A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

The Ancient Dragon Temple treated servant disciples like him as less than human.

They probably wouldn’t care if he was beaten to death just to confirm a piece of information.

”Main body, did you find anything?”

”Hold on a moment. This is my first time checking my Incarnation’s memories,” Lü Zhong replied.

Then, he began to search through the Incarnation’s memories.

Unfortunately, the Gray Mist Space had no effect on the Incarnation.

’I can’t use the scene regression. That’s my trump card for solving mysteries.’ Lü Zhong was a little frustrated, but he still carefully reviewed the Incarnation’s recent memories. Drawing upon the experience of two lifetimes, he actually managed to find something.

”Incarnation, if you get interrogated later, point the finger at that fat officer from the Patrol Office. I suspect that even if he’s not involved in this, he’s tied up in some other major case. You might be able to atone for your crimes with this meritorious service and escape your current predicament.”

Lü Zhong shared his discovery, offering his Incarnation a well-intentioned reminder.

”The fat patrol officer?” Wang Lin nodded emphatically.

Just as he was about to say something more, he found that his main body had already severed the connection.

...

Bihai Sect.

Lü Zhong was in the Waterside Pavilion. He had broken the connection with his Incarnation because Yu Feng’Er had arrived. She looked at her husband with a strange expression and asked curiously,

”Husband, what were you just doing?”

”My Incarnation ran into some trouble. I was giving him a hand so I could keep observing,” Lü Zhong didn’t hide anything. He immediately asked about the situation on the Nether Abyss Continent. He remembered that the Commerce Association had already established a foothold there, but there had been no new progress for a long time.

As it concerned the acquisition of a Transmission Array, he placed great importance on the matter.

Hearing this, Yu Feng’Er put down her teacup. She thought for a moment before saying, ”The environment on the Nether Abyss Continent is extremely harsh. It is the most uncivilized of all the Lands Beyond Civilization. All sorts of Poisonous Insects and Demon Beasts appear endlessly, and we are constantly harassed by the local natives, so the mining exploration has not been going smoothly.”

”However, I recently increased our manpower investment and assigned a Flying Ship there. I expect that their progress will be much faster from now on.”

Her words reminded Lü Zhong of something.

In fact, apart from the Four Domains and the Central Earth occupied by the Human Race, most other places in this world were undeveloped, savage lands.

These were savage, hostile lands with extremely perilous environments where usually only native creatures could survive. High-level cultivators of the Human Race could explore those places to obtain resources, but the fragile mortals who formed the foundation of the Cultivation Realm could not yet survive there.

Therefore, even now, the Nether Abyss Continent remained an uninhabited, hostile land.

’It seems the territory of the Human Race is quite small. I wonder what lies beyond the known maps?’ Lü Zhong mused. ’The ancient texts that record such information are probably beyond my reach at my current level.’

A Nascent Soul Sect might have them, but it’s highly unlikely they would lend them out.

Only after Yu Feng’Er had gone to the Quiet Chamber to cultivate did Lü Zhong reconnect with his Incarnation.

In the time it takes to drink a few cups of tea, he had gone from a prisoner to an honored guest.

What a drastic change!

Lü Zhong didn’t disturb his Incarnation. He just watched as he conversed with a silver-haired old Daoist. It looked like the typical progression of a power-fantasy story: the protagonist achieves great merit, is noticed by a powerful figure, and is taken as a disciple as a pretext for stealing his accomplishments.

As expected, the Incarnation agreed at once.

In fact, this choice was more advantageous for him.

After all, the one taking him as a disciple was the Steward of the dormitory, whose status in the Ancient Dragon Temple was second only to the Three Cities Daoists and the Temple Master. If the Incarnation could become his disciple, it would be beneficial for his future development.

Not only would he gain a powerful backer, but there were also tangible benefits.

”I have already passed the Qi Refining Chapter of the Ancient Dragon Secret Talisman on to you. Take the things in the Storage Bag and leave. Don’t come back without my notice,” the dormitory Steward, Yangg Du, said while lifting his tea, not even glancing at Wang Lin.

Watching this entire scene unfold, Lü Zhong was so shocked he could barely hold his teacup steady.

’I can’t believe it. I got my hands on the legacy of the Ancient Dragon Temple just like that?’ Lü Zhong knew very well that the Ancient Dragon Temple was one of the Outer Courts of the Huayi Temple. Its inherited Ancient Dragon Secret Talisman had an extraordinary origin; it was actually a branch of the Huayi Temple’s Daoist Skill lineage. If his Incarnation could successfully infiltrate the Daoist Skill lineage...

...then the Xuanqing Talisman, secretly passed down in the Daoist Skill lineage, could fall into his hands.

If his luck was good enough, he might even be able to obtain the complete text.

Incredible!

At this thought, numerous ideas surfaced in Lü Zhong’s mind.

If he could really pull this off, then couldn’t he also get his hands on the Changchun Valley’s Evergreen Pill Scripture, the Yan Zhen Sect’s Nine Heavens Thunder Talisman, the Xuanyang Sect’s Sun Wheel True Scripture, and so on?

Fundamental Techniques passed down by Nascent Soul Sects like these often contained many undisclosed Secret Skills. According to records and speculation in some ancient texts, they would usually include one or two Secret Skills that increase the probability of Nascent Soul Formation. These were the most guarded secrets of each Nascent Soul Sect.

The True Spirit Flying Star Scripture actually contained such a Secret Skill as well.

It was called the ”Star Devouring Technique.”

It only worked in conjunction with the Star Source Spirit Body and could increase the chances of successfully achieving Nascent Soul Formation by five percent.

’One skill gives five percent. If I could get a few more...’ Lü Zhong’s breathing couldn’t help but quicken. ’Wouldn’t that drastically increase my own chances of Nascent Soul Formation?’

But then a very practical problem occurred to him.

Doppelgangers were common, and Incarnation arts were not rare in the Cultivation Realm. Would those Nascent Soul Old Monsters not be on guard against this? It was obvious they would certainly take corresponding measures.

Sending an Incarnation to steal a Cultivation Technique seemed like a wonderful idea, but putting it into practice would likely be quite difficult.

He had to investigate this matter thoroughly beforehand.

...

「In the following days.」

Aside from closely monitoring the dynamics of the Lingyue Domain, Lü Zhong dedicated his time to cultivation. Every day, he would unfailingly consume a pill to increase his cultivation first, and only then would he begin practicing his Magic Secret Techniques.

The cultivation of his Celestial Net Eye was going relatively smoothly.

After consuming the Immortal Luo Juice, the previously stalled fusion of the Prohibitions immediately began to progress again, and much faster than before. The only problem was that the taste of the Spiritual Object was truly nauseating.

If Lü Zhong hadn’t known the Immortal Luo Juice was dozens of feet long, he would have suspected it was the product of juiced eyeballs. Its slimy texture and the fishy, gamey taste with a hint of salt were exactly like the descriptions of chewing eyeballs found in some Demon Dao texts.

「In the blink of an eye, three years passed.」

Even though their entire territory had fallen and they could only hide within their sect’s gates, the Lingyue Sect was beaten but not broken.

Reports indicated they were still putting up a final struggle, pinning their hopes for the continuation of their Daoist Lineage on a disciple named Jin Lan. As long as this person could successfully achieve Nascent Soul Formation, the Lingyue Sect could continue to survive.

The Lingyue Sect’s crisis began with a Nascent Soul. If they could truly produce another Nascent Soul True Monarch, then the probability of ending the crisis would be one hundred percent.

After all, in the Southern Barbarian Immortal Cultivation World, a Nascent Soul True Monarch was enough to deter anyone.

However, according to the intelligence Lü Zhong had, the Lingyue Sect had lost all the resource points under its control due to being targeted by various forces from both within and outside the domain. He estimated that the success rate of that Nascent Soul Seed, Jin Lan, would be greatly affected as a result. It might even be a major factor in their potential failure.

In fact, even without external influences, according to statistics from ancient texts, the success rate for any sect’s Nascent Soul Seed hovered around thirty percent, unless they were a cultivator who had a heaven-defying opportunity or possessed heaven-defying talent.

’Looks like I need to start preparing early!’ Lü Zhong thought to himself.

He immediately pushed the thoughts aside and focused his Heart and Spirit on cultivating the Celestial Net Eye.

The effects of consuming the Immortal Luo Juice were extremely significant, leading to a massive surge in the progress of his Spiritual Eye Secret Technique. He was getting closer and closer to mastering the Celestial Net Secret Eye Technique.

At this moment, the Celestial Net Eye at the center of his brow was becoming increasingly faint, with only a slight Spiritual Light leaking out.

Once the Celestial Net Secret Eye Technique was mastered, the eye’s Spiritual Light would be completely contained. At that time, without a profound Spiritual Eye Skill, outsiders would be unable to tell when he was using the Celestial Net Secret Eye.

This would circumvent a major drawback of Spiritual Eye Skills.

Whether it was the Qi Observation Skill or various other high and low-tier Spiritual Eye Skills, they all shared a common characteristic when used: a strange phenomenon would often appear in the user’s eyes, which enemies could easily guard against during combat.

The Celestial Net Secret Eye, however, perfectly solved this problem.

Compared to that, however, what Lü Zhong valued more was the Celestial Net Secret Eye’s Illusion Breaker effect.

If he had this Secret Eye, even if he simply followed the growth trajectory of the Celestial Net Ancestor Master of old, imitating him step by step, he would still have an extremely high chance of achieving Nascent Soul Formation.