Born with immortal seed

Chapter 294 An unexpected gain
Bai Zichen, himself possessing the aptitude of three spiritual roots, couldn't hide his envy for the cultivation speed of those with heavenly spiritual roots.

Given that Ge Cang Zhenren was the only one with a Heavenly Spiritual Root in the vicinity, people subconsciously equated his cultivation speed with that of all other Heavenly Spiritual Root cultivators.

In his mind, having a Heavenly Spiritual Root, it would be a waste not to develop it in the corresponding direction.

In the Central Region, where everyone tests their spiritual power and cultivators reproduce, the proportion of spiritual roots far surpasses that of the Four Regions. While Heavenly Spiritual Roots are rare, they are not exaggerated to the point where only one in a hundred million people appears every hundred years.

In places like the Great Li Kingdom, where the Heavenly Principle Sect is located, news would always come every ten years that a sect had been lucky enough to receive a disciple with a Heavenly Spiritual Root.

Most of these disciples with Heavenly Spiritual Roots can form a Core, but only one in ten can become a Nascent Soul True Monarch.

Therefore, in Yan Rulong's view, being able to comprehend thunder magic to the point of having yin and yang spirits and endless life is no less than being a Heavenly Spirit Root.

From a higher perspective, it is even more difficult to obtain than the Heavenly Spiritual Root aptitude.

Having already established a solid path to Nascent Soul, why would someone add unnecessary difficulty by pursuing a dual path of illusion and reality? In the Central Region, such an idea would be considered heretical and unacceptable.

"You're having a good time running away, then you can stay here!"

The six Core Formation cultivators of the Heavenly Principle Sect flew in a continuous beam, their speed comparable to that of a fourth-order flying sword, and disappeared without a trace in an instant.

Bai Zichen didn't think he could achieve anything by taking on six people by himself.

He glanced again at the Fairy of Compassion from the Hehuan Sect and the hooded, robed cultivator hiding his face, before fleeing in two different directions. With a flash of sword light, he chased after the cultivator from the Holy Lotus Sect.

They killed that Taoist Mu right away, and have already broken ties with the Holy Lotus Sect.

Killing one more or one less makes no difference; it will even reduce the number of Core Formation cultivators in the Holy Lotus Sect.

As for Fairy Lianyu, after this ordeal, she should immediately withdraw the Hehuan Sect from Hejian County upon returning, and from then on dare not contend with the Qingfeng Sect.

If they harbor any further inappropriate thoughts, destroying the Hehuan Sect wouldn't be difficult.

With the speed of the Moon Whirl Sword, they quickly caught up with the Core Formation True Person of the Holy Lotus Sect.

With just a few sword strikes, he suppressed him to a disadvantageous position.

The moonlight sword threads were icy cold, moving as swiftly as a dragon, giving the opponent no chance to breathe.

The hood was knocked off, and the expressionless Core Formation cultivator unleashed several magical treasures, all of which were broken by the moonlight that had been refined into threads of sword.

Soon he ran out of treasures to use, parrying left and right, blood splattering all over his body.

The tiny sword wound pierced right through his body, leaving half of his body covered in blood.

The Core Formation cultivator, with a blank expression, remained silent, his lips twitching, a resolute look flashing across his face.

A terrifying aura rose from his body, climbing rapidly like a red sun about to burst forth.

"Golden Core self-destructs!"

Bai Zichen's eyes twitched. He hadn't expected this nameless, taciturn cultivator to be so decisive and ruthless towards himself.

Those who can cultivate to the Core Formation stage have all gone through countless hardships and trials.

The phrase "self-destructing the Golden Core" sounds simple, but very few Golden Core cultivators can actually do it.

Even ants cherish their lives, let alone a True Immortal who lives for five hundred years.

Even if they know for certain that they are in a deadly situation with no chance of survival, most Core Formation cultivators will still cling to illusions.

They always thought they should give it another shot, and refused to give up hope of survival until the very last moment.

If you detonate your golden core, you'll be the first one to die.

Whether he can drag his enemy down with him to the afterlife is uncertain, but he himself will be completely annihilated, from his physical body to his consciousness.

To even bury that elusive thought of reincarnation after death is something not every cultivator can do.

Seeing that victory was hopeless and that his escape speed could not possibly exceed that of a fourth-tier flying sword, he directly self-destructed his golden core.

This decisiveness stunned Bai Zichen; he had never seen a Core Formation cultivator like this before.

"Duh!"

Driven by the original power of the Moonlit Sword, several thin beams of moonlight pierced the man's body, turning his dantian (energy center) into a honeycomb.

Like a deflated balloon, the true essence rapidly dissipated, and the already unstable, expanding and cracking golden elixir lacked the subsequent infusion of true essence.

After the expansion and contraction, the Core Formation cultivator was blasted to pieces.

The sword light formed a circle, blocking the filthy blood and bits of flesh.

As the dust settled, a pit several feet deep appeared where the Saint Lotus Sect Core Formation cultivator had stood.

Fortunately, the Golden Core self-destruction failed to complete, and it was estimated to have only a fraction of its power, so it did not cause much of an impact.

"It seems we'd better find a magical artifact to immobilize and trap people in the future, otherwise it's too dangerous to have our golden cores self-destruct all the time..."

Bai Zichen thought of the purple gourd in the sect's secret hall, whose earth-based divine sand had the effect of shaking the earth's veins and preventing the golden core from exploding.

However, the Earthly Divine Sand is not easy to refine, and every grain used is one less available. It would be best to have a magic weapon with a similar effect.

Ordinary sects are one thing, but when it comes to facing the Holy Lotus Sect in the future, this sect has quite a few Core Formation cultivators.

If there were two more Core Formation cultivators like him today, so fearless of death and decisive in their actions, even he would be in great danger.

"Fortunately, the storage bag wasn't damaged, thank goodness..."

After Mu Daoren died, his belongings were also taken by this dull and unassuming Core Formation cultivator. At this moment, both lotus-shaped storage bags were picked back by the sword light.

In addition, there were broken magical artifacts scattered in various places, and Bai Zichen found them all without missing a single one.

"Although I don't need it, it can be melted down and reforged into a magic weapon to hone my weapon-making skills, or bestowed upon future generations."

Bai Zichen didn't have time to carefully examine the spoils before flying back to Xiaoluo Mountain.

"Senior Brother Ge, are you injured?"

As the sword light fell, Bai Zichen saw Ge Cang Zhenren sitting cross-legged on the ground, his face pale, with a pile of white bones like a small mountain beside him.

On the entire Xiaoluo Mountain, there was not a single living person left. The remaining Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators all had a wooden nail in their foreheads, piercing straight through the back of their heads.

"Don't worry, I can only maintain my Divine Wood state for ten breaths at the moment, but with the Five Crystal Glazed Body, I can be harmed by a Core Formation True Person within that time, except for fourth-tier items..."

Ge Cang Zhenren's aura was weak, dropping to the level of only the early stage of Core Formation.

Clearly, their previous display of great power did not come without a price.

He tossed a bone longsword with a smile and said, “Besides the Moon Spin Sword, you don’t even have a third-tier flying sword. I just happened to take it from the White Bone Immortal. Try it and see if it suits your hand… Although it is a demonic flying sword, I can tell that it is made using orthodox methods. It is not the kind of thing that is made by sacrificing people with blood and is considered immoral.”

"It is the White Bone Cold Light Sword, forged from the spine of a fourth-tier great demon, and sealed with a bit of that demon's resentment, which can bewitch people's minds... However, it can only be effective against late-stage Core Formation cultivators at most, and is not very useful against truly powerful individuals."

The bone longsword landed in his hand, and Bai Zichen could tell at a glance that it was the White Bone Cold Light Sword that he had bought at the Pill King Gathering, a third-tier sword-forging secret technique.

"Thank you, Senior Brother Ge. This sword is just what I need."

To my utter surprise, my first third-tier flying sword wasn't the Thunder Sound Sword or the Azure Dragon Overturning the Sea Sword, but rather this White Bone Cold Light Sword that I never even thought I'd be able to forge.

"Before White Bone died, I used the Soul Searching Technique to search his sea of ​​consciousness and obtained some useful information... He refined the White Bone True Demon Body and felt that he had the ability to contend with me. He originally thought of contacting the Five Sects of the Demonic Path and becoming a person of the same status as the Blood God True Man of that day."

Master Ge Cang had witnessed his junior brother's swordsmanship and knew that Bai Zichen could deal with early-stage Core Formation cultivators more easily than he could, which was due to their different fighting styles and cultivation paths.

There's no need to ask any further questions; that lone Core Formation cultivator from the Holy Lotus Sect is definitely dead.

"However, before I could take any action, I was invited by True Monarch Nine Lotus to Mount Qi, where I met that group of mysterious cultivators... Just as I had guessed, those six people came from the Heavenly Principle Sect of the Great Li Kingdom in the Central Region."

"Tianli Sect?"

Bai Zichen murmured to himself, never expecting it to be this sect, which had such a deep connection with him.

The Nine Yang Divine Fire Mirror lying in the Dantian Qi Sea, as well as the True Explanation of Sword Dao of Taibai Sword Sect, are both related to the cultivators of Tianli Sect.

"The Heavenly Principle Sect is a Confucian and Taoist sect. I heard about it when I was traveling around the world. It is considered a second-tier sect in the Great Li Dynasty... I didn't expect that it had a past connection with the Holy Lotus Sect and even set its sights on our sect's Black Mountain Range."

Master Ge Cang assumed Bai Zichen had never heard of this sect, so he offered an additional explanation.

"It seems that something has happened to the Heavenly Principle Sect in the Central Region, otherwise why would they look down on Black Mountain... True Monarch Nine Lotus's intention is very clear: he wants to use the Heavenly Principle Sect to eliminate us and cut off the future hidden dangers of the Holy Lotus Sect."

Master Ge Cang sighed. Back then, True Monarch Jiulian had greatly admired him and sincerely invited him to join the Holy Lotus Sect, offering all the conditions for Nascent Soul Transformation.

Unexpectedly, decades later, the two sides have become enemies.

"The Heavenly Principle Sect returned empty-handed this time. The White Bone True Man is dead, and the Holy Lotus Sect itself has lost two Core Formation True Man... Will the Nine Lotus True Monarch personally intervene and unleash swift and decisive measures against our sect next?"

Bai Zichen's only worry was facing the Nascent Soul True Monarch directly.

Otherwise, no matter how powerful the Holy Lotus Sect is, it would be impossible for them to gain an advantage over the Azure Maple Sect at the Core Formation level.

"It shouldn't be in the short term. Back then, in order to break through to the early stage of the Nascent Soul realm, True Monarch Nine Lotus combined himself with a top-grade fourth-tier snow lotus from the summit of Qishan Mountain... hoping to use the pure innate spiritual power of the ten-thousand-year-old snow lotus to rejuvenate his body and break through the bottleneck."

Master Ge Cang relaxed his brows, remaining serious but not flustered.

"As a result of his failure, his lifespan continues to decline every time he leaves the Snow Lotus, so he has only left Qishan a handful of times in the past few centuries... With the Valley of Ten Thousand Poisons watching him like a hawk, True Monarch Nine Lotus would not dare to act in this way. He would probably still prioritize provoking the Heavenly Principle Sect. Only if he has not eradicated our sect by the time he reaches the end of his life will he use his last bit of time to kill us all to eliminate any future troubles."

"That's a little better, but the Heavenly Principle Sect is also a major sect with a Nascent Soul True Monarch in charge... I don't know what their attitude is towards Black Mountain. If they really can't do without it, we'll still have a lot of trouble ahead."

Bai Zichen breathed a slight sigh of relief. As long as he didn't immediately face a Nascent Soul True Monarch, there was always room for maneuver.

The two fellow disciples sat on the ground, discussing their next move. Meanwhile, the corpses of the Ghost Spirit Sect cultivators on Xiaoluo Mountain had attracted flocks of crows.

It hovered overhead, croaking incoherently.

As the sun began to set, Wei Dao, having received the news, finally appeared with disciples of the Qingfeng Sect, and a large number of cultivators disembarked from the three Wind Chasms.

The disciples cleaned up the battlefield on Xiaoluo Mountain and collected the belongings of the Ghost Spirit Sect disciples, while several deacons followed behind to register them.

(End of this chapter)