Seeking immortality begins with daily intelligence reports.

Li Shen's current spiritual stone assets amount to thousands.

However, he did not readily use more spirit stones to test the waters.

Firstly, the array occupies almost half of the entire bottom of the pool. Just by looking at its size, one can tell that activating it once would require a massive amount of resources. Perhaps even if all these thousands of spirit stones were invested, it would be a waste.

Secondly, Li Shen doesn't need this teleportation array for the time being.

However, it can be used as a backup plan to avoid attacks from demonic forces in the future.

After thinking it over, Li Shen slowly floated up, his eyes gleaming with a blue light, and the shore was completely silent.

He took out a cleansing talisman and wiped away the blood from his body.

They then set off to leave the area.

After safely evacuating from Laoshan, Li Shen returned to his small courtyard located in the outer city of Fangshi.

Pushing open the courtyard gate, Li Shen found no one inside and went straight back to his room, locking the door tightly.

By refining the earth vein spiritual milk, his cultivation broke through to the peak of Qi Refining. He no longer needed the Qi Gathering Array of the Zhao family. Moreover, when he left the Zhao family, his cultivation was only at the ninth level of Qi Refining. In just a few days, he had reached the peak of Qi Refining. To avoid trouble, it was best not to go to the inner city.

After all, the area is mostly inhabited by Foundation Establishment families, and there are quite a few Foundation Establishment cultivators there.

Even though he usually only stays within the Zhao family and rarely interacts with outsiders, it doesn't mean that other families aren't secretly keeping an eye on him.

In the past, breakthroughs in cultivation often took years, which was understandable. But now only a few days have passed. If someone discovers this and has other ideas, Li Shen's current realm is not yet stable and is slightly unstable, making it more troublesome to deal with.

After a brief moment of thought, Li Shen took out the Yin Soul Banner.

As soon as the banner appeared, black mist surged out, and a faint roar could be heard from within, both fierce and violent.

Li Shen frowned slightly and probed the banner with his divine sense.

Several second-tier souls were rampaging through the area, tearing and devouring each other.

Although he tried his best to suppress the soul slave he had painstakingly crafted, it was already in a state of continuous defeat, and its soul body had been torn and weakened.

"As expected, it couldn't be suppressed anymore."

Li Shen withdrew his divine sense and calmly examined the Yin Soul Banner in his hand, the Yin Soul Pearl above it swaying slightly.

That's normal. This ghost banner has been a broken banner ever since he obtained it.

Apart from the Yin Soul Bead, which was mainly used for suppressing the soul and was later replaced, the rest of the materials were still the old materials left by that ancient cultivator.

It's already barely able to accommodate second-tier souls; suppressing several at the same time is indeed beyond its capabilities.

Those few second-tier souls had a blood feud in life, and their resentment only intensified after death. Once inside the Yin Soul Banner, they would inevitably devour each other.

If left unattended, and they decide the victor, the surviving one will definitely become much stronger. However, if the soul slave that Li Shen painstakingly crafted does not win, it will be difficult to re-craft it given the current state of the Yin Soul Banner.

Li Shen's eyes flickered slightly.

In a few months, the secret realm will open.

Without a usable soul slave, even if one's cultivation level breaks through, their overall strength is greatly reduced.

"We must refine new soul slaves while they are still fighting and their strength has been reduced."

He was thinking to himself:

"Let's choose a relatively weaker one first."

Li Shen once again probed the Yin Soul Banner with his divine sense, carefully observing those few second-tier souls.

They soon noticed a soul that had been at the early stage of the second tier in life. Its soul body had been torn apart and was relatively dim. It was huddled in a corner, trembling.

All that remained was instinctive fear; the courage to participate in the fight was long gone.

"I've decided on you."

Li Shen's lips curled slightly as he focused his divine sense on it.

With a single thought, it was easily drawn out.

At first, the soul resisted and let out a mournful howl. Li Shen frowned and decisively activated the Yin Soul Pearl.

Under the glowing light, the soul immediately became obedient and stopped struggling.

Next, the Soul Binding Spell from the "Mysterious Soul Refining Scripture" was used to refine it into a new soul slave.

He already knew the steps of refining soul slaves by heart.

Instead of rushing into action, he first took a Mind-Concentrating Pill and then took out dozens of spirit stones, piling them aside for future use.

With everything prepared, Li Shen took a deep breath, forced out a drop of essence blood, and then whispered an incantation:

"With my blood, I forge your form; with my spirit, I bestow upon you your soul. Your body is Yin Sha, your home is the Black Banner; heed my command, forever unwavering..."

"Freeze!"

Li Shen gave a soft shout, and the Yin Soul Pearl immediately shone brightly, casting a powerful suppressive force over it.

The mixture of essence and soul immediately quieted down, and then its shape began to slowly change. A smaller Xuan Turtle Crocodile appeared before them, emanating a pure Yin energy.

"Why does this one look so dull and silly?"

Li Shen smiled helplessly, stroking his chin in thought.

For the moment, he could only think that it was because of low intelligence, so he shook his head and stuffed the refined soul slave back into the fold.

Then, they did the same thing.

The refining process was not without its challenges.

Especially when refining the souls of those two mid-stage second-tier demonic beasts, nearly a hundred spirit stones were consumed, and divine sense was also greatly depleted.

The struggle lasted for several hours, and they almost failed several times.

Fortunately, it finally came to fruition.

When the last soul slave was sent into the Yin Soul Banner, Li Shen's face was ashen, his body was drenched in sweat, and he was panting heavily as he leaned against the edge of the bed.

He closed his eyes and meditated for a good half hour, until he recovered somewhat, before picking up the Yin Soul Banner again.

His gaze swept from top to bottom.

Although the black aura has subsided, the Yin Soul Pearl above has developed several slight cracks after being refined several times.

The situation is not optimistic; it can probably only barely suppress the soul, and it will probably not be able to create new soul slaves in the future.

"It seems we'll need to find some suitable replacement materials in the meantime."

Li Shen made up his mind and immediately put the Yin Soul Banner back into his storage bag.

I got up and glanced at the sky. The moonlight was getting stronger, and it should be soon time for me to leave.

Li Shen returned to the bedside, swallowed a Qi-restoring pill, and silently circulated the Evergreen Technique, waiting for midnight to arrive.

An hour later, the intelligence arrived as expected.

[The founding ceremonies of the three sects in the Yunhe Mountains will be reopened in one year. Due to the stirrings of the demonic path, the three sects have decided to relax the restrictions on recruiting disciples. Those with three spiritual roots must be no older than forty and have a cultivation level no lower than the fifth level of Qi Refining; those with four or five spiritual roots must be no older than thirty-five and have a cultivation level no lower than the third level of Qi Refining.]

After reading it word by word, Li Shen couldn't help but feel a surge of joy.

Even now, thanks to his intelligence advantage, Li Shen has cultivated to the peak of Qi Refining.

But he was still tempted by the opportunity to join the sect.

It wasn't just because he hadn't been selected yet and was feeling resentful, but also because if he could successfully establish his foundation within this year, he would need to seek opportunities after that.

If one can rely on the power of the sect, even with a pseudo-spiritual root, there is still a possibility of breaking through to the Golden Core stage.

Even if one fails to establish a foundation, the opportunities to break through within a sect are far greater than in this marketplace.

These conditions are clearly designed to recruit cannon fodder for the front lines. How could he not see that?

But Li Shen has no intention of giving up.

The sect needed manpower to resist the demonic path, and he needed an opportunity to break through his bottleneck; it was simply a matter of mutual benefit.

However, for now, the focus is still on the secret realm.

A year is plenty of time; it's not too late to prepare after entering the secret realm.