May I seek good fortune and avoid misfortune, and live a long and prosperous life.

On the battlefield, after confirming that Xue Sou was completely dead, Li Heng quickly began to loot the corpse.

After about half a cup of tea's time, Li Heng took out a storage bag. When he opened it, he found that there weren't many spirit stones in the bag, only about a hundred, along with some other miscellaneous items.

Two things really caught his attention.

A dark red jade slip.

Three dark, moist seeds.

Li Heng first examined the jade slip, immersing himself in it with his spiritual sense, and the words immediately surfaced in his mind:

[Burning Lifespan Finger, a Qi cultivation technique that uses one's own lifespan as a catalyst to burn the lifespan of the enemy. For every year of the enemy's lifespan burned, the caster must expend two hundred days of their own lifespan as a price. A single attack can burn up to thirty years of the enemy's lifespan. If the enemy's lifespan is exhausted, their body and soul will be completely destroyed, and they will not enter the cycle of reincarnation.]

This is a typical demonic technique, harmful to others and not beneficial to oneself. No wonder the Bloodthirsty Old Man has this method but rarely uses it.

A cultivator like the Bloodthirsty Old Man with withered fingers, who licks blood from the edge of a knife every day, suffers numerous injuries. Where would he find the extra lifespan to squander?

But Li Heng was different; he was immortal and had an endless lifespan. This forbidden technique, which would inflict a thousand damage on the enemy but also eight hundred on himself, was practically tailor-made for him.

After reading the jade slip, Li Heng looked at the three gray seeds. Fortunately, the jade slip also recorded their origin:

[The Soul-Nourishing Tree is black in color and a specialty of the Western Region of the Azure Netherworld Cultivation Realm. It requires nourishment with essence, blood, and lifespan. It takes ten years to sprout, thirty years to mature into a seedling, a hundred years to flower, and three hundred years to bear fruit. The fruit can be used to refine Soul-Nourishing Pills, which can nourish the soul and strengthen the body's vital energy.]

Li Heng's eyes lit up. As far as he knew, things that nourish the soul were very rare, extremely precious, and priceless.

Li Heng's spiritual power and physical body are now very strong, but he has no suitable way to train his soul.

This Soul-Nourishing Tree seed came at just the right time. Although it takes a long time for the seed to mature, about three hundred years, and most Foundation Establishment cultivators don't even have a lifespan of three hundred years, this kind of thing is only meaningful to cultivators at the Golden Core stage or above. To cultivators below the Golden Core stage, it's considered a very useless thing.

However, in Li Heng's mind, these two things were priceless.

He carefully put away the two items, then used a fireball spell to burn the withered finger blood elder's body to ashes, and carefully wiped away all traces of the battle.

After doing all this, Li Heng summoned the shuttle boat again and flew leisurely back to the cave, transforming back into the thin, old cultivator he once again.

The wilderness returned to silence, as if nothing had ever happened.

By the time they returned to their cave, it was completely dark.

……

Li Heng's cave dwelling is located in the most remote and desolate part of the outer layer of Chixia Mountain, where the spiritual energy is quite thin.

Besides Li Heng and the couple next door's cave dwelling, there are a few other cave dwellings scattered around, all belonging to rogue cultivators with low cultivation levels and no established backgrounds.

It is a very desolate area, and few cultivators are willing to cultivate here. In a sense, it is also a relatively safe place.

Because those cultivators looked down on such a desolate and remote place.

The couple next door, Cui Bolao and Feng Yan, often visited Li Heng at his cave dwelling.

Li Heng had a fairly harmonious relationship with them.

Over the years, Li Heng learned from conversations that the couple were both at the third level of Qi Refining, and were in their forties. They were currently running a small business in the outer market of Chixia Mountain, just making ends meet.

They had a good relationship and always went out together. They were also very hospitable and would sometimes bring Li Heng some of their homemade cakes. Li Heng would naturally reciprocate by giving them some low-grade pills.

After returning to his cave, Li Heng sat cross-legged on a futon and took out the complete set of Burial Blood Armor that he had bought at the Wanbaoge auction earlier that day.

He took out a complete set of Blood Armor for Burial (including the helmet) and found that the armor was very cold to the touch, with faint blood patterns flowing on its surface.

Then, following the refining incantation, he pricked the tip of his right thumb and dripped a drop of his essence blood onto the core of the armor. The moment the blood seeped in, the armor trembled slightly, emanating a greedy suction force—a sign that it was demanding his lifespan.

An ordinary cultivator would have hesitated at this moment, but Li Heng did not care at all, letting the Blood Armor of Burial Life absorb his lifespan.

During the refining process, the surface of the blood armor became increasingly reddish, and the patterns gradually became more vivid, giving him a sense of blood connection.

Three hours later, the Blood Armor of Burial Life absorbed enough lifespan and finally recognized its master, transforming into a red light that entered his body. When encountering enemies, Li Heng could summon it at any time to protect himself.

This armor is powered by lifespan, and its power increases with the amount of lifespan poured into it, but it has its upper limit. What would be a death warrant for others is a perfect protective artifact for Li Heng.

With this Bloodstained Armor set, his defense will be greatly enhanced, and he can use it as an important trump card in the future!

Sunrise and sunset, and three months have passed in the blink of an eye.

Li Heng's life returned to a routine of going back and forth between his cave dwelling and the Hundred Herbs Pavilion.

Now, he is a junior alchemist in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion, and Zhao Bingwen has officially accepted him as his last disciple, which has greatly improved his status in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion.

As Zhao Bingwen grew older, his temperament became increasingly gentle, and he took good care of Li Heng, his older, mediocre but reliable disciple.

Li Heng's daily task at the Hundred Herbs Pavilion was to refine some low-grade pills, and occasionally assist Zhao Bingwen in refining some mid-grade and high-grade pills.

He studied very diligently, and the low-grade pills he refined were of very good quality, earning him praise from Zhao Bingwen on many occasions.

Li Heng's enthusiasm for learning to refine low-grade pills grew even stronger. He often humbly sought advice from other alchemists in the Hundred Herbs Pavilion, striving to improve his theoretical knowledge and practical skills in alchemy.

Therefore, Li Heng lived a rather enjoyable life.

That day, Li Heng had just returned from the Hundred Herbs Pavilion when he noticed that the atmosphere in the neighboring cave was a bit off.

The usual laughter and affection between the couple were gone; now, a loud argument was erupting from their cave, occasionally punctuated by the crisp sound of porcelain shattering.

Li Heng didn't want to cause trouble and was about to enter his own cave when the door of the cave next door suddenly opened with a "bang".

Feng Yan rushed out with red eyes, and when she saw Li Heng, she could only force a smile and say, "Fellow Daoist Li is back."

"Yes, what happened to Fairy Feng?" Li Heng nodded, noticing a faint bruise under her sleeve.

Cui Bolao chased after him, his face ashen. Seeing Li Heng present, he couldn't lash out, so he could only nod to Li Heng and then lower his voice to say to Feng Yan, "What's the matter? Let's talk about it back home."

"What else is there to say!" Feng Yan suddenly became agitated.

"We found out about the treasure-hunting beast together, so why do you think you can keep it all to yourself? And why do you need to team up with your cousin for the adventure?"

"What nonsense are you spouting!" Cui Bolao's face changed, and he hurriedly grabbed her, signaling her to stop talking.

The two pulled each other back into the cave, the cave door slammed shut, but the sounds of their argument could still be heard intermittently.

Li Heng shook his head, entered his own cave dwelling, and began a day of cultivation.

Even an upright official finds it difficult to settle family disputes; it's hard for outsiders to interfere in matters between husband and wife.

Moreover, most quarrels between cultivation couples in the cultivation world are due to interests, and he has seen this kind of thing many times.

In the following days, the couple next door argued intermittently and remained quiet.

Three days later, Feng Yan left the cave in a rage.

Seven days later, Cui Bolao also left, reportedly to search for his wife in Red Wind Valley.