Cultivating Immortality Begins with Rejuvenation

As Ning Sujin's weak voice trailed off, Li Ji'an, who had only felt the warmth and softness on his lips, now sensed a clear, moist heat and smoothness.

"Sister Jin, I..." Just as he wanted to explain, the sensation intensified with his words.

Ning Sujin's eyes widened instantly, her face, which had just regained a trace of color, flushed crimson as her blood surged.

Realizing their current predicament, neither of them spoke again, quietly waiting for the medicinal effects to dissipate.

...

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that they finally separated, Ning Sujin turning her head away with all her might.

Li Ji'an was finally able to move his neck.

"Before the Immortal Master appeared, I proactively sensed it once, and it was still an ominous sign. I wonder if there has been any change since the Immortal Master descended." To ease the awkwardness, Ning Sujin directly brought up the matter Li Ji'an was most concerned about.

Li Ji'an nodded slowly.

Ning Sujin's ability was limited to sensing things at close range, so it was normal that she couldn't sense anything now.

However, since the so-called Immortal Master was just a cultivator, and needed a flying boat to travel to and from the mortal world, he probably didn't have the power to change people's fates yet.

The ominous sign for Ning Yutan likely hadn't changed.

In that case, following the Immortal Master to the cultivation world was the root of the ominous sign.

"Is it a crisis from the cultivation world, or a crisis brought by that Immortal Master?" Li Ji'an didn't know, and a sense of apprehension towards this path of cultivation grew in his heart.

"Sister Jin, can you foresee whether it will be auspicious or inauspicious for you to become an immortal seedling?"

Ning Sujin shook her head: "Only things that are certain to happen can be foreseen, and the time span varies depending on the event."

"After this incident, I'm afraid the old emperor's requirements for the next Immortal Selection will be much higher. You and I will at least need to reach the Great Accomplishment of Organ Refinement to have any hope. Whether we can become immortal seedlings in this lifetime is unknown."

Li Ji'an smiled knowingly, sensing the obvious change in Ning Sujin's attitude towards the emperor.

Having seen him in front of the Immortal Master, his lofty majesty and image naturally crumbled.

Especially since the imperial family's initial message to the world was that the Immortal Master was protecting their Zhao family, and the emperor was appointed by the Immortal Master. To disobey the imperial family was to defy the Immortal.

"Man proposes, God disposes!" Li Ji'an's mind wasn't on whether he could become an immortal seedling in this life, so he casually said a perfunctory sentence, full of positive energy.

"What do you think of the Immortal Master?" Encouraged by Li Ji'an, Ning Sujin stopped worrying about the Immortal Selection ten years later and couldn't help but ask about the Immortal Master she had seen.

Li Ji'an pondered for a moment and offered a thought to elicit more information: "Perhaps similar to martial arts experts."

"You think so too?" Ning Sujin's beautiful eyes suddenly narrowed, and she looked at Li Ji'an with surprise, as if she had found a kindred spirit.

"Why do you think so?" Li Ji'an was also curious about her perception, after all, she wasn't like him, transmigrated from modern times and having read too many stories about cultivators.

"Immortal Masters descended more than a hundred years ago, but the natural disasters that should have happened never stopped, the wicked still do wicked things, the suffering still suffer, and I have never seen the Immortal Masters descend divine lightning to punish evil and promote good... Apart from not knowing where they come from, and flying into the sky and escaping into the earth, and controlling treasures, how are they different from mortals?" Ning Sujin said bluntly.

Li Ji'an's gaze towards Ning Sujin was filled with a bit more appreciation.

"So that's why you proactively taught Yutan movement techniques before? You think mortal martial arts can possibly contend against Immortal Masters, and possibly turn danger into safety?"

Ning Sujin nodded slowly.

A clever woman!

The next morning, the medicinal effects of the two had almost completely dissipated.

Ning Sujin propped herself up and sat up, finally leaving Li Ji'an's chest.

However, when her lower body was about to rise from Li Ji'an's body, it was accidentally blocked by something hard, and her already unstable lower body sat down again.

"Hiss~" Li Ji'an felt like he was about to fracture and couldn't help but gasp, instinctively sitting up.

Ning Sujin was also poked painfully, as if she was about to split open, and leaned forward sharply, returning to Li Ji'an's embrace once more.

After a moment of eye contact, Ning Sujin realized what had happened.

"Bah! Beast!" Her face flushed red instantly, she spat angrily, pushed Li Ji'an away with a palm, and stumbled out of the compartment.

"..." Li Ji'an smiled wryly. He couldn't be blamed for this, it was purely a physiological reaction. Although his mental age was not young, his body was in the prime of its youth.

——

Having already seen the "Immortal" and knowing what to expect, coupled with Ning Sujin's "seeking good fortune and avoiding disaster" safeguarding him, in the days that followed, Li Ji'an cultivated wholeheartedly, as always.

Thanks to the Immortal Master's dissatisfaction with this Immortal Selection, the Immortal Palace's investment in good seedlings like them greatly increased.

No matter how the outside world was exploited, Li Ji'an truly had ample resources in the Immortal Palace.

Two years later, Li Ji'an's Blood Exchange was complete.

"The essence of the Blood Exchange realm has been completely mastered. Even if my aptitude doesn't improve in the next life, I can still shorten the time by 30%." After carefully sensing it for a while, a look of joy appeared on Li Ji'an's face.

Just as he finished his practice, familiar footsteps came from outside the door.

"Brother Li, your letter." Zhao Yunsheng, who had been confirmed to have no martial arts talent, was still under house arrest in the Immortal Palace and liked to play with Li Ji'an on weekdays.

"This puzzle lock is also finished, take it and play with it." Li Ji'an took the letter and threw the puzzle lock that Little Yunsheng had been begging him for days to him.

Little Yunsheng had no martial arts talent, nor the heart for martial arts, he only liked carpentry. It so happened that Li Ji'an was also trying to control his blood and Qi during his free time from cultivation, so he made it for him.

"This is the ingenious skill you mentioned? Thank you, Brother Li." Zhao Yunsheng was overjoyed.

Watching Little Yunsheng walk away, Li Ji'an opened the letter.

"Hmm? Not Senior Brother's? That's bad..." Seeing Qingyun's handwriting on the envelope, Li Ji'an had a premonition.

Sure enough, unfolding the letter brought bad news, Senior Brother Liu Deshan was sick.

So sick that he couldn't even hold a pen, so Qingyun had to write it for him.

"Senior Brother is now... only a year away from sixty, is he not going to make it?" Although he had experienced three lives and understood that he needed to take a detached view of the life and death of old friends, Li Ji'an still felt a little lonely at the thought of the second closest person in his previous life was about to die.

In the letter, Liu Deshan talked the most about his previous life, "Li Jichang", reminiscing about the past.

One thing after another, sincere and earnest, Li Ji'an naturally remembered them vividly.

At the end of the letter, it said that he regretted not seeing "Li Jichang"'s last moments and hoped to see Li Ji'an again before he died.

However, his nature of always thinking of others still added a caveat: If it was a critical moment or would affect his path to immortality, he didn't need to come back.

Slightly heavy-hearted, he folded the letter and slowly walked to the bookshelf. Just as he was about to put it in the bookshelf, he thought about it again and took the letter out, returning to his desk, carefully unfolding and smoothing the letter...

The next morning, Li Ji'an came to the female students' quarters area and waited quietly.

"Is the Prince Consort looking for Princess Wenjin again?"

"Prince Consort, our princess has had a dark face all day today, be careful of family law."

"Could it be that Princess Wenjin really set the family rules for the Prince Consort? Requiring him to greet her every day?"

...

As the female students left the courtyard one after another, various teasing voices rang out as usual.

A year ago, Prince Yun used the suppression of the Northwest rebellion as a reason to resist the imperial decree to enter the capital alone, and then refused to hand over the military power of the Northwest Army for the same reason, causing the relationship between the emperor and Prince Yun to drop to freezing point.

Three months later, Duke Dingguo, who had been secretly investigating Prince Yun since the Immortal Selection assassination, became a powerful figure in the emperor and Prince Yun's secret confrontation due to his consistent tough stance towards Prince Yun, defeating a group of two-faced people in the palace and being highly valued.

Ning Sujin, a prospective immortal seedling, and Ning Yutan, who had already ascended to the immortal realm, were both conferred the title of princess by the emperor.

And Ning Sujin always traveled with Li Ji'an, and Li Ji'an often sought her out to ask about auspiciousness, which naturally developed into some scandals.