A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

「In the Quiet Chamber.」

Lü Zhong sat cross-legged.

He ran his right hand over his Storage Ring and took out a golden Glazed Bottle.

Its surface was covered in engraved Golden Seal Script and was emitting a hazy halo of Spiritual Light. It was a container for preserving Essence Souls.

The Glazed Bottle was filled with a substance that glowed with a black light.

Upon closer inspection, one would find that this substance resembled miniature human figures.

In truth, they were microcosms of souls.

”That should be enough...” Lü Zhong said, looking at the inscribed lines on the bottle.

After a period of collection, he had finally gathered enough Essence Souls to construct the first split soul. The next step was to formally begin the Soul Splitting process.

This process was no easy feat.

It involved the very structure of the Divine Soul.

He carefully reviewed the process one more time, confirming he hadn’t missed any part of the Soul Splitting Technique. He took a deep breath, and only after his mind was completely calm did he slowly unstop the Glazed Bottle.

WHOOSH!

In an instant, the Essence Souls surged out of the bottle.

They looked like a cloud of black smoke with no fixed form, flying about chaotically after emerging. But whether they tried to fly out of the Quiet Chamber or rush into Lü Zhong’s body, they were all repelled by a golden light.

”Soul Refining Array, activate!”

Lü Zhong swiftly formed nine Technique Mantras, lighting up the nine Golden Lamps within the Quiet Chamber one by one.

Then, with a flick of a Sword Gesture, the Golden Lamps all released a thread of fire. These threads quickly expanded into a net of fire that swept back and forth within the Quiet Chamber, trapping all the Essence Souls.

The Essence Souls came from complex sources, so they couldn’t be used directly.

He needed to rely on this Soul Refining Array to purify the residual True Spirit Marks from within the Essence Souls.

These marks were proof of the existence of independent living beings. To prevent the future split soul from having hidden risks due to impure Essence Souls, purifying the True Spirit Marks was absolutely necessary.

One pass wasn’t enough, so he did several more.

He continued until all the Essence Souls had merged together, transforming into a pool of white ”Essence Soul Liquid.”

Lü Zhong didn’t rest. He immediately pointed forward with a Sword Gesture, guiding the pure Soul Liquid toward the spot between his eyebrows. Without the slightest hesitation, it sank into his skin and vanished.

In his Sea of Consciousness, Lü Zhong’s Divine Soul opened its eyes. It gazed at the Soul Liquid pouring in, its expression solemn.

Then, he began methodically forming Technique Mantras. The Essence Soul Liquid started to change accordingly, gradually taking on the characteristics of a soul.

But at this moment, the split soul was merely a blank embryo.

He still needed to imprint Lü Zhong’s True Spirit Mark onto it, import memories in the form of experiences and insights, and then cast the ”Ten Thousand Transformations Seal of Unity” that came with the Outer Body Incarnation technique to establish a connection between the split soul and the main body.

As for memories, he only imported those of his predecessor from before the age of sixteen, plus some general knowledge the split soul would need to know.

After completing these steps one by one, the split soul slowly opened its eyes.

”The True Spirit Mark truly is the unique proof of every living being’s existence,” the split soul murmured. ”Main body, although you completely copied your mark onto me, I can feel that I am independent.”

It then closed its eyes, appearing as if it had come to some realization.

”Try entering this Puppet’s body.” Lü Zhong released the Spirit-Hosted Puppet he had prepared long ago. He was eager to see the result of the split soul entering the Spirit-Hosted Puppet, wondering if it could achieve an effect similar to an Incarnation.

The split soul nodded, transformed into a ball of light, and entered the Puppet’s body. Accompanied by the humming sounds of an Array activating, the Spirit-Hosted Puppet’s surface began to glow with Spiritual Light.

Its eyelids twitched. It had ”come to life.”

”So this is my body? To be honest, the feeling of being able to move freely is pretty great!” The split soul looked its new body up and down, moved its limbs about, and a satisfied expression appeared on its face.

”Operate at full power. Let’s see how much strength you can exert.” Lü Zhong enveloped the Spirit-Hosted Puppet with his Divine Sense and began collecting data on the Outer Body Incarnation to determine its future applications.

The split soul nodded lightly. The Spirit Core inside its body began to rapidly draw in Spiritual Qi from Spirit Stones.

Its aura began to rise steadily. After reaching the Fake Pill Realm, it paused for a moment before quickly breaking through to the Early-stage Core Formation realm.

But suddenly, the Spirit-Hosted Puppet went dim.

”Split soul, split soul, what happened to you?” Lü Zhong was startled, thinking something had gone wrong. He hurried over to check, but the results showed that everything was normal.

After a long moment, the split soul came to.

”It’s no good, main body! My soul is too weak to directly control such an advanced Puppet. And my soul was just badly injured. Quick, help me keep my soul from dissipating, or I’m afraid I won’t be able to hold on!”

The split soul had a pained expression as it cried out for help.

Seeing this, Lü Zhong cast several Technique Mantras in quick succession to help the split soul maintain its existence.

”That was close, so close!” the split soul exclaimed, feeling as if it had just survived a disaster.

”It seems you still need a physical body,” Lü Zhong concluded.

”That seems to be the best solution,” the split soul agreed.

”But right now, I don’t have enough Essence Souls. The number of Essence Souls needed to form a body is a hundred times what was needed to create you. Besides, I haven’t prepared the Refining Formation for the Incarnation Body yet.”

Lü Zhong told it the truth, but he soon thought of a feasible solution.

”However... perhaps you could try possession?”

”Possession? I would never do something so heinous and against the laws of heaven!” the split soul refused instantly without a second thought.

Lü Zhong couldn’t help but look at him with newfound respect. He explained, ”I’m not talking about a living person. A corpse is just an empty shell. Possessing it wouldn’t count as going against the laws of heaven.”

’And theoretically, it was possible to possess a corpse.’

”A corpse? That’s worth a try.” The split soul thought for a moment and agreed. He was desperate for a body of his own, rather than being just a soul that would rot in the sun and dissipate in the wind.

Afterwards, the two of them began to search for a corpse.

Life and death were fickle in the Cultivation Realm; droves of people died every day.