When it comes to cultivating immortality, it naturally starts with upgrading the herb garden.

Instead of heading straight to No. 17 South Alley, Song Chen turned a corner and went to the nearest butcher shop.

A burly, ferocious-looking butcher was using his cleaver to carve the flesh and bones of a monster.

He caught a glimpse of Song Chen out of the corner of his eye and asked casually, "What are you buying?"

"Essence and blood".

He stopped what he was doing and looked at Song Chen, asking, "What kind of demonic beast?"

"...The Blue Wolf."

Song Chen was rather conservative; for his first blood bath, he dared not use anything poisonous or too expensive.

The gray wolf is the most common low-level monster in Guanshi Peak, and it has no poison.

Its essence and blood are cheap, and many cultivators use it to improve their health.

It's not surprising that Song Chen bought more.

Upon hearing this, the butcher darted into the shop, and a voice called out, "How much do you want?"

Song Chen roughly estimated the amount needed for one medicinal bath and said, "Three thousand taels."

Upon hearing this, the butcher raised an eyebrow and a smile appeared on his lips.

A moment later, he held up a large bucket of essence blood and said, "Five hundred spirit stones."

After handing over the spirit stones, Song Chen put the essence blood into his storage bag, bought some essential furniture and tools in the middle alley, and then headed towards No. 17 in the south alley.

The journey was smooth; there were no robberies or dangers encountered.

However, I've heard quite a few rumors about yesterday.

"Did you know that everyone in the entire Zhongxiangqian area disappeared yesterday?!"

"What? There's more to this than that? All I know is that 'Cai San's shop was massacred; when the patrol arrived this morning, there wasn't a single survivor!"

"Holy crap! Really?! All I know is that the sect elders ordered an investigation, nothing else..."

Song Chen was shocked when he heard what the three people said.

A sect elder has stepped down?

Are Foundation Establishment cultivators going to investigate this matter?

Song Chen frowned and silently quickened his pace.

Number 17 in South Alley wasn't as big as the house in North Alley, but it was just right for building a few structures.

Song Chen did not immediately restore the building; his immediate priority was to increase his strength.

Level 1 of Qi Refining is still too low; anyone can step on it.

He covered the courtyard gate and house doors with talismans to keep them closed, moved out the furniture, tidied up the place a bit, and immediately began his cultivation in his dusty home.

Song Chen took out a wooden tub specifically for bathing from his storage bag and poured all of the wolf's essence blood into it.

The wooden tub was covered in blood, and the entire room reeked of blood.

Song Chen didn't care at all. He then took off his clothes, leaving only his storage bag, and leaped into the bucket. Holding a mid-grade spirit stone in his hand, he immediately entered a meditative state in the bucket.

In an instant, Song Chen felt his meridians were overwhelmed. He quickly put away the mid-grade spirit stones, and the pressure immediately decreased. He then took out low-grade spirit stones, which were just right.

"It seems that Blood Bath cannot be used in combination with mid-grade spirit stones for cultivation. I'll try Spirit Gathering Pills next time."

He breathed a sigh of relief and put his mind at ease.

The blood in the wooden tub slid down rapidly and was completely absorbed into Song Chen's body. The abundant spiritual energy and heat surged into him, making him feel uncomfortable.

At the same time, he could feel his cultivation level rapidly improving.

The spiritual energy in his dantian rapidly increased, almost filling it to the brim.

The next moment, Song Chen's aura suddenly surged, and he broke through to the second level of Qi Refining.

Song Chen felt a lightness throughout his body, his meridians became more solid, and his physique became much stronger.

Meanwhile, his cultivation was not yet finished, and his essence and blood still amounted to more than the height of his calves.

After a while, the essence and blood in the wooden tub were exhausted.

Song Chen was not too far from the third level of Qi Refining. His spiritual energy was more than half full in his dantian, and it was almost overflowing.

Within his dantian, a strange green aura remained undetected.

"This breakthrough speed... and there's no bottleneck yet? I can recover to the sixth level of Qi Refining in at most a month!"

Song Chen's lips curled up; it was impossible for him not to be happy.

The speed at which the blood bath improved his cultivation far exceeded his expectations, even more astonishing than the speed achieved by combining the Spirit Gathering Pill with a mid-grade spirit stone.

The key point is that he just used the worst essence blood, and his cultivation level was only at the first level of Qi Refining, when his meridians were at their weakest.

If Song Chen's cultivation level breaks through several levels, and spiritual energy nourishes his meridians, his physical strength will increase.

If you use mid-grade spirit stones and spirit-gathering pills together, the speed at which your cultivation level increases will be unimaginable.

At this moment, dusk had just fallen, and the world was completely silent.

When his essence blood ran out, Song Chen continued to cultivate using mid-grade spirit stones and spirit-gathering pills, and his cultivation speed remained quite impressive.

Two hours later, Song Chen reached the peak of the second level of Qi Refining, only one step away from the third level.

"Breaking through to the early stages of Qi Refining is incredibly fast!"

Song Chen sighed, just as he was preparing to take advantage of the good time to break through to the third level of Qi Refining.

boom!

Song Chen frowned; the courtyard gate had been smashed open.

He's really unlucky; on his very first day moving to a new place, someone came to bother him.

However, it doesn't matter.

Holding the high-grade talisman, Song Chen tiptoed to the door of the room.

A cultivator's cultivation level decreases, but this does not affect the activation of talismans. The spiritual energy required to activate talismans is very small, and even a cultivator at the first level of Qi Refining can activate them freely.

However, due to low cultivation level and poor spiritual energy quality, the talismans he activated were relatively weak.

But Song Chen is holding a top-grade talisman, how bad could it be?

Another moment passed, and the door lock charm on Song Chen's door was also removed.

A dark figure stood outside the door, uttering a seductive voice: "Young man! I've come to play with you!"

Song Chen couldn't see clearly who the newcomer was, but he knew that it must be either a friend or an enemy.

Three heavenly lightning talismans flew out, and a silver needle flew out from the side, shining brightly in the darkness.

The silver needle was a low-grade magic weapon, but its power was not low. It was even more powerful when used for sneak attacks, and could be considered a substitute for the trident.

The female cultivator clearly hadn't reacted in time; the first round of Heavenly Thunder Talismans had already struck her so hard she was practically dead.

"With such weak strength, how dare you launch a night attack on me?"

Song Chen was somewhat puzzled; this was the weakest assassin he had ever encountered.

Suddenly, something strange happened.

A streak of silver light flew out from outside the door and landed precisely half a palm's width from Song Chen's head.

If Song Chen hadn't reacted quickly and twisted his arm in time, that blow would have severed his head.

"I'm really getting old. Even when someone's poisoned, I can't land a single blow!"

A leisurely voice came from behind.

It was the butcher.

His face was filled with murderous intent, and with a flick of his right hand, the knife was instantly sheathed.

Poisoning?

Song Chen was bewildered; he didn't sense any toxins!

Moreover, his feelings at this moment were extremely complicated.

Is this what they mean by "the way of Heaven is intolerable"?

He had only been to two places, and these two people came to him directly?

Is it really zero tolerance?

Song Chen was not discouraged.

He felt that the butcher should not be difficult to deal with. Judging from his clumsy movements, he was at most a cultivator at the fourth level of Qi Refining, not even as strong as this female cultivator.

"Oh well, I'll just treat it as takeout!"

Song Chen activated Shadow Step, and a shadow appeared beside him, rushing towards the butcher together.

Then, he threw out several mid-grade rocket talismans, attacking the butcher from all directions, using the same method as Luo Xing had used.

This move was originally taught by Feng Sancai, and now that he has his memories, it is not difficult to replicate it.

Immediately afterwards, the shadow transformed into a suicide soldier, rushing towards the butcher and grabbing him tightly.

I don't know if it's because I just broke through, or because the Blood Spirit Root amplifies the body's strength after absorbing essence blood.

The shadow summoned by Song Chen possessed immense power, clinging to the butcher and preventing him from breaking free for a short period.

What was originally just a means of delaying has now yielded unexpected benefits.

The butcher clearly hadn't expected the shadow to be so troublesome. He managed to put up a few desperate attacks, but to no avail. He could only watch helplessly as the rocket took his life, and he died a gruesome death in a pool of blood.

Song Chen's gaze was icy as he looked at the two corpses lying in pools of blood. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind, and something came to mind.

He immediately put away the storage bags containing the two corpses and moved the bodies into the bucket...

That wasn't enough; Song Chen also picked up the butcher's knife and slashed again and again...