To comprehend all laws and attain immortality

After achieving the Core Formation, Gu Fan's lifespan increased to five hundred years, and the four years felt like a long slumber.

For the past four years, he has been diligently gathering qi every day. If any disciples he finds worthy come to Wendao Peak, he will not hesitate to offer them some pointers, as a way to refresh their knowledge and learn something new.

For an outer disciple, receiving guidance from a Foundation Establishment cultivator is already a great fortune, let alone guidance from a Golden Core elder. This made Gu Fan's reputation grow stronger within the sect.

If he hadn't once received the Divine Firmament Decree, Xu Changsheng would have suspected that he wanted to compete with him for the position of Sect Leader.

On this day, the sky was clear and cloudless.

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Gu Fan held the jade bottle and used the Qi-gathering technique to draw strands of pure light from the sky into the jade bottle.

After a while.

As the sunlight fades, the vital energy becomes impure and mixed, forcing the gathering of vital energy to cease.

Gu Fan probed the jade bottle with his divine sense and saw fine golden light swirling at the bottom. It was less than 20% complete before it could be used to refine the golden elixir, and Gu Fan frowned slightly.

"At this rate, it would probably take nearly forty years to gather even a single strand."

Although he had expected it, the slow pace of collecting and refining the essence still gave Gu Fan a headache.

This is actually related to the decline of spiritual energy in the Qionghua Realm.

If the spiritual energy of heaven and earth is abundant, the speed of gathering energy will be much faster. Legend has it that in ancient times, when spiritual energy gathered, various strange phenomena would even be born. Cultivators could see these phenomena and suddenly comprehend the Great Dao. The essence of heaven and earth could be gathered at will.

In the Qionghua Realm today, let alone extraordinary phenomena, even sacred sites are almost nowhere to be seen.

However, for most cultivators, the risk of injury during the opening of the Golden Core is the key issue; gathering Qi is not the problem.

Even in the Qionghua Realm, cultivators who want to open the nine orifices have almost disappeared.

There's no other reason than that once one opens the seven orifices or lower, even if one shatters the elixir to form an infant, their path to enlightenment has reached its limit.

This is because the enlightenment not only enhances magical power, but also spiritual consciousness.

Those below the seven orifices are like incomplete people, lacking strong enough spiritual consciousness, and are destined to be unable to cultivate to the level of a deity.

However, the current upper limit of Qionghua Realm is only Nascent Soul, and there are no Nascent Soul late stage cultivators, so no one cares about this.

Rather than risk severing one's cultivation path by refining the Golden Elixir, it is better to shatter the elixir and form an infant once one is confident of success, thus enjoying a thousand-year lifespan.

Gu Fanzhi is determined to achieve immortality, so he will not be content to stop at the seven orifices. This means that he will have to spend more time on absorbing qi.

Although he can currently gather three streams of essence at the same time, he will need six more in the future. If it is all done at this slow pace, he may waste hundreds of years.

As if seeing through Gu Fan's worries, Chang Yuan, who was perched on his wrist pretending to be a bracelet, said hoarsely, "Boy, if you feel that gathering Qi is too slow, I have a way to help you."

"Hmm?" Gu Fan raised an eyebrow, immediately becoming alert.

He didn't believe Chang Yuan would be so kind.

Chang Yuan flew down from the arm, hovering in the air. His pair of snake eyes looked down at Gu Fan with disdain, and he sneered, "I took pity on you because you were born in this place where spiritual energy is declining. I wanted to lend you a hand, but you don't even appreciate it."

Gu Fan remained unmoved upon hearing this, simply watching Chang Yuan quietly, waiting for him to continue.

The two stared at each other for a long time. Suddenly, Chang Yuan lowered his head and sighed, "Alright, I also want to leave this wretched place as soon as possible."

As they were talking, Chang Yuan's tone turned melancholic as he said resentfully, "Several thousand years! Although I am a Void Refining Demon Venerable, I am only destined to live for ten thousand years. I have wasted thousands of years here. Jue Yunzi truly deserves to die."

Gu Fan nodded slightly, then asked, "Speaking of which... senior, how were you imprisoned back then?"

According to what Chang Yuan had said before, he was ambushed by Jue Yunzi while he was seriously injured, which is why he was suppressed in the Luofu Immortal Sect.

So here's the question.

Since Jue Yunzi was able to successfully ambush Chang Yuan, his cultivation level must be quite high. Was suppressing Chang Yuan in the Qian Yuan Soul-Slaying Formation really just to extract his blood and flesh essence?

Gu Fan always felt that Chang Yuan was hiding something.

Upon hearing this, Chang Yuan lazily lay down and rolled his eyes at Gu Fan.

"What else could it be for but the opportunity to advance further?"

"But don't even think about it, kid. I almost died when I went in there, let alone someone as weak as you."

Gu Fan had a sudden thought and made a mental note of it.

"An opportunity that Chang Yuan is interested in must be something extraordinary."

"Jue Yunzi's suppression of him is more likely due to a hidden opportunity than the loss of his flesh and blood essence."

As Chang Yuan said, Gu Fan was merely a Golden Core cultivator and didn't even have the right to be interested, so he didn't ask any further questions.

"Then what you just said about gathering Qi..."

Now that Chang Yuan had given an explanation, Gu Fan also wanted to know how to quickly gather Qi.

Upon hearing this, Chang Yuan smiled smugly and slowly said, enunciating each word clearly: "Demon core."

"The essence of heaven and earth is transformed into all things. Demon beasts absorb the spiritual energy of the sun and moon to cultivate, and their demon cores are the concentrated source of essence."

"If you can kill a demon and obtain its core, and refine the essence within the core, you can replenish what you need."

Gu Fan fell into deep thought upon hearing this.

Chang Yuan's words were not without reason.

Unlike a cultivator's golden core, a demon core cannot comprehend cultivation techniques, nor can it be used with elixirs. It relies entirely on absorbing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth over many years, making it a natural secret method of absorbing energy. A demon core is the essence of a demon beast.

In fact, the cultivators of Qionghua Realm had considered using demon cores to refine essence, but ultimately gave up for two reasons.

Firstly, the essence in a demon core is extremely mixed, even containing the malevolent energy of demonic beasts. It is very difficult to extract the essence unless there is a special secret method. Otherwise, the time required to extract the essence and expel the malevolent energy is not much less than that required to gather energy.

Secondly, demon cores are only found in third-tier demon beasts, and third-tier demon beasts are not common in the Qionghua Realm. Moreover, killing demons to obtain demon cores is many times more dangerous than gathering qi, so few Golden Core cultivators kill demons to obtain demon cores for the sake of essence and qi.

Thinking of this, Gu Fan couldn't help but shake his head.

Even if each essence takes forty years to consume, he still has enough lifespan left, so there's no need to take any risks for the time being.

Seeing that Gu Fan remained unmoved, Chang Yuan shook his head helplessly and sighed, "I originally intended to pass on a refining secret technique to you, but who knew you would be so timid? Never mind then!"

Gu Fan remained silent and waited until the next morning to practice the Qi-gathering secret technique as usual.

......

Time flies, time flies.

Ten years have passed in the blink of an eye.

On this day, Gu Fan had just finished his cultivation when he suddenly sensed movement coming from the Azure Lion Ring.

With a thought, a piece of mutton-fat jade appeared in his hand, emitting a bright light while trembling slightly.

Gu Fan's expression immediately turned solemn, and he looked up towards the south.

This jade pendant is the yang jade of the yin-yang jade pendants. The yin and yang jade pendants are a set of ritual implements. If one of them is crushed, the other will generate a response.

Yang Yu is in Gu Fan's hands, while Yin Yu is kept by Song Lian after she temporarily takes over the Divine Firmament Token.

The unusual condition of the jade pendant undoubtedly indicates that something has happened to Song Lian.

Without hesitation, Gu Fan got up and flew towards Jade Void Peak.

Song Lian will temporarily assume the position of the true successor. If there are any missions to be taken outside, they will certainly be assigned by the sect leader.

Gu Fan focused on his cultivation, leaving all decisions to Song Lian unless there were major matters. This had gone smoothly for many years, so he was unaware of the details of Song Lian's recent trip.

A moment later, Gu Fan landed in front of the Lingxiao Palace.

The disciples serving in front of the hall saw Gu Fan and immediately bowed in greeting. Seeing his serious expression, they were even more respectful.

Gu Fan solemnly explained his purpose, and then sent his disciple to inform him.

Soon, the disciple returned, bowed, and said, "The Sect Leader is aware of the Elder's arrival and invites the Elder to enter the Xiaoguang Cave for a discussion."

Gu Fan immediately frowned.

Xiaoguang Cave Heaven is the cultivation place of the Supreme Elder Guiyun Sword Lord. Apart from the Sect Master, no other Golden Core cultivators may disturb it rashly.

Now that Gu Fan is being asked to go to Xiaoguang Cave to tell the story, it's clear that there's a lot of trouble behind it.

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