3 years

Spring goes and autumn comes, the sun and moon revolve, and three years have passed in the blink of an eye.

Since the day they discussed the family relocation with their father, the Li family had been secretly arranging for clansmen to go to Xi Kingdom.

To ensure that a large number of ordinary people in the clan could also travel smoothly, Li Qingzhou purchased a large mansion in each of the major cities along the way for them to stay in.

They also arranged for a high-level Qi Refining disciple from the clan to accompany them to ensure their safety during the journey.

After arranging the specifics, he personally led several disciples all the way to the territory of Xi Kingdom. Under the guise of independent cultivators, they began to investigate the distribution of power in the cultivation world of Xi Kingdom and to find a suitable spiritual mountain for the Li family to establish.

After three years of constant relocation, the Li family has become extremely desolate and dilapidated, with only the family head Li Qingzhou and a few dozen cultivators remaining.

Meanwhile, in the distant Xi Kingdom, millions of miles away, over a thousand unfamiliar faces appeared...

At this moment, inside a cave in the Taiyue Mountains, Li Yunfan was sitting cross-legged on a futon, surrounded by a faint red mist. The thick liquid spiritual energy in his dantian was slowly rotating around a deep purple flame.

After an unknown amount of time, Li Yunfan's eyelids twitched slightly, and he slowly opened his tightly closed eyes. Then, he raised his palm, and with a thought, a flame about two fingers thick and deep purple appeared in his palm.

With a slight tremor of his hand, the spiritual energy within his body surged into his palm, and the flame, which was originally only the size of two fingers, instantly swelled to the size of a fist.

"After three years, I have finally completed the tempering!" Looking at the flame in his hand, Li Yunfan couldn't help but smile.

"However, it shouldn't be considered earth fire anymore, so let's call it... Purple Nether Heart Fire!"

After thinking it over, he gently flipped his left hand, and a three-inch-sized round shield appeared in his hand. If you looked closely, you would find a small hole on the right side of the shield, which was the damaged top-level magic weapon, the Xuan Turtle Shield.

"I'll use you to test the power of the Purple Nether Heart Flame!"

He then tossed the Xuan Turtle Shield into the air, where it gradually grew to its original size, more than a person's height.

After this shield was pierced by the skeleton, its spiritual power was greatly diminished, and it always felt dull and sluggish when handled. Now, only its hardness remains, which still reaches the level of a top-tier magic weapon.

Looking at the Xuan Turtle Shield in front of him, Li Yunfan gently waved his right hand, and the Purple Nether Heart Flame immediately rushed onto the shield, completely enveloping it.

"Sizzle"

In no time, Li Yunfan was surprised to find that the edge of the Xuan Turtle Shield was beginning to melt!

So he immediately absorbed the Purple Nether Heart Flame into his body. Although he was conducting experiments with the Xuan Turtle Shield, he would never stand by and watch it be burned.

However, the power of the Purple Nether Heart Flame was indeed extremely formidable, capable of even melting top-tier defensive magic artifacts, which truly shocked him.

"I never imagined that the Purple Nether Heart Flame would be so powerful. If a cultivator were to come into contact with this flame, wouldn't they be burned to ashes in an instant!" Li Yunfan thought to himself.

After putting the Xuan Turtle Shield back into his storage bag, he took out a jade slip from it, placed it on his forehead, and began to examine it with his divine sense.

After a full incense stick's time had passed, Li Yunfan finally withdrew his divine sense, but his brows were tightly furrowed.

"The Great Evolution Technique of the second level can divide into hundreds of divine thoughts, making it far more difficult to cultivate than the first level. It took me two and a half years to cultivate the first level, even though I was cultivating it as a side project, I still spent several hours every day. So, cultivating the first level took me about seventeen or eighteen months. Wouldn't the second level take several years?"

After thinking it over, he couldn't help but sigh softly, put the jade slip containing the Great Evolution Technique back into his storage bag, and then stood up and walked out of the cave.

Three years ago, after discussing the relocation with his father, he left Qingmu Mountain. Unlike when he came, he now had several hundred mid-grade spirit stones in his storage bag.

If you were to exchange it for low-grade spirit stones, you could have tens of thousands of them!

In the past, these spirit stones would have been equivalent to 30% of the Li family's assets. However, for the current Li family, they are nothing, since the Li family has been mining that copper mine for a full year.

A fist-sized piece of red copper stone is worth dozens of low-grade spirit stones, and the red copper stone mine operated by the Li family has a huge reserve, capable of mining more than a hundred such red copper stones a day.

Therefore, they accumulated a large amount of spirit stones during this year. Although they were still not as powerful as the Chen and Qin families, they were still not comparable to ordinary cultivation families.

After obtaining a large number of spirit stones, Li Yunfan immediately thought of making a deal with Senior Brother Lin.

Originally, his plan was to wait until Han Li reached the Foundation Establishment stage before using him to refine a large number of pills to trade with Senior Brother Lin. However, since the Li family is not short of spirit stones, there is no need for such trouble.

So after leaving the Li family, he went directly to the Huangfeng Valley Market and Tianxing Sect Market without even returning to his cave. There, he bought a large number of Foundation Establishment pills and magic artifacts he needed. He didn't return to Huangfeng Valley until he had spent nearly half of his spirit stones.

He successfully made a deal with Senior Brother Lin, obtaining the first two levels of the Great Evolution Technique from him.

Only after that did he return to his cave to begin his secluded cultivation, dividing the day into three parts: one part for cultivating the Nine Revolutions Burning Heaven Technique, one part for cultivating the Great Evolution Technique, and the remaining time for tempering the earth fire within his body.

On a mountain ridge in Huangfeng Valley, Li Yunfan looked at the empty stone house in front of him, his brows furrowed slightly, and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face.

This was Senior Brother Lin's residence, but he wasn't there. This puzzled Li Yunfan greatly, since Lin had lived here ever since joining Huangfeng Valley, responsible for collecting items for new disciples, and had hardly ever left.

Suddenly, Li Yunfan seemed to realize something and couldn't help but think to himself, "Oh no!"

"That idiot! I already warned him, but he still insisted on going to his death..."

Li Yunfan's face was somewhat ugly, and he couldn't help but curse the other party in his heart. However, for the sake of his next two levels of the Great Evolution Technique, he still released a willow leaf-shaped flying boat magic weapon - the Cloud Piercing Boat.

This was a top-tier flying magic weapon that he had acquired at an underground auction in the Tianxing Sect Market for 2,300 spirit stones, and it was one of the finest pieces among them.

In reality, this Cloud Piercing Boat didn't actually cost that many spirit stones, but there were always people bidding against it. Fortunately, Li Yunfan is now quite wealthy, so he spent a lot of money to buy it directly, allowing him to truly experience what it means to spend spirit stones like water...

Leaping onto the Cloud Piercing Boat, Li Yunfan lightly stepped forward, and the boat shot off like an arrow, its speed several times faster than the previous Flying Leaf Shuttle magic weapon.

"Judging by the time, Han Li should have already successfully established his foundation and found the Spirit Eye Cave by now... I wonder if that unlucky Senior Brother Lin has encountered any assassins sent by the Thousand Bamboo Sect to kill him yet..."

As Li Yunfan pondered these thoughts, he steered the Cloud Piercing Boat at breakneck speed toward the Tianxing Sect Market.