I Shall Be Everlasting In the World of Immortals

Chapter 319: Return from Feng

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”By the way, a few years ago, I researched some ancient texts and found relevant records about the ʼTinghai Pavilion.ʼ”

Fairy Shi added this as she finished speaking.

”Tinghai Pavilion?”

Lan Changʼan had neglected to explore information about this near-ancient sect over the years.

After all, this sect did not belong to the Great Qing region. Whether it even still existed today was a question, making it difficult to arouse much attention.

Fairy Shi handed over a jade slip to Lan Changʼan. It not only contained a detailed map of the ancient ruins but also the historical records related to Tinghai Pavilion.

After reviewing it, Lan Changʼan’s expression turned contemplative.

Tinghai Pavilion was a near-ancient sect located along the eastern coast of the Heaven Honoured Continent, with a history of at least twenty thousand years.

At its peak, the sect had produced a Deity Transformation Realm Heavenly Lord, becoming the most dominant force near the coastal regions and even threatening the outer seas.
Even during its normal periods, Tinghai Pavilion consistently housed Nascent Soul Great Cultivators, making it far more powerful than any top sect in the Great Qing region.

However, the information recorded in the ancient texts was separated by thousands of years. The accuracy of the details was questionable.

As of now, the current situation of Tinghai Pavilion was unknown.

The cultivation region where Tinghai Pavilion was located was known as Great Yuan, a place where the cultivation civilization was far more prosperous than that of Great Qing or Great Kun.

”Great Yuan?”

Lan Changʼan recalled the general map of the Heaven Honoured Continent he had inherited from his fourth lifeʼs memories. While it lacked the markers from his past life in Great Kun, it did include a label for Great Yuan.

From this, he inferred that the cultivation civilization of Great Yuan surpassed that of Qing State and Kun State by more than one level, qualifying as one of the great regions of the Heaven Honoured Continent.

Judging from the mapʼs distances, Great Qing was separated from Great Yuan by at least five or six regions—a vast distance.

Lan Changʼan felt puzzled. Considering such a great distance, how could Tinghai Pavilion have established a secret refuge in Great Qing back then?

If it had merely been a few Nascent Soul True Monarchs traveling over, it would have been possible. But judging by the scale of the ancient ruins, more than just one or two Nascent Soul cultivators had come, there were also some other cultivators. ℟ᴀɴŐ𝔟Ё𝘚

”Could it be that there is a teleportation channel or a spatial rift between the two great regions?”

Lan Changʼan recalled fragments of the memories he had obtained from the Hundred Abodes Soul Gu.

The main Soul Gu had originated from the Central State region of the Heaven Honoured Continent. By chance, it had passed through a spatial rift and fled to this region.

The Heaven Honoured Continent was vast and boundless, the birthplace of the human realmʼs cultivation civilization. Since ancient times, spatial rifts had existed in various parts of the continent.

Some of these rifts had formed naturally, while others were remnants of battles between ancient mighty cultivators. They were often accompanied by great dangers and located within certain restricted zones.

For instance, the Star Moon Jue that Lan Changʼan had obtained had been passed down by the ancestors of the Star Moon Merchant Association. They had been pursued by powerful enemies and had inadvertently reached the Heaven Honoured Continent through a restricted zone in the outer seas.

...

That day, Lan Changʼan did not stay overnight in Fairy Shi’s cave abode.

Before leaving, he took out a rare treasure as a meeting gift and gave it to Fairy Shi’s adopted son, Shi Xiaochuan.

Atop the summit of Nightless Town, Jiang Yechen, the host, personally came to bid farewell to Lan Changʼan.

During their conversation, Jiang Yechen brought up a matter regarding the descendants of Shen Bixin.

After Shen Bixin and her husband had passed away, their descendants had not fared well. The war between demonic cultivators had shattered the prosperity of the Tengxing Merchant Association, leaving it fragmented.

After the demonic war ended, Shen Bixin’s descendant, Song Xi, came to Nightless Town, hoping to seek Jiang Yechen’s help.

However, Jiang Yechen, who had severed ties with Shen Bixin more than a century ago, had grown indifferent. With no lingering feelings left, he gave a small favor and dismissed him casually.

Even so, Lan Changʼan still owed Shen Bixin a promise from the past—a debt he had yet to repay.

Shen Bixin’s descendants had originally intended to seek out Evergreen Immortal, but Jiang Yechen had been a secondary option.

Unfortunately, Evergreen Immortal had disappeared for many years and was nearly impossible to locate.

Lan Changʼan recalled his last meeting with Shen Bixin during the Core Formation celebration at Qingsha Bay in Jing Kingdom.

At that time, Shen Bixin had brought her son, Song Xi, to offer their congratulations and had hoped Lan Changʼan would take her son as a disciple.

Lan Changʼan had been reluctant to take a disciple but had not wanted to refuse too harshly.

Thus, he had given Shen Bixin and her son two choices.

The first was to allow her son to become his nominal disciple, though he would not have much time or energy to guide him.

The second was that if Shen Bixin’s son reached Foundation Establishment or Core Formation in the future and sought him out again, Lan Changʼan would grant him an opportunity for advancement.

After careful consideration, Shen Bixin and her son had chosen the latter.

Ninety-six years had passed since then.

It wasn’t that Lan Changʼan had deliberately broken his promise. For the past sixty years, he had been in hiding, unable to secure his own safety, let alone fulfill old debts.

When Shen Bixin’s descendants had tried to redeem the promise, he had not been present in the Righteous Dao Alliance, and the matter had nearly slipped his mind.

”Fellow Daoist Jiang, I must trouble you to contact Fellow Daoist Shen’s descendants. One year from now, Lan will fulfill the promise here in Nightless Town.”

Lan Changʼan entrusted Jiang Yechen with this task. For Jiang Yechen, as the number one loose cultivator of the Liang Kingdom, this was hardly a challenge.

At the moment, Lan Changʼan had no desire to visit the cultivation world of Jing Kingdom.

After all, who could say whether the child of fortune from Great Qing’s central region was still in Jing Kingdom?

If he accidentally encountered this person and had his secrets discovered, it would be disastrous.

Fortunately, the Fellow disciple from Great Qing’s central region who also cultivated the Evergreen Technique was not the mid-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, Lingyu True Monarch.

If they had been, at this distance, there would have been at least a faint resonance between their Golden Core Dao Fruits.

In addition, the Heavenly Net Sect, which had once been at odds with Lan Changʼan, was now stationed in Jing Kingdom. Years ago, they had issued bounties and hunted him down.

Lan Changʼan had not forgotten these past grudges. He planned to settle the score after the Heavenly Net Ancestor reached the end of his lifespan.

...

Two days later.

After leaving Nightless Town, Lan Changʼan parted ways with Fairy Ni Yue.

Lan Changʼan had personal matters to attend to, while Fairy Ni Yue went to revisit her old haunts in search of the scattered female cultivators of Xuan Yin Pavilion, particularly Liu Qingyan, who had advanced to the Core Formation stage.

Half a month later.

In the Black Fog Mountain Range, above the swamp where an ancient ruin was located, stood a grand formation hall.

Whoosh!

A young man dressed in the robes of the Golden Sun Sect passed the identity verification at the entrance of the ruinʼs hall, paid a fee of spirit stones, and entered the ruin.

”Only an aging Core Formation cultivator is stationed here. It seems that the Golden Sun Sect doesn’t value this place much. They must not have unearthed any significant opportunities or secrets here,” the young man thought to himself.

This ”youth” was none other than Lan Changʼan, disguised as a Foundation Establishment cultivator.

The cultivation world had existed for countless millennia, and ancient caves, ruins, and micro secret realms were occasionally discovered across various regions.

For sects with Nascent Soul cultivators, such ruins were hardly rare or extraordinary.

In the eyes of the outside world, Evergreen Immortal was rumored to have obtained his Core Formation opportunity here, while Fairy Shi had gained a third-rank formation inheritance.

Subsequent exploration by sects had also yielded treasures of similar value, at most reaching the third-rank level.

When Lan Changʼan revisited the area, he found the outer periphery of the ruins had become a flat, open land, with all formation restrictions already dismantled.

Full seven days later.

Lan Changʼan spent seven days meticulously exploring every corner of the ruins, but he found almost nothing of value.

The ruins now resembled more of an archaeological site than a cultivation treasure trove. Some remnants of ancient formations could be studied, and occasionally, relics from the near-ancient period could be found.

Additionally, there were harmless formation traps and low-level insect beasts deliberately left behind by the sect, likely to serve as training challenges for disciples.

”The micro secret realm here has indeed vanished,” Lan Changʼan confirmed.

He arrived at the center of the ruins, where the six sided pavilion treasure vault had once stood. Now, it was completely reduced to rubble.

The small spatial dimension hidden above the treasure vault had long since collapsed. The chain reaction caused by its destruction had wiped out all the surrounding structures.

Even probing with his Nascent Soul insight, Lan Changʼan could only faintly discern the faintest trace of a spatial collapse from the void when he focused his spiritual senses on the specific location.

Standing amidst the rubble, Lan Changʼan activated his divination technique, silently calculating the whereabouts of Tinghai Pavilion and its related karmic threads.

The results yielded no great obstacles, but the divination was vague and unclear. The distance was too far, and the clues too scarce.

Lan Changʼan speculated that due to the turmoil caused by the Xuanmu Vine incident, which had attracted the pursuit of a Deity Transformation Realm Heavenly Lord, Tinghai Pavilion—if it still existed—was likely in decline.

”The sects of Liang Kingdom at most can uncover some cultural history of this near-ancient sect. They don’t know the true secrets and likely have no information about the Xuanmu Vine,” he muttered to himself.

”If there are any lingering issues, it would only be if the descendants of Tinghai Pavilion were to come looking...”

After repeated exploration, Lan Changʼan confirmed that he had left no obvious traces behind.

The collapse site of the small secret space, while faintly discernible, was so subtle that the Nascent Soul True Monarchs of the Golden Sun Sect would have little chance of discovering its exact location.

Even if they did notice something, it would be nearly impossible to link it to the Xuanmu Vine.

Satisfied that there were no lingering threats, Lan Changʼan left the ancient ruins located in the Black Fog Mountain Range.

Half a day later.

Several hundred li away from the mountain range where the ancient ruins lay buried, a broken stone pillar hidden deep within the mountain glowed faintly with mysterious spiritual patterns.

The glow lasted for only a fraction of a second before dimming and disappearing.

The spiritual patterns on the broken stone pillar surfaced faintly once every ten days, transmitting a subtle and concealed wave of unknown energy.

...

In the blink of an eye, nearly a year had passed.

During this time, Lan Changʼan, under various disguises, visited high-level immortal cities across the Liang Kingdom and Feng Kingdom, including the neutral Wangyue Immortal City, to procure resources.

Materials for superior-grade thrid-rank puppets and late thrid-rank body refinement treasures were exceedingly rare, even in the resource-abundant Feng Kingdom and the neutral Wangyue Immortal City.

To improve efficiency, Lan Changʼan not only attended auctions but also sent his puppet clones to trade in the black market.

The black market was rife with stolen goods, and transactions often came with risks.

During his ventures, Lan Changʼan encountered unscrupulous merchants, robbers, and even sting operations—where stolen goods he had just acquired were tracked down by cultivators of the original sects, in a series of ”coincidences.”

However, in the face of absolute strength, these schemes were nothing but minor annoyances.

His puppet clones and the Earth Burrowing Rat could handle such troubles without requiring Lan Changʼan to step in personally.

After nearly a year of meticulous procurement, Lan Changʼan successfully gathered the remaining materials needed for crafting a superior-grade thrid-rank puppet, with a surplus of materials to spare.

When it came to breaking through to the level of a superior-grade thrid-rank puppet master, a single set of materials might not be enough—the more, the better.

Fortunately, even if a high-grade puppet failed during refinement, it wouldn’t be completely destroyed. Part of the materials could be salvaged for reuse.

Lan Changʼan was also a third-rank superior-grade artifact refiner, so he could refine and purify these materials, further enhancing the quality and grade of the puppets he created.

On this day, Lan Changʼan arrived at the final stop of his trip—Snow Moon City, located within Feng Kingdom.

Here, under the jurisdiction of Proud Moon Palace, a once-in-a-decade grand auction was being held.

The auction was lively, drawing the presence of Immortal Golden Dan cultivators and even a few Core Formation Great Cultivators, adding to the excitement.

”Behold! The Fivefold Calamity Stone, an extraordinary treasure for enduring Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation! It can help those forming Nascent Soul reduce the injuries from heavenly lightning and conserve mana...”

”Seventy-five thousand... seventy-seven thousand...”

”Eighty thousand spirit stones!!”

”Is there a higher bid? This tribulation-resolving treasure, while a one-time consumable, is an unparalleled gem and a strategic item on par with spirit items for Nascent Soul formation!”

The auctioneer’s voice, an impassioned cry of an elderly man, echoed throughout the venue.

Inside one of the VIP booths, Lan Changʼan observed silently and did not make a bid.

As someone who practiced both body refinement and traditional qi cultivation, his powerful physique and Golden Dan spiritual power made such tribulation-resistance items unnecessary.

Moreover, for a consumable item, the price was too steep.

Cultivators with less solid foundations, particularly Core Formation Great Cultivators who were in dire need of surviving the heavenly lightning tribulation, would be more inclined to purchase such items.

For Lan Changʼan, Infant Transformation Pills and Nascent Soul spiritual items held much greater priority.

Nascent Soul spiritual items came in several types: those that enhanced mana, strengthened spiritual sense or helped calm the mind and heart.

Among these, the most precious were those that could help break through barriers and resist inner demon tribulations. These were exceedingly rare and valuable.

Lan Changʼan refrained from bidding to avoid drawing attention.

Bidding for the Calamity Stone would have sent a clear signal that someone was preparing to form a Nascent Soul—a move too high-profile for his liking.

Earlier in the auction, he had successfully obtained a thrid-rank Life Extension Pill and several quasi-fourth-rank treasures. He stopped while he was ahead.

Given the presence of Core Formation Great Cultivators and Golden Dan cultivators at the venue, Lan Changʼan ensured that his puppet clones kept a low profile, avoiding unnecessary displays of power.

As the auction concluded, cultivators dispersed from the venue.

“Junior Sister Wenyue, how were your gains from this auction?”

From one of the VIP booths, a group of Core Formation female cultivators emerged, their presence cool and aloof, akin to the radiance of the moon.

These women were high-ranking cultivators from Proud Moon Palace, enjoying privileges and noble status in Snow Moon City.

“That is Fairy Xuanbing!”

“She’s Proud Moon Palace’s innate Dao physique and a Nascent Soul seed!”

Among the group, one Core Formation female cultivator in a moon-white palace gown drew quite a bit of attention.

She appeared to be in her early twenties, with eyes as clear and deep as an autumn pool. Her aura was pure and icy, her slender figure elegant, and her long black hair cascading down her back. Her brows carried a faint melancholy, akin to light mist, evoking the image of a cold and solitary fairy from an ice palace.

Her demeanor exuded a distant coldness, a sense of detachment, and an almost ascetic air of otherworldly purity.

“After not seeing for more than a hundred years, this womanʼs disposition has actually changed so much...”

From afar, Lan Changʼan glanced at her but didn’t linger, swiftly flying away from Snow Moon City.

He speculated that Xia Wenyue’s temperament had changed due to her cultivation method and the female-dominated environment of Proud Moon Palace, which emphasized yin energy over yang.

Icy beauties were not uncommon in the cultivation world.

He recalled Hanyu Immortal, a prime example, though her icy demeanor was partially a facade to elevate her status and ward off pursuers.

However, Xia Wenyue’s cold and aloof aura was genuine—an ice-like chill that permeated from her very soul.

Seeing her again after a century, Lan Changʼan felt a faint sense of unfamiliarity.

“Still, her cultivation progress has exceeded expectations...”

Lan Changʼan was pleased with her progress.

Xia Wenyue had advanced to Core Formation roughly forty to fifty years ago.

Now, she was at the peak of the early Core Formation stage and nearing mid-stage.

For a top-tier genius, such progress was considered normal.

The further along the path of cultivation, the more time was required for advancement.

For instance, it had taken Lan Changʼan a full sixty years to progress from early to mid-Core Formation.

Yet Xia Wenyue had ascended from Foundation Establishment to Core Formation within the same timeframe, putting her in the same major realm as Lan Changʼan.

When Lan Changʼan first formed his Core, it had been several years after Xia Wenyue’s Foundation Establishment. His subsequent three Core Formation attempts had delayed him further.

At her current rate, Lan Changʼan estimated that by the time he reached late Core Formation, Xia Wenyue would likely have been in mid-Core Formation for several years.

...

Several days later, Lan Changʼan departed from Feng Kingdom’s cultivation world, his bags full of valuable materials, including the thrid-rank Life Extension Pill, a significant success.

His encounter with Xia Wenyue at the auction had been purely coincidental.

While in the territory of Proud Moon Palace, Lan Changʼan learned of a major development:

Xia Wenyue’s master, a former Immortal Golden Dan cultivator, had successfully advanced to become a Nascent Soul True Monarch and had assumed the position of Palace Master.

The former Palace Master, whose lifespan was nearly depleted and who had been gravely injured on the demonic battlefield, had stepped back into a secondary role.

This smooth transition of power ensured that Proud Moon Palace maintained its strength without suffering a gap in leadership.

A Month later.

Lan Changʼan returned to Nightless Town, located on the eastern border of the Liang Kingdom.

At the guest residence atop Nightless Town’s mountain, the descendants of Shen Bixin had been waiting for many days.