A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

Two days later.

Zhou Ping arrived at Uncle Yun's secluded cultivation place early and stood quietly outside the door until Qin Changqing also arrived. Only then did they knock on Uncle Yun's door together.

"As you know, the sect's mission has changed, and the original date will be postponed for a while. I will arrange for someone else to handle the purchase of spiritual materials during this period, so you don't need to worry about it. However, there is one thing that you two need to make a special trip for."

Uncle Yun, holding a gourd of wine, tilted his head back and gulped down a large mouthful of spiritual wine before suddenly falling silent.

Zhou Ping and Qin Changqing exchanged a glance, both looking confused. Qin Changqing then raised his hands in a gesture of respect and said...

"I don't know what it is, please enlighten me, Uncle."

"Hiccup...! It's not some rare spiritual creature, just some fox crow blood. Although this kind of demon bird has a very low rank, it has considerable intelligence. Its demon blood is a top-grade material for drawing talismans. The fresher the demon blood, the higher its value. Therefore, the sect usually sends disciples to hunt it themselves and rarely buys those old blood from the market."

"These fox-crows are gregarious demonic birds. Although they are weak individually, they become very troublesome to deal with once they reach a certain number. You two can take this jade slip. It contains detailed records of this demonic bird, which are the experiences summarized by our predecessors. It should make your mission much easier."

As they were talking, Uncle Yun tossed a jade slip at the two of them, then turned around and went to drink by himself.

After bidding farewell to Uncle Yun, Zhou Ping and Qin Changqing agreed on a departure time and returned to their respective temporary residences. During this time, Qin Changqing maintained his aloof demeanor, seemingly unwilling to interact with Zhou Ping.

Seeing this, Zhou Ping had no choice but to give up the idea of ​​going up to chat and returned to his residence on his own.

He was always grateful to Qin Changqing, a fellow disciple who had pulled him back from the brink of death. Even if Qin Changqing was cold to him, he did not feel the slightest resentment.

Perhaps that's just their personality.

Zhou Ping lay on the bed, staring blankly at the beautiful scenery outside the window, with no mood for meditation or cultivation whatsoever.

Since learning that his foundation had been damaged, he has been unable to concentrate on cultivation for the past two days, and even his daily meditation has become somewhat uninteresting.

"If the problem of damaged Dao foundation cannot be resolved, even with tireless cultivation day and night, there is no hope of achieving Foundation Establishment. Must we really choose to leave the sect and develop our own family like the four ancestors of the Jin Clan?"

Zhou Ping took out the disciple token from his storage bag and stared at the faint spiritual light flowing on it, recalling the scene when he first joined the Azure Lotus Profound Sect.

He had long understood what Uncle Yun meant. At that time, the sickly Senior Brother Wang, a cultivator at the ninth level of Qi Refining, had his blood and qi abnormally withered and decayed, just like him now, or even more so.

Their experiences must have been quite similar; both escaped with their lives from those evil cultivators, but were left with incurable wounds to their Dao.

"It seems we have no other choice but to place our hopes on this. Once the mission is complete, we'll immediately return to our sect to visit Senior Brother Wang!"

......

A few days later,

After Zhou Ping finished reading the jade slip that Uncle Yun had given to the two of them, he secretly began to consider the safety of their trip.

As a low-level demonic bird, the fox-crow is relatively weak individually. According to the description in the jade slip, a typical early-stage Qi Refining cultivator can easily kill it.

However, these demonic birds are mostly gregarious and rarely live alone, which brings some potential dangers to this mission.

Generally speaking, once the number of fox crows exceeds ten or so, their overall combat power will be significantly enhanced. In particular, most late-stage Qi Refining cultivators are unlikely to provoke a group with a fox crow leader.

With Qin Changqing, who is at the eighth level of Qi Refining, leading the team, Zhou Ping naturally became the less important figure. Most of the burden would inevitably fall on Qin Changqing's shoulders, which is the main reason why Uncle Yun entrusted this mission to the two of them.

At this time, there were quite a few Qi Refining stage disciples of the Azure Lotus Profound Sect in Jiyun City, but none of them were more suitable to shoulder this important task than Qin Changqing, who had just arrived here.

As a direct descendant of the Qin family of Dianyun, and having cultivated diligently by the side of the Heavenly Punishment Ancestor since childhood, Qin Changqing, though young, was still somewhat inferior to some of his senior brothers at the peak of the Qi Refining stage in the sect. However, no one dared to underestimate his true strength and methods.

It is said that with his current cultivation level and strength, if he were to use all his methods, there would be no more than a handful of Qi Refining disciples in the entire Azure Lotus Profound Sect who could rival him.

With such a powerful senior brother leading the team, Zhou Ping's slightly nervous state of mind, which was due to his first time hunting demons, was unexpectedly calmed down a lot.

However, due to his suspicious nature and mature demeanor, after experiencing so many setbacks and calamities, Zhou Ping became increasingly cautious in his actions. Therefore, he naturally would not entrust his safety entirely to others.

After thoroughly understanding the information in the jade slip, he used his spare time to carefully nurture and repair the damaged Luo Sheng Lotus Shield, restoring it to its previous perfect state.

He then took out three low-grade magic artifacts from the Wanbao Pavilion and, following the refining techniques he had learned from the book, imprinted a wisp of his divine consciousness into each one, making them truly exclusive items that he could use.

Looking at the three magical artifacts slowly floating around him, Zhou Ping's face showed a satisfied smile.

These three magical artifacts shimmered with different spiritual lights: a golden flying sword, a dark brown oval shield, and a small bronze mirror shaped like the Eight Trigrams.

Considering that with his current cultivation level, he could only control a maximum of two magical artifacts at the same time to fight enemies, Zhou Ping did not hesitate to choose the most common flying sword and shield-type magical artifacts in order to achieve a combination of offense and defense.

Since these two magical artifacts have become the mainstream magical artifacts for many cultivators in the cultivation world, they must have been tested and proven by countless predecessors. Zhou Ping did not waste time in making a choice.

With the remaining spirit stones, just in case, he purchased a small defensive mirror similar to a heart-protecting mirror.

According to Wanbaoge's description, this small bronze mirror in the shape of the Bagua (Eight Trigrams) is much smaller than the black shield, but because of the rarity of its material, its defensive power far surpasses that of the shield. It is the best choice to deal with some emergencies and protect some vital parts of the body.

After making all the preparations, Zhou Ping let out a long sigh of relief, got up and went outside, silently gazing at the northwest direction of Jiyun City, somewhat lost in thought.

That was the place they were going to in three days: the Hidden Thunder Mountains.