Senior Aunt Jiu was truly… too perfect.

Transforming into a wisp of blue smoke, Long Shou Li floated swiftly downward through the winding narrow crevices, sensing the various formations he passed, feeling a slight satisfaction in his heart.

What made her ‘perfect’?

Jiu didn’t understand formations, but her cultivation was at the True Immortal realm, not far from the Celestial Immortal boundary. Her foundation was solid, her immortal power pure, and her control over her immortal power was surprisingly strong.

Most importantly, she allowed a junior like him to direct her so readily!

Though ‘direct’ might be too strong a word. Li Long Shou admitted there was some ‘persuasion’ involved, but when both parties were willing, it was a mutually beneficial arrangement.

Senior Aunt Jiu had indeed helped him greatly this time.

He had to thank the Elder of the Punishment Hall who had forbidden Senior Aunt Jiu from drinking;

Thank Senior Uncle Wu who had thrown Senior Aunt Jiu into wine jars for bathing in her childhood;

Thank those few tattered scrolls of sheepskin he had found in the corner bookshelf of the External Dao Repository Hall, which had allowed him to successfully ‘experiment’ with combat-oriented sleeping drugs including Divine Immortal’s Intoxication and Soft Immortal Powder…

The wisp of blue smoke descended about a hundred Zhang and stopped in a narrow crevice between rock layers. Li Long Shou resumed his human form.

He took out the jade tablet that controlled the formations and gently slid his fingers across it several times, causing slight changes in the patterns on the tablet. Simultaneously, the rock face before him began rippling like water’s surface. Li Long Shou stepped inside, and the rock immediately returned to its original state.

He walked several steps through the large rock without any impediment, soon arriving at a small wooden door. Pushing it open, he entered a secret chamber about three Zhang Square.

Rotating the formation control jade tablet slightly, the outer formations shifted minutely, and this underground chamber completely disappeared within the gaps between the various formations.

No matter which direction one searched from, even a Celestial Immortal deliberately looking would be unable to detect this secret chamber’s existence without destroying the outer formations…

This was the main purpose of building the Dan Chamber.

After all, a man needs his secret space.

The chamber contained two bookshelves filled with ancient texts and lone volumes.

Li Long Shou sat directly behind the desk, took out several dozen pieces of sheepskin to examine carefully, then held the jade tablet in his hand and closed his eyes. In his mind appeared a complex three-dimensional structure.

This three-dimensional structure resembled a tall building he often saw in cities in his previous life, but this ‘building’ was embedded within Small Qiong Peak’s mountain body.

He let out a gentle sigh.

This feeling of secrecy was long missed…

“Ah,” Li Long Shou said with a slight smile, “taking a bath here would be nice.

Just kidding, can’t relax for even a moment. Let’s continue checking the array’s various arrangements.”

Fortunately, Senior Aunt Jiu’s cultivation was profound, allowing his decades-long concept to finally be realized—

A three-dimensional composite formation array!

Over two years, through Jiu’s assistance, Li Long Shou had piece by piece assembled his theoretical understanding of formation techniques.

In Senior Aunt Jiu’s understanding, she had helped Li Long Shou arrange over a hundred medium and small formations. These formations were interconnected, subtly forming a ‘quasi-natural formation pattern’ that encompassed thirty Li around the Dan Chamber.

The combination of Li Long Shou and Jiu was equivalent to having a powerful True Immortal arrange this grand formation, which only a Celestial Immortal could break.

And it would require a Celestial Immortal with considerable understanding of formation techniques to decode it.

However, Jiu only knew one part, unaware of the second, third, fourth…

Mainstream formations typically used various precious materials, spirit stones, and specially refined treasures as formation bases. These bases connected, drawing upon heaven and earth’s power to operate, forming arrays with different effects.

The Way of Formation was profound and extensive. Li Long Shou knew his mastery of formations wasn’t particularly numerous or sophisticated, far from being called profound…

He had to maintain a clear awareness of his capabilities at all times.

But his mind often had some imaginative concepts, which he could realize one by one through repeated verification.

About sixty-seven years ago, while studying the formations preserved by Du Xian Gate during cultivation leisure time, Li Long Shou accidentally discovered that most mainstream common formations in the primordial world had their formation bases distributed on a horizontal plane.

At that time, he wondered what would happen if the formation bases were distributed vertically. The effect should be the same.

Taking the circular dome mountain-protecting formation as an example, with the vertical distribution of formation bases, the resulting semi-dome would rotate ninety degrees.

Of course, mountain-protecting formations mostly needed to draw upon earth vein power, so vertical distribution wasn’t feasible.

But non-protective formations—maze formations, trapping formations, killing formations—could be oriented freely.

Building on this foundation, what if formation bases were distributed diagonally?

Then, what if multiple grand formations’ bases intersected vertically and horizontally?

Suppose two grand formations, one vertical and one horizontal, shared one-third of their formation bases. When activating the horizontal formation, the vertical formation would shut down; when activating the vertical formation, the horizontal formation would shut down—thus achieving ‘interference-free formation switching’!

As Li Long Shou continued exploring, he gradually solved the problems of spiritual power circulation within formations and the ‘compatibility’ issues of different formation bases…

Until today…

The Small Qiong Peak Dan Chamber’s three-dimensional composite formation project was a successful implementation of his theory!

Divided horizontally, the formations here had three layers.

Jiu only knew about the top layer, the formations around the Dan Chamber—those hundred-plus trapping and maze formations.

Taking every hundred Zhang deep into the mountain as a stage, there were middle and lower layers below; the core formation bases of the middle and lower layers were also buried with Jiu’s help.

But this was only the situation when the formation bases operated horizontally.

These formation bases also concealed countless vertical and diagonal schemes, including many killing formations…

Li Long Shou’s current secret chamber was at the center of all formation bases.

This chamber would only appear within this rock layer when several core vertical formations are activated and several core horizontal formations are reversed.

To reach this place, even with perfected earth-penetrating abilities, without Li Long Shou’s jade tablet and special control methods, the only option would be to directly split Small Qiong Peak.

If Small Qiong Peak were ever split open, the Du Xian Gate would likely be facing a life-or-death moment, and by then, Li Long Shou would ninety-nine percent already be…

Well, perishing with the sect had no meaning; better to preserve oneself to avenge the sect—that was the right path!

Incidentally, the main function of the lower layer formation bases was actually to draw earth vein power.

To avoid drawing too much power from the earth and spiritual veins, which might alert other cultivators on other peaks or catch the attention of sect leadership, Li Long Shou actively avoided all spiritual veins, directly drawing the most abundant ‘turbid’ power from the earth, then using the ‘Purification Formation’ passed down from the Ancient Demon Tribe to filter spiritual energy.

Though this slightly diminished the killing formations’ power, it was more prudent.

Moreover, even if someone powerful in the sect noticed the many formations he had arranged on Small Qiong Peak, as long as the vertical and diagonal schemes weren’t activated, they were just maze and trapping formations, without any violation of sect rules.

Previously, using ordinariness as camouflage was a ‘passive disguise.’

Because the Dan Chamber needed to refine dans now, he was forced to operate, taking ‘active disguise’ to the extreme of his current stage.

As for future development direction, Li Long Shou had also planned…

Using the numerous formation bases beneath the Dan Chamber as a foundation, gradually expanding outward, transforming Small Qiong Peak into an inconspicuous internal fortress within the immortal sect.

Life comes but once, and the primordial world is so splendid.

We cultivators should first seek longevity through stability, pursue the Great Dao, and then appreciate the magnificent beauty of three thousand worlds at leisure.

“Finally,” Li Long Shou rubbed his hands, put away the sheepskin scrolls and jade tablet, took out several storage treasure bags, and poured out several storage magical treasures from them.

The unexpected gains from the North Continent journey, after waiting two years, could finally be inventoried!

“Let’s see how poor this immortal Yu Wen Ling was.”

Li Long Shou chuckled, took out two paper humans to form avatars, had these two avatars hold two storage magical treasures, and began slowly refining them in the corner.

Half a day later, as the paper human guarding the dan furnace was about to exhaust its magical power, Li Long Shou had also finished sorting through the spoils and rose to leave the secret chamber.

He held a brocade box containing two sleeping ‘beetles.’

If he wasn’t mistaken, these should be…

Love Insects.

“Good stuff,” Li Long Shou praised, “though temporarily useless.

Keep them.

If future immortal birds or spirit beasts lack breeding drive, these can be used to stimulate them, increase offspring production, and save some rare species.”

…

Time flew, and soon it was the agreed day to help refine Dans.

Jiu yawned, wearing short hemp clothes cleaned by some senior sister, sitting drowsily on a large gourd as she drifted hazily toward Small Qiong Peak.

As a main force True Immortal of the sect with powerful backing, she had no restrictions flying through the air, going wherever she wanted except restricted areas.

“Is this the twentieth day?”

Jiu counted on her fingers, feeling somewhat confused;

Earlier, seeking excitement, she had tasted a drop of Divine Immortal’s Intoxication ‘original liquid,’ resulting in drowsy sleep for five or six days…

She didn’t deliberately spread her immortal sense while traveling forward, so she didn’t notice a cloud of mist floating in the forest below.

After Jiu reached Small Qiong Peak, two heads emerged from that cloud of mist below. The left was the short Daoist Wu, the right was a girl who appeared only sixteen or seventeen.

Though she appeared young, with a beautiful face and graceful curves, full of youthful vigor, these two were actually about the same age, both over two thousand years old.

The girl’s Dao title was Shi, Fourth Disciple of Upper Immortal of Forgetting Emotions, Wu’s Dao companion, the immortal maiden whom Wu often secretly observed using three-headed double-pupiled spider silk…

Wu said softly, “This isn’t quite right, this is Small Qiong Peak after all.”

“What’s to fear? If they’re not happy, fight their Peak Master!”

The girl snapped back irritably, then slightly narrowed her almond eyes, “Running here right after waking up, there must be something going on.

When have you seen Little Jiu so diligent?

Today I want to see what this Fellow Disciple Qi Yuan really is—whether he has three heads or six arms, to make our Little Jiu come here daily before even becoming an immortal.”

Wu immediately smiled bitterly, suddenly raising his thick short eyebrows, “There are formations here? Can’t sense Little Jiu’s aura anymore.”

“What’s there to fear about formations? Who hasn’t learned some?”

Shi’s mouth twisted, grabbing Wu’s collar without another word, hiding their forms and auras, transforming into two shadows flying toward Small Qiong Peak’s forest.

“We’re both half-step Celestial Immortals, are we afraid of formations arranged by someone who hasn’t even become an immortal?”