Chapter 81: Stirred by a Porcelain Bottle...
"Is it placed here?"
"Yeah, just move it three inches to the left, facing south, six feet three inches underground."
"Got it... Oh—hey!"
Three months after leaving the Jiuyou Sect, outside the alchemy room of Xiaojiongfeng, three figures were bustling about.
Li Changshou was directing while Ling'e assisted; Jiuyou was fully focused, supervising the suppression of the spiritual energy in the formation, controlling the fluctuations of the formations, verifying the position of the formation base, and slowly burying the refined formation base with immortal power...
This process couldn't afford the slightest mistake.
After placing this formation base, Jiuyou took a long breath, leaning against the tree trunk, panting lightly...
"How many are left?"
Li Changshou glanced at his treasure bag and saw that there were still about a third, more than sixty formation bases for expanding the formations, yet to be placed.
However...
What he needed was just the pretext of "Jiushifu's help in placing" and Jiuyou's "profound memory" of this assistance, not necessarily to have her arrange all the formation bases completely...
In fact, most of the formation bases that had been placed this time would need him to fine-tune them later.
Li Changshou smiled and said, "There are three more to go, thank you for your hard work, Shishu."
Upon hearing that there were three more, Jiuyou's eyes were instantly filled with relief...
"At last, it's been a few months, almost done."
On the side, Ling'e sensed something from Li Changshou's expression and suddenly appeared pensive.
"Senior brother can now arrange formations without junior shishu's help?"
Jiuyou took out a spiritual wine pill, cracked it a few times, and was spirited once again!
"With one vigorous effort, let's finish them off!"
Shouting this slogan, Jiuyou jumped up again and hurried to the next location to bury the formation base.
Ling'e tidied her hair ends, chuckled lightly on the side, and followed with a bamboo basket in hand.
"Junior shishu, have some fruit and take a rest."
"Still so considerate, Xiaoling'e, your senior brother, only knows how to make people work for him!"
"Senior brother is also thinking for the stability of our Xiaojiongfeng. Thank you for your hard work, junior shishu. Let me massage your shoulders..."
"Sigh, a little to the left... We're both unfortunate souls, aren't we?"
Amidst laughter and banter, Ling'e and Jiuyou gradually walked away in the woods.
Li Changshou followed along, contemplating the operation of the great formation and perfecting the theory of the interconnected formations.
Another half-day of busy work;
At sunset, the remaining three formation bases were finally placed properly;
Jiuyou had become a different person, full of energy, pulling Ling'e and inviting Li Changshou to a decisive battle in the grass hut—'Battle of the Great God'!
Li Changshou sighed lightly in his heart. The formations here still needed to be adjusted carefully for a while, so there was no rush for this moment.
As they walked out of the woods, Li Changshou suddenly had an idea...
"What's this..."
Glancing at the senior and junior disciples frolicking ahead, Li Changshou withdrew his right hand into his sleeve, immediately calculating with his fingers, and soon had a sense of realization—
The porcelain bottle he had given to Jiuyu Senior Brother had been opened!
Naturally, that bottle was no ordinary bottle; it was a vessel that could store immortal pills and preserve their properties;
And Li Changshou had made some modifications to it, adding two prohibitions and injecting a thread of his simulated divine consciousness.
As long as the pills inside were taken out, he would have a faint sense!
What's going on here...
Did Senior Brother Jiuyu encounter danger and use the 'Corrosive Immortal Soul Pill'?
Or did Senior Brother Jiuyu take out this pill to show to others?
Of course, the possibility of the bottle breaking on its own couldn't be ruled out...
Although Senior Brother sometimes seemed unreliable, he was always cautious in his actions outside;
Otherwise, the sect wouldn't have entrusted him with tasks like 'preparing for the Tri-Sect Summit', which required carefulness to avoid offending anyone, to Senior Brother Jiuyu...
Most likely, something had gone wrong on Senior Brother Jiuyu's side.
And with Zhongzhou so far away from here, he couldn't do anything immediately.
Thinking in his heart, Li Changshou immediately made up his mind...
He called out, "Senior Brother Jiuyu!"
"Hmm? What's up? Come join in the fun! Hehehe!"
Li Changshou coughed and, with a serious expression, said a few words to Jiuyou; Upon hearing him, Jiuyou and Ling'e's expressions suddenly turned somewhat... Strange...
Jiuyou couldn't help but ask incredulously, "Is it true?"
"Of course it's true," Li Changshou nodded solemnly.
"But," Jiuyou couldn't believe it, raising an eyebrow, pinching her thin earlobe, "Did you dream yesterday that my fifth senior brother was in danger? He was being chased by seven or eight burly men like bears?"
"Exactly," Li Changshou said seriously, "Today, after thinking it over, I still feel uneasy. Our instincts as cultivators may have some significance."
Jiuyou immediately frowned, whispering, "But because you dreamed of my fifth senior brother getting into trouble, you want to disturb Fourth Senior Sister's seclusion... Alright, I'll go and try to wake Fourth Senior Sister."
Li Changshou added, "Please handle this matter carefully, Shishu," "Why? Are you afraid of getting scolded?" "Not afraid of getting scolded, but it's easy for people to misunderstand... Moreover, I really don't want to attract any more attention from within the sect."
Jiuyou chuckled, scolding, "You talk as if everyone's eager to keep an eye on you! I'll go wake Fourth Senior Sister. You guys wait here! Let's fight the big god together when I come back!"
Li Changshou and Ling'e both agreed. Jiuyou yawned, took a flying gourd, and flew away...
As Jiuyou left, Ling'e approached with her hands behind her back, gently bumping into Li Changshou with her slender shoulders.
"Senior Brother, is it true or not?"
"What?" "Dreaming that Senior Brother Jiuyu was being chased by a group of big men."
"Dreams are naturally false."
Li Changshou stood with his hands behind his back, a hint of helplessness in his expression, and transmitted his voice:
"But trouble might be real. Go back and pack your bags, take everything useful with you."
Ling'e also looked puzzled, "What's wrong, Senior Brother?"
"Just in case," Li Changshou narrowed his eyes slightly, a hint of light shimmering in his eyes, "One must always prepare several steps ahead for everything."
Ling'e pursed her lips, blinked, nodded quietly, and hurriedly ran to her own grass hut.
...
The stone thrown by Li Changshou caused quite a stir in the Immortal Degree Sect.
Jiu Jiu returned to the Broken Sky Peak and told Jiu Shi about "her dream of Fifth Senior Brother being chased by a group of strong men." Jiu Shi, though interrupted during his enlightenment, showed no displeasure. In front of Jiu Jiu, he took out the "Thousand-Miles One-Line Link" messaging talisman refined together with Jiu Wu... But then, there was no response at all. Jiu Shi was initially stunned, then took out a precious mirror; this mirror was called the "Concordant Heart Mirror," with Jiu Wu's heart-blood on it. By activating it, one could see what Jiu Wu was currently witnessing. ——This was indeed a necessary item for checking on fellow disciples and preventing interference in disciples' internal affairs.
However, no matter how many times Jiu Shi activated it, the mirror remained unresponsive; at this point, Jiu Shi was somewhat panicked and hurriedly took Jiu Jiu to seek help from their master...
But within half an hour, urgent bells rang out on the Broken Sky Peak! Suddenly, a formidable pressure appeared on the Broken Sky Peak, and a figure enveloped in green light rushed out of the mountain protection array, shooting towards the west! Shortly after, four figures rushed out of the mountain protection array and stood facing in all directions; one of these three people was Forget Emotion, someone Li Changshou was more familiar with.
At the same time, traces of celestial immortals' auras appeared on the peaks, and the elders within the sect were alarmed...
The one who had just soared into the sky and headed towards the Middle Divine Continent was... the Sect Leader.
Li Changshou stood in front of the grass hut, carefully sensing the mysterious Dao rhyme unique to the realm of Golden Immortality.
Sure enough, the Immortal Degree Sect had Golden Immortals!
Golden Immortals, the immortals of longevity, whose paths had been recognized by the Heavenly Dao. If there were no disasters, they could live with the Dao and never die. However, the realm of Golden Immortality was also a very vague realm, and there were obvious differences between one Golden Immortal and another; their abilities could vary greatly. The realm of Dao was only the foundation, just a "ticket" to become a master. Divine powers and treasures were the main factors determining the strength of Golden Immortals; the Golden Immortal realm of their Sect Leader was naturally far from comparable to the famous Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan School. Moreover, the "debut" of the Twelve Golden Immortals of the Chan School on the grand stage of the Primordial Era was before the Half-Elemental Assembly, and at that time, they were only collectively referred to as the Twelve Golden Immortals. As for figures like Guang Chengzi and Chi Jingzi, who had joined the ranks of saints early on, they should have long since reached the realm of Grand Luo Golden Immortality. ——Grand Luo Golden Immortality also counted as Golden Immortality, Grand Luo represented the perfection of one's own Dao, minor disasters would not destroy it, and major disasters would be hard to escape. Most of the eight disciples of the Jiejiao Sect, both inside and outside the sect, and the seven immortals accompanying them, should also have reached the realm of Grand Luo. With these thoughts flashing through his mind, Li Changshou also felt some concern for Senior Brother Jiu Wu... Senior Brother Jiu Wu was only in the True Immortal realm and could not even be considered "cannon fodder" in the Primordial Era. If something really happened to him, it wouldn't be surprising at all... The Primordial Era was so dangerous.
"Senior Brother, has Senior Brother Jiu Wu really encountered trouble?" Ling'e asked with concern.
"Mm," Li Changshou said calmly, "you don't need to worry either. If it concerns the affairs of the Three Religions, the People Religion will also have experts supporting the Immortal Degree Sect..."
Before he could finish his sentence, Jiu Jiu hurriedly rushed over from the Broken Sky Peak.
Jiu Jiu hadn't even landed yet when she urgently called out to Li Changshou and Ling'e standing in front of the grass hut: "Changshou, Ling'e! Something's happened!"
Li Changshou frowned slightly and asked hurriedly, "What's going on? Senior Brother, slow down."
How could Jiu Jiu slow down at a time like this? She exclaimed, "We can't slow down now; I'm about to lose my mind!" She continued to pace around on the spot, then looked at Li Changshou, her eyes showing a bit of apology as she said quietly, "I shouldn't be so anxious with you. Thank you, Changshou. If it weren't for you dreaming about it, things might have been worse."
Li Changshou sighed, "Senior Brother Jiu Wu and I have a deep friendship; there's no need to thank me for this matter. But remember, Senior Brother, you must say that you dreamed about it when you talk about it later."
"Mm, I know..." Jiu Jiu looked at Li Changshou, swallowing her words and saying, "Actually, there's one more thing I'd like to trouble you with."
"What?" Jiu Jiu frowned. "Could you... could you sleep again and see if you can dream about how things are over there? I know it's a bit much to ask, dreaming is also a matter of feeling, a matter of luck... but..."
Li Changshou immediately nodded, "Okay, I'll try to see if I can dream about it. Ling'e, you stay here with Senior Brother and keep him from getting too anxious."
"Thank you, Little Shoushou..." Jiu Jiu whispered, her face showing some weariness from anxiety.
Li Changshou agreed and headed back to his own hut; Ling'e reached out and grabbed Jiu Jiu's arm, comforting her softly.
Of course, Li Changshou couldn't dream about anything. After returning to his room, he just lay on the bed and calmly analyzed the possible troubles the Immortal Degree Sect might encounter and the possible developments of this matter later on.
Worry, in Li Changshou's eyes, was actually the most useless emotion.
It's even less useful than the second or third worst: being overwhelmed and feeling powerless.
And this time, Li Changshou didn't realize it, but he ended up covertly saving Jiuwu and two elders from the sect...
After the poison pill was used, Li Changshou quickly notified Jiujiu.
Then Jiujiu and Juishi realized that Jiuwu might be in trouble and immediately informed the sect.
Upon verifying that those who traveled with Jiuwu had all lost contact, the sect reported the matter to the sect leader...
Immediately, the sect leader of the Duxian Sect came out of seclusion and hurried to Central Divine Continent, while senior elders contacted acquaintances at the Golden Palace Sect...
The experts dispatched by the Golden Palace Sect didn't take long to find a concealed array thousands of miles away from the sect's mountain gate and located the Duxian Sect group besieged within the array;
Several experts rushed in, captured the attackers, and even deliberately left one alive.
However, the moment they were captured, the shadows of those people mysteriously 'shriveled' their primordial spirits...
The Duxian Sect didn't know why this group of five had appeared here. Two celestial elders were seriously injured, Jiuwu was also heavily wounded, and the other two true immortals...
They perished without a trace.
The various sects of the Three Teachings were all furious! Who died wasn't important; what mattered was that this was a slap in the face to their three religious sects!
Experts from several branches of the Ren Teachings immediately stepped forward to protect Jiuwu and the others, vowing to thoroughly investigate the attack on the Duxian Sect group...
When Li Changshou received this news from Jiujun, Jiuwu and the two elders were already being escorted back to the Duxian Sect by the sect leader and other experts from the Ren Teachings.
The cause of the incident and who the attackers were had yet to be determined.
Li Changshou stood in front of the alchemy room door, heaved a sigh of relief... He hadn't expected that these occasional whimsical ideas would actually come in handy at a critical moment.
He'd have to come up with more of them in the future. By the way...
The escape array beneath Mount Xiaoqiong and the matter of the safe house should indeed be put on the agenda as soon as possible.