"F-Forgive us, Senior. We didn't know you before," the Wei family patriarch replied.
"Forgive us. We promise, we won't do it again," he said again, ensuring.
Li Shen kept his eyes sharp ahead. In the end, he listened to the man's words. The Dao of Dreams was stopped, the situation returned to normal.
The four began to be freed from Li Shen's qi pressure, then let the man leave their shop. Li Shen nodded.
He flew high leaving the place with his cultivation hidden again. The Wei Family patriarch was relieved that he could survive the threat of a scary man like him.
"Is he from one of the powerful sects in the Qing Kingdom?" asked Wei Dun.
"I think so. With his abilities, he's the strongest in the entire kingdom."
The man continued to fly away leaving Wei City, carrying many technique scrolls that he bought from the Wei Family's auction shop.
From the sky, Li Shen saw Ye Fa teaching something to Hao Ziyue and Xiao Bai. The two were sitting on the ground in cultivation, absorbing the spiritual energy of the place.
Li Shen entered the sect and landed softly without disturbing them. He walked over to Ye Fa and saw that Ziyue and Xiao Bai's spiritual energy absorption was progressing smoothly.
"Senior," Ye Fa greeted.
"I heard that you went into the city to buy something. What did you buy?" the old lady asked, turning her head.
"Some technique scrolls, weapons, and artifacts," Li Shen explained.
"Hmm, are you in the mood to learn something?" asked Ye Fa, Li Shen shook his head lightly.
"It's not for me."
Li Shen's attention returned to the front, watching Ziyue and Xiao Bai still practicing gathering spiritual energy to help them advance.
There were still 10 levels in the Qi Condensation stage. From Li Shen's eyes, Hao Ziyue was still at Qi Condensation level two, while Xiao Bai was already at level four.
Li Shen patted his magic bag and took out all the items he had bought. He showed them next to his empty side, making Ye Fa shocked and gape.
Hao Ziyue and Xiao Bai opened their eyes. They looked forward to see that Senior Li Shen had returned.
What surprised them even more was the enormous amount of cultivation items beside Li Shen.
"Wh-What is it, Senior Li Shen?" asked Ziyue.
"I realized, your technique scroll rack seems empty. I can't let you, Azure Pillar Sect disciples, to be weak disciples," replied Li Shen.
Li Shen picked up two technique scrolls and handed it to them. Hao Ziyue got the leaf element technique scroll, while Xiao Bai got the fire element technique.
"Actually, cultivators are not limited by their elements either. You can learn any technique from the various elements of nature," Li Shen explained.
"That's the Leaf Dance Technique, a 1st level technique. If you manage to learn it in one week, I'll give you another one," Li Shen replied, Hao Ziyue accepted that with a smile, then nodded that she was ready to learn it with full seriousness.
"You learn the Fire Basic Technique. I gave such a powerful technique to you because you are a man. You must protect the sect from any attacks in the future," Li Shen said.
Xiao Bai stood up, bowing his head in respect while thanking Li Shen. He said he was lucky and happy to be able to join the Azure Pillar sect, let alone get enlightening advice from Senior Li Shen.
"Thank you, Senior," Ye Fa said, smiling back at Li Shen.
"I did it because I want to restore the former glory days of this sect. In 100 years, the Azure Pillar Sect will be the most powerful and respected sect in the Qing Kingdom!"
Ye Fa nodded, he agreed with the idea, but restoring the glory of Pillar Azure in the Qing land was not something easy.
There were thousands of sects with their elders and ancestors who could interfere, whereas Pillar Azure Sect only had two Nascent Soul stage people.
"You two can continue practicing, then put it all away on the shelves after your training is done," Li Shen explained, obeyed by Hao Ziyue and Xiao Bai.
"Senior? Why is your body glowing?" asked Ye Fa, seeing the oddity in Li Shen.
Li Shen looked at his hands, his body was indeed glowing, a sign that there was a new enlightenment he was about to get regarding breaking through to the Celestial Emperor level.
"Looks like you're going to break through, Senior," Ye Fa explained, Li Shen smiled.
"No, it's not. This is just enlightenment for me," said Li Shen.
After his matters were done, Li Shen left the place for the cultivation cave he used to frequent.
The place was still there, undamaged, only filled with vines and grass. The man immediately sat in lotus on the stone table, then closed his eyes to absorb the enlightenment he had gained.
In his ocean of qi, a celestial gate appeared with a golden palace behind it. The inscription emblazoned on the gate was Celestial Emperor, a sign of his cultivation progressing while Li Shen was in the mortal world.
"Was the enlightenment earlier to open up a chance to break through the Celestial Emperor?" asked Li Shen.
He walked toward the gate, but his body suddenly bounced far back when he hit the boundary field. The boundary field was formed from an array of magic runes, totaling three boundaries of different colors.
The first boundary was blue, the second was yellow, and the last was red. Li Shen was well aware that his cultivation path to reach the Celestial Emperor was long and winding.
"I must know a way for me to destroy this boundary field. Attacking it physically would be useless, it would damage my primordial soul," Li Shen replied.
The light on Li Shen's body slowly began to fade, he remained in that place until nightfall. Yet, something startled Li Shen.
From thousands of miles away, Li Shen sensed that there was a magic aura approaching the Pillar Azure sect. He didn't know who it was, but it was certain that the two were chasing each other.
Li Shen got up, then walked out of his cultivation cave. He arrived at the front yard of the sect where no one was. Hao Ziyue, Xiao Bai, and Ye Fa were resting.
Sure enough! He looked forward and saw five cultivators chasing each other. Two cultivators were wearing white suits, while the remaining three were wearing red.
Li Shen took a quick glance at the two pursuing cultivators, one of whom was Elder Gu of the Mountain Goose Sect.
From Li Shen's eyes, the woman looked injured and was looking for a place to take shelter.
"Enter the Azure Pillar Sect," Elder Gu said.
"But that's useless. It's just an outcast sect, it can't protect us," one of his escort cultivators replied.
"Better than being chased endlessly," Elder Gu replied.
When they were about to enter, their bodies collided with the sect's protective wall, the fourth layer.
Instantly, the face of the fire lion appeared and startled them, a danger signal was sent to every one of the Pillar Azure sect's residents.
Li Shen sighed, not wanting to help them but if Elder Gu died here, they would attack the Pillar Azure Sect.
The man had no other choice. He walked quickly to the front of the sect and met with Elder Gu. Their meeting would be a historical point and a good start of their relationship.
"Fellow Dao? Help us," said Elder Gu's escort.
Li Shen summoned his blue qi energy and shot it into their foreheads. For the time being, they could enter and take shelter in the Pillar Azure sect.
Elder Gu stepped in, guided by her escort, but Li Shen was still standing in front of the sect, planning to greet those who were chasing Elder Gu.
Three red suit cultivators came over. They flew in the sky standing on their swords. Seeing Li Shen who was at the Nascent Soul Mid stage of cultivation, their guts instantly shrank.
"Senior," greeted one of the three, a Golden Core Formation stage cultivator.
"We have matters with Elder Gu. Please have the senior's wisdom not to interfere," he replied.
"That girl? She has been in the Azure Pillar sect. Other than my permission, no one is allowed to enter," Li Shen explained.
"Senior! Are you planning to make enemies out of the Lotus Hill Sect? As long as you know, we have many Nascent Soul stage cultivators," the man replied, snapping.
"Really? Even if you have 1000 Nascent Soul stage cultivators, you won't be able to enter the Azure Pillar," Li Shen explained.
"You're arrogant, senior!" snapped the man.
They unleashed a magic attack forward toward Li Shen. With his hand extended forward enough, Li Shen stopped the magic attack.
The tables were turned! Li Shen gathered his qi energy in his right hand. He swung his hand forward to strike back at the three cultivators.
They failed to dodge, nor take cover. The three bounced away from the Pillar Azure Sect with their bodies severely injured.
Elder Gu and her escorts saw their fight. Although all three were Golden Core Formation cultivators, they could be severely injured by Li Shen who was Nascent Soul Middle stage.
"H-He can injure them easily," Elder Gu's escort replied.
"Senior Li Shen isn't just any cultivator," said Ye Fa, coming out of the sect's main building with Hao Ziyue.
Elder Gu heard the voice, then turned her head back in salute. She knew who the old lady was, she was the sect leader of Pillar Azure a long time ago, even when Elder Gu had not joined the Mountain Goose Sect.
"Greetings from me, Sect Leader Ye Fa," greeted Elder Gu, followed by her escort.
"He is an old friend of mine, we were together even during the heyday of the Azure Pillar Sect," Ye Fa replied.
"Forgive Junior Gu because I don't know when that was," the beautiful woman said.
"Around 10,000 years ago."
"Y-You've lived that long? But why did your cultivation—"
"I lowered my cultivation because my lifespan isn't long anymore," Ye Fa explained, staring at the bodyguard beside Elder Gu.
"But it's different with Senior Li Shen. He still looks young after passing 10,000 years," he said.
Elder Gu and her escort looked at each other, not quite understanding the meaning of Ye Fa's words.
It's true that if cultivation gets higher, then the lifespan increases a lot. For Nascent Soul cultivators, they could even live for 500 years.
The woman glanced at Ye Fa. If her words were true, then at least the highest cultivation she had ever reached was Soul Ascension or Void Tribulation.
"If that's the case, what was his original cultivation base?" asked Elder Gu, looking at Li Shen.
"He has likely reached the Immortal Palace. I'm guessing, his cultivation is at the Immortal Ascension or True Immortal stage."