"Never mind, things will work themselves out."
After sighing for a while, Lu Qing calmed down.
These situations were actually within his expectations.
After all, his starting point was too high; the power of a perfect golden core was far too great.
However, the speed at which this world is recovering cannot keep up with the speed of his cultivation.
It is to be expected that spiritual practice will be difficult.
That is, he possesses extraordinary abilities and many rare treasures that can assist in cultivation.
Otherwise, the training time would probably have to be extended by more than ten times.
After calming himself down, Lu Qing took out the communication jade talisman.
This time, his seclusion for breakthrough lasted quite a while, and he didn't know if anyone had sent him any messages.
After examining the area with his mind, Lu Qing discovered that there were indeed quite a few messages being sent.
The first message came from Master, six months ago.
He said that he recently traveled the world and discovered a rare flower that could be used to concoct a very potent detoxifying powder, and that the medicine was mild enough for ordinary people to take.
When he returns to the village in the future, we can discuss it together.
Next came messages from Wei Shanhai, Lin Zhirui, and others.
Most of the time they just talked about their recent situation, nothing special.
Aside from these, Xiaoyan left the most messages.
The little girl has also been traveling recently, and she has taken Xiao Li and Wu Xing with her.
Whenever she arrived at a new place or encountered something interesting, Xiaoyan would send a message to Lu Qing to tell him about it.
Therefore, most of the messages in the jade talisman were interesting stories that Xiaoyan told him.
For example, she might have eaten something delicious somewhere, or she might have picked a beautiful magical flower in a certain mountain forest.
Although what Xiaoyan said were all very ordinary things.
But Lu Qing watched with great interest, a smile appearing on his face from time to time.
In recent years, he has spent most of his time in seclusion on the holy mountain.
The time I could spend with Xiaoyan became much less.
He is still very pleased to see his little girl having fun outside.
However, as he looked at it, Lu Qing's brows furrowed again.
Because in later messages, he saw that Xiaoyan seemed to be traveling with several people her age recently.
He started mentioning those people more frequently, and his words suggested that he had a very good relationship with them.
"Was it a genuine chance encounter, or was it a deliberate attempt to get close?" Lu Qing wondered.
He immediately calmed his mind and, following the faint feeling in his soul, began to call out.
"The Five Elements!"
In the distance, the five-colored winged snake, which was nestled in Xiaoyan's hood, suddenly awoke with a start.
Then its eyes lit up with surprise: "Master, is that you?"
"It's me. Where are you, Xiaoyan, and Xiaoli now?" Lu Qing asked in his mind.
The Five Elements are spirit beasts enslaved by his soul. With his current cultivation level, he can communicate with them at any time as long as he doesn't leave this world.
This is also why Lu Qing felt comfortable letting Xiao Yan travel.
It's not just because she has the two great spirit beasts, Wuxing and Xiaoli, protecting her.
Furthermore, if anything happens, the Five Elements can summon him at any time through the Soul Enslavement Mark.
"Master, we are currently in a small state called Linzhou in the northern border region," Wuxing answered in his mind.
Over the past decade, the Five-Colored Winged Serpent has finally learned to use human language and can communicate with Lu Qing without any problems.
"I just came out of seclusion today and saw a message from Xiaoyan saying that you've been traveling with a few people recently. Who are those people, and are they reliable?"
“Yes, Master.” The Five-Colored Winged Serpent thought for a moment and replied, “The young master has indeed been traveling with several young people recently.”
Those people seemed to come from different sects, and their cultivation levels were quite good, all above the Lesser Completion of the Innate Realm.
As for their character, neither Xiao Li nor I have seen any ill intentions from them yet.
Hearing this, Lu Qing felt a little relieved.
The Five Elements might misinterpret things, but Xiao Li is someone he can absolutely trust.
Xiao Li's sensory abilities are quite mysterious.
If those people really had any ill intentions towards Xiaoyan, it would be difficult for them to escape its senses.
However, since human nature is unpredictable, Lu Qing still gave the Five-Colored Winged Serpent some instructions.
"No matter what, you all need to be careful and protect Xiaoyan."
"Understood, Master. Xiao Li and I have always stayed by your side and have never revealed our strength."
Even the young master has only ever shown the strength of the Innate Realm.
Those people didn't know anything about us.
The five-colored winged serpent thought to itself.
"That's fine. Keep it this way. I'll come find you once I'm done with my business."
Also, don't tell Xiaoyan about my contact with you for now.
Hearing that Xiaoyan hadn't fully revealed her strength, Lu Qing was completely relieved.
He knew that his worries were somewhat unnecessary.
Over the past ten years, the little girl's cultivation has progressed very rapidly.
He is now a powerful cultivator who has completed the Foundation Establishment stage.
Even in the entire cultivation world, he can be considered a true master.
In addition, he also had many treasures given to him and Xiao Li and the others on him.
Even a true Golden Core cultivator might not be able to defeat them in a short time.
After severing his mental connection with the Five-Colored Winged Serpent, Lu Qing continued to examine the communication jade talisman.
Suddenly, when he saw the last message, he was stunned for a moment, then his face lit up with joy.
"Has that old dragon turtle finally come to its senses?"
Over the years, Lu Qing had contacted that old dragon turtle several times.
During this time, he also brought up the matter of exchanging some of the old dragon turtle's bloodline with it.
At first, the old dragon turtle flatly refused.
However, when Lu Qing later offered his own terms, it hesitated.
Now it seems it has finally come to its senses.
"That's perfect, the spiritual energy in this sacred mountain cave is no longer very effective for me."
"I can go to the East Sea and see if there are any treasures that can help me cultivate."
After thinking it over, Lu Qing was about to leave the pass and head to the East Sea.
Just then, a voice suddenly came from outside: "Young Fellow Daoist Lu, have you emerged from seclusion?"
Lu Qing recognized the voice of the First Holy Lord and immediately left the cave.
"Senior Holy Lord, it's been a long time."
"Sure enough, when we sensed your presence just now, we guessed that you must have emerged from seclusion, Fellow Daoist Lu."
Outside the cave, all three Holy Lords were present, and the First Holy Lord smiled.
"I failed to control my aura and disturbed the three Holy Lords," Lu Qing said apologetically.
"What are you saying, Fellow Daoist Lu?" The First Holy Lord waved his hands repeatedly. "However, even you couldn't completely control your aura. It seems that Fellow Daoist Lu has gained quite a bit from this seclusion."
"It's just a minor breakthrough, nothing to mention," Lu Qing said with a slight smile.
"Young Fellow Daoist Lu is too modest."
Upon hearing this, the three holy lords were all shaken.
Sure enough, Lu Qing made another breakthrough.
I just don't know what realm he has entered this time.
The three Holy Lords had never been able to see through Lu Qing's true cultivation level.
No matter when they faced Lu Qing, they all had only one feeling.
That is, profound and unfathomable.
Despite his terrifying strength, Lu Qing can still break through to new heights from time to time.
This made the three holy rulers sigh with admiration.
He truly deserves to be the first person to transcend tribulation after the changes in heaven and earth, and the most amazing and unparalleled genius of this era.
Over the past ten years, the cultivation levels of the three of them have also improved.
For example, the First Holy Lord has already entered the second stage of the Golden Core realm, and the Second and Third Holy Lords have also reached the first stage and are close to perfection.
His cultivation progress can be described as rapid.
But compared to Lu Qing's periodic seclusion and breakthroughs, the gap is truly enormous.
"By the way, what brings you three seniors to see me?" Lu Qing asked.
"That's right, this booklet records all the spiritual items that the disciples of the Holy Mountain have collected over the past year."
"It's a rare treat for Fellow Daoist Lu to emerge from seclusion, so we've brought it here for you to take a look."
The Second Holy Lord then handed over a booklet.
"Oh? Let me take a look."
Lu Qing took the booklet and began to look through it.
Since the holy gathering ten years ago, in which the prohibitions were discussed and formulated with various sectarian forces, the Holy Mountain has been committed to upholding the authority of the prohibitions.
If any monk is found to have violated the prohibition, disciples are immediately dispatched to arrest and interrogate him.
Once a crime is confirmed, it will be punished directly, even if the person violates the prohibition or is a disciple of a major sect, there will be absolutely no leniency.
Apprehending criminals involves great risks, and the Holy Mountain would naturally not allow its disciples to take such risks in vain.
Therefore, the sacred mountain has always had a complete system of rewards and punishments.
The disciples will receive a reward for their merits after successfully capturing criminals.
The rewards earned can be used to exchange for various cultivation techniques or magical artifacts.
Similarly, if disciples obtain spiritual items outside that they cannot use, they can also hand them over to the Holy Mountain.
Convert it into cash, and then exchange it for other things you want.
Ten years ago, Lu Qing learned about the reward and punishment system of the Holy Mountain by chance and immediately became interested.
As the world changes and spiritual energy continues to recover, all sorts of spiritual creatures will emerge in endless succession.
Even those hidden realms that disappeared tens of thousands of years ago will gradually reappear in the world.
And since he often needs to go into seclusion to cultivate, he obviously doesn't have much time to collect spiritual items.
However, if the Holy Mountain's reward and punishment system can be utilized, then the Holy Mountain disciples can be used to collect the spiritual items he needs.
Therefore, Lu Qing proposed to the three Holy Lords that he wanted to put some things into the Hall of Merit in exchange for the merit of the Holy Mountain.
The three holy rulers naturally had no objection to this, and even welcomed it very much.
None of the three of them could leave the sacred mountain in their true forms; they could only go out as puppets.
Before the spiritual energy revival, the puppet avatar's strength would naturally make it easy to collect treasures.
But the situation has changed, and even a puppet body can no longer overpower all others.
Furthermore, they themselves also needed to devote themselves to spiritual practice, and had little time to go out.
Therefore, the treasures that could be provided to the disciples of the Holy Mountain gradually became somewhat scarce.
If Lu Qing could join, it would be a good thing, as it could solve their immediate problem.
And so, Lu Qing joined the Holy Mountain's reward and punishment system.
What he put into the Hall of Merit was nothing other than various talismans.
He originally planned that it wouldn't take much effort for him to carve talismans, and he could also cultivate the Dao of Runes at the same time.
If you can exchange this for some spiritual items that you need, that would be a pleasant surprise.
However, what was unexpected was that the talisman engraved by Lu Qing was placed in the Hall of Merit.
Surprisingly, he was welcomed by the disciples of the Holy Mountain.
It even became the most popular treasure for disciples of the Holy Mountain to exchange for.
After all, activating talismans does not require a high level of cultivation.
A powerful talisman can greatly increase a cultivator's combat power, even enabling them to fight against opponents of higher levels.
Who wouldn't love such a treasure?
It is precisely because talismans are so popular that Lu Qing's accumulated merits over the years have surpassed those of the three Holy Lords.
He became the person with the most merit on the entire holy mountain.
However, apart from the three Holy Lords, very few other people knew about this matter.
The vast majority of the disciples of the Holy Mountain still believed that those talismans were brought out by the three Holy Lords.
Lu Qing flipped through the booklet and marked the spiritual items he wanted.
However, most of the spiritual items in the book were quite ordinary and of no use to him.
When Lu Qing turned to the last page and saw one of the items, his eyes suddenly lit up.
