The Soul-Devouring Insect King paced back and forth for a while before finally calling over its strategist, Erhei. After the two insects chattered for a bit, the Insect King conveyed its message.
Qi Zhiheng was, after all, just a cultivator, and it was impossible for him to understand insect language.
As an ambitious insect, Erhei was naturally very happy to follow Qi Zhiheng, where he could eat and drink well and even receive elixirs. Therefore, he agreed to Qi Zhiheng's request to sign a contract.
Qi Zhiheng wanted to sign the contract only to prevent it from betraying him. Although the two insects were having a homosexual relationship, who knew if it was Erhei's conspiracy to use his beauty to seduce the insect king, and then kill the insect king and take the throne after it broke through!
If such a situation were to occur, he would only have signed a contract with the Insect King. If the Insect King were to change hands, wouldn't the Soul-Devouring Insect swarm be out of control?
To be on the safe side, Qi Zhiheng felt it necessary to sign a contract with Erhei, the male insect that might steal the position of insect king.
After signing the contract with the Insect King, Qi Zhiheng gave Erhei some pills to improve his aptitude, just as he had promised. After that, he let the insects develop freely.
In order to improve his cultivation, Qi Zhiheng fused with two more fire seeds, rapidly raising his cultivation level and leaping a significant distance from the mid-Nascent Soul stage.
Qi Zhiheng's luck has been good these past few years. Rong Gu also successfully became a fourth-level alchemist not long after, and was talked about with great interest in Danfeng. Although his alchemy skills were not as good as Qi Zhiheng's, he could produce top-grade pills as soon as he opened the furnace. In the eyes of other alchemists, he was a top-notch existence.
Qi Zhiheng was very satisfied with this and handed over the subsequent alchemy techniques and mental cultivation methods to Rong Gu.
Originally, he planned to teach his disciple a level of hand techniques each time he advanced a level. However, considering that he and Yang Yitian would be leaving Nanzhou soon, he decided to teach him the hand techniques and mental cultivation methods in advance. In the future, he also hoped that Rong Gu could help take care of his other disciples. Once those disciples' alchemy levels improved, his senior brother would take over their instruction.
Two years later, Qi Zhiheng had officially accepted all the disciples he had initially taken in as his own, and these disciples had all become second-level alchemists.
When Rong Gu stabilized the success rate of his fourth-grade pills at 99%, Qi Zhiheng entrusted him with the management of the alchemy room, with Ye Hanyuan assisting him. Ye Hanyuan later also became a Golden Core cultivator, and because of his superior talent compared to Rong Gu, he became a fourth-grade alchemist much faster.
Qi Zhiheng also handed over the alchemy techniques and mental cultivation methods to him. With these two disciples in charge of the alchemy room, he could focus on his own cultivation.
After the disciples' alchemy skills improved, Qi Zhiheng gradually obtained a number of spiritual veins. After Qi Zhiheng buried these spiritual veins in his space, the space underwent another mutation.
A large number of spiritual herbs and fruits ripened. Taking advantage of this spatial change, he created a spiritual spring that was very beneficial to the spiritual herbs. Watering the spiritual herbs and trees with this spiritual spring could accelerate their ripening time.
After creating this pool of spiritual spring water, Qi Zhiheng focused on watering the Fire Essence Trees he had planted in the space. He wanted to use the Fire Essence Fruit to improve the quality of his flames, and at the same time, it would also provide an boost to his cultivation.
Under the nourishment of the spiritual spring, the Fruit of Essence Fire blossomed and bore fruit for the first time!
Looking at the spiritual spring water that had been used up to a shallow layer, Qi Zhiheng immediately felt that the spirit fire wood was really consuming too much spiritual spring water! This spiritual spring water would probably be difficult to recover in a short period of time.
If it weren't for the spiritual spring, this Firewood would probably have taken a hundred years to mature in this space.
The Essence Fire Fruit, grown by the spiritual spring, is of excellent quality. After Qi Zhiheng used one, not only did the quality of his flames improve, but his cultivation also reached the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
Qi Zhiheng looked at the flame in his hand. After its grade was improved, the color of the entire flame became very transparent, just like a red crystal under the sunlight, which was dazzling and mesmerizing.
Qi Zhiheng didn't have a deep understanding of the grades of fire seeds, but judging from the quality of this one, it was probably a level lower than the previous ones.
Having a considerable amount of Fire Essence Fruits left, Qi Zhiheng left half for the rest of his family and kept the other half for himself.
Qi Zhiheng also gave one to each of his three disciples, but he had too many disciples to give one to each of them. The quantity was only one aspect; the key was giving away too many at once, as that would be too ostentatious and not in line with his style.
Qi Zhiheng focused on cultivation for another three years. During this time, he used up thirty-five Essence Fire Fruits and successfully entered the late Nascent Soul stage.
His seclusion lasted quite a long time, and he rarely went out during those three years. After emerging from seclusion, he visited some peak masters and then went to find Que Hanhai. He needed a route to leave the Southern Continent, and naturally, he had to ask Que Hanhai where to find the route map.
Que Hanhai had previously guessed that Qi Zhiheng might go to Zhongzhou ahead of time, but he did not expect him to go so soon. He originally thought that if the other party had only gone a few years earlier, he would have tried to persuade him. After all, a few years is just a blink of an eye for a cultivator. Rather than going to risk his life, it would be better to wait for the servants from Zhongzhou to come and make contact.
But this nearly twenty-year advance made Que Hanhai hesitate to speak. After all, Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian were only in their thirties. Twenty years was already two-thirds of their lives, a world apart from these old guys who were thousands of years old. What reason did he have to persuade them to accompany people with poor aptitude to spend twenty years in the spiritually barren Southern Continent?
After thinking it through, Que Hanhai found the entrance to the Central Continent and handed it to Qi Zhiheng: "What I have is just a map to the entrance. I don't know what the situation inside the entrance is or what the routes are. You will have to feel your way across the river this time." The people of the Central Continent still need to rely on the route to win over disciples, so they would never tell any place other than the Southern Continent about the route to the Central Continent. This would also make it easier for them to control the geniuses in other places.
Que Hanhai didn't hide anything he knew: "To be honest, the people from Zhongzhou will definitely set up obstacles along the way. They don't like us coming uninvited."
Qi Zhiheng nodded: "I understand, but since the other party can travel back and forth between the two sides, it must not be a dead end. I've always been lucky, and maybe I'll accidentally find the right route."
Seeing his expression, Que Hanhai wanted to give him a good whack on the head, but he couldn't actually do it. He simply wished him success!
"Yes!" Qi Zhiheng cupped his hands in farewell, "Sect Master, let's meet again in the Central Continent!"
Que Hanhai waved his hand: "Go."
Qi Zhiheng's figure disappeared before his eyes. Que Hanhai took a sip of tea and sighed slightly. He hoped that Qi Zhiheng could successfully arrive. Although cultivators from Nanzhou could go to Zhongzhou, they would inevitably be subject to control during the process. Even Que Hanhai could not guarantee what kind of reputation his sect would have after arriving in Zhongzhou.
Que Hanhai felt that Qi Zhiheng was very likely to change the current stagnant situation in Nanzhou.
After Qi Zhiheng obtained the map, he went back and discussed some minor details with Gu Qinglin. Gu Qinglin had already prepared the flying artifact they would use, and the Soul-Devouring Insect Erhei had successfully mutated into a Nascent Soul stage Soul-Devouring Insect.
Yang Yitian drew a large number of various talismans and stored them all away.
Finally, Qi Zhiheng put Yang Mengqiu and Yang Mengqing into his space. Everything else was prepared, and the only remaining issue was their son.
Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian were both very reluctant to let their three sons be without their father's company at such a young age, and they were torn about whether to take the three children with them!
By this time, the triplets had grown to ten years old and were basically sensible. The second child was still a bit too lively, but their cultivation had never lagged behind. All three of them had reached the mid-stage of Qi Refining and were about to reach the late stage. Presumably, they would be able to successfully establish their foundation before they turned twenty. To be even more extreme, they might even form their Golden Core before they turned twenty.
Qi Zhiheng did not hesitate to use his and Yang Yitian's talents to speculate about his three sons.
Perhaps because they were triplets, the children's cultivation levels never differed significantly. They all broke through at roughly the same time and their cultivation levels were almost identical.
Qi Zhiheng hadn't been able to properly teach his three sons over the years, and now that he was nearing his passing, he felt guilty and personally taught them some cultivation knowledge.
Qi Zhiheng prepared resources for the triplets' future cultivation, but these resources were all restricted, and they could only unlock a portion of them after their cultivation reached a certain level.
Their cultivation levels were too low. If they held too many resources, they might attract the covetous eyes of those with ulterior motives. In the past, with him around, he could always support his son. Even if he encountered someone at the Nascent Soul stage, he wouldn't be afraid. But now that they were leaving, although the family had many Golden Core cultivators and wouldn't be afraid of fighting against Nascent Soul cultivators, they would soon be entering and exiting various secret realms, where dangers would be unpredictable. Therefore, he didn't dare to be careless.
After employing various methods to put a layer of protection on their sons, Qi Zhiheng and Yang Yitian finally felt somewhat at ease.
This time, the couple decided not to take the triplets with them when they left. After all, the road ahead was dangerous, and they couldn't guarantee their own safe return. They didn't want their sons to go on such a risk.
If their son still can't reach Central Continent next time, they can find a way to come back from Central Continent to bring him back. By then, they will probably have a foothold in Central Continent, and bringing their family over will reduce a lot of risks.
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