The Path to Immortality Begins with the Life-Extending Lamp

Chapter 40 Returning to the Mountain from the Edge of the Abyss
The dragon, riding the clouds and mist, escorted the azure dragon back to Tiannan Prefecture. On this journey, the dragon prince was no longer as careless as before. He moved about lightly and gently, chatting and interacting with Li Qing along the way. He was quite a charming person.

This time, the dragon prince directly sent Li Qing to Lanfeng Prefecture in the southwest before bowing and bidding farewell.

After all, the Five Streams Dragon Lord had just invited Li Qing to a banquet in Qingping Prefecture, so it was only natural to send him back to the heart of Tiannan to ensure his safety. Otherwise, if trouble broke out on the border, a good thing would turn into a bad thing.

As soon as the dragon prince left, the colorful clouds over Lanfeng Prefecture churned endlessly, and a shadow that seemed to stretch across the sky, like the legendary Kunpeng, swept across the heavens.

"Li Qing, what are you doing here?"

The shadow passed over Lanfeng Prefecture, and after only a few breaths, it returned. Immediately afterwards, a five-colored phoenix descended from the high sky and landed on the mountain rock.

A particularly familiar voice rang out; it was none other than Bai Qingye, the head of the outer academy!
Li Qing held her right hand across her eyes, trying to block the fierce wind under the phoenix feathers. She waited until the wind stopped for a while before opening her eyes.

The woman in purple robes descended step by step from the back of the phoenix, which was several dozen feet tall, and began to examine the aloof young man standing below.

"How did you come into contact with Chu Long from Qingping Prefecture?"

Wuxi Chulong was a local bull demon king-like figure, chivalrous, fond of extravagance, and entertaining guests. He had many sects and Taoists associated with him throughout history, but chivalry comes at a price.

The guests at that banquet changed one after another. Do you know why?
"I was invited by chance!"

Li Qing shook her head, unwilling to argue with the head of the academy. She gently stroked the six-crowned dragon head that was leaning towards her with a wronged expression, and suppressed the fear in "Candle's" heart.

Before it were the noisy laughter of the five streams' dragons, serpents, ghosts, and gods, with two dragon spirits guarding it, and now there was this sky-covering phoenix eyeing it menacingly, which truly terrified it.

The outside world is too scary!

Seeing the young man standing tall against the phoenix wind, his Taoist robe fluttering in the breeze, his eyes turned to the side and his hands hanging down, exuding an air of authority, the female Taoist priest secretly thought to herself, "What a handsome face!" Her habitual admonitory and complaining words gradually softened...

"Do not get too close to the Five Streams Dragon Palace. The Dragon Palace has intertwined interests, impure thoughts, and complicated karma. Members of various sects often die in their fights."

"It was the head of the compound who heard that the Dragon Lord had overstepped his bounds and sent me to fetch you!" Bai Qingye emphasized again.

Now that Li Qing has entered the Daoist path and is maintaining stability, his cultivation has improved significantly. He has also endured the arduous and tempering stage, and he needs to have a clear understanding of himself.

"Come back to the mountain with me!"

Upon seeing the purple-robed female Taoist priest again, she was already close to Li Qing. With her right hand, she grabbed Li Qing's sleeve and, disregarding the chilling and piercing Xuan Yin Qi, floated away onto the phoenix.

The next instant, the phoenix flapped its feathers, its two feet flailing menacingly, and grabbed the crimson dragon by the head and tail. With a flap of its wings, it flew directly towards the Immortal Mountain of Lin Yuan.

Even though many Taoist priests in the mountains were unwilling to accept it, Guilang-Liqing, with the guarantee of the Danshu Yin family of Guihua Prefecture, gave Tiannan Temple a great favor.

For ordinary cultivators and mortals, that ghost marriage is a death sentence, an unsolvable curse; but for these otherworldly immortal sects, Li Qing is no less than a seed of immortality.

If Tiannan Temple weren't the orthodox lineage of the Primordial Qi Daoist tradition, he would have been worshipped like an ancestor in the White Bone Dao or the Zhong family of Lingnan...

Although no one interfered too much with Li Qing's cultivation journey, he never left the sight of the head of the courtyard and Yin Zu.

But Li Qing herself was clearly unaware of this, only thinking that she was slightly strange!
The woman in purple robes stood at the head of the phoenix, gently opening her palm. A bluish-black wound was visible on her palm, caused by the dark yin energy of the underworld.

"That vengeful ghost is really protective of its own!"

No wonder no female cultivators in the courtyard interact with Li Qing; it seems he has no hope in this lifetime.

Poor man!

Bai Qingye's eyes held a strange light as he looked at the young man behind him with a pitying expression.

This gaze made Li Qing's heart pound, wondering what the head of the academy was thinking this time.

However, this trip allowed him to glimpse a cultivation world completely different from that of Tiannan.

The land south of the Yangtze River was entirely under the jurisdiction of Tiannan Prefecture and Tiannan Temple. External threats were difficult to eliminate, and the situation remained challenging. As a young man studying, he also learned about the ongoing war in Jiangbei.

In contrast, Lingnan and Jiangnan were filled with singing and dancing, and great joy and celebration. Today, the Dragon King held a banquet, and tomorrow the ancestral spirits came to celebrate his birthday. The Fox Lord of Jinping Prefecture was looking for a son-in-law, and the Dragon Girl of Dongchuan Prefecture was sending pearls.

This is too disjointed. War is raging in Jiangbei, and calamities are raging in the southwest. If all the water gods, spirits, and true disciples of the clans in various places were to enjoy fine wine and delicacies at night, it would be too disjointed.

It seems the Southern Kingdom is on the verge of collapse...

At this moment, the woman in the purple robe also spoke.

"Today you meet two Taoist priests, tomorrow you befriend three patriarchs. Fame and fortune, pride and camaraderie—these are all external distractions! Li Qing, with your experiences, you should be able to calm your mind..."

"Go back and focus on your cultivation! Avoid consuming those spiritual pills and elixirs, as they will impure your vital energy!"

"Taking turnip seeds daily is acceptable. There was an ancient cultivator in Chu who ate the fruit of the Tuolu tree and turnip seeds, which greatly improved his Qi circulation, and he thus achieved immortality." "You only need to focus on refining your Qi. After you establish your foundation in the Purple Mansion, you can use that Profound Yin Qi to cultivate your own Profound Yin Qi!"

This was the first time that the head of the Bai Academy was guiding Li Qing's cultivation. Usually, she would only chase the little brat away after he had a few skills and had looked at the "Southern Dipper Longevity Manual".

Today, when Yin Zu and the head of the courtyard arranged for her to pick up Li Qing again, she suddenly realized that this gloomy and unspeakable young ghost had already transformed into a young Taoist with the bearing of a dragon and the spirit of a phoenix, and who was not arrogant in the face of the wind.

Bai Qingye secretly wondered if the so-called underworld marriage contract was also chosen based on the woman's appearance.

"it is good!"

Li Qing nodded, taking Bai Yuanshou's words to heart. He immediately abandoned his idea of ​​going to Tiannan Prefecture to exchange for more Golden Fungus for cultivation and to fill his Zhou Tian Great Aperture in one fell swoop.

After all, he and others, who were on the path of primordial qi, looked up and down at the heavens and earth, observing all changes. If their primordial qi were impure, their subsequent cultivation would be much less effective...

The two rode phoenixes back to the mountain, and the journey of thousands of miles to the south was completed in no more than half a day.

The phoenix kept by the head of the Tiannan Courtyard ignored the inspection at the mountain gate, rushed into the mountain, threw Li Qing into the outer courtyard, and then rose up again.

Looking down at the young man, Bai Qingye felt a pang of resentment towards Yin Zu and the head of the compound.

If they thought Li Qing was a promising pillar, why did they leave him alone in the outer courtyard to suffer for three or four years, claiming that this was a step that all Daoists should go through? If this were in other sects, wouldn't he have started his true teachings on the spot?
But if he really didn't care, Yin Zu wouldn't have personally come forward to keep an eye on that Wuxi Chulong, and the head of the academy wouldn't have repeatedly given instructions.

As for these old patriarchs in the temple, Bai Qingye could only say that these old guys did not have the Heavenly River Immortal Sect's secret planning, but they learned the Immortal Sect's layered path of mental cultivation. Wasn't this just asking their own disciples to suffer for nothing?
As night fell and the phoenix flew away, Li Qing gently shook the head of the vermilion dragon, released the mansion's restrictions, and pushed open the courtyard gate.

Upon entering the mansion, Li Qing flicked the blue stone fire at his fingertips, lighting the four stone lamps in the courtyard. The candle, however, had already pushed open the main hall door before him and lay down inside with a bang.

It's still safest at home!
Li Qing lit the candles in the mansion before following behind it into the main hall. Before he could take out the paper figure in his sleeve or the spirit lamp in the gourd, he suddenly discovered that there was an extra message in the mansion's protective barrier.

Activating the restriction, Li Qing unwrapped the fragrant paper from Jiangnan, only to find a reply from home. His elder brother had finally obtained a few words about the Dragon-Raising Clan from the Red Bean Academy:

The Huanlong clan had an ancient court ceremony with established rituals and procedures. They subdued the six heavens, bringing down the heavens and gods to a lower level. They uniquely placed the ancestral temples and the heavenly gods on the same level for worship, which is the origin of the six heavens.

There was a remarkable man in the court who could control dragons. The emperor summoned him and granted him a fief on the shores of the East Sea, naming him Huanlong (Dragon Tamer). This Dragon Taming Wall was created by an ancient tribe from dragon saliva and a dragon pearl, and was used to adorn a young dragon…

"So that's how it is. The candle was probably born by chance in that tomb, and it only took on the appearance of a dragon by constantly licking this dragon-raising wall."

So, the Dragon-Raising Wall isn't such a remarkable thing after all?

Li Qing glanced at Zhu Qiu, who was playing around with a bamboo ball in the hall, and made a slight calculation in her mind.

Let it consume the spirit jade ointment given by Jin Zhenchuan, and then eat the dragon bamboo shoots to transform into a dragon.

This dragon transformation will likely take a considerable amount of time. He will stay at the mountain gate, practicing his inner energy cultivation in seclusion, hoping to break through to the upper level of Qi Refining in one go.

His entire body had already been invaded by the Yin energy of the underworld. If it weren't for the rescue by the purple palaces in the temple that day, he would have died long ago. However, it was a blessing in disguise that he no longer needed to open his mind. As long as he continued to circulate his Qi, he would naturally reach the upper level of Qi cultivation!

However, before that, he must go to the inner courtyard to obtain a refining spell to perfect his paper doll technique.

So, after resting for half a day in the palace, Li Qing took the jade token and went up to the upper part of Lin Yuan Immortal Mountain the next morning.

The towering fairy mountain, Linyuan, pierces the clouds. As Li Qing ascends along the bluestone path, he encounters a waterfall cascading into the Dragon Pool, and a ravine overlooking the Tiger's Mouth. White water hangs thousands of feet high, and mountain flowers bloom in vibrant red. On the other side, fragrant flowers, beautiful fruits, green vines, and emerald willows adorn the mountaintop, creating a beautiful scene for the Spring Festival. Paper figures carry sedan chairs into the clouds.

Now he understood why Lin Jiao had driven his soldiers and chariots to arrogantly enter the mountain gate that day—it was simply because Lin Yuan Immortal Mountain was too high!

When Li Qing arrived at the inner courtyard in a sedan chair, he only remembered that the Imperial Censorate was in the west. He went west around the spring flower vine forest and found the Imperial Censorate, but he could not find the Hall of Transmission of Merit of the Imperial Censorate.

I heard that most of the Imperial Guards had entered the Western Barbarian Conquest Corpse Cave, so there were hardly any people in the Guards.

Li Qing had no choice but to circle back to the front of the courtyard, intending to ask the guards, but fate had other plans, and she ran into Lin Jiao again.

The two blue-robed Taoist disciples entered and exited, and when they looked up, their eyes met.

But why does Li Qing recognize Lin Jiao? He and Lin Ruhu are not exactly the same, but they were born from the same womb!
Lin Jiao could never forget the cold and gloomy aura emanating from Li Qing.

"Didn't Junior Brother Li become a disciple of the White Headmaster of the Outer Court? How come you have time to come to the Imperial Academy?"

Lin Jiao was much more composed and dignified than Lin Ruhu. He wasn't embarrassed at all when he met Li Qing and nodded in greeting.

Upon seeing the Great Merit Iron Certificate of the Governor's Mansion in Li Qing's hand, he immediately realized that he had also obtained an iron certificate, and that his bronze ancient war chariot was redeemed at the Alchemy and Weapon Academy with the Great Merit Iron Certificate.

"Just head south to the Hall of Merit Transmission. The Hall of Merit Transmission and the Hall of External Affairs of the Imperial Censorate are both in the South Courtyard!"

After exchanging a bow with Li Qing and offering directions, Lin Jiao strode out of the courtyard...

(End of this chapter)