Chapter 741

"Junior Brother Qu, are you not going to see your father?"

On the mountainside of the Great Qingshan, several figures stood together, looking far away at the courtyard where the Sect Master handled daily affairs.

Two figures walked in side by side.

Yuan Yijun looked at Qu Jiu in confusion; the other party was looking into the distance, his lips pursed tightly, his facial muscles tensed into a sharp outline.

Qu Jiu spat out two words coldly.

"Not seeing him!"

Yuan Yijun didn't understand; he was his own father after all, why be so estranged?

Regarding the role of "father," she admired him from the bottom of her heart.

When she was young, her mother passed away early, and it was her father, Yuan Dongsheng, who raised her bit by bit, with extreme love.

Even though Yuan Dongsheng had been dead for many years, she often missed her father's broad shoulders.

Therefore, she didn't understand why, when Junior Brother Qu's father had returned, the other party wouldn't take the initiative to see him.

Could it be because of the woman who returned with Qu Lingjun?

Upon reaching the front, Qu Lingjun's footsteps paused slightly, and he turned back to say to the woman: "Qiner, you wait for me for a moment."

Meng Qiner nodded, saying full of encouragement: "Relax, since your master took the initiative to let you return to the sect, it means he is letting bygones be bygones regarding the past."

Qu Lingjun smiled; he thought the same.

Just as he was about to enter, a tall figure walked out of the room.

Qu Lingjun's eyes lit up, "Yilong!"

Ceng Yilong was startled at first, then revealed a surprised smile, grabbing Qu Lingjun's arm.

"Qi Qi Shixiong, you are finally back!"

Qu Lingjun laughed, "Yes, I'm back. If you lack any pills in the future, just come to the Pill Academy to find me."

Within an immortal sect, seniority and titles were often based on realm, emphasizing that strength is respected.

But occasionally there were exceptions.

For example, Qu Lingjun; his realm was only Foundation Establishment, which couldn't compare to Ceng Yilong's third stage of body cultivation. But because Qu Lingjun himself had a high status in the Luo Tian Sect and was the only personal disciple of the Supreme Elder Luo Chen, even if some people had better aptitude and climbed the realm faster than him, they still maintained their previous habits of address.

At this moment, hearing the words "Pill Academy," Ceng Yilong's expression was somewhat strange.

Qu Lingjun didn't notice and asked curiously: "Where are you going?"

Ceng Yilong coughed dryly and pointed to the mountainside.

"The Sect Master gave me a task: find the Supreme Elder of the God Talisman Sect to receive a batch of talisman skins. Incidentally, also take those juniors to see the world."

"The juniors of our sect have all walked out of slaughter; they have long since seen the world..."

Qu Lingjun was originally saying it with a smile, but following Ceng Yilong's direction, he vaguely saw a gloomy and cold face.

It was six or seven parts similar to him.

The remaining three parts looked exactly like that face in his memory.

"It's Xiaojiu!"

His own son, even if he hadn't spent many days together, would never be a stranger.

"Yilong, trouble you to take care of Qu Jiu."

Ceng Yilong patted his strong chest, "No need for Qi Qi Shixiong to instruct; this is my duty. I'll go first, and we'll talk when I return!"

"Hmm, we'll talk when you return!"

Qu Lingjun smiled slightly, but in the line of sight following Ceng Yilong to the mountainside, Qu Jiu just glanced at him coldly, without any warmth.

Qu Lingjun's smile gradually faded, but he didn't feel half a point of anger at the other party's coldness.

Qu Jiu was the son of him and Mi Li, and even his name originated from the wine made of Qu and Mi.

But back then, he abandoned his wife and son to join Fenghua Palace and didn't fulfill his duties as a father; it was only natural that the other party would resent him.

"Husband, Sect Master Li is calling you."

A soft and beautiful female voice sounded behind him.

Qu Lingjun sighed, lifted his robe, and walked into the room.

"Lingjun is back..."

Li Yingzhang greeted him with a smile, without any estrangement.

Qu Lingjun also squeezed out a smile again.

"It's time to be back; at this age, I can't be at peace outside anyway. Coming back, I can still generate some light and heat for the sect. I heard that the sect is short of financial resources now; I have actually made great progress in alchemy and can lead the Pill Academy to open up a source of income for our Luo Tian Sect."

Li Yingzhang waved his hand, "This is not urgent."

He looked outside, "What's the matter with Fellow Daoist Meng?"

Mentioning Meng Qiner, a gentle expression appeared on Qu Lingjun's face.

"She is unwilling to divorce me, and after begging the Great Palace Master, she followed me back to the Luo Tian Sect. After I pass away in forty or fifty years, she will return to Fenghua Palace. I hope you will grant this request."

Li Yingzhang suddenly realized and sighed at their deep affection.

At the same time, he couldn't help but feel secretly happy in his heart.

Meng Qiner could be considered quite talented among the younger generation of Fenghua Palace, and at a young age, she already had the realm of the Core Formation stage. Now that she had come to the Luo Tian Sect with Qu Lingjun, even if it was only for forty or fifty years, it was enough to boost the Luo Tian Sect's momentum.

Sima Wenjie was abolished, and the nine Core Formation cultivators of Luo Tian were left with only eight.

Meng Qiner's arrival just filled the gap.

He naturally wouldn't refuse and immediately agreed to Qu Lingjun's request.

Having his Daoist companion stay behind made Qu Lingjun breathe a sigh of relief, and then he asked curiously: "Where is my master?"

Li Yingzhang replied: "The Supreme Elder is preparing to refine the Nascent Soul Pill and is very busy recently, so he might not have time to see you."

Qu Lingjun's eyes lit up, "Is Master going to refine pills? I heard that refining the Nascent Soul Pill is extremely complicated; back then, Green Pill Valley used the power of the entire sect and specially invited my master to help, but unfortunately, they failed. I returned just in time; I can go help Master."

These words were spoken quickly and urgently, but without losing confidence and pride!

His alchemy skills now could already refine third-tier pills, not inferior to some elders of Green Pill Valley back then.

He was confident that he had the ability to help his master.

However.

"That's not necessary; Qi Yi has already gone to help the Supreme Elder."

"I also..."

Qu Lingjun looked at Li Yingzhang's unfathomable eyes, and for some reason, his words about going together stopped.

He said tentatively: "Since Qi Yi has gone to help, the Pill Academy should be short of people to look after it; I can go to the Pill Academy to help manage it."

This time, he didn't, like when he met Ceng Yilong, self-righteously treat the Pill Academy as his own territory.

Because he vaguely felt that something was wrong.

Sure enough!

Li Yingzhang coughed and shook his head: "You don't need to go to the Pill Academy either; the sect has already arranged a cultivation cave for you, just go cultivate in seclusion."

Qu Lingjun was somewhat incredulous.

"Is this your intention, or Master's intention?"

Li Yingzhang didn't answer, just handed him a storage bag.

With his current status, he didn't need to beat around the bush at all.

Such an evasive answer meant that the answer was...

Qu Lingjun's face gradually turned pale.

Baili Qingchuan was not large, but it had a quite solid third-tier spirit vein.

Relying on this good spirit vein, it could nourish the hundred-mile medicinal field.

After the Luo Tian Sect arrived, they opened up five caves with third-tier spiritual energy concentration for Core Formation cultivators to cultivate daily.

Eight or nine Core Formation cultivators, squeezing together and lining up in turns, could barely manage to rotate.

After Luo Chen returned, he didn't choose a third-tier cave.

He only chose a place with beautiful scenery on the Great Qingshan as a temporary cave.

He was currently in a state of stabilizing his realm, with a large amount of unrefined magic power in his body—that was the origin energy poured in by heaven and earth when he realized the true meaning of withered and prosperous.

Moreover, he had a large amount of high-grade Hongyuan Pills refined before, so he wouldn't lack spiritual energy replenishment for a while.

At this moment, in the cave, two figures were busy.

"Little Qi, use the pill technique I taught you to refine the Purple Monkey Flower again. These Purple Monkey Flowers sent by the God Talisman Sect have been here for too long, and their medicinal power is not condensed enough."

"Okay!"

Qi Yi walked to the shelf containing the Purple Monkey Flowers and took them out one by one.

After preparing, he suddenly asked: "Supreme Elder, why not let Qu Lingjun help you? I heard that his alchemy skills have already entered the room, not inferior to some third-tier alchemists."

Luo Chen, who was cutting the Five Elements Lotus Platform, didn't raise his head and asked back: "Why, do you think you are not good enough?"

Qi Yi shook his head quickly; being able to help Luo Chen refine pills and observe the refining of the Nascent Soul Pill was a dream-come-true opportunity for him.

How could he miss this opportunity because he wasn't confident enough?

He hesitated and said: "I just wanted to add one more person to help you share some things, Old Man. That way, the success rate of refining the Nascent Soul Pill would also be greater."

"Don't worry, refining the Nascent Soul Pill puts no pressure on me. Don't think too much, just focus on doing the preparatory work well! This experience will benefit you greatly."

"Oh."

Qi Yi didn't ask any more questions and focused on processing the Purple Monkey Flowers.

The small knife in Luo Chen's hand moved vertically and horizontally on the Five Elements Lotus Platform, cutting off pieces of lotus platforms connected by orifices.

And in his heart, he already had the answer to Qi Yi's question just now.

"That child Lingjun has poor aptitude, and over these years, he has exhausted too much energy refining pills for Fenghua Palace, so much so that at his age, his realm is still lagging behind in the late Foundation Establishment stage."

"Now that he has returned, he must not be distracted again."

"Choose a spiritual land and cultivate bitterly for fifty years; perhaps before his life ends, he will still have a chance to fight for the Core Formation. If he succeeds, his lifespan will double, and then there will be infinite possibilities."

"I hope he can understand my intentions and not be confused by other things."

Sighing in his heart, Luo Chen continued to cut the Five Elements Lotus Platform.

Old Talisman had given him two Five Elements Lotus Platforms back then, both without lotus seeds; with his alchemy skills, he could fully open the furnace to refine the Nascent Soul Pill twenty times.

But with the previous successful precedent, he could fully save one Five Elements Lotus Platform and keep it for his own use.

Han Zhan had told him about the wonderful uses of this object in the Fallen Demon Land back then.

The Five Elements Lotus Platform was actually not an ingredient for pills.

The lotus seeds contained the essence of the five elements, which were too extreme and more suitable for weapon refining.

The lotus platform body, however, was transparent and could filter out impurities in the heaven and earth spiritual energy, and was often used by Nascent Soul True Persons as an auxiliary tool for daily meditation and cultivation.

Back then in the Blazing Purgatory, Luo Chen had briefly borrowed that top-grade lotus platform to cultivate for a period of time, which made his cultivation improve greatly.

After experiencing that effect, he had been thinking about it ever since.

The two lotus platforms given by Old Talisman were not of particularly good quality, but they were barely enough to use.

A few days later.

Luo Chen sat cross-legged on the lotus platform he had deducted, closing his eyes to rest, doing his pre-alchemy rest.

But his heart was quite active.

"Now that all kinds of matters are mixed, although they are not tricky, they are quite troublesome."

"Even if I can use one mind for many purposes, I am still stretched thin."

"But I have condensed two split souls; if I can let them out to do things, perhaps I can save myself a lot of time and speed up the progress in all aspects."

Thinking of this, Luo Chen slowly opened his eyes.

Split souls cannot be outside for long and need a body to reside in.

With Han Zhan's precedent, he might be able to imitate it.

"I need two puppets!"

Puppets, he had them!

In the storage ring, there was a White Tiger puppet.

But that thing was of too high a grade and had a spirit soul inside; it was not something his current split soul could control.

After years of research, Luo Chen had two or three points of confidence in subduing it, but his own realm was not enough, and forcing control would easily lead to a backlash; it was ultimately too risky.

"Let Yuanjiang come over!"

With a thought, Luo Chen sent a spiritual sense transmission.

Before long, Qin Yuanjiang arrived at Luo Chen's cave.

When Luo Chen said he wanted two puppets, Qin Yuanjiang didn't hesitate at all, taking out a large pile of puppets from his storage bag.

Looking at the dazzling array of puppets arranged in a row, Luo Chen was somewhat surprised.

"So many?"

Qin Yuanjiang smiled slightly, "They are all crudely made things, prepared to be detonated directly when fighting the enemy."

Luo Chen suddenly realized; these puppets were indeed not high-quality, and none of them were in human form.

Since that was the case, there was no need to be polite.

He casually picked a red dog puppet and a black ape puppet.

After he finished picking, Qin Yuanjiang put away the other puppets and looked at Luo Chen curiously.

"Elder, are you also proficient in puppet arts?"

"I can't say proficient, just involved in it. Moreover, the method I use to control puppets..."

As Luo Chen spoke, he closed his eyes right in front of Qin Yuanjiang.

The next moment, two ghostly lights flickered from the top of his head, directly entering the red dog and black ape bodies.

Click, click!

Click, click!

The red dog opened its eyes, the black ape opened its eyes.

Qin Yuanjiang's heart trembled; this horrifying scene was clearly the split-soul technique recorded in the Luo Tian Sect.

With his status back then, he couldn't come into contact with such methods.

But not long ago, the three classics Luo Chen gave him recorded the "Soul Splitting Technique," letting him understand the tip of the iceberg of such means.

On the lotus platform, Luo Chen's main body slowly opened his eyes.

"Yuanjiang, do you understand my puppet arts now?"

Qin Yuanjiang took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

Clearly, the Supreme Elder had obtained some techniques from the Luo Tian Sect and had cultivated them to an extremely profound level, which was why he could split two divine souls.

And showing this to him so blatantly showed even more trust.

"I am close friends with your parents, so I should naturally take care of you."

"Now that you have joined the Luo Tian Sect, don't worry about your future path. What the Luo Tian Sect could teach you, I can also teach you."

"Go ahead and cultivate those puppet techniques; perhaps in the future, you can pass down the puppet lineage within the Luo Tian Sect."

Luo Chen said so, his gaze full of earnest encouragement.

Luo Chen didn't have the complete three techniques and two arts of the Luo Tian Sect.

But he had the "Micro-Dust Origin Technique" that fused the "Locking Pearl Curtain," the Opening Mao Technique passed down by Han Zhan, and the "Soul Splitting Technique." These three techniques connected together formed a path to cultivate the divine soul.

Perhaps there were some defects, but if combined with Luo Chen's Tongyou Pill and Great Soul Pill, there were basically no flaws.

If Qin Yuanjiang fully cultivated this set of methods and further studied the production and control of puppets, he might be able to reproduce the power of the Luo Tian Sect's puppets.

Facing Luo Chen's earnest gaze, Qin Yuanjiang bowed respectfully.

"Yuanjiang will definitely not let down your expectations, Old Man!"

Luo Chen smiled slightly and let him go back.

After Qin Yuanjiang left, Luo Chen's gaze fell on the two puppets.

Inside them were his two split souls; even the weakest one had reached the Nascent Soul level after taking a large amount of Great Soul Pills.

And because they came from the same main soul, they were connected in heart and mind, and Luo Chen's main body knew everything they did and learned.

The only drawback was probably the lack of "energy"!

"Ultimately, they are not true external incarnations; they have no Nascent Soul and no magic power."

Luo Chen inexplicably remembered the lightning incarnation of the Time Torch he had glimpsed in the Mirage Dragon Cave.

That was an external incarnation with a flesh-and-blood body, containing a second Nascent Soul, possessing great magic power and great ability!

It was a thousand times better than the puppet incarnation he had hastily put together.

Shaking his head, one couldn't envy such things.

Luo Chen raised his hand and struck out two bursts of spiritual light, dozens of top-grade spirit stones entering the puppet bodies to act as action energy.

Not only that, he opened his mouth and spat out a wisp of withered and prosperous true fire, which flew out gloomily.

The red dog puppet opened its mouth at the same time and absorbed it.

"Black Ape, you go study the Dao of talismans, understand the theory, and familiarize yourself with the drawing method."

"Red Dog, follow me to refine pills!"

No need for more words, heart and mind connected, the two puppets began to act.