Shengui Changsheng: Start from Zhenwuwei and add some points to cultivate immortality

As Li Mubai poured the last drop of spiritual liquid into the celadon bowl, the rain outside the window suddenly turned pale gold. The fine rain curtain refracted a strange halo in the twilight, as if countless tiny golden threads were piercing through the clouds and falling to earth. He rubbed his aching shoulders, his knuckles trembling slightly from holding the forging hammer for so long. In the refining room, the edges of the three-leaf spiritual herb's leaves had developed abnormal purple spots, displaying an eerie metallic luster in the dim candlelight.

"Senior Brother!" The young man, clutching his notebook, hurried through the corridor, the wind from his sleeves startling several bluebirds perched on the eaves. The bluebirds fluttered their wings towards the rain, but just as they were about to pierce the curtain of rain, they fell mysteriously, as if struck by an invisible force. Nangong Wan's footsteps approached simultaneously with the sound of the rain. The jade hairpin in her hair had somehow transformed into a sharp, green blade, its tip adorned with a piece of dark green scales: "Retrieved from the bottom of the Cold Jade Pool, its surface bears the unique spiral patterns of the 'Nine Nether Forging Technique.'"

When Li Mubai took the scale armor, a chilling sensation ran through his fingertips. The scale armor didn't feel like a biological shell; rather, it felt like it was forged from some kind of metal, its surface covered with fine patterns that gleamed with a faint green light under the candlelight. As he leaned closer to examine it, the scale armor suddenly emitted a faint buzzing sound, making his temples throb.

"Volume 76 of 'The Exploitation of the Works of Nature'." Fu Shaoping paused slightly as he wiped the ruler. His suddenly constricted pupils were reflected in the bronze mirror—outside the window, the bamboo that should have been lush and green was growing with serrated edges at a visible speed, black sap seeping from the nodes, making a "sizzling" corrosive sound in the rain.

Nangong Wan placed the scale armor on the stone table, and the three gathered around. Li Mubai noticed that tiny cracks had appeared on the surface of Fu Shaoping's ruler, spreading along ancient runes. "The Soul-Devouring Mist is coming," Fu Shaoping suddenly spoke, his voice cold and metallic. "Mubai, guard the Zhen position; Nangong, take the Xun position." He bit his tongue and drew a blood talisman on the ruler; the blood seeped into the cracks with a slight popping sound. "Someone has triggered the Ancestral Master's seal."

A deafening roar, shaking the earth, echoed from afar. What shot into the sky from the direction of the library was not smoke or dust, but a thick, black mist. The mist twisted in the air into countless human faces, emitting shrill cries like those of an infant. Li Mubai felt a pang of unease, as if something deep within his memory was awakening. He instinctively pressed his hand to the jade pendant on his chest, the one Fu Shaoping had personally tied for him when he entered the sect.

"Look at the sky!" Nangong Wan suddenly pointed to the roof. Through the leaky tiles, everyone saw huge crimson runes appearing in the night sky. The runes wriggled and changed like living things, eventually combining to form a giant eye pattern. Fu Shaoping's face turned deathly pale: "This is the Eye of Heaven from the Nine Nether Forging Technique. Could someone be..."

Before he could finish speaking, a deafening explosion suddenly erupted from the direction of the library. The massive shockwave knocked the three of them to the ground. Li Mubai felt a sharp pain in his chest, and the jade pendant in his hand shattered in two with a "crack." He struggled to his feet and saw that the library's door had been blown to pieces, and a tall figure could be vaguely seen in the black mist.

"Senior brother, be careful!" Nangong Wan's bronze lamp suddenly burst into a blinding light, illuminating the face of the newcomer. It was a man dressed in a black robe, wearing a bronze mask with spiral patterns identical to those on scales. He held a jet-black longsword in his hand, from which black liquid dripped continuously, corroding the ground into pits that emitted bluish smoke.

Fu Shaoping's ruler ignited with pure white flames: "Mu Bai, use the Frost Jade Essence!" Li Mu Bai then remembered the scale armor in his arms. He quickly crushed the scale armor, and the dark green powder formed a barrier in the air. The man in black robes swung his sword, and the sword energy collided with the barrier, producing a deafening explosion.
-
When Wang Tieshan used his fine iron shield to block the seventh wave of impact, he discovered that the beads of blood seeping from his tiger's mouth were actually suspended in the air. The entire ruins of the library seemed to have time frozen, with countless scraps of paper and wood chips frozen in the black mist, outlining the contours of some kind of massive array. He saw a burning page of paper slowly rotating in the air, the words on it twisting like living things, eventually combining to form a blood-red character "噬" (shi, meaning devour).

“It’s the Inverted Five Elements Formation.” Nangong Wan’s bronze lamp illuminated the cracks in the ground, casting long, thin shadows between the bricks. The shadows were twisted and distorted, as if countless snakes were slithering underground. “But the core of the formation isn’t in the center, but in…” Her voice trailed off—in the corner illuminated by the lamplight, Li Mubai was digging through the rubble with his bare hands, blood seeping from under his fingernails, his knuckles white from the effort.

The moment the boy raised the tattered bamboo slip, a sharp cracking sound of chains snapping echoed from the depths of the attic. Fu Shaoping's ruler suddenly trembled violently, the gold paint suppressing the runes on it beginning to peel away, revealing ancient inscriptions beneath. Only then did everyone realize that the characters on the bamboo slip were not written in ink, but in the blood of some kind of creature, remaining as vibrant as ever after a hundred years. The characters seemed to flow across the slip as if alive, combining to form ancient scripts that Li Mubai had never seen before.

"The original version of the 'Heart Cultivation Manual'." Fu Shaoping's fingertips recoiled the instant they touched the words, frost forming on his fingertips. He felt a chill run from his fingertips straight to his heart, as if something deep within his memory had been awakened. "This was written with the blood of the Cold Jade Essence." His voice trembled slightly, and the runes on the ruler began to flicker uncontrollably.

As if in response to his words, the fragment suddenly projected holographic-like three-dimensional runes. The runes rotated and combined, finally settling into the tattoo pattern that had appeared on the gray-robed man's face. Nangong Wan gasped: "This is not a Soul-Devouring Talisman, but an even more ancient 'Summoning Demon Contract'!" Her bronze lamp suddenly shook violently, spilling oil and forming strange patterns on the ground.

Li Mubai felt a wave of dizziness, and the scene before his eyes began to distort. He seemed to see countless fragmented images flashing before his eyes: a young man in white standing before a furnace, holding a burning hammer in his hand; a man in black robes standing in the shadows, wearing a bronze mask; a huge bronze cauldron standing in a pool of blood, its surface engraved with spiral patterns.
"Mu Bai!" Fu Shaoping's voice pulled him back to reality. The boy found himself kneeling on the ground, his hands gripping the tattered bamboo slip tightly, his knuckles white from the force. The runes on the slip were gradually fading, but the images were deeply imprinted in his mind.
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The torrential rain continued until dawn on the third day, when the ancient artifact tomb behind the Refining Pavilion suddenly collapsed. The disciple who came to report the news described in horror how he saw countless broken magical artifacts fly towards the collapse site, like rivers flowing into the sea. His voice trembled, his face pale, as if he had witnessed something utterly terrifying: "Those magical artifacts... they were crying, truly crying!"

Fu Shaoping stood at the edge of the ten-zhang-diameter sinkhole, the spiritual fire from his ruler illuminating the chilling scene at the bottom. Hundreds of rusted magical artifacts were rotating around a three-legged bronze cauldron. These artifacts were of various shapes and sizes: broken swords, shattered shields, and even mutilated human figures. Each time they collided, they emitted screams that sounded like human voices, the sounds rising and falling as if telling a story.

"Spirit resonance!" Nangong Wan's jade hairpin suddenly flew out automatically, shattering into dust above the cauldron. Her face turned deathly pale, her voice trembling slightly: "This cauldron is absorbing the spirit of the vessel!" She saw that the cauldron was covered with spiral patterns identical to the scales of the Cold Jade Essence, those patterns seeming to writhe on the cauldron with life. Li Mubai suddenly rushed to the edge of the pit: "Senior brother, look at the cauldron's handle!" The boy's sharp voice pierced the rain, rainwater streaming down his cheeks, his eyes flashing with terror. "That mark... isn't it exactly the same as the family crest on the bottom of your ruler?" He pointed tremblingly to the cauldron's handle, where a phoenix pattern was carved, almost identical to the pattern on Fu Shaoping's ruler.

Fu Shaoping was struck dumb. He slowly turned the ruler over, revealing a phoenix pattern on the bottom, almost invisible due to the erosion of time—perfectly matching the phoenix relief on the tripod's handle, poised for flight. The runes on the ruler suddenly began to flash wildly, emitting a blinding red light. He felt a sharp pain, as if something was awakening within him.

"So that's how it is." He suddenly sneered, a laugh tinged with madness and despair. He pulled out the bronze key he always carried with him, its surface gleaming eerily in the rain. "The truth behind the massacre of the Fu family three hundred years ago is hidden beneath the Weapon Forging Pavilion." His voice was low and hoarse, as if it came from a great distance.
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As Fu Shaoping inserted the key into the lock hole in the cauldron, the water level in the Cold Jade Pool suddenly began to drop. Everyone heard a muffled thud from the bottom of the pool, the sound like the roar of an ancient beast, making their eardrums ache. Immediately afterward, all the furnaces in the Refining Pavilion simultaneously spewed forth purplish-black flames, which twisted and rose, forming grotesque, ghostly faces in the air.

"Step back behind me!" Fu Shaoping's white shirt fluttered without wind, and the pure white flames from the ruler formed a protective shield. The sound of a key turning seemed to flip an ancient switch, and the patterns on the bronze cauldron lit up one by one, finally forming a blood-red pillar of light at the cauldron's mouth. The pillar of light was filled with a pungent smell of sulfur, and a blurry human figure could be vaguely seen.

Slowly emerging from the pillar of light was the phantom of an old man whose collarbone was pierced by black iron chains. The old man's face was withered, but his eyes burned with an inextinguishable flame. The moment he looked up, Fu Shaoping staggered back two steps—that face bore a seven-tenths resemblance to his own, only much older and more weary.

"Grandfather..." The ruler clattered to the ground, and for the first time, Fu Shaoping revealed a near-broken expression. His voice trembled, and tears welled in his eyes: "Didn't you die in the demonic siege?" The old man's illusory figure pointed to the chains on his chest: "Back then, I discovered that the *Nine Nether Forging Technique* could communicate with the spirit of a weapon, but I didn't know it was a trap set by the demonic path for three hundred years." With each word, the illusory figure faded a little, "The Frost Jade Essence was originally the core of the array suppressing demonic energy, now..."

A sudden change occurred! The old man's phantom image twisted into a hideous demonic form, and the black iron chains snapped inch by inch. The entire sinkhole began to collapse, and countless artifact spirits wailed as they were sucked into the bronze cauldron. Nangong Wan's seven bronze lamps simultaneously exploded, forming a final protective barrier around everyone. She saw Fu Shaoping's white robe being corroded by demonic energy, revealing gruesome wounds beneath.

"So this is the truth." Fu Shaoping picked up the ruler, a resolute flame burning in his eyes. His voice was firm and powerful: "What the Refining Pavilion has guarded for generations is not a secret technique, but the Demon-Suppressing Cauldron that seals the incarnation of the Fu family's ancestor!" The runes on the ruler suddenly lit up with a dazzling light, illuminating the entire sinkhole.
-
Li Mubai would never forget that dusk. When the bronze cauldron was completely corrupted by demonic energy, Fu Shaoping plunged the ruler into his heart. What gushed out was not blood, but pure white flames, flowing along the patterns on the cauldron's surface, destroying all demonic runes in their wake. The flames illuminated Fu Shaoping's face, revealing a smile of liberation.

"Senior brother!" The boy struggled to break through the barrier set up by Nangong Wan, but was held down firmly by Wang Tieshan. He felt as if his heart was being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, and his breathing became difficult. Through the gaps in the barrier, he saw Fu Shaoping's body gradually merge with the ruler, and his white shirt turned to ashes in the flames.

Suddenly, a giant wave erupted from the Cold Jade Pool, and the fallen Cold Jade Spirit burst forth from the water, only to let out a painful roar as it approached the sinkhole—Fu Shaoping, transformed into a white fire figure, pressed down on its head with one hand, while his other hand plunged a ruler deep into the heart of the cauldron. At that moment, the entire Refining Pavilion was enveloped in a dazzling white light, and everyone involuntarily closed their eyes.

"The way of forging weapons lies in..." The voice emanating from the flames was no longer human, yet it reverberated through the mountains. Li Mubai felt a warm current flow into his heart, as if something was taking root and sprouting deep within his soul. "Burn my remains, but the fire of my heart will not be extinguished!"

After the blinding white light, everyone saw a brand-new ruler floating in the air. The ruler was half white and half black; the white part was engraved with the full text of the *Heart Cultivation Manual*, while the black part was the complete *Nine Netherworld Forging Method*. The Cold Jade Essence curled up at the end of the ruler, transforming into a drop of solidified blue amber. As Nangong Wan trembled as he picked up the ruler, Li Mubai suddenly noticed a change in the Xuan Tie Cauldron on the plaza—beside the Soul-Suppressing Talisman on the cauldron's body, there was now a white-robed human figure carrying the ruler, its posture exactly the same as when Fu Shaoping supervised his disciples.
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Three years later, during the Spirit Rain season, the newly appointed sect leader, Li Mubai, demonstrated the "Heart Fire Forging Technique" to his disciples. The flames dancing in the young man's palms could now be distinguished by their black and white colors, and the sound of forging black iron was no longer the clanging of metal, but a clear and melodious phoenix cry. Rain streamed down his cheeks, and his eyes shone with unwavering determination.

“Master Brother.” The young disciple pointed to the blue amber at the end of the ruler. “Why is the little snake inside moving?” Li Mubai smiled, looking down, the image of Fu Shaoping appearing in his eyes. He gently turned the ruler, the light in the blue amber flickering like breathing. “This is…” He was about to explain when he suddenly felt a pang of fear.

In the distance, towards the direction of the Cold Jade Pool, a beam of white light shot into the sky, transforming into a gigantic phoenix phantom. Li Mubai knew that it was Fu Shaoping's soul guarding the Weapon Refining Pavilion. He turned to look at the Xuan Iron Cauldron in the plaza, its reliefs gleaming in the sunlight.

"The way of crafting is the heart; the torch will be passed on forever," he said softly, his voice not loud, yet clearly reaching the ears of every disciple. The rain gradually stopped, and a rainbow appeared in the sky, spanning the entire Refining Pavilion. Li Mubai felt the ruler in his hand slightly warm; it was the last gift Fu Shaoping had left him. (End of Chapter)