Qi Ping looked at the kindly face of Supreme Grand Elder Ling Qianjue while feeling the intense revulsion from his Druid instincts. In that moment, he realized that the gentle old man before him was likely the most terrifying existence in the Qingtian Domain!
'He has lived for an untold number of years... can the Supreme Longevity Scripture really keep someone alive that long?'
'He just forced back the infamous Envoy Lin Wuji with a single sword...'
'Then why did the other Golden Core cultivators in the sect always say this Supreme Grand Elder wasn't particularly strong?'
In an instant, many thoughts flashed through Qi Ping's mind.
More importantly, for him to feel such dread, it meant the old man's strength was unfathomable. To provoke such a reaction from his Druid instincts, the old man's body could not possibly be a normal human one. It might even be more bizarre than the Demon Insect King's physical form; otherwise, his Druid perception would not produce such strong negative feelings!
"Disciple Lin Ya greets the Supreme Grand Elder!" Qi Ping pretended to be stunned for a moment before hurriedly cupping his fists.
"Not bad. A solid foundation, a flawless body—truly peerless talent! I heard the Heart-Questioning Mirror even evaluated you as a mainstay of the sect?"
Ling Qianjue glanced at Qi Ping, his eyes full of admiration.
"Reporting to the Supreme Grand Elder, I did indeed receive that evaluation from the Heart-Questioning Mirror!"
"Good, good! Cultivate well in the future. If there is anything you do not understand, you can come and ask me at any time. You need not pay mind to the words that old dog Lin just said. The mirror has recognized who you are, and the sect will judge for itself. It is the Qingyuan Sect's fortune to have a disciple like you!"
"I heard you have quite the research into formations. Inside this jade slip are some of my insights into arrays, and this bottle of Taiji Mysterious Essence Liquid is a gift for our first meeting!"
As Ling Qianjue spoke, he handed a jade slip radiating a dense spiritual aura and a bottle of Taiji Mysterious Essence Liquid to Qi Ping.
The other disciples of the Qingyuan Sect watched this scene with eyes full of envy and jealousy, wishing they could take his place.
They hadn't expected that Qi Ping would not be investigated by the Supreme Grand Elder for the Bee Daoist matter, but would instead receive high praise and precious gifts!
The formation insights aside, Taiji Mysterious Essence Liquid was a rare Rank 3 Yin-Yang symbiotic spiritual resource! It had the effect of increasing one's cultivation, enhancing physical talent, and improving spiritual energy affinity. It was incredibly precious!
Some of the Golden Core elders who were hostile toward Qi Ping also looked pale at this moment.
Originally, they thought that Ling Qianjue, having lived so long, should have entered his twilight years and that his strength would be far from its peak. When they met last time, they had indeed felt a deathly aura on him. But this time, Ling Qianjue had emerged not only with the deathly aura gone but with a terrifying level of power!
'Has his realm broken through again?'
Despair rose in their hearts. With Ling Qianjue protecting him, they likely wouldn't be able to touch Qi Ping anymore...
In the entire field, aside from Qi Ping, only three others felt something was wrong.
One was Sect Master Lin Yue. From the secret information he possessed, Ling Qianjue was not this kind of person. While the man hadn't left behind any truly villainous records, he was certainly not the person appearing before them now.
Another was the Wind-Thunder Daoist Gu Yunxiao. Based on his experience managing many affairs, his intuition told him that Ling Qianjue should be someone just like him.
The last was Wang He, who had comprehended the third stage of the Heavenly Heart Sword Intent. At this moment, his gaze toward Qi Ping was full of worry, while his gaze toward the Supreme Grand Elder was full of vigilance.
The Heavenly Heart Sword Intent was most sensitive to the perceptions of others, able to clearly detect everyone's intent. This was why he had been willing to help the Bee Daoist originally, as he had sensed no evil intent from the man.
In fact, after Lin Wuji and the Supreme Grand Elder appeared, the Universal Justice Sword had not left Wang He's hand for a single moment. Whether it was Lin Wuji or Ling Qianjue who tried to move against Qi Ping, he would have struck out without hesitation!
He had even wanted to stand by Qi Ping's side just now to prevent a sneak attack, but Qi Ping had stopped him through a mental transmission.
"Thank you, Supreme Grand Elder!"
Qi Ping suppressed his Druid revulsion and, under the envious gazes of many disciples, warily accepted the gifts.
To the other disciples, the praise of such a supreme expert was an honor, but to Qi Ping's ears, it sounded like the praise of a fine delicacy...
'This old fossil definitely has no good intentions!'
However, the other party's strength was too terrifying; now was not the time to turn against him.
Qi Ping also needed to figure out more of the man's background to determine a plan. The sense of dread the old man gave him was unprecedented! It stirred a deep unease within him...
The scene eventually ended with the harmonious picture of an ancestor and a disciple, the envy of fellow brothers, and Qi Ping obtaining a jade slip of Rank 3 formation insights and a precious Taiji Mysterious Essence Liquid.
...
After the matter concluded, Wang He immediately pulled Qi Ping to his cave dwelling. Because of his Heavenly Heart Sword Intent, he felt that the Supreme Grand Elder's gift to Qi Ping was certainly malicious.
However, just as Wang He was about to speak, Qi Ping immediately stopped him.
Qi Ping then promptly placed the storage bag containing the jade slip and the liquid under a spiritual seal. After that, he set up several isolation arrays in succession and signaled Wang He to move to another part of the cave. Only after isolating that area with further spells and arrays did he gesture for Wang He to communicate via divine sense.
This series of operations left Wang He dumbfounded. Wasn't Qi Ping usually quite bold? Why was he being so prudent this time?
"Senior Brother Wang, didn't you have something to tell me? Why are you silent?" Qi Ping looked at Wang He with confusion.
Hearing this, Wang He's lips twitched before he spoke.
"I originally wanted to warn you, Junior Brother Lin Ya, that I suspected the Supreme Grand Elder might have ill intentions. But now it seems I don't need to remind you..."
From his actions just now, Qi Ping was probably more cautious than he was.
"Senior Brother Wang feels the same way?"
"Yes. My Heavenly Heart Sword Intent sensed a very deep malice when the Supreme Grand Elder spoke to you. I wanted to remind you to be absolutely careful with those two items he gave you!"
"Don't worry, Senior Brother, I won't be using either of them! After meeting the Supreme Grand Elder today, I feel he might be a much more terrifying and dangerous figure than the Celestial Alliance. Even Gu Yunxiao is just a child compared to him!"
The formation insights given today also revealed a very important piece of information: this old fellow was likely a Rank 4 Formation Master. Qi Ping knew all too well how terrifying a Formation Master could be!
If they ever truly fought, he would have to choose a place without any arrays. A Rank 4 Formation Master was definitely not someone Qi Ping could challenge right now.
Furthermore, this made Qi Ping think of the array set up beneath the Qingtian Domain that was constantly devouring the power of the leylines...
If that was the Supreme Grand Elder's handiwork, the old man's danger level would rise by another tier.
"How do you plan to handle those two items, Junior Brother?"
"Don't worry about that, Senior Brother. I have my own ways of dealing with them!"
At this point, a smile curled on Qi Ping's lips.
Items delivered to his door—even if he couldn't use them, couldn't he just sell them to the mysterious Black Market?
Free spirit stones were better than nothing. He had recently consumed a large amount of spirit stones to nurture the Rank 4 Frost-Abyss Fir and Fusang Golden Wu-Tree, and he would need many more in the future. These two items would perfectly solve his problem.
A rare Yin-Yang spiritual item like Taiji Mysterious Essence Liquid could easily be sold for one or two million spirit stones.
In truth, Qi Ping's spirit stone reserves had been quite abundant. The various spiritual herbs and honey he had accumulated over the past century could fetch a significant sum if sold to the Black Market.
However, if Qi Ping's goal was to complete the swarm expansion of the Netherworld Bees and Sky-Flame Bees, relying solely on those Rank 3 and Rank 4 spiritual trees would not be enough.
All the spirit herbs he had accumulated over the century had to be utilized to assist in the expansion task. Thus, a gap had appeared in Qi Ping's spirit stone funds, and Supreme Grand Elder Ling Qianjue's scheme had just happened to provide for him.
But for now, Qi Ping had no evidence that the Supreme Grand Elder was actually trying to harm him. Until he truly confirmed it or proved the old fellow was poisoning the Qingtian Domain, Qi Ping wouldn't take the initiative to strike based on a feeling alone.
To Qi Ping, the true goal was to increase his strength and pursue the immortal path of longevity, not to create powerful enemies based on intuition.
As long as he had enough strength, everything could be suppressed!
Next, Qi Ping and Wang He engaged in a series of discussions regarding Supreme Grand Elder Ling Qianjue. As the discussion deepened, the two felt more and more of the man's terror.
The number one Nascent Soul in the Qingtian Domain, a Rank 4 Formation Master, the oldest monster alive, the number one expert in spell mastery... he even had incredibly terrifying accumulations and layouts in various areas, with likely countless hidden trump cards.
"If such a person is an enemy, do we really have a chance of victory?"
Facing this question, a rare sense of despair and helplessness appeared in Wang He's eyes.
Even Qi Ping fell into a profound silence when faced with such an existence...
...
The search for the Bee Daoist temporarily subsided after the Supreme Grand Elder spoke. Even the Celestial Alliance and Envoy Lin Wuji, who hated the Bee Daoist to their core, only searched in secret and dared not cause any more major disturbances.
A single word had settled the Qingtian Domain!
Through this incident, Supreme Grand Elder Ling Qianjue once again entered the vision of all cultivators and gained considerable prestige. Some even saw him as the true guardian deity of the Qingtian Domain.
In the Cloud-Mist Mountain Range, within the Natural Sanctuary.
The Bee Daoist storm did not have much impact on Qi Ping. Instead, it was Ling Qianjue, who had settled everything, who gave Qi Ping more pressure.
Thus, Qi Ping entered an even more frenzied state of spirit plant cultivation. In this state, even the spiritual energy produced by the upgraded Rank 3 spiritual vein was once exhausted to the point of being unable to keep up.
However, in this state, Qi Ping's gains were very obvious.
With Qi Ping's efforts and the assistance of the spiritual vein's special energy, the growth speed of the spiritual trees and the production rate of resources increased significantly.
As these resources were produced, they were continuously brewed by the sub-king Equilibrium Bees into the most suitable resources for the growth of the two King-Grade spiritual insects: the Netherworld Bees and the Sky-Flame Bees.
In this state, the numbers of Qi Ping's Netherworld Bees and Sky-Flame Bees increased rapidly...
While nurturing the spirit plants, Qi Ping also began to continuously polish his own Foundation Establishment base. With such high-level Yin-Yang attribute resources, Qi Ping naturally wanted to refine his Yin-Yang immortal foundation to the most robust and perfect level.
Additionally, Qi Ping began to use these resources to constantly temper his body. During this process, the body-tempering technique within the Yin-Yang True Scripture, the Yin-Yang Five Elements Physique, was further perfected by Qi Ping.
While ensuring his body could carry spiritual power and was most suitable for spiritual cultivation, he significantly improved his physical strength.
In this state, Qi Ping's physical strength began to soar. With the help of powerful resources and continuously perfected techniques, it soon reached a level no less than that of high-level spirit beasts like Yaya...
...
In this state of cultivation, thirty years passed in a flash.
During these years, since no major incidents occurred, Qi Ping was happy to cultivate in peace. His animal companions' strength and his own foundational power were in a state of rapid growth.
"Thirty years... I didn't expect such a long time to pass so quickly."
Thirty years was a long time in the eyes of ordinary people, but in the eyes of high-level cultivators, it was just the duration of a single session of secluded cultivation.
Qi Ping looked back on these thirty years of farming and cultivation, his eyes full of emotion.
"As my cultivation gets higher, I seem to be getting more and more sluggish in my sense of the passage of time. Sometimes a year feels like just a nap."
Especially when Qi Ping was immersed in the Dao, he would not actively notice the passage of time.
This sluggishness was not a lack of sensitivity. In the early days of his cultivation, he would sometimes become irritable after just an hour of practice. Now, even if he were in seclusion for a month, he wouldn't feel bored or restless.
Being able to do this was due both to the increase in his cultivation and to the slow training he had undergone.
Previously, in the early stages of Qi Refinement, he couldn't understand why those great cultivators could go into seclusion for ten or a hundred years—wouldn't they go mad from boredom? But now Qi Ping finally understood: perception changes with the increase of cultivation.
Although every year there were still some cultivators who went mad during seclusion, those were just failures with substandard Dao-hearts. They had no qualification to pursue the immortal path.
"I'm becoming a bit like the Little Stone Spirit; sleeping for ten years is just like taking a nap!"
After contemplating the changes in his cultivation path, Qi Ping turned his attention to the most important matter at hand.
Thirty years of time had exhausted the resources he had accumulated over a century. The Netherworld Bee swarm and the Sky-Flame Bee swarm were finally, basically, fully nurtured!
If he wanted to continue nurturing them further, without the support of those accumulated spirit herb resources, the speed of his swarm cultivation would decrease significantly.
But most importantly, an insight into the Dao had appeared in Qi Ping's heart. The best time for him to break through to the Golden Core stage had arrived!
The current Qi Ping had a profound immortal foundation, a peerless body, and he had fully comprehended the second stage of the Yin-Yang and Five Elements Laws. At this moment of breakthrough, he was confident he could condense a Golden Core that would surpass even the Little Stone Spirit's Phenomenon of Ten Thousand Weapons and Yaya's Golden Crow Phantom!