Immortality: Starting with the Fruit of Taiyin

Manager Zhao is an ordinary tea seller in Baihefang Market.

In the past, people only knew that his tea stall catered to independent cultivators and had dealings with all sorts of people. Even Wang Xuan often sought him out to inquire about information.

But no one expected that this usually easy-going stall owner had a hidden identity, and today he even went so far as to personally intercept the Han family.

For a time, these inexperienced young people were almost unable to mount any effective resistance.

Without much effort, Manager Zhao won over the young men of the Han family.

"...That's good, most of them are here."

Blood splattered everywhere, but Manager Zhao ignored the corpses scattered all over the ground and counted the storage bags he had collected one by one.

"With this resource, my nephew won't have to worry about his cultivation for the next ten years."

All around him, the once vibrant boys lay scattered on the ground, leaving only Han Dao and Han Bo trapped in the golden net, desperately awaiting their final judgment.

"Kid, tell me, what have you learned these past few years?"

After a short while, Zhao nodded in satisfaction and turned his attention back to his two prisoners.

The other boys were either killed on the spot or taken away by the tall, thin cultivator who followed closely behind, to be used to threaten the Han family. Only these two were deliberately left behind by him.

The reason is simple: for a rogue cultivator like Manager Zhao, the inheritance of a hundred arts of cultivation is a treasure trove that can be passed down to future generations.

"Please spare me, senior! Please spare me, senior!"

"As long as you don't kill me, I'll tell you anything and do anything!"

His face was deathly pale, his voice trembled, and there was a faint smell of urine in the air.

Han Bo was already terrified by the corpses scattered on the ground and could only beg for mercy.

"Hehe, no problem, no problem, there's plenty of time."

With a smile, Manager Zhao waved his hand and readily agreed.

"However, I do have a question for you. I remember your Han family has three alchemy talents, right?"

"Besides you two brothers, there seems to be a little girl named Han Li. Where did she go?"

"Um?"

"this……"

Slightly taken aback by these words, Han Bo and Han Dao looked completely bewildered.

Han Li...a familiar stranger.

The poor-looking girl had no parents to help her, and alchemy was an extremely resource-intensive skill, so her brothers never took her seriously.

However, as an alchemy apprentice whom the Han family had invested a great deal of effort in training, Han Li was certainly not exempt from the list of fugitives, and had even recently fled the canyon with them.

Logically speaking, the other party should have been arrested as well, but since Manager Zhao asked the question... then the other party must have escaped.

A sudden panic gripped his heart. Under the increasingly cold gaze of Manager Zhao, Han Dao, standing beside Han Bo, could no longer maintain his feigned composure.

If Han Dao had heard yesterday that Han Li had gone missing, he would have been secretly pleased. After all, the Han family had now left their hometown and moved to a distant prefecture, and probably could no longer support three alchemy apprentices.

When faced with the path ahead, even brothers cannot yield to each other, let alone sisters of the same clan with whom they already have a mediocre relationship.

But now, facing a life-or-death crisis, the other party's disappearance not only becomes a death warrant, but also removes a target to attract attention.

Han Dao felt a surge of resentment, but looking at Manager Zhao in front of him, he forced a smile.

"This... Senior, in the chaos just now, we were only concerned with escaping, so we may have gotten separated... but she certainly couldn't have gone far."

"If you just follow the path we came from, you might just find it..."

"Looking for it?"

With a playful look in his eyes, Manager Zhao interrupted with a cold laugh.

"Heh, I'd better not."

"It's alright if one is missing. Both of you were taught by the same master, so the two of you are enough."

"Besides, after so many years of wandering the world of cultivation, I may not have much else, but I do understand the principle of knowing when to stop while I'm ahead."

"What if your Han family still has some trump card? Wouldn't that be like walking into a trap?"

"I stopped doing such a foolish thing sixty years ago."

"what?"

Han was shocked when his carefully concealed thoughts were exposed to his face.

He opened his mouth as if to explain something, but Manager Zhao just chuckled, raised his hand and knocked the Han brothers unconscious, giving them no chance to speak.

What a joke! Those who dare to fight and risk their lives in the business of robbing cultivators are long dead. Anyone who can live to his age is a thousand-year-old fox. How could he be fooled by a young man?

"It's just a pity. It's said that among Wang's three apprentices, that little girl is the most talented and the most honest."

"If there's any real skill involved, it's probably in her."

Although he felt a little regretful, Manager Zhao did not linger too long.

Today's harvest is already sufficient; any further complications would be undesirable.

After briefly cleaning up the traces of the battle, Manager Zhao grabbed the golden net and flew away on his magical artifact.

……

In the battle just now, most of the young members of the Han family had no combat experience.

However, with the combined effect of cultivation level and quantity, Manager Zhao still expended a considerable amount of energy.

After taking two pills, his condition improved slightly.

Concealing his presence, Manager Zhao traveled eastward.

He was not flying towards Danzhou, but rather following the Han family's route, intending to cross the border into Binzhou.

Even in the border regions, which are not the vast wildernesses between cultivation kingdoms, there are still occasional roaming cultivators.

Slowing down his escape speed, Manager Zhao kept his eyes peeled for any signs of danger.

"Um?"

At one point, it was about to fly over a forest.

As if suddenly remembering something, the gray light paused slightly, then slowly flew to the side.

From an outsider's perspective, there's nothing wrong with this move; it's more like a recalibration of the direction we're heading.

However, the next moment, right in front of its original path, a powerful demonic aura suddenly erupted.

brush--

No sooner said than done.

A pale blue wind blade traced arcs as it hurtled through the air with unparalleled force.

Within the gray light, Manager Zhao's previously tense face changed color in horror.

Although he sensed something was wrong, he didn't believe it was a setup targeting him.

But now, the demonic energy breaking through the air and the stinging pain from his spiritual sense told him that this was a second-tier demon that had been lying in ambush for a long time!

"Damn it, they really are coming for me?"

His face turned pale, and the change occurred between his elbows and armpits.

An ordinary person would probably have panicked long ago, but faced with such a dangerous situation, Manager Zhao did not hesitate at all.

With a wave of his hand, he threw out the golden net, which he had previously regarded as a treasure, along with the Han brothers.

At the same moment, his magical power surged into the talisman in his sleeve as if it were free, accompanied by his blood and essence flowing backward through his limbs and bones.

A moment's hesitation—just seeing these two people is enough to make anyone hesitate for a second!

He could then activate the "Minor Wind Escape Talisman" in his sleeve, and use it in conjunction with the incomplete Blood Escape technique he had acquired in his early years to escape.

With his heart pounding, Manager Zhao prayed silently.

However, in the next moment, to his despair, the wind blades increased in speed instead of decreasing, tearing straight through the golden net.

Without the slightest hesitation, the hastily raised defensive artifact vanished in a flash, and a wind blade slashed through the air, splitting Manager Zhao's body in two.

tear-

"ah--!"

Manager Zhao let out a miserable scream, his face showing resentment.

He tried to say something, but the next moment, hundreds of fine wind blades exploded from the wound, instantly tearing him to pieces.

Beside him, two plumes of blood mist exploded.

Clearly, even if they weren't the primary targets, the Han brothers were not spared.

"I overestimated him. He doesn't even have any Foundation Establishment level trump cards?"

"However, the fact that they were able to discover my whereabouts beforehand makes my caution worthwhile."

His figure emerged from the dense demonic aura, and Wang Xuan's face remained expressionless.

It's not surprising that the opponent, who was not a top-tier prodigy, was so decisive, given that he was only at the Foundation Establishment stage and had no special opponent.

Moreover, even a lion uses its full strength to hunt a rabbit. Wang Xuan has never hesitated to give sufficient attention to these cultivators who have fought their way to the death. This is also his principle in the cultivation world.

"The problem here was solved quickly, but the key issue is still the canyon."

"So much time has passed, I wonder what the outcome is now."

Without wasting any time, Wang Xuan quickly cleaned up the battlefield.

Without even glancing at the corpses of the two 'apprentices,' Wang Xuan immediately stood up.

He naturally saw who those two people were.

But he really didn't take Han Dao or Han Bo to heart.

Wang Xuan never treated him as a mere passerby, not even a tool.

Expecting them to take the fall is simply wishful thinking on Manager Zhao's part.