Cultivating Immortality Begins with Rejuvenation

After bidding farewell to Zhao Shuyao, Li Ji'an returned to the residential area at the border of the inner and outer city.

As soon as he stepped into the alley, neighbors came forward one after another to greet him respectfully.

By the time he reached his courtyard gate, almost all the neighbors in the entire alley had followed him.

Li Ji'an had lived here for almost thirteen years, handling social interactions and exchanging benefits in a reasonable manner. Apart from Granny You, a confidante with whom he could chat and relieve boredom, his relationships had always remained at a level just short of friendship, yet with more trust than with strangers.

This avoided boundaryless disturbances while maintaining reasonable transactions.

"Here's a reward!" Li Ji'an's expression was calm, yet he reasonably added a sense of aloofness.

After tossing out twenty-odd spirit stones, Li Ji'an waved his hand: "May you all cultivate diligently. This Daoist will be waiting for you ahead."

Towards Zhao Shuyao and the others, there was no need for the airs and posture of a Foundation Establishment senior. However, towards others, Li Ji'an still needed to abide by the local customs, as he did not yet possess the strength and confidence to do as he pleased and treat the world as a game.

After dismissing the crowd, Li Ji'an activated the formation and entered the courtyard.

Xiao Qiao, Guagua, and Xiao Huo were already eagerly waiting.

"Uncle Li!"

"Gua~"

"Huhu~"

Li Ji'an dropped his aloof expression, looking at them with a smile: "I have successfully established my foundation, and things will only get better from now on."

That day, Li Ji'an personally took charge in the kitchen and taught Xiao Qiao a few of his signature dishes.

It was a small celebration for the family.

After the meal, he wanted to spar with Guagua, not only to test the power of his Foundation Establishment stage but also to give Guagua a little nudge. However, the courtyard was too small to maneuver.

He then tried cultivating and clearly felt that the first-grade upper-quality spiritual vein here was simply insufficient to meet the spiritual energy absorption and refinement needs of the Foundation Establishment stage. Compared to a second-grade upper-quality cave dwelling, the efficiency was only about 30%.

Changing his cultivation location was a certainty.

Moreover, he had already made up his mind before establishing his foundation.

What was the most scarce resource in Cangyun Province? It had to be spiritual vein cave dwellings.

The reason why rogue cultivators struggled was because they lacked free cultivation locations.

Any ownerless spiritual vein would inevitably be fiercely contested by countless people.

However, Li Ji'an now had relatively more choices.

To freeload, he could join one of the five great families as an enshrined alchemist. As long as he revealed 60% of his true alchemy skills, he would surely be welcomed with open arms.

However, this would almost cut off his path to advancement, making it impossible to accumulate resources for Core Formation.

Another freeloading option was to join the Biyun Sect as a full-time alchemist, which would require sacrificing freedom and wholeheartedly dedicating himself to alchemy, even affecting his cultivation progress. The advantage was the hope of accessing the rare Core Formation resources of Cangyun Province, which could not be bought even with spirit stones, but accumulating that level of contribution would not be easy.

The main reason was that the Biyun Sect was currently going all out on a major undertaking, with uncertain success, so joining now was not a good time.

Apart from that, there was renting a cultivation location. Besides Jinhuang Immortal City, there were two other large trading markets in Cangyun Province with second-grade spiritual veins, controlled by the five great families.

However, Jinhuang Immortal City was the first choice in terms of safety, spiritual vein abundance, and the richness of second-grade resources.

Manager Qi of the Qi family had already extended an olive branch, offering discounts on second-grade cave dwellings in the inner city as long as Li Ji'an stayed in the Immortal City.

Early the next morning, Li Ji'an packed up all his belongings in the courtyard, put Guagua into the spirit pet bag, put the fire spirit into his dantian, and brought Xiao Qiao to the Immortal City Management Office.

Manager Qi was overjoyed and personally led Li Ji'an to the core residential area of the inner city. This area had been newly renovated after the Qi family took over, and a special area was set aside as a reserved residential area for special talents of the Immortal City.

This area was not available for rent to anyone who was not recognized by the Immortal City as a high-level talent.

And the rent was also greatly discounted.

However, as an alchemist, Li Ji'an did not have much room to choose, because the residences in this area were built and decorated according to their skills. Currently, there were only two second-grade alchemist residences in the area, both built according to the needs of a second-grade alchemist, with all the arrangements focused on alchemy.

One residence already had an owner. Alchemist Zou was among the first batch of skilled masters invited to settle in this area, and his residence was relatively in the front, the second one on the east side.

In order to separate the residences of masters with similar skills and avoid vicious competition, Manager Qi brought Li Ji'an to see the residence located on the far west side.

Both were second-grade middle-quality spiritual vein cave dwellings, covering an area of nearly ten acres, equivalent to the size of a football field.

Moreover, the surrounding residences were more than ten zhang apart, and because it was at the far end, the closest residences were only the one across the street with the word "Gou" (苟, meaning 'dogged' or 'humble') engraved on it and the one on the east side with the word "Hua" (花, meaning 'flower') engraved on it. Further away was the residence diagonally across the street with the word "Bai" (白, meaning 'white') engraved on it.

Manager Qi introduced that the Gou residence across the street was a second-grade puppeteer. Li Ji'an had heard of this person long ago. During the Immortal City technician selection ten years ago, Puppeteer Gou was almost universally known.

Who would have thought that a late-stage Qi Training cultivator could create a second-grade puppet?

Most people suspected that he had obtained some kind of great opportunity.

If he left the Immortal City, he would probably disappear quickly.

The Hua residence was a second-grade weapon refiner. Manager Qi specifically instructed that he had a bad temper and should be avoided as much as possible.

As for the Bai residence, Li Ji'an was quite interested in it. It was a second-grade physician.

Li Ji'an was very satisfied with this residence. It was relatively independent and quiet, and it was not short of customers.

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It is worth mentioning that after Li Ji'an advanced to a second-grade alchemist, his guest status in the Dan Ding Pavilion was no longer meaningful unless he still refined first-grade elixirs.

Because the merchant guild's elixir shops mainly catered to mass-market cultivators, focusing on first-grade elixirs, which could be sold in volume.

As for second-grade elixirs, firstly, the market was not large, and most people would buy from trusted alchemists.

Secondly, second-grade elixirs were not easy to produce, only a few per month, sold by the piece, not suitable for volume sales.

Therefore, the chambers of commerce in Jinhuang Immortal City could hardly cooperate with second-grade alchemists.

Now Li Ji'an's customers had become walk-ins.

Living here, with the Immortal City advertising for him, he did not need to worry, and customers would take the initiative to come to him.

Of course, the most important point was that this area was specially protected by the Immortal City, greatly increasing security.

Finally, after paying five thousand spirit stones in one go, Li Ji'an obtained the right to reside in this residence for ten years.

After Manager Qi handed the jade talisman for controlling the courtyard's protective formation to Li Ji'an, he engraved the word "Li" (李) in the blank space in the middle of the residence.

For the next ten years, the Li residence would be Li Ji'an's cultivation and Dao-seeking location.

After seeing Manager Qi off, Li Ji'an took Xiao Qiao inside.

The four-courtyard house, even the side wing of the front courtyard, was larger than the previously rented courtyard.

Inside, there were pavilions, terraces, and winding paths, with a trickle of stream winding from the front courtyard, flowing into a wide pond in the rear courtyard.

Guagua was very excited and plunged into it.

Xiao Qiao also started from the gate, measuring every place in the mansion step by step.

Li Ji'an first activated the courtyard's protective formation, and then used his divine sense, comparable to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, to check every place.

Then he let Guagua burrow into the ground to thoroughly explore all the surrounding underground areas.

After confirming that there were no problems, he truly settled down.

That night, Li Ji'an was about to send a message to Yan Qingwan to inform her of the news of his Foundation Establishment and inquire about the current situation in the wilderness when Yan Qingwan sent a message first.

Yan Kongyi was seriously injured and had not much time left. He wanted to see him one last time.