With the Eight Immortals' magical treasures in hand, even a mortal like myself! Ha!

On the other side, Gu Qing flew thousands of miles on his iron crutch. When his magic power was depleted, he directly swallowed spiritual medicine and absorbed mid-grade spirit stones.

Finally, his body couldn't take it anymore, and he crashed to the ground mid-flight.

I didn't expect that using the magical artifacts in the Eight Immortals Painting would come at such a high price. Could it be true, as the Old Monster of the Azure Sky said, that the treasures in the Eight Immortals Crossing the Sea Painting are all magic weapons, which cannot be easily activated by someone with low cultivation like Gu Qing?

Just think of Li Huayuan's apprentice; it took him a tremendous amount of effort to activate a True Spirit Talisman.

Fortunately, Gu Qing did not faint and remained conscious.

Gu Qing was still a little shaken. It was too much of a struggle to immobilize eight Core Formation cultivators at once, but fortunately, he succeeded in the end.

Gu Qing dared not linger in place for too long. After swallowing the pill, he forced himself to stand up and walk, and dared not use his magic weapon to fly in the sky.

After jogging for a short while, Gu Qing saw a mountain ahead and thought of how Tieguai could split mountains by striking the ground.

So Gu Qing had an idea. He took out Tieguai Li's crutch and struck the ground, and the mountain hundreds of feet in front of him split in two.

Without hesitation, Gu Qing flew directly into the mountain to take cover, and then tapped the ground with his cane, causing the mountain to close up.

And so, Gu Qing hid in the mountains to cultivate, ignoring the pursuit from the outside world.

Of course, simply dodging was not enough. As planned, Gu Qing threw all the storage bags into the gourd and used the immortal energy inside to cleanse and restore his magic power.

Several hours later, several streaks of light flew past the mountain one after another, and finally all converged to reveal their forms.

These streaks of light were none other than eight Core Formation cultivators from the seven sects of the Yue Kingdom.

"This kid somehow erased his aura and disappeared in an instant," said the Old Monster of the Azure Sky.

Hong Fu frowned upon hearing this: "The sect's secret techniques have also disappeared without a trace."

"So what do we do now?" Fairy Ni Chang's beautiful eyes flickered.

"What else can we do but send our disciples to search secretly?" Hong Fu said.

The Old Monster of the Azure Sky snorted coldly: "Easier said than done. Without any context, how are our subordinates supposed to find it?"

"That's easy. Since he can accelerate the growth of spiritual herbs, he must be exchanging them for resources or buying a large number of seeds to plant. We can monitor him from there," Hong Fu said.

The other seven people thought it made some sense, so they had no choice but to do it that way.

"What about the Crimson Forbidden Land?" Fairy Ni Chang couldn't help but ask.

"We've already missed the best time to enter the Crimson Forbidden Land. Let's wait another five years. Our Yellow Maple Valley is willing to compensate you for some Foundation Establishment Pills, but our priority right now is to find that kid first," Hong Fu suggested.

Upon hearing this, Fairy Ni Chang couldn't help but look at Old Monster Cang Qiong, who nodded to himself.

At this point, the eight Core Formation cultivators, unable to find Gu Qing, had no choice but to temporarily set aside their other matters and continue their search.

However, what they didn't know was that Gu Qing was inside the mountain beneath their feet.

As the saying goes, one cannot know the passage of time in cultivation. After Gu Qing had refined all twenty or thirty pills he had made, and had no more pills left for cultivation, he decided to come out of his hiding place.

Inside the mountain, Gu Qing pondered that so much time had passed, the winds outside should not be so strong anymore, and getting out should not be a big problem.

With this in mind, Gu Qing emerged from the mountain, intending to find a market to buy some seeds and seedlings of spiritual herbs, then accelerate their ripening and refine them into pills before going into seclusion to cultivate.

Gu Qing didn't know if it was because he was out in the open, but he felt that his cultivation was going much smoother. Perhaps it was because he felt more relaxed and unconstrained, which made his cultivation faster.

"Is this what freedom tastes like?" Gu Qing couldn't help but mutter to himself.

However, freedom comes at a price: now Gu Qing has to find spiritual herbs and refine pills on his own, which is not as convenient as before.

Unfortunately, Gu Qing's plan was not thorough enough. He didn't manage to collect all the seeds of the spiritual herbs on his person, nor did he harvest too many of the spiritual herbs from the herb field.

But it doesn't matter, as long as the person is out, the medicinal herbs will always be available.

As Gu Qing emerged from the mountain, he cautiously scanned his surroundings with his divine sense and soon discovered a caravan passing by at the foot of the mountain.

Seeing this, Gu Qing decided to blend in. He took out a new set of clothes, changed his appearance, and sat down to rest on the path the group was bound to take.

As the caravan passed through the woods, they saw a middle-aged man with a full beard sitting on a rock ahead, holding a knife in his hand. They immediately became alert.

At this moment, Gu Qing, disguised as a martial arts practitioner, jumped off the rock when he saw the caravan stop, cupped his hands and asked, "Is the caravan heading to Yuanwu Kingdom? Can you give me a ride?"

The head instructor glanced at Gu Qing's terrifyingly pale lips and guessed that the other party might be injured, which was why he wanted to blend into the caravan to avoid being hunted down.

These kinds of people are the most troublesome, so the instructor didn't hesitate and said directly, "You are currently within the territory of Yuanwu Kingdom."

Upon hearing this, Gu Qing stroked the hilt of his sword. He hadn't expected the journey to Yuanwu Kingdom to be so direct; that would save him trouble. He simply said, "Then I'll leave now. You may proceed."

Gu Qing stepped aside to let the caravan pass. The instructor looked somewhat wary, but still directed the group forward.

Gu Qing trailed the group at a distance, since there was only one mountain path around them. If they didn't take this path, they would have to fly using magical artifacts.

However, Gu Qing was still quite cautious when she first came out, so she did not use a magical artifact to fly.

The people in the caravan were very displeased with this. A young man in a blue cloth robe walked up to the instructor and whispered, "It's not good for that man to keep following us. Why don't I go and teach him a lesson?"

The instructor pondered for a moment, thinking that Gu Qing's gait was light and unsteady, and he didn't seem to be a trained fighter, so he said, "Just teach him a lesson, don't kill him."

The young man in blue nodded and turned to teach Gu Qing a lesson, but was stopped by the people inside the sedan chair.

"You're no match for him, so let him come along." A cold female voice rang out from inside the sedan chair.

The young man in blue was somewhat unconvinced, so he said, "Don't worry, sir, it's just a lesson for that guy, we won't harm his life."

Without waiting for a response from inside the sedan chair, the young man in blue ran up to Gu Qing and said, "Hey, don't follow us, or don't blame us for being impolite."

Gu Qing found it amusing and then said, "There's only one way out of the mountain. We're just traveling the same route. I didn't mean to follow you."

"If you don't know what's good for you, then don't blame me for being impolite." The young man in blue stepped forward, grabbed Gu Qing's collar with one hand, and then tried to throw him to the ground.

Although Gu Qing's clothes were tugged, she herself did not move an inch.

When the young man in blue realized that one hand wasn't enough, he used both hands, exerting force with both hands, but he could only tug at Gu Qing's clothes.

Seeing this, Gu Qing smiled, stretched out his foot and lightly kicked the young man in blue's ankle, and heard him cry out "Ouch!" and fall to the ground.

The young man in blue clutched his ankle, feeling a sharp pain. He knew he had met his match and shouted at Gu Qing, "You just wait!"

With that, he limped back to the group.

Not long after, the woman sitting in the sedan chair in the procession got off. She was a beautiful woman in a purple robe with a full figure. Even though she was wearing a loose robe, it could not hide her proud figure.

Gu Qing was somewhat surprised to see that there was a cultivator in the group, who appeared to be at the seventh or eighth level of Qi Refining.

"Fellow Daoist, why don't we ride together in the sedan chair to Yuanwu City?" the beautiful woman in purple robes invited.

Seeing this, Gu Qing did not refuse, but directly cupped his hands in thanks: "Then thank you very much, fellow Daoist."

And so, Gu Qing became a member of the caravan, but he still had some pride and didn't squeeze into the sedan chair with the beautiful woman in purple.

Seeing this, the beautiful woman in the purple robe didn't say anything more, but simply got out of the sedan chair and started walking with Gu Qing.

"Are you from Yue, fellow Daoist?" the beautiful woman in purple robes asked, looking at the texture of Gu Qing's robes.

Gu Qing was somewhat surprised that the other party could tell at a glance that he was from Yue, but he did not deny it and said directly, "Yes, I am a rogue cultivator from Yue. Recently, Yue has been in some turmoil, so I came to Yuanwu Kingdom to take a look."

"Hehehe, the Yue Kingdom has indeed been in some turmoil these past two years. I heard that the Seven Sects are looking for someone, which has caused a lot of complaints from the rogue cultivators, and many cultivators have ended up in the Yuanwu Kingdom." The beautiful woman in purple robes said with a smile.

Gu Qing was somewhat surprised: "You even know about the Seven Sects, so you're not just some simple rogue cultivator."

"I am from the Qin family of Yuanwu Kingdom, and I do know some news about Yue Kingdom," the beautiful woman in purple robes said with a smile.

"The Qin family? Never heard of them. I've only heard of the Fu family." Gu Qing shook his head slightly.

Upon hearing this, the beautiful woman in purple robes looked somewhat embarrassed, but she still explained, "Our Qin family, like the Fu family, has a Core Formation Ancestor in the family, making us one of the top families in the Yuanwu Kingdom."

"I see, then I'm truly sorry," Gu Qing hurriedly apologized.