There is a progress bar in my cultivation of immortality

By the time of the meeting agreed upon with Quan Xing, Wang Ping had already adjusted his state of mind. The reason he imprisoned Tian Gong in front of everyone was to explore the thoughts of the True Lords and to see if the Dragon Lord would appear to stop him.

As it turned out, Long Jun didn't have that much free time, but that didn't put Wang Ping at ease. Now that he had already overturned the table, he had to make his voice heard at the meeting and be prepared for internal strife within the Xuanmen if necessary.

When Wang Ping appeared at the impromptu gathering, Zhi Xin and Quan Xing had been waiting for a long time. Upon seeing Wang Ping, they immediately stood up and bowed, saying, "Greetings, True Lord Changqing."

The two men were very respectful, like juniors bowing to their elders.

Wang Ping sat back down in his seat and waved to the two of them, saying, "No need to be so polite."

The two silently returned to their seats.

Wang Ping didn't waste words with them and looked at Zhi Xin, asking, "I heard from Fellow Daoist Quan Xing that you left the rebel army?"

Zhi Xin quickly cupped his hands in response, "That's right. Speaking of this matter, I must thank True Lord Changqing." He then stood up and bowed to Wang Ping. Under Wang Ping's questioning gaze, he quickly explained, "As early as four hundred years ago, we were placed under house arrest by Wei and Qian in an ecological zone. They demanded that we switch to the demonic path. Some people couldn't resist the temptation and switched, but we have always been unwilling to give up our humanity."

Upon hearing this, Wang Ping interrupted, "Does switching to the demonic path mean abandoning humanity?"

Zhi Xin responded, "This is just a way of putting it. The demonic path is contrary to the Taoist philosophy that I have been studying, which is why we all call it 'demonic'."

Quan Xing then said with a smile, "Whether it is the Demon Sect, the Xuanmen Sect, or the Tianmen Sect, they all belong to the Taoist thought. It's just that the three sects always like to go to an extreme and can't properly balance each other."

Wang Ping nodded in agreement. He glanced at Quan Xing and then looked at Zhi Xin, waiting for his further explanation.

Zhi Xin quickly continued, "Wei Ling comes every ten years to persuade us to switch to the demonic path. I have fewer and fewer fellow Daoists around me. I thought that one day I would also switch to the demonic path like those fellow Daoists. I have been hoping that the True Lords would once again come to the border. Fortunately, this time is not too late. When the True Lords were fighting against Wei Ling and the others, we broke free from the ecological zone's confinement array and contacted Fellow Daoist Quan Xing as soon as we came out."

Hearing this, Wang Ping raised an eyebrow and asked, "Then who contacted us before?"

Zhi Xin said with a look of shame, "They were the ones in disguise. They read my consciousness and memories and created a puppet to maintain the ecological zone I was managing on the border."

Kwon Seong added, "I have already cut off the signal of that communication token."

Wang Ping chuckled. He had underestimated Wei Ling and Qian Xi's methods, and overestimated Zhi Xin and the others' abilities, making him look like a clown as he kept sending puppets to the rebels.

"Do the True Lords of the Demon Clan have much contact with the rebels?" Wang Ping asked.

“Not many, especially after the arrival of extraterrestrial consciousness, the demon race rarely contacted the rebels again after receiving the news.” Zhi Xin answered quickly, but her tone seemed to hold back.

"Are the other True Lords in contact with the rebels?"

"To my knowledge, no."

"What else do you know?"

"My Lord, please forgive me. Within our Star God Alliance, each region originally handled its own affairs, and there was little interference between the regions. Before Wei Ling and Qian Xi rebelled, I had at most conducted some precious metal transactions with True Lord Zhu Wu. I truly do not know anything about the others. I am sure that you, True Lord, have already seen through everything I know."

Zhi Xin's expression was extremely humble.

Wang Ping stared at Zhi Xin, trying to soften his tone as much as possible, and asked, "Why don't you tell me?"

"Yes…"

Zhi Xin began to recount everything he knew. As he said, the information he possessed consisted of events that occurred hundreds of years ago, and was of little use in the current situation.

However, Wang Ping listened patiently until the end, and finally said, "I will inform Zang Yi about this matter. After you have met Zang Yi and obtained your new identities, remember to come and find me near Taiyin Star."

After he finished speaking, he cut off the projection signal. Wang Ping would definitely welcome Zhi Xin and the others to join him. After all, he had now fallen out with the other True Monarchs and was in dire need of people who could be entrusted with important tasks. However, Wang Ping was not at ease with these people. The best way to determine whether they had any problems was to use his 'Heavenly Eye' to examine them.

After Wang Ping left, Quan Xing and Zhi Xin exchanged a glance and also exited the projection space. As their gaze shifted, the two of them appeared in a hall that was sometimes dark and sometimes bright. The hall was surrounded by open windows, and the floor and ceiling were covered with magic runes that shimmered with colorful light. The black and white light outside the windows was too distinct.

This is one of the eight bronze towers that besiege the world of demonic energy, and this is the core of the magic array at the top of the tower, the area guarded by Quan Xing. The fact that he brought Zhi Xin here shows that he trusts Zhi Xin a lot.

“Changqing Zhenjun is completely different from before. He is so aggressive now that I dare not look him in the eye!” Zhixin said with a sigh.

“Isn’t that true? I really can’t imagine that he was a fourth-realm cultivator more than a thousand years ago.” Quan Xing shook his head.

"His struggle with Earth Script and Heaven Craft may not change much in the short term, but as time goes by, the pattern of this starry sky will be completely overturned." Zhi Xin looked at the distinct black and white light outside the window, "I don't know if this is a blessing or a curse."

"We can't escape either fortune or misfortune. Even now, I have to come out and fight against beings from beyond the realm." Quan Xing's tone carried a sense of helplessness. "The most important thing is to choose the right path."

“I have no choice!” Zhi Xin sighed. “Now I can only return to the Star God Alliance, but the Star God Alliance is already tied to Changqing Zhenjun.”

He lowered his voice and asked Quan Xing, "The demon race's cultivation has always been about accumulating strength before unleashing it. Now that you have accumulated over ten thousand years of bloodline power, shouldn't it be time for you to take another step forward?"

Quan Xing's eyes flickered upon hearing this, clearly very tempted, but then he shook his head and said, "The True Lords control everything in this starry sky. Unless I leave like Yuan Wu, they will not give me the opportunity to advance."

"Why not try Changqing Zhenjun's connections?" Zhixin asked.

Quan Xing was immediately tempted, but then shook his head and said, "If I do that, the demon race will be torn apart and become fish on someone else's chopping board. Moreover, I am not the only one at the critical point of advancement. The other fellow Daoists should be in the same situation. True Monarch Changqing will not allow the demon race to grow too powerful."

Zhi Xin said, "Since it's stagnant water anyway, why not give it a try?"

Quan Xing did not respond further. After a few moments of silence, he turned his gaze towards the direction of the Moon Star and said to Zhi Xin, "True Lord Changqing is still waiting for you. You should go and find Fellow Daoist Zang Yi first."

Outside the chaotic storm surrounding the Taiyin star.

After exiting the projection space within the Wood Spirit World, Wang Ping immediately contacted Zang Yi to explain the situation regarding Zhi Xin and the others, and then entered into meditation.

I don't know how much time has passed.

Xuanqing's primordial spirit suddenly descended into the Wood Spirit World, waking Wang Ping from his meditative state.

"I've discovered traces of the Demonic Source!" Xuan Qing didn't waste any words. After sensing the aura that Wang Ping had deliberately released, he explained the situation to him telepathically.

Wang Ping immediately became interested. He first calculated that the time he had been in meditation was three days, which made him even more curious about why Xuan Qing was able to find the source of the demon in such a short time.

Then, he appeared beside Xuan Qing in a flash and asked directly, "Where are you?"

Xuanqing explained, “When I used the Golden Core rules to refine the Chaotic Storm, I sensed a peculiar energy. It was very special within the Chaotic Storm, similar to the polluted Five Elements Yin-Yang energy, yet fundamentally different. It was extremely similar to the characteristics of the Demon Source in my somewhat unclear memory.”

Upon hearing this, Wang Ping exchanged a glance with Xuan Qing. "Do you have a memory of what the Demon Source looks like?"

Xuan Qing shook his head. "I can't say it exists, I can only say I'm familiar with it. I can't describe its state, but I know that if I see it, I will know whether it is the real source of the demon."

Wang Ping nodded, understanding what Xuan Qing meant, and suppressed his curiosity about the inheritance of the Heavenly Gate True Monarch's memories, asking, "What do you need me to do?"

"Stabilize my mind; I need to search for whether it truly exists."

"it is good!"

When Wang Ping answered, he looked in the direction of Bai Yan Zhenjun, and then he heard Xuan Qingyan say, "You don't need to worry about him. He probably won't be interested in the Demon Source. Come with me."

After he finished speaking, he transformed into a beam of colorful light and flew towards the Golden Core World he had created.

Wang Ping didn't rush to follow. Instead, he first cast a teleportation talisman on his Wood Spirit World to ensure that he would be safe before catching up.

Thousands of miles away, Wang Ping sensed the power of the Xuanqing Golden Elixir World, which was breaking down the polluted energy inside the chaotic storm.

The chaotic storm zone defined by Xuan Qing was far more violent and chaotic than the outer area. The turbid five elements energy, the distorted yin and yang power, and even the wisps of extraterrestrial evil energy were like boiling oil churning and colliding, enough to instantly annihilate the primordial spirit of ordinary fourth-realm cultivators.

At the heart of this area is the Jade Purity Sect's magic array constructed by Xuanqing. His Golden Core world is connected to this array, creating a phantom, seemingly nonexistent alternate dimension separate from this world.

This space is like a core singularity woven from countless chains of fundamental rules, some as minute as the extreme and others as complex as the extreme. This singularity radiates a warm and vast colored light. The light does not spread outward, but rather collapses and condenses inward, forming a stable and self-consistent miniature universe.

At this moment, this microcosm is slowly operating in a transcendent manner, radiating outwards countless fine, hair-like rays of seven-colored light that contain the power of the five elements and yin and yang.

These seven-colored rays, like the most precise probes and the most powerful decomposers, accurately pierced into the surrounding raging chaotic energy, and wherever the seven-colored rays reached, the boiling, turbid energy was as if smoothed out by the invisible hand of rules.

The tangled five elements of evil energy and the distorted and mutated yin and yang power were forcibly stripped away and separated under the illumination of the seven-colored light. The filthy crimson fire evil, the viscous black water evil, and the withered dark green wood poison quickly revealed their original outlines, like pieces of a disassembled jigsaw puzzle.

The polluted essence that was stripped away was then refined by the Golden Core Universe. The purified original particles of the Five Elements Yin and Yang were not devoured by the Golden Core Universe, but were guided like a trickle into a magic array formed on the outer edge of the Golden Core Universe, where they were collected by a large number of empty crystals.

Refining is not the ultimate goal; it is a means to search for the source of the demon. Xuanqing's entire mind was focused on the core of the golden core, manipulating billions of rays of light to capture every subtle fluctuation of energy in this purified chaotic sea, and analyzing every abnormality in its composition.

Whenever the analysis detects an anomalous energy cluster that is difficult to explain perfectly by existing rules and carries a slight distortion, the light will instantly focus, conducting a deeper analysis, probing, and peeling away of it, attempting to penetrate its disguise and confirm whether it is the source of the demon they are looking for.

"Next, my consciousness will delve deeper into it. Fellow Daoist, please define my state as soon as possible!"

Xuanqing's voice interrupted Wang Ping's observation.

Wang Ping immediately used the 'Heaven-Stealing Talisman' to locate Xuan Qing's consciousness through the connection of the Five Elements and Yin-Yang rules, and then used the 'Heaven-Stealing Talisman' to define his consciousness to the most perfect state.

With the blessing of Wang Ping's 'Stealing the Heavenly Palace', Xuan Qing had no more worries. His vast primordial spirit consciousness followed the billions of seven-colored rays of light focused on the abnormal energy cluster, instantly overcoming the barrier of space and directly piercing into the locked energy core that emitted a faint distortion!
The process proceeded without the slightest delay, demonstrating his complete trust in Wang Ping and his extremely clear objective.

Wang Ping also entered a state of 'self-discipline' at this moment, and after defining his own consciousness with the 'Heaven-Stealing Talisman', he followed Xuan Qing's primordial spirit to explore it.

A few breaths later, he sensed a strange point. To this chaotic storm, it was like a crucian carp hidden in the mud, obvious yet not very obvious, which was very much in line with Xuan Qing's earlier assessment.

Xuanqing's consciousness quickly approached it and touched it without hesitation...

An indescribable chill, with a strong corrosive feeling, instantly appeared in Wang Ping's consciousness. It was not a pure energy shock, but more like a "pollution" targeting his primordial spirit and the understanding of rules itself.

Its core is a highly condensed, almost purely rule-based dark vortex. This vortex rotates continuously, emitting extremely weak yet unusually stubborn fluctuations, attempting to distort any rules and consciousness that come into contact with it.

More importantly, when Xuanqing's consciousness "saw" the true nature of this dark vortex, the vague fragments of his memories about the Heavenly Gate's inheritance suddenly rippled clearly like pebbles thrown into a lake!
that's it!
Xuanqing's consciousness made a judgment instantly.

“It is the ‘Netherworld Demon Source,’ which corresponds to the water element in the Five Elements theory. It can sink into all streams and drown true spirits!” Xuanqing transmitted his voice to Wang Ping: “It is very weak now, and I don’t know if it can be used as a seed for the experiment.”

Wang Ping replied, "Let's ignore that for now and get it out intact." (End of Chapter)