Immortality and Cultivation: This old man seeks enlightenment through mere survival.

"Loot the bag, lick the bag..."

The corpse had a storage bag hanging from its waist, but now it had naturally become Lu Zaian's spoils of war.

Lu Zaian ripped it off, felt a faint magical imprint on the bag's opening, and couldn't help but smile.

"Do you think the mark of a dead man can stop me?"

After spending some time refining the storage bag, Lu Zaian discovered quite a few good things.

There were ninety-three low-grade spirit stones, a considerable number of first-tier pills for restoring energy and healing injuries, and a small amount of other spiritual materials.

At this moment, a faintly shimmering talisman inside the storage bag caught Lu Zaian's attention.

"Huh? This is... a sound transmission talisman?"

Lu Zaian recognized the talisman and pulled it out. A cold voice came from inside.

"After it's done, meet me at Shishuipo outside Heiyanfang. Remember to leave me with a whole body; if I've bled to death, I won't take me in."

Lu Zaian's face darkened.

"Wang Changzong?!"

He recognized the voice as belonging to the Fire Refining Sect cultivator who had warmly invited him at the pharmacy earlier.

"Good heavens, thank goodness I didn't believe his nonsense back then. What sect recruiting people? He clearly had ulterior motives."

This is clearly not a one-time transmission talisman. This cultivator has kept this transmission talisman, which means it's obviously not the first time he's done this kind of thing!

Lu Zaian tore up the communication talisman, furious.

"You just wait, a gentleman takes his revenge in ten years... no, twenty years... a hundred years... it's never too late. I'll dig up your ashes and scatter them!"

Although Lu Zaian wanted to rush to that Shishuipo right now and throw a few talisman attacks at Wang Changzong's face!

However, after thinking it over, I calmed down.

To be a good blacksmith, you must be strong yourself. Write this down in your notebook and we'll talk about it later.

Next, take stock of the spoils in the storage bag.

A damaged halberd, a magical artifact, came into Lu Zaian's view.

The halberd was dark blue all over, and the shaft was broken in two by something eroding and wearing it down, and the blade was also broken and missing.

"The Azure Halberd?"

Lu Zaian had previously seen an identical Azure Halberd in the Treasure Refining Pavilion of Black Rock Market.

It belongs to the first-tier low-grade water-attribute magic weapon.

Lu Zaian was quite fond of this magical artifact at the time.

If Lu Zaian noticed, it was a cultivator at the fourth level of Qi Refining who bought it.

Although I don't know if it's the same one.

Judging from the extent of the damage to the halberd, its owner is probably in grave danger.

"Sigh, that's why I don't like to flaunt my wealth..."

Lu Zaian continued searching and also found a first-tier mid-grade cultivation technique called "Earth Origin Technique" and a demonic secret technique called "Blood Burning Escape".

Lu Zaian briefly glanced at the cultivation outline of "Earth Element Technique".

It seems to be an earth-based cultivation technique, requiring an earth spiritual root to practice.

But it doesn't matter. Even if you sell a mid-grade first-level cultivation technique, it can still be worth hundreds of spirit stones.

However, another book, "Burning Blood Escape," surprised Lu Zaian even more.

This is a secret demonic technique that uses the user's own essence, blood, and lifespan as fuel to enhance their magical abilities.

The more essence and blood are burned, the more lifespan is damaged.

Correspondingly, the speed of the escape technique is also faster.

Generally, it is used by cultivators when facing a life-or-death crisis, to sacrifice a pawn to save the king.

"Essence blood? Lifespan? Holy crap, that's the last thing I lack!!"

Lu Zaian's eyes gleamed; his immortal body was brimming with vitality.

For other cultivators, the loss of vital essence and the irreversible loss of lifespan are not problems for them.

"This is a secret technique that can save your life. You must practice it, you must practice it hard!"

Finally, there's that wine-yellow gourd-shaped magic weapon.

Lu Zaian also spent some time refining it.

The Yellow Sand Gourd is a mid-grade first-tier magic treasure containing countless granular particles of spirit-devouring yellow sand.

Once activated, it can unleash a spirit-devouring sandstorm.

This wind can erode the spirituality of magical artifacts, making it a malevolent artifact.

Unfortunately, apart from this, Lu Zaian did not find any items or information that could reveal the cultivator's identity.

"Fine, I'll just consider him a treasure-delivering boy."

……

In the days that followed, Lu Zaian became even more cautious.

It has always remained hidden on the outskirts of the Black Soil Mountains, never going anywhere.

The spiritual energy here is thin, and apart from occasionally having to avoid mortals gathering herbs, you won't encounter a single cultivator.

The Qi Refining Pill I bought from the Spirit Pill Pavilion was quite effective; after taking it, I actually broke through the bottleneck of the third level of Qi Refining.

However, to reach the fourth level of Qi Refining cultivation, several years of accumulation and arduous training are still required.

If we compare magical power to flowing water, and meridians to riverbeds.

The bottleneck is the silt and sand that clogs the riverbed.

Although Lu Zaian used the power of the elixir to clear the blockage, he still needed to widen the riverbed and accumulate more water to truly improve his strength.

This is a long process.

You can only accumulate step by step, waiting for the right time to come, and when the bottle is full it will overflow. You can't rush it.

Cultivation knows no time, and the years pass without a cycle in the mountains.

Three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

In these three years,

Lu Zaian cultivated tirelessly day and night, and with the help of the Blood Spirit Pearl's spirit-gathering ability, he finally broke through to the fourth level of Qi Refining.

At this point, he had finally entered the mid-stage of Qi Refining.

Barely escaped the category of a novice cultivator.

Lu Zai'an also mastered the Iron Armor Technique to perfection.

However, this is, after all, a mortal's physical training technique, and the physical strength of a fully developed body is only comparable to that of a body cultivator at the second level of body refinement.

Shen Tu Rong trained his whole life and only reached this level, so Lu Zai'an was content.

At least for now, it's very difficult for ordinary early-stage Qi Refining spells to harm Lu Zaian.

"Iron Armor Kung Fu" can be considered to have fulfilled its mission.

As for cultivating the Nine Fiends Demon Body, without special demon beast essence blood, Lu Zaian had no way to begin.

Even the Blood Spirit Orb couldn't help.

Now, the power of qi and blood refined from the blood of ordinary beasts has almost lost its effect on stimulating Lu Zaian's physical body.

"A demonic beast? Isn't there a mountain goblin in the Green Mulberry Forest? It should be considered a monkey-type demonic beast, right?"

Lu Zaian leaned against the cave wall, stroking his white stubble with one hand as he pondered.

That beast used to chase me so relentlessly that I was in a terrible state.

It now appears that his strength is roughly equivalent to that of a human cultivator at the fourth level of Qi Refining.

"I've already mastered the basics of formations. If I set things up in advance, I might have a chance."

"However, in that case, I'll have to go to Black Rock Market again to buy the spiritual materials needed for setting up the array."

The formation needs array flags made from various spiritual materials to achieve its true effect.

Previously, Lu Zaian had only deduced the method using stones and sticks, and had never actually used it in actual combat.

"Wait a little longer, our strength is still a bit weak right now."

Once I reach the sixth level of Qi Refining, I'll need to buy pills to break through the bottleneck of the late stage of Qi Refining anyway, so I might as well take a look at them all at once.

If it doesn't cost too many spirit stones, let's buy them all together.

"Boom boom boom!!"

Just as Lu Zaian was pondering, a loud rumbling sound suddenly came from outside.

Then came a violent earthquake, and small stones fell from above the cave.

"Huh? What's going on?"

Immediately afterwards, an even more violent tremor struck.

Lu Zaian felt a chill run down his spine, his gaze fixed on the stone wall above the cave.

Fine cracks began to appear on the once solid stone wall, and these cracks spread rapidly, intertwining like a spider web.

As the tremors intensified, the cracks grew larger, and rubble and dust fell down.

Lu Zaian's expression changed drastically.

"Oh no, it's going to collapse! Get out of here!"