Chapter 717: Calm

The days passed, one by one.

While his incarnation was still aboard the Seeking Immortality Ship, drifting at sea and feigning civility with the Red Earth People, Lü Zhong himself had not been idle. He suspected the Red Earth Alliance’s development was highly likely being manipulated by the Central Earth Immortal Sects, so he traveled ahead to White Night Island to see what he could find.

White Night Island was a large island, spanning a thousand li.

After its transformation by the Red Earth Alliance, it had become a massive forward operating base, boasting not only a large number of metal warships but also a vanguard fleet waiting to depart.

The island’s defenses were formidable, but to Lü Zhong, they were practically nonexistent.

Relying on his undetectable Magic Skills, he swaggered right into the vanguard’s headquarters.

It didn’t take long for him to make a discovery.

Unlike most mortals, the vanguard commander on White Night Island was a cultivator, and a powerful one at that. He already had a Mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivation.

‘Something is definitely amiss!’

Seeing this, Lü Zhong immediately began to gather intelligence.

Using the True Retrospection ability of his Gray Mist Space, he found what he was looking for at the cost of some of his Divine Sense.

The clues pointed to the Alliance’s five great ruling families.

In the commander’s memories, the five great families had no shortage of cultivators. The Patriarch of each generation, in particular, was at the Golden Core Master Level. On the Spiritual Qi-barren Red Earth Continent, reaching the Core Formation Stage was exceptionally rare, equivalent to being a Nascent Soul Seed in Central Earth.

‘Enjoying the prosperity of technology while secretly cultivating to extend their lifespans… these families are quite clever.’

And so, Lü Zhong set off at once.

He needed to get to the Red Earth Alliance headquarters: the Central City.

Faint clues suggested that above the five great ruling families, there was an even more transcendent existence—a being who commanded the Red Earth Alliance and guided its development.

Combining the available information, Lü Zhong was able to form a hypothesis.

It was most likely a Nascent Soul Cultivator from an Immortal Sect.

Of course, there could be more than one.

Otherwise, one thing would be impossible to explain: why the Patriarchs of the five great families all stopped at the Core Formation Stage. In the Alliance’s thousands of years of history, not a single Nascent Soul Cultivator had ever emerged from their ranks.

The truth was most likely that they were being suppressed.

…

It took Lü Zhong three days to reach the Central City.

Invisible, ten thousand feet in the sky, he gazed down at the city sprawling across the red earth like an octopus spreading its tentacles. He couldn’t help but marvel. In terms of sheer scale, a mortal city with a population in the hundreds of millions was indeed more prosperous and vibrant than many Immortal Cities.

If it weren’t for the plague of Soul Loss Syndrome, the Central City before him would likely be even more prosperous.

Then, with a flicker of his form, he descended into the city.

To find the five great families, public information alone wouldn’t be enough. Following such leads would only result in walking into a trap or finding a few small fry.

As for storming the Alliance headquarters?

It was obvious there would only be Puppets there.

The truly important figures never operated out in the open.

‘So, where should I start?’

Lü Zhong couldn’t immediately think of a plan, so he decided to first learn more about the Red Earth Alliance. Otherwise, he’d be operating completely in the dark, and finding his target would be impossible.

With this in mind, he waved his sleeve and released the Six Paths Incarnation.

As a Nascent Soul Cultivator, his lifespan was far longer than any mortal’s, so Lü Zhong didn’t mind waiting three to five years. Until one of his incarnations found a clue, he decided to simply find a place to cultivate.

Thus, about half a month later, a defunct clinic in the Seventeenth District suddenly had a new owner: a young man named Chen Dong, a recent graduate from the national university. He was a humble person, and with no direct competition for the surrounding shops, he was warmly welcomed by his neighbors and quickly established a harmonious relationship with them.

After taking over the clinic and giving it a simple renovation, Chen Dong reopened for business. He named it “Chen’s Clinic,” and the medical skills he displayed were not the Alliance’s mainstream modern medicine, but rather traditional medicine based on herbs, which was now considered outdated.

As a result, the clinic was deserted at first.

What surprised the neighboring shop owners was that after only half a year of quiet, Chen’s Clinic became as crowded as a marketplace. The number of people seeking treatment and medicine each day was so large they nearly burst through the clinic’s small door. An even more baffling move was yet to come. Faced with such a booming business, Chen Dong put up a sign limiting consultations, stating he would only receive three patients a day and would not see anyone who was late.

This rule applied to everyone, from high-ranking officials and nobles to common citizens.

Because of this strange rule, and with the emergence of copycat clinics launching expensive advertising campaigns, “Chen’s Clinic” grew quiet once more. Still, there were always a few discerning individuals willing to wait in the long line just to be treated by this Doctor Chen.

The days passed, one by one.

The five great families were hidden far more deeply than Lü Zhong had estimated. They were concealed within the vast sea of humanity, true masters of hiding in plain sight, leaving almost no traces to be found.

There was no record of their specific whereabouts in any official documents.

Consequently, three years passed with his incarnations finding very few leads.

Lü Zhong was not at all anxious about this.

Besides his daily clinic duties, which he used as a chance to immerse himself in the mortal world and temper his state of mind, the rest of his time was also quite busy. He never missed a single day of his cultivation, his Little Purple Sky Thunder Skill improved daily, and of course, his greatest gains came from the Heaven-Mending Mantra.

Ever since it began to sprout, his Gold Spirit Root had been growing stronger by the day.

As his Spirit Root was mended, his cultivation speed inevitably slowed. However, this also brought considerable benefits: his sensitivity to the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi was finally becoming more acute. If this continued, it would undoubtedly be a massive help when he faced the Divinity Transformation Celestial Tribulation.

…

Life remained peaceful.

As the Kongsang Divine Wood continued to absorb the Tree of Spiritual Eye, the Mountain and River Space grew larger by the day. This allowed for the large-scale expansion of his Spirit Medicine Garden. The yield of Spirit Medicine was also gradually recovering. Though it was a far cry from his time in the Bihai Sect, it was better than nothing.

Under these circumstances, Lü Zhong was able to resume taking Pills.

He raised his cultivation while simultaneously gaining insights into the mortal world.

The mortal world was far more vibrant than the life of a cultivator. Every day, mortals experienced different things, facing the spectrum of joy, anger, sorrow, and delight, or confronting birth, old age, sickness, and death. It was unlike the life of a cultivator, who either spent all day in a Quiet Chamber in seclusion or was out on the road, searching for fortuitous encounters.

In the second decade of running the clinic, Lü Zhong no longer personally saw patients, leaving it to his incarnation instead.

As he became a familiar face in the community, people began to introduce potential marriage partners to the highly skilled Doctor Chen. After considering his options, the incarnation eventually chose one of them.

This was a matter for the incarnation’s own life.

His main body, which had been cultivating in Tide Cave all this time, had no intention of intervening.

「Time flew.」

Before he knew it, the third decade had quietly arrived.

After thirty years of intelligence gathering, the incarnations had finally discovered the whereabouts of the five great families, though finding their core members would still require a considerable amount of time. In addition, they had also located the Red Earth Alliance’s rebel organization. This group seemed to know the truth of the past, but they too were under the control of the mastermind behind the scenes.

He had to admit, when it came to scheming, the Immortal Sects, with their million-year history, were far superior to these mortals.

「On this day.」

Lü Zhong suddenly withdrew from his cultivation.

It was not because something major had occurred, but because his incarnation’s wife at the clinic had unfortunately contracted Soul Loss Syndrome. In just a few short moments, she had become a walking corpse.

The sudden loss of this beloved person did not just bring immense grief to the incarnation.

Even Lü Zhong, in his main body, felt a pang of empathy. His emotions, which had long been as still as the water in an ancient well, stirred with great turmoil.

Just like four hundred years ago.