The Long Journey to Immortality

The story resolved all the doubts surrounding Han Lu, and the person who created the story even added a little embellishment.

In the story, Han Lu is betrothed by her parents before birth, a bizarre marriage that adds a romantic element to a story already filled with infighting, vendettas, revenge, and adventure.

Because of its rich elements, intricate plot, and the protagonist Han Lu, who was somewhat famous among the new disciples, this fabricated story had a certain market within the sect. Even Wen Erya didn't know where she heard the story from.

Most importantly, after hearing the story, Wen Erya even believed it to be true and came to Han Lu's house in person to ask Han Lu to verify whether the various events in the story were true.

As Han Lu listened to the story told by Wen Erya, she was also captivated by the vivid details. Even Wen Erya herself, the person in the lie, was somewhat confused and thought it was true.

Wen Erya looked worried. "Junior Sister Han, people say that if you don't cultivate to the fifth level of Qi Refining before you turn twenty, you'll have to marry the fat son of a nouveau riche from the countryside as his concubine. Is that true?"

Upon hearing this, Han Lu denied it without hesitation, saying, "Of course it's fake."

"What about the other things? Are you really the eldest daughter of a collateral branch of the Han family, who came to the Zhengyi Sect to seek enlightenment and cultivate in order to escape disaster?"

Seeing Wen Erya's concern for her, Han Lu felt a little embarrassed, but in order to protect herself, she could only pretend to be silent and secretly complained in her heart, "If this story is true, the person who knows this story must be a Golden Core cultivator who knows the art of transformation. He has been living on me as a little bug since I was five years old."

Seeing Han Lu's behavior, Wen Erya believed the story to be 70% true. She assumed that Han Lu was not comfortable talking about some things in the story with her, an outsider, so she didn't press further. She only thought about taking good care of this poor but good junior sister Han in the future.

Let's think about whether we can find a way to use her identity to help resolve the hatred and mediate between them.

Han Lu had nothing to say about this, but she was happy that Wen Erya misunderstood.

After all, if even Wen Erya thought this way, most of her fellow disciples who were not familiar with her would no longer have any doubts about her identity.

The news about Han Lu naturally reached Piaomiaozi's ears.

However, no dirty tricks had occurred between the Northern and Southern Dynasties for a long time, and the Han family in the Northern Dynasty had no hostile relationship with the Zhengyi Sect.

Piaomiaozi, busy cultivating a secret technique, didn't even bother to summon Han Lu to his presence for questioning; he simply noted the matter down.

Without the further prodding of the Golden Core cultivator Piaomiaozi, the already minor turmoil subsided after the story was completed, and the gossip-loving public lost interest in Han Lu. The series of events triggered by the jealousy of some individuals finally came to an end.

When Han Lu announced that she had accepted the challenge, she never expected things to develop this way and end in such a way.

The only thing that made Han Lu somewhat unhappy after this incident was that Zhan Yujun took an interest in her and would visit her from time to time to exchange cultivation experiences with her former "enemy".

Zhan Yuyun's fervent enthusiasm for cultivation reminded Han Lu of Feng Bailu, and she no longer had the idea of ​​keeping people at arm's length.

Thus, Zhan Yujun unexpectedly became the second female cultivator in the Zhengyi Sect to befriend Han Lu.

[Author's Note] Today is the groundbreaking ceremony at the construction site. By the time you read this chapter, I should be sunbathing.

I'm asking for your votes as usual.

Chapter Forty: The Cold Eye Secret Technique

Si Xing'er, the chief disciple of the Transmission Hall of Dongshan Academy and a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, stared solemnly at the newly activated Spirit Gathering Array.

For some reason, in the past two weeks or so, almost every time she finished a major cultivation session, she would encounter several fellow disciples who complained to her.

Their contents are largely the same, all saying that the spirit-gathering array's spirit-gathering effect is weakening.

Initially, Si Xing'er thought it was just an isolated case involving a few individual cultivators, and gave them a perfunctory reply, not taking it to heart at all.

After all, no one has fully grasped the path of cultivation. In a large spirit-gathering array, with thousands of people cultivating at the same time, it is normal for the distribution of spiritual energy to be different. A few words from three or four cultivators are indeed nothing.

However, every day for a month, three or four cultivators would report problems to her, which forced her, the person in charge, to take the matter to heart.

Major cultivation is of paramount importance for ordinary disciples, and mistakes cannot be made.

However, when they asked the array masters in the sect to check the array, they found no problems whatsoever.

Therefore, in order to get to the bottom of this matter, Si Xing'er decided to personally oversee the formation to see if any fellow disciples were secretly causing trouble within it.

Within the Great Spirit Gathering Array controlled by Si Xing'er, Han Lu was sitting cross-legged, meditating and cultivating.

The spiritual energy gathered by the spirit-gathering array was absorbed into her body at an astonishing speed, continuously transforming into spiritual power, becoming the driving force for breaking through the twelfth acupoint.

At the same time, the small amount of spiritual energy that had been implanted into the acupoint during the reincarnation of the Mysterious Female, acting as a spy, was finally awakened from its dormant state and became the key force that determined whether the acupoint could be opened.

With coordinated efforts from within and without, the city gates were opened wide.

What would be an extremely difficult task for an ordinary cultivator became incredibly simple in Han Lu's eyes.

Several streams of spiritual energy coalesced into small groups, taking turns attacking the twelfth acupoint.

After several rounds, the already slightly loosened acupoints surrendered to Han Lu.

With its doors wide open, like its eleven predecessors, it was easily put to Han Lu's use.

The outcome was already decided, but Han Lu did not let her guard down.

Han Lu had heard of acupoints being opened and then closed again in a short time, and she didn't want to waste her energy on useless efforts.

With patience, Han Lu controlled the spiritual energy within her body to circulate through the acupoint nine times. She then grasped all the locks and keys that had originally sealed the acupoint in her hands. After imbuing the already opened acupoint with her own spiritual energy, she followed the instructions of the manual and once again used this acupoint as a starting point to open a new channel of spiritual energy, advancing towards the next acupoint.

Time flies when you're in a meditative state.

Han Lu felt that she had only just begun her cultivation when the dense spiritual energy around her began to thin out again.

Without needing to be reminded, all the Zhengyi Sect disciples sitting in the Spirit Gathering Array knew that the best time of the day for cultivation had come to an end.

Reluctantly, Han Lu inhaled and exhaled two more breaths of spiritual energy, extending the spiritual energy channels within her body slightly further and forming a small net-like structure at the end of each channel for the next stage of cultivation. Only then did she store the spiritual energy back into her various acupoints and leave the cultivation state.

Opening her eyes, Han Lu habitually rubbed the acupoint on her upper arm where she had just activated it.

Feeling the soreness and swelling at the pressure point, Han Lu couldn't help but smile.

The twelfth acupoint is considered a hurdle for a Qi Refining cultivator.

On average, most ordinary cultivation techniques only pass through twelve acupoints in a single spiritual meridian.

Therefore, after opening up all twelve acupoints, the amount of spiritual power in Han Lu's body was almost the same as that of an ordinary Qi Refining Level 1 cultivator.

Not to mention that after opening up the twelve acupoints and washing her eyes for nearly a month and a half, she has already met the requirements to perform the first secret technique recorded in the "Great Zhou Tian Condensing Water Technique", "Cold Moon Cold Eyes".

Han Lu had spent a lot of time and effort studying this secret technique, and now that she was finally able to use it, she could say that her wish had been fulfilled.

The expressions of the cultivators sitting next to Han Lu, who were engaged in intensive cultivation, were mostly not good, forming a stark contrast to the smile of accomplishment on Han Lu's face.

It's likely that on this day, Si Xing'er will receive complaints from several fellow disciples, continuing to be troubled by the partial "failure" of the Spirit Gathering Array.

The culprit, Han Lu, neither knew nor cared about any of this.

After finishing her intensive training, she rushed back to her courtyard, wanting to wash her eyes again as soon as possible to test whether the Cold Moon Eyes were as effective as described in the manual.

I brought a basin of water, mixed it with the medicinal liquid, and this time when I washed my eyes, I felt no different than before.

"Could it be that he hasn't had enough of his days yet?"

Han Lu muttered to herself as she sat down in front of a bronze mirror, recalling the description of "Cold Moon Cold Eyes" in the cultivation manual.

A moment later, the spiritual energy within Han Lu's body transferred from various acupoints and converged into the Lingtai acupoint, which had been opened initially.

Immediately afterwards, this spiritual energy circulated three times within the Lingtai acupoint, and then flowed back and forth between the other four acupoints along the spiritual energy channel.

The moment she finished doing all that, Han Lu clearly felt a chill creeping into her tightly closed eyes.

"It's done?"

Han Lu suddenly opened her eyes and looked at the bronze mirror in front of her.

In the bronze mirror, Han Lu's eyes changed color.

Now, it was as if a pair of sapphires appeared in her eyes, emitting a chilling light in the dimly lit room.

Originally, Han Lu, who was only a Daoist disciple, had a good appearance, but lacked a certain temperament and aura due to her cultivation level.

Whether this secret technique is practical or not is another matter, but it certainly made up for Han Lu's shortcomings in this area.

Feeling the spiritual energy within her body surging towards her eyes and slowly being consumed, Han Lu stopped admiring herself in the bronze mirror and quickly turned her head to look at her room, wanting to test how much of the secret technique she had cultivated could actually achieve, based on what was written on the paper.

With Leng Yuehan's help, Han Lu easily discovered the two protective barriers that the sect had set up in her room.

"Not bad. Although it's just a basic protective barrier, it can be seen with the naked eye even when it's not activated. It seems the description in the technique isn't too exaggerated."

After making a mental assessment, Han Lu went up to the second floor, opened the window, and looked out.

The cold moonlight enhanced her eyesight considerably; distant views that were previously blurry could now be clearly seen by Han Lu.

Looking closer into the courtyard, a nest of ants moving their nest at the base of the wall caught Han Lu's attention.

Han Lu concentrated, trying to observe more closely to see clearly how many legs the ants had and how many ants were busy going in and out of the burrow.

A sudden soreness in her eyes forced her to stop her practice and rub her eyes.

Cold-eyed observation is not yet fully developed; there is still room for improvement in its ability to observe minute details.

After washing his eyes with the medicine for several months, he was able to barely perform the superhuman feat of "counting ants" from thirty meters away.

Even so, this secret technique is enough to satisfy Han Lu now.

Rubbing her eyes, she recalled her match with Bao Yi a few days ago and felt that she should test the anti-interference ability of this move in advance.

So that she would be prepared when facing her opponent's deliberate visual distractions during the major competition four and a half months later.

“Earth overcomes water, and most of the fellow disciples of Zhongshan Academy probably know the move ‘Flying Sand and Stones’.” By considering the fellow disciples of Zhongshan Academy who practiced earth-attribute techniques as hypothetical enemies, Han Lu had a clever way to test Han Mu’s “pressure resistance” ability.

Han Lu leaped out of the second-floor window and landed steadily in the courtyard.

Taking a deep breath and spending about half a second mentally preparing herself, Han Lu activated her Cold Eyes again, while casually grabbing a handful of fine soil and throwing it into her eyes.

With a cold glint in her eyes, Han Lu forced herself to open them, enduring the discomfort in her eye sockets.

The world was a little blurry in my eyes, but after a moment of adjustment, it was no different from usual.

In this way, even if the situation were reversed during her contest with Bao Yi that day, Han Lu would not lose her ability to resist like Bao Yi did, when she was "blind".

The results of the experiment made Han Lu extremely happy.

Due to limitations, the smoky and fiery environment could not be simulated, but the current results still gave Han Lu enough motivation to continue washing her eyes every day and cultivate the first secret technique recorded in the "Great Zhou Heavenly Water Condensation Technique" to the minor completion level.

Chapter 41 The Anxious Thirteenth Princess

The excitement Han Lu felt from seeing initial success in her cold-eyed cultivation vanished in less than two days.

Having acquired Xiaoyaozi's memories, Han Lu indirectly witnessed many amazing techniques and secret arts of the Golden Core and Nascent Soul stages.

Having seen many grand occasions, one naturally wouldn't get too excited over a small ripple.

What she thought and considered was that she could cultivate to the first level of Qi Refining as soon as possible, so that she could at least take off the "Daoist boy" hat on her head.

There are still four months until the grand competition. The cultivators of the Zhengyi Sect in the Dao Tong realm will only be tested on their cultivation knowledge through a written exam, and the rewards will be much less than those for other realms.