The Long Journey to Immortality

Therefore, this place is even more lively than it was more than 30 years ago.

Han Lu found the teahouse where she had once stopped and sat for a while. She ordered a cup of fragrant tea and a plate of melon seeds, and listened to the storyteller in the teahouse tell several stories about Xiaoyaozi's cave.

These stories are the only place in the cultivation world where Fengbai Road has left its mark.

Because he was the last person to disappear into this cave, his name was mentioned many times in the story.

Furthermore, considering the two female skeletons retrieved from the cave, Feng Bailu was even suspected of being the successor to Xiaoyaozi's legacy at one point in the story.

When Han Lu heard this conclusion uttered by the storyteller, drawing a chorus of boos, she calmly downed the inferior tea in front of her.

Needless to say, the status of the Zhengyi Sect in the Southern Dynasties was unquestionable. Naturally, no one would believe that such a "deceased person" was the successor of Xiaoyaozi's lineage.

Han Lu stayed in the teahouse for a full hour before leaving.

Strolling through the streets of the small village, she silently rejected the advances and sales pitches of many cultivators before arriving at the former cave dwelling of Xiaoyaozi.

Lacking the support of formations and restrictions, and further weakened by the invasions and raids of countless successors, the cave dwelling has become a ruin.

With nowhere else to go, Han Lu had to abandon her idea of ​​revisiting the place.

However, as a Golden Core cultivator standing once again at this turning point in her life, Han Lu's emotions were beyond description.

Looking at the ruins before her, Han Lu felt as if she had experienced a storm, her mind turbulent and unable to calm down for a long time.

"You, who once longed to become a Golden Core cultivator, must be very happy to see my current achievements." Han Lu, who has always defined herself as a new life, once again tried to sever herself from the Feng Bai Road of the past.

But when she thought of her deceased mother in the desolate Fengyang, she couldn't bring herself to continue this behavior.

With a long sigh, Han Lu casually raised her hand and picked up a relatively intact stone from the wreckage.

After pondering for a moment, she used her spiritual power to carve the three characters "Fengbai Road" on it before throwing the stone back into the ruins of the cave.

As if by design, the stone turned into powder the moment it collided with other pebbles. Half of it became dust and blended into the air, while the other half became stone powder, completely merging with the ruins.

This seemingly affected behavior actually calmed Han Lu's mind.

With another sigh, Han Lu slowly ascended into the air again, continuing her journey that had just begun.

[Author's Note] The decrease in thieves outside Dongyang City is partly due to the protagonist's use of technology to boost productivity, but this is certainly not something a veteran can easily explain. In the blink of an eye, only two days of holiday remain.

Chapter 662 A Deadlock

Heading west, when she reached the territory of the Seven Mountains Alliance, Han Lu made a slight detour, sneaking across the mountains instead of going to the Seven Mountains Alliance to greet her acquaintance, Feng Yufei.

Just like her attitude towards Mo Zhehan, Han Lu was focused on asking whether she had any intention of being "intimate" with Feng Yufei for the time being.

Although she had already advanced to the Golden Core Realm and believed she could defeat Feng Yufei and avoid being "forced" into losing her virginity, she was still unwilling to take the initiative to get close to Feng Yufei, a fellow clansman who gave her a lot of a sense of danger.

Since she wasn't taking the proper path, even someone with the Golden Core realm cultivation like Han Lu would need to be a little more careful when crossing the border between the Western Regions and the Central Plains from other places, lest she be mistaken for a villain with ill intentions.

Although the Western Regions and the Central Plains are no longer as tense as they were a hundred years ago, observation posts or reconnaissance barriers and formations are still set up at intervals along the border.

If Han Lu were to be discovered by the monks and herdsmen at the checkpoint and mistaken for an illegal intruder, triggering the alarm, it would cause her some trouble.

The purpose of going to the Western Regions was to unlock the third cave dwelling set up by Xiaoyaozi, and Han Lu did not want to be treated as a sabotage element.

However, these methods are mainly used to guard against mortals and ordinary Qi Refining and Foundation Establishment cultivators. It would not be difficult for Han Lu to pass through silently.

Han Lu first used magic to conceal her figure, and then flew as high as possible into the sky.

After reaching an altitude of two to three thousand meters above the ground, she flew through the air, quietly crossing the border and entering the territory of the Western Regions.

Before setting off, Han Lu had already made all the necessary arrangements in her mind. After briefly overlooking the Western Regions from the air, she proceeded according to her plan.

High in the air, holding a map, Han Lu determined a general direction and began her journey in the Western Regions.

This is Han Lu's second time visiting the Western Regions. The last time she passed through the Western Regions was when she and Feng Rubing set off from the Dayu Dynasty to return to the Central Plains.

Han Lu's understanding of the Western Regions was far less extensive than that of the Southern Frontier. In fact, if she hadn't prepared before setting off and found a map of the Western Regions in the academy, she would have been no different from a headless fly in this geographically vast region that was nearly ten times the size of the Central Plains.

However, having a map cannot completely solve the problem.

Just like that cave hidden behind the waterfall, Han Lu only inherited part of the memories of Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul, and only knew a general idea of ​​the exact location of this third cave.

Han Lu only knew that the cave was located in a desert oasis, and other than that, she only had a few specific memories of the scenery of that oasis.

It's been countless years since Xiaoyaozi set up his cave dwelling. With just this little bit of information, Han Lu felt that it would probably take a month or even two months in the Western Regions to find the exact location of the cave dwelling and obtain the last "legacy" left by Xiaoyaozi.

Half of the Western Regions is grassland and half is desert. Since the cave is located in an oasis, Han Lu naturally has to start with the desert area.

The oasis I remember wasn't very large, so it wasn't specifically marked on a map.

Han Lu only had a general direction of action from the map she obtained from the academy.

To determine specific targets, it was necessary to rely on the tribes living on the edge of the desert or the merchants traveling around the Western Regions.

These people weren't exactly experts on the desert conditions, but they knew far more than Han Lu did.

If Han Lu could get more accurate information from them, she would be able to save a lot of effort and find the place she was looking for in this "away game" as soon as possible.

Therefore, Han Lu first decided to go to the nearest desert to visit the market on the large oasis in that desert, to see if she could find out some information, a detailed map, or a suitable guide to help her.

After lowering its altitude slightly, Han Lu flew for about half an hour before leaving the grassland area at the border of the Western Regions and the Central Plains, and felt the scorching desert air.

Following the map, Han Lu found the largest oasis in the desert. After finding a deserted spot, she landed and then removed the illusion spell that concealed her form.

Having advanced to the Golden Core stage and possessing the bloodline of a true spirit, Han Lu's ability to adapt to the climate has been significantly enhanced.

Now, even if the world becomes a living hell, with temperatures of a thousand degrees Celsius during the day and a thousand degrees below zero at night, Han Lu, who possesses the bloodlines of the Fire Phoenix and the Ice Phoenix, can easily survive.

Naturally, the harsh terrain and terrible climate of the desert, which plague ordinary people, had no effect on her whatsoever.

Wearing a phoenix feather robe that covered her completely, Han Lu began to deal with many ordinary merchants who were dressed in only a few rags.

With such attire, these mortals naturally knew that Han Lu was a cultivator.

With just a few words, a merchant from the Central Plains voluntarily sold a treasured map.

The map only records the specific locations of twenty small oases suitable for serving as supply stations in three nearby deserts.

While her help to Han Lu was limited, she was not stingy with money and generously gave this fellow villager in a foreign land plenty of benefits.

Han Lu is generous and uses money to pave the way.

Other merchants who stopped to rest and exchange goods in the oasis saw an opportunity to make money and approached Han Lu to chat, offering to sell the detailed maps they possessed.

In less than a quarter of an hour, Han Lu had collected seven maps, mastering the exact locations of fifty oases of varying sizes across the seven deserts of the Western Regions.

The map collection went smoothly, but when Han Lu recounted the characteristics of the oasis from her memory and asked the traveling merchants for details, she received only vague answers.

Only one businessman pointed definitively to two small oases on the map, saying he had seen the scenes described by Han Lu.

Judging from the other person's expression, Han Lu was certain that the other person was simply "lying" here in order to earn more money from her.

Instead of exposing the other party, Han Lu simply said "thank you".

It was a decent start, albeit a reluctant one, as Han Lu intended to take a break in this bustling commercial oasis.

After purchasing some specialty goods from the Western Regions at the oasis's trading market as gifts for her clan in the Three Phoenix Forest, Han Lu, map in hand, began her exploration, visiting place after place, attempting to find the oasis where Xiaoyaozi's cave was hidden through exhaustive search.

With a lifespan of at least 1,600 years, Han Lu has no shortage of time. This clumsy method, though less efficient, will not cause any oversights, preventing Han Lu from missing the Nascent Soul section of the "Great Zhou Heavenly Water Condensation Technique" or the spiritual artifacts and treasures left to her by Xiaoyaozi.

But to Han Lu's surprise, after spending two months traversing every oasis in the Western Desert, she still couldn't find any trace of Xiaoyaozi's cave.

The situation has reached a stalemate.

[Author's Note] If only I were like the protagonist, not afraid of heat or cold.

Chapter 663 Taking a Different Approach

Having gained nothing, Han Lu couldn't help but wonder if there had been a mistake when she devoured Xiaoyaozi's remnant soul in her sea of ​​consciousness in the form of a phoenix. Had she digested it too quickly and failed to read the most important part of the remnant soul's memories?

Sitting cross-legged on the bed in an oasis hotel, Han Lu tried hard to recall her past memories and search for clues from other angles.

After meditating with her eyes closed for about half an hour, Han Lu had no new breakthroughs, except for a clearer memory of the scene in the desert oasis.

"Sigh," Han Lu sighed, opened her eyes, crossed her arms over her chest, and murmured to herself, "Perhaps I've been looking in the wrong direction at all? Or perhaps..."

A slightly unusual thought popped into Han Lu's mind: "Perhaps, hundreds of years after Xiaoyaozi set up his cave dwelling, the oasis where the cave dwelling was originally located has turned back into a desert due to desertification?"

The world changes dramatically over time. If it is just a small oasis, it is quite possible that it will undergo tremendous changes in a few hundred years.

This thought only lingered in Han Lu's mind for a moment before she pulled it out to think about it more seriously.

With no clues, Han Lu thought about it more and more and felt that the possibility was not small.

"Since we can't find a good solution for the time being, we might as well try this approach and see if we can find traces of cave dwellings in the areas that have turned from oases back into deserts over the past few hundred years."

In the blink of an eye, Han Lu changed her mindset and quickly focused her attention on how to formulate a plan based on this approach and how to execute it.

Taking her time and considering everything carefully, it took Han Lu about fifteen minutes to figure out the future path in her mind and barely come up with a seemingly feasible plan.

Based solely on the current map in her hand, Han Lu could know how many oases existed in the seven great deserts of the Western Regions at this moment, but she could not know how many oases had disappeared from similar maps over the span of hundreds of years for various reasons.

Therefore, she believed that the first step in finding "the cave that may have disappeared due to desertification" was to find a map that was at least three hundred years old.

A simple map is not enough; it must be detailed enough to leave no room for error.

Once you have the ancient map, you can compare it with the map you have in hand, and naturally you will be able to find some potential targets.

"But this map..."

Han Lu habitually played with a strand of wine-red hair on the top of her head with one hand, pondering this not-so-simple problem.

The reason the previous plan went so smoothly was that Han Lu took advantage of the profit-seeking nature of merchants and quickly found today's latest map.

But no matter how profit-driven a merchant may be, it is clearly impossible for him to easily deliver a map from at least three hundred years ago to Han Lu.

It is clear that going down the same path will not work in this matter.

"I suppose what I'm looking for can be found in the archives of a major clan in the Western Regions," Han Lu thought to herself. But then, with a hint of the prejudice that cultivators from the Central Plains held against the Western Regions, she asked herself, "Would the barbarians of the Western Regions even establish an institution like an archives?"

Upon careful consideration, Han Lu felt that regardless of whether it existed or not, this seemed to be the only way she could find the ancient map.

“In that case,” Han Lu loosened her long, wine-red hair, which she had styled into curls, “we must take the open approach and use an upright identity to negotiate cooperation with the three major tribes of the Western Regions.”

"Then what identity should I use?" Han Lu's thoughts wandered further.

"An elder of the Zhengyi Sect?"

"A Golden Core cultivator who is willing to spend spirit stones to buy information."

"A friend of the Seven Mountains Alliance elder?"