Cultivating immortality begins with formations.

Lu Yuan waited all night, but Gu Qingyao did not appear...

As dawn broke and the morning light bathed the Jiuling Market, Lu Yuan felt refreshed and stepped out of the gate.

We arrived at Cui Xuan Bao Zhai.

"Fellow Daoist Liu, how have you been?"

At the counter stood the same stunningly beautiful cultivator, Liu Ling'er.

"Fellow Daoist Lu?"

When Liu Ling'er saw him, her beautiful eyes lit up, and she returned the greeting with a smile: "It's been more than half a year since we last met. Fellow Daoist Lu, have you made any gains in the Nine Ridges Mountains?"

"It's quite a coincidence."

Lu Yuan spoke nonsense with a straight face: "A few days ago, while gathering herbs in the Nine Ridges Mountains, I unexpectedly found two unwanted array plates. So... I brought them to your esteemed establishment immediately, hoping to exchange them for a Longevity Pill."

Upon hearing this, Liu Ling'er covered her mouth and chuckled.

She didn't believe such absurd and outrageous claims, but since business was coming her way, there was no reason to turn it away.

"Fellow Daoist Lu is indeed a person with great opportunities."

Liu Ling'er couldn't help but chuckle: "I haven't left the house in so long that I didn't realize that opportunities abound outside the market. Perhaps I should go out and explore."

"Haha~"

Lu Yuan laughed heartily: "Then I wish Fellow Daoist Liu good luck and abundant blessings in advance."

"Thank you for your kind words."

Chatting and laughing, the two entered the private room one after the other.

Lu Yuan brought up the important matter, placing the two Five Elements Mystic Mist Plates on the table: "Please take a look, Fellow Daoist Liu."

"Hold on."

After pouring the tea, Liu Ling'er picked up the array plate and examined it with a serious expression.

After a while, she nodded and placed the array plate back on the table: "These two Five Elements Mist Array plates are both of excellent quality. They are enough to exchange for a Longevity Pill, but..."

Upon hearing the word "but," Lu Yuan frowned slightly: "Fellow Daoist Liu, is your previous promise no longer valid?"

Liu Ling'er shook her head, pondered for a moment, and then continued, "The promise of Cui Xuan Bao Zhai certainly stands, but I have a question... Is the jade-faced array master who was widely rumored in the market half a year ago Fellow Daoist Lu?"

"Of course, Fellow Daoist Lu may also choose not to answer."

"If I don't answer, will it affect this transaction?"

"It won't affect anything."

Lu Yuan nodded: "Then I won't answer."

Liu Ling'er's expression froze for a moment, but she wasn't angry. Instead, she smiled and said, "Then I'll take it as Master Lu's tacit agreement."

Lu Yuan had already understood the meaning behind her words.

I thought about it carefully.

His background was clean, and there was nothing to hide, so he cupped his hands in greeting and smiled without saying a word.

"As expected, it is Fellow Daoist Lu. I guessed correctly."

Seeing this, Liu Ling'er's face was full of joy, and she then invited, "If Fellow Daoist Lu is interested in joining a sect in the future, the gates of Ningcui Valley will always be open for you."

After the incident at the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, Lu Yuan realized that he still couldn't adapt to being a beast of burden.

Or.

Even if you're treated like a beast of burden, you're doing it for yourself.

"Feel sorry."

"Lu has no such plans at the moment."

Upon hearing this, Liu Ling'er nodded and did not insist. She quickly took out a longevity pill.

Besides.

Lu Yuan also bought some other spiritual herbs, mainly because he planned to cultivate the Nine Revolutions Body Refining Technique.

In cultivating the Nine Revolutions Body Refining Technique, daily body tempering with medicinal soup is essential.

And all such elixirs are available at Cui Xuan Bao Zhai.

They even gave us an extra discount on top of the discount.

Lu Yuan compared the prices and found that they were at least 30% cheaper than the market price.

All of this was decided by Liu Ling'er alone.

He then realized that this beautiful female cultivator, though seemingly a receptionist, actually held a high position in the Cui Xuan Bao Zhai.

When leaving.

Liu Ling'er finally extended an olive branch again: "If Fellow Daoist Lu is willing to come to Ningcui Valley, I will do my best to help you become a first-level array master. It is even possible that I will provide you with a Foundation Establishment Pill in the future."

Thank you.

"Lu will consider it."

Lu Yuan chuckled, but couldn't help feeling a pang of sadness.

Despite being abandoned by the Hundred Treasures Pavilion, or rather the Glazed Tile Sect, he gained a great deal of confidence in the Emerald Valley.

But neither Foundation Establishment Pills nor first-order formations could sway him at this moment.

After leaving the gate of Cui Xuan Bao Zhai, Lu Yuan went straight to Sister Jiang's residence without stopping for a moment.

The other party has set up a weapon-refining room to gather fire energy, which is undoubtedly the best place to cultivate the Nine Revolutions Body Refining Technique.

Although Lu Yuan also knows the Xuanhuo Formation.

However, the two formations are fundamentally different.

The Xuanhuo Array uses intense flames to scorch, making it unsuitable for prolonged stays within the array. In contrast, the array in the weapon-refining room gathers fire energy to scorch and temper various weapon-refining materials with heat waves.

Consequently, it can also achieve the effect of tempering the physical body.

When Lu Yuan arrived, he asked to borrow the weapon-refining room for two hours each day, and Jiang Zhi agreed without hesitation.

in this way.

Lu Yuan's life became monotonous, consisting of only going between two points every day.

The only pleasure in life is admiring Sister Jiang's incredibly powerful and beautiful body.

……

Have you ever thought about...?

"By linking the Five Elements formation together and inscribing it on a magic weapon, we might be able to elevate the quality of the magic weapon to the level of a spiritual weapon."

The Jiang family courtyard.

Lu Yuan stared at the greasy Sister Jiang in disbelief and said, "Have you ever considered that I'm only at the fifth level of Qi Refining? If I were to inscribe a Five Elements Array on a magic artifact, my spiritual energy would probably be exhausted before I even succeed. Forcing it would only shatter my dantian..."

If the dantian is shattered, at best one will become a mortal and have no chance of cultivating immortality again.

In severe cases, it can lead to death, with the body and soul fading away.

Still covered in fragrant sweat, Jiang Zhi didn't mind showing off her shapely figure at all. Upon hearing this, she looked surprised and asked, "Can't we stop halfway through?"

"Of course not."

Lu Yuan shook his head and said, "Inscribing an array on a magic artifact must be done in one go, otherwise the artifact will suffer irreversible damage due to the violent fluctuations of spiritual power from the incomplete array."

"Unless I cultivate to the late stage of Qi Refining, I will not have enough spiritual power to support me in completing the Five Elements Formation in one go."

Magical artifacts are completely different from array plates and actual array formations. Because they have their own inherent characteristics, incomplete arrays cannot fully integrate with them, which will result in a surge of spiritual energy.

When he was in the Treasure Refining Hall, he saw array masters inscribing arrays on magical artifacts. However, due to a lack of follow-up, they could not complete the task in one go, resulting in the artifacts becoming unusable.

"This is so troublesome..."

Jiang Zhi didn't understand the principles of formations, and her beautiful face was covered in sweat as she looked distressed.

Lu Yuan looked puzzled: "Didn't the array master you worked with before tell you this?"

"When I met her, she was already in the late stage of Qi Refining," Jiang Zhi said.

Lu Yuan "..."

So it's not because your understanding is low, but because my level of understanding is weak!

He turned and left...

"Hey, wait a minute."

Jiang Zhi, however, rushed over at a jog.

A fragrant breeze wafted towards him, and Lu Yuan was stunned for a moment, thinking to himself that although Sister Jiang was old, her words and actions were like those of a young girl.

In his past life, he would have thought to himself, "What are you trying to prove by putting on a green cucumber?"

But at this moment, it felt perfectly natural.

Is she truly staying true to her original aspirations, or is she simply attracted to good looks?

Lu Yuan couldn't help but chuckle.

Just as Jiang Zhi was about to speak, she saw this and couldn't help but ask, "What are you laughing at?"

"Nothing, just thought of something interesting." Lu Yuan chuckled casually and asked, "Sister Jiang, is there anything else?"

"Um."

Jiang Zhi nodded slightly, took something out of her storage bag, and held it between two fingers: "This is for you."

On her jade-like fingertips was a white jade-colored pill the size of a longan. The fragrance of the medicine... no, it was simply a naturally occurring, refreshing and sweet spiritual aroma that instantly filled the entire courtyard.

Lu Yuan's pupils constricted sharply, utterly shocked.

He was not very knowledgeable, but he had heard about it from the alchemist Yao Lao, who was an expert in alchemy.

There is a kind of elixir called the Spirit Rank Elixir.

Although it is a second-tier pill, its value to Qi Refining cultivators is second only to Foundation Establishment Pills.

It can rapidly enhance the cultivation level of cultivators in the Qi Refining stage. According to Yao Lao, anyone who takes this pill has an 80% chance of breaking through directly.

Although this pill has the effect of forcibly advancing one's cultivation level, it has no adverse effects whatsoever and will not burden the body. One only needs to take the pill and meditate for a few days to stabilize one's cultivation level.

Basically, any cultivator in the Qi Refining stage who obtains this pill will use it at the eighth level of Qi Refining in order to maximize its medicinal effect, or they can step into the ninth level of Qi Refining in one step.

Then he cultivated while preparing for Foundation Establishment.

Compared to those who do not take this elixir, they can save several years, or even decades, of time to prepare for foundation building.