Cultivation: From Menial Laborer to Immortal Venerable

One fleeing and one pursuing, they traveled hundreds of miles.

Because the talismans consumed very little of his mana, and Zhou Xun had taken a mid-grade Qi Recovery Pill when he first activated the talisman, his mana was still abundant with little depletion.

The tall, thin cultivator, however, had used up most of his mana. Piloting a flying artifact was extremely mana-intensive, and with the shuttle carrying two cultivators, the burden was immense, doubling the mana consumption. If not for the tall, thin cultivator's sixth layer of Qi Condensation cultivation, he would have run out of mana and fallen long ago.

After flying a hundred miles, the Flight Talisman's power began to wane. Seeing the two robbers still in hot pursuit, Zhou Xun knew that simply running would not be enough to escape. He immediately descended towards the dense forest below, retracting the Flight Talisman. The forest had complex terrain and obstructed vision. Those two were only at the mid-stage of Qi Condensation and had not awakened their Divine Sense. Zhou Xun, however, possessed Divine Sense, making this his home turf.

Soon, the other two also followed him down. At this moment, Zhou Xun unhesitatingly took out the Ice Spike Talismans and Fireball Talismans he had purchased in advance. He threw out over a dozen of them all at once.

"Second brother!" the tall, thin cultivator shouted urgently.

Because cultivators at the early to mid-stage of Qi Condensation had very low aerial combat capabilities, the tall, thin cultivator was at his limit controlling the flying artifact and had no energy to do anything else. Fortunately, there was another cultivator on his shuttle. The short, stout cultivator took out several talismans and activated them, throwing them in front of him. Instantly, several shimmering blue light shields appeared, blocking their path.

"High-grade Tier 1 Light Shield Talismans!"

With several impacts, over a dozen spells struck the light shields. Most of the spells were annihilated, and the light shields, unable to withstand the force, shattered. Only two fireballs passed through the light shields and struck the short, stout cultivator. A flash of light and shadow appeared, automatically blocking the two fireballs – it was the magical defense shield on the short, stout cultivator's robe that had activated.

"Kill him!" The short, stout cultivator was terrified and filled with lingering fear, then erupted in anger.

At this moment, the tall, thin cultivator also controlled the shuttle to land on the ground. The two of them dismounted, put away the shuttle, and just as they raised a shield artifact to block in front of them, preparing to search for Zhou Xun's trace.

"Whoosh whoosh—"

Two piercing sounds cut through the air. Two black lights, one large and one small, flashed like lightning towards the two of them, tearing through space.

"Dodge!" The tall, thin cultivator pushed his brother away and dodged to the side. But it was still too late. An arm was severed in mid-air. The shield artifact was like paper, unable to block for even a moment.

Just as the two brothers breathed a sigh of relief, those two black lights actually made a U-turn and came back. Seeing this, both of them were utterly terrified: "Late-stage cultivator!" What had they provoked?

"Run!" They both fled in different directions simultaneously. But their physical bodies could not match the speed of the artifacts.

"Pfft," the sound of flying blades entering flesh. Two black lights pierced through the heads of each of them, killing them instantly.

"As expected of being refined to the standards of high-grade magical artifacts, their power is truly astonishing!" Zhou Xun exclaimed. He then collected the spoils of war and used two fireballs to burn the bodies to ashes. After that, he quickly departed.

A day later, Zhou Xun successfully returned to his home in Red Leaf Square. Only then did he have the leisure to sort through his spoils.

"Storage Pouches!" Zhou Xun took out two dusty gray bags. They were obtained from the two robbers.

At the same time, he also acquired a strange small banner and a peculiar translucent mask from the two individuals.

The small banner was not large, only palm-sized, and Zhou Xun had obtained it from the short, stout man.

When they descended from the flying shuttle, this person had taken out this item from his storage pouch, but before he could even activate it, Zhou Xun had killed him.

The surface of the small banner depicted a creature resembling a ghost child, lifelike, as if it were alive.

Zhou Xun slowly infused it with his mana, but the small banner showed no change.

"Could it be a special magic artifact?" Zhou Xun guessed.

Special magic artifacts differed from common ones, often requiring specific cultivation techniques or items to be controlled.

The power of these artifacts was usually much higher than ordinary ones.

"Fortunately, I acted quickly. Otherwise, it's hard to say who would have won!" Zhou Xun felt a sense of relief.

He set it aside and picked up the mask.

This was what remained after he had used his Fireball spell to burn the bodies, and he didn't know which of the two it belonged to.

Being completely unharmed by the Fireball spell, it was undoubtedly a rare treasure.

Zhou Xun held it in his hand. It was neither gold nor jade, but rather had a smooth, slippery feel, like touching a young girl's delicate face.

"It's just like a real person!"

After a moment of thought, Zhou Xun put it on his face.

A cool sensation spread across his skin, then vanished.

There was no foreign body sensation on his face at all; he couldn't feel its presence, as if he had never worn the mask.

Truly a wondrous item!

Zhou Xun slowly infused mana into it and probed it with his Divine Sense. Immediately, he detected three lingering auras on the mask.

Zhou Xun's heart stirred, and he selected one of the auras.

The mask shifted, and Zhou Xun's face transformed into that of the tall, thin cultivator he had killed.

Even his mana aura was remarkably similar.

It was as if the tall, thin cultivator had been resurrected.

This was actually a mask for changing faces and disguising one's identity.

By getting close to someone, one could use the mask to collect their aura. The more aura collected, the more realistic the imitation.

If one killed that person and then collected their aura with the mask, the imitation would be even more perfect.

Even someone a whole major realm higher would find it difficult to detect without careful examination.

"It truly is a good treasure. With this, my actions in the future will be much more convenient!" Zhou Xun mused inwardly.

He then gave this treasure a name: Thousand Faces.

After examining these two treasures, Zhou Xun's anticipation for the remaining two storage pouches grew even greater.

These were two low-grade storage pouches, easily controlled by injecting mana, making them very convenient.

However, their drawback was the lack of a master-recognition function; anyone could open them.

Zhou Xun opened the two storage pouches and took out all the treasures within.

He inventoried them one by one: there were over 120 Spirit Stones, three bottles of Qi Nourishment Pills, nine mid-grade talismans, three low-grade magic artifacts, and several volumes of cultivation books.

In addition, there was a jade box, and the flying artifact Zhou Xun had been coveting – the Azure Light Shuttle.

Flying artifacts, as special magic artifacts, allowed Qi Condensation cultivators to possess the flight capabilities of Foundation Establishment stage cultivators.

Their refining materials were relatively rare, and their prices were quite high.

Even a low-grade, first-tier flying artifact had a price comparable to ordinary high-grade magic artifacts.