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

Chapter 291 The Wind Leads to Departure, the Incense of Rebirth
The old woman used up all her power, set off a dud with a promising start but an unsatisfactory finish, and then there was no more news.

Xu Qing was somewhat frightened. The old woman's cultivation level was beyond his comprehension. In the cultivation systems of cultivators and demons, she would at least be an unparalleled old monster who had survived a thousand-year calamity.

Based on the information revealed by the old woman in just a few words, Xu Qing roughly guessed the other party's principle for finding a 'scapegoat': the person must be kind-hearted, have a grand ambition to help the world and save people, and be strong enough to withstand life-and-death crises. Only those who meet these criteria can be chosen by her.

Fortunately, he was cautious and did not let his true self take action, otherwise, if the old woman had noticed something was wrong, it might have caused some trouble.

After all, he wasn't some kind of 'divine seedling' with a strong enough destiny to have multiple lives to create.

What fate or life force can a zombie have?
Xu Qing even suspected that the deathly aura emanating from his body might agitate the old woman in front of him.

Given how much the old woman hates the spirit corpse, what if the other party thinks he is a spirit corpse from the underworld sent to the mortal world to act as a substitute, and then turns around and tries to eliminate the demon and protect the righteous? Wouldn't that be bad luck?

The old woman was dead, or at least appeared to be dead.

However, Xu Qing dared not let the original body come directly to perform the ritual. People like the old woman were more wicked than anyone else, full of scheming. Who knew if she was really dead or just pretending to be dead?
On the altar in the incense hall, a wisp of blood-red incense appeared at the fingertips of the Goddess of Childbirth. The incense, like a ribbon, rolled up the magic sword on the back of the statue of the child-protecting boy and mercilessly nailed it into the old woman's body!

After about half a cup of tea, Xu Qing finally confirmed the authenticity of the goods in front of him.

Pure, very pure, extremely pure!

The purity of this corpse was no less than any of the corpses he had previously exorcised; it was absolutely dead beyond any doubt.

"Is this old woman really so selfless, willing to give up her life for a slim hope? If so, why doesn't she take on the role of the one destined to face the calamity herself?"

Xu Qing always felt that the old woman's death was not so simple.

But did she really believe that death would take all her secrets to the grave?
The statue of Baosheng Niangniang returned to silence, and at that moment, a tall figure stretched into the incense hall under the moonlight.

At the end of that long shadow was a pale-faced young man dressed in a funeral robe and holding a mountain-splitting axe.

Even after confirming repeatedly, Xu Qing still made eighteen layers of the Heavenly Gang Axe Technique when he approached the old woman's corpse.

Fortunately, there was no real danger. Just as he reached out to touch the old woman's corpse, the pages of the Salvation Sutra slowly turned.

This time, the Sutra of Salvation unlocked a new cutscene. Xu Qing saw the depths of the Yellow Springs, where the River of Oblivion meandered like a blood python, and amidst the surging blood waves, the ghostly figures of white bones floated up and down.

In a certain section of the river basin, there is an ancient blue stone bridge spanning the river. In the middle of the blue stone bridge, there is a small gold bridge, a small silver bridge, and a small iron bridge separating the two sections.

The Golden Bridge is wide and bright, with a magnificent air; the Silver Bridge, on the other hand, is like moonlight spreading out, and although it is not wide, it can still accommodate three or five people walking side by side.

The Iron Wire Bridge is the only one that is so narrow that it can only support one person on two feet. If any ghost tries to squeeze in or loses their balance, they will surely fall into the turbulent Sanzu River.

As the pages of the Sutra of Salvation continued to turn, many familiar figures flashed across the bridge; these were the corpses that Xu Qing had once helped to be delivered to the afterlife.

On the Golden Bridge, Hu Baosong, the Foolish Monk, and dozens of others walked by.

On the Silver Bridge, more than two thousand people lined up respectfully, with no one cutting in line or disrupting the order.

Finally, there was the iron wire bridge. More than 10,000 people were crammed onto the bridge, pushing and shoving like dumplings being dropped into a pot. Every now and then, someone would fall into the rushing river, and in the end, their flesh and blood would be washed away by the river, leaving only a skeleton drifting with the current, or they would be dragged into the water and swallowed by an unknown, huge figure that was vaguely visible in the river.
The forbidden scene flashed by: at the end of the blue stone bridge that spanned the Sanzu River, there stood an unattended teahouse. In front of the teahouse was a huge cooking pot, but the firewood piled up with white bones beneath it was no longer burning.

When Xu Qing saw this, for some reason, he felt inexplicably thirsty, as if he was missing an important page in his martial arts training or had skipped an important lesson while studying at school.

But this feeling was fleeting. When he felt thirsty, the turbid black water in his body surged, and the water zombie's ability to control the power of water instantly cleared away all the negative statuses on his body.

Xu Qing realized that zombies were not in the Six Paths of Reincarnation, and many material laws that could affect the soul had no effect on zombies.

This is a characteristic shared by all zombies, regardless of their grade.

If one's cultivation is successful, one can go a step further and attain the status of a Corpse Immortal, thus transcending the Three Realms and the Five Elements, becoming an immortal and indestructible being.

But before becoming a Corpse Immortal, there is the path of a Heavenly Corpse like Kuiba. If one can become one of the five types of Heavenly Corpses and then advance to the Corpse Immortal realm, what a sight that would be!

Xu Qing's thoughts followed the transitional scenes all the way to the end of the bluestone bridge. Only then did the old woman's revolving lantern begin to move.

It was a towering, withered tree with a jagged, domed shape. Beneath it, three thousand old women leaned on gourd-shaped canes. They all looked exactly alike. If it weren't for their ancient robes, Xu Qing would have thought he had entered a fake human factory and triggered an AI crisis.

The old women gathered around the withered tree, and Xu Qing was one of them.

Beneath the withered tree was a crude altar built of rammed black soil. On the altar were the heads of monsters resembling bulls, sheep, and dogs, as well as various other primitive-looking objects that exuded an ancient aura.

Bone and tortoise shell patterns, Nuo opera masks, banners and horns, ancient stone tablets engraved with tadpole runes, and a red coffin standing upright.

These are all offerings used in sacrificial rites.

Xu Qing saw an old woman standing in front of the altar, chanting obscure incantations.

As the incantation was recited, the bells tied with white silk on the withered branches of the giant tree jingled. When the sacrificial ceremony reached a certain point, Xu Qing found his body floating up and soaring into the sky!
The three thousand old women around him also flew to a very high place during the sacrificial ceremony. Xu Qing looked down and realized that the giant tree, which was physically tall enough to reach the sky, was actually rooted on an island.

No! That island is so vast that it's more like a whole state than an island.

The state is shaped like a phoenix, but its undulating patterns resemble dragon scales.

The state is surrounded by water on all four sides, which is muddy and difficult to cross.

The Records of the Ten Continents of the Seas states: The Weak Water surrounds Phoenix and Unicorn Continent, which is 1,500 li in size. The continent is surrounded by the Weak Water on all four sides, so small that even a feather cannot float on it, and it is impossible to cross.
As Xu Qing was lost in thought, the old woman in front of the altar slammed her cane heavily on the ground. Instantly, the wind and clouds surged, and a visible emerald light rippled outwards. The gnarled, withered giant tree began to sprout new branches and buds. In the blink of an eye, spring turned to autumn, and the ancient tree produced countless gourds.

Once the gourds matured and fell off, they scattered in all directions, each carrying a ladle of Weak Water, and came before the 'Three Thousand Flying Old Women'.

After receiving the gourd, the old women used it as a boat, each sinking into the gourd and landing back on the withered tree branch.

Xu Qing's vision went black for a brief moment, and he could not see the outside world until he heard the sound of water, at which point a faint light appeared before his eyes.

At this moment, the lonely old woman was riding a wooden gourd, drifting in the gourd-shaped cave, surrounded by the boundless Weak Water.

After drifting for an unknown period of time, the wooden ladle suddenly fell into a whirlpool of rapids. The old woman closed her eyes tightly, made hand seals and chanted incantations to stabilize herself. When she opened her eyes again after passing through the dark current, she had already arrived in the mortal world.

Xu Qing had never seen such a method of smuggling before.

If each fruit on that giant tree represents a world, wouldn't that mean there's an old woman in every other world searching for a way to deal with the great calamity?

Xu Qing continued to read.

The old woman, a newcomer to this world, had not yet begun to show her skills when she was surrounded at the exit of the Yinhe Ancient Road by hunters who had caught the scent of their prey.

Xu Qing saw Ji Heqi, the ancient deity who was rumored to be one of the twelve gatekeepers and guard the Yin River passage.

Legend has it that Ji is the god of sacrifice, and Qi is in charge of prayers and supplications. These two were the gods worshipped by the ancient witch tribe, and they were destroyed in the third great calamity of heaven and earth. The Ji and Qi in front of us are not gods, but substitutes summoned by the corpses of the Nine Netherworlds with the help of the resentment and evil thoughts accumulated in the underworld over the years.

Aside from the shamans and their relatives, above the old woman's head, there was a huge figure with a string of heads hidden in the dark clouds and ghostly mist.

The old woman, facing the eerie wind and foul air, looked up and stared directly at the entity above her. "Ghost Law!"

That string of heads, composed of cougars, mountain ghosts, water ghosts, vengeful ghosts, hanged ghosts, and starving ghosts, was like a crucible imprisoning countless ghosts, constantly melting the abilities of all the ghosts together, ultimately forming the underworld law master before us who could control all ghosts and manipulate all kinds of ghost magic.

The old woman's face was filled with sorrow. She showed no fear in the face of the oppression of the ghost law, the witch priests, and the witch relatives. The reason she looked sorrowful was because this mission had gone wrong.

Her body possesses a unique destiny. Logically speaking, when she first smuggled herself here, the probability of encountering her natural enemy upon opening the door was not much higher than being hit by a meteorite upon leaving the house.

But as soon as she arrived, she ran right into a puppet corpse like Gui Lu.

In the depths of her being, the old woman sensed an omen of impending doom. Even if she safely left the Yin River passage today, she would likely find it difficult to find an opportunity to influence the course of the great calamity.

"An aura from the Netherworld, you are a deity from the underworld who has smuggled yourself into the mortal realm. Who exactly are you?"

Countless ghostly whispers overlapped, and a massive body, half-hidden in the dark clouds and mist, scrutinized the old woman.

"No matter who you are, you must remain in the Yin River. We will never let you leave alive!"

Before the words were finished, countless ghosts transformed into shadowy figures that blotted out the sky and pounced on the old woman, who was as small as an ant!

The ghosts, resembling children with dark red skin, large ears, and long arms, along with the plague ghosts skilled in using plague poisons, various shadow-eating ghosts, and the unlucky ghosts that are prone to wasting resources, have carved out a ghost domain spanning nearly a thousand miles in the ancient Yin River Road.

Seeing this, the old woman's face became even more sorrowful. She reached out and took out a water ladle, took a mouthful of Weak Water, and when she opened her mouth again, a blood-red wind pearl carrying boundless magic power swept towards the surrounding ghost realm!

The priest and his relatives, who were about to step forward, retreated in panic.

"It's Li Feng! That old woman has refined Li Feng!"

The old woman conjured hand seals to control the wind; wherever the crimson hurricane passed, the ghosts instantly shrieked and scattered. The arbitrarily extended arms of the Void Elephant crumbled into sand inch by inch, the poisonous miasma spewed by the Plague Ghost poured into its throat, the Shadow-Eating Ghost was scraped away by the wind and sand until its skeletal shadow faded, and the laws of the Waste Ghost and the Starving Ghost backfired on themselves.
"The law of the Weak Water must be repaid in the end; I will remember this debt."

The old woman's cloudy eyes gazed into the void.

Ghost Law was furious. The surrounding thousand-mile ghost domain instantly became viscous. Above the void, tens of thousands of ethereal beings, carrying the water-restricting ghost domain law, transformed into long black and red arms and stretched out.

The old woman, who had been looking sorrowful, finally couldn't help but reveal a strange expression.

The ghost law before us can be described as treacherous as a demon, and as cunning as a fox or a rat.

It realized that the old woman was relying on the water in the ladle, so it poured all its power into the water demon Wangxiang, who was skilled in controlling water.

But it was unaware of the weight of the Weak Water.

As the old saying goes, "The Weak Water is so deep that even a goose feather cannot float on it, and reeds will sink to the bottom," which refers to the Weak Water River, which even immortals cannot easily cross.

The old woman lifted the water ladle, took another sip of the Weak Water, and then her figure suddenly became ethereal, as if she had turned into a drop of turbid water, passing through the cage in Wang Xiang's arms, and also through the blockade of the witch priest and witch's relatives.

On the ancient Yinhe Road, only a hoarse echo remained: "A thousand years from now, I will come back to settle accounts with you for what happened today."

Upon seeing this, Xu Qing felt his mouth go dry.

The brief exchange between the old woman and Gui Lu was beyond his comprehension.

Xu Qing estimated that he would have to cultivate the Heavenly Gang Axe to at least the twenty-seventh or twenty-eighth level before he could possibly break the Ghost Law.

As the story of salvation continues, after the old woman left the Yinhe Ancient Road, she traveled around, during which time she tried to teach disciples, preach, and help people.

However, over the years, the response has been lackluster.

After a century, the old woman began to resort to any means necessary. She selected several kind-hearted disciples as candidates for deity, but within a few decades, these disciples were all killed or injured.

In times of great calamity, incense offerings are not easy to earn. Even ordinary people with pure hearts struggle to survive, let alone newly born deities who are compassionate but lack ruthless methods.

The struggle over the continuation of imperial lineage is no less intense than the struggle for imperial power.

After the old woman realized the problem, she began to patch things up everywhere. Since kind-hearted disciples are easily harmed, she decided to find those with strong lives!

If even the toughest can't withstand it, then I'll find one with more than one life!
That year, the old woman found a kind and benevolent man named Wu Qimin.

That year, Wu Qimin's identity was exposed, and rumors spread that eating a hair or a piece of flesh from him would prevent all diseases and grant him a long life. If one could eat his heart and liver, one could achieve immortality and become an immortal on the spot!

That year, the temple where Wu Qimin lived was demolished and razed to the ground. Even a single brick was looted by the people, and Wu Qimin was dismembered and eaten by them.

The *Youyang Zazu* states: "There are no Qimin people; they live in caves and eat soil, and have no men or women. When they die and are buried, their hearts do not decay, and after a hundred years, they are reborn as humans."

Later, a gourmand who loved fine food commented: "In the east, there is a country without enlightened people. When their people die, their hearts do not decay, their livers do not rot, and their legs do not bend. They can be resurrected if buried. However, their bodies cannot be eaten. If they are divided and consumed, their form and spirit will be completely destroyed, forever extinguished from the world."
After the disciples of Wuqimin, who had been entrusted with important tasks, were brutally devoured, the old woman did not give up. She then sought out the immortal people who lived for thousands of years and the Wu clan who had the ability to regenerate severed limbs.
However, without exception, none of these people met a good end.

Later, the old woman went completely mad, no longer bound by human nature, and became a mythical creature, a phoenix, and a nine-tailed fox demon.
That was until he met Xuan Yu.

At this point, the old woman had reached the point of 'death before life, destruction before construction', and she was willing to do anything.

In other words, one must find a disciple with many lives, sacrifice one of their lives to perform a secret technique, allowing them to escape the surveillance of the Three Realms and Six Paths and remain undetected by the Dharma Corpse.

This method is similar to zombies, which is equivalent to "debts disappear when a person dies". Once a person dies, they are completely wiped out from the world and become a person with no identity, no registered address, and no job.

Belongs to the Three Realms, Six Paths, and Five Elements; no such person can be found.

This kind of thing has its advantages and disadvantages. To give an example, it's like a kitten that leaves its cat's nest and runs to a dog's nest, getting covered in dog odor. Even if you take it back to its mother one day, she won't recognize it.

However, it might mean having an extra protective dog dad or dog mom.

As the revolving lantern display ended, Xu Qing looked at the old woman's corpse.

Clearly, this is an old dog that only knows how to carry its puppies around, but not how to protect them.

Xu Qing looked down on the old woman from the bottom of his heart, even though she might be an avatar of some ancient deity.

In Xu Qing's eyes, the moral standards of the clones are often equal to those of the original.

However, although the old woman's moral standards were not high, her corpse standards were not low!

Xu Qing looked at the rewards for the salvation ceremony: a Wind-Leaving Guide, a recipe for Rebirth Incense, a drop of Three Lives Stone Dew, and a Soul-Returning Pill.

Among them, the method of making the Rebirth Incense ranks as the top grade of the "Human" character, the method of making the Three Lives Stone is the top grade of the "Earth" character, and the method of making the Resurrection Pill is the middle grade of the "Earth" character.

Li Fengyin is ranked in the middle grade of the Heavenly category.

(End of this chapter)