Wait a minute, where is my master?

A man dressed in a white linen robe, his face alternating between youthful and aged, was slumped on the octagonal platform in the center of the Four-colored Lake.

The man's eyes were lifeless, his face bearing an expression as if his body had been hollowed out, and he muttered to himself.

"So many years, so many years, if it weren't for the last time it was too exhausting, how could I be scooped up by someone's spoon today..."

"Damn it, are all those cultivators in the Lower Realm..."

As he spoke, his expression turned to anger and shame, and he suddenly sprang up.

A burst of black energy exploded in all directions!

The moment the black energy appeared.

The previously calm waters of the lake surrounding the octagonal platform suddenly whipped into frenzy, spewing wind, fire, and bursts of azure lightning!

Seeing this, the man slumped back onto the platform with a decisive motion.

The black energy that had just spread out was reabsorbed into his body in a blink of an eye.

With the disappearance of the black energy, the abnormal phenomena on the water's surface also gradually dissipated.

After a long while.

The inside of this mountain was as calm as if nothing had happened.

"These four old things."

The man in the white robe cursed under his breath, then after pondering for a moment, he sighed and said to himself,

"Alas, with this, all that's left for a backup is that ink jade puppet. But judging by the circumstances of that hidden request for help, although the ink jade puppet has not been destroyed, it's very likely to have fallen into the hands of the one with the fishing rod.

"I can't just... hey! I may as well directly talk to this person with the fishing rod."

As he spoke, it seemed as if he suddenly realized something, and he excitedly jumped up from the ground again.

The seal of tens of thousands of years had already caused some ripples in his Heart Realm.

The man excitedly paced back and forth on the octagonal platform and gradually regained some calm.

"No, this can't be rushed. I must prepare thoroughly and take my time. Otherwise, if I come across someone as unreasonable as today again... no, it won't happen. Those devoid of worldly desires are probably still very rare.

"Hmm, but it's still necessary to prepare well."

After finishing his monologue, he sat down cross-legged again and began to ponder in silence.

...

Outside Shangjing City, to the northwest.

At the bottom of Longevity Mountain Lake.

Granny Meng, holding a ladle and poised as if striking, sensed that the piece of ink jade in the jar had dissolved.

She couldn't help but breathe a long sigh of relief.

Although the ink jade seemed as if it had been hit by her without any power to resist,

For her last two strikes, she had secretly used all her strength, but not even a crack had appeared on it.

Such durability truly startled Granny Meng.

"Phew~ fortunately, the shell of this thing has finally dissolved."

She put away the ladle in her hand and pressed her palms gently against the outside of the big jar, continuously infusing Spiritual Power, activating the prohibitions she had placed on it over the years.

The lid of the jar, covered in mysterious patterns of Spiritual Power, had now taken shape.

Peering into the jar through the complex patterns, on the dark interior walls, countless tiny specks of light were flickering non-stop, like the twinkling stars in the night sky.

These specks of light were the focal points of numerous miniature formations. Their number revealed just how many formations had been etched on the inside of the large jar.

"Rise!"

Granny Meng uttered a low shout, and the Spiritual Power already operating at its limit within her Dantian intensified by a notch.

As she spoke out, the countless specks of light on the jar walls lit up simultaneously.

If the earlier scene in the jar was a vast twinkling of stars, then now, the inner wall of the jar appeared as if an ancient silver river had traversed through it.

"The Milky Way," under Granny Meng's manipulation, emitted a powerful force, stirring the soup within the jar bit by bit.

Soon, the soup in the jar formed a swirling vortex.

Granny Meng felt the overwhelming Spiritual Power within the jar that was so formidable it was startling, and even the wrinkled corners of her eyes began to show a trace of delight.

"Heh heh, with such power, that little Taoist will explode and die the moment he drinks it."

After mumbling to herself, her dry hands shifted positions, and the soup in the jar gradually began to boil.

Anyone who drinks such a large pot of soup—unless they're a fool—would stop after the first sip upon realizing the overwhelming amount of Spiritual Power.

Thus, Granny Meng needed to boil it down to just one bowl's volume.

She also had to use a Secret Technique to compress the Spiritual Power.

The goal was for the other party not to notice anything abnormal upon tasting it, but just one quarter of an hour after the soup reached the stomach, the Spiritual Power within would fully inflate.

However, compressing such a large potful of soup, brimming with surging Spiritual Power, was extremely difficult, even with the aid of formations and Secret Techniques.

Therefore, after the soup boiled, Granny Meng directly burnt her own Essence Blood.

The wrinkles on her face visibly increased, and the hairs on her head turned white one by one.

An hour passed.

Looking as if she would breathe her last at any moment, Granny Meng collapsed to the ground, continuously gasping an exhausted "heh heh" from her parched lips.

She rested on the ground for a full quarter of an hour before struggling to use the jar to stand up.

"Who would have thought... this old woman made... so much preparation, yet... there is still a... bowl and a half left."

"However, the compressed power inside is so potent that even a True Immortal would burst twice over; this should be more than enough to deal with that little Taoist, heh heh."

With effort, she spoke to herself, using the little remaining Spiritual Power to take out a bamboo-green gourd from her storage treasure and carefully transferred the amber soup from the jar into the gourd with a long-handled ladle.

After completing all this, Granny Meng made a knife with her hand and cut off all of her hair, which resembled dried grass, then haphazardly made several cuts on her body to simulate the marks of claw scratches.

She then took out the fake hair and human skin mask she had prepared in advance, shakily putting them on her head and face.

She had prepared these items beforehand to avoid exposing any flaws when she returned to Yixiang Building.

A stick of incense later.

Granny Meng had a bamboo-green gourd hanging at her waist. Appearance-wise, she had returned to her state before the life energy was consumed.

The scratch wounds on her body that had oozed blood had also dried and solidified.

Not just that, she had already thought of excuses for the inevitable frailty of her body and the shuffling gait in her movements.

Granny Meng checked herself again carefully.

After confirming there were no significant flaws, she leaned against the jar and slowly sat down.

Now, all she had to do was wait for the night to deepen and then return to Shangjing City.

...

In Shangjing City, within Yixiang Building.

The little Taoist and his companions, having eaten their fill, walked leisurely out onto the street, then turned back to wave at the warm and friendly landlady at the door.

"Thank you for the hospitality, landlady. Afterward, in the room, I left a High-Grade Spirit Stone beside the maid painting, as payment for this meal.

"Make sure you don't forget to take it."

After speaking, Jin Xu did not wait for a reply, grabbing the two women and quickly running towards another street.

But just as they turned the corner,

he saw an old man with a white beard, carrying a little chubby boy and an orange cat,

coming toward him with a face full of joy.