I'm determined to become an immortal!

Glug glug...

Suddenly, a series of bubbles rose from the wide river surface.

Immediately afterward, a figure emerged from the river like a water ghost—it was He Sheng!

This place is already more than 2,000 miles south of the Tiandu Mountain range, in the middle section of the Yinsha River.

After He Sheng escaped through the hidden waterway in Jingsi Cave into the underground river, he traveled downstream, first joining the upper reaches of the Yinsha River.

After that, he continuously used the Minor Ripples Water Escape technique to travel for almost half an hour, covering a distance of a thousand miles.

Seeing that his magic power was not much left, he stopped using water escape and traveled swiftly on water for two or three hours before finally arriving here.

"We should be safe for now."

He Sheng enhanced his spiritual sense with the subtle ripples of the mind and expanded it to its maximum extent. His spiritual sense did not generate the slightest warning, which reassured him a lot.

"Let's find a place to recover some of our magical power first, then we'll consider our next move."

With a thought in mind, He Sheng headed down a cliff overlooking the river.

His divine sense had already detected a hidden cave there. The entrance was covered by thick green vines, and the inside was dry and spacious, making it a good place to rest temporarily.

He Sheng followed his divine sense and entered the cave.

"That sword-wielding youth will have no chance of catching me now, will he?"

It makes no sense that someone could be found thousands of miles away after losing all traces; otherwise, it would be too unbelievable.

To be honest, He Sheng felt that the sword-wielding youth was far too overpowered; a direct confrontation was out of the question.

But if they escape thousands of miles away and are caught up, how can they possibly survive?

He Sheng sat down against the mountain wall, let out a long breath, took out a few pills to restore his mana, and then began to regulate his breathing with the Mindful Ripples technique.

However, after one complete cycle of the Heavenly Circuit, only a few hundred drops of magical power were restored to the Dantian and the Spirit Sea, which was far less effective than the previous breathing exercises in the Water Palace.

"It seems that without spiritual veins, relying solely on elixirs requires the breath control of spiritual energy; even the most skilled cook cannot make a meal without ingredients."

It's understandable that there are no spiritual veins in this desolate wilderness, so the breathing effects are poor.

"It seems that cultivating immortality requires a relatively stable environment first."

He Sheng had a sudden realization, and then he circulated his energy for several more cycles. When his magical power had recovered by more than half, he stopped breathing exercises, and his eyes became deep.

"It's time to think about what to do next!"

He Sheng couldn't help but ponder.

Logically speaking, now that I've taken over Piao Ge's body, have a time leak in my hands, and am now at the Great Perfection of Foundation Establishment, I could easily start anew.

From then on, he changed his appearance, left for distant lands, and started anew.

But this is a world of cultivation, and I'm completely new here. If I go to places even Brother Piao hasn't set foot in, how can I guarantee I won't encounter any danger?

While the cultivation level of Foundation Establishment Perfection may seem high, it varies depending on the region.

In a place like Yinsha River, which can be considered a beginner's village, one can naturally reign supreme.

But once you leave the starting village, you're nothing more than a slightly larger ant.

Moreover, in this world, the most important thing for spiritual practice is to accumulate resources!

Although Piao Ge's cultivation progressed rapidly, it was only because he received the support of the entire clan that his astonishing progress was possible.

Without family support, even those with superior spiritual roots might find themselves stuck in the Qi Refining stage their entire lives, let alone achieving Foundation Establishment early!

He Sheng is now a Foundation Establishment cultivator at the Great Perfection stage. Naturally, he will need to plan for Core Formation, a step that is hundreds of times more difficult than Foundation Establishment.

"If I could achieve Core Formation, even if I were merely a Pseudo-Core Formation cultivator, wouldn't a cunning freak like the sword-wielding youth dare to provoke me?"

The most important thing for someone who has reached the Core Formation stage is to raise funds.

Thinking of this, He Sheng took off the storage bag at his waist, took out the contents one by one, and carefully checked them.

He Shengxian counted the spirit stones.

A spirit stone is a crystal no bigger than a fingernail. It looks crystal clear, with what appears to be pure gas flowing in the middle, but the edges and corners have some mixed colors.

He Sheng pulled out a handful of relatively impure crystals, which belonged to low-grade spirit stones.

There are approximately five thousand such low-grade spirit stones in the storage bag;

Besides these, the most valuable items are the magical artifacts, including three top-grade artifacts, two high-grade artifacts, and a white jade talisman with a somewhat dim spiritual light.

As for the other bottles and jars of pills, most of them are pills for restoring magical power, healing injuries, or preventing and detoxifying poisons, and their value is far less than that of magical artifacts.

The rest were some jade slips and books, nothing of value.

All things considered, the contents of this storage bag are worth about 30,000 to 40,000 low-grade spirit stones, which is quite a fortune for an ordinary cultivator.

But for a Foundation Establishment mid-stage cultivator like Piao Ge, it seemed rather shabby.

The reason for this was that Piao Ge had long-term plans, storing the vast majority of resources in the secret vault of the Changyang Mountain Clan, in preparation for purchasing third-tier treasure materials for refining the prototype of magic weapons and the items needed for Core Formation.

Besides, most of the resources that Piao Ge brought on his journey north were used to exchange for the rare second-grade spiritual material, Stardust Sand.

Thinking of the Stardust Sand, He Sheng couldn't help but take out the stone box that the Green Snake had given him.

As soon as the lid was opened, a chilling aura wafted out, and a thin layer of white frost formed on He Sheng's fingertips.

"What kind of treasure is this?!"

He Sheng was startled and looked at the contents of the box, only to see that it was a fist-sized, pure white, and translucent crystal.

"This is... a low-grade, third-tier treasure material, the Frost Soul Mystic Crystal?!"

He Sheng's name matched something in Piao Ge's memory, because this item was one of the most suitable materials for refining the prototype of a magic weapon in Piao Ge's mind.

"In Piao Ge's memory, this Frost Soul Mystic Crystal Stone appeared at an auction held only once every few years in Yuanxia Immortal City, fetching a price as high as 1,800... mid-grade spirit stones."

Mid-grade spirit stones are purer spirit stones, and their value is a hundred times that of low-grade spirit stones.

According to market prices, one mid-grade spirit stone can be exchanged for at least one hundred low-grade spirit stones, and often there is a premium.

One thousand eight hundred mid-grade spirit stones are naturally equivalent to eighteen thousand low-grade spirit stones.

"The Star-Backed Black Tortoise is actually quite kind-hearted, even though it didn't get along with Brother Piao before."

But after I visited them and presented them with generous gifts in an attempt to ease tensions, they not only quickly accepted me, but also presented me with such a valuable gift upon seeing that I had broken through to the late Foundation Establishment stage. This was truly exceptional.

Not to mention that after witnessing the opponent's formidable skills, the old turtle did not try to escape. Instead, he threw a six-pointer, indirectly restraining the opponent and allowing He Sheng to escape with ease.

All I can say is... what a good person, no, what a good turtle!

Feeling grateful to the old tortoise, He Sheng carefully put away the Cold Soul Mystic Crystal.

"A single third-tier treasure material, the Cold Soul Mystic Crystal, costs 180,000 low-grade spirit stones. Furthermore, refining a prototype magic weapon requires a considerable amount of auxiliary materials that are compatible in nature and of similar quality. This adds up to another significant expense."

Not to mention that if you want to form a core, you must first purchase a third-tier core-forming elixir such as the "Golden Core Pill".

This pill has always been expensive; in the past hundred years, the price at the Yuanxia Auction has never been lower than 300,000 low-grade spirit stones.

...

Yuanxia Immortal City is an immortal city located four to five thousand miles southeast of Wanchen Mountain. It was built by the rogue cultivator Tianwu Zhenren, who was in the mid-stage of Core Formation.

Piao Ge attended a Yuanxia auction a few years ago, which broadened his horizons.

He Sheng reviewed Piao Ge's memories of the preparation of materials and quickly came up with a rough estimate.

In other words, the cost of refining the prototype of a magic weapon and purchasing the necessary elixirs and treasures for Core Formation would be at least a million low-grade spirit stones, and that's just the lowest level of preparation.

If He Sheng were to raise so many spirit stones all by himself, he doesn't know how many years it would take.

Fortunately, there is a shortcut!

"According to Piao Ge's memory, the resources stored in the clan's secret vault are extremely valuable. We must go back no matter what and take all of them!"

Simply put, aside from the Cold Soul Mystic Crystal given to him by the old tortoise, the resources He Sheng currently possesses are probably only worth a few million yuan in the current world.

But in Piao Ge's newbie village, there lies a staggering 100 million yuan in savings.

If it were you, wouldn't you go back and try to take advantage of the situation?

"But we can't just go back like this!"

Let's not even talk about whether the sword-wielding youth will directly attack Changyang Mountain after failing to find anyone.

More importantly, Piao Ge didn't know this person at all and didn't know why the other party would kill him.

In other words, Piao Ge had no idea who had set up the trap to kill him.

"What if the mastermind behind this has also made arrangements at Changyang Mountain? If I recklessly go back, I might end up with nothing but trouble after failing to get my deposit back. That would be extremely bad."

Logically speaking, under such circumstances, He Sheng should have waited and seen, but he simply couldn't bear to part with such a large sum of money, especially since it was over 100 million yuan in savings.

We need to come up with a proper solution.

He Sheng's heart stirred, and he took out a jade slip from his storage bag, which contained a technique called "Blood and Flesh Rebirth Technique".

As the name suggests, this is a secret technique that can adjust one's physique, appearance, and even change one's aura.

"I can learn this secret technique, change my appearance, go back and investigate the situation, and then make a decision based on the circumstances."

Thinking this, He Sheng glanced at the information in the water clock.

[Current available total training time: 1 year, 7 months, and 16 days]

"If I spend a short time or two learning the basics of this secret technique, and then dedicate some general training time to it, this technique should be very useful, right?"

Once he made up his mind, He Sheng followed the image in Piao Ge's memory, placed the jade slip between his eyebrows, and began to comprehend the "Blood and Flesh Rebirth Technique".