Chapter 277 - 274: Return to Cloud Mist, Changes in the Immortal City

Chapter 277: Chapter 274: Return to Cloud Mist, Changes in the Immortal City

A Core Formation Cultivator’s speed was far beyond that of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

Even flying at a leisurely pace, it still took Li Ping less than four days to cross several nations and reach the edge of the Cloud Mist Mountain Range.

Then, a pale blue stream of light plunged into the mountain range.

...

Outside the tall gates of Fenglan Immortal City, the pale blue light dissipated, revealing a graceful figure within.

Li Ping looked up at the city gate before him, at the endless stream of cultivators and mortals entering and exiting, and a hint of a smile appeared in his eyes.

He hadn’t been back in nearly seventy years, yet the Immortal City looked just as he remembered.

Thinking back to his youth, he had struggled in the Immortal City for almost twenty years before luckily succeeding in his Foundation Establishment. That breakthrough had awakened his innate talent and set him on a different path in life.

So, if he had to name his first love... it was actually the Immortal City. This place held twenty years of his life’s struggles.

With a slight smile, Li Ping shook his head and followed the crowd toward the city gate.

Unlike Tianshang Immortal City, Fenglan Immortal City wasn’t so open and accepting of all cultivators, regardless of their background.

Cultivators entering the city had to present an Identity Token, and Li Ping was no exception.

However, he had lived in the Immortal City in his younger days and had kept his old Identity Token in his Storage Bag, so he didn’t need to apply for a new one now.

According to his Identity Token, he was a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator.

At this moment, Li Ping had also suppressed his own aura to about the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment level.

After presenting his Token, Li Ping walked slowly into the Immortal City under the respectful gazes of the Qi Refining Cultivators guarding the gate.

...

The main purpose of his trip to the Immortal City was to revisit old haunts, reminisce about his youth, and see old sworn brothers like Zhang Tie.

Following the wide street, Li Ping made his way to Vermilion Bird Lane, where he once lived. Watching the Qi Refining Cultivators coming and going, a look of nostalgia filled his eyes.

When the Qi Refining Cultivators saw a senior of the Foundation Establishment Stage appear here, they all gave him a wide berth while speculating about his purpose.

Only a few bolder individuals, sensing an opportunity, cautiously approached. They obsequiously asked if Li Ping needed anything, offering to be of service.

Li Ping smiled and shook his head.

But just as they were turning to leave in disappointment, Li Ping casually flipped his hand, took out a pile of Low-Tier Spirit Stones from his Storage Bag, and tossed it to them as a reward.

"This...?"

When the men came to their senses, they discovered that the small pile of Spirit Stones numbered more than twenty. Divided evenly, they would each get five or six.

The other cultivators who had moved away watched this scene, their hearts filled with envy.

But by the time they thought to approach the senior for a similar reward, they discovered he was already long gone.

Only the few bold cultivators remained, having received a ’large sum’ of Spirit Stones for nothing. They stood there, dumbfounded, as if they still couldn’t believe what had just happened.

...

After a nostalgic tour of the Outer City, Li Ping finally stepped into the Inner City.

The Inner City primarily consisted of a market formed by shops run by sects from the surrounding nations, along with the stationed offices of the major Foundation Establishment Immortal Races under the Immortal City’s jurisdiction.

Besides these, the rest of the space was taken up by cultivation abodes for rent and resource-producing areas like Spirit Medicine Gardens and places to raise Spirit Beasts.

In fact, Li Ping had lived in the Inner City for even longer.

He had only lived in the Outer City for less than twenty years, but he had lived in the Inner City for a full thirty-odd years.

However, by the time he moved to the Inner City, he had already achieved success and fame, having become a Foundation Establishment Cultivator and a Tier Two Talisman Maker.

Therefore, with almost no effort, he had enjoyed preferential treatment from the Meng family and successfully moved into a cultivation abode on Immortal Peach Mountain, which possessed a Tier Two Upper Grade Spirit Vein.

It was strange, really.

In the Outer City, he had endured countless hardships, struggling just to get a foothold so he no longer had to worry about being kicked out for failing to pay rent on his abode.

But in the Inner City, relying on his Tier Two talisman-making skills, he had easily slipped into a life of comfort and privilege. He lacked for neither Spiritual Land nor resources; everywhere he went, he was warmly received, and everyone he met would politely greet him with "Talisman Master Li."

Yet now, what he truly felt nostalgic about was precisely the difficult struggle of his time in the Outer City. As for Immortal Peach Mountain, it stirred no particular feelings in him.

’Human nature is just perverse, isn’t it? And I’m no exception.’

Li Ping shook his head to himself and, in the end, decided not to visit Immortal Peach Mountain.

He went directly to the Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion. After revealing the aura of a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment Cultivator, he instructed a steward to announce his presence and ask for the person in charge to meet him.

The Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion was an official shop run by the Immortal City, responsible for procuring and purchasing Spiritual Materials and selling finished products like Spiritual Artifacts and Pills.

When Li Ping had left the Immortal City, the manager of the Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion had been his third brother, Gumu Sheng.

A steward from the pavilion respectfully led Li Ping to a private room on the second floor. After serving Spirit Tea, the steward left him to wait, quietly departing to ask the manager to come and receive the Foundation Establishment senior.

...

In a magnificent study within the Ten Thousand Laws Tower, a middle-aged man with dark skin and plain features, dressed in splendid robes that made him look like a wealthy official, was patiently working on the accounts of the Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion.

This man was none other than Gumu Sheng.

As he handled the accounts, he couldn’t help but sigh inwardly at the difficult position of his senior sister, the Sect Leader.

Nominally, the Sect Leader of Fenglan Immortal City was Meng Qingyi, its highest authority.

But in reality?

Gumu Sheng knew perfectly well how the profits in Fenglan Immortal City were divided: Purple Cloud Valley took forty-five percent, Sword Washing Pool and the Cyan Wood Sect each took twenty-five percent, and the Meng family was left with only five percent.

In other words, the true masters of the Immortal City were the three sects, including Purple Cloud Valley. Meng Qingyi was merely a manager; as Sect Leader, she was accountable to them.

Initially, out of concern that the Daoist Guardian Alliance might intervene, the three sects had remained hidden in the background, ruling the Immortal City through the Meng family.

But gradually, as time passed, and especially after the destruction of the Cyan Cloud Secret Realm, more and more cultivators began venturing deep into the Cloud Mist Mountain Range for cultivation resources. The Immortal City benefited from this, growing ever more prosperous.

The three sects were no longer satisfied with just splitting the Immortal City’s profits; they wanted to take direct control of the city itself.

The reason he was urgently handling the accounts now was because a while ago, Purple Cloud Valley had sent an Inspector to represent the three sects and oversee the Immortal City.

And the first thing that person did upon arrival was to audit the accounts.

Gumu Sheng was worried the Inspector would find discrepancies that could implicate him, hence his urgent work on the books.

After all, that man had already publicly embarrassed his senior sister, the Sect Leader, on several occasions.

Knowing he couldn’t fight a losing battle, he had no intention of resisting the three sects’ takeover of the Immortal City.

In any case, he had earned enough over the years. At worst, he could just give up his position like his seventh brother and take his family to a Tier Two Spiritual Land outside the city to build up his family clan.

Just as he was busy, the voice of a subordinate came from outside: "Pavilion Master, a Foundation Establishment Stage senior has arrived and specifically asked to see you. I have already led him to a private room to wait."

’A Foundation Establishment Cultivator.’ Gumu Sheng nodded.

As a businessman, he deeply understood the importance of connections, and his own suave and sophisticated personality made him extremely skilled at handling such social interactions.

Although he had many urgent matters to attend to, he didn’t want to offend anyone. He hurriedly put away the account books, put on a smiling face, and headed towards the private room his subordinate had mentioned.

Arriving outside the private room, Gumu Sheng pushed open the door while saying with a smile, "I wonder which fellow Daoist..."

When he got a clear look at the familiar face of the person in the room, his words stopped abruptly. A look of surprised delight washed over his face. "Big Brother, you’re back!"

Li Ping smiled and nodded. "It’s me."

...

Nearly seventy years had passed since Li Ping’s departure. Gumu Sheng’s face looked much more mature, and he now carried himself with the air of someone in a high position.

Clearly, over the years he had grown accustomed to his status as a Foundation Establishment senior and the manager of the Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion. He was no longer the merchant who had to force smiles for everyone.

He was still in the business of a merchant.

Before Foundation Establishment, he was basically a sole proprietor; after Foundation Establishment, he became the helmsman of a great merchant association backed by the Immortal City. The nature of his position was completely different.

His status and standing were worlds apart from before.

The only thing that hadn’t changed was his cultivation.

It had been nearly ninety years since his Foundation Establishment, and while Gumu Sheng’s cultivation had improved, he had not broken through to the next realm and remained at the Early-stage Foundation Establishment.

Although he had succeeded in his Foundation Establishment, his Four Spirit Roots aptitude made his subsequent cultivation progress incredibly arduous.

Of course, Li Ping believed this was also partly because Gumu Sheng himself hadn’t focused on his cultivation.

Otherwise, with his talent for business, he wouldn’t have been short on cultivation resources.

He shouldn’t still be at the Early-stage Foundation Establishment after all these years.

However, this was his personal choice, and it wasn’t Li Ping’s place to say much.

After all, not everyone was like him, able to activate a peerless talent after reaching Foundation Establishment.

When the path to the Immortal Dao seemed hopeless, what was wrong with living a comfortable life as a Foundation Establishment Cultivator? In its own way, that was a kind of happiness too.

...

Having not seen him for nearly seventy years, Gumu Sheng, amidst his excitement, was also very curious. "Big Brother, where have you been all these years?"

Back then, before his Big Brother left the Immortal City to enter secluded cultivation in a secret realm’s abode, he had specifically informed him, stating that he would be leaving the Immortal City for a while.

But he had never expected that his Big Brother’s departure would last for nearly seventy years without a single trace.

He, Zhang Tie, and the others had once worried that something had happened to him. That was why later, when Bai Lin adopted some orphans to carry on their Big Brother’s lineage, they not only didn’t stop her but secretly offered some support.

If something unfortunate had truly befallen his Big Brother, the Li family of Five Clouds Pool would be the last trace of him left in this world.

Li Ping smiled, shook his head, and briefly recounted his experiences over the years.

Hearing that his Big Brother had gone to the Land of the Far North, Gumu Sheng was secretly dumbfounded.

He had guessed that his Big Brother had left back then to escape the chaos of war, but he had never imagined he would go to such a distant place.

As he observed him, he saw that his Big Brother’s appearance had hardly changed, as if he were ageless. His cultivation, however, seemed the same as when he left, still at the Mid-stage Foundation Establishment realm.

"Big Brother, Zhang Tie and Cheng Yao must be eager to see you too, but Cheng Yao and Bai Qing aren’t in the Immortal City," Gumu Sheng said with a smile. "I’ll send someone to notify them right now and have them hurry to the Immortal City. How about we all get together when they arrive?"

The reason Li Ping had come to see Gumu Sheng first was precisely because he knew he was good at organizing such things.

Hearing Gumu Sheng’s proposal now, he smiled and nodded. "Alright. You arrange it."