Cultivating Immortality: Starting from Ferrying Passengers

Chapter 221 Ascension Ceremony
In a desolate valley, the skeletons of eight cultivators lay silently.

At this moment, some bold wild beasts were constantly probing and approaching this place. To them, the cultivator's body, full of spiritual energy, was a great tonic.

But before these beasts could even bite, Fang Jingxuan slowly stepped in and casually cast a few spells, driving away all the beasts that were trying to take advantage of the situation.

Only then did Fang Jingxuan have the mind to carefully discern the cultivation levels and identities of these eight people, and to guess their purpose in coming to this desolate wilderness.

At first glance, Fang Jingxuan recognized the other person's features; he was clearly dressed as a cultivator from Baishan. As for whether he was from Qifu City, that still needed to be confirmed.

However, based on the lingering magical energy fluctuations on their bodies after their recent deaths, Fang Jingxuan discerned that among these eight people, three were at the Foundation Establishment stage and five at the Qi Refining stage.

They were all male, all over thirty years old, dressed in uniform, with a blood-red rune mark on their sleeves.

The causes of death were remarkably consistent: all were wildly imaginative, and some even died without discovering anything beforehand, experiencing no pain whatsoever.

Fang Jingxuan had never seen this kind of mark before, but that didn't matter. These people would definitely have something to prove their identity in their storage bags.

Fang Jingxuan then stuffed all these cultivators into the [Azure Wood Treasure Garden] and buried them under the roots of the Azure Gourd Sword Vine, which had begun to recover.

Previously, the remains of Kuai Wuliang had been completely absorbed by the sword vine he had been longing for over the past six months.

The fourth-tier spiritual plant was extremely domineering, leaving not even a skeleton behind. Everything in Kuai Wuliang's body became nutrients for its growth.

Kuai Wuliang's storage bag contained a considerable amount of spirit stones and pills, as well as several collections of cultivation manuals, but these were of little use to Fang Jingxuan at the moment.

Only some magical artifacts and spiritual materials could be used, but his main magical artifact had self-destructed while chasing Fang Jingxuan, which was a considerable loss.

Fang Jingxuan guessed that the Kuai family would not let the matter rest after Kuai Wuliang was trapped here. This time, Fang Jingxuan thought that the Kuai family had really come looking for him, so he simply reported it to the Golden Core Crow to get rid of them.

But looking at it this way, it seems like they killed the wrong person.

Fang Jingxuan felt a little guilty, but not much. He tried his best to disguise the scene, and then quickly returned to his newly opened cave with eight storage bags.

Tuoyuan still quietly guards the cave, just as it was when Fang Jingxuan left.

While Tuoyuan continued to guard the entrance, Fang Jingxuan, inside the cave, used his divine soul to polish away the divine sense imprints on each of the storage bags.

'Clatter.'

In an instant, a large amount of various supplies were poured out on the ground in front of Fang Jingxuan, which made Fang Jingxuan raise an eyebrow.

The alchemy furnace, the robes, the talismans, the spiritual rice, and even a large number of anecdotal biographies.

Are these eight people planning to open a general store in this wilderness? How come they're so well-prepared?
Fang Jingxuan carefully categorized these cultivation supplies and finally found several jade talismans with markings.

These jade talismans are single-use items, and the information they contain can only be read once, making them very suitable for transmitting private information.

Of course, Fang Jingxuan didn't care who the jade talisman was originally meant for; now that it was in his hands, it was his.

Immediately, Fang Jingxuan probed the jade talismans with his divine sense to read them. After a moment, Fang Jingxuan's brows relaxed; he finally understood the identities of these people and their purpose for coming.

'Ascension to Immortality Ceremony!'

It turns out that these cultivators all belong to an organization called "Ghost Hand". They came to this desolate land to invite various demonic cultivators, ghost cultivators, and monster cultivators hiding here to participate in an event called "Ascension to Immortality".

Just as Fang Jingxuan chose to seek refuge in the depths of the wilderness, many demonic cultivators, who were not tolerated by the righteous path, also took a liking to this environment and chose to live in seclusion here.

If calculated according to the timeline, there are demonic cultivators who have been hiding here for hundreds of years. These cultivators have extremely high cultivation levels, capable of killing the original Golden Core demonic beasts, seizing spiritual lands for cultivation, and even building up their own power to become a dominant force in this world.

The vast wilderness, even just the area bordering Baishan, is already enormous. And in the deeper parts of the land, who knows how many ancient monsters are hidden? It's not impossible for Fang Jingxuan to even think of a Nascent Soul monster from two thousand years ago.

Returning to this "Ascension Gathering," it's unclear what connection "Ghost Hand" has with Black Hand, but they wanted to hold a special event for demonic and ghostly cultivators, so they planned to invite more demonic cultivators to a place called "Awakening Lion Valley."

These jade talismans were the benefits personally promised by the Ghost Hand to the demonic cultivators he was trying to win over, and the supplies brought by these cultivators were only a portion of the deposit.

Living in a wild and untamed place year-round, they are extremely eager for the spiritual materials created by these human cultivators, such as robes, talisman plates, and alchemy tools.

Ghost Hand promised that even more spiritual materials and items would appear at the Ascension Ceremony.

The cultivators that Ghost Hand sent out to make contact were not just these eight people. However, these eight people got lost in the wilderness, accidentally wandered into the territory of the beautiful snake, and were then seen by the big black bear, which led to all these subsequent events.

Otherwise, Fang Jingxuan wouldn't have known about this matter until they found a way to leave.

At present, Fang Jingxuan has developed a great interest in this Ascension Conference. When thousands of demonic and ghost cultivators participate in this event, he will surely be able to replenish much of the Yellow Spring True Water and Xuanming True Qi that he lacks.

It's not impossible that two more types of true water from heaven and earth could be discovered.

Fang Jingxuan calculated the time and found that the Ascension Ceremony was scheduled for July 15th next year. Since he couldn't go to the Baishan region now, he would like to witness the Ascension Ceremony.

However, with his current level of cultivation, it would be troublesome if he encountered a foolish and greedy demonic cultivator.

Thinking of this, Fang Jingxuan had another idea: if he could fool that Golden Core Crow, wouldn't he be able to walk sideways?

Fang Jingxuan recalled the personality of this Golden Crow: it was rather lively and somewhat gluttonous.

Hmph, once I've successfully refined my 'Imperial Jade Dew Pill,' I'll use it as bait. I don't believe she won't take the bait.

At this moment, Fang Jingxuan had a plan. He would hire a Golden Core demon beast as a bodyguard to accompany him on the trip. Wouldn't that make the situation completely secure this time?

Fang Jingxuan felt very pleased and put the incident aside for the time being. He took out his newly acquired second-grade mid-level alchemy furnace and a lot of free spiritual materials and began to refine first-grade high-level pills.

With so many resources to practice with, I'm sure I'll be able to refine the 'Imperial Jade Dew Pill' before July next year.

Fang Jingxuan was very confident about this.

(End of this chapter)