The Quest for Immortality

Mo Hua and the others concealed their presence as they approached the oasis from several miles away. Looking into the distance, they saw the oasis brightly illuminated amidst the night, a scene of prosperity blossoming like an ephemeral flower in the famine-stricken desert, leaving them all astonished.

The group didn’t enter rashly but instead chose to observe from afar for a while.

Within the oasis, there were various campsites and palaces made of sand and stone.

Numerous Barbarian Cultivators roamed inside, diverse in appearance, their clothes varied and the totem Monster Patterns on their skin different, indicating they were from different tribes.

Clearly, this was a desert campsite for survivors amid the famine.

Moreover, those who could enter the campsite seemed to have uncommon identities, at least they were prominent figures within their tribes.

Inside the oasis, in some rooms, cups clinked as extravagant bodies were exposed, amid endless boisterous celebrations.

Outside, the famine raged, with corpses floating in the desolate wilderness, yet here indulgence and debauchery reigned, carrying a sense of absurdity.

At this moment, the oasis gate was tightly closed.

Outside the gate, there gathered a number of people.

Caked with dust, survivors fleeing from unknown locations, on the verge of despair, seeing this oasis in the desert, it appeared to them like a firefly in the dark night, drew them all in, hoping to enter the oasis to take refuge.

However, at night, the oasis gate remained closed.

The refugees could only wait outside the gate, anxious and worried.

Mo Hua pondered for a moment, then decided to let Dan Zhu and Lugu await modestly in line outside the gate.

All of them were in disguise.

Dan Zhu, handsome, assumed the role of a Young Master, with Lugu and Chi Feng portraying guards, while Mo Hua appeared as the Young Master’s follower. With their auras suppressed, no one became suspicious for the time being.

Yet in such a famine year, everyone was preoccupied with their own survival to care about them.

Thus, they waited like that until dawn broke.

Voices rose from inside the oasis, the gate slowly opened, and a guard stepped out.

The crowd grew restless, ready to surge forward, but the guard’s gaze turned cold, intimidating everyone with pressure.

”Golden Core!”

The crowd’s hearts trembled, recognizing the guard as a Golden Core cultivator, daring not to act recklessly.

Some who originally harbored ill-intentions and planned to rob were deterred.

The oasis guard said, ”This is a year of great disaster. Our master possesses the virtue of benevolence, allowing you all to enter.”

”However, there are two conditions:”

”Firstly, you must have a legitimate identity, at least a Steward or Elder within your tribe.”

”Secondly, you must pay a considerable entry fee.”

”If you don’t meet these conditions, you can still enter.”

”But you will have to endure becoming a Barbarian Slave. Barbarian Slaves can enter the oasis, but the treatment... there’s no need for me to elaborate.”

”If you don’t meet the conditions and are unwilling to become a Barbarian Slave, then you will have to leave, as we won’t entertain you.”

”In these turbulent times, my master is compelled to do so, we ask for your understanding.”

The guard’s tone was gentle, yet his attitude remained firm.

And a place where a Golden Core cultivator could serve as a guard evidently brooked no disorder.

The crowd began to line up, presenting tokens, confirming identities, and paying some wealth or cultivation treasures as ”entry fees.”

As it was nearly Mo Hua and the others’ turn, a small conflict erupted in front. .

A burly man earnestly claimed to be the chieftain of a certain tribe.

The guard asked him to show a token, but he insisted that as a chieftain, he didn’t need any token.

The guard said, ”Without a token, you cannot enter.”

The burly man became anxious, proclaiming he really was a chieftain and even attempted to force his way in, leading the guard to break his leg and toss him into the desert.

Afterward, the guard reiterated, ”Words are not proof, you need a token.”

Among the crowd, some people’s faces turned pale, feeling the urge to retreat.

At this moment, within the queue ahead of Mo Hua, a young man shouted, ”I have a token! I have it! I am the Young Master of the Gongtu Tribe, I have a token!”

The oasis guard seeing his loud declaration and a young master demeanor, called him forward, ”You, come.”

The youth claiming to be the Young Master Gongtu immediately stepped forward, presenting a token made of white jade.

Tokens from other tribes were mostly made from Monster Beast bones, yet his token was made from valuable white jade, quite rare.

The oasis guard scrutinized it for a long time.

Young Master Gongtu, fearing he wouldn’t be let through, covertly slipped a small pouch across.

His covert action wasn’t noticed by others but couldn’t escape Mo Hua’s Divine Sense.

Mo Hua could feel a surge of Spiritual Energy emanating from within the pouch, revealing that it contained a significant amount of Spirit Stones.

In the Great Wilderness, Spirit Stones were extremely scarce.

The few Spiritual mines were concentrated within the Great Wilderness Royal Court and some larger tribes.

The Royal Court held sway over the lifeline of cultivation in the Great Wilderness.

Ordinary Barbarian Cultivators practiced using Broken Spirit Stones or some contaminated, inferior Spirit Stones.

To avoid reliance on ”Spiritual Energy,” many Barbarian Cultivators took the ”Monster cultivator” path.

They consumed Monster Beasts to replenish their Blood Qi, relying on refining demonic power to extract a trace of Cultivation Power to activate the Barbaric Wilderness’s cultivation techniques and Taoist Skills.

In the Taoist Court’s traditional system, Spiritual Power and demonic power were distinctly separated.

Spiritual Power is considered righteous, while demonic power is naturally seen as evil.

However, having spent a long time in the Great Wilderness, Mo Hua’s concepts had evolved, realizing such division was quite arbitrary and rigidly doctrinal.

Spiritual Energy is the pure cultivation energy naturally untainted between heaven and earth.

Monster Qi is essentially also ”Spiritual Energy,” except it is ”Spiritual Energy” polluted by the demonic power of Monster Beasts.

The same goes for Evil Qi.

Transformed from various heaven and earth energies into Cultivation Power, this is the source of a cultivator’s strength.