Traveling through time to cultivate immortality: a life and death test

Qingshan Lake returned to its tranquility, the fish swam happily again, the water rippled, and everything returned to normal. Perhaps only the ice toad corpse at the bottom of the lake and the bluegrass on the lakeside had been harvested, leaving only a few seedlings, perhaps a record of the recent battle. Time is the greatest soothing force, and everything will fade away with the passage of time.

Liu Xing was already in a forest fifty miles away. The trees were tall and dense here, perfect for concealing his tracks. He sensed that there were no large wild beasts nearby, so he found a tree hole, set up restrictions outside the hole, made some simple camouflage, and then dived in.

The most urgent task was to restore his mana. Danger lingered here, and maintaining peak combat power was paramount. He then produced his spirit stones, grasping one in each hand and drawing on them furiously. While the secret realm was rich in spiritual energy, allowing him to restore his mana without spirit stones, unlike in the prison, using spirit stones still restored it more than three times faster. Time was of the essence here, and he couldn't afford to be stingy with them. Fortunately, he had a large fortune and plenty of spirit stones. Other cultivators, while thrifty, wouldn't have dared to do the same.

"In my past and present lives, money has always been the most important thing," Liu Xing sighed. The path to immortality also required money to pave the way. He would have to work hard at cultivation and earning money. He silently formulated two life strategies for himself.

Two hours later, Liu Xing's mana was restored, and his spirits were full. He felt full of strength again, back to his peak. If it weren't for the large amount of spiritual stones, absorbing natural spiritual energy would have taken at least a day.

His magical powers had returned, and his confidence had returned. But he didn't rush out of retreat. He remained seated, still, his eyes closed, in deep thought. At Qingshan Lake, two highly intelligent snakes had attacked him, and he sensed a hint of conspiracy. He needed to think carefully about his next move. He was still caught in a crisis, unable to relax at any moment. Many unknown mysteries awaited him.

In his entire cultivation career, he'd never encountered a demonic beast with such high intelligence. Even the second-level Black Blood Spider he'd encountered in Taoist Chongxu's cave was no more than a three-year-old, charging out of instinct. The first guardian beast of the spiritual grass he'd encountered at Qingshan Lake, the Ice Poison Toad, also lacked intelligence. Common sense dictated that demonic beasts only possess the intelligence of adults after reaching level seven or above. Of course, the world of cultivation was full of wonders, and it wasn't impossible for elixirs or secret techniques to help lower-level demonic beasts awaken their minds prematurely. After all, a transformed demon was as powerful as a human Nascent Soul cultivator, capable of moving mountains and filling seas, and possessing omnipotence.

Liu Xing carefully reviewed the entire battle and was astonished to discover the two snakes' extraordinary intelligence, their ability to remain silent and devise sneak attacks. How could he not be astonished? If it weren't for the bamboo flute, which had enabled him to gain superior magical powers and awareness, firstly by noticing the snakes' arrival in advance and secondly by repeatedly confirming that they were indeed peak-level monsters, he would have suspected they were hiding their true abilities to play dumb.

The two snakes first watched from the sidelines, waiting for Liu Xing and the Ice Toad to clash until both were equally bruised, so they could reap the benefits. Then, concealing their presence, they crept closer, preparing for a surprise attack. Finally, they surrounded Liu Xing from both sides, cutting off his escape route and preparing a combined attack to kill him. Such high intelligence was unacceptable for a Level 1 demonic beast. Upon discovering this, Liu Xing suppressed his surprise and bewilderment, then exploited the situation, feigning complete ignorance and complacency. He lured the snakes out of their lair and, employing a strategy of defeating them one by one, quickly eliminated them. Without this unexpected attack, a head-on confrontation, allowing the two snakes to fully exploit their strengths and attack with all their might, would have been impossible for Liu Xing to achieve such a swift victory, and would have undoubtedly cost him a far greater price.

Liu Xing was a quick thinker and adept at summarizing his actions. In each battle, he mastered the environment, the enemy's strengths and weaknesses, and employed the most effective methods to achieve victory. He mastered the Thirty-Six Stratagems, his goal being to preserve himself as much as possible while simultaneously destroying the enemy as efficiently as possible. Furthermore, he once again discovered the advantage of talisman attacks: speed. Casting spells and activating magical instruments required time to prepare, but only talismans could be cast instantly, giving him the advantage of attacking first. The talismans were simply too expensive, but he didn't mind. He still had nearly a thousand in his bag, and if they weren't enough, he could always refine them himself.

Liu Xing had already been dictating the entire battle, so he had already anticipated the outcome. He was wondering where such a highly intelligent, first-level demon beast had come from. Judging from the Spirit Snake's combat prowess, it wasn't particularly impressive. This suggested a number of intelligent, lower-level demon beasts were present. He had only encountered a first-level demon beast, so could there be higher-level ones? A second or third-level demon beast might be a formidable challenge, but a fourth-level one would require immediate escape.

In short, there was something strange about this space. Early awakening of spiritual intelligence was supposedly a privilege reserved for the elite of each race. He needed more information to determine whether the appearance of the spirit snake was a fluke or the existence of a truly elite race with awakened spiritual intelligence. He had no choice but to remain vigilant, as the information he possessed was too limited to make a definitive judgment. However, everything he had encountered so far had given him a vague suspicion, which he needed further evidence to verify.

First, the fact that three-hundred-year-old mature herbs were growing openly by the lake suggested that this place was rarely visited. He had been transported here by someone, and although he couldn't see the entrance clearly, he could preliminarily judge that this might be a secret space. He needed to explore more areas to see the size of this space and see if mature herbs could be found elsewhere.

Second, act more cautiously, hide your breath, and quietly observe whether there are higher-level monsters, so that you can be prepared in advance and have more chances to save your life.

Third, it is necessary to determine whether there are more intelligent monsters and whether there are more different types of monsters to verify whether his conjecture is correct.

After thinking all this through, he walked out of the tree hole, put away the formation disk, and didn't dare to send out the assault boat to fly openly again, lest it become too conspicuous and become a sitting duck. He used the tortoise breathing technique to hide and stealthily move in one direction.

The forest wasn't large, only about a hundred miles in radius. There were some wild boars, rabbits, foxes, and other magical beasts, but they weren't very intelligent. He paid them no attention and simply walked around them. However, along the way, he did find a number of medicinal herbs and fruits in some of the most challenging areas. This made him even more certain that this place was rarely visited.