Chapter 320: Dark Ambush

You must know that once a Golden Core cultivator's natal magic treasure is refined, it is firmly bound to the cultivator themselves. The man in red self-detonating his own natal magic treasure was equivalent to destroying his own path of Dao.

Once a high-tier cultivator loses their natal magic treasure, not only will their vitality be greatly damaged, but the cultivator's own cultivation base will also be greatly affected without the natal magic treasure, and it will be very difficult to advance even half a step further.

Even if he could re-refine his natal magic treasure in a short time, it would take a long time of nourishment to keep up with his cultivation. By that time, even if he could recover as before, he would have already spent a lot of time, and there wouldn't be much lifespan left to go further.

Whether it is a high-tier cultivator or a low-tier cultivator, wanting to cultivate to the end and ascend, almost every realm has to face the biggest problem of insufficient lifespan.

If a Qi Refining cultivator cannot break through to the Foundation Establishment realm before the age of sixty, they have basically lost the opportunity for Foundation Establishment. Even if you are a late bloomer and succeed in Foundation Establishment at seventy, your path of Dao will also stop there, and the remaining lifespan will not be enough to give you the opportunity to form a Golden Core.

According to the average of ten years per realm in the Foundation Establishment realm, it takes at least nearly a hundred years for a cultivator to reach the peak of Foundation Establishment and form a Golden Core after normal Foundation Establishment. If you establish Foundation Establishment too late, there won't be much time left until the two-hundred-year limit for forming a Golden Core, and at most, you will barely have one chance to form a Golden Core.

The cultivation realm is like this; once the first step is slow, every step behind will be difficult to keep up with, and there won't be too many opportunities and time for you to choose.

However, if it really comes to a life-and-death moment, compared to the path of Dao, the cultivator's own life is obviously more important. After all, not every Golden Core cultivator has the opportunity to form a Nascent Soul. No matter how high you cultivate, once you lose your life, it will all be for nothing in the end.

Like this man in red from the Heaven Sea Alliance, using the extreme method of self-detonating his natal magic treasure, although he destroyed his path of Dao, he ultimately created a glimmer of opportunity for himself to escape.

Although he was vitality-damaged and his strength was greatly reduced this time, as long as he could preserve his life, after recovering from his injuries, he would still be a high-and-mighty Golden Core cultivator, and he would still have several hundred years of lifespan to enjoy. The higher the tier of the cultivator, the more they fear that they will suddenly lose everything they have.

Once he fell on the battlefield this time, the beautiful wives and concubines the man in red had at home would never have the chance to see him again, and his disciples and clansmen would all see their status plummet because they suddenly lost his protection. Such things, having cultivated for more than two hundred years, he had long since seen plenty of.

After cleaning up the battlefield at Green Ox Ridge and confirming that there were no fish that had slipped through the net, Fang Quan and Li Yuxia left this place and handed over all the aftermath affairs here to Wang Liangping.

After another day had passed, Song Qingming and the others received the instruction from Wang Liangping that the mission was over and began to lead the Qi Refining cultivators who had come together to return to Huanglong Market.

This time, both he and Cao Rongxue had gains. Having such an opportunity to earn merit later, and earning some of the merits they wanted, they could be considered not to have made the trip in vain.

Just as they had set off for a short while, Cao Rongxue, who was leading the operation, suddenly received a sound transmission from the market: Huanglong Market had been attacked by enemy cultivators, and they were requested to return to support immediately.

Upon receiving this news, Song Qingming and the others were shocked. They didn't expect that Wu Wenlong and the others, who had fled from Green Ox Ridge only two days ago, would actually attack Huanglong Market, which was only a little over a hundred miles away from Green Ox Ridge.

After discussing for a while, the few decided to first send a few Qi Refining cultivators to Green Ox Ridge to report the news, and then the four of them would take the lead and rush to the market to support.

Leaving the Qi Refining cultivators below, the few who were flying on swords arrived near Huanglong Market in just over an hour.

Looking from afar, the entire market was already engulfed in flames, and Song Qingming and the others felt a tightness in their hearts, secretly thinking that it was all over; they had rushed and rushed, but in the end, they were still a step late.

After carefully approaching the market, the few discovered that there were almost no living people left inside, and there were raging flames everywhere, which had already ignited more than half of the market.

After searching around in the market, Song Qingming and the others, besides discovering a pile of corpses of the cultivators guarding the market, did not see a single living person. For a time, the few looked at each other, not knowing what to do.

Among these corpses, there were not only young cultivators who had been together day and night, but also two Foundation Establishment cultivators, Zhao Mengzhen and another cultivator surnamed He, who had previously stayed behind to guard the market.

When receiving this mission, Zhao Mengzhen sought stability and did not go with them, choosing to stay behind to be responsible for guarding the safety of the market. Unexpectedly, man proposes, God disposes; after Wu Wenlong and his group were pursued, not only did they not leave here, but they unexpectedly attacked Huanglong Market and killed Zhao Mengzhen here as well.

The Zhao family in Pingyang County only had Zhao Mengzhen as a Foundation Establishment cultivator. Losing the family's only Foundation Establishment cultivator all at once could be considered a collapse of the sky for the Zhao family. Next, even if the Xiaoyao Sect issued compensation to the Zhao family, it would be very difficult for them to recover to their original level in a short time.

In the world of immortal cultivation, all immortal cultivation families are almost like this, rising and falling. There will be families like the Song family that slowly rise, there will also be families like the Zhao family that suddenly decline, and there will also be families like the Huang family that can last for a long time.

After using water-attribute spells to extinguish the big fire in the market, just as the few were preparing to leave here first, an old man in a Daoist robe stepped on a flying sword and rushed here anxiously.

"It's Fellow Daoist Liu. Brother Liu, what exactly happened here? Where are the other fellow Daoists?"

Liu Wenguan, with a sorrowful face, shook his head and said: "Two hours ago, a group of Foundation Establishment cultivators suddenly attacked the market. The opponent not only had array-breaking beads but also spirit treasures, which are troublesome spirit items.

In just a moment, Fellow Daoist Gu was the first to be killed by the spirit treasure used by the opponent, and Fellow Daoist Zhao and Fellow Daoist He also met with misfortune one after another. I fought to the death to escape, shook off the few people who were chasing me, and found a place to hide. Only now did I dare to come out to see. Did you fellow Daoists not encounter that group of people?"

"When we arrived, this place was almost burned to ruins. Fellow Daoist Liu is the first living person we have seen. From the current point of view, this group of people who ambushed the market is likely the ones who escaped from our siege at Green Ox Ridge a few days ago." Cao Rongxue replied to Liu Wenguan somewhat heavily.