Eternal Life: Talent Grows with Age-Chapter 329 - 204: Missing One Thing

As expected, a few days later, Huo Zun and Li Changmei came to pay a visit. Although they spoke in a roundabout way, in the end, they still brought up the matter of picking sides.

"These past few years, Thunder Cauldron and his lot have been in power, withholding our resource shares—especially cultivators like Fellow Daoist Lu, who don’t have anyone backing them."

"Daoist, haven’t you thought it through yet?"

Lu Chang’sheng shook his head and politely declined their invitation.

Huo Zun and Li Changmei bore no grudge against Lu Chang’sheng; as long as he didn’t side with Thunder Cauldron’s faction, they were still friends.

He walked them to the door and watched them head in the direction of Zhong Ming’s courtyard.

"Probably won’t work out either," he thought.

Zhong Ming was devoted to cultivation, and when it came to these power struggles, his view was much like Ziyou’s, so it was impossible for him to get involved.

Sure enough, not long after, Lu Chang’sheng saw the two of them coming back, with not a hint of joy on their faces.

The next two days, Lu Chang’sheng received more guests from White Cloud Cave Mansion—some acquaintances, some he barely knew at all.

He could only sigh to himself—strife is brewing once again; who knows how Liu Jiu and the others will handle it.

After completing several alchemy assignments, he left Yun’an Institute for now, planning to return once things became clearer.

······

Half a month later, Lu Chang’sheng sat with Lu Chang’an, discussing recent family matters.

Lu Chang’an answered each question, organizing his thoughts as he went.

Since Li Nangua entered late-stage Qi Cultivation, he’d shown off some skills at the shop, and soon whispers spread throughout the Lu Mansion that a late-stage Qi Cultivator was now sitting in town.

Lu Chang’sheng mused: Huo Zun and his crew coming to me before probably had a lot to do with that.

Once the rumor was out, many covetous eyes withdrew—or else melted into the shadows.

Things had gotten a lot smoother for Lu Chang’an as he went about his work.

Still, while the family situation looked good on the surface, his own cultivation had run into some bumps.

"I’m still missing a lot of materials for the Black Water Profound Snake puppet."

He’d brought his puppetry skills to Great Success, but gathering all the ingredients was still a huge headache.

Supplementary materials weren’t much trouble—those could be bought in the markets—but the ten main ingredients were another story.

After months, he’d barely scraped together three of them; the other seven—no news at all thus far.

Some of them had shown up before, but who knew where they’d ended up now.

And last month’s Liuyun Immortal City auction didn’t have anything he needed either.

Maybe the next time would be different, but—

"These days, Platinum Immortal City and the neighboring areas are getting more chaotic. Without something to protect myself, I really can’t feel at ease."

After thinking it over all night, the next day Lu Chang’sheng found Liu Yun and agreed to become an honorary guest elder for the Platinum Immortal City branch.

Once Liu Yun got his answer, he instantly lost all pretense—he cheerfully invited Lu Chang’sheng to sit and brewed a pot of his finest spirit tea.

"This spirit tea was brought back by our steward from the Peach Blossom Banquet. They say it’s grown beneath the Peach Tree—one sip leaves its fragrance lingering for a hundred days."

"There are many other wondrous effects too."

"Alchemist Lu, please enjoy!"

Normally, Liu Yun would never have brought out this treasure tea for a guest. If it weren’t for the fact that Lu Chang’sheng could refine top-notch Barrier-Breaking Pills, he wouldn’t have, either.

"What amazing tea!" The moment he took a sip, the subtle fragrance spread across his palate—it almost made him cry out loud.

He was even more shocked to realize that the spirit tea could actually enhance spiritual sense—not a lot at a time, to be sure, but over years of drinking this stuff, the accumulation would be pretty shocking.

"And what exactly is a Peach Tree?"

"An innate spiritual object—the highest grade of treasure even in the eyes of a True Monarch. Too bad for us regular cultivators—even catching a glimpse is out of reach."

Liu Yun sighed wistfully.

The Peach Blossom Festival was a grand event across the domains—of course he’d heard of it. But the qualifications were insanely high. Even regular Foundation Establishment bigshots weren’t allowed in, let alone a lowly branch manager like him.

Lu Chang’sheng found himself more and more curious about this Peach Blossom Festival.

But all that was still a ways off—right now, his focus had to stay on finding the materials for the Black Water Profound Snake Beast.

"Now that you’re an honored guest elder at our branch, helping you out with this is much easier."

He gave Lu Chang’sheng a pointed look and said, "It’s not that I didn’t want to help before, it’s just—our trading house has its rules. If it’s something routine, no big deal. But if we have to mobilize people and resources, we at least need some kind of reason."

He clapped his hands, and soon an attendant brought over an Immortal Insect from the treasure vault and handed it to Lu Chang’sheng.

Inside, naturally, was a late-stage Qi Cultivation Profound Water Snake corpse.

"Consider this a gift, Daoist."

"Thank you." Lu Chang’sheng didn’t stand on ceremony—after all, this was part of the deal.

"As for the other ingredients, I’ll be asking around for you too. But it may take some time."

"Of course,"

Lu Chang’sheng replied, smiling.

Ten ingredients—he already had six. Only four still to go.

"Connections really do matter a great deal."

Some things can’t be settled just with Spirit Stones—unless you have a mountain of them, of course.

Somebody like Liu Yun doesn’t really care about small amounts of Spirit Stones unless it’s a major business deal.

Without his reputation as an alchemist, Lu Chang’sheng would’ve never gotten someone like Liu Yun to bend.

As expected from a major trading house, Glazed Glass Trading House had much wider access and information than any faction in the area.

Within just a few days, they tracked down word of one of the ingredients.

Lu Chang’sheng bought it for twenty thousand low-grade Spirit Stones.

It came from a loose cultivator, so Lu Chang’sheng couldn’t very well ask for it for free.

Another half-month, and he got the second ingredient.

Three months later, he obtained the third.

Just as it seemed things would keep going smoothly, the fourth ingredient proved stubbornly elusive.

"Tongling Wood is rare—even harder to find than most. Please wait a while longer, Fellow Daoist Lu. As soon as we have news, I’ll let you know right away."

Liu Yun reassured him.

Tongling Wood was a strange material—it could absorb a cultivator’s magical power, allowing it to shift shapes at will.

The reason a puppet beast can move at all is mostly thanks to Tongling Wood.

In other words, Tongling Wood is the heart of any puppet beast.

Especially since Lu Chang’sheng needed top-grade Tongling Wood this time.

That stuff was worth every bit as much as a Barrier-Breaking Pill formula.

About this, Lu Chang’sheng could only accept it with helpless resignation.

Later that night, as soon as he got home, he saw Lu Chang’an chatting with several family patriarchs.

If all the elders had come together, it probably meant they’d brought Barrier-Breaking Pill ingredients.

"Alchemist Lu!" As soon as they spotted him, the group stood up immediately.

"Please, sit!" Lu Chang’sheng hurried to have them all take a seat.

Everyone settled down together.

The old patriarchs instantly started pouring out their woes.

Lu Chang’sheng’s expression turned grim as he listened.

Lately, the families’ odd behavior had set off alarms in their rival clans.

After all, if you want to scour the world for ingredients, you need at least mid-stage Qi cultivators going out. Otherwise, even if you got your hands on stuff, you couldn’t bring it home safely.

The family patriarchs had been taking turns heading out.

Sometimes two out at a time, sometimes three.

"We’ve even abandoned our out-of-town businesses in the Huang Family just to search for ingredients."

"As if we’re any different—it’s the same in the Fang Family,"

······

There’s really no other way. If enemies notice the patriarchs are away and hit your business holdings, the juniors left behind simply can’t hold them off.

Fang Yuan had already gone off to the outskirts of Platinum Immortal City looking for Barrier-Breaking Pill materials, so you won’t see much of that stuff on the market for a while.

If you want to get more, you’ll have to travel to even more distant Immortal Cities.

Luckily, for late-stage Qi cultivators, even a journey of tens of thousands of miles takes maybe a month or two at most. That’s only because they’re trying to avoid the dangerous areas—otherwise, it’d be even quicker.