Chapter 196 – True Immortal Trial Approaches, All Sides Stir

“Must I master the ‘One Breath Scripture’ to further increase my spiritual power limit…”

Back alone in his cultivation room at Luocheng High School, Lu Chen found himself unusually troubled.

The ‘One Breath Scripture’ was an Immortality Art, the foundational cultivation manual of the Xu Family, one of the longevity clans.

For an outsider like him to learn such an immortality art was nearly impossible.

The reason a foundational manual was called foundational was precisely because it formed the bedrock of a family’s existence.

Putting himself in their shoes, Lu Chen thought that if he were a member of the Xu Family, he would never transmit the clan’s foundational manual to an outsider.

The same would hold true for other longevity clans.

Difficult. Extremely difficult.

At this thought, Lu Chen immediately recalled the special skill he had learned from Xu Yangyang, the Mountain and Sea Walker of Linjiang, during the Linjiang trial—Ephemeral Runes.

[Ephemeral Runes: Novice 1/2000]

[Effect: After activation, you can maintain ‘Ephemeral Runes’ on your body or divine abilities for extended periods. At Major Achievement, you can craft semi-permanent ‘Substantial Runes’.]

Back then, adhering to the principle that one can never have too many skills, he had become intrigued upon seeing Xu Yangyang’s body inscriptions. Using his Azure Lotus Eyes, he carefully observed and managed to glean some insights.

However, his Ephemeral Runes were ultimately just a ‘technique’, not a ‘method’.

They could leave semi-permanent runes on his body’s surface.

But these runes functioned more like external equipment.

They didn’t fundamentally affect his physique.

The effect was vastly different from the ‘One Breath Scripture’ Jiang Qing had mentioned, which could alter a cultivator’s physique through ‘special runes’.

The term ‘Immortality Art’ wasn’t just empty words.

It meant that cultivating these manuals to profound levels could lead one to pursue immortality.

Trying to obtain such an immortality art from the Liuzhou Xu Family…

The sheer difficulty of it made Lu Chen’s head ache just thinking about it.

He couldn’t just find a cultivator from the Liuzhou Xu Family and use soul-searching techniques to steal their foundational manual, could he?

Never mind whether the Xu Family had placed restrictions within their clan members’ divine souls.

Even if he succeeded, secrets couldn’t remain hidden forever.

Once exposed, Lu Chen would face pursuit by the entire Immortal Alliance.

Moreover, Lu Chen wasn’t the type to harm other cultivators just for a cultivation manual.

Thus, the only method he could think of was to directly request it from the Liuzhou Xu Family.

But asking a longevity clan for their immortality art was almost as bad as desecrating their ancestral graves.

Perhaps even worse.

Desecrating graves would only damage the Xu Family’s reputation.

But if the ‘One Breath Scripture’ were leaked, their status as a longevity clan would be diminished by at least half.

Difficult. Extremely difficult.

The more Lu Chen thought about it, the more he felt it was nearly impossible for him to obtain the ‘One Breath Scripture’.

Yet, giving up here and now left him deeply unsatisfied.

Because he had a vague intuition that relying solely on his current spiritual power limit would never be enough to allow the Golden Core he condensed to bear four Harmony Realm Concepts.

After much contemplation, Lu Chen finally reached a decision.

No matter how difficult, it had to be done.First, he would try to see if he could obtain the “One Breath Scripture” himself.

If that failed, he would seek other methods.

After all, he hadn’t forgotten about the True Immortal Trial in the game world.

According to Sect Leader Gu Liqing, the True Immortal Trial contained a True Immortal Inheritance.

Which meant there would definitely be an Immortality Art present.

If he could obtain the Immortality Art from the True Immortal Trial, he might be able to use it as leverage to negotiate with the Xu Family.

However, the True Immortal Trial was scheduled to begin about one month before the college entrance exams.

That would be around May in the real world.

Currently, it was March in the real world.

In other words, he had roughly two months left before entering the True Immortal Trial.

Originally, Lu Chen had planned to focus solely on completing the mission of slaying Immortal Fiends during this True Immortal Trial.

But now it seemed he needed to adjust his plans slightly.

At the very least, he needed to obtain one Immortality Art.

Only then would he have the bargaining chip to trade with the Liuzhou Xu Family.

This was the most reliable method Lu Chen could think of.

Beyond this, he couldn’t conceive of any other way to make the Liuzhou Xu Family agree to let him study the “One Breath Scripture.”

With this in mind, Lu Chen immediately decided to focus on preparing for the upcoming True Immortal Trial.

After all, this trial not only concerned his main mission.

It also determined whether he could achieve the Twelve-patterned Supreme Quality Golden Core.

Two months in reality, one year and eight months in the game.

Everything would soon come to a conclusion.

Meanwhile, in the game world, Eastern Divine Continent, Giant Spirit Gate.

“Ah, no, please stop! I surrender!”

In one of Giant Spirit Gate’s arenas, a Direct Lineage Disciple of the sect was pleading in terror with a bald man over two meters tall standing opposite him.

But his pleas fell on deaf ears.

In fact, they only seemed to excite the large man further.

The man looked down at the Giant Spirit Gate disciple, whose legs he had broken, now reduced to crawling on the ground, and revealed a ferocious expression.

“Surrender? Among cultivators, there is no surrender… only life… or death!”

With that, the man stepped forward and punched the disciple’s head into pulp.

Despite this being a spar between fellow disciples, such brutality was rare even among Demonic Path sects.

Yet it was happening here in Giant Spirit Gate, a Righteous Path sect of the Eastern Divine Continent.

What was even stranger was that the other Direct Lineage Disciples of Giant Spirit Gate watching nearby showed no reaction whatsoever.

They even appeared somewhat accustomed to such scenes.

This bizarre spectacle would make any outsider think they had stumbled into some Demonic Path sect.

The large man stood at the center of the arena, scanning the crowd before asking, “Is there anyone else who wants to challenge me?”

Some shook their heads with smiles, indicating they wouldn’t participate.

Others showed fear on their faces, making it clear they had no desire to have their heads smashed in.

Seeing that no one else wanted to challenge him, the man showed a bored expression.

“Tch, how dull.”

Without even glancing at the headless corpse on the ground, he walked to the edge of the arena and approached the Giant Spirit Gate Sect Leader.

The Sect Leader of Giant Spirit Gate was a rather frail-looking old man.

Yet this same old man had broken through to the Nascent Soul Stage six months ago, becoming one of the rare Nascent Soul Stage cultivators in the Eastern Divine Continent.Normally, disciples should feel joyous when their own Sect Leader achieves a breakthrough to the Nascent Soul Stage.

However, ever since the Sect Leader returned from an excursion ten years ago, his temperament had undergone a drastic change.

The once amiable and kind-hearted man had not only become moody and unpredictable,

but his approach to mentoring disciples had also taken a complete one-eighty.

He not only encouraged life-and-death battles among disciples

but also took pleasure in throwing them into areas teeming with demons, forcing them to face near-certain death.

This teaching method directly caused the original number of disciples in Giant Spirit Gate to drop by about fifty percent in a short period.

Yet, by some unknown means employed by the Sect Leader of Giant Spirit Gate,

whenever an original disciple died, he would venture out and bring back some ‘mortals’ to fill the vacant disciple positions.

Without exception, these mortals were all exceptionally talented individuals,

capable of catching up to realms that originally took Giant Spirit Gate disciples years, or even decades, to cultivate in a very short time.

Initially, the Elders of Giant Spirit Gate were quite pleased with this,

believing that the emergence of so many ‘geniuses’ would quickly strengthen Giant Spirit Gate.

But as these ‘geniuses’ gradually began to stand out, they finally noticed something amiss.

Namely, these ‘geniuses’ seemed to have an excessively strong inclination to kill,

as if their lives as mortals had been steeped in slaughter.

And the strangeness didn’t end there.

Since Yan Shoulong, the Sect Leader of Giant Spirit Gate, broke through to the Nascent Soul Stage, he frequently took other Elders out alone for a period under the pretext of guiding their cultivation.

Each time they returned, these Elders would undergo certain changes.

Although their personalities and appearances remained largely unchanged,

those close to them could faintly sense that these Elders had become like different people.

However, given that Yan Shoulong was one of the rare Nascent Soul Stage cultivators in the Eastern Divine Continent, and considering that the Golden Core Elders he took out

not only saw significant improvements in their cultivation but also developed a terrifying level of loyalty to Sect Leader Yan Shoulong—

unquestioning and absolute—

the vast Giant Spirit Gate had now completely become Yan Shoulong’s autocracy.

The remaining four Golden Core Elders had all become his staunch confidants,

not to mention the group of geniuses personally brought back by Sect Leader Yan Shoulong.

It could be said that from top to bottom, the entire Giant Spirit Gate had utterly become Yan Shoulong’s private possession.

“Hong Hua, you went too far. How could you strike to kill a fellow disciple?”

Facing Yan Shoulong’s mild reprimand, Yang Honghua, who had just fatally punched his Junior Brother, grinned and rubbed his head, saying, “An accident, all an accident. I just couldn’t hold back in the moment. I’ll be more careful next time.”

In any other school, Yang Honghua would have faced either death or confinement in the school’s Forbidden Land for reflection.

But in the current Giant Spirit Gate, Yan Shoulong showed no intention of punishing him, merely stating indifferently, “Remember, you must not harm your fellow disciples like this in the future.”

“Yes, yes, this disciple will definitely be more careful in the future.”After hearing these words, Sect Leader Yan Shoulong looked at the surrounding crowd and said, “Now that the grand competition has concluded, the top ten disciples will remain while the others should return to focus on their cultivation.”

“Yes.”

Before long, only ten Direct Lineage Disciples of Giant Spirit Gate remained in the vast Arena.

With no outsiders present, Yan Shoulong dropped all pretense.

He looked directly at the group and stated bluntly, “With the True Immortal Trial approaching, I’ve already reached an agreement with the cultivators from Martial God Mountain for them to bring you into the True Immortal Trial Grounds together.”

“You should know what to do once you enter the True Immortal Trial Grounds, right?”

Upon hearing Yan Shoulong’s words, the ten Giant Spirit Gate Direct Lineage Disciples immediately became excited.

So excited that their appearances underwent varying degrees of transformation, even taking on somewhat beast-like human forms.

This situation undoubtedly made the atmosphere in the Arena turn eerie.

It seemed less like a cultivator sect and more like a demon’s cave.

Yang Honghua, who stood closest to Yan Shoulong, now had his head transformed into that of a tiger as he excitedly asked: “Elder, can we eat the Martial God Mountain cultivators too?”

To this, Yan Shoulong calmly replied: “It would be better not to. After all, we still need them to provide cover for our Great Thousand Mountains in this world.”

“Before our Transformation Soul Stage ‘Dao Devourers’ descend upon this world, it’s best not to draw their attention.”

“After all, this world is completely different from the ones we’ve encountered before. Their Great Divine Power practitioners have all reached the perfected Dao Transformation realm through their own cultivation. Even our Dao Devourers can’t say for certain who would win against them.”

“Additionally, I’ve learned that this world seems to have an Immortal Realm called the Thirty-Three Heavens.”

“Presumably, those Immortals should be similar to the Celestial Beings from our world.”

“If we provoke the Great Divine Power practitioners, that’s one thing, but if we anger the Immortals, we would truly face certain death.”

“Therefore, we need to use our connection with Martial God Mountain to gradually infiltrate Central Province.”

“Only when we have someone firmly established within Martial God Mountain, and slowly take control of the entire sect, will it be time for us to feast freely.”

“Before that, you’d all better behave yourselves.”

“If anyone disobeys, like Pei Wenfu who secretly went down the mountain and slaughtered a village of Mortals, refusing to follow discipline…”

“Then I can only ensure you meet the same fate as him.”

Hearing Yan Shoulong mention Pei Wenfu, the ten Great Thousand Mountains Direct Lineage Disciples immediately restrained themselves.

After all, Pei Wenfu had been unable to control his killing desires and went to a village near Giant Spirit Gate, slaughtering all its inhabitants.

This would undoubtedly risk exposing the current situation at Giant Spirit Gate to some extent.

Although Great Thousand Mountains had completely replaced Giant Spirit Gate at all levels, they still didn’t dare to act too conspicuously and attract the attention of the Immortal Cultivation World.

If nothing else, just Martial God Mountain with its Transformation Soul Stage cultivators could completely uproot them in their current state.

“Alright, I’ve said what needed to be said. You may go and prepare.”

“The True Immortal Trial is one of this world’s rare great Opportunities, its value even surpassing the blessings of Gu Xian from our world.””I hope you can do your utmost to acquire some of this world’s immortal techniques and Dao traditions this time. As for whether you can devour those prodigies from other sects to enhance your own aptitude, that will depend on your individual capabilities.”

“I’ll reiterate: unless you have absolute certainty of victory, you are absolutely forbidden from revealing your Ancient Fiend Power.”

“Anyone who witnesses this technique must die, understood?”

“Understood.”

“Good, you may return now.”

After everyone had left, Yan Shoulong alone arrived at the edge of the arena.

This arena was located on the highest peak of the Giant Spirit Gate, second only to the cave residences of the Sect Leader and Elders.

From this vantage point, most of the Giant Spirit Gate could be observed.

Gazing at the Giant Spirit Gate shrouded in immortal clouds, appearing utterly ‘peaceful’.

Yan Shoulong’s eyes grew somewhat dazed.

After a long while, he murmured to himself: “Compared to our world, this world is truly far, far better.”

“But the more beautiful something is, the more it ignites my impulse to destroy it.”

“After all, such beautiful things shouldn’t exist in this world, don’t you agree?”

As he spoke, Yan Shoulong’s expression gradually twisted into ferocity.

Then his head transformed into a corpse-like Flood Dragon.

Festering flesh wriggled with squirming maggots, creating a deeply unsettling sight.

In this form, he appeared as if he wanted to completely devour the world before him.

Just as the Giant Spirit Gate began plotting for the True Immortal Trial in Central Province.

Similar scenarios were unfolding elsewhere.

Among these forces were Ancient Fiend factions like the Black Lotus Sect and Corpse Fiend Cave, who had secretly infiltrated this world and established footholds similar to the Great Thousand Mountains.

There were also ambitious orthodox immortal cultivation sects preparing to make their move.

Centered around this True Immortal Trial, a massive undercurrent began silently surging throughout the entire Immortal Cultivation World…

(End of Chapter)