Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 164 - 124: The Arrival of Evil Cultivators

Chapter 164: Chapter 124: The Arrival of Evil Cultivators

Feng Yan said, "Junior Sister Li still cares a lot about that mortal man. I think you’re putting your feelings in the wrong place."

As she spoke, she pulled out a jade bottle from her clothes and tossed it to the middle-aged man.

"What now?" The middle-aged man’s face turned a little ugly.

"You better take this pill back. I can’t do what you’re asking. Junior Sister Li almost broke off our friendship because of it."

Feng Yan continued.

She genuinely liked Nangua’s personality, and she wasn’t willing to ruin things between them over a couple of pills.

The middle-aged man let out a dry laugh, clearly annoyed by Feng Yan’s response, and said, "If you won’t do it, there are plenty of others who will."

A bottle of high-grade pills, just to help play matchmaker—who wouldn’t see that as a golden opportunity?

If it wasn’t for the fact that Feng Yan was the closest to Li Nangua, he wouldn’t have sought her help, either.

"Be on your way, Daoist Ming."

Feng Yan was a little pissed herself, but she forced herself to escort Daoist Ming to the door. She watched as he left in a huff, a trace of worry clouding her eyes.

Li Nangua was rather popular at the foot of Fuyun Mountain. Sure, part of it was her looks, but mostly, it was her spirit root talent—a lot of people had their eyes on that.

At her age, and now cast out from the depths of Fuyun Mountain, the odds of her making Foundation Establishment were slim. Still, with a decent spirit root talent, if she had children, there was a fair chance she could pass some of that down to her offspring.

That’s why even Daoist Ming, an accomplished alchemist, couldn’t help but come seeking her out.

"No telling how much longer she can hold on."

No connections, and everyone wants a piece of this prize—keeping things as they are won’t be easy.

"At the end of the day, it’s still the man’s fault for being useless."

Feng Yan couldn’t help but complain.

If it were her, she would’ve dumped that mortal guy ages ago and found someone she could actually depend on—that was why she’d been willing to help Daoist Ming play matchmaker in the first place.

Mortal folks are just passers-by in this world. Compared to the immortals, their lifespans aren’t even in the same league.

······

The merging of the two realms was looming, and strange events seemed to be cropping up everywhere.

Lu Chang’sheng felt a sense of urgency creeping up on him, too.

He suspected the Great Yuan boundary’s drop point wasn’t going to be any ordinary place, and that left him with a twinge of unease.

Soon enough, his worries were proven right.

Just after the New Year passed, the Lord of Black Mountain Prefecture himself showed up at the door and asked if he’d hold down the Prefecture City for them.

"Just yesterday, something bizarre happened in the city—over a thousand Black Mountain Army soldiers dead, and even four or five True Qi Realm martial artists from the Martial Artist Institute got killed."

Lord Shi Cong’s face was full of worry.

The True Qi Realm were some of the top fighters in the city, serving as professors and instructors at the Martial Artist Institute.

Losing four or five like that was a crushing blow for someone in his position.

If the issue were resolved, that would be one thing—but by the look of things, there’s more trouble on the way. Shi Cong had no choice but to ask for help.

Unfortunately, Lu Chang’sheng just wasn’t interested.

The Prefecture City was too big—a move there was just asking for trouble.

Last year, just to cut ties with the government, he’d had Wang Heihou, Niu Dazhuang, and others like himself resign from their official posts.

So how could he let Shi Cong drag him back in?

He politely turned Shi Cong down, but he started being extra careful after that.

Over the past few years, he’d recruited plenty of Protector Institute guards for Black Mountain Prefecture; nowadays, there were patrols circling his place twenty-four-seven, just in case anything happened.

Just like that, more than ten days slipped by.

While Lu Chang’sheng was busy locking everything down, something strange suddenly happened in one of the townships under Nanming Prefecture, Great Yuan’s territory—a few streaks of multicolored light fell through the sky and landed in the woods outside the town.

"So it’s really a Mayfly World after all."

The streaks of light condensed into several figures, each standing about a hundred meters apart, all keeping a wary eye on each other.

They looked around and used detection arts to scan the area, then settled on a conclusion.

This was, without a doubt, a new corner of the Mayfly World.

When that fact sank in, a flash of greed showed in each of their eyes.

The so-called Mayfly Worlds were realms floating outside the Spirit Realm itself, varying in size. Because they were once part of the Spirit Realm, these worlds often held all sorts of untouched opportunities.

Things like spirit medicine, Immortal Cave Mansions, even immortal roots or rare oddities.

All of which would fetch a handsome price in the Spirit Realm.

"Looks like we’re the first group to land here. Since we don’t know the local lay of the land, we’d best stick together for now—figure things out before making any moves."

One of the cultivators licked his lips and spoke.

But these weren’t your standard cultivators. In fact, Mayfly World drop points like this almost never had proper cultivators show up—they were hotbeds for outlaws.

In the Spirit Realm, orthodox cultivators had one word for guys like these—evil cultivators.

Evil cultivators: rulebreakers, robbers, ambushers of Immortal Sect disciples, collaborators with monsters—stuff like that was their bread and butter.

They’d do anything for profit and didn’t care how dirty it got—everyone knew their bad reputation.

Nearly every so often, the orthodox Immortal Sects in the Spirit Realm would join forces to wipe out evil cultivators from whole regions.

But with so many cultivators in the Spirit Realm, folks constantly backstabbed each other for profit. Plenty of Immortal Sect disciples, one wrong thought, and they’d end up as evil cultivators themselves.

So, it was just a never-ending cycle—fight them now, new ones later.

They hadn’t managed to stamp out the evil cultivators, but the efforts kept their numbers in check.

Plenty of evil cultivators would flee to places where the light of the Immortal Sects couldn’t reach.

Fengming Mountain was exactly one of those places.

These particular evil cultivators had been holed up here, cultivating in secret. When they caught sight of a rift from the merging of the two realms, they slipped in to investigate.

Looking to score some loot.

In a blink, they found themselves here.

Some Mayfly Worlds were vast, some tiny. Some had Immortal Sects wiped out, others still had sects standing. Even though this group didn’t trust each other, nobody made a move to break off alone yet—they stuck together, heading for the nearby township to check out what Great Yuan territory was about.

Half a day later, the evil cultivators were gathered in a tavern, giving each other weird looks, tinged with excitement.

With cultivation methods, it was child’s play to dig for information from mortals.

One soul-searching spell, and any mortal would spill every secret they had.

Back in the Spirit Realm, Immortal Sect laws meant they had to be careful using soul-searching techniques, but here in Mayfly World, nothing held them back.

"In this place—forget Immortal Sects, there’s not even a single cultivator!"

"Looks like this Mayfly World is nothing special, but for us? It’s perfect."

"Alright then, let’s each do our own thing and stay out of each other’s way."

"Hahaha, exactly! Let’s see what each of us can get with our own skills."

······

All six evil cultivators laughed.

No Immortal Sects meant they could do whatever the hell they wanted.

Granted, the strength of a Mayfly World was tied to whether an Immortal Sect existed in it—worlds with sects were higher level, with richer resources.

But these guys were just fresh evil cultivators themselves. If they actually ran into an Immortal Sect, it’d be their heads on the block.

Once they had the lay of the land, they wasted no time casting escape arts and splitting up.

One of those escape lights was headed straight for Black Mountain Prefecture.

"The rest are all rushing off to the most prosperous places, but honestly, fancy places don’t always have the best stuff."

The evil cultivator heading for Black Mountain Prefecture was named Meng Ping. Compared to the others, he clearly had his own ideas.

In his mind, busy places might have more treasures, but they also came with plenty of trouble.

First off, the level of violence.

Guys at the first or second stage of Qi Cultivation, like them—taking on mortals wasn’t just a cakewalk.

Some powerful mortal weapons could break right through their body-protecting techniques.

So, the richer and busier the place, the more risk there was.

Another thing—even if posh places had more resources, a lot of it was probably already used up.

Sometimes, the less glamorous spots were where you’d find real surprises.

And above all—conflicts between cultivators.

He’d just seen several streaks of escape light sneakily change direction as soon as they were out of sight.

"Like hell evil cultivators are gonna follow the agreed routes."

Meng Ping let out a cold laugh.

Everyone wanted to rush straight for the core, Jinghua Prefecture, and that was going to cause messy fights for sure.

Better to pick a low-key prefecture city and get rich on the sly.

Clearly, Meng Ping was the cautious type.