The Long Journey to Immortality

If there was any delay, the three of them would return together.

If an accident occurs, resulting in disappearance or death, this cultivator will conduct a simple investigation to determine which force has bullied Nine Dragons Mountain and to give an explanation to the "angry youths" within the sect.

Luan Shan, Lin Jin and Tang Sifan's senior brother, felt somewhat helpless about being assigned to handle this matter.

In Luanshan's view, the two had most likely encountered some misfortune, and his trip was destined to be in vain.

After all, procuring some cultivation supplies that are not in short supply is not difficult.

The sect provides ample funds, so whether we buy it with money or use our power to intimidate others, we can easily get this matter done without taking too long.

Luanshan was also aware of the temperaments of his two junior brothers.

He knew that although the two were not particularly outstanding in cultivation, they were both capable people.

Under such circumstances, having been away for so long, the probability of the two dying in an accident is almost 100%.

Everything went exactly as Luanshan had predicted.

When Luanshan tracked them down to Yuxi County, they were able to roughly determine that the two junior brothers had left Yuxi County ten days ago and their whereabouts were unknown.

He wanted to investigate further to find out the exact time, location, reason, and even the exact place where the two disappeared.

However, he was not a special talent who was proficient in handling cases and investigations, and he only had the cultivation level of the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. He had already done his best to find out this much.

Helpless, he could only return to the sect by the same route and report back with the information he had gathered.

This superficial investigation rendered all of Han Lu's preparations in the desolate wilderness where the battle had taken place futile.

Han Lu's performance in front of the pharmacy owner turned into a one-woman show without an audience.

Upon returning to the sect, Luanshan reported everything he knew, and soon, this headless case was handled in the same way as previous headless cases.

"Which sects near Yuxi County are hostile to us?" A late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator in charge of handling this matter put down his pen and looked at Luanshan to ask.

Luanshan didn't understand why he was being asked this, but he still answered truthfully, "There are three sects, none of them are very large."

"Tell me about it."

"The Xuanbing Palace, which is attached to the Xuanyu Temple."

"And Panlong Gate and Tianwu Gate."

As soon as Luanshan finished speaking, the cultivator in charge of the matter said without hesitation, "Alright, then let's put this matter under the Tianwu Sect's jurisdiction."

Luan Shan, puzzled, asked, "Senior Brother Pan, what do you mean by that?"

The late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, addressed as Senior Brother Pan, chuckled and continued writing while explaining, "After the celebration, the sect plans to once again conquer two or three smaller sects in Dongzhou Prefecture to expand its influence, and is currently lacking a legitimate reason to declare war."

Luan Shan immediately understood what Senior Brother Pan meant.

Seeing that Luanshan was making good progress, Senior Brother Pan didn't say anything more, but reminded him, "You might have to come forward to report later."

"When I have free time, I'll make up a story to cover it up."

Luan Shan quickly shared the story framework he had in mind—that "Tianwu Sect cultivators killed Lin Jin and Tang Sifan at the slightest disagreement"—with Senior Brother Pan, asking him to help comment and polish it.

Jiulong Mountain doesn't need evidence to smear Tianwumen; a simple, well-crafted story is enough to satisfy anyone.

After hearing the story of Luanshan, Senior Brother Pan praised it a couple of times and then said, "Remember to keep this a secret."

When he said this, Senior Brother Pan was exceptionally serious, showing no sign of joking with Luanshan.

Luanshan agreed repeatedly, saying, "I'll listen to Senior Brother Pan; I'll definitely keep this to myself."

Senior Brother Pan smiled and said, "Alright, I'm relieved that you've done so, Junior Brother Luan. You've accomplished this task. Here's the slip; take it to the inner treasury to collect your spirit stones."

Holding the note approved by Senior Brother Pan, Luanshan was overjoyed, thanked him repeatedly, and hurriedly said goodbye and left.

Thus, this matter, which was of great concern to Han Lu, ended in a way that satisfied Jiulong Mountain.

Han Lu, the instigator of the story, was hastily erased from the picture without even making an appearance.

The perpetrators of this crime will be branded as "Tianwumen cultivators," and after the celebration, they will become a weapon to attack Tianwumen, igniting a conflict between Jiulong Mountain and Tianwumen.

As for Lin Jin and Tang Sifan, these two cultivators who did not hold high positions in Jiulong Mountain, they died a worthy death.

If Jiulong Mountain successfully destroys Tianwu Sect, the two of them might be mentioned at the victory celebration banquet, and eventually leave their names in the history of Jiulong Mountain, becoming "heroic figures".

Han Lu, who had already left Yuxi County, was unaware of these events.

She even worried that all her deceptive actions were just self-deception.

Perhaps, when she enters the next county town, she will see the wanted poster issued by Jiulong Mountain at the city gate, and some cultivators will come to her door, thinking of exchanging her head for money.

However, after half a month, seeing that the matter had not caused any ripples in the Dongzhou Prefecture, Han Lu stopped taking it to heart and continued her travels in the Dongzhou Prefecture with a more relaxed attitude, heading towards Jiulong Mountain at a leisurely pace.

After taking the decoction containing metal for a full month, Han Lu's spiritual energy finally became noticeably tainted with metallic aura.

Han Lu finally decided to find a suitable place to cultivate and begin to try to cultivate the Seven Kill Sword Technique.

Coincidentally, Jinyuan County, the city closest to Jiulong Mountain, is one of the top mining cities in Dongzhou Prefecture, and there are many cultivation sites with active metal-type spiritual energy near the city.

Han Lu also had no intention of being stingy with spirit stones in her cultivation.

Upon arriving in Jinyuan County, Han Lu immediately spent three spirit stones to rent a cultivator's cave near a metal-attribute spiritual vein, intending to use it as her place for short-term seclusion, hoping to raise the level of her auxiliary cultivation technique, the Seven Kill Sword Art, to the Foundation Establishment realm, which she was currently at.

Chapter 266 Cultivating Sword Techniques

Han Lu's temporary residence is called "True Gold Cave," a place managed by Jinyuan County specifically for independent cultivators.

The cave was originally a fully mined gold mine. Because the veins in it had a certain effect of gathering spiritual energy, it was transformed into an "inn".

Like Han Lu, independent cultivators who are quite particular about the density of spiritual energy in their cultivation grounds will spend spirit stones to find a slightly better place to live in the "True Gold Cave" as their place for secluded cultivation.

Han Lu spent three spirit stones to rent a cave for half a month, which was considered a medium-quality secluded cultivation place.

Although it is far inferior to Hanchan Peak of the Zhengyi Sect, Han Lu is more than capable of cultivating the Qi Refining Chapter of the Seven Kill Sword Technique here as a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

After activating the cave's protective barrier to isolate the inside from the outside, Han Lu casually replaced the two completely dull spirit stones on the throne, gathered their spiritual energy, sat cross-legged, and recalled the sword cultivation tradition passed down to her by Senior Fang Lin, as well as the mental cultivation manual of the "Seven Kill Sword Technique".

As the primary cultivation technique of Fang Lin, the strongest swordsman of the Eastern Human Race, the power of the Seven Kill Sword Technique is beyond question.

As the saying goes, you reap what you sow. Such an unstoppable cultivation technique is naturally not easy to practice. Even though Han Lu's cultivation has reached the Foundation Establishment stage, it is still not easy for her to use this technique to supplement her cultivation and improve herself.

Leaving aside the month spent taking the decoction mixed with auxiliary metals, Han Lu felt that it would take another half month to fully understand and improve her cultivation of the Seven Kill Sword Technique from scratch with her Foundation Establishment cultivation level.

It should be noted that a Foundation Establishment cultivator typically only needs one or two days to master a secondary cultivation technique.

Just by comparing the time consumed, one can understand the extraordinary nature of the Seven Kill Sword Technique.

After reviewing the Qi Refining section of the Seven Kill Sword Technique in her mind, Han Lu entered a meditative state and slowly manipulated the spiritual power within her body, which was ten times greater than that of the Qi Refining stage, to begin her cultivation of the Qi Refining chapter of the Seven Kill Sword Technique.

The most important aspect of the Qi Refining chapter in cultivating other techniques with Foundation Establishment cultivation is opening certain important acupoints.

Although Foundation Establishment cultivators primarily cultivate using their dantian and dantian, they still need to open certain important acupoints within the auxiliary cultivation methods in order to circulate the methods and unleash their unique techniques and secret arts.

As for which of these so-called important acupoints are, it requires the cultivator to have a deep understanding and comprehension of the cultivation method. Among the many acupoints that need to be opened in the Qi Refining Mirror stage, the cultivator must identify the key points and then use the abundant spiritual energy of the Foundation Establishment stage to open them.

After all, once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage, the amount of spiritual energy has no further relation to the number of acupoints. Opening up acupoints doesn't bring much improvement to Foundation Establishment cultivators, so many choose to forcefully break through acupoints for a quick fix.

This is why the efficiency of using foundation building as a supplement to cultivate qigong is extremely high.

However, the Seven Kill Sword Technique is different.

According to the manual, only by slowly opening up many key acupoints like a Qi Refining cultivator can the Seven Kill Sword Technique operate perfectly within the cultivator's body.

This is why it takes so much time to learn the Seven Kill Sword Technique as a supplementary skill.

Fortunately, Han Lu was skilled at opening acupoints, and many acupoints in her body had already been opened, unlike other cultivators who needed to open twenty or thirty more key acupoints to cultivate the Seven Kill Sword Technique.

Other cultivators would likely need several years to master this ancient cultivation technique that had been lost to time.

After reviewing the Qi-refining method of the Seven Kill Sword Technique in her mind, Han Lu, combining the technique with her own situation, identified eight acupoints that she still needed to open. She resolved to fully open these eight acupoints before heading to Nine Dragon Mountain, so as to achieve her goal of primarily cultivating the Great Zhou Heavenly Water Condensation Technique and secondarily cultivating the Seven Kill Sword Technique.

Han Lu did a lot of things to open up acupoints when she was in the Qi Refining stage.

Including her cultivation journey during the Fengbai Road period, she has already opened up more than 430 acupoints.

In terms of experience, he can be said to surpass all the cultivators in this world.

However, for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, using skillful force rather than sheer quantity of spiritual power to open acupoints is considerably more difficult than for a Qi Refining cultivator.

The reason is that when spiritual energy gathers and enters the dantian during the foundation building stage, many acupoints that were not opened at that time will naturally close.

Breaking through acupoints with the vigorous spiritual power of a Foundation Establishment cultivator is not difficult, but opening acupoints with skillful force is at least ten times more difficult than before.

But having decided to take the Seven Kill Sword Technique as a supplementary skill, Han Lu naturally wouldn't give up because of this small, perfectly acceptable difficulty.

For half a month, Han Lu subsisted on three fasting pills and did not leave the cave.

This was the first time Han Lu had ever cultivated so tirelessly, even back when she was in the Zhengyi Sect.

With Han Lu's efforts, all eight acupoints that needed to be opened were successfully activated, and Han Lu was able to raise her cultivation level in the "Seven Kill Sword Technique" to the Great Perfection of Qi Refining.

At this point, Han Lu's spiritual power could be condensed into a spiritual sword under her control, which could be used in combat outside her body and was comparable in power to the most advanced magical artifacts.

Furthermore, because this spirit sword can communicate with Han Lu's mind, when used in actual combat, this spirit sword can exert power similar to that of Han Lu's newly acquired "Azure Frost" spirit sword.

But if she wants to go further and fully comprehend the Qi Refining chapter of this technique and master its application, there is still a crucial step she needs to take.

The "Seven Kills Sword Technique" refers to the seven methods of using spiritual swords recognized by Senior Fang Lin.

They are: strike, stab, collapse, point, chop, transform, and divide.

With his current cultivation level, if he comprehends a single sword intent or technique within the Seven Kill Sword Art to a certain degree or realm, he will be able to cultivate the Seven Kill Sword Art to the Foundation Establishment stage.

Han Lu had used all of these techniques for wielding the spirit sword in combat, but she was still quite far from meeting the requirements of a sword technique.

"Although it is true that no matter which sword technique you comprehend, you can raise the Seven Kill Sword Technique to the Foundation Establishment stage."

"But now, I'm only scratching the surface of any of the seven sword techniques."

"All I can do now is to study the sword control techniques left by Senior Fang Lin and try to gain enlightenment on one of them during sword combat."

……

Having figured this out, Han Lu didn't waste any more time in the cave. She put away the Dharma seat and left, thinking she would wander around Jinyuan County one more time before the celebration began.

Let's see if we can find the elixirs and metal materials she wants here, so that she won't spend money like water during the celebration and attract the covetous eyes of greedy people, causing trouble for herself.

Chapter 267 Cultivators and Mortals of the Great Yu Dynasty

At this time, there were a lot of people from other places in Jinyuan County.