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Chapter 53: Heading North
Chapter 53: Heading North
Chapter 53: Heading North
Ten days later, the flying boat arrived at Five Peaks Market Town in the southern part of Jin Yun Valley.
In the past, Lan Chang'an had once fenced stolen goods here and helped Zhao Siyao repair a superior-grade magic weapon.
In terms of scale, Five Peaks Market Town was even bigger than Bamboo Leaf Mountain.
Lan Chang'an was familiar with the area and went straight to an ancient-looking building with hanging lanterns, the tallest building in the vicinity.
Faint zither music and fragrance wafted from inside.
"Hundred Fragrance Immortal Pavilion? Big brother! You're taking me to..." Li Erqing found it hard to believe and stammered, swallowing the last word.
The big brother in his eyes, who was down-to-earth and was diligent in cultivation and temperate in lifestyle, abstaining from lust, how could he come to such a place?
"This is also my first time coming here. I'm just taking you out for some entertainment," said Lan Chang'an calmly.
After entering the Hundred Fragrance Immortal Pavilion, Li Erqing realized he had misunderstood.
This place was elegant and refined, truly meant for enjoying music and dance performances.The first floor was like a theater stage, with a graceful female cultivator in a white veil playing the zither.
There was no hint of vulgarity, only elegance and nobility. The zither music was like flowing streams and high mountains, dispelling vexations and negative emotions.
"Honored guests, would you like to be seated on the first floor or go upstairs to a private room?" A middle-aged female cultivator greeted them with a smile.
Lan Chang'an said, "An upstairs private room, send us a skilled musician." Music was also one of the hundreds of arts of cultivation. A skilled musician could cleanse the heart, help break through mental barriers, and dispel inner demons.
"Would the honored guest like to have a zither, flute or xiao performance?"
Zither, flute and xiao were the most common instruments for music cultivators.
"Let's have a xiao performance, it has a more ethereal atmosphere," said Lan Chang'an, glancing at Li Erqing who had no objection.
Soon after, a beautiful young woman in a light green dress entered their private room and respectfully bowed.
This music cultivator was at the late Qi-Refining stage, with higher cultivation than Li Erqing.
Listening for half a day would cost dozens of spirit stones.
Of course, such soul-cleansing music performances were extremely taxing on one's magic power and mental energy.
Amidst the melodious xiao music that sounded like birds singing in the mountains, the two closed their eyes. Every part of their body and soul seemed to be caressed by a gentle breeze.
Li Erqing took a short nap.
He felt the various restlessness and melancholy in his heart dissipating like smoke from a stove.
"Big brother, are you really leaving the Mu Family? They treat you well there, and there's also the young lady..."
An hour later, after learning that Lan Chang'an was leaving, Li Erqing was briefly shocked, then reluctant to accept it. It took him a while to calm down.
"Don't overthink it. My leaving doesn't mean cutting off ties with all of you. As long as I'm still in the cultivation world of Liang Kingdom, we can still keep in touch." Lan Chang'an reassured him through voice transmission.
Under the soothing xiao music, although Li Erqing felt the pain of parting, he gradually became at peace with it.
Lan Chang'an had always been diligently cultivating without taking a wife or having children, so it was evident that he had a firm dao heart and lofty aspirations.
Such cultivators were not uncommon in the cultivation world, but those who could successfully build their foundation were extremely rare. Hard work did not guarantee success, in any world.
"Big brother, where are you going?"
"Huanglong Immortal City."
Over the years, Lan Chang'an had collected a lot of information and already had a plan in mind.
For wandering cultivators in the Liang Kingdom, the place with that had the best chance to build one's foundation was Huanglong Immortal City.
This Immortal City was established by "Huanglong Immortal", Liang Kingdom's foremost wandering cultivator, and was adjacent to the Black Fog Mountain Range.
Some of the materials for the Foundation Establishment Pill came from the Black Fog Mountain Range.
This Immortal City was considered the holy land for wandering cultivators, with various forces stationed there, including some second-rank pill cultivators capable of refining Foundation Establishment Pills.
Lan Chang'an suspected that when Mu Renlong secretly built his foundation in the past, and the old ancestor of the Mu Family disappeared for a period of time, they must have gone to Huanglong Immortal City.
Huanglong Immortal City had a Core Formation Immortal presiding over it and was located on a third-grade spiritual vein, so building one's foundation there won't be particularly conspicuous.
In order to speed up building her foundation, Zhao Siyao had also gone to Huanglong Immortal City before, hunting demonic beasts in the Black Fog Mountain Range and gathering spirit herbs to exchange at the sect for contribution points.
...
Half a day later, Lan Chang'an and Li Erqing left Five Peaks Market Town.
After the soul-cleansing experience at Hundred Fragrance Immortal Pavilion, Li Erqing's mood had stabilized and his eyes regained their spirit.
"Erqing, when you go back, try breaking through your bottleneck without using the breakthrough pill. If it doesn't work, then you can the pill." On the flying boat, Lan Chang'an instructed him.
After this experience, Li Erqing's temperament had settled and his mind had opened up, which would be beneficial for breaking through his bottleneck.
"I'll listen to you, big brother." Li Erqing nodded, knowing Lan Chang'an wouldn't harm him.
With his experience from his previous life, Lan Chang'an knew that breaking through without relying on Bottleneck-Breaking Pills would give Li Erqing greater potential in the future.
Half a month later.
Lan Chang'an steered the flying boat, dropping off Li Erqing at Feiyue Lake before turning towards the northern lands of Liang Kingdom.
...
In front of Feiyue Lake.
Li Erqing took a deep breath, watching the familiar figure that had accompanied him for over twenty years depart into the distance, leaving an emptiness in his heart.
After returning to the family.
Following Lan Chang'an's instructions, Li Erqing bathed, burned incense to adjust his state, and began secluded meditation to break through.
Ten days later, Li Erqing broke through his bottleneck and entered the seventh layer of the Qi-Refining realm.
Unable to contain himself, he let out a long howl. He had been stuck at the sixth layer of Qi-Refining for over a decade before finally making this breakthrough.
Advancing to the seventh layer of Qi-Refining greatly elevated Li Erqing's status within the family, and his wives became even more respectful towards him.
A few days later, the second wife Mu Caiwei brought good news - their ninth son, only six or seven years old, had been discovered to have a medium-grade spiritual root. Fire spiritual root with a perception level of thirty-five.
The minimum standard for a high-grade spiritual root was a perception level of forty. This level of talent was close to a high-grade spirit root, not too far behind Zhao Siyao.
Li Erqing was overjoyed. "Let Jiuan come see me." He named all his sons himself. The first son was named Fanfan, the second Ershun, and the ninth son was named Mu Jiuan.
The boy was fair and delicate-looking, not resembling Li Erqing much.
Li Erqing preferred his second son Ershun more, whose darker skin and appearance were similar to his own when he was young.
Naming the ninth son Jiuan was partly for wishing him peace and blessings, and partly out of remembrance for his friendship with Lan Chang'an.
Coincidentally, Mu Jiuan's appearance and temperament were a bit like Lan Chang'an's.
Since Li Erqing broke through without the help of any breakthrough pills, he secretly kept away the Bottleneck-Breaking Pill from Zhao Siyao.
...
Lan Chang'an steered the flying boat, heading north.
The area around Jin Yun Valley, including Feiyue Lake, Bamboo Leaf Mountain, and Five Peaks Market Town, were all located in the western part of the Liang Kingdom.
Five Peaks Market Town was slightly more towards the south, while the Zhou Family renowned for their spirit beasts was further away to the northwest.
The Black Fog Mountain Range stretched across the northern lands of the Liang Kingdom, spanning half of the Great Qing Realm.
To be precise, the section of the Black Fog Mountain Range in Liang Kingdom was not the main range, but just a rather large branch.
Huanglong Immortal City was located north of the Liang Kingdom, closely connected to the Black Fog Mountain Range.
...
Four to five months later.
A stretch of desolate, undulating mountains came into Lan Chang'an's view.
According to the map markings in the jade slip, he was now less than a thousand miles away from Huanglong Immortal City.
Along the way, Lan Chang'an maintained a steady, unhurried pace to conserve his magic power and spiritual sense.
Long-distance flight was very different from the extreme bursts of speed used by cultivators in battle.
High-speed flight, one's fastest speed, consumed tremendous energy - Qi-Refining cultivators could barely sustain it for half an hour.
The speed difference between the two states was at least several times over.
After flying a few more hundred miles further, an Immortal City located amidst the mountainous ranges gradually emerged from the mist, like a barbaric beast hiding in the haze.
Occasionally, cultivators could be seen flying through the air.
Most of these cultivators were in the middle or late Qi-Refining stages, with piercing gazes and vigilant faces.
Some of them emanated baneful auras, clearly having killed many people or fought numerous battles in the Black Mist Mountains.
"I've heard the atmosphere around Huanglong Immortal City is rather fierce. The quality of these cultivators is indeed a cut above." Lan Chang'an mused silently.
Hmm?
At this moment, Lan Chang'an suddenly sensed fluctuations of combat.
In the hills not too far away.
A group of cultivators were fighting, concealed by a simple formation.
If not for Lan Chang'an's powerful spiritual sense, he would not have easily detected it.
"Kill them all!"
On one side were two late Qi-Refining stage men, one tall and one fat, wearing bone masks and killing indiscriminately.
The other side had three cultivators who seemed to be a family.
A middle-aged couple with a teenage son.
"Sister Ying, I'll hold them off. Take Cheng'er and run!" The middle-aged man at the seventh layer of Qi-Refining shouted hoarsely, already severely injured with his magic weapon's light growing dim and riddled with gaps.
His wife looked to be in her late thirties, with a shapely figure and cultivation at the fifth layer of Qi-Refining. Their son was sixteen or seventeen, at the third layer of Qi-Refining.
The tall masked man, at the eighth layer of Qi-Refining, wielded a pair of curved saber magic weapons, pushing the middle-aged husband into a perilous situation.
"Tsk tsk, what a beauty! A bit old but with smooth skin and a nice plump ass. If you kneel and submit to me, I might consider sparing your life." the fat masked man leered, at the seventh layer of Qi-Refining. He wielded a medium-grade magic weapon hammer, shattering the last of the woman's talisman defenses.
"You scoundrels, hurry it up! Stop letting your filthy thoughts wander." the tall eighth layer masked man berated impatiently.
"Got it, third brother!"
The fat masked man sighed regretfully before unleashing his full magic power, his hammer magic weapon smashing the woman's head into a bloody pulp.
Amidst agonizing screams, the woman and teenager were consecutively killed by the hammer.
"Sister Ying! Cheng'er!" The middle-aged man let out a furious death howl, eyes bloodshot.
"You dare kill and rob so near the Huanglong Immortal City? Sooner or later..."
The family of three perished. Even if Lan Chang'an had wanted to help, it was already too late.
He sighed quietly, having no intention of avenging the deaths or upholding justice.
"Hahaha! What's a little killing and plundering? We've even attacked disciples from Jin Yun Valley before!" Just as they were about to leave, Lan Chang'an heard the fat masked man's arrogant laughter.
Lan Chang'an's heart stirred, and his flying boat came to a halt.
"Kid! What are you looking at?"
Inside the simple formation, the two masked men noticed Lan Chang'an passing by and stopping. They glared at him with vicious, threatening looks.
(End of Chapter)