When the hunchbacked Daoist left, his expression was extremely complex, his demeanor quite gloomy;

Originally a dignified Western Paradise master, he now walked with the steps of a dejected immortal.

The sight made Scholar Gongming quite amused.

Beating someone and leaving them unable to say anything, then making them apologize…

This feeling was indeed unprecedented, quite novel.

Scholar Gongming glanced at the cloth thrown on the ground, imperceptibly curled his finger to retrieve this oath template, and tucked it into his sleeve.

Good stuff…

After finishing this small matter, Scholar Gongming finally said: “Fellow Daoist, that person has left, you can come out now.”

Li Longshou responded via voice transmission, but it was quite a while before the white-haired, kindly-faced old Daoist emerged from the ground.

Earlier this paper avatar had burrowed a bit too deep…

The old Daoist raised his hand to set up a layer of immortal power barrier and made a Daoist salute to Scholar Gongming: “Many thanks to senior for coming to the rescue.”

“Hahaha,” Scholar Gongming immediately stroked his beard and laughed heartily, “Was this really me taking action, or are you guiding me to take action?

Today we avoided a potential disaster, I should be the one thanking fellow Daoist!”

“Senior, how can you say that…”

“No need to call me senior anymore. I, Scholar Gongming, love making friends. Let’s address each other as fellow Daoists!”

Li Longshou: …

‘But I don’t want to become your good friend, nor do I want you to enter my story, much less share boundless righteousness with you.’

Of course, such inner thoughts could not be spoken.

Not only could they not be spoken, but forced by circumstances, Li Longshou had to show a sincere smile and prescribe the right medicine, saying to Scholar Gongming: “Then this junior won’t decline, and will call you fellow Daoist.”

“Hahaha!” Scholar Gongming laughed again, “Sea God, you truly are an interesting person.

Oh right, what is your Daoist title?”

As he spoke, Scholar Gongming made a Daoist salute to the paper avatar and formally introduced himself:

“I am Scholar Gongming, cultivator of the Sect of Humanity.”

“I am…” Li Longshou’s thoughts raced, but he couldn’t use the name ‘Little Master of Xuandu’.

Great Master Xuandu had been called that for many years before using it himself… for him to directly claim it would be unreasonable…

Whether it was shameful or not didn’t matter.

“I go by Changeng Daoist.”

“Oh? Changeng? That’s quite a good Daoist title.”

Scholar Gongming secretly calculated but gained nothing, though he sensed a trace of the Taiji Diagram’s dao patterns and confirmed this was one of their own.

“Fellow Daoist Changeng’s method mentioned earlier was quite marvelous, and thinking about it carefully now, it seems even more brilliant.”

Scholar Gongming hummed twice, and without being coy, directly asked: “Such ideas, in the future, could I use them elsewhere?”

Li Longshou privately wondered if this future God of Wealth was planning to continue setting up similar traps for others…

“As long as fellow Daoist doesn’t tell others about today’s events, naturally it has nothing to do with this junior.

After all, these were just some emergency countermeasures.

Senior should consider carefully, this… could easily damage senior’s reputation.”

“Hahaha,” Scholar Gongming laughed heartily, quite straightforwardly.

He took out that folding fan again, adding a milky-white pearl, and smiled: “This is the treasure that fell when fellow Daoist’s avatar perished earlier.

This pearl is my thank-you gift to a fellow Daoist.

If fellow Daoist takes me, Scholar Gongming, as a friend, please definitely accept it, don’t decline!”

“This…

Thank you, fellow Daoist.”

Li Longshou accepted the fan again, but when he received that stone, his heart trembled slightly.

Chaos Spirit Stone!

This was a precious material found only in the Chaos Sea, usable for crafting Post-Heaven Spiritual Treasures, or could be directly refined into a ‘Primordial Zhenzhu’, used for ambushing, sneak attacks, smashing spirit root walnuts…

One could only say, that Uncle Zhao lived up to his reputation, casually giving away Post-Heaven Spiritual Treasure materials.

If he met Treasure Master, the inner senior disciple of the Sect of Humanity, wouldn’t that be…

Of course, better not to meet if possible.

“Fellow Daoist,” Li Longshou said seriously, “Earlier I only spoke of part of the secret of why the Sea God Sect’s incense could flourish, there’s another important matter.”

“Oh?” Scholar Gongming clasped his hands behind his back and joked, “Fellow Daoist, you’ve been holding back.”

Li Longshou said: “Earlier I wasn’t very familiar with fellow Daoists, and didn’t dare say much…”

“That’s true,” Scholar Gongming waved his hand, quickly nodding and saying: “Now, we’ve handled matters together, shared hardships, this is quite a friendship already!”

Li Longshou: …

Indeed, it was the same routine as his poisonous junior sister;

But poisonous junior sister liked to imagine things herself, while this master had cultivation and treasures to back him up, speaking out directly.

Enough, he couldn’t say more, or it might become troublesome if he was pulled into sworn brotherhood at the temple.

At once Li Longshou took out another deluxe version of the “Sea God Sect Teachings” that he had previously given to the Jade Emperor and presented it to Scholar Gongming.

The content of these teachings was about how to persuade mortals to do good and how to make followers live positively.

If the Sect of Humanity’s immortals could reference this when collecting incense, Li Longshou could also gain some merit.

This was a good thing, wouldn’t create any karma, and the Sect of Humanity mostly collected incense within the Three Thousand Worlds.

Scholar Gongming held the teachings and read carefully for a while, quickly gaining understanding, and sighed:

“Indeed, the Dao School should protect humanity, this is an issue we cultivators often overlook.

Thank you for the guidance, fellow Daoist, I’ve learned something today.

This incense merit isn’t actually important, when I go back I’ll tell them to just cultivate steadily.”

Li Longshou’s waist nearly gave out.

As expected, he could not predict Scholar Gongming’s thoughts at all…

When Scholar Gongming left the Sea God Temple, he was spirited and beaming, his whole person emanating an air of ‘excitement’.

Li Longshou carefully calculated the aftermath of this matter in his heart.

That hunchbacked Daoist was bound by the great dao oath, and he had Scholar Gongming and the Dragon Clan helping to take the heat in front of him…

Hidden dangers couldn’t be completely avoided, and since there were such dangers before, he still needed to be prepared to self-destruct his avatar at any time.

This time Scholar Gongming’s forceful involvement added quite a few variables.

First, the Western Paradise would likely think the Dragon Clan and Sect of Humanity were in cahoots, and if they investigated carefully, they would also discover Ao Yi cultivating on Golden Turtle Island.

Thus, this could relieve some pressure on the Dragon Clan.

But the downside was that if the Western Paradise was determined to deal with the Dragon Clan, they would plan and arrange more carefully than before.

This matter, for himself, was generally good.

‘Earlier I was worried about how to handle the Western Paradise coming to find me, but now I don’t need to worry about this.’

Using this to temporarily free the Sea God Sect from the Western Paradise’s dragon schemes was not bad…

Li Longshou’s paper avatar summoned the temple keeper, gave him some gold and silver, and had him comfort the city’s followers later;

Afterward, Li Longshou also used divine consciousness transmission to ‘analyze’ this matter for Ao Yi, telling Ao Yi to seize opportunities later to form good karma with this master, who might be able to help the Dragon Clan at crucial moments.

Li Longshou was quite considerate of his Second Sect Leader.

He also gave Ao Yi two key phrases to gain Uncle Zhao’s favor—righteousness and face-giving.

To befriend Scholar Gongming, one must initially lower one’s posture and give Scholar Gongming plenty of face;

Then retreat half a step, and when Scholar Gongming wants to treat others as equals, say one’s cultivation is low and abilities shallow, not daring to associate;

At that time, Scholar Gongming would wave his hand and say things like “When I make friends, I never look at their cultivation level.”

Besides this, Li Longshou also instructed Ao Yi… several hundred phrases, having Ao Yi handle related aftermath matters.

After handling this matter, Li Longshou observed from the shadows for three months, and only after confirming there were no subsequent disturbances did he put the paper avatar into ‘standby’ mode.

“Need to send another batch of paper people over.”

In the underground secret chamber of Small Jade Peak, Li Longshou opened his eyes;

His sleeve swept over the desk in front, and several paper people tumbled out, saluting Li Longshou in unison.

Li Longshou laughed lightly, but quickly suppressed his smile, using the wind language spell to tell Spirit Moth he was going into seclusion, then got up and walked to a corner.

The year-long “Dragon Clan Ascending to Heaven” scheme planning done earlier now seemed not quite stable enough.

After timely self-reflection, Li Longshou understood why his mentality had fluctuated before and stabilized his dao heart.

‘Next, I need to supplement different possible development paths in several situations, such as when the Great Master won’t appear at crucial moments when the other two schools’ masters get involved…’

Taking a breath, Li Longshou sorted his thoughts and began thinking unhurriedly.

The Dragon Clan entering the Heavenly Court seemed like ‘Chicken Leg’ intervening to block ‘Orchid’ and ‘Slingshot’s schemes, but it might also draw the attention of masters ‘Night Light Cup’ and ‘Bamboo Basket’…

All these situations need to be considered.

Several months later…

“The canvas isn’t big enough…”

…

“Has Senior Brother Longshou not come out of seclusion yet?”

“No, Senior Brother told me via voice transmission three years ago he was going into seclusion, and hasn’t come out until today.”

On Small Jade Peak, which had long returned to its usual tranquility, Spirit Moth and You Qin Xuanya strolled in the spirit beast enclosure, exchanging a few words.

You Qin Xuanya gently nodded, her beautiful eyes showing some joy.

Spirit Moth smiled: “Does Senior Sister have some happy news?”

“Not at all,” You Qin Xuanya said, “I just feel that since Senior Brother Longshou has been in seclusion so long this time, he must have had some insights, surely making considerable progress.”

About to walk out of the pill room, a certain Longshou silently adjusted his outer cultivation level up one stage.

Return to Dao Realm second stage;

Breaking through was truly not easy.

Afterward, Li Longshou strolled out of the pill room, couldn’t help raising his hand to yawn, looked at the sensing stones hanging around, and dispelled the pill room’s outer formation.

Li Longshou had thought that as soon as he came out of seclusion, his junior sister would detect his whereabouts.

Unexpectedly, he had already reached the spirit beast enclosure on his cloud, and these two beauties studying which spirit beast had heatstroke hadn’t noticed his figure at all.

Had he activated his tracking concealment technique?

Li Longshou checked his status, quickly shook his head, and assigned his junior sister three hundred recitations of the Scripture of Stability;

Later she would recite three thousand with him together!

Li Longshou flew into the spirit beast enclosure, and the two finally noticed his presence.

“Senior Brother!”

“Senior Brother Longshou!”

After two calls, they both came to welcome him, but their expressions changed.

Spirit Moth urgently said: “Senior Brother, you’ve exhausted yourself again? How did you end up like this.”

“Senior Brother Longshou, why are your eyes sunken with dark circles, looking so haggard?”

Li Longshou smiled helplessly and said: “Cultivation is too mentally taxing, forcing a breakthrough is indeed inadvisable…

I’ll go sleep a bit in the pill room later, just came to check on things first.”

You Qin Xuanya hurriedly said: “Senior Brother Longshou, please go rest quickly, I’ll take my leave now.”

Thus, You Qin Xuanya hurriedly made a Daoist salute and flew toward Breaking Heaven Peak with some worry, not even looking back.

Li Longshou blinked, realizing he seemed to have gained a… new ability?

Spirit Moth came closer and asked softly: “Senior Brother, are you tired or pretending?”

Li Longshou raised his hand to tap her smooth forehead and sighed: “Your brother is truly tired, there are many things you can’t touch yet at your current cultivation level, in the future…

Forget it, just focus on cultivation, and don’t run around everywhere, that’s enough.”

“Mm!” Spirit Moth immediately smiled happily.

Li Longshou continued: “Bring your slate to the pill room tomorrow to find me. Now your cultivation realm is gradually catching up, and in another ten or twenty years you can also step into the Return to Dao Realm.

Next, I’ll teach you some combat techniques, and methods to resolve karma after fighting.

Study well, these are unspeakable secrets your brother figured out bit by bit.”

Spirit Moth blinked and obediently agreed.

Li Longshou yawned again and flew back to the pill room, he indeed needed a good rest.

But he didn’t dare sleep, could only meditate in shallow sleep, letting parts of his consciousness take turns resting.

…

Meanwhile, in a remote corner of Western Cattle Gift State, within several quite sophisticated formations.

An old Daoist in tattered clothes, black and blue and dripping with tears and mucus, lay on the ground, surrounded by twenty-four Stabilizing Sea Divine Zhenzhus.

‘Hmph, you injured my sworn sister’s good friend several eras ago, now that I’ve learned this wonderful method, how could I not vent anger for my old friend?’

Scholar Gongming said inwardly, rehearsed the next steps again, confidently retrieved the Stabilizing Sea Divine Zhenzhus, prepared several recording treasures, and that cloth with the oath template.

Scholar Gongming gritted his teeth and cursed:

“Ha! Today I’ve been bullied by you!”

The person on the ground immediately jumped up upon hearing this, staring at Scholar Gongming with confusion in his eyes, while Scholar Gongming had already retreated several steps and spat out a screen of blood.

“You’ve damaged my dao foundation, it won’t recover for tens of thousands of years!

Come with me to Spirit Mountain! Today’s matter isn’t over!”