The Secret Way of Immortality

Ren Qing closed his eyes, feeling the blood energy of the Ancestral Vein circulating through his eight extraordinary meridians, gradually nourishing his flesh, bones, and skeleton.

Unknowingly, his body size had already caught up with the immortal god's corpse, and it hadn't stopped growing, continuing to expand.

For the cultivators, the most direct impact of the Ancestral Vein was the "Dust Wyrm."

The so-called "Dust Wyrm" was their name for the phenomenon after Ren Qing's transformation into a Primordial Dragon. At this time, the environment of each cave would become extremely dry, and the vegetation and rocks would show signs of sandification.

The cultivators themselves were unaffected, but their bodies inevitably showed signs of withering, while their lifespan did not decrease at all.

According to their observations, this was mainly because the skin aged too quickly.

Whether it was vegetation, rocks, or the skin of cultivators, they would eventually turn into dust and scatter within the cave, or even in the void.

After being affected by Ren Qing's Ancestral Vein, the dust formed miniature wyrms, possessing an obsessive greed for the flesh and blood of living beings.

The wyrms parasitized the cultivators' bodies, growing stronger by absorbing nutrients.

If the number of wyrms was small, it would be harmless to the cultivators, but once the wyrms reached the body's limit, even those in the Heavenly Gu Realm could not withstand the greedy wyrms.

Fortunately, if handled properly, the Dust Wyrms could be avoided.

Or, after Ren Qing finished his seclusion, the wyrms in the air would turn back into dust, and the wyrms parasitizing the body could be expelled.

Boom!!!

The roar of magical artifacts sounded.

Strange-looking sand boats traveled through the void, and one could see the cabins filled with various cultivators, using this to shield themselves from the Dust Wyrms.

The entrances and exits of the sand boats were located at the bottom, and the outer decks were also removed, making the whole thing look like a closed honeycomb, which was extremely strange.

But the function of the sand boats was still very obvious, making travel between the caves very convenient.

The sand boats were docked next to the town pier of the Mortar Cave, and dozens of cultivators left, riding their magical artifacts, while others boarded the boats one after another.

The ships had destination signs, and sand boats went to even remote caves.

The Mortar Cave was now the trade center of the Immortal Forbidden Zone, and the resources collected by the cultivators would eventually flow into the towns under Mu Yi's jurisdiction.

The Warden Hall was like a gold-devouring beast, using the renewable resources in its stomach world to exchange for precious resources in the Immortal Forbidden Zone.

Heavenly Gu Realm cultivators were usually stuck in the Dharma Manifestation stage, unable to improve their cultivation further. Having more resources was useless, so it was better to exchange them for protective magical artifacts and pills.

The Yang God Realm cultivators were even worse. It was difficult for them to protect themselves in the Immortal Forbidden Zone.

They lived almost day to day, and in order to be safe, they could only choose to stay in the Mortar Cave, honestly earning blood crystals, hoping to break through their bottlenecks.

So, in the end, the Warden Hall was the one who benefited. Each branch was overflowing with wealth, and even ordinary cultivators got a share.

With the help of the Earth Immortal resources, Mu Yi's cultivation improved by leaps and bounds.

She naturally reached the edge of the Yang God Realm's ascension ladder, and was currently preparing to comprehend the ascension method, laying the foundation for the Heavenly Gu Realm.

Other Yang God Realm cultivators, even if they also had inexhaustible Earth Immortal resources, could not compare with Mu Yi. After all, the Mortar Cave's elixirs were very suitable for the Jianmu Technique.

Xiao Yan glanced obscurely at the town where the cultivators gathered, and then boarded the sand boat heading to the Fire Virtue Cave.

He had the qualifications for Dream City, so he naturally knew what the Heavenly Court was up to.

They were reaping the endless wealth of the Immortal Forbidden Zone almost by empty-handed tricks, and then growing like maggots on a corpse.

These days, Heavenly Court cultivators were breaking through bottlenecks like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, completing a path that would normally take decades in just a few years.

Xiao Yan could not stop the Heavenly Court, because the Immortal Forbidden Zone originally belonged to them, and the Polaris Monarch was sitting in the void.

No matter what the result of the Investiture of the Gods was, the Polaris Monarch would definitely become an immortal and attain the Dao, representing that they had indeed found the reason for the severance of the immortal path.

Moreover, Xiao Yan was actually a beneficiary. Relying on buying and selling, the blood crystals he earned each month were enough to support his cultivation.

Many inheritors who had obtained the incense immortal's inheritance had become accustomed to their current lives.

They had completely become a part of the Heavenly Court's precise machine, temporarily giving up searching for immortal positions and working hard for "blood crystals."

Xiao Yan thought very clearly that blood crystals were a currency that only circulated in the Heavenly Court.

The value of blood crystals was indeed high. They could be used to buy shops in Dream City, as well as a wide variety of spells, protective and powerful magical artifacts...

But invisibly, they had already fallen deeply into the Heavenly Court's net.

Even for blood crystals, it was difficult for them to escape the comfort zone created by the Heavenly Court.

Xiao Yan didn't want to continue. He still had to return to the Burning Land to rescue his clansmen. There must be a difference in the flow of time in the Immortal Forbidden Zone. Perhaps decades had passed outside.

The days left for him were not many...

Xiao Yan felt a pang of urgency. If he couldn't achieve the Fire Virtue Monarch as soon as possible, and his clansmen died one after another, even if he became an immortal and attained the Dao, could he really revive them, but would they still be the same person?

Crack, crack, crack.

The sand boat made a sound of being overwhelmed.

However, when the magical artifact was operating at its limit, the whole body was covered by unique patterns, and the trend of collapse disappeared.

The sand boat soared into the sky, ignoring the overwhelming Dust Wyrms, broke through the constraints of the cave, and rushed into the vast and boundless void.

Looking from the ground to the void, the dots of Dust Wyrms were like a galaxy, but only by observing at close range could one know how creepy it was.

The wyrms were only the size of a fingernail, but they exuded a terrifying aura, as if the Polaris Monarch, as the source, had already become an immortal and attained the Dao.

Xiao Yan was looking at the sand boat. Even though he had ridden it several times, he still had to marvel at the ingenuity of the magical artifact's structure.

The Burning Land was good at refining weapons and pills, but its main direction was completely different from that of the Heavenly Court. The Burning Land was more orthodox.

They burned materials to stimulate their properties and then fused them together.

The Heavenly Court was the opposite. It seemed to prefer refining magical artifacts into flesh and blood creatures, and developing pills into containers containing medicinal properties.

The sand boat was the best example, called a "Womb Artifact" by the Warden Hall. It had basic intelligence and was said to have its own unique promotion route.

The sand boat Xiao Yan was currently riding was a Nether Transformation Realm-level Womb Artifact.

According to the information he gathered from Dream City, the Heavenly Court had already refined Yang God Realm Womb Artifacts. He didn't know if there were any Immortal Guest-level ones.

He was very interested in Womb Artifacts, but the Womb Artifact Refining Method was extremely difficult to master.

Engraving the moon patterns on the magical artifact required a long period of research and practice, and also cost blood crystals, so he later gave up on the Womb Artifact Refining Method.

However, compared to the weapon refining method, the Heavenly Court's pill refining technique was completely another extreme.

Thinking of this, Xiao Yan took out a glazed pill.

His expression became complicated, feeling incredible about the rough refining method, but also feeling that it contained the rules of the Great Dao being simple.

The Heavenly Court's alchemists were a bunch of weirdos.

When refining pills, they first had to refine a hard shell, and then put the materials that stimulated the medicinal properties inside, allowing the medicinal properties to react.

While Xiao Yan was thinking, the sand boat came to the sky above the Fire Virtue Cave after a jolt, and the scorching temperature immediately rushed towards him.

The Fire Virtue Cave, transformed by the Fire Virtue Monarch, was completely an ocean shrouded in magma, and the scorching temperature made the air crackle.

Among the many caves, the Fire Virtue Cave was considered the most dangerous. Even those in the Heavenly Gu Realm could not touch the high temperature inside.

Even the Warden Hall had to rely on fire-resistant puppets to explore the Fire Virtue Cave, and they needed to be re-trained every three months.

If one wanted to obtain an immortal position, they had to go deep into the magma, and they would probably die and their souls would be destroyed.

In addition to the high temperature, there were no strange objects in the Fire Virtue Cave, so there was no need to worry about encountering other dangers.

However, as Ren Qing began to cultivate the Ancestral Vein, the situation in the Fire Virtue Cave seemed to have changed again, and he didn't know what dangers were hidden.

The hull of the ship shook violently, and the sand boat flew around the Fire Virtue Cave.

The sand boat had no cultivator driving it, and it went on its own purely by the intelligence of the sand boat. Since the Fire Virtue Cave was a relatively unpopular cave, and Xiao Yan was the only one on this trip, the vessel spirit was somewhat dissatisfied when it saw that the former was slow to move.

"I'm going, isn't it okay if I go."

Xiao Yan showed a wry smile, swallowed the pill in his hand, and then walked to the exit of the sand boat, waiting for the hatch to open.

The pill he swallowed was called "Heat Repellent", which was expensive in Dream City.

The expense lied in the fact that the raw materials were all produced in the Mortar Cave, but the Heavenly Court was already studying transplanting herbs, and he didn't know if it would be effective.

The pills of the Burning Land were usually vaporized directly into the body, and the medicinal properties were relatively mild, requiring a long time to absorb, so some would evaporate.

But the pills of the Heavenly Court were different.

After the Heat Repellent Pill fell into Xiao Yan's stomach, it was still in a solid, glazed state.

Xiao Yan used a spell to peel off the surface, and the medicinal properties inside instantly boiled, like a bomb being ignited in his body.

His face was flushed, and then wisps of cold air came out of his pores.

The most ingenious thing about the Heavenly Court's pills was that the range of the pill's release was maintained in the stomach, so that no medicinal properties would be lost.

Of course, the premise was that the stomach had to withstand the impact of the pill, otherwise it was likely that one would die after taking the pill.

Xiao Yan had thought about earning blood crystals in Dream City using the Burning Land's pill refining technique, but later found that the Heavenly Court cultivators didn't buy it at all.

The pill refining technique of the Burning Land had been passed down for thousands of years, and it was said to have been left by the Fire Virtue Monarch, but it was still ridiculed by the Heavenly Court cultivators as an old-fashioned pill refining technique.

Xiao Yan thought about it and somewhat agreed. After all, the bodies of cultivators above the Yang God Realm were like steel, and it was impossible to be severely injured by pills.

The Heavenly Court's low-level cultivators generally practiced the Gluttony Method, and their stomachs could be considered magical artifacts, able to withstand pills of the same realm.

But he still couldn't figure it out. Did he have to create some trouble during cultivation?

Why not try to remove the drawbacks of the pills?

Xiao Yan wanted to refine pills himself, but the materials sold in Dream City were different, and he had to re-study the pill recipes.

He endured the pain and jumped down from the exit of the sand boat.

The sand boat made a neighing sound, consciously using its body to stir up a gale, obviously retaliating against Xiao Yan's slowness, wanting to make the latter fall faster.

Xiao Yan cursed a few times, dodged the gale sideways, and fell towards the island in the magma.

The medicinal effect of the Heat Repellent Pill evaporated extremely quickly in the Fire Virtue Cave. Even if the people of the Burning Land had a fire attribute physique, they had to swallow a Heat Repellent Pill every ten days or so.

Xiao Yan's preparations allowed him to stay in the Fire Virtue Cave for about ten years.

If he couldn't find an immortal position, he could only return to the Mortar Cave to accumulate blood crystals, and he didn't know when he would be able to break into the Fire Virtue Cave again.

Thinking of this, Xiao Yan took a deep breath, using the stinging pain in his lungs to calm himself down.

Compared to the cultivators, he was definitely the most likely to refine the Fire Virtue Monarch, mainly because he had to ensure that there would be no accidents.

Xiao Yan then landed heavily on the ground, and the cracks covering the island spewed flames, causing the entire island to fall into chaos.

He didn't panic because of this. He closed his eyes and operated his spells to suppress the fire around him, and incidentally remove the Dust Wyrms from his flesh and bones.

The people of the Burning Land were born from the fire mother and died from the fire mother. They were a race born to worship the Fire Virtue Monarch, and they were born to control flames.

Newborn children had the ability to spit flames.

They didn't even need breast milk, and they could maintain their daily consumption by absorbing the temperature emitted by the flames.

Xiao Yan closed his eyes, and his Taoist robe turned to ashes, and flames formed a long robe.

The content of the Apotheosis Technique was engraved in his heart, and he took the initiative to communicate with the incense immortal, causing spider web-like cracks to appear on the surface of his skin.

As the cracks expanded, Xiao Yan completely turned into a fire giant.

The temperature on the surface of the Fire Virtue Cave no longer troubled Xiao Yan. He became the one with the deepest Apotheosis Technique among all the inheritors.

Xiao Yan showed pride, and the worries in his heart disappeared.

He didn't believe that there were cultivators in the world who could cultivate fire techniques to such an extent, and he also possessed the Apotheosis Technique of the Hearth God.

"At most five years, I will be able to completely adapt to the temperature of the Fire Virtue Cave..."

"I just hope, there is still time."

Xiao Yan's strength should have transcended the scope of the Dharma Manifestation stage, barely reaching the Dao Manifestation stage, which was the initial control of the immortal body.

He couldn't help but operate the Apotheosis Technique, allowing the incense energy to flow continuously in his dantian.

Xiao Yan's body swelled again, completely composed of seven or eight meters of flames, and he could see a faint golden armor, which was seven or eight points similar to the Hearth God in his stomach world.

He canceled the Apotheosis Technique, stepped on the magma, and walked towards the depths of the cave.

It could be seen that Ren Qing's perfected Apotheosis Technique did have the shadow of an immortal position, at least it could transform into an incense immortal similar to an immortal body.

It was a pity that the foundation of the incense immortal in the stomach world was too shallow, otherwise the power would be even greater.

The closer Xiao Yan got to the hinterland of the Fire Virtue Cave located on the surface, the more confident he became. The flames around him seemed to be tamed beasts, appearing extremely docile.

He only needed to steadily adapt to the temperature, and at the same time use incense energy to temper his body and soul. Swimming in the magma was only a matter of time.

Just as Xiao Yan had traveled hundreds of miles and approached the head of the Fire Virtue Monarch.

Suddenly, his pupils shrank, and he saw an eight-armed man sitting cross-legged on the top of the volcano.

The body of more than ten meters was surrounded by dark gold flames, and the aura was like substance, as if it were an immortal god in charge of flames.

What surprised Xiao Yan the most was that the flames in the cave were avoiding the man, as if they were afraid of the latter, forming a vacuum zone of ten meters nearby.

"Heavenly Court..."

Song Zongwu suddenly opened his eyes, and his sharp gaze looked at Xiao Yan, who subconsciously retreated a few steps, his tense muscles tightening.

Xiao Yan soon did not notice Song Zongwu's hostility.

But Xiao Yan felt a sense of suffocation. With just one glance, he almost lost his courage. Could it be that the gap between the two was so great?

Xiao Yan raised his spell aura and walked quickly towards Song Zongwu's direction.

Song Zongwu completely ignored Xiao Yan, simply squatted down slightly, and the surrounding ground began to sink, then disappeared.

“This…”

Xiao Yan opened his mouth wide, watching Song Zongwu turn into a meteor, heavily crashing into the sea of fire composed of magma.

Flames surged, and magma splashed out, causing the worms in the air to retreat.

Bang!!!

Song Zongwu plunged headfirst into the magma, a faint karmic fire covering his body, frantically devouring the flames within the Fire Virtue Cave.

Xiao Yan's face was livid, wanting to follow Song Zongwu, but after only a few steps, his flesh emitted an unbearable sizzling sound.

Karmic fire belongs to the manifestation of the Heavenly Dao, something that even the Fire Virtue Star Lord cannot compare to.

Song Zongwu, relying on the karmic fire, could walk on flat ground in the Fire Virtue Cave, a feat that Xiao Yan couldn't match even if he tried.

Of course, his Ascension Dharma's control over karmic fire was not without its drawbacks.

In fact, the longer he used karmic fire, the more likely it was to cause his body and soul to mutate, but it had been suppressed by the Physical Body Tathagata earlier.

The main reason Song Zongwu dared to venture deep into the cave alone was because he could return to the stomach world at any time through the Immortal Key.

If he couldn't hold on, he would go to the Asura Grotto to recuperate, and not long ago, he had used this to temper his body and soul many times, and now his realm had stabilized.

No matter how much ambition Xiao Yan had, it was useless, and he remained silent as he looked at the scalding magma.

The Moonlight Cave was even more lively, with a large number of cultivators gathered inside, making the originally quiet cave extremely noisy.

After all, the Old Man Under the Moon was different from other immortal positions, and the core elements were relatively vague.

Many cultivators felt that there was an opportunity to take advantage of, so they set off for the Moonlight Cave, and the number had unknowingly reached seven or eight hundred people.

The environment of the Moonlight Cave was very special, the whole was like a smooth mirror, and any movement would be reflected by the rules of the cave.

If you stomped on the ground, the same force would be reflected back to yourself.

If you cast spells in the Moonlight Cave, then you must withstand the same attack as the spell, and if you are not careful, you may suffer heavy damage.

Hundreds of cultivators in the Moonlight Cave were very honest, completely living as mortals.

Of course, they could not cultivate either, after all, once they were possessed, their body and soul would suffer double damage, and they might die as a result.

Because there was no fighting, the Moonlight Cave became unusually harmonious.

The cultivators walked in groups on the mirror surface, and although they had the same purpose, they were not at all defensive, walking towards the mouth and nose of the Old Man Under the Moon.

Some people's legs were already bloody.

This was not caused by fighting, but the result of going all out to get to the mouth and nose as soon as possible at the beginning, and their feet were injured by the counter-shock.

Back and forth, the leading distance was quickly narrowed, and everything was useless.

The cultivators knew that the Moonlight Cave was a test of endurance and mental state, so they deliberately closed their minds and allowed their instincts to rush to the mouth and nose.

They only needed to determine the winner in a hundred years, but suddenly they noticed the aura of spells.

The cultivators looked up in unison and found that colorful light and shadows flashed by, seemingly landing a dozen miles away.

They couldn't care less and quickly increased the speed of their steps.

True Dream stood still, and in an instant, his flesh and blood had disappeared, leaving only a light and shadow giant more than ten meters tall.

He used the angle of his double pupils to examine the reality of the Old Man Under the Moon.

The Old Man Under the Moon was indeed involved with the Matchmaker Immortal, and he didn't expect Ren Qing to actually strip the immortal position away, who knows how he did it.

While True Dream was thinking, the arriving cultivators had already reached nearby.

They looked at the unscrupulous True Dream, seeming at a loss, and felt that the latter's style was not affected at all.

“True dream, who is first to awaken? In life, I know myself.”

True Dream sighed, and a rich dream aura was exposed without reservation.

But he was different, True Dream did not have a physical body at all, and his mutated body had great resistance to dream spells.

One cultivator after another fell to the ground, and they were immediately sent to the deep dream.

When they woke up, True Dream might have already obtained the immortal position of the Old Man Under the Moon, and the grand ambitions in their hearts were just a dream.

“True dream, who is first to awaken? In life, I know myself.”

True Dream hummed a strange tune, walking through the cave as if on flat ground, his thoughts returning to the time when he was fighting for the Yang God Realm.

It seemed that since he met Ren Qing, cultivation had become too smooth.

From many perspectives, the entry of the two was actually a mixture of advantages and disadvantages.

When two whale sharks were mixed into the school of fish, the stagnant water would inevitably become turbid, and a new round of competition for immortal positions was about to begin.

Ren Qing obscurely watched the two elders.

The hidden dangers in the cave were closely related to the Heavenly Dao of the immortal position, the Fire Virtue Star Lord and the Old Man Under the Moon were ordinary Strange Immortals, and with their strength, they shouldn't crash.

On the contrary, immortal positions such as the Earth Immortal of Fortune and Virtue and the Lunar Star Lord were more severely affected by the Heavenly Dao, and the dangers they encountered would be terrifying.

Ren Qing estimated that it would take about two hundred years before the immortal positions could be successively determined by their owners.

【Do you want to advance to One Life Two, which will consume 40,000 years of lifespan】

Ren Qing continued to advance the Derivation Ancestor Vein, which had just reached Dao Gives Birth to One not long ago, and would be able to complete all spells in the Heavenly Strange Realm in a few years.

The immortal body of the Derivation Ancestor Vein was a dragon ancestor of thousands of meters, and the abilities it displayed were already beginning to show, the effect was similar to the Dragon Roar in the Box, but it was even more domineering.

In the case of Ren Qing incarnating as the dragon ancestor, he could awaken all things into dragon beasts.

The most important thing was that the dragon beasts awakened by the dragon ancestor also inherited the Dragon Roar in the Box, which could allow the dragon blood descendants to spread out like a plague.

Coupled with Corpse Fengdu's No Life for the Dead, it was difficult for Ren Qing to be completely killed.

The ability of the Corpse Fengdu immortal body was to forcibly borrow the power of the undead.

Ren Qing could use the immortal body to summon the dead back to the world, even immortals and gods were no exception, instantly forming an army of undead.

The immortal body ability of the Heavenly Demon Tribulation was the most special, it seemed to involve the rules of the world, so he was still exploring it and didn't dare to try it easily.

Ren Qing handed over the trivial matters to the Bacteria Soul to handle, and immersed himself in improving his cultivation.

Even if he deliberately slowed down, the Derivation Ancestor Vein had already completed the Heavenly Strange Realm in six or seven years, and the foundation was unprecedentedly strong.

Ren Qing's volume exceeded that of the immortal god's corpse, giving him a sense of being towering and upright.

Becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao required consuming 200,000 years of lifespan, and even the Physical Body Tathagata's digestion speed would take dozens of years.

Ren Qing couldn't help but feel a little palpitation when he thought of becoming an immortal, and his breathing became heavy.

He sensed that there seemed to be cultivators in the cave refining the immortal position, but the preparations for becoming an immortal were too cumbersome, and he didn't have the energy to pay attention to the ownership of the immortal position.

As long as the Bacteria Soul didn't give a warning, it meant that the immortal position forbidden area was maintaining the status quo.

Ren Qing couldn't wait to communicate with the immortal position with his mind, the Niwan Palace was completely closed, and his soul was constantly switching between the images of the five immortal bodies.