“E, what has your Senior Brother been up to lately? I couldn’t find him in the elixir room,” Jiu asked.

“Uncle, I’m not sure either. Senior Brother cleared a patch of land in the back mountain recently. He goes there every few days, seemingly researching some divine abilities.”

“Hmm…”

Lady Jiu placed her hands on her hips and stood proudly, pondering for a moment.

“Ling E, although using a single character shows intimacy, could you call me Jiu instead? ‘Uncle’ is a bit much – do I look that masculine to you?”

Ling E glanced down at certain worldly sins beside her and sighed softly, “Master-Uncle, are you out of wine again?”

“Hehe,” Lady Jiu laughed somewhat embarrassedly, “I want to go into closed cultivation soon, and I’m running quite low. I was wondering if your Senior Brother had any tasks that needed help… does he need anyone?”

“Master-Uncle, you’ve already helped our Xiao Qiong Peak so much,” Ling E smiled gently, taking out a treasure pouch. “Senior Brother already instructed me earlier and prepared this for Master-Uncle.”

“Why didn’t you bring it out sooner!”

Lady Jiu immediately perked up, snatching the treasure pouch and checking the ‘inventory’ inside. She burst into hearty laughter, perfectly demonstrating the subtle shift in mindset before and after borrowing money.

“Where there’s wine, there must be food! Let’s see which spirit beast is sick!”

“Yesterday, Lingli mentioned that several Guan-Guan Birds are ready to eat. We can roast two today, and we still need to send two to the Bai Fan Palace elders.”

“What are we waiting for? Let’s go!”

A moment later…

“Oh, this one’s nice – heaven’s net is vast, tender but not greasy. This is the one!”

Soon, enticing aromas wafted across Xiao Qiong Peak.

Considering the spirit beasts’ feelings, Bear Lingli, Ling E, and Lady Jiu specifically went to a distant grove, setting up their iron wok and grill.

After much laughter and merriment, they finished their feast.

As the three cleaned up their “cooking utensils,” Bear Lingli hoisted her little hammer, ready to perform her daily task – mountain patrol.

Lady Jiu smiled, “Lingli, this is within the sect. There’s a great protective array outside; no one can sneak onto the peak.”

“That won’t do!”

Bear Lingli replied quite seriously:

“There are so many spirit beasts and herbs on the mountain. What if someone steals them when we’re not watching? These things Cousin got weren’t blown here by the wind. My cousin teaches me cultivation and gives me so many things to eat – I definitely can’t slack off. Besides, I must complete everything Cousin assigns me!”

Ling E smiled softly, “Thank you for your hard work, Master-Uncle.”

“Hehe, if you need someone for cultivation sparring, wait until I’m done!”

Bear Lingli’s face reddened as she waved her large hand, shouldering the divine treasure hammer forged by Immortal Yun Zhong Zi himself, and strode into the mountains.

Once she was a bit further away, she hummed a tune of her creation:

“Cousin told me to patrol the mountain, searching left and right all day long.

If anyone dares steal bird eggs here, one punch will smash them flat as wrong!”

The forest immediately echoed with joyful bird calls, beast roars, and bear growls.

Ling E praised softly, “Bear Master-Uncle completely follows Senior Brother’s words.”

“Mm,” Lady Jiu wiped her mouth, her pretty face showing some guilt.

She did have some conscience after all, and after pondering for a moment said: “We can’t just eat and take without giving back. Let’s go see what your Senior Brother is doing.”

Ling E hurriedly said, “It’s fine, Master-Uncle. Senior Brother doesn’t like being disturbed.”

“How could this be a disturbance?” Lady Jiu snorted, “This Master-Uncle is currently at the late stage of the True Immortal realm, about to break through to Celestial Immortal. A soon-to-be Celestial Immortal of the sect wants to help you with some work, and you’re refusing!”

Ling E blinked, just about to continue persuading when she heard Senior Brother’s voice in her mind.

“Well then,” Ling E smiled, “let’s go to the back mountain together. Senior Brother needs some help.”

Lady Jiu finally smiled with satisfaction, summoning a cloud to fly with Ling E toward the isolation array that had appeared at some point on the back mountain.

Entering the array, Lady Jiu and Ling E saw dozens of circular grass sheds about ten zhang in diameter distributed throughout the area.

Various celestial herbs grew under the grass sheds. These herbs seemed to be of the same species, yet careful observation revealed subtle differences.

“A Grand Spirit Gathering Array?”

Lady Jiu’s round eyes widened as she watched the spiritual light flowing constantly beneath the grass sheds.

Though she wasn’t versed in arrays, she recognized this type. With her thousand years of experience, she could naturally see that the plants growing here weren’t precious spiritual medicines, but rather ordinary celestial and spirit herbs. However, below ground was an enormous spirit-gathering array, drawing down the pure qi of heaven and gathering the earth’s spiritual qi to nurture these “weeds.”

“What’s he doing here?”

“There’s a sign over here…”

Ling E, also visiting for the first time, spoke softly as she floated down in her immortal dress to a wooden sign at the edge of the spirit gathering array.

[Xiao Qiong Peak Celestial Bean Plantation (Approved by Bai Fan Palace)]

Just then, Li Changshou rolled up his sleeves and walked out from a distant grass shed, his long robe covered in spots of mud but with a hint of a smile at the corners of his mouth.

“Come over here, let me show you something interesting.”

Ling E and Lady Jiu gathered around curiously, not knowing what to expect…

With experience in modifying the Paper Person Creation technique and technical support from the Avatar technique granted by the Grand Magus, this improvement plan for the Bean Soldier technique was progressing very smoothly.

Initially, Li Changshou’s requirements for the bean soldiers weren’t particularly high – he only hoped they could have strength equivalent to the Yuan Immortal realm.

But Li Changshou himself hadn’t expected that during the improvement process, inspiration would constantly emerge…

In just over a month, through his cultivation of several “original celestial beans,” hybridization, forced maturation, experimenting with different combinations of incantations and hand seals, and incorporating advanced avatar techniques…

He had already developed three major bean soldier types and twelve minor bean soldier types!

Currently, these varieties are sufficient. The next research direction would be improving these soldiers’ strength.

After that would come deriving some thousand-man formations and ten-thousand-man tactics to allow these soldiers to truly display their combat effectiveness.

The path must be taken one step at a time; one can’t swallow a kun peng in a single bite…

Calling Ling E and Master-Uncle Jiu over this time was also to verify the current stage’s results, and incidentally research how to promote this divine ability within the Du Xian Sect.

Of course, what would be promoted was the original technique – the improved celestial beans wouldn’t be easily spread…

Li Changshou directly transmitted the original Bean Soldier technique to Master Uncle Jiu and Ling E, and gave them a demonstration –

He casually scattered several beans, which transformed into three slender “archers” wearing leather armor.

Li Changshou created these soldiers using Returning to Dao realm cultivation, so their strength barely matched the Return to Void realm.

Then, Li Changshou gave a simple command: “That tree.”

They drew their bows expressionlessly, and arrows formed of magical power precisely struck a large tree trunk a hundred zhang away, leaving three transparent holes.

Lady Jiu praised softly, “This is quite good!”

Ling E asked quietly, “Senior Brother, how is this different from the Paper Person Creation technique?”

“The paper people created by that technique will continue existing as long as their magical power isn’t depleted,” Li Changshou explained gently. “But soldiers created by the Bean Soldier technique can only exist for a few hours.”

With that, Li Changshou raised his hand slightly, and the three soldiers dissolved into flowing sand, gradually dispersing.

He continued explaining to his junior sister:

“Paper people created by the Paper Person Creation technique need you to split your consciousness to control them, otherwise they can only do simple tasks like sweeping or gathering. But soldiers created by the Bean Soldier technique only need a fighting intention and simple commands, then they can fight until they disperse.”

Pausing his words, Li Changshou saw Master-Uncle Jiu eagerly watching from the side and said:

“Want to play a game?”

Lady Jiu’s eyes immediately lit up as she happily asked, “You’ve developed another specialty activity for Xiao Qiong Peak?”

“Something like that,” Li Changshou casually took out an empty porcelain bottle and filled it with eighteen celestial beans of different colors and appearances.

Then, Li Changshou began establishing the game rules on the spot:

“This activity will tentatively be called… [Bean Immortal].

‘Bean’ as in the beans themselves, homophonous with ‘fighting.’

Each participant draws one bean, uses a magical power equivalent to the lowest cultivator among the participants to activate the Bean Soldier technique, and then has them fight to determine rankings.

How about it?”

Lady Jiu immediately showed some disdain: “Isn’t this the same idea as fighting spirit insects? Not very creative.”

“Master-Uncle, you’re taking too short a view,” Li Changshou shook his head. “Spirit insects can’t be controlled, but these soldiers can be commanded through mental connection – they’re like avatars fighting in your place.

We can set up various conditions, like two bases, a river, and several stone towers, letting cultivators control their soldiers in continuous combat.

Single-player, doubles, multiplayer simultaneous matches – there are countless possibilities here.”

Lady Jiu tilted her head in thought, her eyes gradually brightening.

Li Changshou smiled slightly.

This was actually a deliberate move on his part, using this method to promote the Bean Soldier technique within the Du Xian Sect.

If they encountered external enemies again, the sect would have additional combat power to respond…

Li Changshou sent a message to Bear Lingli, asking her to come over too – more people meant more fun.

Next, the four randomly selected four celestial beans, using Ling E’s magical power as the baseline to simultaneously cast Bean Soldier…

Though Bear Lingli’s innate strength was high, her cultivation realm was low, making her unable to use this divine ability, so Li Changshou cast it for her.

Li Changshou first created Bear Lingli’s bean soldier;

With a light “pop,” an ice-blue cloaked swordsman in bright leather armor appeared before Bear Lingli.

Four large characters were written on the archer’s cloak – [Ice Cold Swordsman].

“Wow, it turned into a person!”

Bear Lingli immediately praised in amazement, circling the swordsman.

“I’ll go first,” Ling E said with a smile, imitating the technique as she scattered her bean and quickly formed hand seals according to her Senior Brother’s teachings.

Pop!

After the green smoke cleared, a bean soldier also appeared before Ling E, wearing a black cloak and hood, holding two curved blades.

Similarly, four large characters were written on the soldier’s cloak – [Crescent Blade Warrior].

“Little Changshou goes next,” Lady Jiu gestured to Li Changshou with her chin. “I want to be the grand finale!”

Li Changshou nodded with a smile, casually tossing his bean in front, making a show of forming several hand seals, and a burly figure appeared before him holding two bronze hammers.

The four characters on its cloak were also imposing – [Tyrannical Bear Hammer Warrior].

Bear Lingli’s eyes immediately lit up as she said softly, “Cousin, I like this one!”

Li Changshou smiled, “No switching cards. Though our competition is small, we must be fair and just.”

“Mm!” Bear Lingli immediately nodded in agreement, her face full of seriousness.

Thus, the three gazes converged on Lady Jiu.

Lady Jiu smiled slightly, naturally emanating an air of effortless grace. She held the celestial bean between her fingers and shouted:

“Ha!”

A strand of immortal power bloomed from Lady Jiu’s fingertips, matching Ling E’s magical power level. She wrapped the bean in immortal power, threw it before her, and quickly formed hand seals.

That enormous sin swayed gently, her hemp cloth short garment in constant peril.

“Bean Soldier Technique!”

Pop!

The celestial bean exploded, and a green smoke arose, quickly condensing before Lady Jiu into… into…

“Hmm?”

Lady Jiu tilted her head, and couldn’t help but crouch down, staring at the strange foot-tall soldier before her.

It had a half-foot diameter long mouth, a round green head with two ink dot-like eyes, and below the head was a stem. Two symmetrical branches grew from the middle of the stem, with two similar branches below serving as feet.

A bamboo tablet fell beside Lady Jiu’s feet, also bearing four large characters…

[Pea Shooter]

“This!?”

Lady Jiu’s forehead was covered in black lines, her mouth twitching frantically;

With a “pfft,” Ling E couldn’t hold back, quickly turning away to cover her mouth.

“Ahem,” Li Changshou said seriously, “Unexpectedly, Master-Uncle drew the rarest soldier – you’ve already won this round.”

“No way! I want to switch!”

Lady Jiu immediately became frantic, stomping her feet causing the mountain to shake and the ground to move – quite spectacular.

However, Li Changshou smiled calmly, having Lady Jiu recite a short incantation.

Then came a sound:

“Ptui!”

The [Pea Shooter] spat out a fist-sized pearl from its mouth, flowing with Five Elements Fire and Metal qi. It flew swiftly for a hundred zhang, exploding in a wasteland, creating billowing smoke and dust!

After the smoke cleared, a crater ten zhang in diameter remained!

This was just a bean soldier powered by Ling E’s level of magical power!

Ling E and Lady Jiu exchanged glances, both somewhat shocked.

Though the two usually fooled around, neither was foolish. At this moment, they both sensed the power of this Bean Soldier technique, as well as the might of this “Pea Shooter”…

One shortcoming was that this Pea Shooter moved slowly, only useful as a fixed “artillery platform.”

Yet this was just a small step Li Changshou had taken on the path of modifying this divine ability…

Lady Jiu suddenly shouted: “Begin combat!”

The three were caught off guard as the Pea Shooter already started rapid-fire “ptui ptui ptui,” making the other three soldiers flee in disarray.

Lady Jiu’s unrestrained laughter immediately echoed across Xiao Qiong Peak.

This laughter was carried away by passing clouds from the Du Xian Sect, flying toward the Eastern Sea region…

“Your Highness, is this enough?”

In the Eastern Sea Dragon Palace, two huge flood dragon carriages were already piled high with treasure chests. The nearby Turtle Immortal wiped hot sweat from his brow as he asked Ao Yi, who was dressed in a cyan robe.

Ao Yi thought for a moment…

“One more carriage, mainly focusing on array formation materials.”

“This… your servant obeys.”

“Si Si returned to her clan to get treasures as gifts for Brother Changshou, I wonder if she’s back yet.”

Ao Yi murmured, separated for just a few hours, he couldn’t help but miss her.