Painting of the Nine Immortals

Inside the bright stone room, Ling Xian sat in a lotus position on top of his stone bed in preparation to start his cultivation.

Just now, he had sent the Flower Stem of the Waking Soul, the Grass of the Resting Soul, and the Lotus of the Three Released Souls to the Painting of the Nine Immortals. Then, he acquired an accurate timeline from the Immortal of Alchemy.

If nothing unusual happens, in about half a year of time, the fourth and fifth immortals would wake up one after another. After all, the three kinds of spiritual medicines had powerful effects – enough to wake the fourth and fifth immortals.

Ling Xian was very excited at this, and had high anticipations.

At this moment, he already returned to the stone room Hong Yan Xin cleaned up for him and began his daily cultivation.

Rays of spiritual energy from heaven and earth swirled throughout the space and slowly swam into his nostrils and entered his organs and meridians. With his cultivation right now, these little spiritual energy would have no way of improving his Qi.

However, cultivation is like a canoe in a lake. If you don’t paddle forward, you will be pushed back. This was why he’d made sure to cultivate every day. Even if the effects were minimal, he did not let himself go.

Just like that, Ling Xian sat there unmoving. In a serious stance and manner, he carefully inhaled the spiritual energy from heaven and earth.

After about half an hour, he finally slowly opened his eyes. A flash of pure whiteness swept across his eyes and then disappeared almost at the same time.

“The use of all this training is minimal. It is true that cultivation gets harder and harder.”

Ling Xian breathed out a mouthful of murky air but he did not feel discouraged. He was not alone in having this happening to him. All the cultivators in the entire Taoism community faced this same problem.

The cultivation path is a hard one to walk on, especially after reaching the completion level. If one tries to advance with daily training alone, it will take at least a decade to see any improvement.

His cultivation speed was already very difficult to achieve.

“It seems like if I want to breakthrough, I will have to wait for the right opportunity,” Ling Xian softly sighed and stopped thinking about this problem. After dealing with so much stuff happening, he decided to organize his thoughts.

Ever since he came out from the Imperishable Temple, he had been in an extremely busy state and had no time to take care of himself. This caused him to feel messy and hasty. A lot of unfinished business was troubling him.

Therefore, he decided to take advantage of this rare downtime to figure out his stuff.

First of all, the three pages from the Divine Book of Genesis. Those were shocking treasures. Leaving behind the fact that collecting all the pages would lead to heaven-defying achievements, a single page was enough to drive most people insane.

However, after getting it, Ling Xian was too busy to study it.

“These pages is not in a hurry to be used. There is a saying that you can chew it as much as you want and it still will not be digested. My cultivation level is not sufficient right now. If I try too hard to digest it all, I will not be able to build a strong foundation and I may even become possessed.”

Ling Xian paused and murmured to himself, “So, it is not suitable for me to try and understand the pages from the Book of Genesis right now. It won’t be too late if I do that later.”

Shortly after he placed the book pages down, he remembered the secrets related to the City of Sin.

“Many years ago, that city was named the Guardian City that protected the citizens from the foreign kinds. Was that not true?”

Ling Xian frowned and carefully thought about all the records he knew about the Guardian. He could not find any leads however and thus, he murmured, “What kind of secret are you hiding, Guardian City? When I bowed to you, why did you react so strangely?”

Then, he shook his head slowly and suppressed his curiosity. He could not think of a single reason as to why, so why should he ponder and be bothered by it?

After all, the secret regarding the City of Sin was a task he had entrusted Chu Zhong Tian with. He believed that the truth would come out sooner or later.

“I will not think about the City of Sin too much for now. We’ll see what happened soon.” Ling Xian shook his head. His entire person relaxed.

Since he had decided to put a pause on the Divine Book of Genesis and the City of Sin, the rest of his matters were all around treasures that he could not use right now. There wasn’t much else to think about.

Very quickly, Ling Xian remembered the fire he was facing – the matter with the gathering of alchemists.

He could put a pause in what happened in the past, but he was forced to face what was happening now.

“Inside the Hidden Territory, I attended one gathering of the alchemists. Back then, I remember passed the second test but failed the third.” Ling Xian remembered what happened inside the Hidden Territory and couldn’t help but to exclaim.

“I cannot believe I am about to participate in it again.”

As everyone knew, the City of Alchemy had the highest standards for alchemists in Yuezhou. The five great clans had also set a bar for how incredible alchemists could be. Therefore, the gathering that they hosted was for sure extremely influential!

This gathering only accepts alchemists under 40 years of age and is hosted once every decade. Every single time, many genius alchemists attend it. Among them are genius alchemists trained by the different superpowers, as well as nomadic cultivators. However, all of them share the common goal.

To win the competition of the gathering of the alchemists with flying colors!

You should know that it is a gathering hosted by the five super clans here. It represents the highest level of achievement the younger generation of Yuezhou can accomplish. If one can make oneself known in a competition like this, how great of an honor would it be?

It could be described as a giant honor!

Plus, the winning prize for the gathering of the alchemists is extremely generous, enough to tempt any alchemists.

Therefore, every time this gathering happens, all young alchemists from all over Yuezhou will gather inside the City of Dan. Even though one know that there is no way for him to win, he still like to participate.

The gathering this year would be hosted in two months.

In other words, Ling Xian would have two months to prepare.

“The gathering will be hosted inside the Realm of Alchemy. It is a very resourceful and wealthy place. Normally, unless one is a direct descendant of one of the five clans, one would not be allowed to enter. However, during the time of the gathering, the Realm opens to all alchemists who participates. This will give me the chance to slip in.”

Ling Xian smiled faintly, “The first round tests one’s knowledge regarding spiritual energy. I will find the Flower of Three Lives on Opposite Shores. It’s just… how do I bring it out.”

He had attended the gathering once before and knew very well that the five clans would send guards to watch everyone. Stealing spiritual medicine from them would definitely be very difficult.

However, he wasn’t worried. The path always clears when the car arrives. When he got there, he would be able to figure out a way to deal with it.

“The second task isn’t all that difficult either. When the alchemists are doing the second test, I will secretly head to the Forest of a Thousand Poison to find the item.”

Ling Xian’s lips curled up and he made his decisions.

Then, he suddenly had an idea. Should he use this opportunity to make up for the regret from last time?

Back then, he merely passed the first two tests before ending his journey. What could he do? During the lost century, he lost all memories regarding the immortals. Therefore, he had no inheritance, no Essence of Herbalism, and no Godly Fire.

But now, everything was different.

He was now an alchemist of the sixth realm with inheritance from the Immortal of Alchemy and the Essence of Herbalism. He naturally had the capabilities to win the title of the champion.

Therefore, the corner of Ling Xian’s lips lifted up as he made a decision.

He would use this opportunity to make up for his loss during the lost century!