Chapter 52: Once More into Childhood

A thunderous roar exploded ahead, and the ground suddenly collapsed. Before the dust had even settled, the Crimson Stone Hermit and Chen Qingling had already plunged inside.

Li Ji'an immediately ceased feeding his blood essence, the small displacement talisman in his hand ready to be triggered at any moment.

At the same time, he sent a message to Gua Gua, telling it to burrow toward that direction and draw near.

Not long after, a violent tremor of magical power surged out, shaking even the place where Gua Gua was tunneling.

The power of a foundation establishment cultivator was indeed extraordinary.

Li Ji'an could tell that even with all his mana concentrated into one strike, it would not amount to even a fraction of the Crimson Stone Hermit's blow.

Yet before long, a second shock rolled forth, even more ferocious than the first.

Before Li Ji'an could react, the three silhouettes enveloped in magical power were hurled backward.

A tomb of a true lord...

The Crimson Stone Hermit staggered up after crashing to the ground, then stared at the now-quiet place and muttered to himself.

Afterward, with utter indifference, he glanced at Chen Qingling and the Golden-Furred Mouse beside her.

The mouse's skull was caved in, its limbs limp and useless; there was no saving it.

Chen Qingling breathed faintly, a little blood spilling from her mouth and nose as she lay unconscious. Nothing serious.

Only then did the hermit open his palm and look at a seemingly ordinary jade talisman for a cultivation art.

When his divine sense touched it, the dim symbols on the jade talisman suddenly burst into multicolored light. A streak of azure radiance then slowly emerged, revealing a phantom figure.

"I am Lord Qianyuan. By chance I obtained a peerless immortal scripture, but alas, it came too late, and I have no descendants or disciples. I can only be buried here with it. If a fortunate one obtains it, perhaps it may yet be passed down to future generations."

As though it were nothing more than a lingering obsession, before the words had even finished, the figure had already dispersed with the wind.

Only the Crimson Stone Hermit remained, staring blankly at the jade talisman.

"The Primordial Chaos Scripture!"

After a moment, his divine sense withdrew from the jade talisman, and the Crimson Stone Hermit murmured, "You came too late. How am I any different? You have no descendants or disciples. I..."

He looked at Chen Qingling, then shook his head.

"Am I not the same?"

"What use is this to me?"

As the Crimson Stone Hermit fell into a low mood, Li Ji'an was fixedly watching the cultivation art jade talisman in his hand.

In this world, cultivation arts were judged not only by how efficiently they refined mana and how pure that mana became, but more importantly by how far one could walk their path.

The Yan Clan's Fire Dragon Art, which could potentially carry one all the way to the golden core realm, was already considered superior. Even the Cloud-Covering Sect's supreme protecting scripture could only lead to the nascent soul realm. This art, however, had been called a peerless immortal scripture by a nascent soul true lord... its value was evident enough.

In the end, though, Li Ji'an felt a trace of disappointment. The Crimson Stone Hermit, though he kept saying it was useless and of no benefit, never threw it away. Instead, while grumbling that it was a hot potato, he put it away.

Li Ji'an understood that complaint very well. With a cultivation art of this caliber, handling it truly would be difficult. Turning it into money was all but impossible. Anyone able to pay such a price would certainly not dare let him sell it. A technique capable of founding a sect would not be allowed to leak.

In fact, once such an art spread in any way whatsoever, and he still lacked the corresponding power to deter others, it might bring about the extermination of his entire line.

As for discarding it, no one had that courage.

The final outcome might well be the same as for Lord Qianyuan: buried with it in death.

He let out a breath. "No rush. At worst, once you have sat in death, I'll come ask you for it then."

After comforting himself, Li Ji'an calmed down.

This opportunity truly had tempted him.

Still, compared to his chance of growing young again, it was not entirely unbearable.

What was more, after the Crimson Stone Hermit died, there would still be a chance.

At most, he would merely need to keep a closer eye on the hermit's traces in future lives.

Not long after, the Crimson Stone Hermit buried the Golden-Furred Mouse on the spot, seized the unconscious Chen Qingling, and rode away on a beam of divine radiance.

"So that's how you die. How pitiful. Remember this: what looks good on the surface may not be truly good. Sometimes, you have to pay with your life."

Noticing Gua Gua's gaze fixed on the mouse's grave mound, Li Ji'an sighed aloud.

Gua Gua nodded furiously. If it were not required to remain here, it would surely have rushed over to rub its head against Li Ji'an.

"Memorize that old Daoist's scent," Li Ji'an instructed again.

Gua Gua's attitude became even more eager.

Only after three days had passed and no further change occurred here did Li Ji'an resume feeding and taming it with blood essence.

As for the tomb nearby, he did not even bother to investigate.

A true lord's tomb. If the Crimson Stone Daoist had not wished to bring out that jade talisman, he would never have been able to open it, much less leave alive.

Whether it had now sunk into the earth veins or been completely sealed, it had nothing to do with him.

--------

Another two years passed like this.

"It is done!"

That day, as the ant queen, like a little piglet, suddenly took a great suck of Li Ji'an's blood essence, a feeling of intimacy and submission surged through his soul.

After several checks confirmed there was no mistake, Li Ji'an was overjoyed, though he also felt a trace of emotion.

If this had dragged on for several more years, he truly would not have been able to bear it.

For since the third year of feeding it his blood essence, he had begun to sense faintly in his heart that the point at which his blood essence would begin to decline had been gradually moving forward as the blood essence continued to be consumed.

And now, he could clearly sense that at most one year from now, his blood essence would start to fall, his vitality would wither, and he would become young again.

This was not only because of the blood essence he had been feeding the ant queen. Over these eight years, the spiritual energy here had also been mixed and impure, impossible to absorb, and he had not possessed enough Qi-replenishing pills. As a result, the mana of his mid-Qi Refinement stage had not advanced but instead regressed.

Under this double influence, he estimated that the aging phase of this life had been brought forward by nearly ten years.

"Gua Gua, come."

With only one year left before he would grow young again, he could not delay any longer and immediately called Gua Gua over.

Gua Gua appeared without a sound; now it was nearly impossible for him to sense it.

During these eight years, perhaps because it had devoured nearly one hundred thousand soul-binding ants, after advancing to a tier-one late-stage demon beast three years ago, it seemed to have acquired the ability to shield itself from soul detection.

Even when it stood right behind Li Ji'an, his spiritual sense could not detect it.

Li Ji'an held the beast-taming tablet in one hand and pressed the other against the ant queen's crown. His spiritual sense focused, and his soul flowed into the ant queen's sea of consciousness.

Unlike eight years ago, his soul entered the ant queen's sea of consciousness without any obstruction and was not devoured.

Eight years earlier, the moment his soul drifted outward, it would be swallowed clean by the ant queen.

For the next half year, he followed the predetermined plan, trying again and again. In the end, he stored a sliver of soul, imprinted through the beast-taming tablet, into the ant queen's sea of consciousness.

This thread of soul was wholly separated from his main soul, beyond his control. It merely carried the mark of the beast-taming tablet, and its only purpose was to ensure that once his main soul had been purified by becoming young again, the tablet's contract could still remain intact.

Otherwise, after he grew young again, Gua Gua would lose the soul contract of the beast-taming tablet and simply flee. Then the guardian beast he had prepared would be utterly meaningless.

After another three months of careful observation, once he confirmed that the thread of soul showed no sign of dispersing, Li Ji'an finally smiled in satisfaction and departed with the ant queen and Gua Gua.

Now there were only three months left before he would grow young again, and he needed to make further preparations.

Since leaving the Yan Clan, nine years had passed. After he grew young again, his bone age would be eight. In terms of timing, it was just right.

On the road out of the Fallen Dragon Ridge mountain range, Li Ji'an was once again stunned by Gua Gua's changes. Earlier, inside the nest, because his soul had been shielded for so long, he had not felt it very strongly.

But now, once outside and pushing his spiritual sense to its limit, he still could not sense Gua Gua. If not for the soul contract in the beast-taming tablet, even if Gua Gua slipped away from under his nose, he would have no way to stop it.

A few days later, Li Ji'an arrived at the original gathering area.

By then, however, he had already used an illusion technique to alter his appearance.

In this world, such techniques worked by using mana to change flesh and skin. Some mana aura inevitably leaked out, so among cultivators of roughly equal spiritual sense, one could not see through the true appearance, but could still tell that it was a disguise.

And if the other party's spiritual sense surpassed one's by a small realm, then the true appearance could be seen through, leaving no place to hide.

Moreover, most immortal cities, markets, and even the protective grand arrays of clans in this world possessed methods for breaking illusion techniques, to prevent thieves and villains from running wild.

He first went to Chen Zhaohu's residence and wandered around, only to discover that he still often was not there. Then, in the central plaza, he inquired about the situation of the eight great families of the wilderness over these past nine years. After that, he rented a courtyard in the center of the gathering area, let Gua Gua await underground, and prepared the wooden tub, the medicinal bath ingredients, and marrow-cleansing pills beneficial to one's foundation bones from his storage bag, then waited in peace.

The landlord was an old man in his sixties who had not even entered Qi Refinement and did not practice body tempering either. His beard and hair were white, and he trembled as he walked. He often came to lament that time spares no one, regretting that in his youth he had not been ruthless enough to seek the Dao. Sadly, by now it was too late for regret.

Three months passed quickly.

On this day, sixty-six-year-old Li Ji'an felt something in his heart.

"Here it comes!"