"8.97 million low-grade spirit stones?" Sect Leader Gu's eyes nearly popped out of his head.

"No, this can't be right!" Sect Leader Gu immediately muttered to himself.

Only half a year had passed! The spirit stone consumption was about to reach ten million!

This was absolutely abnormal!

Sect Leader Gu seemed to recall something and immediately manipulated the formation core to retrieve records from six months ago, quickly arriving at the day Su Yuan entered the Yuan Pool for cultivation.

Sect Leader Gu found Su Yuan.

Then Sect Leader Gu's lips began twitching uncontrollably as he saw that fish tank artifact and the spirit fish inside.

Pointing at the formation core, he voiced his soul-shaking question: "Formation Spirit, what is this situation? Aren't spiritual beasts and pets forbidden in the Yuan Pool? How did he bring in fifty of them! My spirit stones! Do you understand, those are my spirit stones!"

The formation core remained silent for a moment.

Then it emitted a mental fluctuation: "Detected that the opponent's pet possesses abilities to shield against formation detection, similar to concealing heavenly secrets. Improvements are being made. Marking the opponent's pets. Please wait, Sect Leader."

Sect Leader Gu questioned in disbelief: "What? Shield against formation detection? Do you know what grade this formation is? Among that bunch of fish, is there even one that's reached the second rank? Useless! Absolutely useless!"

The Formation Spirit emotionlessly continued: "Please replenish spirit stones or deduct contribution points. Your prepaid spirit stones are about to be exhausted."

"You..." Sect Leader Gu's finger trembled as he pointed at the formation core.

"Improvement successful. When the opponent enters next time, his pets will be prevented from entering. Please rate this improvement." The Formation Spirit continued without emotion.

"Good, good, good! You... damn it!"

"Thank you for your triple 'good' rating. Please replenish spirit stones promptly. Your contribution points will be automatically deducted." The Formation Spirit said.

Sect Leader Gu had to admit defeat against the Formation Spirit. Unfortunately, the Seven Extremes Sect was somewhat lacking in formation techniques. The Formation Spirit's intelligence was truly worrying - even the fox in the Trial Secret Realm was smarter than this idiot, though that was left by the founding ancestor, so being stronger was understandable.

Pinching his nose, Sect Leader Gu prepaid another 100 million spirit stones into the formation core.

"Haha, kid, I don't believe you can use all of this! But first I need to coax him out!"

Sect Leader Gu immediately sent a message through Su Yuan's true disciple token, asking him to come out as he had a great treasure to show Su Yuan.

The treasure wasn't important, of course. What mattered was getting Su Yuan to bring those fish out! Those were his spirit stones! It would be one thing if Su Yuan absorbed them, but having fish absorb them? That would be a huge loss! Wait, what kind of fish were those? They looked familiar... could they be?

Lost in thought, he left first to check the Scripture Pavilion.

Meanwhile.

Su Yuan's technique creation continued. His cultivation framework was nearly complete, and the meridian rotation paths within his body were being adjusted.

If any other Qi Refining cultivator saw Su Yuan's meridian rotation diagram, they would surely feel dizzy. The densely packed paths involved countless meridians of all sizes, with each spiritual acupoint serving as a super hub connecting numerous meridians.

The interior of the acupoints was even more complex, its profundity surpassing what Foundation Establishment cultivators could comprehend. Even Su Yuan himself no longer fully understood the internal structure of his acupoints, as he had directly transplanted the natural formation restrictions and fused them into his acupoints.

Though he didn't understand their mysteries, he could already utilize their effects. The efficiency of spiritual energy absorption and refinement had undergone a leap in improvement.

The moment spiritual energy entered an acupoint, it was instantly converted into Mystic Truth Qi!

Even the original Mystic Truth Talismans from the "Mystic Truth Derivation Art" had been modified beyond recognition - only the name remained the same!

Among these, the largest acupoint - his dantian - had transformed into something resembling the Yuan Pool!

Under the transformation of the "Yuan Pool Restriction," his dantian had expanded more than tenfold!

Moreover, the spiritual energy within showed signs of automatically liquefying.

It must be known that only Foundation Establishment used liquid true essence!

Within the dantian, streams of four-colored spiritual energy flowed in through the contract bridge, rapidly converting into Mystic Truth Qi upon entry.

This conversion now carried a sense of natural perfection!

After completing the Yuan Pool Restriction, Su Yuan began preparing his perfect Dao Foundation!

At the center of his dantian, Mystic Truth Qi, the Power of Heaven and Earth, and conceptual intent condensed to form a square cauldron!

The cauldron's material resembled both metal and wood yet was neither, containing metal conceptual intent while carrying wood aspect. Inside the cauldron, a illusory flame formed from fire aspect danced and burned!

This was the prototype of Su Yuan's Dao Foundation - the Wood-Fueled Metal Forging Cauldron!

Though the name was simple, the heavenly mysteries it contained were astonishing.

Within the cauldron's flames, one could see golden particles undergoing baptism and tempering by the fire!

This was where Su Yuan's future golden core would reside!

The "metal" in the Wood-Fueled Metal Forging Cauldron referred both to metal conceptual intent and the "golden core," representing Su Yuan's vision of "metallic immortality"!

This technique's conception was profound, far exceeding ordinary techniques. If Su Yuan were to compile it into a manual, few Golden Core cultivators would be able to comprehend even a fraction.

That golden particle wasn't illusory but real. Upon breaking through to Foundation Establishment, he would condense a grain of golden sand!

Since having a golden core allows breakthrough to Golden Core realm, why not start directly from a grain of golden sand?

This was another cutting-edge Daoist insight Su Yuan gained during his technique creation - a crystallization of wisdom born from his vast knowledge foundation.

At this point, the technique modification was nearly complete!

Finally, Su Yuan integrated the "Seven Stars Mystic Truth Body Refining Art" and "Seven Stars Mystic Truth Spirit Tempering Art" into his technique, bringing it to the pinnacle of perfection he could currently achieve!

"The Wood-Fueled Metal Art" was complete!

At this moment, Little Cai let out a strange cry resembling a dragon's roar, its body growing significantly larger. Its scales became more crystalline and beautiful, with four colors flowing across them. A beast king's aura radiated in all directions, causing the 49 spirit fish that had broken through to high-grade Yellow rank to bow their heads.

Su Yuan looked surprised at Little Cai's aura. If he wasn't mistaken, that was undoubtedly a type of Power of Heaven and Earth!

During its breakthrough to Foundation Establishment, Little Cai had apparently awakened its bloodline and automatically comprehended a Power of Heaven and Earth normally associated with Golden Core realm! This damnable bloodline talent made Su Yuan envious. Truly, rebirth was a technical skill - all Little Cai did was eat and play, yet it comprehended Golden Core-level Power of Heaven and Earth in advance. How absurd was that!

With a flick of its tail, Little Cai soared into the air, water vapor automatically condensing into a cloud beneath it, allowing it to "swim" through the air.

Little Cai was overjoyed, circling around Su Yuan repeatedly.

Su Yuan was getting dizzy from all the spinning!

"Slow down, slow down!" Su Yuan laughed helplessly.

Little Cai stopped and rubbed its head against Su Yuan.

Su Yuan waved his hand: "Alright, you've broken through. Now guard me while I cultivate!"

Noticing the message from the sect leader in his true disciple token, he checked it and, seeing nothing urgent, officially activated the "Wood-Fueled Metal Art"!

Crack!

It was as if an ancient divine beast had suddenly raised its head and opened its massive mouth to devour everything around it. Vast amounts of liquid spiritual energy from the Yuan Pool rushed into Su Yuan's body through all his acupoints and pores.

Simultaneously, Su Yuan began unblocking his remaining acupoints.

As easily as eating or drinking, acupoints were instantly unblocked and activated with natural restrictions.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

Like starting cultivation from Qi Refining first layer all over again, Su Yuan's massive spiritual energy surged like a tide, breaking through acupoint after acupoint.

In the blink of an eye, nine acupoints were broken through.

Another quarter hour, eighteen acupoints opened!

After another half hour, twenty-seven acupoints were fully activated!

All twenty-seven acupoints of Qi Refining seventh layer had been broken through and activated with natural formation restrictions!

The newly opened twenty-seven acupoints immediately connected with the previous ones, forming an extremely stable structure. This made subsequent acupoint breakthroughs even easier.

And just from that one wave, the liquid spiritual energy in the Yuan Pool had decreased by one percent!

Sect Leader Gu, who was flipping through an immortal beast compendium in the Scripture Pavilion, immediately received an alert from the Formation Spirit.

Checking it, his expression changed dramatically!

In just one day when he wasn't paying attention, half of his prepaid spirit stones had been consumed!

"That was 100 million spirit stones! What kind of monster is that Su Yuan kid?"

Sect Leader Gu immediately put down the compendium and hurried back.

By now, Su Yuan had already begun his breakthrough to Qi Refining eighth layer!

Massive amounts of Mystic Truth Qi in his dantian evaporated to open new acupoints!

Another nine, eighteen, twenty-seven acupoints!

In just three quarters of an hour, another five percent of the Yuan Pool's spiritual energy had evaporated!

The natural formation restrictions in Su Yuan's body became increasingly complete under the replenishment of vast Mystic Truth Qi.

Su Yuan hadn't expected that constructing complete natural formation restrictions in his body would consume such enormous amounts of spiritual energy. Fortunately, this was the Yuan Pool - never short on liquid spiritual energy. He wasn't worried at all.

Sect Leader Gu Qingzhu was panicking!

The prepaid spirit stones were rapidly depleting!

The spirit stones wouldn't immediately replenish the Yuan Pool's energy - they were first deposited into the formation core to be gradually converted and replenished later. The current consumption was from the originally stored liquid spiritual energy - whatever was consumed had to be replenished by the sect leader.

When Sect Leader Gu arrived at the formation core, he saw the 100 million spirit stones were about to run out!

"Please replenish prepaid spirit stones promptly, Sect Leader, otherwise the formation will eject the cultivating disciple!"

"Replenish prepaid spirit stones!"

"I know! I know! It's not like I'm not paying!" Sect Leader Gu snorted coldly.

He tossed out another 100 million spirit stones.

He didn't leave this time, standing there to watch. He wanted to see what kind of freak Su Yuan really was.

"Are Nine-Colored Celestial Fish really this exaggerated? There aren't such ridiculous records even in immortal beast compendiums!" Clearly, Sect Leader Gu didn't understand the reason - this completely exceeded his knowledge. If it were a Golden Core cultivator inside, he might comprehend somewhat, but at most it was Foundation Establishment - this was too absurd!

Su Yuan happily declared: "Excellent, preparing for Qi Refining ninth layer!"

Su Yuan began charging toward Qi Refining ninth layer!

There was no difficulty whatsoever!

Qi Refining held no more secrets for Su Yuan. Every step was flawless, making breakthroughs proceed naturally. Only the natural formation restrictions were somewhat challenging.

The Yuan Pool's energy dropped another ten percent.

Su Yuan didn't hesitate, gathering his momentum to break through to Foundation Establishment!

Foundation Establishment Pills? Unnecessary! With so much spiritual energy available, who needed pills?

At this point, Su Yuan couldn't help but laugh: "The sect master did well. This time the Yuan Pool gets MVP, while I remain the leeching winner, hehe! Double victory means I win twice!"