Chapter 40: Ancient Rune Master

As Li Ji'an's figure vanished from sight, four figures of the Foundation Establishment stage appeared outside the Yan family's ancestral territory.

"Fellow Daoist Yan, is Fellow Daoist Li unwilling to lend a helping hand?" the ancestor of the Wei family asked via divine sense transmission.

The ancestor of the Yan family shook his head with a bitter expression. "Fellow Daoist Li has always been prudent, averse to disputes and struggles. Unless it is a calamity of extermination for the Yan family, he will not intervene!"

Upon hearing this, the four of them fell into contemplation before finally departing with awkward expressions.

Of the original eight great clans of the barren plains, only the Zheng family and their alliance of five clans remained.

Yet, this alliance was merely a temporary gathering for mutual warmth; if any clan were given the opportunity to potentially rule the barren plains, not a single one would let it slip away.

This time, Yan Qingwan had not uttered a single word to persuade Li Ji'an to get involved. Beyond knowing her Elder Li's teachings, it was simply because there was no justification for it.

At that moment, the ancestor's bold words were merely a bluff to deter the other four clans.

The grand situation of the barren plains followed the cycle that what has long been united must divide, and what has long been divided must unite. As long as no one was utterly destroyed in a single stroke, the ultimate outcome remained difficult to predict.

Aside from the two clans previously wiped out by the Zheng family being closest in territory to the Zheng faction, one could not rule out the possibility that the remaining five clans had used the opportunity to eliminate their rivals.

Had rogue cultivators not unexpectedly entered the fray, perhaps the six great clans of the barren plains would have already carved up those two territories and lived in relative harmony.

Earlier, Yan Kongyi's procurement trip to the immortal city had been funded by the pooled resources of all five clans. Although he had not explicitly revealed the exact means by which he achieved such a massive over-quota transaction upon his return, the other four clans all suspected that the Yan family had cultivated extraordinary connections within the immortal city.

Li Ji'an's visit this time had brought sudden enlightenment to them.

While lamenting the twists of fate that had blessed this outsider boy who once left the Yan family, they were simultaneously shocked by his current achievements and grew even more certain that his background in the immortal city was far from ordinary.

Not only were the other four clans slightly disappointed by Li Ji'an's departure, but even the majority of the Yan family members harbored hidden grievances. They had initially assumed Li Ji'an had returned to repay their kindness, only for him to leave just like that.

Meanwhile, the Zheng family's ancestral grounds received the news almost immediately afterwards.

"Hah! Just like his father, cowardly as a mouse. I merely issued a slight warning, and he obediently cleared out," Zheng Tianxiang said with a hint of smugness.

"Tianxiang, do not be arrogant. Until we fathom this boy's background in the immortal city, do not provoke him again."

"Since this boy was left destitute and orphaned in his youth yet still managed to successfully forge his Foundation Establishment, aside from extraordinary encounters, he must possess remarkable traits and cannot be underestimated. Now that he has not meddled in this affair, we must not make an enemy of him."

The older generation of Foundation Establishment ancestors within the Zheng family issued stern warnings.

Each faction harbored its own distinct thoughts. Only Yan Qingwan, after watching Li Ji'an's figure disappear into the firmament, turned around and walked back to the alchemy chamber.

She unfolded a blank sheet of paper, closed her eyes to recall Elder Li's visage, and gracefully brought brush to paper.

A moment later, gazing at the lifelike half-portrait of Elder Li on the paper, she let out a long, gentle breath.

"Elder Li, Fan'er has done very well; you can rest in peace... I wonder if I will ever have the chance to see you again in this lifetime?"

Calculated according to Li Ji'an's biological age from his past life, under normal circumstances, he was already ninety-five years old. According to Yan Qingwan's understanding—that he was at the fourth layer of Qi Refining and a tier-one primary body cultivator—barring any unforeseen circumstances, he likely had only about ten years of lifespan remaining.

As for herself, barring any accidents, she still possessed at least one hundred and eighty to ninety years of lifespan.

---

A streak of spiritual light flashed across the firmament, instantly descending upon a patch of wasteland that had been nearly leveled by land-reclamation pioneers.

The place was littered with fragmented stones, with withered grass turned to mud.

The only distinction between this location and its surroundings was the utter absence of any vital life force.

Although they had penetrated deep into the Fallen Dragon Ridge, they were still far from the dangerous zones where second-tier demonic beasts might emerge.

Li Ji-an kept his divine sense fully extended. Just as Yan Kongyi had described, the underground here was a maze of jagged boulders, making it exceedingly difficult to distinguish the target rock.

He promptly released Guagua, instructing it to scout the surrounding dangers, while he himself followed the records left down by Yan Kongyi's ancestors to search for that specific subterranean boulder.

Before long, ten zhang beneath the surface, nestled among a pile of seemingly indistinguishable giant rocks, Li Ji-an discovered the boulder described in Yan Kongyi's ancestral texts.

Protecting himself with his magic power, Li Ji-an activated a tier-one late-stage tortoise-shell talisman and draped it over Guagua, instructing the creature to burrow downward in the direction of the boulder.

Simultaneously, he linked his consciousness to Guagua's vision.

After burrowing downward for more than ten zhang, a seemingly natural fissure on the side of the giant rock came into view.

Guagua slipped inside smoothly.

The interior of the boulder had been hollowed out to form a modest space, merely one zhang in radius. In the center lay a pile of decayed skeletal remains, and before the bones stood three burnt-out sticks of incense ash.

This matched Yan Kongyi's description: his ancestor had taken the skeletal remains' Daoist robe and storage bag while paying respects to the deceased with incense.

According to Yan Kongyi's account, when his ancestor accidentally discovered this place all those years ago, he had inspected it multiple times and found nothing else before departing with the storage bag and robe.

Upon returning to the clan and studying the inheritance manuals found within the storage bag, they realized that while this place appeared to consist only of this small space, the talisman master had actually concealed a profound secret within it. To unlock this hidden space, one had to use a specific talisman from the inheritance known as the Spirit-Enlightening Talisman.

To that end, the clan's Foundation Establishment ancestors had returned to this place several times, exhausting every method available without yielding any results, ultimately surmising that the talisman master possessed extraordinary skill in the Dao of Talismans.

Regrettably, across several generations of the Yan family, not a single descendant possessed talent in talismanry, leaving the hidden space perpetually sealed.

"Is he truly an ancient talisman master?" A trace of eager anticipation flickered in Li Ji-an's eyes.

He promptly instructed Guagua to spit out the Spirit-Enlightening Talisman it had been holding in its mouth.

Next, he adhered a Peeping Talisman right at the entrance before swiftly retreating from the interior of the boulder.

Just as Guagua withdrew, Li Ji-an activated the Peeping Talisman from above using his divine sense. Once Guagua had moved completely clear, Li Ji-an propelled himself upward to stand high in mid-air and activated the Spirit-Enlightening Talisman.

"Hum—" Within the visual feed transmitted by the Peeping Talisman, as the Spirit-Enlightening Talisman was triggered, a beam of brilliant light flashed, and the interior of the giant rock trembled slightly.

Immediately thereafter, a small section of the rear stone wall began to shift fluidly like flowing water. In the blink of an eye, a stone door rose, revealing a hidden compartment one meter high and half a meter deep behind it.

A single jade talisman lay quietly inside the compartment.

Aside from that, there was nothing else.

After waiting for nearly half an hour without any unexpected occurrences, the decayed skeleton remained entirely motionless.

"It truly is an inheritance!" Li Ji-an felt greatly gratified and instructed Guagua to retrieve the jade talisman.

Throughout the entire process, he watched closely, and still, nothing untoward happened.

It was only when the jade talisman was brought up by Guagua and he probed it with his divine sense, effortlessly reading the information contained within, that he finally felt completely at ease.

Yet, the very first sentence inscribed within the jade talisman caused his brows to furrow abruptly.

"Since there are no longer immortals in this world, let us use talismans to offer sacrifice to the vault of heaven!"

This opening remark left Li Ji-an somewhat perplexed. According to Yan Kongyi, when his ancestor had obtained this tier-one inheritance jade talisman in the past, although it stated that one was unworthy of knowing his identity without thoroughly studying the tier-one inheritance, it had generally conveyed that he was a cultivator from the ancient era, dating back at least seven to eight thousand years.

Yet, the information Li Ji-an had gathered over the years regarding various ancient ruins clearly indicated that the ancient era was a time when the spiritual energy of heaven and earth was abundant, immortal cultivation flourished, the heavenly dao was magnificent, and myriad dharmas contended—a true golden age of immortality.

"An era of such magnificence, yet devoid of immortals?"

"If even an age like that lacked immortals, does the current cultivation world hold not even a shred of hope?"