"Senior Chen? Someone's injured, could you come out and take a look?" Li Jizhou shouted towards the side room.
In situations like this, the best method is to pull in someone taller; only then can you avoid getting crushed if the sky falls.
The small courtyard housed three people. The main room belonged to an ugly woman, reportedly at the peak of Qi Cultivation Third Level, primarily focusing on Beast Tamers. The right side room housed a burly man who didn't practice any technique, focusing instead on attack, seemingly on the verge of entering the Late Stage of Qi Cultivation and serving as the combat strength of the courtyard.
Unfortunately, Senior Chen often took on dangerous tasks and was frequently away, and he wasn't around at this moment.
"Ribbit~ Ribbit~ Ribbit~" The frog croaked even more anxiously.
"Clang~" The next moment, the frog rolled its tongue into its mouth and surprisingly tossed a storage bag at Li Jizhou's feet.
"..." Li Jizhou looked at the frog in amazement and then glanced at the woman in the green dress lying on the ground.
"Seems like this is the true appearance of that ugly woman!"
"Living here disguised as an ugly woman for nearly ten years? There must be a big story behind it!" Aside from the lower-level cultivators who couldn't find a foothold outside, there are also many cultivators hiding from enemies within Inverted Mountain.
Being almost certain it was indeed the ugly woman who co-rented for nearly ten years and occasionally offered him some aid, Li Jizhou hesitated no longer.
He stepped forward to inspect the woman in the green dress.
The back of her heart had already been soaked in blood.
Turning her over,
"Oh~" Seeing the woman's face in the green dress, Li Jizhou instinctively paused.
The beauty of a twenty-something face, even with eyes tightly shut and bloodless, still evokes the words "beautiful and charming." It feels like in the next moment, those tightly shut peach blossom eyes would open and cast a flirtatious glance at him.
Looking further down, her figure was graceful, voluptuous but not corpulent, clearly an alluring beauty!
Did the ugly woman originally look like this?
Since ancient times, beauty is a source of trouble, even more so in the cultivation world!
Cultivators are also human, with emotions and desires, along with physiological and psychological needs to dispel.
And the woman before him was even more stunning than the numerous women he encountered at the Late Stage of Foundation Establishment in his previous life.
Such a stunning beauty resorting to disguise as an ugly woman for years...
Likely it was the trouble caused by beauty that drove her to seek refuge here.
To prevent her true face from being seen by others,
Li Jizhou grabbed a curtain to fully wrap the woman's head, then picked her up and headed outside.
The frog instantly jumped happily and leaped into the Spirit Pet Bag on the woman's body.
Carrying the woman whose face was completely hidden, Li Jizhou navigated through the narrow, foul-smelling alleys to reach the entrance of a small courtyard not far away.
"Pharmacist Zheng, please save a life!" This was a regular client for Li Jizhou, for whom he delivered medicine to earn delivery fees.
"Pop~" With a soft sound, the door restriction was lifted.
Li Jizhou carried the woman inside.
"Don't put her on my bed; you can't afford to pay for the mess," Pharmacist Zheng said with a scowl, as if everyone owed him a fortune.
Li Jizhou gave an embarrassed smile, having no choice but to hold the woman while Pharmacist Zheng took her pulse.
Pharmacist Zheng turned his head disdainfully, closing his eyes and tilting his head as one hand rested on the woman's pulse gate.
After three breaths,
"Heart vein snapped, Heart-Protecting Pill, twenty-six liang of Spiritual Sand!"
While speaking, Pharmacist Zheng had already taken out a jade bottle from the storage bag, pouring out a pitch-black pill.
With two fingers holding the pill at the mouth of the jade bottle, he seemed ready to stash it back at the slightest word from Li Jizhou, giving no room for negotiation.
"Ugh." Helpless, Li Jizhou reached into the storage bag that the frog had just spat out to retrieve Spiritual Sand.
"Huh?" As he pulled out the Spiritual Sand, Li Jizhou suddenly raised his head, incredulous, looking at Pharmacist Zheng.
The amount of Spiritual Sand in the storage bag was neither more nor less, exactly twenty-six liang!
Such a coincidence?
At this moment, Li Jizhou instinctively held his breath.
Even the lowest-grade storage bags come with dual restriction arrays of Divine Sense and Magical Power. The one in his hand had its Magical Power restriction broken, allowing him to take things from it, but the Divine Sense restriction remained, as he had tested with Spiritual Sense earlier.
The Divine Sense restriction is a characteristic of storage bag materials, capable even at the lowest grade of preventing Spiritual Sense exploration at the Qi Cultivation Peak.
The notorious bad-tempered Pharmacist Zheng in the eastern district of Inverted Mountain was known for not focusing on cultivation but rather on medical skills, his public cultivation level being Early Stage of Qi Cultivation.
"Within twelve hours, reconnect the heart vein with Wood Element Magical Power to live; miss it and she dies! Hurry up," while Li Jizhou was slightly puzzled, Pharmacist Zheng had already tossed the Heart-Protecting Pill into his hand and promptly ushered him out with a scowl.
It wasn't until Li Jizhou exited the courtyard gate that he processed Pharmacist Zheng's words.
"Where can I find someone who cultivates Wood Element techniques?"
"You'd better pray I can quickly cultivate Wood Element Evergreen Skill!"
The incident just now left him puzzled. If Pharmacist Zheng requested twenty-six liang of Spiritual Sand merely by coincidence, he might have believed it in the past, but with memories of his previous life, he could almost assert that the old man was playing an act all along!
Such occurrences are common in the cultivation world, especially within Inverted Mountain, and it's not unusual.
Without further thought, he quickly returned, carrying the woman.
He placed the woman back in the ugly woman's room, stuffed the Heart-Protecting Pill into her mouth, and hurriedly returned to his room to activate the restriction array.
Whether he could save her depended on whether he could cultivate Eternal Spring Magical Powers within twelve hours.
At the same time, he gained clarity on his future plans,
"A gentleman stays clear of danger!
Inverted Mountain is free entry, anyone can come, even if one sets up a house on unclaimed land without interference, no taxes, no saluting anyone, and none of the three sects or five wealthy families would intrude.
"However, similarly, no one is obliged to protect your safety, and no one is obliged to maintain order."
This is a haven for those at their wit's end, a sanctuary for the most wicked of people!
But it's definitely not a long-term dwelling for someone like Li Jizhou, who seeks stability and survival!
For now, though, there is no other choice.
Inside the Inverted Mountain, chaos reigns, yet because of the four characters inscribed with great magical power by Daoist Venerable Mo Li on the mountain, everyone who enters here restrains themselves. Meanwhile, the wilderness outside the Inverted Mountain City, stretching for three thousand miles, becomes a true land of disorder due to the absence of disciples from the three sects and five families to patrol it.
This place is home to cultivators who rely on robbing and looting, demon cultivators practicing demon skills, and, of course, mostly loose cultivators disguised as the former two.
This doesn't even include the elusive demon beasts!
Therefore, those who walk out of the Inverted Mountain are either incredibly powerful, travel in groups to fend off risks, or are too poor to be robbed, and lucky enough not to encounter demon beasts.
Like Zhou Cang, to walk out, one could only pray not to encounter demon cultivators practicing demon skills, not to encounter starving demon beasts, and also must have certain survival skills—it truly is a life and death situation!
Given Li Jizhou's current strength, the chance of walking out alive is less than ten percent, and the risk is much greater than staying here temporarily.
Additionally, besides walking out alive, one also needs to have a certain reserve of spirit stones and a method to earn spirit stones long-term!
After all, regardless of which Immortal City dojang or market you visit, there is always a cost of living.
Any place with a spirit vein outside is someone's domain and cannot be accessed freely.
And places without spirit veins are nearly all lands of spiritual scarcity, where spiritual qi is scant. If a cultivator does not have pills like Qi Replenishing Pills to resupply spiritual qi or to absorb spiritual qi from spirit stones, staying in such spiritually scarce lands for a long time risks losing cultivation.
Calming himself, Li Jizhou cooked up the remaining spirit rice.
To cultivate Evergreen Skill as quickly as possible, eating more spirit rice to replenish spiritual qi is beneficial.
Finally, the true step into the life of a cultivator begins this life!
The "Evergreen Skill" is known as the bottom-tier loose cultivator's friend, not only because it's ubiquitous but also incredibly easy to get started with. It doesn't require profound spiritual qi circulation paths, nor does it require reversing meridians.
Instead, it follows the meridians, going with the flow as if it were meant to be.
The "Complete Evergreen Skill" starts the same way, with only minor differences, the overall method remains the same.
"Holding the Yuan and guarding the One, conforming to heaven's order, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth, taking in the qi of the five internal organs..."
As the cultivation technique began to operate, unbeknownst to Li Jizhou, his body merged with the surrounding Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi. Unlike other cultivation techniques needing actively to absorb qi, the qi naturally entered Li Jizhou's body through all his pores, finally gathering in the dantian, and then refined into the pure and thick Eternal Spring Magical Power.
It was unknown how much time had passed when after a complete cycle of the Evergreen Skill, Li Jizhou suddenly opened his eyes.
He felt his entire body filled with spiritual qi, unable to absorb even a sliver more.
"As the rumors suggested, after absorbing spiritual qi, the Evergreen Skill accumulates it without a release, requiring a solidification process which indeed slows down cultivation speed, but...
The sensation just now, the speed at which spiritual qi was absorbed seemed swift, surpassing even the high-tier fire attribute cultivation technique of the previous life, and this was in a place less concentrated than a tier-one spirit vein in spiritual qi."
"Perhaps this is the advantage of having a Middle Grade Spirit Root in this life!"
"If a middle to lower spirit root is like this, I wonder how terrifying the Celestial Spirit Root's absorption speed would be?"
"Quack~ Quack~" Just as Li Jizhou withdrew from cultivation, he heard constant knocking at his door from Gua Gua.
Suppressing the urge to stew it, Li Jizhou coldly released the restriction.
"Quack~ Quack~ Quack~" Gua Gua screamed constantly, even wrapping its tongue around Li Jizhou's leg, trying to drag him to the ugly woman's room.
Sparing a glance at the ugly woman's room, then looking out the window.
The moon was bright and the stars sparse—it had unknowingly become the third watch of the night.
"I wonder if my meager wood element magical power can save you?"
Though he had just entered the realm of Qi Cultivation, not even counted as a Qi Cultivation First Level cultivator, at this moment, within his dantian, he's acquired Eternal Spring Magical Power.
He could give it a try!
Once more, he entered the ugly woman's room, noticeably feeling the woman's breath on the bed nearly ceased.
Pharmacist Zheng's words were true; if left until tomorrow, she'd likely be stiff already.
With the experience of past lives, Li Jizhou quickly and skillfully transmitted the scarce Eternal Spring Magical Power from his dantian into the woman's heart, trying diligently to guide the power to connect her heart meridian.
As the force from the dantian was applied, Li Jizhou distinctly felt the bloated sensation of spiritual qi within his body diminishing bit by bit.
He immediately observed the relationship between dantian power output and the changes in spiritual qi within the body.
"During the output of dantian power, the solidification of spiritual qi within the body noticeably speeds up..."
Upon arriving at this conclusion, Li Jizhou felt a hint of joy.
The reason Evergreen Skill was slower in cultivation compared to other techniques was primarily due to this solidification process after every session, basically equating to a refining process.
If this solidification process could double in speed, then cultivating Evergreen Skill wouldn't be slower than other cultivation techniques.
With this in mind, he gradually increased the speed of the dantian power output.
"The Eternal Spring Magical Power certainly lives up to its name, being abundant, persistent, and lasting!"
Even though it was the initial stage of Qi Cultivation, with the Eternal Spring Magical Power in the dantian being scarcely a cupful, it managed to sustain itself for a full hour.
All the spiritual qi filling his body was also completely consumed.
Reactivating the restriction and taking a short rest, he restarted operating the "Complete Evergreen Skill."
Until the rising sun, the dantian force was once again abundant, and the bloated sensation of spiritual qi reemerged within his body.
"In this manner, the Evergreen Skill isn't slow at all!"
The greatest drawback of the Evergreen Skill was its cultivation speed, but if, after cultivation, the magical power is promptly output, the solidification process speeds up, making up for this shortfall!
"Just, countless cultivators have come and gone over millions of years, how could such a simple rule remain undiscovered?"
"The only explanation is that the 'Evergreen Skill' partial scroll lacks this effect; this effect belongs solely to the 'Complete Evergreen Skill'!"
Good!