Cultivating Immortality Begins with Rejuvenation

This time, Duanmu Qin didn't mention snatching food from a tiger's mouth.

Their mutual flattery provided Li Ji'an with a good amount of emotional value.

Her words and actions were generous and measured, guiding the conversation towards light and pleasant topics, avoiding anything that would make Li Ji'an uncomfortable, and refraining from probing into secrets or testing his limits.

They talked happily, like old friends of many years.

She even frankly stated that the value of Li Ji'an's Essence Forming Pill this time exceeded the value of the Muscle Relaxing Spiritual Resource from last time, offering to either compensate Li Ji'an for the difference or give him another comfortable experience.

Li Ji'an had already spoken his words and wouldn't accept spirit stones, so he ultimately accepted another muscle and bone cleansing.

It felt extremely good.

It was slightly beneficial to the Body Refinement realm.

After bidding farewell to Duanmu Qin and returning to the Li residence, Li Ji'an recalled her actions today and guessed her intentions.

"As expected of an expert who has deeply studied the mind and soul, her intellect is remarkable."

Clearly seeing that the overall situation was about to become chaotic and desiring to seize opportunities, she could still steady her mind even in her eagerness.

The art of a musician, on the surface, is using magic power to condense sound waves, but in reality, it is the utilization of the soul, although not acting on the sea of consciousness, but on the mind.

Li Ji'an wasn't sure if she had cultivated any soul-related secret techniques.

Half a year ago, he had used his divine sense to try and glimpse her true appearance, but even with his divine sense comparable to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, he still couldn't penetrate that thin veil.

However, he couldn't determine whether it was due to her soul or whether the veil was a rare treasure capable of preventing divine sense probing.

"Seeing it this way, this woman is definitely not a reckless person... Then what she said half a year ago was probably mostly untrue."

After pondering for a moment, Li Ji'an suddenly understood.

If she were truly like she said half a year ago, merely like other rogue cultivators, her eyes burning with envy for the Bi Yun Sect's gains, and then acted on the thought of snatching food from a tiger's mouth, that would be too foolish.

Based on his understanding from their interaction over the past six months.

Li Ji'an had already seen that she was outwardly gentle but inwardly firm, with a clever mind.

If such a person didn't have full confidence, how could she be so easily蛊惑by some rumors like ordinary rogue cultivators?

"Could it be that she knows for sure that there is an opportunity worth risking in a certain place?"

In an instant, Li Ji'an suddenly saw the light.

Then why look for me?

However, in the next moment, his self-awareness took over.

In the eyes of outsiders, he was now, as Doctor Bai had said, lacking in combat power and needing to be protected.

Apart from Duanmu Qin's mention of his youth and hope of forming a Core, he couldn't provide much help to her in seeking opportunities, and was even a burden.

"Cannon fodder to attract attention?" It seemed that this was the only possibility for the time being.

Li Ji'an gave a self-deprecating smile, feeling slightly helpless.

——

In the days that followed, as more and more people came to the Immortal City, even more people visited the core area where Li Ji'an lived.

Seeking pills, seeking magical artifacts, seeking puppets... There were many more Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

Among them, the Hua, Li, and Gou residences had the most booming business.

Faced with the overwhelming number of pill seekers, Li Ji'an had no choice but to use the excuse of limited energy, saying that he could only refine at most ten furnaces per month, allowing the numerous pill seekers to negotiate the order and slots themselves.

Unsurprisingly, it ultimately became a bidding war to get in line.

Originally, when helping people refine pills, if the pill seekers provided their own medicinal materials, he would only charge 20% of the pill's value as a processing fee, but in just a few days, those people had炒it up to at least 50%.

Some people were so eager that they actively bid up the processing fee for one furnace of pills to twice the market price of the pills.

That was a furnace of Second-Order Flying Soul Pills, which could temporarily enhance divine sense and had the effect of breaking illusions and resisting the effects of illusion techniques.

This type of pill involving the divine soul was already scarce, and the goods in the various chambers of commerce in the Immortal City had been completely swept away.

In just three months, Li Ji'an earned more than three years' worth of income, and even more reasonably and skillfully retained a variety of rare medicinal materials.

And the pills refined during this period were mostly pills that were useful for exploring ruins, enhancing combat power, and preventing crises.

Even after three months, there was still a constant stream of pill seekers in front of his residence, while the number of visitors to the Bai residence diagonally opposite gradually increased.

More and more people were injured.

More and more people were buying detoxification pills.

At the same time, under Li Ji'an's divine sense probing, there were more and more unfamiliar Foundation Establishment rogue cultivators.

Compared to the local family cultivators of Cangyun Prefecture, these people had a common characteristic: they were poor.

Half a year passed in a flash.

"Uncle Li, the shielding array has been set up, two layers inside and out." That day, Li Ji'an had just sent away two pill seekers when Xiao Qiao reported, looking quite tired.

In the two years since Xiao Qiao began to actually set up arrays, her progress had been rapid.

Just like Li Ji'an himself refining pills without relying on his own magic power, Xiao Qiao also didn't need her own magic power to engrave array patterns when setting up arrays, she only needed to bury the array base and array eyes according to the array's orientation to allow the earth's spiritual energy to flow in.

Therefore, her current array attainments couldn't be measured by cultivation at all.

In just a few years, she had been able to skillfully set up late-stage First-Order arrays, and even draw inferences from one instance, no longer needing to rely on the array diagram to follow the steps.

The shielding array set up this time was the effect of her own enlightened two-layer array superposition, and the effect was even better than the Second-Order shielding array set up by Array Master Qian.

"Not bad, Foundation Establishment Initial Stage divine sense can't penetrate it! You've worked hard." Li Ji'an probed slightly and gave Xiao Qiao a thumbs up.

Her talent in the array path was too strong, the only regret was that he didn't understand what Xiao Qiao's divine ability to sense the earth was, and whether it could become stronger?

If it couldn't become stronger, then her array strength would only stop at the First-Order.

Xiao Qiao smiled in satisfaction: "Being able to help you is my greatest happiness."

"Silly girl, go and have a good rest, don't worry about other things." Li Ji'an nodded to her, reached out and pressed on her shoulder, and poured some magic power into her to help her recover.

"Yeah."

Just then, Doctor Bai sent a message for everyone to gather.

The eight of them had gathered several times in the past year, sharing intelligence and information in a timely manner.

Only seven people came today.

And the reason why Doctor Bai summoned everyone was also because of this.

"Yesterday, someone broke into the restricted area sealed off by the Bi Yun Sect, and even killed sect disciples, the Bi Yun Sect is furious."

"Afterwards, they found a damaged puppet component there, and eventually traced it back to Daoist Gou's head."

Doctor Bai briefly informed them of the news he had heard when he was invited to treat a sect disciple today.

"Is it finally impossible to suppress it?"

"This battle will probably completely ignite this fire!"

"The Bi Yun Sect is bound to kill the chicken to warn the monkeys."

……

Several people knew about Gou Puppet Master's situation, and also understood the situation here and the crisis facing the Bi Yun Sect, knowing that he probably wouldn't have anything major happen to him, the only thing was whether the buyer of the puppet he sold could be identified.

Otherwise, he would probably be difficult to have freedom in a short time.

However, for Gou Puppet Master, being under house arrest in the sect might not be a bad thing.

"The impact on the others is not great, Daoist Hua, Daoist Zhou, you need to be more careful when buying and selling, it's better to be safe than sorry, if the Bi Yun Sect really gets anxious, anything is possible." Doctor Bai finally advised again.

"Thank you for the reminder, Doctor Bai, I understand."

"In addition to this, five more vicious incidents broke out in the city today, although they are still just Qi Refining cultivators, the situation is getting more and more out of control."

"Hmph, the Qi family is so timid and shrinking, many people have already tested their attitude, the city will only become more chaotic in the future."

"You can't blame the Qi family, the Qi family's foundation is not here after all, and besides, many Foundation Establishment cultivators from Tianyuan Prefecture have come to the Immortal City now, and it can't be guaranteed that there are no people that the Qi family is unwilling to offend, in short, we have to rely on ourselves."

——

After returning to the Li residence, Li Ji'an didn't feel much pressure regarding the chaos in the Immortal City that Doctor Bai mentioned, after all, those who were truly strong had already gone to the Daze Mountains.

Those who were still staying in the Immortal City at this time were either timid and cautious, or they were insufficient in strength or their preparations were not sufficient.

No matter which one, he was not afraid!

Just as he was preparing to draw another life-saving talisman, the communication talisman vibrated.

Seeing the message that came, Li Ji'an raised his eyebrows slightly.

"Yan Qingwan is coming to the Immortal City, and even going to the ruins to guard it."

And it was under the sect's conscription.

Every Foundation Establishment family in Cangyun Prefecture must send a Foundation Establishment cultivator, and for the Yan family, the previous generation ancestor was too old, and the new Foundation Establishment was too young, Yan Qingwan took the initiative to shoulder this burden.