Starting with the consumables of the Demonic Sect, one can barely achieve immortality.

So be it.

For Yan Cheng, the art of escape itself did not have the urgency to be mastered immediately.

His purpose was to contain the indeterminate mist within his body, thereby obscuring his aura and blocking his senses.

Tian Tong's Qi Observation Technique can detect the aura of cultivators, and the Heavenly Moon, which hangs high in the sky, can even see through all kinds of illusions and escape techniques.

The thought of this made him feel deeply uneasy.

Putting everything else aside, if Tian Tong were to use his Qi-observation technique on him on a whim one day, he might be able to detect that the cultivation method he practices is different from others!

Only by embracing the ever-changing fog could he act secretly under the noses of all the cultivators, and boldly ride the opening of the fog sea to see the moonlight.

As for how to proceed, Yan Cheng had already planned it out with the silk weaver.

This guy, whose brain is so thickened by yang energy, is obviously not good at scheming. We absolutely cannot let her ruin our plans.

At this point, Yan Cheng was even more eager than the silk weaver herself to get her to take action.

The problem lies elsewhere.

The "Hidden Mist Secret" states that to contain mist, one must open up a complete Qi Palace within the body.

Simply put, one must first cultivate to the point of perfecting the initial stage of Qi Refining, thus perfecting the lower dantian and the Qi Palace, so that the Unstable Mist within the body has a place to reside.

Although Yan Cheng's cultivation is progressing rapidly, it will take at least ten more days to reach the initial stage of perfection. He is not confident that he can complete it before the first day of the month.

When asked about the silk weaver, it was discovered that she had no memory of her early Qi cultivation stage.

It seems that as soon as he awoke from the coffin, he began his cultivation from the middle stage.

This sounds like someone used some means to force the silk weavers to accept the Unstable Mist as soon as possible, even opening up their lower dantian.

If it weren't for the mysterious fog obscuring the Weaver Girl's body, Yan Cheng would have really wanted to use [Penetration] on her to get a good look at her undoubtedly terrifyingly abnormal physical structure.

Since there was no precedent to follow, they had no choice but to find another way and temporarily create a space within their bodies that could accommodate the unpredictable fog.

Yan Cheng had come up with a solution to this.

With a slight pang of regret, he pulled out the small bottle containing the Yin Corpse Fiend and shook the not-so-full bottle.

In this godforsaken place, there's really nothing that's free...

……

The Hall of Longevity has three floors, including the alchemy room.

"I want a Qi-opening pill."

Upon hearing Yan Cheng's words, Chen Caimin, who was behind the table, remained expressionless and casually tossed a small bottle to him.

"Did you take the pills from last time?"

"Looks like you're in luck, kid. You really did pick one that's going to work."

"Even if you take the pill and cultivate quickly, you can only refine a dozen or so strands of evil energy at most."

"Coming to exchange for the Qi Opening Pill so quickly, trying to complete the Qi Mansion ahead of schedule? Could it be that you've taken out a loan from a Yin Corpse?"

As a mid-stage cultivator, Chen Caimin, like Tian Tong and Guan Caishun, held an extremely unfriendly attitude towards the Yin Corpse Loan and loan sharking gangs, coldly staring at Yan Cheng:

"You don't know how to cultivate diligently, all you do is aim too high all day long. You'd rather die on my turf."

Yan Cheng didn't want to argue with her, so she just smiled slightly upon hearing this.

The mid-stage corpse cultivators he knew all seemed to belong to Huang Tong's faction.

They wouldn't give Huang Tong the slightest bit of kindness to his rivals, the loan sharks.

They may not be fully aware of the secrets of the Hundred Birds Returning to Their Nest Talisman, but Huang Tong certainly is.

Those mid-stage corpse cultivators who achieved their level through the Yin Corpse Loan naturally became closer to the lenders.

Huang Tong could only recruit those who had achieved success without borrowing money as his cronies.

These people are naturally more talented and have better innate qualities, so they look down on mediocre people who want to change their fate by borrowing money, and they don't want the latter to succeed.

However, Yan Cheng shares their stance on opposing lending.

The Opening Pill, which is indispensable for cultivators who borrow money to absorb external evil energy, has undeniable drawbacks.

A cultivator's Qi Palace typically expands gradually as their cultivation level increases.

Once forty-nine strands of true qi are cultivated, the qi palace will naturally open and be fully formed, capable of accommodating a spiritual object to suppress the qi palace and stabilize the lower elixir.

Thus, he exhausted all his true energy and attacked the gate of the middle elixir.

However, there is an undeniable quality difference between a self-cultivated Qi Palace and one that has been opened prematurely and fully developed by consuming the Qi Palace Opening Pill.

This gap may seem insignificant under normal circumstances, but when it comes to the crucial moment of breaking through a new level, it immediately becomes the last gust of wind that blows an old house down.

Otherwise, why would so many corpse cultivators fall at the threshold of the mid-stage? Is it really that everyone's innate talent is insufficient?

Those who can reach the initial stage of perfection usually have a basic understanding of cultivation, so they know that they need to strengthen their foundation before breaking through to a higher level.

It's a shame that some corpse cultivators who take drugs open up such poor-quality qi palaces that they explode and die during the medicinal bath, which is quite embarrassing.

The two loan shark corpse cultivators that Yan Cheng killed in self-defense a few days ago were already close to the initial perfection of cultivation.

Why not borrow another penny and take a gamble to break through to the mid-term?

There was no other reason than that he knew the quality of his lower dantian was poor, and that breaking through to the next realm would be tantamount to suicide.

One way to compensate for the defects in the Qi Palace, which is most likely the method used by the person who manages the silk weaver, is to spare no expense in piling up spiritual objects and secret techniques.

As the saying goes, if you lack talent, you can make up for it with resources.

Another method that corpse cultivators can afford is to exchange for a sufficiently high-quality spirit artifact to suppress the deficiencies in their Qi Palace.

That's another big expense.

In theory, a corpse cultivator only needs to cultivate forty-nine strands of corpse aura to break through to the mid-stage.

The actual needs are far more than that, which explains why there are so many old cultivators on the second floor who have remained stagnant in the early stages of their lives.

However, none of this has anything to do with Yan Cheng.

The high quality of the Yin Star Qi itself, coupled with the improvement in his physical constitution brought about by the Moon Essence Tempering, was enough for him to ignore the slight flaws in the quality of his Qi Palace.

Moreover, what if his speculation about the mysterious Hidden Immortal Mirror is correct?

Once you get your hands on this Opening Pill, you may not actually need to swallow it.

This godforsaken place is exactly like this. Many expenses, like the Wufang Pill he exchanged here that day, were originally unnecessary, but were wasted entirely for the sake of appearances.

He suppressed his heartache as he handed over a wisp of Yin Corpse Fiend and was about to take his leave.

But then a golden paper crane flew leisurely in from outside the door and landed on Chen Caimin's desk.

When Chen Caimin lifted the lid, his already sour face became even more gloomy. He casually flicked his finger, turning the paper crane into ashes.

Yan Cheng naturally didn't ask her what was on the paper, and hurriedly left for her dormitory.

But as soon as he returned to his room, a golden paper crane that was quietly perched in front of his door made him stop in his tracks.

On the gold paper, there was only one line of text:

At dawn on the first day of next month, it will be the time for the dragon to break free.

He suddenly looked at the golden cranes scattered outside the doors of the surrounding rooms, and without lingering, pushed open the door and went inside.