Ascending from the mortal realm to become an immortal begins with taking charge of a grotto-heaven.

Watching the dark-skinned, thin stall owner leave, Zhang Li hesitated for a moment, but ultimately did not follow.

When he received the spirit mud, the anomaly in the [Cave Heaven] had not completely disappeared, which meant that the spirit mud he bought might only be a small part, and the dark-skinned stall owner still had a large amount of spirit mud in his hands.

Furthermore, considering the obvious greed in the dark-skinned, thin stall owner's eyes during the transaction and his subsequent actions, Zhang Li was 100% certain that there was a hidden trick in the spiritual mud he had bought.

With his current strength, he could easily deal with a rogue cultivator at the fifth level of Qi Refining.

Zhang Li felt no burden whatsoever at killing the dark-skinned, thin monk.

In the cultivation world, the strong prey on the weak. Moreover, the dark-skinned, thin cultivator clearly saw him as a fat sheep to be slaughtered. He would not hesitate to kill such a person.

The path to immortality is destined to be fraught with difficulties. If Zhang Li does not want to become a skeleton beneath the path of others, then he can only choose to turn any cultivator who is hostile to him into a skeleton beneath his feet.

His hesitation just now wasn't out of fear, but because he had other ideas.

Zhang Li is currently unaware of the effects of the spiritual mud on the [Cave Heaven], and he does not want to take any risks before seeing any tangible benefits.

Risk must not outweigh profit; that's the bottom line.

Sensing the unusual activity within the [Cave Heaven], Zhang Li immediately headed towards the outside of the Immortal City.

……

In the dense forest outside the city, Zhang Li sat cross-legged under a giant tree.

After confirming that there were no other cultivators around, Zhang Li moved his mind and appeared in the cave.

Then, Zhang Li took out the spirit mud from his storage bag.

The next moment, he suddenly felt an invisible force pulling the spirit mud straight towards Kuroda.

Seeing this, Zhang Li decisively let go, watching the spirit mud float above the black field and begin to slowly dissolve.

But even after most of the black mud had dissolved, he still didn't sense any changes in the [Cave Heaven], nor did he understand why the [Cave Heaven] was acting strangely.

As Zhang Li continued to wait, faint wisps of blue light began to emerge from the dissolving spiritual mud.

"This is?"

After the outer layer of spiritual mud completely dissolved, only a few grains the size of sand remained. Before Zhang Li could examine them closely, these cyan light spots quickly fell and merged into the black field.

The moment the light merged in, the entire Kuroda field trembled violently, and the soil seemed to come alive, extending and spreading outwards.

After the expansion completely stopped, the original one-acre black field had expanded by more than 10% in all directions, and the soil layer had become thicker and more moist.

"this……"

Zhang Li stared blankly at the suddenly expanded spirit field, unable to hide the shock in his heart.

Although he didn't know what those blue particles were, they did increase the size of Kuroda's area within the cave by 10%.

Zhang Li originally thought that this acre of black soil would not change, but now it seems that he just did not master the right method.

The expansion of Kuroda's territory is a real benefit to him.

After carefully examining Kuroda's current state, Zhang Li had a sudden thought and returned to the dense forest, looking at his palm.

There was a tiny, gray insect in my palm, lifeless. It was found in the melted spiritual mud.

In the [Cave Heaven], apart from Zhang Li himself, any other living creature that enters will die the moment it does; at least, all the living creatures he tried to bring in died.

Zhang Li didn't know what the gray worm was, but it was definitely related to the skinny, dark-skinned stall owner. Such a thing would never appear in spiritual mud.

Thinking of the dark-skinned, thin stall owner, he clearly remembered that the stall owner still had a lot of spiritual mud in his hand. According to the anomaly in the [Cave Heaven], there should still be a lot of those blue light spots inside.

If we could obtain all the spirit mud from that stall owner, the area of ​​Kuroda within the [Cave Heaven] could definitely be expanded considerably.

However, there are too many cultivators coming and going in Yunyu Immortal City, making it extremely difficult to find a rogue cultivator among the vast number of cultivators.

But at that moment, two streaks of light suddenly appeared on the distant horizon, moving at an extremely fast speed, and were heading straight for him without any attempt to conceal their presence.

"They actually caught up with us."

Zhang Li's heart tightened, and he quickly disappeared into the dense forest, simultaneously casting a concealment talisman on himself to hide his aura and stealthily conceal himself.

A few breaths later, the two streaks of light stopped above the forest, revealing two figures.

One of them was very familiar to Zhang Li; it was the thin, dark-skinned stall owner who had sold him the spirit mud before. The other was a charming female cultivator who wielded a red silk magic artifact and whose cultivation level was the same as the thin, dark-skinned stall owner—both at the fifth level of Qi Refining.

At this moment, the enemy was in the open while we were in the dark, and Zhang Li silently observed the situation.

The dark-skinned, thin stall owner and the alluring female cultivator glanced around the woods before slowly controlling their magical artifacts to descend into the dense forest.

"Old Hei, are you sure the cultivator who bought your spirit mud is here?"

The alluring female cultivator frowned slightly. "If this isn't a big fish, you can forget about ever getting into my bed again."

"Don't worry, the shadow moth will never make a mistake." The dark-skinned, thin stall owner looked confident.

"I have a good idea of ​​what's going on. The other party is probably a cultivator from a small family who went out to make purchases. His cultivation level is only at the fourth level of Qi Refining."

The dark-skinned, thin stall owner said sinisterly, "Although I don't know how he discovered my backup plan, he's definitely still hiding nearby."

The dark-skinned, thin stall owner sneered and said loudly, "Fellow Daoist, stop hiding. My wife and I are only after money. If you are willing to hand over your storage bag, we will let you go, how about that?"

The alluring female cultivator echoed her sentiments, simultaneously controlling the red silk ribbons to surround herself, remaining vigilant against any potential attacks.

A man's and a woman's voices echoed through the woods, but after waiting for a long time, the woods remained silent, with no response.

Lin Jian saw that in the shadows, out of the sight of the two, Zhang Li was hiding behind a tree. His face showed neither joy nor sorrow, but a hint of fear and tension could be seen, though his heart was completely calm.

He didn't believe a word the dark-skinned, thin stall owner and the alluring female cultivator said, and he had no intention of handing over his storage bag.

In fact, Zhang Li considered himself the hunter.

The dark-skinned, thin stall owner and the alluring female cultivator thought his cultivation level was low and set their sights on his storage bag, but wasn't Zhang Li also eyeing the remaining spiritual mud on the dark-skinned, thin stall owner's body?

Otherwise, after discovering the gray worm, he would have left at full speed. With the support of the Shadow Boat, two rogue cultivators at the fifth level of Qi Refining would not have been able to catch up with him at all.

Although some unexpected situations have arisen, and the dark-skinned, thin stall owner did not come alone, the situation is still under Zhang Li's control.

He was already prepared, with the Poison Spirit Sword and the Heavenly Sun Sword in his hands, waiting to unleash a thunderous attack when the two revealed a weakness.

In the woods ahead, the dark-skinned, thin stall owner, seeing that there was no response after calling out for a long time, was about to turn around and exchange something with the alluring female cultivator when...