txolops Chapter 190 The Meng Family's Joy
Chapter 190 The Meng Family's Joy
Time passed by unnoticed as Li Ping immersed himself in his arduous training.
Around the middle of that year, Gu Musheng visited Li Ping at Xiantao Mountain.
He also brought the spiritual materials that Li Ping had asked him to buy for making puppets.
Creating puppets is a matter of personal safety.
Li Ping was not careless; instead, he carefully inspected all the spiritual materials that Gu Musheng had brought in front of him.
After his inspection, he found that the quality of the spiritual materials was top-notch among those of the same grade, indicating that Gu Musheng had put a lot of thought into preparing them.
These materials are not only sufficient to craft a second-tier high-grade puppet, but there are even slightly more.
"Thank you for your hard work." Li Ping took out spirit stones from his storage bag and paid the remaining balance for the spiritual materials that Gu Musheng had delivered.
After Gu Musheng accepted the final payment, he brought up another matter that Li Ping was concerned about.
According to official news from Xiancheng, after several major battles, the situation in Yan Kingdom has barely stabilized.
Large-scale battles ceased between the two sides, and the Core Formation cultivators on both sides also ceased their attacks, replaced by small-scale conflicts between Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators.
The Turks invaded the Western Wilderness to plunder resources, while the cultivators of the Western Wilderness had to protect resource sites such as spirit stone mines.
The Qi Refining cultivators on both sides, led by Foundation Establishment cultivators, fought continuously for resource points.
Under such circumstances, Core Formation cultivators and Foundation Establishment cultivators suffer very few losses, but Qi Refining cultivators are extremely prone to accidents.
Ji Shuxuan, whom Li Ping asked Gu Musheng to inquire about, disappeared during a battle.
"Shuxuan has disappeared." Upon hearing this, Li Ping couldn't help but sigh.
In the harsh environment of a battlefield between two races, the disappearance of a mere Qi Refining cultivator is basically equivalent to death.
After all, the disappearance of a Foundation Establishment cultivator could be attributed to their escape on their own. But a Qi Refining cultivator, with their limited escape speed, wouldn't be able to run fast enough and would be captured by the supervising cultivators before they could even escape the Yan Kingdom.
However, Ji Shuxuan's choice was to go to the Yan Kingdom to participate in the war and try to gain an opportunity to establish his foundation.
Now that something has happened, Li Ping can only sigh in his heart.
After seeing Gu Musheng off, Li Ping sat quietly in the pavilion for a while before returning to the weapon-refining room to begin preparing to refine a second-tier high-grade puppet.
……
Just as Li Ping was crafting the puppet.
A cold and beautiful young woman in a long red dress landed outside the immortal city on a beam of light. After showing her identity token to the guards for verification, she calmly walked into the immortal city.
As she walked, the girl pondered what she had gained from the trip.
More than a year ago, she set off from Qi State to Fenglan Immortal City to investigate Yan Liming's leak of secrets.
Although Yan Liming's life tablet inexplicably shattered on the way, she did not stop there, but arrived at the Immortal City as planned.
During that year, she not only thoroughly investigated the whole story of Yan Liming's appearance in the Immortal City, but also went to the place where Yan Liming had possessed another body, trying to find his traces.
But all of this was in vain.
In her investigation, there was absolutely no trace of Yan Liming in Xiancheng recently.
It seems that after being discovered and pursued by the Immortal City during his possession attempt, he never returned to the Immortal City.
However, the location of the life tablet would not be wrong. Before it shattered, the life tablet left by Yan Liming clearly pointed to the location of Fenglan Immortal City.
Therefore, the girl believed that Yan Liming must have been in the Immortal City before. The fact that his life tablet shattered did not necessarily mean that he was dead.
That old lecher might still be lurking in the immortal city.
The girl's cold and beautiful gaze turned to Qinglong Mountain in the core of Fenglan Immortal City. If anyone in this immortal city had the ability to capture or protect Yan Liming, it would be the Qinglong Mountain lineage!
Yan Liming is a Core Formation cultivator who has rebuilt his cultivation by seizing another's body. While an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator might be able to defeat him, capturing him alive is virtually impossible.
Only Core Formation cultivators can do this!
Although Fenglan Zhenren is now dead, she was still alive when the secret was leaked.
"That newly formed Core Formation disciple of Master Fenglan is colluding with demonic cultivators to kill masters." The cold and beautiful girl pondered silently, "Perhaps she is colluding with Yan Liming, so I'd better capture the current sect leader of the Azure Dragon Mountain lineage and question him."
Although the aloof young woman had some suspicions, she dared not act recklessly within the third-tier formation.
Furthermore, unsure whether there were other Core Formation cultivators stationed at Qinglong Mountain at the moment, she decided to play it safe and wait.
Anyway, although the Qi state is currently in a stalemate, it's unknown when the great war will resume.
Thinking of this, a hint of lingering fear flashed in the eyes of the aloof young woman.
With that level of intensity in the war, she could have perished even with the slightest carelessness.
At this moment, she could take advantage of the mission of "investigating Yan Liming's leak" to hide away for a while.
In the Immortal City, at least on the surface, there is no one who can threaten her.
"In the chaotic cultivation world of the Western Wilderness, this place can be considered a paradise on earth," the cold and beautiful girl thought to herself.
……
Li Ping had to emerge from seclusion once again before he had even finished crafting the puppet.
The person who came to visit him this time was the patriarch of the Meng family. During the patriarch's excited narration, he learned that the Immortal City had recently successfully refined a batch of Essence Pills, and with the help of the Essence Pills, Meng Qing had also successfully broken through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment.
"Congratulations, Fellow Daoist Meng," Li Ping said with a smile.
The appearance of a second late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator in Immortal City, especially one from the Meng family, speaks volumes.
With two late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivators from the Meng family, the situation in the Immortal City can be firmly controlled.
Meng Qingyi's breakthrough is significant beyond this; for the Meng family, it holds an even deeper meaning.
The patriarch of the Meng family is already over two hundred years old. In the foreseeable future, it is impossible for the Immortal City to prepare a Core Formation spiritual item for him.
Therefore, he has actually lost the qualification to attempt to reach the Core Formation stage.
Meng Qingyi is different. She is only about 150 years old this year. With her dual spiritual roots, she is expected to reach the peak of Foundation Establishment before she turns 190.
If, at that time, the combined strength of Immortal City and the Meng family can be gathered to obtain a Core Formation artifact, Meng Qing might be able to attempt to break through to Core Formation before the age of two hundred!
Once she achieves the Golden Core stage, the Meng family's power will naturally rise to a higher level!
With a bright future ahead for the family, the patriarch of the Meng family was naturally excited.
"Congratulations!" Patriarch Meng said with a smile, "Fellow Daoist Li, there are still quite a few Essence Pills left from this batch of pills refined in the Immortal City. If you are willing to join the Immortal City, I guarantee that you will be able to obtain one in the future."
In the eyes of the Meng family patriarch, Li Ping had cultivated to the mid-stage of Foundation Establishment at a young age and was also a second-tier mid-grade talisman maker.
Moreover, he also has connections with Zhang Tie, Gu Musheng, and Cheng Yao, making him an ally of the Meng family, which is worth further courting.
Furthermore, if Li Ping could cultivate to the late Foundation Establishment stage before his death, he wouldn't mind arranging for Li Ping and Meng Qingyi to become Daoist partners.
He arranged for the two of them to jointly take charge of the Immortal City after his death.
Li Ping chuckled and shook his head: "Hehe... Thank you for your kindness, fellow Daoist, but I'm used to being lazy and have no intention of joining the Immortal City for the time being."
Upon hearing this, the Meng family patriarch sighed, "Is that so? That's such a pity."
After failing to persuade Li Ping to join the Immortal City, he took out another invitation, inviting Li Ping to attend the ceremony a month later to celebrate Meng Qingyi's breakthrough to the late Foundation Establishment stage.
Li Ping readily agreed.
After delivering the invitations, the Meng family patriarch did not rush to leave, but sat in the pavilion and chatted with Li Ping.
Once he reaches the peak of Foundation Establishment, no matter how much he cultivates, his cultivation level cannot improve further.
But without a spiritual object for forming the core, he dared not attempt to break through to the core formation stage.
It wasn't that he was afraid of death; having lived for over two hundred years, the Meng family patriarch had long since become indifferent to life and death.
Living a few more decades would mean nothing to him.
His concern was that if he failed to break through to the Core Formation stage and died, Meng Qing would be left alone and unable to control the situation within the Immortal City.
At that time, the Meng family may be in danger of being overthrown.
Therefore, he cannot risk attempting to reach the Core Formation stage.
If he hadn't been burdened by his family, he might have taken the risk and died without regrets!
However, since the Meng family patriarch does not intend to attempt to reach the Core Formation stage, he has plenty of time.
Aside from handling affairs of the Meng family and Xiancheng, he devoted most of his energy to maintaining relationships within the Meng family.
Li Ping was one of the relationships he focused on maintaining.
Since it was wartime, the two chatted and unknowingly drifted into the topic of the great war sweeping across the western wilderness.
Li Ping received more detailed information from the Meng family patriarch.
The patriarch of the Meng family subtly revealed his concerns about the war situation. He guessed that the war situation in the Yan and Liang kingdoms was stable mainly because only a portion of the Turkic tribes had come.
After seeing that the tribes that went south first had gained benefits, other Turkic tribes might also join in.
If such a thing were to happen, the states of Yan and Liang might gradually fall into decline.
Of course, what worried him most was the situation on the main battlefield in Qi.
After losing the Yuan Kingdom, the Weidao Alliance, under the advance of the four demonic sects, even lost most of the Qi Kingdom, and its main force could only huddle in the formation of Donghua Mountain to hold on.
Once the Donghua Mountain formation is breached, the situation could very well take a sharp turn for the worse.
Li Ping once learned from Yu Menghan that the great formation of Donghua Mountain had reached the fourth level, but due to the inadequacy of the spiritual veins, it could only exert the power of the third level. The difficulty for the four demonic sects to break through the great formation was beyond imagination.
Therefore, he wasn't as worried as the Meng family patriarch.
However, this matter involves the secrets of the Yinghai Chamber of Commerce, and he could not possibly tell the Meng family patriarch about it.
Therefore, when faced with the worried patriarch of the Meng family, he simply offered kind words of comfort.
War is about logistics.
Under the rule of the Weidao Alliance, the states east of Qi, along with Yan and Liang, were mired in war, and production was disrupted.
However, the cultivators in the remaining eight kingdoms of the Central and Southern Regions, the five kingdoms of the Western Regions, and several other kingdoms continued to produce cultivation resources in a steady stream.
The four major sects of the demonic path are alright.
Resources are scarce on the grasslands, and the Turks rely on war to sustain their war effort. Now they are blocked in the states of Yan and Liang, and sooner or later they will have to retreat because they cannot seize resources.
As for the other Turkic tribes that the Meng family patriarch was worried about moving south.
Li Ping believes that, regardless of whether they will come or not, it is hard to say who they will attack, as the Turkic tribes are not on friendly terms.
Moreover, other nomadic tribes from the grasslands, such as the Yue people and the fire-worshipping people, are also watching with predatory eyes.
This might also be part of the Alliance's plan.
They held out until the Turks couldn't hold on any longer, and the four major sects of the demonic path, unable to withstand the pressure alone, had no choice but to retreat obediently.
"Immortality Begins with Inheriting the Hundred Arts of Immortal Cultivation" is full of classic quotes, seeking resonance.