The Secret Way of Immortality

"Hoo, hoo, hoo..."

The dim cave was crammed with countless refugees, a foul stench permeating the air, attracting swarms of flies.

Although it was the sweltering summer, the cave held an indescribable chill.

The refugees had no choice but to huddle together for warmth, occasionally glancing towards the cave entrance, seemingly fearing something, subconsciously lowering their breathing.

A century had passed since the Conferral of Gods, and no one knew when disaster would strike.

They didn't even know the reason for the disaster, only that they had to migrate north, which was now the refugees' only thought.

The tide of refugees traveled along the official road, and unknowingly, their numbers grew.

Most of them were young and middle-aged; typically, the elderly would voluntarily stay behind, allowing the disaster to take their lives.

The cave was deathly silent, but not out of despair, but rather a numbness from a life worse than death.

But even so, they still hadn't given up their last hope, perhaps their descendants could reach the safe areas in the north.

In a corner of the cave, children under the age of ten sat around the stone wall.

An old teacher stood before them, using chalk made of bone to scribble on the stone wall, teaching basic survival knowledge.

The children's eyes were fixed on the stone wall, not daring to be negligent, eagerly absorbing the content on the wall.

Time was really not sufficient; they probably only had five days left.

Every ten years, the refugee migration would find a secluded place to stop, mainly to teach the new generation survival knowledge.

Once the migration started, everyone had to perform their duties, and they were not allowed to speak on weekdays.

The old teacher's hand trembled slightly, then he drew a vague figure.

It was clear that the figure was a statue, and the surrounding refugees showed fear, and the children couldn't help but lower their heads, not daring to look directly at the mural.

The old teacher sighed and said in a hoarse voice, "Buddha, this is Buddha."

"If we encounter a Buddha, we must scatter immediately, and not be with too many people, lest we attract the Buddha's attention."

He spoke in a low voice, in the corner of the cave, not afraid of the sound spreading out.

A child raised his arm and asked with confusion, "Mom said that Buddhas are immortal gods who fell from the clouds, and mortals can't escape."

The old teacher hesitated, opened his mouth, shook his head and replied, "But the Buddha's appetite has an upper limit, they won't eat too many people at once, mortals, mortals..."

"Mortals have a chance, there must be a chance..."

The old teacher's pupils were dilated, and the children didn't quite understand.

They didn't even know whether the "chance" the old teacher was talking about referred to the chance to escape the pursuit, or the chance to change the status quo.

The children had no idea what life was like before the disaster broke out; they were already used to migrating, and they were not surprised even if their companions died.

The old teacher wiped the moisture from the corners of his eyes and continued, "Do not drink the water you see in the wild with your mouth, you must store it in the alien stomach for more than three days, do you hear?"

The children said in unison, and then lifted the clothes made of animal skins.

They had an extra stomach on their abdomen, with small holes at the upper end, which could directly pour water into it, which had a purification effect.

In addition, you can see many unusual organs.

For example, the children's pupils have membranes, which can be closed at any time like lizards, and their body hair grows slowly, but it is more fluffy, which can be used to resist the cold from the outside world.

The refugee groups also highly overlap, and it is difficult to imagine that they come from all over the world.

It is rare to see foreigners among them, perhaps because the environment is dangerous, leading to the refugees being screened over the past century.

As for the alienated organs, it can be clearly seen that they are acquired.

Most refugees have alienated organs, which are not formed by spells, but purely through the means of refining tools, forcibly combined with the fetus.

However, due to the reproduction of the fetus, the alienated organs were unexpectedly preserved.

It shows that a certain force once transformed mortals, so that they would not die too quickly in the disaster, delaying enough time.

The old teacher worked for several hours, and stopped teaching until the morning sun on the horizon showed its head, and the fiery red sunlight illuminated the ground.

He put away his chalk and staggered towards the animal skin tent.

The children also went home, and then they needed to help their families with work, and temporarily seal the entrance of the cave, so that the sun would not shine in.

As soon as the old teacher arrived in front of the tent, several young adults stopped him and said demandingly, "Mr. Zhang, please take a look at my child."

The leading man, named "Chen Ji," was a refugee who specialized in preparing insect repellent powder.

Insects are one of the most important food sources, and Chen Ji's status is naturally not low, even faintly higher than the old teacher.

The old teacher wanted to refuse, but couldn't resist the other party's pleading, so he had to get up and walk towards the animal skin tent near the south.

Candles were lit in the tent, and the entrance was covered with ghostly symbols.

Smoke and dust floated out of the cracks, emitting a strange smell unique to grease, as to whether it was corpse oil, you can only ask the hunter in charge of food.

The reason why candles are lit is mainly because in the refugees' understanding, people die like lights go out.

In order to ensure that the soul will not get lost, candles will be lit by the bedside to attract the souls lost on the road to the Yellow Springs to return.

If the patient is still not dead before the candle burns out, it means that his life should not be cut off.

The old teacher hesitated for a few breaths, then lifted the tent and crawled into the idea, the stench rushed to his nostrils, making his whole body goosebumps.

Lying in the tent was a skinny child, no more than six or seven years old.

He was trembling from the pain, his baby teeth had been crushed, and after seeing the old teacher, he barely squeezed out a smile.

The child thought the old teacher was here to send him to school.

"How is it?"

Chen Ji asked anxiously, but the old teacher was silent, then carefully lifted the quilt, revealing the child's swollen left leg.

I saw that the right leg was about three times the normal size, showing a bluish-purple color.

Silver needles were pierced on the inside of the knee to guide the pus to seep out, but it was not a permanent cure, at most it would delay the child's survival time.

Faces of Buddhas emerged on the right leg, seemingly constantly devouring the child's nutrients, causing him to be skinny.

"Sure enough, it is Buddha poison, and it is incurable."

"How could it be..."

The old teacher said solemnly, "It must have been caused by accidentally touching the black mist, the Buddha poison has been in the body for a long time, I am afraid it has penetrated into the bone marrow."

"The corpse must be burned as soon as possible, otherwise there may be Buddhas coming."

"Mr. Zhang, is it really that serious?"

"Yes."

The old teacher nodded, and then took out a sharp weapon to cut off the child's diseased right leg, the latter not only did not feel pain, but stopped wailing.

Pus gushed out, and the faces around the wound recited scriptures, which was creepy.

The old teacher explained to Chen Ji that the diseased right leg had to be treated separately, otherwise he would not be at peace after death, and the corpse would need to be burned for a long time.

"Wait a minute..."

"Hehehehehe."

A strange laugh came from outside, and then a strange old woman crawled in, her clothes were also very sloppy, and her head was full of dirt.

Her eyes were already blind, and she walked with a limp.

"Mad woman, I warn you, the Buddha poison is already in the internal organs."

The mad woman ignored the old teacher, staggered and knelt in front of the child, and then forcibly broke off the toenails of the diseased right leg and put them in her arms.

"I don't have the ability to save people, but the immortal gods can, absolutely can..."

The mad woman stared at the child's parents, her pure white pupils were creepy, and a mouthful of rotten teeth reflected a gloomy temperament.

The old teacher shook his head at Chen Ji, and the latter also understood that the witch was very unreliable.

The witch has been crazy, preaching that only immortal gods can save the world, constantly bewitching others to do dangerous things.

She once asked believers to set up altars and sacrifice the few remaining foods to the immortal gods.

As a result, the food was burned clean, but they did not see the so-called gift of the immortal gods at all.

Chen Ji was eager to save his son, and still opened his mouth and said, "Witch, what do you think, what to do?"

"Hehehehehe..."

The mad woman laughed strangely and danced, took out a pile of finger-sized stone statues from her arms, and carefully selected them.

The old teacher's face was livid, if the immortal gods were useful, they would not have migrated for a hundred years.

However, because of the mad woman's extremely strange behavior, the refugees were dubious about the saying of immortal gods, which had little impact on the order of the refugees.

The old teacher was not good at directly reminding, even if he punished the mad woman, as long as the disaster existed, new mad women would continue to be born.

They are a group of immortal seekers who escape reality, and are immersed in crazy fantasies every day.

"Found it, found it."

The mad woman showed excitement, holding the randomly carved statue in her hand, the appearance of the statue was distorted, and the facial features no longer existed.

"The North Star Lord will definitely let the child get rid of the disease."

The old teacher did not comment, in fact, there are quite a few people who believe in the North Star Lord, and even he himself would often kneel down, but just to seek peace of mind.

The mad woman cut open the child's right foot, so that blood was poured on the statue.

The child's face turned pale instantly, which was a manifestation of excessive blood loss, and the diseased right leg became more and more swollen, wriggling like a living thing.

"Hahahaha, the North Star Lord is watching you, the disaster is gone, the disaster is gone."

The number of people watching in the tent felt their scalps tingle, they wanted to stop it, but when they saw the mad woman's hands were covered in blood, they subconsciously stopped.

The ceremony lasted only five minutes, and ended only after the child died.

The mad woman wiped the dirt from the statue of the North Star Lord with her sleeves, her expression was like completing a great thing, full of piety.

Chen Ji lowered his head, too lazy to argue with the mad woman, picked up the child's body and walked out of the tent, preparing to burn it immediately.

Regardless of whether the mad woman intervened, the child's fate was already doomed.

From childhood to adulthood, they were instilled with the idea of suppressing negative emotions, it is said that Buddhas like to eat people who are deeply trapped in greed, anger, ignorance and hatred

Chen Ji just wanted to send his child on his last journey, hoping that he could be reincarnated safely in the north in the afterlife.

As for whether there is a disaster in the north, they naturally cannot know.

The cave was soon blocked, the sunlight was sealed outside, making the cave even more gloomy and humid, the refugees seemed to be evil spirits in it.

The old teacher was old and weak, and his energy was no longer enough, so he fell asleep.

According to the old teacher's instructions, Chen Ji came to the depths of the cave, where a place was specially designated to bury corpses.

Speaking of corpses, they are actually some bone fragments burned into ashes.

They put the powder in wooden boxes, buried them in the soil half a meter apart, and sprinkled insect repellent powder several times before leaving.

The flesh and blood of the corpses are used for hunting, and the dead also hope to let the living live better by this, and go to the north with their expectations.

Chen Ji tidied up the child's clothes, in front of him was a stove made of hollowed-out rocks.

He gently touched the stove with his palm and found that it was still warm, indicating that a corpse had just been reduced to ashes not long ago.

Chen Ji opened the stove and illuminated it with a candle he carried with him.

He noticed that there were residual bone powder from the previous corpse burning in the stove, so he put down the child's body and gathered the bone powder to the side.

Just as Chen Ji was busy with the corpse, he didn't notice the child's right leg twitching.

The huge right leg seemed to start shrinking, and the straw shoes automatically fell off because they didn't fit, which immediately frightened Chen Ji.

"What the hell?"

Chen Ji quickly bent down to check the corpse, and noticed that dense black hairs grew on the right leg, and it felt as hard as a needle when touched.

He didn't know why the corpse mutated, so he immediately took out a sharp butcher knife.

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Chen Ji tried to cut off the child's right leg with a butcher knife, but when the blade touched the corpse, it made a metallic collision sound.

His heart couldn't help but beat wildly, and a strange fear rushed to his mind.

Chen Ji is usually a calm and composed person, but now he became flustered, and even left the old teacher's instructions behind.

He lit the stove with a fire starter and put dung-made fuel into it.

Then the corpse was hastily stuffed into it, and the raging fire enveloped the inside of the stove, and the remaining water in the corpse was doing evil, causing it to crackle.

Chen Ji heavily closed the furnace door, looking at the corpse through the hole.

At this time, he regained his composure, and couldn't figure out why his emotions would suddenly get out of control, and his hair was completely soaked in sweat.

The corpse had not eaten for many days before his death, and in addition to his small size, the flesh quickly dissolved.

But Chen Ji was horrified to find that the right leg was still alive, and even the black hair was becoming more and more dense, how to say?

Like a sheep's hoof.

"Something big is going to happen..."

Chen Ji muttered to himself, then turned around and wanted to notify the patrolling militiamen, but chaotic noise had already come from the direction of the cave entrance.

He ran three steps and two steps, but knelt on the ground with a pale face after walking a few meters.

Bang bang bang...

Something heavy was hitting the entrance of the cave, and the elderly refugees collapsed and shouted, because they knew what this meant.

The Buddha is coming.

They were trapped in a narrow space, almost certain to die.

The entrance of the cave was plastered with mud and gravel, which was not strong in the first place, and was knocked open without giving the refugees time to react.

The dazzling sunlight shone in, and outside the cave was a strange statue.

The upper body of the statue is Buddha, and the lower body is a black goat, the two have no relationship and are forcibly connected together, which seems unusually disarming.

"Baa..."

A creepy bleating came.

The Buddha smiled, his smile was compassionate, and he slowly stepped into the cave with his hands clasped together.

A refugee collapsed on the road where the Buddha was walking, and was directly trampled into meat paste by the goat's hooves, and the sunlight reflected the blood all over the ground.

The picture is extremely absurd and strange.

"What Buddha, it's clearly a goat demon."

The militia leader, Wu Chu, in his early forties, gripped the large saber behind his back, trying to draw it, but his arms were devoid of strength.

Wu Chu watched the approaching Buddha, retreating continuously, one foot stepping into the bonfire.

He recalled fifteen years ago, when he had just joined the militia, on his first night on duty, he encountered an attack by a Buddha.

Wu Chu had fainted at the time, and when he woke up, all he saw was a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.

Everywhere were corpses that had been gnawed on. The Buddha was like a satiated wild wolf, only eating the prey's internal organs, abandoning the rest of the body.

There were not many surviving refugees, who later resumed their journey south.

Wu Chu vaguely remembered that he once had a wife who was several months pregnant, and when he found her body, her abdomen had already been emptied.

"Monster, monster, monster..."

Wu Chu roared in despair, barely regaining a bit of courage under the scorching heat.

He drew the long saber from his back and stumbled towards the Buddha, as if rehearsing a scene in his mind over and over again.

The long saber was extremely sharp, and the firelight reflected a three-foot-long cold gleam. Crude internal force was applied to his body, causing Wu Chu to burst out with power and speed that even a martial artist realm cultivator would find difficult to possess.

In an instant, the nearby refugees all focused their attention on Wu Chu.

Clang!

They were too eager to see someone stand up. The fear and pressure accumulated from generations of escape over hundreds of years were beyond words.

The Buddha did not defend at all, and Wu Chu's large saber forcefully slashed at its neck.

Wu Chu's arm was aching, but what greeted him was the shattering of his ancestral saber. A blade fragment cut across his cheek, leaving a deep wound that revealed bone.

However, the pain of the wound on his cheek was nothing compared to the piercing pain in his waist.

The Buddha merely waved its hand, and Wu Chu was cut in half at the waist like a broken rag doll, with blood raining down.

Even the militia leader had easily lost his life, so how could the others have the courage to face it? They all scrambled to escape the confines of the cave.

But the cave was a dead end, and the only chance of survival was behind the Buddha.

All the refugees who approached the Buddha became fragmented pieces. The team of nearly ten thousand people suffered dozens of casualties in an instant, and the stench of blood was extremely pungent.

The crows' cries rang out outside the cave, foretelling that death was approaching.

Chen Ji was dumbfounded, completely unable to believe that the trouble he had caused would lead to his companions losing their lives in the narrow cave.

He had thought about dying like Wu Chu, but his legs were frozen in place, unable to move.

Chen Ji also heard that the sheep hooves in the stove seemed to want to break free. The brass furnace door had been kicked out of shape, and the flames were distorted.

"Hehehehe, the celestial gods will protect believers, and evil spirits cannot approach."

The madwoman's strange laughter was particularly jarring amidst the cries. She held up the statue of the Arctic Star Lord and walked through the corpses, watering them with blood.

She was like an alternative protector, constantly repeating the same actions.

A startling thing happened. The Buddha suddenly stopped moving, tilting its head to look at the statue of the Arctic Star Lord.

The refugees leaned against the rock wall, their eyes filled with suspicion.

For more than a decade, the madwoman's behavior had been extremely strange. If it weren't for the refugees who were wary of the celestial gods providing for her, the madwoman would have starved to death long ago.

However, unlike in the past, the madwoman's expression showed no signs of madness.

After regaining her sanity, she pinched her fingers in a Daoist gesture, exuding a trace of transcendence, and there was no trace of her past foolishness.

The madwoman opened her mouth in the form of a ballad, saying: "The Big Dipper of the Northern Sky, divides Yin and Yang, establishes the four seasons, balances the five elements, shifts the seasons, and determines the epochs."

She repeated it over and over again, and the refugees spontaneously joined in, the cave echoing with the praise of the Arctic Star Lord.

The Buddha straightened its head, ignored the madwoman's clumsy performance, and continued to approach the crowd unhurriedly.

The refugees rarely spoke because they were afraid that the sound would attract disaster, but now they were roaring hoarsely.

The madwoman held the statue covered in blood stains and walked straight towards the Buddha.

The Buddha stretched out its arm and grabbed the madwoman's head. As its fingers slowly closed, blood flowed from the madwoman's facial features.

But the madwoman was still chanting: "The Big Dipper of the Northern Sky, divides Yin and Yang, establishes the four seasons, balances the five elements, shifts..."

Crack, crack, crack.

The skull was overwhelmed, and the madwoman's head had become deformed.

The refugees were silent again. Wu Chu's body was still lying not far away, seemingly mocking them for doing useless things.

Just as the madwoman was about to die, the statue fell into the pool of blood at her feet.

The warm blood caused the statue to shed its blood stains, revealing its true appearance, the legendary celestial god of the Heavenly Court, the "Arctic Star Lord."

The crows stopped crowing, scrambling to get away from the cave.

With just a hair's breadth of time, the madwoman's head was about to explode, but the Buddha's arm was the first to droop weakly.

The statue transformed into a figure, almost filling the space inside the cave.

Its body stood on one leg, its torso composed of various colors, and the Buddha's head was broken off by it, eventually disappearing into the distorted and disordered light.

The madwoman, ignoring her splitting headache, kowtowed repeatedly.

"The Arctic Star Lord is above!!!"

The refugees woke up from their dream, shouting the name of the Arctic Star Lord.

The figure re-sealed the cave, and cleaned up the sheep hooves that might bring danger, then turned back into a lifeless statue.

The madwoman became mad and crazy again, saying vague words: "The celestial gods of the Heavenly Court have returned to their positions, and the disaster will eventually go away!!!"

Chen Ji collapsed to the ground, his back covered in bruises, obviously using himself to block in front of the stove, not letting the sheep hooves escape.

They could not tell whether what the madwoman said was true or false, but they were more willing to believe that the darkness they were currently experiencing was just before dawn.

Soon the refugees spontaneously began to carve statues of the Arctic Star Lord, nourishing them with fingertip blood every few days, and continued to move north.

The apparition of the Arctic Star Lord's statue was naturally the descent of Ren An's fungal soul.

After the fungal soul, which had reached the Perfection of the Heavenly Guile Realm, descended into the outside world, it displayed only the strength of the Yin Messenger Realm, and only lasted for a few breaths.

Ren An could not control the situation of the refugees. When he killed the demonic Buddha, he was also taking the opportunity to investigate the outside world, what exactly was the so-called disaster.

He could only be sure of two things.

The Supreme Heavenly Demon, who possessed a weakness after seizing the body of the Buddha Dipamkara, unexpectedly did not fall in the siege of many Buddhas of Buddhism.

The disaster was definitely related to the Supreme Heavenly Demon and had already swept through this world.

Ren An undoubtedly hoped that the Supreme Heavenly Demon would fall, the destructiveness that Buddhism brought to this world was definitely not as terrifying as the Supreme Heavenly Demon.

Although Buddhism was insane, it was not actually within the scope of the Turbid Guile Two Immortals.

But the Supreme Heavenly Demon was a genuine Turbid Immortal, it would not be an exaggeration to say that he was the first Turbid Immortal under the Three Dao Ancestors.

"What the hell is Buddhism doing? How can they lose even with the Tathagata fruit position?"

Ren An took a long breath of cold air. He originally thought that if Buddhism took action, the Supreme Heavenly Demon would either die or lose a layer of skin, but the result was unexpectedly that the guest became the host.

Also, Wuming should have noticed the secret of the Supreme Heavenly Demon in advance, causing him to give up the Old Man Under the Moon and actively become a Heavenly Demon.