A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

At this moment, Shi Jing was both shocked and furious.

He never would have imagined that the Five Muddiness Array, which he had set up to ambush Lü Zhong, would be turned against him. What was even more terrifying was that he hadn’t noticed a thing.

Now, with the Dense Qi clinging to him, his cultivation was already clearly unstable.

Without hesitation, Shi Jing flipped his hand and produced a silver talisman, a pained look flashing in his eyes.

It was a Teleportation Talisman!

He had risked his life to find it in a Secret Realm.

’Where there’s life, there’s hope...’

Shi Jing decisively began to activate it, but his expression suddenly changed, and he dodged out of the way.

Trailing starlight, Lü Zhong had already shot forward like a meteor. The moment he saw his opponent pull out the Teleportation Talisman, he used Meteor Step without the slightest hesitation, and his speed skyrocketed.

”You!” Shi Jing was aghast.

He had no choice but to stop activating the Teleportation Talisman. Otherwise, before the Spiritual Light of the teleportation could form, the incoming Sword Light would sever his head. Even if the talisman activated successfully then, it would only teleport a corpse.

The two clashed.

In the blink of an eye, the surroundings were utterly devastated.

At times, Sword Lights were sent flying, carving deep ravines into the ground wherever they landed. Some were dozens of zhang deep and seemingly bottomless, while others stretched for hundreds of zhang. The Sea Suppression Gate disciples who had rushed over upon hearing the commotion could only stare at each other, not daring to approach.

”You’re courting death!” Shi Jing’s eyes widened in fury. He was shocked, enraged, and regretful all at once. The Five Muddles afflicting his body were terrifyingly potent, and his cultivation was about to drop to the Early-stage Core Formation. He mustered all his Magical Power, channeling it into the Bitter Spring Mace for a strike to vent his fury.

With a deafening DONG...

...rouge was sent flying. But Lü Zhong paid it no mind, instead activating his Star Mirror to unleash a barrage of Mirror Light. Amid a series of shattering sounds, the defensive treasures Shi Jing had prepared failed one after another.

He then shot into the air, beckoned his Magical Treasure Flying Sword, rouge, back to him, and a Sound Barrier Cloud erupted around his body.

CLANG! The sound of metal on metal rang out.

Shi Jing’s attempt to activate the Teleportation Talisman was once again mercilessly interrupted by Lü Zhong.

”You forced my hand!” Shi Jing roared, and a ring of Spiritual Light erupted from his body. It was the Tier Three Resistance Technique, capable of repelling anything that drew near. If timed correctly, it could even work on Magical Treasures.

His many years of experience as a Loose Cultivator told him that only one of them would leave this place alive today.

While being corroded by the Dense Qi, he, Shi Jing, was definitely no match for his opponent.

So, he grit his teeth, steeled himself, and pulled a tube of viscous liquid from his robes.

Without even looking at it, he tilted his head back and drank it down.

The liquid in the tube was Tribulation Crossing Spirit Liquid. It could rapidly neutralize the Dense Qi in his body, but not without a corresponding price. After all, this Spirit Liquid was no Creation of the Immortal Dao.

In ancient times, many Daoist Lineages had been defeated by the Immortal Dao and degenerated into heterodox side paths.

But that didn’t mean they were without their merits.

The Tribulation Crossing Dao was one such path. It specialized in the study of Dense Qi, the most prevalent energy in the world at that time, and had built a prosperous cultivation civilization upon it. The Tribulation Crossing Spirit Liquid was its signature Creation.

A burst of Black Light exploded outward!

Countless streams of Dense Qi surged out, crashing to the ground like a mudslide.

The Sea Suppression Gate disciples below couldn’t evade in time and fell one by one, screaming in agony.

When Shi Jing reappeared, his form had changed drastically. He had transformed into a pitch-black, four-clawed monster with a demonic body, bat-like wings, and Scale Armor. With his wings spread, he was over fifty zhang wide, like a small mountain floating in the air.

His blood-red eyes, as large as wagon wheels, stared viciously at Lü Zhong as he spoke in a human voice:

”You whelp! You’ve ruined my Immortal Path! How hateful! You must be killed!”

Using the Tribulation Crossing Spirit Liquid meant his Immortal Path was now hopeless. He could only switch to cultivating the Tribulation Crossing Dao, a Heterodox Dao whose peak was merely the Divinity Transformation Realm.

Lü Zhong looked at the transformed Shi Jing before him, his expression unchanging.

This outcome was entirely of Shi Jing’s own making.

If he hadn’t been tempted by greed, given his cautious nature, living out his natural lifespan would have been an easy feat. With a bit of luck, he might have even glimpsed the Nascent Soul Realm.

Tired of wasting words on him, Lü Zhong raised his hand and unleashed several bolts of Palm Thunder.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Shi Jing’s aura had surged after transforming into a monster, but to Lü Zhong, his actual strength had decreased instead of increased. His new form was perfectly countered by Lü Zhong’s Thunder Skills, and the power dynamic between them had reversed.

”Thunder Swamp!”

Lü Zhong gathered his power and pointed his Sword Gesture at Shi Jing’s position.

RUMBLE!

Countless bolts of lightning materialized from the Void, forming an electric marsh that instantly submerged Shi Jing. The latter’s cavernous black mouth opened wide as he let out a pained howl.

After a few flaps of his bat-like wings, he finally escaped the Thunder Swamp.

Looking at Lü Zhong, Shi Jing felt a profound sense of terror.

If he had known that Lü Zhong mastered Thunder Skills, he would have never dared to consume the Tribulation Crossing Spirit Liquid. As a cultivator, he might have had a chance to survive if he fought with all he had. But once he transformed into the Tribulation Crossing Body, he was utterly defenseless against Thunder Skills.

What he had thought was his trump card had turned out to be his own undoing.

Making a split-second decision, Shi Jing flapped his massive bat wings.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Amidst a series of concussive blasts, streams of black Dense Qi poured from his body, rapidly solidifying into arrows that rained down on Lü Zhong.

At the same time, Shi Jing rapidly retreated.

Once the effects of the Tribulation Crossing Spirit Liquid wore off, he could return to his human form. Then, the damage from the Thunder Skills would no longer be so terrifying.

’Flee!’

That was the only word left in his mind.

However, Shi Jing had still underestimated Lü Zhong.

A barrier of Purple Flame unfurled, incinerating all the incoming Dense Qi arrows. When the flames dissipated, Lü Zhong appeared completely unharmed.

Gazing at the small dot on the horizon, he immediately cast a spell and gave chase.

「Half an ancient hour later.」

Lü Zhong returned, his expression grim.

The consequence of being unable to kill his opponent quickly was that, upon seeing no hope of escape, Shi Jing had destroyed all the valuables on his person. After all that effort, Lü Zhong had only managed to salvage a little over 50,000 Spirit Stones.

’Sigh, life is so unpredictable...’

he lamented inwardly, but he paid no attention to the Qi Refining Stage disciples below.

He turned and went to the Sea-Suppressing Cliff. The area had been heavily affected by the eruption of the Five Muddiness Array, leaving large patches of blackened and scorched earth. Remnants of Dense Qi still lingered in the air, and a bloated monster was coiled in the center of it all.

”GACK... GURGLE...” the monster made unintelligible sounds.

If he wasn’t mistaken, this creature was Cang Henian.

Lü Zhong glanced at it and raised his left hand.

SHINK!

A streak of red Sword Light flashed past, dicing the creature into pieces in a few swift moves.

He didn’t spare it a second glance.

「In the days that followed.」

Lü Zhong conducted a purge of the Three Sects, sifting through them like sand for gold. He selected the disciples with decent character who had not been involved in the incident.

The rest were all expelled.

After this event, the number of disciples in the Three Sects plummeted, but their quality was much higher than before, now meeting the minimum requirements to establish a proper sect.

Therefore, Lü Zhong merged the Three Sects of Bihai.

The Bihai Sect was thus established.

Its headquarters was established three thousand li from the Bidao Market, on the largest island of the Bihai Island Group—the former Jishan Island, now renamed Bihai Island.

...

「Late one night.」

Lü Zhong sat cross-legged in his Quiet Chamber.

The Magical Power in his Dantian gathered into a sea, only to be drawn in by the spinning Golden Core above it like a dragon drinking water. The core began to emit a soft golden glow, which grew brighter and brighter until it reached a certain peak.

BOOM!

A tremor ran through his entire body.

The dense Spiritual Qi in the surroundings seemed to have found an outlet and surged toward him all at once.

In an instant, the concentration of Spiritual Qi at the Spirit Vein node in Ganquan Cave began to rapidly thin, while Lü Zhong’s aura soared.

The process lasted for a full quarter of an hour before the strange phenomenon gradually faded.

”I’ve finally reached the Mid-stage Core Formation! The next goal is the Late-stage Core Formation!” A joyful expression appeared on Lü Zhong’s face, delighted by his cultivation breakthrough.

He took a moment to experience the changes after his breakthrough.

The most obvious was that his Magical Power had surged again, doubling from what it was in the early stage.

Secondly, the strength of his Divine Sense had also increased.

He tested it and found that it now reached over six hundred and seventy zhang.

’Now that my Divine Sense is stronger, I expect the speed at which I can acquire Small True Yang Talismans will also increase,’ Lü Zhong thought to himself, the joy on his face deepening.

Stepping outside the Quiet Chamber, he was greeted by a night of brilliant stars.

He closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling of the starlight washing over his body, gradually strengthening his physique. ’Now that I’m at the Mid-stage Core Formation,’ he thought, ’I can learn another inheritance Secret Skill.’

It was an auxiliary Secret Skill.

It was called the ”Star Burning Technique,” and it allowed one to burn their own Magical Power to amplify their strength.

It was divided into nine layers.

At its peak, it could amplify one’s strength by an entire Small Realm.

In Lü Zhong’s view, despite the drawback of its astonishing Magical Power consumption, the Star Burning Technique was an excellent burst-type Secret Skill. If used at a critical moment, it could have a decisive effect.

There was nothing more to say.

It was time to learn it.