Chapter 201: Chapter 148: The Path of Qi Refining, Immortal through Countless Tribulations

A decaying, decrepit aura pervaded the Dao Palace, with the green bricks underfoot cracked throughout.Chu Zheng took a deep breath and carefully searched the entire Dao Palace.

After a long while, he stopped his search, finding nothing that could be mended.

Everything was beyond repair, as if all the traces left behind had been erased.

Underneath a fragmented plaque, Chu Zheng sat on the shattered stone steps, gazing at the crimson clouds above the pale sky, lost in thought.

The restored Ancestral Dao Statue looked so similar to him, and the Dao Palace that had just been restored had returned to its original state.

All of this was shrouded in mystery, unclear to the discerning eye.

After a long time, Chu Zheng gathered his thoughts and began to sort through the complex information in his mind.

Although the Eternal Calamity Treasure Record is a Tenth Order Cultivation Technique, it contains little about the cultivation pathways.

The earlier realms are likewise—Hundred Days Spiritual Transformation, Tempering Jade Bones, Constructing the Dao Embryo, Forming Golden Core, Refining the Primordial Spirit, Returning to Void, and Dao Integration.

Following Dao Integration is Becoming a Heavenly Immortal. Read exclusive adventures at мѵʟ

The early Qi Techniques in the Eternal Calamity Treasure Record, involving the circulation in the Circuit of Qi, are not much more profound than the Great Circulatory Qi Guideline, even quite similar, albeit with some minor adjustments.

After becoming an immortal through Dao Integration, the Eternal Calamity Treasure Record doesn't provide specific cultivation methods but mentions some slight changes in the pathway of Qi cultivation practices.

However, overall, it remains a method of Qi Refining with no significant changes.

This is just as Ji Yuyan had told him before; once a Qi Cultivator reaches great achievement, there is no specific cultivation path to follow, only to accumulate cultivation through enduring tribulations.

Hundred Tribulations Celestial Immortal, Myriad Tribulations Mysterious Immortal, Million Tribulations Golden Immortal.

Untouched through countless eons, seizing lifespans from heavens, reckless wanderings, and only then one becomes a Daluo Golden Immortal.

The defiance of the Eternal Calamity Treasure Record lies precisely in its method of enduring tribulations.

The path of a Qi Cultivator endures great tribulations, and they are omnipresent; no matter how strong or cautious one is, it's impossible to ensure one's safety every time.

Therefore, it is rare for Qi Cultivators to meet a good end, and living out one's lifespan peacefully is considered a rare blessing.

Especially after Dao Integration, stepping into the realm of Heavenly Immortal, the surge of Tribulation Qi is almost exponential, making it hard to overcome using one's power.

Qi Cultivators often lack descendants, typically having just two or three disciples, relying on the power of their Sects to avoid disaster, which is unrealistic.

Moreover, within the Eternal Calamity Treasure Record, there is a clear admonition that no matter how tough the tribulations, one should not rely on external forces to shift causality.

Using external forces to avoid tribulations, hoping to deceive the heavenly laws, the only outcome is to invite a more terrifying deathly tribulation.

Just as with the previous Chu Zheng, borrowing the name of Fu Quanliang to hide his tracks, in the eyes of heavenly judgement, this is considered a direct shift of causality.

The path of Qi Refining, though not subjected to the thunder tribulations, still faces calamities brought by mankind which are often harder to evade than divine punishments.

The Eternal Calamity Treasure Record specifically introduces the method of incarnating into the world to endure tribulations for this reason.

With a virtual body to undergo real tribulations, dispelling one's tremendous tribulation Qi.

To switch falsehood with truth and deceive the eyes of heavenly law is naturally not as simple as talking.

This carries its own significant risks; weaving through the threads of causality during incarnational tribulations does not simply vanish once the incarnation dissipates and might likely bring consequences to the original body in the future.

Therefore, the site of incarnational tribulations must be sufficiently far from the original body, so far that it could utilize the power of time to dissolve the threads of causality.

For Chu Zheng, this is not difficult to grasp, similar to the starlight traversing from the cosmos.

When starlight reaches his location, the star emitting the light may have ceased to exist thousands, if not tens of thousands, of years ago.

In the vast expanses of the universe, time gets stretched by distance and even shattered by it; however strong the causality, once all beings at the other end of the causality line die, it ceases to exist.

For this purpose, apart from the Qi Circulation Method, the Eternal Calamity Treasure Record also includes a very mystical secret technique named 'Star Capturing Heaven.'

Observing the signs of the Zhou Tian Stars, capturing the opportunities presented by the heavenly dao, using the starlight to discern the essences of heavenly breath, and ascending in reverse to deploy incarnations to endure tribulations.

Within the starlight, most carry the breath of their respective heavenly daos, but in worlds that have perished, there will be no presence of such heavenly breaths.

To distinguish the actual state of the worlds behind the myriad starlights, that is precisely the true purpose of the great divine skill, Star Capturing Heaven.

For a Qi Cultivator, this is undoubtedly an extremely precious method of enduring tribulations, equivalent to having countless more lives.

However, deploying incarnations for tribulations requires strong support from the Divine Soul, needing at least Chu Zheng to achieve Perfection in Soul Condensing, or even step into the Divine Infant Realm before he can attempt it.

For Chu Zheng's current level of cultivation, there is still some distance, but according to his current pace of cultivation, that distance is not too far.

Apart from Star Capturing Heaven, the Eternal Calamity Treasure Record also contains many other divine skills, such as 'Three Heads and Six Arms', 'Heavenly Patching Technique', 'Swallowing Stars', 'Causality Reversal', and so on.

Most of these need at least the cultivation level of a Heavenly Immortal to begin practicing, which for Chu Zheng, is still quite distant.

Having roughly digested the contents of the Eternal Calamity Treasure Record, Chu Zheng turned to glance at the Dao Palace and left without lingering.

Unsolvable puzzles, persisting in brooding and pondering, have no real meaning but merely waste time.

The information he possessed was too limited to allow him to analyze some of the things he could possess.

Once his cultivation was sufficient to touch upon the realms of the Ancestral Dao, perhaps the problems he faced now would no longer pose any issue.

He could stay in the Cangyun Secret Realm for a total of three months, and only half of that time had passed. Within this world, vast treasures still awaited Chu Zheng's excavation.

Now free from the bindings of the Dao Palace, he was able to explore the external world once again, not only seeking opportunities from the Immortal Path but also feeling an interest in the regions where other Daoist Orthodoxies existed.

This might help him unveil a layer of the Ancient Era of Cangyun and allow him a glimpse at its partial true face.

Even so, he might uncover some clues about the origins of this secret realm.

Upon leaving the Dao Palace, Chu Zheng took out the Cangyun Secret Realm Map and began studying the routes.

Soon, he made a decision and headed north towards the center of the map for exploration.

There, no mist obscured the view, and one could clearly see the distinctly demarcated tri-color areas.

The closer one was to the central area, the safer the environment implied, signifying little to no danger to him.

Chu Zheng naturally felt curious about the regions he had not explored before, but sometimes, restraining unnecessary curiosity could save a lot of trouble.

After this departure, he might never have the chance to enter the Cangyun Secret Realm again in his life. With such a rare opportunity, he naturally had to seize it.

...

...

In the blink of an eye, half a month had passed, and Chu Zheng had explored more than a million miles northward, witnessing countless landscapes along the way.

The areas marked with golden light were mostly sect ruins and some Loose Cultivator's caves.

For ordinary cultivators, visiting such explored areas would undoubtedly be a waste of time, yielding no gains.

However, Chu Zheng's harvest was substantial, obtaining many legacies, among which Spiritually drained Magic Treasures and Elixirs made up the largest proportion.

During this time, Chu Zheng also experienced several regrets.

The only downside to scavenging was that the truly good items had mostly already been taken by others.

For example, when passing through a certain underground palace, he saw a Sword Nurturing Pond. According to the panel's information, it nurtured a Sword Array of seven Tongxuan Spiritual Treasures Flying Swords.

At the time of the sect's demise, the Spirit Swords had not yet matured, hence they remained in the Sword Nurturing Pond and after hundreds of thousands of years of nurturing, survived to today, but were taken by someone tens of thousands of years ago.

Moreover, Chu Zheng found a still-warm Pill Furnace in a sect's Alchemy Hall.

Several Semi-Immortal Pills remained in the furnace, preserved till today by drawing upon nature's spiritual energy.

Elixirs with the word 'immortal' were extraordinary by nature, like the Tongxuan Spiritual Treasure, Immortal Pills inherently have Nine Orifices, enabling them to draw in nature's spiritual energy to sustain themselves.

These several Seventh Order Immortal Pills were taken by someone thousands of years ago, yet the warmth of the Pill Furnace lingered.

Regrettably, the Pill Furnace was not a Spiritual Treasure, almost akin to the Fengyang Cauldron Chu Zheng had previously acquired, just a step away from being a Tongxuan Spiritual Treasure.

This step's difference, for Magic Treasures, spelled the difference between life and death.

Chu Zheng also discovered a complete treasury, still guarded by an active Spirit Formation with high defensive strength. Even a cultivator at the Soul Condensing Realm Perfection would find it challenging to forcibly break in, requiring at least several months' effort.

In response, Chu Zheng summoned the Heavenly Aura Sword and deployed the Five Elements Sword Formation, commencing a forceful demolition.

After spending an entire day and night, and full of anticipation as he opened the treasury, he discovered that it had been swept clean, leaving it in utter disarray.

Engraved on the wall of the treasury were several lines of bold script, sharp in their execution:

'Fellow Daoist, bear no grudge; I have obligingly repaired the array here, wasting some of your time. Please remember to repair the array when you leave for those who come after—Tu Zilin.'

Looking at the characters on the ground, Chu Zheng rubbed his forehead, truly amazed by the vastness of the world and the trivialities of some people.

If an ordinary cultivator were to come here, having spent a great deal of time breaking this array and seeing this message, they might very likely be destabilized in their cultivation heart.

Chu Zheng walked around the entire treasury and ultimately found only a few Elixirs depleted of spiritual energy.

Before leaving the treasury, he reached out to touch the array at the entrance. seaʀᴄh thё NôvelFire(.)net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

[Hidden Spirit Formation (Fourth Order/Incomplete): A defensive formation that can block out Divine Sense, withstand a Fourth Order being for half a day, forcefully shattered by you, can be repaired (0/18) (Details)]

It would take half a day for a mighty one in the Divine Infant Realm to break through this formation. No doubt, cultivators had discovered this treasury before but abandoned it due to various reasons.

Spending so much time on such a place was undoubtedly a loss greater than the gain.

Chu Zheng was too lazy to even open the detailed information, repairing the array completely and slowly walked away.

...

...

Despite missing out on many treasures, after many episodes, Chu Zheng eventually found two rare wonders.

One Fragment of Immortal Treasures and one genuine remnant of an Immortal Pill.