Cultivating Immortality Begins with Rejuvenation.

Chapter 335 Touring Auction

The Five Blessings Chamber of Commerce's actions aroused Li Ji'an's suspicions.

It's understandable that he could connect the identities of "Liu Qingyun" and "Huang Jie," which must be related to the Surabaya Chamber of Commerce.

But his focus on his past life is quite puzzling.

He believed that apart from his interactions with the Surabaya Chamber of Commerce, he had no karmic connection with the Five Blessings Chamber of Commerce in his previous life.

"Why are you so interested in my past life?" Li Ji'an wondered to himself, but he had no clue.

He decisively denied any karmic connection with "Huang Jie" and his master, and directly rejected the Five Blessings Chamber of Commerce.

With two consecutive victories, including a win against the Nine Cauldrons Merchant Guild Immortal Seed who ranked tenth in terms of magical power, Li Ji'an has become a dark horse in this year's Flying Goose Dao Discussion.

Based on his current record, if he wins the third match, he can advance to the top five of the group and become one of the top ten geniuses in this year's Flying Goose Tournament.

His odds plummeted from 1 to 10 to 1 to 1.

However, when he saw his opponent's headdress, spirit headband, and armor-like robe designed to protect against the power of physical cultivation during his third match, Li Ji'an gave a wry smile.

Compared to these top geniuses, his magical power was insufficient to begin with. He only managed to avoid being too weak thanks to the refinement of the little fire spirit over the years, but he was far inferior in terms of spells.

Furthermore, the seventh-grade magic weapon that the Jinhua Chamber of Commerce temporarily gifted to him was not particularly compatible with his magical abilities.

Without physical prowess and unpredictable spiritual techniques, he simply cannot win.

However, he didn't care too much, as the outcome of a battle between evenly matched opponents was not the same as the life-and-death success or failure in the cultivation world.

Unsurprisingly, the battle was fought for three days with sustained wood-based magic, but the team ultimately lost.

In the fourth battle, he encountered that prodigy with the Southern Netherworld Fire Spirit Body, and couldn't even last a day.

Ultimately, they were eliminated in the qualifying rounds and failed to make it into the top ten this year.

"In my next life, I must cultivate a Heaven-level cultivation technique no matter what!"

"I need to accumulate more Heaven-grade techniques!"

These are Li Ji'an's insights after unexpectedly participating in the Flying Goose Dao Discussion, which also made him more clearly aware of the huge gap between the Tiancang Domain and the Wanshang Domain in cultivating immortal seedlings.

If one is exceptionally talented, the path to advancement within the Wanshang Domain is broader, and there are more opportunities.

However, for the general public, it is safer to stay in the Tiancang Domain.

After being eliminated, he decisively fled far away, and halfway there he changed his identity to Huang Jie before returning to Feihong Immortal City as a mere spectator to watch the battle of the prodigies.

The initial purpose of the identity "Liu Qingyun" was simply to seek an opportunity for Guagua to condense a demon core, but due to the delay caused by the spirit contract, it can now be considered a complete success.

Unless there are special circumstances, this identity will not reappear.

This is also why he revealed the secret techniques of the divine soul during his discussion of Taoism, and it was also an attempt.

However, when he first activated the Mask of No Form, he clearly felt that Huang Jie's assimilation of him had weakened considerably.

Several days later, he was finally spotted by a group from the Sishui Chamber of Commerce and went to pay his respects to Master Yuxiao.

Although Master Yuxiao did not blame him for his nearly one-year assignment, his words revealed much dissatisfaction and disappointment.

Originally, because of Guo Wanzhi, he wanted to give her a chance to make a contribution, and afterwards he might consider providing her with a Core Formation Spiritual Treasure.

But now I've given up hope.

After that, Li Ji'an stayed with the Surabaya Chamber of Commerce.

However, Yao Rui was always by his side during that time.

Master Yuxiao was overjoyed that Yao Rui was able to advance to the semi-finals, so he increased the investment in her spiritual contract and promised to upgrade her Core Formation spiritual treasure to the next level.

This greatly alleviated Yao Rui's frustration after being eliminated in all three matches of the qualifying rounds.

After this debate competition, Yao Rui's spirits were dampened, and she was no longer as arrogant as before.

A month later, the top five winners of this year's Flying Goose Forum were determined.

Of the five, two are from the Jiuding Chamber of Commerce, and one each from the Liehu Chamber of Commerce, Wufu Chamber of Commerce, and Tai'an Chamber of Commerce.

None of them were members of the Chamber of Commerce; they were discovered by private individuals.

Moreover, three of the five are born with spiritual bodies. In addition to the Nanming Lihuo spiritual body, the one from the Jiuding Chamber of Commerce is an extremely rare and precious Wanfa Lei spiritual body. He is naturally proficient in thunder magic and his every move exudes the power of thunder.

The other person, though not a spirit, possessed a very rare unique spiritual root: the wind spiritual root.

His mastery of wind-attribute techniques seemed innate, granting him incredible speed and a ghostly aura. Even Li Ji'an, at the peak of the mid-stage Core Formation realm, couldn't track him at close range with his divine sense.

Of the five, only one possessed an earth-elemental heavenly spiritual root. However, his cultivation technique was clearly far superior to the others. His earth-elemental magical power was the strongest Li Ji'an had ever seen in his three lifetimes of cultivation. Whether it was bombardment by magical treasures or killing with metal-elemental techniques, none could break through his defense.

On that day, the delegation from the Sishui Chamber of Commerce followed Jade Flute Immortal back to Cold Mist Immortal City.

Three months later, the top five from the Flying Goose Dao Discussion will compete in the final at this year's auction in Cold Mist Immortal City to determine the top three.

The grand final will be held after the auction to determine the winner.

After more than two years of preparation, the Cold Mist Immortal City is now fully prepared.

Unsurprisingly, the Surabaya Chamber of Commerce will shine brightly as the organizer of this touring auction, and its overall strength will be greatly enhanced.

On his first day back in Hanyan Immortal City, Li Ji'an received good news: Guo Wanzhi was preparing to break through to the Core Formation stage.

With his superior spiritual root, he cultivated the low-grade earth-level technique of the Biyun Sect. His magical power was not profound enough, lacked refinement, and was not pure enough. If he were in the Biyun Sect, he would have virtually no hope of obtaining a Core Formation spiritual treasure.

The upper limit is only for fake pills.

However, at the Sishui Chamber of Commerce, he was granted a top-100 Core Formation Spiritual Treasure and was allowed to use the Sishui Chamber of Commerce's third-tier intermediate spiritual vein dojo to attempt the breakthrough.

There is hope of forming a true elixir.

However, this was not entirely due to the "sir's" good fortune.

Furthermore, it is thanks to its own advanced second-tier alchemy skills.

The Sishui Chamber of Commerce's investment in it is mainly aimed at cultivating third-level alchemists, so this deal is unlikely to be a loss.

“There are countless talented people in the world, and we ordinary people shouldn’t bother ourselves with such trivial matters,” Yao Rui said with a slight sigh as she stood to the side.

Before participating in the Flying Goose Dao Discussion, and even before the qualifying rounds, she always believed that her earth spiritual root was already among the best innate talents of the world, no weaker than anyone else.

So at that time, she was determined to break through to a high-quality magic core at the Core Formation stage.

That's why she was initially dissatisfied with the third-tier mid-grade spiritual vein dojo within the Sishui Chamber of Commerce and wanted to exchange it with Li Ji'an for the Feihong dojo.

But now, having witnessed the true prodigies of our time, she realizes that her mere earthly spiritual root is nothing more than mediocre talent.

Upon learning that Guo Wanzhi had already begun preparing for Core Formation, he suddenly felt a sense of relief.

Prepare to accept the arrangements of fate with equanimity, and use the spiritual resources of the previous Hundred-Step Core Formation to attempt to form the Core here.

They no longer set their sights too high, nor did they fantasize about reaching the middle or upper ranks of the True Elixir realm; they were content as long as they could obtain the minimum True Elixir level.

Li Ji'an turned his head and glanced at her, shaking his head inwardly. With her innate talent in earth spirit roots, and although her magical power was not very profound, it was still refined.

The upper limit could actually be upstream to True Core. After thinking about it, I decided to casually offer some words of encouragement: "Is Fairy Yao already so discouraged?"

Yao Rui glanced at him calmly: "That's the truth."

"In my opinion, if Fairy Yao had initially practiced superior cultivation techniques and mastered advanced secret arts, she might not have been inferior to those prodigies," Li Ji'an probed.

“Sigh.” Yao Rui shook her head slightly: “Even if one is born here, with only the talent of earth spirit root, one may not be qualified to cultivate the most superior cultivation techniques. Moreover, even if one cultivates superior cultivation techniques like those geniuses, the gap in talent is difficult to bridge, and the final result will not be too different.”

Li Ji'an chuckled slightly, realizing that his temperament had been completely smoothed out this time.

Then she chuckled and said, "According to Fairy Yao, should those of us who lack talent give up?"

Upon hearing this, Yao Rui visibly paused.

After a moment, he said softly, "Of course not, but perhaps I shouldn't be so ambitious anymore."

"What does it mean to be overly ambitious?" Li Ji'an pressed.

“Naturally, I won’t make expectations that exceed my capabilities,” Yao Rui replied immediately.

Li Ji'an smiled and shook his head, then turned around and stared into Yao Rui's eyes: "We cultivators are born with nothing more than mortal bodies. Is it an expectation beyond our capabilities to expect to burn the heavens and boil the seas with a mortal body and fly to the ninth heaven?"

"This……"

"Without such expectations, would the first human to embark on the path of cultivation never have been born? And would we cultivators continue to break through our limitations, absorb spiritual energy, and embark on the path of immortality?"

"Of course not."

"So, Fairy Yao still thinks that constantly breaking through one's own limits and challenging the impossible is just being overly ambitious?" Li Ji'an's voice suddenly turned low.

In fact, opinions on being overly ambitious vary from person to person.

Those who aim too high often end up in tragedy.

However, it cannot be denied that many who create miracles are also those who have unrealistic ambitions.

After all, miracles mean the impossible and unrealistic to the world.

But this depends on the person. For those who have not truly experienced the hardships and difficulties of the world, Li Ji'an hopes that they will be down-to-earth and not be overly ambitious, otherwise they will suffer a crushing defeat.

However, for someone like Yao Rui, who was discouraged by seeing someone better, and who is both hardworking and talented, she should not be confined to this situation.

The attitude of self-cultivation is to objectively understand oneself and then continuously surpass and challenge one's limits.

Even for Guo Wanzhi, although based on the experience of the cultivation world, achieving a lower-level True Core is already the upper limit, it is not impossible that she could achieve an upper-level True Core or even an Immortal Golden Core if she obtains a superior Core Formation Spiritual Treasure or other fortuitous encounters.

The principles of the world are the same as those of the heavens: impermanence is the only constant.

After a long while, Yao Rui, who had been feeling down, suddenly brightened up.

"Thank you so much, Brother Huang, for your enlightening words!" He suddenly bowed deeply to Li Ji'an.

"Hahaha~" Li Ji'an laughed loudly, then turned and headed towards his secluded island cave.

He was quite satisfied with his situation in the Sishui Chamber of Commerce. No one cared about him or paid attention to him, so he could let Guagua cultivate in the underground palace with peace of mind, and he could also focus on improving his physical and spiritual cultivation.

Now that his karmic ties with the Jinhua Chamber of Commerce are severed and he has a clear understanding of the situation in the entire Wanshang Domain, he can focus on his cultivation here with peace of mind.

On this day, the grand Merchant Alliance Tour Auction kicked off in Cold Mist Immortal City.

The touring auction is jointly organized by the eighteen chambers of commerce of the entire business alliance, and the auction items of each session are absolutely the best in the entire eastern part of the cultivation world of Daze.

Meanwhile, the presence of the Flying Goose Dao Discussion Finals has made the atmosphere in the entire Cold Mist Immortal City even more intense.

As a first-class guest elder of the Sishui Chamber of Commerce, Li Ji'an could also be considered a half-host.

Although he did not receive any mission, he was still treated with great respect upon arriving in the immortal city dressed as a guest elder.

After the general leader of the business alliance gave a speech, the final competition for the top five in the Flying Goose Forum began.

After several days of competition, the Wanfa Lei spirit body of the Jiuding Chamber of Commerce, the Nanming Lihuo spirit body of the Liehu Chamber of Commerce, and the earth-type heavenly spirit root of the Tai'an Chamber of Commerce won the top three places in this Flying Goose Dao Discussion.

The Earth-type Heavenly Spirit Root prodigy from the Tai'an Chamber of Commerce became the dark horse of this final.

Its overwhelming earth-based magic power suppressed the innate spiritual body and the extraordinary spiritual root of the immortal seedling, greatly disappointing many who had previously praised the innate spiritual body.

Meanwhile, the earth-based cultivation technique given to him by the Tai'an Chamber of Commerce also became the focus of discussion among everyone.

"It's probably a true ancient immortal scripture!"

"The Tai'an Chamber of Commerce actually possesses an Earth-type Immortal Manual. I'm afraid that in the future, all the geniuses with Earth-type spiritual roots in the region will flock here."

"I wonder if they would trade this technique?"

……

Li Ji'an was also very envious of the earth-based cultivation technique of the Tai'an Chamber of Commerce.

Judging from the performance of that celestial spirit root immortal seedling, he also agreed with everyone's guess.

Although earth-based cultivation techniques are not a perfect match for his spiritual roots, they are still considered immortal scriptures. If given the chance, he would truly be willing to try them for a lifetime.

Even though his earth spirit root was only eleven strands of mid-grade lower quality.

"The effects of the Immortal Scripture are even greater than I imagined compared to the Heavenly Rank cultivation techniques." He couldn't help but recall the cultivation technique that the Red Stone Hermit had accidentally obtained in his previous life.

That ancient sage claimed it to be a celestial scripture, so it must be true.

"I will seek it out after I reach the mid-stage of Core Formation!" Li Ji'an has never given up on that immortal scripture.

However, in his previous life, he was merely a fake core cultivator and was not confident enough to crush that third-tier two-headed snake demon.

Most importantly, the foundation laid for this life in my previous life was the Biyun Sect.

As for the Biyun Sect's Earth-level cultivation technique, based on his understanding at the time, it was already sufficient for Core Formation, and even aspiring to Nascent Soul. He truly did not expect the difference between cultivation techniques to be so great.

After the top three winners of the Flying Goose Daoist Competition were determined, the competition temporarily came to an end, and the final competition was held after the auction.

The auction features a large number of items and is expected to last for a month.

Li Ji'an entered the auction house as a guest elder of the Sishui Chamber of Commerce, intending only to bid on his own. However, he was spotted by Master Yuxiao, who, being a guest elder, led him to the VIP room on the third floor.

Master Yuxiao and several high-ranking officials will be present to observe the entire event. If any special circumstances arise during the auction, they will ensure that the issue is resolved immediately.

The eighteen chambers of commerce are the main entities here, and each has a VIP seat on the third floor.

On the fourth floor above, five additional VIP private rooms have been set up.

That was prepared for True Monarchs and the like who came from afar, and it had become the rule of the Wanshang Domain's annual touring auctions.

However, the organizers are unsure whether anyone will come, or how many will attend.

However, there are precedents for this in history.

As the Grand Elder of the Jiuding Chamber of Commerce, representing the Chamber of Commerce, announced the start of this auction, the auction items were gradually revealed.

"Elder Huang, what do you intend to bid for this time? Do you have sufficient spiritual resources?" Seeing that Li Ji'an was focused on the auction stage as soon as he entered, Jia Yuanqing, the vice president of the Sishui Chamber of Commerce, asked with a smile, while a strange look flashed in his eyes.

(End of this chapter)