The Long Journey to Immortality

“It should be just right,” Lu Zhi said, though he didn’t dare to make a guarantee. “With the True Phoenix Fairy’s abilities, dealing with one or two mid-stage Golden Core cultivators, even if she deliberately held back and didn’t leave any trace, shouldn’t be a problem.”

Here, Lü Zhi's way of addressing Han Lu changes slightly, naturally referring to Han Lu's identity and the means by which she transforms into a true spirit.

In the East Sea, Zhenling's reputation is only as great as that of the Central Plains.

Lu Zhi didn't think Han Lu could defeat a powerful cultivator in the late Golden Core stage, but he believed that Han Lu was absolutely invincible in the mid-Golden Core stage.

The two reached a consensus, and the matter was roughly settled. All that was needed was to optimize the details and obtain the information that Han Lu needed. With a little cooperation, they could begin to carry it out.

Kong Qiaosheng, who was standing nearby, came up with another idea and proposed an even more ruthless one based on Han Lu's plan.

"According to Fairy Han's plan, that dead duck will only bear a secondary responsibility."

"How about Han Xianzi places a large order with Dong Weng's shop, which is near Dead Duck's management area, and see if she can snatch the goods from Dead Duck's hands?"

"In that case, wouldn't he bear 70% of the responsibility?"

"Maybe he'll be stripped of his title and lose his position as heir."

"That's going to be quite a show."

When the idea was first proposed, everyone thought it was feasible, but upon closer examination, Lü Zhi disagreed.

“We have no control over how Dong Weng shops allocate their goods.”

Lü Zhi's words effectively sealed Kong Qiaosheng's own fate.

Although the proposed plan was flawed and was not adopted, Kong Qiaosheng's subsequent series of suggestions garnered nods of approval from everyone.

In the end, before the five of them even left the private room, they came up with a rough two-pronged plan.

Lu Zhi continued to implement his "last resort," even making it more deliberate, in order to confuse Young Master Lan Ya.

As for Lü Zhi, he also needs to deliberately act foolish before Han Lu's plan is executed, openly targeting her and showing his impotent rage, so that the opponent will be completely paralyzed and careless.

Finally, Han Lu delivered the final blow, dealing a fatal blow to Young Master Lanya.

Being burdened with a black mark worth fifty or sixty thousand spirit stones, even if it's just a small one, calling it a fatal blow wouldn't be an exaggeration.

"In that case, as long as Fairy Han does a perfect job, this matter will surely be as we wish, flawless and foolproof, helping us to vent our anger." Lu Zhi was full of confidence and couldn't wait to take action.

In Lü Zhi's mind, he had already begun to imagine the scene of "Dead Duck" being scolded mercilessly by the three managers of Dongweng Shop.

The atmosphere in the private room improved considerably. In fact, Yi Qiyan and Wen Erya, who trusted Han Lu completely, had forgotten the unpleasantness from before and had smiles on their faces.

Before leaving, Kong Qiaosheng mentioned that the "dead duck" might be waiting outside the private room to watch the show, so that everyone should tone down their laughter a little.

So when the five of them walked out of the private room, their expressions varied, but most were sorrow and resentment. Yi Qiyan and Lü Zhi even put on a "real-life drama" of a young couple arguing in front of thin air.

The two were arguing passionately, while Han Lu and the other two were trying to persuade them to stop. Everything seemed incredibly real.

Suddenly, a male cultivator dressed in a pink robe and adorned with gold and silver led three followers up to them. Han Lu and the other two didn't need Lü Zhi's introduction to guess his identity.

Han Lu thought to herself, "This effeminate man is Young Master Lan Ya? No wonder he has such a Taoist name, and Lü Zhi calls him Dead Duck."

"It's disgusting just to look at it."

The performance was so captivating that even Lan Ya, who had only intended to watch the spectacle with his best friend, couldn't resist going up on stage to take the opportunity to mock and ridicule his mortal enemy, Lü Zhi.

"Oh dear, isn't this Young Master Lü Zhi? What's wrong? You just spent a fortune on some junk for your girlfriend, and now you've already fallen out and started arguing?"

Normally, Lü Zhi would have just given a cold laugh and left silently, ignoring Lan Ya Gongzi's provocation.

But this time, in order to put on an act, he naturally needed to be a target, to give Young Master Lanya a little taste of his own medicine when he was at a disadvantage, so that he would lower his guard.

“You dead duck,” Lu Zhisong released his hand from Yi Qiyan’s, his face dark, and looked at Lan Ya Gongzi, “You win this time, but you better watch out these next few days, I won’t let this go so easily.”

"I will repay you in kind, and tenfold."

Upon hearing this, Young Master Lan Ya burst into laughter. His laughter was so loud and menacing that it gave Han Lu, a cultivator at the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, goosebumps.

"I really don't know how his three henchmen managed to keep going."

After laughing, Young Master Lanya said, "You are welcome to try, but don't waste tens of thousands of spirit stones only to see me spout this nonsense again in a few days."

After provoking Lü Zhi, Young Master Lan Ya didn't forget to add fuel to the fire by flirting with Yi Qiyan.

Approaching Yi Qiyan, Young Master Lanya said, "Fairy Yi, what's so good about following this idiot? Why not consider me?"

After saying that, he turned and left without waiting for Yi Qiyan's reply.

Back at Han Lu's place, Lü Zhi and Kong Qiaosheng didn't leave until late at night.

At this moment, Lan Ya Gongzi, who was smugly celebrating his victory with his best friend in a hotel, was unaware that a net, already mostly woven, was about to fall over his head.

Chapter 840 Smoke Bomb

Thanks to Lü Zhi's deliberate actions, the new feud he forged with Young Master Lan Ya at the auction spread rapidly through their social circles.

Before the auction began on the fifth day, many cultivators sitting in the private boxes had already started discussing the matter.

The personal feud between Lü Zhi and Lan Ya Gongzi, which appears peaceful on the surface but is actually a fierce competition between the two largest merchant guilds in the East China Sea, Xian Ge and Dong Weng Shop.

These cultivators, some of whom had reached the Golden Core realm, and others who held certain connections and positions in the East Sea, were all looking forward to witnessing Lü Zhi's so-called revenge at the auction in the coming days, and to watching as bystanders enjoy a grand spectacle where spirit stones served as weapons.

Sure enough, at the auction that day, whenever the paper sword was presented from the private room where Young Master Lanya was located, or a bid was made directly, several cultivators from the Immortal Pavilion in the hall would raise the price appropriately in various ways.

The competition for the items was fierce, so we raised the price a little higher and bid more often.

If the bidding is peaceful, then only raise the price once or twice, just to make a small attempt, so as not to end up buying instead of raising it, thus wasting spirit stones.

Therefore, it can only be barely described as a minor, insignificant incident.

At most, an item in the auction would only cost Young Master Lanya or his followers and close friends an extra hundred or so spirit stones.

The combined price of the several items auctioned didn't even amount to a thousand spirit stones.

There was nothing he could do; after all, Lü Zhi didn't know which item Young Master Lanya was determined to get.

Having already lost a sum of spirit stones after Han Lu's truly deadly move, he was naturally unwilling to spend any more money on this matter, which is why he launched such a somewhat weak and feeble counterattack.

Such a light punch landed on Young Master Lanya, making him only want to laugh.

“I made that mentally challenged person spend more than 20,000 spirit stones just for one item in the auction.”

"His whole day of tinkering and working on it cost me no more than a thousand."

"This so-called revenge and counterattack is a joke."

If it weren't for the fact that Young Master Lanya didn't encounter Lü Zhi when leaving the auction that day, he would definitely have made another sarcastic remark, hoping to infuriate Lü Zhi and ruin his romance at the same time, thus achieving a great victory.

Unintentionally, Lü Zhi successfully completed the task of deceiving his opponent, and even skillfully feigned weakness, causing Young Master Lan Ya to become completely complacent.

In the last two days, as the value of the auction items increased, Lan Ya Gongzi and his group clashed directly with Han Lu and her group over a few items.

Because they had spent too much money on the Five Poisons Token in the previous two days, Han Lu and her group mostly ended up losing in these direct confrontations.

However, because of the so-called "perfect revenge" plan, none of the five took this temporary setback to heart.

On the contrary, Han Lu and Wen Er Ya, who originally had little grudge against Lü Zhi and Lan Ya Gongzi, developed more resentment towards Lan Ya Gongzi because of these repeated confrontations.

Wen Erya had been secretly hoping that Han Lu would make a move in a few days and teach Lan Ya Gongzi a lesson, following the plan.

Han Lu, on the other hand, kept increasing the value of the "plundered" resources in her mind, feeling that she needed to rob at least 80,000 to 90,000 spirit stones to vent her hatred.

The competition was exceptionally fierce on the final day of the auction.

Many high-quality items that can sell for tens of thousands of spirit stones made their debut.

The seven-day auction finally came to an end when the last low-grade spiritual treasure was sold for a sky-high price of 150,000 spirit stones to a Nascent Soul cultivator whose identity had not been revealed.

The curtain had barely fallen when Lü Zhi, at a gathering with friends from the Dragon Head Islands, "reluctantly admitted defeat" and made another harsh statement.

"I admit defeat this time, but you better not let me find fault with you, or you'll be in big trouble."

Thus, Lü Zhicai felt he had delivered a series of punches to paralyze his opponent.

Whether the fake becomes real or the fake becomes indistinguishable from the real thing depends on Han Lu's performance.

Although there were several small trading fairs between human cultivators and alien cultivators following the auction, Han Lu was supposed to try to find trading partners at these fairs to exchange her golden cores for beast cores.

However, because she was obsessed with revenge, Han Lu decisively handed over the Golden Core to Lü Zhi to help her trade it, while she herself concealed her tracks and quietly left the Dragon Head Islands, flying towards the "trading zone" managed by Young Master Lan Ya.

Wen Erya and Yi Qiyan also wanted to help.

However, in order to avoid suspicion and prevent Lu Zhi's revenge by breaking the unspoken rules from being exposed and causing trouble, the two could only follow Han Lu's arrangement to stay at home, cover for Han Lu, and hide the fact that she had already left.

The smoke bombs had indeed blinded Lan Ya Gongzi, and with such meticulous arrangements, as long as Lü Zhi could deliver the intelligence to Han Lu in time, everyone believed that the chances of success were at least 95%.

While they were in the Dragon Head Islands, they only needed to keep a low profile for the time being and patiently wait for news of Han Lu's triumphant return.

Concealing her tracks, Han Lu also used some techniques while flying to transform herself into the "dark-skinned alien" appearance she had when activating the Li Feng bloodline.

Given this appearance, unless one has seen Han Lu appear and fight in this manner, no one would associate this cultivator, who is clearly from the Western Regions or elsewhere, with the True Phoenix Fairy from the Central Plains.

They're not in the same style at all, but they look exactly the same.

In this way, one can both conceal one's identity and avoid arousing suspicion by using illusions and hiding one's true nature.

It took Han Lu about a day to reach a sea area called "Star Islands".

In a sea area, nearly a hundred small islands are densely distributed, which is the origin of the name of this area.

The Dongweng Shop here is managed by Young Master Lanya, and it is Han Lu's destination on this trip.

To avoid suspicion, Han Lu, pretending to purchase a large amount of materials, first went to the Xiange, which was located in this area, and then visited another local chamber of commerce that was relatively weak. Only then did she pretend to have come up empty-handed and go to Dong Weng's shop to try her luck.

Although the performance was mostly for show, Han Lu still did it very seriously and without any carelessness.

The image of a female cultivator from the Western Regions who travels to the East China Sea to purchase goods but repeatedly encounters setbacks is vividly portrayed.

If someone were truly interested in associating the robbery with her, an investigation would not be able to verify this hypothesis based on her activities after arriving at the Star Islands.

After revealing her cultivation level and expressing her desire to purchase materials worth 80,000 to 90,000 spirit stones at Dongweng's shop, Han Lu was immediately treated as an honored guest and invited into a private room.

A short while later, Lan Ya Gongzi's subordinate, the branch manager of this store, entered the private room with a smile and personally entertained Han Lu, this important customer.

Chapter 841 The Priestess from the Western Regions

At this moment, Han Lu, with her dark skin, is playing the role of a female cultivator from the Western Regions who once briefly appeared in this world. She is the priestess who sat by the altar playing the zither for the high priest.

Given her identity, if the Dongweng Shop were to take the robbery too seriously and suspect that Han Lu, with her brown skin, was an accomplice of the robbers, they might question her identity.

Based on the information Han Lu provided, they knew they would not get a satisfactory result in their trip to the Western Regions.