Starting as a stray dog, I embarked on a journey of cultivation.

Dongzhou, Luofeng City.

Gou An concealed all his presence, dressed in a loose robe, and even pasted some beard on his face to avoid revealing his demonic nature, disguising himself as a rogue old man as he walked into the city step by step.

This is Gou An's first time here. Since he is meeting an important person, he needs to scout out the environment beforehand to feel at ease.

To Gou An's surprise, the city didn't even have a city wall.

It's more like several large towns clustered together than a city.

Apart from the lack of city walls, Gou An didn't even see any protective magic arrays in this place.

Many cultivators arrive in the city by landing directly from the sky or flying directly out of the city, and there are no anti-flying formations.

Gou An leaned on a cane and walked slowly through the city streets, glancing around to analyze the cultivation levels of the people around him.

After some investigation, Gou An discovered that although almost everyone in the city was a cultivator, their cultivation levels didn't seem to be very high.

Most of them were at the Qi Refining stage, and very few were at the Core Formation stage. Moreover, judging from their appearance, most of them were rogue cultivators.

The Wanggui Tower, which Shen Yu mentioned as the meeting place, was just a dilapidated old restaurant with nothing special about it.

Gou An sat down at a roadside wine shop outside Wanggui Tower, ordered a pot of old wine and slowly drank it while continuing to familiarize himself with the surroundings.

Although there was little chance of danger during the meeting, Gou An always liked to prepare for the worst and had envisioned several escape routes in case of danger.

Just then, a figure suddenly sat down next to Gou An, and a clear, delicate female voice rang out: "Old sir, are you drinking alone here?"

Gou An was quite surprised to see the woman suddenly appear.

How come people still greet me when I'm disguised so inconspicuously?

Gou An slowly raised his eyes and saw that the woman was dressed in a plain gray outfit, with a young and beautiful face, and was carrying a long sword, so she was obviously a sword cultivator.

"Is there something you need, young lady?" Gou An lowered his voice, pretending to be old and weak, not wanting to cause any unnecessary trouble.

"You look unfamiliar, sir!" The sword-wielding woman smiled and said, "You must be from out of town."

Gou An suddenly pretended to cough, covered his mouth, and said, "Just traveling around, happened to be passing by."

"May I ask how skilled you are in cultivation, and how old you are?" the female sword cultivator continued to ask, her purpose unknown.

Gou An frowned slightly upon hearing this, and instead of answering directly, asked in return, "Miss, please speak plainly if you have something to say."

Seeing that Gou An was on guard, the female sword cultivator explained, "Old sir, there's no need to worry. I've come to see you for good news."

"What good news?" Gou An narrowed his eyes, his gaze towards the female sword cultivator still wary.

"Let me introduce myself first!" the female sword cultivator said with a smile. "My name is Lin Shuang, an inner disciple of the Danling Sect, one of the twelve Dao Sects."

Gou An didn't reply, but just looked at her, wanting to wait for her to finish speaking.

"Our sect is currently developing a new life-extending pill, one of which can extend a person's life by at least fifty years," the female sword cultivator who called herself Lin Shuang continued. "However, although this pill has been developed, we still need some cultivators with limited lifespans to test its effects."

"So, upon seeing you, sir, I wanted to invite you to try the effects of this elixir, which is why I inquired about your cultivation level and lifespan."

Danling Sect? Life-extending pills?

Gou An became somewhat interested after hearing this.

Gou An had heard of many life-extending elixirs, but had never obtained the formula.

Even without the formula, as long as Gou An is given a finished pill, he can roughly analyze the ingredients by smelling it with his dog nose and then replicate it.

With this item, Gou An could extend the lifespans of the laborers in the Heavenly Map in batches, allowing them to work for him for free for several more decades.

"I am 180 years old, and I am in the late stage of Qi Sea!" Gou An imitated those old cultivators and stroked the fake beard he had stuck on.

"I don't know what the number is?" Lin Shuang asked again.

"Hmm..." Gou An raised an eyebrow slightly and casually uttered a Daoist title: "Master Fuhai".

"Fellow Daoist Fuhai!" Lin Shuang smiled slightly and said, "Normally speaking, the lifespan of a cultivator at the late Qi Sea stage is only about 180 or 190 years, and at most it will not exceed 200. If I may be so bold as to say that your lifespan is already running out, or even nearing its end."

Gou An nodded after hearing this and quickly agreed: "That's right, that's right, I'm willing to try this life-extending elixir. Please take out the elixir so I can see it."

Seeing that Gou An had shown interest, Lin Shuang smiled slightly and continued, "Fellow Daoist Fu Hai, don't worry. The trial will be held tomorrow. Moreover, there are many cultivators who want to extend their lives. Currently, more than 500 people have signed up, but the sect can only provide 100 life-extending pills for the trial."

"Oh?" Gou An nodded. "Then where will the drug trial be held tomorrow?"

"It's right in the city!" Lin Shuang said with a smile. "However, if you want to try the medicine for free, each person needs to pay one thousand spirit stones first."

Gou An frowned immediately upon hearing this: "Do you want to hear what you're saying?"

Do I have to pay 1,000 spirit stones to get a free trial?

Is it still considered free if I pay 1,000 spirit stones?

Seeing Gou An's reaction, Lin Shuang smiled slightly and said, "Fellow Daoist Fu Hai, please don't be angry. This thousand spirit stones is not for the cost of the medicine trial, but only a deposit."

At this point, she added, "Once you pay the deposit, you'll be qualified to participate in the drug trial. After the trial is complete, you'll receive a full refund of every single spirit stone."

"If you're going to withdraw, what's the point of handing over these spirit stones?" Gou An retorted.

"Fellow Daoist Fuhai!" Lin Shuang emphasized, "There are too many people who want to try the medicine. Some people clearly have lifespans of several decades or even hundreds of years, but they still want to try the medicine to extend their lifespan. But if this is the case, it will be very difficult for cultivators who truly need to prolong their lives to get the opportunity."

Lin Shuang sighed and said, "So by paying a deposit of one thousand spirit stones first, we can filter out those speculators and give this precious opportunity to those who really need it."

"Moreover, the longer lifespan a person has, the better the effect of this elixir will be when they take it. So we must carefully select the people who will be tested on it."

"Really?" Gou An found it even more suspicious upon hearing this.

A pill that can extend one's life by fifty years could probably sell for tens of thousands of spirit stones on the black market. Would their sect really give out a hundred of these pills for testing?

Even if it's true, the amount of one thousand spirit stones paid is somewhat suspicious; it feels like a scam.

So Gou An waved his hand and said, "That's a pity, I don't have a thousand spirit stones on me."

Gou An wanted to refuse, but Lin Shuang said, "I think Fellow Daoist Fu Hai has a kind face and his lifespan is not long, so he is a very suitable person to test the medicine. If you want, you can give me a deposit of five hundred spirit stones first."

"Oh?" Gou An found it even more interesting.

Although he felt the woman in front of him was a fraud, he was still very interested in the elixir that could extend his life by fifty years.

So he reached into his robes and rummaged around, actually taking the opportunity to separate more than three hundred spirit stones from his palm space and put them into a cloth bag, then took them out of his robes and placed them on the table.

He said to Lin Shuang, "Miss, I am nearing the end of my life and have very few spirit stones left. These 361 low-grade spirit stones are all I have left."

Upon seeing the cloth bag containing spirit stones, Lin Shuang raised an eyebrow and took it into her own hands before Gou An could hand it to her.

"Don't worry, fellow Daoist. Although 361 spirit stones is not much, I can still reserve a qualification for you to test the medicine." As Lin Shuang spoke, she stuffed the cloth bag containing the spirit stones into the storage bag at her waist.

"I wonder when and where the drug trial will be held tomorrow?" Gou An asked.

Lin Shuang smiled and took out a jade token from her bosom, placing it on the table: "Tomorrow, bring this to the Danling Hall in the east of the city, and someone will greet you."

Gou An took the jade pendant and examined it carefully.

The jade pendant is made of ordinary material and has no spiritual luster; it is simply made of common jade.

The jade plaque is engraved with the three large characters "Danling Hall," with two lines of smaller characters beside it.

"The elixir inherits the great Dao, and medicine prolongs life. It widely distributes spiritual medicine to help those in their twilight years."

It seems there might actually be some truth to it.

"Alright, I'll come tomorrow." Gou An nodded.

"I'll be waiting for you tomorrow!" After saying that, Lin Shuang got up to take her leave, and her figure quickly disappeared into the street.

Gou An slowly wiped the smile off his face. With a thought, he used a little of his demonic power to quietly create a wisp of his yellow dog clone at his feet.

Then he picked up the jade pendant, smelled it, and controlled the yellow dog to follow the scent to Lin Shuang as she left.

In such a bustling city, stray dogs and domestic dogs are everywhere on the streets, and no one notices this extra yellow dog.

After leaving Gou An, Lin Shuang continued to wander around the city and soon stopped on another street.

He spotted another elderly monk with white hair and greeted him using the same words.

Gou An steered the yellow dog closer and it lay down in the corner, seemingly dozing off, but actually listening intently.

That old cultivator was also at the late stage of the Qi Sea realm, and was even 196 years old.

At this level, one is already nearing the end of their life, and their lifespan may only be a year or two left.

So when he heard Lin Shuang mention the opportunity to extend his life by fifty years through a drug trial, he was very excited.

Lin Shuang seemed to have noticed the person's urgency to prolong his life, and actually asked for a deposit of three thousand spirit stones.

Three thousand is nothing to Gou An now, but it is an astronomical number for an ordinary old rogue cultivator.

The old cultivator indeed didn't have that many spirit stones on him. He frankly said that he only had a little over eight hundred left, but he could use a magic item as collateral.

Seeing this, Lin Shuang used the same words she had just spoken to Gou An, taking away the old cultivator's eight hundred spirit stones and also taking away an ordinary magic weapon from the old cultivator's body.

After collecting the deposit, she gave the old cultivator a jade token, instructing him to go to the Danling Hall in the east of the city the next day, and then left under a pretext.

Although the old cultivator was worried about being scammed, he had no other choice as his lifespan was coming to an end.

Rather than waiting to die slowly, it's better to take a gamble.

The yellow dog continued to follow Lin Shuang at a distance, while the woman continued to wander around the city, specifically looking for elderly cultivators.

In just half a day, they tricked eight or nine elderly cultivators into paying the so-called drug trial deposit.

Attracted by the promise of a fifty-year lifespan extension, and further swayed by women's persuasion, almost no elderly cultivator could resist this temptation.