Longevity starts with choosing Hextech enhancement

Chapter 284 Farewell, Until We Meet Again
When Xiao Chen first came to the Eastern Region two years ago, he was trying to escape the pursuit of the three major families of Jingkong Sea.

He specifically purchased and practiced a secret technique called "Xuanzong Synchronization Secret Method".

Its main function is to conceal the detection of divine sense.

Although this thing was basically of no use after he safely arrived at Baicao Island.

However, Xiao Chen did not slack off because of this, and would meditate on it whenever he had free time.

Now, I have progressed from a novice to someone who has achieved some minor success in my cultivation.

Now, not only can they conceal themselves, but they can also form a special layer of spiritual consciousness around themselves, like an umbrella or a screen, to interfere with and deceive the spiritual detection of others.

Unless it's a particularly loud commotion, it can be completely concealed.

Of course, the original secret technique had very limited effects and certainly couldn't conceal the obvious fluctuations in spiritual energy.

Fortunately, Xiao Chen has Hextech enhancement. Whether he can fool a fourth-level cultivator is hard to say, but it's not difficult for him to avoid being discovered by the patrolling golden Arhats.

"Fellow Daoist Xiao, isn't it inappropriate for us to just walk over there like this?"

Zhang Shouquan hesitated for a moment: "They're watching right now, should we wait until they've gone a little further away?"

Xiao Chen gave him a reassuring look: "Don't worry, we're underwater now."

"When he looked down from above, all he could see was a dark, empty sea; he couldn't see the two of us at all."

“Uh…” Zhang Shouquan hesitated for a moment, but finally nodded: “Alright then.”

Judging from his eyesight, the secret technique Xiao Chen used didn't seem very sophisticated at all; it was at most around the Xuan level.
However, considering the other party's identity as a successor of a reclusive Taoist lineage.

Zhang Shouquan felt that he must have simply misread it because of his poor eyesight.

Even though the two of them passed safely beneath the patrolling Arhats, he was still filled with doubt and confusion.

Does this work too?
This seemingly unreliable secret technique actually helped them successfully bypass the patrol.

For a moment, Zhang Shouquan felt a mix of emotions.

This situation was completely contrary to his usual experience, yet it actually happened.

It's so strange!

"Fellow Daoist Xiao, this is the place."

There was no time to think about these things. Zhang Shouquan promptly whispered a reminder: "The area ahead is the influence range of the Zhaobo Condensation Powder. We can't get any closer."

He took a small step forward and took a deep breath.

He then took out a compass-shaped magical artifact: "Next, I'm going to start breaking the formation."

After he finished speaking, he turned to look at Xiao Chen.

The two stood there, looking at each other.

One breath, two breaths, three breaths...

Neither of them moved; they just stared at each other blankly.

"Uh... what's wrong?"

Xiao Chen felt uneasy being stared at like that, so he broke the silence: "Is there anything I can help you with?"

"Oh, I see."

"You're using a unique method that you don't want others to see, right?"

"You can just tell me directly. I'll turn my head away right now and promise not to steal anything."

Hmph, this same old selfishness again, a bunch of stingy people.

If you don't want to watch it, then don't watch it.

Anyway, Xiao Chen didn't expect to steal other people's secret techniques through this method.

It has nothing to do with whether he can learn it or not; the main thing is that he disdains doing such sneaky things.

"No, no, no, Fellow Daoist Xiao, you've misunderstood."

Zhang Shouquan quickly waved his hand and explained, "I am just a rogue cultivator without a sect, so how could I have those rules and regulations?"

Actually, he does care about his secret techniques, but he's not worried that someone will be able to learn them at a glance.

If you could learn a skill simply by watching, wouldn't everyone be a master of formations?

To put it another way, if we really encounter such a genius, then we'll accept it.

"What I mean is that we're about to start breaking the formation. This process will inevitably generate some fluctuations in spiritual energy."

Zhang Shouquan reminded him, "That's why I'm mentioning this in advance so that Fellow Daoist Xiao can also make preparations."

Xiao Chen nodded: "I see, that's easy to explain."

"Just tell me, how should I prepare?"

Zhang Shouquan was stunned: "Huh?"

How to prepare?

How did he know how to prepare to block divine sense?

"Oh, I understand now, I really understand this time."

Seeing his puzzled expression, Xiao Chen immediately understood: "Fellow Daoist Zhang, don't worry, just start breaking the formation."

"Don't worry, as long as the fluctuations in spiritual energy can be controlled within one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters)."

"I promise not a word of it will get out."

Hearing his confident assurances, Zhang Shouquan's pupils widened slightly.

Perhaps for ordinary cultivators, only the effects of spells matter.

But for him, all he felt right now was a complete blank in his mind.

You mean, simply unfolding a layer of divine sense like this can not only conceal one's own aura but also mask spiritual energy fluctuations?
Zhang Shouquan was completely shocked. Was it true?

How exactly is this done?
To be honest, he also wanted to master such a powerful secret technique.

In the cultivation world, where people are used to using their divine sense to explore their environment, the ability to evade the detection of an enemy's divine sense would be incredibly useful.

Unfortunately, the two are not very familiar with each other right now.

So Zhang Shouquan considered it for a moment and ultimately didn't bring it up.

He's currently busy with his breakthrough and is short on funds, so he doesn't have any extra spiritual items to exchange for.

As for spirit stones, he didn't think that Xiao Chen, who spent money like water, would lack that.

After clearing up the misunderstanding, Zhang Shouquan no longer hesitated and immediately focused on breaking the formation.

It must be said that he does have unique insights into the art of array formations.

As tiny runes floated from his fingertips, they quickly formed a simple array on the spot.

Then came the second, the third... nested layer upon layer, forming an extremely intricate and precise array on the spot using true essence.

This left Xiao Chen, who was watching from the side, speechless.

No wonder he's not afraid of being seen by others; very few people can learn his True Essence Array technique alone.

Not to mention activating several thousand runes at the same time; even watching it a hundred times wouldn't be enough to learn that.

But it doesn't matter. The stronger Zhang Shouquan's skill in formations, the easier it will be for them to sneak in.

Everything went smoothly along the way.

Therefore, it only took a little over two quarters of an hour for Zhang Shouquan to voluntarily cancel the talisman array.

Then they immediately set to work and made two small flags on the spot.

"Here, Fellow Daoist Xiao, take this and we can go straight in."

He handed over one of the battle flags, a hint of smugness in his eyes.

After all, this is his area of ​​expertise.

The two carried the battle flags across the vicinity of the buoy and passed through without hindrance, without arousing the suspicion of the Arhats above.

They then traveled along the seabed until they arrived at the bottom of a deserted island that was not marked on the map.

Xiao Chen found it increasingly strange as he walked. According to his memory, this was the deserted island where Zhiyi Cave was located.

Even more outrageous is what happens after reaching the bottom.

Zhang Shouquan actually took out another compass and then, feeling around on the seabed, found a depression.

Then, they placed the compass into the depression, which surprisingly opened up an underwater passage leading directly into the interior of the island!

His movements were quite fluid, as natural as if he were going home.

It wasn't until they entered the narrow passage, turned left and right, and finally emerged from it to reach a cave.

Zhang Shouquan stopped walking, as if he had suddenly remembered something important.

Turning back to Xiao Chen, he said, "Oh dear, Fellow Daoist Xiao, we can't go any further!"

"There's something very important that I forgot about before, but I suddenly remembered it after I got here."

"To prevent the spiritual object from being taken by others, Emperor Daxuan specially set up a trap."

He pointed to the empty cave ahead: "Don't be fooled by the fact that there seems to be nothing there."

"In fact, the entire cave is filled with malevolent energy accumulated over hundreds of thousands of years."

"Oh, by the way. With Fellow Daoist Xiao's status, you should be quite familiar with baleful energy, right?"

Zhang Shouquan wasn't actually telling the truth; he deliberately waited until this point to mention the malevolent energy.

Now, he stands on the edge of malevolent energy.

If Xiao Chen wanted to turn hostile, he could simply hide inside and use this natural barrier to block the other party's pursuit.

But in order to avoid a complete falling out.

At the same time, it was also to prevent Xiao Chen from being accidentally injured by the evil energy, which would cause the two to become enemies directly.

So Zhang Shouquan lied and said he had forgotten about it, and kindly reminded him.

Therefore, if Xiao Chen didn't want to get hurt, he would have no choice but to stay outside.

More importantly, he left himself a way out by doing this.

If one were to directly use the malevolent energy to turn against someone.

Just in case, although the possibility is not very high, just in case Xiao Chen, as the successor of a hidden lineage, has some secret technique to resist evil energy.

Wouldn't that mean he'd driven himself to a dead end?

But now that they're proactively reminding us, that's a different story.

If Xiao Chen is truly unafraid of evil energy, then Zhang Shouquan simply has a bad memory, but he has already made amends in time.

Everyone can still go in together to search for treasure in a peaceful manner, as if nothing had happened.

Having appropriate strategies for both advancing and retreating is the way for independent cultivators to survive.

"Is there such a thing?"

Xiao Chen forced a surprised expression: "There's actually evil energy in this cave, that's really... quite unexpected."

"However, I do know a little about malevolent energy, and I have some understanding of it."

He extended his index finger and thumb, leaving only a thin line between them, indicating that he didn't know much.

After all, one's aura of malevolence is one of the more important secrets one possesses, so it's best not to flaunt it.

If this gets leaked, another manhunt similar to the one issued by Jingkonghai might occur.

However, these words startled Zhang Shouquan.

He quickly confirmed, "Oh, I see. Then it seems I don't need to explain any further."

"But the immortal dynasty's spiritual objects are hidden at the bottom of the cave. We need to go inside to find them, and we must pass through the evil energy."

"But I only have one item to ward off evil spirits with me. I wonder if Fellow Daoist Xiao has any way to deal with this?"

"Or perhaps, fellow Daoist, please wait here for a moment while I go down and fetch the items, and then we can divide them?"

However, under Zhang Shouquan's expectant gaze, Xiao Chen shook his head: "Hey, no need for that."

"It's quite a coincidence, actually. I happened to have learned a method of warding off evil spirits before, which I can use to protect myself."

"Let's go down and take a look together."

Strictly speaking, he did indeed possess a method for warding off evil spirits, the one he had just seized from the new ruins. Furthermore, Xiao Chen noticed Zhang Shouquan mentioning the spiritual objects of the 'Immortal Dynasty'.

He immediately remembered that the other party had gone in another direction in the new ruins.

It seems that the relevant clues about the spiritual object were likely obtained from there.

Unexpectedly, the Great Xuan Immortal Dynasty, like the Moon Witch Clan, likes to use evil energy as a natural trap to prevent outsiders from entering at will.

Or is this a common practice among ancient powers?

In any case, the spiritual objects stored below must be extraordinary.

Otherwise, why would we go to such great lengths?

Thinking of this, Xiao Chen couldn't help but feel a little anticipation for what good things were down there.

"Oh, great! That's wonderful! Let's go down and take a look together."

Zhang Shouquan wore a smile, seemingly very happy for Xiao Chen.

At the same time, I secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, he didn't try to use the evil energy to turn against them, otherwise he would have suffered a great loss.

It's pitiful that Zhang Shouquan was a rogue cultivator, and he only just learned what evil energy was in the new ruins.

It turned out that Xiao Chen had already cultivated the relevant defensive techniques.

Alas, otherwise why would disciples of powerful factions often find it easier to survive in the cultivation world?

The difference is really too big.

Zhang Shouquan finally truly understood the saying: "Comparing people is deadly, comparing goods is worth throwing away."

No comparison, absolutely no comparison.

Despite the overwhelming emotions within him, he remained outwardly calm and composed.

The two of them joined hands and descended from the cave all the way to the bottom of the island.

Now that things had come to this, Zhang Shouquan gave up on any tricks and directly took out a seal, activating it with his true essence and casting it into the air.

"Rumble rumble rumble~!"

Immediately, a scraping sound rang out, followed by the ground churning and surging to both sides.

A square platform rose up in the middle.

On the high platform, there was a long table with a huge square box on it.

"go with!"

Zhang Shouquan pointed, and the seal in mid-air landed directly on the box.

"Click! Click!"

Immediately, a mechanism sounded, and then the box opened directly from the inside, spreading out in all directions.

Each side has a different item on it.

Interestingly, the number of items placed on all four sides follows a pattern.

They consist of a jade slip for inheritance, two black iron plaques, three five-colored strange stones, and four pieces of transparent jade.

"The map is indeed real!"

When Zhang Shouquan saw that the spirit object had actually appeared, he was overjoyed.

His gaze immediately fell on the only jade slip that could be passed down.

However, Xiao Chen was immediately drawn to the translucent jade on the other side.

The four precious jade pieces were as transparent as crystal, almost pure and without any impurities.

However, upon closer inspection, one can vaguely see that there are nine places that appear to be slightly lit, arranged in a manner resembling the nine stars of the night sky.

It is the legendary, extremely rare Nine-Aperture Clear Jade!
It was also the last thing Xiao Chen was missing when he wanted to set up the infant nurturing altar.

I didn't find it in the new ruins before, nor in my storage ring.

He simply didn't know where to start looking now.

Unexpectedly, this trip, which was originally intended to find malevolent energy, turned out to lead to the encounter with such a spiritual object.

It's truly a case of "searching high and low without finding it, only to have it come to you effortlessly."

"Fellow Daoist Xiao, since the spiritual item is real, how about we split it in half?"

Zhang Shouquan refocused his attention and began discussing the allocation plan.

He was actually a little worried that Xiao Chen might try to take it by force.

After all, in the cultivation world, even the closest friends can turn against each other for the sake of possessing precious spiritual items.

"Okay, since we came together, let's split it equally."

However, Xiao Chen did not do that. Instead, he took the initiative to pick up two pieces of Nine-Aperture Bright Jade: "Then let's start by dividing the items in pairs. These two pieces are for me, and the remaining two pieces are for Fellow Daoist Zhang."

Then he picked up a dark iron plaque: "This one is the same."

Seeing this, Zhang Shouquan also put away his share.

The two then looked at the remaining four items and fell silent for a moment.

Those three five-colored strange stones looked full of spiritual energy and must be some kind of rare strange stones.

If considered on its own, it could be considered a rare spiritual object.

However, compared to the jade slips that have been passed down, it seems that their value is not so easy to measure.

"Fellow Daoist Xiao!"

After thinking for a moment, Zhang Shouquan decided to be frank and say, "This inheritance jade slip is extremely important to me."

"I'll take the jade slip here, and you can have the strange stone there. How about we each take one?"

Xiao Chen now understands that there are no Yellow-level cultivation techniques in similar inheritance jade slips, not even a Profound-level one.

So he readily took the strange stone and nodded in agreement: "No problem, it's settled then."

Zhang Shouquan immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

Great, he finally got what was most important to him.

You should know that all independent cultivators will face the same problem.

That means there are no systematic cultivation techniques, let alone heaven-level techniques.

Under normal circumstances, one would have to sell oneself to those powerful forces and work hard for decades or even centuries to gain their recognition and be allowed to cultivate the most core Heavenly-level inheritance.

Now that he has directly obtained the inheritance jade slip, he can cultivate all the way to the Great Perfection of the Nascent Soul stage without worrying about having no way forward.

He made a killing on this trade.

Xiao Chen was also very happy, as this was a suggestion made by the other party on their own initiative.

They traded useless cultivation techniques for useful spiritual items.

He made a killing on this trade.

For a moment, both of them were very happy.

So they politely returned to the cave entrance and said their goodbyes.

"Take care, Fellow Daoist Xiao. Farewell."

"Take care, Fellow Daoist Zhang. Until we meet again."

After exchanging greetings with clasped hands, the two went their separate ways, one to the east and the other to the west.

Of course, Zhang Shouquan meant goodbye.

If possible, he hopes the two of them will never meet again.

Xiao Chen said, "We'll meet again someday."

He still looks forward to meeting Zhang Shouquan again if he has the chance in the future.

However, he did not actually leave. He pretended to walk west, then circled around and returned to the island.

After all, there's still some malevolent energy to collect; we can't just leave like this.

We returned to the cave along the passage.

This time, Xiao Chen had no more scruples and directly activated the "Mysterious Heaven Food Secret Method" to begin devouring the earth elemental energy within the cave.

The only thing that disappointed him was that the cave was quite deep and not narrow.

Even the bottom is relatively wide.

Therefore, the malevolent energy inside the cave is not strong and is almost evenly distributed throughout the entire cave.

Aside from the first time he encountered the Burning Heaven Fiend, this was almost the sparsest form of evil energy Xiao Chen had ever encountered.

As a result, his absorption efficiency was naturally greatly affected.

"Hiss~, I'm still pressed against the wall, this is too much effort!"

During the absorption process, Xiao Chen discovered that a lot of malevolent energy was right next to the cave walls.

It almost blends into the rock and soil.

Only after he has absorbed all the evil energy outside will it slowly drift out to fill the void.

Therefore, in order to improve absorption efficiency, Xiao Chen had to run back and forth from top to bottom.

It absorbs the evil energy emanating from above one moment and from below the next.

This cycle repeated itself every three days, and after a total of ten rounds, a brand new Yang Earth Seal was finally successfully condensed in the dantian.

Just like before, at the moment when the Yang Earth Seal was successfully condensed.

It overlaps with the Yin Earth Seal, together forming a complete and mysterious mark.

It seems to possess both the abundance of the earth and the weight of the mountains, yet also faintly reveals endless shifting sands.

"Phew~, another half-baked Nascent Soul formation success rate."

Xiao Chen used his divine sense to examine the result and couldn't help but smile: "Now we have collected four pairs, accumulating a total success rate of 20% in forming the Nascent Soul stage."

In other words, it's almost equivalent to him having learned an extra breakthrough technique.

"It's a pity that we're still missing the last type of Yang Water Sha, otherwise we could have gathered all five types of Sha Qi and condensed the Yang Five Elements Seal."

Seeing that only the Yin Water Seal remained alone in his dantian, Xiao Chen couldn't help but sigh.

You should know that when he first came to the Eastern Region, he was full of confidence.

They believed that the Eastern Region had no shortage of water, so Yang Water Sha should be the easiest type of evil energy to collect.

I never expected it to become the most difficult one.

Now that the other nine types of evil energy are all present, the only one missing is the Yang Water Evil.

"Hey, where have you been hiding? Stop hiding!"

Xiao Chen muttered something under his breath, then got up and took out the Xin Jinbao Gourd to continue collecting the remaining evil energy.

Don't be fooled by the sparse presence of malevolent energy here; in fact, most of it is hidden within the rock walls.

Even though it has absorbed a lot, it is still constantly drilling out.

Since that's the case, Xiao Chen naturally wouldn't waste it.

Firstly, although he doesn't need it now, he can keep it for future use.

It might come in very handy in the future.

Secondly, he didn't want to leave the remaining malevolent energy here for the sea creatures to use.

It should be noted that Xiao Chen was able to get here because of intelligence from the sea tribe.

If he doesn't take the remaining malevolent energy with him, it might end up being taken by another traitor or even by the sea creatures in the future.

That could very well lead to another disaster.

Perhaps Xiao Chen should stay here a few more days and eliminate this potential threat.

Perhaps because of his actions, he could save the lives of many ordinary cultivators in the future.

(End of this chapter)