In the afterglow of the sunset, five cultivators were drifting on the cloud in panic outside the village gate, flying swiftly towards the sea.
The two in front of them carried the covered-up clay statue with precious light.
The old Daoist priest and a young cultivator at the back supported Wang Cai, whose legs were trembling.
Wang Cai’s chest had an obvious fist mark and caved in by three inches. His own Dharma powers rushed like tidal waves, unable to calm down for a long time. As they flew, he would spray a mouthful of blood at the side.
Fortunately, he had reached the Soul Formation Realm. With such injuries, he…
Pfft!
Maybe, he would really die.
The old Daoist priest quickly shouted, “Wang Cai! Wang Cai!”
Wang Cai, whose mouth was covered in blood, turned his head and forced a smile at his master. He said in a trembling voice, “Master, I’m fine. We’re cultivators…
“Master, let’s not… come to this village anymore, okay?”
“We won’t. We won’t come anymore.” The old Daoist priest felt quite moved. “Hurry. We will find a stable place. You should meditate quickly.
“Also, vomit blood towards your senior brother next time. I’ve just gotten my Daoist robe not long ago.”
Wang Cai replied weakly, “Yes. Master… can you give me one pill?”
The old Daoist priest said with a sigh, “I only have a healing pill. I don’t have a Qi-Regulating pill. Bear with it for a while. You’ll be fine after you go back and meditate.”
At the village gate, that group of villagers rushed out.
They were all full of disgust a moment ago, but now, they were watching the backs of the five people in the air with eyes wide open.
An auntie said in a low voice, “They can fly?”
“Could it be that they really are the messengers sent by God to help us?”
“Hey, God’s messenger, don’t go!”
“Go after them, go after them!”
A hunting uncle roared, and a group of people at the village gate instantly surged out, causing it to shake and collapse.
The five people in the air turned their heads, and their expressions changed uniformly.
They saw a big group of strong men and women speeding along at the back, causing a thick cloud of smoke and dust on the ground to drift up.
It was like a magnificent army of 1,000 men and horses galloping, and each of them was shouting something.
“Don’t go!”
“Stop!”
Their voices were too strong, and their yells were too noisy!
This old Daoist’s face changed drastically. He took out two talismans and flung them out. The air suddenly broke out in a gale, and two white clouds rose towards the sky, quickly dumping behind the group of villagers chasing after them below.
“Master, why are they chasing us? We didn’t sell them any talismans!”
The old Daoist cursed angrily, “Did you guys cheat the young lady in the village again?”
“Master, we’ve been dancing all day, and the boss never came. Therefore, we didn’t have a chance to cheat her even if we wanted to…”
“Cough! Cough, cough!”
Wang Cai said in a trembling voice, “We absolutely cannot afford to cheat anyone! We would really die… Pfft!”
“Vomit over there!”
“I swallowed it back, Master.”
“Good disciple.”
“Let’s go. I’ll cast some more Dharma powers.” The old Daoist cast his power again. “This remote place is really full of strange things. Let’s quickly meet up with the boss before we do anything else!”
Not long after, these two white clouds flew farther and farther up in the sky.
The villagers of the Xiong Village, who were chasing below, retreated without success. One by one, they hung their heads and felt dejected.
First, they had allowed a Sea God to run away. Then, an Earth God left as well. When all the people of the village gathered for a meeting in the evening, they were all a bit downhearted.
Was their village so unpromising to the gods?
They were all fragile mortals, and they all need protection as well.
Xiong Lingli, who was the main person involved in both incidents, was not scolded. Instead, she was only punished to serve tea to the old people of the village.
The village chief saw that everyone was in low spirits. The old man, who was wearing a large gold chain left behind by Li Changshou, gradually got an idea in his heart.
“Let’s all cheer up! Don’t we still have the Sea God?
“All these years, some natural disasters have been happening during fishing on the sea. There were generally no accidents during hunting.
“In my opinion, let’s make a statue for the Sea God and worship him on time. We will definitely be blessed!”
A few cultivators in the village and Xiong Lingli’s father were about to speak. However, the graceful woman at the side with a rarely seen figure in the village gently pressed on his stout arm, indicating that he should not speak.
Soon, the Xiong Village villagers began to discuss how they should worship and give offerings to the Sea God.
When Xiong Lingli’s mother, who was that graceful woman, took out the portrait she had painted on the beast’s hide while Sea God had been sleeping, this group of villagers got excited. In the night, they began to search for the stones to create the god statue and carried a pile of large stones back to the village.
During the late night, Xiong Lingli was sound asleep on the bed where Li Changshou had lain.
In the next room, the couple was snuggling on the edge of the bed.
Xiong Laosan said in a deep voice, “Dear, why didn’t you let me remind everyone previously that it was an immortal, not some Sea God?”
“The matter of offering sacrifices is nothing more than giving everyone a little comfort in their hearts. Would an immortal care about us?” The woman sighed softly. “I originally thought that Lingli would be able to become this immortal’s disciple and learn the brilliant methods of immortal cultivation. But I never expected that the immortal would leave after waking up.”
“Didn’t you teach me the cultivation method, dear?” Xiong Laosan said with a laugh. “Wouldn’t it be fine to pass it on to Lingli?”
“That’s just a superficial Qi Refinement technique. How could it be compared to those of the immortals?” The woman thought for a while. “I’ve always wanted to send Lingli to become a disciple at an immortal sect, but the road to the Middle Continent is too far, and I can’t bear to give her a bumpy ride.”
“In that case, shall we have another child?” Xiong Laosan chuckled. “With another child, how about letting this older child just leave home and wander around?”
“You’re so annoying. Our child is sleeping next door…”
“I’m going to knock her out!”
“Don’t do that. Just be careful.”
“Heh, heh.”
Not long after, Xiong Lingli, who was sound asleep, heard some familiar noises. She rolled over and continued to sleep.
Seemingly dreaming of how she had been accused during the day, this young girl sobbed a few times softly and fell into a deep sleep.
…
A few months later, on the grassland, Li Changshou, who had been hurrying on his journey, found that the Western school did not pursue him. He had gone around the mortal world once and had finally returned to this place.
Having made a simple earth cave next to his parents’ grave, Li Changshou stayed there temporarily.
Although the mortal world had rich turbid Qi, he had no plans to improve his cultivation, so there was no harm in staying there temporarily.
He shouldn’t have been in a rush walking in the mortal world with a magnificent landscape. Since he was afraid that the Western school would find him, he hadn’t taken it easy.
The mountains in the vast South Continent were beautiful with rushing rivers. However, there was no beautiful scenery that would make him stop his escape technique.
Tribes from countless cities had expedited countless humanistic landscapes over the years, but none of them could make him look back for a while.
‘I seek longevity, and I am not envious of the mortal world.’
While sitting in the earth cave in a lotus position, Li Changshou’s mind was blank. He comprehended his own Dao and pondered on the method to control the power of the True Samadhi Flames.
The fire seedling of the True Samadhi Flames was ignited by the essence, Qi, and spirit. It was theoretically unlikely for him to reduce the power of the True Samadhi Flames.
However, he could change his way of thinking.
For example, after returning to the mountain, he could ask Lan Ling’e for help, so that she could get a few strands of essence, Qi, and spirit out. He would then condense them into a fire seedling by himself and store them in his body.
It was just that Lan Ling’e’s cultivation was still shallow and she had yet to reach the Void Return Realm. Hence, the kind of fire seedling condensed would be too weak.
Being too strong or too weak were both unattractive.
Also, it was easy to deteriorate Lan Ling’e’s health.
With a twirl of his fingertips, Li Changshou had an extra wisp of True Samadhi Flames in his palm, and he began to think of other solutions.
There was a solution to every problem. Li Changshou took a few days to figure out the solution.
He just wouldn’t use it.
‘Ahem, I’ll just use the Qi flame.’
He would use the power of the Primordial Spirit within the Qi flame to simulate his spirit flame’s fluctuations and the essence flame. The power of his own Qi flame alone at this time was quite strong, but it was not too outstanding.
Life was probably like this—It was hard to be perfect.
The method of increasing his strength, concealing his aura, and simulating his aura could deceive the seniors of higher cultivation. However, it also left a small flaw to the True Samadhi Flames.
After going back, he should always pay attention to this matter.
When a Perfected Immortal grasped his wrist, it would be difficult for the other party to see his true cultivation level even if they deliberately probed.
This illness that caused him to twitch when a woman touched him could also be healed.
Having made this journey in the mortal world, Li Changshou had reaped some benefits.
‘Speaking of earning merits, engaging in some inventions for the human race seems to give merits as well.’
After stroking his chin for a while to ponder, he quickly dismissed such thoughts.
There were still relatively many opportunities to earn merits among the human race, such as medicine and production tools.
However, the prerequisite for doing so was that he had to be strong enough.
By relying on his own accumulation at this point, as soon as great merits or abnormal phenomena were granted by the Heavenly Dao, it would definitely be known by the Six Saints.
The most likely outcome for himself was that the old Saints would see through him. Then, they would extract his soul and dissect it…
‘I should just cultivate honestly.”
Li Changshou laughed softly in his heart, dispelling these vivid thoughts.
While sitting steadily, he could be carefree…
‘I’ll go?’
What did that mean?
Without warning, some fine fuzzy images and a wisp of fuzzy sensation appeared in Li Changshou’s heart.
In that image, a group of strong men and women were… kneeling and praying for blessings at his feet?
He quickly predicted with his fingers and was soon caught between laughter and tears.
What was going on?
Had the Xiong Village really made a statue of him and worshiped him as a Sea God?
The Heavenly Dao was self-perpetuating. Was he also receiving incense offerings now?
Didn’t this seem like coercion?
Li Changshou shook his head and smiled bitterly. He was not too worried about the matter at first.
After all, it was only a village with 1,000 people. After they made up an inaccurate Sea God and found that it didn’t work after a few months, they would naturally stop worshipping.
He would not get too much karma from this.
But soon, Li Changshou realized that things weren’t that simple.
Wasn’t he now equivalent to competing with the Western school for incense offerings alone?
If the Western school’s Saints sensed this and they predicted with their fingers…
‘No, I have to rush back to the Immortal Du Sect and return to the Grand Pure One’s territory!’
With the old ones up there, he did not need to fear those two in-name disciples, who brainwashed and undermined people!
Among the Six Saints, only the Three Pure Ones and Nuwa were considered to be the progenitors of the Dao.
Of course, it was unlikely that the Grand Pure One came from the Immortal Du Sect.
As long as the Western school had fears, that would be enough.
Li Changshou was immediately alert, and his figure disappeared in the earth cave, heading towards the East Continent.
The journey was much faster than when he came, and there was much less excitement on the way.
Occasionally, he would skim onto spiritual beasts, hear children’s pastoral songs, and also get to see a couple pack up their valuables to elope and get chased by a group of villagers. That uninterrupted expedition was still bloodshed.
Li Changshou left the South Continent and entered the East Continent. While he explored, he rushed to the Immortal Du Sect.
After two days, when there were still 10,000 kilometers away from the Immortal Du Sect, he deliberately slowed down the speed of his Earth Escape to meet the limit of a disciple at the Third Stage or Fourth Stage of the Void Return Realm and slowly approached his own sect.
After entering the 1,000 kilometers range, Li Changshou finally heaved a sigh of relief.
It was truly a great blessing in life to have the protection of an immortal sect!
However, Li Changshou had said that he was returning home to guard his parents’ grave. If he couldn’t last three years, he was afraid that he would become the topic and attract bystanders’ attention when he returned to the mountain.
It was not good to be abnormal. Most of the disciples would stay in the mortal world and enjoy for two more years.
It was finally peaceful in this place.
Li Changshou found a mountain hideout near the Immortal Du Sect’s spiritual mine and was prepared to cultivate there for two years before returning to the mountain.
The Primordial World was truly dangerous!
The human heart was too complicated!
He had clearly done nothing to the Xiong Village, and yet, they were worshipping him, forcing him to compete with the Western school for incense offerings!
Now that he had survived the Tribulation Transcendence, he had to implement the idea of staying in the mountain and never going out!
The mortal world was a dangerous place. There was no peace on earth!
If he wandered around again, he would just… just…
Well, the oath of the Primordial World was very accurate, and he couldn’t speak the words from his heart at will.
…
“Senior Brother!”
Under the willow tree by the lake, Lan Ling’er, who was meditating in her loose training attire, suddenly opened her eyes and breathed more heavily.
“It’s a dream.”
Lan Ling’e exhaled softly. She had fallen asleep accidentally while meditating just now and dreamt that her senior brother was trapped by a group of strong, strange people. The scene was very chaotic, and her senior brother was about to be pinned down on the ground.
Fortunately, she sensed someone coming outside and woke up from her dream.
‘Oh?’
Lan Ling’e looked up at the figure she had sensed. That was a somewhat familiar senior sister, who she didn’t quite know and was drifting on the cloud and wandering around the Little Qiong Peak surroundings, seemingly hesitant to enter the isolation array.