Early in the morning, Su Xiaoyu sensed through her Heavenly Vision that Li Ru had packed up and was on the move.
Obviously, Li Ru was going to meet up with Wang Ye. But it wasn’t just the two of them—three other cultivators would also be joining. Together, this group would search for a Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land in pursuit of their dream of eternal life.
Su Xiaoyu couldn’t afford to miss this trip.
She took out her mobile phone and sent a message to Wen Wanru, informing her that she had some matters to attend to and would be away for a while. The specific details weren’t necessary.
After sending the message, Su Xiaoyu cast a Water Concealment Art, maneuvered her wheelchair out of the room, and took the emergency exit down the building.
‘It’s a pity I couldn’t reach Foundation Establishment.’
Su Xiaoyu felt some regret in her heart.
If she had successfully reached Foundation Establishment, she could have quickly mastered a Flight Spell, allowing her to follow her target with ease.
But in the end, she had only reached the Qi Refining Tenth Layer, which made getting around a bit inconvenient.
Although she possessed a technique like the Wind Thought Technique, which sounded like it could control the wheelchair to fly through the air—allowing her to simply sit and achieve flight—the reality was different. Using this method to hover briefly was possible, but maintaining prolonged flight was out of the question. Only upon reaching the Foundation Establishment stage, when one’s personal power became far more robust, could this method be used for long-distance flight. In fact, after reaching Foundation Establishment, this was indeed one of the means of flying.
After reaching the ground floor, Su Xiaoyu observed Li Ru’s situation with her Heavenly Vision while getting closer, and eventually found herself near a bus stop.
Today, Li Ru wasn’t wearing his conspicuous Daoist robe. Dressed in casual wear, he blended in with the crowd.
Su Xiaoyu glanced at Li Ru, then looked at a minivan parked nearby. It was the vehicle Li Ru had driven, and his luggage was still inside. This meant he wasn’t planning to take a bus but was simply here to pick someone up.
Understanding this, Su Xiaoyu went directly to the minivan, used her Wind Thought Technique to bring her wheelchair onto the roof, and simply sat there.
The wind on the roof felt somewhat sharp, causing her long, jet-black hair to flutter continuously.
She smoothed her hair; her delicate face looked lustrous, her skin so fair a puff of air might bruise it… Probably because she had become a cultivator, her physical condition was improving, and she was becoming increasingly beautiful. Although she still looked frail, she possessed an increasingly transcendent air.
Leaning back in her wheelchair, Su Xiaoyu settled in to wait.
The wait didn’t last long before a bus arrived.
One by one, people got off the bus. Among them, a person walked straight towards Li Ru.
This was an elderly man, probably in his sixties, with graying, unkempt hair and numerous age spots on his face. Dressed in simple clothes, his frame was somewhat stooped.
He walked up to Li Ru and smiled. “You’ve come. Let’s go.”
Li Ru nodded. “Get in my car. Oh, you… you clearly have a higher cultivation level than the rest of us, yet you’ve never earned any money for yourself in the Mortal World. You’ve devoted your entire life to cultivation. Even for a trip outside, you have to take a bus. Why torment yourself?”
This man was, in fact, Wang Ye.
Wang Ye laughed wryly. “It doesn’t matter. Seeking immortal opportunities brings me joy, and that’s enough.”
The two chatted as they approached the minivan.
Su Xiaoyu wasn’t surprised to see that Wang Ye was so old. In a world where Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy was absurdly thin, reaching Qi Refining 3rd Layer was no easy feat. Even if some lucky encounters had boosted his cultivation, the path ahead remained fraught with difficulty. Every tiny step of progress demanded a great deal of time.
Once they got in the car, neither of them noticed Su Xiaoyu on the roof. Li Ru promptly started the vehicle and continued to pick up the others.
Staying on the roof, Su Xiaoyu didn’t need to worry about being blown away. As a cultivator at the Qi Refining Tenth Layer, such a trivial speed posed no trouble for her. She could anchor herself to the roof like a nail.
After the minivan made a few more stops, it picked up several more people one by one.
A man in his fifties, named Deng Shangwei, at the Qi Refining 1st Layer.
A woman in her fifties, named Jin Xiaoqing, at the Qi Refining 1st Layer.
A woman in her thirties, named Chu Yongjun, at the Qi Refining 2nd Layer.
Among the three newcomers, Su Xiaoyu paid the most attention to the woman called Chu Yongjun. Not only was she the youngest, but she also possessed a Qi Refining 2nd Layer cultivation base. One could only wonder what opportunities she had encountered in the past.
The five individuals came from different corners of the world. Precisely because they were all cultivators, they had spent decades slowly encountering and getting to know each other. Now, in pursuit of clues to immortality, they had all gathered in this city, ready to embark on a journey ordinary people could hardly imagine.
Once everyone was assembled, Li Ru drove the car towards their destination.
On the way, the group chatted inside the vehicle, mainly listening to Wang Ye recount the clues he had obtained this time.
Sitting on the roof, Su Xiaoyu could clearly hear every word of the conversation inside.
“This time, obtaining the relevant clues was purely an accident.”
Sitting in the passenger seat, Wang Ye spoke with a sigh. “I consulted countless ancient texts. Following obscure clues within those records, I relentlessly searched, traveling to many famous mountains and great rivers, only to find that the final clue was right here in this city. The Grotto-Heaven and Blessed Land we’re searching for this time is called Carefree Grotto-Heaven, according to the ancient records. I don’t know if we’ll actually find it, nor, even if we do, if we can truly be carefree thereafter and become true cultivators.”
As he spoke, Wang Ye’s eyes were full of hope.
Even though they were all currently cultivators, they understood they had barely scratched the surface. The Heaven and Earth Spiritual Energy in reality was simply insufficient to support their continued cultivation.
Wang Ye couldn’t be content with the status quo. If he had never known about cultivation, that would be one thing. But now that he knew of its existence, how could he bow his head to the environment?
Thus, he had dedicated his entire life to seeking immortal opportunities. Mountain after mountain, forest after forest—his presence had been seen in the most untrodden of places. Even with his cultivation at the Qi Refining Third Layer, he had faced danger many times, barely escaping with his life on several occasions.
It wasn’t an easy path to walk, but it was Wang Ye’s hope, his aspiration.
Listening to Wang Ye recount this, the others in the minivan looked at him with deep respect. A person willing to risk his life for his dream and dedicate his whole existence to it was worthy of admiration, regardless of his profession.
Wang Ye continued, “This Carefree Grotto-Heaven we’re going to seek, according to the ancient texts, should be located at Cloud Rain Mountain.”
He raised a hand and pointed ahead, where a mountain was already faintly visible in the distance.
