When the Gui-Yi Water-Parting Spike was cultivated to a profound level, because it possessed a power that did not belong to the five elements, it could lie hidden in a certain space, making it extremely difficult to capture with the five elements' power. When the time was right, it would deliver a fatal blow.
It could even reach a state of being undetectable to gods and ghosts. Unless one was a cultivator at the Nascent Soul stage or above who had cultivated spatial laws and could perceive imbalances in the surrounding space, it would be impossible to discover its tracks.
However, as for when he could cultivate the "Wave-Hiding Soul-Slaying Art" to that level, Li Yan had no idea. Taking that step would make him a top-tier cultivator in this world.
These were things that were far beyond his current reach; it was enough just to know about them.
But after Browse through it, Li Yan felt that reaching the minor completion stage was still hopeful. Although he couldn't hide it within space, it could travel a hundred or a thousand zhang in an instant with almost no spatial fluctuations.
If he truly cultivated it to that stage, Li Yan believed that even late-stage Golden Core enemies would find it a headache, an endless nuisance.
Just like that, Li Yan spent several days fully grasping his current situation. Only then could he plan his next steps in cultivation accordingly.
Calming his breath and focusing his mind, Li Yan mobilized his spirit power according to the Golden Core stage manual of the "True Scripture of Gui Water" and began his first heavenly cycle circulation after forming his core.
A heavenly tribulation descending upon Falling Star Valley was something that simply could not be hidden.
However, given the might displayed in the battle at Falling Star Valley, even though some cultivators saw the heavenly tribulation, none were truly willing to offend Falling Star Valley by trespassing on the site of the tribulation.
They could only speculate amongst themselves, guessing which of Falling Star Valley's disciples was undergoing the tribulation and whether they had succeeded or not.
It wasn't long before the news that a Falling Star Valley cultivator had formed a Golden Core and become a sect elder was personally confirmed by Xing Ming.
Subsequently, he sent out numerous invitations, inviting sects and cultivators on good terms with Falling Star Valley to attend a ceremony in three months. For a time, the matter caused a sensation within a radius of a hundred thousand li.
It quickly became a topic of conversation among cultivators over tea. A cultivator forming a Golden Core was a major event. Countless cultivators were stuck at the peak of Foundation Establishment, unable to break through in their entire lives, and could only die with regret.
A Golden Core cultivator was qualified to establish a second-rate sect. And how many second-rate sects were there in the entire cultivation world? The majority were unranked sects, families, and rogue cultivators below the third-rate.
Now, Falling Star Valley had four Golden Core cultivators presiding over it, with their Golden Core levels conveniently covering the initial, mid, late, and peak stages.
Thus, Falling Star Valley's stable position as a second-rate sect was now almost unshakable.
Now, if any foreign cultivators wanted to deal with Falling Star Valley, they would have to consider the possibility of being annihilated themselves first. Otherwise, they would just be playing with fire.
Thus, many people began to inquire about this new Golden Core cultivator from Falling Star Valley. But Li Yan had been so low-key in Falling Star Valley that almost no one knew him, and his decades of seclusion had caused him to be forgotten.
Coupled with Xing Ming's deliberate concealment of much of Zhang Ming's information, the news they gathered was pitifully scarce. Many people only got a few sentences.
"This person is the disciple of an old friend of Xing Ming. He is devoted to the Dao. Later, under Xing Ming's arrangement, he went into hiding in Falling Star Valley to cultivate arduously, until he finally broke through to the Golden Core stage in one fell swoop."
The implication of this last piece of information was even greater, leaving many who heard it uncertain and suspicious, but filling their hearts with a renewed assessment of Falling Star Valley.
For this new Golden Core cultivator to be willing to join Falling Star Valley at this time meant that he had no sect or family behind him.
But his master was a good friend of Xing Ming. A Foundation Establishment cultivator's master would be at least a Golden Core cultivator.
If that person were still alive, Falling Star Valley's power would be alarming. They would undoubtedly have another mysterious Golden Core expert in their ranks.
This kind of unknown powerhouse was what made enemies most uneasy. He could be anyone; he could appear by your side at any time.
Regarding the various discussions and speculations from the outside world, Falling Star Valley offered no explanation. For a time, the name Zhang Ming was frequently mentioned and speculated about among low and mid-rank cultivators.
Three months later, the Elder's Ascension Ceremony of Falling Star Valley officially began. After Xing Ming gave a speech, Li Yan made a brief appearance during the ritual to pay respects to heaven and earth.
On this day, Li Yan also saw Feng Tao, who had already advanced to the Foundation Establishment stage. Facing a haggard Feng Tao with a complicated expression, Li Yan merely gave a slight nod before averting his gaze, no longer looking at her.
He certainly remembered this female cultivator whose aptitude had made even him jealous. And there had once been a vow between them.
But now, he no longer needed her to use the earth fire, so everything was naturally null and void.
The moment he saw Feng Tao, Li Yan also thought of the somewhat arrogant Tang Tian. But among all the disciples, neither Tang Tian nor Wu Yizhen had appeared.
If his guess was correct, those two must have found new bodies to possess and were now either integrating with them or cultivating arduously to break through.
Li Yan only had this fleeting thought upon seeing an old acquaintance like Feng Tao.
When Feng Tao saw Li Yan nod at her, she instantly understood the meaning in his eyes.
He was telling her that their previous vow was no longer valid. Feng Tao felt a crisp cracking sound in her mind, like a zither string instantly snapping.
A refreshing sensation instantly spread throughout her body, making her feel as if a great weight had been lifted. It was an indescribable sense of relief, and the last trace of the knot in her heart completely disappeared.
Feng Tao looked gratefully at the young man who had already averted his gaze. If he had insisted on not untying this knot in her heart, her immortal path would have been ruined once again.
It would have been fine if she had never met Zhang Ming again. But Zhang Ming's reappearance had caused the long-lost inner demon to constantly emerge during her cultivation.
She had wanted to pluck up the courage to beg him to retract the vow, but she heard that he had gone into seclusion after his heavenly tribulation. She certainly knew this was to stabilize his realm.
How could Feng Tao dare to go and disturb him? In recent months, she could only suffer in torment. As the ceremony approached, she had become increasingly anxious in recent days, and she had lost a lot of weight. Every day, she thought about how to find an opportunity to speak to him at the ceremony.
Unexpectedly, this Elder Zhang had directly dissolved the vow between them upon meeting her today. He was very kind-hearted and had not made any conditions.
If Zhang Ming had proposed conditions, even if it was to serve him with her body, with his current prestige in the sect, the Sect Master would definitely agree.
With the knot in her heart untied, Feng Tao's haggard expression instantly recovered for the most part. With a heart full of gratitude, she followed the other disciples and performed a grand salute to the young man in the green robe.
Looking at that extremely ordinary face, she couldn't help but give a wry smile in her heart.
'Since you were a Foundation Establishment expert back then, some of the things we did must have seemed like a joke in your eyes.'
From the moment she learned that the person who had formed a core in Falling Star Valley that day was actually Zhang Ming, she had stood there dumbfounded. She thought another disciple had the same name as the person she knew.
But after asking Zhu Luomu, Zhu Luomu, out of consideration for their past relationship, gave her an answer, confirming that she was not mistaken. Zhang Ming was that Zhang Ming.
And Zhu Luomu had also told Feng Tao Xing Ming's other version of the story. In fact, he himself wasn't sure if everything his master had told him was true.
Only then did Feng Tao realize that Zhang Ming's entry into the sect and everything else had been arranged by the Sect Master.
With her intelligence, she didn't even need to send a message back to her family to verify it; she had already guessed that the death of Fang Guangjun back then was definitely related to this person.
"Perhaps even if I hadn't gone to find him that time, given the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators who remained in the sect, the old Sect Master might have found a reason to have him follow anyway."
The old Sect Master in her heart was, of course, Lin Xinghe. In her opinion, Lin Xinghe was naturally aware of all this.
At that time, with Zhang Ming's identity, it was more suitable for him to secretly monitor rogue cultivators like Fang Guangjun. Lin Xinghe would naturally have made the arrangement.
Looking at the face that had been adjusted to that of a young man, yet was still familiar.
Feng Tao thought of the scene when they had first entered the sect together. Her cheerful expression instantly became a little dazed.
It was as if everything was right before her eyes, everything had returned to the past, back to the stone path in front of the mountain gate where several young men and women walked. Among them was a naive young girl, and that silent, dark-skinned youth...
Compared to Feng Tao, Zhu Luomu and his two junior martial siblings felt differently. They had been personally saved by Zhang Ming back then.
Although Junior Sister Shen was unconscious at the time, it didn't prevent her from recalling afterwards that she had glanced at the young man with the corner of her eye when she was selecting disciples.
Twenty years ago, the three of them had only marveled at this person's mysteriousness. But for a cultivator who could slay a Golden Core back then, advancing to the Golden Core stage seemed to be a matter of course.
In their master's eyes, Zhang Ming had also benefited from favorable timing back then. But the three of them didn't care that Yu Rong had already been injured by his magical treasure's self-detonation; saving them was saving them.
Even in Yu Rong's condition, he was not someone they could have withstood. Zhang Ming's sudden intervention would make them remember this person for a lifetime.
In the past few months, the disciples of Falling Star Valley had also come to know the background of this Zhang Ming quite clearly. But the information they could find was only about the year or so when Zhang Ming had low-key entered the sect.
But under Xing Ming's secret instruction, the story of Zhang Ming slaying a Golden Core cultivator had also made the disciples' blood boil with excitement. They felt that both sect masters were far-sighted, and that Zhang Ming was a genius of heaven.
Li Yan didn't care what others thought. He just made a public appearance. After participating in the sect's ceremony, he followed Xing Ming and seven or eight other Golden Core cultivators who had come to attend the ceremony into the back hall.
He had just stabilized his realm and was still quite unfamiliar with Golden Core stage cultivation. Communicating with other Golden Core cultivators would be of great benefit to him.
In the back hall, Li Yan met the sect master of the Green Wind Sect, two elders from the Six Plates Hall, and the sect masters or elders of some other sects that were on relatively good terms with Falling Star Valley.
But the old Daoist from the Green Wind Sect who had come last time did not come this time. It was said that he had entered seclusion again.
Similarly, neither Tianxingzi nor Lin Xinghe made an appearance at this ceremony. Tianxingzi had just come out three months ago and couldn't always be interrupting his secluded cultivation.
As for Lin Xinghe, even with the great commotion caused by Li Yan's heavenly tribulation, he still had not come out of seclusion, which showed how severe his injuries had been.
This ascension ceremony was bustling with noise for a full three days before it concluded. And those Golden Core old monsters only stayed at Falling Star Valley for half a day before they all took their leave.
Although they had only been in contact with Li Yan for half a day, their impression was that this person's combat strength was not to be underestimated.
This new Golden Core cultivator of Falling Star Valley could be considered a genius body cultivator. For him to condense a Golden Core through body cultivation was more than twice as difficult as it was for a dharma cultivator.
This point alone was enough to make many cultivators feel left in the dust. It was something that could not be achieved without great perseverance.
Especially since his age was only in his early forties. When Xing Ming said this, a group of Golden Core cultivators fell into a dead silence, speechless for a long time.
Which of them had not formed their core after the age of one hundred?
Furthermore, judging from the rumors of his battle with Yu Rong, Zhang Ming definitely belonged to the type of dangerous body cultivator who was skilled at walking the edge of life and death.
With these conditions, although some of the information might be true and some false, Zhang Ming was already someone worth befriending.