Seeking Immortality

"Elder Gongsun, I don't know what happened that made you come here in person?"

After Xu Qingfan opened the defensive formation outside the cave, he bowed to Gongsun Huasa and asked with a smile.

Facing Xu Qingfan's polite smile, Gongsun Huaso still had a calm expression. He just glanced at Xiao Hei who was standing on Xu Qingfan's shoulder, and then said to Xu Qingfan, "The leader is looking for me," and then stopped looking. He said nothing more, turned around and left Yuyun.

Looking at Gongsun Huasao's leaving figure, Xu Qingfan couldn't help but smile bitterly in his heart. Ever since Xu Qingfan accidentally obtained the power of the Three Houses, Gongsun Huasuo, who was originally very friendly to him, has gradually drifted away from him.

But thinking of Gongsun Huasao's message just now, Xu Qingfan pondered slightly again.

At this time, eight years have passed since Xu Qingfan's last retreat ended. During these eight years, Xu Qingfan has been cultivating the "Qi of Life" and has achieved some success, although he is still unable to compete with the "Qi of Death". "Balance has been reached again, but the corrosive effect of the "air of death" has been barely suppressed.

Because of this, Xu Qingfan felt that he was well prepared and wanted to go to Jiuhua Mountain in the name of seclusion during this period to fulfill the last wishes in Liu Huaxiang's letter.

In these eight years, Zhang Hualing, like Xu Qingfan, went into retreat one after another. Although the duration of each retreat was not long, it was extremely frequent and puzzling.

"So, the leader is out of seclusion again? I hope he doesn't ask me to do anything very troublesome again, otherwise how could I sneak down the mountain?" Xu Qingfan murmured.

Saying that, Xu Qingfan didn't hesitate anymore, and after sealing the cave again, he flew towards Jiuhua Qian Mountain against the clouds.

The clouds fell in front of Hualing Hall and stepped into the increasingly familiar Hualing Hall. However, it was discovered that the nearly forty elders in Jiuhua, except for a few elders who were in retreat, were all gathered together in the Hualing Hall. Men, women, old and young, it could be said that they were all gathered together. Zhang Hualing was sitting in the main seat.

"There are so many people here, could something big happen?"

Xu Qingfan thought this, but his face remained calm. After bowing to Zhang Hualing and the elders, he silently walked to the seat under Zhang Hualing and sat down.

After seeing the people gathered, Zhang Hualing nodded silently. He said slowly: "The reason why I have summoned everyone here this time is because Jiuhua's next sect competition is about to begin. Although I, Jiuhua, will not participate in the next competition for newcomers to the world of immortality, I, Jiuhua In addition to selecting outstanding disciples to participate in the newcomer competition, the internal competition is also a tradition, so we must persist. What's more, my Jiuhua Mountain has been closed for nearly fifty years, and those young disciples cannot travel to increase their experience. This internal competition can give them some combat experience.”

Hearing Zhang Hualing's words, all the elders nodded in agreement, and Xu Qingfan breathed a sigh of relief. It was just a competition within the sect, so nothing serious happened. Anyway, it will not delay his plan to go down the mountain. After seeing that all the elders agreed, Zhang Hualing said: "As usual, whether to participate in the competition within the sect is entirely up to the disciples' volition. As elders, it is inconvenient for us to interfere."

Said. Zhang Hualing turned to Xu Qingfan and said: "Deacon Xu, you are responsible for the registration for this internal competition. In addition, Jiuhua has been closed for a long time, and the disciples are probably bored. This time for the former It’s up to you to arrange the rewards for the four of you, so you might as well make them more precious.”

Xu Qingfan nodded to express his understanding.

then. After Zhang Hualing discussed some internal affairs with a group of elders, he announced that the elders' meeting was over.

But just when Xu Qingfan was about to leave with the elders, he suddenly heard Zhang Hualing say: "Deacon Xu, please stay, I have something to tell you."

Xu Qingfan was stunned for a moment, then sat back down and waited quietly for the elders to leave. However, he found that Gongsun Huasuo and some other elders looked at him deeply when they left, with seemingly deep meaning in their eyes.

After all the elders have left. Zhang Hualing pondered for a moment, and then said slowly to Xu Qingfan: "In addition to selecting outstanding disciples, this intra-sect competition actually has a deeper meaning."

Xu Qingfan bowed slightly in his seat and said, "Please make it clear, Master."

Zhang Hualing said calmly: "Because some elders have doubts about the efficacy of the three academies, I proposed this comparison to evaluate the effectiveness of your three academies of heaven, earth, people and people over the years."

Xu Qingfan was slightly startled. Asked: "But I don't know how to assess?"

Zhang Hualing smiled slightly. Said: "It's not very difficult, but it's not easy either. There are more than 900 disciples in Jiuhua in the third hospital. Among the ordinary disciples, they account for more than half. But considering that teaching in colleges is not like teaching from masters and disciples, It is so easy to produce elite disciples, so I discussed it with the elders. In this internal competition, among the eighteen qualified disciples, there must be more than eight third-tier disciples, and at least one third-tier disciple must enter the final. The top four. Otherwise, your work in the third hospital over the years will be unqualified.”

Xu Qingfan knew in his heart that this was probably the idea of ​​Gongsun Huasuo and others, but he was not in a hurry. He just asked lightly: "Then I still need to ask the leader, what should I do if I pass the exam? What should I do if I fail?"

Seeing Xu Qingfan's calm and indifferent expression, Zhang Hualing nodded with satisfaction and explained with a smile: "If you pass, you and all the elders in the three houses will be enshrined. If you fail, the establishment of the third house may be cancelled, or other places may be allowed." People are in charge of the three houses.”

Xu Qingfan nodded slightly and said, "Junior understands."

Zhang Hualing smiled, nodded, and asked, "You seem very confident, don't you?"

Xu Qingfan smiled and said: "Although this junior is usually lazy, since he is in charge of the Third Academy, he still knows the Third Academy quite well. Over the years, there have been several very good talents in the Tianyuan responsible for teaching disciples in the Lingji period. Again. In addition, in the past few years, our Jiuhua has not had an unprecedented genius like Junior Brother Jin and Junior Brother Feng, so I am still confident that I can achieve the above conditions. "

Zhang Hualing nodded and said: "As long as you have confidence. I heard that you have been very diligent in practicing over the years, so I won't delay you and go back to practice."

Xu Qingfan stood up from his seat, bowed to Zhang Hualing, then turned around and left.

But the moment Xu Qingfan walked out of the Hualing Hall, the original calmness on his face disappeared in an instant, and instead became a little gloomy in thought.

Xu Qingfan's special edition was not because Gongsun Huasuo and others were undermining him. Xu Qingfan had full confidence in getting through these small tricks. What really made Xu Qingfan's expression change was the head of Jiuhua, Zhang Hualing! !

Since the last Zhou Huahai rebellion, Zhang Hualing spent his life to perform the "Dai Tian Jue" in order to repel Zhou Huahai. Since then, his vitality has been severely damaged and cannot be recovered no matter what. Since then, his face has been pale and his face has become even more... Much older.

But looking at Zhang Hualing at this moment, it was as if none of this had ever happened. Not only was his face flushed and full of energy, he even looked much younger than before Zhou Huahai's rebellion.

More importantly, Xu Qingfan clearly felt an extremely strange energy fluctuation from Zhang Hualing just now. Xu Qingfan was very familiar with this kind of energy fluctuation, because Xu Qingfan also had this kind of energy fluctuation.

According to what Liu Huaxiang told Xu Qingfan before his death, this kind of energy fluctuation is unique to the body that has been transformed using secret methods.

"Could it be..."

Xu Qingfan's expression moved slightly, and then without hesitation, Yuyun flew towards the top of Jiuhua Mountain.

In the letter that Liu Huaxiang left to him before, he gave Xu Qingfan three last wishes to fulfill. The first of these was to tell Xu Qingfan that in the tunnel leading away from Jiuhua Mountain, there were some relics of Liu Huaxiang, which were some of the evil arts that Liu Huaxiang discovered when he discovered the secret method of transforming Xu Qingfan, and Liu Huaxiang's basis for These are the self-created techniques of sorcery.

According to Liu Huaxiang, most of these techniques are too evil. Most of them require too much cruelty to practice and require a lot of goblin blood and wronged souls. Because they are extremely powerful to perform, it is easier to lead people into evil ways.

At that time, Liu Huaxiang's last words to Xu Qingfan were, "Destroy or repair it, it's up to you, but you must not do evil with it, let alone pass it on to people with evil intentions."

"Could it be that the leader has discovered the skills Uncle Liu left for me?"

On the way to the top of Jiuhua Mountain, Xu Qingfan couldn't help but secretly think of the changes before and after Zhang Hualing.