Immortality begins with Swallowing the Stars.

Chapter 14 Crimson Scale Beast

Within Yangzhou, in the Nanman Commandery.

A continuous mountain range stands on the land.

A tall, disheveled young man in a short shirt covered in blood walked to the foot of the mountain and looked up at the houses made of stone and wood in the distance. It was a village built at the foot of the mountain.

"Does every time I travel through time have to be this bloody?" The tall young man felt a faint pain emanating from his internal organs, somewhat helplessly.

The young man in the short shirt was Lu Jing, whose soul had transmigrated and possessed the body of a recently deceased mountain dweller.

The body died from ruptured organs and excessive blood loss.

In short, he died from a fall.

"Was it an accidental fall to his death, or was he murdered?" Lu Jing leaned towards the second possibility.

Although he managed to recover from his potentially fatal injuries by drawing upon some of the original body's power through the gate, it took him some time to finally digest some of the original body's memory fragments.

Perhaps because the time elapsed after death was a little too long, the memories remaining in this body are somewhat fragmented. It couldn't find the person who killed it, or perhaps even the original owner of the body didn't know who pushed it off the cliff.

"What a pity! The timing is wrong." Lu Jing sighed.

"The world of 'Nine Cauldrons' has no calendar, mainly because the Nine Provinces are divided and sects rule the prefectures and counties. I don't know if the protagonist of this world, Teng Qingshan, has been reborn here, but it seems that the Guiyuan Sect is hard to count on."

Lu Jing was actually forced to descend into the world of Nine Cauldrons. Otherwise, if he had found a safe place and secluded himself for ten or fifteen days, it would have been equivalent to several years in this world of Nine Cauldrons, and he would have been able to do many more things.

In Lu Jing's mind, the value of the mysterious gate as a cheat code is not only that it can exchange time for power and bring back the power accumulated in other worlds. These other worlds themselves are the greatest wealth, especially the cultivation system.

The best way to reap the rewards is to gradually improve your cultivation level in another world by following its cultivation system, reaching higher realms, and experiencing a wider world.

Unfortunately, this time, just like when I went to the Panlong World last time, I have to find some quick ways to achieve this, otherwise the main body on the other side of the gate will perish in the insects' mouths.

Of course, the reason why Lu Jing chose Nine Cauldrons between Panlong and Nine Cauldrons was because Nine Cauldrons did indeed have a way to improve strength in a short time.

The best way is to follow Teng Qingshan's path, join the Guiyuan Sect directly, and cultivate the "Mangniu Dali Jue". Lu Jing is confident that he can reach the sixth level or above in a short time and become a top-level acquired expert with tens of thousands of kilograms of strength.

In the world of Nine Cauldrons, innate experts are at the very top of the pyramid of each major sect, and their numbers are extremely small.

Among the acquired masters, those who can unleash 10,000 jin, or roughly five tons of force, are considered to have reached the peak of the acquired realm and can be called first-class masters. According to Lu Jing's estimation, the first-class masters in Nine Cauldrons Chronicle are roughly equivalent to high-level warriors.

However, there are a few exceptionally talented or fortuitous individuals who are at the peak of the acquired realm and can unleash tens of thousands of kilograms of force, surpassing the limits of normal peak acquired realm individuals. They can be called top masters, and the best among them can even enter the Earth Ranking, thus becoming famous throughout the world.

If he can reach this level of strength, he can definitely make Lu Jing a warrior-level expert upon his return.

This path, which allows one to quickly become a top-tier expert, is something only Lu Jing could replicate.

Because he, like Teng Qingshan, was a master of internal martial arts!

A master of internal martial arts has all eight extraordinary meridians open, but in the world of Nine Cauldrons, even a master of innate strength may not have all their meridians open.

This is also why Teng Qingshan was able to make rapid progress in the "Mangniu Dali Jue" after joining the Guiyuan Sect. This technique is demanding and requires opening new meridians with each breakthrough.

The "Raging Bull Mighty Technique" is practically a top-tier acquired skill prepared for those whose meridians are fully opened.

Of course, Lu Jing was able to reach the level of a master of internal martial arts in the main world mainly because the mysterious nature of the genetic energy transformed from cosmic energy surpassed that of internal strength, causing every cell to constantly transform, not to mention that he had only opened up his meridians.

Although the body he possessed was far from having all the meridians open, Lu Jing was able to draw power from the original body through the gate, convert it into the purest primordial energy, and then use his master-level consciousness of internal martial arts to open up the meridians in his body.

Even if he can't fully open all the meridians, opening most of them will be enough. Even if he can't reach the ninth level that Teng Qingshan achieved, as long as he cultivates to the eighth level of the "Raging Bull Mighty Technique", his internal strength will be enough to unleash a force of 50,000 jin. After returning, it will be enough for him to break through to the level of a warrior general. This descent will be considered a success.

Unfortunately, the timing was wrong. The Guiyuan Sect's Black Armor Army would recruit again on the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, which was still two months away.

Of course, you can try other methods to enter the Guiyuan Sect, but time waits for no one.

"Besides channeling one's own power through the meridians and then cultivating the 'Raging Bull Mighty Technique,' obtaining the Vermilion Fruit is also an option."

The world of Nine Cauldrons is full of rare and exotic herbs, but obtaining them is not easy and mostly depends on chance.

After considering all the options, only the Vermilion Fruit has a specific location, is the closest, and is the only spiritual fruit that is likely to be obtained. If we are lucky, we might also get some Vermilion Fruit wine brewed by the Iron-Armed Monkeys.

Both the Vermilion Fruit and Vermilion Fruit Wine can greatly increase internal strength and are effective against innate true essence. If Lu Jing also had a manual for cultivating internal strength, he would be confident that he could develop considerable internal strength in a short period of time. After taking it back, it could also help him break through to the Warrior level.

This mountain stronghold was located on the edge of the southernmost of the thirteen prefectures of Yangzhou, the Southern Barbarian Prefecture. Beyond this mountain lies the Southern Wilderness, also known as the Savage Wilderness, a place teeming with demonic beasts and harboring countless rare fruits and extraordinary encounters. Even peak-level experts dare not venture too far into it. The Vermilion Fruit grows on a mountain in the Savage Wilderness called Iron-Armed Monkey Mountain.

"But those Iron-Armed Monkeys are not easy to deal with either. Each one of them is comparable to a peak-level acquired expert, not to mention the Monkey King..."

However, all these plans must be put aside for now, because Lu Jing first has to face a huge problem.

The troubles left behind by the original owner!

"Ah Qi is back?!"

"Ah Qi..."

Upon seeing Lu Jing, the mountain people either gasped in surprise or were too afraid to look at him.

Lu Jing didn't greet anyone along the way and went straight to the residence of his master in the original owner's memories.

That's right, the body he possessed had a mysterious master.

Its origins remain a mystery.

All that is known is that he was a powerful expert who came to the village half a year ago and quickly subdued the village elders and the strong hunters in the village, becoming the mastermind behind the entire Liangjia Village.

The mysterious man also took several teenagers from Liangjia Village as his disciples.

The young man named Liang Aqi, whom Lu Jing possessed, was one of the dozen or so disciples taken in by the mysterious man. He also passed down a set of internal energy manuals. This body had even cultivated internal energy and could barely be considered a third-rate martial artist, capable of lifting a boulder weighing nearly a thousand pounds.

However, Lu Jing felt that his cheap master was definitely not a good person, because when he was using his own power to heal his injuries, he also discovered a strange power hidden in his bone marrow and meridians. It should be an unknown toxin, but fortunately it had been digested and expelled by the pure Yuan power converted by the mysterious gate.

As soon as Lu Jing entered the wooden house, he saw an ordinary-looking man dressed in black sitting in the main seat, surrounded by his fellow disciples.

Lu Jing immediately knelt down, obeying his muscle memory: "Disciple greets Master!"

The man in black frowned slightly: "Why are you only coming back now?"

"Master, I...I don't know why I fainted." Lu Jing appeared terrified.

In the instant he looked up, Lu Jing clearly saw a fleeting look of panic and disbelief in the narrow-eyed young man standing next to the man in black.

Was he the murderer?

Lu Jing retrieved the name from the fragments of memory: Liang Hong!

His second senior brother, who was also the son of the village chief, held the highest position among the black-clad man's disciples.

Although Liang Aqi, whom Lu Jing possessed, was the last to join the martial arts school, his skills improved the fastest, and his strength was almost comparable to Liang Hong's.

"Why would Liang Hong target me? Is it to compete for favor? Or out of jealousy?" Lu Jing wondered.

Unfortunately, Liang Aqi's memories were not only fragmented but also largely lost, so Lu Jing couldn't piece together the truth for the time being.

"Have you discovered anything?" the man in black asked calmly.

"Disciple...disciple..." Lu Jing really didn't know what he was going to do this time, so he deliberately pretended to have amnesia and was deep in thought.

It's nothing more than going to the edge of the wilderness to find some precious herbs, right?

Seeing Lu Jing's disheveled state, Liang Hong, who was standing beside his master, felt slightly relieved, but also had some doubts: "Could it be that this idiot really lost his memory after the fall? Strange, how could he be unharmed from such a high cliff..."

"Useless!" the man in black sneered. "Fine, Liang Hong and his men have already explored the Crimson Scale Beast's lair. Next..."

Crimson Scale Beast?

Lu Jing was startled. In that instant, it was as if those words had stimulated his brain, and fragments of the original owner's memories surfaced in his mind.

"Yes, my fellow disciples and I were sent by this man in black to the wilderness to search for traces of the Crimson Scale Beast... We were ambushed and killed along the way..."

Wait, a Crimson Scale Beast?!

Lu Jing was shocked and instantly became excited.

Black Fire Spiritual Root!

(End of this chapter)