During the period when Xiao Fei was in seclusion, Huang Feifei went out daily to gather information.
On this particular day, Huang Feifei managed to obtain news, at a considerable price, that the Great General of the Qin Kingdom had personally gone to Eagle Mountain Kingdom.
Upon receiving this news, Xiao Fei was no longer in a hurry and felt temporarily at ease, continuing his closed-door breakthrough in Xiancheng.
Concurrently, he instructed Huang Feifei to secretly investigate the whereabouts of the Nine-Eyed Demon Clan, as this demon race's covert and strange actions posed a significant hidden danger.
Within the space, the transplanted Glazed Crimson Light Ganoderma had grown a circumference larger, and around its base, over a dozen saplings, the size of chopstick tips, had sprouted.
Xiao Fei carefully dug out the mother plant of the Glazed Crimson Light Ganoderma, doing his best not to harm the remaining saplings.
With this Glazed Crimson Light Ganoderma, all the materials for refining the Primordial Golden Elixir were now gathered.
The Primordial Golden Elixir was a third-tier pill, and he had never refined one before. Furthermore, he only had one Glazed Crimson Light Ganoderma.
For this reason, he had to be extremely cautious. He first gathered more than ten sets of materials for the True Essence Pill, a third-tier pill, to attempt refining them.
The True Essence Pill was a type of pill consumed by cultivators in the Golden Core stage, with each pill costing over a thousand spirit stones.
Even Golden Core cultivators could not take it for extended periods; they lacked the substantial wealth and could only consume one or two pills occasionally.
Fortunately, Xiao Fei had collected these medicinal herbs in advance and planted them in his space. They had now matured and were ready for harvesting.
Xiao Fei spent over ten days refining all these materials. With fifteen sets of materials, he successfully refined twenty True Essence Pills, which was considered quite good.
He then reviewed the pill recipe for the Primordial Golden Elixir in his mind before commencing the refining process.
The entire refining process proceeded without major incident, and in the end, two pills were successfully formed.
Xiao Fei held two golden pills in his hand, inhaled their scent, which was subtle and contained, with no discernible spiritual energy.
He carefully placed the two pills into a jade box and then sealed it with a talismans.
To advance from the Foundation Establishment stage to the Golden Core stage, one needed to condense a golden core from the spiritual energy in their dantian.
At that point, the spiritual energy would become more refined and condensed. For the same amount of spiritual energy, the power contained within Golden Core spiritual energy would be more than ten times that of Foundation Establishment.
Xiao Fei prepared all the necessary items for forging a golden core and set up a formation in his secret chamber to isolate spiritual energy fluctuations and prevent external observation.
Compared to others breaking through to the Golden Core stage, he had also prepared an additional two million spirit stones.
This was a colossal sum for any Golden Core cultivator.
It was fortunate that he had accumulated substantial wealth in his space over the decades and had arrived in a prosperous location like the royal city of the Great Qin Kingdom; otherwise, it would have been difficult to gather such a sum of spirit stones.
He calmly adjusted his vital energy, and after a long while, a massive vortex had formed in his dantian. Xiao Fei quickly took out a Primordial Golden Elixir and swallowed it.
...
Just as Xiao Fei was in seclusion attempting to break through to the Golden Core stage, the news he had spread throughout the Great Qin Kingdom had begun to take effect.
Many demonic cultivators had made their way to the White Bone Sect in Eagle Mountain Kingdom.
They sought every opportunity to infiltrate the Demon Sealing Cave of the White Bone Sect, and if opportunities did not arise, they created them.
In any case, the White Bone Sect had been incessantly harassed during this period.
Disciples of the sect were constantly going missing or dying in accidents. The disciples remaining in the sect were dwindling, and even a Golden Core cultivator had died.
In particular, the task of guarding the Demon Sealing Cave had become almost a death sentence, and the frequency of deaths was extremely high. Often, disciples who received the assignment in the morning would be dead by the afternoon.
Now, the disciples of the sect spoke of guarding the Demon Sealing Cave with dread, fearing it like a tiger.
Unless the sect forced them, no one was willing to guard the Demon Sealing Cave anymore.
However, the sect could not possibly assign a Nascent Soul cultivator to such a task. Even Golden Core elders were now reluctant to guard this Demon Sealing Cave.
Recently, a disciple who was forcibly assigned to guard the Demon Sealing Cave had finally discovered a method to survive: feigning death.
He stayed far from the cave entrance to avoid accidental injury. As soon as there was any commotion, he would immediately lie down and pretend to be dead.
As a result, this disciple had miraculously survived for over ten days without dying, becoming a hot topic of discussion throughout the sect.
Although this disciple was reprimanded by the sect elders, he did not receive significant punishment.
On this day, the disciple was lying down more than a hundred zhang away from the Demon Sealing Cave, holding his breath and quietly observing several demonic cultivators swaggering towards the cave entrance.
At this moment, the roles were completely reversed; the guarding disciple of the White Bone Sect seemed more like a thief.
Several Golden Core stage demonic cultivators opened the formation at the entrance of the Demon Sealing Cave and then slipped inside.
After all the newcomers had entered, the guarding junior cultivator dared to let out a sigh of relief.
However, before he could relax his tense and stiff limbs, another figure flew from a distance, exuding an immense aura without any concealment.
This pressure, like heavenly might, terrified the guarding cultivator, causing him to cower on the ground again, not daring to even breathe.
This aura far surpassed the Golden Core realm; it was even more powerful than the Nascent Soul ancestors of the sect.
The blatant arrogance of the approaching individual had already alerted the Nascent Soul ancestors of the White Bone Sect.
The White Bone Sect had three Nascent Soul ancestors: one in the middle Nascent Soul stage and two in the early Nascent Soul stage.
The two early-stage cultivators had gone to the Lu Kingdom to participate in the war, leaving only one middle-stage Nascent Soul cultivator to guard the sect.
"Which esteemed Daoist friend graces my White Bone Sect with your presence?"
The middle-stage Nascent Soul ancestor of the White Bone Sect sensed that the approaching individual was not to be trifled with. His tone was filled with goodwill, projecting an image of amiable prosperity.
"Scram!"
The approaching figure had no intention of speaking politely with the White Bone Sect. With a loud shout, a black light wheel flew out and swiftly ensnared the Nascent Soul cultivator of the White Bone Sect.
"Daoist friend, let's talk! Let's talk!"
The Nascent Soul ancestor of the White Bone Sect, now caught by the black light wheel, found his spiritual power instantly sealed, leaving him with no ability to retaliate.
In the region around Eagle Mountain Kingdom, a middle-stage Nascent Soul cultivator was already the strongest.
This ancestor was witnessing the power of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator for the first time, and it was directed at him.
With a single move from the late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, he became like a small fish struggling under a blade.
"Silence!"
The approaching figure was naturally the Great General of the Qin Kingdom. He placed a restriction on the Nascent Soul cultivator of the White Bone Sect, rendering him unable to open his mouth or utter any sound.
Then, this expert, who had made it impossible for the Lu Kingdom to raise its head and who stood at the pinnacle of the surrounding kingdoms of Eagle Mountain, was now carried like a chick by the Great General of the Qin Kingdom into the Demon Sealing Cave.
"What potent True Demon Qi! You have indeed opened the interdimensional passage without authorization."
The Great General glanced sharply at the Nascent Soul cultivator of the White Bone Sect, then, carrying him, headed straight for the Demon Sealing Well. He paid no attention to several Qin Kingdom demonic cultivators who were mining demonic plants along the way.
At this moment, the seal on the Demon Sealing Well had a crack, and rolling True Demon Qi was surging out from the fissure.
"Truly damnable!"
The Great General's expression changed. Within his divine sense, a dust-like speck of light was emerging along with the True Demon Qi.
He reached out and grasped this tiny speck of light, carefully enveloping it layer by layer with his spiritual power.
Then, a ball of flame rose from his hand, incinerating the speck of light in his palm into nothingness.
"A Demon Seed has leaked!"
This extremely small speck of light was what was feared in the cultivation world as a Demon Seed.
For cultivators whose divine sense was not sufficiently powerful, Demon Seeds were an invisible and traceless existence. Once infected, the Demon Seed would grow within the host's body, eventually replacing the host and becoming a new demon.
Now that a crack had appeared at the wellhead, it was unknown how many Demon Seeds had leaked out.