txolops Chapter 318 Ambition and Seeking Help
Chapter 318 Ambition and Seeking Help
A long time ago.
Based on his inexplicable intuition and the mutual connection between them.
Li Ping speculated that Xu Guike might be the reincarnation of his master.
At the time, he also planned to invite Xu Guike to visit the Sword Casting Manor where his master had lived before his death, to see if he would be moved by the "old things".
But unexpectedly, the two had only known each other for a short time.
Fenglan Immortal City was hit by a "bloody wedding", and Xu Guike, as Dai Sangyu's disciple, was also implicated and exiled to Yan Kingdom.
Therefore, his plan had to be scrapped.
Nearly a century later, a figure resembling Xu Guike returns from the far north and unleashes a massacre...
Li Ping thought for a moment, then took out two jade slips and wrote letters to Ji Shuwen and Zhang Tie respectively. He needed to know more information before deciding how to handle the matter.
After writing the letter, he summoned Meng Wanjun and ordered her to seal the jade slip and entrust a caravan to deliver it to the Western Wilderness.
Watching Meng Wanjun's departing figure, he thought again: The Meng family was also involved in Dai Sangyu's matter, but only the Meng family patriarch and Meng Qingyi truly knew about it. Since the two of them were dead, given Xu Guike's personality, he shouldn't make things difficult for the Meng family's lower-level cultivators.
As for the Core Formation cultivators of the three sects, including Ziyun Valley... Li Ping was not familiar with them and did not care about their lives or deaths.
……
The letter was sent out, but because Donghua Mountain and Fenglan Immortal City were far apart, Li Ping did not receive a reply until a year later.
in the courtyard.
Cheng Yao and Wang Xingwei respectfully greeted, "Big Brother!"
Li Ping smiled and said, "No need for formalities, please have a seat."
He never expected that after receiving the letter he sent, the two of them would actually come to Donghua Mountain in person.
The moment the two entered the courtyard, he noticed that Wang Xingwei had broken through to the late stage of Foundation Establishment, while Cheng Yao's cultivation remained at the early stage of Foundation Establishment.
Cheng Yao looked at Meng Wanjun with a strange expression, probably because she recognized Meng Wanjun, but she didn't say anything.
She believes that after Bai Lin, her elder brother has been single for so many years, so it is normal for him to find a concubine again. There is nothing strange about it.
Li Ping looked at Wang Xingwei: "Not bad, when did you break through to the late Foundation Establishment stage?"
Upon hearing Li Ping's question, Wang Xingwei quickly replied, "Thank you for your concern, brother. I broke through about twenty years ago."
After roughly estimating the time, Li Ping nodded to himself.
When they met forty years ago, he observed that Wang Xingwei was not far from reaching the peak of the mid-Foundation Establishment stage. According to him, he broke through to the late-Foundation Establishment stage less than twenty years after that meeting, clearly not lingering at the bottleneck of the late-Foundation Establishment stage for too long.
This is the advantage of self-foundation building; breaking through bottlenecks is much easier than for other cultivators.
Otherwise, given his dual spiritual roots, it would have been impossible for him to have reached the late Foundation Establishment stage at just over 140 years old.
Of course, his childlike innocence and the elixirs given to him by Li Ping must have also played a significant role.
"If nothing unexpected happens, he should be able to reach the peak of the late Foundation Establishment stage within twenty years, around the age of 180, and qualify to attempt to break through to Core Formation," Li Ping secretly concluded.
Cheng Yao observed Li Ping's expression, her eyes darting around before she said with a grin, "Big brother, we didn't know you were at Donghua Mountain before, otherwise we would have come to pay our respects to you long ago."
"I only came to Donghua Mountain in the last few years; you wouldn't have seen me even if you had come earlier," Li Ping shook his head, then asked, "By the way, what's the situation like in Fenglan Immortal City?"
When talking about the situation in Fenglan Immortal City, Cheng Yao's expression turned grim. She complained bitterly, "Ever since our sect leader passed away, our lives have become difficult. Ziyun Valley didn't make things difficult for us because of you, eldest brother, but we've all lost our positions in the Immortal City. Second and third brothers have been transferred to sinecure positions, and their positions have been taken by people from Ziyun Valley."
At this point, Cheng Yao secretly glanced at Li Ping. Seeing that his expression hadn't changed much, she sighed inwardly before continuing, "Fortunately, when Fellow Daoist Ji became the city lord, she took care of our four families out of consideration for our relationship with you, my elder brother. We also did our best to help her consolidate her power in the Immortal City."
Li Ping nodded slightly; he understood Cheng Yao's explanation.
After Meng Qingyi passed away, Xiong Pohai became the lord of the Immortal City, but he was just a puppet with no real power. Most of the benefits of the Immortal City were divided up by the cultivators sent by Ziyun Valley.
Zhang Tie, Gu Musheng, and others have been marginalized.
When Ji Shuwen became the city lord, she was naturally dissatisfied with being a puppet city lord and wanted to compete for power and profit with the Ziyun Valley cultivators who had arrived earlier.
So, through Li Ping's connections, she got in touch with Zhang Tie, Gu Musheng and others, recruited them to her side, and with their support, effectively took control of the power in the Immortal City.
In return, she gave the four companies a share of the profits.
Although it's not as good as it was back then, it's still passable.
It can be described as "one act ends and another begins".
"But in recent years, sword cultivators from who-knows-where have killed Senior Qu and Senior Zhao one after another... Purple Cloud Valley has sealed off the Cloud Mist Mountain Range, and now the Immortal City is much more desolate." At this point, Cheng Yao couldn't help but sigh.
Clearly, because of that mysterious swordsman, the interests of everyone in the Immortal City, including her, have been affected.
However, they did not connect it to Xu Guike; in their eyes, Xu Guike was already dead.
In fact, Li Ping wouldn't have made that guess if they hadn't met by chance in the far north.
He calmly asked, "Has that person stopped making a move recently?"
"No." Cheng Yao shook her head: "Nowadays, Core Formation cultivators go out to search in groups of two or three, so as not to give that person a chance to kill alone."
Li Ping nodded secretly.
Core Formation cultivators aren't fools. Knowing that someone is secretly hunting them down, and that two cultivators of the same level have already perished, they naturally won't act alone anymore.
A sword cultivator in the early stage of Core Formation is not confident in dealing with two or three cultivators of the same level at the same time.
"Oh, right, brother, this is a letter that Fellow Daoist Ji asked me to bring to you. She asked me to apologize to you because she is too busy with her duties to leave the Immortal City." Cheng Yao seemed to remember something and took out a wooden box with a spirit talisman attached from her storage bag.
Li Ping took the wooden box, saw that the talisman was intact, and then put it into his storage bag.
After handing the jade box to Li Ping, Cheng Yao's expression became serious: "Brother, to be honest, Xingwei and I came to Donghua Mountain this time because there is something we want to ask you for help with."
"Oh?" Li Ping looked somewhat surprised. He smiled and said, "There's nothing you can't say in front of me. Just tell me what you want me to do for you."
Cheng Yao's gaze lingered on Wang Xingwei for a moment before she gritted her teeth and said, "Big brother, when you returned to Immortal City last time, you said that Xingwei had a chance to form his core. Therefore, after he successfully broke through to the late Foundation Establishment stage twenty years ago, my second brother, third brother, and seventh brother's families decided to join forces to help Xingwei form his core."
Li Ping nodded, signaling her to continue.
Wang Xingwei remained silent, while Cheng Yao continued, "Over the past twenty years, our four families have reduced our expenses and pooled together a sum of spirit stones, preparing to bid for a Core Formation spirit item for Xingwei at the Donghua Mountain Grand Auction in three years. However, with our current strength, we are not yet qualified to participate in bidding for Core Formation spirit items, so I would like to ask you, elder brother, to help us bid."
After speaking in one breath, Cheng Yao looked at Li Ping nervously.
With a total of six Foundation Establishment cultivators from the four families, they were a considerable force. However, amidst the turmoil in the Immortal City, they were like duckweed adrift in the waves, at the mercy of the wind and rain.
Especially after Ziyun Valley moved into the Immortal City, it would have been difficult for them to escape unscathed if it weren't for their elder brother's influence, which made them feel deeply uneasy.
Therefore, they were determined to cultivate a Core Formation cultivator from among the four cultivator families.
After discussion, they unanimously chose Wang Xingwei.
At this moment, Wang Xingwei's storage bag contained a considerable amount of spirit stones.
That's the foundation of most of the four families!
The Wang family, in particular, used almost all of their savings to raise enough spirit stones.
If Wang Xingwei fails, the Wang family may struggle to recover for many years.
However, even though we have enough spirit stones, bidding is still a big problem.
Just like at the previous auction of the relics of the Fiery True Man, when Li Ping got angry, the Foundation Establishment cultivators who were competing with him had no choice but to give up, even if they were unwilling.
The same principle applies to major auctions.
Foundation Establishment cultivators have no right to bid on Core Formation spiritual items unless they are not afraid of offending the many Core Formation cultivators present.
But that's impossible; acquiring a Core Formation artifact doesn't guarantee you'll form your Core.
That's why Cheng Yao came to ask Li Ping for help.
As a Core Formation cultivator, he is qualified to bid on Core Formation spiritual items, and other Core Formation cultivators will also give him this face.
"A Core Formation spiritual item might fetch over 30,000 spirit stones at an auction. Are you prepared enough?" Li Ping asked with a smile.
Seeing her eldest brother's expression, Cheng Yao was overjoyed and quickly said, "That's enough. Besides my family, my third brother also brought out quite a lot of spirit stones."
Li Ping glanced at the two of them, smiled and nodded: "If you have enough spirit stones, there's no problem. I will also participate in the grand auction, so you can come with me then."
"Hehe... Thank you, big brother." Cheng Yao quickly pulled Wang Xingwei to express her gratitude.
Li Ping smiled but remained silent.
Cheng Yao and the others had worked hard to gather enough spirit stones, and using his name to bid for Core Formation spirit items would not affect him at all, so he had no reason to refuse.
In fact, if they don't have enough spirit stones, but are only slightly short, Li Ping will take the initiative to provide some assistance.
He also hopes that Zhang Tie, Gu Musheng, Cheng Yao, and Bai Qing will have a better and better life.
With their biggest goal achieved, Cheng Yao finally felt relieved. The couple chatted with Li Ping for a while before getting up to say goodbye.
They will rent a cave dwelling on Donghua Mountain and wait until the grand auction ends three years later.
If they successfully acquire the Core Formation artifact, Cheng Yao will return to the Immortal City alone to manage the family, while Wang Xingwei will stay at Donghua Mountain to cultivate and use the third-tier spiritual vein environment of Donghua Mountain to attempt Core Formation.
Li Ping watched them leave before taking out the jade slip containing Ji Shuwen's reply and immersing himself in it to read it.