Cultivation of Immortality: This is what unorthodox methods are like.

Nestled among the mountains, along the Nu River:

Wu Yong, Qian Xiuyue, and the others escaped from the bottom of the river, their faces pale.

Those who entered the river with them numbered over a thousand martial arts masters, hundreds of new-method cultivators, and dozens of old-method cultivators.

They spent the night at the bottom of the river. More than half of the thousands of martial arts masters were killed or injured, and more than half of the hundreds of cultivators using the new cultivation method were also lost.

As for the old-style monks, the losses were relatively small, with only two dying.

Whoosh!

Whoosh!

Handfuls of dark sand piled up.

Wu Yong said happily, "Sister in red, you had a good haul last night, about a tenth more than last time."

Zhao Hongyi replied expressionlessly, "Hmm!"

Qian Xiuyue, standing nearby, had a sudden thought: "Sister in red, what's wrong? You don't seem very interested?"

Zhao Hongyi put away the black sand in the box and sighed, "Several new cultivators in my family died last night."

Wu Yong frowned.

This is the Lower Temple of Drowning, and outside the market there are millions of people seeking immortality.

Wild cultivators are as numerous as hairs on a cow, and there are even more spirits and monsters roaming in the mountains.

It's normal for cultivators to die!

"Are those cultivators very important?"

Zhao Hongyi shook her head: "It's just a dispensable role."

"But they were killed by the old-style monks."

Upon hearing this, Wu Yong's expression changed slightly.

He had been hanging out with Zhao Hongyi for a long time and knew that Zhao Hongyi had a family behind her and that the senior brother she had sided with might support the new method of cultivating immortality.

They also know that the new cultivation methods are expanding and constantly clashing with the old cultivation methods.

It doesn't matter if cultivators of the new Dharma kill cultivators of the new Dharma.

However, the old law punishing the new law, or the new law punishing the old law, can easily cause some turmoil.

Zhao Hongyi sighed, "My family had a cultivator who practiced ancient methods to investigate the enemy's techniques, but he was cursed and killed by the enemy."

"My family wants me to go back and investigate."

Wu Yong smiled and said, "I'll go with you."

Zhao Hongyi nodded: "Okay!"

"Xiuyue, you stay at the manor and arrange for some martial artists to be brought up the mountain."

"good!"

Early in the morning, Zhao Hongyi and the others had no interest in collecting purple energy and hurriedly returned to the manor.

Qian Xiuyue distributed Qingfu (a type of in-game currency) to the surviving martial artists as a reward.

Arrange for people to serve the new cultivators.

Finally, arrangements were made for those who cultivated immortality using the old methods.

After finishing their work, they discovered that Zhao Hongyi and Wu Yong had left.

With Zhao Hongyi away, Qian Xiuyue felt a sense of relief.

Since last year, she has become increasingly dissatisfied with Zhao Hongyi.

On the one hand, it's because Zhao Hongyi is too domineering, assigning her more and more tasks, leaving her with almost no time to practice her magic.

At first, she could practice about two spells a month.

But now, she can barely master one spell a month, or even any spell at all.

Although the number of people in Mingming Manor is increasing and the speed of resource gathering is getting faster and faster, her cultivation speed is getting slower and slower.

In the past, when she was practicing magic, she could use the manor's resources at will.

Now, let alone using it, she also has to constantly hand over various resources.

What displeased her even more was:

She could clearly sense that Zhao Hongyi favored the cultivators of the new cultivation method.

Every day, she would set aside a certain amount of time to study various spells with the new cultivators, breaking down the spells of the lower academy into smaller subdivisions, and even the fundamental spells of the lower academy, so that people who did not understand a single Daoist scripture could cultivate them.

If anything goes wrong, Zhao Hongyi will not reprimand the new cultivators, but will instead scold them.

On the contrary, Zhao Hongyi herself spends a lot of resources refining her magic every day, and she doesn't waste time discussing spells or fundamental laws with others.

A rare moment of leisure.

Qian Xiuyue thought for a moment and then contacted Wang Quan: "Are you there?"

Are you busy?

Wang Quan: "Here, I'm studying the Taoist scriptures."

Qian Xiuyue: "I haven't read Taoist scriptures in a long time!"

Wang Quan: "It's alright, I'll read it slowly later!"

Qian Xiuyue: "Are you free this afternoon?"

Wang Quan: "No time, I still need to read the Taoist scriptures!"

Qian Xiuyue was silent for a moment, then asked, "What about tomorrow?"

"Tomorrow morning I'm going with some people to find an auspicious burial site deep in the mountains to hold a funeral."

"oh!"

After chatting for a while, Qian Xiuyue suddenly said, "I regret being with Zhao Hongyi."

In the library, Wang Quan paused for a moment, pondered, and replied, "Come back if you regret it."

"The lower temple is large enough for you to cultivate in peace."

Qian Xiuyue: "Would you be interested in building an estate?"

Wang Quan: "Not interested."

"Right now, I only want to study Taoist scriptures and improve my magical powers."

"I'll think about the manor when my magical powers are fully developed."

Qian Xiuyue: "Oh!"

"I'm going to study the Taoist scriptures!"

"Um!"

After ending her contact with Wang Quan, Qian Xiuyue took a Taoist scripture to study.

She bought this scripture from the Lower House at a great cost, and she used to study it every day.

Now... the Taoist scriptures are covered in dust.

She shook off the dust from the Taoist scriptures and began to study them carefully.

A quarter of an hour...

Half an hour...

One hour...

Qian Xiuyue was bewildered.

Because she discovered that she simply couldn't keep up with her studies.

She couldn't calm down.

All she could think about was building her own manor and gathering a group of handsome young men.

Let the boys gather the morning dew and sun to brew fine wine, and let them gather the morning and evening glows to weave a garment of clouds.

She would invite a group of friends to get together every now and then.

The crowd gathered moonlight, which transformed into beautiful women who danced gracefully, and then transformed into the moon to play with the fairies.

"Don't let your mind wander!"

"If the royal family is working hard, then I should too."

Qian Xiuyue forced herself to study the Taoist scriptures again.

-----------------

After finishing his conversation with Qian Xiuyue, Wang Quan checked the message left by the Taoist nun who was in charge of the ceremony in the Sutra Repository.

The master of ceremonies, a Taoist nun, said that she had received a big order early this morning—a funeral.

"Normally, they'd contact you when they're buried!"

"But this time the situation is different."

"You and the Dreamy Taoist Nun need to make a move tomorrow."

After considering it for a moment, Wang Quan replied to the Taoist nun in charge of the ceremony: "What do you need me to do?"

The master of ceremonies, a Taoist nun, said: "Today you will study several kinds of magic related to feng shui, earth veins, rituals, and the underworld."

"Our client this time did not master a single Taoist scripture, but he practiced the fundamental methods of three thousand versions of Taoist scriptures."

"After he dies, he will surely become something extraordinary."

Wang Quan was taken aback: "Something's wrong?"

This thing is not recorded in the Taoist scriptures; it's the first time he's ever heard of it.

The master of ceremonies, a Taoist nun, had investigated Wang Quan and knew that he had never walked the streets before, so she quickly explained:

"When you first arrived at the lower temple, the instructors and those who explained things to you all said that you were not allowed to study the fundamental teachings that went beyond your own version of the Taoist scriptures, right?"

Wang Quan nodded: "That's right!"

"But... according to the observations of some of my friends, it seems that practicing it doesn't cause any major harm; it just weakens the power of the fundamental method a little bit, that's all."

The emcee, a Taoist nun, chuckled, "How long have you been observing?"

"We've been observing this for over twenty years."

Royal power.....

"The greater the difference between the version of the Taoist scriptures one practices and the number of scriptures one possesses, the more likely one is to become abnormal."

"If one is not abnormal while alive, one will certainly become abnormal after death."

"These anomalies are difficult to deal with; only feng shui, ley lines, rituals, and underworld magic can permanently kill them."

"Other methods can only kill them temporarily, but after a few years, the killed anomalies will revive."

"The family that was in charge this time was afraid that the deceased would become abnormal, so they asked us to find a place with good feng shui to suppress the corpse and prevent it from becoming abnormal."

"We'll be encountering this kind of business more and more often in the future."

"So I wanted to take this opportunity to show you around."

Wang Quan: "Okay!"