Mortal: The Path to Immortality

After obtaining the manual for the "Eternal Spring Skill," Lu Nanzhu, feeling that he still had plenty of time, immediately chose to return to the cave.

The cave was quiet and deserted, with the occasional dripping sound of water seeping from the stone walls. Lu Nanzhu brushed the dust off the stone platform, sat cross-legged, and began to study the contents of the few sheets of paper word by word. This was the first step on the path to immortality, and there was no room for carelessness.

About half an hour later, after he had memorized most of the incantation, he took out a bottle from his pocket, uncorked it, and poured out a few pale blue pills.

These pills are called "Jade Ring Pills," which are the cultivation resources he has accumulated bit by bit since he entered the sect, through field work.

When he was reading through the family records, he noticed a certain kind of pill that aided in cultivation, and its form was extremely similar to the Jade Ring Pill.

Later, taking advantage of the opportunity to help his senior brother Zhang in the hall knead the pills, he deliberately kept a close eye on things, not only figuring out the formula for the medicine, but also taking the opportunity to check its production process.

Only then did Lu Nanzhu finally confirm his suspicions: this "martial arts holy medicine," which was only used by the elite inner disciples of the Seven Mysteries Sect to strengthen their bodies and break through the bottleneck of external martial arts, was actually the kind of medicine for beginners in Qi cultivation mentioned in his family's notes.

It's both ironic and fortunate.

He took a deep breath, pinched a pill, and put it in his mouth, letting the warm medicinal power flow through his body. Taking advantage of this medicinal power, Lu Nanzhu began to circulate the "Eternal Spring Technique." After a while, he suddenly felt a warmth in his dantian, just like when he touched the "little inkstone" before. However, when he stopped circulating the technique, this feeling disappeared.

Once the effects of the medicine wore off, it was getting late, so Lu Nanzhu decided to stop cultivating and return to his residence before nightfall.

Before that, he decided to take a detour to the back mountain to check on the blue seed he had planted earlier.

He planted that blue jade ring grass seed with the intention of giving it a try. It was a rare species that he had selected after using the "small inkstone" to deduce several generations of its existence.

He pushed aside the tall bushes used for cover and came to an open space.

At a single glance, Lu Nanzhu's pupils contracted slightly. Where was even a trace of the jade ring grass that had once been a tiny, verdant seedling?

Its leaves are several times larger than those of ordinary euonymus, as thick as a palm, and the edges are faintly translucent with a dark green fluorescent light.

What surprised Lu Nanzhu even more was its growth rate.

Even with careful nurturing, it would take at least three to five years for a common jade ring grass to grow to this size, but this seed was only sown three months ago.

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"It actually worked!"

He calmed his excitement, carefully moved the bushes back to their original positions, meticulously wiped away his footprints, and then casually returned to his lodgings.

For the next ten days or so, Lu Nanzhu behaved much as usual, except that he no longer went to the training ground to practice. When others asked, he only said that he was not feeling well and needed to rest. In reality, with the few Jade Ring Pills he had left, he devoted all his spare time to practicing the Everlasting Spring Technique.

However, the difficulty of the path to immortality far exceeded his expectations.

With his accumulated Jade Ring Pills nearly depleted, simple arduous cultivation was far too inefficient for his body, whose aptitude was unknown.

One day, Lu Nanzhu finally got his monthly break. He avoided others, carried a heavy medicine basket on his back, and went to a secluded cave once again.

"I don't even know if I have a wood spirit root." Lu Nanzhu set up a simple medicine furnace, shook his head self-deprecatingly, "If I had a pseudo-spiritual root like Han Li, the pills I've accumulated wouldn't even be enough to fill a tooth gap. I have to make the worst-case scenario plan first and be prepared to practice the Everlasting Spring Technique for a year."

Having said that, he took out the strange jade ring grass that had already been harvested. This exotic species, after being deduced by "Little Inkstone," had a faint, bitter fragrance flowing from its roots and stems. He carefully peeled off the seed pods and put them into his pocket; they were his future hope.

Then, following Senior Brother Zhang's method of kneading pills, he began to process the main ingredients and set up the fire to start the furnace.

After several failures, it took an hour before Lu Nanzhu finally managed to refine a few batches of specially made Jade Ring Pills.

The pills were a darker color, with marble-like patterns on them.

"These pills should be enough for me to reach the Qi Induction stage, as long as I have spiritual roots..."

Lu Nanzhu took a deep breath to calm his somewhat chaotic thoughts. He tidied up his utensils, found a flat stone slab, sat cross-legged, and popped three of his homemade Jade Ring Pills into his mouth at once.

After taking the pill, his expression changed slightly. This homemade pill was quite potent, far exceeding the original Jade Ring Pill he had accumulated before. A violent energy surged through his meridians like a flood bursting its banks.

He dared not slack off, enduring the discomfort, and desperately began to circulate the mantra of the Everlasting Spring Exercise. Once, twice, three times...

Just as he was about to successfully smooth out his meridians and calm the medicinal effects, Lu Nanzhu felt a soft "hum" from deep within his dantian, as if some barrier had been shattered. The heat that had been flowing through his meridians was instantly absorbed into his dantian, where it condensed into spiritual energy.

The feeling was like withered trees coming back to life; the previously blurry world instantly became clear.

"Qi Refining Level 1, and I actually have a Wood Spiritual Root! I've succeeded!!"

Lu Nanzhu opened his eyes, his gaze sharp and restrained. He couldn't care less about being happy; he immediately took out the "small inkstone" and sprinkled a few seeds of jade ring grass on it.

Within that secret realm, the originally short spirit trees had grown taller, their branches thicker. To his even greater surprise, the number of translucent spirit fruits adorning the treetops had increased by more than a dozen.

After touching those transparent spiritual fruits, his long-held conjecture became clearer: the height of this spiritual tree corresponded precisely to the "limit" of his deductive abilities.

The spiritual fruits at the lower levels record the results after one or two generations of deduction. Previously, the spiritual fruits at the highest point of the spiritual tree recorded the results after nearly ten generations of deduction. Now, the highest deduction limit of this spiritual tree has been pushed forward several generations.

"However, based on previous attempts, this deduction is like a random lottery, and it doesn't always yield satisfactory results. Most offspring either lose their medicinal properties or grow into strange and useless weeds. Now, raising the deduction limit of the spirit tree only makes the 'prize pool' bigger and the variables more numerous."

Lu Nanzhu stroked his chin, his divine sense scanning the dozen or so crystal-clear fruits repeatedly, intending to pick a satisfactory one from this pile of random "futures".

"Now that my cultivation level has improved, my divine sense should be able to stabilize, right? At worst, I can just sleep in this cave for a day!"

He steeled his resolve, then focused his divine sense into a hand, reaching for the fruit he had already set his sights on, and plucked it. This time, he only felt a slight numbness at the back of his head; the expected excruciating pain did not strike.

"Eh!? It's alright, that's great! It seems that the first level of Qi Refining really did significantly improve the resilience of the soul!"

Lu Nanzhu was overjoyed. The feeling of not having to worry about opening blind boxes made him eager to try it.

"One more, please!"

So he regained his senses and picked another fruit.

"Oh no!! This fruit... is poisonous!!"

Lu Nanzhu felt a sense of foreboding and staggered, fainting again.