First achieve immortality, then cultivate immortality.

Osmanthus flowers fall at leisure, and spring mountains are empty at night.

Xu Mu never imagined that the valley where he was alone would become so quiet.

Moonlight spilled into the valley, and he stood quietly by the stream, his eyes closed, thinking of nothing.

That year, he was 257 years old, and his Qi cultivation period was complete.

Time has etched rings on the trees, and in his heart, it has also etched his understanding of time.

He can now begin to comprehend the Dao, but it's like looking at flowers through fog; it's always hazy and unclear, and he doesn't know where to start.

"It's time to leave..." He slowly opened his eyes.

His gaze swept around him, every place carrying memories of the life he had shared with the two sisters.

Staying here, surrounded by familiar objects and memories of loved ones, all alone, proved to be far more unbearable than he had imagined.

After this experience, he decided that after reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, he would join a better sect, interact with more people, and no longer want to work alone.

We have now passed through our weakest period.

Once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage, you'll officially embark on the path of cultivation and have a certain level of self-protection in the cultivation world. You won't be treated as a lowly beast of burden or cannon fodder in the sect.

He doesn't need to build close relationships with others; he only needs to interact with his fellow disciples to avoid being alone.

Moreover, one must find a way to obtain cultivation techniques for the Foundation Establishment stage, and the best way is to join a sect.

As for which sect to join, we'll see after we reach Foundation Establishment.

It was already late at night.

At this time in the past, I would have already been intimate with the sisters and gone to sleep, waking up comfortably the next day.

But now I toss and turn, unable to sleep; my bed is so cold when I'm alone.

Li Zhihua passed away last year at the age of 94.

After her sister left, she was indulged for five years, and finally fell into a deep sleep in Xu Mu's arms with a satisfied look on her face.

This guy was a hedonist until his death.

When Xu Mu returned to his room and touched the empty bed, he couldn't help but feel a pang of sadness.

He was very grateful for the sisters' companionship, which allowed him to spend more than seventy years of fulfilling and happy times.

"Lying alone in bed, I listen to the rain outside the south window; who will mend my clothes by lamplight now?"

A light rain began to fall outside, and the person who used to mend clothes inside was no longer there.

……

After a fresh rain in the empty mountains.

Xu Mu carefully cleaned the entire house, collected the sisters' belongings, and then went to the sisters' graves. He touched their tombstones and whispered, "Zhiyuan, Zhihua, I'm leaving... wait for me to come home."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Once I leave, I don't know when I'll be able to return here.

This time, he didn't fly away directly, but instead went out from Whale Pass, followed the river down, and arrived at Bishi Village.

Bishi Village has hardly changed; the big banyan tree at the village entrance is still there, only the people have changed.

The old people chatting under the trees and the children chasing and playing have all changed, generation after generation.

At this moment, he transformed into the appearance of an old man and slowly walked into the village. When the villagers saw him, they all bowed and respectfully called him the Old Immortal.

He is still considered a second-generation Medicine God, and in their eyes, he is eighty or ninety years old, yet still vigorous and venerable.

After all, they are cultivators, so it's only natural that they live longer.

Moreover, he had already planned to leave, so there was no need for him to take on another apprentice.

He nodded and responded to the villagers along the way as he walked toward the Zhang family's old house.

This family compound has a history of over a hundred years. The walls are mottled and weathered, and it has become an old house, or even an ancestral home.

Since Zhang Yu'an opened his pharmacy, he bought a house in the county town and brought his wife and children to live there so that he could take care of the business.

The old house will be given to the eldest brother's family to live in, and the land will also be divided among the eldest brother and sister-in-law, so that the two families won't have to squeeze together and cause chaos.

This arrangement did not affect Xu Mu's manure collection. Whenever he came to collect manure, Zhang Yu'an would specially bring his children back from the county town.

Because of his existence, this ancestral home has a special meaning.

Now that the Zhang brothers have passed away, their descendants are in charge of the household.

It wasn't Xu Mu's usual day for collecting manure, so when he arrived at the Zhang family's house, only Zhang Dashan's son, daughter-in-law, and grandchildren were there.

This Zhang family has grown quite a few people over the years.

……

When Xu Mu came to visit the Zhang family, the Zhang family members hurriedly greeted him, always maintaining a respectful attitude.

Xu Mu was welcomed into the house and looked at the three generations of his family.

These are already the old scholar's grandsons, great-grandsons, and great-great-grandsons.

Back then, Old Zhang was quite generous. He lent him tools to build a house, treated him to meals, helped him collect manure, and helped him feed his horses, which is how this friendship was formed.

If it weren't for Old Zhang, the scholar, he might not have been able to establish his reputation in the village so quickly and live comfortably ever since.

Now that he's leaving, he naturally wants to come and say goodbye to the Zhang family so they won't have to help him collect manure anymore.

"You're leaving? You're not staying in Medicine God Valley anymore?" The Zhang family was astonished.

This news was a huge blow to the Zhang family and even to the villagers of Bishi Village.

These people, from the oldest to the youngest, are the children of the villagers from back then. They grew up listening to their elders tell stories of the Medicine God, who would come to treat them and save lives every year.

They believed that a medicine god would always protect them.

But now, the Medicine God is leaving.

"All good things must come to an end, and it's time to leave."

Xu Mu sighed softly, refused their attempts to persuade him to stay, and drifted away.

……

Peach Blossom Temple.

The current abbot, known as Wuhua Daoren, is the junior disciple of Qingsong Daoren and is now over sixty years old.

When he heard that Xu Mu was leaving to cultivate elsewhere, he paused for a moment, then cupped his hands and smiled, saying, "May you attain immortality, fellow Daoist."

Xu Mu smiled, cupped his hands in a respectful gesture, and then bid farewell and left.

The Taoist Wuhua, along with his disciples, personally escorted him to the foot of Peach Blossom Mountain.

These disciples and their descendants had all heard him preach the Taoist scriptures and respected him as half a teacher, so their friendship was very deep.

"Farewell, let's part ways here." Xu Mu cupped his hands in a gesture of respect and bowed deeply.

"Farewell, fellow Daoist," Wuhua Daoist returned the greeting.

"Farewell, Master." The disciples and their followers bowed solemnly in farewell.

Xu Mu smiled and said, "I'm off."

After saying that, he turned and left.

This departure marks a farewell to the mortal world.

While the mortal realm was safe and comfortable for him, the resources he could obtain were ultimately limited and mostly low-level.

His ability to use spiritual fertilizer to produce cultivation resources and cultivate to the peak of the Qi Refining stage is unprecedented and unparalleled.

Once you reach the Foundation Establishment stage, it's unrealistic to expect to continue cultivating in the mortal realm.

The spiritual energy is too thin to grow any spiritual herbs of grade two or higher.

Limited by spiritual energy, he has yet to be able to produce high-grade spiritual fertilizer of level two or above.

This cannot be solved, because it is determined by the Dao. The scarcity of spiritual energy is merely a manifestation of the Dao.

He is not afraid of shortening his lifespan, and he has spiritual fertilizer to cultivate the land. He has already found a loophole, and it is impossible for him to find a loophole that will grow bigger and bigger.

Now I can only return to the world of cultivation to practice and try to establish my foundation.