If I become a saint, a celestial official will summon me to raise horses.

Chapter 382 Variables, Hidden Spirit Palace
Since Shen Zhen left, Gu An has seen Ji Xiaoyu again, but she ignores him, and he pretends not to know anything about it.

In the days that followed, rumors began to circulate in Medicine Valley that Master and Senior Ji were having relationship problems.

This led An Xin to inquire about the matter when she accompanied Gu An to Renjian Peak.

"Stop gossiping. I didn't have any conflict with her."

Gu An glared at An Xin and said irritably.

Anxin chuckled and didn't press the matter further. Instead, she went to the side and began cultivating.

At Human Peak, she didn't need to hide her cultivation level, so she cherished the opportunity to cultivate there.

Gu An went down the mountain alone and wandered around.

Because of the previous incident of illegal harvesting, Gu An deliberately slowed down his harvesting on the Human Peak. Even so, thanks to the ever-increasing yield of the secluded cave, he was able to gain nearly four million years of lifespan each year.

His total lifespan has exceeded 400 million years!

If Gu An maintains this pace, he can also become stronger quickly.

Therefore, he now tries to take on fewer disciples and make fewer moves to avoid disrupting the overall trend of the Heavenly Spirit World.

Gu An walked along the mountain path, his divine sense looking at Zhu Xi.

Zhu Xi was among the lowest-ranking peaks in the sea. The Human Peak specially allocated a section of the sea for disciples below the Immortal Realm to live in, and only those who reached the Nirvana Realm could worship a divine peak similar to the Heaven-Stabilizing Peak.

Years have passed, and Zhu Xi has become integrated into the Human Peak. Her presence is not strong, and no one knows about her talent. Her life is the same as it was when she was at the Falling Moon Divine Lake.

She had recently achieved the Core Formation stage and was essentially a menial disciple on Human Peak, tending to the herb garden, much like Gu An.

Gu An could sense the immense spiritual power contained within her body. The Primordial Devouring Body was like a black hole, making it difficult for anyone other than a free immortal to see through her physique.

Once she fully unleashes her power, her cultivation level will skyrocket.

In terms of physique, she is definitely the strongest Gu An has ever seen in this world; even the ancient treasure physiques are several levels below her.

At this moment, Zhu Xi was planting medicinal herbs. Even though she was the only one in the herb garden, she was very cautious and looked just like an ordinary disciple.

Gu An watched for a while, then, finding it uninteresting, looked away.

He calculated that Zhu Xi would eventually clash with the Human Realm Peak. After her theft of medicinal herbs was exposed, she would clash with the cultivators of the Human Realm Peak, eventually be expelled from the peak, and even be hunted down.

But that timeframe is still a long way off.

Gu An had no intention of stopping it. Along his journey, he had seen that many disciples' fates would lead them to the opposite side of Human Peak. The reason for this was that there were simply too many disciples on Human Peak, and it was impossible for everyone to stay on Human Peak from beginning to end. Even if he tried to stop it in advance, as long as Human Peak continued to recruit disciples, such troubles would still occur.

The deeper Gu An delved into cause and effect and destiny, the more he felt the terror of fate.

Knowing and possessing the ability to change one's destiny is not necessarily a good thing, because once a change is made, destiny becomes unpredictable, and the changer cannot foresee the changes. Only by creating a cause can the outcome be predicted; without a beginning, the outcome cannot be calculated.

During the subsequent herb gathering, Gu An observed the cause and effect of the cultivators at Dingtian Peak, deepening his understanding of the Dao of Cause and Effect through this observation.

Night falls.

Gu An did not return to Tai Xuan Sect, but remained on Ding Tian Peak.

He lay back in his chair, the bright moon overhead, a book in his hands, looking utterly content.

An Xin was still cultivating her inner energy not far away, her body shimmering with starlight, ethereal and otherworldly, as if she might ascend to immortality at any moment.

The chirping of insects echoed in the courtyard, adding a touch of life to the space.

Sudden.

Gu An looked up and saw a shooting star streak across the night sky at an extremely fast speed.

Normally, such meteors are the descent of celestial immortals, but this time is different. Gu An can sense that the other party's cultivation is far higher than that of a celestial immortal, and should be a divine immortal.

Is the Celestial Dynasty and the Holy Court about to go to war again?

Gu An thought to himself that the fortunes of these two forces were too immense to be separated from the deduction of cause and effect, and at least he could not fully calculate them.

He hoped for peace throughout the world, and preferred to wait a thousand or ten thousand years before fighting, at which time he would be more confident in dealing with any catastrophe.

"It's time to establish a new medicine valley."

Gu An silently thought to himself that he had had this idea for a long time.

He chose the seabed as the location for the next medicine valley.

Eggs cannot be put in one basket.

As the moon set and the sun rose, the next morning, after sending Anxin back, Gu An went alone to Seeking Immortals Island and used his share of the profits as the island's owner to exchange for a large number of medicinal herb seeds.

This matter is entrusted to the island lord, Xun Hanfeng.

Xun Hanfeng wasn't puzzled as to why Gu An needed so many herbs. In the cultivation world, the demand for herbs was no less than that for spirit stones. No one would complain about having too few herbs. The higher one's cultivation level, the more herbs one needed. He could only envy Gu An's abilities.

It wasn't until evening that Xun Hanfeng handed Gu An a high-grade storage bag, which was full of medicinal herbs.

Night fell again, and Gu An arrived at the largest sea area in the Tianling Great World. Under the cover of night, the waves surged, creating an extremely oppressive atmosphere.

The demonic energy here is extremely dense, while the aura of human cultivators is very rare. Gu Anfei flew into the sea. This ocean is extremely deep, with the deepest point more than 100,000 miles below the surface. It harbors many terrifying demonic creatures comparable to immortals, and even the aura of carefree primordial immortals.

Because the Heavenly Spirit Realm is controlled by humans, powerful demons have no choice but to band together, forming their own world in this ocean, isolated from the rest of the world.

After Gu An descended some distance, the surrounding environment became pitch black and oppressive.

When he arrived at a place tens of thousands of miles from the sea, a green light appeared below, like a boundless green ocean. He saw many tiny marine creatures that had not yet developed intelligence, but they were very fast, comparable to cultivators in the Core Formation stage.

After passing through this green sea, darkness descended once more. As they continued flying downwards, they occasionally glimpsed various colored lights, all emitted by demonic creatures. Gu An even saw cave dwellings nestled atop the ocean mountains.

Further down, he even saw a demon city, radiating dazzling light, with countless demons coming and going.

And so, Gu An arrived at the depths of the sea without Wu Yao's knowledge.

He found an area free of demons, used his magic to delineate a radius of a hundred miles on the sand, then created a clone. With the clone's great magic, he formed a barrier, preventing creatures outside the barrier from seeing what was happening inside.

His true form then began casting a spell to create a suitable environment for the herbs to grow; the spiritual energy in the seabed was vast, enough for the herbs to thrive.

After changing the environment, he began to form an array.

An hour later.

This underwater medicine valley is already full of medicinal herb seeds. He doesn't plan to adopt a monster to guard this medicine valley; he can leave it to his clone in the future.

Although the clone does not have independent thought, Gu An can still detect any disturbance immediately. At that time, Gu An can focus his consciousness on the clone and use it to solve any problems.

Even the carefree immortal was no match for his clone!

After making all the preparations, Gu An came to the edge of the Medicine Valley, took out a stone tablet, placed it in the sand, and then used the Destiny-Calming Brush to write words on the stone tablet.

Hidden Spirit Palace!
The reason it was named "Palace" is because he planned to build a palace here, or even use it as a Taoist temple.

Gu An admired his own handwriting, which was becoming more and more elegant.

He then disappeared from the spot and returned to the Tai Xuan Sect.

The seabed was silent, and outside the Spirit Palace was darkness, like an abyss. Occasionally, huge, mountain-like figures would swim by above the Spirit Palace. Gu An's clone sat cross-legged, his eyes closed.

……

Fifteen years later.

In early summer, Gu An was sitting in the pavilion of Xuan Valley admiring his attribute panel. He was very close to his lifespan of 500 million years.

The high-grade medicinal herbs from the secluded paradise will bring him a significant increase in lifespan over the next few years, making him very happy.

Although life was mundane, Gu An didn't find it boring. Watching his lifespan increase gave him a sense of accomplishment, like leveling up in a game.

There was a knock on the door, and Gu An casually said, "Come in."

As soon as he finished speaking, the door was pushed open, and Lu Jiujia walked in.

Lu Jiujia, who was 518 years old, looked to be in his early forties. He had a long beard and a very imposing presence.

He approached the table, bowed to Gu An, and said, "Senior Brother, the Chen Family Medicine Valley does not agree to my conditions and continues to oppress Xuan Valley's territory. What should we do?"

Over the years, as the Tai Xuan Sect grew stronger, more and more medicine valleys appeared outside the outer sect without any invasion. Some of these valleys were managed by the Tai Xuan Sect, while others were established by aristocratic families to accumulate resources for their own descendants.

A medicine valley appeared around Xuan Valley, with a territory even larger than Xuan Valley.

The Chen family is a newly emerging aristocratic family in the last thousand years. Their highest position in the Tai Xuan Sect is that of an elder in the inner city, holding a high position and great power.

After hearing this, Gu An replied, "It's alright. I'll have Anxin go there tomorrow. In three days at most, they'll make their Medicine Valley disappear."

Upon hearing this, Lu Jiujia immediately smiled. He did not doubt his senior brother's words. His senior brother wielded considerable power, and the Chen family was merely testing his senior brother's limits. Otherwise, they would have already devised a way to seize Xuan Valley.

Gu An looked up at Lu Jiujia and asked, "How has your cultivation been lately?"

Decades ago, Lu Jiujia lifted the cultivation restrictions of the Innate Reincarnation Technique. With Gu An secretly helping him comprehend the Dao, his current maximum lifespan has reached seven hundred years.

Seven hundred years is not a long time. Lu Jiujia's cultivation has increased too slowly. He is currently only at the ninth level of the Core Formation Realm. Even if he releases his cultivation again, he will probably find it difficult to reach the Divine Transformation Realm.

No matter how you look at it, Lu Jiujia has no hope of achieving nirvana in this lifetime.

Upon hearing this, Lu Jiujia scratched his head and said, "To be honest, senior brother, I feel increasingly powerless. When I cultivate, I always feel mentally exhausted and easily have random thoughts."

Gu An said, "There's nothing we can do about that. You'll have to find a way to overcome it."

Lu Jiujia could only nod.

He felt helpless and ashamed.

His senior brother had taken such good care of him over the years, and he felt that he had let his senior brother down.

He changed the subject, saying, "By the way, senior brother, a prodigy has recently appeared in Medicine Valley. Would you like to meet him?"

He immediately became excited when the prodigy was mentioned.

Having managed all affairs of Xuan Valley for hundreds of years, this was the first time he had encountered such a genius, which made him feel honored.

(End of this chapter)