Immortals of the End Times

Chapter 59: Tracking the Bones, From Mortal to Sainthood
With a "plop," Zhao Wuji spat out the sobering stone that was burning hot like charcoal from under his tongue.

He coughed up some dark blood, which seemed to be formed from the accumulation of impurities in his body. After spitting it out, he felt much better.

Zhao Wuji touched his neck; his throat still felt like it was burning hot, and his stomach felt slightly uncomfortable.

"This wine was a bit too much to drink in one go; it could be fatal to an ordinary person."

Spiritual wine in the cultivation world is essentially another form of poison.

He used his fingertips to perform hand seals and circulate the "Eating Technique" to suppress and refine the last of the violent spiritual energy in his body.

The ingestion technique truly deserves its place as one of the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiend Techniques. Even though the speed of refining spirit wine is not as fast as the incomplete version of the Divine Wine Ode, it can at least be used in conjunction with the refining process to achieve an effect close to that of the complete Divine Wine Ode.

If it were any other magic, he might have drunk himself to death.

"It was worth getting drunk this time."

He slowly exhaled a breath of stale air, feeling the surging spiritual power within his body, and more importantly—the golden light, a superior spiritual resource.

With the royal family about to recruit immortals, if one can deceive the examiners and pretend to have superior aptitude, one might be able to avoid the arduous labor of mining and farming, and directly join the ranks of core disciples, receiving special training.

"Hopefully this spiritual aptitude can be maintained for a little longer. I need to find an opportunity to test its limits."

Zhao Wuji pondered to himself and put away the sobering stone.

In the dog-eat-dog world of cultivation, any uncertain factor can become a fatal flaw.

He got up and inspected the bottles and jars. He roughly estimated that the containers on his body contained more than eight catties of Jinzun Ancient Wine.

If I drink another six jin, breaking through to the third level of Qi Induction will be just around the corner, which seems much easier than breaking through to the second level.

However, he had already hollowed out most of the wine inside the holes in the stone wall.

"The wine inside this hole is just the wine that seeped out from the golden goblet and was sealed with a sobering stone. It is a kind of array eye and can only be opened with the secret techniques of the Yelang Kingdom."

The true Four Treasures Wine of Heaven, Earth, Man, and Gold is still hidden deep within the formation.

Zhao Wuji walked towards the stone wall, touched the cold stone surface, and said with some regret, "It's a pity that although my ball-manipulating technique can control the sobering stone, it is ultimately not a secret technique of the Yelang Kingdom, so I cannot activate the formation and retrieve the Four Treasures Wine buried inside."

Although he sighed, he was already content and not stubborn.

In the future, if one learns the techniques of transporting, arranging, or summoning from the Seventy-Two Earthly Fiends, that will be beneficial.

Either way, the treasure behind this stone wall will eventually belong to the Zhao family.

Without lingering, he turned and went down the mountain.

Not far down the mountain, on the banks of the Chishui River, Xiaolin and Yewu had been eagerly waiting.

Seeing him return safely, her tense expression finally relaxed.

"Set off back to Beijing."

Zhao Wuji leaped onto the carriage and waved his sleeve lightly, "When we reach a bustling place along the way, we'll get more horses to rest and recuperate."

"Yes!"

"I can finally go back to see my sister."

Upon hearing this, the two men were overjoyed, their fear of the past few days vanished, and they immediately spurred their horses on.

Inside the carriage, Zhao Wuji transferred the numerous bottles and jars of liquor he carried into a wine jar inside the carriage.

He then observed the changes in the spiritual intensity of his spine while using the moonlight to peruse the insights gained from the Myriad Beasts Cave, attempting to comprehend the art of taming birds or gathering beasts.

He will destroy these classic texts and the books left by the old fox after he has finished studying them.

After all, both of them were on the Empress Dowager's blacklist.

After returning, these books should not be displayed in the official residence.

After Xiaolin and Yewu returned to the capital, he would use his dream interpretation skills to modify their short-term memories, turning their search for wine in Yelang Kingdom into a pipe dream.

This quest for wine involves the death of the White Bone Sect's leader and is intertwined with the feud with the White Bone Sect.

If not handled properly, all his efforts to cover up the situation with the Wajin gang would be in vain, and there would be no need to involve two ordinary people.

Therefore, some risks should be eliminated by him personally.

The wheels rolled on, quickly disappearing into the distance, carrying the unfinished destiny of immortality, along the path they had come from, vanishing into the mortal world.

It had been almost two days since Zhao Wuji and his group left by carriage.

Inside the Wajin Gang's Gathering Hall in Chishui Town, the air was as still as iron.

A charred and shriveled female skeleton lay across the hall.

Hu Si and other gang leaders stood with their heads bowed, their backs soaked with cold sweat, and their legs trembling like leaves.

The purple-faced old man sat majestically at the head of the table, his lion-like body casting a chilling shadow. A cold snort boomed like thunder, and everyone immediately knelt on the ground, their foreheads pressed against the blue bricks. "Zuo... Zuo Zhenzun," Hu Si stammered, "That man was indeed wearing the Tianji Pavilion's waist token. He must be a member of the Tianji Pavilion without a doubt."

"Oh?" The old man's eyes flashed with a sharp light. "Tell me, what does the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion's waist token look like?"

The four of them froze, racking their brains to recall, but the memory was like trying to see through a fog—they couldn't make it clear no matter how hard they tried.
“The waist tag seems to have the words ‘Heavenly Secret’ engraved on it,” a member of the gang said in a trembling voice.

"fart!"

The purple-faced old man roared like thunder, his sound waves transforming into tangible energy that sent the speaker flying three zhang backward, crashing into a pillar and spitting blood.

The others looked ashen-faced and kowtowed repeatedly, their foreheads slamming against the bricks until they cracked and blood flowed freely.

The old man stood up with a sharp look in his eyes, walked to the skeleton that had been dug out of the ground, picked up the charred and broken skull with many gaps, examined it in front of his eyes, and said coldly.

"The people of Tianji Pavilion rarely appear in the martial world, and even less often do they make a move; they are extremely mysterious."

They do not carry any items that would reveal their identity when they walk around.

How could someone like that be allowed to figure out his background, you bunch of good-for-nothings?

Hu Si and the others looked bewildered upon hearing this. If they weren't from the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, then who could they be?
The old man's eagle eyes swept over the crowd like lightning. "The person who could kill Peng Lingzhu and then deliberately frame him must be afraid of retaliation from my White Bone Sect. However, the method he used to destroy the corpse was too simple and backfired."

Do you know what these corrosive substances are?

Hu Si and the others' pupils shrank suddenly. Before they could figure out the key, they suddenly saw the old man clench his fist.

"Oh!"

As the blood mist exploded, Hu Si and the others were torn apart, and several skeletons fell to the ground with a thud.

The old man flicked his sleeves and turned away, stepping over the shattered bones and bloodstains on the ground, sneering: "Then let you fools serve as the Spirit Lord's guides."

The bone dust drifted away in the wind, and the Left True Venerable of the White Bone Sect casually scattered the ashes. His black robe billowed as he swiftly followed.

Before long, they arrived near the banks of the Chishui River.

He glanced coldly at the faint tire tracks on the riverbank; the tracks themselves were nowhere to be found.

The bone-tracking technique has now lost its trail.

However, based on the information given by his gang members, he had confirmed that the mysterious man possessed the map of the buried wine and was also after the Four Treasures Wine of Yelang Kingdom.

"Although the Black Jade Spirit Master of the Buried Wine Map is dead, his death was somewhat worthwhile," he murmured hoarsely.

Although the current leads have run cold, he has a clearer direction for his investigation.

"People from the Xuan Kingdom's imperial palace? That substance that corrodes bones is simple, but it's extremely similar to the bone-dissolving powder I saw many years ago..."

Zuo Zhenzun squinted at the spot where the tire tracks disappeared, and suddenly let out a cold laugh.

As the True Venerable of the White Bone Sect, how could he not have seen the Bone-Melting Powder, a strange medicine that deals with bones, and even know its specific origin?

He pulled out a piece of the Black Jade Spirit Master's hand bone from his robe, crushed the bone into ashes, silently chanted an incantation, and let the incantation blend into the bone powder as a medium to begin tracking.

This bone-tracking method can only track targets within a certain range; if the distance is too far, it cannot be tracked.

However, as long as we follow the clues leading to the Xuan Kingdom's palace, we will soon be able to find the real culprit who possesses the buried wine map.

It was at this juncture that the recruitment of immortal beings by the Linglang Grotto-heaven gradually began, with the arrival of several cultivators from the grotto-heaven.

Inside the Penglai Palace of the Xuan Kingdom.

Consort Li respectfully presented the Crimson Sun Lingzhi to the purple-robed female cultivator seated on the high throne.

As she lightly touched the surface of the box with her fingertips, she suddenly smiled sweetly at Emperor Zhaoming: "Your Majesty, this magical object is truly wondrous. I only touched it lightly, yet I felt a warm current flowing through my meridians."

Her peripheral vision swept over the veiled Flower Peak Master, "It's just like the feeling when Physician Zhao performed acupuncture on me last month."

The silver needles were clearly cold, but once they entered my body, they felt like the morning sun, warming my entire body.

"This is exactly what I need. Your kindness has been appreciated."

Hua Fengzhu suddenly said calmly.

Consort Li stopped talking at the right moment, then lowered her head to serve tea, trying to figure out what the immortal senior was thinking.

Hua Fengzhu's veil fluttered slightly, and her clear, cold voice flowed like an icy spring: "In past dynasties, there were many mortal doctors who cultivated Taoism and refined elixirs, and their ultimate achievements surpassed those of ordinary cultivators."

Ge Hong authored "Elbow Formulas for Emergencies," Baopuzi refined the Nine-Turn Elixir, and Tao Hongjing further authored "True Teachings" and "Collected Annotations on the Materia Medica," earning him the title of "Prime Minister in the Mountains."

She tapped her fingers lightly on the table. "I have never heard of any extraordinary talents among the imperial physicians of your Xuan Kingdom."

"Does this Physician Zhao possess some unique skill?"

Consort Li was secretly delighted, knowing that this senior immortal had taken a liking to something.
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(End of this chapter)