More than half a year later, Xiaogui Peak.
"Finally we have taken this step."
Lu Changan put away a letter in his hand, looked to the south of Wuqi Mountain, and murmured to himself.
squeak!
The rock rat scratched the back of his head, rolled his eyes slightly, and looked at his master in confusion.
The Xuanshui turtle not far away, with a body width of 18 feet, lay lazily beside the pond with blooming lotus flowers. It has maintained a certain habit for more than 20 years, staring in a certain direction every day.
Blackwater turtles are still far from adulthood.
It didn't know that the human nun it was once closest to was approaching the centenary mark and had entered her twilight years.
…
Half a month later.
A well-dressed young man in the early stages of foundation building flew to the Little Turtle Peak on the escaping light.
"Junior Li Congren, please pay your respects to Grandpa Lu."
The foundation-building young man smiled and saluted in a neither humble nor arrogant manner.
"Congren, please come in and sit down."
Lu Changan sat in the pavilion and activated the formation on the mountain.
The Li Congren in front of him is the grandson of Li Ergou, who was once named "Mu Congren".
Zhizhi!
The rock rat emerged from the hole not far away, licked its lips, and stared directly at this distant visitor.
Mu Congren's mind tightened, and with fear in his eyes, he looked at the late second-level Earth Rock Rat.
He subconsciously held onto the spiritual pet bag around his waist.
"Grandpa Lu, this is my first visit after building the foundation, so I made some omissions. This is a special product to honor you."
Entering the pavilion, Li Congren presented a large gift box.
Lu Changan's consciousness swept away and he was slightly surprised. Li Congren's gift was several pieces of second-grade high-grade ore, including a piece of quasi-third-grade cold iron concentrate.
"Congren is interested."
Over the years, he has tried to build a second-level top-level puppet and has a demand for high-quality materials.
After accepting Li Congren's filial piety, Lu Changan couldn't help but think of Lin Lu.
The junior who showed such filial piety last time was trapped in the battlefield of a neighboring country, and his life or death was uncertain.
"Grandpa Lu, this is the debt Congren paid for his grandfather."
Li Congren handed over another brocade bag.
"Um."
Lu Changan weighed it and found that there were two thousand low-grade spiritual stones inside.
Before "Mu Congren" expanded overseas, Li Erqing had purchased a batch of valuable war preparation materials from him, including second-level and high-grade talismans, and two second-level puppets.
At that time, the spiritual stones that Li Erqing and his grandson had accumulated over the years were drained, and they still owed Lu Changan two thousand spiritual stones.
Because Li Erqing had many descendants, Lu Changan was not worried about repaying the debt at all.
"Congren has something to thank Grandpa Lu. Those war preparation materials sold at a low price twenty years ago played a great role in critical moments. They helped the younger generation repel the evil cultivators and protect the safety of the clan."
Li Congren said gratefully.
"Some time ago, Tinglingzu mentioned you in a letter. It is not easy to lead a branch of the clan to expand overseas and take root in remote and cold places. It is not easy to achieve such a development momentum."
Lu Changan looked at the calm and capable Li Congren and praised him.
Li Congren's qualifications are similar to Mu Bingyun.
Although this son has no outstanding skills, he is good at management.
The branch line he brought out has good momentum of development. In just 20 years, the overall strength has caught up with the established foundation-building family, but their background is far behind.
Not long ago, Li Congren officially changed his surname to "Li", and his branch established its own branch, named "Xuemei Mountain Li Family".
The lineage he brought out were all direct descendants of Li Erqing. After nearly two decades of preparation, this matter did not face much resistance.
Some of the elders of the Feiyue Lake family complained, but they did not raise an army to hold him accountable.
Mu Bingyun acquiesced to this matter.
Back then, three foundation-building monks appeared in Feiyue Lake at the same time. The Mu family's spiritual veins could not accommodate so many monks.
At that time, the conflicts and interests of the new and old factions of the Mu family were inconsistent, and they were at a bottleneck in development. It was Li Congren who took the initiative to take away the direct descendants of Li Erqing and run them in remote places with poor conditions.
If Li Congren did not take responsibility, Feiyue Lake, which failed to expand in the past, would sooner or later fall apart due to internal strife.
"Although it is hard for the family to expand outside the country, it does not have the same constraints as the original clan. With the concerted efforts of the clan members, and the favorable time and place, the younger generation has finally gained a firm foothold."
Li Congren said modestly.
But Lu Changan knows that harmony is often more difficult than the right time and place.
Li Congren is good at business management, far better than his grandfather in this aspect, and Mu Bingyun is not as good as him.
nowadays. Although the Li family has separated, it maintains close contact and cooperation with the Feiyue Lake Mu family.
After all, the two races share the same blood.
Moreover, Li Erqing himself did not want to leave the Mu family and vowed to guard Feiyue Lake until the last day.
This is an important link for close cooperation between the two communities.
…
After talking for half an hour, Lu Changan had some understanding of Li Congren's current situation.
The "Li family" established by Li Congren is located in the northwest of Liang State, close to the border of Liang State.
The specific location is on the southwest side of the beast-controlling Zhou family.
If you go from the Royal Beast Zhou Family to the "Bauhinia Fairy City" in the west of the Liang Kingdom, you will pass near the clan area of the "Xuemei Mountain Li Family".
Bauhinia Fairy City is also close to the border of the Liang Kingdom and has trade relations with the Jing Kingdom in the Western Regions.
Li Congren's ability to take root in a more chaotic and cold place also benefited from his diplomatic skills.
For example, the Beast Controlling Zhou family is the strongest immortal cultivating family in that area.
Li Congren relied on his relationship with Lu Changan and his filial piety to maintain a good relationship with "Zhou Jingxuan" of the Zhou family.
In terms of personal relationships, Li Congren had a life-long friendship with a casual cultivator who was in the middle stage of foundation building.
This casual cultivator in the middle stage of foundation building became a worshiper of the Li family.
Not only that.
Li Congren also became a Taoist couple with a female cultivator who was in the early stage of foundation building, but it was not made public.
The rapid development of the Li family also benefited from what Li Congren said was the "right time and right place".
To put it simply, it was a war fortune.
Ten years before the war, the Lee family purchased the 50-year development rights to a mineral vein at a low price.
As the war began, the prices of various materials increased, and gold and iron-related ores were no exception.
In addition to mineral value added.
The war preparation materials circulated from Jing State to Liang State promoted the prosperity of trade around the Li family line.
"Jing Guo, what's the current situation?"
Lu Changan asked seemingly curiously.
Currently, several nearby countries, including Liang, Feng, Yan, and Chen, are all involved in the war to cultivate immortals.
However, the battlefield is limited to Fengguo.
"Jing Country is a neutral immortal-cultivating country. It does not have fourth-level spiritual veins or Nascent Soul-level sect forces, and it never participates in disputes between neighboring countries."
"This country is located in the angle between Chen State, Liang State, and the Black Mist Mountains. It is rich in materials and has relatively developed trade. In these years of immortal cultivation wars, the sects and families of Jing State have made a fortune from the war..."
Li Congren talked about the situation in Jingguo.
The Li family was close to the northwest border of Liang State and had contacts with merchants of Jing State.
Seeing that Lu Changan was more interested, Li Congren gave him a jade tube, which recorded the situation of Jingguo's immortal world.
"Jing Country, as a neutral immortal-cultivating country, does not interfere in the war and the situation is stable. It is an alternative retreat."
Lu Changan thought to himself.
…
Later, Lu Changan gave some guidance to this younger grandson in terms of practice.
Li Congren is nearly ten years younger than Mu Bingyun, and has reached the peak of the early stage of foundation building. He still needs some years of polishing to break through the bottleneck.
Before leaving.
Li Congren purchased a batch of war preparation materials from Lu Changan.
Li Congren's financial resources were beyond Lu Changan's expectations.
This guy bought three puppets, one each in the early, middle and late stages of the second level.
In terms of talismans, we mainly purchased second-level middle and high-quality talismans. We purchased ten or twenty talismans, including two second-level top-quality talismans.
Of course, this kind of financial resources is the inherent wealth of a family and is not Li Congren's personal property.
squeak!
The Earth Rock Rat's face was restless, and when he saw Li Congren rising into the air, he showed an unwilling expression.
"I made Grandpa Lu laugh. This junior has a spirit rat as a pet. He only has the second-level initial cultivation level. He is not good at fighting and dare not come out to meet the rock rat."
Li Congren explained with a smile.
"Oh? Is Congren's pet spirit rat a male or a female?"
"Mr." Li Congren replied.
Lu Changan glanced at the Earth Rock Rat with a smile.
After Mu Congren left Wu Qi Mountain.
Lu Changan communicated with the Earth Rock Rat for a while.
"Mu Congren's spirit rat pet has a bloodline level that is not inferior to that of the current rock rat. It is not good at fighting. Could it be that it is a rare rat that hunts for treasure or minerals? If so, its value is much higher than that of the rock rat."
"It seems that the development momentum of the line led by Mu Congren is so good, not only because of the added value of existing minerals."
Thinking of Mu Congren's filial piety of the quasi-third-level ore, Lu Changan couldn't help but make some guesses.
He had no intention of exploring or coveting.
For the foundation-building monks, this can only be regarded as a normal opportunity, and at the same time, it takes advantage of the east wind of war.
…
Three years passed by in a flash.
Lu Changan practiced on the sixth floor of the foundation for seven or eight years.
On this day, Shi Manrong came to Xiaogui Peak and brought a piece of news.
"The engagement between Shen Bixin and Song Wenshu has been postponed?"
Lu Changan looked surprised, almost thinking that Master Shixianzi was joking.
A few months ago, they received an invitation letter from someone sent by Song Wenshu. At that time, the engagement was scheduled to take place in half a year.
"At first, I didn't believe it either. However, this is the news from the disciples of Lihuo Palace."
Shi Manrong looked confused.
"The engagement is postponed, not cancelled. What happened?"
Lu Changan felt strange and thought deeply.
Song Wenshu was in Lihuo Palace. Although he was not a true descendant or a direct descendant of the elders, he still had a good background.
"Have the prices of formations increased recently?"
"There is no movement in low-level formations, but the demand and price of quasi-third-level formations have increased abnormally."
Master Shixianzi replied, quickly becoming thoughtful.
"Do you suspect that this matter is related to the war?"
She turned her clear eyes and looked at Lu Changan.
"If Song Wenshu is suddenly called to the front line by the sect, then the extension of the engagement is due to force majeure and is not a shame."
Lu Changan thought of a possibility.
"Three years ago, Liang Guo Sect recruited the third batch of monks. The recruitment of the fourth batch is indeed coming soon..."
Master Fairy pondered.
Lu Changan had a feeling that things were not that simple.
Because, in the past year, he had not received any war news from Jinyun Valley Zhao Tan'er.
Lu Changan speculated that unknown changes may have occurred in the frontline war in neighboring countries.
Zhao Tan'er was probably banned by the sect and could not pass on war information to the outside world.
The channels for obtaining war information were blocked, and Lu Changan felt uneasy.
If the Immortal Cultivation War is a big storm, then it is a small boat on the sea.
The current situation is equivalent to saying that the sailing boat has lost the ability to predict the storm weather.
In a few years, Lu Changan will be promoted to the late stage of foundation building, and his strength will greatly increase, but he does not want to face any surprises.
"There is a place where you should be able to obtain the latest war information..."
