Chapter Fifty-Six: Xiong Family's Xiong Village

Chapter Fifty-Six: Xiong Family's Xiong Village

To avoid too much trouble, after expressing his gratitude, Li Changshou quietly left behind a pile of gold and silver treasures while the Iron Tower Maiden ran out to call for help.

He left without saying goodbye.

He didn't go far. Using earth escape, he traveled hundreds of miles, hiding in the trunk of a large tree in the seaside jungle, scanning the village with his divine sense.

They say different places nurture different people;

Could it be that there's something special in the water and soil of this village?

Wherever his divine sense reached, there were groups of strong men and women busy everywhere. They weren't just ordinary strong, but rather...

That kind...

Difficult to describe, exuding a noble aura of strength.

Everywhere his divine sense reached, there were men and women full of explosive muscles, each with arms as thick as his little martial sister's waist, rolling a few hundred pounds of millstones around like toys...

Except for a few elderly and children, most of the people in this village had a physique similar to the Iron Tower Maiden he had seen before.

"Maybe I'm overthinking it, and this is just a village that pursues muscular beauty."

Li Changshou smiled inwardly, multitasking by observing the village while carefully sensing his own incomplete recovery of immortal body and spirit.

Divine sense was much more useful than spiritual sense. Not only could it probe a wider range, but the images it 'saw' were also clearer and more vivid.

Before transcending tribulation, Li Changshou's spiritual sense could only probe a range of one to two hundred miles, but what he saw was blurry, and only within thirty miles could he see clearly.

Now it was different. He could easily probe up to two thousand miles.

For example, at this moment, even across a thousand miles, he could roughly discern the two figures wrestling in the grassland, their approximate fighting movements...

It seems they're not fighting...

Ah, no need to care about these details. In any case, his probing ability had been greatly enhanced!

Li Changshou's attention returned to the village a hundred miles away;

The girl who had taken care of him for a while hurriedly led a group of people to rush towards the wooden house where he had stayed before, discovering the pile of gold and silver treasures he left on the bed...

Having left the Transcendence Sect for more than nine months, he could only stay outside for another three or four years at most, otherwise his master and the sect's officials would surely go out to search for him.

During this time, he should find an island to continue his seclusion.

There were still many things to do, and he must plan them out clearly.

Healing and stabilizing his realm didn't need much mention;

He must find a way to conceal his immortal power and body, simulating his original mortal body;

Since he chose to hide his cultivation as a foundation, he must stick to this path to the end. If he suddenly exposed himself, he would surely be suspected by the higher-ups of the Transcendence Sect.

-The development of the third version of "Turtle Breathing and Calming Technique" must be put on the agenda.

In addition to this, Li Changshou had to face an embarrassing fact.

Because he had made great strides forward in his strength after transcending tribulation, reaching the rumored 'ascension';

This was naturally a good thing, but about a third of the defensive means he had used before had completely lost their meaning, and another third had greatly reduced effectiveness.

For example, soft immortal powder and many poison pills were now somewhat redundant.

When his strength was insufficient, aphrodisiacs and poison pills were defensive weapons;

But now, the effect of poison pills was no better than a slap from him...

All those poison pills he had refined to deal with true immortals could only be stored away for later use in specific situations.

Or, he could go to the edge of the Central Divine Continent, find a town, and exchange them for valuable materials and herbs.

The power of the bronze short crossbow could be enhanced according to the user's mana and immortal power level;

This attack weapon with minimal consumption of immortal power could be kept. After some refinement with immortal power later on, its potential could be further unleashed, continuing to be used by the paper people.

The same applied to the Samadhi True Flame; its power increased with strength, and later only required replenishing cultivation and condensing immortal fire.

The art of paper-cutting into adults needed to be comprehended again, and the paper people in the future would have more wonderful uses and greater power than before;

The Five Elements Escaping Technique could also enter a completely new realm;

The sword formation magic weapon needed to be re-refined;

Some powerful talismans that he couldn't draw before could now be made;

The Luo Tian Treasure Umbrella could be used to set up even more powerful formations...

And so on and so forth...

Upon careful consideration, there were indeed many things he needed to do, and three or four years might not be enough time.

It's better to prioritize the most important tasks and first enhance several escape techniques that he used most frequently.

There are matters of great importance, and life comes first.

What difference does ascension make? What difference does becoming immortal make?

Becoming immortal makes him a stronger ant than before;

Ascension gives this ant wings, flying into the sky, but still just a flying ant, and even more conspicuous.

The age in the Primordial Chaos is immeasurable, countless years have passed until now, even though great calamities constantly descend, there are still too many experts remaining.

There are the Heavenly Dao, Dao Ancestors, Six Saints above;

There are also ancient powerhouses, leaders of the Three Teachings, remnants of witchcraft, rising experts of the human race, and various reincarnations of high-level experts...

As of now, Li Changshou couldn't even be considered a third-rate expert in the Primordial Chaos, and he was still far from it.

And the key is...

He's particularly poor.

...

His divine sense captured a noisy commotion in the village in the distance, where the strong girl was holding onto the pile of gold and silver left by Li Changshou, squatting on the ground and crying bitterly.

"The immortal didn't get lost because of me! I didn't sell the immortal!"

Watching her squatting on the ground crying like a two-hundred-pound child, the surrounding group of 'Iron Tower' and 'Golden Guard' still heartlessly accused her...

"You were supposed to take care of the Sea God. The Sea God is so big, how could you lose sight of him?" "Oh, did you have to run out to call for help? You could have just stood by the window and shouted 'Wake up, Sea God, wake up,' right? What's the point of running around everywhere?" "We've said that it's the Sea God, not some immortal! Xiong Lingli, Xiong Lingli! Don't listen to your father's nonsense! Offending the Sea God is no small matter! Quick, take these gold and silver mundane objects to the village chief's house! Don't let these mundane objects offend the Sea God!"

Xiong... The surname does fit, a real bear-like figure.

The group of adults scolded the young girl for a while and then dispersed without punishing her, starting to search for their 'Sea God' inside and outside the village.

Li Changshou continued to observe secretly.

There was something unusual about this village, which was the only reason Li Changshou stayed a hundred miles away without leaving directly.

Where there was abnormality, there might be monsters, or perhaps hidden treasures.

The village had thousands of people from different clans, living by fishing, hunting, and farming, leading relatively comfortable lives. The place also had favorable weather conditions, free from natural disasters.

As for man-made disasters...

Even with several thousand regular soldiers from the Mortal Kingdom, it wasn't certain they could conquer this village, let alone the small groups of bandits and pirates.

But most of the people in the village were ordinary folks, without cultivation, yet they all had sturdy bodies like the young girl. This was indeed puzzling.

Firstly, their nutrition was definitely insufficient.

Not to mention, the people here didn't engage in deliberate muscle-building activities...

Among the possibilities Li Changshou could think of, the most probable situation was that there was some special water source or food here, abundant and nourishing.

Often, these seemingly ordinary miraculous items for mortals could be treasures used for alchemy, crafting, formations, or cultivation.

Coupled with the absence of any traces of external cultivators, the few Nascent Soul and Core Formation cultivators in the village should have practiced some incomplete techniques, which was not uncommon among the human race...

This piqued Li Changshou's interest slightly, prompting him to decide to stay a hundred miles away for observation.

After the group of heroes searched fruitlessly in the village, they mobilized a bear group.

After searching with the full strength of the bear village for half a day, an old man helplessly shouted, "The Sea God has returned to the sea!"

So, most of the villagers with the surname Bear returned to the village and began a lively bonfire gathering to welcome the Sea God's return to the sea.

Li Changshou observed for three days, secretly inspected the water source here, investigated the staple food of the village, and searched the surrounding area for hundreds of miles, but found nothing unusual.

Could it be inherited physique?

He didn't want to stay here too long. If he couldn't find the reason for the anomaly here, he decided to leave directly.

In the middle of the night, Li Changshou squeezed out of the trunk of a large tree and transformed into a medium-sized fish, plunging into the warm sea to find his next seclusion site.

This place was in the southwest of the Southern Shanzhou, within the territory of the South Sea Dragon Palace.

However, since the South Sea Dragon Palace was too far from the land and not as active as the East Sea Dragon Palace, this sea area was exceptionally calm and peaceful. Li Changshou quickly found a small deserted island and went into seclusion there.

Three months later.

Li Changshou's injuries had completely healed, and his Water Escaping and Earth Escaping abilities had greatly improved. He also re-practiced the Samadhi True Flame and condensed the Immortal Fire.

Five months later.

Sitting cross-legged in a cave among the reefs, Li Changshou's surrounding immortal light completely converged, his breathing no longer emitted any spiritual energy, the sharp light in his eyes disappeared, and the fragrance on his body vanished.

Standing up, he looked down for a while, his own aura showing no fluctuations...

Walking to the side of the reef, Li Changshou stood quietly, observing the reaction of the creatures in the sea.

Before, because of the pressure of the immortals, the fish and shrimps in the sea would flee one after another;

Now that he stood here, except for being momentarily startled, the fish and shrimps in the sea returned to their normal, idle frolicking...

After some thought, Li Changshou simulated the aura of returning to the Seventh Realm of Return to Void, then hid this part of the aura and revealed the aura of returning to the Third Realm of Return to Void.

The third version of the Immortal Turtle Breathing Technique, perfected.

'After going back, I'll pass the second version to Ling E.'

Exhaling lightly, Li Changshou was quite pleased. He didn't want to waste more time and was about to return to the rock cave where he had hidden before to continue his cultivation;

He was just about to turn around when a rainbow light suddenly appeared in the sky to the north.

Li Changshou's divine sense immediately swept over, discovering that the source of that light was the village of the Iron Tower girl, Xiong Lingli...

That village really had some good stuff!

However, causing such a commotion might attract the attention of other cultivators. It would be risky to go over there recklessly.

After weighing his options, Li Changshou took out a paper man from his sleeve and blew on it.

The paper man trembled a few times, slowly coming to life, stretching its small arms and legs, hopping in Li Changshou's hand, and landing on the sea surface;

The paper man took a few steps on the sea water, and with a poof, turned into the figure of a middle-aged Taoist priest, catching the three treasure pouches thrown by Li Changshou, then turned around and disappeared into the sea.

Li Changshou returned to the rock cave, closed his eyes, and focused his mind on the paper man's clone.

He kept his mindset very relaxed.

If he could pick up treasures, he would. If there was something more than just 'picking', he would let the paper man withdraw.

After all, as his realm improved, making higher-tier paper men would require more effort.

And in this mundane world, there probably wouldn't be any powerful magic treasures.

...

The junction of the South Sea and the East Sea, the corner of the sea island resembling a giant turtle.

"Friends, I really didn't lie;

On the way back last time, I happened upon a person who had passed through the Nine Heavens Divine Tribulation. I said he wouldn't make it, but he did!

After crossing the tribulation, he was even struck by heavenly punishment. I thought he was finished, but..."

"Can you guess what happened?"

Beside the treasure pool, an old Taoist was chatting with about a dozen cultivators of similar levels, describing vividly.

In the corner underwater, Ao Yi reverted to his true form as a blue dragon, lurking motionless at the bottom of the pool...

The Primordial was truly terrifying.

The nightmare still hadn't faded, but this time, Ao Yi actively requested the Dragon Mother to send him back to the territory of the Jiejiao Immortals.

Because Ao Yi knew that among the Jiejiao, there were also some humans. He could observe them and learn what the Dragon Clan lacked from them.

Especially, their cunning and scheming.

The topic of the many cultivators by the pool gradually shifted to the little dragon at the bottom of the pool.

One person sighed, "The cracks at the bottom of the pool have already been sealed off.

I wonder what's wrong with this Dragon Prince, wanting to escape from our Golden Ao Island."

"He's just a kid who doesn't want to listen to the advice of the elders, nothing unusual."

The old Taoist who had just talked about the interesting tribulation incident chuckled, stroking his beard, "Don't worry, as long as we treat this Dragon Palace Prince well, he'll appreciate it and practice peacefully here."

The cultivators nodded in agreement;

Ao Yi in the pool moved his dragon head slightly but didn't respond.