Cultivating Immortality: Starting from Ferrying Passengers

Chapter 206 Kuai Tong's Gaze
After finishing his thoughts on Sword Shadow Mountain, Fang Jingxuan turned his attention to other information.

Currently, his mana essence has reached nearly two thousand drops, and he is only at the second level of Foundation Establishment. Generally, a cultivator at the second level of Foundation Establishment has about six or seven hundred drops of mana essence in his body.

His magical power was three times that of an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator of the same realm. This alone gave him a huge advantage in combat.

In addition, the Yellow Spring True Water that Fang Jingxuan obtained from Jueyunzi, a successor of Shangqing, in the outer seas back then, has also been refined into his Yellow Spring Domain over the past few years.

The additional supernatural power in that domain, [Soul Locking of the Styx River], is the effect of these Yellow Spring True Waters.

This supernatural power unfolds automatically with the Yellow Springs Domain. As long as the cultivators within the Yellow Springs Domain are willing, Fang Jingxuan can automatically generate Styx Chains from within the domain to continuously bind and restrain them.

These Styx Chains are formed from a mixture of Yin energy and True Qi. Without corresponding supernatural powers and magical artifacts to counter them, one truly cannot escape them.

In this way, the Yellow Springs Domain has gained another means of trapping enemies, further increasing its power.

Unfortunately, the production of the second Extreme Yin Moon Essence Dew is extremely rare, with only three drops produced per month, while the formation of this domain requires at least three thousand drops.

Otherwise, Fang Jingxuan would also like to refine it into Xuanming True Qi to see how many surprises this second domain can bring him.

After checking his own panel attributes, Fang Jingxuan couldn't help but feel satisfied. His apparent strength was only at the second level of Foundation Establishment, but if he were to unleash his true combat power, with the help of Tuoyuan and Liugu, wouldn't he be able to fight to a draw with a veteran late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator?
Fang Jingxuan pondered these thoughts for a moment, but ultimately suppressed them. Cultivation was important; he should avoid fighting if possible and focus on steady development.

Three months later, Fang Jingxuan's cultivation progress increased by another 2,700 points, bringing him one step closer to the third level of Foundation Establishment.

However, Jia Shengyu, whom he had previously sent out to bribe an inside man and sow discord, was starting to get restless.

"My lord, this is a great opportunity! I have received news that the number one Foundation Establishment sword cultivator of Sword Shadow Mountain is going on a journey and will not be back for a year or two."

"We can seize this opportunity and launch our attack immediately. I have an inside contact who has agreed to temporarily open the mountain-protecting formation to let us in. All we need to do is give him a top-grade Foundation Establishment Pill."

Inside the city of Qifu, on the second floor of a high-end teahouse, only Foundation Establishment cultivators are accepted.

Fang Jingxuan requested a private seat, but remained silent, preoccupied with sipping his tea.

While Jia Shengyu was peddling his scheme, Fang Jingxuan seemed uninterested.

With a stable income of ninety high-grade spirit stones per month, Fang Jingxuan naturally didn't bother with anything else. His ambition to seize Sword Shadow Mountain was simply to grab a piece of the land so he could earn spirit stones for himself.

Now that he had the spirit stones, he had a second-tier high-grade cave dwelling, which was quite comfortable to rent. The rent was only ten high-grade spirit stones a year, which Fang Jingxuan paid very generously.

"To suddenly travel far away when it's neither a holiday nor a festival is suspicious. Let's wait and see, and not act rashly."

Fang Jingxuan casually made up an excuse, indicating that this matter should be handled with caution. Jia Shengyu is a talented person who will definitely be useful in the future. He couldn't forcefully cancel the plan and make Jia Shengyu feel that the past year or so had been wasted without any meaning.

As for Sword Shadow Mountain, a lot of spirit stones had already been spent in the early stages, and Fang Jingxuan did not want to give up just like that, so he simply delayed it for a while and let Jia Shengyu continue to do things.

“That’s possible. Sword Shadow Mountain has faced many external enemies over the years. Maybe this is just a deception, a bait.” Jia Shengyu was a smart man, and smart men think a lot more. Fang Jingxuan only raised this suspicion, but Jia Shengyu automatically filled in a lot of possibilities.

"Then you should investigate further. Even if you miss this opportunity, it won't matter. After all, time is on our side. The later we start, the more information we can gather, and the greater our chances of winning will be."

"Understood, I will go and continue my investigation."

Jia Shengyu apologized and was about to leave when Fang Jingxuan called him back.

"You've worked hard over the past year. Take this bottle of second-grade Yellow Ginseng Pills and try to reach the late stage of Qi Refining as soon as possible."

Fang Jingxuan casually handed over a bottle of pills. These pills were of the second rank and were generally used by Foundation Establishment cultivators, but they were even more effective when taken by Qi Refining cultivators.

Upon receiving the pills, Jia Shengyu immediately knelt down to pay his respects. This single bottle of pills was enough to cover his salary for half a year, and this was only an extra gift from Fang Jingxuan.

Seeing that Jia Shengyu wanted to express his gratitude, Fang Jingxuan waved his hand to indicate that it was not necessary. After Jia Shengyu left, he chuckled. It was the end of the month, and Wang Xuan would probably send him ninety high-grade spirit stones again next month.

Four months later, Jia Shengyu sent a message saying that Sword Shadow Mountain was indeed a trap. The first Foundation Establishment sword cultivator was ostensibly traveling, but in reality, he was hiding nearby. When potential enemies became restless and revealed a weakness, he launched a surprise attack alone with his sword.

They killed one of the enemy's Foundation Establishment cultivators on the spot, thus averting a potential threat.

Upon hearing this news, Jia Shengyu was immediately shocked, and then relieved. According to his judgment, if Fang Jingxuan had acted rashly this time, he would most likely have failed and even suffered considerable losses due to exposing his intentions.

Right now, Fang Jingxuan is still in the shadows, while Jianying Mountain has once again exposed many of its strengths and trump cards because of its actions. Jia Shengyu is collecting specific information about the number one swordsman's actions, and it is estimated that it will be sent to Fang Jingxuan soon.

After this experience, Jia Shengyu greatly admired Fang Jingxuan, so when Fang Jingxuan expressed his intention to continue to remain calm and covert, he did not object.

But he didn't know that Fang Jingxuan had already lost interest in the matter of Sword Shadow Mountain.

In Qifu City, Wang Xuan's status in the alchemy circle has been rising steadily over the past year or so, thanks to the 'Emperor's Jade Dew Pill'.

Several close alchemists kept subtly probing Wang Xuan about where the key ingredients for the 'Imperial Jade Dew Pill' came from.

After all, the formula for the 'Imperial Jade Dew Pill' is not particularly rare. Many alchemists have come into contact with such ancient formulas, but they don't pay much attention to them because they lack the main ingredients.

However, with the advent of the 'Imperial Jade Dew Pill', the main ingredient for refining this pill, the Extreme Yin Moon Essence Dew, was exposed to everyone.

Although Wang Xuan was a second-tier mid-grade alchemist with a superior status, that was all. When faced with the real power and influence in Qifu City, such as the city lord, Kuai Tong, a late-stage Golden Core cultivator, he was completely overwhelmed.

Thus, Fang Jingxuan's existence came into Kuai Tong's view.

(End of this chapter)