A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Inside the thatched cottage.

”Phew!”

Lü Zhong slowly exhaled a breath of Dense Qi.

Just a moment ago, he had finally broken through to the Late-stage Foundation Establishment.

His True Essence was now significantly more viscous than it had been during the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment. This signified a massive improvement in its quality. At the same time, the total amount had doubled. The True Essence in his Dantian surged like a tide, and a Sea of True Essence was beginning to take shape.

The breakthrough had been a natural progression.

Ordinarily, there would have been a difficult bottleneck between the Mid-stage and Late-stage Foundation Establishment. However, Lü Zhong benefited from his Jade Vein Technique and Spirit Forging Fire. Coupled with the boost his powerful Divine Soul gave to his cultivation, he only needed to accumulate enough True Essence to break through naturally.

’With my current strength, as long as I don’t run into a Golden Core Master, I should be fine. Even if I were to face Lady Butterfly again, or a cultivator on the level of the Seven Sons of Huayi... I can’t guarantee a victory, but a draw would be absolutely no problem,’ Lü Zhong silently mused, assessing his power.

He waited for the restless True Essence within him to calm down.

Instead of getting up, Lü Zhong took out a Grass Spirit Pill he had specially prepared.

The Pill was as translucent as jade and emanated a faint glow.

This was a phenomenon caused by the Pill’s incredibly dense Spiritual Qi manifesting physically.

The Grass Spirit Pill was suitable for Late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators. It was refined using two types of three-hundred-year-old Spirit Grass as its main ingredients and served to advance one’s cultivation. However, when he consumed it, the effect was mediocre. It wasn’t that the pill was ineffective; for an ordinary cultivator, it would have been extremely potent. But Lü Zhong’s reserves of True Essence were so vast that the Grass Spirit Pill’s efficacy was diluted, rendering its effect negligible.

At this rate, he estimated he would need to consume hundreds of bottles of Grass Spirit Pills just to reach the Fake Pill Stage.

But Pills of this level were not easy to come by. It took considerable effort to obtain even a single one, let alone consume them by the bottle. Otherwise, the cultivation of the many Foundation Establishment True Cultivators outside wouldn’t stagnate in the initial and middle stages.

For most cultivators, reaching this point marked the end of their Immortal Path.

By this time, they were all major figures in their local Cultivation Realm. As long as they didn’t provoke the handful of exceedingly rare Golden Core Masters, they could live out the rest of their days comfortably, whether by establishing a Cultivation Clan or living as a carefree Loose Cultivator.

As for pursuing the Golden Core Dao, that was a luxury only a few could dare to dream of: elite cultivators with the full backing of their Sect Clan and considerable talent, or certain Loose Cultivators who had chanced upon some great fortune.

’Next, let’s see if the Creation Spirit Liquid is as miraculous as Li Qionghua claimed.’

Thinking this, Lü Zhong took out a Storage Bag.

It was the one he had obtained from Lady Butterfly. It was sealed with a Forbidden Secret Technique; if he had tried to break it open forcefully, everything inside would have been destroyed. It had taken him a great deal of time to slowly wear the Secret Technique away.

He opened it. There was a ton of stuff inside.

First were the Spirit Stones. Combining all the Lower, Middle, and High-grade Spirit Stones, they were worth over one hundred thousand.

Piled on the ground, they formed a small mountain.

Next were about twenty Magical Artifacts with extremely low wear. They came in all shapes and sizes, and it was clear they had been looted by Lady Butterfly from those she killed. They bore the marks of various powers, so he would have to process them before he could sell them.

There were also numerous Spirit Medicines and spiritual materials, all neatly arranged inside the large Storage Bag. Among them were about ten three-hundred-year-old Spirit Medicines, and even a stalk of five-hundred-year-old Yellow Essence.

The Yellow Essence was exceptionally well-preserved and could be used to refine rare Pills needed by Core Formation Cultivators.

Including the short blade Spiritual Artifact, Zhuanghong, the value of these inventoried items alone was at least five hundred thousand. This was the primary fortune of a notorious Demon Cultivator.

’Truly worthy of the name Lady Butterfly...’ Lü Zhong thought to himself.

He continued the inventory, moving on to the books and records, which required careful examination.

They were all basic Cultivation Techniques and Magic Technique Books that could be bought outside. Most of the Cultivation Techniques only went up to the Foundation Establishment Stage, though a few could support a cultivator’s breakthrough to the Core Formation Stage. As for the Magic Technique Books, there wasn’t a single Secret Skill among them; they were basically bargain-bin goods from a Magic Shop. Perhaps that was why she had been carrying them on her person.

There were also Spirit Medicine identification guides and various miscellaneous Experience Books.

Lü Zhong planned to sell these things to the Yu Family, which would probably net him several tens of thousands of Spirit Stones.

After sorting out a pile of miscellaneous items, he found a broken Changchun Valley Elder Token. He guessed it belonged to the Golden Core Master he had seen that day. For the token to be here meant that person had likely, and unfortunately, fallen.

He had no idea how Lady Butterfly had managed it.

It definitely wasn’t a case of killing someone of a higher cultivation stage; she must have used some other astonishing means.

Only three interesting items remained.

First was a silver metal ingot, three fingers wide and a palm long, that emitted extremely strong Spiritual Qi fluctuations. Lü Zhong suspected it was the renowned Silver Essence. This was a rare spiritual material that Golden Core Masters could only refine from silver using their Pill Fire, and it could be used in the crafting of Magical Treasures.

Similarly, there was Gold Essence, which was refined from Gold.

That was why gold and silver held value in the eyes of cultivators.

Second was half of a blank page. It looked ordinary, but it could block Divine Sense and even withstand a strike from Zhuanghong without being damaged. The fact that Lady Butterfly had stored it so carefully in a jade box proved its extraordinariness.

The last item was a palm-sized token. It had an ancient design, round on top and square on the bottom, with two words inscribed on it in Silver Tadpole Script.

”Teleportation Order?” Lü Zhong read aloud.

He had read about this object’s function in certain texts and had some understanding of it.

The Teleportation Order was said to be a necessity for long-distance travel. Without it, one would be crushed into a pulp by the terrifying spatial pressure during teleportation. As for short-distance travel of tens or even hundreds of miles, the spatial pressure was negligible, so this item wasn’t needed.