Xuantian Immortal Cultivation Record

From then on, Zhang Yuanjing practiced his skills and taught his disciples every day. Zhang Xuan entrusted the fishing matters to Zhang Cheng, focusing instead on supervising the cultivation of Zhang Jun and Zhang Yu, managing the family, and restoring the family's industries.

Several months prior, Zhang Yuanjing had killed the Zou family's Five Tigers and many guards. With Zou Biaoguo's disappearance, the Zou family suddenly fell into disarray, and many forces in Mengshan Town that had been suppressed by the Zou family rebounded.

The news that the Zhang family had a celestial being as their backer also quickly spread throughout Mengshan Town and the surrounding villages, and everyone felt a sense of awe towards the Zhang family.

Taking advantage of this momentum, Zhang Xuan, along with a group of clansmen, contacted old friends, smoothed things over with the government, and laid out plans for water transportation, fishing, mountain goods, and other industries, working vigorously.

Another three months passed in this way. One day, a cultivator flew over and shouted loudly outside Zhang Yuanjing's cave: "Ling Shu from Tongyun Palace has come to pay a visit. May I ask the Daoist friend to come out and meet me!"

Zhang Yuanjing was meditating in his cave when he heard this and chuckled softly: "It's about time they came." By this time, it had been more than half a year since he had driven away Zou Biaoguo. Even without a sound transmission jade, with the flying speed of a Qi Refining cultivator, he would have reached Tongyun Palace, tens of thousands of miles away, long ago.

Leaving the cave, he saw an old Daoist with a long face and a slight beard, of medium build, standing on a flat ground fifty feet away, staring intently at him.

Zhang Yuanjing made a Daoist salute and replied calmly: "This humble Daoist is Zhang Jing, greetings, Daoist friend Ling Shu. May I ask what brings you here?"

As he spoke, he unceremoniously used his Qi Observation technique to probe the other party's cultivation level.

Judging from the spiritual energy fluctuations, this Ling Shu was only at the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment, far inferior to him.

Coming from the Xuantian Sect, a great sect in the Southern Domain, he didn't take small sects like Tongyun Palace seriously, let alone this person's strength being obviously weaker than his, so he naturally didn't care about him.

Ling Shu also saw that Zhang Yuanjing was at the late stage of Foundation Establishment and had profound cultivation. He was slightly surprised, but not panicked. Instead, he said in a sonorous voice, getting straight to the point: "So it's Daoist friend Zhang. My disciple Zou Biaoguo reported that Daoist friend is interested in the Crimson Fin Fire-Patterned Fish in the Crimson Creek River. May I ask what Daoist friend intends to use this fish for?"

"Naturally, it's for practicing cultivation!" Zhang Yuanjing retorted, stating his purpose directly.

"Practicing cultivation? May I ask which sect Daoist friend comes from? Forgive my ignorance, but I have never heard of any sect within a radius of tens of millions of miles that cultivates dual water and fire attribute fusion techniques," Ling Shu said proudly.

"Oh, Daoist friend Ling Shu has traveled widely and has extraordinary knowledge, knowing all the sects within a radius of tens of millions of miles. It seems your sect has other origins!" Zhang Yuanjing said calmly.

Hearing this, Ling Shu was taken aback, feeling that this inconspicuous old Daoist was not simple, actually deducing that Tongyun Palace had another background from his very ordinary sentence.

However, he naturally wouldn't be bluffed by a few words, and still said: "The Crimson Fin Fire-Patterned Fish is related to the refining of a certain elixir, and this elixir is the key to the cultivation of my palace's fundamental techniques. Therefore, without special connections, my palace will never allow outsiders to catch this fish without permission! Daoist friend, can you tell me your origins? This will determine whether you are a friend or foe!"

Zhang Yuanjing's heart skipped a beat. Judging from this person's words, this Tongyun Palace really had the background of a mid-level sect, but he didn't know if the usual contact was close.

However, there was no turning back once the arrow was released. It was absolutely impossible for him to give up the benefits of the Crimson Fin Fire-Patterned Fish at this time.

So he said: "I heard that your palace only came here to establish itself a hundred years ago, and has been entrenched in Crimson Creek Lake. When did the entire Crimson Creek River become your palace's territory!"

Seeing that Zhang Yuanjing was avoiding the question of his origins again, Ling Shu was too lazy to talk nonsense with him, and immediately sneered and said: "No matter which of the Six Sects you are from, or if you are just a cultivator from a small sect, you may not know my Tongyun Palace, but you can't have never heard of Crimson Blood Valley! Even if you are from Star Moon Gate, you have to abide by the rules of Crimson Blood Valley here! Do you think the Six Sects Alliance is a joke!"

"Star Moon Gate!" Zhang Yuanjing's heart trembled, and he immediately knew where he was.

He didn't know what Crimson Blood Valley or the Six Sects Alliance were. However, he knew Star Moon Gate.

This sect was located in a strange mountain range called Xuan Yin Mountain, twenty million miles southeast of Tianque Mountain.

Thousands of years ago, it was a great sect in the Southern Domain. Later, for some reason, a main spiritual vein connecting the mountain gate's great spiritual cave was blocked, causing the spiritual cave to shrink and be reduced to a medium-sized spiritual cave, unable to guarantee the stable appearance of Nascent Soul cultivators, and gradually沦落into a medium-sized sect.

To the northwest of this sect, there was a huge "barren dead zone" about four to five million miles wide and stretching nearly ten million miles. The spiritual power was thin, the turbid air was pervasive, demons bred, and demonic cultivators ran rampant. Only because of the lack of top demonic path experts, its reputation was far inferior to the Heavenly Demon Abyss, but the danger was greater than the area around Mount Mangri.

Since this Ling Shu Daoist said that all the sects within a radius of tens of millions of miles were known, then Mengshan was within ten million miles of Xuan Yin Mountain. Thus, it was at most thirty million miles from Tianque Mountain. However, if he had to bypass the "barren dead zone", the distance would have to be doubled. Without Nascent Soul cultivation, he could not complete such a long journey.

Seeing Zhang Yuanjing remain silent for a long time, Ling Shu thought he was shocked, and softened his tone and said: "Daoist friend Zhang, it is not easy to cultivate to this level. I will not hold you accountable for what happened before, considering it your first offense. But from today onwards, you must stop fishing and stay away from the Crimson Creek River. As for the relatives of my disciple, kill them if you killed them, they are just a few mortals anyway. However, after all, they are related by blood, so there must always be an explanation. If Daoist friend can make a deal with me, this matter will be considered over!"

"Oh, what deal?" Although Zhang Yuanjing was dull, he was not a fool. As soon as he heard this, he knew that the other party's so-called not holding him accountable was just empty words. This trip was for this deal. And how he would be dealt with depended on the situation of the deal.

"My disciple was reckless and saw that Daoist friend had an extraordinary spiritual plant, so he reached out to snatch it. As his master, I did not teach him well, and I apologize to Daoist friend. However, after he came back and described it to me, Daoist friend's spiritual grass seems to be a Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass, and it's very old!" Ling Shu spoke more politely at this time, with anticipation in his words.

Zou Biaoguo rushed to Tongyun Palace and reported to him that Zhang Yuanjing was gathering ordinary people to catch Crimson Fin Fire-Patterned Fish. He didn't care much.

In previous years, it was not uncommon for cultivators to catch this fish privately out of greed. Tongyun Palace's response was nothing more than directly killing those who could be killed, persuading those who could not be killed to leave, and asking people from the upper sect to come if they could not be killed.

He originally wanted to report to the Great Elder Ling Jianzi for disposal according to the usual practice, but after hearing Zou Biaoguo's description of the spiritual plant at the entrance of Zhang Yuanjing's cave, he immediately changed his mind.

His cultivation had been stuck at the mid-stage Foundation Establishment bottleneck for nearly thirty years.

After many exchanges, he obtained a wonderful trick to break through the bottleneck, which was to find a spiritual grade fourth-level Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass and ask a alchemist to refine a high-grade Gathering Spirit Powder. There was a certain probability of producing a top-grade pill, with which there was a very high probability of breaking through the mid-stage bottleneck.

From Zou Biaoguo's description, he judged that Zhang Yuanjing's spiritual grass was the Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass, and the age was likely to exceed five hundred years.

Therefore, he first suppressed the matter of Zhang Yuanjing privately catching Crimson Fin Fire-Patterned Fish, and rushed to this place, intending to either snatch or trade for this thing.

"That's right, it is the Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass, a thousand years old, and its grade has reached the peak of spiritual grade fourth-level. I also obtained it by chance. I wonder what Daoist friend wants to use to exchange for it?" Zhang Yuanjing actually had no use for this Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass. It would be good to make a deal with this person first.

"Ha! A thousand-year-old spiritual medicine! This is a rare sight! Daoist friend is really lucky!" Ling Shu couldn't help but exclaim, his tone full of envy and ecstasy, "I just don't know what Daoist friend wants to exchange for?"

"Do you have high-grade Bitter Essence Pill?" Zhang Yuanjing asked directly.

"This, no!" Ling Shu's face turned bitter when he heard the Bitter Essence Pill, and he directly shook his head in denial.

"Oh, mid-grade is also fine!" Zhang Yuanjing added.

"This, no. This humble Daoist doesn't have Bitter Essence Pill!" Ling Shu was slightly annoyed, but didn't dare to show it.

"Beast King Pill then?" Zhang Yuanjing thought for a while and changed to another pill. Beast King Pill was a high-quality pill for body refining in the mid and late stages of Foundation Establishment, and it was also a rare item.

"This, Daoist friend, can you change it to something else? This humble Daoist doesn't even have enough Foundation Establishment pills for himself, where would I have any to spare to trade with you!" Ling Shu suspected that Zhang Yuanjing was deliberately making him lose face, only talking about rare items, but he couldn't get angry, because a thousand-year-old Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass was indeed qualified to exchange for these pills.

"Oh, since Daoist friend is a cultivator from a large family, I wonder if you have Foundation Establishment Pill? Ten will do!" Zhang Yuanjing smiled slightly and changed to another pill again.

Foundation Establishment Pill was a peculiar pill. First of all, it did not belong to the Qi Refining realm pills, and secondly, it was difficult to classify it as a Foundation Establishment realm pill. However, its importance was comparable to high-quality pills in the Foundation Establishment realm. Nothing else, it was an irreplaceable necessity, with a price but no market.

"I have Foundation Establishment Pill, but ten is too many, three at most!" Ling Shu actually had no Foundation Establishment Pill, but after saying so much, he still couldn't come up with what the other party wanted, and he was worried that the other party would leave, and he would miss this peerless spiritual grass. He might never find a thousand-year-old Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass in the future.

"Three is too few, at least eight!"

"This, I can't come up with eight, five at most!"

"Seven!"

"Five! I really can't come up with more." Ling Shu's face showed a hint of pleading. In his heart, killing intent rose, and he had already decided to report to the Great Elder immediately after returning, call more people to besiege this fellow and seize the spiritual grass, and at worst, share the benefits equally.

"Add a high-grade spiritual weapon, and five bottles of high-grade Hundred Spirit Pill!"

"Mid-grade spiritual weapon! The Hundred Spirit Pill can be increased to ten bottles!"

"Can five bottles of Hundred Spirit Pill offset the difference in the grade of the spiritual weapon! Three mid-grade spiritual weapons plus ten bottles of high-grade Hundred Spirit Pill!"

"Okay, deal. This humble Daoist will go back to prepare immediately, and in ten days, we will trade here!"

After saying that, Ling Shu turned around and drove his sword away, not willing to delay for even a moment.

Zhang Yuanjing looked at Ling Shu's hurried departure and shook his head with a slight smile. This person bargained, pretending to be quite convincing, but he still revealed his flaws.

The problem lay in the Foundation Establishment Pill. Although five Foundation Establishment Pills were not as good as a thousand-year-old Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass in terms of level, in terms of scarcity, five Foundation Establishment Pills were much higher than this grass.

The reason for this was that the growth of spiritual grass had its time limit. The maturity years of the main medicinal herbs for refining Foundation Establishment Pills were all over two hundred years. All large sects planted dozens or hundreds of medicinal fields in batches of ten or five years, so that they could ensure that a batch of medicinal herbs matured every few years and could refine a batch of Foundation Establishment Pills.

Secondly, it was necessary to maintain the ratio of pills at different levels. No sect would take all the medicinal fields to plant herbs for refining Foundation Establishment Pills, because cultivators needed all kinds of pills to grow, and they were proportional. How many Foundation Establishment Pills there were would have a corresponding proportion of Foundation Establishment cultivators, and they would need a corresponding number of Gathering Spirit Powder. Similarly, how much Gathering Spirit Powder there was would determine the approximate proportion of Core Formation cultivators, which would determine the proportion of Core Formation pills.

Therefore, the total amount of Foundation Establishment Pills was always constant, and relative to the huge Qi Refining cultivator group, it was a drop in the bucket. This was a problem for the entire cultivation world, and it was common in any sect, rather than saying that which sect was large and strong, this problem did not exist or was relatively light.

Even a large sect like Xuantian Sect only provided thirty Foundation Establishment Pills every ten years.

The number of Foundation Establishment Pills in a small sect like Tongyun Palace was conceivable. Even if its upper sect Crimson Blood Valley bestowed some, it must be a very small number.

Therefore, when Ling Shu dared to agree to give him five Foundation Establishment Pills without hesitation, he knew that there was a trick.

This person was afraid that he had decided to rob him by force from the moment he knew that the Nine-Leaf Huangxi Grass was a thousand-year-old spiritual grass.

His so-called going back to prepare the trading items was probably also false. Perhaps he was hiding in a secret place, monitoring his cave, preventing him from secretly running away, and at the same time calling for reinforcements with the sound transmission jade.

However, he didn't care about this matter. After experiencing the many life-and-death tribulations in the Void Demon World and Mustard Seed Space, and seeing many Nascent Soul level battles, he had long looked down on Foundation Establishment level battles.

Moreover, relying on magic weapon level armor and more skilled earth escape techniques, he was confident that he was invincible against Foundation Establishment cultivators, no matter how many there were.

The only thing he worried about was Tongyun Palace threatening him with the lives of the Zhang family. However, this possibility was extremely small. After all, the other party was a true cultivation sect that had established a mountain gate, while he was just a "loose cultivator", the one with bare feet, the one who was more unscrupulous and had no bottom line.