What is he doing if he's not cultivating?

Nuwa asked tentatively.

She truly did not understand.

A walking weapon of causality, someone who should be treated like an ancestor wherever they go, protected from every bump and bruise.

How could he live like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow?

Inside the cave dwelling.

Lu Changsheng heard Nuwa's tone take a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn.

Instead of feeling happy, he became even more vigilant.

The fox's tail is finally showing!

Lu Changsheng sneered in his heart.

One second she was using her pressure to intimidate me, and the next she puts on this compassionate, green-tea mask. And she's asking me why I don't go out?

If I went out, I would have been swallowed alive by you greedy immortals long ago!

Lu Changsheng knew the nature of the Primordial Land all too well.

An innocent man is guilty only because of his treasure.

In this world where the strong prey on the weak, a weapon of causality is indeed powerful, but only if you have the strength to protect it.

As a mere True Immortal, if he were to strut out and tell everyone he was the embodiment of merit, those Zenith Heaven Golden Immortals and Quasi-Saints would have ten thousand ways to trap him as a mobile power bank or refine him into some top-tier innate spiritual treasure without ever directly harming him.

"Drop the hypocrisy!"

Lu Changsheng spoke into the Sound Transmission Array Eye, his tone remaining tough, even laced with a hint of mockery.

"I'll live wherever the hell I want!"

"What? Think my array is crude? Think I'm wasting my youth?"

"Let me tell you, this is called hiding in plain sight! This is called being low-key! You lot who fly around the sky all day, snatching magic treasures and fighting over territory—what the hell do you know?"

"I'm warning you one last time, leave immediately! Don't force me to come out there and ram into you!"

Lu Changsheng refused to budge an inch.

Outside.

Nuwa was left stunned by Lu Changsheng's barrage of barbed insults.

In all her life, this was the first time someone had pointed at her nose and called her ignorant.

Yet, she wasn't angry; instead, she found it even more interesting.

"Low-key..."

Nuwa chewed on the word, the corners of her mouth curling upward slightly.

"Fellow Daoist's path is truly fascinating."

She looked toward the water mirror, and even knowing that he might be glaring fiercely at her, the smile on her face did not diminish in the slightest.

"Since Fellow Daoist does not wish to be disturbed, then this poor Daoist shall not force the issue."

Nuwa nodded gently.

Just as Lu Changsheng inside the cave let out a long sigh of relief, thinking the woman was finally leaving, Nuwa's next move made his jaw drop to the floor.

Nuwa did not mount the clouds to depart.

Instead, she turned around and, at the edge of the massive abyss carved out by the Purple Heaven Divine Lightning—less than ten miles from the outermost perimeter of his array—she lightly flicked her sleeve.

She smoothed out a clean boulder, sat down cross-legged, and settled in properly.

With her eyes slightly closed and her hands forming a profound Creation Dharma Seal, a faint cyan light immediately swirled around her body as she entered a state of deep meditation.

"What the hell?"

Lu Changsheng rubbed his eyes in front of the water mirror, his face full of disbelief.

"What... what is this? Is she refusing to leave?"

"I told her I'd come out and ram her to death, and she still dares to sit right at my doorstep?"

Lu Changsheng panicked and started shouting into the Sound Transmission Megaphone again.

"Hey! Woman outside! Are your ears broken? I told you to get lost!"

"What is the meaning of you sitting there? Trying to pull a scam? Let me tell you, there's no surveillance in front of my door, don't you dare try to pin anything on me!"

"..."

Regardless of how Lu Changsheng clamored and threatened from within, Nuwa, sitting on the boulder, seemed to have turned into a lifeless jade statue, not even lifting an eyelid.

She cultivated the Dao of Creation, which emphasized natural harmony above all else.

At this moment, she had completely merged her aura into the surrounding heaven and earth.

She quietly contemplated the fleeting charm of the Great Dao Merit she had glimpsed earlier, as well as the changes in the Earth Vein that had been transformed by the Earth Dragon Pearl and the beast horn.

Lu Changsheng shouted for three full days and nights.

His throat was parched and smoking, yet the woman outside remained motionless.

"Fine, you win!"

Lu Changsheng slapped the control console, turned around in a huff, and plopped down onto the white jade bed.

"If you want to sit out there eating dust, then sit there!"

"I've got three thousand layers of formations protecting me anyway, and plenty of time and fruit. Let's see who outlasts whom!"

In this one-sided standoff, time began its long, sweeping passage.

In the Primordial Land, years were not recorded.

In the blink of an eye.

One thousand years.

Two thousand years.

Three thousand years of time slipped away quietly like sand between fingers.

On the outskirts of the Nameless Low Mountain.

The once-devastated ruins had sprouted weeds and low shrubs, nourished by the thin spiritual energy of the surroundings.

Nuwa, still sitting on the boulder, maintained the same posture she had held three thousand years ago, as if she had solidified into one with this land.

A few bold birds even landed on her shoulders, treating her like a stone upon which they could rest.

Occasionally, Nuwa would wake from her deep meditation.

She would open her eyes, her gaze piercing through the outermost layers of the transparent illusion formation screens to look deep into the cave dwelling.

Although she could not see through the three thousand layers of formations to Lu Changsheng himself, she could clearly perceive the circulation and changes of the spiritual energy within the formations.

He hasn't seemed to cultivate even once in these three thousand years.

Nuwa analyzed silently in her heart.

The spiritual fluctuations of the formations are very steady, and they are filled with... a truly bizarre, mundane scent of cooking smoke.

What on earth is he doing in there?

The curiosity in Nuwa's heart had not faded with the passage of time; instead, it grew as wildly as weeds.

Meanwhile.

Inside the innermost cave dwelling, protected by three thousand layers of formations.

Lu Changsheng was squatting beside a patch of spiritual fields he had recently reclaimed.

He truly hadn't cultivated in these three thousand years.

For one, once one reached the True Immortal realm, further advancement required an immense accumulation of spiritual energy or profound insights into opportunities.

Hiding in the formation as he was, he had suppressed the external spiritual energy to the bare minimum, which wasn't even enough to satisfy a fraction of his needs.

Secondly, he felt that rather than sitting in dry meditation, it was better to focus his energy on improving his quality of life.

Since the woman outside had already sat there for three thousand years, it seemed she truly had no malicious intent and was simply using his place as a free spot for enlightenment.

Since there was no threat to his life, the second rule of the Dao of Survival took effect: if you're going to live, you might as well live comfortably.

"Old tree, can you show some effort?"

Lu Changsheng held a small watering can, pouring water mixed with the Earth Vein Spirit Spring onto the Red Sun Fruit tree.

"Look at you, three thousand years and you've only produced seven or eight fruits. I'm a True Immortal now; these fruits aren't even enough to get stuck in my teeth."

The Red Sun Fruit tree swayed its leaves gently in the breeze, as if protesting Lu Changsheng's exploitation.

After watering, Lu Changsheng walked over to the patch of Starlight Grass.

He skillfully plucked a few of the most lush stalks and tossed them into a makeshift stove he had fashioned from a discarded alchemy furnace.

"Extra meal today: Starlight Grass stewed with Earth Vein Spirit Marrow."