A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

He read through it, not missing a single word.

Once he confirmed there were no issues with the Spirit Contract, Lü Zhong signed his name.

With that done, he turned to face Huo Yuanhao.

”Since the contract is finalized, I must ask you, Palace Master Huo, to uphold your end of the bargain and assemble the cultivator army within six months. I’ll be frank: if you fail to gather sufficient forces, I will not take on the additional risk of helping you reclaim Reversed Sword Pass,” Lü Zhong stated, his expression calm.

Hearing Lü Zhong’s words, Huo Yuanhao and Huo Yuanling exchanged a glance.

”Haha, rest assured, fellow cultivator! Reversed Sword Pass is of the utmost importance to my Little Yuan Palace. I will certainly have the cultivator army fully assembled within the agreed-upon timeframe,” Huo Yuanhao declared with a hearty laugh, seemingly quite confident.

He then turned to Lü Zhong and extended an invitation. ”We still have six months before the army musters. It’s not a long time, but it’s more than just a few days. Why don’t you come be a guest at Little Yuan Palace? We have a Spirit Pool there. A single soak in it is equivalent to several months of arduous cultivation.”

”Thank you for your generous offer, Palace Master Huo, but unfortunately, I have urgent business to attend to and cannot get away at the moment.” Lü Zhong said with an apologetic expression.

In truth, he really did have something he needed to do.

Once he began stimulating the parasite on Shuini’s Primordial Spirit with Tribulation Thunder, he could not stop. To do so would waste all his previous efforts and lead to unpredictable consequences. If the parasite were to adapt to the Tribulation Thunder, the situation would become irreversible.

Thus, to ensure Shuini could awaken as soon as possible, Lü Zhong had no choice but to bluntly refuse the offer.

Upon hearing this, Huo Yuanhao’s expression flickered for a moment before he immediately broke into a smile. ”Since you cannot get away, I won’t insist. We will rendezvous at the Eight Dao Plateau in six months!”

”Very well. In that case, I will take my leave.”

Lü Zhong cupped his hands in farewell to Huo Yuanhao and his companion, then transformed into a streak of rainbow light and vanished into the distance.

...

For the sake of peace and quiet, Lü Zhong chose not to rent a cave mansion in Jade Yuan Immortal City. Instead, he found an unclaimed Spirit Vein and carved out a temporary cave mansion for himself.

He equipped it with all the necessary Arrays and Prohibitions.

In the time that followed, when Lü Zhong wasn’t meditating, cultivating, or extracting the parasite from Shuini, he wasn’t idle. He spent the rest of his time constantly changing his disguise and appearance, venturing out to gather information on Spiritual Objects that could nourish a Divine Soul.

Whether it was a Secret Realm, an Ancient Cultivator’s Cave Mansion, or other ruins, he relied on his Nascent Soul Cultivation to sweep through them all.

He actually managed to obtain a few Spiritual Objects.

After Shuini consumed them, the damage from the Tribulation Thunder was indeed significantly healed. While she couldn’t make a full recovery, it at least bought Lü Zhong a considerable amount of time to better plan his next move.

「Six months passed in the blink of an eye.」

At the appointed time, Lü Zhong arrived at the Eight Dao Plateau.

The Eight Dao Plateau was a mountainous plain located northwest of the Little Yuan Palace’s section of the Celestial Gifted Mountain Range, nestled between two of the range’s spurs.

Gazing north from the plateau, one could see towering, slanted peaks that looked like sharp swords stabbing into the heavens, stretching for thousands of miles toward the Celestial Gifted Mountain Range. Reversed Sword Pass was located at the junction where these slanted peaks met the main range.

At that moment, the sound of bells and music drifted from afar.

A cultivator army, a hundred thousand strong, composed of nearly a thousand Flying Ships and hundreds of flying Spiritual Beasts, had already formed an Iron Wall Formation and was slowly advancing northward like a solid wall.

Seeing the army’s approach, Lü Zhong moved closer.

He transformed into a streak of rainbow light, flying directly toward the center of the army.

There, a colossal Flying Ship floated, its deck covered with pavilions and towers. At over two hundred zhang long, it dwarfed the surrounding Flying Ships, which were no more than a hundred zhang in size.

It was obviously the army’s flagship, so Lü Zhong descended directly onto it.

Inside the palace on deck, Huo Yuanhao saw Lü Zhong arrive as promised and breathed a silent sigh of relief.

Although the cultivator army he had assembled today was vast and imposing, filled with no shortage of Foundation Establishment and Core Formation Cultivators, it meant little to the Snow Beast hordes of Reversed Sword Pass. A few swarms of beasts, casually dispatched, could easily overwhelm them.

The true key to this battle rested with the Nascent Soul True Monarchs.

More specifically, it rested on Lü Zhong.

At this thought, Huo Yuanhao hesitated for a moment before presenting a jade box. ”Inside is the White Holy Ice Orchid. Please, take a look.”

Lü Zhong accepted the jade box and saw that it was, indeed, the White Holy Ice Orchid.

He glanced at Huo Yuanhao in surprise. ’This Palace Master of Little Yuan Palace really knows how to win people over,’ he thought. ’Paying the reward upfront like this is certainly an easy way to earn goodwill.’

Now, he couldn’t very well slack off.

...

The arrival of the cultivator army quickly attracted small packs of Snow Beasts.

They were not numerous; even the largest pack had fewer than a hundred. A swarm of Snow Beasts of this size didn’t require the intervention of Nascent Soul True Monarchs.

Under the command of the Golden Core Elders, the Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators unleashed wave after wave of Magic Skills.

The Snow Beast packs crashed into these ”Magic Waves” and instantly dissolved like melting snow, leaving behind only large swathes of bizarrely shaped carcasses. They failed to hinder the advance of the Iron Wall Formation in the slightest.

The army continued its wall-like advance.

They advanced for a full forty-seven hundred li before finally encountering a massive Snow Beast horde at dusk.

This was the very horde that had breached Reversed Sword Pass.

The moment the two sides clashed, it was like a torrent slamming against an iron wall; the battle instantly reached a fever pitch. Yet, at this moment, Lü Zhong and the other Nascent Soul True Monarchs remained calmly observant, biding their time.

They were still waiting for the horde’s King Beasts to appear.

King Beasts were the strongest of the Snow Beast horde, usually Tier Four Snow Beasts.

And there was often more than one.

A moment later, two white figures shot out from the Snow Beast horde, one after the other.

The two King Beasts were different. One had a humanoid body with bat-like wings, while the other looked like a bisected maggot. Both were grotesque in appearance and bore no resemblance to the other Snow Beasts. After letting out a series of piercing roars, they charged toward the cultivator army in unison.

Seeing this, Lü Zhong and Huo Yuanhao exchanged a glance and shot forward as streaks of light to intercept them.

Halfway there, Lü Zhong released his Five-Sided Flood Dragon Spirit Banner.

Then, as a precaution against any surprises, he cast a variety of Blessing Magic on himself—the Star Gathering Skill, the Flying Star Qi Introduction Skill, anything and everything that could boost his strength.

By the time Lü Zhong finished, he had already closed in on one of the Snow Beasts.

The Tier Four Snow Beast with the humanoid body and bat wings saw the cultivator charging at it and let out a series of furious roars as a white light began to glow all over its body.

The next instant, with an eruption of blinding white light, Lü Zhong’s Protective Gang Qi shattered the moment it touched the glow.

It happened so fast he didn’t even have time to react.

The King Beast then made its move.

It swung its bat wing horizontally, using it like a blade to slash at Lü Zhong, but the Flood Dragon Spirit Banner blocked the attack.

Their collision produced the sharp clang of metal striking metal.