The Seventh Layer of Qi Refining!

Li Qingshan cradled the Spirit Stones, pills, and talismans in his hands. Only after Ye Lingshuang's figure disappeared on the horizon did he slowly straighten up.

He looked at the cultivation resources in his hands, especially the two talismans, and felt a wave of emotion.

Ye Lingshuang certainly kept her word, and she was quite generous, too.

With her promise and these resources, he should at least be safe for the short term.

He didn't linger and hurried back to the Hall of Discarded Treasures.

The next day, Li Qingshan still felt somewhat uneasy. He didn't know how Zhang Hongxiu would react.

As he swept, he kept an eye on the activity outside the hall.

Near noon, Zhang Hongxiu still hadn't shown up, but Zhang Ming hurried into the Hall of Discarded Treasures again.

"Junior Brother Li! Junior Brother Li!"

As soon as Zhang Ming entered, he called out in a lowered voice. His expression was strange, a mix of lingering fear and a hint of schadenfreude.

Li Qingshan immediately put on his anxious, frightened look and went to meet him. "Senior Brother Zhang? Could it be... could it be that Senior Sister Zhang..."

"Don't mention it!"

Zhang Ming waved a hand and said, still shaken, "Something big happened! Didn't you fail to find the jade pendant yesterday?"

Li Qingshan nodded blankly. "That's right. This old man searched everywhere, but he really couldn't find it..."

"Heh! Good thing you didn't find it!"

Zhang Ming leaned closer. "Guess what? The Vermilion Sparrow Jade Pendant wasn't lost in the Hall of Discarded Treasures at all! Junior Sister Ye Lingshuang found it!"

"Huh?"

Li Qingshan suitably gaped, his face full of shock.

"Early this morning, Zhang Hongxiu somehow got wind of it and went straight to Ye Lingshuang's cave abode to demand it. The two of them got into a fight after just a few words!"

Zhang Ming spoke with animated excitement. "Good heavens, both junior sisters are experts at Qi Refining perfection. What a spectacle... tsk, tsk! Sword Qi crisscrossed everywhere! I heard the formations outside the cave abode were badly damaged!"

"Then... then how did it end?"

Li Qingshan asked nervously.

"How did it end? Zhang Hongxiu was no match for Ye Lingshuang. Ye broke through her protective artifact with a sword technique, leaving her badly injured! In the end, it took the senior brothers from the Hall of Law Enforcement to arrive and stop the fight."

Zhang Ming paused, then continued in a lowered voice. "I heard the matter reached the elders, and even Ancestor Zhang Yuzhen was alarmed. Junior Sister Ye said she'd found it herself, and Zhang Hongxiu had no grounds to argue. After all, she'd forced her way into someone else's cave abode first, so Junior Sister Ye was merely defending herself. In the end, the elder ruled that the jade pendant belonged to Junior Sister Ye, and Junior Sister Zhang was punished with six months of confinement and reflection!"

After hearing this, Li Qingshan finally let out a breath of relief, though a sense of wariness rose in him at the same time.

Ye Lingshuang certainly had powerful backing. She dared to defy even a Golden Core elder, and her strength was astonishing.

This time, he'd made the right gamble.

But Zhang Hongxiu's six-month confinement only meant temporary safety. She was the sort to take revenge over the slightest grievance. After six months, she would probably still hold a grudge over this, and might even take it out on him.

His face showed relief and lingering fear. "So that's what happened! Thank you for telling me, Senior Brother Zhang! That was a close one... If this old man had found it, I'm afraid..."

"Hmph, you were lucky!"

Zhang Ming also looked somewhat crestfallen. His plan to curry favor with Zhang Hongxiu had fallen through.

He exchanged a few perfunctory words with Li Qingshan, then turned and left.

After seeing Zhang Ming off, Li Qingshan stood in the empty Hall of Discarded Treasures, his gaze growing utterly resolute.

Six months. Ye Lingshuang had won him six months of safety!

During those six months, he had to improve his strength as much as possible!

The fourth layer of Qi Refining was nowhere near enough!

From that day on, Li Qingshan began an almost frenzied period of secluded cultivation.

Every day, he took the top-grade pills upgraded by the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd. Whether they were Qi-Gathering Pills, Qi-Boosting Pills, or other assorted pills, he accepted anything that could improve his cultivation.

He circulated the Longevity Technique at full force, refining the vast medicinal energy and transforming it into pure, dense Longevity Mana.

His cultivation began to climb at a visible rate.

After all, even descendants of Nascent Soul ancestors couldn't afford the luxury of constantly cultivating with top-grade spirit pills.

Though Li Qingshan was old and frail, he was still a Heavenly Spirit Root. With top-grade spirit pills to cultivate with, his speed was no weaker than that of the Heavenly Spirit Root geniuses.

More importantly, every cultivation session was a process of shedding his old body and cleansing his marrow.

The hundred-year barrier was gradually breaking open and could no longer obstruct his immortal path.

The middle stage of the fourth layer of Qi Refining, the late stage of the fourth layer, the peak of the fourth layer...

Two months later, as the vortex in his dantian swelled and compressed violently, he broke through the bottleneck as naturally as water flowing into a channel and entered the fifth layer of Qi Refining!

He didn't stop. He continued taking pills to consolidate his cultivation, then pressed on toward an even higher level.

Even as he cultivated, he didn't neglect his spells.

He still couldn't fully master the Fire Arrow Technique and Flying Rainbow Technique, but after reaching the middle stage of Qi Refining, he could just barely unleash two or three tenths of their power.

Scarlet-red flaming arrows shot out, swift as lightning, powerful enough to pierce hard bluestone.

Once mastered, the Fire Arrow Technique could unleash over a hundred flaming arrows in a vast, sweeping barrage. Even late-stage Qi Refining cultivators would meet their doom beneath it.

Li Qingshan could now summon more than a dozen flaming arrows at once, enough to pose a serious threat to mid-stage Qi Refining cultivators.

When he used the Flying Rainbow Technique, he moved like lightning, leaving trails of afterimages throughout the Hall of Discarded Treasures.

He could even leap more than ten zhang high and scale mountain peaks and rocks, light as a swallow.

Meanwhile, he had grown ever more proficient in the Turtle Breath Technique. He could now conceal his cultivation perfectly and even mimic the aura of a lower level, making it impossible to tell real from false.

In addition, he had taken the top-grade short sword he'd found among the discarded items and repaired and upgraded with the Wish-Fulfilling Gourd. It was called the Crimson Dragon Sword. He stored it in his dantian and began nourishing and refining it daily with his mana.

Refining a magical artifact was a slow, painstaking process. He had to imprint his mana deeply into the artifact, until it responded as readily as his own arm.

The Crimson Dragon Sword was extremely high quality, a first-grade top-tier magical artifact that would serve him all the way to Qi Refining perfection. Refining it consumed considerable focus and mana, but Li Qingshan was happy to keep at it.

With each additional bit of refinement, his connection to the Crimson Dragon Sword grew closer, and the power he could draw from it grew stronger.

Time flew by amid his arduous cultivation.

The Hall of Discarded Treasures seemed truly forgotten by the world. Apart from the occasional handyman disciple bringing in new discarded items, no one disturbed him.

Spring passed and autumn arrived. Six months slipped by in the blink of an eye.

That day, Li Qingshan's aura abruptly surged in the stone room. The mass of emerald-green Longevity Mana in his dantian spun wildly and swelled once more, growing denser and heavier. Mana surged within it like a great river, rumbling faintly!

Powerful spiritual pressure instantly filled the entire stone room, but he quickly suppressed it by circulating the Turtle Breath Technique.

Li Qingshan slowly opened his eyes. A flash of green light passed through them, and his aura ran deep as the sea.

He looked within his dantian, sensing the vast mana far beyond what he'd possessed before, and smiled with satisfaction.

The seventh layer of Qi Refining!

After half a year of arduous cultivation, relying on a vast supply of top-grade pills and the power of the Longevity Technique, he had finally broken through to the late stage of Qi Refining in one go!

At this moment, the depth of the mana in his dantian was enough to rival that of an ordinary ninth-layer Qi Refining cultivator, or even someone at Qi Refining perfection!

The Longevity Technique's heaven-defying power had grown even greater.

More importantly, he felt that his body's vitality had also recovered considerably. More of his white hair had turned gray, his wrinkles had softened, and his whole body brimmed with vigor.

"Half a year has passed... Zhang Hongxiu should be out soon." Li Qingshan spoke softly to himself. His gaze was calm, but a cold, keen edge lay beneath it.

Though he was still no match for a Foundation Establishment cultivator, with his seventh-layer Longevity Mana, numerous top-grade spells and talismans, and the mostly refined Crimson Dragon Sword, he now had the strength to fight a cultivator at Qi Refining perfection.

Li Qingshan knew he couldn't place all his hopes in Ye Lingshuang.

He could only rely on himself!