Dao Companions Help Me Live Forever

Chapter 213: Qi Chunshen's Journey of Self-Redemption

Wangshu Mansion.

Two hundred miles outside the city, there is a mountain called Qi Liu Mountain, which is the main base of the Qi family, a Foundation Building family. It has a second-grade superior spiritual vein and is guarded by three Foundation Building cultivators. The patriarch of the family, Qi Chunshen, is a peak Foundation Building cultivator.

It is said that Qi Chunshen's life was nearing its end, but he obtained a longevity pill while searching for a chance to form a Gold Core, which extended his life by twenty years.

Three years ago, Qi Chunshen returned to the family and claimed that the chance to form a Gold Core was hard to come by, and he didn't want to waste his last twenty years in a foreign land.

So he established a retirement organization called Hua Niao Society, inviting fellow cultivators who shared his interest in flowers and birds to gather and enjoy the scenery, passing their days in leisure.

However, the entry requirements for Hua Niao Society are quite high, only accepting Foundation Building cultivators who have no hope of forming a Gold Core like Qi Chunshen.

After three years of development, Hua Niao Society now has more than ten Foundation Building members, all elderly cultivators from nearby Foundation Building families.

Among them are Foundation Building peak cultivators who are on par with Qi Chunshen's cultivation level.

On this day, on a beautiful deserted mountain, a graceful banquet had just ended.

The Foundation Building cultivators put away their carefree demeanor, some holding qins, some collecting flutes, some riding cranes, bidding farewell to their fellow cultivators and leaving gracefully, resembling immortal beings in the mountains.

Only two cultivators with deep cultivation remained, gathering in a stone pavilion.

Qi Chunshen was among them.

"Friend Zeng, I have received news about the matter you asked me to inquire about."

"So the Great Unity Society is indeed real?"

Sitting beside Qi Chunshen was an elderly cultivator dressed in a blue robe, resembling a wealthy old man. His hair was sparse and gray, but neatly groomed, indicating that he valued the quality of life.

The old cultivator's name was Zeng An, a wandering cultivator who had cultivated diligently for 120 years and finally reached the peak of Foundation Building.

However, advancing further as a wandering cultivator and breaking through to the Gold Core realm was extremely difficult.

He wasted thirty years at the peak of Foundation Building, but still couldn't catch a glimpse of the chance to form a Gold Core. So he found a Foundation Building family to retire with, leading a leisurely life.

It was only when Qi Chunshen suddenly started the Hua Niao Society that he reluctantly joined at the invitation of his fellow cultivator friends.

Originally, he planned to casually attend a few times to pass the time.

But unexpectedly, an accident led him to discover the true nature of the Hua Niao Society. It turned out that the president of the society, Qi Chunshen, had obtained a chance to extend his life during his journey, and this chance came from a mysterious organization called the Great Unity Society.

It was even rumored that the Great Unity Society had great love for all beings and had repeatedly offered chances to form a Gold Core to those who were destined, even cultivators like him who had no hope.

This made Zeng An start to pay attention to the activities of the Hua Niao Society.

After deliberately getting close to Qi Chunshen, he finally persuaded the president to help him inquire about it. The thought of a chance to break through to the Gold Core realm falling from the sky made him unable to contain his excitement.

Qi Chunshen looked at Zeng An, who seemed eager to be slaughtered, and sighed inwardly.

He was once like that too.

As soon as his friend Cang Lang mentioned the chance to break through to the Gold Core realm, he disregarded everything and even swore an oath, saying he was willing to give up anything.

In the end, he did break through and extended his life by two hundred years, but from then on, his freedom and life were in the hands of others.

Upon careful consideration, he didn't know if it was a gain or a loss.

However, he quickly suppressed these emotions.

Regardless of the outcome, it was his own choice, and there was no need to blame others or heaven.

He coughed lightly and said in a somewhat reluctant tone, "Friend Zeng, I will only tell you about this matter. You must never tell anyone else, otherwise, I'm afraid I will be trampled to death here."

Zeng An nodded repeatedly, "President Qi, rest assured, I haven't even told my disciples about this matter."

He had been focused on cultivating and had never married. His family members had long since passed away when he was young, and even his nephews and nieces, and their descendants, were no longer a concern to him.

He is now closest to his disciple who came to take care of him in his old age. Even his disciple is kept in the dark, just imagine his secrets.

Qi Chunshen nodded and said, "In that case, I can rest assured."

In fact, he was hoping that Zeng Daoyou could secretly promote him, but in order to maintain the mystery and level, these words still needed to be reminded every time.

"First of all, I want to congratulate Zeng Daoyou. Because the Great Unity Society urgently needs manpower, so when I mentioned Zeng Daoyou's matter in the meeting, they promised me that they would send someone to inspect it soon.

If Zeng Daoyou meets the requirements, he can apply to join the society.

And once it is confirmed to join the society, you will receive a chance to obtain a Gold Core. According to my knowledge, the probability of a breakthrough is over 80%."

Zeng An was overjoyed.

He originally thought that the so-called chance for a Gold Core was just a pill that could increase the probability of a breakthrough by one or two percent, which was already amazing.

But he didn't expect there to be an 80% chance.

Could it be...

Some widely circulated demonic secret techniques flashed through his mind.

When he was struggling to make a breakthrough in the past, he had also ruthlessly thought about seeking demonic secret techniques to break through the Gold Core, even if the means were cruel.

As a result, he sadly discovered that even the demonic secret techniques that were said to be ruthless and hated by heaven and man were not something ordinary people could find when it came to the Gold Core level.

Without those connections and fate, he didn't even have a chance to sell his conscience.

"President Qi, I don't know when the envoy from the society will come, so that I can prepare earlier."

Qi Chunshen smiled faintly, "Zeng Daoyou, inspection is inspection. I don't know when the person will come. Maybe he has already come before I talked to you, and the inspection may already be over."

"That is still a chance for a Gold Core after all. Don't worry, although the society urgently needs manpower, they won't accept just anyone."

"Yes, yes." Zeng An nodded repeatedly, "It was my mistake."

But before he could calm down, he couldn't help but ask again,

"President Qi, since you are so familiar with the Great Unity Society, why haven't they given you a chance for a Gold Core?"

Qi Chunshen sighed and asked another question instead.

"Zeng Daoyou, do you really believe that there is an organization like the Great Unity Society that helps each other and everyone is for my sake?"

Zeng An was stunned, and his face gradually became ugly.

"President Qi means that the matter of the Great Unity Society is a lie to deceive me?"

Qi Chunshen shook his head, "No, the Great Unity Society does indeed exist.

I just want to tell Zeng Daoyou that there are no free lunches in the world. A chance for a Gold Core is so precious that if you want to obtain it, you must inevitably pay an unbearable price."

But Zeng An laughed, "I thought it was something else. I have been practicing for so many years and I no longer believe in free lunches. If there really is such a selfless organization, I would be worried if it's a scam.

So it turns out that there is a price to pay, then I can rest assured.

I have less than twenty years of life left. If I dare not take a risk, then I have wasted my life in cultivation.

What is the unbearable price?

As long as it's not my life, I can bear any price."

Qi Chunshen smiled bitterly, "Zeng Daoyou, you see through it. In that case, you can wait with peace of mind.

At most half a month, whether you are selected or not, the society will notify me."

Zeng An stood up contentedly and thanked Qi Chunshen with a cupped fist salute.

"When I join the Great Unity Society, I will definitely bring a generous gift to thank the president."

"Then I will wait for Zeng Daoyou's good news."

Qi Chunshen returned the salute.

Until Zeng An left, Qi Chunshen remained seated in his original spot, estimating the contributions of introducing Zeng An to the association, along with the merit points he had accumulated. He wondered when he would be able to gather enough merit points to reach one thousand.

"I hope he can live a little longer."

According to the new rules of the Datong Association, for each member he introduced, he would receive ten merit points as a reward. Additionally, before new members became official members, ten percent of the merit points they earned after completing tasks would be awarded to him.

In other words, theoretically, if he introduced ten members to the association and all ten became official members, he could regain his freedom without doing anything.

However, things were far from that simple.

Because people die.

After returning to the Qi family for over three years, he had officially introduced eight people to the association, of whom five were selected by the association. These five had successfully advanced to become false pill cultivators and became provisional members of the Datong Association.

But in just three years, one of the five had died during a demon hunting operation.

As the third-grade inferior demon kings of the Jinpeng Demon Vein were hunted down one by one, their hunting environment became increasingly severe.

After all, the other demon kings were not fools. Initially, the disappearance of a few demon kings could be attributed to infighting among their kind, the succession of new and old demon kings.

Such incidents occurred almost regularly.

But as more and more demon kings disappeared, even with the concealment of the Heaven and Earth Array, the other demon kings began to sense that something was amiss.

Demon kings possessed intelligence no less than humans. However, their living environment had accustomed them to the laws of the primitive jungle, where they were used to communicating through brute force.

When they employed their intelligence, it became a nightmare for people like him.

Qi Chunshen still remembered the four years he spent hunting demons in the Jinpeng Demon Vein.

At first, he applied for the assistance of Daoist Canglang and Daoist Baoyuan, combined with the Heaven and Earth Array, to hunt down third-grade inferior demon kings. It could be said that they were invincible, and they even gained considerable rewards afterwards.

However, he knew very well that hunting demon kings was like dancing on the edge of a knife.

So every time he chose a target to hunt, he was extremely cautious, making sure it was a third-grade inferior demon king that was easy to bully, preferably one that had recently advanced. Only then would he take action.

So don't be fooled by the short duration of actual battles with demon kings. The preparatory work, investigation, and intelligence gathering all required lurking in the vicinity for half a year.

Safety first.

He smoothly passed two years, successfully hunting down two demon kings, just like his fellow newcomer, Daoist Laogui.

Each demon king was worth one hundred merit points, but in reality, they only gained one merit point, with a cost of ninety-nine merit points.

Fortunately, the demon kings had decent collections, and each time they exchanged spoils of war, they could bring in over one hundred merit points.

But these spoils of war also had to be shared with the fellow Daoists who came to assist.

Therefore, the two successful missions only brought him a little over one hundred merit points.

So when Daoist Laogui found him and proposed to cooperate, he didn't hesitate for long before agreeing.

In this way, neither of them needed to invite others to assist, and one application for the Heaven and Earth Array would be enough, greatly reducing costs.

In the following two years, he and Daoist Laogui cooperated, with the help of the Heaven and Earth Array, and successfully hunted down two third-grade inferior demon kings.

But the merit points they gained were over two hundred.

He was full of confidence, thinking that at the current rate, it would not take him ten years to regain his freedom.

The result was that dreams were beautiful, but reality was cruel.

When they were hunting demon kings again, they were ambushed by the demon kings—one of them suddenly emerged from the cave, and one of them was even a third-grade middle-grade old demon king.

If it weren't for the silent activation of the Heaven and Earth Array, which was powerful enough to be considered a Gold Core cultivator, and the turtle shell magical tool in Daoist Laogui's hand, which could bring good fortune and avoid disaster, they wouldn't even have had a chance to escape.

However, afterwards, in order to compensate for the damage to the Heaven and Earth Array caused by the demon kings, they each had to pay fifty merit points, which could be considered a huge loss.

At that time, he still thought it was an accident.

Until his friend, Old Turtle, reminded him, he was oblivious to the fact that there were suddenly more members of the Da Tong Hui, a group of cultivators with double palms, in the Jin Peng Yao Mai.

They were also cooperating with each other, using the power of the formation to hunt down the Demon Kings.

The addition of competitors made it more difficult for them to hunt down the Demon Kings. They had to gather more False Dan cultivators to complete a mission that originally only required two.

What used to be a task that could be completed by two False Dan cultivators now required four to ensure their safety.

However, this was also acceptable.

It just meant that the accumulation of merits went from ten years to twenty years.

Until that day.

Just as they finished negotiating and were preparing to deal with a newly promoted Demon King.

A third-grade superior Demon King was ambushing them outside the Demon King's lair.

Before they could even set up the formation, the Demon King attacked. These False Dan cultivators were no match for him.

If it weren't for him being in charge of controlling the formation disk and quickly activating the Concealing Heaven and Earth Formation to hide themselves, he would probably have been killed by the Demon King.

Yesterday, they fought side by side, but now their comrades, who were fighting for a few merits in private, died under the hands of the Demon King without even leaving behind any last words.

He was scared.

No matter how ancient the Da Tong Hui was or how powerful the experts in the group were, these False Dan cultivators, who were called preparatory members, were obviously seen as cannon fodder in the eyes of others.

So Qi Chunshen no longer dared to hunt down Demon Kings.

According to the rules of the group.

After completing a mission, there would be one year of rest.

He completed two missions independently and cooperated with Old Turtle to complete two missions, totaling three years of rest.

Once the rest time was over, each year required the payment of a late fee to the group. Ten merits for the first year, twenty merits for the second year, and so on.

The late fee would only be recalculated once a mission was completed.

If merits were insufficient and one refused to complete a mission, the consequence would be the annihilation of one's soul.

Qi Chunshen had been back for three years, and his rest time had already run out. Starting from the next year, he would have to start paying the late fee.

However, Qi Chunshen believed that he had found a loophole in this rule.

As long as he continued to introduce new members to the group, he would be able to continuously earn merits, and even make a profit.

By the tenth year, he could use his own money to buy a third-grade Demon Core and hand it over to the group. This way, he could rest for an additional year, and the late fee would be recalculated.

After all, the group only asked for Demon Cores, but never specified that they had to be fresh Demon Cores.

So his costs could be greatly reduced.

In theory, he could accumulate one thousand merits without taking any risks.

Or, he could directly earn ten million spirit stones, buy ten third-grade Demon Cores, and leave the Da Tong Hui.

So he tried his best to find suitable members for the group while also starting to save spirit stones, even at the risk of exposing part of his identity.

How did Zeng An know about his relationship with the Da Tong Hui? It was because he voluntarily exposed it.

Although he knew that doing so would bring some risks to his family, it was inevitable for the sake of his ancestor's freedom.

Qi Chunshen looked at the distant sea of trees, the wind blowing past, and the mountains emitting a rustling sound, as if the mountain god was softly humming.

He sighed softly.

If he hadn't met Cang Lang that day, if he hadn't rashly agreed to join the Da Tong Hui, then he...

"Perhaps I would regret it," Qi Chunshen laughed at himself, "This is a Gold Core, after all."

"And... four hundred and twenty-six, this is the number of merits I have accumulated now. As long as I recruit enough people, I will definitely be able to accumulate enough. Within a hundred years, I might regain my freedom, it's not impossible."

(End of this chapter)