A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Rogue Cultivator

He still vividly remembers the trouble that Nalan Jiu Mei caused him back then.

Back then, he almost died.

He couldn't swallow his disgust until this family was eliminated.

Unfortunately, he was an exceptionally vengeful person.

……

More than two months have passed, outside the Crimson Forbidden Zone.

As expected, Li Huayuan led the team, and they were indeed the first to arrive, waiting there early on.

This time, Huangfeng Valley dispatched a full complement of twenty-five disciples, including eleven at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining. The rest were mostly at the twelfth level, with only one at the eleventh level and one at the tenth level.

It has to be said that Old Li was ruthless.

He had been preparing for this trial for over four years. To ensure a good result, he directly accepted a disciple with good aptitude and strength among the top ten out of the tens of thousands of disciples in the sect, who was at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, as his nominal disciple.

That's right, Li Huayuan opened the door wide and accepted ten people into his ranks at once.

Since he couldn't offer any material rewards, he simply gave these nominal disciples four years of intensive dual-mentor training! He used all the time he spent refining iron essence to cultivate his apprentices! This earned him the complete respect and admiration of his disciples, who all became his staunch supporters!

These actions not only shocked the other Core Formation elders in the sect, but even a junior brother who had been lurking in the corner for less than two years and had never uttered a word was frequently glancing at them.

As for what results Old Li and Senior Brother Lin actually achieved after four years of hard work.

The outcome will be clear after the trial.

However, one can get a glimpse of this from the people's energetic and confident appearance.

With more than half a day to go before the agreed-upon gathering time of the seven factions, the disciples were free to move around at this time.

Meanwhile, the other disciples scattered and went about their own business: some were wiping their magical artifacts, some were lost in thought, and many others were filled with worry. There was even a sleazy old man with only the tenth level of Qi Refining trying to form cliques.

Only the ten people behind Li Huayuan remained calm and composed, sitting cross-legged in a circle, conserving their energy. This contrasted sharply with the other fifteen people.

The time soon came for all factions to gather.

The six factions arrived one after another.

The first place they arrived at immediately caught Li Huayuan's eye, and he greeted them warmly from afar:

"Brother Fuyun!"

Prior to this, having received instructions from their master, the ten nominal disciples had already become "disorganized," displaying a pathetic demeanor of "I'm so useless, what am I going to do next, will someone come after me and kill me?" Their morale was so low that anyone unaware of the situation would instinctively mistake them for a hastily assembled team!

"Brother Huayuan!"

The moment he saw Li Huayuan, the old Taoist Fuyunzi felt a sudden surge of warmth and affection.

Finally, it's not that old scoundrel Chen Laogui anymore.

And take a look at the state of the disciples of Huangfeng Valley:

Okay, okay!

I love those spineless cowards who aren't willing to participate in the trials!

If Huangfeng Valley is full of people who can't even unleash half their full potential, let alone a dozen or so elite disciples, even a full team of elite disciples wouldn't faze Qingxu Sect!

"Brother Fuyun, I heard that you lost some talismans to Senior Brother Chen last time, is that true?"

Li Huayuan spoke casually, but in reality, he had ulterior motives.

"We were supposed to be brothers in misfortune, why are you reopening old wounds right away? Is our brotherhood just a facade?" Fu Yunzi was incredibly frustrated.

"It is only right to admit defeat in a bet. Brother Chen is indeed more skilled. I am completely convinced of my defeat."

Are you truly convinced?

Old Li gave a forced smile: "I don't believe you for a second. You've probably cursed Old Chen's ancestors for eighteen generations behind his back."

The intermediate-level talismans costing tens of thousands of spirit stones, especially those eight rare intermediate-to-high-level talismans, would definitely require Li to spend most of his fortune trading with others to collect them.

"Hey, the disciples Qingxu Sect sent this time are quite impressive. Seven elites, and most of the other disciples are also experts at the twelfth level. Brother Fuyun, which sect are you eyeing? Hehehe, it seems you've been preparing for this quite a bit these past two years, haven't you?"

Fu Yunzi's expression changed almost imperceptibly: "Not at all..."

Li Huayuan seemed not to have seen it at all: "Then I wish you and your fellow Daoists a small victory and that you can recoup some of your losses."

"Hahaha, Brother Huayuan, how can these good-for-nothing juniors in my sect compare to the elite disciples of your Yellow Maple Valley? Look at your sect this time, there are eleven young masters. Isn't that enough to even surpass the trial team of the Hidden Moon Sect?"

Fu Yunzi flattered her with a glint of shrewdness in his eyes.

"That is."

Li Huayuan accepted these words without any hesitation.

Unexpectedly, at this moment, Fu Yunzi changed his tone and continued, "Hey, Brother Huayuan, you see, your sect is quite strong. As for me, I also have some expectations for my own useless members. How about this, let's have a small bet first, a little bet for fun."

"Shall we make a bet?"

Li Huayuan looked hesitant and surprised.

"What, Brother Huayuan, do you distrust your own elites so much?"

On the Yellow Maple Valley side, there were those who were fearful, those who were resentful, those who were expectant, and those who were hesitant; there was no unity in facing the outside world.

Seeing this, Fuyunzi became even more certain.

"Brother Dao, are you serious?"

"It really can't be more real."

"So, what shall we bet on?"

"Brother Huayuan, I heard that you refined a piece of iron essence a few years ago?"

"No, it's three pieces!"

Fu Yunzi: "...?"

He felt like something was wrong!

Chapter 66 Li Huayuan's Awakening!

Before long, the other five sects, including the Hidden Moon Sect, also arrived one after another.

Furthermore, it is evident that the lineups of disciples from each faction have significantly improved compared to the last time.

For example, [Hua Dao Wu].

Perhaps because only one disciple survived last time, the sects' harvest of spiritual herbs was undoubtedly the worst among the seven sects, with only seven herbs brought out. This certainly affected the distribution of Foundation Establishment Pills within the sects. Therefore, this time, there were a total of seven elites at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining.

In the past, we would have been lucky to get half of that.

The remaining members of the trial team all possessed cultivation levels of the twelfth level, and were only two short of reaching the full strength of twenty-five. It seems the Blade Transformation Pavilion had put in a tremendous amount of effort this time.

Looking at [Spirit Beast Mountain], there were as many as eight people at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, and the rest were all experts at the twelfth level; there wasn't a single one below the twelfth level. They all looked like they had come with a fierce momentum.

The only drawback is that it is four people short of the full complement.

As for the strongest of the seven sects, the [Hidden Moon Sect], its lineup is by no means inferior: there are as many as nine elites at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, plus ten pairs of experts at the twelfth level.

The Giant Sword Sect and the Heavenly Palace Fortress are slightly inferior, but they also show signs of increasing their investment.

"It seems that the leaders of several factions are all planning to make a big profit and then temporarily seal off this place for a period of time."

Upon observing the various factions' postures, Li Huayuan immediately discerned the hidden agenda.

"However, you guys are still a bit petty, unlike me, hmph hmph hmph..."

Old Li was quite pleased with himself.

The idea of ​​taking on apprentices was undoubtedly inspired by Young Master Lin and Wang Li. He had always been resentful about not being able to get a small fortune from Wang Li as a disciple's gift.

Then there's Qianzhu teaching the Lin family: looking at that dejected old man, ever since he started teaching a promising student he had found, especially after imparting to this promising student a truncated version of the first level of the Great Evolution Technique and the Puppet Technique, his mental state has miraculously improved.

At that moment, he understood.

Therefore, in order to make a fortune from the Blood Forbidden Trial, he would recruit more nominal disciples and invest a little time in advance. If half of these disciples survived, and if four or five of them could bring out about ten spiritual herbs, then Li Huayuan would make a huge profit!

Because each person offered half of the spiritual herbs as a gift to the master, which was more than twenty rare spiritual herbs that were hard to find elsewhere.

Keep in mind that even the most common spirit herbs, even if auctioned at a "wholesale price" of three or four hundred spirit stones per plant, would still leave him with a safety net of six or seven thousand spirit stones. If he's a bit luckier and one or two more survive, making ten thousand or so spirit stones wouldn't be difficult at all.

This is only under the so-called "wholesale price of ordinary medicinal herbs".

Normally, among forty or fifty spiritual herbs, there would be at least four or five that are hard to find elsewhere. At that time, he would be in charge of choosing. Apart from the three main ingredients for refining Foundation Establishment Pills—the Purple Monkey Flower, the Heavenly Spirit Fruit, and the Jade Marrow Mushroom—he could ask for the other four or five precious herbs.

These four or five plants alone are probably worth more than ten thousand spirit stones.

If the auxiliary materials can be found and refined into pills, the value will increase even further, possibly reaching tens of thousands of spirit stones.

Even if the pills refined from these few plants are only suitable for the Foundation Establishment stage, they would still be enough for him to make a fortune.

If these nominal disciples were to perform admirably and obtain for him the rare Purple Tang Immortal that Old Chen had acquired, each one would be worth at least seven or eight thousand spirit stones. In addition, there's the bet with Old Daoist Fuyunzi: three medium-sized pieces of high-grade iron essence, which would amount to over twenty thousand spirit stones.

In other words, a trial could bring Li a profit of at least 30,000 to 40,000 spirit stones.

Ha, after ten years of painstaking refinement, a medium-sized high-grade iron essence only yields a little over seven thousand spirit stones.

A trial wager, for him four or five decades.

Even after he awakens to this truth, he will still do a simple calculation of this matter.

And only after comparing the data did they belatedly realize that it was a huge mistake to not properly train those trial disciples and instead go and refine some iron essence.

As for the potential problems that might arise from accepting so many nominal disciples at once, that's really overthinking it.

Firstly, these kids are usually trained in the mountains near Bibo Cave by him and that old man surnamed Lin. They haven't even been home once in four years. What trouble could they possibly cause him?

Secondly, if the little ones fail to emerge alive from the forbidden area this time, then the title of nominal disciple he sent out will be meaningless. But if they do emerge alive: with him around, a Foundation Establishment Pill is guaranteed. If they can establish their foundation, that would be best, giving him another tool to use; if they can't, even better, cough cough, they can come back next time and continue to shine for him!

In any case, the benefits of taking on a few nominal disciples far outweigh the drawbacks.

Didn't you see that in order to save costs and avoid the pills and spirit stones needed to train nominal disciples, the ten people he took in were all at the thirteenth level of Qi Refining, and didn't need to deliberately improve their cultivation at all?

Li Huayuan, he was all about refinement.

"Hey, Brother Huayuan, why are you leading the team this time? Given Senior Brother Chen's personality, he took a huge advantage of Brother Fuyun last time, there's no reason for him not to come again, right? Wait, could Senior Brother Chen be in seclusion breaking through a bottleneck?"

The middle-aged man from Huadaowu was probing for information with a forced smile.

Upon hearing this, Li Huayuan narrowed his eyes but did not reply.