Core Formation Anomaly

The moment Zhang Tie tackled Senior Brother Lei and sent him flying, a massive ice ball suddenly appeared where the two had been standing. Immediately after, with a deafening "boom," the ice ball exploded, scattering countless sharp ice spikes in all directions like a violent rainstorm.

Without hesitation, Zhang Tie instantly channeled the power of qi and blood in his entire body to his back, fully protecting Senior Brother Lei. At this critical moment, Senior Brother Lei also reacted swiftly, unhesitatingly summoning a bone shield and placing it firmly behind Zhang Tie.

Simultaneously, a layer of protective spiritual light instantly flared around him. Just as they completed these defensive measures, the fierce ice spikes collided violently with the bone shield, emitting a series of ear-splitting crackles.

"That's so touching, Junior Brother," a voice with gratified applause suddenly came from behind. Hearing this, Zhang Tie and Lei Hu quickly got to their feet and looked up. They saw their Second Senior Brother Duan Feng and Third Senior Sister Su Li standing in the air above them.

Faint ice elemental spiritual energy still lingered around Third Senior Sister, clearly indicating that the powerful strike just now had been unleashed by her.

"Greetings, Second Senior Brother, greetings, Third Senior Sister," Lei Hu and Zhang Tie said respectfully, not daring to delay.

Second Senior Brother Duan Feng and Third Senior Sister Su Li slowly descended, landing steadily in front of the two. "Master was indeed right about you, Junior Brother. You truly value loyalty and righteousness," Duan Feng said with a smile, his eyes full of admiration. "Your reaction speed and strength are also quite impressive," Su Li added.

"Why are Senior Brother and Senior Sister here?" Lei Hu asked, full of curiosity.

"After I received Junior Brother's message about borrowing spirit stones, I figured Junior Brother must have messaged all of us senior siblings. Since Fourth Brother's cave dwelling is closest to Junior Brother, he would naturally seek you out first. Knowing your fondness for a good fight, you would definitely spar with Junior Brother. So, I came to see just how strong Junior Brother really is," Duan Feng explained methodically.

"I thought the same thing," Su Li nodded gently, agreeing.

"Lei Hu, you need to put in more effort. Junior Brother is only thirteen years old, and he hasn't even used the spiritual artifact bestowed by Master yet. If this were a fight to the death, you might not gain much advantage," Duan Feng said to Lei Hu, half-jokingly, half-seriously.

"Heh heh, Junior Brother is indeed formidable," Lei Hu replied, scratching his head and smiling honestly.

"Senior Brother Duan is too kind. Senior Brother Lei's lightning elemental spells have a strong numbing effect on my physical body. If we continued fighting for a while longer, my mobility would significantly decrease, and Senior Brother Lei would surely win," Zhang Tie said sincerely.

"Good, not arrogant, not impatient, and you have a clear understanding of yourself," Su Li nodded slightly, praising him.

"Here," Duan Feng suddenly said. Before he finished speaking, Zhang Tie saw both Duan Feng and Su Li toss a storage bag towards him. Zhang Tie reacted quickly, reaching out to catch it.

"I'm heading back," Su Li said, her figure flashing as she instantly disappeared, leaving only her voice echoing from afar.

"Thank you, Senior Brother and Senior Sister," Zhang Tie quickly expressed his gratitude.

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"By the way, Eldest Senior Brother is in seclusion attempting Core Formation, Fifth Brother has gone out on a mission, and Sixth Brother has returned to his family. You don't need to look for those three," Duan Feng instructed before turning and soaring into the sky, vanishing without a trace in an instant.

"Then, Fourth Senior Brother, I'll be heading back too," Zhang Tie said.

"Alright, I'll come find you for another match next time!" Lei Hu called out loudly.

Zhang Tie shook his head helplessly, then leaped up and disappeared into the distance of the forest after a few bounds.

Upon returning to his cave dwelling, Zhang Tie immediately opened the storage bags from Fourth Senior Brother, Second Senior Brother, and Third Senior Sister. Fourth Senior Brother's storage bag contained five thousand low-grade spirit stones, Second Senior Brother's had ten thousand low-grade spirit stones, and Third Senior Sister Su Li's was even more astonishing, holding a full thirty thousand low-grade spirit stones. "What's the situation with Third Senior Sister? Does she have a mine at home?" Zhang Tie couldn't help but mutter to himself.

Carefully storing the spirit stones, Zhang Tie began to seriously review the recent battle.

In that fight, he hadn't truly unleashed his full strength, but he figured Fourth Senior Brother had also held back. In a life-or-death struggle, wouldn't everyone have a few trump cards and secret techniques to save their lives at crucial moments?

His shortcomings were very apparent; his combat methods were too singular, relying solely on close-quarters physical combat, which was a major drawback unavoidable at the early Body Cultivation stage. Furthermore, his speed was truly too slow. If the opportunity arose, he absolutely had to find some suitable movement secret techniques for Body Cultivation practitioners to compensate for this deficiency.

As for why, during Senior Sister Su Li's surprise attack at the end, he didn't choose to quickly escape but unhesitatingly protected Lei Hu and called out a warning, the reason was not complicated.

Firstly, what place was this? This was the territory of True Lord Jing Ling of the Hundred Blossoms Sect. The possibility of someone daring to kill his disciples here was extremely slim. Secondly, Zhang Tie hadn't sensed any killing intent at all at that moment, so from the beginning, he had guessed that it might just be a test.

However, speaking of which, the senior brothers and sisters he had encountered so far were indeed quite good.

Since he had ample spirit stones and pills prepared, he would continue to cultivate diligently. Zhang Tie took a deep breath, took out three thousand low-grade spirit stones from his storage bag, and arranged them neatly around him. Then, he closed his eyes, circulated the Five Elements Cultivation Technique, and began to absorb and refine the spirit stones. One by one, the low-grade spirit stones slowly turned into white powder, and threads of pure spiritual power gradually appeared within Zhang Tie's body, quickly being absorbed by the Undying Pearl. Although this process was slow, it continued unceasingly...

The time spent cultivating always passed quietly. Unknowingly, another year had gone by. On this day, Zhang Tie was diligently circulating the Five Elements Cultivation Technique to absorb spirit stones, replenishing the Undying Pearl's energy. By now, all the spirit beast blood had been absorbed, and only a little over three thousand spirit stones remained. His realm had already reached the Meridian Casting mid-stage peak, meaning the meridians in his head, limbs, and internal organs had all been reforged.

Zhang Tie estimated that the remaining three thousand-plus low-grade spirit stones would not be enough to completely fill the Undying Pearl's energy. He couldn't help but ponder in his heart whether he should go and borrow some more from Senior Sister Su Li after these spirit stones were used up.

Just then, he suddenly felt the spiritual energy around him begin to surge uncontrollably towards the outside of his cave dwelling. Zhang Tie was startled and quickly put away the spirit stones, then hurried out of the cave dwelling. His figure was like lightning; he leaped several times, arriving at the highest point of his mountain peak and gazing in the direction of the spiritual energy flow.

He saw the sky in the distance filled with colorful clouds, dazzling and brilliant. Countless heaven and earth spiritual energies converged into a powerful spiritual energy hurricane, madly gathering towards the mountain peak beneath the colorful clouds. Just as Zhang Tie hesitated whether to go and investigate, the mountain peak suddenly began to rain without any warning. This was no ordinary rain, but spiritual rain containing dense spiritual energy, a rare and peculiar phenomenon. Immediately after, a brilliant pillar of light shot straight from a cave towards the sky filled with colorful clouds. The colorful clouds, following the light pillar, rapidly merged into the cave like a tide, and the spiritual rain gradually stopped. Then, everything returned to peace and quiet.

At that moment, a deep and resonant voice echoed throughout the entire Hundred Blossoms Sect like a loud bell: "Congratulations to my Hundred Blossoms Sect's Jing Ling Peak for gaining another Core Formation True Lord!"