A Mortal's Journey to Immortality: Starting as a Rogue Cultivator

He silently warned himself that he must not let his guard down when he was about to succeed. And even after he succeeded, he must not relax his vigilance.

After quickly packing up the human-faced scorpion's corpse, Wang Li went straight to the underground cave deep inside the stone palace.

However, he didn't let his guard down after eliminating the local tyrant. Instead, he remained highly vigilant: his meteorite shield was raised in front of him, his defensive energy barrier was erected, a dozen talismans were in his hand, and he was fully armed. His entire being, every cell... was in a state of readiness to unleash his power at any moment.

The near-death experience left him in a terrible mood.

The female cultivator's tragic death was still vivid in his mind;

Furthermore, there are far too many cases of people who were just one step away from success but stumbled and fell hard; he didn't want to become one of them.

The result was quite good. This time, no family members appeared in the underground palace beneath the palace, so he didn't have to send them down to reunite.

Then, inside the stone pavilion, a small box floated on the water.

For no apparent reason, he became curious about the top-tier demonic beasts hiding here. Why didn't they try to open the treasure chests themselves? Wasn't it a waste to leave them for the cultivators who came to hunt them?

So cultivators really are no good. (A moment of silence for the demonic beasts within the forbidden area.)

Next up is the unboxing.

Although he knew that it was unlikely to contain a pass to the forbidden area in the center guarded by the Ink Dragon, Wang Li was still filled with anticipation for the treasure chest in front of him.

Before opening the box, he rubbed his hands together, feeling as if all his luck had gathered at a certain moment, before controlling the puppet to open it for him.

As I always say, being careful is always the right thing to do.

Nangong Wan, whose cultivation level has plummeted, has the foresight and strength to back it up, so she's not afraid of being tricked; he only has one life, so he has to be careful. Who knows if some ancient master might occasionally scheme against a younger generation out of boredom? Or perhaps the treasure chest has already been opened, and this is a trap left by the previous person?

Thankfully, nothing unexpected happened.

Inside were two jade slips and a small bottle of viscous black water that still retained its spiritual essence; no wonder it was just a small box.

After opening the box, he continued with the usual routine of gathering medicinal herbs, restoring his magical power, and studying the contents of the jade slip. The contents, in particular, piqued Wang Li's interest.

"What a wonderful array of cultivation techniques! What a pity, what a pity..."

The jade slip contains a rough record of some immortal techniques from the glorious moments of the cultivation world in ancient times and even further back.

The path to immortality is incredibly long.

Humans existed in this world tens of thousands of years ago, or even hundreds of millions of years ago.

The jade slip describes various skills besides the mainstream cultivation techniques and secret arts, including: armor techniques, inscription techniques, incantation techniques, spirit awakening techniques, celestial secret techniques, celestial evolution techniques, celestial sound techniques, weapon crafting techniques, formation techniques, talisman making techniques, spirit communication techniques, spirit control techniques, puppetry techniques, alchemy techniques, mantra techniques, barrier techniques, spirit attraction techniques, spirit seeking techniques, spirit sealing techniques, and alchemy techniques, etc. These are some of the various arts of immortal cultivation that have either disappeared in the long river of time, gradually declined, or flourished in the present world.

The Hundred Refinement Hall in Huangfeng Valley is a place that collects several common immortal techniques, such as weapon refining, medicine refining, formation techniques, and talisman making.

However, compared to the time when the immortal path was prevalent, the various arts and crafts passed down by different schools today are really not up to par, and even seem shabby.

Take formations, for example.

Putting aside other things, the only remaining teleportation array in Tiannan today is the rather useless Hundred-Mile Teleportation Array. As for array formations, all ten ancient forbidden arrays have been lost. Because the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is becoming increasingly scarce, later generations have devoted more time to honing their magical power and improving their cultivation, selectively abandoning skills such as array formations and talismans.

Then look at this ancient wind-attribute array outside the Crimson Forbidden Land: it directly stumped 99% of high-level cultivators! Junior Brother Xiang Zhili was one of them.

Rather than saying this guy couldn't use the power of the Nascent Soul stage, thus only able to enter the forbidden area with a group of Qi Refining stage disciples each time; it's more accurate to say he was ignorant of formations and hadn't studied them in depth. Therefore, unwilling to expend a significant amount of his lifespan to unleash his full power, he was completely helpless against the Wind Restriction Formation, which was also at the Nascent Soul stage.

Otherwise, if he could forcefully tear apart the great formation with his insights at the Nascent Soul level and the magic power of a late-stage Nascent Soul cultivator, he wouldn't necessarily have to come in with a group of novice cultivators every five years.

How many five-year periods are there in the Nascent Soul stage?

Exhausting five years of one's own lifespan might be enough to plunder several major sects.

Besides this wind-restricting array, the sealing array of the boundless sea is also an ancient masterpiece. The space-limiting array and the forbidden array stretching for millions of miles outside the Fallen Demon Valley are also remnants of ancient times. The spatial array of the Void Heaven Palace and the three Void Spirit Palaces of the Lesser Extreme Palace are also examples of this. Furthermore, the seal of Kunwu Mountain involves a variety of techniques such as array formation, spirit sealing, and barrier techniques.

Unfortunately, most of these techniques have been lost to time.

The rest are mostly incomplete.

Of the two jade slips Wang Li obtained this time, the other one recorded a Taoist technique called "Inscription Technique".

A very niche skill!

In its early stages, it has many similarities to the art of talismans, but at a deeper level, the differences become significant.

Legend has it that profound inscription techniques can enhance a cultivator's absorption and refinement of the spiritual energy of heaven and earth, and can even be combined with body-refining techniques for mutual promotion. The various wondrous uses are numerous.

"It only has the most basic introductory section, it's so useless!"

No wonder Nangong Wan thought these things were trash.

If all the treasure chests only contain beginner-level or Foundation Establishment stage cultivation techniques, they are indeed useless to this woman.

Chapter 40 Golden Treasure Chest

In the Crimson Forbidden Land, within the stone hall, aside from a very few places that have already been cleared, there is usually a treasure chest and some rudimentary cultivation techniques left behind.

Of course, a treasure chest is a treasure chest, and the scriptures, magical artifacts, spiritual materials, etc., contained inside are secondary items. The value of the two must be determined separately, because these treasure chests themselves are also wondrous treasures.

For example, the large iron box he opened earlier that allowed the magical beads to retain their full spiritual power even after ten thousand years.

It should be understood that ordinary magical artifacts, without the maintenance of their owners, will lose their spiritual essence and become mere mortals over the long course of time. Even the magical treasures of Core Formation cultivators, unless they are rare and extraordinary, cannot withstand the erosion of time.

However, the fact that the ritual beads have been preserved intact to this day is nothing short of a miracle.

Furthermore, the viscous black water in the small treasure chest I just acquired, which is needed to learn the basic inscription technique, has not lost its spiritual essence, making it even more precious.

The reason for this phenomenon is the box and the restrictions on it! And the problem lies more with the box itself.

Because these treasure chests, preserved deep within each stone palace, possess the ability to isolate the inside from the outside and preserve the contents within.

He hadn't noticed it before, but he realized it only after opening the box and finding this bottle of black liquid.

And wouldn't this perfectly complement his handkerchief fragments and those early-to-mid-level talismans that could temporarily seal the loss of spiritual power?

In this way, there is no need to wrap the entire box with a handkerchief; simply sealing the opening is sufficient.

The box contained a silk handkerchief with fragments of magical artifacts and some low- to mid-level spirit-sealing talismans. In this way, the items inside the box were not only sealed off from their aura, but also prevented from being detected by a cultivator's divine sense!

Considering that even Nangong Wan's spiritual sense couldn't bypass these boxes and unravel their mysteries, there's no reason why Old Ancestor Chen could do it so easily. Putting the boxes back into the storage bag would provide an extra layer of protection.

Suddenly, Wang Li felt a little tempted by something.

But he wasn't prepared to take the risk until he had tried it repeatedly with multiple Scent Beasts.

At least this time, there's no need for that.

But if he succeeds in his experiment at the Qilin Pavilion after he leaves, then next time, or the time after that, he will definitely plunder the second level of the Crimson Forbidden Land!

The next basin.

Upon entering the stone hall and walking through a winding corridor, Wang Li entered a spacious hall. Similar to the previous halls, it contained nothing but a passage leading directly underground.

However, the passageway in front of us was quite narrow, barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

Standing at the entrance of the passage, a humid and hot wind hits you, which is completely different from the cool and cold winds of the previous two times.

At first, he didn't take it seriously. He simply maintained the flying sword talisman while stepping on the Wind Chaser Sword, remaining vigilant as he quickly ventured deeper into the area.

But when he saw that the underground world was hundreds of meters high and several miles wide, with the ground as far as the eye could see covered with silt bubbling with black water, when he saw the surrounding black mounds of earth and dozens of strange flowers and plants of different colors opposite him, when he saw a small white jade pavilion in the middle of this underground swamp and a huge golden box floating in mid-air in the pavilion...

He ignored all the contempt and swiftly and quietly retrieved the flying sword talisman, then turned and ran without saying a word.

This is, without a doubt, Han Laomo's bridal chamber.

Only here are the treasure chests golden!

Not long after he left, centered on a certain spot in the swamp, the mud began to churn and churn, quickly forming a small, rounded mound. A short while later, a serpentine beast, its body entirely black and covered in enormous scales, emerged with a somewhat bewildered head and half its body protruding from its shell.

He looked toward the entrance to the passage, full of curiosity.

He sniffed the air, becoming even more confused.

Has anyone been here?

But where did it go?

After searching left and right without finding anything, it simply unleashed its full senses to examine the area, but still found nothing, as if the earlier fluctuation of spiritual energy was merely a coincidence. The black dragon didn't dwell on this and sank back into the swamp.

Now let's talk about Wang Li.

Behind a rock outside the stone hall, he frowned deeply: Monster evolution is generally slow, but to successfully molt and advance to level two under Nangong Wan's suppression undoubtedly meant it had accumulated enough experience. In other words, this thing was most likely already beginning its transformation, perhaps even on the verge of taking that step at any moment.

With the added advantage of their race, even a typical early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator might not be able to defeat a black dragon of this caliber.

"To be on the safe side, I'd better take the treasure chest without disturbing this big guy."

Wang Li thought to himself, "This is what I am thinking."

There is a barrier between the treasure chest and the white jade pavilion. To take the golden treasure chest away, you must first break the barrier.

However, it is obvious that whether it is swaggering in or the strong spiritual energy fluctuations when breaking the barrier, it will inevitably alarm the black dragon.

"Should we use a talisman to kill this bastard?"

It wasn't that he was afraid of the Ink Flood Dragon, nor was it for Han Li's sake. If Wang Li used all his means, he could kill it, but the risk would be considerable and the cost would be enormous. Furthermore, from a long-term perspective, this Ink Flood Dragon, which was in a bottleneck period, was extremely rare. If he killed it after it reached level two, the benefits he could gain would be ten times, or even dozens of times, greater than what he would gain now.

If a top-tier level one ink dragon is worth three to five ordinary top-tier level one demonic beasts, then a level two ink dragon is worth no less than ten ordinary level two demonic beasts!

The level two Ink Dragon's demon soul is extremely rare and has many uses. Nangong Wan was overjoyed to obtain this demon soul, which shows its value.

The elixir of the second-level Ink Dragon was extremely poisonous, and even Wang Chan, the young master of the Ghost Spirit Sect who was hard to beat in the Foundation Establishment stage, suffered a great loss because of it.

The Black Dragon Claw, crafted from claws, is impervious to the corruption of Yin Soul Silk and the Blood Spirit Technique, a top-tier demonic art. It can easily catch even minor ghosts, making it a truly rare treasure. With this treasure, one would have an extra trump card during a demonic invasion.

The Divine Wind Boat and the White Scale Shield, two top-tier magical artifacts, are also coveted treasures. The former boasts astonishing speed, while the latter offers remarkable defense.

However, the aforementioned characteristics do not represent the limits these magical artifacts should possess; because the Ink Dragon died too young and too ignominiously, becoming the spoils of war of Old Demon Han and his wife before it could solidify its cultivation realm. In particular, the single horn on its head, due to its short formation time, could only be forged into a one-time consumable item, a truly wasteful use of its potential.

Given some time, this black dragon could likely perfect its demonic body, thereby elevating the quality of any treasures crafted from it. It should have no difficulty in making them all rare and precious.

An eighth-level venomous dragon is comparable to a ninth-level demonic beast; a newly-entered second-level venomous dragon is equivalent to a human cultivator in the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.

The dragon-like species are truly blessed by nature.

Therefore, Wang Li did not intend to kill it now. He planned to nurture the black dragon and then deal with it next time he came in.

Of course, this is on the premise that you can open the golden treasure chest and get what he wants.

"Speaking of which, the Three Revolutions of the Azure Origin Sword Art and the Pure Maiden Reincarnation Technique of the Hidden Moon Sect, which have the effect of dispersing internal energy and thus concealing one's true realm, are simply tailor-made for the Blood Forbidden Trial!"

The former is significantly more practical than the latter.

The outer wind-based forbidden array only prevents cultivators and spirit beasts at the Foundation Establishment stage and above from entering the forbidden area, but it cannot prevent those at higher realms who have dispersed some of their power.

Furthermore, the Azure Origin Sword Technique aids in Core Formation and involves a process of dispersing internal energy, making it perfect for this situation. If combined with the Thousand Bamboo Sect's puppetry techniques and level two or three puppets, Wang Li has no idea how those newbies from the seven sects of Yue Kingdom will be able to compete with him.