The Long Journey to Immortality

She took the role of a cultivator on the verge of a breakthrough very seriously, and only reappeared after nearly twenty days of seclusion at home.

Before revealing himself, Han Lu had already sent a paper sword to Nian Haoge at home to inquire about the situation.

Knowing that there was no major problem, she leisurely made her way to the Five Elements Mountain Academy to keep her appointment.

There was no prior appointment, but this matter happened to be at the end of the year, which is the time when there are the fewest cultivators in the Zhengyi Sect and the cultivators and elders in charge of managing the sect are the most idle.

The Taoist Qingxu was no exception.

After waiting for only a short while, Han Lu met Qingxu Daoist.

"Han Lu," Qingxu Daoist greeted Han Lu with a smile, since there were only two of them. "How is your cultivation going? I imagine you've made another successful breakthrough and your power has greatly increased."

Han Lu was determined to see the role through to the end, and "I was lucky enough to make a small profit."

"The spiritual energy in the beast core has become even purer, and it is not far from advancing the beast core cultivation realm to the mid-stage of the Golden Core realm."

By using a few words that Qingxu Daoist would almost certainly not understand, Han Lu completely smoothed things over.

"Tell me about what happened half a month ago," Master Qingxu said, getting down to business.

Not knowing what the two Nascent Soul cultivators had said to Daoist Qingxu, Han Lu simply devoted most of her writing to the story of her rescuing people in the cave.

Only she knows this story, so whatever she says can't be wrong or offend anyone.

Although Qingxu Daoist didn't have any particular intentions, Han Lu's answer was naturally without any problems.

Qingxu Daoist only knew the general outline of what happened in the cave.

Han Lu's answer filled in the gaps in his understanding of this part.

After nodding slightly and asking two more questions, Daoist Qingxu stopped mentioning what happened during that support mission.

"Could it be that the Qingxu Sect Master is also planning to downplay this matter?" Han Lu secretly wondered. "There would be no loss, and making money through harmony is indeed a good way."

No longer dwelling on the matter, Han Lu took out the phoenix feather from her storage bag.

“This item should have been given to the sect leader half a month ago, but I forgot about it at the time,” Han Lu said, placing all the materials she had obtained from the formation on the table. “I think these things will definitely help the sect find that phantom phoenix.”

Qingxu Daoist was not as optimistic as Han Lu thought.

"This operation has alerted the enemy. Even with Elder Wen's divination magic weapon, it will probably be difficult to find the whereabouts of that phantom phoenix in such a large area."

"But it's good to have these things."

"Perhaps, Huanfeng mistook Elder Moyun and his group for local bullies in the East China Sea, and followed her only to kill and rob, without truly raising her guard."

"If that's the case, there's still a 30% chance."

After putting away the materials, Daoist Qingxu continued, "I will call Elder Wen over later to make two more sets of search compasses."

"This task should be left to Elder Mo Yun."

"Let him make amends and put his mind at ease."

What do you think?

Qingxu Daoist symbolically sought Han Lu's opinion.

Han Lu certainly couldn't say anything against it at this time, or show any distrust of Mo Yun Dao Ren, whose cultivation level was higher than hers.

"Elder Mo Yun's last failure was mostly because he rarely did such secretive bad things."

"This time, having learned from experience, and with Elder Mo Yun's superior cultivation and enthusiasm, we will surely be able to handle this matter steadily."

Han Lu offered a brief analysis and expressed her opinion.

"Alright, that's good." Master Qingxu said calmly, finalizing the matter.

Han Lu keenly sensed that Qingxu Daoist no longer seemed as concerned about this matter as he had been when the bombing incident nearly occurred.

"Could it be," Han Lu muttered to herself, "that she got some information from Elder Mo Yun, that the Illusionary Phoenix of the Eastern World didn't have much malice, and that the explosion related to Kong Du was purely an accident?"

Since Qingxu Daoist didn't say it directly, Han Lu didn't ask, because it would be pointless to ask anyway.

Keeping her questions to herself, and after chatting about the phantom phoenix for a while, Han Lu took her leave.

Chapter 1100

Since that day, Han Lu has received an invitation to a secret meeting almost every six months, and the number of sect elders participating in the secret meetings has increased each time.

The second time there were ten people, including Wen Erya and Nian Haoge.

The third time, the Wine Pot Taoist was added.

The fourth time, the number of elders attending the secret meeting reached thirteen, and two more elders, whom the sect leader Qingxu Daoren considered to have no future, joined this unconventional core circle.

Clearly, it's not far off that this secret will become an open secret among the elders of the Zhengyi Sect. In fact, Han Lu can expect that within a hundred years, all the cultivators in the Central Plains will know about this matter.

Compared to the first secret meeting, the subsequent secret meetings discussed a wider range of matters.

Most of them involve sect-specific affairs undertaken in preparation for a major war.

Of course, Elder Mo Yun's second operation to capture Dongtu Huanfeng was also repeatedly mentioned in the secret meeting.

The result, needless to say, was almost identical to what Qingxu Daoren had guessed.

Although Elder Mo Yun gained a lot of experience from his first failure, he became more adept at this line of work.

Unfortunately, they had already alerted the enemy, and although Dongtu Huanfeng was not a professional intelligence gatherer, he had become somewhat wary.

In terms of combat power, that phoenix, which was only at the late stage of the Transformation Realm, was no match for Elder Mo Yun.

However, compared to Elder Mo Yun's ability to find and track people, her ability to conceal herself was far inferior to Elder Mo Yun's.

Seven months later, even with the aid of the compass made by Wen Erya, Elder Mo Yun still couldn't find any trace of the Eastern Land Illusion Phoenix.

As time went on, Elder Mo Yun, a Nascent Soul cultivator, not only failed to avenge himself in this matter, but also suffered additional humiliation.

Fortunately, only a dozen or so elders, including Han Lu, knew about this matter; otherwise, Elder Mo Yun would probably not have the same prestige in the sect as a Nascent Soul Realm expert in the past.

However, since the phoenix did not commit any further crimes or cause any major incidents in the East China Sea or the Central Plains, Daoist Qingxu did not take the matter too seriously.

In his view, the purpose of this Illusionary Phoenix cultivator coming to the Central Plains was quite simple.

That means gathering intelligence and, incidentally, seeing if we can cause any sabotage.

However, she couldn't obtain any useful information, and with only her own strength, unless she went on a killing spree and slaughtered mortals, she couldn't make a big fuss.

If too much attention is drawn to her, it will only serve her purpose, causing chaos and unrest in the Central Plains and East China Sea.

The current situation is roughly that the enemy is in the dark while we are in the light, and the Central Plains cannot completely resist the espionage efforts of the teleporting cultivators from the Eastern Lands.

The best and easiest way to handle this is to keep the core secrets and preserve our strength.

Nine hundred years are still to come before the two worlds collide and come into contact, but Han Lu has a strange feeling that war is about to begin or has already begun.

However, the faint smell did not affect the atmosphere of the Central Plains or Han Lu's cultivation life.

For the five years since returning to the Central Plains from the East Sea, Han Lu has lived a secluded life, rarely even leaving her sect.

He focused on both his own cultivation and the training of his disciples, especially Kong Du, a young and talented man who had just been accepted into his tutelage.

It must be said that Kong Du, as a disciple, is an unexpected gift that Han Lu has received over the years.

According to Han Lu's idea, she should cultivate at least three cultivators who can stand on their own or even Golden Core cultivators for the sect in order to fully repay the sect's kindness in nurturing her, so that she can return to the wilderness and live with her family without any psychological burden.

Nian Haoge and Qiu Peng are the second.

Kong Du, who had just broken through to the Foundation Establishment Realm, was the disciple in Han Lu's eyes who could fulfill her wish.

Kong Du's situation is completely different from that of Nian Haoge and Qiu Peng.

Nian Haoge was born from a Dao embryo and possesses extraordinary talent; he is no ordinary person.

Qiu Peng is a human cultivator who came from an ancient cultivation secret realm. He is different from others in terms of thinking and logic, and he is not a standard Zhengyi sect cultivator.

Kong Du, who was still young and had low cultivation, was a thorough Central Plains cultivator.

From a certain perspective, in Han Lu's eyes, Kong Du is a more talented Feng Bailu, which is why she invests more enthusiasm in this disciple and hopes to cultivate him into a talent.

She provided numerous lessons and abundant resources, and Kong Du repaid Han Lu's kindness with his rapid improvement in cultivation.

It took Kong Du only two years to go from the seventh level of Qi Refining to the twelfth level of Qi Refining.

Although she is far from being a top genius like Han Lu and Wen Erya, she is definitely outstanding among her peers.

In the most recent Foundation Establishment Realm competition, Kong Du also teamed up with Qiu Peng's disciple Hong Tong to participate in the Secret Realm test.

The two successfully inherited the fine traditions of Han Lu's lineage, winning first place, and were regarded by the majority of disciples of Dongshan Academy as the two most promising Foundation Establishment disciples.

As the disciple's cultivation progressed smoothly, Han Lu's cultivation also kept pace.

The Central Plains has a stable environment, and the Zhengyi Sect is a first-class feng shui treasure land. In terms of cultivation efficiency, Han Lu, who lives on Hanchan Peak, is no worse than when she was in the wilderness.

At that time, the excuses Han Lu used to evade and temporarily escape were not entirely lies.

After sparring with Master Xinshan, she did indeed make some progress in her understanding of swordsmanship and gained some insights that require time to comprehend.

After thoroughly understanding those insights, she not only deepened her understanding of the Star Sword Formation and was able to organically combine a portion of her understanding of swordsmanship with the Star Sword Formation, but also increased her efficiency in drawing pill patterns by another ten percent.

Thus, over a period of five years.

In just a year and a half, Han Lu easily completed the drawing of the eleventh pill pattern, truly elevating the quality of the sword pellet spirit sword formed within her body to the lowest level of spirit treasure.

Over the remaining three and a half years, Han Lu also drew a prototype of the twelfth Dan pattern.

It is expected that within ten years, Han Lu will be able to successfully pass through the relatively long and time-consuming mid-stage of the Golden Core realm, and reach the late-stage of the Golden Core realm, thus officially launching her assault on the most prestigious Nascent Soul realm in the human world.

However, before that, Han Lu, who had already become a homebody, finally had a reason to go on a long trip.

On this day, Han Lu traveled together with her disciple Qiu Peng, who had just participated in his last major competition as a disciple.

Just six months before this competition began, Qiu Peng successfully advanced to the Pseudo-Core Realm.

With the help of his uncle Wen Erya to deduce and calculate, they surprisingly obtained the answer that Qiu Peng could form his core in a certain place in the Great Yu Chaoji Heavenly Palace in half a year.

Although there were other options, Qiu Peng, who felt that everything was ready except for the final push and was eager to become an elder as soon as possible, shamelessly asked his master Han Lu to escort him to the Great Yu Dynasty to form his core.

Protecting a disciple who is about to form their core is the duty of a master, so Han Lu naturally did not refuse.

Chapter 1101

They traveled together, but this time they were traveling on Qiu Peng's magical ark.