Cultivating Immortality in a World of Chaos

I must reflect on myself; I failed to restrain myself when I encountered my enemy.

Fang Xi spread out two bags of holding before him, one exquisite and one crude, silently alert.

Murdering someone and stealing their treasures was indeed quite satisfying, but it wasn’t so wonderful when the tables were turned, and he became the murdered party. Fang Xi, who had once possessed a veritable treasure trove, refused to end up like this.

After calming his emotions, he picked up the crude bag first, which belonged to Yingsong. This person’s spiritual power was weak, and considering that Fang Xi was already at the Middle Stage Qi Refinement stage, he managed to unlock it within ten minutes.

As expected, inside the bag was a space about the same size as the bag on Fang Xi’s own person, containing two stacks of paper talismans, a dozen spirit stones, some clothes, and miscellaneous items.

In fact, Fang Xi suspected that the large number of paper talismans might not have been for Yingsong’s personal use, but rather gifts from Qi Liu meant to save his life.

Considering that cultivators in the Initial Stage of Qi Refinement possessed weak magical powers, they couldn’t even use high-grade magical artifacts, so paper talismans proved more convenient.

Other than the flying device Yingsong had ridden, named the “Black Cloud Pouch,” Fang Xi also acquired several other loot items.

“Overall, these aren’t bad.”

“But the real prize is still that master from the Kou Clan…” Fang Xi picked up the third brother’s bag of holding, which was clearly much more refined.

Not only was it beautifully crafted, but its magical signature was also exceptionally powerful. Fang Xi spent more than five or six hours before he finally managed to erase the seal and open the bag…

Despite having prepared himself somewhat for what lay within, his eyes still narrowed slightly.

Spirit stones!

The first thing that caught his eye was a pile of over a hundred spirit stones tucked away in one corner of the bag!

“Hit the jackpot this time…,” Fang Xi murmured, glancing at the rest of his loot, then paused in surprise.

This bag’s capacity clearly exceeded those of the other two; it was roughly three cubic meters in size, and among its contents were bloodstained magical artifacts, materials, medicinal pills, jade slips, letters, and more. Most everything seemed to have been carelessly stuffed inside in haste.

This third younger brother of the Kou Clan must’ve robbed quite a few people at the market as well, amassing a hefty fortune…

But now, these accumulated riches naturally became Fang Xi’s own without any qualms on his part. He discarded his original bag of holding and upgraded directly to the tri-compartmental version belonging to the Kou Clan’s third brother, feeling much more spacious as a result.

He had no intention whatsoever of leaving the remaining two bags empty, so he decided they would be used specifically for transporting mythical beast materials. For a cultivator engaged in interrealm trade, the more bags of holding one possessed, the better.

Fang Xi could already envision the day when he would rise to become one of the eight-bag disciples of the Beggar Sect—or perhaps even reach the lofty rank of nine bags elder…

Night fell.

“Many thanks to the Kou brothers for their generous gifts!”

Fang Xi had finally finished sorting through all his belongings and was currently holding the fruits of his labor from today’s work: a golden longsword magical artifact!

This magical artifact measured twenty-three inches in length and one inch in width, with a body entirely made of gold and covered in intricate scales. The pommel bore a dragon embellishment, while the blade emanated a chilling aura that instilled fear upon first sight.

It was clearly a high-grade magical artifact—the Golden Flood Dragon Sword!

Even the cheapest high-grade artifacts cost at least a hundred low-grade spirit stones in the market.

Too bad it’s stolen goods, unfit for public use.

The mere thought of Fang Xi’s third brother having two older brothers who were also in the Late Stage of Qi Refinement left him feeling somewhat alarmed.

In accordance with the cultivation world’s rule that whoever defeats an enemy gets to keep the spoils of war, this Kou brothers’ bag of holding should have belonged to Situ Qingqing—but the female cultivator hadn’t brought it up, so she must be tacitly acknowledging that it is rightfully hers.

Fang Xi felt he’d saved her life, so taking some loot wouldn’t harm anyone.

At present, he could only accept this minor inconvenience as part of the job.

In addition to the high-grade magical artifact, there was also a mid-grade ‘black iron shield’ within the Kou brothers’ bag of holding, which Fang Xi extracted and meticulously refined to serve as protective equipment.

As for the flying shuttle he rode, it had been destroyed by the black thunderclap and was beyond repair.

“Thus, with the addition of this black cloud pouch used to hasten our journey, we now have a full set of attack, defense, and travel magical artifacts… As expected, killing people and taking their treasures is the quickest way to make money,” Fang Xi muttered to himself.

Aside from magical artifacts, among the pile of plundered goods, he also unearthed quite a few jade bottles containing medicinal pills, including one Wood Yuan Pill, which was truly a pleasant surprise.

Unfortunately, the most valuable item was a bottle of Golden Earls Grain, a medicinal pill that cultivators who cultivated metal elemental techniques could use to refine their spiritual energy, likely belonging to the third brother of the Kou Clan.

Fang Xi couldn’t utilize it, so he decided to keep it safely stored away for later.

There were some healing and detoxification medicinal pills, as well as a large number of fasting pills, all organized and sorted before being put away. There would surely come a time when they proved useful.

Amongst those jade slips, there was a great deal of miscellaneous information. It included the entirety of the Fire elemental cultivation technique, along with half of the Goldwind Incantation…

Regrettably, like the Everlasting Spring Art, these were all run-of-the-mill techniques, and Fang Xi had no plans to switch his main focus of study.

As a cultivator with predominantly earth and wood elemental spiritual roots, would he ever have any hope of reaching Foundation Establishment if he continued to cultivate techniques from the metal and earth schools? But it was the miscellaneous learning, travelogues, and humanistic texts within the jade slips that most piqued Fang Xi’s curiosity, expanding his horizons, and he resolved to take some time to peruse them later.

“And finally, this last.”

Fang Xi picked up the final jade slip.

This particular slip was not only thicker than the others, its material differed as well; it resembled common white jade, smooth and lustrous, streaked with golden veins throughout. One glance made it clear: this was a high-quality item among jade slips.

When Fang Xi first acquired it, there were even flecks of blood on its surface, likely because many cultivators had lost their lives fighting over the object.

Upon probing deeper with his spiritual senses, countless bits of information instantly surfaced before him, beginning with a line of golden text:

【 An Introduction to the Dao of Arrays (First Volume) 】

It was a legacy of tier-one array masters! The four arts of cultivation—array, alchemy, weaponry, and paper talismans—were each worthy of diligent study. Even the lowest-ranked talisman masters could live in unparalleled luxury, let alone those at the apex of the social hierarchy, the array masters!

Before acquiring these jade slips, Fang Xi too had contemplated specializing in one such skill to supplement himself.

However, what he had originally intended to study was the Dao of paper talismans, for which purpose he’d even gone so far as to cultivate good relations with some talisman masters, such as Symbol Master Zong—only for fate to play its cruel tricks.

By now, Symbol Master Zong was dead, and there was no need to mention Chen Ping.

Yet who could have anticipated that a legacy of the Dao of formations would come into his possession?!

Fang Xi had already skimmed through it; this legacy truly only covered the basics, suitable for newcomers to the field of formations. The most advanced formation within was merely high-grade tier one!

But it was still sufficient, for if sold, it could fetch at least several hundred spirit stones!

As for why the legacy of the Dao of arrays was valued about the same as Symbol Master Zong’s notes on the Dao of Talismans…

“Fucking formations are too fucking hard!”

As Fang Xi read the very first sentence of the introduction to the Dao of arrays, he found himself dumbstruck.

“Formations gather the transformations of heaven and earth, exhaustively explore the mysteries of multiplication and division, and cultivators should observe them mentally for half the effort…”

Mentally! This was a skill exclusive to great Foundation Establishment cultivators!

With divine sense, one could project their consciousness beyond their body to detect changes within dozens or even hundreds of meters’ radius, gaining a significant advantage in battle against enemies. Furthermore, having access to divine sense would afford one many conveniences when crafting paper talismans, concocting pills, and forging weapons.

That’s why those great Foundation Establishment cultivators would often focus on one of the four arts to assist their cultivation and spend countless years honing their longevity—most could achieve some degree of success.

And now Fang Xi finally understood why array masters were considered the apex of disdain among cultivators! Other artificers like alchemists or equipment forgers could begin their studies during the Qi Refinement stage, but array masters had to wait until Foundation Establishment before they could even enter the field!

But never mind; with divine sense, studying restrictions, charting topography, precisely laying out formations, and observing subsequent evolutions all became vastly more convenient!

“The key point is that Qi Refinement stage cultivators simply don’t have divine senses—they only have spiritual senses capable of introspection…”

Fang Xi really wanted to roast this.

When he continued reading, he saw that studying spell formations required specialized spaces, large numbers of spirit stones to craft spell formation plates and flags, and so on. He was even more dumbfounded…

In truth, these resources weren’t particularly difficult to acquire. The key requirement for truly mastering the Dao of arrays lay in aptitude, also known as innate understanding of the Dao!

For other three branches of craftsmanship, such as pill concocting or paper talisman crafting, one could accumulate resources, conduct large-scale experiments, and gradually build up experience and techniques, thereby slowly improving over time.

In other words, if you weren’t afraid to waste resources, you could always make progress.

But when it came to the Dao of formations, if you couldn’t grasp it, that was just how it was! No matter how many times you tried, you’d still fail!

Amongst Foundation Stage cultivators, those who specialized in pill and weapon concoction or talisman crafting were far more common than array masters—this was another reason why few chose to study the latter.

“Paper talismans bring wealth; pills and weapons destroy fortunes; advise people to learn arrays, for heaven will strike them down with lightning!”

Fang Xi’s lips twitched as he read the clear notations added by some junior member of the sect. But upon closer consideration, among rogue cultivators, the most prevalent profession was that of a talisman master, while alchemists and equipment forgers were rare, often lacking the skill possessed by those from larger factions. Array masters, meanwhile, were extremely uncommon…but also quite fitting…

“It’s too bad…I don’t have any legacies whatsoever.”

“Never mind, I’ll take a look anyway. It’s difficult enough to cultivate here in Great Liang, so perhaps I should spend some time determining whether I have talent for the Dao of arrays before proceeding…”

Fang Xi composed himself and continued his research on the basics of the Dao of arrays.

“A formation consists of several important components: the formation energy source, formation markings, restrictions, the eye of the spell…”

The formation energy source was where a spell’s power came from. Some legendary spellcasters could even use celestial bodies like stars to form spells with destructive capabilities that could annihilate heaven and earth.

Of course, today most cultivators used meridians as their formation energy sources, often supplementing them with spirit stones.

For example, the Skies Azure as Water Formation at Qingzhu Mountain Market! This spell was a tier-2 formation, but Qingzhu Mountain only had access to tier-1 meridians, which were insufficient to sustain tier-2 formations at full capacity—hence why the Skies Azure as Water Formation normally only ran on minimal power consumption.

In times of war, however, one could safely invest large quantities of spirit stones into the formation energy source, fully unleashing its maximum potential!

After the formation energy source came the formation markings—the part that consumed countless spellcasters’ blood, sweat, and tears!

Comprehending formation markings required mainly innate understanding!

Different spells called for different arrangement of formation markings, which formed restrictions when combined. These markings were the foundation upon which everything else rested; if the formation markings conflicted with each other, the spell would fail outright!

Fang Xi examined the formation markings of a basic spell, those densely packed symbols making his vision swim, much like how a programmer might see error code after error code…