Chapter 83: One Breath of Jianghe and Mountain

Li Mutian's funeral was overly grand. It didn't look like a common old man had died, but rather like a Garrison Commander or a Prefect. Long white cloths were stretched across all the villages, and the direct descendants of the Li family wore white mourning clothes, dragging the hearse through the stone-paved roads.

The news blew into the villages like a gust of wind. Chen Erniu had just gotten out of bed when he was shocked speechless by the news brought back by Chen Sanshui.

Putting down the willow branch in his hand, Chen Erniu rinsed his mouth and sat silently by the table, an indescribable sorrow rising in his heart.

"No matter what kind of person you are, you cannot escape death. As long as you cannot cultivate into an immortal, you are nothing but a pile of yellow earth."

Chen Sanshui, however, disagreed, curling his lips:

"It's entirely because the three Li brothers cultivated the immortal path. How can the death of an ordinary old man have such a grand display? That Li Mutian, he's not necessarily anyone of importance."

Chen Erniu narrowed his eyes, grabbed the willow branch, and whipped Chen Sanshui hard, cursing with spittle flying everywhere:

"Idiot! You bastard will be stupid to death sooner or later!"

"Yes, yes, yes, the fourth brother is the best, doesn't he have a spiritual aperture?"

Chen Sanshui muttered a few words, picked up his bowl and chopsticks, and left the table. Regardless of the gloomy face of Chen Erniu behind him, he walked out of the courtyard on his own.

Mount Lijing.

Lu Jiangxian looked at the courtyard covered in plain white mourning clothes. The wooden chair where Li Mutian often sat in the backyard was empty, and his heart felt a bit desolate. Watching Li Mutian being buried, his spiritual sense was suddenly touched. He saw a flying shuttle of light approaching rapidly from the horizon, slowly stopping outside the Great Array of Mount Lijing.

"Xiao Yuansi of the Xiao family comes to visit! Please open the mountain gate."

Xiao Yuansi stopped outside the mountain. Although the mountain-protecting array under his feet was like nothing to him, a cultivator who had already broken through to the eighth level of Qi Refining, Xiao Yuansi still stopped politely.

Not long after, the two Li brothers opened the array. Xiao Yuansi then slowly landed in the courtyard on the mountain. Seeing Li Xiangping and Li Tongya in white, and the courtyard in plain colors, the smile on his face faded, and he said solemnly:

"Is it the old man..."

Seeing Li Xiangping and the other nod, Xiao Yuansi sighed, offered his condolences, and said in a low voice:

"This is the third-grade 'Jianghe and Mountain One Breath Art'. It swallows the clear energy in the river. You need to find a place where the river network is dense and reeds and calamus grow lushly. Wait until dusk or dawn, when the clear energy rises and the turbid energy sinks, and then use the energy-gathering method to collect it on the river surface. You get one strand in about six months, and ten strands make one portion."

Xiao Yuansi patted his brocade pouch, took out several jade slips, and continued:

"As for this second-grade 'Clear Spirit Origin Method', it uses small clear spiritual energy. Just collect the spiritual energy. Although it is not as good as the 'Jianghe and Mountain One Breath Art', it is better than ordinary cultivation methods on the market."

Li Tongya hurriedly took the wooden slips handed over by Xiao Yuansi and thanked him softly. Only then did he see Xiao Yuansi sigh lightly, his expression somewhat complex as he said:

"The protection of Qingsui Peak is limited. The wind and clouds are changing, and the waves are surging. Take care of yourselves!"

The inexplicable seclusion of his master, Si Yuanbai, whom the disciples of Qingsui Peak had not even seen once, and the increasingly urgent voices in the sect urging them to go to the Southern Frontier—all of this made Xiao Yuansi smell a thick sense of strangeness.

Suddenly remembering that the territory of Qingsui Peak, Xunlin Plain, had been given to the Tangjin Sect to loot without a sound, Xiao Yuansi felt his hair stand on end, as if he were a small pawn held in the hands of those Purple Mansion cultivators, and he lost his focus for a moment.

"The Immortal Sect has been acting frequently these years, repeatedly handing over the mortals under their rule. Could it be that, as rumored, some Zifu cultivator in the sect is about to sit down?"

Xiao Yuansi felt a chill down his spine. It was only after Li Tongya and the others called out tentatively several times that he was pulled back to reality. He smiled reluctantly and asked:

"What is it?"

Li Tongya cupped his hands and said:

"I just wanted to ask if the Immortal Master has this clear energy from the river? We have some savings and would like to try to buy a portion."

Xiao Yuansi's worried expression and cryptic words also made Li Tongya and the other nervous. The Shanyue in the west were restless, and the Ji family in the east was eyeing them covetously. Li Tongya also wanted to advance to Qi Refining early. If he spent five years collecting that clear energy from the river and another four or five years to break through to Qi Refining, it would probably be too late.

It just so happened that killing that old Daoist had yielded some property, which should be enough to exchange for thirty or forty spirit stones, and adding the old Daoist's storage bag, which was a full zhang square, it could be exchanged for eighty or ninety spirit stones. Buying the clear energy from the river was definitely enough.

"I do have some."

Xiao Yuansi nodded, smiled, untied the small jade bottle from his waist, and said softly:

Li Tongya nodded, flipped his hand, took out the pale cyan metal that had been melted from the old Daoist from his storage bag, and said respectfully:

"I wonder what the value of this item is?"

Xiao Yuansi took a look, frowned, weighed it in his hand twice, and pondered:

"It should be Green Pattern Steel, a Qi Refining material. A piece like this is worth about twenty spirit stones."

Li Tongya looked at Li Xiangping, nodded, took out the twenty-five spirit stones from the old Daoist's storage bag, and handed them to Xiao Yuansi along with the five spirit stones the family had saved over the past few years, exchanging them for this portion of clear energy from the river.

The old Daoist's storage bag was a full zhang square and a zhang high, equivalent to a courtyard. Whether for marching or storage, it was of great use, so the two naturally couldn't bear to sell it.

The two took out the jade bottle that had stored the fire evil energy back then to hold the clear energy from the river, and took out the old Daoist's Jade Bud Pill to show Xiao Yuansi. Xiao Yuansi just sniffed it and smiled:

"A decent Qi Refining resource, it can also be worth seven or eight spirit stones."

The two naturally thanked him and chatted with Xiao Yuansi for a while before Xiao Yuansi took his leave.

After Xiao Yuansi flew far away, Li Tongya gently opened the jade bottle. Looking at the clear energy from the river, which looked like river water under the sun, the six wheels of his Embryonic Breath were restless, and he had the urge to swallow this heaven and earth spiritual energy right now.

Li Xiangping smiled lightly and said in a low voice:

"Wait until the second brother breaks through to Qi Refining. Then the Qi Refining monster will also be settled, and we can sacrifice to the magic mirror and try that talisman energy."

Li Tongya's face also showed uncontrollable joy. He took out the jade slip of the "Jianghe and Mountain One Breath Art" and his spiritual sense slowly probed into it.

These Qi Refining cultivation methods and techniques were often extremely long. If recorded on wooden slips, they would probably pile up like a small mountain, so jade slips made of warm jade were used to record them. As long as one probed their spiritual sense into them, they could read the information.

It was just that these jade slips were light and fragile and were often only used to record cultivation methods. For passing messages, durable items like spiritual silk fabrics were still used.

After reading this orthodox method carefully, Li Tongya stood up with high spirits and said in a deep voice: ===== CHAPTER 84 =====