Cultivation Starts with Rejuvenation

Upon hearing that Yan Kongyi, whom he had known for sixty years, was about to pass away, Li Ji’an was not surprised.

Two years ago when they met in the Immortal City, Yan Kongyi was already one hundred and thirty years old. Despite being proficient in health preservation techniques, he was nearly at his limit. Li Ji’an had estimated that he had less than ten years to live.

Unexpectedly, Yan Kongyi did not wait for a natural death but chose to make one last contribution to his family with his aged body.

Three days ago, during the United Marketplace defense battle, Yan Kongyi faced the harassment of the roving bandits and chose to exchange his life for another. With a Self-Destruction Talisman on his body, he fought desperately to kill a Qi Cultivation Peak leader among the bandits and used a Life-Saving Escape Talisman to keep himself alive.

This was also a tradition of the Desert families: whenever the situation turned unstable, every elderly cultivator with limited lifespan became a tremendous threat.

After all, if a cultivator fights with the determination to die, their combat power could double.

Yan Qingwan did not want Li Ji’an to return, only to inform him of the matter and convey Yan Kongyi’s sentiments for him.

Without much hesitation, Li Ji’an decided to go back.

If it had been before his Foundation Establishment, he would not have ventured into the Desert’s turbulent waters, but now having successfully established his Foundation and with Gugu as a trump card, he was unafraid even if he encountered two Foundation Establishment cultivators.

With a few Late Period Teleportation Talismans accumulated over the years, he could also retreat calmly even if beset by multiple Foundation Establishment cultivators.

Having decided on the journey to the Desert, Li Ji’an immediately set to work on alchemy.

The crimson Spirit Ginseng given by Steward Qi a month ago had long been earmarked for refining a batch of Youthful Appearance Pills.

Though the Youthful Appearance Pill is a Tier One pill, because it contains the power of time, it is not easy to refine unless by a Second Tier Pill Master.

He had previously planned to earn Spirit Stones from high-tier female cultivators, and this was also a practice run.

The next morning, his first batch of Medical Beauty Elixirs was completed.

With the increase in pill rank, the maximum yield from each set of materials decreases. The maximum yield from one batch of materials for Youthful Appearance Pills is five pills; Li Ji’an’s batch yielded three pills.

However, among them was one premium pill, and two upper grade pills.

This was the result of reducing the number of refined pills to ensure quality.

An upper grade Youthful Appearance Pill could maintain youth for thirty years; besides an additional five years, the premium had the extra effect of Rejuvenation, with a market value exceeding twelve hundred Spirit Stones.

The total cost of the materials was less than six hundred.

Among all unrestricted Second Tier pills, this was undeniably one of the most profitable kinds.

Of course, this also depended on the Pill Master’s skill, as not every Second Tier Pill Master could ensure such profitability.

An additional factor was the scarcity of the main ingredient.

After the pill refining, Li Ji’an put Gugu and the Fire Spirit away, instructed Xiaoqiao to guard the house diligently, practice cultivation at ease, gave her a Communication Jade Talisman so she could communicate anytime, and entrusted her with Granny You’s Array inheritance for her to study alongside her cultivation.

Then he sent a message to Steward Qi, informing him of his departure and that he would invite Xiaoqing upon his return.

Exiting the Inner City core area, Li Ji’an first visited the Nine Tripods Commerce Association to call on Zhao Shuyao.

When he presented the premium Youthful Appearance Pill, Zhao Shuyao’s eyes flickered with surprise.

But she still declined it.

Given her aged appearance, the Youthful Appearance Pill held no significance for her; even if the Rejuvenation effect could revert her looks from age ninety-six to approximately ninety, the difference was minimal.

As for Tong Yaoyao, she was even more dismissive of the Youthful Appearance Pill.

Li Ji’an realized that her ancestral cultivation technique already had better beautifying effects than the Youthful Appearance Pill.

His intent to delight Zhao Shuyao and Tong Yaoyao with a pill that made female cultivators go wild was somewhat awkward, as he couldn’t even give it away for free.

After parting ways with the two, Li Ji’an visited the Dharma Artifact Shop where he had previously bought a premium Magical Artifact for Xiao Changfeng, spending eighteen hundred Spirit Stones on a high-grade Flying Boat.

It was the same model as the one he borrowed from Xiao Changfeng back then.

Given the long journey to the Yan Family in the Desert, traveling with his current Early Period Foundation Establishment escape light would take three months without accounting for Spirit Supplement Pills and the consumption of Spirit Stones, and five months if conserving Magical Power to minimize costs.

However, using the Flying Boat would be much faster and consume less energy.

Soon, Li Ji’an left the Immortal City, riding the Flying Boat southward.

With his Foundation Establishment Stage aura exerted, he hardly needed to worry about ambushes by foolish tribulation cultivators. Thus, upon boarding the Flying Boat, Li Ji’an settled his mind and continued deducing in his mind.

The superlative comprehension brought by Rejuvenation was a formidable advantage, not only in the study and refinement of the Hundred Skills of Cultivation.

He hoped to leverage this talent to make achievements in the most crucial aspect of the cultivation realm: the cultivation stage.

After all, the essence of the cultivation realm lay in the stage, and all techniques should serve the cultivation stage.

In his previous life, he had tried to deduce such cultivation techniques in the cultivation realm, but due to the limited cultivation technique database, he made almost no progress.

In this life, he had firsthand experience of the most common low-level techniques and the cultivation experience of the Yan Family’s ”Flame Dragon Technique.” In his previous life, he had also purchased a technique at the United Marketplace and over the years in the Immortal City, had bought some low-tier techniques with Spirit Stones. With a gradually growing technique database, he made slight progress in researching cultivation techniques.

At least for the techniques known to him so far, the basic principle was consistent: based on the Dantian Spirit Root, mobilizing the body’s meridians and qi pathways, and using Divine Soul Sensing of Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi to absorb the spiritual qi corresponding to the Dantian Spirit Root into the body. The spiritual qi is then refined into Magical Power and stored within the Dantian.

The differences between these techniques lay not in the principle, but in the method of mobilization, operation, and refinement.