Cultivating Immortality Begins with Rejuvenation.

Chapter 359 Return to the Wasteland
It was thought that when the Myriad Laws Palace was breached by the Corpse Puppet Sect, Ning Sujin's physical body might be destroyed, and Li Ji'an had also prepared for the possibility of using the Black Light Umbrella to temporarily house her primordial spirit.

Unexpectedly, it was delivered right to my doorstep.

But this also made him suspicious and uneasy.

After pondering for a moment, he still had no clue, so he simply put on the Mask of No Form again and began to sift through the fragments of Wanfa Zhenjun's memories about Ning Sujin.

This time, he disregarded the cost, focusing all his spiritual power on filtering memory fragments.

Enduring the stinging pain between his brows, he finally found the first fragment of memory related to Ning Sujin after three full days.

"The one favored by the gods... True Lord Beixuan... A mid-stage Nascent Soul opportunity..."

"So that's how it is!" Li Ji'an could no longer bear it and hurriedly withdrew from the vast memories of the Myriad Laws True Lord.

Having read his memories, all his doubts were finally dispelled.

Although it remains unknown who the Northern Mystic True Lord is, why he is searching the world for those favored by the gods, and what he will do to them, Li Ji'an is temporarily at ease.

At least for now, Ning Sujin's physical body is fine.

After having the little fire spirit scan Ning Sujin's entire body with its spiritual power to confirm that there were no marks, Li Ji'an immediately sent a telepathic message to Ning Sujin, who had been in seclusion for a month.

That night, Ning Sujin was awakened and took control of Ning Yutan's consciousness until late at night.

"Li Lang, what joyous occasion is it?" Ning Sujin asked expectantly as she entered Li Ji'an's Taoist temple.

Li Ji'an rubbed his temples, his face showing deep fatigue, but he still forced a smile: "Sister Jin, why don't you take a guess?"

"Does the Myriad Laws True Lord's Qiankun Ring contain any extraordinary treasures? Could it be something that can help Li Lang's Golden Core cultivation?" Ning Sujin walked closer, gently held Li Ji'an's head in her arms, and said happily while gently rubbing it with her hands.

Li Ji'an took the opportunity to hug Ning Sujin's waist and chuckled, "Sister Jin, we cultivators, in our pursuit of the Dao, must not be heartless or devoid of emotion, but at least we cannot be infatuated. Otherwise, the Great Dao will be ineffective. You can't just think about me; you should think about yourself too."

Ning Sujin scoffed at this, looking down into Li Ji'an's eyes: "Li Lang, don't talk to me about the path of cultivation. I don't understand it. I only know that you are the one who keeps me going. Without you, what's the point of becoming an immortal?"

When their eyes met, Li Ji'an could feel the sincerity and passion in his eyes, and couldn't help but press his head down to express his feelings for him.

After venting his emotions, Li Ji'an stopped being coy and took out the ice coffin directly.

"..." Ning Sujin was stunned when she saw the physical body inside the ice coffin, which had been separated from her primordial spirit for nearly two hundred years.

"My physical body has returned?"

"Can I no longer be bound by this spiritual vein dojo and travel the world with you?"

After regaining her senses, Ning Sujin threw herself into Li Ji'an's arms, tears streaming down her face.

Li Ji'an nodded emphatically and gently patted her back.

Only after he had completely calmed down did Li Ji'an tell him about the things in Wanfa Zhenjun's memory about Beixuan Zhenjun and the God-favored One, guessing that the God-favored One's special situation in this world might not be a good thing, and told him to be more careful.

“Li Lang, I know very little about the cultivation world and I don’t want to worry about anything else. I’ll do whatever you say.” Ning Sujin readily agreed.

"Sister Jin, are you able to return to your physical body immediately?"

"Yes, but since the soul has been separated from the body for a long time, it needs to adapt and be nurtured for some time. I estimate it will take about a year to fully integrate," Ning Sujin affirmed.

"Do you need me to protect you?" Li Ji'an asked with concern.

Ning Sujin shook her head: "That's not necessary. There is no risk in the return of the soul; it just takes time to integrate."

"That's good. To avoid any further complications, let's get started as soon as possible," Li Ji'an instructed.

"Alright, I will separate from Yu Tan tonight and begin my return to my physical body."

That night, Ning Sujin, in Ning Yutan's body, spent one last night with Li Ji'an.

Afterwards, Ning Sujin began to seclude herself to fuse with her physical body. After a month of rest, Li Ji'an bid farewell to Xiao Qiao and left the Strange Stone Forest, heading to the two-headed snake cave in the Fallen Dragon Ridge wilderness.

It would take several years to fully unravel the divine memories of the Myriad Laws True Lord, so Li Ji'an decided to first retrieve that immortal scripture.

Before leaving, he wanted to take the invisibility puppet with him, but after many attempts, he still couldn't control it with his current divine sense, so he had to give up.

A month later, Li Ji'an stood in the Ninth Heaven, looking down at the chaos in the desolate spiritual vein dojo below.

Of the eight families that once dominated the wilderness, none remain today. The ancestral spiritual veins and ancestral lands of the eight families, including the market towns, have been occupied by countless rogue cultivators.

Its interior was chaotic and disorderly.

Looking at the ancestral land of the Yan family, a trace of nostalgia appeared in Li Ji'an's eyes. Finally, he moved and disguised himself as a weathered old man, landing in the United Market.

The Yan family's pill shop was long ago reduced to ruins, whether from the impact of a battle between cultivators or from someone's deliberate actions is unknown.

In his fourth life, he first met Yan Qingwan here.

More than two hundred years have passed, and Yan Qingwan has passed away peacefully, but Li Ji'an still remembers her as she was when she was seventeen or eighteen years old.

In the long river of time, more than two hundred years is but a turn of the head, a distance of looking back.

“Young Miss…” Li Ji’an murmured, a gentle smile appearing on his weathered old face.

"Where do you think you're going? You dare to run away after offending my Fierce Tiger Gang?" Just as Li Ji'an was reminiscing about his first encounter with Yan Qingwan, a group of people chased after the two of them and rushed straight towards Li Ji'an.

Li Ji'an calmed his mind and enveloped them with his divine sense.

Five cultivators at the early stage of Qi Refining were chasing after a father and son.

The father was in his thirties, and the son was in his teens.

The father was covered in wounds, mostly from the cuts inflicted by wind blades, while the son was unharmed but was nearly exhausted.

What piqued Li Ji'an's curiosity was that both father and son were using martial arts techniques.

Moreover, it clearly has many similarities to the martial arts techniques he created in his third life during the Immortal Dynasty, which combined the strengths of various martial arts schools.

The father showed no signs of spiritual energy, while the son had barely begun to cultivate Qi.

"Get lost!" Li Ji'an then lightly slammed his dragon staff into the ground, knocking over the pursuers behind the father and son.

"..." Upon seeing this, the father and son suddenly paused.

With just a slight pause, the powerful figure they saw was sent flying several feet backward.

After a moment of stunned silence, he suddenly kowtowed to Li Ji'an in gratitude: "Thank you so much for saving my life, senior! Thank you so much, senior!"

Clearly, the old man before them was the peerless master who roamed the world in the stories.

The father and son were both surprised and delighted.

"Stand up and answer," Li Ji'an said calmly.

"Yes, yes." The father and son hurriedly stood up, but their bodies were still bent at almost a ninety-degree angle.

"Where do you come from?" Li Ji'an asked bluntly.

“We…” The father was about to say where they lived, but then he remembered something and quickly changed his words: “Reporting to senior, we come from the Sandstorm Wasteland.”

"Oh? Tell me more." Li Ji'an raised an eyebrow, immediately showing interest.

Sixty years ago, Li Ji'an went to the Immortal Bestowed Dynasty and, according to his own wishes, transformed the world within the forbidden zone, revealing the truth of the matter.

It gave those in the Jedi realm an objective understanding, but didn't make choices for them; it merely pointed them in the right direction.

He anticipated that those within the Jedi would make their own choices.

Those with ambition will naturally not be content with the mundane; they will surely overcome all difficulties and obstacles to pursue another form of life.

Those who are naturally steady can also find enjoyment in the deadly situation. This is what he considers the fairest approach.

"May I invite you to my tavern, senior? I will certainly tell you everything I know without reservation."

Li Ji'an nodded in agreement.

Before long, Li Ji'an followed the father and son to the outskirts of the United Market.

The city walls of the United Market have long since collapsed, and the outer perimeter has been filled with ordinary people.

The father and son's tavern was located on the very edge of the outer perimeter.

The spiritual energy here is already quite weak, but it's still slightly better than the former mortal gathering area.

The tavern was now a complete mess, with several wine jars smashed to pieces and the once unique mortal wine of the Immortal Dynasty scattered all over the ground.

The father and son looked at the tavern with a hint of sadness, then quickly wiped away their tears, cleaned up a table that was barely big enough for one person to sit on, and took out an unbroken wine jar from the counter and brought it out.

"Senior, please try our humble wine from the forbidden lands." He respectfully filled Li Ji'an's bowl and then hurriedly stepped back.

Li Ji'an nodded at the ordinary wine, then drank it all in one gulp.

"Speak, how did you get here?"

"Twenty years ago, I went to this place with hundreds of like-minded Jedi, but in the end, only thirteen of us made it safely..."

The middle-aged man immediately recounted his experience in detail.

Since Li Ji'an transformed the Jue Di sixty years ago, everyone in the Jue Di has started practicing martial arts again, and they all know that the Jue Di is just a tiny place in this world.

I also learned that cultivation of immortality truly exists in this world.

As a result, martial arts developed rapidly over the following decades, and every year countless ambitious people embarked on the path to break through their destiny.

After decades of continuous efforts, and with the map of the sandstorm route left by Li Ji'an, people finally emerged from the desolate land and arrived at the Tiancang Wilderness.

However, most people who come here are like the middle-aged man in front of me, going from hope to despair, and then placing their hopes on the younger generation. Unfortunately, in the end, they still despair.

The middle-aged man, who set lofty goals at the age of seventeen or eighteen, finally arrived at this place thanks to his martial arts skills and adventurous spirit.

Just like Li Ji'an in his fourth incarnation, his spiritual roots were inferior, and he was almost destined to never embark on the path of cultivation.

Moreover, their timing was even worse, as they encountered a period of great chaos within the domain, during which demonic and evil cultivators ran rampant.

Many people who had just arrived here after going through countless hardships were immediately beheaded simply because they glanced at a certain demonic cultivator.

Forget about cultivation, even survival is not guaranteed.

When Li Ji'an and Zhao Shuyao came to this place, at least the region was peaceful, and there were kind people like Chen Zhaohu who guided them. They were also recruited by the eight major families, giving them a glimmer of hope to embark on cultivation.

After despairing, the middle-aged man placed his hopes on his offspring, marrying a local woman and having children.

He thought that if his offspring were born here, their spiritual roots wouldn't be destroyed like his.

However, while the son does possess spiritual roots, having spiritual roots does not automatically grant him the aptitude for cultivation.

Cultivation techniques, training grounds, elixirs... obstacles are everywhere.

Now he can only rely on this small tavern to accumulate spiritual resources for his son, hoping that his son can fulfill his unfulfilled dream of cultivating immortality.

Unfortunately, after the demonic and evil cultivators destroyed the Yan family and several other cultivation families in the wasteland, this place became a no-man's land. The demonic cultivators did not have the habit of establishing power to enslave others, but some local cultivators and some rogue cultivators who fled from other places were very good at this.

They gathered people, established gangs, divided up territories, and exploited the lower-class people within their spheres of influence as much as possible.

The middle-aged man's tavern failed to pay its land tax on time and was made an example of.

"Do you regret it?" Li Ji'an asked calmly after listening to the middle-aged man's story.

The middle-aged man was startled, and then his eyes gradually became blurry.

After a moment, he lowered his head helplessly: "I regret it!"

“But if I had to do it again, I would probably do the same thing!” he then added.

"Moreover, I actually had the chance to regret it. Even now, if I wanted to go back to the Jedi and live a normal life, I could go back. Having been through the Jedi once, the danger would be much less. But, since I have already seen more distant scenery, I don't want to go back until I've been there myself."

"Are there any Jedi who came and then went back?" Li Ji'an asked again.

"Yes! But they almost always come out again," the middle-aged man affirmed.

"Come, drink with this old man." Li Ji'an didn't ask any more questions, letting him drink with him while listening quietly.

As the middle-aged man's alcohol levels rose, he became more talkative.

During the conversation, they mentioned the kind of replenishing pills that Li Ji'an provided to orphans in the wasteland in his previous life, and said that they regretted not coming here earlier.

Otherwise, if one were to take that kind of Replenishing Essence Pill, even a mortal from a desperate situation could restore their spiritual roots and begin their cultivation journey.

However, in the previous life, the Replenishing Essence Pill was supplied in the name of the Yan family, and the Yan family was the most respected among the middle-aged people.

It also mentioned many folk tales about Yan Qingwan, the number one fairy of the wilderness.

She is described as the most beautiful woman in the world, with a compassionate heart, exceptional cultivation, a powerful background, and many suitors.

If Fairy Yan were here, the wasteland wouldn't be in such a chaotic state now.

Li Ji'an was greatly pleased to hear this.

The fact that Yan Qingwan's reputation endured even after her peaceful death can be seen as a kind of legacy.

At the same time, his divine sense had already enveloped a group of people hiding in a corner not far away.

The leader was controlling a small beast, using it to sense Li Ji'an's presence.

"Are you sure there's no Foundation Establishment aura?" The leader was pale and beardless, with an unsteady gait, and was at the ninth level of Qi Refining.

A Qi Refining stage cultivator's soul only possesses the level of spiritual awareness and cannot yet project it outwards. Therefore, to determine whether he has encountered a powerful figure, he uses his pet to sense whether it is a Foundation Establishment aura.

Moreover, the report from his subordinates just now only stated that the old man merely overturned them.

At this moment, he was almost certain of the opponent's strength.

"Hmph, you dare to meddle in other people's business without even having the strength to establish your foundation? Let's go!" The leader immediately snorted coldly and led his men from the Fierce Tiger Gang closer.

As the group approached, they heard the middle-aged man praising Yan Qingwan to the best of his ability.

"What a pity! Beauty is often envied by heaven. Otherwise, I would have made her experience my secret dual cultivation technique!" The leader of the Fierce Tiger Gang sighed, shaking his head as he walked over.

He first glanced at the father and son, then his gaze fell on Li Ji'an.

"old……"

"Whoosh!" But just as he opened his mouth, a whooshing sound suddenly rang out, and the corpse was instantly separated from its head.

Immediately, before the others could even gasp, another gust of wind swept by.

All the members of the Fierce Tiger Gang were beheaded, their eyes wide open in death.

Li Ji'an's purpose in cultivating was not simply to achieve immortality, but to be able to do as he pleased.

He doesn't yet possess the power to act as he pleases in the face of the upper echelons, but he doesn't need to have any reservations when dealing with these people. He has both compassion and ruthless methods.

(End of this chapter)