Seeking immortality begins with daily intelligence reports.

The last rays of the setting sun streamed into the room through the wooden windows.

Li Shen pushed open the door and went out.

He turned through several streets and alleys and arrived at the Sleeping Immortal Pavilion, a brothel where people listened to music.

He paused to glance at the brightly colored, decadent place, then turned into a side alley.

As you walk deeper into the alley, you finally reach a dilapidated, dry well at the end, its rim covered in moss.

As Shi Yong had instructed, he prepared two spirit stones as an entry fee.

Before putting it in, Li Shen subconsciously probed downwards with his divine sense, but felt as if his divine sense was trapped in quagmire, blocked by an invisible force near the wellhead.

"As expected, there are restrictions."

Li Shen thought about it and obediently put the spirit stones in.

The well was deep and dark, and no sound of water falling in could be heard.

A moment later, an ancient wooden mask slowly floated up from the bottom of the well, hovering about an inch above the well opening, as if being held up by a hand.

"Traction technique?"

Li Shen reached out and took the mask, examined it, and found nothing unusual before putting it on his face.

The moment the mask touched the skin, the brick wall at the end of the alley, which was originally a dead end, suddenly rippled like water, the bricks and stones blurred, revealing a wide passageway extending downwards.

On the stone walls on both sides, dim candlelight silently burned, illuminating the stone steps leading downwards.

Li Shen composed himself and stepped inside.

Only the soft echo of his own footsteps reverberated in the passageway.

After walking for a short while, they could faintly hear voices ahead, which grew louder and noisier.

After turning another corner, the view suddenly opened up before us.

A vast underground space unfolds before your eyes, with thick rock pillars supporting the dome.

Stalls lined both sides of the mottled stone path, their lights flickering.

The sounds of hawking and bargaining filled the air.

The scale here is no smaller than that scattered market town on the ground.

As soon as Li Shen stepped onto the stone path, he keenly sensed several gazes sweeping over him from different corners. Though they were fleeting, they felt like thorns in his back.

Although the mask can conceal one's appearance and muffle one's voice, one must not be careless in this place.

He remained calm and quietly walked to the right, silently counting the stalls in his mind:

"one two three..."

He stopped when he counted to the tenth one. The stall owner in front of him was wearing a wooden pig's head mask.

Upon seeing the customer arrive, the stall owner couldn't help but sized him up.

Li Shen casually glanced at the items on the stall and quickly locked onto his target.

A palm-sized, unremarkable gray-black stone sat next to a small black round shield.

"How much is this?"

Li Shen pointed to a black round shield.

The stall owner looked up, his voice hoarse and strange:

"A first-grade low-level Xuan Iron shield, worth forty spirit stones."

The price is almost half that of similar new products from Duobaoge.

Li Shen's heart skipped a beat, but he still had to consider the issue of losses.

"Too expensive! The edges are already damaged, and it costs twenty-five spirit stones."

The stall owner was silent for a moment, then said in a muffled voice:

"Thirty, no bargaining."

Li Shen remained noncommittal, his gaze casually shifting to the gray stone beside him:

What about this one?

The stall owner glanced at it, smiled slightly, and said in a flat tone:

"This... I found it in a corner of an ancient cultivator's cave. The quality is not bad, but it is still an antique. If you want it, I'll give it to you for ten spirit stones."

You're selling me a stone that I can't sell for ten spirit stones? That's outrageous!

Even though he knew its true value, Li Shen couldn't help but mutter a curse in his heart.

"OK."

To avoid any complications, he did not haggle.

"The shield plus this stone, for a total of forty spirit stones."

Li Shen took out forty low-grade spirit stones from his storage bag and placed them in front of the stall.

The two parties exchanged money and goods simultaneously.

Li Shen put the two items into his storage bag, choosing not to leave immediately, as that would be too obvious and easily arouse suspicion.

He blended into the crowd and walked further into the black market, stopping at several stalls.

Half an hour later,

Li Shen put the low-grade longsword magic weapon, which he had purchased for twenty spirit stones, into his storage bag.

They prepared to head towards the exit of the black market; according to Shi Yong, once outside, they would reach the outer perimeter of the market.

This is also the place that needs the most vigilance. There are Foundation Establishment cultivators guarding the black market, so no one dares to rob it openly. But once you leave the black market, they don't care anymore.

Li Shen walked step by step toward the exit passage, which was similar to the one he had come from.

The hustle and bustle of the black market gradually subsided behind him, and the dim candlelight stretched his shadow long, casting it on the rough stone wall, where it swayed slightly.

Li Shen's divine sense was constantly extended outwards, and he immediately sensed that someone was following him not far behind, and there was more than one.

He didn't look back, nor did he stop; instead, he continued forward.

Before long, the cool moonlight appeared at the cave entrance ahead.

The moment he stepped out of the passageway, he suddenly felt a lightness on his face, and the wooden mask vanished into the air like ripples on water.

At the same time, it felt as if an imperceptible membrane was passing through my body.

Without pausing, Li Shen dashed off in the opposite direction from his residence.

He quickly confirmed his earlier assessment and the number of people he had been tracking.

Three people, two at the fourth level of Qi Refining, and one at the fifth level of Qi Refining.

Fortunately, his cultivation level wasn't high.

Li Shen's mind raced, and he changed direction, plunging headlong into the dense forest near the outer edge of Laoshan Mountain.

The forest was dense and lush, and he weaved through it, trying to shake off his pursuers.

But those three auras clung to him like a persistent, malignant tumor.

"They really are relentless in their pursuit..."

Li Shen snorted coldly, his gaze sweeping across the surroundings before quickly locking onto a secluded mountain cave.

He twisted his body and crawled inside without hesitation.

Three masked cultivators followed closely behind, paused briefly in front of the cave, exchanged glances, and then slipped inside one after another.

The cave was pitch black.

The tallest of the tribulation cultivators flipped his hand, took out a talisman, and tossed it upwards.

The talisman instantly ignited, bursting into a bright light that illuminated the entire cave.

The three of them looked closely and were taken aback.

Li Shen didn't hide; he just stood motionless in the center of the cave, facing them.

Before the tall, powerful cultivator at the head of the group could speak, his companion on the left sneered:

"Kid, you're pretty good at running, why did you stop?"

"Be careful, don't let yourself get caught in a ditch."

Another companion whispered a reminder.

"What's there to be afraid of? He's only at the fourth level of Qi Refining, and we're two at the fourth level and one at the fifth. Can't we take him down?"

The companion who had previously scoffed was now dismissive.

The tall, powerful cultivator at the head of the group turned and glared at him, then looked at Li Shen and asked in a low voice:

"Tell us the secret of that stone."

Li Shen was somewhat surprised to hear this.

Before he stopped, he considered why the other party had robbed him, but he didn't think about that inconspicuous stone.

"secret?"

"Besides sharpening knives, what other uses does it have?"

Li Shen took out the longsword he had just bought, held it horizontally in front of him, and asked a question in feigned ignorance.

Before the other party could react, he looked at his companion to the right of the tall cultivator, his voice turning deep:

"You've already sold me everything, how could you possibly back out? You pig-headed fellow Daoist."