Chapter 215: Xizhou Immortal Alliance, Embryonic Transformation

A majestic voice echoed amidst the ice and snow, then vanished in an instant into the biting cold wind.

Lu Yuan's gaze flickered:

"This is the Immortal City Lord of Longshan Immortal City, True Monarch Huanglong? What is this so-called Mysterious Machine Golden Core?"

Qin Ruoning nodded: "That is correct, it is indeed the Immortal City Lord, True Monarch Huanglong. He was the one who first discovered the abnormalities at the ruins of the Heavenly Ladder passage, and after testing it, he dispatched the two of us to explore it."

"As for the Mysterious Machine Golden Core, it is an extremely precious third-tier Spirit Pill. If a cultivator at the perfection of Foundation Establishment who is preparing to break through to the Golden Core realm consumes it, it can improve the quality of the core formation, and it is even possible to condense a superior-grade Golden Core. Even for a True Monarch who has already formed a Golden Core, consuming this pill can refine their core and break through cultivation bottlenecks; its efficacy is extraordinary."

Lu Yuan narrowed his eyes:

"This True Monarch Huanglong does not seem to have reported the news of the lower realm; it seems he is still calculating for his own benefit."

According to Bai Qianfeng's memories, the vast Yuanling Heaven is a Great World standing above many small worlds, and it is actually connected to more than just one lower realm.

Across the five regions and four seas, the world is full of wonders. Over billions of years of epochal cycles, powerful cultivators roaming the heavens and earth have long since discovered many passages connecting to other small worlds, which were then occupied by top-tier sects or cultivation families to be used as their own back gardens, either to test their Gatekeepers and disciples or to be used for wanton abuse and amusement.

Yet, for the world where Lu Yuan resides to have had ancient sages rise up in resistance, and to have successfully severed the Heavenly Ladder—truly cutting off the heavens from the earth—is nothing short of a miracle.

Qin Ruoning nodded and said:

"Although all lower realms have thin Spiritual Machine, they have the advantage of being relatively safe and having abundant populations. In the past, they might not have had much value to the Upper Realm, but now they can be used to replenish fresh blood. True Monarch Huanglong is, after all, an overlord of a region. If he were to report the news to the Xizhou Immortal Alliance, he would lose his initiative, and at that point, he would likely only be able to drink the dregs."

The so-called Xizhou Immortal Alliance is the alliance formed by the top sects and families of various continents after the Corpse Demon Catastrophe swept through the world, coordinating and dispatching the manpower and resources of the entire continent to resist the Corpse Tide.

Although Longshan Immortal City was established by True Monarch Huanglong's family, most of the time it still has to obey the arrangements of the Xizhou Immortal Alliance; otherwise, this medium-sized Immortal City located near the front lines would have long since been breached by Corpse Demons and would not exist today.

Lu Yuan could not help but ask:

"I wonder where exactly the other end of the two-world passage is located within Longshan Immortal City?"

Qin Ruoning replied:

"It is on Ascension Peak within the Immortal City. Longshan Immortal City has a long history, having been established ten thousand years ago. After the two-world passage was discovered, the Ascension Platform and the Reception Array were set up, but it was later abandoned because the two-world passage was severed, and it was converted into cave dwellings for the Immortal City's disciples to reside in."

"However, after the passage showed signs of activity a few years ago, True Monarch Huanglong sealed off the peak and re-deployed the Reception Array. As a result, he soon established a faint connection with the lower realm, which later led to the attempt by Bai Qianfeng and me to descend across the realms."

Lu Yuan immediately stroked his chin:

"In that case, even if I were to impersonate Bai Qianfeng and use the Two Worlds Talisman to travel to the Upper Realm with you, the moment I open my eyes, I would be facing True Monarch Huanglong. This is a bit troublesome, Fellow Daoist Qin. In your opinion, how long can you delay things in this lower realm, and will True Monarch Huanglong send others down during that time?"

Qin Ruoning pondered for a moment:

"In order for us to safely pass through the broken passage and descend, True Monarch Huanglong spent a vast amount of resources and energy attempting the transmission. The reason we succeeded this time is that he used an extremely precious Void Stone. This miraculous object possesses the supernatural effect of stabilizing the void, but it requires slowly absorbing the power of the celestial stars to replenish the void energy within it. This time, in order to send us, True Monarch Huanglong exhausted the void energy of this stone, so he cannot send anyone else down in the short term. It should be no problem for me to delay for a few years in this lower realm."

"However, after four or five years, if there are no results, it will inevitably arouse his suspicion, leading him to find ways to send other Golden Core Cultivators to investigate. Of course, without further repairs to the passage, the cultivation level of the Golden Core Cultivators True Monarch Huanglong can send will not exceed mine, and the number will be at most two or three."

Lu Yuan nodded slightly:

"In that case, the threat to the lower realm is not very great."

Whether it is True Monarch Huanglong or other Upper Realm cultivators, if they were to descend in large numbers, it would not be a good thing for the living beings of this world.

After all, in the Upper Realm, Qi Refiners have always regarded mortals as mere grass; cultivators like Bai Qianfeng are everywhere, and those like Qin Ruoning are the minority.

It is foreseeable that if these cultivators were to descend in large numbers, they would inevitably act tyrannically, pressing down on everyone's heads like a great mountain and becoming a scourge to this world. Lu Yuan naturally cannot sit idly by.

In fact, with his current strength and means, even if ten or eight more cultivators at Bai Qianfeng's level were to come, they would not pose much of a threat.

Now that he has withdrawn the Great Evolution Mending Heaven Array and has an inside agent like Qin Ruoning to coordinate, he is inherently in an invincible position.

Of course, the only problem is that his desire to go to the Upper Realm has also become a dangerous and troublesome matter. Even if he could impersonate Bai Qianfeng and use the Two-World Communication Talisman to be actively received into Yuanling Heaven, how to deceive True Monarch Huanglong's eyes and how to make the other party stop targeting the lower realm has become a massive problem.

The former is easier to handle; he only needs to upgrade his 【False Form】 technique from the Earth Tier to the level of a Supernatural Power, which should, with high probability, allow him to deceive the other party.

But wanting to make the other party stop targeting the lower realm is not an easy task.

Of course, he could also emulate the ancient Human Emperor Qi and find a way to replicate the Sealing Heaven and Earth Array that the other party deployed, severing the connection between the two realms once again. However, not to mention whether he could recreate it, doing so would leave him completely trapped in this realm, as if living in a cage.

Seeing him lost in thought, Qin Ruoning could not help but ask:

"Fellow Daoist Lu, what should we do next?"

Lu Yuan pondered for a moment, his eyes flashing as he said:

"When soldiers come, block them; when water comes, earth covers it. We will delay as long as we can. When it is truly impossible to delay any longer, I will disguise myself as Bai Qianfeng and return to the Upper Realm with you to meet this True Monarch Huanglong."

Qin Ruoning was clearly somewhat hesitant:

"Fellow Daoist Lu, Nascent Soul Great Cultivators all possess powerful divine senses and incredibly sharp eyes. If you disguise yourself as Bai Qianfeng and are seen through, the consequences would be unimaginable!"

Lu Yuan was unconcerned:

"Fellow Daoist Qin, rest assured, I have my own ways."

After all.

In addition to 【Earth Fiend-False Form】, the Heavenly Book actually records a Heavenly Gang Great Divine Ability with a similar effect: 【Embryonic Transformation】.

【Embryonic Transformation】: One obtains the full mystery of the changes of the heavens, able to transform into all things in heaven and earth at will—be it man, woman, old, young, divine bird, or exotic beast. It cannot be seen through by anyone who does not possess a Great Divine Ability.

If it were possible for the 【False Form】 technique to be seen through by True Monarch Huanglong, then this Heavenly Gang Great Divine Ability, which can perform the transformations of the heavens, would absolutely have no possibility of being seen through by the other party.

By communicating with the Heavenly Book, lighting up this Heavenly Gang Divine Ability only requires 50,000 units of Qi Luck. Lu Yuan does not even need to accumulate it; he can light it up right now.

Furthermore.

After possessing the 【Nine Breaths Serving Qi】 divine ability, his cultivation speed is astonishingly fast even in this lower realm with thin Spiritual Machine. Three to five years is enough for him to advance his cultivation further, at which point he might not be unable to contend with an Upper Realm Nascent Soul cultivator!

Seeing Lu Yuan so confident, Qin Ruoning wanted to say something but stopped, and in the end, she did not say much more.

Subsequently.

With the matter coming to an end, the two did not linger in the ice and snow for too long and immediately flew ten thousand miles together, returning to Tianjing of the New Nation.

After returning to Tianjing, Qin Ruoning was arranged to stay in the Dao Palace, and Lu Yuan finally had the time to carefully inventory the spoils of war he had obtained: the Storage Bag from Bai Qianfeng.

The space inside Bai Qianfeng's Storage Bag is not small, measuring a full ten zhang square, which is not inferior to the Pot Heaven Bag that Lu Yuan is currently using.

Moreover, various items in the Storage Bag were stored in separate sections, dazzling to the eye—herbs, pills, books, Dharma Artifacts, and various materials were all available; it could be said to be like a small treasure vault.

By comparison, the items in Lu Yuan's own Pot Heaven Bag are all mundane objects, which could be described as shabby.

Having performed Soul Searching on Bai Qianfeng's memories, he was naturally no stranger to these things and discovered many items useful to himself.

For instance, among the pills, Bai Qianfeng carried a large quantity of superior-grade Peiyuan Pills bestowed by True Monarch Huanglong. This pill contains vast primordial energy, which can be used to replenish primordial energy for cultivation even in this Absolute Spirit World.

Besides the Peiyuan Pills, the other party's Storage Bag also contained Yuanhua Pills and Yunling Pills used for repairing internal and external injuries—one can compensate for damage to the physical body and organs, and the other can repair damage to the divine sense.

It is a pity that until his death, Bai Qianfeng never had the chance to take it out and use it.

Besides the Pill, what caught Lu Yuan's attention most were the several Dharma Artifacts on the side: there was the cloud-smoke-like Snow Cloud Smoke Gauze; the pitch-black Yin Bone Ghost Claw that revealed a ferocious aura inside and out; the Demon Locking Chain covered in cracks; and the Cloud Pattern Gold Cauldron he used to refine Pills.

Of course, there was also the natal Dharma Artifact of Bai Qianfeng that Lu Yuan had retrieved: the Red Fire Burning Heaven Sword.

Among these, what Lu Yuan was most interested in were naturally the Red Fire Burning Heaven Sword and the Cloud Pattern Gold Cauldron; after all, the material of the former was clearly far superior to his Seven Star Dragon Abyss, and he could completely find a way to melt this sword down, then use the secret method of Refining Sword into Pellet from the Sword Technique to fuse the essence into the Seven Star Dragon Abyss, raising the quality of the Sword Pill by another grade.

As for the latter, the Cloud Pattern Gold Cauldron, its material was also far superior to the mundane pill furnace Lu Yuan used to refine pills, so refining pills with it would surely bring a significant increase in success rate and quality.

Of course, Lu Yuan now possessed the supreme Qi-refining Supernatural Power of Nine Breaths Serving Qi, so his reliance on Pills had long since dropped to a very low level, but that did not hinder him from passing this furnace and the art of alchemy to disciples like Chen Zhantang, allowing them to be self-sufficient in their cultivation.

Besides Pills, Dharma Artifacts, and various materials, the cultivation technique books also interested him greatly, but just at this moment, Chen Zhantang, having finished arranging the residence for Qin Ruoning, arrived outside the hall in a flurry and called out respectfully:

"Master, the residence for that Senior Qin has already been arranged; it has been set in the backyard of the North Hall."

"Good."

Lu Yuan stopped his inventory and said leisurely:

"Come in. I know you have many questions in your heart right now; it just so happens that I also have some matters to entrust to you."

Chen Zhantang walked quickly into the hall, and after a respectful bow, he asked impatiently:

"Master, what is going on? Are those two people really cultivators from the Upper Realm?"

Lu Yuan nodded: "Correct. They did indeed come from the Upper Realm, and both are at the Golden Core Real Person level, which is equivalent to the Refining Qi into Spirit stage in the Guiding Technique I taught you."

Chen Zhantang said in shock: "But Master, you once said that the Heavenly Ladder would take at least a hundred years to repair; how did these two Upper Realm cultivators manage to get out?"

Lu Yuan sighed lightly:

"This was my miscalculation. I only estimated the repair progress of the Great Evolution Mending Heaven Array but ignored the influence of the Upper Realm. Although the array is far from repairing the passage, it has re-established a slight connection between the two realms, and this power of connection was sensed by a great cultivator at the Nascent Soul level in the Upper Realm. That person immediately re-deployed a Reception Array, used various means, and then sent these two Upper Realm cultivators, Bai Qianfeng and Qin Ruoning, down to investigate the situation."

Chen Zhantang seemed to understand but not quite, then said with a chill:

"This Upper Realm great cultivator is going to such lengths to send people down—could it be that they want to rule and enslave the Lower Realm again?"

Lu Yuan did not deny it:

"More or less. To Upper Realm cultivators, mortals are not worth mentioning, and their world is currently experiencing a catastrophe. To them, the Lower Realm is an excellent place to recuperate, replenish War Soldiers, and find cannon fodder. If they were to truly descend in large numbers and control this realm, it would surely bring disaster to the entire world."

In Bai Qianfeng's memory, it was very clear: because the losses from resisting the Corpse Tide were too great, major sects and clans had two methods to replenish fresh blood. One was to recruit Immortal Seeds with truly excellent natural talent, then take them back to be carefully nurtured until these geniuses grew to the level of Foundation Establishment masters or even Golden Core Real Persons.

As for the other method, it was comparatively much simpler and more brutal: they would directly select people with low or even medium Spirit Roots from among the mortals to become Dao Soldiers or War Soldiers, then pass on various quick-success techniques with extreme drawbacks.

Although this type of technique allowed for extremely fast cultivation speed and could form a certain combat capability in a few years, it would either prematurely exhaust potential and leave behind irreparable hidden injuries, or it would drastically shorten their lifespan, making them even worse off than mortals.

These War Soldiers and Dao Soldiers were actually equivalent to cannon fodder. Lu Yuan had no doubt that once the Upper Realm cultivators descended, they would inevitably recruit countless cannon fodder in this realm to send to the Upper Realm, bringing profound disaster to all living beings in this world.

"A catastrophe?"

Chen Zhantang naturally knew nothing about the situation in Yuanling Heaven and could not help but be stunned:

"May I ask Master, what kind of catastrophe?"

Lu Yuan did not say much more; after slightly focusing his mind, he activated the Nightmare Prayer Divine Ability to project a wisp of divine sense onto Chen Zhantang:

"See for yourself."

The Nightmare Prayer Divine Ability directly reproduced a portion of Bai Qianfeng's memories within his mind. Chen Zhantang was instantly in great shock; he stood in place, dazed and vacant, and only after digesting it for a long time did he come back to his senses, murmuring to himself:

"The sky collapsing and the earth shattering, corpse energy covering the heavens... the so-called Upper Realm is actually in such a state!?"

Immediately, he snapped out of it and said urgently:

"Master, with the Upper Realm in such a dire situation, since they have already discovered the Lower Realm and were able to send cultivators down, I fear they will not let it go so easily. What should we do?"

"Can we emulate the Human Emperor and the ancestors of old, re-deploy the Sealing Heaven and Earth Array, and sever the Heavenly Ladder between the two realms?"