Chapter 7: Langya County

  "After all, it's no good without a foundation!"

  Li Qingyun slowly opened his eyes and floated gently down from a cliff dozens of feet high.

  Since he entered the tenth layer of Qi Refining, his cultivation had not been able to advance any further, and even if he continued to absorb spiritual energy, it would be like trying to put out a fire with a cup of water.

  He wants to further complete his foundation, and it is impossible without relying on the power of elixirs.

  Building the foundation is a process of re-tempering the body, opening up the meridians, and then purifying and transforming the internal energy. The innate Qi will be transformed into True Yuan during this process, and when entering the Golden Elixir stage, some of it will transform into Golden Elixir Jade Liquid. As for what he can transform now, even Li Qingyun himself finds it hard to predict. However, one thing is certain: if he wants to achieve the conditions for building the foundation, he must supplement a staggering amount of spiritual energy at once!

  In that case, 100 foundation pills are not a lot and may not even be enough.

  But!

  Li Qingyun also had his own advantages, that was he after all was a Golden Dan True Person.

  The medicinal properties of the Foundation Establishment Pill had little effect on him, and to refine his Golden Core flesh, there was nothing more effective than using spiritual energy to transform the Golden Core Jade Liquid and then operate the Dragon Clan's cultivation method. In other words, what Li Qingyun needed was only a large amount of spiritual energy, not necessarily the Foundation Establishment Pill. If it was just spiritual energy that was needed, then there were many alternative elixirs that could replace it, and he could even skip those low-grade elixirs and directly take the high-grade elixirs that only Golden Core True Intent cultivators could use.

  But

  These elixirs aren't that easy to get!

  For half a month.

  Li Qingyun traveled south all the way and had walked tens of thousands of miles.

  He had been to the North Sea once before and found nothing he needed there, so this time his destination was the South Sea.

  Along the way, he continued to organize the Taoist classics he had read, gradually perfecting his self-created "Nine Turns Golden Elixir Formula". He even incorporated part of the dragon tribe's cultivation method passed down by his master, Long Nü, including some of the body-tempering techniques. After all, it was just a technique that ended at the Golden Elixir stage, and with his current abilities and talents, he could completely supplement it to make it more perfect. Especially after re-cultivating the Golden Elixir, Li Qingyun discovered that there were still many realms that could be further improved.

  The Immortal Realm has a saying about the initial stage, middle stage, late stage and peak for each boundary.

  Generally ordinary masters have already begun preparing for breaking through when they reach the later stages of their boundary, advancing to the next boundary.

  Only those disciples of the major sects would stay for a while when entering the later stage, trying to lay a solid foundation and raise some boundaries to the peak, before starting to improve their own realm cultivation.

  Life is short after all!

  If one's innate talent for spiritual practice is insufficient, the longer they drag things out, the more of their life force will be consumed, and it will become even harder to enter the next level.

  At least before achieving Golden Elixir, a cultivator's lifespan is only about one or two hundred years.

  The Immortal Realm is not short of cases where one transcends their limits and defeats their opponents. Apart from factors such as cultivation techniques, treasures, and luck, there's another point: the opponent might be a cultivator who has just reached the later stages of their realm and is already rushing to charge into the next realm. It can be said that a large part of the Immortal Realm's cultivators don't have the concept of reaching the peak of their current realm; generally, they start preparing to advance as soon as they enter the later stages.

  But!

  This is still far from enough.

  Li Qingyun discovered that after reaching the peak of his realm, there was actually still room for improvement.

  That's elevating to the ultimate perfection of the current realm!

  However, such progress is often time-consuming and laborious, and most people think it's not worth the effort. With that time, they could have already improved their own realm by one or two levels. But Li Qingyun didn't have such troubles. Firstly, his re-cultivation of the Golden Elixir had almost no bottlenecks. Secondly, he estimated that he would find it very difficult to enter the Yuan Infant stage in the future, and all he needed to face was the four realms from Qi Refining to Golden Elixir. As long as there was enough spiritual energy provided, he could easily raise his previous realms to the extreme perfect state.

  "The South China Sea is rich in pearls, maybe we can try our luck."

  Pearl, enters the Liver Meridian, calms the mind and soothes the nerves, nourishes yin and extinguishes wind, clears heat and resolves phlegm, removes veil and brightens the eyes, detoxifies and regenerates skin.

  Ordinary dragon pearl is naturally useless to Li Qingyun, what he needs is a rarer tear pearl, and in order to get it, he can only go to the South China Sea to try his luck.

  Mermaid, fish tail and human body, beautiful appearance and good at singing, skilled in weaving mermaid silk, entering water without getting wet, crying into pearls, ordinary people catching them have no worries about food and clothing.

  The monks of South Sea like to capture and domesticate mermaids.

  Because mermaids are not only beautiful, but also can produce pearls continuously.

  This pearl belongs to water, with a thread of spiritual energy from birth, can be used as materials for many low-grade elixirs, and has a remarkable effect on preserving youth.

  But whenever mermaids are caught, they often undergo a lot of torture, the purpose is to make them cry, until the mermaid can no longer cry. They either die before themselves plucking out their eyeballs or being forced to have their eyeballs removed, this last drop of blood tear will seep into the pupil, forming a kind of peculiar treasure.

  That's the tear-drop pearl Li Qingyun needs!

  Over the years, the resources of the Immortal Realm have become increasingly scarce, making the merfolk who can mass-produce spiritual energy treasures all the more precious.

  Even because of the frequent capture of mermaids by the masters, a big war broke out with the sea tribe.

  ………

  Langya County

  This is the most prosperous county town in Nanyang and also the place where monks appear most frequently.

  As the entire Xianxia world's demand for resources shifted from the Ten Thousand Great Mountains to the Overseas Immortal Islands, this place also became a regular residence for many Xian sects.

  However, the true ruler here is actually an overseas loose immortal!

  There are many failed scattered immortals, and they are very powerful. They almost monopolize the majority of the interests in the South China Sea.

  Langya County is the territory of Liuyun Sect.

  The Liúyún school was founded by an overseas immortal, who has been lingering in the mortal world for over a thousand years. It is said that he has already passed through six calamities of the dispersing immortals and had long had the ability to ascend to the realm of the immortals.

  But I don't know why it has been staying here all along.

  This scattered cloud immortal has been out of touch with worldly affairs for a long time, and most of the people who appear in the sect are his disciples. The current leader is a true monarch cultivator at the fusion period.

  From the moment he entered Langya County, Li Qingyun had been encountering many cultivators one after another.

  Because exploring overseas is extremely dangerous, the Qi-refining stage cultivators in the entire Langya County are also the most numerous nearby. Most of them are not true immortals, but rather ordinary people with average innate talents. The Southern Ocean sects like to recruit some talented ordinary people, teach them the Water Spirit Technique, and then cultivate them into pearl pickers.

  The South China Sea is rich in pearls.

  The pearls here are enough to refine many elixirs if they have been here for over a hundred years.

  Moreover, as the entire Xianxia world explored the underwater cave mansion, they discovered a large number of medicinal materials within.

  Those rare and precious spiritual medicines that are hard to find in the mountains, can be found with substitutes at the bottom of the sea. However, most of the spiritual medicines produced at the bottom of the sea have a natural water spirit power, making them very suitable for practitioners who belong to the water element to take. This is also where the most water spirit root practitioners gather, and many people even take root here, relying on the condensed spiritual energy from overseas to cultivate.

  All the way.

  Li Qingyun continuously encountered some pearl divers, who were full of vigilance towards him.

  So many cases of murder and robbery have occurred here, most of the perpetrators are some scattered cultivators, especially those like Li Qingyun who have not built their foundation.

  Li Qingyun has been quietly keeping his distance.

  Both sides entered the prefectural city of Langya Commandery, one in front and one behind. When they saw the majestic city walls in the distance, those pearl pickers slightly relaxed their vigilance.

  The first one of the big Han nodded slightly at him!

  Li Qingyun did not respond and directly entered the city from the south gate, then proceeded in the direction of the inner city.

  There are ordinary people here too.

  To avoid disturbing ordinary people, the places where monks are active actually have a separate paradise.

  Li Qingyun entered the inner city and rose rapidly, with a beautiful wind-controlling technique that made the guards at the gate look at him several times.

  Above the city is just cloud layer.

  In fact, this is the real Langya City. What ordinary people see is just a gathering of white clouds in the sky, but it's actually a space opened up by a powerful seal.

  This is Yun Cheng!

  It is also where mirages occur, and almost all transactions in the South China Sea are conducted here.

  There are specialized factions guarding here, and any act of assault is touching the bottom line of these people, even within fifty miles nearby will be protected.

  But!

  If it's out of this range, nobody will care about it anymore.

  For Li Qingyun who had only cultivated for ten layers in the Refining Qi stage, others did not pay much attention to him.

  He quietly walked down to the lower level of Zhen Bao Ge, and then handed over some mid-to-low-grade magic treasures to the shopkeeper in front of him who was somewhat drowsy.

  "Huh?"

  "Is the guest looking to exchange for spirit stones or elixirs?"

  "Or is there something else you need?"

  The shopkeeper couldn't help but take another look at Li Qingyun. A cultivator below the foundation-building stage could bring out so many artifacts, either they had made some unscrupulous deals or met someone who had made such unscrupulous deals.

  Actually, he wasn't very interested in either of them!

  "Can I have a foundation?"

  Li Qingyun glanced around and said, "If there are any, I'd like to exchange some."

  "The guest is just joking."

  "Nowadays, even if you want to buy a house in Tokyo, it's hard to find one at any price, and even if you're willing to pay twice the market value, it's still difficult to purchase."

  "As for some..."

  The shopkeeper smiled and said nothing, continuing: "There are some Concentrated Spirit Pills, Qi Supplement Pills, and Water Spirit Pills in the small shop. As for other convenient treasures, guests can also take a look next door."

  As expected, there is no Chikyuudan.

  Li Qingyun was not surprised at all, because the Zhugidan had always been in the hands of those immortal sects.

  "Then let's exchange it for spirit stones!"

  Li Qingyun looked around and seemed to see a familiar figure flash before his eyes, which made him slightly stunned. He then said, "Replace them all with low-grade spirit stones."

  The shopkeeper was also stunned upon hearing this.

  Other cultivators often exchange for some middle to high-grade spirit stones, as the spiritual energy contained within is pure and beneficial for their cultivation.

  This person in front of him is surprisingly the opposite, and actually wants those impure and inferior spirit stones.

  How strange!

  However, he had encountered all sorts of strange people over the years and quickly settled the spirit stones.

  "A total of 6,500 pieces of low-grade spirit stones."

  "Please keep the change!"

  Li Qingyun took over the Ling Stone and didn't even count it. He directly walked towards the mirage in front of him.

  He just saw someone!

  A rare little troublemaker in the cultivation world who makes most people feel headache!

  ………

  (PS: They are all chapters with more than 3,000 words, so please give some recommendation votes.)