The Secret Way of Immortality

A cloud-like magical artifact flashed past, its rich magical power clearly palpable, and tinged with a faint cyan hue.

The farmers in the fields looked up at the clouds, unable to resist casting gazes of awe.

Several farmers even knelt on the ground, praying that the immortals would protect their young children, or that the coming year would bring favorable weather.

They might not see a cultivator even once in several decades, so they naturally treated them as immortals, wishing they could offer the three sacrificial animals as tribute.

Although the Daoist sects are flourishing in this world, they are all located in the depths of the mountains and forests. Mortals rarely come into contact with immortals, and such a grand display clearly indicates that the immortal's cultivation is not shallow.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Several more flying swords disappeared into the sky, neatly slicing through the clouds.

The farmers suddenly noticed something unusual. Could it be that a demon had emerged in the northwest, attracting so many immortals to gather and head there?

The carriages and people on the official road all stopped, discussing the affairs of the immortals.

Some well-informed merchants, recalling rumors from over half a month ago, immediately turned around and retreated in the opposite direction.

They had heard that the Three Purities Temple had completely sealed its mountain gate due to demons, and its location was in the northwest.

Perhaps the Daoist sects were indeed launching a major campaign because of the demons, and they only hoped that it would not affect mortals.

In fact, it was as the mortals had predicted. Streaks of light approached the Three Purities Temple, almost gathering the leading figures of the Daoist sects from all over the land.

They stopped outside the mountain gate, and after a brief exchange, looked towards the Three Purities Temple, only to find that the mountain gate was already shrouded in thick fog.

Daoist Shui Heng frowned and turned to look at Old Daoist Hua Feng beside him.

Daoist Shui Heng was the leader of the Azure City Sect, and had stepped into the realm of Terrestrial Immortals three hundred years ago.

Old Daoist Hua Feng came from the Xuanyuan Sword Sect, holding a position equivalent to that of a Supreme Elder. He was already a thousand years old, and also a Terrestrial Immortal.

As representatives of the Daoist sects, they stood at the top of the cliff.

The other Daoists, although all high-ranking members of their respective sects, were far from the realm of Terrestrial Immortals, so they intentionally or unintentionally lagged behind by a few meters, not daring to interrupt.

It had been more than ten days since they received the message from Supreme Xuan.

They originally thought that it was the evil cultivators involved with the Five Villages Temple that caused the Evil Locking Pagoda to riot, and did not believe the absurd talk of demons emerging, so they were in no hurry to set off for the Three Purities Temple.

Unexpectedly, the Three Purities Temple suddenly lost contact with the outside world.

They rushed over, only to learn that the mountain gate of the Three Purities Temple had been closed, and contacting Supreme Xuan was of no use.

"The Three Purities Temple is still several miles away, but something is not right here."

Daoist Shui Heng couldn't help but say, the surrounding mountain environment was extremely strange. It was clearly the season of early spring, but there was not a trace of greenery.

The soil was pitch black, seemingly containing an unknown aura.

"Demonic energy is chilling."

Old Daoist Hua Feng's expression was solemn, and he squeezed out four words from between his teeth, then hooked his finger, and a faint Nether Essence landed in his palm.

Nether Essence was inherently corrosive, and sizzled immediately upon colliding with magical power.

"Hiss."

If Old Daoist Hua Feng hadn't reacted in time, the Nether Essence might have corroded his flesh, even the magical power of a Terrestrial Immortal could not stop it.

A strange look appeared in his eyes. The wisp of Nether Essence just now was not even at the Qi Refining stage, at most just at the entry level, but it could cause his own magical power to collapse.

If he could find the secret of the Nether Essence, wouldn't he be able to take it a step further.

Old Daoist Hua Feng thought of himself being trapped in the realm of Terrestrial Immortals for hundreds of years. Whether the Nether Essence was related to the Earth Ancestor was no longer important, and he had even secretly tried to find the Earth Ancestor's remains.

It was just that the Earth Ancestor's remains were not compatible with orthodox Daoist methods.

"Interesting, really interesting..."

Old Daoist Hua Feng wanted to put away the Nether Essence, but found that the storage magical artifact would be destroyed upon contact, let alone using magical power to wrap it.

The Nether Essence seemed to be the magical power of an immortal, and mortals could not control it at all.

Compared to Old Daoist Hua Feng, Daoist Shui Heng was extremely wary of the Nether Essence.

The two suspected that the Three Purities Temple had already been destroyed, otherwise there wouldn't be such strange auras everywhere, and no traces of beasts or insects could be found.

"Senior Hua Feng, let's call some more fellow Daoists before heading to the Three Purities Temple, lest we encounter an unmatched demon..."

Before Daoist Shui Heng could finish speaking, Old Daoist Hua Feng turned into a flash of light and disappeared, heading towards the Three Purities Temple at an extremely fast speed.

"The Daoist sects are already facing life and death, and you're still thinking about your own selfish interests."

Daoist Shui Heng snorted coldly, but the speed of his heart beating was obviously accelerating, and he chased after Old Daoist Hua Feng's figure without hesitation.

The two did not realize that as they got closer and closer to the Three Purities Temple, it seemed that greed was being infinitely amplified.

Thoughts surged in their minds, including the desire to become immortals and attain the Dao, as well as the malice of being greedy for life and fearing death, or kicking someone when they're down.

Even though the other Daoists were being suppressed by two Terrestrial Immortals, they all had different thoughts, and had already abandoned their original purpose.

After spending a moment, they arrived at the Three Purities Temple.

It wasn't until they faced the dilapidated mountain gate of the Three Purities Temple that the Daoists suddenly woke up, their expressions filled with fear, and they had the urge to turn around and leave.

The entire mountain peak had actually become several times larger, the soil was dark red, and the surface was covered with blood vessel-like vines. Black and gray Nether Essence permeated every part of the mountain.

The buildings were no better, all showing traces of flesh and blood activation, which was creepy.

What frightened them the most was that none of the thousands of disciples of the Three Purities Temple had survived. They had all turned into black and red blood eggs, and human figures could be vaguely seen being nurtured inside.

The Evil Locking Pagoda, as the source of the disaster, was tilted and lying on the ground, leaving only a deep pit hundreds of meters in size in its place, clearly showing that a huge monster had crawled out from the depths of the earth.

Within a hundred meters of the deep pit, there were three-legged bronze tripods, and the incense inside had been burning not long ago. They should have been specially used to worship the indescribable object in the deep pit.

It was hard to imagine how terrifying the emerging demon was. Its volume was at least a hundred meters, and it could make the disciples of the Three Purities Temple willingly submit.

Old Daoist Hua Feng gasped and subconsciously touched the bronze tripod.

The bronze tripod exuded residual heat, clearly indicating that incense had been burning not long ago, and it might have been within an hour of their arrival.

"What the hell?"

Daoist Shui Heng thought about it and felt terrified. Could it be that the demon could sense their arrival?

Puff, puff, puff...

At this moment, the sound of blood and flesh eggs breaking rang out one after another, and one by one, the disciples of the Three Purities Temple emerged from the eggs, soaked in viscous liquid.

Their expressions were confused, and they had forgotten their memories of the past few days.

The Daoists quickly checked the disciples of the Three Purities Temple and found that their bodies were not at all abnormal, and their magical power did not seem to have been lost.

"Qing Xuan, where's Qing Xuan?!"

Daoist Shui Heng questioned, frantically searching for Supreme Xuan.

Old Daoist Hua Feng stared blankly at the mountain gate, then closed his eyes to feel the mystery of the Nether Essence, and his expression became dazed.

When Daoist Shui Heng noticed Supreme Xuan, the other party had just broken out of a blood and flesh egg.

Supreme Xuan muttered words like "The Dao Ancestor has descended", his mental state became extremely unstable, but his body and soul were not damaged.

"The Dao Ancestor has descended? What kind of evil did you come into contact with?"

Daoist Shui Heng repeatedly questioned. Supreme Xuan regained some sanity, but just as he wanted to answer, he found that his memory was extremely chaotic.

Under the trend of pain, his consciousness fell into a blurred state, and he covered his head with his hands and beat it desperately, blood flowing from his nose.

Then, something incredible happened to the Daoists.

The flesh and blood transformation of the Three Purities Temple's palaces quickly subsided, the buildings returned to their original appearance in the blink of an eye, the withered vegetation turned to ashes, and new shoots grew from the soil.

The Nether Essence that permeated the heavens and earth also seemed to have never appeared.

"No! No!! No!!!"

"My immortal opportunity, my chance to become an immortal and attain the Dao, Dao Ancestor, Dao Ancestor!!!"

Old Daoist Hua Feng roared in despair, releasing a massive amount of magical power from his hands, wanting to gather the Nether Essence of the Three Purities Temple, but found that the Nether Essence was like grains of sand between his fingers, and he couldn't grasp it at all.

"Old Daoist, are you crazy?!"

Daoist Shui Heng grabbed Old Daoist Hua Feng's Daoist robe and forcibly controlled the latter, so as not to destroy the thousands of years of foundation in one fell swoop.

"I'm crazy?"

"Open your eyes and look, they are clearly undergoing the baptism of an immortal opportunity, but it's just because the Dao Ancestor doesn't want to appear in the world that it's all a dream."

Old Daoist Hua Feng stubbornly shook off Daoist Shui Heng and chased after the little remaining Nether Essence.

Daoist Shui Heng looked around in a daze. The disciples of the Three Purities Temple were waking up one after another. What exactly happened, no one could understand.

Evil, or Dao Ancestor?

What they didn't know was that all the cause and effect came from Ren Qing.

And Ren Qing himself was standing on the top of the Evil Locking Pagoda, using the perspective of an onlooker to observe the changes in the Three Purities Temple.

After confirming that nothing was missing, he used the Heavenly Demon Possession and disappeared in place.

In Ren Qing's view, the newly restarted immortal cultivation civilization of the Three Dao Ancestors has not reached the level of the previous era. The so-called Terrestrial Immortals are at most cultivators in the Yang God Realm.

Even because the development of weapon refining is low, Terrestrial Immortals are far inferior to those in the Yang God Realm.

But Ren Qing noticed many unusual things.

First of all, Song Zongwu and others, their strength is clearly above this world, but why did they only create a scattered Five Villages Temple in thousands of years, and they themselves are subdued in the dark.

Because of the re-cultivation of spells, Ren Qing could not directly contact them either, and could only vaguely feel the location of some of them.

In addition, the world painstakingly created by the Three Dao Ancestors, how does it feel meaningless.

The Three Dao Ancestors have no intention of continuing to interfere at all, and it seems that the purpose of their descent is only to destroy the original world and create a new world.

Ren Qing was full of doubts.

During his leisure time in the Three Purities Temple, he also read many books and noticed that the history of the Daoist sects was very strange. It could even be traced back to the prehistoric era tens of thousands of years ago.

But in the past ten thousand years, the Daoist sects clearly had a blank period.

Ren Qing pondered carefully. The blank period was the thousands of years after the Three Dao Ancestors descended. The current civilization might be another world, otherwise it would be impossible to have such a coherent history.

The Three Dao Ancestors are all extraterrestrial demons, and it is difficult for him to understand with normal thinking.

Ren Qing shook his head and decided to find a place to completely suppress the distortion, and then cultivate the Heavenly Dao Life to the perfection of Corpse Dissolution Immortal.

The movement he made in the Three Purities Temple, as long as the monks of the Forbidden Corps Hall were not in seclusion, they would take the initiative to inquire about the news.

Ren Qing casually found a cave in the mountains to seclude himself. After driving away the surrounding beasts, he began to cultivate the Heavenly Dao Life non-stop.

After the world was reshaped by the Three Dao Ancestors, only copper ore remained of the metals, which led to the proliferation of copper products in both the immortal and mortal worlds.

Ren Qing felt that if resources remained so single, this world would not be complete.

The immortal cultivation civilization also lacks the opportunity to go further. The Terrestrial Immortals of the Yang God Realm are already the limit, and they are even inferior to the world in his stomach.

At least in the world in his stomach, under the protection of Ren Qing's spells, the possibility of soul distortion of living beings has been reduced to a minimum. Even if there is distortion, there are pills to suppress it.

Ren Qing now rarely interferes with the world in his stomach.

The familiar relatives and friends either exhausted their lifespans and died, or practiced the corpse path in the underworld, and everything had long been different.

Even his own state of mind has been inevitably washed away by the long river of time.

It is already difficult for him to find the impulse he had when he first came into contact with cultivation, but at the same time, he is even more obsessed with transcending the Heavenly Dao.

His obsession comes from the confusion about the layout of the Three Dao Ancestors, and also from the frustration of being controlled by others. The solution to all problems requires crossing the bottleneck of the Corpse Dissolution Immortal.

Ren Qing meditated on the Heavenly Dao Life, and his breath flowed through his body in the eight extraordinary meridians.

After the Heavenly Dao Life reaches the Yang God Realm, accumulating the aura of the Heavenly Dao is no longer important. The key is to imprint the rules of the Heavenly Dao in the flesh and bones, so that the body and soul resonate.

What Ren Qing has to do is to gradually bring his body and soul closer to the Heavenly Dao Tree.

He sat cross-legged in the cave, his skin faintly glowing, imprinted on the surface of the stone wall, forming extremely complex Heavenly Dao patterns.

Even if Ren Qing did not check the information flow, he knew that his cultivation was constantly deepening.

Along with it, the Heavenly Dao Tree in the world in his stomach began a new round of growth, and countless Heavenly Immortal positions were condensed on the branches.

Don't look at the Three Realms as a pool of stagnant water, but there are many old immortals hidden in the dark.

They noticed the abnormality of the Heavenly Dao Tree and immediately realized Ren Qing's return, and immediately began to prepare to overcome the Thunder Tribulation of the Great Luo Golden Immortal.

Once they achieve the Great Luo Golden Immortal, it means that they are highly bound to the world in Ren Qing's stomach.

If Ren Qing was ignorant of life and death before, they naturally did not dare to rashly overcome the tribulation, for fear of becoming a funeral object when the world in his stomach was destroyed.

This is not because they share difficulties differently, but because Ren Qing set the rules.

Ren Qing left a path to the Mirror World in the world in his stomach. If something happened to him, the Forbidden Corps Hall would organize an evacuation.

But now anyone with eyes can see that Ren Qing has eliminated the drawbacks of the spell.

In the extremely prosperous Heavenly Dao Palace, two old men chatting by the roadside smiled at each other, finished the game of chess in front of them, and disappeared.

Several coffins in the underworld suddenly vibrated, and boundless Yin Qi surged into them.

The phenomena in the mortal world also occurred one after another. A dragon's roar sounded in the sea of wine; a tall man walked out of an active volcano; ten thousand beasts galloped in the forest; countless sword lights surged in the Heavenly Palace...

The reason why they wanted to gather together to overcome the tribulation was because they still remembered what Ren Qing said.

The Heavenly Dao is not only descended by the Three Dao Ancestors. The current stability may be the calm before the storm, and a catastrophe involving the Heavenly Dao is about to be introduced.

The Supreme Heavenly Demon may descend into the world in a thousand years.

The world in his stomach can only block part of the power of the disaster. If there is a Heavenly Dao battle, the Great Luo Golden Immortal may have a chance of survival.

Ren Qing blinked, and decades had passed.

The Heavenly Dao Life successfully broke through to the Heavenly Strange Realm, but none of the old immortal and god subordinates of the Forbidden Corps Hall contacted him, and there was no news at all.