Immortality and cultivation begin at age forty, starting with Foundation Establishment.

"Senior Brother Chen, let's talk." Yu Peiyao's voice was slightly scattered by the wind, but every word was clear, carrying an almost stubborn seriousness.

"What's wrong?" Chen An stopped and looked at Yu Peiyao. He breathed a sigh of relief only after confirming that the other party's favorability rating had not fluctuated.

Yu Peiyao turned to look at Chen An, her eyes clear, and said in a serious tone, "I want to earn battle merits, lots and lots of battle merits, you can't stop me!"

"I'm willing to do anything to build my foundation and to live longer!"

"I can agree to become your concubine."

Chen An flicked Yu Peiyao's forehead and said in a tough tone, "Don't talk nonsense. I didn't stop you from earning merits, nor did I intend to force you to become my concubine."

Yu Peiyao, who was being serious, was interrupted. She cried out in pain, covered her forehead, and said in a low voice, slightly sobbing, "But Senior Brother Chen, you're already stopping me!"

"Earning battle merits is risky, and I know that Senior Brother Chen doesn't want to take risks. He won't go to dangerous areas in the future battlefield."

"But Senior Brother Chen, what should I do? I need to take risks and earn more battle merits!"

"Our interests are now inextricably linked. We can't think of any other way. Only you, senior brother, can help me!"

Chen An remained silent for a moment, then said softly, "Junior Sister Yu has already done very well. If she continues on a steady path in the future, she will have the opportunity to establish her foundation. Why rush things?"

Yu Peiyao shook her head with a wry smile and said, "Foundation Establishment isn't difficult, but Core Formation? If I can't establish my Foundation as quickly as possible, what am I supposed to do about Core Formation? Am I supposed to walk the path of demonic cultivation?!"

Chen An didn't know how to respond.

Can a cultivator with four spiritual roots form a core? Absolutely, they must be able to, but the cost of forming a core with four spiritual roots is so high that almost no force can afford it, and even if they have the resources, they won't allocate them to a cultivator with four spiritual roots.

If Yu Peiyao wants to form her core, she will need to put in hundreds of times more effort than she would to establish her foundation. Even if Chen Anquan helps her with all his might, she will still need to take constant risks.

Even so, she overcame numerous hardships and dangers along the way, obtained all the resources, and successfully cultivated to the peak of Foundation Establishment.

Even with the aptitude of four spiritual roots, the probability of eventually forming a core is still very low.

Even if one wants to cultivate a demon core, it is still very difficult. Otherwise, if the foundation-building platform is broken and the golden core cannot be condensed, the person will be truly useless and dead.

"Why bother?" Chen An's three words in response were particularly heavy.

Yu Peiyao wiped away her tears, gazed intently at Chen An, and said stubbornly, "In the struggle for the Great Dao, one must be unyielding, one must fight, and one must forge ahead without hesitation!"

"Just like Uncle Lu said, we are actually very similar, only our talents and circumstances are different."

"I know that if my senior brother also has four spiritual roots like me, he will know better than me how to become stronger. Just like my senior brother who is in the Foundation Establishment stage, his vision is not focused on the Golden Core stage, but on the path to immortality in the future."

Chen An said, "Taking this path will be very difficult and painful. You will encounter unimaginable dangers in the future, and there is a high probability that you will not live past fifty."

Yu Peiyao laughed freely and said, "What's the point of living if you can't live forever?"

Chen An wondered, "Is immortality really that important?"

Chen An pursued immortality not because he longed for immortality and power, but because he felt that there was an path to immortality ahead after coming to this world. So he went to explore immortality, not because immortality was his pursuit, and he went to compete with others for immortality.

Chen An enjoys the scenery along the way in his journey to immortality, such as fighting against rogue cultivators, breaking through in his cultivation, and collecting all sorts of rare and precious magical artifacts and treasures.

If you encounter an insurmountable danger, it's not bad to stop, live a normal life for a few hundred years.

After all, Chen An had no grudges to settle, nor did he intend to break the existing order of the cultivation world and become a unique powerhouse.

On the way to the Avenue of Longevity, Chen An simply lay down and relaxed.

Since he began cultivating, this was the first time Chen An had encountered someone who genuinely pursued the path to immortality. Compared to Yu Peiyao, all the other cultivators who had talked about immortality in the past were just boasting.

But Yu Peiyao is different; she is truly exploring the path to immortality and has already made tremendous efforts for it.

For a cultivator with four spiritual roots to reach the Qi Refining Perfection stage before the age of thirty is a miracle in itself; even Foundation Establishment can no longer hinder her progress.

"Why would you think that?" Chen An asked Yu Peiyao.

Yu Peiyao said, "Because I'm afraid of death! I like the feeling of being alive, so I want to pursue immortality."

It was a contradictory answer, but Chen An understood it.

Yu Peiyao does not want to die, so she pursues immortality. As long as she is alive, she will continue to pursue the path to immortality.

As for the process of pursuing it, how dangerous it is, or whether one might perish prematurely, none of that matters.

As long as Yu Peiyao is alive, she will not stop pursuing immortality; at least, she will not change her mind in the short term.

Yu Peiyao's pursuit is a human instinct, just like wanting to eat when hungry, wanting to drink when thirsty, or wanting to be healed when injured. Immortality is Yu Peiyao's instinctive reaction after she fears death.

"Senior brother, we are the same kind of people. If you want to go further in the future, you have to take risks to earn more resources."

"Believe me, the Yu family will definitely be your strong support."

"We will be the final victors in this war."

Before Chen An transmigrated, he was manipulated by his company boss. Now that he has become a cultivator, he is being manipulated by cultivators who are seeking the Great Dao.

As a cultivator, Yu Peiyao is qualified.

But what does this have to do with Chen An? She's just a concubine. There are plenty of beautiful and intelligent female cultivators in the cultivation world. Why should Chen An help a female cultivator with four spiritual roots explore the Great Dao just because of a concubine?

Once you're on that pirate ship, getting off won't be so easy. Yu Peiyao won't let Chen An go; the two of them are a community of shared interests and can't be separated.

The bond between Chen An and the Yu family was not Yu Lanhua, a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, nor his great contribution of offering the Soul Nourishing Grass, but Yu Peiyao, a Qi Refining cultivator.

The war has begun, and Chen An is already trapped.

The Demon Wolf Legion doesn't just belong to Chen An; it also belongs to the Yu family and to Yu Peiyao.

No matter how much Chen An gives in return, he will always be the beneficiary; this is an undeniable fact.

Yu Peiyao's emotions, from being serious at the beginning, to crying, and then serious again, have been influencing Chen An's judgment.

If Chen An hadn't been able to sense the level of affection, he probably would have been completely fooled by Yu Peiyao, then chosen to take her as a concubine, forming a deeper bond and becoming an ally on Yu Peiyao's path to immortality.

Just as Yu Peiyao continued preparing for her performance.

Chen An raised his hand and summoned a willow branch from his storage bag, then whipped Yu Peiyao on the back.

Yu Peiyao gasped, jumped up in pain, and looked incredulous.

"Chen An, you...you have no right to hit me!"

Chen An said, "It's fun."