I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 290 Three Corpses, Immortality Technique

The old woman originally thought that the deity of Baosheng Temple was a wild god who had never seen the world. She thought that as long as she opened her mouth and pretended to give him a great fortune, this little wild god would be led by the nose.
Unexpectedly, the two almost came to blows as soon as they met!

The old woman dared not deceive Xu Qing any longer, fearing she would miss this opportunity.

Alright! Since we can't use a hard approach, let's try a softer one!

"I have nowhere else to turn, and I'd like to ask you for a favor."

"Don't be in such a hurry to refuse. This favor will benefit me and you as well. We are meant to be on the same path."

Who's on the same page as you, you old witch?

While Xu Qing kept the old woman calm, the main body of the coffin shop had already mounted the funeral horse and was rushing over.

He didn't use the Divine Travel Book; that Heavenly Escape Technique was beyond his level of skill. It was fine for casually bullying weaker opponents or escaping, but it wouldn't be effective against a real enemy.
When a Divine Journey to Heaven teleports to Purple Cloud Mountain, he must at least draw upon the magical power of the Corpse Transformation Technique.

Facing an old woman who might be the strongest person he had ever encountered, Xu Qing dared not be careless.

Horseback riding may not be as fast, but it is more stable.

In the meantime, he could also try to find out as much as possible about the old woman's situation, so as to avoid being caught off guard when things really started to get physical.

"Grandma, let's not talk about asking for help yet. There's something I'd like to ask you about first."

Xu Qing separated a wisp of incense and carried the dormant Little Willow Fairy out of Baosheng Temple.

At the same time, Sister Jin, who was talking to Liu the midwife, was slightly stunned. Then she made an excuse and left the temple with Liu the midwife.

The old woman frowned slightly, vaguely sensing that something was wrong, but she still patiently said, "Fellow Daoist, please speak. I will tell you everything I know."

Xu Qing said softly, "My Baosheng Temple and Cat Fairy Hall are neighbors and have a very good relationship. However, my Cat Fairy friend was tricked and killed by an old witch."

"What should I do if I run into that old hag?"

"."

The old woman suddenly realized, "So that's what it was about."

"Killing someone is a blood feud. If the old man wants my help, he has to settle the old score first before I will consider whether to help him or not."

Even a powerful dragon can't suppress a local snake. Xu Qing had a plan in mind: if he had to make a move later, he would use the Dharma body of Baosheng Temple to test the old woman's true nature. If things turned out well, he would switch to his original body and properly take care of the old woman's affairs before and after her death.

If something goes wrong, he can withdraw in time, relinquish his identity as a coroner, and bide his time. In this way, even if he can't defeat the opponent today, he can wait until the opponent's lifespan is almost over and he is exhausted before going to confront him and collect his corpse.

With a quick advance and retreat, Xu Qing had already arranged the old woman's funeral arrangements clearly in a short time.

Upon hearing Xu Qing's demand that she pay with her life, the old woman was first taken aback, then surprisingly nodded in agreement:

"It is true that I was wrong in this matter. If you are really angry, I will give you an explanation in a moment. If you really want my old life that is about to be buried, what harm is there in giving it to you?"

"."

Xu Qing stared intently at the old woman in front of him; within the Dharma Realm, not a single micro-expression on the old woman's face could escape his eyes.

However, through observation and analysis of facial features, the old woman in front of me showed no signs of lying.

Xu Qing had considered countless possibilities, but he never expected the old woman to agree to give him an explanation, and even said she was willing to pay with her life.

Something is wrong.
"Then you die right now and show me!"

Xu Qing blurted it out almost immediately.

"."

The usually composed old woman ultimately couldn't maintain her composure.

Why are the younger generation so difficult to get along with these days?

It was one thing to be insulted by a young man at a funeral banquet during the day, but now, here at the temple, even the younger generation receiving offerings are constantly using the word "death."

Those who know you will say you are the Goddess of Life Protection; those who don't will think you are a ghost messenger who takes away souls!
The old woman saw black and white energy flowing in her eyes, and the Goddess Baosheng before her was still radiant with divine light, holy beyond compare.

However, she couldn't see through the other party's background; she could only tell that this was a newly born deity who had returned to the mortal realm to save the dying and bring life back to life, possessing a great deal of divine compassion.

"Don't be anxious, I'm right here, I won't run away. Why don't you listen to what I have to tell you first?"

Xu Qing, sensing that he was getting closer to the true form of Purple Cloud Mountain, laughed and said, "You even lied to the cat you kept in front of you, do you think I would believe you?"

The old woman noticed the unusual movement of the incense sticks around her and suddenly spoke up: "This matter is not only related to you, but also to the life that little cat lost. You really don't want to hear it?"

Xu Qing remained silent, but his movements slowed down.

He had always wondered why the old woman sent Xuan Yu to Ruyi Temple to refine medicine, and why she never intended to use the medicine she refined, nor did she ask Baiyun Daoist for any reward.

Xu Qing couldn't think of any other reason for such behavior other than madness.

Unaware of Xu Qing's thoughts, the old woman reached out and released a black mist and a white mist. The two strange streams of energy merged together and transformed into a layer of lifeless gray light, obscuring the heavenly secrets of the incense hall.

Do you know why there are so many evildoers and so few gooddoers in the world today?

Xu Qing looked at the old woman with a profound expression, who was about to launch into a long speech, and interrupted her directly: "Because we are now in a time of great calamity, demons are rising and the righteous are declining, the path to heaven is cut off, all living beings cannot be liberated, cultivators are dissatisfied with the status quo, naturally evil paths are proliferating, and there are fewer virtuous people."

"Old people shouldn't show off these things; they're all outdated and obscure knowledge."

"."

The old woman raised her head and re-examined the newly born deity before her.

The newly born deities in this mortal world seem to be far more complex than they appear on the surface.

"You seem to know quite a lot, which saves this old woman some trouble." The old woman chuckled, then asked, "Have you ever heard of the legend of the Three Corpses?"

"Three Corpses?"

Xu Qing's mind sharpened; he had always been sensitive to the word 'corpse'.

Suppressing the strange emotions in his heart, Xu Qing said calmly, "I have never heard of it."

The old woman chuckled, as if she had expected this. She straightened her back and explained, "If a person wants to become an immortal, he must eliminate the three corpses. Taoist practitioners say that the upper corpse is Peng Ju, who loves finery; the middle corpse is Peng Zhi, who loves delicious food; and the lower corpse is Peng Qiao, who loves lust. But these are just appearances."

"In ancient times, heaven and man lived together. Later, they were divided into the three realms of heaven, earth and man. In the meantime, heaven and man also had three corpses that were cut off. Do you know which three corpses they cut off?"

"It is an evil corpse, a yin corpse, a vengeful corpse."

"The root of all calamities in the underworld now lies in the Nine Netherworld Imprisonment Ground."

"Who is the Celestial Being?" Xu Qing grasped the crux of the problem; his question was tantamount to asking who the mastermind behind this great calamity was.

"."

The old woman remained silent for a moment, then said with a puzzled expression, "The Heavenly Emperor, the ancient gods, Yama, Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, and the World Honored One were all once celestial beings."

Xu Qing frowned slightly. If what the old woman said was true, then the Heavenly Emperor's blocking of Yin and Yang and severing of the path to Heaven would make sense. If the underworld was truly controlled by these people's magical corpses, how could anyone else possibly fight back?
"What do you mean by all this, and what does it have to do with Xuan Yu?"

After Xu Qing saw some of the truths behind the fog again, he was not greatly moved.

This problem was too big, beyond the comprehension of this little zombie. Instead of worrying about the troubles of the heavenly beings, he should think about how to attract more customers and favor more corpses.

However, the old woman's next words were like a meteorite crashing into the lake, instantly creating a huge upheaval in Xu Qing's heart.

"She is the seventy-seventh person I have chosen to face this calamity. Before her, seventy-six people had failed the test."

"The Heavenly Emperor always understood that whenever a great calamity occurred, someone would appear to be destined for it. He blocked the path between Yin and Yang, and severed the connection between immortals and mortals, also with the intention of protecting the person destined for the calamity."

For some reason, Xu Qing suddenly felt very uneasy. The old woman's words seemed to carry a kind of restraint, and if he heard these words, he would suffer a bad end.

To prevent this from happening, Xu Qing decisively interrupted, saying, "I don't believe in this. It's no use telling me this. All I know is that you took my friend's life, and you have to pay with your life!"

The old woman looked at Xu Qing, who seemed determined to burn out all incense offerings and fight her to the death, and finally sighed.

"After I finish speaking, you can do whatever you want with me. Until then, I can still hold on."

As she spoke, the old woman took out a wooden ladle from her sleeve. Inside, incense, condensed into a viscous liquid, swirled back and forth. Each drop represented countless merits from incense offerings.

"This incense offering was accumulated over countless years by my ancestors, but under the influence of this corrupt world, it has been consumed in less than half a gourd in just a few hundred years."

Looking at the offerings and incense, Xu Qing suddenly remembered what Xuan Yu had mentioned about the old man who often went down the mountain to help people.

But in Xu Qing's eyes, no matter how many good deeds the old woman had, it couldn't change the fact that she was an old witch.

The old woman sighed softly, got up, picked up a stick of incense, and placed it in the incense burner.

“I have only ever offered incense to a handful of people in my life, and you are one of them.”

In most cases, only deities and the dead need to offer incense.

Xu Qing narrowed his eyes slightly: "Who are those people? Are they still alive?"

"They died, but not all of them died; death is not the end."

"."

"Get lost! I don't owe you this incense stick!"

The Goddess of Life Protection was furious and kicked over the incense burner.

The old woman dodged the pervasive incense ash in a disheveled manner. She had never met anyone in her life who dared to be so rude to her, not even her old acquaintances.

"I won't hold a grudge against a junior like you. You just need to know that without exception, the people I've chosen to face this calamity are all kind-hearted and full of vitality."

"At the old site of Qingqiu, I used a secret method to sever the foundation of one of the nine-tailed white foxes' tails, cutting off her path to life, so that she would never be bewitched by the Three Corpses again, and at the same time, she would transcend the Three Realms and be outside the Five Elements, so that no one could see her origins."

"The Undead and the Witch Clan also had similar experiences. All of this was done to cultivate and find those destined to face the calamity, for the sake of a grand plan."

Xu Qing interrupted the old woman, asking bluntly, "If you've found the wrong person, wouldn't they have suffered for nothing?"

The old woman, her eyes devoid of sorrow or joy, said, "The Yama King and his Nine Netherworld troops, in order to protect the Netherworld Kingdom, exhausted all their cultivation to bring a glimmer of hope to the Nine Netherworld. On the Heavenly Road, dozens of immortals and gods disregarded the Heavenly Emperor's decree and thus returned to nothingness."

"If the evil spirits are not eliminated, they will be forever condemned, and the world will always be under the influence of the great calamity. As a deity, are you willing to stand aside and watch all living beings suffer the calamity?"

The old woman seemed to understand people like Xuan Yu and Xu Qing very well. She believed that as long as you do good deeds, you will be kind-hearted and take the initiative to shoulder the responsibility of saving all living beings and dedicate everything.

This is an old PUA (Pick-Up Artist) technique!
Xu Qing hates these beasts who stand on the moral high ground to kidnap others. What does it have to do with a commoner like him from Tianjin if a celestial being makes a mistake?

"Finished?" Xu Qing watched coldly, never fully believing the old woman's words.

"Now that we've finished talking, let's discuss the matter of Lady Qingqing."

"Lady Qingqing?"

"You're asking me the name of your cat?"

"."

The old woman still remembered her: "That cat is childish and only cares about its small family and business. It's not capable of doing anything great. I was just desperate and made a mistake in choosing it as a cure for the world."

Xu Qing was furious: "You old fool, if you're so capable, go and clear the path to heaven yourself and let those celestial beings resolve the matter. Why should others sacrifice themselves and become the ones to face the calamity?"

"To 'take the blame' sounds nice, but it's just finding someone to scapegoat!"

"Don't try to give me that nonsense! That cat is a guardian deity of my Baosheng Temple. You've done these things, so you're my enemy. As long as you're alive, I won't believe a word you say!"

Hundreds of thousands of incense sticks crashed down, and the old woman's face changed. The green incense in the water ladle and the red incense from Baosheng Temple mingled together, immediately producing a sizzling sound.

The old woman's incense was strangely powerful, seemingly possessing the ability to resolve all things, while Xu Qing's incense was full of vitality, the vitality of all things sprouting and the new life brought about by the first cry of an infant.

The two forces were intertwined, constantly dissolving and regenerating, and the incense offerings of the two were also being consumed rapidly.

The old woman was not angry but happy. Looking at the lush vitality in front of her, she thought that the nine-tailed fox and the nine-lived black cat were not good enough!

In this age of great calamity, with such a meritorious deity capable of gathering and procreation among the human race, what is there to fear from those so-called "spiritual corpses"?
The corpse is ultimately a fallen creature of extreme yin and evil, symbolizing death, and the incense of Baosheng Temple can just right to restrain it.

If the deity before us can grow stronger and gather the last glimmer of hope left by the Nine Netherworld tribes in the mortal realm, perhaps we can break the current situation and use that item to expel and suppress all those Dharma Corpses.

The old woman said with some joy, "In this vast world, among all living beings, my body has wandered here for a thousand years, and I have finally gained something."

"Young lady! The childcare manual you sent out is a treasure. You need to go to the yamen and retrieve that book."

Upon hearing the term "old woman," Xu Qing's face darkened even further.

"To deal with the three types of Dharma Corpses, you must comprehend the art of immortality; otherwise, no matter how many lives you have, it won't be enough. Even if you don't take the Preservation Scripture, it will return to you when you have accumulated enough merit."

After saying this, the old woman threw the incense sticks from the gourd outside the Baosheng Temple in front of Xu Qing. The entire Beijing-Tianjin area was suddenly clear and quiet, and even the influence of the five turbid evil world dissipated for a while.

Then, Xu Qing heard a whooshing sound coming from above the dome.

Outside Baosheng Temple, at the foot of Ziyun Mountain.

Xu Qing opened his eyes and saw a water ladle trailing incense flames, crashing down on Tianjin with a world-destroying force.

Xu Qing's eyes widened. Without thinking, he almost subconsciously activated the Divine Travel Book to teleport to Linjiang County. At the same time, the incense of the entire Cat Immortal Hall formed a barrier that enveloped the entire city, attempting to resist the unknown phenomenon.

Meanwhile, the red incense of Baosheng Temple covered an area of ​​twenty miles.

Xu Qing could imagine that once the incense meteorite fell, his savings of the past few years would be completely depleted.

However, when the huge phantom of the water ladle hit Jinmen, there was no sound. Xu Qing waited for a long time before he put away the incense with surprise and uncertainty.

Inside the Baosheng Temple, an old woman, having exhausted all her incense offerings, sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, devoid of any life.

Why is this old lady setting off duds to scare people?!
Xu Qing, a zombie, was almost scared out of his wits!

(End of this chapter)