Chen Lin flew slowly in the city, observing the situation inside the city and recalling past scenes.
Familiar faces and clear pictures kept flashing through my mind, as if it were yesterday.
But in the end it all turned into a sigh.
Suddenly, he paused and fell to the ground.
The dense vines were cut off with the flying sword, revealing a plaque that was relatively well preserved, with the four big characters "Chen's Trading Company" clearly visible.
He carved these four words himself, and seeing them now inevitably brings back some emotion.
However, the door of the store has been damaged, not by nature, but by man.
Chen Lin was not surprised. From what he had seen along the way, it seemed that someone must have been here a long time ago, or even not just one group. There were signs of rummaging everywhere.
After all, it is an abandoned city with no owner, and it is the favorite place for explorers to explore.
Chen Lin used his spiritual sense to patrol the area, and after making sure there was no danger, he walked in.
The hall was in a mess, with counters and shelves all placed on the ground, now covered with dust.
He walked past the front hall and came to the back rooms. After looking at each one, he slowly walked towards the second floor.
The wooden staircase has become rotten due to years of disrepair, and the roof has collapsed due to leaking rain. Only the main body made of bluestone is still intact.
Even the underground secret room he had dug was found, and the foundation-building puppet placed inside was nowhere to be seen.
I guess whoever found this secret passage would be very excited!
After looking for a while, Chen Lin let out a breath, stood up and left.
The City Lord's Mansion was not spared either, and there were signs of bombardment by magical weapons. It should be that when the explorers came, the formation here was still in operation, so they used violent means of destruction.
However, those people were destined to be disappointed, because he had packed up the things inside personally, and not even a low-grade spirit stone was left.
After entering the City Lord's Mansion, Chen Lin took a quick look and found that it had been searched thoroughly and was in a mess.
He ignored it and went straight to the innermost room.
I pushed the door open and came to a wall.
"Come in!"
Chen Lin shook his sleeves and signaled to Yun Xiu Niang.
Yun Xiu Niang pouted, but still obediently turned into a wooden hairpin and slipped into her sleeve.
He simply used a shielding spell, then took out his former identity token and pressed it against a certain part of the wall. Immediately, ripples like water waves appeared on the wall.
Chen Lin's face lit up with joy. He enlarged the Basalt Shield to protect himself and stepped into the ripples without hesitation.
His body lightened and he appeared in a secret room.
He first looked around vigilantly, and when he saw nothing unusual, his expression relaxed.
Then, instead of checking the things on the shelves around the secret room, he took out the crow puppet and the foundation-building puppet, controlled them to push open a small door on one side, and began to enter to explore.
After a long while, and only after making sure that no outsiders had been here, he put the puppet away.
Then, he shook his sleeves and released Yun Xiu Niang.
"Hey, there are so many things stored here. Did you put them here on purpose?"
Yun Xiu Niang floated around the room, looking surprised.
Chen Lin smiled and said, "If you don't think ahead, you'll have immediate worries. Don't you know how I do things? How could I not hold back?"
This was indeed a backup plan he had. He was the one who led the relocation of the people from Silver Fairy City to Dawn City, so he simply put some things that were not needed temporarily but could be preserved for a long time here.
These things displayed in the open are used to confuse people and prevent someone from accidentally breaking in through earth escape. It can be considered a benefit to intruders.
The real good stuff was in the secret compartment of the innermost secret room, filling three large storage bags.
This secret room was built by him and the Silver Fairy, and only the two of them knew about it. In fact, he did not want to see the items so neatly arranged this time. He hoped that someone would use the things, so that it would prove that the Silver Fairy had been here.
With a sigh, Chen Lin composed himself and walked into the room.
This is a large cave layout with all the facilities in it, all in duplicate.
There are two training rooms, each with an advanced spirit gathering array that connects to the underground spirit veins.
Chen Lin first took out the three storage bags, then randomly selected a training room and began to meditate, while he let Yun Xiu Niang play outside by herself.
There are many classics in the first stone chamber, enough for the other party to read for a while.
In addition, there is a one-way monitoring formation here that can monitor the sounds in the hall of the City Lord's Mansion. Ever since he learned about this facility, he never dared to talk nonsense when handling official business in the hall.
This is just right. He can let Yun Xiu Niang eavesdrop outside so that he will know if anyone breaks into the City Lord's Mansion.
There was nothing to prepare for a breakthrough in a small realm. Chen Lin took out a bottle of prepared pills, swallowed one, and began to practice in seclusion.
Spring goes and winter comes.
Three years passed in the blink of an eye.
Ever since the emergence of the Yin Realm, the climate of the northern cultivation world has become extremely severe. In the past, no matter how cold the winter was, only a few snowflakes could be seen, which melted as soon as they hit the ground. This had no effect on the cultivation of spiritual fields, let alone the vegetation in the wild.
But now, every winter there are big snowstorms that cover all the green.
It doesn’t have much impact on high-level cultivators, as their retreat period will be over in a short time. However, it is very unfriendly to Qi-cultivating cultivators and mortals.
The snow this year is particularly heavy, with a severe snowstorm just as winter began.
The Silver Fairy City was almost half submerged in the snow. It was completely silent. Occasionally, a few flying monsters circled around, but they could only fly away with a cry, and could not find anything to eat.
But on this day, a group of figures suddenly appeared at the city gate.
"Grandpa, the Immortal City has become like this now. Why do you still want to come back to see it? You should hurry up and go to the Xiaoyuantian Secret Realm with me. If we go back too late, once the secret realm is closed, we won't be able to enter. We can't guarantee that we can spend the whole winter outside safely."
Seeing his grandfather staring at the doorhead above the city gate in a daze, a middle-aged man who looked like a foundation-building cultivator behind him immediately tried to persuade him.
The others were all Qigong practitioners, and although they disagreed, they did not dare to speak out.
"You guys go, I plan to stay here."
The old man heard the middle-aged man's voice and suddenly spoke.
The middle-aged man was stunned when he heard this, and frowned and said, "Grandpa, I know you have feelings for this place, but the whole city is gone, and your owner is also dead or alive. Why are you still so entangled? I finally found you. If I don't bring you back, my third uncle will not let me go."
The old man remained unmoved and said, "It's okay. I'm old, and I can only live for another year or two at most. I might die before I reach the Xiaoyuantian Secret Realm. It's better for me to stay here and return to my roots!"
The middle-aged man frowned, feeling that things were a bit difficult.
Although he hadn't seen his grandfather for more than 20 years, his grandfather's influence was still there, so he didn't dare to use force. But if he didn't bring anyone back, he wouldn't be able to explain to his uncle.
“Huh!”
The middle-aged man was about to speak to persuade him again, but suddenly he heard his grandfather exclaim in surprise.
Then the other party seemed to suddenly burst into energy, rushed to the city gate, and stretched out his hand to touch the mark left by the sword on it.
He couldn't help but wonder.
It's obvious that this sword mark was left a long time ago. I don't know why the old man is so excited.
"The owner is back, he's back!"
The old man stroked the sword mark and muttered to himself in a trembling voice.
The middle-aged man's expression changed, and his eyes lit up, but he immediately shook his head and said, "Grandpa, this trace is so old, even if it was left by the Lord, he has long gone, you should hurry up and follow me to the secret realm!"
The old man smiled and said, "What do you know? This is a secret mark created by the owner. It means he has come, but there is no mark of leaving, which means he has not left yet. Come on, follow me into the city to meet the owner!"
Chen Lin never expected that it would take him three full years to break through to a small realm in the late Jindan stage.
This made him feel the difficulty of cultivation for high-level cultivators.
If he continued at this pace, it would probably take him decades to advance his cultivation to the great perfection of the Golden Elixir.
If the resource problem cannot be resolved, it will take even longer.
This made him feel urgent.
Although his lifespan is still very long, and because he practices both Dharma and body, his lifespan is longer than that of a normal Jindan cultivator, so he has no problem holding on until the Jindan is perfected.
However, no one can guarantee that they can succeed in condensing the Nascent Soul in one go. If they fail in one go, and if they are lucky enough not to die, they will need hundreds of years of cultivation before they can have a second chance to try, and the success rate will be greatly reduced.
Even though the life span seems to be very long, it is not really that sufficient.
"Alas, my spiritual root aptitude is still too poor!"
Chen Lin sighed and walked out of the training room.
Yun Xiu Niang was sitting on a chair pretending to be drowsy, and only became a little more alert after seeing him come out.
"Why, are you leaving? If you don't leave now, I'm going to suffocate to death here."
These three years were nothing to Chen Lin, as he had been working hard to break through the bottleneck and had no time to care about anything else. However, Yun Xiu Niang was bored to death, and Chen Lin would not let her sleep in the wooden hairpin. She had to monitor the movements outside through the monitoring array every day, which made her miserable.
"Okay, okay, I know you've worked hard, so I'll take you on a nice trip after we leave this time."
Chen Lin smiled and began to pack up his things in each secret room. He also planned to leave. A lot of resources had been consumed in the past three years. The things stored before were of little use to him in the late Jindan stage. If he wanted to improve his cultivation quickly, he had to continue looking for materials for alchemy.
At the same time, you also need to train your mind.
To reach his current stage of cultivation, it is not enough to just rely on hard work. One must also keep up with the state of mind. He must comprehend the Way of Heaven and understand himself. Otherwise, it will be difficult to improve.
"My dear, my dear, come here quickly, someone seems to have appeared!"
Just when he had almost finished packing his things, Chen Lin heard Yun Xiu Niang shouting in the room outside.
He was stunned at first, then walked out with a look of surprise!