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Chapter 649: Chapter 655: Development
Li Chenghuo and Li Chenghua’s adventure outside the family sparked a wave of enthusiasm within the clan!
In the following months, family members successively set out on their journeys, with most of them at the late Foundation Establishment stage. They knew that breaking through to Golden Core would not be as simple as secluding themselves in the family estate a few times.
They also learned from the experiences of the two, with the vast majority choosing to travel in groups.
As for why the other Golden Core members of the family didn’t leave? It was because their cultivation and age were such that they weren’t in a hurry to break through, or they were still a long way from doing so.
However, due to the considerable generational gap between these family members and Li Zhirui, they didn’t receive a personal farewell from Li Zhirui when they departed.
But he still prepared some Spirit Pills for them, hoping to save their lives in times of danger.
"I hope these family members all have a good outcome," he said.
Although Li Zhirui knew this was an impossible situation, it didn’t prevent him from having this beautiful vision.
Time is always merciless, and in the blink of an eye, more than half a year had passed.
One day, Xiaoqing suddenly approached him, excitedly saying, "Jiu, could you help me refine some top-tier third-grade Spirit Pills?"
"What’s the matter?" Li Zhirui asked, puzzled and confused. He didn’t understand why Xiaoqing, who had already broken through to the fourth rank, was still asking for third-grade Spirit Pills.
"Feng Peng has agreed to become my Dao companion, and I hope she can quickly break through to the fourth rank. So I can only trouble you for this," Xiaoqing explained.
"Oh!"
Li Zhirui looked at Xiaoqing seriously for a few moments but didn’t ask further; after all, what the two of them decided to do was their own business, and it wasn’t his place as an outsider to interfere.
"I still have a few bottles on hand; you can use these for now," he said.
Taking the Spirit Pills, Xiaoqing hurriedly flew away.
Watching his retreating figure, Li Zhirui shook his head. Giving the Spirit Pills to Feng Peng was not a problem, as long as Xiaoqing wasn’t being used for his feelings.
Unexpectedly, Da Qing also came to ask Li Zhirui for Spirit Pills for his Dao companion, Mu Ling’er.
He didn’t say much either, only that the quality of the Spirit Pills given was slightly lower; the ready excuse was that he had just given the high-quality ones to Xiaoqing.
But in reality, this was not the reason!
Li Zhirui treated the two Dao companions differently primarily because Feng Peng was Jiang Fengwu’s Contracted Spirit Beast; her advancement would benefit both Jiang Fengwu and the Li family.
But Mu Ling’er was different; she was only Da Qing’s Dao companion, who didn’t have much to do with the Li family. If she were to break through to the fourth rank and then decide not to stay on Wanxian Island, wouldn’t the Li family suffer a huge loss?
For various reasons, Li Zhirui made this decision, which naturally wasn’t surprising. It didn’t matter even if Da Qing found out later.
The solution was also simple: just ensure that Mu Ling’er wouldn’t leave the Li family by, for example, signing an equal contract.
However, these things, Li Zhirui didn’t bring up proactively. Instead, he let Da Qing and Mu Ling’er consider it themselves, since they were not fools and could, of course, think things through.
In the new year, after mentoring Li Chengsheng, Li Chengshuo, and Li Xianxun, Li Zhirui announced to them that he would soon be entering seclusion.
Perhaps it was because he had witnessed the Divine Transformation Thunder Tribulation that he had gained some insight. He had been contemplating it before and had now figured it out. As it provided some impetus to his own cultivation, he naturally wanted to properly seclude himself and solidify his gains.
Since he wasn’t sure how long he would be in seclusion, he informed them beforehand, so they wouldn’t be kept waiting.
Actually, Li Zhirui was still some distance away from the latter stage of Nascent Soul, and it was unlikely that he would make a breakthrough in a short time. The insights he gained this time represented only a small step forward and, logically, would not require shutting himself away for an entire year.
The reason he did this was to avoid Da Qing and Xiaoqing!
They truly treated Tier 3 Spirit Pills as if they cost nothing, coming several times a month to ask for them! Even though Li Zhirui had his space, Spiritual Medicine still needed time to grow!
Could it be that they were providing Spirit Stones to accelerate the growth of the Spiritual Medicine?
Li Zhirui didn’t want to argue with them; he simply chose to hide away, believing that one year was enough time for them to cool down.
"You should focus on cultivating now, and strive to break through your current realm before the opening of The Secret Realm of Wanxian."
This vision was not without its difficulties. Aside from Li Chengsheng, who had it somewhat easy, Li Chengshuo and Li Xianxun were a bit less confident. Their foundations were, after all, a little weak.
"Work hard!"
After encouraging the three, Li Zhirui returned to his cave dwelling, closed the door to his meditation chamber, and began his closed-door cultivation.
He calmed his mind, condensed his Qi, felt the rhythm of the universe, aimed to elevate his realm, and circulated his cultivation technique internally to absorb the surrounding Spiritual Energy, all to increase his mana.
With the improvement of Li Zhirui’s cultivation, each of his training sessions was not without noise. A blue and a green Spirit Light swirled around him, truly a dazzling and attractive sight.
This time in seclusion, he accomplished his predetermined task in just over four months.
However, to avoid Da Qing and Xiaoqing, Li Zhirui did not rush to leave seclusion. In addition to refining Spirit Pills, he was also contemplating the Jade Slip he had obtained from the Profound Ice Tower.
Contained within it were many Pill Recipes, which gave him new ideas. With a little effort, he might be able to develop a few Tier 4 Pill Recipes.
Yet Li Zhirui did not go ahead with it. First of all, he didn’t have a great need; the current varieties of Precious Pills were sufficient for his cultivation. Second, the Tier 4 Spirit Seeds of the Li family were too scarce. Even if he created Pill Recipes, they couldn’t be produced on a large scale.
His study of these Pill Recipes was mainly to borrow and learn from their ideas, expanding his own horizons.
Sometimes when tired, he would also enter his space to train his Divine Powers and Spells. Although Li Zhirui didn’t fight often over the years, he always maintained his combat strength.
After all, in this world, strength is revered!
During the one or two years of Li Zhirui’s closed-door cultivation, the Li family made significant progress in all aspects.
The most notable was the growth of the family’s strength! The number of Golden Core cultivators increased by two, and there were several dozen, maybe even hundreds, at the Foundation Establishment and Qi Cultivation levels.
The Li family now was no longer on the scale of just one or two cats, as it had been at the beginning.
Aside from the Profound Ice Sect, within ten thousand miles, there was no longer an equal opponent.
Of course, a bit further away, there were still many powerful Sects—Qingxuan Sect and Fire Demon Sect were stronger than the Li family.
But they were too far away from Wanxian Island and had deep-seated hatred for each other, so they would not easily provoke the Li family; hence, they were not considered a great threat at the moment.
But back to the subject!
Apart from the overall increase in strength, the Li family also saw considerable progress in various skills, cultivating several Tier 3 talents in alchemy, Artifact Refining, talisman making, and Formation. This greatly filled the family’s gaps in these areas.
These skilled cultivators were key to the power expansion of a force!
Although the Li family had Li Zhirui and Jiang Fengwu, two Tier 4 masters of alchemy and Formation, they couldn’t possibly handle everything by themselves, could they?
