A morning three months later.

Li An finally walked out of the stone chamber where he had been in seclusion.

The scenery in the valley was serene, with birds chirping cheerfully, and everything was growing, showing a scene of joyous prosperity.

With a thought.

He sensed a team of ants moving house one meter away, a rose slowly blooming three meters away, leaves drifting down with the wind four meters away…

Five meters!

This was the limit of his current perception.

It was short, but Li An was already extremely satisfied.

Moreover, when he introspected his Life Seed, he felt something strange.

After he condensed his Divine Sense, there unexpectedly appeared a faint golden vein on the emerald green Life Seed.

Like a golden stem.

And as the Life Seed grew, his Divine Sense was also gradually increasing. Although it was very tiny, Li An still noticed it.

This filled him with more hope.

It must be known that enhancing Divine Sense is extremely difficult. Generally speaking, Foundation Establishment and Core Formation cultivators can only improve it through level advancement or obtaining rare soul-type treasures.

And now, the Life Seed could actually slowly enhance Divine Sense, which proved its extraordinary capability against the odds.

In fact, Li An's understanding of the Life Seed had already completely changed.

The Life Seed was more like a tree entirely connected to his life. As the Life Seed grew, various aspects of his being would also grow with it.

Spirit Root, longevity, cultivation, recovery ability, Divine Sense…

The only drawback was it was slow.

He had to endure.

Fortunately, Li An had enough patience.

"The remaining three Crystal Cores need to be sent to Gu Hong when the opportunity arises…"

He murmured, but there was no rush. Over the years, he had also maintained correspondence with Gu Hong and knew they had already settled in White Tiger City, where her fellow senior brother had considerable foundations.

"The Tier Two Array needs more Spirit Stones…"

Meanwhile, he looked at Moon Tempering Valley and couldn't help but feel a headache.

Now he was stretching beyond his means.

The production of Tier Two Talismans, the purchase of Melted Gold Liquid for the Iron Tree Skill, the collection of Cold Yin Finger poison… and this Tier Two Array.

He felt like he was enduring too much.

In his storage bag, only twenty or thirty Spirit Stones were left.

So poor that he could cry blood!

"I should sell some of the things in my possession…"

He immediately left Moon Tempering Valley and headed to the Liuyang River Market.

Disguising his appearance, he sold all the First Grade Spirit Medicines he had obtained from the Cloud Illusion Mountain Range at the Liuyang River Market, including a Second Grade Spirit Medicine – the Thousand Spirit Vine.

In his possession, he had four Second Grade Spirit Medicines: Glowing Lotus, Purple Soul Herbs, and two Thousand Spirit Vines from the storage bag of Life-taking Horse-Faced.

One Thousand Spirit Vine was enough.

Of course, if he weren't short of Spirit Stones, Li An wouldn't sell it, as such things were strategic resources.

But his current financial situation couldn't support it anymore.

These items brought him more than sixteen hundred Spirit Stones, barely alleviating his immediate needs.

After replenishing the Spirit Stones for the Tier Two Array in Moon Tempering Valley, he returned to Qingyang Market.

"The income from making talismans has been limited; it's not enough…"

He pondered for a moment and decided to start another sideline.

Now he had two paths to choose from: arrays and alchemy.

If he succeeded in alchemy, his income would increase rapidly, as it was the top profession among the myriad arts of cultivation.

He currently had alchemy insights from Gusongxi and no shortage of Alchemy Furnaces—the first time when that Demon Cultivator came to his door, he killed the Demon Cultivator and found a decent First Grade Alchemy Furnace in his storage bag.

But Li An shook his head and dismissed this thought.

Alchemy required high comprehension. Although his Spirit Root had improved a lot, he lacked experience and would certainly need a lot of time to accumulate.

"I can only choose arrays."

In his previous life, he also dual-cultivated arrays, and some time ago, he successfully upgraded a mid-level array into a high-level one.

The art of arrays and the art of talismans also had commonalities; both utilized some sort of standardized patterns to gain power beyond one's own.

With the thought came action, he went directly to the array shop to buy many materials.

In just the first month, he crafted two sets of low-level arrays and then commissioned Long Tao, the owner of the array shop, to help sell them.

Long Tao, already middle-aged, was shunned in the outer sect and thus assigned here. It was challenging for him to return to the sect in this life, so he was quite willing to help with such matters since Li An would give him a share.

Thus, when selling arrays, he would firstly promote Li An's work.

The two sets of low-level arrays sold for a hundred and eighty Spirit Stones, of which Li An gave him forty.

In the second month, Li An began to attempt mid-level arrays, crafting one set of mid-level arrays and two sets of low-level arrays.

Such progress left Long Tao quite surprised, as he had only heard that Li An was a Talisman Master and didn't expect Li An to have a high attainment in arrays as well.

But he didn't think much of it. The entire sect knew about Li An using a Tier Two Array to kill Life-taking Horse-Faced, so it was normal for Li An to have some skills in arrays.

Moreover, the higher the level of array crafting Li An achieves, the more commission he gets!

...

"With Divine Sense, crafting talismans and arrays feels like being divinely assisted!"

Inside the Spirit Talisman Shop, Li An lifted his sore neck, rubbed it, circulated his spiritual power a few times to alleviate the pain in his cervical vertebra.

He had been working for several hours, yet Li An was not mentally tired, but rather quite excited.

His success rate in crafting runes and arrays has greatly increased!

The main reason is that relying solely on eyesight and touch when handling the brush or array materials always leads to mistakes.

But with the emergence of Divine Sense, even the slightest changes can be detected by his perception.

So his control over spiritual power is more precise.

"Once I earn a bit more money, I can try crafting Tier Two runes..."

He saw hope.

Recently, his crafting of Tier Two runes, the practice of the Iron Tree Skill, and the Cold Yin Finger had all halted.

Lack of money meant he couldn't afford materials.

...

In the blink of an eye, another two years passed.

"Two Tier Two Lower Grade Bursting Talismans and two Profound Shield Talismans have been completed!"

"The Iron Tree Skill has finally achieved perfection! The Cold Yin Finger is nearly there too..."

That morning, Li An got up, stretched lazily, and had a satisfied smile on his face.

Two years of hard work had finally brought him the things he desired.

Moreover, his cultivation hadn't fallen behind; the Qi Refining Seventh Layer has reached perfection, allowing him to prepare for breaking through to the Qi Refining Eighth Layer.

He looked at the recent letters.

Gu Hong, along with her teacher, seemed to have had some disagreements with her fellow apprentices in White Tiger City and eventually set up on her own, still busy with extending her teacher's life.

The letter also mentioned that life in White Tiger City was not easy, but fortunately, she is an Alchemist, so she can manage to hold her ground.

Li An replied, informing her that a friend from the inner sect of Profound Yang Sect had found traces of a Primordial Soul Beast in the Spirit Beast Mountain Range, and Li An would keep focusing on it. If successfully hunted, he would try to obtain the Crystal Core.

He wasn't worried about Gu Hong verifying with the Profound Yang Sect. Firstly, he knew Gu Hong trusted him, and secondly, such discoveries are always kept secret by the discoverers, just like Gu Hong did at the beginning. Therefore, not hearing any news from the Profound Yang Sect was also normal.

On the Profound Yang Sect side, things remained quite calm. Tan Qingxue still wrote letters, but with much less frequency, and with each letter, she'd send some Tier Two talisman paper or materials.

Judging by those talisman papers and materials, Li An knew she had little savings for herself, as most of her Spirit Stones were sent to Li An.

Li An sighed lightly; if Tan Qingxue could reach for the Foundation Establishment, he would prepare a Foundation Establishment Pill for her when he gathered materials someday.

But Tan Qingxue's aptitude reached its limit upon reaching the Late-Stage Qi Refining, unable to touch that ceiling.

She was already over seventy!

Beauty ages and fades; even if they meet again, despite taking Beauty Pills, wrinkles would be hard to hide, far from the past beauty.

The Great Dao is ruthless, and Li An's emotions merely fluttered slightly before calming.

He had frozen his heart from the start because he foresaw the possible farewells today.

In his previous life, he had faced too many helpless situations, cultivating alone to the Core Formation. His former wife, even his children, one by one passed away...

The pain, that mortal dust, was exceedingly heavy and could cause one's Dao Heart to fall.

Moreover, Tan Qingxue mentioned a small matter; Mu Qingwan's husband failed his third attempt at Foundation Establishment back then, significantly shortening his lifespan, and now he's looking for ways to extend his life.

Mu Qingwan gave birth to a daughter, who is now twenty-one, with a Spirit Root akin to Mu Qingwan's at the Yellow Rank Middle Grade Wood Element.

Li An didn't care much about this.

He began doubting himself if he was too paranoid in the past? After all these years, Profound Yang Sect had been extraordinarily stable...

Could it be that the Life-taking Horse-Faced is really dead?

In recent years, even the Demon Cultivators in the northern Great Li have been gradually extinguished, and their power has waned.

If that's the truth, it would be for the best.

That day, he walked out of the market as usual, wandering around leisurely.

Not without aim, but over the years of crafting talismans, he'd developed a habit of examining the market's defensive array from time to time.

The defensive array's foundation was only known to stationed Foundation Establishment Stage cultivators, but Li An, through relentless research, had roughly figured out the array's essentials.

In the whole market, only he could reach such depth, understanding the array profoundly and observing it continuously.

"Hmm?!"

However, when he walked to a cornerstone in the north of the city, his brow suddenly furrowed.

The soil under a willow tree a hundred steps away had been tampered with!

Seeing no one around, he walked over and activated his Divine Thought.

"Demonic Qi!"

His face changed; buried under the soil was a wooden box, overflowing with Demonic Qi, interspersed with numerous Breaking Charms.

Li An immediately thought of the first attack on the market...

The same trick again?!

His heart tightened immediately!

...

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