The Long Journey to Immortality

Sure enough, after the same rhythm repeated three times, the mechanism behind the hidden door was triggered and opened automatically, revealing a secret room to Feng Bailu.

Inside the secret chamber is a short-range teleportation array that can be activated directly without requiring additional spiritual energy.

This was the escape route that Xiaoyaozi had prepared for himself. Now, this teleportation array has become Feng Bailu's escape route.

The way out was right in front of him, but Feng Bailu did not rush into the teleportation array to leave quickly.

Because, in addition to the memories of Xuanpin Reincarnation and Xiaoyaozi, there are also valuables in the cave that Xiaoyaozi prepared for the remnant soul to possess, waiting for her to collect them.

This is only part of what Xiaoyaozi left for "himself". In other places, Xiaoyaozi also made other arrangements, leaving some resources needed for "himself" to cultivate in the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core stages.

Feng Bailu already knew the locations of these places by Xiaoyaozi's memory, and he only needed to advance in the next level before he could go there to search for treasures.

Back on the high platform, Feng Bailu embraced the four storage bags lying outside the magic array.

Each storage bag is affixed with a talisman, making it difficult for anyone to open.

However, if one can successfully decipher the talismans, even a mortal without cultivation can retrieve valuables from these four storage bags.

Unraveling the talisman was not difficult for Feng Bailu, who possessed Xiaoyaozi's memories.

Following the method from memory, Feng Bailu deftly tore off the sealing talisman on the storage bag.

The method was correct; the restrictions on the talismans were not triggered, and the four storage bags filled with gifts that Xiaoyaozi had prepared for him to possess the body became Feng Bailu's private property.

The remnant soul had no idea what was in the storage bag, only that the contents would be of great benefit to the "inheritor" after reincarnation.

Feng Bailu imagined that Xiaoyaozi, who had cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage, had prepared many good things for the remnant soul.

"Most of them are cultivation resources that can help those in the Qi Refining stage," Feng Bailu deduced, based on his nearly thirty years of experience cultivating in the Zhengyi Sect. "Spirit stones, pills, magic tools, secret manuals..."

[Author's Note] This is only part of what Xiaoyaozi left for "himself". In other places, Xiaoyaozi also made other arrangements, leaving some resources needed for "himself" to cultivate in the Foundation Establishment and Golden Core stages.

I'm highlighting this sentence separately because many people who left comments later on didn't see it.

Chapter Eleven: A Bountiful Harvest

Poor scholars, rich warriors.

Cultivation is a higher level than martial arts in the mortal world, so it costs more money.

If practicing martial arts is like spending money like water, then cultivating immortality is like spending money like a flood.

Previously, Feng Bailu, as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, could receive cultivation resources worth approximately fifteen low-grade spirit stones from the Zhengyi Sect each month.

These cultivation resources, when converted into money for ordinary people, are roughly equivalent to fifteen taels of gold.

Even so, older cultivators like Feng Bailu still felt there weren't enough.

A cultivator like Long Qian, who also has a knack for business, would try every means to get more spirit stones into his storage bag for cultivation.

This is the treatment that the leader of the Zhengyi Sect, a cultivation sect in the Southern Dynasty, gives to ordinary Foundation Establishment disciples. If this were applied to other small sects or even cultivation families, it would be even more incomparable.

That's why Feng Bailu had such high expectations for the items in the four storage bags.

The lack of cultivation resources was something Feng Bailu had always secretly complained about.

In her opinion, although his spiritual root aptitude was not good, if he could be provided with cultivation resources worth about a hundred spirit stones every month, he would definitely have advanced to the mid-Foundation Establishment stage by now, and there would be no need for him to travel around looking for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities.

She recalled the ledger she had accidentally seen in the inner treasury, where she saw the monthly supplies the sect provided to Golden Core stage elders and Nascent Soul stage Grand Elders. That was equivalent to five or even fifty years of cultivation resources for her in one month.

Looking at the four storage bags that had opened their doors to her, Feng Bailu said excitedly, "But these are cultivation resources left behind by Nascent Soul stage cultivators. Although Xiaoyaozi is just a rogue cultivator, even if he left only a drop in the ocean, it would be enough for me to cultivate from the Qi Refining stage to the Foundation Establishment stage."

Suppressing his excitement, Feng Bailu opened the first storage bag.

Xiaoyaozi was a meticulous person; he categorized and organized the items in each of his storage bags before putting them in.

So even though there are four storage bags, there aren't many items inside.

The first storage bag contained spirit stones and pills, the two most basic cultivation resources for cultivators.

He took out everything from the storage bag, and in the blink of an eye, the ground was covered with spirit stones.

"So many spirit stones?"

Feng Bailu stared wide-eyed, counting for a while before confirming the number of spirit stones on the ground.

"Five hundred low-grade spirit stones and fifteen mid-grade spirit stones..." Feng Bailu quickly did the math in his mind and calculated the result. "Based on the calculation that one hundred low-grade spirit stones can be exchanged for one mid-grade spirit stone, there are spirit stones here worth a full two thousand low-grade spirit stones."

"Even when I was in the Foundation Establishment stage in the past, I would have needed to receive subsidies from my sect for a full sixteen years to accumulate this many spirit stones."

"Two thousand spirit stones is a huge sum of money for a Qi Refining stage cultivator."

In an instant, he went from being a proletarian to becoming one of the wealthiest people even within the Zhengyi Sect, and Feng Bailu was overjoyed.

Excitedly, she counted the spirit stones twice more to make sure there were no mistakes, before carefully putting each spirit stone back into her storage bag.

The first storage bag gave her such a big surprise, which made Feng Bailu even more eager to see what was in the next three storage bags.

"Next should be the pills, right?"

Feng Bailu was right; the second storage bag contained pills specifically for Qi Refining stage cultivators.

A total of seventeen bottles of pills lay on the high platform. Xiaoyaozi put the pills of different colors into porcelain bottles of different colors and labeled them with the names of the pills, saving Feng Bailu a lot of trouble.

Feng Bailu quickly checked the bottles based on the labels.

"Fifteen bottles containing a total of four hundred and fifty Meridian Opening Pills for the daily cultivation of Qi Refining stage cultivators."

"Two bottles, totaling ten portions, are used to quickly restore spiritual power for cultivators in the Qi Refining stage."

"There is also a bottle containing three Foundation Establishment Pills, which are used by Qi Refining cultivators to advance to the Foundation Establishment stage."

The storage bag contains the three essential pills for Qi Refining stage cultivators: one for cultivation, one for combat, and one for advancement.

Looking at the fifteen bottles of Meridian Opening Pills, Feng Bailu recalled the miserable situation when he was still in the Qi Refining stage, only able to receive four Meridian Opening Pills from his sect each month, and couldn't help but feel a surge of emotions.

"But there's nothing we can do about it. Although the sect has expanded considerably in the last few decades, there are at least 20,000 Qi Refining cultivators alone."

"It's only because the sect's most precious treasure, the Heaven-Stealing Bottle, can produce a spiritual liquid that accelerates the growth of low-level spiritual herbs. Otherwise, it would be considered good if a Qi Refining disciple could be given one Meridian Opening Pill a month."

"These Meridian Opening Pills in front of me are more than enough to supply my cultivation, let alone three or even four talented cultivators to the Foundation Establishment stage."

However, after opening the porcelain bottle and pouring out a few Meridian Opening Pills, Feng Bailu felt as if he had fallen from the clouds back to the ground.

Looking at the dark green Meridian Opening Pill in his palm, Feng Bailu sniffed it again, feeling annoyed. "Has it been stored for too long? I'm afraid only half of its medicinal effects have been retained."

The Meridian Opening Pill, the most basic cultivation pill in the cultivation world, is not a rare and precious material containing a large amount of spiritual energy or even having the effect of gathering spiritual energy.

Rare and precious herbs, especially top-grade spiritual herbs, become more valuable and have higher medicinal efficacy the longer they are stored or cultivated.

However, if this Meridian Opening Pill is left for too long, it will lose its medicinal power, just like ordinary food will rot and mold.

It's fortunate that it was in a porcelain bottle and stored in a storage bag for a hundred years. If it had just been simply placed in the cave, it's uncertain whether Feng Bailu would even recognize this Meridian Opening Pill now.

If the Meridian Opening Pill works like this, what about the other two types of pills?

Feng Bailu hurriedly opened the porcelain bottle containing the other two types of pills.

Sure enough, the pills inside were far inferior to those that had just been made.

Seeing that the Qi-restoring powder had faded to white, Feng Bailu dared not put the originally blood-red powder into his mouth.

"Don't look back, it's already turned from a panacea into poison."

Then look at the Foundation Establishment Pill.

"After all, it is a Foundation Establishment Pill, which is of a higher grade than the Meridian Opening Pill and Qi Returning Powder. However, if this Foundation Establishment Pill, which retains nine-tenths of its medicinal power, is used for foundation establishment, the effect will probably not be much better."

After stuffing the seventeen bottles of spiritual medicine into the first storage bag, Feng Bailu sat on the Dharma seat and began doing arithmetic problems in his mind again.

"Although the Meridian Opening Pill only retains half of its medicinal power, it's better to have some than nothing."

Possessing a top-grade water spiritual root, having undergone a gender change, and harboring the memories of Xiaoyaozi in his head, Feng Bailu is full of confidence in his upcoming third Qi Refining stage cultivation.

"Four hundred and fifty Meridian Opening Pills, even if I take ten every month, plus the sect's monthly supplies, it's enough for me to cultivate to the Foundation Establishment stage."

Feng Bailu was confident that, having spent thirteen years cultivating to the Foundation Establishment stage, she could very well reach the Foundation Establishment stage in about four years with the help of elixirs and other external aids.

"As for those three Foundation Establishment Pills, perhaps a rogue cultivator who lacks Foundation Establishment Pills would be willing to spend spirit stones to buy them, which would be a good use of them."

"After all, it's something you got for free, so it's good enough to have it."

After calculating the details, Feng Bailu felt a little relieved and turned his expectant gaze to the remaining two storage bags.

[Author's Note] The voting assistant reminds you to vote for the author!

Chapter Twelve: Magical Items and Unexpected Supplies

"One of the two storage bags should contain some decent magical artifacts."

Spirit stones and elixirs have already appeared. Feng Bailu naturally assumed that Xiaoyaozi would leave some magical artifacts for combat and self-defense for the remnant soul after the successful possession.

Compared to spirit stones and elixirs, the types and levels of magical treasures used by cultivators are more complex.

Because of their limited spiritual power, cultivators in the Qi Refining stage can only activate and use magic tools.

Starting from the Foundation Establishment stage, magical artifacts become the main weapons that cultivators use to defend themselves and fight.

Above magical artifacts are spiritual artifacts and spiritual treasures.

However, only Golden Core cultivators and Nascent Soul stage experts have the opportunity to access and use these two items.

Above spiritual treasures, there are even higher-level magical treasures.

According to rumors circulating among disciples of all levels within the Zhengyi Sect.

The Heaven-Stealing Bottle, a supreme treasure of the Zhengyi Sect, is above the level of a spiritual treasure. It is the most precious treasure in the human world, and even in the higher-level spirit world, there are few magical treasures as rare as the Heaven-Stealing Bottle.

Feng Bailu didn't know if what he said was true or false.

However, considering that the Stealing Heaven Bottle can produce spiritual liquid that promotes the growth of low-level spiritual herbs and plants, only a higher-level treasure is worthy of this heaven-defying divine power that makes the Zhengyi Sect stand out among the major sects in the Central Plains.

“Magic tools, magic implements and other external objects are divided into four grades: superior, middle, inferior, and top-grade. Some cultivators who are skilled in refining artifacts further subdivide them into nine grades, and then add a top-grade grade above the ninth grade, making a total of ten,” Feng Bailu murmured as he opened the storage bag. “For a Nascent Soul cultivator like Xiaoyaozi to put a magic tool in this storage bag, it must be at least a superior-grade magic tool.”

Taking out the three magical artifacts from the storage bag, Feng Bailu realized that he had underestimated the financial resources of a Nascent Soul cultivator and the ample preparations that Xiaoyaozi had made for the remnant soul after reincarnation.

The three magical implements in the storage bag are all of superior quality.

Moreover, these three magical items were carefully selected by Xiaoyaozi and specially prepared for cultivators with water-attribute spiritual roots.

A pair of nameless spirit swords, a nameless feather robe, and a throne that has reached the level of a magical artifact.

Although the remnant soul had no memory of these three magical treasures, Feng Bailu recognized their origins immediately thanks to Xiaoyaozi's six hundred years of experience in the cultivation world.