Fu Chengguang had already returned and was waiting for him to discuss matters.

"Li, the north has been laid with a vast net, the cultivators of this realm have mobilized extensively, almost digging three feet deep to find us."

"I then went to the west, where I happened to meet a cultivator and got a number of Jade Slips introducing this world from him. Have a look at them later."

As he said this, he pointed to the Jade Slips beside him.

Li Zhirui nodded and then shared his own plans and discoveries.

"I hid a trace of Divine Sense within those Pills, allowing me to better understand this world through the bodies of the cultivators of this realm."

Exactly! That was his true purpose for deliberately refining Low-level Elixirs and pretending to sell them.

"Fellow Daoist, you truly are resourceful to come up with such a good method."

Fu Chengguang's eyes lit up; this method was excellent, stealthy enough not to be noticed by the beings of this realm yet capable of smoothly acquiring a wealth of useful knowledge.

"Besides, I also found a vast mountainous and marshland area in the south, which we can use as our future hiding place."

As he spoke, Li Zhirui used Mana to sketch a map in mid-air.

The map's center marked the tree hole where they currently were; to the north was where the beings of this realm set up their vast net. The west occasionally had Loose Cultivators, but they were unaware of deeper content, leaving half of it blank for future completion.

"Not far to the east, there's a Marketplace, where cultivators come and go. It's quite prosperous, and I've placed my layout there. In a while, it should yield some results."

As for the south, it was the marshland area he had discovered.

With this map, they could consider future actions more comprehensively and practically as they looked around.

"My idea is to enter the marshland area for a while. Once the disturbances calm down a bit, we can make our next move," Fu Chengguang suggested.

They decided to not worry about other matters, nor did they expect any significant gains in the short term.

"This is also a good idea. This place is too open, and can't be concealed by natural means," Li Zhirui thought about it and agreed, deciding to not wait for his layout to yield results.

It's not that his layout was useless—just unnecessary for the moment.

After agreeing on a plan, they acted immediately. There wasn't much to pack up, they only needed to erase their traces and aura before setting out.

Thus, in just a short while, they vanished from the tree hole.

When the beings of this realm came to search the area later, they found no clues at all.

At this time, they were troubled and anxious in their search for Li Zhirui and Fu Chengguang.

"Do you think those two invaders have hidden elsewhere? Otherwise, with all these efforts, we still can't find them," a Heavenly Immortal spoke up.

"That's indeed possible."

"If that's the case, then with such a big commotion, aren't we becoming a laughingstock?"

The more they spoke, the sourer the expressions on their faces became.

However, they had no choice but to acknowledge the reality.

A massive mobilization, consuming a lot of time and Spiritual Objects, resulted in nothing. They would have to find their own way to make up for those lost Spiritual Objects. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

Fortunately, after their complaints, they soon gathered their spirits and planned to continue searching for the whereabouts of those invaders. They couldn't let it go, or who knew what kind of potential threat it might cause, and how much harm it could do to the Ten Thousand Rivers Realm.

This was their home, and they absolutely couldn't allow outsiders to destroy it!

Thus, the cultivators who were originally searching this small area could now act freely and dispersedly.

Unfortunately, by this time, locating Li Zhirui and Fu Chengguang had become a bit too late.

...

The two Human Immortal Cultivators who bought Li Zhirui's Pills did not immediately sell them in the Marketplace upon returning. Instead, they sought out some prestigious Human Immortals and traded with them secretly.

"Liu Pinghe, Zhang Guitong, how come you suddenly have Pills of rather good quality?" A Human Immortal expressed suspicion regarding the origin of the Pills.

Unexpectedly, the two had a strong attitude, saying, "If Guan isn't interested in purchasing, then please leave."

The other man's face stiffened, a trace of anger flashed in his eyes, but he forced a flattering smile, "Please don't be offended, Fellow Daoists, I spoke out of turn."

The others, seeing this, dared not speak further for fear of losing their purchasing rights.

Soon, these Pills, which Li Zhirui had dismissed, were sold at a price 20% higher than the market rate.

Despite this, they remained very popular, with even some attempting to place deposits to reserve more Pills.

The two were tempted to keep the Spirit Stones, but recalling the old Daoist's words, they had to refuse.

Once the Pills were sold, that very night, most cultivators who bought them took them out to consume, hoping to quickly increase their Mana and enhance their Cultivation.

...

When Li Zhirui and Fu Chengguang entered the mountainous marshland, they found it to be even better than Li Zhirui had initially explored. Rich in Spiritual Energy and abundant with Spiritual Objects, the environment inside wasn't that harsh.

They wondered why such a Spirit Land had been left unoccupied and neglected, which seemed like a waste of natural resources!

Soon, they found a suitable and concealed place to live.

Halfway up a small rocky hill were two natural caves, providing independent space for each, and being spacious and deep, it was indeed a perfect hiding spot.

They found large rocks to block the cave entrances, making the hill look like an ordinary rocky hill.

Once settled in their chosen caves, Li Zhirui had some time to retrieve and review the Jade Slips Fu Chengguang gave him.

Thanks to his powerful Divine Sense now, the content of the Jade Slips was quickly comprehended.

He gained a basic understanding of this world.

Here, named the Ten Thousand Rivers Realm, the human race is powerful and dominates all other races. Internally, the human race lacks distinctions of Immortal Tao or Demonic Tao.

Instead, there are separations among orthodox, unorthodox, and heterodox paths—not determined by conduct, but by the upper limit of their Cultivation Techniques.

If cultivable to the Heavenly Immortal Realm, it's considered orthodox; to the Earth Immortal Realm, unorthodox; and those just to the Human Immortal Realm, heterodox.

Moreover, the human race in the Ten Thousand Rivers Realm has nine major orthodox paths, eighteen unorthodox paths, and seventy-two heterodox paths.

This doesn't mean only these exist, but named ones are leaders within similar powers.

Li Zhirui also learned they were now in the territory of the Ten Thousand Techniques Sect, one of the nine major orthodox paths.

However, Fu Chengguang's encounter with a Human Immortal didn't yield much foundational knowledge, which was not comprehensive or thorough enough.

As night fell, Li Zhirui sensed the Pills he sold being consumed by several cultivators, realizing those two had sold the 'precious' Pills rather than consuming them themselves.

Nonetheless, it worked to his advantage, allowing him to view and understand the world through more cultivators' perspectives.

Despite being heavily suppressed by the Heavenly Dao of this Realm, his Spiritual Soul's grade remained unaffected, so with his Profound Immortal Realm Divine Sense, a few Human Immortal Cultivators couldn't possibly notice.

Thus, Li Zhirui's actions became bolder, quietly spreading his influence to find any foundational knowledge content their Cave Mansions might contain.

Regrettably, with their current Cultivation, they no longer needed such knowledge.

Disappointed, he suddenly found several dusty Jade Slips in the corner of a cultivator's Cave Mansion bookshelf. Upon extending his Divine Sense into them, they held precisely the content Li Zhirui needed most!