“Why isn’t the formation Fifth Senior Brother set up for me working?”

Straddling her large gourd, Jiu Jiu held her forehead while chewing on spirit bean pills that were [Highly Elastic, Non-Sticky, Spirit-Returning, Origin-Strengthening, and Energy-Boosting], drifting hazily until she reached the airspace above Small Jade Peak.

Jiu Jiu was feeling a bit dizzy now…

The protective formation around her residence was acting up for some unknown reason, showing off its might, and suddenly couldn’t be opened.

After several failed attempts, Jiu Jiu naturally wouldn’t indulge it!

As a cultivator at the late stage of the True Immortal realm, though she wasn’t versed in formation methods, she had her unique way of breaking formations—

Shield herself with immortal power, charge in headfirst, and breakthrough in an instant.

Afterward, Jiu Jiu relied on her years of experience laboring at Small Jade Peak to slightly repair the formation base buried beneath her house.

As a result, the tower’s original formations, those layers of protective formations, isolation formations, sound-blocking formations, spirit-gathering formations…

Now none of them worked!

Jiu Jiu couldn’t help but support her forehead with one hand; formations, pill dao, and artifact refining were too complicated.

Wanting to find someone to help with the formations, she discovered…

Big Senior Sister and Second Senior Brother had gone out with Master to investigate the enemy’s background using the corpses left that day;

The third Senior Sister went to accompany her Dao companion, Eighth Senior Brother also went to accompany his Dao companion, busy handling the aftermath for sect members from other peaks who died in battle;

Fourth Senior Sister and Fifth Senior Brother, who were closest to her, had also gone out with the Hundred Ordinary Hall elders to purchase precious materials for repairing the mountain-protecting grand formation’s base;

Sixth Senior Sister and Seventh Senior Brother were in closed cultivation, healing each other’s wounds, and reportedly they had some kind of, hehe, mysterious technique for mutual assistance and joint progress…

Thinking of this, Jiu Jiu giggled secretly, sitting on her large gourd as she entered Small Jade Peak’s formation and drifted downward.

She hadn’t come today purely to find wine but had proper business to attend to.

—Find Changshou to help fix the formations around her tower!

Jiu Jiu summarized her failed formation repair experience, concluding it was probably because she lacked Li Changshou’s nagging by her side…

Entering Small Jade Peak’s outer isolation formation, Jiu Jiu couldn’t help but reveal a contented smile.

Ling’e meditating under the tree, Changshou refining pills in the pill room, and Qi Yuan Senior Brother nowhere to be found.

Small Jade Peak seemed to have completely avoided that sudden previous calamity, remaining as quiet and peaceful as ever, with hints of something interesting.

Jiu Jiu didn’t disturb the cultivating Ling’e, flying straight to the pill room as the formation ahead closed itself.

On the way, she discovered…

The woods near the pill room had inexplicably gone bald in several patches, with several new pools added.

Working on feng shui?

Jiu Jiu blinked but didn’t concern herself further.

Li Changshou had naturally detected Jiu Jiu long ago;

He stood before the pill room, secretly having his [Paper Person · Southern Sea Affairs One-Time Resolution · Brigade] that he had just dispatched yesterday temporarily stop in an inconspicuous corner underground somewhere in the Eastern Victory Divine Continent;

Leaving a strand of consciousness there to monitor various places, most of his consciousness returned to his main body as he revealed a slight smile to Junior Uncle flying through the air.

A moment later, Jiu Jiu somewhat hesitantly explained her purpose, raising her hand to smooth the hair by her ear.

“Can you help me once… the kind with compensation.”

“If Junior Uncle has a need, I’ll naturally help with all my strength.”

Li Changshou smiled and said: “No need to mention compensation.

This attack on the mountain gate has also helped me understand many things. In the future, if Junior Uncle runs out of wine, just come here to get some.”

Jiu Jiu’s eyes immediately brightened as she chuckled, “Tell me, is it that you want to cling to this Junior Uncle’s thigh!”

Li Changshou hurriedly shook his head, deliberately putting on a stern face, and said seriously:

“Junior Uncle, such thigh-clinging movements are somewhat inappropriate, after all, we’re separated by generational status.

Although generational status isn’t a big problem, this disciple has always seen you as a respectable senior.”

“I didn’t mean it that way, I meant backing, no, not that either…”

Jiu Jiu’s cheeks reddened slightly as she kept her hands behind her back in a tangle, her clean face becoming somewhat flushed.

Li Changshou couldn’t help but laugh lightly, and Jiu Jiu immediately realized that she seemed to have been teased and joked with by this nephew disciple.

She glared at Li Changshou and said fiercely:

“Come with me! Fix formations!

Still dare to make fun of this Junior Uncle, itching for trouble, aren’t you!

Hmph!

I’m already so tired helping you refine pills usually, today if I don’t tire you to death, I’ll at least tire you half to death!”

Li Changshou cupped his hands but first had Jiu Jiu return, saying he would come to Breaking Sky Peak in half an hour.

This way, he could both avoid attracting attention by walking together with the little wine immortal, and arrange a suitable hiding place for the dispatched paper people.

Jiu Jiu didn’t think much of it, they just right to go back and prepare some precious materials for repairing formations. She jumped onto her gourd and flew back to her residence in good spirits.

…

After Jiu Jiu left, Li Changshou stood before the pill room briefly pondering, then returned to sit quietly in the pill room.

Closing his eyes, his consciousness shifted to the paper people he had dispatched.

To quickly resolve the Southern Sea Divine Teaching issue, Li Changshou this time ‘challenged himself’ and ‘boldly risked danger,’ adjusting the paper people for several days before asking Master to help release the paper person brigade.

This time heading to the Southern Sea, those dispatched included:

New Divine Character Paper Person One and Divine Character Paper Person Two as primary and deputy leaders;

Six Heaven Character Paper People are responsible for traveling, escaping, and fighting at critical moments, and several paper people with original divine abilities.

The firepower carried mainly consisted of miniature formation disks, self-researched poison-deploying magical tools, and poison pills that hadn’t been used in the recent Crossing Immortal Sect battle.

Mission objective:

Use peaceful and covert means to make the Southern Sea Divine Teaching naturally collapse in the shortest time possible, thereby freeing himself from this unstable ‘bomb.’

Controlling Heaven Character Two who was responsible for carrying the group of paper people for travel, he used earth-burrowing to hide himself more secretly, leaving a strand of consciousness to maintain vigilance.

After doing these things from a distance, Li Changshou sat quietly in the pill room for a while;

Calculating the time, he got up and changed into clean robes, checking the various items on his person and considering if there was anything he hadn’t prepared sufficiently…

He had always been afraid to go to the Southern Sea, mainly worried about being ambushed by Western Teaching people, as Western Teaching experts might be waiting there.

But now sectarian conflicts had already begun;

Before it developed into large-scale mortal bloodshed, Li Changshou had to stop it.

After comprehensive consideration, Li Changshou decided not to recover the paper people he had dispatched this time.

Moreover, to avoid causing more trouble, Li Changshou had focused on strengthening the paper people’s ‘suicide’ attributes these past few days while adjusting them;

Letting the paper people ‘die’ anytime and anywhere while maintaining their transformed forms, self-ignite and burn, turning directly to ashes, scattering themselves away, ending it all!

As a man, one should be harsh to one’s paper people!

Moreover, Li Changshou had unexpectedly discovered during his previous inspection that, possibly because of burying a pile of demon race experts’ ashes at Small Jade Peak earlier…

Those few old spirit trees had shown new signs of life!

“Before the small trees grow up, I’ll have to trouble you all.”

Li Changshou smiled, sitting before the pill furnace, quietly contemplating his subsequent plans.

Merit and karmic burden, these two things were very mysterious and closely related.

Although merit and karmic burden could cancel each other out, according to Li Changshou’s understanding:

The karmic burden was like a poison pill;

Merit was like the antidote pill.

Even if he had ten thousand antidote pills prepared, he still wouldn’t want to swallow a poison pill!

Even if the karmic burden was canceled out by merit, it might have left some mark on oneself;

Although he had passed the immortal ascension tribulation and achieved ascension, his cultivation had now stabilized and begun steadily advancing step by step toward the Long Life realm.

But there was still one barrier waiting before him in the future…

The Golden Immortal Tribulation.

Heaven and Earth did not allow living beings to achieve longevity, as living beings naturally had birth, aging, illness, and death – this was the way of nature.

Without death, how could life be proven?

Unless one had merit’s protection and the Heavenly Dao Lord felt that letting oneself achieve longevity would benefit Heaven and Earth’s stability, only then could one be exempted from the Golden Immortal tribulation.

If bound by a karmic burden, facing heavenly tribulation was almost certainly death, whether the immortal ascension tribulation or Golden Immortal tribulation.

Therefore, Li Changshou didn’t want to touch any karmic burden, and the Southern Sea God matter had to be dealt with quickly.

He would certainly make several preparations, continuously consolidating himself;

Although the Golden Immortal tribulation was terrifying and records of it in ancient texts were very scarce, it should still have an upper limit to its strength…

As long as the accumulation of one’s Dao and cultivation surpassed the tribulation’s upper limit, then naturally one would have a seventy percent chance of passing the tribulation.

The other thirty percent was preparation beyond one’s cultivation level.

“Alas…”

Li Changshou stood before the pill room and sighed softly.

In the end, it still came down to bitter cultivation;

“Give yourself a bit of leniency during cultivation, and you plant a bitter fruit for yourself during tribulation.”

Li Changshou muttered to himself, feeling this sentence could also be written into the later versions of the [Scripture of Stability].

Laughing softly, Li Changshou mounted his cloud and slowly flew toward Breaking Sky Peak…

It didn’t matter if someone overheard that sentence just now.

At this time his apparent cultivation was the eighth stage of the Returning Void realm, so beginning to worry about the immortal ascension tribulation was only natural.

…

“You want to fight?”

Deep in the South Sea, near the surface of a certain immortal island.

The youth-like Ao Yi stood before the young woman Hanzhi, whose cultivation was somewhat higher than his own, raising his head slightly as he watched three of his race before him.

On the immortal island, many human cultivators flew into the air, watching the conflict here at their leisure.

The cause was very simple;

While Ao Yi and Hanzhi were clearing their minds in the South Sea, touring this island ‘market town,’ they encountered his little cousin who had been born and hatched at almost the same time as himself—the South Sea Dragon Palace’s Second Prince.

Now, three dragon children wearing brocade robes with horns on their heads stood before Ao Yi.

The one in the middle was thin with narrow eyes, and though his appearance wasn’t as handsome as Ao Yi’s, he had one point that Ao Yi couldn’t compare with…

This person had a normal stature, eight chi tall.

He was the South Sea Dragon Palace’s Second Prince, Ao Mou.

Today’s matter started when Ao Mou mocked Ao Yi, saying he brought shame to the dragon race. Ao Yi originally hadn’t said anything, just wanting to leave with Hanzhi, unwilling to conflict with his race.

But how could Hanzhi watch her uncle suffer humiliation?

One sarcastic retort, two light rebukes, three dragons angered, four arguments disputed, five words disagreed, six fists raised;

Onlookers seven tongues wagging, bringing eight directions investigating, nine paths exploring, making things ten times lively!

Simply put, both sides had gotten into conflict, agreeing to fight it out above the sea.

Ao Yi asked “Do you want to fight,” and Ao Mou coldly laughed twice, gesturing for his two dragon followers to step back.

Ao Mou’s cultivation was currently not much different from Ao Yi’s, their bloodline powers were similar, both being Dragon King’s sons.

Although Ao Yi had been cleansed once, he had also received many benefits in the Sect of Humanity;

Ao Mou prided himself on his mysterious divine abilities, wanting to teach a lesson today to this ‘second cousin from uncle’s family’ who had brought shame to the dragon race.

At present, the two dragon children faced off at a distance above the sea surface and then began fighting fiercely.

This bout of fighting was quite intense, and they could be considered well-matched opponents, but Ao Yi quickly gained the upper hand, suppressing Ao Mou.

However, Ao Mou remained calm and unhurried, invoking his divine ability, his form instantly disappearing above the sea surface.

In the water, he was undefeated!

Divine Ability: Swimming Dragon Water Transformation!

Ao Yi’s eyes focused, mysterious ice and heavenly fire gathering around him ready to strike, his gaze continuously searching the sea surface.

This feeling, he had experienced before…

Suddenly, several figures appeared on the sea surface, all in Ao Mou’s form, wielding spears and swords, charging to attack Ao Yi!

But Ao Yi wasn’t worried at all, suddenly stomping on the sea surface, streams of seawater condensing into azure dragons, violently smashing and exploding around him, breaking all these figures!

Waves upon waves rose on the sea surface!

Just then, Ao Yi’s form suddenly leaped toward the left rear, raising his hand first as a fist, then transforming what would have instinctively been a heavily damaging punch into a palm strike!

Amid the roaring sound, several water pillars rose from the sea surface, adding to the chaos.

When the scattered seawater fell, looking at where Ao Yi stood…

Ao Yi now floated three chi above the sea surface, his bound hair gently floating behind him;

His left hand was behind his back, his right hand extended forward, gripping Ao Mou’s neck, holding this eight-chi-tall thin dragon child in mid-air.

Ao Mou’s eyes widened as he said tremblingly:

“How… how did you find my form…”

Ao Yi said calmly: “Your type of divine ability falls far too short compared to that good friend of mine.”

Speaking thus, before Ao Yi’s eyes appeared that elegant, courteous, and profound human cultivator, as he casually threw the Ao Mou he was holding to one side.

“Go, apologize to my niece.”