The Long Journey to Immortality

"There are many books and secret techniques inside the sect that explain this step, so I don't think this bottleneck will hold me back for too long."

Yi Qiyan is full of confidence in this regard.

Using her status as a saintess and her own extraordinary talent to cultivate is her consistent practice.

Having been invincible before, there was naturally no possibility of failure at this minor bottleneck.

Even occasionally, during breaks in her cultivation, Yi Qiyan would begin to imagine the sparring match that might take place three years from now, pondering how she could start preparing now in order to give Han Lu a surprise.

"Then I look forward to that day coming soon." Han Lu reached out and patted Yi Qiyan's upper arm, smiling.

"Where are my wind chimes?" Yi Qiyan craned her neck, looking through the half-open door into the room.

Han Lu took it out of her storage bag and said, "Of course I put it away a long time ago. I really like this thing, so I can't leave it here."

“You must keep it safe,” Yi Qiyan said solemnly. “If I can’t find this wind chime with you three years from now, I’ll really go all out during our sparring match.”

Han Lu smiled and gently stroked the wind chime with her fingers. "When we get back, I'll have to put some restrictions on this wind chime and preserve it carefully. I can't let you down."

They were talking about objects, but what they were really discussing was friendship.

After chatting for a few more minutes, Yi Qiyan suddenly and forcefully changed the subject, "Han Lu, that's enough. It's time to say goodbye. Have a safe journey."

Han Lu was caught off guard, and upon careful consideration, she realized that it was indeed quite close.

Although they shared similar interests and compatible personalities, this led to a good friendship between her and Yi Qiyan.

However, this friendship was too short-lived, and the two did not develop a sense of empathy for each other on many issues.

Forcing sentimentality during farewells will only create awkwardness.

"Okay, then I'm leaving."

Han Lu was straightforward and accepted those words without hesitation.

The two remained silent the entire way, and Yi Qiyan personally escorted Han Lu to the gate of the Five Poisons Sect.

The final farewell was just a wave of the hand.

Yi Qiyan waved and watched Han Lu, who was riding the flying chariot, drift away gracefully.

Another few days of tedious travel.

Han Lu, who was at the Foundation Establishment stage, managed to control the chariot while cultivating in a semi-meditative state, which prevented the tedious journey from feeling like an eternity.

Upon returning to her sect, Han Lu did not seek out Wen Erya. Instead, she immediately conveyed the sentiments of Yi Hege, a fellow reader from the Southern Frontier, towards the renowned author Fu Chen to Fu Chen.

As expected, Fu Chen was pleasantly surprised to hear that there was another book lover from the Southern Frontier, and excitedly opened the gift sent by Yi Hege.

There were two gifts in total: one was a letter written by Yi Hege, and the other was a set of five throwing knives.

Han Lu felt it was inappropriate for her to eavesdrop, so she asked what kind of industry slang this flying knife was and what it meant.

After reading the letter, Fu Chen remained silent, only saying, "Han Lu, I will send you the signed book in a few days. Please give it to this cultivator named Yi Hege for me."

"Now?"

"I'll go update now."

After saying that, Fu Chen left Han Lu in the yard and went back inside to rack his brains to avoid receiving more urging letters and threats from fans.

Chapter 452 Spirit Beasts and Demon Beasts

After Han Lu gave Fu Chen the gift from a kind reader, Fu Chen spent almost ten out of the twelve hours of the day hunched over his desk, pen in hand, working diligently.

If he hadn't maintained the habit of daily cultivation, Fu Chen might have relied on the energy of a Foundation Establishment cultivator, which far surpasses that of ordinary mortals, to sit at his desk without stopping for a week or even half a month to speed up updates and meet the fervent expectations of his enthusiastic readers.

A week later, Fu Chen took the initiative to visit Han Lu.

In addition to sending the promised signed book, they also presented a letter and a manuscript of over a hundred pages.

"Hey, Senior Brother Fu, you've actually written so much in just one week?" Han Lu teased Fu Chen, holding the manuscript with some fresh ink on it, having already found out the meaning of sending razor blades from others.

"Not many, just twelve chapters, which is enough to give the readers an explanation."

"I would like to trouble Junior Sister Han to help me contact someone to send this gift and manuscript out."

Fu Chen looked listless and spoke weakly, not at all like a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

Clearly, writing consistently is an incredibly difficult task for an author who is prone to delaying his submissions.

The words he created in a moment of passion have drained his energy and mental capacity.

If it weren't for a lingering obsession, Fu Chen would have chosen to lie in bed for a day or meditate for ten days to quickly recover his energy and get away from the white paper and brush that he had grown somewhat tired of looking at.

Entrusted with such a precious thing, Han Lu naturally thought of delivering the author's painstakingly created work to the "foreign" readers who had been eagerly awaiting these manuscripts.

Yu Neiku spent three spirit stones to set up a delivery task.

Soon, Han Lu found a junior brother who had volunteered for the task of obtaining the spirit stones.

After explaining the work clearly, the junior brother set off with Fu Chen's sincere wishes.

There were no setbacks on the way. The junior brother who temporarily acted as the courier was even left at the Five Poisons Sect for a day. In the end, it took six days to return to the Zhengyi Sect with the second gift.

This time, Yi Hege, having received the new chapter manuscript, naturally didn't send any more razor blades.

The gift consisted of some specialty nuts from southern Xinjiang.

For some time after that, whenever Fu Chen picked up his pen to write, there would always be a plate of nuts and snacks on the table to help him develop his ideas while creating, and also to feel the strong support from his readers to gain endless motivation.

Having saved an author addicted to procrastination, Han Lu doesn't know how much good fortune Heaven will bestow upon her.

But she knew that a good fortune would soon fall upon her, Wen Erya, and many monks and mortals.

Because the cultivators at Nanshan Academy who specialized in studying the seeds she brought out from the ancient cultivation realm finally achieved good research results and made slight improvements to the seeds using magic.

After the improvements, the results were gratifying.

Not only is the growth cycle of these seeds shorter, but the crop yield was also much higher during the experiment than it was in the ancient cultivation secret realm.

Most importantly, these seeds finally adapted to the soil and climate of the Southern Dynasties and were able to thrive in this unfamiliar land.

On the very day Han Lu returned to the sect from the Southern Frontier, these improved seeds were successfully planted on the edge of the sect's medicinal garden with the help of many Qi Refining disciples of the Zhengyi Sect who were skilled in tending spiritual plants.

With the help of magic, fertile soil, and careful tending, the day when the first seeds grow into mature crops to provide a large quantity of seeds is not far off.

Han Lu could expect that in a few months, these seeds would reach some of the farmers of the Southern Dynasty, take root and sprout on the ordinary land of the Southern Dynasty, and accumulate good karma for the "great philanthropist" who brought the seeds to the outside of the ancient cultivation secret realm.

However, there has been no good news from the book repair department for a long time.

It's indeed a bit much to ask those old scholars who have spent years studying scriptures to spend their time researching and conducting experiments to figure out whether the knowledge points in the books Han Lu brought back are correct.

However, this matter couldn't be rushed, and Han Lu and Wen Erya didn't urge them at all.

They simply hoped to do this as perfectly as possible, even if they couldn't gain divine approval or a lot of good fortune from it. Their only goal was to popularize and promote this useful knowledge among ordinary people, thereby improving the quality of life and scientific literacy of the people in the Southern Dynasties.

In their view, this was something worth doing.

In the blink of an eye, a month has passed.

Many events, both big and small, have occurred in the cultivation world, but none of them have anything to do with Han Lu, who is cultivating in seclusion within the Zhengyi Sect.

Han Lu was not annoyed by this poor and monotonous life; on the contrary, she quite enjoyed it.

She is currently in a slow, accumulating stage of spiritual practice, and this peaceful life suits Han Lu perfectly.

As for the Moon Pearl, she had been thinking about it for the past month.

Based on her observations during her last visit to the Moon Pearl World, Han Lu was 70% certain that something would happen at the banquet that night.

In daily life, tranquility is necessary for cultivation, but in the world of the Moon Pearl, Han Lu hopes that the commotion there will be as great as possible, so that countless opportunities will come her way.

Even if she were slow-witted, she would still be able to grasp one or two of them and benefit from them.

On the night of the full moon, Han Lu couldn't wait to let the Moon Pearl absorb the power of the moonlight again and enter the Moon Pearl world once more.

As mentioned before, this banquet was not only held to welcome the arrival of the Phoenix Clan, but also invited many magical beasts and true spirits who had arrived in the human territory in advance.

"Warcraft" was a general term used before the end of the ancient cultivation era to refer to many spirit beasts and demon beasts that did not meet the standards of true spirits.

The terms "spirit beast" and "demon beast" were used only during the ancient cultivation era when the outcome of the battle was already decided and the world was divided.

The evaluation criteria for these two titles do not depend on a particular magical beast's talent, overall strength, intelligence, or bloodline level, but rather on whether it stood on the side of the human race or the dragon race in the final battle of the ancient cultivation era.

The victors are the spirit beasts, which sounds better. Not only do they have nicer names, but they are also allocated large tracts of land in the East Sea or the wilderness as habitats to live and reproduce.

The defeated were the demon beasts, which sounds like the villains. Most of the demon beasts were annihilated with lightning speed, and their young and strong forces were suppressed and managed by binding them to human territories.

These different approaches naturally led the two essentially similar magical beasts down different paths 100,000 years later.

As the spirit beasts grew stronger, some of their bloodlines even underwent a transformation, becoming beings at the lower-level true spirit level.

The demon beasts have dwindled in number, most of them are of low cultivation level and scattered, and many have been enslaved by human cultivators, bound by contracts and used as weapons in battle.

As a result, spirit beasts gradually became beings superior to demon beasts.

[Author's Note] The holiday is finally here, though it came a little later than usual this year.

Chapter 453 The Banquet

Han Lu followed Feng Yang and Feng Jiao, the two phantom phoenixes, into the banquet hall. Apart from the side where the human cultivators were seated, about 35% of the seats for the guests were empty.

Even so, Han Lu could tell that at least seventeen races of magical beasts had arrived in human territory to express goodwill.

Since we've come this far, we've at least made our stance clear.

From Han Lu's perspective as a latercomer, about 80% of the guests were spirit beasts, while the other 20% were demon beasts who were still on the side of the dragons before the final battle.

I came here to express my stance, but it is ultimately just that—an expression of stance.

Many weaker magical beasts, or those already caught between the two races, come here not only to test the human race's strength and sincerity.

Even after discovering the true strength and weaknesses of the human race, and believing that the human race would ultimately be defeated, the magical beasts still emerged.

The dragon race is indeed powerful and arrogant. If they rashly stand with the human race, the human race might be safe, but they might get themselves into trouble.

After attending the banquet and subsequent activities, it's quite normal for these undecided monsters to ultimately choose to "abandon darkness and embrace light" and join the dragon faction.

Therefore, Han Lu also tasted another flavor in this banquet that seemed to welcome all the guests.

Fang Lin and other prominent figures of the Eastern Human Race probably wanted to use this banquet to showcase the strength of the Human Race and, incidentally, demonstrate to those wavering magical beasts the powerful allies who had joined the Human Race's camp, thus solidifying their resolve.

Looking at Fengyang, Han Lu murmured, "No wonder you insisted on bringing Fengyang to this banquet."