To avoid unnecessary complications, Li Changshou left behind a pile of gold and silver treasures after expressing his gratitude. While the tower-like maiden ran out to call others, he quietly… slipped away without farewell.

He didn’t go far, using earth traversal to burrow through a hundred Li, concealing himself within the trunk of a large tree near the seaside. From there, he used his immortal consciousness to scan the village.

As the saying goes, the environment shapes its people.

Could this village’s soil and water be laced with some “mighty man’s medicine”?

Within the range of his immortal consciousness, groups of robust men and women busied themselves with various tasks. But they weren’t just ordinarily strong—they were the type that… that…

The type that defied description, radiating a noble air in their strength.

Everywhere his consciousness reached, he saw men and women with explosive muscles. Each had arms about as thick as his little Junior Sister’s waist. Children rolled around hundred-jin millstones as toys…

Except for a few elderly and young children, most villagers shared similar builds with the tower-like maiden he had met earlier.

‘Perhaps I’m overthinking. This must simply be a village that values muscular beauty.’

Li Changshou chuckled inwardly, dividing his attention between observing the village and carefully sensing his not-yet-fully-recovered immortal body and primordial spirit.

Immortal consciousness proved far superior to spiritual consciousness, offering both greater range and clearer vision.

Before ascending, Li Changshou’s spiritual consciousness could only reach one to two hundred Li, with blurry images beyond thirty Li. Now, his immortal consciousness easily extended two thousand Li.

For instance, even a thousand Li away, he could roughly make out the movements of two figures wrestling in the forest clearing…

That didn’t appear to be fighting…

Ahem, no need to dwell on such details. The point was his detection abilities had greatly improved!

Li Changshou’s attention returned to the village a hundred Li away.

The maiden who had cared for him was now hurriedly leading a group toward the wooden house where he had stayed, discovering the pile of gold and silver he’d left on the bed…

Nine months had passed since leaving Mount Dao. He could remain away for at most another three to four years before Master and the sect officials would search for him.

During this time, he should find an island for continued seclusion.

There remained much to do, and he needed to maintain clear thoughts to properly schedule everything.

Healing and stabilizing his realm went without saying.

He must find ways to conceal his immortal power and body, simulating his original mortal Dao body.

Since he had chosen to hide his cultivation as a trump card from the start, he had to maintain this path. Any sudden exposure would certainly raise suspicion among Mount Dao’s higher-ups.

The development of the third version of the “Turtle Breathing and Qi Settling Technique” needed to be prioritized.

Beyond this, Li Changshou faced an awkward reality.

Because he had crossed the heavenly tribulation and made a great leap in strength, achieving the legendary “ascension,” this was naturally good news. However, a third of his previous defensive measures had become meaningless, and another third significantly diminished in effectiveness.

For instance, the Soft Immortal Powder and various poison pills had become somewhat redundant.

When his strength was lacking, drugs and poison pills were vital protective tools.

But now, the effects of poison pills were inferior to a simple slap from him…

The many poison pills he had refined to deal with True Immortals could only be sealed away, saved for specific situations.

Or perhaps he could exchange them for precious materials and herbs at a market town on the edges of Central Divine State.

The power of the bronze crossbow could increase according to the user’s magical power and immortal power levels.

This attack tool that consumed minimal immortal power could be kept. After consecrating it with immortal power later, it could unleash its potential and continue being used by paper warriors.

The Three Realm True Flame was similar, its power increasing with strength. It only needed supplementary cultivation and condensed immortal fire.

The paper-person technique needed to be comprehended again. Future paper warriors would have more wonderful uses and incomparable power than before.

The Five Elements Traversal Method could also enter an entirely new realm.

The sword formation treasure needed reconsecration.

Some powerful talismans he had previously wanted to draw but couldn’t, he could now create…

The Luo Heaven Precious Umbrella could be enhanced with stronger formations…

And so on…

Counting carefully, he truly had many tasks, and three to four years might not be enough time.

Better to prioritize the most important ones first, starting with upgrading his most frequently used traversal methods.

Matters had their priorities, with survival being paramount.

What was ascension? What was becoming immortal?

Becoming immortal had transformed him from an ant into a slightly stronger ant.

Ascension had given this ant wings to fly into the sky, but it was still just a flying ant, and now an even more conspicuous target.

The primordial chaos had existed for countless years. Even with constant great tribulations, too many experts had survived.

Above were the Heavenly Dao, the Dao Ancestor, and the Six Saints.

Below were ancient powerhouses, the Three Schools’ leaders, remnant powers of the Demon-Immortal war, rising human experts, various transcendent beings reborn…

Currently, he didn’t even qualify as a third-rate expert in the primordial world, far from it.

And most importantly…

He was still particularly poor.

…

His immortal consciousness caught the noisy commotion from the distant village. The sturdy maiden clutched the pile of gold and silver he had left, crouching and sobbing heavily.

“I didn’t lose the immortal!

I didn’t sell him either!”

Watching her crouch there crying like a two-hundred-jin child, the surrounding ‘towers’ and ‘vajras’ still heartlessly berated her…

“You were told to look after the Sea God, such a big Sea God, how could you lose him?”

“Oh, did you have to run out calling people?

Couldn’t you have just stood at the window shouting ‘The Sea God is awake, the Sea God is awake’?

What were you running around for!”

“We’ve said it’s the Sea God not some immortal!

Xiong Lingli, oh Xiong Lingli! Don’t listen to your father’s nonsense! Offending the Sea God is no small matter!

Quick, bring these vulgar gold and silver objects to my house, the village chiefs! Lest these vulgar things offend the Sea God!”

Xiong…

The surname was fitting, truly bear-like physiques.

The adults dispersed after scolding the maiden, without punishing her, and began searching inside and outside the village for their ‘Sea God.’

Li Changshou continued observing secretly.

The village had some abnormalities, which was the only reason Li Changshou remained a hundred Li away instead of leaving directly.

Where there are anomalies, there must be demons, or possibly treasures.

The village had over a thousand humans, living off fishing, hunting, and farming. Life was relatively fulfilling, and the area enjoyed favorable weather without natural disasters.

As for human disasters…

Even if a mortal kingdom sent several thousand regular troops, they might not necessarily capture this village, let alone small groups of mountain bandits or pirates.

But the fact that the vast majority of villagers, without cultivation and being ordinary mortals, all shared the maiden’s sturdy build was truly inexplicable.

First, nutrition definitely couldn’t support this.

Not to mention, the people here showed no signs of deliberately training muscles…

Among the several possibilities Li Changshou could think of, the most probable situation was that this place had some special water vein or food source, and was in abundant supply.

Often, such miraculous things that mortals took for granted would be treasures for pill refining, tool refining, formation arranging, or cultivation.

Additionally, with no traces of any outside cultivators, and the few Foundation Building and Core Formation realm figures in the village likely having cultivated some incomplete method—not uncommon in the mortal realm…

This slightly piqued Li Changshou’s interest and led to his decision to stay a hundred Li away to observe.

After these strong men searched the village without result, the bears mobilized en masse.

After half a day of searching with the entire Bear Village’s strength, an elder helplessly called out:

“The Sea God has returned to the sea!”

Thus, these villagers, mostly surnamed Xiong, returned to the village and began a lively bonfire gathering to celebrate the Sea God’s return to the sea.

Li Changshou observed for three days, secretly examining the local water sources, investigating the village’s common foods, and searching several hundred Li in the surrounding area, but found nothing unusual.

Could it just be a hereditary physique?

Unwilling to delay too long here and unable to find the cause of the area’s abnormality, he decided to leave directly.

At midnight, Li Changshou squeezed out of the large tree trunk, transformed into a medium-sized fish, and dove into the warm seawater, seeking his next secluded cultivation spot.

This area was the southwestern part of the South Jambudvipa Continent, within South Sea Dragon Palace’s sphere of influence.

But because South Sea Dragon Palace was too far from land and not as active as East Sea Dragon Palace, this sea area was unusually peaceful and tranquil. Li Changshou quickly found a small desolate island for hidden seclusion.

Three months later.

Li Changshou’s Dao wounds had fully healed, his water and earth traversal abilities had both greatly improved, and he had recultivated the Three Realm True Flame, condensing immortal fire.

Five months later.

The immortal light around Li Changshou, sitting cross-legged in the reef cave, had completely withdrawn. His breathing no longer leaked pure qi, his eyes lost their penetrating divine light, and that fresh fragrance about him had vanished.

Standing up, he looked down and examined himself for a while, his aura now without the slightest fluctuation…

Walking to the reef, Li Changshou stood quietly, observing the sea creatures’ reactions.

Previously, due to the immortal pressure’s presence, fish and shrimp would scatter away.

Now as he stood there, the sea creatures were only startled briefly before returning to their normal playful activities…

After some thought, Li Changshou first simulated the aura of Return to Void Realm’s seventh stage, then concealed this portion of the aura, and revealed the aura of Return to Void Realm’s third stage.

The third version of [Immortal • Turtle Breathing and Qi Settling Technique] was complete.

‘After returning, I’ll pass the second version to Ling’e.’

Letting out a light breath, Li Changshou felt quite pleased. Not wanting to waste more time, he was about to return to his previous hiding place in the rock cave to continue cultivation.

Just as he was about to turn around, a streak of seven-colored treasure light suddenly appeared in the northern sky.

Li Changshou’s immortal consciousness immediately swept over, discovering the treasure light’s source was the tower-like maiden Xiong Lingli’s village…

That village did have something good!

However, causing such a big disturbance would likely draw other cultivators’ attention. Going over rashly might easily lead to danger.

After careful consideration, Li Changshou took out a paper person from his sleeve and blew a breath onto it.

The paper person shuddered a few times, and slowly came to life, stretching its little arms and legs, jumping from Li Changshou’s hand onto the sea surface.

The little paper person took two steps into the seawater, then with a poof, transformed into the figure of a middle-aged Daoist, catching three treasure pouches thrown by Li Changshou before diving into the seawater and disappearing.

Li Changshou returned to the rock cave, closed his eyes to concentrate, and attached his consciousness to the paper person avatar.

He kept his mindset very relaxed.

If he could pick up treasures, he would. If it required actions beyond “picking up,” then he would have the paper person withdraw.

After all, as his realm increased, higher-grade paper people also required more effort to create.

And this was the mortal world—it was unlikely to have any powerful magical treasures.

…

At the junction of the South Sea and East Sea, in the corner of that crab-shaped island.

“Fellow Daoists, poor Daoists truly speak no falsehood.

Last time on the way back, I happened to meet someone crossing the Nine Heavens Divine Demon Tribulation. Poor Daoist said he couldn’t cross it, unexpectedly he crossed!

After crossing the tribulation this person was still struck by heavenly punishment, poor Daoist thought he certainly wouldn’t make it, but…

Fellow Daoists, guess what?”

By the treasure pool, an old Daoist was chatting idly with over ten cultivators of similar cultivation, speaking vividly.

In a corner under the treasure pool’s water, Ao Yi restored his true form as an azure dragon, coiled at the pool bottom motionless…

The primordial world was truly too frightening.

The nightmare had not yet faded, but this time Ao Yi had actively requested Dragon Mother to send him back to the territory of Severing Sect immortals.

Because Ao Yi knew that within the Severing Sect were also some humans, he could observe them and learn what the dragon race lacked from them.

Especially that craftiness and scheming.

The pool-side cultivators’ topic unconsciously shifted to the small dragon at the bottom.

Someone sighed: “The crevice below the pool has already been sealed with restrictions.

Don’t know what this Dragon Prince finds lacking about our Golden Turtle Island, that he would try to escape.”

“Children don’t want to listen to their elders’ words, this isn’t strange,” smiled the old Daoist who had just told the story of encountering the tribulation crosser, stroking his beard and saying: “Don’t worry, as long as we treat this Dragon Palace Prince well, he will eventually appreciate it and cultivate here contentedly.”

The cultivators all nodded together.

In the pool water, Ao Yi shifted his dragon head slightly, without responding.