Chapter 247 A Chance for Revenge

After three months of deep thinking, Li An finally found a way to put a Gu on Gao Tai.

The best chance to put a Gu on Gao Tai is the evil spirit!

Since this person has practiced the evil spirit technique, he will definitely absorb the evil spirit. If you hide the Gu worm in the evil spirit, you can do it without anyone noticing!

In fact, the Gu technique has a thousand variations. When you reach the level of Wu Niangzi, you can complete the Gu with just a face-to-face or a contact. However, Li An's current level is too low. If you want to put a Gu on others, you must get the Gu worm into their body.

But who would easily take something given by others if they can reach the Nascent Soul or True Dan? It's okay to deal with Lin Fangping. After all, the other party's cultivation is low, and Li An can control him. But it's extremely difficult to make Gao Tai, a Nascent Soul, eat the Gu worm.

For example, Li An put it in the wine and led him to drink it. This is possible, but the key is... As a Yuanying strongman, he is extremely cautious. For such a situation, the wine will not be truly absorbed. It will be directly refined after passing through the body, and his Gu worm will also be destroyed.

Evil spirit is the only choice.

Li An searched for a long time and finally found a nest of spirit ants on the island. This kind of spirit ants is smaller than ordinary ants. It can only be said that they have some spirituality. They are not even first-level spirit insects, but the strongest spirit insects that Li An can use at present are at this level.

He brought this nest of ants back to the cave, and then fed them with evil spirit and life seed breath.

Only on the first day, a large number of ants died, and they could not withstand the invasion of evil spirit.

The remaining ones were also sick and dying.

Li An left these sick ones, and then dug another nest, and used the newly dug ones to mate with these ants that were invaded by evil spirits but half-dead.

...

This process is to raise Gu!

The right insect is the foundation of Gu Shu.

Generally speaking, raising Gu is the most time-consuming. There are many spiritual insects in the world, but most of them are born in accordance with the nature of heaven and earth. The insects needed for Gu Shu need to be alienated and strengthened, and finally have certain characteristics...

For low-level Gu insects, Li An can still use ordinary spiritual ants, small spiders, etc. to replace them. It will be difficult to use advanced Gu Shu in the future.

...

While raising Gu, Li An also takes care of his spiritual fields.

Every day, Li An will use Shennong's technique for one hour to perform Shennong's technique, to make clouds and rain, stimulate light and heat, and improve soil quality...

He currently has two spiritual fields, one of which is used to cultivate some ordinary third-grade and second-grade spiritual medicines, which is considered an ordinary spiritual field, and the advanced spiritual field is next to the cave, where only one red infant flower is planted.

Two years have passed, but whether it is the red infant flower or other spiritual medicines, it seems that there has been no change.

Although Shennong's technique is against the sky, it will take a very long time.

...

Three years passed in the blink of an eye.

During the three years, Li An was still practicing in seclusion in the Evil Spirit Lake.

A year ago, with the help of Li An, Li Shuangshuang finally succeeded in forming a pill and became a real pill master in the Evil Spirit Lake!

Under Li An's instruction, she also accepted some disciples this year, taught them, and cultivated her confidants. The entire Evil Spirit Lake continued to develop and prosper.

——The reason why Li An gave her a chance was actually just to give an explanation to her previous life.

There are not many descendants of the previous life left now. Since he met her and has the ability, he would help her by the way, so that Li Shuangshuang can continue the Li family. That's enough.

Li An has no interest in forming a force. Even if it is the Evil Spirit Lake, Li An may practice here for a long time, but for him it is just a temporary residence.

His goal is immortality!

Therefore, his help to Li Shuangshuang and his hatred for Li Jifeng also have a premise: it does not affect his practice in this life!

Love or hatred, if it becomes a stumbling block on the road to immortality, then it should be cut off and forgotten!

Everything can only be done conveniently. If it is not convenient, then never waste any effort.

…

"Gu Daoyou, Gao is here to visit!"

That day, Gao Tai's voice sounded again. Li An unlocked the formation and welcomed him to the island in the middle of the lake. As soon as they met, Li An secretly sensed that Gao Tai's evil skills had improved further and his evil spirit was stronger than before.

"Gu Daoyou, how is it? This time, there won't be any left, right?"

Gao Tai smiled and said. Li An took him into the cave. After serving tea, he took out a jade bottle and handed it to Gao Tai. This was the remaining evil spirit.

Gao Tai opened the lid, sniffed it gently, sensed it silently, and then a satisfied smile appeared in his eyes.

"Thank you Gu Daoyou! By the way, there is another thing..."

Li An handed him a formation plate. "The formation has been made, but I'll do my best. This formation can only trap four Yuanying at most, and the time is not long. It may not be enough to meet your friend's request, so the balance... just give 300 top-grade spirit stones."

Li An can certainly make the formation they want, but Li An's principle has always been to keep a hand!

"Is that so..."

Gao Tai thought about it for a while, and still gave Li An 500 spirit stones, saying: "Even so, I think my friend will still be satisfied with this formation, and pay the original price!"

"Besides, Fellow Daoist Gu can help us with a lot, hahaha..."

...

For a period of time afterwards, Gao Tai and Li An had very close contacts.

He often asked Li An to help refine various strange formations, and Li An was not polite and asked him to help refine various pills.

But Li An found that there were one or two problematic pills mixed in the pills Gao Tai gave him from time to time.

It contained a trace of evil power, which was disguised very well. If Li An was not very familiar with evil skills, he would not be able to see it at all.

Li An pretended not to know and took the pill anyway, and let the evil power accumulate in his body.

The two of them calculated against each other and had their own ulterior motives, but on the surface, they seemed to have a very close relationship.

…

Time was like water, and in a blink of an eye, fifty years had passed.

The power of the Evil Spirit Lake was developing better and better. The number of Yuanying cultivators had not increased, but the number of True Dan cultivators had reached eight, and with the third-level spirit beasts, there were more than a dozen.

The industry was also getting wider and wider, and the Evil Spirit Lake had opened many shops in the capital of Ji State and the surrounding big cities...

Basically, they were developed by Li Shuangshuang. It must be said that she was really good at business, and Li An basically didn't worry about it.

Fifty years later, Li An was still in the early stage of Yuanying.

The higher the realm, the harder it was to break through, and Li An's life-raising and immortal-casting skills were slower than those of ordinary people.

Although his realm was not greatly improved, he gained a lot in terms of magic.

In terms of Gu, in addition to the blood ant Gu, he finally cultivated two new Gu insects: the soul-eating spider and the bone-breaking worm.

Once the soul-eating spider explodes, it will attack the spiritual platform of the cultivator!

The bone-breaking worm can sneak into the bone marrow of the cultivator, and it is difficult to rescue it if it is discovered.

These two Gu insects are considered to be the best among the basic Gu insects. Li An spent a lot of resources and effort to finally succeed.

He gave them to Lin Fangping, and at the same time, he also sent a copy to Gao Tai.

Gao Tai and he have a very close relationship, and often ask him to help purify the evil spirit from time to time, so Li An has many opportunities.

After the Jinzang Jue was perfected, Li An also officially began to practice the advanced body training method-Wan'e Gong!

This method was developed by a group of evil demon bosses such as Xun Dongfang and Xie Shisi in Dao Sect with all their efforts, and it is based on magic skills, evil methods, soul decisions, etc.

The practitioner needs to first form a "demon wheel" in the body with magic skills and evil methods, and then absorb all the evil spirits and evil elements in the world, such as demonic energy, evil energy, resentment, yin energy, evil spirit, poison, death energy, corpse energy, ghost energy, resentment, etc., and refine them all into the body, making the body become a "body of all evil".

This method of cultivation is very crazy. After the demonstration of that group of evil demons, this kind of physique is absolutely domineering in the realm of refining emptiness and combining with the Tao, and it is difficult to resist.

However, the side effects are extremely strong. When the all evil skills are completed, it is the day of death and disappearance. The magic wheel will collapse, and the practitioner will directly disintegrate and his soul will be destroyed.

Even the initiators such as Xun Dongfang dare not practice.

But after decades of research, Li An finally found a solution for this domineering evil skill: nourishing life and casting immortals!

He used the life seed as a control, and did not form a "demon wheel", but formed a green and fresh wheel of life full of vitality.

In this way, with the righteous method of nourishing life and casting immortals as the root, and the evil spirits as the branches and leaves, he can use them without being harmed.

Fifty years later, the wheel of life has taken shape, and he can officially start to absorb all kinds of evil spirits.

In addition, he has also mastered the four deadly moves thoroughly, and these four moves have become his main offensive techniques.

Of course, what makes Li An most happy is...

The Shennong technique has finally achieved something!

In the ordinary spiritual field, four third-grade spiritual medicines have achieved alienation and become fourth-grade spiritual medicines!

In addition, more than a dozen second-grade spiritual medicines have become third-grade.

The red infant flower that he cares about most, the stump of the root, has sprouted and grown continuously twenty years ago. In thirty years, a green vine has grown more than one meter high.

Moreover, this red infant flower is obviously different from the ordinary red infant flower. There is a flame-like pattern on the leaves. Li An thinks this should be a precursor to the mutation.

If it can really transform successfully, this red infant flower will become a fifth-grade spiritual medicine...it will be a huge profit.

The fifth-grade spiritual medicine is a chance to become a god!

In a place like Dao Sect, the chance to become a god is precious, but not rare. Most of the genius disciples can get it. However, in the outside world, especially in a place like Xinzhou, the chance to become a god is a thing that defies the heavens and will cause a large-scale bloody battle.

"The higher the grade of the spiritual medicine, the harder it is to mutate... This red infant flower can successfully transform because it is too damaged. Regrowing is equivalent to a new life, so it is easier to mutate in the process of rebirth."

Li An sighed. In the past fifty years, he also found another eight fourth-grade spiritual medicines and put them in the high-level spiritual field. However, those eight plants only grew more vigorously and had more medicinal properties, but there was no qualitative change.

Red infant flower is the most promising.

But at present, there are only some clues. If you want to be promoted to the fifth grade, it may take a long time...

Li An has basically figured it out. Although Shennong's technique defies the heavens, the most fundamental thing is to see whether the spiritual medicine itself has room for promotion.

Everything in the world is like this, and mud can't be helped.

But those spiritual medicines that can't be promoted also have great benefits. The medicinal properties have become particularly strong, and one plant is equivalent to three or five plants of the same level.

"Recently, there have been a lot of rumors circulating, saying that an evil cultivation force has appeared in the Yuanling Realm, and it has developed very quickly. It has appeared twice in the Yuanling Realm, causing quite a stir."

Li Shuangshuang came to report.

The recent news about the Evil King has caused heated discussions throughout Xinzhou.

Two Yuanying-level forces in the Yuanling Realm were attacked, and even two Yuanying died!

For a time, many major forces were in panic.

"The New Dao League is mobilizing troops to encircle and suppress the evil cultivators. A war should break out in the near future, so the demand for talismans, formations, and elixirs from the outside world has increased greatly recently. However, I have asked them to suspend sales. Disciple thinks that we should also be prepared. What do you think, Master?"

Li Shuangshuang asked. Li An pondered for a moment, but shook his head: "No, except for the basic inventory, sell everything else!"

"Raise the price a little, let everyone do their best to make magic tools, etc.! Every penny earned is a penny earned!"

Li Shuangshuang was shocked. How could this be possible?

But she did not doubt Li An's decision, and immediately said: "Disciple obeys!"

She left.

Li An was still thinking.

The current judgment of the New Dao League on this evil cultivation force... is completely wrong!

Gao Tai practiced evil skills fifty years ago, which means that the lineage of the Evil King has been in Xinzhou for at least fifty years. The Evil King is a big evil demon who dares to challenge the Taoist sect. He also has ruthless people such as Xie Shisi and Zhan Qingxuan under his command. In a place like Xinzhou where there are no rivals, the development must be extremely rapid!

What the New Dao League is facing is not a small evil cultivation force, but a huge monster whose depth is unknown.

The New Dao League will definitely fail!

So, what self-protection preparations should be made? There is no need at all. Facing the evil king's forces, running away is the best choice.

While you can still make money, make as much spiritual stones as you can, and then when the war breaks out... retreat first.

Even though he is a Nascent Soul, Li An is already a great cultivator, but he knows very well that for the top evil demons like the Evil King Xie Shisi, Nascent Souls are no different from ants.

Even without those people taking action, the appearance of a God Transformation Stage Zhan Qingxuan can turn Xinzhou upside down!

Fifty years of peaceful and smooth life did not make Li An lose his vigilance.

"In addition to the Evil Spirit Lake, we must also prepare other places for cultivation..."

Since you have the intention to escape, you must choose a good place to escape to avoid confusion.

...

"Ningzhou Jiang family, come to visit fellow Daoist Gu——"

The next day, a voice came from the outside world.

The people who came were actually She Anqi and his wife!

In the past fifty years, Li An has long been very clear about the power of the Yuanling Realm. She Anqi married the Nascent Soul family of Ningzhou in Nanfengzhou - Jiang family.

He had also heard a little about the fate of his old friend She Anqi. After the Emperor Yuan Realm ascended to become part of Xinzhou, it was conquered and plundered by other great realms because there were too few Yuanying cultivators. The She sisters were also surrounded and killed. She Anrong had died, and She Anqi had a hard time escaping. She was saved by Jiang Shangfeng, a Yuanying cultivator of the Jiang family, so they had a marriage.

"Fellow Daoist Jiang and Fellow Daoist She are visiting my humble home. I was unable to greet you from afar. Please be patient--"

Li An smiled and welcomed them to the island in the middle of the lake.

The two sides exchanged greetings, and then Jiang Shangfeng stated his purpose, saying: "Fellow Daoist Gu, we are here to ask you to help refine a few formations."

Immediately, he stated his needs one by one.

After listening, Li An was a little surprised. The four formations that Jiang Shangfeng wanted were all used to suppress evil without exception!

Moreover, the difficulty was very high, and it was even close to the fifth-level formation.

Seeing his difficulty, Jiang Shangfeng continued: "Jiang knows that these formations are difficult... But as long as Fellow Daoist Gu can make them, our Jiang family is willing to buy them for 20,000 top-grade spirit stones!"

Li An's heart skipped a beat. 20,000 top-grade spirit stones!

This is really a huge sum of money!

It should be noted that Li An's annual income from the entire Evil Spirit Lake is only about 1,000 top-grade spirit stones. With the 500 spirit stones that Jiguo pays every year, it is only 1,500.

His basic practice is enough, but he still can't afford to buy spiritual medicines, magic tools, etc.

"But this is too difficult..."

Li An sighed, "With my ability, I'm afraid I can't do it. I'd better ask you two to find someone else--"

Jiang Shangfeng said: "Brother Gu, your evil spirit lake formation is already a masterpiece among the fourth-level formations. If you can make such a formation, I think you should be able to make what we want... Please help me, brother Gu. If it doesn't work... I am willing to buy it with 30,000 spirit stones, how about it?"

He really gritted his teeth and spent a lot of money.

30,000 top-grade spirit stones... Even though Jiang is an old-fashioned Yuanying force, its old foundation is still almost emptied.

But he knew that these four formations were invaluable.

It must be made no matter what, as it is related to the future prosperity and decline of the entire Jiang family!

Before coming to the Evil Spirit Lake, he had already looked for people everywhere, but without exception, none of them could make it.

Thirty thousand...

Li An's face was still embarrassed, so he could only sigh: "Well, I'll try my best... I just don't know when you want it?"

"The sooner the better, preferably no more than ten years!"

He knew how difficult these four formations were, so he didn't limit it too much.

Li An thought and nodded, "Okay, I'll try my best--"

Seeing that he agreed, Jiang Shangfeng and She Anqi were extremely happy. Jiang Shangfeng directly handed Li An a high-level storage bag and said, "Brother Gu, this is the deposit!"

Li An's spiritual sense swept and he already knew that there were five thousand top-grade spirit stones in it.

It's not stingy. "By the way, Brother Gu, I have another unwelcome request that I want to discuss with you..."

She Anqi continued, "I want to buy some of the spirit blood of the Jiyun Eagle, is it possible?"

She had a glimmer of hope in her eyes.

Li An frowned and said directly, "No."

"We are willing to give a generous reward..." Jiang Shangfeng said.

"There is no need to talk about this!"

Li An's face showed displeasure, "Jiyun Eagle once saved my life. Not to mention just spirit stones, even if it gives me the opportunity to transform into a god, I will not sell it a drop of blood!"

Righteous and decisive.

She really wanted to sell it in her heart, but the main reason was that he didn't have Jiyun Eagle.

She Anqi wanted to say something, but Jiang Shangfeng had already stopped her. Now that she had finally found Li An to help refine the formation, she naturally couldn't offend him. He said, "It's us, Meng Lang. Please rest assured, fellow Taoist, from now on, we will never mention this matter again!"

Li An nodded. "That's it, we'll take our leave first."

Jiang Shangfeng and She Anqi left immediately.

...

After they left.

"These formations seem to be only part of the combination, what do you think?"

Li An spoke to Shangguan Xiaoxiao.

Fifty years later, Shangguan Xiaoxiao's soul finally recovered to the level before the battle in Huangquan Valley, and he no longer needed to sleep day and night.

"Well, this is part of the Luotian formation of the Taoist Zhenxie Peak. The Luotian formation was said to have been used to assist the Heavenly Master in the immortal ceremony in ancient times. Later, no one became an immortal, and the Luotian formation was weakened again and again. It can only help the refining practitioners to advance to the Dao, or condense the legendary Zhenxie Heavenly Blood..."

"Li Tianpeng, the master of Zhenxie Peak, has long been a great master of the Dao. No one else has touched this threshold in recent years... It is estimated that his descendants will condense the Heavenly Blood."

"To condense the Heavenly Blood, you need a portion of the most evil blood as a guide. It just so happens that the lineage of the Evil King has revealed its traces in the Yuanling Realm, and it is a match."

Shangguan Xiaoxiao was indifferent, as if nothing could be hidden from her eyes!

After listening, Li An was a little shocked. Zhenxie Heavenly Blood...

He had heard about it when he was in the Sutra Library.

Zhenxie Heavenly Blood is one of the strongest bloodlines in ancient and modern times. Most of the legendary "Heavenly Masters" have this bloodline, and the Heavenly Master is also the closest to the immortal way...

Who will condense the Heavenly Blood?

A familiar figure slowly emerged from Li An's eyes...

Li Yunxiao!

There should be no one else except him.

This person...has always been on Li An's list of enemies.

When Li An was at the Dao Sect Casting Conference, he was assassinated by someone, and his Heavenly Dao Order was taken away, causing him to be seriously injured and died soon after.

Although there is no clear evidence, it is only a few people who are involved.

Luo Zijie and Dai Xiongtian from Xiajian Peak, Li Yunxiao from Zhenxie Peak...Of course, the old masters of the two peaks behind them must have participated.

Li Yunxiao is the most suspicious, because after Dai Xiongtian and Luo Zijie failed, he did not hesitate to personally attack and severely injure Li An.

Now, he is going to condense the Heavenly Blood in the Yuanling Realm?

"Well, that She Anqi should have also practiced the demon skill, and she is from the same source as your old lover Tan Qingxue."

Shangguan Xiaoxiao said casually again.

Li An's mind became clearer!

It seems that She Anqi and Jiang Shangfeng were able to participate in this matter because of Tan Qingxue...

When they were in the Imperial Realm, the most loyal followers of Tan Qingxue were the She sisters. Now Tan Qingxue is in the limelight in the Taoist sect and has a good status. If she has the chance, she will definitely help She Anqi...

So, she passed on her secret magic skills.

No wonder She Anqi wanted to buy Li An's Jiyunying Spirit Blood.

It seems that not only Li Yunxiao, but Tan Qingxue has also come to the Yuanling Realm...

Li An thought carefully and weighed the pros and cons.

This is an opportunity, an opportunity for revenge!

He has the opportunity to tamper with the formation and thus destroy Li Yunxiao's ceremony...

"No!"

But after a long time, Li An shook his head.

The risk is too high!

The matter of condensing the Heavenly Blood must be taken very seriously by the Zhenxie Peak, and the formations made by Li An will also be strictly inspected.

He has extraordinary attainments in formations, and he also has Shangguan Xiaoxiao's help... But, how deep is the foundation of the Taoist sect? There is no shortage of formation masters!

Once he is discovered, Li An will immediately fall into a dead end.

After finally escaping from the Taoist sect, Li An does not want to fall into the hands of the Taoist sect again.

The hatred with Li Yunxiao... can only be put aside for now.

Absolutely cannot affect one's own safety because of hatred!

It's okay not to take revenge!

On the contrary, Li An began to think about what benefits this matter can bring him.

First of all, he will definitely help with this favor. Even if Li An does not make a formation, Li Yunxiao and others will definitely be able to find other people. In this case, it is better to take this opportunity to earn more spirit stones.

The spirit stones of the enemy are also spirit stones, and the money of the enemy is also money. Isn't 30,000 spirit stones good for him?

Secondly, Jiang Shangfeng and others are related to Tan Qingxue and Li Yunxiao, which means that Nanfengzhou where Jiang's is located will be very safe.

In the entire Yuanling Realm and even Xinzhou, the only one who can resist the lineage of the evil king may be Nanfengzhou.

If possible, it might be safest to sneak over to Nanfengzhou and rely on the protection of the Dao Sect.

But this also has risks. After all, Li An now possesses many evil and unorthodox skills. If he is not careful, he may be discovered by the Dao Sect leader, and then he will die without a burial place.

Li An sighed softly. This is probably not feasible.

"Hey, Dove?"

Seeing that Li An didn't speak, Shangguan Xiaoxiao took the initiative to remind her that it was time to give her Dove Pills...

"Yeah."

Li An handed Shangguan Xiaoxiao a handful of pills and said, "Eat sparingly, it will cause tooth decay."

"Tsk, you are lying to the little girl!"

...

And at this moment.

In the sky, Jiang Shangfeng and She Anqi are flying.

"Shangfeng, do you think this Gu Dao can do it?"

She Anqi is a little worried.

"There is no way now..." Jiang Shangfeng sighed and said, "Anqi, Senior Tan arranged this task for us to give us a chance to make meritorious deeds. The Dao Sect is so big that it will not lack these formations. She wants us to participate in it. Later, she can use this matter to introduce us to the Dao Sect. At the very least, we can become a vassal family, which is also a bright future!" "No matter what, we must do it! Otherwise, we will fail Senior Tan's painstaking efforts and your deep friendship with her!" "In this way, we will find other formation masters and let them refine together to be on the safe side!" She Anqi also nodded. "By the way, when you asked Senior Tan about the whereabouts of Li An last time we met, she was obviously unhappy. Don't mention it again in the future!" Jiang Shangfeng suddenly reminded her again. She Anqi sighed sadly when she heard this. ... ... In the next few days, Li An began to study the formation that Jiang Shangfeng wanted. Although he could make it, it was indeed very complicated and required careful operation.

"Old Gu, Gao is here to visit!"

But a few days later, Gao Tai came again.

Li An had to stop his work and greet Gao Tai.

"Old Gu, I brought you a big business..."

As soon as Gao Tai met him, he patted Li An's shoulder enthusiastically and said, "A big order of tens of thousands of spiritual stones, how do you thank me?"

Li An was surprised for a moment, and then he was overjoyed and said, "Brother Gao, please tell me quickly!"

But Gao Tai said, "Don't worry, give me your best spiritual tea first!"

Li An personally poured him tea, Gao Tai took a sip slowly, and then said, "Old Gu, we have been friends for fifty years. In these fifty years, I have gone from the middle stage of the Nascent Soul to the late Nascent Soul. In the period, you are still turning in the early stages of Yuan Ying ... You are a bit slow in this speed. "" If you cultivate it like this, you will be hopeless. " "Don't worry, do you dare to take this elixir? Take a try, you know that I am really false." Gao Tai handed Li An a elixir. I was very eager, he really wanted to tell Li An, and would tell Li An. Li An also hesitated for a moment, but in the end, his eyes were still very hot, and he took the pill and swallowed it directly.

The evil power in his body started to circulate immediately, and Gao Tai looked at Li An with satisfaction, saying: "You circulate this power and turn the three yang meridians..."

He taught Li An to circulate.

Li An was a little surprised, because the method that Gao Tai learned... was actually derived from the Heaven-stealing Method.

The Heaven-stealing Method can reshape the Dantian, and this small method can also be used for the Dantian. No wonder Gao Tai is so confident...

But he didn't know that Li An was, in a sense, the last disciple of Xie Shisi. Gao Tai was just showing off his skills in front of Li An!

But Li An cooperated with him in acting, and didn't show it at all.

After a long time.

"It's amazing, it's amazing! But this power doesn't seem to be the energy of the righteous way..."

Li An looked at Gao Tai with surprise and confusion. "Of course it's not the righteous energy..."

Gao Tai laughed, "Gu Daoyou, you practice evil skills and produce evil energy...Hahaha, congratulations, join us!"

And Li An was stunned.

...