A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Despite the terrifying intensity of the battle, Lü Zhong remained protected by the Flood Dragon Spirit Banner. As long as the power of the Three Flags held, he could remain perfectly calm, a fact that left his three opponents utterly astonished.

A dozen or so breaths later, seeing that his opponents’ initial onslaught had lost its edge, Lü Zhong finally launched a fierce counter-attack.

He started with a Thunder Swamp technique he had been preparing for some time. With a tremendous RUMBLE, a violent Thunder Sea erupted in the air, isolating the bald, yellow-robed man to prevent the other two from coming to his aid.

"Flee!" Gongsun Yu instantly saw through Lü Zhong’s plan and shouted a warning to Kan A’Er.

Even though the man was only an Honored Guest Elder, he was still a true Core Formation Cultivator and couldn’t be casually abandoned. In the current situation, if they lost his fighting power, Gongsun Yu feared they wouldn’t be able to defeat Lü Zhong.

But his voice had barely faded when a headless body plummeted from mid-air.

Lü Zhong flicked his sword, shaking the blood from the Cyan Glaze Sword before turning his cold gaze to the two remaining cultivators. Without a word, he strode forward through the air, intent on eliminating the two from the Gongsun Family.

The battle lasted only a few rounds.

Gongsun Rou’s Si Fire Sword was sent flying. Seeing Lü Zhong’s blade cutting straight for her, and knowing her own Magical Treasure couldn’t return in time to defend her, the color drained from her face, leaving her deathly pale.

In the distance, Gongsun Yu hesitated for a moment.

Finally, he gritted his teeth and flicked his hand. With a series of shrieks, seven or eight green glints shot toward Lü Zhong’s flank—all of them Fire Snake Nails coated in deadly poison.

But to his surprise, the Little Flood Dragon intercepted the attack in an instant, rendering it completely useless.

Upon seeing this, Gongsun Yu turned and fled without the slightest hesitation.

Gongsun Rou stared blankly at the scene, a chill running through her as if a bucket of ice water had been dumped over her head. She was filled with disbelief. ’The Patriarch... he actually abandoned me and ran?’

She resisted fiercely for a few more breaths before collapsing to the ground, severely wounded.

"Hmph. A true model for all cultivators," Lü Zhong sneered, watching the speck of light that was Gongsun Yu vanish over the horizon. Realizing he couldn’t catch him, he turned his gaze to Gongsun Rou. "So," he said coldly, "are you going to answer my questions, or should I just kill you and use the Soul Searching Technique to find what I want to know?"

"What... what do you wish to ask, sir?" Gongsun Rou asked, her heart pounding with terror as she forced a pained smile.

"Your date of birth?"

"The twenty-eighth day of the ninth month, in the year of Maoxiang."

Hearing this, a flicker of disappointment crossed Lü Zhong’s eyes. ’She’s nearly two hundred years old. There’s no way she could be Li Hejun. It was just a resemblance, nothing more.’

Once he realized this, he actually felt a wave of relief.

"How were you able to track me?"

"Actually, we weren’t tracking you, sir, but the Puhuo Soul you carry..." Gongsun Rou explained cautiously, her panic growing even more intense.

So that was it!

Lü Zhong realized he had fallen into a mental blind spot; it wasn’t that his Star Shifting and Dipper Changing Divine Technique had failed. He made a mental note to himself:

’I’ll have to be more careful about this in the future, to avoid being tracked indirectly like this...’

Having gotten the answers he wanted, he rejected Gongsun Rou’s offer to serve as his cultivation cauldron in exchange for her life. Instead, he gave her a quick death. After tidying up the scene in a few swift motions, he departed with two Storage Bags.

...

「Almost half a year later.」

「In the Quiet Chamber.」

"Haaaah!"

’I finally refined it!’

Lü Zhong exhaled a long, dragon-like stream of Dense Qi. A smile finally spread across his face as he gazed at the newly refined Storage Ring before him. Only after confirming there were no hidden traps left on it did he infuse a trace of his Magical Power.

Gradually, the Void Netherstone began to emit a hazy glow, and a connection formed in his mind.

’I wonder what’s inside?’

Filled with anticipation, he sent his Divine Sense probing inside.

The capacity of this Void Netherstone Storage Ring was far greater than Lü Zhong had first estimated—a full ten thousand cubic meters. And the ring was packed with items.

Aside from a small mountain of Spirit Stones worth over three hundred thousand, there was a heap of Magical Treasure Materials. This included primary materials like Iron Essence and Copper Mother, along with a vast assortment of artifact refining auxiliary materials.

’This will save me a fair bit of money,’ Lü Zhong thought, a pleased look appearing on his face.