Qinghe Immortal Clan.

"Floating Cloud Mountain Range", Xiaoyao Sect.

The Huixian Pavilion at the top of Qingyun Mountain has three floors.

Several figures sat around a square wooden table, intently staring at the colorful jade plaques in front of them.

"Little Dragon Sister, it's your turn to play your card!"

"Oh! Sorry."

Seeing that Long Ziyun, who had just drawn the jade token, had not yet played her card, Li Xuanyi, who was sitting to her left, couldn't help but urge her.

Long Ziyun, on the other hand, didn't seem to be very familiar with the jade tablet in front of her.

After thinking for a long time, he finally reached in, pulled out a card, and carefully tossed it out.

Before she could even retract her hand, Li Xuanyi, who was sitting to her left, quickly pushed the jade pendant in front of her, her face full of joy.

"Haha, that's right, I've been waiting for this one!"

"Oh no, I lost again."

With her sisters' card-playing skills so formidable, it seems Ziyun has no hope of recouping her losses today; she can only wait for another opportunity to win them back.

Looking at Li Xuanyi, who had won the card game, Long Ziyun sighed slightly and took out a bag of spirit stones from her person and handed it over.

Upon hearing this, Bai Yuxian immediately took over the conversation.

"This jade pendant doesn't require any advanced craftsmanship; you'll get used to it after playing with it a few times."

Moreover, Fellow Daoist Long currently resides in the Floating Cloud Mountains. If he wishes to win back, he can come to Qingyun Mountain to find us at any time.

There's plenty of time ahead; why rush things?

"Senior Sister Bai, you're underestimating me."

As the Grand Elder of the Four Seas Merchant Alliance, Sister Long considered these spirit stones a drop in the ocean and wouldn't really care about them.

It's rare that my younger sister also likes this jade pendant. She must come to Qingyun Mountain to keep us company often when she has time.

"Yes! Thank you, Fellow Daoist Li."

Sisters, it's getting late, so I'll take my leave now. See you next time!

"Take care, Sister Dragon!"

"Qingyu, Junior Sister Li, please have a seat. I'll go see Fellow Daoist Long off!"

".

After watching Bai Yuxian and Long Ziyun walk out of the "Meeting Immortals Pavilion" together, Li Xuanyi and Song Qingyu turned around and returned to the wooden table.

"Qingyu, what brings Long Ziyun to see you today? Why did she suddenly decide to invite me to play with jade pendants again?"

"Hehe! Actually, it's nothing much. Fellow Daoist Long originally came to visit Senior Sister Bai."

I also happened to have something to ask Senior Sister Bai, so we bumped into each other.

We chatted for a while, then got a little bored, so we decided to invite my sister-in-law out to relax a bit.

"It's nothing to just visit Senior Sister Bai, but lately I've noticed that she's been coming to your place every few days."

Could it be that he's been visiting you every day?

"this..

Sister-in-law, Fellow Daoist Long's cultivation has reached the ninth level of the Nascent Soul stage today, and he should be preparing to advance to the Half-Step Divine Transformation stage.

It's perfectly normal for her to come to me to exchange cultivation experiences.

In recent years, with Senior Sister Bai going into seclusion to break through her cultivation level, almost all the matters concerning the sect's cooperation with the Four Seas Merchant Alliance have fallen on my shoulders. Sometimes I even have to take the initiative to go to her.

After giving a reply, Song Qingyu couldn't help but ask Li Xuanyi a question in return:

"If my sister-in-law asks this, does it mean she doesn't like Fellow Daoist Long coming to the mountain? If so, I'll just refuse to see her next time she comes looking for me."

"No, whether you see her or not is between you two. When did I say you couldn't see her?"

They have such a good relationship with your brother, and they're also important partners of the sect.

If he knew I spoke like that, he'd probably accuse me of being petty and jealous of talent.

As soon as Song Qingyu finished speaking, she saw Li Xuanyi waving excitedly at her, and quickly replied with a smile:

"Haha! My sister-in-law is so magnanimous, how could she be a petty person?"

".

On the other side of the mountain, Bai Yuxian and Long Ziyun slowly descended the mountain on the light of their escape.

Before long, the two arrived at the foot of the mountain.

"Sister Bai, let's stop here for today!"

"Please wait a moment, Sister Long."

Bai Yuxian waved to signal the other party to stop, then took out a jade slip from her person and handed it to Long Ziyun.

"Sister Bai, what's this?"

"After talking with my sister today, I also have some feelings."

These are some cultivation techniques I've practiced. Take a look at them; they might help you when you try to break through to the half-step Nascent Soul stage.

"What? This is a technique that my elder sister has practiced. How dare I accept it?"

In the world of cultivation, unless you are from the same sect...

Under normal circumstances, cultivators would at most exchange some cultivation insights, and it would be impossible for them to easily reveal their cultivation techniques to others.

Upon hearing that the jade slip Bai Yuxian had taken out contained the cultivation technique that the other party was practicing, Long Ziyun was slightly surprised.

He didn't quite understand why Bai Yuxian would give him this item.

Seeing that Long Zi dared not accept the gift, Bai Yuxian was clearly expecting it, and quickly explained to him:

"Sister Long, don't overthink it. The cultivation techniques I've given you aren't all complete. Just make sure you don't pass them on to others, and it won't affect me much."

The reason I'm giving this to you is because of that thing I mentioned to you before.

"I implore Sister Long to lend her your assistance and attention. If this matter can be accomplished, our sect will certainly reward you handsomely."

"Don't worry, Sister Bai, Ziyun will do her best."

Upon hearing Bai Yuxian mention the promise she had made to herself, Long Ziyun's expression immediately became more serious.

After nodding to the other party, Long Ziyun turned and left.

After watching the other person descend the mountain, Bai Yuxian then returned to the sky alone on a cloud, heading north towards the direction of her own cave.

As the light descended, Bai Yuxian glanced around and quickly arrived in front of her cave.

Just as she raised her arm, about to cast a spell to open the barrier around the cave in front of her.

Bai Yuxian suddenly sensed something, and a purple ribbon appeared in her hand as a light flickered.

Only when she glanced to the side did she notice a figure suddenly appearing not far away, walking towards her with a smile.

Upon seeing the newcomer, Bai Yuxian paused slightly before putting away the magical artifact in her hand.

"When did you come back? I haven't heard Qingyu mention this at all."

"I arrived an hour ago. Seeing that you guys were having a great time, I didn't disturb you. I also went to the medicinal herb garden in the back mountain."

How has everyone been lately? Has anything happened up in the mountains?

Before Bai Yuxian could answer, the newcomer took her hand and the two entered the cave together.

".

Beside the pool in the hall, Song Qingming picked up the spiritual tea that Bai Yuxian had personally served him and took a sip.

As the fragrant spiritual tea entered his stomach, a look of satisfaction quickly flashed across his face.

"After being away for so long, I really miss the taste of home."

"That's because your palate has been spoiled by Junior Sister Huang and the others, so naturally, food from outside can't taste as good as what you eat at home."

Having said that, Bai Yuxian poured him another cup before sitting down with Song Qingming. During this more than ten-year absence, "Qingyun Mountain" remained peaceful and uneventful, with no major incidents occurring.

In recent years, apart from going into seclusion, Song Qingyu has been busy handling sect affairs.

Li Xuanyi was busy refining weapons and forging puppets, while Huang Siyuan devoted herself to alchemy.

Sitting next to Song Qingming, Bai Yuxian had been in seclusion for the past few years, focusing on breaking through her cultivation level, and had entrusted her affairs to Song Qingyu, Xu Ziyan and others.

After exchanging a few words over tea, Song Qingming finally turned his gaze to Bai Yuxian.

"By the way, how was your seclusion this time? When was it?"

"Sigh, I've been in seclusion for over a decade, and I've even wasted a top-grade spirit stone."

The result was that they couldn't even reach the bottleneck for a breakthrough, let alone achieve anything.

Seeing how smoothly you broke through to the Nascent Soul realm, I now truly understand the difficulty involved when it happened to me.

Bai Yuxian has been at the half-step Nascent Soul stage for over a hundred years.

More than a decade ago, a Nascent Soul sect in the cultivation world of the "Eastern Phoenix Kingdom" happened to obtain a top-grade spirit stone.

Upon learning the news, Bai Yuxian personally visited the door with many spiritual objects, exchanged them for her, and went into seclusion to attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul realm.

However, after a long period of seclusion, she failed to succeed in her first attempt to break through to a higher realm.

Compared to Song Qingming back then, Bai Yuxian did not trigger any unusual phenomena in the heavens and earth this time, which is quite different.

"The path to becoming a deity requires not only personal effort, but also a bit of fate and destiny."

This is your first attempt to break through to a higher realm; this result was expected. There's no need to belittle yourself.

Seeing that Bai Yuxian seemed quite disappointed with the result of her seclusion, Song Qingming quickly offered a word of comfort.

Unlike the Nascent Soul realm, a cultivator's breakthrough to the Deity Transformation realm no longer depends solely on individual talent.

Personal opportunities, insights into the path of cultivation, a state of mental perfection, spiritual resources, and so on are all indispensable.

"Donghuang Immortal Continent" was established from Chen Qingxuan to Song Qingming's successful transformation into a deity.

For nearly two thousand years, no one was able to successfully become a god, which shows how difficult it was.

While Song Qingming felt somewhat regretful that Bai Yuxian's first attempt to break through to the next realm failed, it wasn't entirely unexpected.

As fellow Daoist partners who had journeyed together, Bai Yuxian was also very clear about this.

For her, achieving the goal of becoming a deity is still a long and arduous journey, and it cannot be accomplished overnight.

After receiving comforting words from Song Qingming, she seemed to feel a little better and immediately changed the subject, asking:

"Husband, have you had a smooth time out there all these years? Have you encountered any trouble?"

"Well, although we encountered some troubles, it went quite smoothly overall, and we actually gained some good things this time."

Having said that, Song Qingming's hand flickered with spiritual light, and he took out a jade box from his person.

This is a spiritual fruit I found in a secret realm. You can take it to help regulate your condition and recover as soon as possible.

Inside the jade box, a purple spiritual fruit emitted bursts of dazzling spiritual light, clearly indicating that it had just been picked.

Upon seeing this high-grade spiritual fruit, Bai Yuxian's previously somewhat disappointed expression suddenly turned into one of excitement.

"This is a high-grade fourth-level spiritual fruit. My husband wants to give it to me?"

"Yes! Don't worry, everyone gets one."

Upon hearing Song Qingming confirm, Bai Yuxian nodded slightly and took the jade box into her hands.

"We shouldn't waste such a good thing. I'll keep it to exchange for useful things in the future."

"It's all yours now, do whatever you want with it!"

Song Qingming never inquired about the purpose of the gifts he gave away.

Seeing that Bai Yuxian had already put away the spiritual fruit, he focused on sipping tea and then changed the subject to other things.

".

Before we knew it, several hours had passed.

Seeing that it was getting late, Song Qingming wanted to get up and leave.

But before he could speak, Bai Yuxian stopped him with her hand.

"It's already so late, where are you going? Let's talk about it tomorrow!"

".

The next morning, Song Qingming had just returned to the mountain where his cave was located when he quickly alerted the surrounding cultivators.

The first person to hear the news and rush to his cave was Song Qingyu, who was closest to him.

For the past ten years or so, because Bai Yuxian has been in seclusion to break through her cultivation level, all the affairs of the sect have fallen on Song Qingyu's shoulders.

Upon meeting Song Qingming, the sect's carefree patriarch, Song Qingyu was not surprised. While inquiring about him, she complained incessantly about her troubles.

However, when Song Qingming took out a high-grade fourth-level spiritual fruit from his person, Song Qingyu immediately shut her mouth.

Before long, she, who had just been exhausted, suddenly became full of energy.

He even expressed his loyalty to Song Qingming in front of him, saying he would "devote himself to the utmost" before taking his leave with an excited expression.

As soon as Song Qingyu left, Li Xuanyi and Huang Siyuan quickly dropped what they were doing and went to his cave one after the other.

Compared to Song Qingyu, the two women were more concerned about Song Qingming's safety on this trip.

After meeting, he kept asking him about what happened in "Northern Underworld Immortal Continent".

Song Qingming didn't want them to worry too much about it, so he dealt with it half-heartedly.

Although he mentioned that he encountered the "Nine Netherworld Demon" before leaving, he did not describe the details of the battle.

He only said that he and "Yu Zhenzi" were lucky, and that they both successfully escaped from Beiming Immortal Continent.

After chatting with the two for a long time, Song Qingming took out several spiritual items he had obtained from "Beiming Immortal Continent" and handed them to Li Xuanyi and Huang Siyuan respectively.

In addition to giving each person a high-grade level four spiritual item, Song Qingming also took out the high-level books he had obtained from the "Ancient Secret Realm".

The fifth-level alchemy inheritance was passed on to Huang Siyuan, while the knowledge of weapon crafting was given to Li Xuanyi.

Both women happened to have inherited this skill, and had already raised their skills to the fourth-level superior grade.

Now that they have this advanced book, it will surely be of great help in improving their skills in the future.

Decades ago, Huang Siyuan had already set her sights on mastering the fifth level of alchemy.

However, he had not been able to achieve his goal until now because he lacked advanced alchemy manuals for reference.

Seeing Song Qingming take out something she had been longing for, Huang Siyuan's face immediately lit up with excitement.

"Husband, did you find all of these in the Northern Underworld Immortal Continent?"

"Yes! Don't worry, Yu Zhenzi and I have already checked it. This alchemy manual comes from an ancient sect and there is nothing wrong with it."

Now that you have this, you can try to improve your alchemy skills.

If you encounter any difficulties, feel free to come to me.

"Yes! Don't worry, my husband, Siyuan will do her best."

".

Faced with Song Qingming's expectant words, Huang Siyuan immediately nodded seriously, feeling even more confident in her breakthrough.

The people around him each received a reward, and Song Qingming's return from this trip also brought them an unexpected opportunity.

The three chatted for a while, and Huang Siyuan personally cooked a welcome feast for Song Qingming in the cave.

Even after they had eaten and drunk their fill, the two women were still reluctant to say goodbye.

More than half a month passed before Song Qingming's cave finally quieted down.

Having finished his business, he quickly returned to his secluded stone chamber, preparing to engage in some serious seclusion and cultivation.

(Sorry: My computer monitor suddenly stopped working today, and I spent ages trying to fix it but still couldn't. I could only manage to type this much.) (End of Chapter)