"I wouldn't say that, it's just that the two of us are a bit special."
"Hmph, I don't care how special you are. Now that you've fallen into your hands, give me a quick death."
"That's not quite right. I presume you are the Great Evolution Divine Lord from back then? If so, then this matter is still worth discussing."
"Hmph, so what? I've held on here for nearly ten thousand years. That last attack exhausted my last breath. I only have a few decades left to live. What can you do to me?"
"Senior's soul is indeed extremely weak right now. But it's not beyond saving, is it?"
"Save your breath, kid. The dissipation of your soul is due to the suppression of the laws of heaven and earth. What can you do about it?"
"I believe that cultivators always defy the heavens. How could a cultivator of your caliber submit to the will of heaven?"
"It's not about surrendering, but about the limitations of human strength. If I were at my peak, defying fate wouldn't be impossible. But I'm just a remnant soul; how can I defy fate?"
"If I told you that I possess a secret technique capable of reuniting your scattered soul fragments, the process would be extremely dangerous. The reunion of your soul would attract the attention of extraterrestrial demons. The peril is no less than a tribulation of inner demons. Would you dare to try, senior?"
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Chapter 529 Lu Xuan's Business Alliance
The process of summoning back the soul of the Great Evolution God was neither a failure nor a success. The main issue was that soul summoning in the cultivation world often involved events from thousands or tens of thousands of years ago, which was far beyond the scope of any soul summoning technique.
Even with Lu Xuan's current cultivation level and his improvements to the Summoning Technique, he is far superior to the old wizard in the novel *Zhu Xian*, and even surpasses the Beast God. However, the span of nearly ten thousand years is still too exaggerated.
The entire soul-summoning ceremony brought with it hundreds of extraterrestrial demons of various levels. If it weren't for Old Demon Han's own exorcising divine thunder, the presence of Lu Xuan, and the assistance of the demons who had signed a demon contract with Lu Xuan, the Great Evolution Divine Lord would have been possessed on the spot.
And so, after a battle of souls, they only managed to reclaim a portion of his divine soul, barely enough to allow the Great Evolution God to continue living.
Even so, the Great Evolution Divine Lord was already quite satisfied. The fact that he had managed to endure nearly ten thousand years in this cave demonstrated his absolute will to survive. Who would willingly choose to die if they could live?
"Wow, amazing! I never imagined that such a secret technique would appear in the cultivation world during the years I was gone."
Han Laomo, standing to the side, scoffed speechlessly after hearing this. He considered himself to have some knowledge, but in all his years of cultivation, he had never seen a secret technique that could reunite a dissipated soul. It was probably a unique inheritance of the Hidden Immortal Sect of this Sect Master Lu.
"Alright, you've helped me reunite my soul, so I've done you a favor. I'll give you the Great Evolution Technique and all my lifelong experience with puppetry."
Lu Xuan and Han Li naturally accepted these items without hesitation. After all, they had come specifically for them.
"What are your plans after you escaped this predicament, senior?"
When Lu Xuan asked about this, the Great Evolution Divine Lord immediately deflated. He knew his luck was actually quite good. He had encountered two kind-hearted cultivators who not only didn't extract his soul and refine his spirit, but also used some kind of miraculous secret technique to help him.
However, his soul was still extremely weak, and it was a permanent weakness. After all, the soul could only be strengthened through cultivation. But if the root was damaged, it could not be restored. Even the soul-summoning technique only restored a portion of it.
"What else can I do? Since I am no longer threatened with death, I will naturally try to recover completely. At the very least, I will possess a body and return to the cultivation world."
"A injury to one's very soul is no simple matter. There are currently no examples in the cultivation world of anyone who has recovered from such a injury. Senior, do you have any thoughts on this?"
"To be honest, not yet. However, back then, I was able to create the powerful divine soul technique of the Great Evolution Technique, and I was also able to create a second secret technique for repairing the divine soul. I am the Great Evolution Divine Lord."
"It's good that you have confidence, senior. However, developing a brand new secret technique still requires a lot of resources. If you don't mind, you can come to my Hidden Immortal Sect. My sect has all kinds of resources, let alone anything else. It can definitely meet your needs."
"Hahaha, kid. I knew you'd come to a place like this. But it doesn't matter, I have nowhere else to go anyway. You're a straightforward guy, it's not bad to follow you. But this kid over there is no ordinary person either. Those flying swords of his are made of Golden Thunder Bamboo, right? Tsk tsk, so much Golden Thunder Bamboo, this kid's luck is simply heaven-defying."
"Fellow Daoist Han is naturally an outstanding individual. Since we've come this far, I'll get to the point. Brother Han, would you be willing to join my Hidden Immortal Sect and serve as an elder? Rest assured, we won't force you to do anything. Just lend a helping hand when the sect is in crisis. In return, you'll have access to all kinds of cultivation resources."
Upon hearing this, Han Li instinctively wanted to refuse. However, after some thought, he ultimately agreed. The main reason Han Li had always been a loner was that he possessed the Heavenly Bottle and dared not let anyone know. Secondly, it was a matter of personality. But now he had met someone who didn't care about his secret and whose strength far surpassed his own. He felt that joining the other person's sect and settling down wouldn't be a problem.
"Very well, then it's settled."
As Lu Xuan spoke, he took out an incense burner made of divine soul wood and invited the Great Evolution Divine Lord to go in and rest.
"Ten-thousand-year-old Divine Soul Wood, this is a good thing!" Without saying a word, the Great Evolution Divine Lord transformed into a wisp of green smoke and went inside to recover his energy.
The exploration of the Great Evolution Divine Lord's cave was complete. Although this wasn't his actual cave, the Thousand Bamboo Sect had long since declined. It was estimated that the Great Evolution Divine Lord's remaining wealth had already been squandered. The three had no interest in causing trouble for the Thousand Bamboo Sect and returned directly to the Southern Continent.
Upon his return, Han Laomo planned to go into seclusion for cultivation. In his younger days, he had been a loner, with enemies everywhere, and always had to be extremely cautious during his seclusion. Now that he had found an organization, things were naturally much easier. Lu Xuan's influence, with Wei Wuyai's help, was still quite effective.
Lu Xuan himself also transferred a group of disciples from the Chaotic Star Sea. He established a branch of the Hidden Immortal Sect in Tiannan. Old Demon Han began his secluded cultivation directly at the Hidden Immortal Sect branch.
Since it was impossible for Lu Xuan to advance directly to the Nascent Soul stage in a short period of time, he turned his attention to studying the Great Evolution Divine Lord's Great Evolution Technique and Puppet Technique.
The puppetry skills in the human realm have limited potential. Most puppets possess combat power at the Foundation Establishment stage. A puppet capable of reaching the Golden Core stage becomes a strategic weapon for a sect. As for puppets at the Nascent Soul stage, they are practically nonexistent.
However, the genius Dayan Divine Lord possessed his own theory of puppetry and developed a puppet technique with a theoretical upper limit of reaching the late Nascent Soul stage. Unfortunately, he spent his entire life failing to acquire all the necessary materials, ultimately hindering his cultivation and preventing him from advancing to the Divine Transformation stage, ultimately leaving him with only a divine soul.
However, just because the Great Evolution Divine Lord couldn't do it doesn't mean Lu Xuan couldn't. Over the past century, Lu Xuan's Hidden Immortal Sect's business in the Chaotic Star Sea has long since expanded beyond mere protection or the sale of talisman puppets. Lu Xuan has established a commercial system covering the entire Chaotic Star Sea.
Simply put, in the original novel of *A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality*, Han Laomo's most frequent activity wasn't running dungeons, but attending various auctions. Almost every map had an auction, and Han Laomo always managed to get what he wanted—a testament to his incredible luck.
But now, Lu Xuan is the mastermind behind organizing these auctions. He controls 80% of the auctions in the entire Chaotic Star Sea.
For Lu Xuan, the greatest value of the auction wasn't actually the commission he could earn, but rather the information advantage. After all, the auction house owner was the first to have access to all the auction items. Therefore, Lu Xuan was able to know about any good items immediately. Consequently, many truly valuable items were already traded privately before even reaching the auction stage.
This is the real purpose behind Lu Xuan's organizing of the auction.
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Chapter 530 Ultimate Puppet
Lu Xuan made a forceful move and regained control of the teleportation array leading to the Chaotic Star Sea. The Mulan people, who were currently recuperating, had no intention of risking their lives against a powerful cultivator for this teleportation array. They quickly withdrew from the valley, leaving the teleportation array unattended.
Lu Xuan was able to return to the Chaotic Star Sea and use his business network to find the materials he needed.