Chapter 278 - 275: Improving Techniques and Seeing Zhang Tie Again

Chapter 278: Chapter 275: Improving Techniques and Seeing Zhang Tie Again

Inside the Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion.

Li Ping informed Gumu Sheng of his return and asked him to notify the others, arranging a gathering.

Finally, he added with a smile, "Mu Sheng, come find me at the Immortal’s Arrival Inn when the time comes."

The Immortal’s Arrival Inn was an establishment in the Inner City exclusively for High-tier Cultivators. It possessed a Tier Two Spirit Vein environment, and many Foundation Establishment Cultivators who were just passing through the Immortal City liked to use it as a temporary residence.

Li Ping had only come to Fenglan Immortal City to visit friends and planned to return to the Jiang Kingdom afterward. Therefore, he had no intention of renting an immortal’s cave and just planned to make do at the inn for a while.

"Of course, Big Brother!" Gumu Sheng nodded repeatedly in agreement.

As he agreed, his sharp perception easily picked up on the unspoken meaning behind his Big Brother’s words.

His Big Brother was staying at an inn, which indicated he wouldn’t be staying in the Immortal City for long.

’Has Big Brother’s focus already shifted to the Land of the Far North?’ he wondered privately.

After settling everything, Li Ping was about to leave, but he quickly remembered a few other things he needed to do on this trip.

He said with a smile, "Oh, right, Mu Sheng. I need a batch of Spiritual Materials. See if the Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion has any in stock."

As he spoke, Li Ping took out a blank Jade Scroll from his Storage Bag. He used his Divine Sense to record a list of the Tier Two Spiritual Materials he still lacked for refining a Tier Three Lower Grade Puppet.

Once he finished, he used his Magical Power to make the Jade Scroll float over to Gumu Sheng.

In truth, the Spiritual Materials he needed weren’t particularly rare, just troublesome to collect.

He entrusted this matter to Gumu Sheng mainly because he figured using the Immortal City’s channels would save him a lot of trouble.

"No problem, Big Brother. Let me take a look," Gumu Sheng said as he accepted the Jade Scroll. He submerged his Divine Sense into it to inspect the contents carefully.

After he finished reading, a troubled look flickered across his face.

But the look vanished in an instant, and his expression quickly returned to normal. "Big Brother, just leave it to me. I’ll bring you the Spiritual Materials in a few days."

Li Ping smiled and nodded. "That’s good."

He had, of course, noticed the fleeting look of difficulty on Gumu Sheng’s face and guessed that collecting the Spiritual Materials might involve some complications.

However, he knew his third brother was a man with his own ideas. Since he had agreed to it, it meant he was confident he could handle any trouble. There was no need for Li Ping to worry too much about it.

Immediately, he poured out a small pile of Spirit Stones from his Storage Bag and gestured for Gumu Sheng to accept them as a deposit.

After taking care of everything, he smiled and gestured for Gumu Sheng to get back to his work. Then, despite Gumu Sheng’s attempts to make him stay, he left the Ten Thousand Laws Pavilion and went to the Immortal’s Arrival Inn to rent a superior room.

...

Sitting cross-legged in the inn, Li Ping took out the miniature world where Gao Ji Taoist resided and placed it beside him.

Meanwhile, he took advantage of the free time to take out the Spiritual Materials for the Tier Three Puppet and begin the preliminary processing.

During the process, Gao Ji Taoist would occasionally speak up to offer some suggestions for modification.

Li Ping had inherited the Puppetry Technique of the Celestial Skill Sect from a thousand years ago. In the millennium that followed, Gao Ji Taoist, as a Puppet Master, had not only pushed his craft to the brink of Tier Four but had also optimized and improved upon the Celestial Skill Sect’s original techniques.

He had proposed observing Li Ping’s creation of the Tier Three Puppet for two main reasons.

First, to witness Li Ping’s puppet-refining skill and confirm whether his previous claims were true.

Second, assuming Li Ping did possess Tier Three Puppetry skills, he wanted to use his own experience and thousand years of research to help Li Ping improve his refining methods, upgrade his techniques, and eliminate some of the original flaws and shortcomings of the Celestial Skill Sect’s Tier Three Puppets.

To this, Li Ping was naturally receptive to good advice.

With Gao Ji Taoist’s guidance, he had a chance to refine an even more formidable puppet.

In fact, he had already started processing the Spiritual Materials while traveling on his way back to the Western Wilderness.

However, processing Tier Three Spiritual Materials was extremely troublesome; even as a Core Formation Cultivator, he couldn’t rush it.

Furthermore, he hoped to use this opportunity to learn Gao Ji Taoist’s improved method for refining Tier Three Puppets. His unfamiliarity with the new techniques made him somewhat hesitant and clumsy, which further slowed down his processing speed.

But as a Gou Cultivator, Li Ping had no immediate need for Magical Combat. He had ample patience for refining the puppet and was in no hurry to finish it right away.

"Regarding the Flowing Light Stone, this old man has developed a better processing method over the years. Using this method will increase the puppet’s Magical Power conversion efficiency by at least ten percent!"

"If you use Cloud Burial Gold to replace the Wind Feather Jade, the cost will be higher, but the amount of Magical Power the puppet can call upon at once will increase by about twenty percent, nearly reaching the peak of the Early-stage Core Formation!"

...

Gao Ji Taoist’s suggestions continuously sounded in Li Ping’s ears.

He humbly followed the other’s instructions, carefully processing the Spiritual Materials.

During this process, the masterful techniques he displayed earned him great praise, even from an old monster like Gao Ji Taoist, who had lived for over a thousand years.

In truth, Li Ping himself might not have had a particularly high talent for puppet refining.

But when he inherited the Celestial Skill Sect’s Tier Three Puppetry Technique through the Myriad Works Puppet, he had accepted everything indiscriminately. He’d swallowed all the techniques whole and, thanks to the Tree of Legacy’s "learn once, master forever" characteristic, grasped them firmly.

You have to understand, the name "Myriad Works" was not chosen at random!

The Myriad Works Puppet was not created by any single Cultivator from the Celestial Skill Sect.

It was a collaborative work refined by generations of the Celestial Skill Sect’s most outstanding Puppet Masters, embodying their proudest techniques.

Only those Puppet Masters who innovated on the path of puppetry were qualified to refine their techniques into the Myriad Works Puppet, leaving them for future generations of the Sect’s Puppet Masters to learn.

Li Ping was not fighting alone. Standing behind him were the brilliant Puppet Masters of the Celestial Skill Sect from every generation, including Gao Ji Taoist himself.

Therefore, by drawing from the strengths of many, Li Ping could usually master Gao Ji Taoist’s improved refining methods quickly. He could even occasionally have a flash of insight and come up with a new idea of his own.

Inside the miniature world.

Watching the techniques Li Ping occasionally displayed, Gao Ji Taoist seemed to see a reflection of his younger self.

But now, with only a puppet body remaining, he could no longer use certain refining techniques available to living Cultivators. He had to make compromises, and it just didn’t have the same flair as it used to.

He couldn’t help but sigh with emotion. "My own craft... has lost its flavor in my own hands."

...

Li Ping originally thought he wouldn’t see Zhang Tie and the others until the next day, but to his surprise, that very afternoon, as soon as Zhang Tie heard the news of Li Ping’s return from Gumu Sheng and found out where he was staying, he immediately dropped what he was doing and rushed to the Immortal’s Arrival Inn.

"Big Brother!"

Seeing that elegant and otherworldly figure again, Zhang Tie’s face flushed, and his reddened eyes grew misty.

His lips trembled slightly as he softly called out.

Clearly, seeing his respected Big Brother again after nearly seventy years had left him exceptionally emotional.

Among the seven "siblings" of the Friends Association, Zhang Tie was the closest in age to Li Ping. He was also the first to meet him and join the association.

Of the seven, his bond with Li Ping was the deepest, and he trusted him the most.

After reaching Foundation Establishment, he had devoted much of his energy to work and life and had become more independent. With Li Ping also busy with his own cultivation, Zhang Tie no longer asked for his opinion on every single matter as he once did.

But his Big Brother was still his Big Brother.

After being apart for so long, his feelings for his Big Brother hadn’t faded. Instead, like a pot of aged wine, they had only grown stronger.

"You’re here," Li Ping said with a smile and a nod.

As he spoke, his gaze swept over Zhang Tie.

Nearly seventy years had passed, and Zhang Tie was now approaching one hundred and forty. Even by the long lifespan of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, he was well into middle age.

Having reached middle age, Zhang Tie had grown plump. His face was a size larger, and beneath his magnificent silver robes, the faint outline of a protruding belly was visible.

The only thing that hadn’t changed was his Early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation.

Li Ping guessed he was probably like Gumu Sheng, having focused more of his energy on family and work, and less on his own advancement.

Although the pills needed to break through the bottleneck to Mid-stage Foundation Establishment were hard to find, he could easily tell that Zhang Tie’s cultivation hadn’t even reached the peak of the Early-stage. He wasn’t stuck at a bottleneck at all.

But again, cultivation was a very personal matter. Everyone makes their own choices, and he couldn’t interfere too much.

Even if one dedicated themselves wholeheartedly to bitter cultivation, as long as they couldn’t form a Golden Core, what essential difference was there really between Early-stage and Late-stage Foundation Establishment?

It was just the difference between fifty steps and a hundred.

As soon as Zhang Tie sat down, he asked impatiently, "Big Brother, where have you been all these years?"

’Why does everyone ask that question the moment they see me?’ Li Ping complained internally, but he still briefly recounted his journey to the Far North.

Zhang Tie clicked his tongue in amazement as he listened, deeply impressed that Li Ping had traveled so far.

After talking about his own experiences, Li Ping smiled and asked about how Zhang Tie had been doing over the years.

When the conversation turned to himself, Zhang Tie seemed rather melancholic.

The wife and two concubines from the Meng family he had married when he reached Foundation Establishment had all passed away in recent years after their lifespans ran out. Although he had since remarried a young and beautiful wife, as they say, "clothes are best when new, but people are best when old."

His new wife was more beautiful and very docile around him, but she could never replace his late wives in his heart.

Now, the only thing that gave Zhang Tie something to look forward to was his family.

Under his care, the Zhang and Lin families had flourished over the years, each now having several Qi Refining Cultivators to watch over them.

He only hoped that before he passed away, the two families could produce a Foundation Establishment Cultivator to secure their status within the Immortal City.

To his disappointment, however, after several generations and with hundreds of clan members, most of them only had the aptitude of Four or Five Spirit Roots.

There were only two with Three Spirit Roots, and not a single promising seedling with a Dual Spirit Root or better had been born.

Li Ping nodded slightly. He knew the situation well.

The Zhang family was obviously Zhang Tie’s, but in reality, the Lin family were also his descendants.

Back then, after Old Man Lin passed away, Zhang Tie, out of gratitude for his master’s kindness, had one of his own descendants take the ’Lin’ surname to carry on Old Man Lin’s lineage.

Glancing around the room’s decor, Zhang Tie asked with curiosity, "Big Brother, why are you staying at an inn? I remember Immortal Peach Mountain still has the same rules as before. All you have to do is show your identity, and you can move in easily."