The entry for cultivating immortality states that after dying a hundred times, I attained immortalit

Deep in the desolate wilderness, the biting wind, like a blunt knife, scrapes against your cheeks again and again.

Following the faint guidance on the garrison soldier's token, Jiang Bai walked through the gray fog for nearly two hours.

The terrain begins to slope downwards.

First a gentle slope, then a steep cliff. A bottomless, chasm-like canyon suddenly appears before us.

Standing on the edge and looking down, the valley floor is shrouded in thick darkness.

The perpetual gray fog over the wasteland thinned out somewhat here.

No, it wasn't that the mist was thin; rather, the mist near the valley entrance was all absorbed by some mysterious force and merged into the deeper, heavier darkness.

The sacred runes on Jiang Bai's right arm began to circulate on their own, with a dark golden light faintly moving beneath his skin.

That's a natural reaction when encountering a force of the same origin.

He looked down at the token; the character "戍" was glowing faintly, like a firefly in the dead of night.

"This is it."

He jumped down.

The rock walls on both sides of the canyon are covered with crisscrossing slash marks, charred burn marks, and large patches of dried dark brown blood, layered upon each other. The deeper one goes, the stronger the resentment becomes, so strong that it materializes into a black mist that slowly rolls at the bottom of the valley.

The moment Jiang Bai landed, a soft cracking sound came from beneath his feet.

Looking down, there was half a shattered skull, its empty eye sockets staring straight at the gray sky.

He moved aside and continued forward.

The black mist surged in from all directions, and when it touched the dazzling light flowing from the sacred runes, it instantly emitted a hissing sound, just like a red-hot iron block being immersed in cold water.

The negative emotions mingled with resentment, like a surging undercurrent, attempted to penetrate the sea of ​​consciousness—a deep place where the obsessions, fears, and resentments of countless dead had converged over the past three hundred years. But before it could even get close, it was instantly shattered by a sharp golden sword light within the sea of ​​consciousness.

The Soul-Slaying Sword Intent is naturally effective against these malevolent spirits.

After walking for about the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the path ahead suddenly opened up.

It was the ruins of a circular altar.

The altar was about thirty feet in diameter, its ground paved with dark blue stone, most of which was now broken and cracked, with withered black and unidentified wild grass sprouting from the cracks. In the center of the altar, three palm-sized black fragments floated silently, slowly rotating and emitting an unsettling dark glow.

The fragments were shaped like a compass, with jagged edges, as if they had been forcibly shattered by some extremely tyrannical force, exuding a sense of incompleteness and desolation.

Jiang Bai's gaze fell on the fragments, and his pupils contracted slightly.

As the fragments slowly rotated, the surrounding space seemed to be gently kneaded by two hands, rippling like waves on water. Listen closely, and you can hear extremely faint moans—not through the ears, but directly in your mind. They are the cries of imprisoned and torn souls.

"Evil weapon..."

Before the words were even finished, a sudden change occurred!

The black mist surrounding the altar surged violently like a raging tide, rolling, condensing, and compressing like boiling water, transforming in the blink of an eye into a ferocious behemoth.

Shaped like a giant python, it had seven heads. Each head was not a snake's head, but a human face—a soldier, a monk, an old man, a woman... The seven faces had different expressions, some were ferocious like demons, some were sorrowful like bereaved parents, and some were numb like withered wood, but their eyes were equally empty and lifeless.

Fourteen eyes were fixed on Jiang Bai.

"hiss……"

It wasn't the sound of a snake's tongue flicking in and out, but rather the simultaneous opening of seven enormous mouths, mixed with the mournful shrieks of countless souls, like ten thousand ghosts crying out together.

hum-

Jiang Bai's head slumped, and the scene before his eyes began to sway.

A piercing scream stabbed into his mind, like a thousand needles striking simultaneously. Fragments of memories carried by those faces surged forth: battlefield carnage, the cries of loved ones, the despair of being swallowed by black energy... all sorts of emotions and images that did not belong to him attempted to corrupt his soul.

If it were an ordinary Foundation Establishment cultivator, they would have been stunned in that instant.

But Jiang Bai only frowned.

In his sea of ​​consciousness, the golden sword light suddenly shone brightly!

The sword light swept across like a cascading silver river, carrying a resounding clang that pierced the heavens. Wherever it passed, shrieks vanished instantly, like snow meeting the blazing sun. Fragments of lingering memories collided with the barrier formed by the sword intent, scattering and turning to nothingness.

"A soul beast?"

Jiang Bai stared at the seven-headed monster, his right hand resting on the hilt of the Bloodstained Blade.

The monster's seven faces simultaneously grinned, revealing sharp, white teeth formed from condensed resentment. Its massive body writhed in the black mist, its seven heads lunging from different directions—not with physical bites, but with a violent assault on the mental level!

This time, Jiang Bai did not take the hit head-on.

He activated the [Swift Shadow Step], his figure drifting backward like a leaf swept up by a gale, light and swift. The seven mental attacks missed their mark one after another, crashing into the altar's bluestone like meteors, instantly creating spiderweb-like cracks.

"Pure soul form...physical attacks are ineffective."

In the blink of an eye, the bloodied blade was drawn.

On the blade, pale golden sword intent meandered and flowed like a serpent, shimmering with a sharp light.

He suddenly stepped forward, and the blade flashed like lightning, slicing through the sky and striking the head of the nearest woman's face!

The golden arc of the blade struck instantly!

"Aaaaaah—!"

A piercing scream tore through the air like a sharp blade, and the face instantly twisted and disintegrated, turning into a swirling cloud of black mist. But in just a few breaths, the surrounding black mist surged in, and the head reformed, only its color was slightly lighter.

"It can recover by devouring remnant souls..."

Jiang Bai's eyes darkened.

This monster is formed from the fusion of countless remnant souls; as long as the resentment at the bottom of the valley doesn't dissipate, it will remain nearly immortal. Fighting it head-on will only deplete one's own spiritual energy.

Seven heads lunged at them again.

This time they coordinated their attacks: two launched a feint attack from the front, three flanked them, and the last two silently circled behind Jiang Bai to launch a treacherous mental attack.

Jiang Bai moved like a nimble fish, darting and shifting between the dense attacks, making him elusive and difficult to predict.

The 【Soul-Slaying Sword Intent】 adheres to the blade like a blazing flame, and each slash can severely shave off a part of the soul. However, the monster's recovery speed is astonishing. As soon as one side is cut open, the black mist quickly fills in like a tide.

We can't keep dragging this out.

He maneuvered while observing.

Although the seven heads belong to the same entity, there is a subtle difference in the timing of their attacks. The head on the far right, with the face of an old man, always moves half a beat slower than the other six—not because it is slow, but because of some kind of subtle "guidance," as if a hand is controlling it from the shadows.

"Where...is the core located?"

Jiang Baixin had a sudden thought and deliberately revealed a flaw.

When the mental impact of the three heads on his left surged like a tidal wave, he pretended to be unable to dodge in time, letting a wisp of resentment quietly enter his sea of ​​consciousness.

In an instant, a chaotic scene flooded in: an old man in black robes held a compass aloft, with hundreds of bound soldiers kneeling below. Black energy gushed from the compass, seeping into the soldiers' brows and eye sockets... Amid screams, their souls were forcibly ripped from their bodies.

The image flashed by in an instant.

But Jiang Bai remembered the face of the old man in black robes.

At the same time, the wisp of resentment that invaded the sea of ​​consciousness has been locked in reverse by [The Return of All Poisons]!

"swallow!"

Driven by his thoughts, the power of the sacred runes erupted.

The fragments of memory carried within that wisp of resentment were forcibly extracted and devoured. In an instant, more information flooded into his mind—this soul beast was called the [Soul Devouring Beast], a guardian beast crafted three hundred years ago by the black-robed elder of the Starfall Pavilion using battlefield remnants as materials and the "Soul Control Jade Slip" as its core!

The core lies deep within the old man's skull!

"Found it."

A cold glint flashed in Jiang Bai's eyes.

He stopped fighting and suddenly charged forward, going against the spiritual impact of the seven soul beasts, like an arrow released from a bow, aiming straight for the old man's head on the right!

The monster seemed to sense their intentions, and its other six heads frantically tried to intercept them. Mental screams, memory corruption, and intertwined illusions... all sorts of attacks on the soul swept in like a raging torrent.

Within Jiang Bai's sea of ​​consciousness, the golden sword light burned fiercely like a raging flame, its brilliance dazzling.

[Soul-Slaying Sword Intent] was activated at full power, and a layer of sword curtain condensed around his body. All the mental attacks that came at the moment they touched the sword curtain dissipated like moths to a flame.

Ten zhang (approximately 33 meters).

Five zhang (approximately 10 meters).

Three zhang!

When Jiang Bai was only three zhang away from the old man's head, he suddenly raised his left hand, his five fingers loosely clenched—

[All Poisons Return to the Flow], activate!

Nine sacred runes on his chest lit up simultaneously, and a powerful suction force enveloped the head!

"Ughhhhhh!"

The old man's face was contorted in pain, and black mist was boiling beneath his skin, with a faint, warm luster like that of chalcedony peeking through.

This is the moment!

Jiang Bai gripped the blood-stained blade tightly in his right hand, the blade gleaming with a cold light, and slashed down fiercely!

This strike was devoid of any fancy moves, possessing only extreme speed, power, and a soul-slaying sword intent refined to its absolute limit.

The blade flashed like golden lightning, tearing through the sky and instantly cleaving through the surging black mist, slashing towards the faint, jade-like light that shone through.

click-

A crisp cracking sound rang out.

A palm-sized black jade slip covered with fine lines emerged from inside the skull, its surface bearing a deep knife mark.

The moment the jade slip shattered, the entire Soul-Devouring Beast let out a deafening wail!

The seven heads twisted and disintegrated simultaneously, and the massive body collapsed like a sand tower, turning into a sky full of black mist. This time, the black mist did not reassemble, but gradually dissipated, with the pure soul power within it drifting away like fireflies.

Jiang Bai sheathed his knife and took a soft breath.

The intense and continuous stimulation of sword intent had greatly depleted his spiritual energy. The golden sword light in his sea of ​​consciousness had dimmed somewhat.

But a system notification sounded at the right time:

[Soul-Slaying Sword Intent] Proficiency increases, slightly increasing the damage bonus to the soul body, and slightly optimizing the sword intent refinement.

"Proficiency..."

Jiang Bai didn't think too much about it for the moment, his gaze falling on the scattered pure soul power.

This soul power has been refined and purified, without any resentment or complaint, making it an excellent nourishment for the soul.

He sat cross-legged and began practicing the spirit-refining method attached to the foundational chapter of the "Zhou Tian Ning Qi Gong".

As soon as he started practicing, the surrounding soul power flowed towards him like rivers flowing into the sea, trickling into his sea of ​​consciousness from between his eyebrows.

A cool and soothing sensation spread throughout my body.

The divine sense, like rain after a long drought, greedily absorbed the soul power.

Fifteen minutes later, Jiang Bai opened his eyes.

His eyes shone with a bright, star-like light, sharp and condensed like a cold star, even more profound than before.

With a slight thought, his divine sense spread rapidly outward like a surging tide—five zhang, ten zhang, fifteen zhang… until he approached sixteen zhang, when he realized that his strength was insufficient.

"The range of divine sense has nearly doubled."

This is the benefit of refining soul power.

Jiang Bai got up, walked to the broken jade slip, and bent down to pick it up.

The jade slip was broken in two, and tiny runes were still visible on the broken surface. One half had an inscription on its back: seven twisted lines encircling a single eye, with two lines of small text below:

"Seven Veins - Feeding the Soul".

"Feeding the soul..."

Jiang Bai silently repeated these two words, his eyes gradually turning cold.

As I absorbed the soul power, the scene that had flashed before reappeared clearly: the old man in black robes holding the evil artifact compass, feeding the souls of living people. The soldiers' faces, twisted to the point of being deformed, their eyes filled with despair as if they had lost all hope, and their shrill screams that were so horrifying that they sent chills down my spine, were all vividly clear in my mind.

He put the jade slip fragment into his storage ring, then turned to look at the three floating fragments of evil artifacts in the center of the altar.

A faint, eerie light emanated from the scene, accompanied by a soft, mournful wail.

"Feeding weapons with human souls..."

Jiang Bai approached.

He found a intact blue stone by the altar, sat down cross-legged, took the elixir, and quietly regulated his breathing to recover.

The closer you get to your goal, the calmer you need to be.

The wind at the valley entrance howled in, carrying fine bone dust, while grayish-white dust swirled and billowed among the ruins of the altar, like countless ghosts wandering silently.

He gently closed his eyes, and the intricate patterns on the jade slip and the sinister face of the old man in black robes were clearly imprinted in his consciousness like a brand.

"Starfall Pavilion... what exactly is the path you cultivate?"

The voice was very soft, scattered in the wind.

But this question has already been quietly planted like a seed.

After a full hour of meditation, the Myriad Poisons Dao Foundation within his dantian was replenished, and his divine sense returned to its peak. Jiang Bai slowly opened his eyes, stood up, and walked towards the center of the altar.

Three fragments of evil artifacts floated in the void, their eerie light flowing slowly like blood, as if silently telling a story sealed by time and soaked in blood.