A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

He ignored the Witch Cultivation Technique outright.

Lü Zhong cultivated the Immortal Dao, making the Witch Dao technique utterly worthless to him. He couldn’t even learn anything from it. He had only checked the secret chamber for the Cultivation Technique to make sure he didn’t miss out on any other treasures.

Inside the treasure chamber was an Ancient Treasure.

It was a suit of golden armor.

The armor had an archaic design, consisting of inner and outer layers. The exterior was composed of individual plates woven together, linked by Golden Threads and silver wire; its defensive properties were clearly exceptional. The inner layer was leather, and it radiated faint wisps of a treasured glow, marking it as obviously extraordinary.

For Lü Zhong, whose injuries had yet to heal, the appearance of this armor was nothing short of a Timely Rain.

’I’ll decide after I see the Secret Medicine.’ He didn’t rush to a decision.

The reward in the Secret Medicine chamber was a medicinal liquid sealed in a jade bottle. Even after more than a million years, it was still slowly bubbling with green foam. Each time a bubble popped, a wail of anguish echoed out, and fleeting faces would surface on the liquid.

According to the description on the chamber wall, this was a bottle of Panacea.

For anyone below the rank of a Witch God.

It could heal any injury, being All-Purpose and All-Spirit.

Lü Zhong stared at the Panacea, his eyes lighting up. ’If I take this,’ he thought, ’I’ll be fully healed in an instant.’ But then he thought of the golden Ancient Treasure, and his expression turned hesitant.

Both treasures were things he desperately needed.

But unfortunately, he could only choose one.

The moment he made his choice, he would be teleported to the next area.

’Wait, this might actually work!’

A bold idea formed in Lü Zhong’s mind.

According to the results of his retrospection, he realized that he had entered the chambers via teleportation. He might be able to bypass the teleportation mechanism entirely. If he could pinpoint the spatial coordinates of the three chambers, he could use his own Transmission Array to teleport inside and take the treasures directly.

No sooner said than done.

The speed at which a Nascent Soul Cultivator could set up a Transmission Array was worlds apart from a Core Formation Cultivator. A Nascent Soul Cultivator’s precise Spatial Perception alone saved a massive amount of time that would otherwise be spent on trial and error.

Soon, he finished setting up a short-range Transmission Array.

To prevent any mishaps, Lü Zhong didn’t teleport immediately. Instead, at the cost of some of his Divine Sense, he used the power of the Gray Mist Space to perform a True Retrospection.

The result of the retrospection was just as he had expected.

”Excellent!” Lü Zhong was thrilled.

With a flicker, he appeared on the Transmission Array.

Teleport!

After a dizzying flash, Lü Zhong appeared in the Secret Medicine chamber. He didn’t take the Panacea, however, because grabbing the item would trigger the chamber’s teleportation mechanism.

He began setting up another Transmission Array, this one leading back to the platform he had started on.

Once the Transmission Array was ready, Lü Zhong took a deep breath, snatched the Panacea into his Storage Ring, and simultaneously activated the array at his feet.

He reappeared on the platform outside.

But before he could even celebrate his success...

RUMBLE!

The sound of thunder echoed from all directions. Lü Zhong saw that the Cloud Qi surrounding the platform had begun to roil and press in on him.

Apparently, taking the Panacea had triggered some kind of preset mechanism left by the Witch Cultivators.

Lü Zhong had also planned on grabbing the Witch Cultivation Technique, but it was clear he was out of time. He had no choice but to stride over to one of the stone doors and push it open without a second thought.

He snatched the golden armor, and a flash of purple light immediately engulfed him.

When his senses returned, he found himself standing before a long corridor.

The area was vast and empty, containing only towering pillars and a corridor that stretched deep into the darkness. On either side, a small door appeared every hundred zhang. Faint slivers of light from a teleportation vortex could be seen through the cracks in the doors.

A single glance was all it took to know that these vortices led to different Little Worlds!

He waited where he was for a while.

’Strange, why hasn’t anyone else shown up?’ Lü Zhong surveyed his surroundings with suspicion but saw no one else. ’Could it be that we each appeared in our own separate space?’

With the power of a Witch God, such a feat was certainly possible.

’So, what now? Should I participate in the Divine Witch Trial, enter the central Prohibition of the Ten thousand Witches Hall, and repair the damaged Spiritual Energy Great Wall, or...’ Lü Zhong lowered his head in thought, but he quickly made a decision.

Of course, he decided it was none of his business.

As things stood, whether the Spiritual Energy Great Wall was repaired or not had nothing to do with him.

The ones who should really be worried were the Seven Southern Barbarian Sects.

Seeing that no one else was likely to appear, Lü Zhong simply sat cross-legged on the ground and began refining the golden armor he had just acquired. He soon learned its name: Golden Armor.

Once refined, the Golden Armor could resize and change its appearance at will. Lü Zhong changed it to resemble form-fitting clothes, making it easy to wear his Flood Dragon Patterned Magic Robe over it.

With this Hard Armor protecting him, his life now had another layer of security.

Afterwards, Lü Zhong took out the Panacea.

He examined it carefully for a moment before putting it back into his Storage Ring.

This Secret Medicine was astonishingly effective, equivalent to a Tier Five Pill used by Immortal Cultivators. Even for a Nascent Soul Cultivator, it could instantly heal all injuries.

It was best to save such a good thing for when it was truly needed.

Lü Zhong decided to save it for a rainy day.

Next, he began to inspect the small doors.

After some observation, he discovered that the engravings on the doors weren’t mere patterns, but a stylized script that described the Little World behind each teleportation vortex.

Lü Zhong studied them for a while.

He soon found the Little World he was looking for.

...

He had expected to find countless Spirit Medicines ripe for the picking.

But when Lü Zhong entered the Little World, he was greeted by a long, rotting tongue dripping with pus. It shot out from the mouth of a ten-foot-tall corpse fly, sharp spikes extending from its surface mid-flight. The spikes flickered with a faint light, as if aiming to pierce his heart in a single strike.

DING! The tongue was deflected by his Protective Gang Qi.

Expressionless, Lü Zhong raised his hand and unleashed a Palm Thunder.

After blasting the corpse fly apart, Lü Zhong finally took a moment to observe his surroundings. He saw no mountains or rivers, only a ghastly green Poison Pool that filled his entire field of vision, like an endless basin of corruption.

A sliver of doubt crept into his mind.

The corpse fly he had just killed looked exactly like a Celestial Demon.

’Could this place have been taken over by Celestial Demons...?’ Lü Zhong scanned his surroundings with his senses. He found no trace of Spirit Medicine, only more Celestial Demons lurking in the shadows, their ill intentions fixed on him.

Just then, a colossal shadow abruptly rose from the Poison Pool.

Lü Zhong’s gaze snapped toward it, and he was stunned to see a massive, grayish-brown head emerge from the pool. It was covered in twisted, sharp horns of varying sizes. Numerous wounds, both large and small, dotted its surface, oozing a yellow-green pus that was utterly nauseating to behold.

As the head rose higher, a mountain-like figure emerged from the Poison Pool.

Its colossal body was like a mountain, standing well over three thousand feet tall. Its entire frame was bizarrely swollen, as if its own organs were about to burst from within. Its skin was a deathly pale, ashen color mottled with bruises, and it was covered in pustules and moss-like boils. Giant worms could be seen crawling in and out of its open sores.

This was also a Celestial Demon, and it radiated a Tier Four aura.

Upon seeing Lü Zhong, the mountain-like Celestial Demon attacked, spitting a glob of ghastly green slime at him.

Not daring to be careless for even a moment, Lü Zhong quickly dodged aside.

As he dodged, he cast a Blessing Magic on himself. He then activated the Thunder Seal in his Sea of Consciousness. A few breaths later, he flung out both hands, and two Thunder Spears shot forth.

However, the result was not what he expected.

When the Thunderous Spears struck the Celestial Demon, they vanished into its body like stones sinking into a swamp, disappearing without a trace. If not for a barely perceptible muffled thud a moment later, Lü Zhong would have thought he’d imagined the attack entirely.

Even after taking two Thunderous Spears, the Celestial Demon appeared completely unharmed. It retaliated by spitting several more globs of slime.

Unlike before, when these globs of slime hit the ground, they burst open, releasing over a thousand corpse flies of various sizes. Their strength ranged from Tier One to Tier Three, and their ghastly green eyes glinted menacingly as they swarmed toward Lü Zhong.

But they hadn’t flown far.

A volley of Mirror Light shot out, instantly obliterating the swarm of corpse flies.

Having dealt with the small fry, Lü Zhong turned his attention back to the mountain-like Celestial Demon. He began to calculate how to deal with the creature. After all, if he wanted to leave this place, he first had to find the exit from the Little World.