In the Blood Sea, within that palace.

Master Wenjing’s ghostly figure floated forward, circling halfway around this Rakshasa tribe young woman, and then her vermillion lips parted slightly, breathing out a wisp of air near her ear.

Though the young woman tried her best to endure, a slight blush still crossed her cheeks, her silver-white hair floating gently.

Wenjing smiled and said: “Truly a fine seedling, what a pity to send her to Spirit Mountain. Those old Daoists there, few of them understand such charm.”

“Wenjing, the Ancestor’s sword is a crucial token for our tribe.”

From the corner, that hoarse voice continued: “We have already submitted to Spirit Mountain. Having the Yuan Tu Sword wielded by Her Highness brings no loss to Spirit Mountain.”

“Your words, this king will deliver back unchanged,” Master Wenjing laughed lightly, her fingertip trailing past the silver-haired young woman’s face, “but whether they’re useful or not, that’s beyond this king’s control.”

Ding ling ling—

In another corner, a towering figure seemed about to rush out from the darkness, that rough voice suppressing thick anger.

“Mosquito King, what do you mean?”

“Just what it sounds like,” Master Wenjing lightly flicked her fingertip, smiling at the corners of her mouth, her phoenix eyes glancing toward that figure, “objections?”

That towering figure fell into silence.

“Waste,” Master Wenjing snorted lightly, then suddenly turned around, her blood-colored gauze dress dancing, illuminating the entire great hall.

In various corners, the Rakshasa figures sitting, standing, or lying down, from old to young, from weak to strong, mostly showed angry expressions.

“The Blood Sea Rakshasas are no longer what they once were, yet still daily clutch a sword dreaming of past glory. Forgotten how your Ancestor died? What use is having the sword, what use even if you recovered both Yuan Tu and A Bi swords? Such a Blood Sea, better to wither away, why still struggle? Ha ha ha, ha ha ha ha ha!”

Amid the piercing laughter, Master Wenjing and that silver-haired young woman had already vanished.

Bang!

An iron fist smashed through a wall, suppressed roars of anger echoed through this ruined palace, but eventually, gradually quieted down.

In a streak of blood light racing toward the Netherworld’s boundary, Master Wenjing looked at the young woman she held in her hand, pondering slightly, the corners of her mouth revealing a faint smile.

Never mind, now there’s no way to contact Sea God, better to first complete the task given by Spirit Mountain, mustn’t create additional troubles.

‘I had thought to train a maid for Sea God, after all, River Styx Ancestor’s bloodline is quite rare nowadays.’

Hmm?

Master Wenjing’s eye corner lifted, her divine consciousness sweeping toward Fengdu City’s direction.

She saw that a group of war shamans carrying the coffin and playing music had already walked out of the city’s mighty pass, seemingly advancing toward the Netherworld’s boundary.

That soul-collecting marshal of the Netherworld wearing a headcover now sat on the stone coffin, constantly twisting his strong body to the rhythm of the gongs and drums behind him.

Master Wenjing’s mouth corner twitched several times, suddenly feeling that her painstaking undercover work in the Western Teaching was not as… joyful as directly serving Sea God.

…

At this moment, near a human city in the northwest direction of the South Jambudvipa Continent.

Master Lu Ya, carrying a large gourd on his back, slowly descended from the clouds, his divine consciousness carefully searching through various situations in the city.

Perhaps too focused, when he was about to land, his foot suddenly slipped—the dignified Demon Tribe Crown Prince, owner of the God-Slaying Flying Knife, Heaven Court’s number one wanted person, inexplicably stumbled forward.

Lu Ya was stunned, but his reaction was also godlike in speed, his figure lightly flashing as he directly employed a teleportation technique, appearing ten zhang away, standing steadily.

Master Lu Ya’s brows furrowed tightly:

This feeling, this circumstance of encountering misfortune without reason, he had… experienced before…

What’s going on?

Why has it come again?

Could this misfortune be cycling through the heavenly rotation? Or is it caused by insufficient demon race fortune?

“Hmph!”

How could he, Lu Ya, be constrained by such misfortune?!

At once, Master Lu Ya closed his eyes, carefully searching through the situation in the nearby great city. After finding the person he was seeking, he employed transformation techniques, changing into a middle-aged woman.

Just as he was about to step toward the great city, Master Lu Ya’s forehead couldn’t help but be covered in black lines.

The soft feeling under his foot, the slight stickiness, the faint “fragrance” detected by his nose…

Lu Ya gritted his teeth, cursing some discourteous wild beast as he walked toward the forest’s edge.

Along this path, Lu Ya inexplicably ran into two wolves fighting each other, and while walking, inexplicably walked into a den of mortal bandits.

Though they posed no threat to him, these encounters did somewhat spoil his mood.

‘Feel like this bout of misfortune is much lighter than last time.’

Master Lu Ya thought of his experience in the Sun Palace where he had almost died from cultivation practice, and couldn’t help but shudder, inwardly saying a prayer for his Imperial Father’s blessing as he left this thicket somewhat disheveledly.

But such minor disasters came without end.

Walking on the road in his middle-aged woman form, he would be bumped into by passersby for no reason, and when encountering two children playing, they could even shoot a small bamboo arrow into his eye…

Or suddenly a cloud would float past, causing a downpour within a hundred zhang diameter circle centered on him.

Lu Ya was angered to the point his Dao’s heart trembled slightly, but with the lesson from last time, he forcibly maintained his composure.

He suspected someone was deliberately troubling him, but his divine consciousness searching everywhere couldn’t find the slightest trace.

Finally, stumbling into the city, Lu Ya in his middle-aged woman form kept his head low, silently walking to a small alley beside the city’s busiest tavern, standing before an old man dozing at a table at the alley entrance.

This was it, the senior’s place of seclusion.

This was a diviner with graying hair, specializing in divination and fortune-telling;

A table and a tablecloth reading “Nine out of ten divinations inaccurate, ten divinations per day” were all the old diviner’s possessions.

“Ahem!” Lu Ya coughed dryly.

The old diviner didn’t raise his head, responding listlessly: “Can’t divine anymore, today’s ten divinations are used up, customer please come another day.”

“Is that so?”

Master Lu Ya transmitted a sound saying: “Senior since you stayed here to meet me, why keep your head lowered?”

“Hmm?”

The old diviner looked up, his old eyes somewhat confused, muttering:

“Madam, who might you be? Has this old one met Madam before? Eh? Madam, your imperial court is darkened, seems there’s a bloody disaster…”

Master Lu Ya pulled over a bench, sitting directly across the long table, smiling: “It’s precisely because of such disaster that I’ve come seeking Senior’s guidance, wondering if this disaster can be resolved.”

The old diviner stroked his graying beard, his somewhat unserious countenance showing a bit of difficulty.

“How about, Madam stays here for half a day? After midnight tonight, this old one can continue divining for people. Among tomorrow’s ten divinations, giving Madam one would be no trouble.”

Master Lu Ya frowned slightly, saying: “Senior, I shouldn’t show my face here too long. Why don’t we find a quiet place to talk?”

“That, that won’t do,” the old diviner waved his hands repeatedly, “Though this old one has no wife or children, I am still a reputable diviner for hundreds of li around. Being alone in a room with Madam, I’m afraid it would cause gossip.”

Master Lu Ya lowered his eyes, showing some helplessness, “Senior, do you truly not remember our past connection?”

“What do you mean?”

The old diviner suddenly became energetic, carefully examining the woman before him, “I… know you?”

Master Lu Ya sighed, his face showing melancholy, but knowing he couldn’t force anything, stood up to bow and turned to leave.

“Ahem! Your Highness? Why did you come here?”

Suddenly a transmitted voice came from behind.

A middle-aged man wearing a short shirt stuck his head out from a window on the ground floor of the neighboring tavern, still flipping a wok in his hands.

“Wait until I finish cooking this dish, just a moment Your Highness, two tables of customers are still waiting!”

Master Lu Ya’s forehead was covered in black lines as his whole body trembled, almost revealing his true form and burning this city with a mouthful of Solar True Fire!

…

‘What would that Lu Ya do now?’

On Lesser Jade Peak, Li Changshou sat quietly thinking before the pill furnace, where the soon-to-be-completed pills in the black furnace were emanating waves of rainbow light.

At this moment he was multitasking—besides refining pills, he was also remotely monitoring the black leopard’s movements while contemplating specific measures for reforming the Netherworld in his secret chamber.

The black leopard was currently heading toward his cave dwelling;

But what the black leopard didn’t know was that the water demon Miaomiao had already packed her bags and left this cave-dwelling two days ago.

As for exactly why, Li Changshou didn’t quite understand, probably just…

Love fades?

Perhaps the water demon sensed that the black leopard had become entangled in major karmic events, and fearing she couldn’t bear such karma, took this opportunity to leave.

The water demon left a letter for the black leopard. Out of respect for beings’ privacy, Li Changshou hadn’t opened it to read.

However, to be on the safe side, he had used his divine consciousness to witness the water demon writing the letter.

The letter only wrote that their matrimonial fate had run its course, they would part ways from now on, and there was no need to search for or think of each other anymore.

Poor black leopard, still unaware of what he would face after returning home from his trip to Golden Turtle Island.

Also unknown was how great an impact the water demon Miaomiao’s departure would have on the black leopard, and whether it would affect his temperament…

What was the specific plan this time?

There was no plan—Li Changshou issuing a warrant to hunt down Master Lu Ya and letting this news leak to the black leopard was his entire plan.

He had merely thrown one large and one small stone into the demon race’s pond; what splashes would be made, what scale of waves would be stirred up, were all unknown variables.

This time, Li Changshou… wanted to try practicing non-action.

It wasn’t that he found the ‘exhaustive method’ of scheming and arranging too tiring. On the contrary, this was an experiment Li Changshou decided to try after self-reflection.

[Non-Action]

In Li Changshou’s current understanding, non-action meant that all possible developments of this matter were within his ability to handle;

No matter how this matter developed, it wouldn’t affect his own being, only varying in how much benefit it brought him.

The worst case scenario for Heaven Court’s warrant to hunt down Lu Ya would be… himself being taken to Holy Mother Palace by Saint Nüwa for “momentary” labor reform.

This was completely within Li Changshou’s tolerance range, and he could even use such an opportunity to comprehend the Saint’s Dao resonance and improve his own Dao realm.

Looking down at the lines on his palm…

This feeling of not having to carefully scheme while still having everything under control was indeed nice.

This was also a chain reaction brought about by his cultivation realm improving, his authority in the Dao Sect increasing, the resources under his control becoming more vast, and his backing becoming more solid.

However, Li Changshou also knew that this wasn’t true [Non-Action].

Like the Supreme Clarity Saint who had accepted him as a student—that was true non-action and tranquility.

When Supreme Clarity Saint encountered things not to his liking, he could casually arrange for excellent treasure spirits to handle them, or at most directly intervene to smooth things over.

The Primordial Taiji Diagram, one qi transforming into three clarities;

The peak of six saints, one movement startling ghosts and gods.

The small realm he had just reached now was still far from that.

Whoom whom—

As rainbow light sat in the pill furnace, Li Changshou stopped his musings, injecting a strand of immortal power to wrap around those pills, slowly forcing out the remaining impurities within.

Then, the furnace lid opened, and round, full pills flew out, floating above Li Changshou’s palm as the rainbow light gradually receded.

A faint fragrance suffused the pill room.

Li Changshou carefully sensed for a while, feeling somewhat disappointed.

Was this furnace limited to only refining sixth-grade spirit pills?

Currently, what was holding back his great strides in the Dao of pills, besides those heavenly treasures and earthly herbs, was this hardware equipment.

He could now borrow the Old Lord’s Eight Trigrams Furnace;

But going to Doulu Palace to borrow the Eight Trigrams Furnace for pill refining, wouldn’t that be an indirect way of begging pills from the Old Lord? What if it displeased the Old Lord or his Saint Teacher? Wouldn’t that be losing the greater for the lesser?

“Little Shou Shou?”

A familiar voice came from the pill room’s doorway. Li Changshou turned his head to see a head with medium-short hair poking in from the door.

“What good things are you refining again? Let this Master-Uncle have a taste!”

“Here,” Li Changshou’s right hand swept past, his finger lightly flicking a pill.

The head at the door opened its mouth, swallowing the pill with a “woo” sound, not even having time to chew before the pill had transformed into a clear liquid, sliding down the throat.

“Wa… why is there a bitter taste?”

This head muttered, and the body hiding beside the door also jumped in accompanied by rays of holy light—it was Jiujiu.

Li Changshou smiled and said: “This was refined for Lingli, the effect is to strengthen the physical body. Getting to eat it is a gain.”

“What?” Jiujiu was shocked, “This thing strengthens the physical body?”

“What’s wrong?”

“This Master-Uncle can’t grow anymore! Otherwise, it won’t be harmonious!”

Li Changshou smiled and said: “That would truly be one of the primordial universe’s great regrets… ahem, don’t worry. Master-Uncle came for wine? It’s in the usual place.”

“Heehee,” Jiujiu’s eyes brightened at these words, jumping two steps to the side bookshelf and taking two miniature wine jugs, “Thanks, Little Shou! Hmph hmph! This Master-Uncle is going back to continue dominating!”

Watching the satisfied figure of Master-Uncle Jiujiu departing on clouds, Li Changshou laughed softly, his eyes showing some emotion.

This, wasn’t it also a kind of non-action?

Only that Master-Uncle Jiujiu ignored worldly affairs, focusing solely on mountain cultivation, while he had to face various complex games between major teachings.

Putting away these pills, Li Changshou’s divine consciousness glanced at Bear Lingli cultivating in the forest, but he wasn’t in a hurry to give them to her.

Currently, Bear Lingli had grown two circles larger than before, her whole body emanating a fierce aura, the Shamanic bloodline within her completely activated.

Li Changshou had obtained a copy of the Eight Nine Mystic Art but now wasn’t suitable to teach it to Bear Lingli.

The Eight Nine Mystic Art was considered a mystic law tailor-made for those with powerful physical bodies—the stronger the body, the easier to enter its gateway.

Li Changshou currently only had initial comprehension of the Eight Nine Mystic Art, discovering that this mystic art authored by Lady Houtu wasn’t purely a physical cultivation method. Its most precious aspect was the enhancement of primordial spirit power through a powerful physical body.

Li Changshou also decided to try cultivating this mystic art to moderately strengthen his physical body;

This way, not only could he increase his own safety coefficient, but also improve his physical definition and strength, increase male charm, and improve male self-confidence—truly a multi-effective, rare Shamanic tribe limited edition cultivation method.

There was still no news about the Shamanic tribe’s secret manual that Lady Houtu said someone would deliver to him. If he could also match it with Shamanic tribe secret manuals that could temporarily boost his physical strength…

Imagine such a scenario:

[One day when Li Changshou had Tower Lord above his head, facing enemy encirclement, after the opponent exhausted tremendous effort to temporarily suppress, seal, or knock away Tower Lord;

A group of powerful enemies wept with joy, seeing victory’s dawn ahead, launching a powerful offensive against Li Changshou, with divine treasures falling from the sky, only to produce a series of light “ding ding” sounds.

Swords broke, rulers snapped, bricks shattered…

Li Changshou calmly pulled open his Daoist robe’s collar, revealing skin of a faint golden color.

On rainy days, Merit Golden Body and Eight Nine Mystic Art were even more compatible.]