Longevity starts from having a daughter in old age

Countless creeks, like capillaries, meandered beneath the grass.

Near the river, on a spot of land purposely cleared, stood a giant white fox with fish-like fins.

A young man with a golden mask was stroking it up and down.

A white cat was yawning lazily to the side.

“Stop wasting your energy! You haven’t mastered even the basics. There’s no way you’re controlling this high-level puppet!”

The puppet cat snorted contemptuously upon seeing Xu Mu’s struggle.

This puppet was extraordinarily difficult to control. It wasn’t a straightforward matter of being at the Golden Core Stage of cultivation. Without decades of dedicated study in the Puppetry Technique, Xu Mu wouldn’t be able to health his essence into it.

“Such a powerful thing in my hands, and it feels wasteful not to use it. There’s still plenty of time, let me research more!” Xu Mu said with a grin.

“There’s still plenty of time?”

The puppet cat twitched at the corners of its eyes, wanting to slap Xu Mu to death.

Since the beginning of their journey, this guy had been slow. After completing his task, he acted more like he was on a leisure outing.

Although their master didn’t set a time limit, he also didn’t imply that he could drag his feet to such an extent.

The frustrated puppet cat simply closed its eyes and started to focus on cultivating its spiritual energy.

As a puppet, it did not need to worry about any destructive aura invasions.

What the puppet cat did not know was that just after it closed its eyes, the white fox puppet showed a tiny movement. It was so miniscule that and Xu Mu tried to hide it, so the cat didn’t notice.

While others could take decades to learn, for Xu Mu, he simply needed to…

Add points!

“Fortunately, I saved some Luck Value, or it might not have been enough!”

Xu Mu secretly celebrated his foresight.

The Puppetry Technique given to him by the puppet cat was of a high level. To refine the white fox puppet, required a large amount of Luck Value.

Thank goodness he had saved up!

His delay in time was also intended to fully refine this puppet.

Although he had now completely refined it, he did not plan to reveal this.

He always felt there was more to this than met the eye, so it was better to keep some tricks up his sleeve.

After fiddling a bit more, Xu Mu put on a show of packing up the puppet, woke the puppet cat, and they set off once again.

A day later, the duo finally reached the agreed meeting point.

The other five people were all present.

“Didn’t you come here on foot? You’re so slow!” the woman with the blue face mask scorned.

“What a waste of my time!” the man with the green face mask said chillingly.

“Did you encounter any trouble?” the man with the purple face mask said with concern.

“Humph!”

The woman with the red mask merely snorted coldly, evidently also harboring grievances.

It was estimated that they had all been waiting for more than a day.

Only the man with the black face mask, watched him peacefully, not expressing any emotions.

“Sorry, I did run into a bit of trouble. I’m sorry if I caused any worries!” Xu Mu laughed heartily.

No one could tell he was actually sorry.

“Like hell we were worried about you! If it weren’t for these puppets preventing us, we would have left a long time ago!” the woman with the blue face mask said disdainfully.

“We are all Golden Core cultivators. A few days’ time is but a blink of an eye. There’s no need to be upset.” The purple-faced man spoke in a roundabout way, laughing, “Since we’re all here, should we get moving?”

“Humph!”

The green-faced man snorted coldly and transformed into a streak of light, flying far away.

No one said anything, and they all transformed into streaks of light to catch up. “What’s the rush? Aren’t we going to discuss first?” Xu Mu wondered.

“Fellowcultivator, we’ve discussed many times already!” the purple-faced man said with a wry smile: “Okay, let’s talk as we go.”

“Oh, alright!”

The two also transformed into streaks of light and followed after.

On the way, Xu Mu found out from the purple-faced plump man that he was indeed not just late for one or two days, but for seven or eight days. No wonder everyone was feeling disgruntled.

If it hadn’t been for the puppet cat reminding them that Xu Mu was still alive, they would have already given up on him.

“So that’s why! I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” Xu Mu turned to the puppet cat on his shoulder and complained, “Senior, why didn’t you remind me?”

The puppet cat turned its head away, too lazy to bother with him.

Hadn’t it been arguing until its throat was sore?

Seeing that the puppet cat ignored him, Xu Mu continued talking to the purple-faced plump man.

“Fellow Daoist, how is the next move planned?”

“It’s quite straightforward, in a moment everyone together…”

The purple-faced plump man informed Xu Mu of their plans discussed over the past few days.

Similar to a typical monster beast hunting squad, roles were assigned based on each person’s abilities: some were responsible for restraining, some for attacking, and some for supporting.

“Fellow Daoist, as you have proficiency in Thunderring skills, you just need to focus on attack when the time comes.”

“I understand.”

Xu Mu nodded.

All of them were old-timers who had lived for a hundred or two hundred years. A gentle hint was all they needed to know what to do.

“Fellow Daoist, what was the task you just finished?” The purple-faced plump man glanced at his puppet cat, then at Xu Mu and asked.

“A puppet!”

Xu Mu didn’t conceal anything.

“What about you, Fellow Daoist?”

“Me too!”

The purple-faced plump man also nodded.

However, neither of them discussed the specifics.

Xu Mu wasn’t sure how strong the puppet the other had dealt with was compared to his own.

“Fellow Daoist, do you think the monster beast we’re facing next could also be a puppet?” asked Xu Mu.

“Perhaps!” The purple-faced plump man was uncertain.

“Would it be possible for us to face off against a Nascent Soul stage puppet considering the senior insisted we all act together?” Xu Mu speculated. “Probably not!”

The purple-faced plump man shook his head and said: “The gap between Nascent Soul and Golden Core stages is too wide. Even if we had ten times our number, we wouldn’t stand a chance.”

“Are Nascent Souls really that powerful? Are you not exaggerating a bit?” Xu Mu found it hard to believe.

He knew the Nascent Soul stage was powerful, but he wasn’t sure quite how strong. Mostly because he’d had so few encounters with Nascent Souls and he had never seen one in action. Everything he knew was based on hearsay.

The purple-faced plump man glanced at Xu Mu and chuckled, “Fellow Daoist, if you had ever seen a Nascent Soul in action, you wouldn’t find it exaggerated. His skill level, although not top-notch, was among the top tier in Nascent Soul Stage. Seeing a simple, single Element Nascent Soul, he’s unsure whether he could survive a single attack.”

Through his words, the plump man had revealed that he was a late-stage Golden Core cultivator. There was no point in lying to Xu Mu about this, so it allowed Xu Mu to get a new perspective on the power of the Nascent Soul stage.

I wonder if I’ll have the chance to defeat a Nascent Soul whilst at the Golden Core stage?

Xu Mu pondered inwardly.

“Fellow Daoist, you just mentioned a single element Nascent Soul. Are there many types of Nascent Souls?”

Honestly, Xu Mu knew very little about the Nascent Soul stage.

Although his two avatars were both located within powerful forces, their cultivation levels were too low to have access to this kind of knowledge. Plus, these great forces intentionally suppressed the spread of such knowledge.

Unfortunately, Nangong Suyi died too early. Plus, the few times they’d met they always ended up arguing, leaving no time to probe for this information.

The purple-faced plump man, as a late-stage Golden Core cultivator, would certainly be among the higher echelons of any organization. Moreover, with far more years of cultivation practice compared to Xu Mu, he definitely knew more.

The purple-faced plump man had no intention of holding back, and began explaining the classifications of Nascent Souls to Xu Mu.

Simply put, there are three types of Nascent Souls.

One type is the elemental soul, or the “Five Elements Soul”, including Gold Soul, Earth Soul, Water Soul, Wood Soul, and Fire Soul. Single element souls are easier to cultivate but their Divine Skills are more ordinary.

The second type is the mutation soul, like Wind Soul and Thunder Soul. They’re harder to cultivate but their Divine Skills are more domineering.

The third type is the Ancestral Soul, which is a combination of the Five Elements souls. The basic prerequisite for cultivating an Ancestral Soul is to fully comprehend the essence of the Five Elements before attempting. It’s the most difficult to achieve among all Nascent Soul methods, and something most cultivators can’t accomplish.

As for what the essence of the Five Elements is and the specific process of forming a soul, the purple-faced plump man didn’t say. Because they involved Faction secrets.

As the two men were engrossed in their conversation, a cluster of white pebbles were suddenly shot at them from a dense bush on the ground, similar to cannonballs.