Why did you provoke that old man? He's a reincarnation of a deity!

Xiao Nian glanced at him.

"What's the panic? It's just a trivial trick."

He rode on a dark cloud to Jiang Wangshu and extended two withered fingers.

A surge of spiritual energy gently touched the surface of the dark red rune.

The rune was instantly wiped clean wherever the fingertip touched.

"What the hell is that thing? I've never heard of Emperor Wu having this kind of skill. You can just smear it on like that?"

Jiang Wangshu looked down and was shocked, utterly shocked.

Xiao Nian withdrew her finger and rode the black cloud outside:

"The marks of the Foundation Establishment stage are nothing more than a child's handwriting, not even ant-like. Even a dog peeing on the street is better than that."

"Huh?" Jiang Wangshu stood there dumbfounded. When did the legendary Foundation Establishment become so bad?

He was just thinking about how to lure away the pursuers so that Xiao Nian could escape, but she solved the problem in no time.

He suddenly realized that he had acted like a clown when he said "run" earlier.

"So what are we going to do now, boss?"

"I used that rune to track down that guy's lair. He'll be coming over soon, and we'll take out his lair first. We'll get some benefits, then we'll deal with him."

"To relieve the siege of Wei by attacking Zhao, wow, that's a brilliant move."

"Enough talk, let's go."

Those three beast transformation pills represent the three elements of metal, wood, and fire. If Xiao Nian is not mistaken, the so-called high priest is using people to nurture the pills. Once the five elemental pills have cultivated to the appropriate level, he will cruelly sacrifice his subordinates to achieve his pseudo-core realm.

Xiao Nian's goal was to pick the peaches ahead of time and get the other two. The Five Elements Pills were formed from the spiritual energy they had absorbed over decades of cultivation in the Spirit Eye. If used properly, they could also be absorbed to improve one's cultivation level.

……

Meanwhile, in a stone hall deep in the Taihang Mountains, a gaunt old man wearing an animal skin cloak suddenly opened his eyes.

The three jade talismans that were his life-bound items shattered at the same time, and the fragments fell to the ground, each one stained with blood that had not yet dried.

"My guardian spirits! My three beast transformation pills! Those are my pills!"

His voice roared, and the rest of the people in the stone hall trembled.

Those three Beast Transformation Pills were seeds he had cultivated over five years. Each pill contained a portion of his divine consciousness. Once the three people reached the peak of Qi Refining, which is the Martial King realm, he could reclaim the three pills and break through to the late Foundation Establishment stage, or even a Pseudo-Core stage.

Originally, the old priest sensed that there was a problem with the Ya'an tribe's cultivation cave and sacrificial site, and sent his three priests to check it out. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be a case of throwing good money after bad, with no one returning!

"Where did Dan go?!"

The old man stood up, his figure thin and frail beneath the animal-skin cloak, even more withered than Xiao Nian's.

He glanced towards the direction of the cave, where the last trace of energy from when his natal jade talisman shattered was located.

Strangely, his location was only set for a short while before disappearing.

"There are other experts?"

"No matter who you are, if you trample on my territory, ruin my pills, or take my pills, you have to spit them out."

He stepped out of the stone hall, a blue light emanating from beneath his feet, and he soared into the air, enveloped in a thin layer of spiritual energy, flying towards the cave where Xiao Nian was.

The moonlight cast a thin, long shadow behind him, like a shooting star.

……

Xiao Nian rode on a black cloud, with Jiang Wangshu on his back.

His aura had been completely suppressed by the Qi Concealment Technique, which he also taught to Jiang Wangshu.

The two of them are now just ordinary people walking on the Taihang Mountains.

"He's here."

Xiao Nian's divine sense was very sharp. He suddenly stopped the black cloud and listened carefully.

Three miles away, a streak of azure light was flying close to the treetops at great speed, carrying intense spiritual energy fluctuations. Wherever it passed, the branches and leaves were pressed down by the shockwave.

Foundation building period.

He was a cultivator in the early stages of Foundation Establishment, which would make him a powerful figure on Earth.

At this moment, they were flying at full speed towards the cave.

Xiao Nian remained calm. He simply patted Hei Yun's neck gently and whispered:

"Don't stop. Keep going, but slow down."

Hei Yun slowed his pace, walking like an ordinary hunter on a mountain path.

The streak of blue light drew closer and closer.

Xiao Nian saw a gaunt old man wearing an animal skin cloak from a distance of more than ten feet. He was short in stature and his feet were stepping on a ball of blue light, which was his magic weapon.

He flew back in the direction Xiao Nian had come from.

The old man's eyes were focused and sinister, and he moved very fast as he tried his best to track the residual aura left when the three natal jade talismans shattered.

The two passed each other on a narrow ridge.

As the old man flew past three zhang above Xiao Nian's head, he glanced down at him.

An old man with white hair, riding a black horse, was hunched over. Behind him sat a young man who looked like a hunter. The old man's aura was unremarkable, not even qualifying him as a martial artist in the Body Tempering stage. His blood and energy also showed signs of depletion and decay.

The old man didn't stop; he glanced at the wrinkled face for a moment before looking away and continuing to fly forward.

Xiao Nian didn't look up either.

Black Cloud's four hooves passed under the old man's feet, one up and one down, one high and one low. The two men were like two lines intersecting at different heights, briefly meeting before extending in different directions.

Once the streak of blue light had completely disappeared into the dense forest behind him, Xiao Nian looked up slightly and his lips twitched.

"Let's go, Black Cloud, loot them!"

The black cloud sped up again, moving forward at full speed.

The two men and the horse quickened their pace, traveling through the night.

After Xiao Nian broke through to the sixth level of Qi Refining a few days ago, his divine sense could cover a radius of thirty feet. He followed the life jade talisman left by the three generals when he came to track them back to their lair.

As dawn approached, a stone palace embedded in the mountainside came into view.

The stone hall was not large, and the main entrance was carved with various animal patterns and totems. Next to the stone hall were various human settlements covered with animal skins, and they were all fast asleep at this time.

Several piles of bonfire ashes remained on the open ground in front of the hall, and the air was filled with a mixed smell of herbs and animal blood.

"How do we get in?" Jiang Wangshu asked.

"You just saw it too, that Foundation Establishment cultivator flying in the sky. In my eyes, he's just an ant, and I can't afford to mess with him for now. Let's sneak in."

Although Xiao Nian is a reincarnation of an immortal, he is not so stubborn that he should not get into a conflict with a Foundation Establishment cultivator at this time.

Xiao Nian dismounted and, leaning on his cane, walked to the entrance of the stone hall.

He scanned the area with his divine sense and discovered that the stone hall had a side door!

"Let's go to the side door."

Xiao Nian rode the black clouds to a spot on the stone wall, and gently tapped it with his cane. The two thick stone doors opened with a rumble.

They had somehow ended up at a stone altar.

The hall was not large. In the very center was a stone altar, the surface of which was covered with intricate array patterns, and dark red bloodstains remained in the grooves of the patterns.