Cultivating Immortality Begins with Rejuvenation.

Chapter 209 Immortal Golden Body
The sunset glow reflects on the solitary peak, and golden light spills across the cliffs.

As the morning mist dissipates in the mountains, a red sun slowly rises, and a new day begins.

On a solitary rock atop the peak, Li Ji'an sat cross-legged facing the rising sun, spiritual energy circulating between his mouth and nose, gradually filling his dantian.

A gentle breeze swept by, a strand of hair brushing against his eyelids as he completed a full cycle of breathing. He slowly opened his eyes, his gaze calm and serene.

Looking down, I saw Guagua squatting on the edge of the cliff of the large platform on the first floor of the peak, also breathing in the morning sun.

Beside a body the size of a tiny calf, Xiao Qiao was practicing the "Earth Spirit Scripture," which Li Ji'an could not comprehend.

The little fire spirit lay lazily on the back of the frog, basking in the sun. After advancing to the second-tier fire spirit, the yang fire emitted by the rising sun was no longer effective against it.

Looking at this scene on Lingfeng Peak, a sense of satisfaction appeared on Li Ji'an's face.

He thoroughly enjoyed this leisurely life of spiritual practice.

A month ago, he told Xiao Qiao about Liu Jingchun, and she remained calm and composed.

Perhaps because she was too young when she lost her family, and later Granny You and Li Ji'an filled the void in her family, she didn't really want to know about her background.

However, she was still saddened when she learned that her only remaining grandparents had been taken away by Wanfa Palace and their fate was uncertain.

She really wanted to meet him.

However, Li Ji'an bluntly told her that if others knew about her extraordinary abilities as a geomancer, it could bring disaster. Moreover, given the Wanfa Palace's deep hatred for demonic cultivators, he couldn't guarantee that there wouldn't be a possibility of exterminating her entire family.

So she ultimately held back.

They also had an urgent desire to become powerful.

Guagua finally returned to Lingfeng a few days ago and reunited with them.

After six years apart, the guy looked like he was about to cry when he saw them.

Li Ji'an could sense its spirituality; it was very simple and honest.

After it returned, Li Ji'an did not have any suitable spirit beast pills to reward it for the time being, and it did not have any negative emotions.

This differs from the most widely circulated method of beast taming in the world at that time.

The mainstream way of beast taming in this world is to intimidate with fear and reward with kindness, combining both, with the core being the life-or-death threat in the spirit contract.

The relationship between Li Ji'an and Guagua is more about affection and companionship.

This past month has been a major upheaval in the entire cultivation world of the Tiancang Domain.

The Wanfa Palace exaggerated and publicized the fact that the Liu family patriarch practiced demonic arts, emphasizing the harm he caused to cultivators in the state and clan during the process of practicing demonic arts, and stressing the harmfulness and inhumanity of demonic arts.

Several True Core Elders from within the palace were dispatched to lead the Biyun Sect in searching for the Liu family's ancestor.

He then publicly rebuked the Biyun Sect for its poor supervision, accusing it of disregarding the lives of the people in the state for the sake of its own cultivation. He ordered the sect to conduct a full inspection of the entire state starting immediately. However, from now on, the Wanfa Palace will send an enforcement team to be stationed in Cangyun State, and the Biyun Sect must cooperate at any time.

This is tantamount to stripping the Biyun Sect of its authority to govern a province.

Furthermore, rumors suggest that the Supreme Elder of the Biyun Sect also offered up a magical artifact he had previously obtained from the ruins.

Subsequently, Wanfa Palace brought the remaining members of the Liu family, including Qin Henian and several other leaders, back to Tianyuan Prefecture for interrogation.

For the past month, the sect has been busy dealing with the Myriad Laws Palace. Even true disciples like Xiao Changfeng, and even Zhao Qi, who is preparing to break through to the Core Formation stage and is a potential successor to the sect leader, have all been mobilized to cooperate in the search.

Meanwhile, the alchemists of Dan Ding Peak were also taken to Tian Yuan Prefecture by Wan Fa Palace.

Li Ji'an speculated that it was related to the legendary Elixir of Immortality.

As a result, he, as a guest elder, was almost ignored by everyone. In the past month, he did not even receive the minimum alchemy task from the sect, as if he had been forgotten by the sect.

He was quite satisfied with this, and could now focus on his cultivation.

The cultivation resources he has accumulated over the years are enough to support him in cultivating to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.

Now he is sixty-seven years old, fifteen years since he entered the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, and has finally reached the sixth level of Foundation Establishment. If nothing unexpected happens, he will reach the late Foundation Establishment stage in at most five years.

The late Foundation Establishment stage is a major hurdle that has blocked almost 99.9% of the cultivators in Cangyun Prefecture.

Besides enlightenment, there are also hard requirements such as second-tier high-grade spiritual veins and second-tier late-stage nourishing pills.

For the latter two, those who are not disciples of sects or core members of the five major families have almost no hope.

Li Ji'an doesn't need to worry about this pass.

However, he still has a lingering concern in his heart, which he must clarify.

Otherwise, there will always be a mark, which can easily breed inner demons over time.

His acquaintance, friendship, and bond with Ning Sujin in his third life ultimately left an indelible mark on his heart. He could calmly accept separation, disappearance, and his own powerlessness when he lacked the strength, and he would also rescue and help her when he had enough strength.

He wasn't strong enough to force his way into the Liu family to rescue people before, and now he doesn't have the confidence to face the Wanfa Palace, and is even worried about being targeted by the Wanfa Palace.

As he has come to know more and more about the cultivation world, he has come to suspect that his miraculous rejuvenation may have been caused by some fragment of the Heavenly Dao Law accidentally fusing with him.

He was unsure whether the Nascent Soul True Monarch of the Myriad Laws Palace could see through the divine favor of these individuals.

So for the past month, he refrained from going to Biluo Market to look for Ning Yutan.

But ultimately, we need to figure out exactly what happened.

However, he must remain patient until the Wanfa Palace reaches a final conclusion regarding the Liu family's matter.

Because he clearly knew the relationship between Ning Yutan and Ning Sujin, and now that Ning Sujin had likely been taken back by the Wanfa Palace, he could not guarantee that he wouldn't have some means to find out about Ning Yutan, who was stranded in Biluo Market.

After slowly finishing his practice, Li Ji'an forcibly calmed his mind and turned to enter the alchemy room.

He once again took out the old and simple jade talisman containing cultivation techniques that he had obtained from the storage bag of the Liu family patriarch.

The Immortal Golden Body Technique

After a month of study, if nothing unexpected happens, this is the "demonic skill" practiced by the Liu family patriarch!
However, his understanding of "demonic arts" differed somewhat from Li Ji'an's.

In fact, the "demons" in this cultivation world also differed from Li Ji'an's understanding.

In its public announcement, Wanfa Palace declared that any practice that deviates from the Five Elements or its derivative cultivation methods is considered "demonic" or "evil."

Cultivators who employ dual cultivation techniques that absorb yin energy, soul energy, corpse energy, or even the energy of a furnace or cauldron are all demonic cultivators.

Techniques involving this type are also known as demonic techniques.

Even the ancient methods of cultivating the soul, which offer a shortcut to devour the souls of others to strengthen oneself, are now classified as demonic arts.

In Li Ji'an's view, the "Immortal Golden Body Technique" is an ancient body cultivation method.

When one cultivates to the highest level, one's bones become as hard as gold and jade, and one's physical body becomes immortal.

However, its cultivation method places extremely high demands on physical aptitude and innate talent. At the first stage, it is similar to the two body cultivation techniques practiced by Li Ji'an, which involve tempering muscles and bones, refining qi and blood, and stimulating the potential of the physical body.

The second stage is different; instead of using spiritual objects from heaven and earth to help transform one's flesh and blood, one needs to absorb the ultimate yin and yang to cultivate.

Even at the third stage, one still needs to burn one's own vital energy to temper the bones; if one's vital energy is insufficient, it will be difficult to achieve anything.

After a month of contemplation, Li Ji'an roughly guessed why the Liu family patriarch kept blood slaves.

Because their physical bodies were not good enough to meet the entry requirements, the Immortal Dynasty nurtured those with exceptional physical talents and cultivated their essence and blood.

He then devoured the essence and blood of these blood slaves to replenish himself!
Of course, this method can theoretically also improve his body-refining efficiency.

Fortunately, he did not succeed in advancing to the third-tier body cultivator. Otherwise, according to the cultivation technique notes, once the third-tier golden body was formed, he could withstand the late-stage True Core cultivator without defeat.

Moreover, once it achieves the third-tier Golden Body, it is estimated that it will devour even more of the essence and blood of others.

"With my natural talent and current level of physical cultivation, it shouldn't be a big problem!" Li Ji'an stroked the ancient jade talisman, his impulse almost uncontrollable.

This ancient body-refining technique is the most complete one he has ever seen, and once one achieves the third-order Golden Bone, one's lifespan will be similar to that of a Golden Core cultivator.

In the end, Li Ji'an carefully put the jade talisman away and temporarily suppressed his inner impulse.

Let's wait a few years until the impact of this matter has completely subsided before making any further decisions.

Or you could simply wait until your next life to practice this technique.

Then he pulled out a piece of animal hide that reeked of decay.

It is richly illustrated and explains in detail the methods of connecting the earth's veins and consolidating and enhancing the spiritual energy field.

It must be said that Li Ji'an was truly shocked when he opened the storage bag of the Liu family patriarch that day.

It also allowed him to witness the profound knowledge of a fake alchemist who had lived for nearly four hundred years.

It's not that he's particularly wealthy; in fact, he has almost no cultivation resources like spirit stones. After all, his seclusion was mainly to break through to the third-tier Golden Body Technique, and most of what he had were spiritual treasures of heaven and earth, such as qi and blood.

Besides the spiritual items needed for physical cultivation during seclusion, there were many ancient objects.

Most of them are ancient artifacts that have been excavated.

Besides the physical cultivation techniques and animal skin scrolls, he also saw ancient books about earth spirit masters.

Of course, there is more information and resources about formations.

Among them is a detailed explanation of a formation that appears to be an ancient sixth-order grand formation.

In addition, Li Ji'an found the answer to how he was able to send his clansmen in and out of the Immortal Gift Dynasty in his storage bag.

It is a jade talisman that claims to be the self-narrated account of a Qi Refining cultivator from four thousand years ago. He was also a senior array master who accidentally discovered the life gate of the Storm Desert and successfully entered and exited a desolate place that was only similar to the tribal period by relying on geomancy and array techniques.

Just as Li Ji'an had sensed earlier on the outskirts of the Storm Desert, only cultivators below the Qi Refining stage had a path to survival.
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Over the next year, Li Ji'an thoroughly understood the secret method for condensing and enhancing the spiritual vein dojo, and then passed it on to Xiao Qiao.

Ordinary spirit-gathering formations can also gather regional spiritual energy and enhance the spiritual energy of spiritual veins and dojos. However, their upper limit is not high and is also related to the total amount of regional spiritual energy.

For example, at the Spirit Peak where Li Ji'an is currently located, the Spirit Gathering Array can only gather the spiritual energy from the surrounding area.

Because Li Ji'an was the only solitary peak nearby, and he was the only one absorbing spiritual energy, he was able to elevate his spiritual vein to a level comparable to a second-grade high-level spiritual vein.

However, the methods recorded in the animal skin scroll can forcibly seize spiritual veins, and even create them out of thin air.

If Xiao Qiao's ability to connect with the earth's veins is sufficient, she could completely transfer the spiritual veins of the main peak of the Biyun Sect to this isolated peak.

However, Xiao Qiao's current ability as a spirit master is not enough to draw upon the spiritual veins, otherwise he would really like to try some of the surrounding branch veins first.

"It's been a year! And it's not over yet." On this day, Li Ji'an looked towards the direction of Biluo Market and his mind was stirred again.

However, he kept a close eye on the progress of the Wanfa Palace regarding the Liu family's affairs.

There is still no conclusion.

The group of alchemists from the Dan Ding Peak of the Bi Yun Sect returned half a year ago. Li Ji'an subtly inquired, and Master Yu Dan revealed that they had been invited to collaborate with the third-tier Dan King of the Wan Fa Palace to research pills that could help with the formation of the Golden Core, but the results were not satisfactory.

Moreover, he said that Qin Henian had truthfully confessed to the rumors he had spread over the years at Wanfa Palace. He claimed that the reason he fabricated the story about the Liu family patriarch cultivating demonic arts was simply to see him as old but not dead, and that he was often nowhere to be seen, but the main purpose was to save Liu Jingchun.

As for the Golden Core Classic and the Longevity Cultivation Technique, he denied them, claiming that they were most likely rumors fabricated by that mysterious person.

However, what worried Li Ji'an was that the Pill King of Wanfa Palace was certain that the pills that Li Ji'an had spread back then, which were said to help with core formation, must be true.

Since it wasn't the Liu family patriarch, then it must be that mysterious person who possessed some ancient elixir formula that could help with core formation.

They vigorously pushed the Myriad Laws Palace to search for this person throughout the entire Heavenly Azure Domain!

Formulas that aid in the formation of the Golden Core are of great importance even to the Myriad Laws Palace.

Nature began to search tirelessly.

Even now, the purpose of searching for the Liu family patriarch is no longer simply to eliminate evil and protect the righteous path, but to find out the identity of that mysterious person through the Liu family patriarch. After all, he painstakingly promoted the affairs of the Liu family and then disappeared without a trace. His purpose is very clear. The Liu family patriarch himself must know very well who his greatest enemy is.

Yesterday, Li Ji'an heard that the Wanfa Palace had sent a representative to another cultivation domain in the northeast. That domain was originally called the Boundless Domain, but it had been defined as a demonic domain by the Wanfa Palace three thousand years ago. They guarded it strictly and would never allow it to set foot in the Tiancang Domain.

Now, in order to obtain the formula for forming the Golden Core, he has taken the initiative to contact him, probably because he suspects that the demonic arts of the Liu family patriarch are related to the other party, and even suspects that the Liu family patriarch has escaped to the Demon Realm.

Fortunately, Li Ji'an had acted meticulously beforehand, leaving no clues, never revealing his identity as a talisman master, and never showing any hostility towards the Liu family.

However, this also made him more cautious about contacting Ning Yutan.

To date, not a single word about the Liu family's Celestial Master has been released.

However, the more than one hundred members of the main branch of the Liu family who were captured were all executed after interrogation, as a warning to others.

Qin Henian was commended by the Wanfa Palace for inadvertently preventing the demonic cultivator from advancing in rank. He was specially granted a jade token from the Wanfa Palace and enjoyed the treatment of an inner disciple.

Moreover, bypassing the Biyun Sect, they directly granted the Liu family's ancestral land to Qin Henian, leaving it to him to dispose of as he saw fit.

As for Liu Jingchun, in order to protect the interests of his family, he knew that his ancestor practiced demonic arts, raised blood slaves, and harmed the common people, but he concealed it and did not report it. He deserves to be executed for his crime.

Considering that he had consistently opposed and tried to stop it, and that at the last moment he joined forces with Qin Henian to fight against the ancestor, forcing out his demonic cultivation form, he was spared from death.

Ultimately, his dantian was abolished, and he was taken away by Qin Henian.

Until three months later.

On this day, Li Ji'an's solitary peak welcomed its first guest from outside the sect.

Compared to what I saw through Guagua's perspective before, she looks much older now, with gray hair and an aged expression.

It was Guo Zhilan, Liu Jingchun's Daoist partner.

It was this meeting that finally put Li Ji'an at ease, and he resolutely went to Biluo Market to get closer to Ning Yutan.

(End of this chapter)