The deflated cultivator refused to give up and vowed to turn the tables.

How could this be so strange? There was a large flat coastline behind him. Logically, he had only walked for a short while, and it would have taken the old man and the child much longer to get out of his sight. How could they have disappeared in the blink of an eye?

Su Zinong found it strange, but he couldn't find anyone no matter how hard he looked.

Rainwater recycling? Washing?

The true energy within Zhao Gongzi's body cannot be cultivated using one's own techniques, meaning this true energy will not increase further and will forever remain at the mid-stage of the fourth star cultivation level. This is an incredibly cruel reality for a cultivator, especially a young one.

However, I had thought before that I couldn't completely expel the foreign true energy from my body, or use other methods to dissolve it, because I would become a useless person again without cultivation or even strength.

Could we cleanse ourselves with circulating internal energy, like rainwater?

Were those old man and young boy sent by deities to enlighten me?

After making up his mind, Su Zinong immediately set off. He was going to a certain place.

Three days later, we arrived at a large city.

The city was bustling with people, and occasionally one would encounter a cultivator, but no one recognized him, because Su Zinong had now made different human skin masks. Even Huang Chenghe wouldn't recognize him.

While in the inn, I overheard monks discussing the upheaval at the Goddess Palace in the lobby.

It turns out that on the day of her wedding to 91-year-old Goddess Palace Master Liu Qianyu and 19-year-old Bai Yansha, Elder Gu forced her to give up her position as Palace Master.

But Liu Qianyu was unwilling to give up. Although she lost the position of palace master, she stayed in the Goddess Palace to see how these opponents would cause trouble.

Elder Gu then began to drive Bai Yansha away, saying that the Goddess Palace was a quiet place and that men should not stay overnight, as it would defile the sacred mountain.

Later, they forced Liu Qianyu to leave the mountain.

Although Liu Qianyu has stepped down from her position as palace master, she still has a large group of people who support her and are her loyal subordinates.

This led to a fierce conflict between the two sides. Just last month, a major clash took place, resulting in heavy casualties.

In the end, Liu Qianyu led thirty female disciples down the mountain, leaving the Goddess Palace and no longer being a member of the Goddess Palace.

The Goddess Palace, which was originally very powerful, lost one of its Seven Star Elders and forty or fifty other disciples in the battle between the two sides. In addition, thirty people were taken away by Liu Qianyu, greatly reducing its strength.

On the contrary, Liu Qianyu brought thirty elite women to join Baishabao, greatly increasing its strength.

Baishabao was originally quite wealthy, but now it suddenly has thirty-one women with exceptionally strong cultivation techniques, thus soaring to become the number one cultivation family in the area.

Upon hearing this news, Su Zinong couldn't help but sigh. How could the Goddess Palace, a perfectly good wedding, have turned into this? What went wrong?

Recalling the time when I infiltrated the Eastern Branch Assembly of the Heavenly Demon Sect with Huang Chenghe, I wondered what had happened at a certain mountain villa in the south. I was in a hurry when I saw Huang Chenghe, so I didn't ask what happened afterward.

Forget it, I don't want to get involved in the affairs of the cultivation world.

*** ***

Tianjing Mountain.

The spiritual energy on this mountain is not the most abundant; in fact, compared to the mountains of other major sects, it can only be described as average, or even slightly sparse.

However, this place has the purest spiritual energy, which should be of great effect in cleansing one's true energy.

However, Tianjing Mountain is also a major sect, and it is extremely difficult for ordinary people to go up the mountain.

Su Zinong naturally had no reason to go into the mountains, so he simply circled around to the back of Tianjing Mountain and found a cave to live in.

Although the natural energy here is the same as that of the front mountain, the back mountain is exceptionally steep and unsuitable for building houses or living, so Tianjing Mountain does not manage the back mountain.

Moreover, this place isn't rich in spiritual energy, and no one would think of coming here to cultivate.

When Su Zinong was cultivating, he would go out to the rocks outside the cave, and when he slept, he would go back into the cave.

Su Zinong had lived this kind of savage life many times before, so he was already quite adept at it. Moreover, he had already purchased a lot of supplies in the town at the foot of the mountain, enough for him to live on the back mountain for a month.

After settling in, Su Zinong began practicing his martial arts.

He channeled wisps of true energy from his left hand, practicing controlling it. After being cleansed by the spiritual energy of Tianjing Mountain, a small portion of the spiritual energy mixed with the true energy and then entered Su Zinong's body through the acupoints on his right hand.

However, the first step was not so easy, because Su Zinong had never practiced such delicate control of his true energy before. In the past, he only used it for attack, releasing his true energy in a straight line, but now he had to guide it slowly and deliberately towards his right hand.

After practicing for three days, the true energy surging from my left hand slowly reached the acupoints on my right hand. It took another three days before the acupoints on my right hand could absorb the true energy as I wished.

Fortunately, I had two previous experiences absorbing true qi, so I knew how to circulate true qi in reverse to absorb it.

A month later, the true energy in his body became much purer, and even increased.

However, he had absorbed a great deal of the true energy from Young Master Zhao's peak fourth-star cultivation. This energy was the result of Young Master Zhao's ten years of hard training, and it was impossible to completely cleanse and purify it all within a month.

Fortunately, it's already a good start.

After spending a total of three months at Tianjing Mountain, Su Zinong discovered that the true energy of Young Master Zhao within his body had been thoroughly cleansed and purified.

He began to cultivate using his original techniques and was able to cultivate true qi. Moreover, the pure true qi in his body could combine with the newly cultivated true qi without any mutual repulsion.

Su Zinong was overjoyed. The problem that had troubled him for months was finally solved, and now all he had to do was focus on his cultivation.

The reason he was able to reach the early stage of the fifth star after only six years of cultivation was due to his diligence, intelligence, and spirit stones.

Most spirit stones are controlled by large cultivation families and sects, and are very difficult for ordinary independent cultivators to obtain.

Su Zinong learned medicine, divination, and astrology from a young age and made a lot of money from it.

If Su Zinong had used the money he earned to buy real estate and shops, he would be a tycoon by now. But he used it all to buy spirit stones for cultivation, which is why he was able to quickly advance to the fifth level of cultivation.

After careful consideration, Su Zinong decided to go down the mountain to buy spirit stones to accelerate his cultivation.

As a rogue cultivator, it wasn't easy for him to buy spirit stones. Even if he did manage to buy some, he was often overcharged, and the spirit stones he received were of poor quality and had little spiritual power.

Huang Chenghe doesn't want to go back to Yellow River Villa now, because the incident at Tianqi Mountain last time has already implicated Yellow River Villa.

He decided to go down the mountain to Qin Tianzhuang to find Qin Xiangxue, and also to see her and tell her that he was still alive so as not to leave her with any lingering trauma. He also asked her to help him purchase spirit stones.

After thinking it over, Su Zinong quickly went down the mountain.

Unbeknownst to him, the two major sects, Tianqing Mountain and Tianqi Mountain, were using the pretext that Su Zinong had killed Young Master Zhao to launch a full-scale manhunt for him. Indeed: the road ahead was long and fraught with peril…