"Just a few gray hairs... you scared me, Junior Aunt."
Jiu Jiu retrieved the wooden ladle with a wave of her hand, then took a sniff at the wine jar beside her. Still shaken, she muttered, "I thought it would mess with my yin-yang balance and turn me into some kind of androgynous freak."
Li Changshou chuckled softly and shook his head, always admiring his martial aunt's unique logic.
"Junior Aunt, once I finish refining today's batch of pills, I'll need to enter seclusion for six months to a year to cultivate the Threefold True Flame. I've prepared a year's supply of those wines for you in advance, but drinking too much isn't great either. Just pace yourself. They're on the shelf next to that medicinal wine jar—same spot as always."
"Six months?"
Jiu Jiu packed away the wine jugs and set a few empty ones on the shelf, then walked over with her hands clasped behind her back. Adopting a serious tone, she lectured, "The Threefold True Flame can be cultivated from the Return-to-Void stage, but in the beginning, it requires burning your essence, qi, and spirit to forge the fire seed! Don't rush it—pushing too hard and depleting your vitality will leave you exhausted in body, breath, and spirit. That would be terrible!"
Li Changshou nodded with a smile and continued sorting the herbs.
Jiu Jiu yawned, bored. "I've been stuck at a bottleneck for the past few years. Breakthroughs have been such a hassle. But this has happened before—stuck at a bottleneck for a few years, then suddenly breaking through on its own. After a breakthrough, I'd have to enter seclusion for a few years, maybe decades. You might not see this junior aunt for a long time."
Li Changshou smiled. "Junior Aunt is now primarily cultivating the Wuwei Scripture, right?"
"That's right." Jiu Jiu summoned a bamboo chair with a flick of her wrist and sat at the table, slumping over it with listless boredom. "Once you become an immortal, you can cultivate the Wuwei Scripture too. If you're talented enough, you could start at the Return-to-Void stage. Pity... Oh, I heard from Fifth Senior Brother that your master has also begun contemplating the Wuwei Scripture."
"Yes, Master received the scripture from the sect's stewards two months ago," Li Changshou said casually. "Actually, Junior Aunt's mindset is the most suited for the Wuwei Scripture—no forcing, no overreaching."
Jiu Jiu blinked. "Little Changshou, you sound exactly like our master."
Li Changshou replied, "Fifth Senior Brother Jiu Wu also gave me a copy of the upper volume of the Wuwei Scripture. Isn't this just what the scripture means?"
"Oh, so that's it."
Jiu Jiu murmured and sat quietly, watching Li Changshou sort herbs. Before she knew it, her mind drifted...
A moment later.
"Little Shou Shou... you're actually pretty good-looking... hehe... why didn't I notice before?"
"Hm?"
Li Changshou, about to start refining pills, turned to look. His martial aunt had fallen asleep at the table, still murmuring in her dreams.
After becoming an immortal, the body was purified of all impurities. Jiu Jiu's medium-length hair, though unkempt, remained silky and lustrous. With just a simple phoenix-tail braid, no ornaments, no makeup, she gave an impression of pure simplicity.
Asleep, the junior aunt truly embodied the description: "Skin like congealed jade fat, heart clear and spirit translucent."
What a pity she was so hyper when awake.
Shaking his head with a smile, Li Changshou tiptoed out of the pill chamber to admire the small spirit fish he was raising in the yin-yang fish-shaped pond, waiting for Jiu Jiu to wake from her nap.
After all, he was the one asking for help. Using Jiu Jiu's pure immortal qi to refine pills—he couldn't be too hard on his junior aunt.
Two days later.
After finishing the pills, Li Changshou temporarily sealed the pill chamber, leaving only the formations within a three-li radius active.
After seeing Jiu Jiu off, he went to find Ling'e to inform her of his seclusion.
This time, Li Changshou planned to formally condense the fire seed of the Threefold True Flame, which would take roughly half a year.
Ling'e, currently in loose practice robes studying herb-scattering techniques under a willow tree, looked puzzled.
"Senior Brother, aren't you going to seclude yourself in the pill chamber this time?"
"Cultivating the Threefold True Flame tends to blow up rooms," Li Changshou explained with a smile. "I'm going to build a small raft and seclude myself on the lake. That'll be safer."
Ling'e blinked hesitantly, wanting to say something but holding back.
Li Changshou placed several porcelain bottles in her hands, instructing her on the usage and dosage of each.
After much deliberation, little Ling'e finally asked in a small voice, "Senior Brother, the Threefold True Flame... shouldn't it be kept hidden? Isn't this technique incredibly powerful?"
Li Changshou lightly tapped his junior sister's forehead—hardly using any force.
Though face to face, he still used voice transmission to explain carefully, "After all these years of stopping lectures, have you forgotten everything I taught you? The Threefold True Flame was bestowed by Jiu Wu and Jiu Jiu's master. Deliberately hiding it and refusing to use it would only arouse suspicion. True trump cards are things others can't imagine or guess—things they wouldn't connect to your usual displays. It's not about raw power alone."
Ling'e stuck out her tongue and bowed her head obediently.
Li Changshou took out two more porcelain bottles. Using voice transmission, he said, "Place these two bottles in front of Master's door. These are immortal pills I refined for him—they have the effect of dissolving murky vapor and restoring clarity. Don't sneak a taste, or the pill's power will blow you up."
Ling'e brightened. "Then when Master takes them, he could..."
"Unlikely." Li Changshou shook his head with a light sigh and strolled into the forest to begin building the raft he'd need.
Blue Ling'e opened the jade bottle and took a whiff. A surge of pure qi hit her face. She inhaled gently and immediately felt dizzy and light-headed, stumbling back to her room to sit in meditation and neutralize the medicine's potency.
Li Changshou chuckled at the sight, found a patch of old forest, rolled up his sleeves, and got to work.
Two days later...
"What's that noise?"
Blue Ling'e, just rising from meditation, looked out the wooden window. Her mouth dropped open as she let out a few soft exclamations, her beautiful forehead full of black lines...
*'I'm going to build a small raft.'*
Senior Brother's words echoed in her mind. Then she looked at the fifty-zhang-long "simple" grand vessel that had just entered the lake. Ling'e couldn't help but slap her forehead.
Did Senior Brother have some misunderstanding about the words "small" and "large"?
She glanced down at the curves of her practice robe, the corner of her mouth twitching slightly.
Stupid Senior Brother, as expected...
He'd been corrupted by Junior Aunt Jiu Jiu and lost all sense of normal scale!
Actually, Li Changshou wasn't someone who focused on luxury. When crafting small items, he prioritized practicality.
The "small raft" was just planks joined together simply, without any restrictions. In terms of crafting difficulty, it truly was a small project.
But his seclusion site needed basic warning formations, soundproofing arrays, and anti-detection barriers. To arrange and hide the formation cores for these, he needed some space.
Beyond that, he had a few other designs.
The two-story vessel had seven identical rooms, each connected to the others, each furnished with a meditation cushion.
Later, during his seclusion, after activating the surrounding formations, he would place paper incarnations in each room.
If anyone triggered the formations, the restrictions on these paper figures would activate instantly, transforming into his likeness—indistinguishable from the real thing!
The ultimate anti-assassination essential!
可惜, this design still had one flaw—a one-in-seven chance of being targeted for assassination...
"Ling'e, I'm beginning my seclusion now."
Receiving Li Changshou's voice transmission, Blue Ling'e hurried to the door and waved her small hand at Senior Brother standing on the "grand vessel."
Li Changshou formed hand seals, layer after layer of formations activating on the raft, shrouding a large area of the lake below. The raft grew hazy within successive membranes of light.
Soon, a thin white mist rose from the water's surface. Blue Ling'e could no longer see where Senior Brother was.
Li Changshou placed paper incarnations in each room, then slipped to a secluded cabin. After groping in a corner for a moment, he opened a hidden compartment—clear lake water lay below.
He formed a hand seal, activated the Illusion-Transformation Technique, and transformed into a spirit fish. Without a sound, he slipped into the water and dove toward the depths below, which were also concealed by layers of formations, leaving only seven paper incarnations lying in the various cabins.
The reason for making the raft so large was mainly to allow the formations to extend underwater.
And below—that was Li Changshou's third seclusion site.
When his master had brought little Ling'e up the mountain years ago, he had secluded himself here, refining the Gloomy Cold True Flame to small completion...
In the Five Elements, water overcomes fire. Cultivating fire techniques underwater was actually an excellent way to prevent excessive fire qi accumulation that could cause self-detonation.
It was just that...
Xiaoqiong Peak, once densely forested, had suddenly lost a small patch of greenery.
...
East Sea, Crystal Palace.
*'How dare you, Ao Yi!*
*Speaking such insolence, showing no respect for elders, shaming our clan's dignity, slandering our clan's honor!*
*Do you know—do you know what kind of crime this is!'*
In the cavernous hall of the Second Prince, the dragon youth Ao Yi was bound to an iron pillar by chains, eyes tightly shut, the furious shouts from that day still echoing faintly in his ears.
He sneered coldly, enduring the stabbing pain in his back, his gaze as resolute as it had been that day.
Ao Yi now found the Crystal Palace utterly absurd and incomparably laughable.
When he had stood at the celebration banquet, facing his father who had been pretending to sleep with narrowed eyes, and declared:
*'Your son wishes to become a disciple of the Du Xian Sect, to cultivate the teachings of the Three Teachings' Sages!'*
Those shocked, disbelieving faces that rapidly twisted with fury...
Those cries of "heresy," "shame of the dragon race," "utter nonsense"...
The erupting auras of the dragon experts had nearly crushed this ten-year-old dragon youth flat on the spot.
The ones who had cursed him were all his father's brothers, or even older dragons—they had the right to scold a nephew like him.
The sea-clan ministers and the dragon generals who weren't of direct Dragon King bloodline hadn't dared utter a word, but their eyes had all conveyed contempt.
To seek entry at a Sage's door was considered treasonous.
To leave and apprentice under another would be branded as a traitor to the dragon race.
How ridiculous—truly ridiculous!
"Utterly ridiculous!"
Ao Yi couldn't help but roar, his delicate face contorted with pain!
The iron pillar behind him radiated a frigid, icy power. One by one, ice spikes pierced into his pale, smooth back, making Ao Yi shudder with agony.
But his gaze remained clear, his resolve undiminished!
A moment ago, the Dragon Mother had just left, earnestly urging him to confess his mistake...
*'My son, is our clan's technique not enough for you to learn?*
*Are our clan's treasures not enough for you to play with?*
*Why must you do such absurd things, and say such outrageous, heretical words before so many of our elders?*
*You wish to enter a Sage's door, but have you considered that besides the Jie Teaching, none of the other Sage lineages accept dragon disciples?*
*The Chan Teaching's master once took a wild-born dragon as a disciple and used a supreme treasure to strip away our clan's last remaining fortune, bestowing it upon that mongrel!*
*How could our clan ever forget such humiliation?*
*My son, who has bewitched your heart?'*
Ao Yi knew all this—knew every word his mother had spoken, knew the truth behind it.
Huanglong the Perfected, one of the twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan Teaching, was clearly of ancestral dragon blood. He had been severely wounded and accidentally fallen into Kunlun Mountain in ancient times, where the Three Pure Ones—not yet Sages at the time—had kept him in their courtyard as an ornamental dragon.
Before the ancient Sages had emerged, the dragon race had considered this a disgrace. They severed ties with Huanglong the Perfected and removed his name from the dragon records.
Later, when the Three Pure Ones became Sages, the dragon race was too proud to fawn over Huanglong the Perfected. Instead, they spread rumors within the clan, labeling him a "mongrel."
As for the so-called Sages not accepting dragon disciples...
After the Three Pure Ones became Sages, a group of dragon experts brought young dragons to Gold Tortoise Island to seek apprenticeship, treating the Sage with utmost respect.
But when they learned that the Grand Pure One, Lord Tongtian—who had the lowest threshold for accepting disciples—would only allow the dragon clan's finest to study under the Sage's disciples rather than directly under the Sage himself, the dragon experts turned back, feeling the Sage had deliberately humiliated them.
What was truly ridiculous?
*This* was truly ridiculous!
Ao Yi trembled all over, and the glow on the iron pillar behind him gradually dimmed.
*I, Ao Yi, must endure.*
Only he, the Dragon King's second prince, could humiliate himself completely—lowering his posture to apprentice at the Du Xian Sect, which ranked in the lower tier among the Three Teachings sects.
Even if it meant kneeling for days before the Du Xian Sect's gates, entering as nothing more than a registered disciple...
Only then could he shatter the dragon race's meaningless pride, tear apart their twisted self-esteem!
If this humiliation still couldn't wake the dragon race from their drunken stupor, then he would stand at the pinnacle of all living beings using a Sage's techniques!
And when that day came, he would ask these ancient venerables—
What was the true path forward for the dragon race!
Taking a deep breath, Ao Yi opened his mouth and shouted:
"Let me out—!"
"I want to see Father!"
"I'm going to the Du Xian Sect to apprentice and learn the Dao!"
Outside the hall, a group of maidservants stood with tears in their eyes, their delicate faces etched with heartache. But the celestial flood dragon soldiers blocked their way, preventing them from approaching the Second Prince by even a single step.