158: Chapter 158 Ten Years

The tenth year.

Over these past few years, Chen Changqing's cultivation had not increased much, remaining at the Eighth Layer of Foundation Establishment. However, his Divine Soul cultivation and Body Refining cultivation had improved significantly.

After practicing the Spirit Refining Technique for a full ten years, his Divine Soul strength, which was originally equivalent to the First Layer of Purple Mansion, had now reached the Third Layer of Purple Mansion. Apart from the influence of the dao bead, the main reason was that he had spent a lot of Spirit Stones to purchase Medicinal Pills that enhanced the Divine Soul.

His Body Refining cultivation had also risen to the Peak of Rank-2 High Grade, allowing his body to withstand more and more Azure Thunder. According to his estimates, he could now condense more than three hundred streaks of Azure Thunder.

Each streak of Azure Thunder reached the destructive power of the Fourth Layer of Foundation Establishment. If they were all stacked together, he was a hundred percent certain he could injure a Cultivator at the First Layer of Purple Mansion.

In other words, he finally possessed a means of his own to injure a Purple Palace Cultivator, rather than relying on external items.

Furthermore, over these years, he had also attempted to refine Rank-3 Talismans.

This Talisman was called the gravity talisman. It could apply gravity within a certain range. Even a Rank-3 Yao Beast subjected to the gravity suppression within this range would find it difficult to escape, let alone Cultivators who did not Cultivate their Physical Body!

However, refining Rank-3 Talismans was far more difficult than Rank-2 ones. It took him several years just to raise his success rate to sixty percent. Moreover, Rank-3 Talisman Materials were extremely rare, so he currently only had twenty-three gravity talismans in his possession.

During this period, Zhao Huaiyi of the Zhao Family had also visited the Chen Family.

Every year when the Zhao Family came to the Chen Family, they would take away a large number of Talismans, Magical Artifacts, and Formations.

Over the years, the Chen Family had to dedicate a significant amount of effort annually to work for the Zhao Family.

Fortunately, part of the Materials was provided by the Zhao Family; otherwise, the Chen Family wouldn't have been able to sustain the Zhao Family taking away such large amounts of resources every year.

Facing the Zhao Family's exploitation of the Chen Family, Chen Changqing wished to put a stop to it, but he understood it was not yet time to make a move. According to Li Taixuan, the person who had gone to the Li Family back then was a different Purple Mansion Master.

This meant Qinghe County did not only have the Zhao Family's Purple Mansion Master, but another one as well.

Without figuring out the other person's cultivation level, he would absolutely not act rashly. Furthermore, the heart-corroding pills in Chen Yuanwen and Chen Changyue's bodies had not yet been completely resolved.

If a clash occurred and Zhao Tiangang along with that hidden Purple Mansion Master used their lives as leverage to threaten him, Chen Changqing truly wouldn't be able to abandon them.

Therefore, he still had to keep waiting.

Waiting until they exposed a weakness.

"Seventh Uncle, are you there?" Chen Lingtong called out from outside the Immortal Cave.

Hearing this, Chen Changqing stood up, opened the Immortal Cave, and walked out.

"Lingtong, what is it?" he asked calmly.

"Seventh Uncle, I want to go out to gain experience with Lingyi." Chen Lingtong's gaze was firm. She had Cultivated on Qingyang Mountain since childhood and had never gone down the mountain to gain experience until now.

The main reason was that she had never encountered a Bottleneck. She only needed to focus on Cultivating, and her cultivation would naturally increase.

"Mm, go ahead! Gaining more experience will also improve your state of mind." Chen Changqing did not object; in fact, he was quite supportive and handed her several Rank-2 Talismans.

Chen Lingtong smiled playfully, took the Talismans, and left.

Her current goal was not simply Foundation Establishment, but the quality of her Dao Foundation. This was one of the main reasons why Chen Changqing still hadn't allowed her to make a Breakthrough, even though she had reached Perfection of the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining several years ago.

Chen Lingtong had also learned from Chen Changqing that Dao Foundation qualities were divided into five grades: Low Grade, Medium Grade, High Grade, Top Grade, and Peerless Grade.

As for why Chen Changqing was unwilling to tell her about the Flawless Foundation, it was actually because he feared the girl would delay her Foundation Establishment in pursuit of Perfection.

Furthermore, back then he had both the zaohua pill and the shengling pill as assistance, while Chen Lingtong had neither. Thus, let alone a Flawless Foundation, even a Peerless Grade Dao Foundation would be extremely difficult for her.

Nevertheless, as the two most talented individuals of the Ling generation, he still intended to prepare some special Spirit Medicine to assist their Foundation Establishment; at the very least, he couldn't let their talent go to waste.

Chen Changqing stopped thinking about it and turned to head to the ancestral hall to learn about the current situation in Yan Country.

After arriving at the ancestral hall, Chen Yuanwen was still the same as before, his cultivation stagnant. Although the others were not advancing quickly, they were at least moving forward to some extent. But he had been in the Foundation Establishment Stage for nearly twenty years, and to this day he couldn't even touch the threshold of the Second Layer of Foundation Establishment. Perhaps he really would remain stuck at the First Layer of Foundation Establishment for the rest of his life.

Chen Yuanwen himself had come to terms with it and was quite optimistic now. Including him, the Family now had seven Foundation Establishment Cultivators. Although the Family's situation was currently not great, it was at least much better than before.

They had all lived through the Family's most difficult period and knew how hard life had been for the Family back then.

Back then, let alone dreaming of becoming a Foundation Establishment Family, even if the Family had just one more Cultivator at the Ninth Layer of Qi Refining, the entire Family would have been much better off.

But now, with a whole seven Foundation Establishment Cultivators residing in it, even among all the Foundation Establishment Families in Cang Prefecture, there were not many Families like the Chen Family.

Moreover, Chen Changqing had also obtained a ziyu pill.

"Have any major events occurred in Yan Country over these past few years?" Chen Changqing asked.

"No. Ever since the Taisu Mountain Zhao Family was wiped out, that group of Anti-Immortal Alliance Cultivators has made no further moves. However, several neighboring countries have been eyeing Yan Country covetously over these years. Now, we're just afraid that one day they will dispatch troops to crusade against Yan Country." Chen Yuanwen frowned deeply.

"Crusade against Yan Country?" Chen Changqing pondered.

"Right now they should still be in the probing stage, because they haven't figured out the situation of those Golden Core Masters in Yan Country."

"However, once the probing ends, a war might be upon us," Chen Yuanwen continued.

Hearing this, Chen Changqing's heart sank. He hadn't expected that right after the invasion of the Yao Race ended, the Anti-Immortal Alliance would pop up to cause trouble.

Now other immortal cultivation realms were also starting to target Yan Country.

But there was no helping it; who told Yan Country to occupy territory far better than the other immortal cultivation realms?

"Currently, besides having us refine Talismans and such for them, what other tasks does the Zhao Family have for us?" Chen Changqing asked thoughtfully.

"Besides those, there is nothing else. However, there is one more thing—the Zhao Family seems to be about to make a move," Chen Yuanwen explained.

"Tenth Uncle, did you discover something?" Chen Changqing's expression turned grave. This was a major matter; if the Zhao Family made a move, it meant the Anti-Immortal Alliance would also act.

"It's still unclear at the moment. We only know that starting from last year, there has been no movement from the entire Zhao Family. Furthermore, they were supposed to come to our Chen Family this month to collect Talismans and other resources, but they still haven't arrived. I feel that they..."

"...They might no longer be on Baiyun Mountain," Chen Yuanwen said uncertainly. He wasn't quite sure what the Zhao Family was doing either.

Originally, he had considered finding a few Qi Refining Cultivators to scout for news, but in the end he decided against it, because even if these Qi Refining Cultivators went to scout, they wouldn't be able to find out anything.

"Then I will go take a look at what the Zhao Family plans to do so that we can prepare accordingly," Chen Changqing said calmly.

"No, Zhao Tiangang's cultivation has reached the Purple Mansion Stage. If you go there and get discovered, it will be troublesome," Chen Yuanwen immediately refused.