After Jiang Li finished setting up the array formation, he filled the soil cubes back into the hole seamlessly.

In the end, only a few traces were left on the surface of the grass. With the urging of his wood attribute spiritual qi, the vegetation grew densely and soon, no one could see any abnormalities.

However, his actions were seen by several pairs of eyes.

"Little brother, your artifact is not bad. If you give it to me, I will protect you until the end. How about it?"

Jiang Li carried the shovel and stood up. This voice suddenly sounded behind him.

Jiang Li was expressionless and did not show any surprise. The other party had been following him for so long. If he did not discover this, then his cultivation of the Bodhisattva Heart Sutra would have been for nothing.

He had ignored the other party previously because he was certain that the other party would not be able to escape.

Turning around, he saw a woman in red floating on a tree branch. She had a smile on her face as she looked down at him.

Then, rustling sounds could be heard. Two male rogue cultivators who were close to twenty years old surrounded him from two other directions.

"It seems that rogue cultivators are not all fools. They actually reached a cooperation in such a short time. It really surprised me. You guys are not bad."

Jiang Li was surrounded by the three of them, but his expression clearly showed that he was surrounded by the three of them. He was praising them like an elder facing a junior.

"Little brother, your words don't sound nice. Those two big brothers will be very angry. Why don't you take out everything you have and Big Sister will help you plead for leniency?"

The woman narrowed her eyes before she started to threaten Jiang Li. The two people behind him were slowly approaching as well, but they maintained a distance between them. Obviously, they did not really trust each other and were still on guard against their teammates.

"Are you planning to attack me? Have you thought of the consequences of attacking a disciple of the Scripture Storage Valley?"

Jiang Li touched the chain on his waist, as if he was comforting a python, asking it to endure for a while and not kill everyone on the spot.

"Heh, boy, you still want to use the sect to suppress us?"

"This is the venue of the Great Mountain Cultivator Competition. No one will say anything even if I kill you."

"See the fog above? If you die, who will know that we killed you?"

When Jiang Li heard this, he inexplicably admired the other party's courage.

"These large sects are really rotten. They actually let a young master like you join this kind of competition by paying them a sum. Hmph, it's a pity that you met us."

"Hand over everything quickly, or else I'll definitely let you see what horror is!"

Behind him, there was a man whose malice was no longer masked. He tore the sleeve on his right arm, revealing a gorgeous tiger claw.

This kind of operation of directly transplanting the organs of demon beasts was actually quite popular among the rogue cultivators. Although it might affect their future development potential, it could increase their combat strength quite a bit in a short period of time.

Jiang Li touched his young face and felt a little helpless.

Ever since his body refinement, his body had grown rapidly, but the immaturity had not completely faded.

His age was really too deceptive. Cultivation required a long period of accumulation. To many people, being young meant being weak.

Even if he wore the uniform of an inner sect disciple of the Scripture Storage Valley, few people would acknowledge his strength.

If one did not know the truth, it was not strange to think this way.

"Forget it, I'm not playing with you guys anymore. Miss Shuman, have you chosen your target yet?"

Jiang Li raised his head and asked before a phantom appeared behind the red clothed woman.

Qin Shuman grabbed her head and covered her eyes with her hands. The woman in red instantly lost all her senses and could not move at all.

This was a sensory deprivation technique. After combining it with the Shu Mountain's illusion technique, its power was already extremely terrifying.

Furthermore, with Qin Shuman's strength, although it was likely for her to lose against a Foundation Establishment cultivator, it was not a problem to face a Qi Refinement cultivator.

Then, Qin Shuman forced the other party's head in front of her. Her pale lips opened slightly, and mist-like things poured out from the other party's air hole.

She had used her ghostly innate ability to quickly draw out the other party's spiritual qi and vitality.

"Kid! You're courting death!"

The female cultivator above was instantly subdued. The two cultivators panicked as well. That female ghost looked extremely terrifying. The two of them combined were definitely not her match.

He did not expect that this sect disciple who joined through connections would actually have such a cheat-level protective trump card. No wonder he was so fearless just now.

"To capture thieves, first take down the leader! Attack together!"

The female ghost, Qin Shuman, was treated as a protective trump card given to him by the elders of the sect.

The two rogue cultivators knew that fleeing would only mean death. Their only way out was to capture Jiang Li and use him as a hostage.

They rushed forward together, one tiger claw reaching towards Jiang Li's face, and a sickle aimed at his ankle.

The two of them attacked together, and their cooperation had some tacit understanding.

Bang! Bang!

With a punch from the top, the tiger claw was smashed into a pile of mush. With a kick from the bottom, the iron hook was kicked into a pile of scrap metal.

The attacks that the two of them relied on were easily shattered, showing no effect.

Swoosh!

The Dragon Imprisoning Lock that had been waiting for a long time flew out and wrapped around the two people at lightning speed. Then, it suddenly tightened, and a huge force squeezed inward, instantly tearing the two people into pieces on the ground.

Without any special methods, it was basically impossible for these Qi Refinement realm cultivators to endure an attack from Jiang Li.

"Shuman, let's go."

Jiang Li threw the corpse into the coffin. The master of the Ghost City, Qin Shuman, also floated over with the female cultivator who had already turned into a dried corpse.

After absorbing the vitality of a late-stage Qi Refinement realm cultivator, her pale body now had a hint of redness.

The human and ghost continued to walk towards the finish line as if they were sightseeing.

Similar things were happening in the other areas of the Qi Refinement realm's competition.

There were more rogue cultivators, but other than a few true geniuses who were hidden until now and some children of heaven who had obtained the powerful legacies of their predecessors, the strength of these rogue cultivators was generally inferior to sect cultivators.

From the ranks of cultivation methods, the might of spell techniques, and the grade of magic artifacts, when these differences were overlapped, the difference in combat strength would at least be raised by two levels.

Many rogue cultivators knew their own limits. After encountering each other, they felt that they did not have full confidence in taking down the other party, so they temporarily traveled together and formed groups of three or five in order to fight against stronger sect cultivators.

However, even so, they still lost more than they won.

Apart from… this group of people.

If the fog above the mountain disappeared, the flying ship in the sky might discover that a wave of seemingly unrelated cultivators was gathering in the center of the first mountain from all directions.

There were men and women among them, and there were both strong and weak. The places in the Great Mountain Region were vastly different, and perhaps they could not even call each other's names.

But as if summoned by something, they converged on one target.

After they gathered, they did not have any intention of fighting. They only quietly waited for their companions to arrive.

Before long, more than 30 rogue cultivators had gathered.

After all, the Qi Refinement realm was only the beginning of cultivation. The things that cultivators grasped were still too few. It was quite difficult to fight ten people at once.

As for more than 30 Qi Refinement cultivators, this force was already sufficient to suppress any sect disciple other than Jiang Li.

"Damn it! How… How are they related?"

Not far from the rogue cultivators, a Hundred Tempering Mountain cultivator was quietly lying in the bushes, watching the scene in front of him in shock.

With so many rogue cultivators at such a distance and such a strange scene, he would not believe that there was no plot between them.

"They must have grasped some method to cheat. There's definitely some plot in this competition."

"No, I have to spread this news as soon as possible!"

This disciple of the Hundred Tempering Mountain was called Situ Rui. He was a descendant of one of the two great families of the Hundred Tempering Mountain. While he possessed extraordinary talent, he had also obtained unimaginable resources. It could be said that he was an influential figure in this competition.

However, even he did not have the intention to jump out and fight the rogue cultivators. Instead, he cautiously lay on the ground and retreated bit by bit.

Rustle~

However, footsteps came from behind.

Unfortunately, a rogue cultivator rushed over from behind him.

When the cultivator saw the Hundred Tempering Mountain cultivator hiding behind the bushes, he stopped in his tracks and looked over expressionlessly.

The next moment, the more than thirty cultivators turned their heads over.

The disciple of the Hundred Tempering Mountain cursed his bad luck. He took out a smoke bomb and smashed it on the ground. Immediately, thick black smoke spread out and completely enveloped the nearby area.

Swish!

The Hundred Tempering Mountain disciple, Situ Rui, reacted very quickly and made a very accurate judgment.

There were more than 30 people on the other side, and one of them was just behind him. As long as that person stopped him for a breath of time, the other rogue cultivators would surround him. At that time, not to mention winning, even fleeing would become a dream.

The success rate of directly escaping was too low, so he immediately threw out the smoke bomb to block their line of sight.

Then, he immediately took out the lightning cracker that was used to seek help and pulled down the trigger line.

A bright and blinding red light blossomed on his hand. In just a moment, the distress signal would rise high into the sky and pierce through the clouds, bringing with it reinforcements that could suppress everything.

However, Situ Rui's right hand, which was holding onto the cracker, suddenly sank. One palm pressed against the front end of the tube.

In the next moment, the fragrance of roasted meat filled the air. How could that meat palm withstand the burning of the lightning cracker? It only took a moment before it was completely penetrated.

Ordinary people would definitely be unable to endure such pain and immediately let go.

However, this was not the case for the owner of the hand. Instead of letting go, he grabbed the red light and curled into a ball, enveloping it.

Flesh and blood turned to charcoal, the intestines pierced through the stomach. This cultivator was about to die, but the red light that was shooting through the sky ultimately did not rise successfully.

"How… how is this possible?"

The black smoke slowly dissipated. Situ Rui looked at the half-charred cultivator on the ground in confusion, not understanding why he would do this.

Then, he looked around in despair. More than 30 Qi Refinement cultivators had already surrounded him.

"Damn it! You'll regret this!"

His artifact emitted a bright light. Situ Rui still wanted to make one last gamble. After he threw out the artifact, he wanted to fly into the thick fog to escape.

However, those cultivators were too close to him and did not care about his attacks at all. They directly rushed up without fear of death and pressed him down.

In the end, this Situ Clan disciple of the Hundred Tempering Mountain was still pressed to the ground. Then, the disciple who was on the verge of death was dragged onto his body. The black hair on his head gradually turned white, and his entire body aged immensely. A seed rolled out from his mouth and landed in the mouth of the Hundred Tempering Mountain cultivator.

...

On the Foundation Establishment stage, the competition was also very intense.

Although the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators who signed up for the competition was not as many as the Qi Refinement stage competition grounds, it had already far exceeded their expectations.

The sect alliance competition authorities had prepared five types of terrain venues: mountain of blades, sea of trees, swamp, volcano, stone forest, and so on.

In each arena, 30 tokens were placed. After the participating cultivators were randomly disrupted, they entered the arena to snatch the 150 tokens.

The competition authorities planned to raise the number of Foundation Establishment cultivators participating to less than 150.

The sword cultivator clone, Tang Yan, was randomly assigned to the stone forest battlefield.

Pillars that were hundreds of meters tall were pointed at the sky. They were densely packed and resembled a forest. There was not a lot of room for maneuver in such complicated terrain. It was quite an advantage for body cultivators and earth-attribute cultivators. If it was his main body, his combat strength would probably be even higher.

However, to a long-range fighter like the clone, having so many obstacles was not good.

Then…

Sword Kinesis Technique!

Giant Sword Technique!

Myriad Sword Technique!

Exploding Flame Fire Sword!

Liquor Heaven Burning Sword!

Yellow Dragon Sword!

...

There was an enormous sword shadow that had swelled to a hundred feet in length, a dense rain of sword lights that descended from thousands of sword lights, an explosive sword qi that was impossible to guard against, the liquor fire sword qi that could burn the sky and split the ground apart, and an emperor's sword that was coiled by a flaming divine dragon…

The pitiful stone forest battlefield was instantly ravaged by the terrifying sword waves.

It was as if the sword cultivator clone did not know what exhaustion was. When other people released a powerful move, they would take half a day to recover. As for the clone, he attacked everything in the surroundings without regard for the cost.

The dozen or so unlucky cultivators near the clone were instantly stunned.

They had just entered and something had happened? What was that Shu Mountain sword cultivator trying to do? Was he trying to wait for death after expending all his spiritual qi?

More than ten Foundation Establishment Cultivators struggled under the waves of sword qi and sword light.

However, how could the sword techniques of the Shu Mountain sword cultivators be so easily withstood? Even if they covered an area and enveloped more than ten Foundation Establishment Cultivators at the same time, the pressure on everyone would not be much weaker.

The protective light dispersed and the defensive artifacts shattered. One Foundation Establishment Cultivator after another collapsed, but the sword cultivator clone did not show any signs of exhaustion.

In the end, only three cultivators escaped from the sword light waves.

The blinding red light on the flying sword Burning Rainbow slowly dissipated. After spinning in a circle, it returned to the sheath on the back of the clone.

This was the current combat style of the sword cultivator clone. It did not seek the strongest, but the most energy consuming moves.

Be it cost-efficiency, flexibility, or technique, they were all useless to the sword cultivator clone.

After returning to the Shu Mountain Five Elements Peak, he did not learn a single Basic Sword Technique. He only studied the sword techniques with the highest expenditure.

Great expenditure usually meant a wide range, strong power, and greater commotion!

The combat style of the sword cultivator clone was becoming simpler. He simply stood on the spot and attacked crazily.

However, being simple did not mean that it was not good. It was so powerful that there was no need to beat around the bush.

The endless use of Spirit Surge Technique caused the sword cultivator clone to go from an ordinary fire sword cultivator to one of the top five Foundation Establishment cultivators under the age of 30 on the Shu Mountain Five Elements Peak.

From the pile of rubble, his clone, Tang Yan, took out a burning hot token. Somehow, he had already passed the first round of the competition.