Desperate to lord his seniority over Xu Changshou, Jiang Xiaochuan eagerly threw himself into Secluded Cultivation.

Simultaneously, Lin Xian'er, Han Zong, Zhang Feixian, Shi Wantong, and Qian Yuanbao-all having secured Barrier Breaking Pills-also prepared to enter Secluded Cultivation.

Xu Changshou, however, was in no rush to enter Secluded Cultivation. Senior Sister Liu had been clear: when slamming into a Bottleneck, blind, stubborn Secluded Cultivation was a fool's errand. One had to balance tension with relaxation.

For the next few days, Xu Changshou leisurely rode the public flying boats, wandering the peaks without aim. While idling, he discreetly stockpiled massive reserves of food.

Indeed, he too was preparing for Secluded Cultivation.

This time, he intended to refine every single Qi Gathering Pill he possessed. He was absolutely determined to smash through to the seventh layer of Qi Condensation in one fell swoop.

If he failed, and Jiang Xiaochuan's group broke through first, he would genuinely be demoted from Senior Brother to a lowly Junior Brother.

Three days later.

Xu Changshou officially entered Secluded Cultivation, explicitly hanging a heavy wooden plaque on his door: In Secluded Cultivation. Do Not Disturb.

Two days later, Jiang Xiaochuan emerged. Having successfully pierced the seventh layer of Qi Condensation, he practically sprinted to Xu Changshou's room, only to find the plaque blocking his path. He trudged back, bitterly disappointed.

"Xu Changshou actually entered Secluded Cultivation. Damn it all. I'll just have to wait for him to emerge. Regardless of what happens, that title of Senior Brother belongs to me!"

A few days later.

Lin Xian'er, Han Zong, Zhang Feixian, Qian Yuanbao, and Shi Wantong emerged from Secluded Cultivation, one after another.

"Congratulations! Congratulations to Junior Sister Lin for elevating her cultivation to the next realm!"

"Congratulations, Senior Brother Han!"

"A shared joy for us all!"

"Speaking of which... where is Junior Brother Xu?"

"Junior Brother Xu!"

The mere mention of Xu Changshou's name ignited the group's collective interest.

Having all successfully reached the seventh layer of Qi Condensation, they were certain Xu Changshou couldn't have matched their speed. Thus, they all harbored the exact same petty ambition as Jiang Xiaochuan.

They all desperately wanted to force Xu Changshou to address them as Senior Brother or Senior Sister.

Lin Xian'er turned toward the stairs. "I shall go find Junior Brother Xu."

"Don't bother," Jiang Xiaochuan interjected, crossing his arms. "Junior Brother Xu has entered Secluded Cultivation."

"Secluded Cultivation?"

"You don't suppose he's hiding from us, do you?"

"Oh, right! Let's go find Junior Brother Li!"

The group hurried to Li Linhao's quarters, only to be utterly shocked; Li Linhao had also silently broken through to the seventh layer.

"What about Su Mo?"

Refusing to let the matter drop, the crowd swarmed Su Mo's room.

Tragically, Su Mo had also entered Secluded Cultivation.

A full month later, Su Mo finally emerged, having successfully reached the seventh layer. The group's petty hopes were dashed yet again.

Now, their entire collective ambition rested squarely on Xu Changshou's shoulders. They silently prayed to the heavens that he would fail his breakthrough.

During that month, Xu Changshou had relentlessly refined three Qi Gathering Pills and was currently digesting the fourth.

As his cultivation deepened, his refining speed increased dramatically. What once took weeks now required only ten days per Pill.

Time flowed like water.

Another twenty days vanished.

Boom...

Xu Changshou's entire frame violently convulsed. He felt a hidden acupoint within his meridians suddenly blow open, allowing the Spiritual Qi within his body to erupt in a surging torrent.

At his Guanyuan acupoint, the golden cyclone of Qi had expanded to the size of a duck egg.

"The seventh layer of Qi Condensation! I finally broke through!"

Xu Changshou snapped his eyes open. Channeling Spiritual Qi to his palm, he threw a vicious, empty strike at a heavy wooden stool across the room.

A terrifying blast of invisible force erupted from his hand, pulverizing the solid locust-wood stool into a shower of splinters.

"So this is Qi emission. What tyrannical Spiritual Qi."

Xu Changshou marveled internally, immediately grasping the fundamental chasm between the sixth and seventh layers.

In a duel, a hundred sixth-layer cultivators would be effortlessly slaughtered by a single seventh-layer expert. The ability to project Spiritual Qi outward granted horrifying offensive capabilities.

And that was purely raw power, completely devoid of proper techniques.

"Right. The Bloodline Jade Talisman."

Wasting no time, Xu Changshou withdrew the Bloodline Jade Talisman. With a flick of his intent, he drove fine threads of Spiritual Qi directly into the Bloodline Jade Talisman.

The Bloodline Jade Talisman vibrated violently, bleeding intense rays of crimson light.

The solid jade talisman began to turn ethereal, melting directly into his palm until it vanished completely. In its place, a burning red brand was left seared into his flesh-the exact ancient character that had been carved onto the Bloodline Jade Talisman's surface.

Xu Changshou couldn't read the ancient script, but after years of obsessive study, he strongly suspected it was the character for "Talisman."

But how was he supposed to actually open the Bloodline Jade Talisman?

Frowning, Xu Changshou instinctively pressed his branded palm flat against his forehead.

The reaction was instantaneous.

His consciousness rapidly deteriorated, the physical walls of his room dissolving into a blur. When his mind snapped back to clarity, he found himself standing in a vast, endless void choked with thick, gray mist.

Standing squarely in front of him was a massive stone door.

Xu Changshou approached it cautiously and applied a gentle push. The heavy stone ground open effortlessly.

Beyond the threshold lay a square chamber, roughly ten meters wide. At the far end stood another, identical stone door.

Carved deep into the face of that second door were thousands of glowing characters. Furthermore, the surrounding stone walls were plastered with hundreds upon hundreds of complex, glowing diagrams:

Sharp Gold Talisman, Wood Entanglement Talisman, Water Binding Talisman, Fireball Talisman, Earth Shield Talisman, Windwalk Talisman, Five Elements Talisman, Thunder Explosion Talisman, Wind Thunder Talisman, Metal Thunder Talisman, Wood Thunder Talisman, Water Thunder Talisman, Fire Thunder Talisman, Earth Thunder Talisman, Yin Thunder Talisman, Yang Thunder Talisman, Dual Thunder Talisman, Triple Thunder Talisman, Quadruple Thunder Talisman, Quintuple Thunder Talisman, Lightning Attraction Talisman, Spirit Gathering Talisman, Invisibility Talisman, Earth Escape Talisman, Wall Piercing Talisman, Flight Talisman, Soul Capture Talisman, Demon Suppression Talisman, Evil Subduing Talisman, Corpse Breaking Talisman, Illusion Breaking Talisman, Sound Transmission Talisman...

Beneath each glowing diagram were blocks of dense, minute text detailing the talisman's exact effects and the esoteric methods required to draw them.

Xu Changshou immediately began a feverish study.

Fireball Talisman: Instantly detonates a sphere of condensed flame capable of incinerating all physical matter. Force is tenfold that of a standard Fireball Art.

Thunder Explosion Talisman: Houses a compressed bolt of pure lightning. Lethality is absolute.

Invisibility Talisman: Conceals the physical form and aura. Completely undetectable by cultivators of the same realm.

Windwalk Talisman: Houses a cyclone of Wind Spiritual Qi. Provides boundless kinetic propulsion, allowing the user to travel three thousand li in a single day.

Soul Capture Talisman: Specifically targets the spiritual sea. Highly lethal against spectral entities and Nascent Souls.

Corpse Breaking Talisman: The absolute bane of the Corpse Refining Dao.

After skimming just a fraction of the collection, Xu Changshou's mind reeled in shock. The Dao of Talismans recorded here was infinitely more profound and terrifying than he had ever imagined.

To his ignorant mortal mind, talismans came in three basic flavors: Windwalk Talismans for fleeing, Fireball Talismans for striking, and Earth Shield Talismans for cowering.

He had never conceived that true talismans possessed such horrific diversity.

Ye Shanhu had been dead wrong. She claimed talismans were mere parlor tricks compared to true Magical Artifacts. Yet the diagrams burned into these walls proved that certain talismans could easily annihilate high-grade Magical Artifacts.

Take the Thunder Explosion Talisman. Even a trash-tier, first-rank variant held enough compressed voltage to instantly vaporize a cultivator at the peak twelfth layer of Qi Condensation into fine ash.

Provided, of course, the target failed to deploy a Magical Artifact or defensive art in time.

When immortals clashed, brute force was meaningless.

They wagered their lives on the superiority of their techniques, the depth of their divine abilities, the quality of their Pills, and the lethality of their Magical Artifacts.

Within this ancient compendium, the Thunder-attribute talismans dominated the offensive hierarchy. And the Thunder Explosion Talisman was merely the foundational building block.

Above it sat terrifying dual-attribute fusions: Wind Thunder, Metal Thunder, Wood Thunder, Water Thunder, Fire Thunder, Earth Thunder, Yin Thunder, and Yang Thunder.

By compressing two conflicting elements into a single paper seal, the resulting detonation was exponentially more catastrophic.

And ascending even higher were the apocalyptic fusions: Triple Thunder, Quadruple Thunder, and Quintuple Thunder.

The logic was brutal and absolute: the more elemental laws stacked into the array, the more devastating the slaughter.