Chapter 83: Profiting from Chaos

Buzz!

Just as several Foundation Establishment cultivators faced off.

Above Qingyang Market, a fiery red curtain of light suddenly appeared, enveloping the entire second-grade Water Curtain Sky-Cyan Great Formation.

This red curtain of light was clearly an extremely sophisticated second-grade formation; a powerful surge of spiritual energy immediately diffused outward.

Countless strange talismans swam within the red curtain like small fish.

Boom! Suddenly.

The great red formation launched its assault; from the four corners—east, south, west, and north—several dazzling, colorful spell attacks erupted.

Crack! Qingyang Market's second-grade Water Curtain Sky-Cyan Great Formation shattered like broken glass, fragmenting instantly.

Bang! With the final spell strike, the defensive formation that had guarded Qingyang Market for many years dissolved completely in that moment.

"Who comes?"

"Breaking a formation with another formation! A high-grade array master!"

The terrifying pressure from the sky compelled everyone in the market to look up.

As the curtain of light dispersed, a tall figure in black robes emerged, wearing a Buddha mask, surging with demonic qi, standing suspended in midair.

He silently gazed down below.

"It's the demonic cultivator Lin Zixiao!"

"Even this star of calamity has arrived!"

"Disaster strikes!"

The next moment.

Lin Zixiao moved; several black streaks slashed from his hand, piercing through everything, and the few cultivators below fighting over the token were instantly cleaved into chunks of flesh and blood.

He raised his hand and seized; the final dragon talisman token fell into his grasp.

Lin Zixiao did not linger, transforming into a black streak of light and vanishing into the horizon.

From his entry, breaking the formation, to snatching the dragon talisman token, only a brief instant had passed.

The forces from all factions had not yet reacted.

In an instant.

Someone shouted loudly:

"The last token has been taken by Lin Zixiao; now all tokens are gathered."

"He must be entering the ruin."

"But without the tokens in our hands, he cannot enter either."

"He must be heading to the ruin; everyone, charge!"

At this cry, many from various sects and families mounted their magical artifacts and chased after Lin Zixiao.

Next.

The most authentic scene of the Immortal Realm began to unfold.

As cultivators from several major sects and noble families departed.

And with the market's defensive formation gone.

Countless rogue cultivators and dubious factions exposed the filthiest aspects of human nature, beginning to loot amidst the chaos.

It was much like the raiding cultivators at the start.

"Damn it, who threw the last dragon talisman into the sky just now?"

"I swear to fight him to the death!"

"It seems to be Elder Gu of the Lingyu Sect."

"Yes, yes, it was him; I saw it clearly!"

"Good! Let's kill the people from Lingyu Sect first!"

Immediately, the forces remaining in Qingyang Market turned their spears toward the Lingyu Sect cultivators and began a massacre.

Thick smoke rolled through Qingyang Market, flames shot into the sky, smashing, looting, and burning ensued, while shouts, curses, weeping, and screams rose and fell.

Seeing that things were about right, Qin Ming activated his Spirit-Light Shuttle and flew in the direction Lin Zixiao and the others had taken.

He followed at a distance behind those few sect members.

Flying south continuously for a day and a night.

Suddenly.

In front of Qin Ming's vision, a plain appeared, in the center of which a huge sinkhole spanning several li was starkly revealed.

Inside, it was shrouded by a layer of gray, dense fog.

If one tried to probe it casually, even divine sense would be sucked in.

Around the sinkhole lay nothing but broken ruins.

At this time.

Cultivators from seven major sects and noble family factions had already gathered nearby, and Lin Zixiao stood at the edge of the sinkhole.

Even dozens of cultivators from Lei Yuanzong had arrived, and the people from the seven major factions subtly treated them as leaders.

Qin Ming spread his divine sense to scan the surroundings and discovered that many cultivators from minor factions were also hiding in the shadows, intending to fish in troubled waters.

Just then.

Lin Zixiao flew into the sky and embedded the three tokens in his hand into a huge stone tablet at the edge of the sinkhole.

As his action concluded.

From among the crowds of the several sects, people one after another imitated Lin Zixiao's method, embedding token after token into the stone tablet.

Until the final token was placed.

Boom—rumble! Roar~ A phantom image of a giant dragon roared, flying out from the stone stele and instantly vanishing into the thick fog within the sky pit.

In an instant.

The earth began to tremble.

The thick fog dispersed, a golden light shot straight into the sky, and after the runes dissipated, a magnificent underground palace was revealed within the sky pit.

Immediately, the gazes of all the cultivators present converged upon it.

Each one felt their spirits soar, their breathing becoming heavy.

Suddenly.

Lin Zi leaped forward first, flying into the underground palace; before leaving, he circulated his magic power and shouted down at the numerous sects and factions below: "Hahahaha!"

"You bunch of trash, Yuwen Hong of the Spirit Feather Sect is secretly breaking through to the Jin Dan realm at the third-tier spiritual vein, and none of you even know it."

"Yet you all ran here to fight for opportunities."

"When he breaks through to the Jin Dan realm,"

"it will be the death knell for your sects and factions."

At these words, the cultivators of Lei Yuanzong and the people from the seven major factions instantly halted their steps, all shocked.

"What he said must be false, right?"

"What a demonic thief, daring to bewilder people's minds."

"That Yuwen Hong is only at the early Foundation Establishment stage; where does this talk of a perfect breakthrough to Jin Dan come from?"

Lin Zi chuckled, "Hmph! A herd of stupid donkeys; who told you Yuwen Hong is only at early Foundation Establishment? The Spirit Feather Sect concealed his talent; he is a cultivator with a Metal-elemental Heaven Spirit Root."

"My information is extremely reliable; I disdain to argue with you. Believe it or not, but I fear his breakthrough will occur within these two days."

Having said this, he paid no heed to the reactions of these sect cultivators, turned around, and flew into the underground palace.

Above the ground.

The people from the several major sects and factions hesitated for a moment, unwilling to advance.

"Better to believe it exists than to dismiss it as nonexistent."

"If this is truly the case, the Spirit Feather Sect's ambitions are no small matter; we must quickly send a message back to our sects."

The expressions of the Lei Yuanzong cultivators were extremely ugly.

If what Lin Zi said was not false, then the Spirit Feather Sect was destined to rise completely in the future.

As the undisputed Diyida Sect of the State of Wei, Lei Yuanzong was extremely unwilling to see such a situation occur.

The other several sects were also thrown into chaos all at once.

They one and all transmitted this earth-shattering news back to their respective sects.

Observing from afar, Qin Ming frowned, pondering silently: This Lin Zi indeed has an inside man in the Spirit Feather Sect, able to grasp even such top-secret information with perfect clarity.

Subsequently.

Most of the cultivators from Lei Yuanzong and the seven major factions changed direction, flying toward the third-tier spiritual vein.

Only a small portion of the cultivators entered the underground palace of the ancient ruin.

Seeing this, Qin Ming thought the timing was about right.

He summoned his Spirit Light Shuttle and flew off in another direction.

After the time it takes to burn one stick of incense.

Following the guidance of the beast-skin map, he arrived before a massive waterfall.

Subsequently, he sent his divine sense out of his body, scanning behind the waterfall.

He discovered there was surprisingly nothing unusual.

Qin Ming immediately threw the beast skin in his hand outward, fixing it in midair, then stimulated his magic power and pointed a finger.

The beast skin seemed to be pulled by some kind of force.

It stopped at a spot in the middle of the waterfall, then emitted a golden curtain of light that fell upon the waterfall.

Instantly, a twisted spatial entrance was revealed.

Qin Ming's expression brightened with joy; he quickly flashed his body into it, then stored the beast skin away.

The twisted spatial entrance closed rapidly, restoring itself to its original appearance.

Qin Ming felt a moment of dizziness before his eyes, directly teleported into the interior of some location within the ruin.

Once he recovered his senses and focused his gaze, he discovered this place was actually a medicinal garden of about two mu in size!

However, no spiritual herbs were planted inside.

Inside the medicinal garden were arranged more than ten stone platforms, each topped with a curtain of light.

Among them, the three curtains furthest inside were the largest—one black, one purple, one blue—and their brightness was also the strongest.

Presumably, the items inside must be the best.

Even with his divine sense, Qin Ming could not see clearly the items placed inside.

"It seems to be some kind of peculiar restriction."

He struck these light curtains with all his might, yet there was not the slightest reaction.

Qin Ming circled around these stone platforms once, then took out those two pieces of beast skin.

In an instant.

A complex rune lit up on the beast skin, resonating from afar with the ball of light inside one of the stone platforms.

It was unexpectedly the purple light curtain among those three strongest balls of light.

Qin Ming waved the beast skin in his hand forward, and that rune plunged into the light curtain.

The restriction above instantly dissipated, revealing the item inside: a scroll of beast-skin scripture.

Qin Ming's heart surged with excitement as he reached out and grasped it into his hand.

He then flipped it open and took a brief glance.

"It truly is the sequel cultivation method to the 'Hundred Treasures Glazed Sutra'!"

"Not only does it contain a body-refining technique for the Foundation Establishment stage, but it can also be cultivated all the way to the peak of Foundation Establishment!"

Joy spread across his face; after all, having experienced the formidable power brought by the method, it was hard to resist its temptation.

Next, he picked up the other map made of beast hide.

He approached each one to test them, and when he neared the third blue light barrier,

it surprisingly reacted again.

The light barrier vanished, revealing a jade bottle inside that emitted astonishing spiritual radiance.

Qin Ming uncorked the jade bottle, leaned in to look, and his eyes widened.

Inside rested a clump of blue flame, frozen solid.

"It's actually an Earth and Heaven Spiritual Flame!"

(End of Chapter)