In truth.
Li Ping really had no need to rush to acquire fourth-tier alchemy techniques.
Given the nature of the Marsh Water Life-Nourishing Art, he would need at least another two hundred years to reach the peak of the Core Formation Middle Stage.
He only needed to obtain a set of advanced alchemy techniques before then.
Chao Xuan, meanwhile, was already over four hundred and twenty years old. At most, he had eighty years left to live.
Rather than waste time and energy matching wits with a suspected overly cautious Core Formation Late Stage cultivator and delay his own cultivation, Li Ping preferred to use his advantage in age to outlive him.
Once Chao Xuan died, someone else would take charge of the Pill Sage's alchemy furnace.
Li Ping did not believe that the successor would have the same temperament as Chao Xuan, never setting so much as half a foot outside the sect. That would be his opportunity.
Of course, there was also a chance.
Chao Xuan might successfully form his nascent soul in what little remained of his lifespan.
If that truly happened, Li Ping would abandon any plans to deal with him without hesitation and seek advanced alchemy techniques through other channels.
Great Zhou was vast and rich in resources. Sage Xu was not its only Fourth-Tier Pill Refiner.
I'll take it slowly. Even if things really don't work out, I can make do with a third-tier top-grade Pill Refiner's inheritance for the time being!
Li Ping pondered silently.
Absorbed in arduous cultivation, he let three years slip by without noticing.
Inside the Riverside Cave Abode, Li Ping pushed open the door and stepped outside.
Wei Yiling and Feng Xishuang stood gracefully in the courtyard, waiting for him. Both smiled when they saw him emerge from