The thought of the top-tier body-refining technique, "Qiongqi Purgatory Art," surged into Li Yan's mind, a desire long suppressed. A good body-refining technique was too important for Li Yan. His combat skills, from his time as a low-level cultivator, had been centered around it. Li Yan was more adept at close combat; his fighting skills were already ingrained in his bones.
After a while, Li Yan finally calmed the thoughts in his mind. Things still had to be done according to a plan. He had always been one to plan before acting; this matter could not be rushed.
Although he had refined another complete drop of "Undead Nether Phoenix" essence blood this time, Li Yan did not obtain a new innate ability. However, the "Phoenix Soars to the Heavens" movement skill had once again greatly improved. When Li Yan had briefly tested it in his room earlier, he found that not only had its speed increased by about two times, but he also felt as if he were tearing the void as he moved.
Li Yan knew that this was a sign of the "Undead Nether Phoenix's" immortal body advancing. Although the "Undead Nether Phoenix" did not have the innate and enviable spatial divine abilities of the Phoenix and Fenghuang clans, it possessed a talent that the two clans did not have: an incomparably powerful physical body and speed, allowing it to easily tear space and travel through it. This meant that when Li Yan reached a certain point, he could traverse the Chaotic Flow Space with his powerful physical body alone, completely fearless of the astral winds, turbulence, and even spatial cuts, remaining unharmed. This was something that even Nascent Soul cultivators, and even Spirit Transformation cultivators, could not do.
After sorting out his gains from this seclusion, Li Yan's Divine Sense then entered the "Earthen Patch." After Qian Ji had entered to recuperate more than thirty years ago, he had not come out. Later, Zi Kun had also used the passage mapped by Li Yan's Divine Sense to enter the "Earthen Patch" on his own. Since then, he had not appeared in the outside world either, and had also begun to cultivate in seclusion.
In the "Earthen Patch," Li Yan's phantom appeared and quickly found Zi Kun in the far western desert. At this moment, he was surrounded by purple light, his eyes slightly closed, constantly breathing in and out the fire spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Above his head, the phantom of a small purple elephant was faintly visible. With each breath, the purple light would strengthen and weaken.
Sensing the aura emanating from Zi Kun, Li Yan nodded, quite satisfied. Zi Kun's cultivation had finally broken through again since leaving the "Hellsoul Clan" and had reached the late Golden Core stage. Currently, he was stabilizing his realm…
On the peak of a snowy and icy land, Qian Ji was also sitting cross-legged in meditation. His previous injuries had long since healed. And at this time, the qi around Qian Ji's body was surging restlessly. Li Yan happened to see that he was breaking through the bottleneck to the mid Golden Core stage. Qian Ji's magical power was abundant and circulating, making his skin crystal clear. It seemed that in the last great battle where he had fought for his life, he might have had a moment of enlightenment at the brink of death. After being reborn from his serious injuries, his cultivation speed had not decreased but had instead increased.
"His vital energy is flourishing, and his magical power is circulating smoothly without too much obstruction. The hope of a successful breakthrough is still very high!" After observing Qian Ji for a while, Li Yan had a judgment in his heart.
However, it was difficult for others to help a cultivator with their own breakthrough. At most, they could help him find some treasures to increase his magical power beforehand. Once he entered the cultivation breakthrough, others basically couldn't help at all, unless their cultivation was several major realms higher than his. Then it might be possible to forcibly raise his cultivation, but that would be like pulling up seedlings to help them grow.
Li Yan did not stay in the "Earthen Patch" for long. Since he had confirmed that the two demons were fine now, he had one less thing to worry about.
Li Yan stood up and opened the long-sealed courtyard gate. Outside the courtyard, the green bamboo was like a canopy, the clouds drifted in the blue sky, as if decades were but a scene from yesterday.
Li Yan rose into the air and flew toward Wei Zhongran's residence!
In Wei Zhongran's courtyard, Zhao Zhi and Zhao Min were both sitting, talking in low voices. Suddenly, Wei Zhongran looked up at the courtyard gate, a smile appearing on his face. Then, with a gentle wave of his large sleeve, the courtyard gate opened silently.
His action stunned the mother and daughter, but Zhao Min quickly reacted. She had sent a voice transmission to Li Yan today. It was just an attempt to contact him, and she hadn't held out much hope. Cultivators in seclusion would usually cut off all contact with the outside world. At the same time, not many people would come to Wei Zhongran's place. The most likely were Li Wuyi and Li Yan, or perhaps Mo Qing. But Wei Zhongran had not asked Zhao Zhi and Zhao Min to leave, so it shouldn't be Mo Qing. Zhao Min guessed it must be Li Yan.
Now that Li Wuyi had also been in seclusion for more than twenty years, there was no news of him coming out. This time, Li Wuyi's seclusion was not to avoid Li Changting and Miao Wangqing. It was because Miao Wangqing had almost died last time, and his young son's terrified expression had caused much of his wild and unrestrained character to fade. In the following days, his mentality also underwent a subtle change. After carefully instructing Li Changting and Miao Wangqing, he finally entered seclusion, unlike before when he would go into seclusion without even saying a word!
As expected, as the courtyard gate opened, Li Yan's figure appeared outside the door. He was looking at the three people in the courtyard with a smile.
Li Yan first glanced at Zhao Min and found that her aura was still at the Pseudo-Nascent Soul realm. However, the magical power on Zhao Min's body was as profound as a deep sea. In terms of magical power alone, she was only a hair's breadth away from the initial Nascent Soul stage.
Li Yan walked a few steps quickly and then stopped, bowing respectfully to Wei Zhongran and Zhao Zhi. "Greetings, Master, Martial Mother!"
Zhao Zhi was still dressed in an exquisite palace gown. Perhaps due to her long years in seclusion, her complexion was even fairer than before. But Li Yan could see that it was more of a pale white, not a normal skin tone. Zhao Zhi was also still at the Pseudo-Nascent Soul realm, but the aura emanating from her was not as solid as Zhao Min's. Li Yan even felt that Zhao Zhi's aura was a bit weak, as if it were even worse than a few decades ago.
"No need for formalities!" Before Wei Zhongran could speak, a smile appeared on Zhao Zhi's face. She was pleased to see Li Yan being as respectful as before. This was the first time the two had met since Li Yan had formed his Nascent Soul.
"Your seclusion this time was not very long. I thought it would take at least seventy to eighty years!" Wei Zhongran then said, his gaze sizing Li Yan up and down. He and Zhao Zhi did not know that Zhao Min had contacted Li Yan through the sect token, so Li Yan's sudden appearance was a bit unexpected.
Hearing this, Li Yan seemed to have thought of something. He straightened up, his face expressionless. "Oh, this disciple has just finished cultivating an immortal art and is a bit tired, so I thought I'd come out and rest for a few days."
Wei Zhongran nodded and didn't ask further on this matter. After a cultivator finished cultivating a cultivation method or immortal art, it was sometimes not suitable to immediately enter the next stage. Moreover, Li Yan was now an ancestor-level cultivator in the sect, and his authority in the sect was no less than his own. So, whatever cultivation method classics Li Yan wanted to read, or whatever cultivation method he wanted to practice, he no longer needed others' permission. Their master-disciple relationship was only nominal.
Zhao Min, however, had a flicker in her black, star-like eyes after hearing Li Yan's answer.
And so, the four of them in the small courtyard began to chat. But after only about a cup of tea's time, Wei Zhongran and Zhao Zhi got up and left. They of course wanted to leave more space for Li Yan and the other, who hadn't seen each other for decades.
After Wei Zhongran and his wife left, Zhao Min also stood up. "Junior Brother, if you have time, let's take a walk to the back mountain!"
"Hehehe, as you wish!"
The small, winding path of Lesser Bamboo Peak's back mountain snaked upwards. From a high altitude, the stone path wound through the sea of bamboo, faintly dividing it. From time to time, a section of the path would disappear into it, only to reappear further down…
Above the sea of bamboo, white clouds blew in from afar, sweeping over the vast green leaves of the bamboo in the breeze, making the entire sea of bamboo seem like a fairyland. These white clouds brushed past the bamboo tips and then drifted into the distance in the mountain wind!
Looking down from a high altitude, through the gaps in the rapidly moving white clouds, two figures, one in black and one in white, as if their feet were treading on nothing, slowly ascended along the mountain path, just like a stroll among the clouds.
People wandering in a painting, ethereal like a fairyland.
Li Yan looked at the surrounding scenery and couldn't help but sigh that there was no sense of time in cultivation. The scenery here was familiar, yet tinged with some strangeness. Although the sea of bamboo remained, a small tree would eventually grow into a towering one, and so it was with the spirit bamboo. Although the overall layout of the back mountain's bamboo sea had not changed, in the detailed memory of a cultivator, much had changed.
'If I were just a mortal, how could I compare the present with the past!' Li Yan thought to himself.
He and Zhao Min were usually silent people. Even when they were together, they would often go a long time before one of them said something, and the other would reply with a short phrase. After leaving the courtyard of Wei Zhongran and his wife, Li Yan had simply asked about his Martial Mother.
Zhao Min's tone was calm. Although Zhao Zhi had been in seclusion for more than a sixty-year cycle, she still couldn't find the insights from the great battle at the Devil's Cliff. What was lost was lost. Compared to the smooth progress of her cultivation before, this was simply unacceptable to her.
So, in her subsequent cultivation, a problem arose with Zhao Zhi's mentality. She had a psychological need to force a breakthrough. Under such circumstances, four years ago, while circulating her heavenly cycle art to forcibly charge an acupuncture point, something went wrong, causing her to faint on the spot, and no one knew.
When she woke up again, she found that her meridians had been severely damaged. As such, she could only come out of seclusion. Wei Zhongran was greatly shocked when he saw her and quickly used his arts to help her stabilize her meridians and Dantian. Afterwards, Wei Zhongran spent a huge amount of spirit stones to buy a sixth-rank "Tendon-Soothing Pill." In the end, Zhao Zhi's injuries were finally healed.
But Zhao Zhi's cultivation had still declined somewhat, almost falling back to the late Golden Core stage. It was unknown how many years it would take for her to cultivate back to the peak of the Pseudo-Nascent Soul realm. Moreover, the most severe blow this time was to her confidence. The hope of breaking through to the Nascent Soul stage next time was even smaller.
After hearing Zhao Min's simple account, Li Yan was silent. Cultivation, cultivation, how many people could truly walk the path without any obstacles or difficulties? Just like Zi Kun, his bloodline was not ordinary. Logically speaking, as long as a demonic beast with a high-level bloodline didn't die, it should be much easier for them to advance than for humans. But wasn't he still struggling in the Golden Core stage?
Since Zhao Zhi's injuries were healed, that "Bodhi Pill" of Li Yan's was of no use. Then, Li Yan changed the subject and asked about Zhao Min's own cultivation situation. Zhao Min had been out of seclusion for eleven years. Her cultivation of the "Heavenly Demon White Jade Plate" had not encountered any obstacles. On the contrary, she had sensed a faint glimmer of light in the unseen. But no matter how Zhao Min meditated, she couldn't find the specific location of that light, unable to grasp it or touch it.
Li Yan knew that Zhao Min had reached the same state he had been in when he had just returned to the Desolate Moon Continent. Although her magical power was abundant and had reached the point where she could try to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, her state of mind was not enough. She had not comprehended a trace of the rules of heaven and earth to guide her. This could no longer be broken through by diligent cultivation. What was needed more was to temper her state of mind and look for an opportunity, just like when he had entered the mortal world to search for his.
The two of them walked slowly, and unknowingly, they had come to that familiar platform again, sitting once more on the edge of the cliff. Zhao Min still dangled her long, slender, and rounded legs over the edge of the cliff, swinging them gently. Her body also swayed rhythmically, and the ponytail tied from her shiny black hair would occasionally brush past her two round buttocks…
"After coming out of seclusion this time, are you planning to go to the Wind God Continent?" Zhao Min's side profile was as beautiful as ever, with a three-dimensional quality. From Li Yan's angle, it was a worldly masterpiece carved from white jade.
"I can't go in the short term. There are still some things to be done, which may take some time to handle!" Li Yan no longer avoided the topic of the "Wind God Continent."
He had thought about when to go to the Wind God Continent before. But he felt that before going there, it would be best to go to the few red dot locations on the map left by Qi Jinghong that were not crossed out. This matter had been delayed for more than thirty years. Now that his strength had increased a lot, it was time to look for the silver paper.
But Zhao Min did not ask him what he had to do next. Instead, she said something that left Li Yan stunned.
"Then let's become Dao Companions as soon as possible!"
Zhao Min said this, her tone calm, as if she were talking about something that had nothing to do with her. She didn't even look at Li Yan as she spoke, her gaze still fixed on the undulating line of mountains on the distant horizon.
"Sen... Senior Sister..." Li Yan looked at Zhao Min in bewilderment, his mind a complete blank for a moment.
Zhao Min sensed Li Yan's astonished gaze fixed on her, and a blush finally appeared on her snow-jade face.
"I... Senior Sister Ying probably won't blame me! Mother's state of mind has a big problem, and her lifespan is not that long either. The next time she goes into seclusion, it will probably be a death seclusion. I don't know if there will be a chance to meet again! So... the thing she can't let go of the most is me. It can be considered a debt she owes me from my childhood. I know she still has a concern. If... if we become Dao Companions, it will only be good for her state of mind, not bad. Perhaps with a change, she can successfully break through!"
After saying this, Zhao Min looked at Li Yan with a blush on her face. Under the sunlight, her skin was like snow, a plum blossom reflecting the winter. For a moment, Li Yan was somewhat dazed by Zhao Min's words and her slightly shy gaze.
Zhao Min and he had a marriage agreement, but Li Yan had thought that Zhao Min would probably only agree after she had formed her Nascent Soul. Zhao Min's disposition was extremely high. She wanted a long immortal path companion, one who would never leave. Li Yan knew this, so he would not rush her.
Zhao Min was being stared at by Li Yan. She frowned slightly.
"You're not willing?"