Cultivating Immortality Begins with Rejuvenation

Half a month later, Li Ji'an flew out of the Fallen Dragon Ridge in one breath before stopping and looking back.

"Is it a man or a monster?"

Recalling that last glance, Li Ji'an still felt a tremor in his heart.

It was a humanoid creature, but its flesh, shrouded in Yin energy, was largely rotten, and within that decay, faint golden light flickered.

From what he had learned over the years, there were 'Guei' in this world, different from Yin spirits.

They were largely believed to be ancient cultivators who died during the collapse of the Heavenly Dao, and after the fragmentation of laws, were accidentally influenced by certain law fragments, thus forming some kind of rule avatar, possessing abilities that could not be measured by common sense within their rule domain.

However, 'Guei' could only exist within their 'Guei' domain, and were mostly found in ancient ruins.

"That underground culvert has no traces of being sealed, seemingly matching the description of a Yin vein. Could it be a demonic cultivator?" Reviewing the details, Li Ji'an made a judgment.

Yin veins condense Yin energy and are favored by certain demonic cultivators in this world who practice Yin energy methods.

Especially recalling the somewhat emotional gaze of that decayed figure, Li Ji'an became more certain.

"The Myriad Dharma Palace declared a thousand years ago that there were no more demonic cultivators in the Azure Heaven Domain! I never thought there would still be remnants here."

After pondering for a moment, Li Ji'an felt a little regret.

He had just befriended the Scarlet Stone Hermit, getting closer and closer to that cultivation method, but now there was an unexpected twist.

Through the feedback from Guagua's senses, the aura emitted by that decaying corpse was comparable to that of the fake Core Formation Elder he saw during the Bi Yun Sect assessment. He was not sure if the Scarlet Stone Hermit could escape this calamity.

After finishing his breathing exercises, he stopped thinking about it and returned to the gathering area.

——

Half a day later,

"Are you really going to drive us to extinction?"

"We have already abandoned this place, why pursue us relentlessly?"

"Hmph! A bunch of petty rogue cultivators dare to try to encroach on the wasteland. If you escape into the Fallen Dragon Ridge, how can this old man explain it to those dead clansmen?"

"Zheng Mosheng, you old scoundrel, you didn't have this kind of face when you took the initiative to form an alliance with my elder brother!"

……

Li Ji'an hid under a slope, watching this scene through Guagua, and frowned slightly.

Adding to that, the corpse of a rogue cultivator who accidentally discovered him at his feet, he understood the situation here.

Half a month ago, Yuan Zheng and Pan Lun's soul tablets left in Tiger's Jaw Gulch were broken. The last Foundation Establishment rogue cultivator decisively abandoned the spirit vein land, preparing to lead the remaining rogue cultivators into the Fallen Dragon Ridge.

Before leaving, they massacred the surrounding Qi Refining families, hoarding supplies for hiding in the Fallen Dragon Ridge.

As a result, someone was bought by the wasteland families, and the news leaked. The Zheng family in the northwest of the wasteland and the four-family alliance in the southeast temporarily formed an alliance, pursuing and killing the rogue cultivators to divide the territory.

"Can the deaths of those two exchange for a chance of survival for the Scarlet Stone Hermit?" Li Ji'an had a glimmer of hope, then recalled Guagua and quickly sneaked into the gathering area.

The already desolate gathering area was now even more dilapidated, shrouded in death, obviously also having experienced a rogue cultivator massacre.

The good thing was that Chen Qingling had developed a natural ability to hide after exploring ruins with the Scarlet Stone Hermit for many years, hiding under the dry well in the courtyard, escaping the disaster.

At this time, seeing Li Ji'an return, she cried with joy.

"Don't worry, we will go north in a few days."

Further north from the gathering area was the spirit vein land occupied by the rogue cultivators, now blocked by the Zheng family and the four-family alliance. Apart from not wanting to have meaningless conflicts, Li Ji'an still held a glimmer of hope for the Scarlet Stone Hermit.

His physical body was comparable to a second-order body cultivator, and with those two rogue cultivators as scapegoats, perhaps a miracle would happen.

Activating two stealth talismans to isolate the courtyard's aura, Li Ji'an came to the guest room he stayed in back then alone, and after releasing the mana restriction again, he released Guagua.

First, he took out the already dead Golden Armor Beast and removed its demon core.

Then, he threw the Golden Armor Beast's corpse to Guagua, who had been looking at it eagerly.

The promotion of demon beasts mostly lies in bloodline evolution. This Golden Armor Beast was able to advance to the second order in the Fallen Dragon Ridge, its bloodline was probably high-grade, which was attractive to other demon beasts.

The core of the blood pill that Guagua once took also contained high-grade spiritual beast essence blood.

Because Guagua's bloodline was low, and its potential was exhausted after advancing to the second order, Li Ji'an did not expect it to go further. In addition, the second-order beast core was expensive and rare, so he had already cut off its food supply. This was a little compensation for it.

After Guagua swallowed the Golden Armor Beast's corpse, Li Ji'an let it protect him and began to refine the demon core.

The "Hundred Refinements Golden Body Art" he practiced could only use demon cores of demon beasts with special attributes like the Golden Armor Beast as energy to stimulate blood energy mutation, thereby feeding back to the physical body.

It was somewhat similar to the promotion of demon beasts.

The only difference was that demon beast bloodlines had innate divine powers, while human body cultivators only had flesh and blood transformation.

This also made him guess that the body cultivation methods of this world may have been created by ancient powerful beings comprehending demon beast evolution.

Boom~

The blood energy that had been stable for many years surged at the moment the demon core was refined.

Every cell in his body was frantically absorbing the special energy emitted by the demon core.

Until three days later, the demon core was almost completely refined.

And Li Ji'an's blood energy was covered with a faint golden light. As these blood energy entered and nourished the flesh, muscles, and bones, those golden lights subtly dissolved into the flesh, muscles, and bones.

After another half a month, Li Ji'an slowly opened his eyes, and a faint golden light flashed in his eyes.

He suddenly clenched his fist, feeling the powerful force after the transformation of his physical body.

"The second-order body cultivator is indeed well-deserved!" He felt that with his current physical power, he could blow up his Foundation Establishment initial stage mana shield with one punch.

At the same time, he also realized that the physical power displayed by the Scarlet Stone Hermit when hunting the Golden Armor Beast before was probably not the strength of a second-order body cultivator.

Because comparing the two, the Scarlet Stone Hermit's physical power was estimated to be only 50% of his true second-order body cultivator power.

"Not a body cultivator, but still able to have such close combat power?" This made Li Ji'an even more curious about the Scarlet Stone Hermit, but he still had no news until now, and was probably in more danger than good.

Converging his blood energy, Li Ji'an got up, not planning to wait any longer.

That night, he took Chen Qingling and headed north.

——

"Third Grand Uncle, is it inappropriate to give both spirit vein dojos to the four-family alliance this time?" Zheng Tianxiang frowned, looking at the current leader of the Zheng family.

Zheng Mosheng smiled faintly: "What's inappropriate?"

"The ancestor is seriously injured and has little lifespan left. Our Zheng family has three Foundation Establishment cultivators, which are not a match for the four-family alliance. If we let them grow stronger, I'm afraid our Zheng family will have to submit. If we throw a spirit vein dojo to them, it will definitely cause infighting among the four families, and even the collapse of the alliance," Zheng Tianxiang said his concerns.

"Four-family alliance? Heh~ Without the Yan family, they are just chickens and dogs," Zheng Mosheng didn't care.

"Tianxiang, if our Zheng family wants to dominate the wasteland, the biggest enemy is always the Yan family. As for the others, they can be ignored. Remember, no alliance can last long, and now is not the time for them to collapse. Giving them both dojos this time is just to let them target the Yan family."

Zheng Tianxiang understood Zheng Mosheng's intention upon hearing this.

The Yan family's three Foundation Establishment cultivators are still unstable, and now is the time to develop, so they really can't let them develop.

"But they probably won't be so obedient to deal with the Yan family."

Zheng Mosheng nodded: "So, now you need to add fuel to the fire for them."

"Me? How to add fuel?"

"Naturally, let the four-family alliance think that the Yan family has made a move."

"I'll attack the four-family alliance and blame the Yan family? The four-family alliance probably won't be so stupid. Now is the time when the Yan family needs stability. No matter how you think about it, they won't take the initiative to attack," Zheng Tianxiang shook his head, questioning Zheng Mosheng's decision.

"Hehe~ I'm not asking you to blame the Yan family, but... to make them think that the Yan family is blaming our Zheng family," Zheng Mosheng smiled inscrutably.