the spiritual vein region undulating among the mountains.

The spiritual energy was so rich that it even gathered into a thin mist in the mountains and forests.

She took a deep breath and felt completely refreshed.

Logically speaking, if a family or sect of cultivators possesses a spiritual vein, they would naturally build their core area directly above the spiritual vein, allowing abundant spiritual energy to nourish the sect or family day and night.

But this place is very strange; at least on the ground, there isn't a single building in sight.

Yu Luoning was puzzled, and the third elder of the Feng family explained in a timely manner: "The Northern Sword Alliance is led by the Jiang family, and there are also the Sun family and the Han family. The interests of these three families are strongly balanced, and none of them are willing to let the other two families build their headquarters on the spiritual vein. Since everyone is deadlocked, they simply decided not to take any advantage and leave the spiritual vein in this neutral area."

Yu Luoning nodded knowingly.

To put it bluntly, it's about unequal distribution of spoils. They'd rather everyone work together to build underground pipelines to transmit spiritual energy than let any one party benefit.

This makes things convenient for them.

To enter the core area, simply find the underground spirit-transferring pipes.

After reaching a consensus, the dozen or so people set off, concealing themselves among the mountains and forests, and flying swiftly at low altitude on their swords.

Not long after, after traveling more than ten miles, an invisible barrier faintly appeared in the void ahead.

The Third Elder's expression changed, and he immediately raised his hand to signal everyone to land.

Before long, everyone's figures were hidden among the rocks and trees.

Feng Qiguang frowned as he looked ahead and said in a low voice, "There is an anti-flight formation in the sky ahead. From here on, all sword flight is prohibited."

Everyone looked up and saw that the array's protective barrier was as smooth as a giant foam wall, and even shimmered under the sunlight.

Now, everyone was at a loss as to what to do.

The Third Elder stared at the formation for a while, a fine layer of sweat beading on his forehead.

"Not only is flying prohibited here, but a spirit-locking array is also in place. If I'm not mistaken, as long as any living thing gets close or tries to break through with brute force, it will instantly trigger the mechanism at the array's core and set off an alarm."

The three cultivators stationed there will surround this place in an instant.

Upon hearing this, the elite disciples of the Feng family were immediately at a loss, standing still and not daring to move, for fear of accidentally triggering the alarm.

Immediately afterwards, more than a dozen pairs of eyes turned around and all of them fell on Yu Luoning.

Suddenly becoming the center of attention, Yu Luoning subconsciously tilted her head and looked at them.

She's not some turtle in a wishing well; staring at her won't do any good!

Yu Luoning twitched the corner of her mouth.

It seems that being overly pretentious isn't a good thing. Does she really think she's the daughter of a reclusive family?

Yu Luoning didn't want to reveal all her cards so quickly, so she coughed lightly and humbly asked, "Elders, do you have any other ideas?"

The Third Elder stared at the light barrier, rubbed his temples, and said with a troubled expression, "Although this barrier is sensitive to living things, since the cultivators from the three families are frequently coming and going, there must be a special way to pass through inside. Give me some time, and I will study its spiritual energy flow to see if I can find a flaw."

Upon hearing this, Yu Luoning's heart sank. What kind of time is this to be doing academic research?

By the time the research is complete, Fengqi Town is probably doomed.

However, there was no better option at the moment, so Yu Luoning could only let him go.

However, she was never one to sit still, so she immediately activated the Concealing Breath Technique, intending to use her Sky-Crossing Technique to explore the other areas and see if there were any loopholes she could exploit.

Just as she was about to take a step, Feng Qiguang grabbed her arm: "Little darling, where are you going?"

"I'm just going to wander around somewhere else, I'll be right back." Yu Luoning patted his hand.

Feng Qiguang looked worried. "Then I'll go with you."

"No," Yu Luoning refused without hesitation.

Are you kidding me? Wearing such a huge human-shaped accessory, are you afraid of not being exposed fast enough?

Yu Luoning blinked and said, "Don't worry, even if we are discovered, I am absolutely confident that I can get away."

Feng Qiguang pursed his lips, somewhat forlornly releasing his grip. He took out a smooth, evenly colored communication jade slip from his storage bag and handed it to her. "This jade slip can only sense a radius of twenty miles. And it can only be used a maximum of three times. Contact me immediately if anything happens."

Yu Luoning accepted the jade slip, responded, and activated the Transcendental Technique, disappearing from the spot in a flash.

She silently teleported outside the barrier to test the waters, and as she walked, a strange noise suddenly came from a hidden mountain path ahead.

Yu Luoning immediately lay down in the bushes and saw a patrolling cultivator from the Northern Sword Alliance stop outside the barrier in the distance, taking out a token-like array plate from his pocket.

The man stuck the array card into the groove in the stone wall next to him.

With a whoosh.

The light circle lit up, and the protective barrier of the spirit lock cracked open, creating a small opening just wide enough for one person to pass through.

The man lifted his foot and crawled inside.

Yu Luoning's eyes lit up. So, access cards are now a popular way to access the cultivation world?

She immediately had an idea, and continued to hide in the shadows, crouching low.

With the double protection of the Breath Concealing Technique and the high-grade pills given by the Feng family patriarch, her aura is now almost indistinguishable from that of a stone on the ground.

Yu Luoning squatted there for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn before the cultivator who had just gone in came out cursing.

As soon as the man left the no-fly zone, he summoned his flying sword and soared into the sky.

Yu Luoning sneered, "Did I let you leave?"

She followed closely behind; this person was only at the early stage of Foundation Establishment, and was on par with her.

Yu Luoning used a teleportation technique to intercept him, his figure positioned directly in front of the cultivator.

"Who? Who are you? How dare you trespass..." The cultivator's expression changed drastically.

Yu Luoning gave him no chance at all. With a flick of her wrist, the white silk binding rope wrapped around his neck with lightning speed and tightened abruptly.

The cultivator's eyes bulged out, and he frantically made hand seals, trying to send a distress signal.

Yu Luoning's eyes hardened, and she drew her large, jet-black sword with a backhand motion.

A sharp Moon-Slaying Technique, carrying sword energy, hurtled forth.

The cultivator didn't even have time to scream before he was struck down and killed instantly.

Yu Luoning only intended to strangle the person unconscious and take the card.

But this person is greedy and wants to call for help, so don't blame her for being ruthless.

Yu Luoning crouched down and skillfully searched the corpse, quickly finding the array plate in the other's arms.

Then, she glanced at the face of the corpse on the ground, took out the Mirror Flower Water Moon fragment from her Qiankun bag, and stuck it on her lower abdomen. A wave of light flashed by.

Her appearance was exactly the same as that of the dead monks on earth.

Yu Luoning swaggered back to the main gate, mimicking the previous person's actions by sticking the array plaque into the groove of the stone wall, and then walked confidently toward the crack.

She had walked a dozen steps along the mountain path when she saw a gatekeeper dozing off not far ahead.

Hearing the noise, the guard rubbed his eyes and looked at him with a puzzled expression.

"Hey, Senior Brother Liu, what brings you back again?"

Yu Luoning remained expressionless and replied, "I suddenly remembered that I have some personal matters to take care of. Sorry to bother you, brother. Go back to sleep."

The cultivator muttered a couple of things, but as expected, he didn't suspect anything and continued to slack off with his head tilted to the side.

Right under the nose of the gatekeeper, Yu Luoning swaggered into the depths of the mountains.

Not far ahead, there was a cliff with a towering stone pillar reaching into the clouds.

A bluish light radiated from the top of the stone pillar across the entire mountain range.

Yu Luoning frowned slightly, feeling a sense of surprise.

How could the key point of the formation be found so easily?

She slipped down to the base of the pillar and examined it closely, discovering several glowing, high-quality crystals embedded in the blue stone groove at the base of the pillar.

That is the spiritual energy that supports the operation of the array's core.

Yu Luoning chuckled and, without hesitation, pried out all the glowing crystals.

As a result, the entire formation was as if its power had been cut off, and the blue light on the pillars of heaven instantly went out.

Yu Luoning took out the communication jade slip that Feng Qiguang had given her and infused it with a wisp of spiritual power, saying, "Stop studying it and come in quickly!"

Outside the barrier, the Third Elder was sweating profusely as he used a compass to calculate the array patterns, muttering to himself, "This light barrier is truly ingeniously designed. It must have been created by a Golden Core stage expert from the Jiang family. The level suppression is too powerful. I may need another hour. Please wait..."

Then Yu Luoning's voice came through casually.

Feng Qiguang was completely bewildered, and the Feng family elites around him exchanged bewildered glances.

The Third Elder exclaimed incredulously at the jade slip, "Miss Yu, please don't joke! The light barrier of the Golden Core Formation is still there. How are we supposed to get in?"

Yu Luoning said lazily, "Don't worry, it'll be gone soon."

what? !

The Third Elder was about to say something when he saw the enormous pale blue light screen that had enveloped the entire mountain range disintegrate at a visible speed and finally disappear completely into the air.

Everyone was so shocked their jaws nearly dropped.

But they reacted extremely quickly, immediately focusing their attention and transforming into a series of afterimages as they rushed into the gap where the great formation had failed.

When Feng Qiguang and his men arrived at Tianzhu Stone Corner, Yu Luoning was just in time to put the crystal that had been pried off back on.

With a buzzing sound.

The azure light curtain returned to its original state, isolating it from everything outside.

Everything went incredibly smoothly, almost unbelievably so.

Standing under the pillar of heaven, Yu Luoning felt a growing urge to back out.

The Northern Sword Alliance's resources were far greater than she had imagined.

Why is the defensive strength of this central defensive structure so weak?

Could there be some hidden story?

The other party is either an arrogant egomaniac or has a powerful expert stationed deeper within this spiritual vein; they are not worried at all about anyone being able to break in.

Looking around into the depths of the valley, Yu Luoning clenched her fists.

Suddenly, she started to miss Cui Xiu, that old virgin.

...This is the dividing line where Choi Soo was tricked and left with only his underwear...