I rely on learning to achieve immortality.

Xu Zhou and Li Zelei ran for more than fifty miles before slowly stopping to make sure no one was behind them.

Li Zelei remained calm, showing no signs of having just experienced a life-or-death battle, or even much excitement, as if his previous encounter was just a trivial matter.

Xu Zhou felt a slight sense of lingering fear and managed to suppress his emotions.

"Has the cultivation world always been this chaotic?"

Li Zelei pondered for a while, then shook his head: "Not really, I was just unlucky today... or maybe I was just lucky. It usually happens once every year or two."

Xu Zhou fell silent for a moment.

After a moment, he changed the subject: "I didn't expect that you, Senior Brother, also cultivate the body."

Earlier, when the black-robed cultivator stabbed Li Zelei with his sword, Xu Zhou almost thought his senior brother had lost his mind. Unexpectedly, the situation took an unexpected turn, and the black-robed cultivator died the next moment.

Li Zelei chuckled: "You were almost killed before, so I heard that body-refining techniques can save your life. I found some and learned them. It seems you've done quite well."

Xu Zhou glanced at his right hand.

Previously, Li Zelei had caught the sword with his bare hands, yet he was completely unharmed, with only a faint white mark left on his palm.

Having cultivated body refinement to this level, one can already rival the peak of Qi Refining cultivation.

After Li Zelei finished speaking about himself, he smiled and looked at Xu Zhou: "I didn't expect that my junior brother would also be so unassuming."

Xu Zhou fell silent again.

He had previously thought the two were in dire straits, which is why he disregarded the risk of exposure and used the formation to break it.

Looking back now, Li Zelei's actions were completely different from his desperate struggle under the water blades; he was clearly just hiding his true abilities and even fooling himself.

It's hard to explain right now.

Finally, he simply said, "I've read a lot of miscellaneous books and learned a few array techniques. I never thought they would actually come in handy."

Although he didn't explain it clearly, Li Zelei didn't press him for details.

In fact, both of them could tell that the other was hiding some tricks.

It's impossible for Xu Zhou to have mastered formations just by reading a few books. Even with Xu Zhou's help, Li Zelei's ability to kill two people of the same level was far beyond that of an ordinary late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.

However, due to the tacit understanding developed over many years, neither of them asked further questions.

Li Zelei took out the storage bag he had just looted: "According to the rules of the cultivation world, we split it in half."

Xu Zhou was about to refuse when he said seriously, "This matter needs to be clearly defined. Even if we are brothers, we still need to settle accounts clearly."

Seeing this, Xu Zhou stopped insisting.

Li Zelei found four storage bags, two of which should have come from the old man and the short man, while the other two came from Jie Xiu.

The first two storage bags were relatively empty, containing only a few spirit stones and a few worthless magical artifacts, which was consistent with the identity of a rogue cultivator.

However, the other two storage bags are different.

Not only are there many spirit stones, but there are also many magical artifacts and talismans.

Among them were even a few high-grade talismans; if the opponent had used them directly just now, Li Zelei might not have been able to suppress them.

Fortunately, they have now become the spoils of war for the two of them.

Xu Zhou wasn't very interested in spirit stones, and had even less interest in magical artifacts and talismans, so he only took about 30-40% of them.

The main reason was that he had already taken the array plate and found the complete array diagram in one of the storage bags. Both of these were quite valuable, so taking less other valuables was considered compensation for Li Zelei.

Although the array flags are missing, the array plate is the most important part of the array; everything else can be added later.

After dividing the spoils, Li Zelei said regretfully, "It's a pity there were no identification marks in the storage bags, so we don't know where these two Tribulation cultivators came from, and we can't take revenge."

Xu Zhou hummed in response but did not reply.

After receiving the array diagram, he couldn't wait to unfold it and examine it.

He had seen part of the formation diagram before and had long been looking forward to seeing the complete diagram.

Anyway, Li Zelei could guess that he had learned the art of array formations, so he didn't hide it and directly opened the array diagram to study it carefully.

"So, the Water Element Formation can be used like this?"

"By modifying these few points, I was able to transform spiritual energy into a water blade!"

"These ideas are truly absurd; you couldn't have come up with them without seeing them with your own eyes."

Xu Zhou kept praising it in his heart.

Of course, he wouldn't just walk around looking at it. He glanced at it briefly, got a general idea, and then decided to put the array diagram away.

Just then, he caught a glimpse of the end of the array diagram out of the corner of his eye.

Someone had written a line of small characters there.

Xu Zhou glanced at it, and his expression immediately changed.

"Senior brother, come and see."

He beckoned Li Zelei over, who looked puzzled and came closer.

Their eyes fell on the last line of small print, and soon their expressions became somewhat solemn.

"Inspired by observing Thousand Swords Peak, this was modified based on the Mysterious Vortex Formation."

No signature.

The two exchanged a glance, and after a long while, Xu Zhou finally confirmed, "This Thousand Swords Peak, is it the Hu family's Thousand Swords Peak?"

Li Zelei remained silent for a long time before saying, "As far as I know, the Mu Kingdom, and even the surrounding Yan and Liang Kingdoms, only have this one Thousand Swords Peak."

The two said nothing more.

What was originally a random robbery and murder suddenly became unpredictable and confusing.

...

evening.

The two settled down by the mountain path to rest for a while.

Xu Zhou didn't meditate like Li Zelei, but instead walked to the side and took out the spirit wood that he had put in the Wenling bag earlier.

Compared to before, the spirit tree's branches and leaves are now scattered, and its bark is somewhat withered and yellow.

After all, Xu Zhou had used it as a fulcrum to forcibly disrupt the Xuan Vortex Formation. Even with the use of the secret technique of borrowing formations, damage to the spirit wood was still unavoidable.

Roughly estimated, it would take the spirit tree at least half a year to recover from these damages.

During this period, it will probably be difficult for him to use the spirit wood again.

Xu Zhou felt a pang of heartache.

He took out the jade bottle and poured out a few drops of the specially made spiritual liquid inside.

The spirit tree absorbed the spiritual liquid, its branches and leaves swaying slightly in the moonlight, as if it had fallen into a deep sleep.

"We were able to break through the Xuanwo Sword Formation this time thanks to this spirit tree."

"Fortunately, that black-robed cultivator didn't understand array formations. After his setup was disrupted by the array, he hurriedly dropped the array plate. If he had continued to hold the array plate and manipulate the array, I would have suffered a backlash instead."

Thinking back on the dangers of the day, Xu Zhou couldn't help but feel a lingering fear.

This was also his first experience with life and death. Compared to this, his previous experiences and play in the Thousand Wood Forest seemed rather naive.

What impressed him most was when he discovered that the formation in front of him was actually the Xuan Vortex Formation that he had repaired.

"The formation I repaired almost turned around and killed me."

"Fortunately, my array skills are lacking, and I only managed to repair about 70-80% of the array flags. If I had actually repaired them completely, it would have been really difficult to deal with them today."

We need to learn from this experience.

"I can sell formations, and I can repair them, but any formation I handle must at least have a backdoor."

"This back door doesn't need to be too deadly; it just needs to provide a sliver of an escape route."

Xu Zhou retrieved the spirit wood and then took out the array diagram of the Xuanwo Sword Array.

The more he looked at the array diagram, the more alarmed he became.

Many of the variations in this formation appear random, but are in fact exquisitely ingenious. Such spontaneous inspiration cannot be achieved through rote memorization.

In comparison, his knowledge of formations is indeed far from sufficient.

"In the end, the art of array formation relies on talent."

Xu Zhou spoke softly.

Although his own talent is not bad, there are still differences between talents.

In the mortal world, he could achieve fame and fortune through in-depth learning. But compared to those one in ten thousand who were destined for immortality, he appeared mediocre.

The so-called solid foundation was made to sound like rote memorization.

However, Xu Zhou didn't show much disappointment on his face.

Although he was amazed by the array master's talent in array formations, he himself had not achieved his current level of mastery solely through talent.

Perhaps I lack some innate talent in various skills.

But if he lives long enough, he will always stumble upon that spark of inspiration.

If you can't learn it in a short time, then study it for a year, ten years, or even a hundred years.

If you can't match others' talent, then find opportunities to learn from their experiences. By standing on the shoulders of pioneers and learning from their strengths to make up for your weaknesses, you can gradually catch up.

As long as you don't die, you can always make it through this path.

Xu Zhou calmed down.

He took out Peng Hu's notebook, compared it with the array diagram in front of him, and began to study it attentively.

The night was quiet.