Chapter 22: Three Years of Cultivation

During this period, Zhang Tiezhu’s letters and messages, aside from confessing his budding feelings, were mostly urging Li Ji’an to find a way to join the Yan family.

But today, he placed emphasis on something else.

“Sister Zhao wrote, sternly warning us to be extremely cautious. She accidentally discovered someone secretly searching for those who emerged from the Dead Sandstorm three years ago.”

Li Ji’an furrowed his brows for a moment, then slowly exhaled. When they escaped from the Dead Sandstorm three years ago, they had already anticipated this. That was why they traveled eastward, taking a whole year to arrive at this place.

“Golden Radiance Immortal City!”

Golden Radiance Immortal City was located at the northernmost edge of Cangyun Prefecture, the most prosperous cultivation region, adjacent to the core prefecture of the Sky Azure Domain—Tianyuan Prefecture.

When Zhao Shuyao first arrived at Golden Radiance Immortal City with the trade guild, she praised it highly. Zhang Tiezhu also mentioned that Zhao Shuyao had now become affiliated with a business owner in the city, possibly involved in intelligence work. By overhearing things, she stayed vigilant and promised to relay any news promptly.

Three years had passed, and the other side was still searching in the shadows. This brought some relief to Li Ji’an. Before meeting Chen Zhaohu, he had been deeply worried, especially about being tracked across thousands of miles or targeted by soul-searching mystical arts.

Only after understanding the cultivators’ ranks and abilities in this world did he truly feel at ease. The unknown family’s cultivators sent to the Immortal Dynasty were all at the Qi Refining stage, and those they assassinated were also Qi Refining stage—outstanding individuals within their clan, which already said much about their true strength.

Perhaps they were comparable to the local eight great families, a Foundation Building clan at best.

It was unlikely that any Core Formation experts were involved.

The cultivation world was vast and boundless, its territories immense, and the opposing family wouldn’t dare search openly.

Moreover, Li Ji’an was convinced that the matter of raising blood slaves in the Immortal Dynasty was something the family desperately wanted to keep secret. If exposed, the consequences would be severe.

In fact, their current secret search was probably not for the blood slaves themselves, but for eliminating any risk of that secret being revealed.

Thus, the other side would proceed cautiously, afraid to corner them too tightly.

“Is it a family within Golden Radiance Immortal City?”

Unless he exposed their crimes to the public and brought in the enforcers to eradicate them, this threat would always remain.

They were searching in secret, and surely knew that Li Ji’an and his companions wanted to find them as well.

This was a contest, a battle of time.

It was a matter of who would pinpoint the other first.

Picking up the communication talisman again, Li Ji’an was not shaken in spirit by this news.

At this point, internal anxiety served no purpose.

With his current cultivation and abilities, hiding endlessly would only backfire; not being captured by the enemy but dying at the hands of unrelated bandit cultivators would be a farce.

The most important thing now was to focus on strengthening his own abilities.

Zhang Tiezhu also mentioned this later, once more urging Li Ji’an to try joining the Yan family, or perhaps one of the other local clans.

He enjoyed the family’s spiritual veins and resources, and felt pessimistic about Li Ji’an’s prospects.

Especially since two months ago, he successfully advanced to the second level of Qi Refining, which made him question Li Ji’an’s methods even more.

“Brother Li, this isn’t our homeland, and our talents are at the bottom. If we don’t fight for resources ourselves, there’s no hope ahead. To change our fate, we must take risks. If we’re unwilling to face even a little danger, then truly, there’s not the slightest chance left…”

Li Ji’an did not argue with him.

The line between gambler’s mindset and courage was often thin.

Fortunately, he no longer needed to distinguish between them. Anything risky, he would simply refuse!

He did not need to gamble, nor to take chances.

After putting down the communication talisman Zhang Tiezhu gave him, he sighed inwardly. Zhao Shuyao’s action indeed disappointed him.

As expected, habits are hard to change.

Her competitive nature must have been stirred by his last letter.

Normally, since Zhang Tiezhu served the Yan family, he was often unable to receive messages promptly, while Li Ji’an, as the information relay among their group, could answer quickly. Yet she chose Zhang Tiezhu.

Most importantly, the information was so critical!

When she abandoned hope in cultivation earlier, Li Ji’an had not been disappointed in her, even empathizing with her despair.

But none of this affected him in the least.

In the days that followed, he maintained his composure.

He cultivated and made pills tirelessly.

Three years passed in a flash.

“Third level of Qi Refining!” He exhaled deeply, feeling quite satisfied.

He had been in the marketplace for four years now. The first level of Qi Refining took only half a year, the second level a year and a half, and the third level took a full two years.

This progress pleased him.

After all, even Chen Qingling, with nine strands of spiritual resonance, only advanced to the third level half a year ago, and she started cultivating six months earlier than him.

By calculation, his cultivation speed with only two strands of spiritual resonance matched that of someone with nine strands.

The reason was simple.

First, he never stopped cultivating, training daily, and his body and soul could withstand ten hours at a stretch. Even with the occasional pill-making sessions each month, he spent five times more hours cultivating than ordinary peers.

Second, after multiple in-depth pill studies with Yan Qingwan three years ago, she valued him more, and simply let him reside and cultivate in a small courtyard in the core district, where the spiritual energy was fifty percent higher than Chen Qingling’s residence in the eastern district.

Third, his wages from the pill shop, Yan Qingwan’s frequent rewards, and the savings on rent in the eastern district each year made him relatively well-off in spirit stones, nearly achieving freedom in spiritual rice, and he could supplement his diet with monster meat every ten days or so.

Fourth, Yan Qingwan’s pill-making skills, under Li Ji’an’s guidance, improved rapidly—success rate and quality rising, every batch yielding pills, and most initial pills given to him for testing.

Still, compared to Zhang Tiezhu, he was somewhat inferior.

Although Zhang Tiezhu left the settlement a year before him, he only began cultivating after earning merit with the Yan family’s pioneering team for nine months.

Later, an accidental meeting with Yan Qingwan boosted his motivation. He kept earning merit over three years and, in the first half of last year, reached the peak of the third level of Qi Refining. Three months ago, during the Yan and Wei family clan war, he performed outstandingly and was rewarded with a breakthrough pill, advancing to the fourth level of Qi Refining and becoming a mid-stage cultivator.

He was now a frontline fighter for the Yan family, with more opportunities to earn merit.

“Breakthrough pill…” Thinking of Zhang Tiezhu, Li Ji’an felt a bit calmer.

The bottleneck at the mid-stage of Qi Refining was something his poor spiritual roots would need a breakthrough pill to overcome.

But the price of such pills had soared ever since the Yan and Wei families started competing over medicinal fields two years ago.

“Still can’t afford it!”

He shook his head, not dwelling on it.

Li Ji’an’s right hand slowly swept before him.

As his mana fluctuated, a magical mirror appeared before him, like water.

It reflected his thirty-three-year-old appearance.

His features were refined, sharp, nearly unchanged from when he left the Immortal Dynasty six years ago, and his skin, nourished by spiritual energy, was even fairer and firmer.

Overall, he looked more handsome and radiant, truly a paragon of beauty and charm.

He smiled faintly, and the magical mirror dissipated.

In these three years, Yan Qingwan had taught him many spells, the magical mirror among them. Besides reflecting his dashing looks, its main purpose was to absorb mana from others, rendering their magical attacks ineffective.

Apart from this attribute-free spell, he had mainly practiced two fire techniques.

Fire Dragon Escape and Explosive Flame Slash.

It was worth noting, as he had predicted, that his martial arts insight from the Immortal Dynasty was equally applicable to spells in the cultivation world. Once he grasped the core principle, he could master the spell quickly.

However, due to his lower rank and limited mana, the effects of these spells weren’t particularly impressive—less powerful than his self-developed blood-fueled fireball technique.

“Now that I’ve advanced to the third level of Qi Refining, I wonder if the pill fire is stable enough to start pill-making?”

With this thought, Li Ji’an extended his palm.

A golden flame gently rose.

“First-tier basic pills should be feasible!” He sensed carefully, feeling pleased.

At that moment, the communication talisman vibrated.

He took it out and found a message from Yan Tong at the pill shop: “Come to the pill shop immediately, and return to the family with us.”