Seeing the complicated expression on Wuxin's face, Gu An wanted to laugh, but his years of acting experience kept him from breaking character.
Gu An's expression kept changing. First came shock, then relief, and finally tension.
Seeing the changes in his senior brother's expression, Wuxin felt even more awkward, but he did not regret revealing the matter.
Ever since their previous heart-to-heart talk, Wuxin had felt that his senior brother was the person closest to him. There should be no secrets between them.
"This cannot be spoken of. Otherwise, I won't be able to protect you!" Gu An drew a deep breath and said sternly.
Wuxin nodded solemnly. Recalling the earlier battle, he still felt chills down his spine.
Gu An asked curiously, "Could you recognize that person just now? What realm was he in?"
He wanted to probe the depths of Thousand Autumn Pavilion.
Hearing this, Wuxin could not help scratching his head. He guessed, "I didn't see his true face. He might have been in the Nascent Soul Realm. His movement technique was too fast. It feels like someone in the Golden Core Realm would find it hard to possess such ability..."
Gu An froze.
This foolish kid...
He sighed. "You said your father did not care about you. Look, he even sent someone to protect you."
"He truly does not care about me, but perhaps he was afraid I would disgrace him. Or perhaps that person happened to be coming to Taixuan Sect to carry out a mission." Wuxin guessed. He was not moved by the matter and still resisted his father.
Afterward, Gu An gave a few more instructions before taking Wuxin downstairs.
Gu An did not have the disciples clean the courtyard. Instead, he preserved the scene and planned to have Wuxin go to the Outer Sect's Law Enforcement Hall tomorrow.
All the disciples in the valley had seen the earlier battle. This matter could not be concealed at all, so it was better to inform Taixuan Sect in advance.
He stood before Qiu Qianli's pill furnace and examined the medicinal liquid within. He could not tell what pill Qiu Qianli had been refining, but he decided to preserve it and let Taixuan Sect make its own judgment.
That night.
Gu An arrived at Eight Sceneries Grotto-Heaven. After feeding Hao Dragon mutton as usual, he took out Qiu Qianli's Storage Bag.
He poured out everything inside, then destroyed the Storage Bag.
It had to be said that Spirit Transformation Realm cultivators were truly wealthy. The Spirit Stones and Spirit Qi Pills alone amounted to a staggering fortune.
He inspected them one by one, burning all the useless items to prevent anyone from tracking him down.
He also erased Qiu Qianli's marks from each magical artifact, turning them all into ownerless objects.
In the end, only a letter remained in his hand. Inside was a blank sheet of paper that needed to be read with spiritual sense, and one had to reach the Spirit Transformation Realm to glimpse its contents.
After investigating it, he learned why Qiu Qianli had come: for the Innate Dao Talisman.
Qiu Qianli's mission had been to receive the Ten Thousand Yin Sect spy who was snatching the Innate Dao Talisman at the Outer Sect.
Besides Thousand Autumn Pavilion, the Ten Thousand Yin Sect had also planted many spies within Taixuan Sect. For Qiu Qianli to be responsible for receiving them, that person's cultivation had to be low.
The spies of the Demonic Path truly slipped through every crack!
How many people were like him before, unable to act of their own will?
Gu An sighed inwardly, then rose to inspect the medicinal herbs within Eight Sceneries Grotto-Heaven.
Early the next morning, Wuxin took Tang Yu and Su Han to the Outer Sect. Gu An had the other disciples continue their usual work: those tending sheep tended sheep, those weeding weeded, and those watering watered.
By noon, the three had returned. They had come back so quickly because they had ridden a Golden Core Realm cultivator's magical artifact—a massive redwood fan upon which dozens of people stood. Ye Lan was among them as well.
After everyone landed, Gu An went forward to greet them.
The leader was a Law Enforcement Hall elder named Murong Ying.
Murong Ying (Third Level of the Golden Core Realm): 268/503/908
Murong Ying wore a purple robe. He was tall and handsome, with black-and-white hair. Every gesture he made carried the imposing air of one in power.
After hearing Gu An recount the entire incident, he nodded slightly and said, "You handled this well. Next, we will sweep this region clean. We will never allow Demonic Cultivators to lurk here."
Gu An immediately bowed in thanks.
The Law Enforcement Hall disciples did not chat much with the valley disciples. They entered Xiao Chuan's courtyard, and at the sight of the bloodstains on the walls and ground, every one of them felt their hearts tremble.
Murong Ying came before Qiu Qianli's pill furnace. When he looked inside, his brows quickly furrowed.
On the other side.
Ye Lan came to Gu An's side and comforted him.
Gu An had asked Wuxin to find her first. With her speaking on their behalf, it would be easier to invite the Law Enforcement Hall. Thus, when she heard that something had happened in Mystic Valley, she had nearly rushed over immediately.
After the time it took half an incense stick to burn, Murong Ying took away the pill furnace and called for the Law Enforcement Hall disciples to leave.
Watching the Law Enforcement Hall disciples depart into the distance, Zhen Qin could not help looking at Gu An and asking, "Is that all?"
Gu An had never expected the Law Enforcement Hall to accomplish much. As long as they reported the matter, it was enough. He did not want to be branded as a spy of the Demonic Path.
"They will investigate. At the very least, you should have faith in your Martial Aunt Ye." Gu An smiled.
Hearing that, Zhen Qin felt it made sense.
Yet the Law Enforcement Hall's attitude still stung her. She secretly swore that she would become an Outer Sect disciple as soon as possible.
Qiu Qianli had only been a minor setback for Mystic Valley, but to Gu An, he was a warning.
How many dangers like this had Mystic Valley already encountered?
No!
He still needed to raise his cultivation!
In the blink of an eye, seven days swiftly passed.
That night, Gu An quietly left Mystic Valley and sat down within a mountain forest a hundred li away.
He summoned the Attribute Panel and fixed his gaze on the Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique.
First, he would upgrade the technique!
He immediately invested ten thousand years of lifespan.
In the end, the Divine Wood Pure Yang Technique completed an advancement and became the Yang Wood Primordial Chaos Technique. Its mastery remained at the level of consummate perfection.
The Yang Wood Primordial Chaos Technique had even awakened a divine ability, greatly delighting Gu An.
He immediately activated the Longevity Barrier and received the inheritance of the Yang Wood Primordial Chaos Technique.
Half an hour later, the inheritance ended, and Gu An understood the mysteries of the divine ability.
This divine ability was called Yang Wood Ten Thousand Miles. It could inject spiritual power into the earth, condensing yang wood that covered the land. The yang wood could devour the essence, qi, and spirit of living beings, even devouring spiritual power. It was exceedingly terrifying. As long as the caster possessed sufficient spiritual power, it could cover ten thousand miles of land.
What an overbearing divine ability. Gu An liked it very much!
Gu An continued looking at his cultivation on the Attribute Panel. He planned to raise it to the ninth level of the Void Crossing Realm. As for breaking through, he feared the commotion would be too great. Besides, he only had a little over twenty thousand years of lifespan remaining.
He first invested one thousand years of lifespan, successfully rising from the first level of the Void Crossing Realm to the fourth. It was not bad.
However, after investing another thousand years of lifespan, his cultivation only reached the fifth level of the Void Crossing Realm.
After calculating it all, he had used a total of seven thousand five hundred years of lifespan to reach the ninth level of the Void Crossing Realm.
He still had more than thirteen thousand years of lifespan left, so he stopped there.
As the spiritual qi of heaven and earth poured into his body, he began carefully comprehending the mysteries within. He could not rely on lifespan to improve forever; he also wanted to form his own understanding of cultivation.
The spiritual qi of heaven and earth flowed into his body and gathered atop the Golden Pill, generating spiritual power before nourishing his sinews, bones, limbs, and Primordial Spirit. His cultivation thus continued to rise.
Even after reaching the Void Crossing Realm, a cultivator's Golden Pill remained within the dantian. Moreover, after reaching the Void Crossing Realm, Gu An could feel the importance of the Golden Pill even more clearly.
This inevitably made him think of the Golden Pill Great Dao in Daoist mythology.
Perhaps the Golden Core Realm merely laid the foundation. The true mysteries of the Golden Pill still required higher realms to uncover. It was like Spirit Roots—Gu An had always felt that cultivating a single Spirit Root to a certain stage would eventually lead to a dead end.
Immortal Gods were omnipotent. How could they possess methods of only one attribute?
The same applied to the Primordial Spirit and the Golden Pill. The Primordial Spirit was the manifestation of the soul, allowing cultivators to escape the shackles of mortal flesh.
Gu An wanted to try in the days ahead to see whether the Yang Wood Primordial Chaos Technique could fuse with techniques of other attributes. He wanted to create a Five Elements Technique that perfectly suited his Supreme Five Elements Heavenly Spirit Root.
Two hours later, Gu An successfully reached the ninth level of the Void Crossing Realm. The spiritual qi between heaven and earth had been drained dry by him. The Outer Sect would probably be disturbed again.
That was fine too. Taixuan Sect would certainly become more vigilant, the pressure on the Demonic Path spies would increase sharply, and Ji Xiaoyu's chances of succeeding in her tribulation would improve as well.
Gu An secretly sighed. He had helped Ji Xiaoyu out too.
Sure enough, early the next morning, while Gu An led the disciples through their exercises, he saw one Great Cultivator after another fly over Mystic Valley. The disciples were also discussing yesterday's descent of spiritual qi.
The spiritual qi consumed in rising from the first level of the Void Crossing Realm to the ninth was not the slightest bit less than that required to rise from the first level of the Spirit Transformation Realm to the first level of the Void Crossing Realm—perhaps even more. The Taixuan Sect Outer Sect had suffered two such incidents in succession and was likely at its wits' end.
Gu An planned to keep saving lifespan, so he was not worried about being discovered.
Next came the grand undertaking of developing Medicine Valley!
The autumn wind was bleak and desolate as Mystic Valley lived a life cut off from the world.
Since suffering Qiu Qianli's calamity, the disciples in the valley had cultivated even more diligently.
A month swiftly passed.
On this day, Gu An was beneath a tree studying the Ziwei Array Record. The White Spirit Mouse was dozing beside him, so fat that it resembled an overweight dog.
As he read the Ziwei Array Record, his right hand stroked the White Spirit Mouse. He was utterly at ease.
Suddenly!
Gu An seemed to sense something and lifted his eyes toward the distance, in the direction of the Inner Sect.
He sensed the powerful aura of the Void Crossing Realm. Great Cultivators of the Void Crossing Realm were fighting!
It seemed Ji Xiaoyu had successfully formed her Golden Core. Spies from all sides of the Demonic Path could no longer hold themselves back and were now engaged in a great battle.
Gu An could not help thinking of Jiang Qiong. He hoped she would not act rashly. With only the cultivation of the first level of the Nascent Soul Realm, it would likely be difficult for her to seize Ji Xiaoyu's Golden Pill.
The Inner Sect was unimaginably far from the Outer Sect. The Mystic Valley disciples could not sense the battle at all and continued cultivating on their own.
Even after night fell, Gu An could still sense the distant aura of battle. It was clear just how intense the fighting was.
A cold wind blew in through the window. Gu An sat at the table reading when footsteps sounded outside the door.
"Senior Brother, may I come in?" Wuxin's voice came from outside.
Gu An answered, "Come in."
He quickly switched the Travels of the Green Hero in his hand for Cheng Xuandan's Record of Hundred Herbs.
Wuxin pushed open the door, entered, and then closed it behind him. Walking to the table, he saw the Record of Hundred Herbs in Gu An's hands. He secretly admired him, and his gaze grew even firmer.
Senior Brother studies so diligently. I must help him!
Gu An looked up and asked, "What is it so late at night?"
Wuxin took a deep breath and said, "Senior Brother, you've been stuck at the ninth level of Qi Refining for quite some time, haven't you?"
Gu An raised a brow. What did he mean?
Don't tell me he isn't satisfied with being the chief disciple and is now eyeing my position as valley master?
Wuxin continued, "Senior Brother, I am actually a genius, but I cultivate a divine technique that suppresses the growth of my cultivation. This technique allows one to build up strength before unleashing it, and it possesses the profound mystery of changing one's fate!"
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