Seeking immortality begins with daily intelligence reports.

Yunheshan Market, a small courtyard in the outer city area.

Li Shen returned to the house, closed the doors and windows, and finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"I didn't expect the Tang family to send four Foundation Establishment cultivators all at once, and they even used their escape techniques. Luckily, they acted quickly enough; otherwise, they would have been caught red-handed."

"but……"

While Li Shen felt fortunate, a trace of worry still arose in his heart:

"Although a superior-grade concealment talisman was used to conceal his form and aura, even the strongest concealment talisman is only a first-tier talisman, which can at most withstand the divine sense probing of a Foundation Establishment stage cultivator."

Two of the four members of the Tang family possessed the aura of the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, though only for a fleeting moment, which they were indeed able to detect.

"However, they ignored it at the time, so they probably didn't take a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator seriously. Besides, the scene was cleaned up quite well. Theoretically, the other party should have suspected a powerful demonic cultivator first..."

"It's better to be safe than sorry. I need to improve my strength as soon as possible. Even if they find a mid-stage Qi Refining cultivator, what does that have to do with me, a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator?"

Having analyzed the situation, Li Shen felt somewhat relieved.

With a flick of his sleeve, the storage bags of the four members of the Tang family appeared before him.

At these times, he couldn't help but feel a sense of anticipation.

Li Shen casually picked up the leftmost one, probed it with spiritual energy, and scanned it with his divine sense. It should belong to a peak Qi Refining elder of the Tang family.

There were over two thousand spirit stones.

Apart from miscellaneous items, the remaining items were taken out and inventoried one by one.

There were about ten talismans, all of medium quality, but most were basic talismans. For Li Shen, a talisman tycoon, they were better than nothing.

There are seventeen bottles of various elixirs in total.

Most of the pills are basic, and their quality is mainly medium-grade.

Among them, there are two bottles of each of the two types of pills that Li Shen urgently needs: Qi Gathering Pill and Spirit Concentration Pill, totaling twenty pills.

However, two bottles, each containing only one pill, caught Li Shen's attention.

One bottle contained mid-grade Breakthrough Pills, which Li Shen was currently lacking.

The other bottle contained Foundation Building Pills.

Although it is of low grade, it is still extremely rare for most Qi Refining cultivators.

Suppressing his excitement for the moment, Li Shen focused his attention on the cultivation techniques and magical artifacts.

There is only one cultivation technique, the "Mysterious Gold Sword Manual," which has six levels and can be cultivated up to the late Foundation Establishment stage, but unfortunately it is only suitable for cultivators with a gold spiritual root.

Among the magical artifacts was a medium-grade shield, the damage was still quite recent, presumably caused when fighting the Golden-striped Leopard.

Finally, there's the array plate. This array is a first-tier fire-attribute trapping array called the [Three Flames Array].

Although its effect is singular, it can effectively trap enemies, is easy to operate, and does not consume much spiritual energy.

This is a good opportunity to expand Li Shen's array repertoire.

After sorting and storing these items, Li Shen began to count the next item.

Secondly, there are significantly fewer spirit stones; a rough estimate is around five hundred.

There were six or seven talismans, nothing special.

The same goes for the pills, except that Li Shen had a bottle of each of the two types of pills that he was more interested in: Qi Gathering Pills and Spirit Concentration Pills, totaling six pills.

The cultivation technique is capped at the Qi Refining stage, and the magical artifacts include a high-grade longsword and a poorly damaged mid-grade shield.

Thirdly, there were over a thousand spirit stones and a stack of talismans, but they were all basic talismans.

There were five bottles of pills, all of medium quality, including Qi Gathering Pills and Mind Concentration Pills, which made Li Shen very satisfied.

The cultivation techniques and magical artifacts were ordinary, nothing that Li Shen should care about.

Finally, Li Shen probed with his spiritual power and scanned the area with his divine sense; there were more than 1,500 spirit stones.

Although there weren't many talismans, there were two high-level talismans, which should be the defensive talismans used by Tang Wu.

There are ten bottles of pills in total, most of which are of medium quality. There are three bottles of Concentrating Spirit Pills, with a total of fourteen pills, and one bottle of Gathering Qi Pills with two pills remaining.

Tang Wu also had one Foundation Establishment Pill, although it was also of low grade. However, Li Shen had gained two Foundation Establishment Pills from this adventure.

There was a cultivation technique called "Condensing Yuan Technique" that piqued Li Shen's curiosity.

He glanced through it and found it was a cultivation technique that could refine spiritual energy.

It has no spiritual root restrictions and does not improve cultivation level. Instead, it continuously purifies and compresses the spiritual power within its body through a special operating method, so that the quality of spiritual power surpasses that of ordinary people at the same level.

During magical battles, spiritual energy becomes more concentrated, spells are cast faster, and power is greater.

When cultivating, a more stable foundation makes it much easier to break through bottlenecks.

It is also very beneficial to one's cultivation in skills such as drawing talismans and alchemy.

"This is like a pillow delivered to someone who's sleepy."

Li Shen closed the book, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Then there is a book called "One Hundred Explanations of Weapon Forging", which records knowledge related to weapon forging.

This is also quite important for Li Shen now.

After learning how to craft artifacts, you can handle the repair of important magical artifacts on your own.

This is also safer.

As for magical artifacts, Tang Wu's storage bag contained nothing.

"It seems he's quite confident in his self-defense magic weapon."

Li Shen muttered to himself, now all the spoils in the storage bag had been counted.

Li Shen didn't spend much time studying the magical artifacts that had fallen to the ground.

A mid-grade double-edged axe, severely damaged and greatly reduced in value, was used directly to feed the spirit ants.

A high-quality fishing net is a magical artifact that is remarkably effective in dealing with demonic beasts, even if it is only slightly damaged.

It is a fine spear, very well maintained.

The sword was of excellent quality and well-maintained. Li Shen tried wielding it a few times and found it very easy to handle.

It just so happens that Li Shen also lacks a suitable longsword magic weapon.

The best option is a shield artifact that has been broken in two, which is also used to feed the spirit ants.

After arranging the uses of everything in his mind, Li Shen prepared to rest.

The information gathered at midnight tonight is of little value.

-

The next day, early in the morning.

Li Shen arrived at the Zhao family mansion early in the morning.

Since there was no need to teach or hand over talismans, he went directly to the Zhao family's training room.

After renting the high-end training room, Li Shen activated the Evergreen Technique to adjust to his optimal state, placing the Qi Gathering Pill, Spirit Concentration Pill, and Breakthrough Pill aside.

He took out the Cleansing Pulse Fruit, examined it for a moment, and then swallowed it bite by bite.

It has a sweet taste and a crisp texture.

The most effective way to use the Cleansing Pulse Fruit is for alchemy, but Li Shen doesn't have that much time to slowly collect the relevant formulas and spiritual materials right now.

About fifteen minutes later, Li Shen felt a warm current slowly flowing through his meridians.

He breathed a slight sigh of relief and thought to himself:

"This fruit is relatively mild..."

Unexpectedly, before he could finish speaking, the warm current suddenly intensified, becoming scalding hot and violently pouring into his meridians.

"Well……"

Li Shen groaned, and fine beads of sweat instantly appeared on his forehead.

My mind seemed to be momentarily stunned by the impact.

He quickly swallowed the Mind-Calming Pill and took out the Ice Jade Marrow, holding it in his hand to stabilize his mind.

Immediately afterwards, he took the Qi Gathering Pill, and in conjunction with the Qi Gathering Array, he circulated the Evergreen Technique to draw spiritual energy into his body and replenish his meridians.

The whole process was quite painful.

Li Shen had to endure the pain of his meridians being forcibly torn and expanded.

Moreover, not just one, but every single one, and they all occur simultaneously.

But so what?

If we give up now, how can we talk about the path to immortality?

Li Shen was determined and persevered through gritted teeth, the sweet and fishy taste filling his mouth.

After an unknown amount of time, the excruciating pain gradually subsided, but the lingering effects remained.

My whole body felt completely drained; I didn't even have the strength to lift a finger.

Li Shen slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling relieved. Although he was exhausted, a hint of joy rose in his eyes.

"We've finally made it through the first hurdle."

Li Shen sighed inwardly, and without resting for long, took out the mid-grade first-tier breakthrough pill...