New concept of the mysterious way to ascend to immortality

Chapter 247 Siblings: We urgently need a huge investment!

Yuan Zhu cast an [Evil Detection] spell on each of the siblings, gaining some understanding of their physical condition, and asked, "So, your cultivation progress is stuck?"

Seeing that her younger brother was not good at talking, the older sister volunteered to push him behind her and said, "Actually, it's not completely hopeless. My talent is not as good as Xiaotian's. I have now cultivated 16 meridians and can continue to improve. But my current 'True Qi' is more than enough for alchemy and pill refining, so I have shifted my focus. My younger brother has cultivated 28 meridians, and his foundation is unprecedented! Unfortunately, we have exhausted the energy of the Holy Light Demon Insect, so we can't continue."

"However, the slowdown in our True Qi doesn't mean we've stagnated or wasted time. On the contrary, my brother and I have shifted our focus to the more technically demanding Alchemy and Armor Forging. We're studying the secret techniques of the artisans to improve our own weaknesses. At the same time, we're using the reduced production of 'Holy Power (Holy Cough)' from the Holy Light Insects to maintain our cultivation level and increase our control and utilization of True Qi. We've become even stronger!"

Seeing that the little girl's awareness was so high, he couldn't even offer encouragement, so he could only praise her: "Elbow! Follow me into [Cockroach Village]. I'll give you a check-up and find out what's going on."

His current concern is whether the two siblings would suffer from acclimatization problems and die on the spot if he brought them back to Running, away from the unique cultivation environment of the [Feathered World]. Even if they were lucky enough to adapt to the pure environment and survive, what would become of them in the future?
Forget about immigrating from the Feathered World to the Spirit Planet to continue cultivating Qi.

The siblings' core system of [True Qi - Meridians - Acupoints - Primordial Spirit] might be able to be converted to [Knight System, Kunlun System, Loose Immortal System]? But it seems they can't convert it.

Should we continue searching for pure spiritual energy as a substitute for polluted spiritual energy? Or should we further enhance, expand, and solidify their holy cough attributes, guiding them down the path of holy cough breathing techniques? Or, after signing the anti-law agreement, reverse their attributes back to shadow pollution?
There seem to be many options, but none of them seem suitable. If they can't continue to cultivate and improve, what's the point of all the effort I put into bringing them out?
Filled with thoughts and confusion, Yuan Zhu took the lead in entering the inner world of the [Law Domain]; the siblings, who also had the right to freely enter and exit, happily followed behind.

The siblings had great trust and high expectations for Mr. Yuan.

My younger brother's cultivation progress, which had been stuck, is finally about to break through the bottleneck.

...

First, they handed over their physical bodies to the Reverse Mulberry Tree for safekeeping, and then the three of them projected their consciousness into the Dreamland Prototype.

Here, communication can occur through consciousness. Information that is difficult to describe using linguistic symbol systems can be conveyed intuitively, achieving mutual understanding and reducing errors caused by misunderstandings.

The little girl's progress is relatively slow now, and she has not yet reached the bottleneck, so she has shifted most of her energy to studying alchemy. Another hidden reason for her doing so is that the total amount of 'Holy Cough Particles' produced in the 'Law Domain' is limited.

If she were to give up her spiritual practice, these resources would be transferred to her younger brother, allowing him to fully unleash his extraordinary talent and continuously break through his limits. Thus, the traditional story of 'the older sister doesn't like spiritual practice (the mother loves to eat fish heads)' came about, a tale of sisterly love and brotherly filial piety.

So Yuan Zhu had his younger brother project the Dao Seed (Dantian) - Meridian - Acupoint System that he had cultivated into a 3D image into his dream.

Lao Di focused his mind and introspected, quickly projecting all the secrets of his cultivation without any concealment.

The 20 regular and extraordinary meridians intertwine, spreading throughout the body and exhibiting vitality. They also consciously extend into rugged branches resembling capillaries, making them appear even more complex than traditional Chinese medicine meridian charts.

Building upon this foundation, there are also eight unique "hidden meridians," which, like winding mountain ranges, run through the body in an irregular manner, making the original meridian system even more complex.

Yuan Zhu, through mere observation, concluded that this thing had already transcended the scope of classical medicine. Upon closer examination, the 'meridians' of insect cultivators were not actually meridians, but rather another 'insect life system' that developed symbiotically from 'insect eggs (Dao seeds)', forcibly molded into the shape of 'meridians' to circulate 'true Qi'.

Realizing this, Yuan Zhu asked curiously, "Are these meridian structures a uniform standard, or do they vary from person to person?"

The little girl replied, "The core pathways of the Twelve Regular Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians are standard. However, the specific details and branch extensions vary from person to person. They will vary depending on the practitioner's physical structure and behavioral habits. As for the Hidden Meridians, each one is unique and closely related to the cultivation method, giving the True Qi special and powerful attributes."

The underground world's "Qi Refining Techniques" were created by the Technician Alliance, but their core ideas originated from the cultivation techniques of the "Kunlun Immortal Sect." However, in order to break free from the control of "Kunlun," they replaced the "plant spiritual roots" with "insect-type Dao Seeds" and stole the "Knight's Breathing Techniques" to simulate "True Qi."

Ultimately, the three religions were successfully united, giving birth to a super medley of [Bug-type Contamination].

The best at this is the extraordinary system of the Super Dragon Empire, a great power in the East of the [Gen Continent], called the [Great Crimson Heaven]. It is said to have stitched together many polluted systems such as [Yellow Heaven, Kunlun, Knights, Laws, Alchemy, etc.], yet perfectly integrated them, giving birth to the independent ultimate [Source of Pollution. Great Crimson Heaven], unaffected by any one of them (origin).

The current Qi Refining System demonstrates this potential, which has piqued Yuan Zhu's interest. He began to speculate that the captain (the "Mao Mao Wang") was gradually shifting his focus to the "Feathered World" in order to systematically steal this "unclaimed fruit"?
But "masked insect monk" and "luxury children's clothing" don't match. Could it be a "luxury tokusatsu children's costume"?
...

【The World of Ascension】Having undergone a century of changes, the earliest version of Qi Refining Techniques has been continuously improved and supplemented, and now it has long since diversified into a large number of Qi Refining Techniques, with varying qualities.

Each type of [Zerg Dao Seed] has dozens of matching mental cultivation techniques, as well as even more martial arts skills.

The standard version only allows cultivation of the Twelve Primary Meridians. Higher-level techniques include an enhanced version of the Twelve Primary Meridians plus the Eight Extraordinary Meridians (starting with two meridians). Further up the ranks, the second-generation cultivators of the Lower City can cultivate the Hidden Meridians in addition to the Twelve Primary Meridians and the Eight Extraordinary Meridians, gaining even more powerful supernatural abilities and passive buffs.

The siblings obtained a large number of closely guarded [Supreme Secret Techniques of Insect City] from the captain. Combined with their innate talent for cultivation and the massive influx of resources (the core factor), they were forced to accelerate their growth and break through to their current level.

As it turns out, having talent isn't scary; the key is to use resources to bolster it!
Yuan Zhu looked at his younger brother: "You've cultivated eight additional [Hidden Meridians]. What abilities have you awakened?"

The younger brother shook his head frantically, indicating that he hadn't awakened to anything. His eyes were filled with guilt and self-reproach.

The younger sister quickly explained for her brother: "Of course we can't see it now. We can only say that his physical fitness is three times that of cultivators at the same level, and his [True Qi] is of higher quality and greater in quantity (four times or more). But the additional [Divine Abilities] can only be truly awakened after all the 'acupoints' of the [Hidden Meridians] have been enlightened and condensed. That's something that happens after the [Earth Rank and Heaven Rank]."

“Acupoints, ah.”

Yuan Zhu sighed and looked at the 'meridian diagram' that his younger brother Jun had projected into the [dream]. The only 'acupoint' that had been condensed was located above the dantian.

Named "acupoints" or "acupoints," they are actually small dantians (insect nests, flesh and blood tissue) reconstructed from 'insect-based meridians'. Qi practitioners condense at least 30 acupoints on each meridian.

Ultimately, the Twelve Meridians equal 360 acupoints, resulting in a massive increase in True Qi reserves and the number of Qi threads. With his current foundation, he should have at least 840 acupoints (small dantian). Each acupoint can condense additional Qi threads. These Qi threads are the transformation of essence, Qi, and spirit. After breaking through to the Heavenly Rank, they can spread out to form an Insect Nest Barrier (Martial Arts Domain); they can also gather and intertwine to form a Martial Arts Dharma Image, transforming into a Martial Arts Primordial Spirit, which can then enter the Insect Armor, shatter the void (Nightmare Layer), and explore other dimensions.

The younger brother is now stuck on this first acupoint, unable to make any progress.

With his current knowledge and insight, Yuan Zhu couldn't see the problem and asked directly, "Brother Lao, what's going on with you? I see that your [meridian foundation] is fine."

Compared to his older sister, the younger brother has already entered the [Seed] realm, but hasn't fully established himself yet; what he lacks is this [Acupoint]. Once he activates the first acupoint and officially establishes himself at the [Earth Rank], he will meet the standard for [Seed].

Although the acupoints haven't fully materialized, Lao Di's combat power is already sufficient to tear apart ordinary [Earth Rank] cultivators. The foundation of his 28 meridians grants him the strength to tear apart higher-ranking cultivators.

The older sister spoke on behalf of her younger brother: "The problem lies in our 'meridians, true qi,' and the alienation of our bodies."

Through persistent breathing exercises involving the Holy Cough Particles day and night, their bodies were thoroughly purified by the Holy Light (Holy Cough). The remaining 'Immortal Corpse Beard, Iron Poison, Corrupted Spiritual Energy' within their bodies, and even the 'True Qi' transformed from essence, energy, and spirit, were all severely distorted, eroded, and purified.

Therefore, their [Holy Cough True Qi] became increasingly pure, becoming incompatible with the environment of the underworld; at the same time, the potential for pollution within their bodies was replaced by [Holy Light Pollution]. The same was true for their [Meridian System], which was deeply sanctified.

This has resulted in the cultivation method that the siblings practiced, which was originally perfectly suited to the [Cicada True Qi], now being more suitable for the [Holy Cough True Qi]; the development of their meridians has also conflicted with the [cultivation method].

When breaking through to the Earth Rank, cultivators need to feed a large number of 'natal spirit insects' with Qi threads, contaminate them with true Qi, and nurture them to their limit. Then, they use Qi threads to extract the spirit insects' essence, energy, and spirit, plunder their essence and spiritual energy, and use it to nourish their Dao seed.

Essentially, humans absorb and devour everything from other insects of the same kind through the [Symbiotic Insect Meridians] within their bodies. The 'life nutrients' nourish the body, nurturing a second insect nest (acupoint); the 'spiritual nutrients' nourish the soul, which is then polluted and eroded by the insect system, strengthening the 'primordial spirit' and comprehending the 'insect realm'.

When the younger brother reached this point, his need for [Holy Cough Particles] was enormous. Not only did he and his sister need them, but the 'Holy Light Cicada' and 'Holy Light Beetle' they used for cultivation also required more [Holy Cough Particles] to cleanse their physical bodies, transform them, and sanctify them…

With so many problems accumulating, he lacked sufficient 'sacred insect + sacred cough true qi' to promote the condensation and development of 'acupoints'.

Furthermore, the forced insertion of [Holy Cough] also disrupted the original balance of [Insect-Kunlun-Knight].

After reaching the [Celestial Rank], the concentration of spiritual energy in the underground world becomes limited. The environment no longer supports Qi refiners in extracting higher quality [True Qi].

To become stronger, one must use the [Dream Hole] to communicate with the outside world and extract new, higher-quality 'pollution' from the [Nightmare Layer] to refine 'Innate True Qi'. This step involves opening the bridge between heaven and earth (Dream Hole) to absorb the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, transforming from a 'three-way mixture' to a 'four-way mixture'.

However, the siblings absorbed Holy Cough Particles to cultivate true qi at the Human Rank. This behavior is equivalent to a Heaven Rank cultivator drawing upon a kind of 'spiritual energy of heaven and earth (unfamiliar pollution)' from the world outside the Dream Hole and refining it into 'pseudo-innate true qi' ahead of time.

Therefore, this high-quality [Holy Cough True Qi] can distort true qi, distort meridian tissues, and distort bodily pollution, making the two people incompatible and unable to adapt to the [underground world] environment.

However, having come into contact with and possessing the characteristics of the 'pseudo-celestial rank' at an early stage also led to an incorrect state when entering the 'earth rank'. The 'aperture (insect nest)' that was originally easy to condense and nurture is now difficult to take shape due to the excessively high quality of the 'true qi'.

Yuan Zhu looked at the little girl and asked, "So, how do you think Lao Di should break through the 'first acupoint' now?"

The little girl fell into thought. After a moment, she said, "First, we need you to provide enough [Holy Demon Insects] and [Holy Light Particles] to accelerate my brother's 'spirit insect gestation'. When refining the 'acupoints', we may need to add some extra method to make the 'acupoints' reach the heavens in one step and also possess the [Heavenly Rank] characteristics!"

They couldn't pass the hurdle of acupoint cultivation because their cultivation level was too low, merely at the [Human Rank]. If they could condense acupoints of a [Heaven Rank] cultivator while still at the [Human Rank] level, they would naturally be able to pass the hurdle smoothly!
Hearing this analysis, Yuan Zhu also used the [Immortal Scripture] to connect to the database about the [Qi Refining System] and conducted a simulation. Feeling that the little girl's analysis was correct, he nodded and promised, "Don't worry, I'll contact the innate cultivators in [Cicada City] to come and cooperate. We'll help your brother overcome this obstacle."

His highest-ranking research subject, Commander Zuo, was only a [Earth Rank] expert. [Cicada City] had fewer than ten Heaven Rank experts; five possessed [Dream Holes], while the rest used or shared [Dream Holes]. To unravel the mysteries of their physical bodies, he would need the captain's influence.

Yuan Zhu then looked at the little girl and asked, "What about you? Have you encountered any bottlenecks or troubles?"

The little girl immediately nodded: "Yes, yes! We still have too few [Holy Light Particles]. Although I can use a regular standard alchemy furnace, I urgently need a [Alchemy Furnace] that matches my [Holy True Qi]! And the first step in refining an alchemy furnace is to cultivate a [Natal Demonic Insect]! We can't even afford to raise a small spirit insect, let alone a large demonic insect!"

After saying that, she also passed on to Yuan Zhu a summary of her "Essential Techniques of Alchemy".

Alchemy can be divided into several stages, including: pharmacology, processing of medicinal materials, cultivation of corpses (plantation science), alchemical furnace, alchemical fire, prescriptions, refining techniques, alchemical formulas, and secret techniques for combining elixirs. Many of these stages can be omitted.

However, the alchemy furnace remains an indispensable core element. The underworld, with its scarce resources and rampant pollution, has thus developed a unique 'alchemy culture'.

The most crucial element, the [Alchemy Furnace], is also known as the [Insect Furnace], made from the [Giant Demonic Insects] that cultivators have lost control of after being corrupted. These demonic insects are enormous, and if fed with ordinary corrupted demonic insects, their physical strength will continuously increase, and the content of [Insect Gold (Iron Poison Corrosion)] in their shells will continuously rise.

Finally, a fully-formed [Demonized Giant Insect] was slaughtered. Using the methods of immortal crafting, this [Demonized Giant Insect] was continuously compressed, refined, and forged. In the end, a van, a bus, and even a giant insect of a larger size were refined into a proportionally scaled-down [Insect-shaped Pill Furnace].

At that time, its carapace density will be completely metallicized, transforming it into an insect-shaped alchemy furnace. Its internal organs will be compressed and transformed, allowing it to store 'spiritual medicines' for processing within its various organs, ultimately refining the elixir in its abdominal cavity.

This kind of "insect furnace" is not only indestructible, but also has an extremely complex internal structure. It is inherently endowed with the five elements, and when refining elixirs, it is as if divinely aided.

To obtain such an [Insect Furnace], the young girl must raise a demonized giant insect. Just as cultivators nurture spirit insects with [True Qi], she must continuously feed and assimilate the [Demon Insect]. Only then can the final [Furnace] be compatible with her and directly recognize her as its master.

After listening to her introduction, Yuan Zhu gave a thumbs up and said: 6!

This underground world has truly maximized the use of corpses. They're used for growing herbs, refining elixirs, forging armor… I wonder what else they can do with them?
(End of this chapter)