Chapter 26: Appearance

Martial Aunt Jiu Jiu is truly... too perfect.

Transforming into a wisp of green smoke, Li Changshou swiftly drifted downwards through the intricate, narrow crevices. As he passed through one formation after another, a subtle sense of satisfaction bloomed in his heart.

What made her so 'perfect'?

Jiu Jiu didn't understand formations. Her cultivation was at the True Immortal realm, not far from the Heavenly Immortal realm. Her foundation was solid, her immortal power pure, and her control over her own immortal power was unexpectedly strong.

Most importantly, she allowed a junior like himself to direct her so easily!

Calling it 'directing' might be an exaggeration. Li Changshou admitted there was an element of 'cajoling' on his part, but with one willing to give and the other willing to receive, it was a beautiful thing of mutual consent.

Martial Aunt Jiu Jiu had truly helped him a great deal this time.

He was grateful to the Elder of the Hall of Rewards and Punishments who punished Martial Aunt Jiu Jiu by making her abstain from alcohol;Grateful to Martial Uncle Jiu Wu who, in Martial Aunt Jiu Jiu's childhood, threw her into a wine vat to bathe;And grateful for the few tattered parchment scrolls he found on a corner bookshelf in the outer hall of the Daoist scripture repository, which allowed him to successfully 'test' 'combat-oriented' narcotics, including 'Immortal's Drunk' and 'Soft Immortal Powder'...

The wisp of green smoke descended about a hundred zhang, stopping in a narrow rock crevice, where Li Changshou reverted to his human form.

He took out the jade token used to control the formations. His finger gently slid across it a few times, and the patterns on the token subtly changed.At the same time, the rock in front of him rippled like water. Li Changshou stepped inside, and the rock immediately returned to its original appearance.

Li Changshou walked a few steps unimpeded within the large stone before a small wooden door appeared ahead. After pushing it open, he entered a secret chamber three zhang square.

He took out the formation-controlling jade token and gently rotated it. The outer formations subtly shifted, and this underground secret chamber completely vanished within the gaps of various formations.From any direction, from all sides, even if a Heavenly Immortal deliberately searched, they would be unable to detect the existence of this secret chamber without destroying the outer formations.

This was the primary purpose of building the alchemy room.

After all, a man needs his secret space.

Inside the secret chamber were two bookshelves, piled high with ancient texts and rare scrolls.Li Changshou sat directly behind the desk, took out the dozens of parchment scrolls and carefully examined them for a while. He then took out the jade token, held it in his hand, closed his eyes, and a complex three-dimensional structure appeared in his mind.

This three-dimensional structure resembled a skyscraper he often saw in cities in his previous life, but this 'skyscraper' was embedded within the Little Qiong Peak mountain.

He gently exhaled.

It had been a long time since he felt this reassuring sense of secrecy...

“Ah,” Li Changshou murmured, a slight smile on his lips. “Taking a bath here would be quite nice.Just kidding, I can't relax for a moment. I should continue checking the various arrangements of the grand formation.”

Fortunately, Martial Aunt Jiu Jiu's profound cultivation allowed his decades-long concept to be realized—

A three-dimensional composite grand formation!

Over two years, with Jiu Jiu's help, Li Changshou pieced together his ideas on the Dao of formations, step by step.In Martial Aunt Jiu Jiu's understanding, she helped Li Changshou arrange over a hundred medium and small formations. These formations were interconnected, subtly forming 'pseudo-natural formations' that enveloped a thirty-li radius around the alchemy room.

The combined effort of Li Changshou and Jiu Jiu resulted in a grand formation equivalent to one set up by a formidable True Immortal, impenetrable to anyone less than a Heavenly Immortal.Furthermore, only a Heavenly Immortal with a certain depth of understanding in the Dao of formations could break it.

However, Jiu Jiu was only aware of one layer, not the second, third, or fourth...

Mainstream formations typically use various precious materials, spirit stones, and specially refined treasures as their foundations. These foundations are interconnected, drawing upon the power of heaven and earth to form grand formations with different effects.The Dao of formations is profound and extensive, and Li Changshou knew that the formations he mastered were neither numerous nor particularly ingenious, let alone profound...He had to maintain a clear understanding of his own strength at all times.

However, his mind was always full of wild and imaginative ideas, and he was able to implement these ideas one by one through repeated verification.

About sixty-seven years ago, during his leisure time from cultivation, Li Changshou delved into the formations preserved by the Duxian Gate and incidentally discovered that most mainstream formations in the Primordial World had their foundations distributed on a single horizontal plane.At that time, he thought, what if the foundations were distributed vertically? The effect should be the same.

Taking a dome-shaped mountain-guarding formation as an example, if the foundations were distributed vertically, the resulting dome would also rotate ninety degrees.Of course, most mountain-guarding formations require drawing on the power of earth veins, so vertical distribution of foundations couldn't be implemented.But non-protective formations, such as illusion formations, trapping formations, and killing formations, could be freely reoriented.

On this basis, what if the foundations were distributed diagonally?Then, what if the foundations of several grand formations intersected vertically and horizontally?Suppose two grand formations, one vertical and one horizontal, shared one-third of their foundations. When the horizontal formation was activated, the vertical formation would deactivate, and when the vertical formation was activated, the horizontal formation would deactivate. This would allow for 'interference-free switching between grand formations'!

As Li Changshou continued to explore, he gradually resolved the issues of spiritual energy circulation within formations and the 'applicability' of foundations for different formations...

Until today...

The Little Qiong Peak Alchemy Room's three-dimensional composite grand formation project was a successful practical application of his theories!

Dividing by horizontal grand formations, the formations here were divided into three layers.Jiu Jiu, however, only knew about the uppermost layer: the formations around the alchemy room, which were over a hundred trapping and illusion formations.With every hundred zhang depth into the mountain as a stage, there were also middle and lower layers. The core foundations for the grand formations in the middle and lower layers were also buried with Jiu Jiu's help.

However, this was only the situation when the foundations here operated horizontally.These foundations also concealed an unknown number of vertical and diagonal schemes, including numerous killing formations...

The secret chamber where Li Changshou was currently located was at the center of all the foundations.Only when several core vertical grand formations were activated and several core horizontal grand formations were reversed would this secret chamber appear within this rock layer.

To reach this place, even if one had mastered earth-element escape techniques, without the jade token in Li Changshou's hand and his special control methods, the only way would be to directly split Little Qiong Peak open.

If Little Qiong Peak were truly to be split open one day, it would likely mean the Duxian Gate had reached a moment of life or death. By then, Li Changshou would ninety-nine percent have already...Ahem, there's no point in perishing with the sect; it's better to preserve one's useful body to avenge the sect!

Incidentally, the primary function of the lower-layer foundations was actually to draw on the power of the earth veins.To avoid excessively drawing on the power of earth veins and spiritual veins, and thus being discovered by cultivators from other peaks or noticed by high-ranking sect members, Li Changshou actively avoided all spiritual veins. Instead, he directly drew the most 'turbid' power from the earth, then filtered the spiritual energy using the 'Return to Purity Formation' passed down by the Witches.Although this would slightly reduce the power of the killing formations, it was much more secure.Moreover, even if a master within the sect noticed the numerous formations he had set up on Little Qiong Peak, as long as the vertical and diagonal schemes weren't activated, they would merely appear as some trapping and illusion formations, with nothing in violation of sect rules.

Previously, he used normalcy as a disguise, which was 'passive disguise'.But now that the alchemy room was needed for alchemy, he was reluctantly forced to 'operate openly,' pushing 'active disguise' to its utmost for his current stage.

As for future development, Li Changshou had already planned it out...Using the numerous foundations beneath the alchemy room as a base, he would slowly expand outwards, turning Little Qiong Peak into an inconspicuous internal fortress for the immortal sect.

Life is short, and the Primordial World is so vast and fascinating.As cultivators of our generation, one should first seek longevity and explore the Grand Dao with stability, before experiencing the magnificent splendor of the Three Thousand Worlds; it wouldn't be too late.

“Finally,” Li Changshou rubbed his hands together, put away the parchment scrolls and jade token, and took out several storage pouches, emptying out a few storage artifacts from them.The unexpected gains from his trip to North Continent, after two years of waiting, could finally be inventoried!“Let's see how poor this immortal, Yuwen Ling, really was.”

Li Changshou chuckled lightly, took out two paper figures and transformed them into clones, having these two clones hold two storage artifacts and begin slowly refining them in a corner.

Half a day later, the paper figures guarding the alchemy furnace were almost out of spiritual power, and Li Changshou had also finished sorting the spoils, so he rose to leave the secret chamber.

In his hand, he held a brocade box, inside which lay two dormant 'beetles'.If he was not mistaken, these things should be...Love Gu worms.

“What good stuff,” Li Changshou praised. “Too bad they're temporarily useless.”He decided to keep them.“Later, if the immortal birds and spirit beasts he raised lacked the urge to reproduce, he could use these to stimulate them, to increase cub production and save some rare species.”

...

Time flew by, and soon it was the agreed day for alchemy.

Jiu Jiu yawned, wearing a short linen shirt that some senior sister had presumably helped her clean. Still groggy, she sat on a large gourd, drifting unsteadily towards Little Qiong Peak.As a key True Immortal within the sect with powerful backing, she was unconstrained when flying, going wherever she pleased, with no restrictions except for forbidden areas.

“Is today the twentieth day?”Jiu Jiu counted on her fingers, feeling a bit muddled for a moment.Earlier, in pursuit of excitement, she had tasted a mouthful of 'Immortal's Drunk' 'raw solution,' and consequently slept sluggishly for five or six days...As she hurried forward, she didn't deliberately spread her immortal sense, thus failing to notice a patch of cloud mist drifting in the forest below.

After Jiu Jiu arrived at Little Qiong Peak, two heads emerged from the cloud mist below. The one on the left was the short Daoist Jiu Wu, while on the right was a girl who looked no older than sixteen or seventeen.Although she appeared as a young girl with a beautiful face and graceful figure, full of youthful vitality, in reality, both she and Jiu Wu were roughly the same age, having lived for over two thousand years.

The girl's Daoist name was Jiu Shi, the fourth disciple of Lord Wangqing, Jiu Wu's Dao companion, and the immortal he often secretly observed using the silk of his Three-Eyed Heavy-Eyed Spider...

Jiu Wu whispered, “This isn't really appropriate for us to be here like this; after all, this is Little Qiong Peak.”

The girl retorted without good humor, then slightly narrowed her almond eyes. “What's there to be afraid of? If they're unhappy, they can fight the peak master here! Running over here right after waking up, there must be something going on. When have you ever seen Little Jiu this diligent? Today, I'm going to see whether this Junior Brother Qiyuan has three heads or six arms, to be able to make our Little Jiu come here every day, even before becoming an immortal.”

Jiu Wu immediately gave a wry smile, then suddenly raised his thick, short eyebrows. “There are still formations here? I can't sense Little Jiu's aura anymore.”

“What's there to fear about formations?” Jiu Shi scoffed. “Haven't we all learned them?”Jiu Shi pursed her lips, grabbed Jiu Wu's collar casually, and without another word, concealed their figures and auras, transforming into two shadows flying towards the forests of Little Qiong Peak.“We two Half-Heavenly Immortals,” she scoffed, “are we going to be afraid of formations set up by someone who hasn't even become an immortal yet?”