I am about to die of old age, and I have awakened the character of longevity.

Chapter 209: The Eternal Soul Burial Sutra, Mingyu breaks through again!
The clear water ripples in Hongze Lake.

An extremely dilapidated black-sailed boat was slowly drifting in the wind in the inconspicuous waters near the shore of the lake.

A dim oil lamp was lit in the boat's awning, and looking out the window, a figure could be vaguely seen sitting next to a table.

But in fact, there was no one in the wupeng boat.

There is an uninhabited island on the shore, with dense bushes and hazy shadows. Occasionally, you can hear the roar of wild beasts.

There is a very secret cave inside.

There was a faint light in the cave.

It was red-hot charcoal, not an open flame. Only the red-hot charcoal illuminated the small cave.

The Heavenly Father was sitting alone beside the charcoal, with an ancient book on his knees, diligently practicing his exercises according to the book.

As his practice reached a certain stage, a heat-insulating layer surged outside his body, emitting sharp whistling sounds from time to time.

This is the Qi and blood of a martial arts practitioner who has reached the ninth level of internal strength, reflecting that the Heavenly Father has an extremely powerful physique and Qi and blood.

Logically speaking, this is already a very remarkable achievement, but Heavenly Father is obviously not satisfied with it.

Suddenly, Heavenly Father quickly pressed various acupuncture points on his body with his hands, then shouted softly, "Open the secret treasure, unblock the Yongquan acupoint!"

After he finished speaking, a peculiar humming sound emanated from Heavenly Father's body. He was filled with immense anticipation, as if he were about to unlock the secrets of the human body, his face flushing with excitement.

Only he himself knows how difficult his journey has been.

His old mother was killed, his village was massacred, and he was abducted and used as a substitute.

In front of outsiders, he seems to be very glorious, but in fact he is so humble in front of Guang Chanzi... He knows it best.

Even though Heishui and Chilian, two ninth-grade masters, were always by his side and obeyed his orders, the Heavenly Father knew that they were sent by Guangchanzi to monitor him.

Once he showed any sign of going against Guang Chanzi's will, he would be immediately beaten or even imprisoned in a dark room where there would be no light at all, with no one to turn to for help.

He felt that his life was too bad.

At the beginning, he complained about the unfairness of fate and even thought about committing suicide to end this miserable and desperate life.

But later, he realized that complaining about fate was pointless. Only by fighting bravely and working hard could he break free from the shackles of fate.

So, Heavenly Father has done a lot of work over the years.

First of all, Heavenly Father discovered through exploration that there are not many people who know their own substitutes, only a few martial arts masters.

Afterwards, Heavenly Father deliberately expressed his displeasure and made several mistakes to test the balance point.

After countless trial and error and being beaten, Tianfu probably found the balance point: as long as he implemented the overall policy of Tiananbang, Heishui and Chilian would be obedient and would give him a certain degree of superficial respect.

After all, he was Guang Chanzi's stand-in. Respecting this stand-in was also equivalent to respecting Guang Chanzi to a certain extent.

In addition, the Heavenly Father realized that Guang Chanzi had high expectations for him as a substitute, and that keeping him would be of great use. For this reason, he would also provide him with certain martial arts training resources, hoping that he would have a certain level of strength.

However, Guang Chanzi also had a backup plan: he refined part of his own spirit, making it impossible for him to escape the opponent's control forever. In addition, he also prevented himself from breaking through to the martial arts master level.

Later, Heavenly Father realized that as long as the secrets of the human body were opened, it would be possible to remove the soul-refining and control method that Guang Chanzi had bestowed upon him.

Heavenly Father does not want to be manipulated by others throughout our lives.

He knew that Guang Chanzi kept him as a substitute in order to make him do something that would lead to his death.

He wanted to struggle, to break free.

Therefore, the Heavenly Father secretly collected some internal energy techniques that could potentially break through to the Grandmaster level. He also hid here to practice in seclusion, avoiding the eyes and ears of Chi Lian and Hei Shui.

As long as the secrets of the human body are unlocked, there is hope of escaping control.

Thinking of this, Heavenly Father was extremely excited.

suddenly--

"Oh no, my inner energy can't break through the secret treasure, I'm going to lose control..."

The Heavenly Father only felt that the internal energy in his body was running wild and he was out of control for a while. He couldn't help but spit out a mouthful of blood. Finally, he collapsed to the ground, trembling, blood kept flowing out of the corners of his mouth, and his limbs began to twitch.

The Heavenly Father felt like a wild dog that had been whipped, curled up in a dark corner where no one was, twitching in pain and licking his wounds.

"I've tried so hard, but it still doesn't work?"

He thought desperately.

"When will we be able to get through these desperate days?"

"It seems that the only option is to take that box."

At this moment, shouts were heard from the shore not far away.

Heavenly Father quickly stood up while forcing himself to endure the pain, then wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and walked towards the shore.

From a distance, Chi Lian and Hei Shui could be seen standing at the bow of the black-sailed boat.

The Heavenly Father put on a smile and said, "I have a stomachache and I'm going to the toilet."

After saying this, the Heavenly Father looked as if he had a stomachache and was very weak. He kept grimacing and complaining that the food here was not tasty.

Heishui and Chilian did not suspect anything.

Tianfu entered the boat tent, poured himself a cup of hot water, drank it in big gulps, and then showed a relieved expression as if his stomach felt much better. "How is it going, little brother Liu Mu?"

Chi Lian shook his head. "The courtyard is deserted. Liu Fang said he's gone to raise one million taels of silver. It will take a while."

The Heavenly Father said, "Raising one million taels of silver does take quite a while. He's a rare, top-tier individual in the entire Tianan State, so it's reasonable to give him more time. But you have to keep a close eye on him. Don't miss out on this important opportunity."

Chi Lian said, "Yes. I rented a house near that courtyard. Hei Shui and I take turns living there and keeping an eye on every move going on in that courtyard."

……

However, Xie An was not in a hurry to go to Heize County with his young body and appearance, but stayed in Qingwu County.

The real Guang Chanzi has been caught, and the overall situation has been decided.

However, Tiananmen has indeed gathered more than 100,000 believers, and it may explode at any time and cause major unrest.

But Xie An still planned to wait and see how the situation develops before taking any action.

On the one hand, he wanted to see what Tiananbang would do next, and on the other hand, Xie An also wanted to improve his strength.

After all, Tianan State was the state religion of the previous dynasty, and its foundation was very profound. Among them, there were fourth-grade masters like Master Pudu, and there might be other powerful masters, so we had to treat them with caution.

Xie An's days were the same as usual. He would stroll around the Demon Suppression Division during the day and visit Tang Family Castle after work. As Tang Zhengyang had been in seclusion, Xie An could not help. At most, he would have two cups of tea with Tang Qingyun and Tang Qingfeng, and chat with Xiao Hongtang for a few words before going home to study the art of corpse refining and soul refining.

After several days of study, Xie An finally had a general understanding of the mysteries of these two techniques:

The art of corpse refining involves extracting a living person's vital energy and refining it into a breath of corpse qi. This breath of corpse qi is then used to control others. Simultaneously, this breath of corpse qi spreads within the body, nourishing the production of more corpse qi.

An ordinary person has at most one breath of corpse qi in his body, while a master has at most nine breaths of corpse qi.

"Innate Vitality... isn't that the acquired vitality that Su Yuqing mentioned, which unlocks the hidden secrets of the human body?"

"This corpse refining technique is somehow related to the secret treasures of the martial arts master... I'm afraid it's not a simple origin."

Compared with corpse refining, Xie An is more interested in soul refining.

The so-called soul refining is to refine a person's spirit into the power of a resentful soul, directly controlling the thoughts of others.

After reaching a high level of cultivation, one can absorb the power of other people's resentful souls to strengthen one's own spirit. If one strengthens one's spirit to the limit, one can also let the spirit leave one's body, take over the body of another, and live another life.

"The soul leaves the body, takes over another body, and lives another life... Isn't this similar to the soul of an immortal cultivator leaving the body and taking over another body to be reincarnated?
Such a miraculous magic, was it really created by Jin Xiaotang? She doesn’t look like someone with such ability…”

Jin Xiaotang is only a fourth-grade master and doesn't seem to have such ability.

So where did these two magical skills come from?
Is it possible... that it came from some relic?
Jin Xiaotang is just repeating what others have said.

When you think about it this way...it makes sense.

It seems that I have to ask Jin Xiaotang later, but Jin Xiaotang is now extremely resentful of Xie An, so it would be difficult to get anything out of him.

After clearing away these distracting thoughts, Xie An returned to the two great magics themselves.

As Xie An's research deepened, he felt more and more that this might be an upgraded version of a health-preserving technique, and definitely not a martial arts technique. However, every time he practiced according to the instructions, the longevity element did not manifest.

This puzzled Xie An. According to his logic, such a method should be classified as a health-preserving method.

How could it not work?

If the longevity character cannot be included and manifested, then it will be too difficult to practice. After all, Xie An has no extraordinary talent in martial arts.

"Does it mean that I need to combine these two techniques?"

After this idea came into being, Xie An thought more and more that it was true.

He opened the two books at the same time, comparing them page by page, and found that they were surprisingly similar.

Corpse refining techniques are divided into nine levels, and soul refining techniques are also divided into nine levels. Based on the detailed description above, Xie An speculated that High Priest Jin Haier's corpse refining technique was probably at the second level. Jin Xiaotang and Guang Chanzi's corpse refining techniques were slightly stronger, but Xie An was unable to determine their specific level.

Xie An immediately took out a pen and ink and copied down the two sets of magic formulas, then circled the same words and the common logic.

In the end, I was shocked to find that 90% of them were similar.

It's like someone forcibly split a magic spell into two parts.

It’s like a complete ancient poem, but someone separated the upper and lower parts into two independent poems.

Xie An felt that if it could be restored into a magic technique, it would be very amazing, and it might even be included in the longevity character.

After careful consideration, Xie An decided to tell Su Yuqing about his discovery.

Su Yuqing read the contents of the two ancient books and compared them with the contents circled by Xie An. She was also very surprised. "As expected, they are 90% similar. In my experience, the corpse refining technique and the soul refining technique come from the same practice. Moreover, this practice covers both the body and the soul. It is a top-level magical skill that integrates all the skills."

Hearing what a fourth-grade Grandmaster said, Xie An breathed a sigh of relief. "Surely, Jin Xiaotang wouldn't be able to create such a technique?"

Su Yuqing shook her head directly, "She doesn't have this ability. She must have gotten it from somewhere."

Xie An was overjoyed. "Princess, you are a master of your generation. Can you restore this technique?"

Su Yuqing carefully compared the book, then frowned and shook her head. "This technique is profound and profound, and its purpose is very high. It's mostly about health preservation, which I haven't read much about. I can't recreate it."

Xie An felt somewhat disappointed, but he quickly thought of another solution. "Can we torture Jin Xiaotang and make her come back to her senses?"

Xie An wanted to ask Jin Xiaotang himself, but he figured she hated him so much she wouldn't say a word. On the other hand, a martial arts master like Su Yuqing might have some way of interrogating him.

Jin Xiaotang had given Xie An a pill to make him confused before, which would make him lose his mind and speak the truth.

Maybe Su Yuqing can also counterattack.

Su Yuqing took the book and said, "I'll give it a try."

"Thank you, Princess."

"You're welcome. Wait for my news."

Xie An left the backyard and returned to the main room to practice martial arts.

But in my heart, I am full of anticipation for the restoration of the skills.

Of all the health-preserving techniques Xie An had mastered, the most powerful was the Mingyu Technique. Its founder was the great eunuch Xu Kangfu, also a member of the Changsheng Sect. It seemed that all the top health-preserving techniques were related to the Changsheng Sect.

It can be seen that the influence of Changshengjiao on health-preserving exercises is very great.

As the foundation of the Changsheng Sect, the art of corpse refining and soul refining are already quite remarkable. What would it be like if they could be restored and unified?
It will definitely surpass Mingyu Gong!
This is very exciting.

after one day.

Xie An was sitting cross-legged in the main room practicing Mingyu Gong when he suddenly heard a burst of hurried footsteps.

Xie An hurried to open the door and saw that it was Su Yuqing. He welcomed her in for tea and after some greetings, asked her about the restoration technique.

Su Yuqing revealed a startling piece of information. "Corpse Refining and Soul Refining were indeed simplified from an ancient technique. This ancient technique wasn't originally a martial art, was extremely difficult to practice, and could easily lead to obsession. So, they sniffed out some of the simple formulas they could understand and simplified them into Corpse Refining and Soul Refining."

Xie An was delighted and asked, "What is the ancient method called?"

Su Yuqing said, "Soul Burial Sutra."

"Soul Burial Sutra?"

"I used a pill specifically used by the Demon Suppression Division to interrogate Grandmasters. She shouldn't have lied. The Soul Burial Sutra was unearthed from the mysterious ancient city of Yunzhou. It's from the same place as the Seven Treasures Box."

Xie An was shocked when he heard this.

This Soul Burial Sutra was also unearthed from the mysterious ancient city of Yunzhou?
That's a scary story.

Xie An soon realized that something was wrong. "The time doesn't match. Jin Xiaotang said that it was Emperor Tianbao Chen Haiming who was seriously injured during the expedition and was about to die. It was Jin Xiaotang who saved Chen Haiming with the corpse refining technique. After that, the Changsheng Sect entered the capital and became the state religion. The exploration of the ancient city of Yunzhou came later."

Su Yuqing said, "Jin Xiaotang, Jin Haier, Guang Chanzi... are all members of the Jin family. The Jin family's headquarters is in Yunzhou. And the Jin family has been engaged in tomb robbing and exploration for generations."

Xie An took a deep breath. "You mean, the Jin family already knew about the Yunzhou Ancient City incident. They also got the Soul Burial Sutra a long time ago. And simplified it into Soul Refining Technique and Corpse Refining Technique?"

Su Yuqing nodded. "That's right. The Jin family has always kept a low profile. Jin Xiaotang made a mistake and was punished by the Jin family, so she escaped with Guang Chanzi. The real Jin family is very hidden, and even the locals know very little about it. The original copy of the Soul Burial Sutra is also in the hands of the Jin family."

Xie An fell silent, his heart beating wildly.

He deeply felt that within this Jin family and the mysterious ancient city of Yunzhou... there might really be some information about immortality.

Su Yuqing naturally felt it as well. "This news is shocking. Jin Xiaotang never told anyone about the Jin family. Yunzhou Ancient City might actually have relics related to immortality. Xie An, you've done a great deed again."

Xie An adjusted his thoughts and said, "Princess, I think... this matter shouldn't be made public. After the matter in Nanzhou is settled, why don't we go and investigate first?"

Su Yuqing looked at Xie An deeply.

Before this, she planned to tell Ye Nantian and Emperor Jingtai.

After all, Ye Nantian and Emperor Jingtai have been seeking the method of immortality for hundreds of years.

But she also had selfish motives in her heart.

This time it was just ignited by Xie An.

Xie An continued, "Four hundred years have passed since the reigns of Tianbao and Jingtai. Countless people have sought immortality, especially emperors. But no one has ever found the secret to immortality. If the secret is proven, the entire court will be drastically altered, and the world will be plunged into bloodshed. Princess, you have compassion for the people of the world. Why not seize this opportunity for immortality first? You can then advance or retreat when the time comes. You'll always be one step ahead."

Su Yuqing fell into silence for a long time.

She knew that people's hearts were unpredictable, especially those of the imperial family. If Ye Nantian and the emperor had obtained the immortality method first, she would have nothing to worry about.

On the contrary, if the secret of immortality is really in my own hands, I can choose the right time to pass it on to my father and master, or I can keep it for myself and avoid the bloodshed in the world.

What's more, the method of immortality... who doesn't want it for themselves first?
No matter how selfless the princess is, she is still a human being after all, and she cannot avoid having emotions and desires.

After weighing the pros and cons for a long time, Su Yuqing finally spoke, "All of this is due to your discovery. Since you said so, there is nothing wrong with it."

Xie An reminded him again, "Guang Chanzi and Jin Xiaotang have been arrested, and their transfer to the court will soon be on the agenda. To ensure safety, they... cannot be transferred. They may die or be secretly detained. This does not affect the overall situation. The core of the Nanzhou situation lies in Li Hao and the King of Huainan."

Su Yuqing stared at Xie An deeply, and finally said, "Yes."

After saying that, Su Yuqing left.

After this incident, Xie An clearly found that the distance between him and Su Yuqing had shortened significantly, much closer than they had been in the past seven or eight years.

Next, Su Yuqing interrogated Guang Chanzi again using the same method.

It was learned that Guang Chanzi was only three or four years old when he followed Jin Xiaotang. He was ignorant and could not remember anything from his childhood.

But it proves Jin Xiaotang's statement.

The Yunzhou Jin family, the Soul Burial Sutra, the mysterious ancient city... It is very likely that there is a true method of immortality.

This made Xie An very excited.

But Xie An was not in a hurry, as that place was too dangerous.

My current strength is still very weak.

What we need to do now is to improve our strength and become a Grandmaster as soon as possible so that we can protect ourselves.

In addition, we need to help the eldest princess deal with the affairs of Nanzhou as soon as possible.

Two days later, Su Yuqing took Master Guangchanzi Pudu away and left Jin Xiaotang in the care of Xie An.

According to the agreement between the two parties, Guang Chanzi was too young when he left and had no memory of the Jin family. In addition, Jin Xiaotang did not tell Guang Chanzi about the Jin family, so Guang Chanzi could be handed over to the court. Moreover, Su Yuqing had other plans for Guang Chanzi.

But Jin Xiaotang still needs to stay and lead the way.

After Su Yuqing left, Xie An's life became peaceful again.

Three points and one line.

Wandering around the government office, drinking tea at Tangjiabao, and practicing martial arts at home.

He thought Su Yuqing would be back soon, but she didn't come back for a long time. Whenever Xie An encountered difficulties in practicing, or when he went to the backyard to visit Jin Xiaotang late at night, he would always think of that person when he looked at the empty backyard.

A month passed in a flash.

Early that morning, Xie An was in seclusion in the main room in the courtyard.

There was heat coming out of my body.

However, Xie An showed an extremely bright smile on his face.

Mingyu Gong finally broke through.

(End of this chapter)