Cultivating a family of immortals

When Xu Jingtao came down from the mountain, she was covered in blood. The blood on the long sword she was holding had congealed into scabs, and there was a faint blood line on her face. It was from when she was slaughtering the Azure-striped Black Leopard clan that a young wolf had scratched her face.

In addition to these, she had many wounds of varying depths, and more seriously, she suffered internal injuries.

Having just entered the initial stage of Qi Refining, she dragged her heavily injured body to kill several Azure-Striped Black Leopards at the Nascent Soul stage in this battle. If she hadn't fought with a strategy of exchanging injuries for injuries, she might have died in the forest today.

Looking back at the deep forest, Xu Jingtao remained expressionless, her eyes showing no weariness, only indifference.

"This is what it means to have a tranquil mind... So that's how it is..."

She murmured, but her breath suddenly tightened, and the vortex of energy in her dantian spun faster and faster until a gust of wind came out of her body, her hair was lifted by the wind, and a smile appeared on her lips.

"I've broken through to the second level of Qi Refining..."

After saying that, she tried her best to stay awake and walked down the mountain. Once in the city, she randomly found an inn to begin healing her wounds.

Days passed by like this, until several dozen days later, she walked out of the inn, all her injuries healed.

She headed towards the next city.

Along the way, I encountered all sorts of people, but I no longer felt the same way as before.

Occasionally, when she encounters robbers blocking her way, she will mercilessly swing her hand and kill them.

On one occasion, she even encountered spirit beasts fighting for territory. They were all spirit beasts at the Nascent Soul stage. She calmly killed them, chose one, skinned it, cleaned it, and roasted and ate it using the [Fire Control Technique].

Since the world operates on the principle of the survival of the fittest, she decided to adapt to it.

Therefore, she was very careful throughout the journey.

If she were to encounter a sect of immortal cultivators in one of the mountains, she would not mind the inconvenience and would choose to take a detour.

Until one day, she came to another mountain and encountered several spirit beasts guarding a spirit herb.

She calmly killed the spirit beast, picked up the spirit herb, and turned to leave.

Just then, a tiger's roar suddenly came from the forest.

She frowned, used the Lightness Technique, and ran quickly down the mountain. However, the spirit beast arrived very fast, and it was already behind her in just a few breaths.

Xu Jingtao's heart skipped a beat; they had encountered a Qi Refining Realm spirit beast...

"There must be a cultivation sect here, otherwise the spirit beasts wouldn't be able to break through the Qi Refining threshold..."

As soon as the thought crossed his mind, a gust of wind, whipped up by a tiger's claw, swept over.

Xu Jingtao's expression changed drastically.

"At least at the fifth level of Qi Refining!"

She tried desperately to dodge, but couldn't, so she quickly threw her longsword to block the attack...

There was a loud bang.

Xu Jingtao was knocked to the ground and fell into the woods.

The spirit beast landed on the tree trunk, its tiger eyes widened, and it spoke in human language:

"What a ruthless young woman! Having stolen the spirit herb, why did you also have to take my little beast's life?"

Xu Jingtao wiped the blood from her mouth, raised an eyebrow, and hurriedly took out the spirit herb, respectfully presenting it to the spirit beast.

"Senior, it's all my fault! Please spare my life!"

The spirit beast sneered, "I'll spare your life, but my little beast is dead. What will you use to make amends!"

Without another word, the spirit beast leaped down and attacked Xu Jingtao.

Xu Jingtao's face turned ashen as she repeatedly used Taoist magic to defend against the attacks. Fortunately, the spirit beast did not know Taoist magic and only used its powerful physical strength to attack.

Even so, Xu Jingtao fought extremely hard. If she wasn't careful, she would be scratched by the tiger's claws, and blood would gush from the corner of her mouth.

Faced with such a vast difference in their levels of understanding, her best course of action was to escape.

After several rounds of fighting, Xu Jingtao finally found an opportunity. Taking advantage of the spirit beast's attack, she took the hit without hesitation. The spirit beast thought she was going to fight to the death, but Xu Jingtao used the force of the attack to retreat rapidly.

"Hmph, you think you can escape from this forest!"

The spirit beast was not impatient. Its spiritual energy surged beneath its feet, and in just a few breaths, it caught up with Xu Jingtao. It no longer held back and slapped her with all its might.

Xu Jingtao was immediately struck hard and knocked to the ground.

A trace of sorrow welled up in her eyes; she never imagined that she would meet her end here today.

However, at that moment, a clear, cold voice came from deep in the forest.

"What a wretched beast! A few years ago, I gave you a Qi Condensation Pill, allowing you to cultivate to the Qi Refining stage, and you actually think this mountain is your own?"

As soon as the words were spoken, the spirit beast, which was about to leap out to attack, paused, turned around abruptly, and knelt down on the ground.

Xu Jingtao raised an eyebrow and looked at a man slowly walking out of the woods, her heart filled with joy.

"We're saved... There really is a cultivation sect here..."

The thought had barely crossed her mind when Xu Jingtao relaxed, her mind went blank, and she fainted.

The man who emerged from the woods frowned as he looked at the woman lying on the ground. A scrutinizing glint flashed in his eyes, but then he raised an eyebrow and a burning desire ignited within him.

"Get out!"

The man gave a soft shout, and the spirit beast immediately kowtowed twice before disappearing into the forest.

The man calmly squatted down, hoisted Xu Jingtao onto his shoulder, and walked deeper into the mountains.

…………

When Xu Jingtao slowly woke up, what she saw was a pavilion built of white jade, and the bed she was lying on also seemed to be made of white jade, which was extremely warm and smooth.

She suddenly stood up, only to see the man she had seen in the woods earlier walk in.

He smiled, holding a bowl of soup in his hand, and said, "You woke up so quickly?"

Xu Jingtao hurriedly tried to get out of bed, but the man chuckled and said, "Don't push yourself. You have some serious hidden injuries, and you were also injured by that spirit beast yesterday. You need to rest and recuperate!"

Xu Jingtao quickly cupped his hands and said with a wry smile, "I am so grateful for your life-saving grace. Otherwise, I would have died here yesterday."

The man placed the bowl of soup on the small table beside the bed and said with a smile:

"Although that spirit beast is a tiger-type spirit beast, it is also taking advantage of the situation. Hundreds of years ago, it gained intelligence and developed spiritual energy. My sect rewarded it with a Qi Condensation Pill, which allowed it to advance to the Qi Refining Realm and become the outer guardian spirit beast of the sect... but now it dares to attack passing cultivators... which is why you have been implicated."

Xu Jingtao gave an awkward smile, then remembered something and quickly took out the spirit herb she had seized yesterday from her storage bag.

"It was my presumption. I never imagined there were sects or noble families in these mountains. I took the liberty of picking this spiritual herb..."

The man raised an eyebrow, reached out and took the spiritual herb, examined it for a while, and then burst into laughter.

"It's just a Soul-Cleansing Grass, yet the spirit beast treats it like a treasure. Fellow Daoist, are your eyesight really that bad?"

Xu Jingtao smiled awkwardly. She had no idea what these spiritual herbs were; she had only seen them being protected by a spirit beast and assumed they must be very valuable, and that the Xu family could cultivate and use them…

Thinking of this, Xu Jingtao apologized and then asked, "May I ask which of the twelve sects of Changkong Immortal Continent this place belongs to?"

By saying this, Xu Jingtao was merely using someone else's power to intimidate others... to let them know that she also understood the power structure of Changkong Immortal Continent.

Sure enough, the man raised an eyebrow and said:

"It seems you are also a disciple of some immortal sect. That's right, our sect is the Cloud Rank Sect, one of the twelve sects. Our family name is Wen, and my name is Wen Jiangming."

Xu Jingtao murmured to herself, "Yunjie Sect..."

Thinking it over, she chuckled softly, "I am a disciple of the Xuan Yuan Sect... Xuan Jingtao."