Outside the pavilion, the sea of clouds churned and surged.

The mountain wind was bitingly cold, dispersing the bloody scent on Su Ming's body but unable to blow away the gravity in his eyes.

He held tightly in his hand the purple jade token representing his identity as a True Disciple. The token was warm and smooth, yet it felt heavy and weighty to him.

"Master."

Su Ming stood at the cliff's edge, gazing at the continuous mountain range looming faintly visible within the clouds and mist ahead. That was the Formation Peak's dojo, and also his future battlefield.

"What's wrong? Scared?" Lin Yu's voice sounded, carrying a hint of teasing. "Weren't you quite the actor back inside? That righteous and solemn look, I almost believed it myself."

Su Ming shook his head, the corner of his mouth curling into a self-deprecating arc.

"Not scared."

He stretched out his hand, looking at the lines on his palm. There was a tiny scar left at Iron Wall Pass. Though already healed, the mark remained. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

"I was just thinking... Elder Ma called me a 'rivet'."

"Mhm, that's quite a high evaluation," Lin Yu said. "A nail, usually unseen, has to withstand pressure at critical moments. That fits our 'Way of Survival' aesthetics quite well."

"Yeah."

Su Ming whispered softly, "But for a nail to not be pulled out, it must be driven deep enough, deep enough to grow together with this great mountain, with this sect."

He raised his head, his gaze passing over the sea of clouds, looking northward. That was the direction of Iron Wall Pass, also the place where that "Rockheart" insect king lay dormant.

"This year, I have many things to do."

"Foundation Establishment is just the threshold."

"If I don't want to be a sacrificial pawn in this chess game, I must make this nail of mine become a 'formation core' that no one can pull out."

The wind rose, clouds surged.

Behind him, the Starfall Pavilion once again vanished into thick fog, as if it had never appeared.

The path ahead, however, unfolded bit by bit with clarity as Su Ming took his steps forward.

...

Cloud Hidden Sect, External Affairs Hall square.

Although the Sect Leader had issued a gag order, and no one knew the specifics of the conversation inside the Starfall Pavilion, the news of "Su Ming's promotion to True Disciple" still spread throughout the entire sect within an hour as if it had grown wings.

This news was too explosive.

An outer sect Technical Assistant Repair Specialist, went out for a stroll, came back directly skipping over the inner sect, becoming the Peak Master of Formation Peak's personal disciple!

This was literally ascending to heaven in a single step.

Some were envious, some were disdainful, and others began to reassess that previously unremarkable little steward of the Repair Hall.

But for Su Ming, all this external clamor was temporarily irrelevant to him.

He was now standing before a somewhat desolate-looking cliff.

A stone tablet was carved with three characters: Gazing Star Cliff.

The place lived up to its name—three sides were sheer cliffs thousands of feet high. The fierce winds howled like ghosts wailing, blowing so hard it was almost impossible to stand steady. The spiritual energy was indeed so dense it seemed to solidify, even forming faint silver mist streams visible to the naked eye, but it was mixed with violent star baleful energy and earth vein impurities, making it difficult for ordinary cultivators to remain here for long periods.

"This place..."

But Su Ming's eyes lit up.

"Great place!" Lin Yu was even more excited than him. "See that? That exposed 'Star Pattern Rock Layer' to the east, naturally gathers Zhou Tian star power; the 'Earth Fire Fissure' beneath the western cliff, leads directly to the depths of the earth veins; the fierce wind layer overhead happens to be a perfect natural barrier, capable of blocking over ninety percent of divine sense detection!"

Lin Yu's divine sense swept around once, letting out a meaningful sigh. "Excellent! It's practically tailor-made for you."

Lin Yu analyzed with great enthusiasm, "In the future, when you conduct some explosion experiments, or secretly practice some shady techniques, just push it into the wind vent, and no one will know."

"Most importantly..."

Lin Yu pointed at the bottomless sea of clouds below the cliff. "This leads directly to the depths of the earth veins below."

Hearing this, a flash of sharp light passed through Su Ming's eyes.

"Master is right."

He walked to the front of the cave dwelling, took out that True Disciple jade token, and gently pressed it against the stone door.

*Hum.*

With a dull rumbling sound, the long-sealed stone door slowly opened. A wave of stale yet pure spiritual energy rushed towards his face.

*Hum—*

The moment the stone door opened, a torrent of pure yet wild mixed star power and earth energy surged out, blowing Su Ming's hair wildly. Without hesitation, he stepped inside.

The interior of the cave dwelling was much more spacious than it looked from outside, divided into a front hall, meditation room, elixir room, artifact room, and even a small medicinal garden formed by channeling an underground spiritual spring. Although the furnishings were simple and covered in dust, every part revealed the wisdom of the original builder in cleverly utilizing the terrain.

Su Ming wasn't in a hurry to rejoice; instead, his expression grew even more solemn.

He turned and walked out of the cave dwelling, taking out from his storage pouch all his stockpiled formation flags, talismans, and even some demon beast materials collected at Iron Wall Pass.

His hands formed seals, fast as phantoms.

"Kan Water Mist Array, rise!"

"Li Fire Illusion Array, rise!"

"Gen Mountain Spirit Suppression Array, bury!"

"Dui Marsh Void Trap Talisman, deploy!"

For a full three hours, Su Ming laid out seven interlocking formations covering a radius of three hundred zhang around Gazing Star Cliff. The outermost layer was illusionary confusion, the middle was warning traps, the inner layer was defensive counterattacks, and the core meditation room was even more heavily fortified. He used Star Pattern Steel fragments to set up a simple "Minor Heavenly Cycle Star Power Resonance Array" that faintly resonated with the Formation Heart Seal on his chest.

He plopped down on the ground, collapsing without any semblance of grace.

"Finally... safe."

"Don't just lie there."

"Now, you can look at the Foundation Establishment elixir the sect gave you."

Su Ming wiped the sweat from his brow and took out the three jade bottles from his chest.

The moment the stoppers were opened, three beams of clear radiance rose, elixir fragrance filled the air, and the spiritual energy concentration in the meditation room suddenly soared. Three Foundation Establishment elixirs, the size of longan fruits, with natural cloud patterns flowing on their surfaces, lay quietly on velvet, their medicinal power vast as the sea.

"High-grade Foundation Establishment elixirs, and three of them at that." Lin Yu clicked his tongue in amazement.

Su Ming nodded, carefully putting away the elixirs and looking out the window. Night had fallen, and the stars were exceptionally bright.

"One year's time... is enough."

The fierce winds howled outside the cliff, but they couldn't penetrate the layers of formations.

Within this cliff dwelling suspended alone above the sea of clouds, a seed carrying the beacon fires of the past and the heavy trust of the future had finally fallen into the soil most suited to it.