Born with immortal seed

Chapter 551 The Nascent Soul Nourished by Heart's Blood

“Very well… Qingfeng disciple will not arrive for several days, so I will trouble fellow Daoist Tianli Sect to make the trip.”

Bai Zichen seemed oblivious to Shi Chengdong's worries, and gestured to Hong Xuan, who stood respectfully to the left.

“This Fellow Daoist Hong has suddenly come to his senses and is willing to sever ties with the Holy Lotus Sect. You may accompany him to take inventory of the sect’s assets.”

"The virtuous character of Lord Bai is so noble that I am ashamed to admit my inferiority."

Seeing that Bai Zichen showed no intention of backing down or making excuses, Shi Chengdong quickly flattered him.

Given the strength he has demonstrated, if he really wanted to shirk his responsibility, the Heavenly Principle Sect would indeed have no good way to deal with him.

Even if his two Nascent Soul True Monarchs joined forces, they were no match for him, not to mention that the Heavenly Principle Sect did not have the courage to break off relations.

The lineage of Dao is concentrated in the two of them. If something unexpected happens, even their newly acquired fourth-order spiritual veins will be unstable.

"This junior will certainly do my best."

Sensing the gaze from the True Lord of the Heavenly Principle Sect, Hong Xuan hurriedly responded.

But he found it strange that he had already compiled and registered the Holy Lotus Sect's assets and sent them over. If he could just delay for a few days, he could easily transfer most of them away.

I wonder what Bai Zhenjun is planning. I'll try to find out his intentions privately later before taking any action.

Although they were both Nascent Soul True Monarchs, Hong Xuan could still tell which one had the bigger leg.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the Heavenly Principle Sect's efforts were futile in front of Qu Yang; they merely tormented the morale of the Holy Lotus Sect disciples and wasted a batch of spirit stones.

Bai Zichen killed Qu Yang on his first attempt.

The difference here is obvious even to a Core Formation cultivator.

Given Hong Xuan's relationship with the Qingfeng Sect, choosing which side to side with is a no-brainer.

"The remaining forces of the Holy Lotus Sect in Qishan are now in your hands... Those who are willing to abandon darkness and embrace the light will have their cultivation suppressed and be placed under the supervision of Fellow Daoist Hong. Those who continue to resist stubbornly and refuse to change their ways will be executed on the spot."

With Hong Xuan already surrendering, the importance of the remaining Holy Lotus Sect disciples has been greatly reduced; keeping too many would be a destabilizing factor.

Bai Zichen's focus was still on the secret realm of the herb garden. After a pause, he asked Hong Xuan, "Is there a way to open the secret realm, so that the elder in charge won't go crazy and destroy the spiritual herbs and pollute the spiritual fields?"

"Rest assured, True Lord, you can enter and exit with my Elder's Token. No one except the Sect Leader can seal off the secret realm."

Hong Xuan led the group to a spot, raised the jade tablet, cast several complex spells, and spat out a mouthful of true essence onto it, causing a six-sided ray of light to pierce the air.

A few breaths later, with a ripple, the Gate of Life appeared in the void.

As the group stepped inside, they discovered that the cultivators in the herb garden secret realm were all like headless flies, running around aimlessly.

Black smoke rose from several places, and there were faint sounds of spells being cast and cultivators shouting and cursing.

Bai Zichen's face was ashen; he had long considered the secret realm of the herb garden as his own, and he could not allow it to be lost.

With his divine sense expanded to its limit, he could see that the secret realm was not vast and that it was basically all reflected in his mind.

With a flick of his sleeve, several sword lights swayed and flew out, each heading in a different direction.

"Are there five medicinal herb gardens here?"

"There are five and a half. In the far west corner, there is a medicinal garden. Three hundred and fifty years ago, a part of the secret realm collapsed, and half of the medicinal garden disappeared into the void, resulting in the loss of more than ten disciples."

Hong Xuan was stunned for a moment before realizing what was happening and quickly tried to make amends.

“When the Nine Lotus Ancestor was alive, he had someone examine it. The secret realm could exist for at least another 1,500 years before it came to an end… True Lord, I still have a few trusted confidants here serving as stewards. Otherwise, I would have mobilized them to stabilize the situation.”

"Go, I don't want to see any of the medicinal herbs destroyed."

The five sword lights, in their respective order, returned to Bai Zichen's sleeve and went back into the Supreme Pure Micro Sword Box to recuperate.

"Gentlemen, would you be interested in seeing the scene of the collapsed secret realm connecting with the void? Standing beyond the range of divine sense, you cannot see that half of the medicine garden."

"Very well, I've never seen a secret realm like this before."

The Heavenly Principles Sect owns half of the spiritual herbs in the Herb Garden Secret Realm. This is a one-time transaction, so Shi Chengdong won't be too concerned about the secret realm.

Whether it will affect the subsequent cultivation of medicinal herbs is irrelevant to them.

Hong Xuan watched the three True Monarchs walk away, stomped his foot angrily, and rushed towards the nearest medicinal garden.

"Damn it, I clearly told them a few days ago not to panic if something unexpected happened. As long as the elixir is preserved, we will definitely find a way to save them. They can't even do this simple thing!"

Of the ten stewards in the secret realm, Hong Xuan can influence and command four of them. Among the stewards at the next lower level, there are many more who have received favors from him and his master.

We don't need to seek a proactive rebellion; as long as we maintain stability and prevent chaos in the Herb Garden Secret Realm, it's not difficult to achieve.

The thought of his image of being courageous, capable, and competent, which he had built up in front of Bai Zhenjun, being ruined made him so angry that the tumor on his head swelled up even more and bubbles appeared at the corners of his mouth.

"What happened? Where is Sun Er? How did things get like this?"

Hong Xuan arrived at the first herb garden. Several cultivators lay at the entrance, their bodies severed from their heads, which had rolled far away.

The other cultivators dodged and weaved, while two flames were burning fiercely, and a black ginseng with five leaves was being consumed by the flames.

Enraged, Hong Xuan threw out a purple bowl to cover the flames, preventing them from spreading further.

"Elder Hong, Elder Jin visited the herb garden and ordered us to harvest all the spiritual herbs and then irrigate the spiritual fields with mercury and silver, leaving no inch of soil untouched. Deacon Ding refused and confronted the cultivators who were carrying out Elder Jin's orders."

One of the disciples of the Holy Lotus Seed mustered up his courage and replied, explaining the whole story.

"How did Ding Er and the others die?"

Hong Xuan was terrified. Elder Jin was Qu Yang's confidant and was in charge of managing the herb garden secret realm.

Unexpectedly, this person was so ruthless and decisive. As soon as the situation turned against him, he wanted to destroy the herb garden. He probably had been instructed by Qu Yang beforehand.

Fortunately, this order defied common sense. People agreed on the surface, but after Elder Jin left, apart from a few direct subordinates, no one actually carried it out.

"Just now, a sword suddenly came from the sky. In the blink of an eye, Steward Ding and the other cultivators who were fighting all had their heads cut off by the sword light."

"Be on your guard! If anyone endangers the herb garden again, you will be held accountable!"

Hong Xuan retrieved the Purple Bowl magic weapon; the ball of flame had been captured, but the Five-Leaf Ginseng had also turned to ashes.

After visiting five medicinal herb gardens in a row, the situations were all similar: they had all received orders from Elder Jin to destroy the herbs and damage the fields.

The movements varied in speed, but at the same moment, a sword descended from the sky, slaying all the cultivators engaged in combat.

Among them were Elder Jin's die-hard loyalists and deacons who obeyed Hong Xuan's orders.

Under the flash of the sword, friend and foe alike were instantly killed.

Hong Xuan was horrified. He had never heard of such a sword technique before. The swordsman could travel a hundred miles away while remaining in one place, and he was simultaneously dealing with cultivators in five different locations.

If it were only this, he wouldn't be in any serious trouble; it's normal for a Nascent Soul sword cultivator to have unique methods.

Bai Zichen acted swiftly and decisively, showing no regard for the cultivators in the medicine garden. If they posed any threat, there was only one word: death.

"True Lord Bai may seem gentle, but someone who has cultivated to the Nascent Soul stage is no soft-hearted person... We must still serve him carefully in the future, and never become lax just because we feel that Master and True Lord Ge Cang have a past relationship."

Hong Xuan instructed his disciples to bury the body. Upon learning that Elder Jin had gone to the western half of the herb garden, he sneered.

Even on his deathbed, he still regarded Qu Yang's words as the ultimate truth.

After thinking for a moment, he summoned a lotus-shaped magic weapon and sped off to the west.

……

The herb garden is a secret realm, only a few hundred miles apart.

The Nascent Soul True Monarch flew away and arrived at the half of the medicine garden in no time.

'Just now I could only sense three medicinal gardens, one of which only appeared in my probing divine sense after traveling nearly fifty miles... I didn't expect that he was even a level above the other True Monarchs in terms of divine sense.'

Whether it's the elders of the sect saying it or the descriptions in the ancient books, the Vast and Sacred Body is one of the top talents on this cultivation continent.

A sacred body is far rarer than a heavenly spiritual root.

Le Zheng possessed the Haoran Holy Body and happened to be accepted as a disciple by the Tianli Sect, whose cultivation methods were comparable to his. For a long time, he truly regarded himself as the chosen one of destiny and the darling of Heaven.

His performance throughout the process has lived up to everyone's expectations.

This is because the righteous energy must be saved for last; otherwise, the Nascent Soul Transformation Tribulation could have been achieved decades earlier.

But every time he encounters Bai Zichen, Le Zheng wonders who the true possessor of the Holy Body really is.

When he first arrived in Liang, he and Yan Rulong were the vanguard preparing to take over Heishan, but they were repelled by Bai Zichen and Ge Cang.

Later, the incident of Bai Zichen reversing the order and killing the Nine Lotus True Monarch occurred.

At that time, Yan Rulong comforted him, saying that the Heaven-Defying Sword Technique could only be used as a means of protection and did not necessarily mean that he could transform into a Nascent Soul.

The path to immortality is not about who is the strongest at any given time, but about who goes the furthest on the road to eternal life.

But Bai Zichen's cultivation speed was faster than his Vast Sacred Body. Breaking through realms and undergoing tribulations was commonplace for him, and he could overcome them with ease.

After a century apart, his cultivation level has even caught up with that of his senior brother, the sect leader.

"The power of the void is truly wondrous; it can even form such a landscape."

Half of the medicinal herb garden in front of Shi Chengdong suddenly disappeared, as if he had crashed into the void.

"This spiritual plant is strange; it has an indescribable peculiarity..."

Half of the medicinal herb garden was still empty, with only a single Ganoderma lucidum covered in blood-red veins growing in the center.

In terms of shape, it is a golden crown lingzhi that is thousands of years old.

Perhaps it would be more appropriate to call it Blood Crown Lingzhi.

"I killed the eight disciples guarding the herb garden and used the irreversible fusion of spiritual plants to successfully become one with the Golden Crown Ganoderma. As long as you can feed me the heart blood of one hundred cultivators every day, and it must be fresh and vigorous, I can advance to the Blood Crown Heavenly Ganoderma in less than sixty years."

This Blood Crown Ganoderma suddenly spoke, and its speech was fluent, indicating that it had its own consciousness.

"Break off a piece, soak it in water, and drink it; the effect will be no less than that of the Nascent Soul Elixir!"

"Are you the elder of the herb garden?"

Bai Zichen frowned. When did the Holy Lotus Sect become so obsessed with the secret technique of fusing spiritual plants, researching it endlessly?

Next to the Blood Crown Ganoderma lucidum, there was a pile of clothes and several pieces of bone and flesh, which were still melting and seeping into the Ganoderma lucidum.

This secret technique is different from the fusion of Nine Lotus True Monarch and Qu Yang with Snow Lotus. It completely abandons the human form and becomes part of the spiritual plant.

However, the Golden Crown Lingzhi is not a high-grade spiritual herb and is not sufficient to contain the soul of a cultivator.

In a few days, this person will vanish without a trace.

Paying such a high price, and then changing the Golden Crown Ganoderma to the so-called Blood Crown Heavenly Ganoderma, shows their grand ambitions.

"That's right, hurry up and refine me into the realm... Once I become the Blood Crown Heavenly Herb, I can move on my own and choose a suitable spiritual field. If I run away and burrow underground, it won't be so easy to find me."

The Ganoderma lucidum continued to speak, its voice high-pitched and each sentence full of allure.

"You haven't heard of the Blood Crown Heavenly Herb, have you? It's the most top-grade spiritual herb that can grow on the Yin Sha Battlefield. As long as no more than a third of it is used, it can grow back after sixty years. Refining me is equivalent to having one Nascent Soul Pill every sixty years."

"It seems I've actually seen this kind of elixir in ancient books. It came from the Heavenly Demon Realm, but it's not suitable for growing in the human world, so it quickly disappeared."

Shi Chengdong's heart pounded, and he secretly made calculations.

"A hundred people a day, that's the blood and sweat of 36,500 cultivators a year, and over two million people in a sixty-year cycle... That number is simply outrageous. Even if the Liang Kingdom were to be slaughtered to the point of overflowing rivers of blood, it still wouldn't be that many. Reducing it by 90% would be more reasonable."

The formula for the Nascent Soul Pill is not rare; many Nascent Soul sects have it in their possession, including the Heavenly Principle Sect.

The main problem is that the materials for alchemy are hard to come by. There are dozens of kinds of spiritual herbs that are over a thousand years old, and even with a secret herb garden, they don't have enough time to grow.

Only a few sects with their own herb gardens joined forces and agreed on the spiritual herbs they would cultivate, refining pills once every so often.

The most realistic approach is to distribute the Nascent Soul Pills according to the amount of effort put into them after they are completed.

Even among the super sects in the Central Region, apart from the holy sons and daughters, it is very difficult for other true disciples to enjoy the benefits of the Nascent Soul Pill.

The conditions for the formation of the Blood Crown Ganoderma are indeed harsh, and it is against the natural order, but Shi Chengdong knows that it still has great value.

They secretly became more vigilant, gave Yue Zheng a look, and the two of them took a step back.

As agreed, the herb garden secret realm belongs to the Qingfeng Sect, and all immature spiritual herbs will be left behind as long as they are compensated with spirit stones.

This Blood Crown Heavenly Herb comes from the Demon Realm, which is somewhat sensitive in the cultivation world. Bai Zichen probably doesn't want this matter to be leaked.

If you were in Shi Chengdong's shoes, you would also have a headache about how to deal with the people in the know present.

He had already grasped the Bagua diagram in his palm, and he was determined that if Bai Zichen really wanted to make a move, he would risk self-destruction to protect Le Zheng and help him escape.

"Crack!"

Bai Zichen's expression changed drastically, and a burst of lightning dragon sword light erupted from his hand, blasting the still chattering Blood Crown Ganoderma to pieces.

"Sacrificing a million lives for a single Nascent Soul Spirit... The orthodox Qingfeng Sect would never stoop to such a thing!"

The lightning bolts surged back and forth, blasting the Blood Crown Ganoderma until not even a speck of dust remained, turning its roots and stems to ash before finally stopping.

The first rule of the Qingfeng Sect is that any disciple who falls into the demonic path will be expelled from the sect and never be accepted again!

Moreover, this is a product of the Heavenly Demon Realm, which takes the blood and sweat of millions of cultivators to take shape. Bai Zichen felt uncomfortable the moment he heard this.

The Qingfeng Sect doesn't need such Nascent Soul Transformation Spiritual Objects. With him and Senior Brother Ge Cang around, there's no worry about not having Nascent Soul Transformation Pills if any disciples attempt to break through to the Nascent Soul stage in the future.

Moreover, the blood-red ginseng produced in this way will surely cause endless troubles in the future.

The fact that this Core Formation cultivator from the Holy Lotus Sect was able to set up a scheme with his own body was all because he wanted to lure him into the trap with the irresistible temptation of the Nascent Soul Spirit Object.

As long as the Blood Crown Spirit Plant is preserved, the plan will be considered a success.

But even in death, he never expected that Bai Zichen would not hesitate at all in the face of such temptation and would destroy the Blood Crown Ganoderma from the root.

(End of this chapter)