The Long Journey to Immortality

Similar experiments were repeated three times during the last hour or so of work.

In the later experiments, Han Lu didn't even have the interest to watch.

There are only two reasons why she's still here.

First, while in her illusory form, she cannot actively open the door to leave.

Secondly, she wanted to see where the spirit sword would be stored and preserved after the experiment that day.

The four scientists, who had lost their enthusiasm for their work, did not keep Han Lu waiting for long.

Nine o'clock in the evening is the closing time for some departments of Hans Company.

The moment the bell rang to signal the end of the workday, the daily meeting, which had been in progress, was abruptly terminated.

After briefly saying goodbye to her colleagues in the same department in other cities, the female scientist's previously expressionless face finally showed a hint of a smile because of the upcoming workday.

The four of them did not work an extra minute in the somewhat dim laboratory.

Two people were responsible for untying the equipment, and two others were responsible for taking out the spirit sword, as if they were about to escort the spirit sword to the warehouse for storage.

Han Lu was overjoyed upon seeing this and quickly took a few steps to catch up with the group.

The four of them walked out of the laboratory, passed through the still busy hall, and arrived at another metal door.

After entering the password and verifying their fingerprints and iris scans, the metal door opened to the four people.

Behind the door was a warehouse consisting of a series of medium-sized safes.

Seeing this, Han Lu was slightly disappointed.

"I thought I'd see a room filled with magical treasures."

Each of the four entered a password and placed the spirit sword into a safe.

Han Lu noted down the location of the safe.

After doing all this, the four of them breathed a sigh of relief, returned to the laboratory to change back into their everyday clothes, retrieved their personal belongings, and then left.

By this point, Han Lu had roughly figured out the general situation regarding "cultivation civilization" within Hans Company's Shanghai branch.

Back on the ground, gazing at the towering building, Han Lu murmured, "Let's come back for the treasure tomorrow."

"Give a daughter who needs her father's love a perfect birthday."

Chapter 193 Little Girlfriend

But when Han Lu left Hans Company, she realized that without a mobile phone, electronic account, or electronic ID card, she was unable to use Shanghai's convenient rail transit and other public transportation.

Left with no other choice, she had to walk back to Qiu Bin's rented apartment.

Using a lightness spell to change back into modern clothes, Han Lu resembled a tireless and fast night runner, traversing the streets and alleys of Shanghai at night, following the route she remembered.

Running through a modern city using Taoist magic made Han Lu feel somewhat disoriented, as if she were an outcast caught between two worlds.

Although she said she was on her way, Han Lu actually stopped frequently.

The night markets in Shanghai are much more vibrant than those in the Central Plains. She couldn't help but stop and take a curious look, savoring the exotic atmosphere that was so different from the Central Plains.

This wasn't Han Lu having any newfound worldly desires; it was simply her curiosity about new and unusual things at play.

What should have been a half-hour journey took Han Lu a full half-hour to reach Qiu Bin's apartment building.

Just as Han Lu was about to ring the doorbell and ask Qiu Bin to open the door, someone came out of the apartment, saving Han Lu a step.

The person who walked out of the apartment was a middle-aged man dressed in casual clothes, carrying bags of sorted trash, with bits of white cream stuck to his short hair and smelling of cream.

Upon seeing that the visitor was a beautiful woman, the other party nodded in a friendly manner and gave her a polite smile.

Han Lu didn't slack off either, greeting Qiu Bin's neighbor with "Good evening."

After saying these friendly words, Han Lu realized that this middle-aged man was someone she could barely recognize—it was Rong Gong, whom she had just met.

Having just celebrated his daughter's birthday, Rong Gong was all smiles as he was asked to go downstairs to take out the trash, a stark contrast to his demeanor at Hans Company.

Holding onto the apartment door, Han Lu watched Rong Gong leave, feeling fortunate. "Luckily, I didn't make a move just now, otherwise, I wouldn't have seen that smile."

After a moment of reflection, Han Lu entered the apartment building.

Upon arriving at Qiu Bin's rented studio apartment, Han Lu, with her keen senses, could clearly hear a woman making moaning and groaning sounds coming from behind the door.

"Did his girlfriend come knocking on the door?" Han Lu muttered. "Wait a minute, Qiu Bin said he didn't have a girlfriend."

With her doubts in mind, Han Lu hesitated for a moment before ringing the doorbell.

Sure enough, as soon as the doorbell rang, the woman's cries inside stopped abruptly, followed by a flurry of activity. After a while, Qiu Bin, blushing, opened the door for Han Lu.

"Senior Han, you're back. Did things go smoothly?" Feeling guilty, Qiu Bin took the initiative to ask, changing the subject.

Han Lu simply nodded. "What was that woman's voice from inside just now? Did she find a girlfriend?"

The word "small" was used very aptly. Qiu Bin knew that Han Lu had heard the sounds coming from his computer, and he also knew that Han Lu had misunderstood him.

So, Qiu Bin, who was already in an awkward situation, went along with it and steered the conversation in the direction Han Lu had guessed.

"No, where would I get the money to find a girlfriend?" Qiu Bin returned to the room, quickly sat down in front of the computer with the blue sky and white clouds desktop background, casually opened a game, and put the tissues on the table a little further away. "I'm playing a game, Senior Han, you must have misheard me."

Han Lu stood in her one-bedroom, one-living room, one-bathroom studio apartment, looking around, but she couldn't find Qiu Bin's girlfriend who might have been at home.

She simply disliked noise, and once she was certain there was no third party in the apartment, she stopped worrying about it. "It went quite smoothly; we've found a magic weapon, but we haven't brought it back yet."

"Why? With Senior Han's abilities, it shouldn't be difficult for him to steal the magic weapon without anyone noticing."

Although Han Lu was the only cultivator Qiu Bin knew, Qiu Bin had a superstitious belief in Han Lu's strength, even though she had never fought in front of him.

Han Lu explained, "The timing wasn't quite right."

Given the bizarre nature of this ancient cultivation realm, Han Lu was certain that some treasure hunters would get lost in this steel city, unsure how to find traces of ancient cultivation treasures in this technologically advanced environment.

If the commotion is too great, it will not only give Hans Company the possibility of transferring the ancient cultivation treasures distributed among its many branches, but it will also let those competitors who are in a period of confusion know that they should make a move against Hans Company.

The answer was vague, and Qiu Bin guessed that Han Lu didn't want to explain everything to her, so he didn't press further and continued to conscientiously perform his duties as an assistant.

Qiu Bin invited, "Senior Han, how about we play some games together? Computer games."

"Computer games?" Han Lu asked with interest, sitting down next to Qiu Bin. "Tell me about them."

"The Scroll of Taiwu, a martial arts game. Senior Han, are there chivalrous heroes and a martial arts world in your world?"

……

The two chatted for a while, and Han Lu watched for a long time. She found it quite interesting, so she took the mouse from Qiu Bin and started playing with it happily.

However, she didn't have much talent for gaming and wasn't very good at it. Qiu Bin couldn't help but point fingers and teach Han Lu how to operate the game.

Annoyed by his constant whispers, Han Lu simply arranged a job for Qiu Bin to stop him from talking behind her back.

"Qiu Bin, go check the news and search for any news about cultivators in Shanghai or other cities."

The words were somewhat vague, but Qiu Bin, who had spent half a day with Han Lu, understood them perfectly.

"I was just checking if there were any news reports mentioning cultivators from the same world as Senior Han, right?" He changed a few words and repeated.

Han Lu nodded, "That's right, collect them, preferably news articles with pictures, I want to see them later."

Han Lu plans to use this as a basis to determine the city locations of some of the treasure hunters.

She already considered the ancient cultivation treasures of Shanghai as her own, and naturally planned to travel to other cities in the future to steal the same treasures.

It is quite necessary to understand the movements of some competitors.

After the tasks were assigned, the room became much quieter.

Han Lu was engrossed in her game until Qiu Bin started to yawn and became sleepy. Only then did she remember to check on Qiu Bin's work and begin to monitor his progress.

Arriving in a strange and inexplicable world, it's natural that some treasure hunters will act foolishly and cause trouble.

After searching through various major portal websites, Qiu Bin found five news articles.

Han Lu examined the descriptions and pictures in the news one by one, and only recognized the origins of three of the people searching for them.

Among them, Yi Qiyan, a female cultivator from the southern border, was actually in Pengcheng, which is next to Shanghai.

Knowing this, Han Lu decided to set the next treasure hunt location in Pengcheng, thinking of taking the initiative to meet this genius cultivator who had already made a name for himself in the Southern Border at the sixth level of Qi Refining.

Suppressing talented cultivators from other forces was a task assigned to Han Lu and others by the sect, and given this opportunity, Han Lu naturally wanted to try it out and see how she, who was invincible in the Zhengyi Sect, compared to geniuses from other regions.

[Author's Note] Happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone.

Chapter 194 Obtaining a great treasure

Aside from Yi Qiyan, the other two cultivators whose identities were recognized by Han Lu were both cultivators from Xuan Yang Valley. Their cities were quite a distance from Shencheng, and even by plane, it would take half a day to get there.

If she only used a flying artifact, even if it took a whole day, Han Lu, who set off from Shanghai, would not be able to reach those two cities.

The journey was long, so Han Lu simply jotted down this information without giving it much thought.

That night, Qiu Bin tossed and turned on his small bed in his bedroom, unable to fall asleep.

Han Lu, meanwhile, sat cross-legged on the living room sofa, spending the long night in a semi-meditative state, thinking and planning her treasure theft.

By daybreak, Han Lu had several plans in mind, figured out all the details, and felt that the matter was foolproof.

Han Lu muttered to herself the only reason she thought the matter might fail and go bankrupt: "Unless Yi Qiyan or some other cultivator in Shencheng sets off in the first half of tonight and takes the treasure before me."

The probability was extremely low, and Han Lu didn't think it would happen.

"Even if it happens, I will follow the traces of spiritual energy left by that person and take the treasure."

Han Lu was already prepared to use violence in the ancient cultivation secret realm, and she didn't care whether it was sooner or later.

Having taken a fasting pill the night before, Qiu Bin, who barely managed to fall asleep in the early hours of the morning, had no appetite and happily lay in bed catching up on sleep.

After having breakfast, Han Lu asked Qiu Bin, who was half asleep, for his electronic ID. She then took his mobile phone, an essential tool for navigating the modern city, with her and went out to continue pondering the treasure hunt.

It was called a treasure hunt, but it was more like a aimless wandering. Han Lu, a Qi Refining stage cultivator who could not project her divine sense, could only use this rather clumsy method to sense the possible spiritual energy fluctuations in Shencheng.

However, it seemed that Han Lu was the only cultivator in Shencheng. After spending several hours, Han Lu only gained a better understanding of the city and did not find any other traces left by cultivators or treasure hunters.

In that case, the plan will naturally continue.

On the second night in the ancient cultivation secret realm, Han Lu waited until the clock struck twelve before leaving Qiu Bin's rented studio apartment once again.

This time, her target was still the Shanghai branch of Hans Company, but she was determined to make only one trip to put all the treasures related to cultivation in that "treasure vault" into her storage bag.