A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

After much deliberation, the Nether Abyss Continent was the only way forward.

’If I can find or cultivate High-tier Spiritual Veins there, I can use a Grand Array to create a safe haven for mortals to live and work in peace,’ Lü Zhong thought to himself.

A gradual expansion.

It might even be possible to develop it into a source of raw materials.

The only concern was the immense investment of manpower and resources this would entail.

Even for a true Nascent Soul Sect, this would be an undertaking requiring the mobilization of its full strength. The current Bihai Sect, however, was a Sect in name only. It had a Nascent Soul Ancestor presiding over it, but none of the actual substance of a Nascent Soul Sect—it didn’t even have a single Core Formation Cultivator it had raised.

If anything went wrong on the Nether Abyss Continent, the consequences would be unthinkable.

’It seems my only choice is to send the Mountain Shaking Ship and several of my incarnations over there,’ Lü Zhong thought to himself.

The number of incarnations he could create had increased significantly since his Nascent Soul Formation.

He estimated he could create a total of eighteen incarnations. Subtracting the ones dispatched to Huayi Temple, the Celestial Blade Sect, the Xuanyang Sect, and the one heading to the East Sea, fourteen incarnations remained at his disposal.

’I’ll send Yinn Li and four other incarnations to stand guard over the Nether Abyss Continent.’

During Lü Zhong’s Tribulation Crossing, Yinn Li and these same four incarnations had piloted the Flying Ship. The five of them had performed exceptionally well, so sending them together now would eliminate any need for them to get used to working with each other.

As for the remaining nine incarnation slots...

Lü Zhong planned to choose two of them, have them possess suitable bodies, and then infiltrate the Yan Zhen Sect and Changchun Valley, respectively. It didn’t matter if they would ever be of use; it was like placing a dormant piece on the board in a long game. Perhaps in three to five hundred years, it would serve some purpose.

...

「In July.」

Following a decree issued by Lü Zhong, the Bihai Sect and the Chengde Commerce Association officially announced their plan to develop the Nether Abyss Continent.

Normally, this should have been a sensational event in the Southern Barbarian lands—something people would discuss for half a year without it getting old. Yet, very few of the Southern Barbarian Cultivators were paying it any attention.

The reason was the Ten Thousand Witches Hall.

After numerous corrections, its trajectory had finally been confirmed. As expected, in nine years, it would officially break through the boundary and return to the Southern Barbarian Land.

As soon as this news spread, any cultivator with a bit of insight understood the hidden meaning.

Resources!

A staggering amount of resources.

Almost all Southern Barbarian Cultivators believed that the Secret Realm of the Ten Thousand Witches Hall, lost in the Void for a million years, must hold a vast trove of Spirit Medicines. This trove would surely include the Thousand-year-old Spirit Medicines desperately needed by Nascent Soul Cultivators, as well as all sorts of rare Spirit Medicines long extinct in the Cultivation Realm that might still exist within the Hall.

For a time, everyone eagerly awaited the Hall’s arrival.

As for the matter of repairing the Spiritual Energy Great Wall, it was promptly forgotten.

「The days passed, one by one.」

Adhering to the principle of getting rich in secret, Lü Zhong was more than happy that the Southern Barbarian lands weren’t paying attention to the Bihai Sect’s development of the Nether Abyss Continent. It left him free to monitor the progress in the south while also consolidating his own cultivation.

The realms before the Nascent Soul Stage were primarily focused on tempering the physical body. A cultivator would draw in Immortal Spiritual Qi to nourish their flesh, causing it to grow stronger over time. By constantly raising one’s cultivation in this way, the ultimate goal was to make the body capable of gestating a Nascent Soul.

After reaching the Nascent Soul Stage, the Nascent Soul itself became the absolute priority.

Everything depended on it for the Divinity Transformation stage.

In this process, all a cultivator had to do was nurture their Nascent Soul.

Lü Zhong didn’t know what would ultimately be produced by this nurturing process—whether it would be a pure Energy Life Form, perhaps—but this was the path that Immortal Cultivators had to walk.

Fortunately, nurturing the Nascent Soul simply required nourishing it with Nascent Fire.

The higher one’s cultivation, the more efficient the nurturing process.

According to the Flying Star Inheritance, nurturing efficiency at the Mid-stage Nascent Soul was a full ten times that of the Early-stage. This became even more exaggerated at the Late-stage Nascent Soul, where the efficiency increased by thousands of times. To reach the state of ”Quasi-Deification,” both one’s cultivation and one’s Nascent Soul had to reach Perfection. If only one of the two did, one could only be called a ”Great Cultivator.”

’In the end, I still need to raise my cultivation level first,’ Lü Zhong thought.

He continued to meditate and refine his qi.

At the Nascent Soul Stage, there were no longer any suitable Pills available on the market.

Until the raw materials were ready, he couldn’t use Spiritual Energy Conversion Technology to refine a suitable Creation Spirit Liquid. Thus, his only option was to absorb the Spiritual Qi from his Spirit Vein.

To call his cultivation speed slow would be an understatement; it was practically at a standstill.

Lü Zhong estimated that he would have to go into seclusion for over a hundred years just to see any noticeable progress in his cultivation.

”I never imagined that after solving the issue of my innate aptitude, the biggest obstacle to my cultivation would turn out to be the resources needed to advance!” Having experienced it firsthand, Lü Zhong now understood this truth profoundly.

It was no wonder the Seven Sects had so quickly reached a cooperative agreement the moment news of the Ten Thousand Witches Hall emerged.

In fact, even when the Daoist Sects and Changchun Valley went to war, the construction of the Traction Towers hadn’t slowed; it had actually accelerated. This was obviously a true reflection of the underlying Nascent Soul True Monarchs’ thirst for resources.

And now, he was one of them.

”The Ten Thousand Witches Hall...” Lü Zhong mulled over the name.

Once the Hall arrived, he would definitely go and explore it. Not only to acquire the Spiritual Objects within, but also to find an opportunity to take care of the two Nascent Soul cultivators from Changchun Valley.

Normally, Wanmu and Qingding both holed up in Changchun Valley.

They rarely ever came out.

Only the arrival of the Ten Thousand Witches Hall could lure the two of them out.

’Of course, they’re probably hoping for this same opportunity...’ Lü Zhong realized.

He wanted to annex the Changchun Domain, and likewise, Changchun Valley wanted to invade Bihai’s territory. After all, when it came to cultivation resources, no one ever felt they had too much.

Fortunately, the advantage was on his side.