Chapter 617: Unpredictable Worldly Affairs

Sanshan Market.

Inside a newly opened teahouse.

As Aaron sipped his Spirit Tea and listened to other Immortal Cultivators discuss recent major events in the Immortal Cultivation World, he couldn't help but sigh: "The ways of the world are truly unpredictable..."

Three years had passed since that day.

And the might of that Third-tier Myriad Longevity Turtle from that day still remained firmly etched in his mind.

Back then... after Hongyu Laozu appeared with a Third-tier Spirit Beast, shocked the entire crowd, and announced herself as the new leader of the Sanshan Association, the entire Sanshan Market felt as if it had found its backbone and quickly stabilized.

The Qingding Sect also reacted swiftly, forming an offensive and defensive alliance with Hongyu Laozu to jointly deal with the Demon Cultivator invasion of the Wu Country. They even dispatched a large number of personnel to help the Sanshan Association build a massive Third-tier Array Formation around Dongmen Valley. Upon hearing this news, the Black Blood Sect directly abandoned their invasion plans.

"Hiss... as expected, Spirit Beasts live longer than cultivators. Raising a Spirit Beast to guard a family is excellent," a Family Cultivator said thoughtfully, seemingly wanting to go buy a Myriad Longevity Turtle himself.

"Heh... that's because you don't know how much of a trap the Myriad Longevity Turtle is!" another female cultivator said with disdain. "The one the Miao family raised at the start was already a Second-tier Myriad Longevity Turtle. Do you know how high the price of a Second-tier Myriad Longevity Turtle is at an Auction House? It can't even be compared to a Foundation Establishment Pill! After all, even if Foundation Establishment is successful, how long can a Foundation Establishment cultivator live?"

After all, the situation had changed again; the Sanshan Association had completely leaned toward the Qingding Sect. Although that Hongyu Laozu only had Foundation Establishment cultivation, she possessed a Third-tier Spirit Beast, and relying on the Array, even the Black Blood Sect Master would find it difficult to take her down within ten days or half a month.

"Therefore, this Hongyu Laozu and the Black Blood Sect definitely have a blood feud!"

As for Jin Buhuan himself, although he was severely injured, he managed to save his life. After returning to Sanshan Market, he seemed a bit off.

"The Sanshan Association was originally a place for Loose Cultivators to huddle together for warmth. At the time, facing pressure from both the Black Blood Sect and the Qingding Sect, several Foundation Establishment cultivators made a prompt decision to jointly fund that Myriad Longevity Turtle's advancement!"

"Even so, it almost collapsed before the dawn..."

"Not necessarily. Some Spirit Beasts live longer than cultivators, while others have very short lives... but like the Myriad Longevity Turtle, which has an extremely long lifespan and faces few bottlenecks during advancement, it is an anomaly."

'Cultivation dropped to the Qi Refining Early Stage? Was the Qi Sea dantian injured?'

This person was none other than Jin Buhuan!

It was said that he sold off his assets early to run away, but encountered bandit cultivators halfway. Not only were his Spirit Stones and Storage Bag all robbed, but even several of his concubines were snatched away, and the remaining ones took his last few Spirit Stones and ran off completely.

"And thanks to the efforts of Hongyu Laozu and the Spirit Beast, the great disaster from three years ago was ultimately averted."

"However, if we were to establish a family, buying a different type of Spirit Beast to guard the family wouldn't be bad."

"You don't understand, do you? That Myriad Longevity Turtle was indeed Second-tier back then, but the Miao family had already been raising it for nearly four or five hundred years... This goes back to the Foundation Establishment ancestor who founded the Miao family. At that time, that Miao family ancestor felt that maintaining a family was not easy, so he specifically sought out this already Second-tier Myriad Longevity Turtle as the family's foundation, raising it in the spirit pond in front of the ancestral hall."

Aaron listened silently, tossed out a Spirit Stone to pay for the tea, and walked out of the teahouse.

Judging by his spirit robes, he must have lived well in the past, but he had fallen on hard times recently.

The old cultivator said with a sense of shared honor.

It wasn't until recently, after confirming that the Black Blood Sect truly had no major movements, that he returned to the market.

And when the time came, the Qingding Sect would inevitably send reinforcements, immediately putting them in a position of being attacked from both front and back!

The war clouds that had originally shrouded Sanshan Market suddenly dispersed, but Aaron still decided to go out for a period of time, remotely controlling Lin Yuanping to run the shop and earn Spirit Stones while observing the situation.

He touched his Spirit Beast Bag, compared Xiaoqing, who still hadn't grown much, with that Golden Core Myriad Longevity Turtle from that day, and shook his head: "This is still at least nine hundred years of Taoism short. Xiaoqing, you have to work hard!"

"At that time, Hongyu Laozu's Myriad Longevity Turtle was not far from a breakthrough... and the breakthrough of a Myriad Longevity Turtle is the least dependent on bloodline aptitude. As long as it lives to a certain age, breaking through is as simple as water flowing into a channel. The high-level members of the Sanshan Association hid this from everyone and secretly collected spirit items to assist, and they actually managed to pull it off!"

An old cultivator sighed: "It's fortunate the Miao family had the patience to raise a Second-tier Myriad Longevity Turtle for nearly five hundred years before finally getting a return."

"Among the Loose Cultivators, when did an Hongyu Laozu appear? Why were we completely unaware before?"

Aaron ignored Jin Buhuan's gaze and walked into the 'Small Talisman Hall'.

For cultivators, three years is not a long time, and it remained a hot topic of conversation.

"That Hongyu Laozu comes from a Foundation Establishment family—the Miao family!" Immediately, an old cultivator began to recount with spittle flying, though it was unclear if he was a shill hired by the Sanshan Association: "The Miao family was an old-school Foundation Establishment power in our Lin Kingdom's Immortal Cultivation World, but during the last Righteous-Demonic War, the Miao Family Grandmother happened to run into the Dongmen Valley incident and was besieged by Demon Cultivators and fell... Only Hongyu Laozu escaped alone. Afterward, the Miao family was besieged again and almost wiped out... Only Hongyu Laozu escaped with a small number of clansmen under the cover of the family's trump card—the Second-tier Myriad Longevity Turtle."

Another cultivator smiled to ease the atmosphere.

"Later, Hongyu Laozu also succeeded in Foundation Establishment, but the Miao family was already destroyed, so she could only become a Loose Cultivator... and later she associated with many Foundation Establishment cultivators of the Sanshan Association... one could even say she was one of the founders of the Sanshan Association."

"Why do I feel that even if I reached Golden Core, you still haven't formed a Golden Core?"

"This world is a bit magical... a female cultivator at the Foundation Establishment Initial Stage actually controls the life tablet of a Golden Core Demon King, and then she became an Ancestor."

Grumbling about his own Spirit Beast all the way, Aaron returned to the 'Small Talisman Hall' and saw a gaunt man wearing tattered spirit robes sitting at the street corner, staring blankly at his shop, muttering to himself: "I'm so stupid, really..."

A person who seemed to be a newcomer to cultivation raised their question.

"The Sanshan Association has soared into the sky from then on. Although it is still not a Golden Core Sect, it can be considered a top-tier power."

"Wait, why is it a Second-tier Myriad Longevity Turtle?" a young man retorted: "The Spirit Beast under the Ancestor is clearly a Third-tier Golden Core Great Demon!"

"Boss... that person..." Lin Yuanping looked at Jin Buhuan, his face showing some pity.

"And buying a Qi Refining Myriad Longevity Turtle, even starting from a turtle egg, while the loyalty is highest, the time consumption is too long, too long... After all, the Myriad Longevity Turtle is notoriously a trap: a hundred years for Qi Refining, five hundred years for Foundation Establishment!"

"Because it was never activated, even the Miao family members themselves had almost forgotten about it... but just as the Miao family was about to be wiped out, this Myriad Longevity Turtle stepped forward. At that time, it already had the combat power equivalent to the Foundation Establishment Late Stage, fierce and peerless, and it killed its way out of the encirclement with Hongyu Laozu and the others."

"Keep a closer eye on the door from now on, and be careful of him."

Aaron waved his hand to give the order, then cast the matter to the back of his mind.

(End of chapter)