A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

In the days that followed, Lü Zhong immersed himself in his cultivation.

In his spare time, he also studied the King Beast Spirit Pattern.

Due to his high expectations for the Secret Skill, his progress couldn’t be called fast, but thankfully, he hadn’t encountered any obstacles. If he continued his research, he figured it wouldn’t be long before he saw some results.

Within the Bihai Sect, all calls to crush the Daoist Sects and unify the Southern Barbarian region were suppressed.

Although Lü Zhong had indeed harbored similar ambitions, he couldn’t act recklessly while living under the shadow of the Immortal Sect’s Divinity Transformation cultivators. Thus, rather than continue to expand and risk crossing the Gui Miao Immortal Sect’s line, it was better to quietly focus on improving his own cultivation.

After all, in the Cultivation Realm, strength is everything.

Life thus returned to its normal course.

With the massive supply of Spirit Medicines provided by Bihai and the Nether Abyss Continent, Lü Zhong used the Creation Secret Array to easily produce large quantities of Spirit Liquid that met the standards for Alchemy. By then applying the Creation Spirit Liquid Secret Technique, he could refine Tier Four Creation Spirit Liquid.

This served to advance his cultivation, and in a way, he had achieved true pill independence.

Fueled by the consumption of a massive amount of Spirit Stones, his cultivation improved day by day.

And to Lü Zhong’s greater surprise...

...as his cultivation rose, the efficiency of nurturing his Nascent Soul also increased significantly.

Before, the process of nurturing his Nascent Soul had been quite slow, noticeably lagging behind his cultivation speed. He had never imagined that once his cultivation improved, the rate would suddenly increase so much.

This was clearly good news.

At the very least, he could now save the Golden Qi Nourishing Truth Pill for when he needed to break through a bottleneck.

...

Near the end of the year.

The Bihai Sect celebrated the addition of a new Core Formation Elder, a man named Qin Wenyan. He was not a cultivator from the Clan Faction, nor did he hail from a master-disciple lineage; he was a cultivator who had joined the Bihai Sect only after reaching Foundation Establishment.

Qin Wenyan had repeatedly distinguished himself in the war that destroyed Changchun Valley.

He had an impressive track record, once fighting two of Changchun Valley’s Foundation Establishment cultivators at the same time, heavily wounding one and killing the other.

Furthermore, during the siege of Changchun Immortal City, he successfully launched a surprise attack through a secret tunnel, playing a critical role in the destruction of the city’s defensive Grand Array.

For his contributions, he was awarded a Golden Core Pill after the war.

To everyone’s surprise, he had actually succeeded at Core Formation on his first attempt.

’Another pawn…’ Lü Zhong organized and filed away the results of his investigation, placing a mark on Qin Wenyan’s file.

’Sometimes, the Gray Mist Space is so useful it’s actually a problem.’

He wouldn’t have known if he hadn’t looked, but what he found was shocking.

It was only now that Lü Zhong truly understood how formidable the Immortal Sect’s methods of infiltration were.

Whether it was the powerful Clan Faction, the dormant master-disciple lineages, or even the Independent Cultivator Sect, their elders and disciples were, to varying degrees, all directly or indirectly connected to the Immortal Sect’s pawns.

It wasn’t that these people had betrayed the Bihai Sect.

In fact, they were all being kept in the dark.

For the sake of their own factions’ interests, they had become someone else’s chess pieces without even realizing it.

Lü Zhong was only certain of this because he knew of the Immortal Sect’s darker side.

Any other Nascent Soul Ancestor would likely have dismissed it as normal factional competition. Apart from a few profoundly shrewd individuals, it was unlikely anyone could see the hidden figures pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

The Immortal Sect’s pawns, who orchestrated everything from the shadows, were the truly detestable traitors.

Fortunately, from the looks of it, these people hadn’t noticed the abnormal rate of consumption hidden within the Bihai Sect’s massive flow of resources. This meant the pawns lurking within the Bihai Sect had yet to detect the existence of the trade with the Western Realm.

It was the only piece of good news amidst a flood of bad.

’Hmm, it looks like the structure of the Bihai Sect needs some adjustments,’ Lü Zhong began to ponder. A short while ago, Yu Feng’er and Su Caocao had submitted a proposal for restructuring.

Based on the information he now had, it was clear that Immortal Sect pawns were behind this restructuring proposal.

At first, one could only see the benefits of these seemingly reasonable changes.

But if you looked a thousand years into the future, they would become a noose around his neck. When the Immortal Sect eventually made its move, they would become the reins to force him into submission, a testament to the depth of the Immortal Sect’s machinations.

’This proposal isn’t entirely bad, though…’ Lü Zhong mused.

If certain details were modified, they could actually be turned to his advantage.

As things stood, he remained hidden in the shadows. No matter how powerful the Central Earth Divinity Transformation cultivator was, they wouldn’t be able to uncover his identity, even if they paid a steep price to divine the secrets of heaven.

This gave him more than enough time to raise his cultivation.

...

Compared to Bihai Immortal City, Lü Zhong still preferred living in Tide Cave.

It was far from the hustle and bustle, and with the lovely Yu Feng’er by his side, quietly cultivating in seclusion was a wonderful pleasure in itself.

In the Quiet Chamber, Lü Zhong’s eyes were tightly shut.

Floating before him was half of a Spirit Flower—the Qiluo Immortal Lamp.

He was currently enveloped in a swirling Spiritual Light, as dense Spirit Silks emerged from his body to connect the Qiluo Immortal Lamp to his limbs and torso. This method would maximize the Immortal Lamp’s medicinal effects.

Once this was done, the Quiet Chamber fell silent again.

As time passed, the Qiluo Immortal Lamp gradually began to wither.

Meanwhile, the Spiritual Light around Lü Zhong grew stronger by the day. His body was being continuously remolded, from the surface of his skin down to every piece of flesh and bone, and even to the tiniest nerves and blood vessels.

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

Late one night.

Starlight converged in the sky above Tide Cave.

Thousands of starlight rays descended from the sky, converging into a stunning pillar of Star Force. It shot down through the open skylight of Tide Cave and poured into the cultivating Lü Zhong. The pillar merged with the Spiritual Light on his body, fusing together as if they were one, and finally triggered a qualitative transformation.

In that instant, his body finally accumulated sufficient power. A drastic transformation erupted from his Sea of Consciousness and swept through his entire body. His cells of flesh and blood were fundamentally changed, retaining their form but now being composed entirely of Spiritual Qi.