Chapter 659: Returning Old Friend

Pure Nine-Lotus Treasure Lamp

Fifteen years have passed since Chen Mobai formed his Golden Core, and he has now cultivated to the fourth layer of Golden Core!

Even in the entire history of the Immortal Sect, Chen Mobai was surpassed by only a handful of individuals, such as Ancestor Yuanyang.

After successfully breaking through, Chen Mobai couldn't suppress the joy in his heart.

He let out a long cry towards the sky, drawing in the spiritual energy of heaven and earth from the summit of Danxia Mountain. It echoed like a clap of thunder, instantly resounding throughout the academies below the mountain.

Soon after, the entire Danxia City learned that Councilor Chen had broken through his cultivation realm.

However, upon hearing this, everyone simply took it for granted.

This was because he possessed the potential to reach the Soul Transformation stage, making him the undisputed most talented individual in the Immortal Sect in this era.

A successful breakthrough was normal; failure would have been the real news.

This left Chen Mobai a bit displeased.

He had diligently taken elixirs to achieve this breakthrough, hoping to cause a sensation within the Immortal Sect. This would not only reinforce his image as someone with Soul Transformation potential but also satisfy a little vanity, allowing him to show off in front of his friends and family!

But even his parents, upon hearing the news, merely replied with an "Oh" in the family chat, indicating they had received the information.

Not to mention friends like Ming Yihua, who didn't even call.

It was his female friends, like Qing Nu, who were considerate and immediately sent their congratulations.

After contacting each of them, Chen Mobai suddenly felt it was quite uninteresting.

Next, it seemed only when he formed his Nascent Soul would he cause another huge sensation in the Immortal Sect.

However, even with access to half the resources of the Eastern Wasteland, he felt the Nascent Soul formation stage would be somewhat difficult.

Chen Mobai felt it was time to include cultivating the Primordial Dao Fruit within his goals.

After hanging up the call with Wenren Xuewei, he took out the Earth Meridian Elixirs he had refined.

There were twenty-one in total.

Among them, three were immature works from his initial attempts at refining, with their elixir toxicity exceeding 1. In his mind, they were essentially discarded elixirs.

However, he didn't destroy them directly; after all, they would be considered of good quality in the Eastern Wasteland.

Aside from these three, the remaining eighteen were all products of his mature craftsmanship.

The toxicity of all of them was controlled to below 1, with two even approaching zero, meeting the standards of the Immortal Sect.

Chen Mobai personally selected the nine best quality ones. The remaining nine were placed in a box, to be given to Zhuo Ming, his chosen disciple and inheritor, in the future.

Speaking of which, Zhuo Ming had good luck over the years while opening up waterways in Yan Country, discovering three more strands of Creation Qi.

Although Chen Mobai didn't like to move around much, after hearing this, he still personally set off for the Eastern Wasteland Plateau to help Zhuo Ming extract these using the Myriad Things Thick Virtue Cauldron.

Facts proved Chen Mobai's conjecture was correct.

When the fourth strand of Creation Qi was refined, its amplification effect on Earth spiritual root had already reached its peak.

Zhuo Ming, with Chen Mobai's assistance, refined these three strands, but none of them could increase her Earth spiritual root by even 1 point anymore.

When Chen Mobai refined the fourth strand, his Earth spiritual root only increased by 2 points, which was better than nothing, but barely so.

With the change in his spiritual root, he naturally didn't forget to visit the Divine Tree Secret Realm.

This time, he obtained a great Water-element technique called Water Evasion. Once mastered, it allowed him to freely pass through, enter, exit, and shift locations anywhere there was water.

However, Chen Mobai had no way to cultivate it, so he could only seal it away and see if he might have the opportunity to pass it down to a future disciple or grand-disciple with a Water Spiritual Body.

After the Creation Qi ceased to be useful for his own Earth spiritual root, Chen Mobai no longer claimed any more of Zhuo Ming's opportunities, letting her refine the rest.

Looking at the nine best-quality Earth Meridian Elixirs in his hand, Chen Mobai picked one up and consumed it.

Half a day later, he looked at the spiritual energy detector in his palm.

Earth spiritual root: 45.

This number made the corners of his mouth curl up involuntarily.

It was probably because the first layer of the Phoenix Facing the Sun Diagram had advanced again, bringing even greater auspiciousness. He directly gained the maximum 5 points of Earth spiritual root, a strong start.

Chen Mobai immediately went to the Divine Tree Secret Realm and obtained another great technique.

This time it was the Earth Evasion technique, which could be used by Zhuo Ming.

After coming out, he was about to take another Earth Meridian Elixir.

However, he felt information transmitted from his Longevity Dao Body.

A significant amount of elixir toxicity had accumulated. If he were to take another dose, it might not be dissolved in time, potentially causing permanent damage to his body.

This was mainly because the elixir toxicity contained in that Blood Spirit Elixir was a bit excessive.

Although the Lamp Igniting Technique could dissolve elixir toxicity, after his breakthrough, its primary task was to purify Pure Yang spiritual power, which would likely take one or two years.

Moreover, he still needed to take the Golden Crow Carrying the Sun Elixir annually, which meant the Lamp Igniting Technique would be somewhat overwhelmed.

This technique from the Pure Yang Scroll was primarily used to purify, refine, and temper essence, qi, and spirit. Chen Mobai using it to dissolve elixir toxicity was indeed a case of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Fortunately, he had the Green Cicada Spirit Tea obtained from Huitian Valley; otherwise, Chen Mobai wouldn't dare to take elixirs so wantonly.

However, this Green Cicada Spirit Tea was only of third-tier quality. If Chen Mobai were to take fourth-tier elixirs in the future, the tea's effect on dissolving elixir toxicity would be negligible.

At that point, if he only relied on the Lamp Igniting Technique, Chen Mobai would have to be very cautious about taking elixirs.

But this wasn't without a solution.

The Phoenix Facing the Sun Diagram has a total of seven layers. Besides the first layer, "Phoenix Perching on the Parasol Tree," which lays the foundation, the remaining six layers are named: "Eating with Substance," "Drinking with Etiquette," "Connecting with Heavenly Blessings," "Responding to Earthly Spirits," "Governing the Five Tones," and "Beholding the Nine Virtues!"

Among these, if the second layer, "Eating with Substance," were mastered, it would bestow another phoenix talent.

The so-called "Eating with Substance" means only consuming and refining things that are beneficial to oneself.

In other words, when taking elixirs containing toxicity, only the medicinal effects would be refined, while the toxins would be exhaled from the body as breath.

Besides elixirs, this also applies to various spirit rice, spirit meat, and so on. Although these are cultivated with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, they more or less contain some impurities and sediments.

Accumulating over time, these would erupt when a cultivator's body grows old and weak, affecting their physical health, lifespan, and so forth.

But with the "Eating with Substance" blessing, there would be no need to worry about such problems. Even if Chen Mobai consumed highly poisonous substances, he would only absorb what was beneficial to him and expel the toxins from his body.

To describe this talent with another phrase, it's "invulnerability to all poisons!"

However, cultivating the Phoenix Facing the Sun Diagram was extremely slow. Even though Chen Mobai had the Jade Parasol Tree, which made his speed much faster than ordinary people, it would probably take until he reached the sixth layer of Golden Core to master "Eating with Substance" and thus become immune to all poisons!

Chen Mobai even started to consider whether he should use the "Devouring God Art" from the "Path of Heaven" to quickly achieve mastery of the Phoenix Facing the Sun Diagram!

After all, in the Eastern Wasteland, he possessed a fourth-tier Longevity Wood, giving him uniquely advantageous conditions for cultivating this forbidden art.

But after a second thought, he decided it was better not to take this risk.

If cultivating the forbidden art were exposed in the Immortal Sect, his carefully built persona of many years would instantly collapse. People would believe he achieved his success solely by relying on forbidden arts.

It's better to wait until he truly can't master it through normal means before considering it.

Chen Mobai set a bottom line for himself.

Half a month later.

Chen Mobai, having stabilized his realm, went down the mountain to visit Yan Bingxuan at Xuanfrost Company.

Now, this company had gained some renown within the Immortal Sect.

This was because Chen Mobai had invested all the spirit stones he obtained from the Void Blind Box into Xuanfrost Company.

Thirty mid-grade spirit stones, plus three hundred and twenty-seven low-grade spirit stones.

The basic value of these alone was 33.27 million Contribution Points, which, converted into an investment, would be enough to buy out the entire company.

Moreover, spirit stones were a scarce resource in the Immortal Sect.

Wenren Xuewei's Malevolent Qi Energy Company in Linwu Grotto-heaven, even relying on the prestige of Jumang Daoist Academy, only managed to apply for five mid-grade spirit stones.

Yan Bingxuan converted all these spirit stones into rechargeable ones.

Then she placed an order for Chai Lun to produce more puppets. With enough spirit stones now, her company's scale and quantity of condensed Five Elements essence could increase six to seven times.

Besides equipment upgrades, over the years, the elemental energy courses offered by the three major academies — Danzhu, Chixia, and Qingsang — although not producing top-tier geniuses, had trained a group of usable "workhorses."

Yan Bingxuan was nominally the head of the elemental energy departments at these three major academies. Under her guidance, these students frequently came to Xuanfrost Company for internships while still at school, putting their knowledge into practice.

She also treated the students fairly, paying them Contribution Points as compensation according to market rates.

With sufficient equipment and manpower, Xuanfrost Company's profits sharply increased fivefold last year, reaching five million Contribution Points.

It instantly became Danxia City's second-largest taxpayer, surpassed only by the Puppet Factory.

Ranking third was Chen Mobai's Flying Talisman Factory, with an annual profit of over two million Contribution Points.

The main reason for this was a lack of skilled technical personnel.

Although his younger sister, Wang Xinying, a Foundation Establishment cultivator, was in charge, her talent in talismans was average, and she still hadn't passed the examination for a third-tier talisman master.

Furthermore, with the passage of time, all the original core technical personnel of the Flying Talisman Factory retired after reaching over eighty years old, leading to a gap in succession of new talent.

If it weren't for Chen Mobai's influence, and later recruiting some excellent talisman graduates from the three major academies, as well as introducing three different types of second-tier talisman paper and ink to the market, the Flying Talisman Factory would probably have started losing money long ago.

The only notable achievement of the Flying Talisman Factory in recent years was its collaboration with the Yan family to restore the third-tier Azure Glow Talisman Paper and Flying Rainbow Talisman Ink.

However, these two items were only of acceptable quality; only when they were drawn into Heavenly Heart Sword Talismans would they become highly sought-after treasures in the Immortal Sect.

Nevertheless, as an unranked talisman, the Heavenly Heart Sword Talisman was as difficult to create as a high-grade third-tier talisman. Previously, Ancestor Yan had to collaborate with another fourth-tier talisman master to successfully draw it.

Chen Mobai felt that even if he learned it using the Enlightenment Tea, it would be difficult to draw successfully without assistance, so he didn't waste the precious tea.

And just as he was thinking this, two old acquaintances he hadn't expected came to visit.

"Greetings, Councilor Chen!"

A man and a woman ascended Danxia Mountain. Upon seeing Chen Mobai, who was seated beneath the Jade Parasol Tree, they immediately came forward to greet him.

The man was robust with thick eyebrows and large eyes, while the woman had a beautiful face and graceful figure. Both were Chen Mobai's good friends from his time at Danzhu Academy.

Luan Jingsheng and Chan Si.

"It's been over thirty years, hasn't it? Seeing both of you return after forming your Foundation, my heart is truly joyful."

Chen Mobai's face showed unmasked delight as he saw the two who had returned from service. For the first time in a long while, he brought out a jar of fine wine.

"I originally thought of continuing my service in the military, hoping to obtain Golden Core spiritual items there, but after several assessments, I was eliminated," Luan Jingsheng said regretfully. He had failed to establish his Foundation at Danzhu Academy and chose to enlist in the military. Unexpectedly, he had good luck, taking a transformative step within the military's melting pot.

Chan Si was the same.

Unfortunately, the competition in the military was even fiercer and more brutal than within the Immortal Sect. After staying for over twenty years and feeling there was truly no hope left for them, both chose to retire.

"What are your plans next? Will you seek opportunities to form a Five Elements Golden Core in the major Grotto-heaven cities, or try to pass the civil service exam?" Chen Mobai asked. Those who retired from the military received bonus points for civil service exams, and if they passed, their time in service would be considered work experience. This was done to encourage cultivators in the Immortal Sect to serve in the military.

"I'll send my resume to the four major Talisman Factories to see if I can join one of them, like Wu Shangru. At the same time, I'll prepare for the civil service exam," Luan Jingsheng stated his intentions. He was only in his sixties, and as long as his cultivation continued to progress, it was possible for him to attempt Golden Core formation once.

So he hadn't quite given up hope.

Chan Si shook her head after hearing this: "I plan to find a job to support myself, then cultivate while preparing for the civil service exam. I won't go struggle in the big cities."

"If that's the case, how about my Flying Talisman Factory?" Chen Mobai immediately invited.

Upon hearing this, Chen Mobai immediately extended an invitation.

Chan Si's attainments in talisman crafting were also at the second tier, and coupled with her Foundation Establishment cultivation, her joining would certainly greatly boost the Flying Talisman Factory.

"Since Councilor Chen has personally invited me, how could I refuse?"

Chan Si smiled slightly after hearing this and accepted without hesitation.

"It's a pity that Senior Brother Luan is going elsewhere. Otherwise, with both of you joining, I could open a new production line for third-tier talisman paper and ink, making the Flying Talisman Factory bigger and stronger."

Luan Jingsheng hesitated slightly upon hearing this, but seeing the clear-faced young man before him, who was even younger than him yet already at the fourth layer of Golden Core, he felt a surge of resolve, determined to take a chance in the big city.

Chen Mobai could only express his regret regarding this.

That evening, the three of them drank a large jar of wine. Chen Mobai also invited Shen Juanxiu, who was almost a grandmother. Upon seeing Chan Si, her friend whom she hadn't seen in over thirty years, she immediately embraced her and burst into tears.

After sobering up, Luan Jingsheng bid farewell and prepared to leave.

Chen Mobai personally escorted him down the mountain.

On the mountain!

Chan Si, holding her tipsy best friend, suddenly opened her eyes, which showed no trace of drunkenness, after Chen Mobai left. She gently put Shen Juanxiu down and walked to the Jade Parasol Tree.

"I never thought there would be a day I'd return!"

Chan Si's gaze suddenly became very strange. She reached out and touched the bark of the spiritual plant, her voice indifferent as she murmured to herself.

The moment her hands touched it, the usually serene Jade Parasol Tree suddenly trembled slightly.