Cultivating Immortality Begins with Rejuvenation.

Chapter 247 Time flies by
Feeling Xiao Changfeng's surging magical power and intimidating pressure, Li Ji'an truly realized how great the difference was between a genuine elixir and a fake one.

This was also the first time in his several lifetimes that he had felt the aura of a True Elixir Master so closely.

Xiao Changfeng, who has just stabilized his cultivation level, now possesses an aura nearly twice that of Qin Henian, a seasoned pseudo-core cultivator.

"Thank you for your guidance, Master Changfeng." After listening to his detailed explanation of the steps to form the core, Li Ji'an bowed respectfully.

Such insights and experiences in achieving the Golden Core stage are priceless.

Xiao Changfeng chuckled and shook his head: "Brother, if it weren't for you, I might have already damaged my Dao foundation, cut off my path to immortality, or even died and vanished. How could there be any Changfeng Zhenren?"

Changfeng was the Taoist name he gave himself after leaving the pass.

Li Ji'an did not deny it, and said with a smile, "I knew you could succeed!"

"Haha, back then, only you, brother, had such confidence in me. Cheers, brother!" Xiao Changfeng laughed heartily and raised his cup.

"To Changfeng!" Li Ji'an drank it all in one gulp.

After three days of in-depth conversation with Xiao Changfeng, Li Ji'an carefully inquired about all his questions regarding the Core Formation stage.

Xiao Changfeng answered patiently and without reservation, and even activated the magic core at close range, allowing Li Ji'an to feel it more clearly.

This made Li Ji'an understand even more why True Core Masters held such a high position, and it also increased his expectations for his own Core Formation.

After bidding farewell to Xiao Changfeng, Li Ji'an returned to the outer peak.

After that, he devoted himself to cultivation and, apart from going to Tianhe Immortal City once every ten years to deliver the spirit talisman, he never went out again.

Time flies when you're cultivating yourself; thirteen years have passed in the blink of an eye.

On this day, Li Ji'an turned one hundred years old, and it was time to deliver the talisman once again.

"Phew~ The progress of my cultivation is pretty much in line with expectations." After finishing his daily cultivation, Li Ji'an let out a long breath.

Twenty-five years have passed since he broke through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

He felt that he had reached the completion of his foundation building in about five or six years.

As for breaking through to the Core Formation stage, another ten years of consolidation will be sufficient.

As I finished work and stood up, a puppet resembling a maidservant had already sorted and organized the talismans that needed to be delivered.

Over the course of thirteen years, his puppetry skills have made remarkable progress, and this late-stage Tier 1 puppet is his latest masterpiece.

Its main structure is made of golden camphor wood, and its bionic skin is made of demon beast skin. Apart from its wooden expression and lack of vitality, it is not much different from a human in other aspects.

Most importantly, the flexibility of all its joints surpasses that of human cultivators, and because of its superior material, its strength exceeds that of ordinary late-stage Qi Refining cultivators.

With the puppet control technique, it can be almost as easy to control as one's own arm.

However, it does require consuming the divine sense of the person controlling it.

To smoothly control this puppet, one needs at least the initial stage of Foundation Establishment.

However, if it is only necessary to implant general instructions, such as tidying up talismans, cleaning the cave, or attacking people within five zhang, the requirements will be much lower, requiring only the same level of spiritual awareness.

Its main consumption is spirit stones, and the amount consumed depends on the commands executed.

"Quack, Little Fire, get ready to go out for a bit." Li Ji'an put away the talisman handed to him by the puppet and sent a telepathic message to the quack in the sealed cave.

Shortly after Li Ji'an returned to the sect, Guagua eliminated the remaining two suspicious points. Now, it is almost certain that the "Xuanyuan Chaos Scripture" is in the cave occupied by the two-headed viper, but it does not yet have the strength to obtain it.

When the little fire spirit returned, it finally completed its transformation again, advancing to the mid-stage of the second tier of Holy Spirit. Its flame power exceeded Li Ji'an's expectations, especially the fire-type spiritual energy it now possessed, which was rare in Li Ji'an's life.

Guagua wanted to test the strength of Little Fire Spirit's advancement to the mid-stage of the second tier of Holy Spirit, but accidentally burned his tongue, burning a hole in the tip of his tongue that has not yet healed.

Before leaving the outer peak, Li Ji'an informed Master Yu Dan and inquired about the situation of the sects at the front.

Thirteen years ago, not long after Xiao Changfeng formed his core, the friction between the Boundless Domain and the Heavenly Azure Domain finally escalated.

Both sides lined up at the border, and the war officially began.

According to intelligence from the Biyun Sect, the early stages of the battle were extremely intense, with two Nascent Soul True Monarchs actually engaging in a fierce fight.

Normally, a Nascent Soul True Monarch would only restrain the opponent as a deterrent and would not take action. However, this time, the Golden Puppet Saint Monarch cursed the Myriad Laws True Monarch as a despicable thief who stole the secret treasure of the Boundless Domain Saint Sect and attacked the cultivators of the Heavenly Azure Domain without any mercy.

In that battle, countless cultivators from the Heavenly Azure Domain were killed or wounded; three Core Formation Realm cultivators were killed by the Golden Puppet Saint King.

The situation only eased slightly after True Monarch Wanfa forcibly pushed him to the third level of heaven, and the situation changed to one where Foundation Establishment cultivators were the main force and Core Formation cultivators were the commanders.

Subsequently, the Palace of Ten Thousand Laws launched a forced conscription campaign within the domain, facing all forces within the domain.

Within the Tiancang Domain, everyone is a pawn of the Wanfa Palace. Regardless of sect or family, everyone must join the cultivator army according to the quota assigned by the Wanfa Palace.

The Yan family in the wilderness, the strange stone forest, and even the Eighteen Spirit Villages were not spared. Yan Qingwan and the older generation of the Yan family went on behalf of the Yan family, while Xiao Qiao led several hall masters from the gang to the scene.

The situation is even worse for independent cultivators. Whenever they are encountered by the conscription team, they are branded with a soul mark without saying a word and sent to the front line.

Within the Biyun Sect, only five Pseudo-Core Formation cultivators remain, while sixty percent of the Foundation Establishment cultivators have left.

As a guest alchemist, Li Ji'an naturally had the protection of the Biyun Sect and didn't need to go to the front lines, but he was still assigned alchemy tasks. Given his consistently demonstrated alchemy production capacity, the assigned tasks were easy and hardly affected his daily cultivation.

In recent years, the war has become relatively stable as casualties on both sides have increased.

However, Li Ji'an had a premonition that the war would not end easily this time. Perhaps the current calm was just the prelude to a major, stormy battle to come.

The reply from Jade Elixir Master was as usual, so Li Ji'an did not offer any further thanks and set off in his flying boat towards the Heavenly River Immortal City.

Along the way, they encountered several recruited cultivators, one of whom was even led by a fake Core Formation cultivator.

Fortunately, the identity token of the Biyun Sect was still useful. After checking Li Ji'an's identity token, they did not make things difficult for him.

Three months later, Li Ji'an successfully arrived at the Surabaya Chamber of Commerce.

After delivering the talisman, Yuan Shunyi did not give him any more materials in advance, but instead carefully invited him into a secret room.

"Please forgive me, sir, but the situation in the region is now quite different, which has a great impact on our business. We have come here today to discuss important matters with you."

"President Yuan, please speak freely." Li Ji'an nodded slightly, his expression calm and composed.

“Alright, alright, I’ll get straight to the point. Due to the great war between this domain and the Boundless Domain, we can’t transport our spiritual talismans out of the domain in large quantities. Moreover, thanks to Yu Xiao’s efforts over the years, the headquarters has been rebuilt in the Myriad Merchants Domain. Therefore, we have decided to relocate completely from this place.” Yuan Shunyi did not hide anything.

Li Ji'an nodded, having anticipated this.

“We would like to invite you to accompany us, sir! We can guarantee that you will have an independent spiritual vein dojo of the lower third rank, and at most a middle third rank spiritual vein dojo within a hundred years,” Yuan Shunyi said sincerely.

Previously, both Master Yuxiao and he had guessed that the third-tier talisman master in front of them might be Master Lingjiu of the Dongli Sect, since back then, the only third-tier talisman master they could think of was Master Lingjiu.

However, a few years ago, when Tiancang Domain and Wuya Domain went to war, Yuan Shunyi personally delivered supplies and unexpectedly met Lingjiu Zhenren. As the contact person for receiving the supplies, Yuan Shunyi had a lot of contact with Lingjiu Zhenren.

Before he returned to Tianhe Immortal City, Li Ji'an went to the Chamber of Commerce to deliver the spirit talisman.

This made them re-evaluate Li Ji'an.

However, his identity has become even more elusive.

However, the fact that he could freely travel to and from the Immortal City to deliver spirit talismans during the war between the two domains is enough to show that he is not a core figure of the Holy Palace Sect, which made them want to recruit him again.

"I'm sorry to disappoint Chairman Yuan, but I am deeply homesick and cannot bear to leave unless absolutely necessary." Li Ji'an refused without hesitation.

Now that he has the protection of the Biyun Sect, he doesn't need to go to the front lines.

The current situation hasn't reached the point where they should run away.

Furthermore, given his current strength, it would not be safe for him to rashly venture into the Myriad Merchant Domain, the land of freedom.

"Sir, are you really not going to consider it? Or do you have any conditions? Please feel free to name them, and we will do our best to meet them." Yuan Shunyi adopted an even more humble attitude.

Li Ji'an firmly shook his head: "I appreciate the chairman's kindness, and I look forward to cooperating again in the future."

“Well… well, then so be it, sir. But please remember, whenever you wish to leave, no matter when or where, you only need to send a message to me or Yu Xiao, and we will definitely arrange for an inter-domain spirit ship to come and meet you. You don’t even need to worry about the border defenses of the Myriad Laws Palace.” Yuan Shunyi sighed and made his promise.

"Thank you."

"Oh, and also, the Xuanbing Blue Lotus that you requested, sir, has already been targeted. Half a year ago, someone was sent to Huangtian Domain to offer a reward, and it should be brought back within a year. I will contact you again then." Yuan Shunyi gave Li Ji'an a final surprise.

For more than a decade, there has been no news of the Xuanbing Blue Lotus. Even with Yu Xiao Zhenren's connections and knowledge in the Wanshang Domain, he has not been able to find it. Li Ji'an was once worried that this species might be extinct and had tried many times to replace this medicinal herb with other substitutes.

Unfortunately, it has not been successful.

He had been hesitating whether to take the earth essence that Xiao Changfeng had given him if he didn't have a Crystallization Pill when he formed his core in this life.

"Very well, I thank your esteemed organization. I will certainly repay this favor when I have the opportunity in the future." Upon receiving a positive reply, Li Ji'an was in a good mood and made the promise in front of everyone.

Thus, all the materials for the Crystallization Pill were ready.

The Little Fire Spirit's current spiritual flame power is more than enough to refine Crystal Condensation Pills.

After leaving the Surabaya Chamber of Commerce, Li Ji'an felt much more relaxed.

He was not gloomy at all because a major source of income had been cut off.

Having cooperated with the Sishui Chamber of Commerce in the spirit talisman business for thirty years, he earns tens of thousands of spirit stones every year. Although he has spent a lot of money on refining puppets over the years and has also stockpiled several sets of third-tier talisman materials, he has still accumulated a large amount of spiritual resources, enough to make his cultivation abundant before he forms his core in his next life.

Even if the Surabaya Chamber of Commerce doesn't terminate the transaction today, he's already prepared to end it.

After thirty years of talisman making, his talisman-making skills have reached the second level, and there is no further room for improvement. Even the third-level talismans can be made with a certain level of skill.

Of course, the main problem right now is the lack of magical power; otherwise, I would be confident in producing a high-quality, third-tier spirit talisman.

Eight months after returning to the outer peak, Li Ji'an indeed received a message from Jade Flute Immortal.

Inform Li Ji'an that the Mystic Ice Blue Lotus has been delivered and ask him to come and collect it.

Moreover, it was actually Jade Flute Immortal who personally returned to Heavenly River Immortal City to deliver spiritual medicine to Li Ji'an.

(End of this chapter)