Cultivation: Being Immortal

North State, the northernmost region.

Lin Jiang broke through Soul Changing. He used all three Soul Melting Pills, and the process was as Lin Jiang expected. The first two pills couldn’t help him break through, but they increased his experience, bringing him closer to Soul Changing. In the end, he made a breakthrough with a single move.

"It’s been one hundred and twenty years."

Lin Jiang looked at the system. It had been 120 years since he came to North State. It truly felt like time had stopped in the mountains.

"I need to go out and see what’s happening."

Lin Jiang had originally planned to continue cultivating in seclusion for another two hundred years to practice the secrets of the Soul Changing stage. But when he thought about the Wangxian Sect behind him, Lin Jiang couldn’t sit still. Mainly because Small Shadiao wasn’t very reliable.

Lin Jiang glanced at the Spiritual Herb Garden. The spiritual herbs were still flourishing. Lin Jiang didn’t care about anything else, except for changing some formations and spirit stones to ensure that the formations were functioning properly. Otherwise, all these spiritual herbs would die.

Afterwards, he went to the previous underground cave. There was a thick layer of dust in the cave, indicating that no one had been there in a hundred years. Lin Jiang followed suit and only took a few mature spiritual herbs with him.

"Time is the most valuable thing."

Lin Jiang sighed. He hardly took care of these two Spiritual Herb Gardens, and the survival rate of the spiritual herbs was not high. But they still brought him great wealth.

Leaving North State, Lin Jiang headed south. Along the way, he heard about the battles between Qing State and Yun State. Yun State had launched a full-scale counterattack. In the past hundred years, Lin Batian had continuously attacked Qing State, posing a great threat to them.

However, the most impressive thing was not Lin Batian, but the talisman array from the Holy Heavenly Sect. No one knew how Lin Batian managed to completely align the Holy Heavenly Sect with Yun State. Overnight, he withdrew all the forces of the Holy Heavenly Sect from Qing State and openly supported Yun State, providing them with a large number of talisman arrays.

The talisman array has been around for hundreds of years. Some major sects have figured out the technology to create second and third-tier talisman arrays, but only Yang Luo can make high-level talisman arrays. The Holy Heavenly Sect has a group of people who can create earth-grade talisman arrays, and they are very famous in the cultivation world.

"The Lin family getting close to the Holy Heavenly Sect, didn’t my warning work?"

Lin Jiang hesitated. Every time he had a transaction, he would subtly warn the Lin family of Yun State not to get too close to the Holy Heavenly Sect because Yang Luo is very dangerous. Even when Small Shadiao took over the trading with Yun State instead of Lin Jiang, he specifically emphasized to stay away from Yang Luo, almost pointing a finger at the Lin family’s nose.

"Forget it, let’s go back to the Wangxian Sect first."

Lin Jiang didn’t want to delay too long on the road, so he immediately sped up and hurried back to Bing State.

"Master."

Li Qing was the first to sense Lin Jiang’s return, so he immediately came to greet him.

"You’ve reached the Nascent Soul stage, that’s great! I’ll send a message to your Martial Uncle to let him know I’m back."

"Master, Martial Uncle hasn’t come to the sect for a hundred years."

"What? What’s going on?"

Lin Jiang was shocked. How could Small Shadiao have not come for a hundred years? Could something have happened?

"I don’t know either. Martial Uncle hasn’t been to the sect for over ninety years. We are weak and have no idea what has happened."

"A hundred years ago, something happened in the cultivation world, especially in the Holy Heavenly Sect."

"Over ninety years ago, Lin Batian from Yun State once attacked the people and horses of Holy Heavenly Sect in other places. He killed some people and captured others. I heard that even Void Achieving was involved."

"No, isn’t Holy Heavenly Sect fully supporting Lin Batian? How could there be a conflict?"

"I don’t know either. My cultivation level is too low, so I can’t gather any secret information."

"What about the people I arranged?"

"I only have contact with some disciples, but without Martial Uncle’s support, and with the sect lacking money, it’s impossible for us to gather any secret information."

Li Qing answered. Lin Jiang did arrange a group of people hiding in different states, but she only had a part of the list, the rest was given to Small Shadiao.

Small Shadiao never returned, Wangxian Sect lost its biggest financial support, and Li Qing could only barely take care of Wangxian Sect, unable to continue supporting those people.

"Something happened."

Lin Jiang realized that something big happened this time while he was in seclusion. Small Shadiao must have encountered trouble, otherwise, he wouldn’t have not come back. Moreover, Yun State and Holy Heavenly Sect were also in a situation that he couldn’t control.

"Master."

"No rush, first tell me about Wangxian Sect’s history in the past hundred years."

Lin Jiang took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down. The more things happened, the more he needed to stay calm.

Li Qing explained in detail about Wangxian Sect’s history in the past hundred years. After Lin Jiang left, Small Shadiao took care of Wangxian Sect for twenty years. During those twenty years, with the financial support provided by Small Shadiao, Wangxian Sect grew rapidly.

In the beginning, Small Shadiao was like Lin Jiang, gradually releasing resources little by little. Later, Small Shadiao found it troublesome and just gave a large sum of resources at once.

Later, Small Shadiao didn’t come back for a long time. Li Qing didn’t dare to rely on Small Shadiao anymore and took on the responsibility of running the entire Wangxian Sect alone. Wangxian Sect developed like an ordinary sect. The group of Qi Refining cultivators who were looking for geniuses for Lin Jiang also stopped working because they didn’t have financial support. Only six groups of people were truly selected, and the disciples from the final five groups, who Li Qing took as his own disciples, stayed in Wangxian Sect.

However, the development speed of Wangxian Sect has slowed down. Li Qing was the first to reach the perfect golden core stage. He broke through Nascent Soul with the pills left by Small Shadiao. But the other junior disciples are still either at the later stage or the perfect stage of golden core. Wangxian Sect doesn’t have the resources to advance to Nascent Soul stage.

"Thank you for your hard work over the past hundred years."

After listening to Li Qing’s story, Lin Jiang was deeply moved. The disciples of Wangxian Sect are lacking resources, and the normal financial support cannot sustain their cultivation. Because of this, Li Qing returned to the previous intelligence organization and became an assassin to earn money for Wangxian Sect. Lin Jiang was already very touched by Li Qing’s dedication.

"Master, the disciple is incompetent and cannot provide resources for the junior disciples. Many of the disciples within the sect have also missed opportunities."

Li Qing said. Each batch had two hundred disciples. Even if they failed in the competition, the top thirty were still allowed to stay in the sect. Their talents were still very impressive, with great potential.

But even when she tried her best, she couldn’t give them opportunities. Some people were stuck at the perfect stage of Qi Refining, while others were stuck at the perfect stage of Building Foundation Period. They wasted too much time and had lost confidence in advancing. Li Qing found it very regrettable because with enough resources, at least thirty percent of them could break through to the golden core stage.

"No, you have already done very well."

Lin Jiang immediately said. If he didn’t have the experience and opportunities he had accumulated for over a thousand years, he wouldn’t be able to do better than Li Qing. In Lin Jiang’s view, Li Qing had achieved her utmost ability.

"Master…"

"No need to say more, go and call the junior apprentice back, I want to see them."

Lin Jiang said. There are six batches of disciples. He personally trained the first four batches, and the last two batches were recruited after he left, so he hasn’t met them.

Li Qing quickly called the other five people, three males and two females. Three of them have a "golden core" cultivation level, and two have reached the "Building Foundation Period" stage. It seems that the resources left by Small Shadiao were not enough.

Lin Jiang warmly received them and gave them generous gifts. The most important thing was to give them confidence and make them feel that the backbone had returned.

As for the teacher and disciple relationship, that is something to be gradually nurtured in the future.

"Li Qing, are there many disciples in the sect who have reached the Qi Refining and Building Foundation Period stages?"

"Yes, at least several dozen."

"Okay, master still has some money here. You take it first and contact all the disciples you can reach. Give them generous compensation and then use the remaining money to buy Building Foundation Pills with all your strength."

"Yes, Master."

"I will find a way to break through the golden core treasure."

Lin Jiang said. For someone at the Building Foundation Period, buying a treasure to break through the golden core would require a lot of effort. But for Soul Changing Lin Jiang, it was not difficult.

This is the reason for different levels, just like buying a house on Blue Star. Regular people need to empty their wallets, but it’s just a trivial matter for those in higher levels.

Lin Jiang can earn a lot of money just by drawing symbols, which is something that ordinary people at the Building Foundation Period cannot even dream of.

After that, Lin Jiang instructed Li Qing to gather information. Lin Jiang wanted to know what had happened while he was in seclusion, even if it was just public news.

With everything arranged, Lin Jiang quietly went to Wilderness. He had a feather of Small Shadiao which emitted a threatening aura towards the demons in their territory. Of course, now that Lin Jiang had become stronger, he also had the ability to protect himself. He quickly arrived outside Small Shadiao’s cave.

"You are my husband’s older brother."

"It’s me, Small Shadiao."

"Something happened, sob sob…"

When Peng Bird Female Demon saw Lin Jiang, she started crying.

"Don’t cry, quickly tell me what happened."

"Sob sob, my husband has been kidnapped…"

While Peng Bird Female Demon was crying, she told Lin Jiang what had happened. She said that she had already begged the Peng Bird Clan’s Demon Emperor to send the power of the demon clan to rescue Small Shadiao.

However, this request was rejected. The Peng Bird Demon Emperor didn’t agree at all. The reason he took Small Shadiao into the Demon God Temple was because Small Shadiao was smarter than other demons and had experience living among humans. He was worth cultivating. But when Small Shadiao got into trouble, it was the Holy Heavenly Sect, such a powerful enemy. After weighing the pros and cons, the Peng Bird Demon Emperor simply gave up.

In any case, Small Shadiao is like a guest in his place. The descendants can just stay with the Peng Bird Clan.

"If Big Shadiao comes knocking, then the woman by his side must be Lin Ying alone."

"It was a sneak attack by Tao Achieving, from the Holy Heavenly Sect. Then they blamed Lin Batian. It’s a conspiracy, and Lin Ying fell for it."

"But how did the news leak? How did the Holy Heavenly Sect find out about Small Shadiao’s cave? What happened there?"

After listening to Peng Bird Female Demon’s story, Lin Jiang’s mind turned into mush. The thing that bothered Lin Jiang the most was the exposure of Small Shadiao’s cave. Yang Luo knew that Small Shadiao was hiding in the Wilderness, but the Wilderness was very big. It was already the heartland of the Wilderness, not far from the Demon God Temple, away from the human activity area. How did Yang Luo determine it?