Eternal Life Begins with Learning

Chapter 335: Chapter 307: Concerns and Trump Cards

Chu Mu was a bit confused. From what he had seen and heard recently, Nanshan Town was a truly remote and impoverished backwater.

The nearest Marketplace was over a thousand miles away. Based on the distribution of Marketplaces, it was highly unlikely that any Cultivator would pass through Nanshan Town.

Besides, even if a Cultivator did pass through Nanshan Town and happened to discover Li Caiyi, why would they help her so much for no reason?

They gave her a Cultivation Technique, led her into the Cultivation Immortal Realm, and then gifted her Elixirs and Spirit Stones...

A good Samaritan?

Or did they have ulterior motives?

"What did that woman look like?"

Chu Mu asked. As he spoke, he handed over a Jade Scroll, signaling for Li Caiyi to record the Female Cultivator’s appearance on it.

A moment later, Li Caiyi obediently handed the Jade Scroll back.

Inside the Jade Scroll, a figure appeared within his Divine Sense Perception.

The woman had her hair in a single ponytail, her expression was cold, and she wore practical, tight-fitting clothes, giving her a sharp and capable look.

Her face was unfamiliar to him. According to Li Caiyi, the woman’s Cultivation seemed to be at Qi Cultivation Perfection.

But obviously, he couldn’t rule out the possibility that she had concealed her face and Cultivation.

After all, when Li Caiyi first entered the Cultivation Immortal Realm, her knowledge was limited, making it easy to deceive her.

Putting down the Jade Scroll, Chu Mu didn’t dwell on it. He looked again at Li Caiyi before him.

Nourished by Spiritual Qi, Cultivators were practically eternally youthful, unless they deliberately allowed their bodies to age, practiced certain special Cultivation Techniques, or suffered injuries.

Decades had passed, yet they seemed to have left few marks on Li Caiyi.

He was silent for a moment before suddenly asking,

"Miss Caiyi, what is your Spirit Root Talent?"

Li Caiyi nervously clutched the corner of her clothes and said timidly, "I have Three Spirit Roots, with a sixty percent affinity for the Water Attribute."

Chu Mu nodded. His gaze shifted to the door, where the restaurant’s Shopkeeper was still waiting respectfully outside the private room.

He abruptly changed the subject. "Why was that Cultivator giving you trouble today?"

"He... he wants to take me as a concubine. I have already refused him many times..."

Chu Mu’s eyes flickered slightly. He asked again, "I saw that his Cultivation is quite decent. Miss Caiyi, you are all alone in the Cultivation Immortal Realm with no one to rely on. Why refuse?"

"My temperament isn’t suited for Cultivation, and I don’t dare to have grand ambitions. I was already prepared to return to the mortal world to live out the rest of my life, but after the great changes at Ji Family Castle last year, I was left all alone and couldn’t leave..."

Hearing this explanation, Chu Mu couldn’t help but be taken aback.

From what he’d seen, all Cultivators struggled and wasted away in the Cultivation Immortal Realm. Even if hope was slim, they would still fight desperately, unwilling to let go of the slightest chance.

Even when their lifespan was short and their Immortal Path was completely cut off, most wouldn’t return to the mortal world. Instead, they would marry wives and take concubines, pinning their hopes on their descendants.

This was the first time he had ever heard of someone who, after entering the Cultivation Immortal Realm, felt they were unsuited for it and wanted to voluntarily return to the mortal world...

But...

He looked at Li Caiyi before him, this time studying her very seriously.

’This woman, with the gentle and weak personality he remembered...’

’And after all these years, she’s still the same, hardly changed at all. If anything, the constant dangers of the Cultivation Immortal Realm have only made her more timid.’

’A personality like that... really does seem completely unsuited for survival in this Cultivation Immortal Realm.’

Chu Mu asked, "After seeing the Cultivation Immortal Realm, can you truly be content returning to the mortal world?"

Her expression darkened. She silently nodded, then shook her head.

Chu Mu let out a soft sigh, a strange sense of melancholy welling up inside him. He took out a Storage Talisman and placed several bottles of Elixirs that were no longer useful to him inside, along with some Spirit Stones.

After placing the Storage Talisman on the table in front of Li Caiyi, he took out a Sound Transmission Talisman. He spoke slowly, "I will be staying in Ji Family Castle for a few months. If Miss Caiyi decides to return to the mortal world, I can give you a ride when I leave."

With that, he stood up, pushed open the door, and walked out of the private room.

"Miss Caiyi is an old friend of mine."

He paused at the door and looked at the Shopkeeper who was waiting respectfully nearby, his voice calm.

"Senior, you can rest assured. This junior understands, I understand."

The Shopkeeper nodded repeatedly and bowed in assent.

Chu Mu nodded, glanced back at the figure in the private room, took a deep breath, and strode away.

In the private room, the woman clutched the two Talismans, clearly lost in a daze. After a long moment, she seemed to snap out of it and whipped her head toward the door, only to see a back that was quickly disappearing from view.

Leaving the restaurant, Chu Mu didn’t linger. Meeting an old acquaintance he once had feelings for might have stirred something in him.

But it was only a fleeting feeling.

Compared to the long Immortal Path, reality was cruel.

Even setting aside the gap in their cultivation realms, given the current situation in the Cultivation Immortal Realm, he couldn’t possibly wander around with such a burden.

Any enemy or danger he faced was not something a Qi Cultivation Realm Cultivator could withstand.

Of course, perhaps the most important reason was that these slight feelings weren’t strong enough for him to sacrifice too much.

He went to the housing rental area of the Marketplace. He didn’t show his Employment Contract Order from the Righteous Alliance, but instead rented a Cave Mansion as an individual.

The Cave Mansion was located on the mountainside. Unlike the courtyard-style layouts in other Marketplaces, this was a cavern carved into the mountain’s belly.

The overall structure of the cavern wasn’t too different from a normal courtyard-style Cave Mansion.

Using the Restriction Token to open the Cave Mansion, Chu Mu thoroughly inspected it inside and out before finally walking into the quiet chamber.

He sat cross-legged and sent his Divine Sense into his Storage Ring to inspect its contents.

After a short while, he waved his sleeve, and dozens of Jade Boxes appeared before him.

He then took out several Jade Scrolls and perused them for a long time before looking back at the Jade Boxes, a contemplative expression on his face.

During the incident at Jingmen, his gains were meager, but his losses were undoubtedly heavy.

Not to mention his own injuries, most of his tools and techniques had been destroyed while resisting that terrifying tide of Spiritual Qi.

Now that his injuries had healed, the situation in the Cultivation Immortal Realm was more confusing and dangerous than ever...

Clearly, restoring his strength and capabilities was the current priority.

His previous Puppets, whether it was the Cyan Wolf Puppet or the Guard Puppet, had all proven to be quite effective.

But...

Chu Mu carefully recalled every battle he’d fought since refining the Puppets. He occasionally glanced at the Jade Scrolls, making modifications to the Puppet formulas within.

Without a doubt, every past battle had clearly proven one fact:

for him, both types of Puppets were merely icing on the cake.

Even without Puppets, it wasn’t difficult for him to defeat his enemies using his own abilities, like his Sword Intent, the Great Sun True Flame, and even the power of his physical body.

The Puppets were just a bonus. When faced with a truly desperate situation, like that tide of Spiritual Qi, their usefulness was... minuscule.

Faced with this reality, it seemed he needed to change his way of thinking.

Chu Mu carefully considered himself—his Cultivation, his techniques, his weaknesses, his strengths...

His advantages were obvious.

Thanks to his practice of the Tai Gang Saber Technique, his Sword Intent, which was once just a trump card, had now become an exceptionally powerful, regularly used technique.

His Great Sun True Flame was also terrifying. After the incident at Jingmen, when he was ambushed by several Foundation Establishment Cultivators, a single wisp of Great Sun True Flame had directly annihilated two of them, burning both their bodies and Divine Souls to ash.

And thanks to the Great Sun Scripture and his Sword Intent, his physical body was powerful, and his Magical Power and Divine Sense far surpassed those of Cultivators at the same realm.

In a one-on-one fight, even without relying on external aid, he feared no Cultivator of the same realm.

His weaknesses were also just as obvious.

Since his skills as an Artifact Refiner and Puppet Master had been exposed, and after his repeated battles in Jingmen, almost anyone who knew anything about him knew that he was powerful and wealthy.

Because of this, when he got into a Battle, his opponents either feared him so much that a fight never broke out, or he would simply crush them.

Or... he would get ganged up on.

It was a helpless, but very clear, fact.

His portrait and Divine Soul Aura had long since spread throughout the entire Great Chu Cultivation Immortal World as the Longevity Sect repeatedly increased the bounty on his head.

There were people from the Longevity Sect after him, there would surely be people from the Righteous Alliance after him, and as for Loose Cultivators, there were definitely even more of them coveting what he had.

And aside from his rarely revealed Great Sun True Flame and his Sword Intent, most of his techniques were known to outsiders.

Back in Jingmen, if he hadn’t leveraged the power of the Righteous Alliance to weave a network of connections that was highly beneficial to him, his situation would have likely been extremely difficult.

All things considered, his current circumstances were not good. One could even say he was in a predicament.

He didn’t need more icing on the cake. What he needed were enough life-saving trump cards!

Chu Mu waved his hand, and the lids of the many Jade Boxes before him flew open.

A vast array of Spiritual Materials was revealed before him.

There was the corpse of that mysterious ribbonfish, as well as the preserved head of the two-headed giant snake.

Most of them, however, were the various Spiritual Materials he had collected while performing Artifact Refining for other Cultivators in Jingmen.

All were extremely rare. There was no small number of Tier Three Spiritual Materials, and he even possessed Supreme Treasures like the Ten-thousand-year-old Spirit Jade and the Fiery Sun Fire Essence.

But with his current Cultivation and Artifact Refining skills, he obviously couldn’t fully utilize such High Tier Spiritual Materials.

Take the Fiery Sun Fire Essence, for example. Right now, he didn’t even have the ability to melt it down, let alone anything else.

As he pondered, he turned his head to look at Wangcai, who was lying nearby.

After its bloodline transplant and evolution to Tier Two, Wangcai’s body had shrunk by several times. A body of this size meant he could refine a perfectly fitting suit of Battle Armor for it.

The Vajra Wolf Bloodline already granted an exceptionally tough physical body. With the enhancement of Battle Armor, it would be like giving a tiger wings.

And as for himself...

He looked down at the Minghong Saber placed to his side. It had already been refined into a Top Grade Spiritual Artifact, which was currently his strongest weapon.

As for Magical Treasures, which were a level above Top Grade Spiritual Artifacts, even if he could refine one, his Cultivation was insufficient to wield it, let alone unleash its full power.

His fighting style had always favored wielding his saber and engaging in close-quarters combat.

Now that he was practicing the Tai Gang Saber Technique, he was becoming even more proficient in his use of Sword Intent.

’So... refining a life-saving trump card...’

Chu Mu was lost in thought, a rough draft already forming in his mind...

...

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!