A Mortal's Journey to Immortality

"Young hero, one cannot speak ill of the immortals. If they were to hear this, you might suffer undeserved misfortune!"

The arms shop manager looked nervous and whispered a reminder in Zhou Ping's ear.

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ping's eyes lit up with curiosity. Judging from the other person's tone, it seemed they genuinely knew some strange tales about immortals. So, following the other person's lead, he pretended to ask questions.

"Can a deity hear you? You must be trying to scare the boy. There are no deities in this world."

"Oh dear, young hero, please stop! I don't know if there are villains in other places, but there really are divine beings in Tianyan Town. You mustn't utter any more arrogant words!"

Seeing that Zhou Ping still looked indifferent, the arms shop manager was so anxious that he stamped his feet and looked around, as if he was about to see the guest out.

"Don't be in such a hurry, I won't say anymore, I won't say anymore, but now that you mention it, I'm really curious. Can you tell me a story about the immortals?"

Seeing how nervous the other person was, Zhou Ping asked with a face full of curiosity.

The arms shop manager reached out and tugged at his clothes, and then the two of them went to a corner and began to whisper to each other.

It turns out that because of the existence of Guiyuan Pavilion, cultivators often travel back and forth here.

Over time, in some remote and uninhabited places in the deep mountains and forests, ordinary people would occasionally see immortals riding cranes or flying on swords, and thus the legend of immortals began to spread.

Of course, all of the above are Zhou Ping's complete speculations based on the facts he already knew and the various rumors he heard from the weapons shop manager.

As for why he was so afraid of fairies, it was because a wealthy young man once saw a beautiful fairy by chance and was so captivated by her beauty that he said something offensive to her.

As a result, not long after, this young master died inexplicably in his own mansion.

After an investigation by the authorities, it was found that there were no signs of homicide or suicide, and it ultimately became an unsolved mystery.

After this incident spread, someone recounted his past blasphemy against the fairy, which astonished and frightened the world. Combined with the various rumors of seeing the fairy in the past, everyone became terrified of the word "fairy".

After listening to the other party's description, Zhou Ping had a general understanding and was almost certain that there was indeed a gathering place for cultivators called Guiyuan Pavilion in this place.

He inquired in detail about the various rumors and locations of chance encounters with immortals, and almost all of them pointed to one direction: the southwest of Tianyan Town, near the Xifeng Mountain range.

Zhou Ping learned from the cultivation manual at Tongyang Temple that Guiyuan Pavilion was located in a hidden pavilion in the southwesternmost corner of Tianyan Town.

With both pieces of information corroborating each other, Zhou Ping finally came to believe in the accuracy of the information contained in the Bronze Sheep Temple's cultivation manual.

Before leaving the weapons shop, Zhou Ping selected a finely crafted dagger to use as his daily self-defense weapon.

Although he still had a considerable number of specially made silver needles and finished poisons, if he used them every time he fought someone, he would undoubtedly be using one less needle after another.

Furthermore, these silver needles are too lethal; they will kill anyone who draws blood. You can't just kill someone every time you fight them, can you?

If that happens, I'll eventually become a monster that everyone hates.

Now that Zhou Ping is in an unfamiliar place with no fixed abode, he carries a large amount of pills he had accumulated before, which will not delay his cultivation speed.

However, without a stable and secluded dwelling to continue cultivating herbs, and with a limited stockpile of poison, he decided to conserve his resources and use these poison needles as a deadly weapon whenever possible.

Back at the inn, Zhou Ping began planning his itinerary for the next day. He intended to visit Guiyuan Pavilion in the southwest early in the morning to see if he could find its exact location.

The book only briefly described the existence and location of Guiyuan Pavilion; the rest he had to find out for himself.

Thinking about meeting other cultivators tomorrow, Zhou Ping couldn't help but feel a little uneasy and nervous.

He didn't know if those cultivators were easy to talk to, and he didn't know the exact value of the items he carried. If there was a risk of being exposed or detected, and someone started watching him as soon as he went in, that would be a huge problem.

Fortunately, the book clearly states that all fighting is prohibited in Guiyuan Pavilion, otherwise one would be killed by a joint effort of high-level cultivators from various sects stationed there.

However, for safety reasons, Zhou Ping still forcibly pried open a section of the floorboards in the inn's room.

He hid all his precious possessions, as well as relics obtained from the Jin Clan and cultivators, inside, leaving only that beautiful, gleaming jade stone.

Zhou Ping learned from that book that this kind of jade was called a spirit stone, which contained pure spiritual power.

In the world of cultivation, spirit stones are the most basic and important cultivation resource. Their role extends to many fields such as cultivation, trading, weapon crafting, and array formation, making them almost the cornerstone of the cultivation world.

In short, its effects cover almost every aspect of the cultivation world; without spirit stones, one would find it difficult to move an inch in the cultivation world.

Although Zhou Ping didn't know the value of a spirit stone, as the basic currency in the cultivation world, it was always a good idea to carry it with him for emergencies.

He looked at the perfectly sealed floor, which was no different from before, and clapped his hands in satisfaction, feeling relieved.

Entering Guiyuan Pavilion penniless like this, surely no one will covet it anymore?

Zhou Ping secretly mocked himself. He hadn't expected that when facing other cultivators, he would still have to pretend and hide his abilities just like when dealing with Jin Jingtian. He was not carefree and unrestrained at all. It seemed that cultivators were definitely not as ethereal and otherworldly as people imagined.

........

As dawn broke, Zhou Ping secretly sensed his surroundings. After confirming that there were no suspicious persons, he quietly left the inn and headed southwest towards Tianyan Town.

Since it was still early, there were few pedestrians on the street, only some merchant convoys driving back and forth in various directions.

Zhou Ping chose a sparsely populated street and practiced a spell he had learned from a book, the Lightness Spell, as he traveled.

Although he wasn't very skilled yet, he tried to imitate others and sometimes managed to produce something that he could barely manage.

With the aid of the Lightness Technique, Zhou Ping walked with a light and airy gait, and with a slight jump, he could leap forward a distance of three or four zhang, which made him extremely happy.

This was the first time he had ever used a cultivator's magic, and he never expected it to be so magical and powerful, which made him fall in love with this wonderful feeling.

But before he could be happy for long, a sharp pain shot through his chest, and the spiritual energy in his meridians began to deplete.

It turned out that Zhou Ping's frequent use of the Lightness Technique directly led to the excessive consumption of his own spiritual power.

Zhou Ping's face turned pale. He hurriedly took out a medicine bottle, poured out a pill, and swallowed it.

These were the only two things he carried: a spirit stone and two bottles of pills. One bottle contained Dragon Beard Pills, used to replenish his spiritual power, and the second bottle contained a healing elixir for emergencies.

After the Dragon Beard Pill entered his body, its medicinal power gradually transformed into streams of pure spiritual energy, slowly replenishing the spiritual energy depleted in Zhou Ping's meridians.

If other cultivators saw this practice of using precious cultivation medicine to replenish spiritual energy, they would surely curse it as a waste of resources!

Zhou Ping was unaware of how many people would envy him for his actions, since he had become accustomed to this way of eating from the very beginning of his cultivation of the Azure Origin Technique.

As for the change of Qingyuan True Qi to Qingyuan Spiritual Power, he only learned about it from the book. It turns out that the mysterious flow of energy cultivated by cultivators is not true qi, but something called spiritual power.