"Moo~" The big black ox took out their three-piece bandit set and nudged Chen Xun.

With their five golden pills, they could directly refine five sets of lifebound treasures, and this three-piece set only occupied one golden pill.

"Old ox, let's continue to strengthen our set and artifacts. As long as it's a wood attribute, it can be infinitely enhanced!"

Chen Xun exclaimed excitedly. Over the years, they had discovered many secrets. As long as it was a wood attribute item refined by his own golden pill, it seemed to merge with him, perfectly matching the essence of all things, resulting in inexplicable mutations.

Due to the enhancement of their physique, their weak periods had unexpectedly become shorter. If they condensed and refined lifebound treasures with golden pills in their bodies, it would only take a few sticks of incense to recover, which is incredibly miraculous.

Chen Xun and the big black ox unanimously believed that it was indeed the effect of the health tea!

"Moo moo~" The big black ox grinned, enjoying staying in such a place where no one bothered them; they were still busy.

"Old ox, refine while continuing to stabilize the golden pills, don't be impatient."

Chen Xun smiled calmly. After refining a set of lifebound treasures, the golden pills would fluctuate slightly. "Take each step solidly."

"Moo~" The big black ox nodded calmly, then rubbed against Chen Xun.

"Old ox, let's become bigger and stronger; let's get going!" Chen Xun suddenly shouted, looking towards the distant horizon filled with sandstorms and lofty aspirations.

"Moo~~!!" The big black ox howled towards the sky, its eyes filled with strong excitement.

The man and the ox began to be busy again. Whenever they had time, they planted Crane Spirit Trees, then used the essence of all things to nurture them, euphemistically calling it "enlightenment"...

The Crane Spirit Trees in this desert were also growing more and more, adding a lot of greenery to this vast land.

However, this place had no spiritual energy. Perhaps after they left, these Crane Spirit Trees would gradually wither and die.

...

Time continued to silently pass by. In the Qian Nation, with each passing day, the national strength was booming, and there were more and more people in the mortal world with spiritual roots.

With two countries in the cultivation world under their control, the people of various major sects had higher and higher aspirations. Surprisingly, the ultimate victims were those with mixed spiritual roots.

With limited cultivation resources, those with mixed spiritual roots were finding it increasingly difficult to gain a foothold. Many major sects no longer accepted such disciples, not even as laborers.

Countless people with mixed spiritual roots disappeared into obscurity, marrying, and having children, spending a hundred years in anonymity in the mortal world.

However, if one didn't have too many attachments, perhaps being ordinary was also a kind of happiness and enjoyment.

In the Tian Duan Great Plain, in an inconspicuous desert area, a man and an ox were enjoying this kind of simplicity and happiness.

It had been 21 years since the day the Crane Spirit Tree King returned to heaven. Chen Xun and the big black ox were now tidying up everything; it seemed they were about to leave.

They continued to allocate their 20 points of immortality to spiritual energy. In the cultivation world, one couldn't go without spiritual energy.

"Old ox, get ready to go back home." Chen Xun shouted outside the small house. The surroundings were lush, but the ground was a mess, with traces of being burned by flames everywhere.

"Moo~" The big black ox stood under a tree, holding a formation flag, with pots and pans hanging all over its body.

Chen Xun sat in front of the house; his eyes gleaming. His Fireball Technique had finally received enhancement, improved from the original foundation to become the Great Fireball Technique...

Although he could directly cultivate a spell of the Foundation Building period, which would be better than the basic Fireball Technique, it would be even more terrifying after being enhanced by spell amplification.

But Chen Xun had no interest in that. As his cultivation increased, corresponding spells weren't something he could obtain casually.

If he got used to this feeling of having everything handed to him, his path of cultivation would be meaningless, and it would eventually come to an end.

For spells, he enjoyed the process of learning and creating. For cultivation realms, he enjoyed the gradual progression.

Back in Panning City, he had said such words to the big black ox. They were immortal beings after all, with a completely different mindset from others.

"It's just that my cultivation method is shallow, and there's no way to improve it for the time being."

Chen Xun shook his head solely but felt somewhat proud in his heart, "Spending over a hundred years, creating my own spell, the Great Fireball Technique, who can compete with me?"

"Old Ox, although your formations were ahead of me at one point, now... it's just like this." Chen Xun raised his head, looking at the distant big black ox, who had also learned his self-created Great Fireball Technique.

At that time, Chen Xun deeply remembered how this technique had moved the big black ox to tears of excitement, prostrating before him, swearing never to use formations in battle again.

"Moo?!"

"Are you ready?"

"Moo moo~" The big black ox nodded. The formation flags had all been retrieved, but they were severely damaged, with hardly anything left intact.

"Let's go."

Chen Xun smiled, put on his straw hat, and still had the Mountain Axes tied around his waist. When traveling the world, one must not appear easy to bully.

The big black ox also ran over, nudged Chen Xun, then glanced around.

"Old ox, let's leave this place as a reference point."

Chen Xun smiled. After all this time, he had become somewhat familiar with this place. "If we want to cross the Tian Duan Great Plain, we still need to make many preparations in the Qian Nation."

The big black ox grinned widely, nodding heavily. Fortunately, it wasn't stubborn; they were so thrifty that they only had a hundred low-grade spirit stones left.

If they were to recklessly traverse without making any preparations, their spiritual energy would probably be depleted, and they would get lost halfway.

Now they had everything prepared. All their artifacts had been refined and strengthened. They quietly waited in their golden pill world, brewing terrifying fluctuations.

Their artifacts had each been enhanced by the death energy of fifty thousand years of Crane Spirit Trees. However, they hadn't reached the limit of the Water Spirit Art yet, so they would continue to increase slowly.

But the years of enhancement for Chen Xun's axes were shared. Unlike the big black ox's Black Coffin, which was more troublesome, the Crane Spirit Tree King had reached its limit at a hundred thousand years and couldn't be nurtured further.

Only the wooden attribute artifacts nurtured and refined by their blood could continue to be infinitely enhanced.

The bandit set had also been enhanced for several thousand years. Due to being refined with golden pills, they had become quite soft and fitted well with their bodies.

Even with their current golden pill stage spiritual consciousness, they still couldn't see through them. This was the result of countless Ling Vine threads pulling together. The quantitative change seemed to have produced a qualitative change.

However, how far they could strengthen them was still something they were constantly experimenting with, something they could only leave to time.

But what grade their artifacts belonged to, they didn't know, and no one dared to find out...

Two figures wearing straw hats walked away from the small house under the scorching sun.

The sound of a bell rang, and their figures became increasingly blurred, leaving only faint shadows.

But what they didn't know in these years was that when the anomaly occurred back then, the major sects of Zhiyang Prefecture and Kaiyang Prefecture had sent out cultivators to investigate.

In the end, they found nothing. There was no information about those two, and the spectators had various opinions. Since there were no clues, they had to let it go.

...

Three months later, in a border town of the Qian Nation, Bai Ling City.

Here, people came and went, the cries of vendors never ceased, and there were also tough characters wandering the rivers and lakes. They held weapons; some were from martial sects, and some were bodyguards.

There were also many caravans coming and going in the city, and quite a few dignitaries rode in carriages without revealing their identities.

Occasionally, there were also precious horses galloping on the streets and heroes leading their horses. Although there was a lack of scholarly atmosphere, it added a wild breath to the border town.

There were many taverns and teahouses in the city where noise never stopped, and there were storytellers. It was truly lively.

A person wearing a straw hat and leading a black ox slowly walked towards the city. There was no trace of any spiritual energy in their bodies, just a sense of tranquility in their eyes.