txolops Chapter 192 Revisit
Chapter 192 Revisit
It took several months of hard work.
Li Ping finally managed to refine the second-tier high-grade puppet.
He piloted the puppet, testing its attack, movement, and defense techniques in the courtyard. Overall, he was quite satisfied with the puppet.
Equipped with specially crafted offensive and defensive magical artifacts, this puppet can be regarded as a late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator during combat.
The only thing that made Li Ping frown was the puppet's consumption of spirit stones.
A second-tier high-grade puppet must at least use mid-grade spirit stones as its power source, and once a battle begins, the mid-grade spirit stones are consumed extremely quickly.
Li Ping tested it out. When he simultaneously used a second-tier high-grade defensive magic weapon and a second-tier high-grade offensive magic weapon, a mid-grade spirit stone would turn to ashes in about half an hour.
One mid-grade spirit stone is equivalent to one hundred low-grade spirit stones.
This isn't a battle of magic, it's clearly burning spirit stones!
Fortunately, if it's just for maintaining daily activities and there's no need for combat, the puppet's consumption of spirit stones will be greatly reduced.
Despite the high cost of using puppets in combat, Li Ping still planned to refine several more puppets for self-defense.
Anyway, he has many advanced skills and is not short of spirit stones.
……
On the desolate land of the Cloud and Mist Mountains.
Whoosh!
The black streak of light streaked across the sky, heading towards the Western Wilderness.
The black light within was naturally Li Ping's Floating Shadow Shuttle.
A figure dressed in a black robe stood at the tail of the flying shuttle, controlling the airship forward, while Li Ping himself sat cross-legged, busy refining pills and making talismans.
The expressionless 'cultivator' beneath the black robe was none other than the second-tier high-grade puppet that Li Ping had recently crafted, which he named 'Jia Yi'.
In fact, apart from not being able to cultivate independently, under the control of a wisp of Li Ping's divine sense, Jia Yi was no different from a normal late-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Operating the shuttle was naturally no problem for him either.
Several days later, the Floating Shadow Shuttle hovered above Xiaomei Mountain.
Li Ping put away the flying shuttle and armor, and flew straight down.
Xiaomei Mountain was originally a low-level spiritual land without even a protective formation. However, Li Ping later purchased a first-level formation from the market and protected the entire Xiaomei Mountain within it.
The commotion caused by Li Pingfei's arrival immediately alerted the cultivators of Xiaomei Mountain.
A figure hurriedly flew out of the magic array, calling out from afar, "Uncle Li!"
The figure flying towards them was none other than Ji Shuchen, the current head of the Ji family. Before his passing, Master Ji bypassed his two sons and passed the position of family head to him.
Li Ping scanned the area with his divine sense and discovered that after many years, he had cultivated to the eighth level of Qi Refining.
Since Master Ji passed away, Li Ping has rarely bestowed resources such as elixirs upon the Ji family.
Therefore, Ji Shuxuan in the Immortal City had already cultivated to the ninth level of Qi Refining, and was determined to go to the Yan Kingdom to try his luck in Foundation Establishment.
Ji Shuchen, who was about the same age and had similar aptitude as him, had only cultivated to the eighth level of Qi Refining.
Of course, as the head of the family, Ji Shuchen had to manage mundane affairs on a daily basis, which also delayed his own cultivation.
Just as Li Ping was pondering, Ji Shuchen flew up and respectfully bowed, saying, "Shuchen greets Uncle Li."
"Shuchen, not bad." Li Ping nodded slightly.
As he spoke, a bottle of high-quality pills, beneficial for late-stage Qi Refining cultivators to enhance their cultivation, floated to Ji Shuchen's front under his control: "I see that your cultivation is not far from the ninth level of Qi Refining, so I will bestow this bottle of pills upon you. Cultivate diligently and break through as soon as possible."
"Thank you, Uncle Li, for the pills." Ji Shuchen was overjoyed and quickly put the pills into his storage bag.
Only then did he lead Li Pingfei into Xiaomei Mountain.
But just as he was about to step into the magic circle, Li Ping suddenly stopped in his tracks.
After Master Ji passed away, in accordance with his last wishes, his descendants scattered his ashes all over Xiaomei Mountain.
From then on, he slept forever in Xiaomeishan, turning into a mountain breeze to watch over generations of Ji family descendants who thrived there.
"Brother Ji, it's been a long time."
……
Xiaomeishan Lingdi is not a large place, only about 100 acres in total.
Because of intermarriage between the Ji and Yan families, cultivators from the Yan family who were later found to have spiritual roots were also sent to Xiaomei Mountain to receive education and learn the path of cultivation alongside the Ji family cultivators.
It was fine at first, but after Master Ji passed away.
As more and more cultivators emerged from both sides, Xiaomei Mountain was no longer sufficient to support the cultivation of too many cultivators, and the underground spiritual veins should not be exposed.
So, following Li Ping's instructions, Ji Shuchen rented a first-tier spiritual land from the Yu family of Bifeng Lake, which was several times larger than Xiaomei Mountain, for the two families' cultivators to cultivate and operate.
As for Xiaomeishan, it has become a "kindergarten" specifically for nurturing the younger generation of the two families.
Normally, only Ji Shuchen and a Dharma-transmitting cultivator responsible for teaching the younger generations of both families reside here.
As for the other cultivators from both families, they were all in another spiritual land.
What Li Ping saw was that, apart from the few acres of medicinal herb garden in the center where medicinal herbs were planted, the rest of the hundred acres of land was filled with rows of exquisite houses.
According to Ji Shuchen, over the years, a total of twenty-four cultivators have emerged from the two families. No matter when or where, ( ) will always be your most loyal reading companion. Currently, only five cultivators under the age of eighteen are receiving teachings at Xiaomei Mountain.
The cultivators from both families are mostly of average talent, with four or five spiritual roots as their main cultivation level. Only Ji Shuchen is a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator.
However, the Ji family itself is of average strength, but one of their close relatives is cultivating in the Crimson Flame Sect and has already reached the Foundation Establishment stage.
Therefore, many cultivation families in the surrounding area, including the Yu family of Bifeng Lake, dared not underestimate the Ji family.
Upon entering the house, Ji Shuchen invited Li Ping to sit down and served him some spiritual tea, while he himself stood respectfully to the side, chatting with Li Ping with a smile.
During the conversation, Li Ping inquired about Yan Hengchuan.
Ji Shuchen quickly replied, "Senior Yan returned to Jiang Kingdom two years ago, and he has been very kind to both our families since then..."
"Hmm." Li Ping nodded as he listened.
According to Ji Shuxuan, Yan Hengchuan did not make a big fuss after returning to Jiang State.
After staying in Jiang Kingdom for a period of time, he intended to return to the Immortal City to cultivate.
But before returning to the Immortal City, in order to support the Yan and Ji families, he made a special trip to visit the Yu family at Bifeng Lake.
During the visit, he and Yu Peiling, a newly promoted Foundation Establishment cultivator from the Yu family, hit it off.
With mutual affection, Yan Hengchuan abandoned his plan to return to the Immortal City and instead decided to become cultivation partners with Yu Peiling, thus staying in the Jiang Kingdom.
After listening, Li Ping was slightly speechless.
It seems that Yan Hengchuan's statement in the letter about wanting to spend more time with his elders was complete nonsense.
He was purely lustful, seduced by Yu Peiling's beauty, and for this reason, he did not hesitate to abandon his original plan to return to the Immortal City.
"That's fine too. It's already a stroke of luck for a cultivator with five spiritual roots to be able to establish his foundation. It would be a good thing for him to stay in Jiang Kingdom and live a peaceful and uneventful life." Li Ping nodded slightly in his heart, not interfering with Yan Hengchuan's choice.
Finally, Ji Shuchen cautiously inquired, "By the way, Uncle Li, should we inform Senior Yan about the underground spiritual veins of Xiaomei Mountain?"
He had promised Li Ping that he would not tell anyone the secret of the underground spiritual vein of Xiaomei Mountain, including Ji Shuwen, who had joined the Chiyan Sect.
This is mainly because Ji Shuwen is a cultivator from a sect, and she will get married in the future, so she may not necessarily prioritize the interests of the Ji family.
Yan Hengchuan's situation is different from Ji Shuwen's; he is a cultivator from a family.
For him, besides himself, the Yan family and the Ji family were the most important.
That's why Ji Shuchen asked this question.
"This matter..." Li Ping pondered for a moment, then shook his head: "Since there are no plans to activate the underground spiritual vein in the short term, there's no need to inform him for now. He'll naturally know when it's activated in the future."
Although Yan Hengchuan was nominally a family cultivator, he did not receive much "loyalty to the family" education before going to Fenglan Immortal City to follow Li Ping in cultivation.
In the Immortal City, he developed a self-centered, independent mindset, much like a rogue cultivator.
Moreover, he cultivates demonic techniques, and his personality is unconsciously influenced by these techniques.
Li Ping was worried that telling him about this would cause unnecessary trouble.
The underground spiritual vein is of utmost importance; it's better to avoid trouble.
Upon hearing Li Ping's decision, Ji Shuchen nodded repeatedly: "Uncle Li, I understand."
Next, Li Ping inquired about the current situation of Jiang Kingdom from Ji Shuchen and learned that Jiang Kingdom had also dispatched a large number of cultivators to accompany the Crimson Flame Sect to Liang Kingdom to assist in the battle.
The Yu family of Bifeng Lake mobilized dozens of cultivators, and even the Yu family patriarch personally led the battle.
As for the Ji family, firstly, they were too small in scale and their cultivators didn't have much combat power; secondly, Ji Shuwen had specifically spoken to the Yu family, so no cultivators were transferred.
When the topic of war came up, Li Ping sighed and told Ji Shuchen about Ji Shuxuan's disappearance in Yan.
Upon hearing this, Ji Shuchen was first taken aback, then his expression turned somber.
Ji Shuxuan was the same age as him. They had grown up together and had a deep bond.
Although the two rarely met after Ji Shuxuan went to the Immortal City to cultivate, and there was a sense of estrangement between them, the blood ties between them could never be erased.
Now that he learned that Ji Shuxuan had gone to the Yan Kingdom battlefield to compete for the Foundation Establishment opportunity and that he had most likely perished, Ji Shuchen was overcome with grief.
After Master Ji, Ji Shuxuan was the second cultivator from the Ji family to fall!
"You don't need to be too sad. Shuxuan is just missing. His body hasn't been found yet. Maybe he's still alive," Li Ping comforted him, though he himself didn't quite believe it.
Ji Shuchen nodded: "Uncle Li, I understand."
He knew that this outcome was Ji Shuxuan's own choice, and he couldn't blame anyone else.
Actually, he was a little envious of Ji Shuxuan.
If he weren't the head of the family, burdened with heavy responsibilities, perhaps he would have accepted the call to go to the battlefield and try his luck at achieving Foundation Establishment!
If given a choice, who would willingly accept their fate of struggling at the bottom of the cultivation world for the rest of their life?
But Ji Shuchen knew that as the only late-stage Qi Refining cultivator in the family, he held an indispensable position within the family.
If something happens to him, the Ji family may never recover.
Therefore, he cannot take the risk.