Qiu Zu: From an apprentice in a medicine shop to an immortal ancestor.

The winding mountain path was covered in lush vegetation.

Towering canopies blocked out the sun, resembling emerald clouds stretching endlessly, obscuring the sky.

The inside and outside became two separate worlds.

Outside, the sun shone brightly, but deep within the forest, a dark hue seemed to have been painted, making it incredibly dim.

"Rustle, rustle ~"

Qiu Zhen bent over, holding a heavy iron bow in his left hand and a wood-chopping knife in his right, his third eye at the center of his brow emitting a faint spiritual light, surveying the surroundings.

The little fox, Bai Shu, carried a herb-collecting bamboo basket that was bigger than itself, following Qiu Zhen step by step, occasionally looking left and right, ears perked up, observing the surrounding situation with a vigilant and cautious expression.

Currently, they could be considered to have entered the true "depths of the mountains".

The mountains were high and the forests dense, blocking out the sun, allowing yin energy to flourish, nurturing countless venomous snakes, insects, demons, and fierce beasts, making it fraught with danger.

Previously, the "hills" where Qiu Zhen and Bai Shu mingled were insignificant compared to this.

A few days ago, they had encountered a stone spirit in the mountains that was skilled at disguise and concealment.

Bai Shu, naive and ignorant, thought it was a rock and sat down on the stone spirit, intending to rest for a while.

Fortunately, Qiu Zhen possessed the Heavenly Eye and, at the moment the stone spirit awakened and revealed its aura, he keenly noticed it, glimpsed it for the first time, and unleashed a "Thunder Talisman", causing sparks to fly and the spirit to disappear into the earth, saving Bai Shu.

Otherwise, Bai Shu would probably have been swallowed in one gulp.

After this incident, both Qiu Zhen and Bai Shu developed a sense of awe for the true "deep mountains and old forests".

Demons and monsters were not "spiritual herbs and precious medicines"; to survive in the mountains, in addition to martial strength and supernatural powers, the most important thing was the ability to "hide", to conceal one's aura and cover one's tracks, in order to live long and have the opportunity to grow.

Even Qiu Zhen, who possessed the [Heavenly Eye Vision], was currently unable to instantly discern the superb "escape techniques" used by demons to conceal their forms and suppress their breath.

One careless mistake could lead to capsizing in a gutter, perishing in the deep mountains, and becoming food for monsters.

Qiu Zhen did not dare to venture deep into the mountains, and for the past few days, he had been searching for treasures and hunting in the outer areas of the mountains.

It wasn't that he was an "ignorant and fearless newcomer", but that he had searched all the large and small valleys and hills within a few dozen miles around Qingmu Town over the past month, collecting all kinds of spiritual herbs and precious medicines.

Others entered the mountains to search for treasures purely by luck.

He was different; with a sweep of his Heavenly Eye supernatural power, he could see at a glance whether there were any treasures.

After a sweep, he had no more spiritual herbs or precious medicines to find.

The situation with hunting fierce beasts was not much better; many martial artists around Qingmu Town regularly patrolled the forests, and some martial artists often formed groups to hunt fierce beasts outside the town.

In the surrounding valleys and hills, encountering fierce beasts sometimes depended on luck.

Qiu Zhen initially hunted a few fierce beasts and sold them for a lot of money, but later his luck was bad and he had no gains.

Therefore, relying on the high-level spell [Golden Light Thunder Talisman], Qiu Zhen began to search for treasures and hunt around the "mountains".

"Swish, swish, swish ~"

Qiu Zhen lightly stepped on the withered yellow leaves and came to a clump of bushes. After observing and confirming safety with his [Heavenly Eye], he pulled out his wood-chopping knife from his waist and dug for a while.

Before long, two umbrella-shaped herbs, along with their plants and soil, appeared before him.

"One dig, two treasures! Two Angelica sinensis precious medicines!"

Qiu Zhen recognized them at a glance and was inexplicably delighted.

Angelica sinensis has a sweet and heavy taste, so it specializes in nourishing blood, and its qi is light and pungent, so it can also promote blood circulation, nourishing with movement, and promoting with nourishment, truly a qi medicine in the blood and a sacred medicine in nourishing blood.

These two precious medicines had both formed complete spiritual patterns.

What made him even more delighted was that one of the Angelica sinensis precious medicines, nourished by the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, had actually manifested two "spiritual patterns".

"What a fine Angelica sinensis king."

Qiu Zhen was delighted and beckoned.

The little fox, carrying the herb-collecting bamboo basket, trotted over, turned around, and the two precious medicines fell into the bamboo basket.

Without saying a word, the man and the fox immediately turned around and left the dark forest, their movements flowing smoothly.

About dozens of breaths later.

Qiu Zhen and Bai Shu finally "saw the light of day again", and what they saw before them became open and clear again.

This was Qiu Zhen's daily routine these past few days.

Wandering around the edge of the mountains, when his "Heavenly Eye" glimpsed spiritual light and precious light, he would try to venture one or two miles deeper to search for treasures, but never go deep.

"Awoo, awoo ~"

"I see it."

Not long after leaving the dense forest, Qiu Zhen squatted in the waist-high weeds, his gaze fixed on the stream about six hundred meters away.

The stream flowed gurglingly, and a dark-horned blue ox was happily chewing on tender grass and drinking stream water, feasting to its heart's content.

The wild ox was three meters long, with a strong body, thick and flat horns pointing to the sky, dark black all over, and smooth and shiny hide, faintly glowing with a precious light.

"Another fierce beast, after so many days, my luck has finally turned, good luck one after another."

Qiu Zhen was delighted.

This blue ox fierce beast had some power, and its hide had undergone a mutation, faintly glowing with a precious light.

If an ordinary martial artist encountered it alone, it would probably be difficult to deal with and unable to take down this big guy.

His ten-stone heavy iron bow, with arrows piercing a thousand pounds, could accurately hit ordinary fierce beasts, and a single strike would either kill or severely injure them.

But if it was a blue ox fierce beast, with its "toughness", it would probably not be so easy.

Fortunately, Qiu Zhen was not only a martial artist, but also a cultivator who had cultivated the "Yin Spirit".

He reached into his arms and took out a yellow talisman.

It was the [Thunder Talisman] that he had written long ago.

The [Thunder Talisman] simply had the character for thunder written on it, belonging to the basic Taoist talismans. When activated, its power was slightly greater than an arrow from a ten-stone heavy bow.

However, it was not much stronger.

Qiu Zhen pinched the [Thunder Talisman] between two fingers, pulled out a refined iron arrow from the quiver on his back, and attached the [Thunder Talisman] to the arrow shaft.

He drew the bow to its full extent, like a full moon.

"Swish!"

An arrow shot out, and the air vibrated.

An arrow shot from a ten-stone heavy bow already had tremendous power, terrifying strength, and amazing speed.

However, an even more shocking scene occurred.

The arrow that was shot suddenly flashed with lightning, and after a loud bang, a small cloud of mist burst out in the air.

Immediately afterward, the arrow suddenly burst out with a terrifying thrust.

"Boom!"

The blue ox fierce beast was extremely alert. Even while eating happily, it did not relax its vigilance.

The moment the arrow flew out, it noticed it and instinctively ran away to avoid it.

If it were an ordinary ten-stone heavy arrow, it would probably have dodged it.

Even if it couldn't dodge it, it wouldn't hurt its vitals.

However, this arrow was too fast.

As soon as it noticed something was wrong and turned its head to look, the arrow carrying terrifying force appeared in front of it.

Its pupils widened in shock!

It looked at the arrow hitting its neck with shock and despair.

"Bang!"

The huge creature crashed to the ground.

The next moment, the man and the fox quickly crossed the weeds and came to the stream.

"Awoo, awoo ~"

Bai Shu was dumbfounded.

The reason was simple: upon closer inspection, the fierce beast blue ox had been shot straight to the ground.

The arrow pierced its neck and was deeply embedded in the soil.

"The power is not bad!"

Qiu Zhen was very satisfied.

The combination of archery and talisman magic far exceeded their original power and produced miraculous effects.

This "combination technique" could not be used by ordinary cultivators, and required extremely precise "divine sense" control.

Otherwise, the [Thunder Talisman] would easily cause the "arrow" to deviate, greatly affecting accuracy.

Qiu Zhen possessed the Primordial Spirit Dharmakaya and had cultivated the "Yin Spirit", which allowed him to do this.

"Bai Shu, let's go, we've got enough, let's end the treasure hunt today."

Qiu Zhen said and was about to carry the huge blue ox.

However, just as he bent down, he suddenly paused and subconsciously looked up at the sky.

He saw that the sky, which had been clear just now, suddenly became gloomy, with rolling dark clouds, and the sky suddenly became dim.

"Awoo, awoo ~"

Bai Shu called out, looking for a place to take shelter from the rain.

"It's not a thunderstorm!"

Qiu Zhen's tone was firm. Having practiced thunder magic, he had the ability to observe the celestial phenomena and know the weather.

Today, there were no conditions for rain here.

Unless…

Qiu Zhen's third eye at the center of his brow emitted a faint spiritual light, and his eyes looked towards the depths of the mountains.

Hundreds of miles away, in the rolling dark clouds, two millstone-sized "small suns" emitting red light hung high in the sky.

"Great demon! That is a great demon!"