A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

Lü Zhong cautiously descended and found that it had landed squarely on the roof of the Underground Palace.

It wasn’t the Infernal Fang Beast he had expected.

It was a massive Demon Beast over thirty zhang long, its body covered in black, tree-bark-like scales. It looked a bit like an elongated armadillo, with three hideous snake heads sprouting from a slender neck.

Judging from the venomous blood dripping from its mouths, the Demon Beast had likely been poisoned to death.

’I don’t recognize it. Is it a rare, variant Demon Beast?’ Lü Zhong had used his Incarnations to infiltrate Sects like Changchun Valley and read all the texts they made available to low-level disciples, including bestiaries for identifying Demon Beasts, yet he still couldn’t place this creature.

Just then, he let out a soft sound of surprise.

He had spotted something resembling a placenta and an umbilical cord.

’Traces of childbirth?’

The possibility sparked an idea in Lü Zhong’s mind.

He followed the trail back.

He soon found a dirt hole that had been filled in.

’Not so stupid, after all.’

Continuing to follow the trail, he arrived at the Underground Palace where the Transmission Array was located. He wasn’t too surprised. The ashes of an Infernal Fang Beast had been scattered here before, so the Green Spot Ghost Insects would instinctively avoid the area, making it the safest possible refuge for a newborn beast.

”YING YING YING!” A strange, threatening cry echoed from a corner of the Underground Palace.

He could clearly see a young beast that resembled the Demon Beast outside, but it had only one snake head and its entire body was snow-white with a reddish tint. Its cry was all bark and no bite; it was clearly cowering in fear in the corner.

Ignoring it for the moment, Lü Zhong anxiously inspected the Transmission Array. He let out a sigh of relief when he saw it was completely undamaged, then turned to glare angrily at the young beast.

”If you had so much as chewed on this, I’d be having you for stew today!”

After his harsh threat, he began to consider what to do with the little thing.

’Raise it as a Spiritual Beast?’

It was the only real option.

The little thing already looked ferocious, which would make it an excellent choice for guarding the sect’s gates. Besides, judging by how its mother had nearly wiped out the insect swarm, its strength after maturing would be considerable.

Bihai Sect was a large and prosperous enterprise; it could certainly afford to raise it.

’Raise it!’

There was no time to win it over gently.

He went straight for a sound beating.

Faced with life and death, the young beast chose to submit.

He then took out a Spirit Beast Contract. After completing the signing process, Lü Zhong had one more Spiritual Beast. He temporarily placed it in an empty Spirit Beast Bag to prevent it from being crushed during teleportation.

He also gave it a name.

Since its mother looked like a Jiuying and it could only cry ”ying ying,” he decided to name it ”Jiuying.”

Once his preparations were complete, he held the Teleportation Order and activated the Transmission Array.

A flash of Spiritual Light flared, and he vanished.

...

The Western Realm was becoming more and more oppressive.

The sky was a constant, dark red. The ground was covered in filth, also a sea of crimson, with not a trace of life or any living creature to be seen.

To be honest, Lü Zhong actually wished some Evil Spirits would appear.

But unfortunately, in this godforsaken Western Realm, the corrosion from the Crimson Spiritual Qi was so terrifying that without the protection of Yang Fire, even Evil Spirits probably couldn’t survive.

With no landmarks for reference, he could only rely on his direction and speed to calculate his current position and the remaining distance to the Mountain Shaking Ship.

Along the way, he passed Yanhu Market.

But the place was long since deserted. It didn’t look like it had been destroyed by an external force. Considering the lack of fish in Xunyan Lake and the high concentration of Crimson Spiritual Qi in the ruins, Lü Zhong quickly concluded that the cultivators here must have migrated.

Moreover, the migration seemed to have been a planned one.

He could see many temporary supply stations along the route.

Believing his mission was more important, he didn’t try to find the migrating cultivators. Instead, he found a spot in the ruins, set up a protective Array and Prohibitions, and began to purge the invading Crimson Spiritual Qi from his body.

When he was finished, he let Jiuying out for some fresh air.

Seeing it ”HISS... HAA...” as it inhaled the Purple Nether Extreme Fire with a look of pure satisfaction, Lü Zhong couldn’t help but grow more curious about its origins.

He took out a Blood Qi Pill and tossed it to the little creature, which swallowed it in one precise gulp.

”HIC~”

It let out a satisfied burp, and wisps of blood-red flame puffed from its nostrils.

Having been fed, the young beast immediately became much friendlier toward Lü Zhong. It started to nuzzle up against him, occasionally tilting its head to study him with curiosity, its dark eyes filled with confusion and wonder.

After tossing it another Blood Qi Pill, Lü Zhong paid it no more mind and began consuming a Pill to refine his Qi.

As long as he had free time, his daily practice could not be neglected.

At dawn, Lü Zhong returned to the surface.

He continued on his journey.

Traveling through the desolate and uninhabited Western Realm was truly a torment for the soul.

Fortunately, his state of mind had undergone a Metamorphosis not long ago, so he had no issues for the time being. He kept his head down and focused on traveling, collecting two more Double-tailed Helical Crystals along the way.

Whenever the corruption built up too much, Lü Zhong would dig a hole underground to rest.

Repeating this cycle, he soon arrived at the location of the Mountain Shaking Ship.

He hadn’t seen it in a long time, and the filth had completely covered it. It took Lü Zhong quite a while to find the ship buried beneath the corruption.

He had to once again praise the shipbuilding techniques of Central Earth. Even in the Western Realm, with its severe crimson corruption, the Mountain Shaking Ship had remained intact. Only the surface armor plates showed signs of corrosion; the critical components were still as pristine as the day it was built.

He navigated to the energy bay with practiced ease, inserted the prepared High-grade spirit stones into their slots, then turned and entered the Central Mechanism Room. He installed the Soul Wind Crystal as well, and the Mountain Shaking Ship instantly ”revived.”

”Success or failure, it’s all up to you!” Lü Zhong stared at the Token in his hand, his gaze somewhat grave. He inserted it into a slot on the Floating Pivot, and an intense light immediately erupted.

The intense light came quickly and faded even faster.

Accompanied by a low ”WHIRRR,” the Mountain Shaking Ship’s power returned.

The ship’s hull then trembled, forcibly pulling itself free from the filth. It quickly adjusted its position and hovered silently in mid-air.

’It... It worked?’ Lü Zhong was overjoyed.

With a flick of his sleeve, he released a figure—it was his Combat Incarnation, Yinn Li.

”Leave it to me.” Yinn Li nodded to Lü Zhong. He had already studied the maintenance manual back in the Southern Barbarian lands and later obtained the operations manual compiled by Qii Yun, essentially mastering the fundamentals of controlling the Mountain Shaking Ship.

Without the assistance of an Artifact Spirit, the Mountain Shaking Ship had to be controlled entirely by a cultivator’s Divine Sense.

To do this, one simply had to sit in the main control seat and extend their Divine Sense into the control panel in front of them. This panel was made entirely of Silver Essence and functioned as the Array’s core.

From there, one could control all the Prohibitions and Arrays on the ship.

By combining different Arrays and Prohibitions, one could control the Mountain Shaking Ship’s flight and firing capabilities.

”First, run a full diagnostic on ship-wide damage,” Yinn Li issued a command.

After about eight minutes, the diagnostic results came back.

The results were not optimistic.

The forced removal of the Cloud Dragon Maze Lock had caused immense damage to the Mountain Shaking Ship.

The primary and secondary Defense Arrays—which boasted a defense surpassing a Tier Four Sect Protection Array and could withstand attacks from a Nascent Soul True Monarch—were severely damaged, along with components like the Primordial Cannon. They would require significant time and effort to repair.

Yinn Li concluded that some of the damage had been deliberately inflicted.

Lü Zhong had already expected this.

Judging from the results, the fact that it could still fly was thanks to the ”mercy” of those scumbags from the True Central Sect. The Mountain Shaking Ship had been designed with multiple redundant levitation circuits, which were all currently intact. It also retained a backup protective array, allowing the ship to avoid exposure to the harsh environment outside.

Yinn Li activated the Array.

”BZZZT!”

A pale yellow, egg-shaped shield appeared. It crackled and popped intermittently from the corrosion of the Crimson Spiritual Qi, which would lead to a rapid consumption of spiritual energy.

Handing a bag of Spirit Stones to his Incarnation, Lü Zhong instructed, ”Fly toward Ningyun Square in the West Extreme Sword Domain. I want to investigate what happened there back then. Remember to calculate our Spirit Stone reserves, save enough for the return trip plus a buffer. I don’t want to have to abandon ship and fly back on my own.”

Yinn Li nodded and focused on piloting the Mountain Shaking Ship.

The behemoth, over six hundred zhang long, began to emit a long trail of Spiritual Light from its engines. Its speed quickly increased to over three thousand li per ancient hour, just a hair slower than the speed of sound.

Kicking up roiling clouds of Cloud Qi, the Mountain Shaking Ship sped toward its destination.