In the Sea God Temple, two Celestial Immortal guards stood in a corner of the back courtyard, holding a spiritual landscape painting.

If one looked carefully at this spiritual landscape painting for a while, one could see that the two figures within it moved like living beings, making small gestures of raising hands and cupping fists.

These two figures were naturally Li Longshou’s paper person and Lord East Wood.

After exchanging brief greetings, they set up several layers of isolation formations around the Sea God Temple and entered the treasured painting that could obscure immortal consciousness probing and fate calculations.

This painting was no small matter – it was a replica of the pre-celestial spiritual treasure Mountains and Rivers Social Stability Painting.

In the painting, after exchanging pleasantries, Lord East Wood simply explained his purpose.

“When the Jade Emperor conversed with the Sea God last time, he benefited greatly;

A few days ago when immortals gathered at the Jade Pure Palace, His Majesty specifically mentioned the matter of officially appointing the South Sea God. The imperial edict will arrive here soon.”

Li Longshou frowned slightly and said: “This ‘soon’ could mean much or little.

Please clarify, approximately how long before the edict arrives.”

“At fastest a hundred years, at slowest two to three hundred years.”

Lord East Wood stroked his beard with a light smile, his somewhat gaunt face showing some embarrassment.

“You should be well aware of the current situation in the Heavenly Court.

As most positions for true deities in the Heavenly Court are currently vacant, the operation of the Heavenly Dao is maintained almost solely by His Majesty. For an edict bestowing an official deity position to receive a response from the Heavenly Dao, it will take at least a hundred years.”

Li Longshou smiled inwardly and said: “There’s no need to rush this matter, even a thousand years would be fine.

Also, please relay back to His Majesty that even if I receive the deity position, I cannot immediately ascend to the Heavenly Court to receive the proclamation.

I can’t very well send a paper person up to heaven – that would invite ridicule.

When the time is right, I will naturally enter the Heaven Gate and pay respects at the Jade Pure Palace, contributing what little I can to His Majesty.”

“Your patience and composure show excellent temperament indeed.”

Lord East Wood praised, clearly having anticipated such a response from Li Longshou;

After all, during their last meeting, Li Longshou had mentioned that he was temporarily unable to ascend to the Heavenly Court.

Once the edict appointing the Sea God arrives, Li Longshou would receive a deity position from the Heavenly Court.

Afterward, he would only need to command his divine envoys to add portraits of the Jade Emperor in several major temples where incense offerings were most abundant, hanging them behind his and Ao Yi’s deity statues, announcing that the Sea God Religion had joined the Heavenly Court.

By then, the merits of incense offerings would remain as they were, with no changes from the present.

And the Heavenly Dao would bestow Heavenly Dao merits upon him as Sea God, similar to receiving a salary…

But these Heavenly Dao merits weren’t so easy to obtain. Lord East Wood’s visit this time directly brought six questions.

The first five were matters the Jade Emperor was uncertain about and wanted to hear the Sea God’s insights on – actually just wanting to further confirm his value as a strategic advisor.

Li Longshou wasn’t hurried this time either, giving his “modest opinions” on each matter after careful consideration.

For safety’s sake, he constrained his “perspective,” only giving opinions within the Jade Emperor’s view.

This was notably different from the previous twelve suggestions, most of which were advice Li Longshou had summarized from future events…

But Lord East Wood’s final question, concerning his difficult situation, gave Li Longshou a headache.

This involved a Sage.

Li Longshou had roughly deduced Lord East Wood’s identity, life essence, and even his story during their last meeting.

Hearing Lord East Wood’s detailed explanation today, Li Longshou couldn’t help but feel emotional.

This elder before him…

Had truly not had it easy.

The so-called Lord East Wood was Lord King East, the previous life of the famous Three Realms Heavenly Court wandering immortal Lu Dongbin.

When the Heavenly Court was first established, a Sage Lord, in order to check the Jade Emperor’s actual power, installed a Lord King East to oversee male immortals in the Heavenly Court.

This wasn’t much of an issue in itself – although there was overlapping authority with the Jade Emperor, Lord King East was fundamentally the Jade Emperor’s subordinate.

The trouble was that the deity position corresponding to Lord King East was Queen Mother of the West, who oversaw female immortals in the Heavenly Court.

And the Queen Mother of the West was the same person as the future Queen Mother!

She and the Jade Emperor had both been the girl and boy attendants by the Dao Ancestor’s side in the Purple Void Palace back then – they were close fellow disciples.

According to Lord East Wood’s secret observations, the Jade Emperor and Queen Mother were the childhood sweetheart type, each holding their divine offices in the Heavenly Court.

But Lord East Wood often saw the Jade Emperor visiting the Jade Pool in the Heavenly Court, and sometimes they would go together to the Jade Pool in Western Kunlun…

Now, Lord King East and Queen Mother of the West had become the leaders of male and female immortals in the Heavenly Court, often being mentioned together by the Heavenly Court immortals…

How could the Jade Emperor not be bothered by this?

Initially, Lord King East had thought that with his appointment from the Sage Lord, even the Jade Emperor couldn’t move against him.

But soon, he was…

Trained into complete loyalty by the Jade Emperor!

Moreover, knowing the Jade Emperor’s methods well, he now took pride in being able to assist such a ruler of the Three Realms!

Although the Jade Emperor had never mentioned the matter of “Lord King East and Queen Mother of the West,” Lord King East dared not be unvigilant.

Thus, Lord King East changed his name to Lord East Wood, extremely cautious in his daily conduct, never using his authority to appoint male immortals, and doing whatever the Jade Emperor said.

But now the Jade Emperor had not yet risen to power and lacked usable subordinates;

If the Jade Emperor’s wings grew full, whether for consolidating power or considering reputation, Lord East Wood would necessarily…

Would necessarily…

Lord East Wood had worried for many years with no one to consult. Recently seeing the Jade Emperor’s high praise for this South Sea God, and truly having no other options, he came seeking help here.

“Fellow Daoist, you are wise and resourceful, could you point out a clear path for this poor Daoist?”

Li Longshou pondered inwardly for several moments, and the old immortal face transformed from his paper person also showed some difficulty.

Lord East Wood rose and made a Daoist bow, taking out two storage treasured artifacts from his sleeve, saying softly:

“If Fellow Daoist could offer some guidance, this poor Daoist will surely repay generously!”

Li Longshou wasn’t one to be moved by external things, but Lord East Wood was giving far too much…

Ahem, no matter how much was given, this matter couldn’t be helped!

Even though Li Longshou already knew the optimal solution to this difficult problem;

But if he helped Lord East Wood, that would be undermining the Sage Lord’s arrangement.

No matter which Sage Lord had installed this Lord King East to irritate the Jade Emperor, it wasn’t karma that Li Longshou could meddle with at this time.

Between life and wealth, Li Longshou naturally knew which to choose.

Li Longshou sighed and said: “I can’t help you much, this matter mainly depends on how far you can retreat.”

Lord East Wood hurriedly said: “If I can preserve my life and immortal fruit in the future, I dare not ask for more!”

Li Longshou thought for a moment and could only say: “All matters must not be rushed, three steps of retreat bring spring to dead wood.”

“May I ask, what are these three steps?”

“I truly dare not say,” Li Longshou smiled and shook his head, pushing back the two storage treasure artifacts.

This karma, he didn’t want to touch, nor could he touch.

But now, Lord East Wood was the Jade Emperor’s messenger, and Li Longshou knew well he couldn’t offend this person.

He could only give Lord East Wood advice for free, based on not taking on karma…

…

‘Recently, why is everyone rushing to give me treasure materials?’

In the pill room of Xiao Qiong Peak, Li Longshou muttered, having already secretly sent the paper person outside the sect gates heading toward the edge of the South Sea.

Lord East Wood had insisted on leaving those two storage treasure artifacts, showing profound gratitude to Li Longshou.

Even though Li Longshou had only given him a solution that treated the symptoms but not the root cause, Lord East Wood acted as if a door to a new world had been opened…

Li Longshou secretly calculated that the treasure materials he had now would keep him busy for several years.

After the sect competition ended, each peak of the Ascending Immortal Gate quickly quieted down, with young disciples returning to their daily cultivation routines.

Ling’e, Jiu Jiu, and You Qin Xuanya who had arrived just half an hour ago, were drinking and making merry in the thatched cottage.

This was their fairy ladies’ gathering, and it would be inappropriate for Li Longshou to appear, so he simply didn’t go over.

Li Longshou took out a bamboo slip and carved upon it the many tasks he needed to do from today until before the Three Teachings Origin Conference:

First, refine formation bases and fill in the formation, constructing the core formation base of Xiao Qiong Peak’s grand formation system;

Second, continue improving the Turtle Breathing Level Qi Scripture to deal with the situation if he couldn’t avoid this “calamity” when the time came.

Regarding this Three Teachings Origin Conference, Li Longshou had already decided to feign illness (cultivation gone awry) and not attend. As long as the two Golden Immortals in the sect didn’t come to diagnose him then, he could manage to get through it.

But Li Longshou vaguely felt that this matter definitely wouldn’t be so simple…

After these two tasks came pill refining to accumulate wealth.

Not written on this bamboo slip were two other must-do tasks – monitoring Rain Forest Peak’s movements and encouraging Master to overcome his self-isolation.

Thus, cultivation life after the sect competition returned to its usual fullness.

Li Longshou spent three years just to turn the treasure materials awarded by the sect, as well as part of Lord East Wood’s thank-you gifts, into “defensive power” for Xiao Qiong Peak.

Concerned that the two storage treasure artifacts given by Lord East Wood might have “tracking” effects, Li Longshou directly destroyed them.

He thoroughly examined each piece of treasure material and spirit stone within before sealing them one by one with barbarian tribe secret talismans and storing them in his treasure pouch;

The several magical artifacts inside were directly assigned by Li Longshou to paper persons on rotation duty, impossible to keep by his side…

Afterward, Li Longshou calculated the paper person’s route and trajectory home, having the paper person make several detours before returning to the vicinity of the Ascending Immortal Gate, to be brought back to Xiao Qiong Peak by Master when he went out.

His current identity absolutely could not be exposed to the Jade Emperor.

That would instantly destroy the “wise and resourceful old immortal” image he had worked so hard to establish…

After finishing this portion of formation bases, Li Longshou refined some pills and, calculating that Little Master Uncle’s wine was almost gone, brewed a batch of fine wine for Little Master Uncle.

Beauty’s Enchantment had been eliminated by him, after all, it carried some karma.

On this day…

After several busy years with everything stable, Li Longshou also wanted to relax a bit.

Cultivation was like this – one needed proper tension and relaxation. Being constantly tense would only make one’s heart and body weary.

At times like this, taking a stroll around Xiao Qiong Peak, and wandering about, this was rare rest, and often easily led to some feelings arising from the heart, moments of enlightenment.

Walking leisurely through the forest, breathing the fresh air, streams of emotion flowing in his heart.

As he wandered, he arrived at the spirit beast enclosure he had worked hard to establish years ago.

Li Longshou raised spirit beasts mainly for their “medicinal value” – some pills required spirit beast blood, and besides that, there were useful exotic beasts like the three Heavy-Pupiled Spiders.

Looking at the spirit beast enclosure now, most spirit beasts were useless;

But Li Longshou did have some attachment to them, occasionally teasing “Fat Two” in the west and playing with “Flower” in the east, living leisurely and contentedly.

Today, when Li Longshou habitually walked to Fat Two’s enclosure, the peaceful smile on his lips gradually disappeared.

Hmm?

Where was Fat Two?

The enclosure was intact everywhere, not looking like it had escaped.

A sweep with immortal consciousness…

Eh?

How had half the spirit beasts in his enclosure disappeared?

Li Longshou immediately checked on his junior sister, master, and Little Master Uncle who was sound asleep on Ling’e’s bed, finding nothing unusual on Xiao Qiong Peak.

When he usually refined formation bases and cultivated them, he would spread his immortal consciousness across Xiao Qiong Peak – if anything unusual occurred, he would be awakened.

If nothing unusual occurred, these scenes would become part of his memories, stored in his heart without engaging his consciousness.

— Cultivators lived for hundreds or thousands of years, and this kind of “technique” was considered essential for everyone.

Now Li Longshou calculated with his fingers, searching his memories, and quickly saw these scenes that he had subconsciously overlooked from daily life…

About three years ago, one afternoon, the three beauties appeared in the spirit beast enclosure.

Ling’e was full of distress, looking helplessly at a young beast that had died from her forgetting to feed it.

You Qin Xuanya sighed: “Junior Sister, accept it with grace.”

“This isn’t a problem, I neglected this because of the sect competition, at most Senior Brother will just scold me once.”

Ling’e shook her head lightly, then smiled and said, “Perfect timing, today let your Junior Sister show her skills – shall we go to the stream behind the mountain and roast it?”

Jiu Jiu immediately cheered, and although You Qin Xuanya frowned slightly, she didn’t stop them.

Thus, half a month later…

“Little Ling’e, look at this one, doesn’t it look sick?”

“Hmm… it should be sick.”

“Barbecue or what?”

“This type needs to be stewed into soup for the best taste.”

“Let’s do it!”

Thus, ten days later…

“It’s rare for Little Ya to come today, why aren’t there any cute spirit beasts running into trees by themselves?”

A certain Master Uncle secretly raised her hand and pointed, causing Two Flower to sprint madly and crash into a big tree, dying on the spot, very fresh.

Seven days later…

“This one looks like it has heatstroke!”

Three days later…

“Wow, looking at this one, it has heart demons! Little Ya, don’t you think so!”

“Mm!” You Qin Xuanya nodded vigorously.

“This… you can tell that too?” Little Ling’e called out somewhat guiltily.

And… and…

Li Longshou stopped checking, raising his hand to hold his forehead.

Not good, feeling dizzy.

If he had come out of seclusion a year later, the entire spirit beast enclosure would have been eaten clean by those three female cultivators!

“Lan Ling’e!”

The young woman copying the Steady Word Scripture under the willow tree trembled, raising her hands to cover her eyes.

It was over, the case had been solved…

Ling’e heard that voice like a cold wind from the nine depths entering her ears from behind.

“Go, invite your Senior Sister You Qin here, I have some words to say to her properly.”

“Y-yes!”

Ling’e’s small hands trembled, picked up her skirts, and rode a cloud, hurriedly flying toward the direction of Breaking Heaven Peak.