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Chapter 690: Chapter 696: Planning
Watching Jiang Fengwu walk into the meditation chamber for a retreat that might last an indeterminate length of time,
Li Zhirui couldn’t help but start to worry about Li Chengshuo. "No idea what that girl is up to."
Alas, the distance was too vast to make contact, so he could only know if she was still alive through her Life Token; any other details were beyond his reach.
At such times, Li Zhirui truly missed the internet from his previous life, which allowed contact regardless of the distance.
As for creating a cultivation version of the internet? He didn’t even understand the principles, let alone how to commence.
The most important thing was, such an important creation, the Li family simply couldn’t secure.
If it came to it, the best-case scenario would be to offer up the invention; if targeted by some dominant and overbearing power, it was questionable whether the Li family could even continue to exist.
Shaking his head, he cleared his head of these unreliable thoughts and began planning for the coming decades, perhaps even a century.
Don’t look at his current status as a late stage Nascent Soul, just a step away from Divine Transformation, for this step was as distant as the heavens from the earth!
To traverse it was not a matter of three to five years’ effort.
In Li Zhirui’s planning, daily cultivation, refining mana, and transforming the spiritual soul with yang energy, took up the absolute majority of his time.
The remaining time would be spent on alchemy, pondering over Pill Recipes, or teaching his clan members, achieving a balance between work and rest.
He intended to spend fifty years refining his state to perfection, to the point where he couldn’t make the slightest advancement.
Only then would he consider confronting the bottleneck and enduring the Divine Transformation Thunder Tribulation.
After all, he had plenty of longevity; there was no need to rush those few years or even decades. It was crucial to do everything possible to improve his chances of successfully transcending the tribulation above all else.
At the same time, he had to catch others by surprise to prevent other powers from learning of his plans.
Especially the Devil Race of Great Snow Mountain and the Profound Ice Sect!
As for the other Nascent Soul powers, some like the Fire Demon Sect and Qing Xuan Sect were too far away, while others like Wuya Mountain and Water Spirit Sect lacked the strength and posed no threat.
Luckily, compared to the early days of the Profound Ice Sect, the Li family had one major advantage, which was settling on an island. Moreover, Wanxian Island did not allow other powers’ cultivators to enter, making it quite seclusive.
Even if other powers planted spies and undercover agents to gather intelligence, they could only do so on the small islands of the Marketplaces to the east and west of Wanxian Island.
By then, activating the Formation to seal off entry and exit would prevent them from sending out any information.
Of course, Wanxian Island was just two hundred li from the mainland, and with the massive scale of the Divine Transformation Thunder Tribulation, even someone on land could see it.
So to completely prevent the news from getting out? That was impossible; at most, they could delay it by half an hour.
This time was the total duration it took for the Tribulation Thunder to gather, brew, and finally strike.
Which meant that by the time those spies noticed, Li Zhirui would already be undergoing Transcendence.
The transmission of the message, the responses of various parties, countermeasures, and the time taken to travel, among other factors, all required a substantial period.
If they were slow, by the time they arrived, the Thunder Tribulation might have already ended.
At that point, they would have to consider how to leave safely.
Therefore, as long as everything was handled correctly, Li Zhirui wasn’t too worried about being disrupted from the outside during his Tribulation.
Since external interference was not a concern, only internal factors remained, which is why he was making every effort to improve himself.
Let’s get back to the story. 𝑛𝘰𝘷𝑝𝘶𝑏.𝑐𝘰𝘮
During this time, Li Zhirui hoped that Da Qing and Xiaoqing could advance further, while Cang aimed to break through to the fourth stage, lest he fall too far behind.
There was no need for him to worry about Cang, who had always been assiduously cultivating in the spatial realm. With the support of abundant resources, Cang was now at the late third stage, accumulating and consolidating his foundation. It seemed possible for him to break through to the fourth stage within a hundred years.
In recent years, Xiaoqing had been frolicking with Feng Peng and occasionally ventured off to the distant seas to hunt fourth-stage Sea Devils, which could be considered a form of cultivation.
These Sea Devils were all rich in Spiritual Energy, and consuming one was no less beneficial than taking a bottle of fourth-stage Precious Pills.
Moreover, their flesh contained abundant nutritional substances, which, from a certain perspective, were more suitable for Xiaoqing.
One must recognize that the Devil Race in the wild didn’t have access to as many Spiritual Objects and Spirit Pills. If they wished to enhance their cultivation, apart from their own arduous training, their other option was to hunt and consume the flesh of other Devil Beasts.
However, this pursuit was fraught with danger. The Sea Clan wouldn’t just sit back and allow Xiaoqing to hunt fourth-stage Sea Devils with impunity.
After all, even among the immensely populous Sea Clan, those at the fourth stage were considered mainstays, no longer mere expendables.
Li Zhirui warned Xiaoqing a couple of times, advising him to be more careful and not to fall into the traps of the Sea Devils, then he let him be.
The one who truly required his concern was Da Qing!
Mu Ling’er’s actions had wrought a tremendous negative impact on Da Qing, who to this day had not yet recovered.
Moreover, such emotional wounds couldn’t be healed by Li Zhirui’s words alone, and he feared that saying too much might only make matters worse.
Finding the right balance in this situation was decidedly difficult, and it caused him no end of headaches.
Fortunately, as the little Qinggui turtles were growing up healthy, Da Qing’s condition seemed to be improving. Perhaps before long, he could be cured.
It remained to be seen whether a breakthrough would follow, a case of emerging stronger after disruption. If that happened, Da Qing might be able to advance directly to the next stage.
"Sigh," Li Zhirui sighed, pondering over these matters.
Even as a cultivator, he was not free from the encumbrance of trivial matters. Perhaps only the legendary Immortals could truly transcend to peace and quiet.
——
In the distant Central Domain.
"Miss Jin, what on earth have you done? You’re a female cultivator, can you at least pay some attention to your appearance?"
A tall and handsome female cultivator at the Golden Core stage looked disapprovingly at the woman in front of her, who was in ragged clothes, her hair bun a mess, and faintly emanating an unpleasant odor.
Disguised as Jin Xiuli, Li Chengshuo chuckled and responded, "Didn’t you get hurt some time ago? I couldn’t stay put by myself, so I headed to the Qianshan Mountains to hunt Devil Beasts. However, I carelessly stumbled upon a beast tide, and after a lot of hiding and running, I barely made it back!"
"You must have a lot of luck to have survived a beast tide," Bai Xiuer said with some surprise.
"It was a stroke of good fortune. I found a concealed cave to hide in, and that’s how I managed to evade the catastrophe." Li Chengshuo still felt a chill thinking back on the incident.
After all, facing a horde of tens of thousands during a beast tide, even if she activated the Soul Dividing Jade Slip from Li Zhirui, surviving was not guaranteed.
"Then you better go back and rest up. Once you’re recovered, we’ll look for a team to join."
Both of them were in the Middle Golden Core Stage, hardly a match for the Devil Beasts teeming in the Qianshan Mountains. The slightest carelessness could lead to their demise, so for safety’s sake, they had to act in concert with other cultivators.
Speaking of which, the two shared a significant bond as they had both left their masters to seek opportunities for breaking through to the Golden Core Late Stage. Over the course of several team-ups, they gradually became acquainted and eventually, constant companions.
