Cultivation of immortality begins with an eighty-year-old eunuch.

Chapter 535 Only 1 person left! The sole survivor!

Wu Daozi of the Golden Sword Sect opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word.

The white-haired old man in Baicao Valley dropped his whisk to the ground, but did not bend down to pick it up.

The elders and disciples of Iron Sword Manor, Wind and Thunder Pavilion, Yellow Sand Sect, and Spirit Ruins Sect all stood frozen in place as if they had been frozen in place.

On the Huangsha Sect's side, an elder in the late Core Formation stage suddenly stood up, his fists clenched, his whole body radiating murderous intent. Duan Heng was his Huangsha Sect's most promising disciple to enter the top five, but now he had been cleaved in two by a single sword strike. He would remember this grudge.

But he didn't move.

Because he saw the gaze of the scholar with the iron crown on the high platform.

Han Yueshan, the Iron-Crowned Scholar and Lord of Huangzhou City, had already stood up from his rosewood chair.

He stood with his hands behind his back on the high platform, his eyes fixed on the gray-blue figure on the arena, his eyes flashing with shock, inquiry, and a hint of undisguised admiration.

With his cultivation level and eyesight, he noticed something amiss the moment Chen Fan broke through.

The essence of that spiritual power was far more than just Core Formation. Although this person suppressed it extremely well, the fluctuations of that level of spiritual power were at least at the Nascent Soul level.

A Nascent Soul cultivator disguised himself as a Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivator to participate in the Desolate State Grand Competition?

Han Yueshan slowly sat back in his chair, his fingers lightly tapping the armrest, a faint smile playing on his lips!

On the arena, Chen Fan withdrew his sword, eleven, and blood slid down the blade, forming a small pool at his feet. He glanced down at Duan Heng's two halves of his corpse, his expression remaining calm and indifferent.

He turned and walked off the ring.

As he passed the Huangsha Sect's seats, several cold gazes fell upon him like blades. The elder, a late-stage Core Formation cultivator, stared intently at him and said, word by word, "Chen Mu, you killed my Huangsha Sect's chief disciple. I will remember this debt."

Chen Fan paused slightly, then said calmly, "On the arena, life and death are irrelevant. That's the rule."

After saying that, he didn't linger and went straight to his seat in the Shangyun Sect.

Master Feihe watched him approach, a complex expression appearing on his aged face. His lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to ask something, but in the end he said nothing, only nodding to signal Chen Fan to sit down and meditate.

Chen Fan sat down cross-legged and closed his eyes.

He could feel countless gazes behind him, some filled with shock, some with apprehension, some with curiosity, and some with murderous intent.

He knew that his sword strike had revealed too much. Breaking through to the Core Formation stage on the spot and then killing Duan Heng, who was in the mid-Core Formation stage, with a single sword strike was a feat that far exceeded what a normal Foundation Establishment Great Perfection cultivator should achieve.

But he had no other choice.

The upcoming matches will only get harder and harder. If one continues to stubbornly cling to the cultivation of a Foundation Establishment cultivator at the Great Perfection stage, sooner or later, one will reveal even greater weaknesses.

Rather than doing that, it's better to naturally "break through" to the Core Formation stage!

Everyone now believes that he narrowly escaped breaking through to the Core Formation stage under Duan Heng's fist pressure. Although it is unbelievable, it is not without precedent in the cultivation world.

The stories of genius cultivators achieving enlightenment and breaking through at the critical moment of life and death have been circulating in the cultivation world for thousands of years and have long been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

With a thousand thoughts swirling in his mind, Chen Fan circulated his spiritual power to steadily control his external cultivation level at the early stage of Core Formation.

The nascent soul within his dantian had truly entered the late stage, but it was concealed by him with a golden bowl, so to outsiders it only showed the fluctuations of the early stage of core formation.

And after this battle, he should be able to have some peace and quiet.

Li Changhe sat to the side, watching Chen Fan's back, his face full of complex emotions.

He knew in his heart that Chen Mu was no ordinary rogue cultivator. To kill a mid-stage Core Formation cultivator with a single sword strike—this strength far surpassed that of him, a mid-stage Core Formation elder.

But he dared not ask, dared not investigate, and dared not even think about it.

Because he knew that the more secrets you knew, the faster you would die.

……

The bloody smell on the training ground, when exposed to the midday sun, evaporated into a nauseatingly sweet aroma.

Chen Fan sat cross-legged in the corner of the viewing platform, his eyes slightly closed, his spiritual energy flowing like water around him.

To outsiders, he appeared to be recuperating, but in reality, he was consolidating his newly achieved late-stage Nascent Soul realm.

The nascent soul within his dantian had become three times more solid than before, its golden light contained within, and the indifference in its eyes was exactly the same as that of the original.

A commotion suddenly broke out beside me.

Zhou Tieshan, one of Mo Hanshan's men, was carried off the arena. He was covered in blood, his right arm severed at the shoulder, the cut bearing the distinctive lightning burn marks of the Fenglei Pavilion, charred black.

His chest was mostly caved in, and he had several broken ribs. With each breath, bloody, foamy water spilled from the corner of his mouth.

Mo Hanshan squatted down beside him, expressionlessly sealing several major acupoints on his body, and then stuffed a pill into his mouth.

Zhou Tieshan swallowed with difficulty, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and then fainted.

Master Feihe glanced at it and slowly closed his eyes.

His aged face was expressionless, but his usually steady hands trembled almost imperceptibly.

Zhou Tieshan was defeated.

At this point, of the ten disciples of Shangyun Sect, seven out of eight had already left.

Some were dead, some were crippled, and only Chen Fan remained standing on the stage.

On the other side of the viewing platform, Wu Daozi of the Golden Sword Sect glanced at the Shangyun Sect and a sneer appeared on his lips.

He pointed at Master Feihe and said to the disciple beside him, "See that? Shangyun Sect only has Chen Mu left. How many matches can one person fight? He'll be exhausted after two more rounds. This year, Shangyun Sect is destined to be at the bottom again."

The Golden Sword Sect disciples behind him burst into laughter.

Someone shouted at the top of their lungs, "Old man Feihe, hurry up and pack your bags and go back to your Luoyun Mountain to retire! The Desolate State Grand Competition is not a place for down-and-outs like you!"

A female cultivator from Baicao Valley, who had just reached the Core Formation stage, covered her mouth and chuckled, "Don't say such unpleasant things. It's already quite an achievement that Shangyun Sect has managed to hold on this long. That Chen Mu does have some skill, but unfortunately, no matter how strong one person is, they can't turn the world upside down."

The late-stage Core Formation elder of the Huangsha Sect snorted coldly, his gaze piercing Chen Fan like a knife:

"He killed my sect's Duan Heng, this grudge must be avenged. If he encounters anyone from my Huangsha Sect again in the next round, he will know what it means to wish he were dead."

Although the people from Fenglei Pavilion and Lingxu Sect did not openly mock them, their gazes toward Shangyun Sect were full of contempt.

The master of Iron Sword Manor, a burly old man with a bushy beard and hair, bluntly told his disciple beside him:

"Shangyun Sect should have been removed from the list long ago. An old ancestor who is only at the early stage of Nascent Soul and whose lifespan is about to end, leading a bunch of mediocre rogue cultivators, is he worthy of being ranked alongside us as one of the Seven Sects? What a joke."

The sarcastic remarks from various sects were like buckets of cold water poured over the heads of everyone in the Shangyun Sect.

Li Changhe's face was ashen, and the veins on his clenched fists bulged.

Mo Hanshan remained expressionless, but a shadowy glint flashed deep in his eyes.

Liu Qiuhe and Qian Buduo were ashen-faced and didn't even have the courage to refute.