Qi Zhiheng and his family prepared to return home.

Before returning, Qi Zhiheng had already sent the message back.

At this moment, a large group of people were waiting at the door to greet them.

The Qi family members and Qi Zhiheng's young apprentices had never seen such a scene before, and couldn't help but be curious.

Feng Yuanyi exclaimed in admiration, "Master, what is your status in this city? So many people have come out to greet you! You are truly honored!"

Everyone knew that Qi Zhiheng's cultivation level was not low, but they didn't know exactly how "not low" it was. They had always thought that Qi Zhiheng was at the Nascent Soul stage. After all, only about twenty years had passed. Even if his cultivation level increased rapidly, it was impossible for him to suddenly jump to two major stages.

Qi Zhiheng said, "I am the lord of this city."

Feng Yuanyi said excitedly, "Master! You are really amazing! How can we possibly stop this city lord? What do you think of me? Can I also become a city lord? Of course, I'm not talking about now. I'll do it after my cultivation level improves. What do you think?"

Qi Zhiheng looked him up and down and shook his head, saying, "I'm afraid it will be a long time from now."

Feng Yuanyi was not discouraged by his words: "Master, you are wrong. Like master, like disciple. Did you not think that I, your disciple, would surpass you when you accepted me as your disciple? I can also make you proud if I become the city lord, right?"

Qi Zhiheng replied without hesitation, "I never thought of that! You could never surpass me."

Yang Yitian interjected, "Yuanyi, don't even think about it for now. To become the city lord, you need to be at the Mahayana stage first. With your Nascent Soul stage cultivation, it's still a long way off for you to become the city lord."

Yang Yitian's words contained so much information that the crowd was momentarily stunned.

Everyone almost thought they had misheard. Rong Gu couldn't help but ask, "The Mahayana stage?"

Yang Yitian said, "That's right, your master is already a Mahayana cultivator. By the way, I'm also a Mahayana cultivator! If we're talking about becoming the city lord, I'll definitely be first than you."

Everyone gasped in astonishment, unable to comprehend how the two had leaped to the Mahayana stage in just twenty years!

Qi Zhiheng led the group into Shengxian City, greeted by the city lord's men: "It's a long story, let's go back and talk about it first."

Qi Zhiheng didn't intend to reveal his entire space. After returning, he only said that when they went to break through the barrier, they discovered a time distortion in a space and stayed there for more than a thousand years. Their cultivation improved during this thousand-year period.

While everyone envied them, they also felt that Qi Zhiheng and his companion had suffered somewhat. Having been trapped for over a thousand years, how could they not have suffered?

Qi Zhiheng was unaware of their thoughts. If he had known, he would have told them! It's not bitter!

He will definitely open his space to his family. As for his disciples, he will see how they perform. If they perform well, he will consider revealing the space to them. However, with the events of his previous life as a reference, signing a contract is essential.

Qi Zhiheng had a place prepared for his disciples to rest, and also had his family members come with him to the courtyard where he and Yang Yitian lived, so that everyone could stay together and it would be more lively.

That evening, Qi Zhiheng first prepared food to welcome his family and disciples, and then rested. The next day, he and Yang Yitian went to find his sons.

The father and his sons hadn't seen each other for many years, and Qi Zhiheng was quite worried that his sons might grow up to be bad.

Qi Zhiheng asked his sons to sit down: "Come, it's been a long time since we've seen each other. How have you been these past years?"

Yang Yitian sat down and asked, "Erbao, how's your talisman learning going?"

Erbao has always been the more lively and active one, but he's not the little tyrant he used to be anymore: "Dad, don't worry, I definitely didn't let you down. I've already entered the Dao through talismans!" As he spoke, a talisman appeared at his fingertips.

His motivation for learning talismans stemmed from their belief that they were very poor!

Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian were always worried that after they left, their sons would lack the resources to cultivate and fall behind others. So, they prepared a storage ring for each of them.

This storage ring contained the resources they used to cultivate from the Qi Refining stage to the Nascent Soul stage. However, Yang Yitian had placed a restriction on the storage ring; only those who reached a certain cultivation level could unlock the resources for the next stage of cultivation.

At that time, the children rarely went out and hadn't seen many mid-grade or high-grade spirit stones. After discovering that the spirit stones given by Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian were different from those circulating outside, they always thought those mid-grade spirit stones were fake. However, they still wanted to keep the things left to them by their fathers carefully, so they didn't throw them away and kept them as treasures.

Before they reached the Foundation Establishment stage, they all felt that their families were very poor, and even their classmates thought they were poor. Erbao even sold talismans at the school to support his family, while Dabao also took out the pills he refined to sell.

Da Bao frequently visited Danfeng, where Rong Gu taught him how to refine pills, because he knew that Rong Gu was his father's most senior disciple. He had always thought that it must have cost his father a lot of spirit stones to support so many disciples, which explained why his family was so poor. He had also heard from his classmates that learning pill refining was very expensive, and one classmate had even emptied his family's coffers because of it.

Sanbao also really uses up spirit stones, even more than his older brothers.

At first, his divine bull power was just from eating more. Later, he needed to eat a lot of spiritual things to replenish his spiritual energy. He didn't have any skills himself, so he could only ask his classmates and his older brothers for some, which gave him a skill of being clever and charming!

After Da Bao and Er Bao provided the spirit stones they won to San Bao, their lives became a bit tight.

The three brothers stumbled and struggled their way to the Foundation Establishment stage!

The three brothers reached Foundation Establishment around the same time they were born, breaking through one after another. Their family was naturally proud and happy to hear this, so they held a grand banquet, inviting disciples from various sects to attend. Even the triplets' classmates came along.

My classmates always thought the triplets were poor! Now I know their background!

I've heard the triplets mention their father and family before.

The first thing that comes to mind is their father, who is a great cook. So, in the minds of their classmates, the triplets' father is a master chef.

Then they started talking about their father learning alchemy. So, in the classmates' minds, the triplets' father was just a spirit chef who had a little ulterior motive and went off to practice alchemy. Is being an alchemist so easy? It must cost spirit stones, right? No wonder their family was so poor; it turns out their father had squandered it all.

Then there was their father, a talisman master, but he never sold the talismans he drew. So, in their minds, their father was a pitiful talisman master who had drawn talismans for half his life, but whose talismans were so bad that he couldn't sell them at all.

Then, on the day of the banquet, everyone learned that the triplets actually had a great-grandfather who was a level four alchemist! All that talk about poverty was just a lie.

The classmates felt they had been emotionally deceived!

After the triplets reached the Foundation Establishment stage, they discovered that in addition to low-grade spirit stones, there were also mid-grade, high-grade, and top-grade spirit stones in the world!

I always thought I came from a poor family, but little did I know that I actually possessed a huge mountain of spiritual stones without even realizing it!

The spirit stones in Sanbao's storage ring could easily feed him to the Nascent Soul stage!

The experience of poverty wasn't entirely useless. At least the brothers worked hard during those impoverished days, laying a solid foundation, which later allowed them to leave many of their classmates behind.

After listening to the three children's account, Yang Yitian and Qi Zhi were both amused and exasperated; these kids had actually made such a blunder.

Qi Zhiheng called Sanbao over and examined the state of the Divine Ox Power for him. After so many years, the Divine Ox Power, nourished by so much spiritual energy, was about to enter the third stage: "It's not a big deal. I'll refine a few pills for you later. Take them and eat them; they'll benefit your cultivation."

The improvement in cultivation level is roughly at that speed, but the power of the divine ox not only increases strength, but also helps with the power of attacks. It is not limited to strength. If the power of the divine ox is used well, it can enhance the effect of the original attack by two, three, four times or even more. This depends on the fortune of the power user and the conditions provided by the outside world.

Qi Zhiheng is now providing external conditions for his third son.

After their conversation, Qi Zhiheng took Da Bao to test his alchemy skills, while Yang Yitian took Er Bao to check his talisman-drawing techniques.

Sanbao was left alone and immediately felt like he had fallen out of favor!

After discovering that their two sons had not given up on their studies, Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian were finally relieved.

The next day, Qi Zhiheng once again transformed into a devil and tested his disciples.

Those who had the ability to come to Zhongzhou were indeed quite skilled. The alchemy level of these individuals was within Qi Zhiheng's satisfaction range, and Qi Zhiheng took the opportunity to give them several more pointers. The group spent the entire day in the alchemy room.

After obtaining the level-nine spiritual herb, Tong Zixing headed to Ascension City, where Qi Zhiheng was located.

The journey was quite long, and even traveling at top speed, it still took him five days to reach Shengxian City.

He brought his two apprentices with him this time.

"Yun'er, remember to apologize to Fellow Daoist Qi. You little girl, I told you not to be so reckless. Look at you, who did you argue with?" Tong Zixing began to instruct him outside the city gate, and then took out a communication jade slip to send a message to Qi Zhiheng.

At this moment, Qi Zhiheng was still discussing alchemy with his grandfather, Qi Dong. His grandfather was quite engrossed; his grandson was already a Mahayana cultivator and an eighth-level alchemist. If he had ninth-level spiritual herbs, he might even be a ninth-level alchemist! Being able to have Qi Zhiheng talk to him about alchemy must be incredibly beneficial.

Just as the two were discussing the matter of level nine pills, Qi Zhiheng received a message from a communication jade slip.

Qi Dong said somewhat displeasedly, "Who is it that's sending you a message at this hour!"

After reading the message, Qi Zhiheng smiled and said, "Didn't you say it was a level nine spiritual herb? Look, this level nine spiritual herb has grown legs and come here on its own!"

He stood up and said, "Grandpa, let's call it a day. I'm going out to meet the guests. Maybe next time you see me, I'll be a level nine alchemist."

"Why don't you just go to heaven?" Qi Dong didn't feel any awkwardness just because Qi Zhiheng was now in the Mahayana stage.

Qi Zhiheng didn't bother with his banter: "I'm leaving, Grandpa. You should solidify your alchemy skills first, and we'll discuss it again next time."

Qi Zhiheng personally went out of the city gate to welcome Tong Zixing and his disciples.

Tong Zixing first greeted Qi Zhiheng: "My disciple offended you and your partner before, so I've sent them over this time to apologize to you."

Yan Yun bowed and said, "Yan Yun offended you last time, senior. It was Yan Yun's recklessness. Please forgive me."

Qi Zhiheng waved his hand: "It's alright, it's nothing serious."

He then turned to Tong Zixing and said, "Fellow Daoist Tong, let's go into the city first. I have some things I'd like to discuss with you in detail."

"Let's go in." Tong Zixing led her apprentice and followed Qi Zhiheng into the city.

Qi Zhiheng had his three sons entertain Tong Zixing's two apprentices, while he and Tong Zixing went into a reception room.

Tong Zixing brought all the level-nine spiritual herbs that had been agreed upon earlier. He had three in total, and he brought them for Qi Zhiheng to choose from.

Qi Zhiheng selected a main ingredient that could be used to refine a pill that could enhance cultivation during the Tribulation Transcending stage, and then continued to say to Tong Zixing: "Fellow Daoist Tong, the reason I asked you to come here in person before was not to test your sincerity, but to tell you about your inner demons."

Tong Zixing asked with some confusion, "What? Isn't it because of demonic energy?"

Qi Zhiheng nodded: "It is indeed because of demonic energy, but that's only one aspect of the matter."

Tong Zixing said, "Please speak frankly, Fellow Daoist Qi."

Qi Zhiheng did not hide anything: "I presume that after Fellow Daoist Tong returned, he had a certain understanding of my background?"

Tong Zixing was somewhat embarrassed. In fact, before buying the pills from Qi Zhiheng, he had already investigated Qi Zhiheng's background. The result was that Qi Zhiheng had come to the Central Continent with this batch of Nascent Soul and Integration stage cultivators. It wasn't difficult to get information about him, since so many people had come with Qi Zhiheng, and some of them must have known about him. There were cultivators in their forces who had been led by Qi Zhiheng. Although those cultivators couldn't reveal many things, it wasn't difficult to know from their left-hand information that Qi Zhiheng came from the Four Continents.

Qi Zhiheng continued, "This time I also brought my family to Zhongzhou, so my identity can no longer be hidden. I will tell you the truth here: I am a cultivator from Nanzhou."

Tong Zixing nodded and said, "I do know about this."

Qi Zhiheng continued, "What I'm about to say is also about our Southern Continent. Before I left the Southern Continent to venture into the Central Continent's barrier, something happened there that is related to the demonic energy that Fellow Daoist Tong was infected with."

Tong Zixing also became interested and listened very attentively.

Qi Zhiheng: "At that time, because I possessed a Light Spirit Root, I discovered that someone was trying to infect me with a trace of demonic energy. This demonic energy was extremely subtle; others would probably have difficulty detecting anything unusual. After I reported this matter, our sect investigated cultivators who had failed their tribulations due to inner demons. This investigation uncovered some problems; quite a few people within the sect had failed their tribulations because of this. Then, our sect joined forces with other sects to investigate information related to demonic energy..."

He explained the extent of the demonic energy's spread, then talked about the discovered Netherworld Fungus, the things he encountered while dealing with it, and Bai Yilian, who had been injected into the Netherworld Seed.

At this point, Qi Zhiheng frowned slightly: "Especially this Bai Yilian, she has the Netherworld Seed on her, and I don't know what she looks like now. I only know that their sect's envoy insisted on taking her with him, so it's possible that she has something to do with the Netherworld Seed."

Tong Zixing's expression turned somewhat solemn: "So, you think the demonic energy I've gained might also be related to what happened in the Southern Continent?"

“I suspect that the mastermind behind both sides is the same person. And I think that you may not be the only one on your island who has been corrupted by demonic energy. As for such a large-scale operation as the Netherworld Fungus, they probably wouldn’t dare to cultivate it openly in the Central Continent.” Qi Zhiheng’s tone was very certain.

Since this matter has already affected those at the Mahayana stage, their cultivation level is probably no lower than that of the Mahayana stage.

Tong Zixing said, "I will go back and have the island lord check on the disciples' condition. Are there any other details that need attention?"

...

The triplets were ordered to lead Tong Qiaoxia and Yan Yun on a stroll through the city. In fact, the triplets had only arrived yesterday, so it was impossible for them to lead the way; their main role was simply to accompany them.

Tong Qiaoxia and Yan Yun were disciples at the Mahayana stage, so Qi Zhiheng couldn't neglect them. However, since he and Tong Zixing were both at the Mahayana stage, it was inappropriate for his elders to accompany the younger generation. The most suitable people for them were his own sons.

Qi Zhiheng asked Li San to help him take a walk around the city.

Tong Qiaoxia was curious about the triplets because they looked so alike: "Are you triplets?"

Tong Qiaoxia and Yan Yun's cultivation levels are higher than the triplets'. Of course, they are also quite old, but compared to the long lifespan of cultivators, they are very young.

Erbao replied, "Reporting to senior, we are indeed triplets." Then he began to introduce the three brothers.

"This is my eldest brother, Qi Boyang; this is my second brother, Qi Boyue; and this is my third brother, Qi Boxing," Erbao introduced the three brothers one by one.

Yan Yun asked with some curiosity, "How old are the three of you?"

Erbao said, "We're not young anymore, we're thirty-two this year."

Besides the more than twenty years they waited in Nanzhou, they also spent some time at sea, which adds up to quite a long period.

Tong Qiaoxia, who is over nine hundred years old, and Yan Yun, who is over one thousand years old: "..." Thirty-two is not considered young anymore. They are already at the level of a great-great-great-grandmother...

What should I do if I suddenly don't want to chat?

On Qi Zhiheng's end, he talked with Tong Zixing for a long time and finally explained the matter clearly. He was actually interested in the other two spirit herbs in Tong Zixing's possession and was planning how to exchange them for her.

He had some ideas in mind. What could he exchange it for? Of course, elixirs would be the most suitable.

Eighth-level pills probably won't tempt Tong Zixing anymore, since his cultivation is already at the peak of the Mahayana stage. If a pill could help him break through the Mahayana stage and reach the Tribulation stage, he probably wouldn't be unmoved.

Then he would have to prepare a level nine pill first, so that the other party could see his skills before they would feel at ease handing the pill over to him to refine. When Qi Zhiheng was selecting spiritual herbs, he saw one that could be used to refine a pill that could break through to the Mahayana stage. This kind of pill is called the Gathering Spirit Pill.

Qi Zhiheng had already made his plans. Tong Zixing originally intended to stay here for a couple more days with his disciple, but after Qi Zhiheng told him what happened, he had no choice but to go back first.

It took less than a day from start to finish.

After seeing Tong Zixing off, Qi Zhiheng asked his three sons if there had been anything inappropriate when they were entertaining the guests.

Da Bao replied, "Aside from some age-related conflicts, everything is fine."

"Age?" Qi Zhiheng was somewhat puzzled by what he said.

Da Bao explained, "Father, don't you know? Those two elders are older than our entire family combined."

Qi Zhiheng: "..."

Qi Zhiheng: "I know a little bit, but it's not that exaggerated." To be able to cultivate to the Integration Stage, one must be quite old, but he really couldn't say for sure how old.

Qi Zhiheng scolded his sons: "She's not going to be your wife, why do you care how old she is? Go and cultivate properly. I think you're just bored."

The triplets left somewhat awkwardly.

Qi Zhiheng turned around and greeted Yang Yitian before heading off to seclude himself to refine pills.

This time, he was refining a ninth-grade pill, and it would probably take several months to successfully refine it. So he simply went into seclusion.

Before going into seclusion, he called his family over, intending to have a group of them enter the space to cultivate. The Qi family's cultivation level was considered quite low in the Central Continent, and it would be best if they could make rapid progress during this period and keep up with the pace of the Central Continent.

The Qi family members were largely in agreement, so they decided to let the two most senior members of the family, namely Qi Wantian, Si Yuan, Qi Dong, Qi Nan, and Yang Yao, cultivate first.

After bringing the person into the space, Qi Zhiheng prepared a large number of pills and spirit stones to replenish the space with spiritual energy.

After that, he calmed down and began to refine elixirs.

Qi Zhiheng only had one set of medicinal herbs, so he naturally had to treat it with utmost care. He was extremely meticulous in every step of refining the pill. The pill drained a large amount of his spiritual energy, and the refining process took two months. Just when Qi Zhiheng was about to take the pill to recover his spiritual energy, the time to condense the pill arrived!

Generally, once the pill reaches this stage, it can be considered a success. Unless one is a novice alchemist, there will be no unexpected problems in condensing the pill.

And indeed, it was a success, yielding ten full-grade pills, though only four were of the highest quality. Qi Zhiheng was a bit rusty at first, but he was confident he could do better next time.