After familiarizing himself with his body, Li Jiusheng rose to his feet and casually stretched his limbs.
Suddenly, a flash of snowy white light shot straight toward him.
Li Jiusheng naturally knew who it was. He did not stop her and let her rush into his arms.
"I was so worried about you." A childish, babyish voice rang out from his embrace. Startled, Li Jiusheng lifted Little Fox up. "You can talk now?"
"Just these past two days," Little Fox said softly. She had only just refined her diaphragm and was still unaccustomed to speaking.
"Haha, today truly brings double happiness." Li Jiusheng happily held Little Fox in his arms and gently stroked her. Great Grandmaster energy slowly circulated through his palm and flowed into Little Fox's body, smoothing her meridians, stimulating her blood vessels, and improving her physique.
Little Fox gave a comfortable hum. Lying in Li Jiusheng's arms with her eyes half-closed, she looked utterly content. "Did you break through?"
Li Jiusheng nodded and asked with a smile, "Have you been guarding me all this time?"
"Of course. You're my only friend." Little Fox nodded.
Li Jiusheng broke into a smile. This hundred-year-old man had actually made a friend who was less than a year old. What a cause for celebration.
He asked Little Fox, "Now that you can speak, the first thing you should do is give yourself a name."
"My name is Bai Xiaobai," Little Fox said earnestly. "My mother chose it while she was still carrying me. My father's surname is Bai, and my fur is snow-white, so I'm called Bai Xiaobai."
Only then did Li Jiusheng learn that the Thousand-Year Sword God of the Old Land had the surname Bai.
"Bai Xiaobai, my name is Li Jiusheng." Li Jiusheng solemnly greeted Little Fox.
"Li Jiusheng, my name is Bai Xiaobai." Little Fox copied Li Jiusheng's manner and tone, repeating his words before bursting into laughter herself.
Li Jiusheng smiled faintly and brought Little Fox back to the tea room.
"How many days was I in seclusion this time?" In the tea room, Li Jiusheng effortlessly prepared and brewed tea as he asked.
"Two days," Little Fox replied from where she lay nearby.
"No one else came by?" Li Jiusheng asked.
"That person who comes often was here. No one else," Little Fox said.
Li Jiusheng knew exactly whom Little Fox meant by that frequent visitor: Li Qingshan, the Sect Master of Shangqing Palace.
"After your breakthrough, you smell so good," Little Fox suddenly said. Her eyes stared fixedly at Li Jiusheng as she licked her pink little lips, practically drooling.
Li Jiusheng knew she wanted to bite him. After breaking through to the Great Grandmaster realm and being reborn once more, his flesh had shed its mortal state. If a Demonic Beast devoured him, it would be an immense tonic.
"Cultivate properly with me, and one day you'll smell even better than I do," Li Jiusheng said with a smile.
Little Fox's eyes lit up, and she nodded firmly. She liked people who smelled good.
After chatting with Little Fox for a while, she grew sleepy. Yawning, she innocently fell asleep beside Li Jiusheng.
The afternoon was tranquil, and the tea room was fragrant. As Li Jiusheng sipped his tea and recalled this breakthrough, he finally felt as though he had survived a calamity.
He had never expected Emperor Wu of Zhou's remnant soul to escape the encirclement and pursuit, secretly slip into Shangqing Palace, and attempt to possess him.
The power of an Ancestor's remnant soul could not be underestimated. Possessing a Grandmaster should, in principle, have had a hundred percent chance of success.
But he had encountered Li Jiusheng.
While others at the Grandmaster realm had yet to touch upon the Primordial spirit and their consciousness remained muddled, Li Jiusheng had long cultivated methods for the Primordial spirit. He visualized the Hell Bodhisattva and tempered his consciousness amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood every day. Only then had he gained the chance to strike back from a Deadly Land.
"I destroyed Emperor Wu of Zhou's remnant soul and absorbed the Ancestor Primordial spirit energy. His true body must have been affected." Li Jiusheng silently pondered, his expression gradually turning cold as chilling killing intent gathered in his heart.
If not for his good fortune this time, if not for having trained his Primordial spirit beforehand, his soul would likely have long since departed, and Emperor Wu of Zhou would have possessed him.
How could he not be furious?
His strength was still somewhat lacking, so he could only bury this rage in his heart. When the chance for revenge came in the future, he would deliver a thunderous blow.
"Emperor Wu of Zhou, you lost this portion of your Primordial spirit, and your Ancestor foundation had already been damaged before. You must be covered in wounds now. I hope you can hold on until I grow stronger. Then I'll send you down the road to the underworld." Li Jiusheng silently drank his tea, cold killing intent rising in his heart.
"However, after I killed Emperor Wu of Zhou in the consciousness space, it seemed he left something behind in my Primordial spirit space." Li Jiusheng carefully recalled every detail of that moment and finally noticed a clue.
In his remnant-soul state, Emperor Wu of Zhou seemed to have been holding a great treasure.
Li Jiusheng immediately sat cross-legged. His Primordial spirit opened its eyes and inspected the Primordial spirit space. Sure enough, in an inconspicuous corner, he found the treasure Emperor Wu of Zhou's remnant soul had brought with him.
Grandmaster Pure Land!
"No wonder he fled in such a hurry. So he secretly infiltrated the ruins and took the Grandmaster Pure Land. Fortunately, he chose to possess me and failed at the final step. If he had returned to Luochuan Sect and repaired his Ancestor foundation, it would have been a catastrophic disaster for Shangqing Palace." Li Jiusheng secretly counted himself fortunate.
"But this Grandmaster Pure Land is useless to me." Staring at the Grandmaster Pure Land within his Primordial spirit, where Dao, law, and reason intertwined, Li Jiusheng thought of someone.
Li Qingshan!
He was already at the peak of the Venerable realm and had been striving to break through to the Ancestor Realm.
But if the Ancestor Realm were so easy to break through, so many peak Venerables would not quietly grow old as their years drifted away on the wind.
"With the Grandmaster Pure Land, Junior Brother will surely break through to the Ancestor Realm. Only then will Shangqing Palace truly have a means of protecting itself." Li Jiusheng understood what was urgent and immediately transformed his True Qi into a carrier pigeon, sending it to Golden Summit Hall to invite Li Qingshan over.
Luochuan Sect, ninety thousand li away from Shangqing Palace.
Two days earlier, a piercing scream had terrified Luochuan Sect's upper ranks. They hurriedly sent inquiries to the place where the Ancestor was in seclusion, only to receive a cold reply.
"I am fine. Immediately go to the Yishan Clan and invite their Old Ancestor to the sect. Tell him I have a major deal to discuss with him."
"Also, contact the Human World for me. I have a big business proposition for them."
"Furthermore, contact Shangqing Palace's mortal enemy, Bajiao Dao Sect. Tell them that the Grandmaster Pure Land from those ruins is at Shangqing Palace. If they are interested, we can join forces."
An icy voice came from Emperor Wu of Zhou's seclusion chamber, issuing one order after another.
After the disciples and elders under him went to carry out those tasks, Emperor Wu of Zhou suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood inside the secret chamber. His face was deathly pale, his eyes bloodshot as he stared fixedly in the direction of Shangqing Palace. Gnashing his teeth, he said, "Damn Shangqing Palace! You ruined all my plans, shattered my remnant soul, and caused the Grandmaster Pure Land to be lost. I will make you pay in blood!"
"Shangqing Palace has no Ancestor. I will lay siege to Shangqing Palace!" Emperor Wu of Zhou roared, his entire body trembling with hatred etched into his bones.
Only by leveling all of Shangqing Palace to the ground and grinding every last person there into ashes could he vent the fury that had built up in his heart.
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