Immortality begins with inheriting the myriad arts of cultivation.

"That demonic cultivator is dead!"

Without checking his own condition, Li Ping's gaze first fell on the charred human-shaped body at the center of the explosion.

The other party was right at the center of the explosion, and had even had their storage bag taken by him. Without any defensive magic artifacts to withstand the power of the talisman, their situation was far worse than his.

Even if the opponent is in the late Foundation Establishment stage, there is absolutely no way they could survive such a lightning and fire explosion.

However, just to be on the safe side, in case the other party has left behind any remnant soul, blood beads, or other means of possession.

Li Ping clapped his hands again, causing a small sword in his storage bag to fly out and frantically slash at the charred humanoid figure, intending to grind it to dust.

But just as the strike was about to begin, suddenly—

The flying sword seemed to have struck something hard, and was knocked away with a "whoosh".

"Huh, what's that?"

Li Ping noticed with his divine sense that it seemed to be a piece of blood-red armor that had fallen out of the demonic cultivator's body.

"To be completely unharmed in such an explosion, and to be struck by a flying sword without suffering the slightest damage," Li Ping couldn't help but wonder what those blood-red armor plates were.

Anyway, it's definitely not an ordinary product.

Ignoring the blood-red armor plates, Li Ping continued to wield his flying sword, striking the humanoid charcoal. It must be said that the charcoal's hardness was extraordinary; each strike of the flying sword only managed to damage it slightly.

Of course, if it weren't so hard, it wouldn't have been possible to leave a complete corpse after being subjected to such lightning and fire impacts.

But Li Ping was in no hurry. While he was slashing at the charred humanoid figure, he was also using the power of the Nourishing Life Technique to heal his injuries.

He knew the importance of finishing off the demonic cultivator; he wouldn't approach until he had reduced the demonic cultivator to ashes, lest he be tricked by the other party.

……

"My cave dwelling..." While dealing with the aftermath of the demonic cultivator's death, Li Ping spared a glance at his own cave dwelling, a look of helplessness in his eyes.

As far as the eye could see, within a thousand acres, not a single hair remained.

The palaces and houses were all burned to ashes. The 200-acre spiritual herb garden that he had carefully cultivated was also reduced to a pile of black ash. The pond in the center of the cave was reduced to a pit, and the spiritual fish in it had probably turned into spring mud to nourish the flowers.

Li Ping could only be thankful that after the beast tide, he had developed the good habit of being ready to run away at any time, so he would put his truly important things in a storage bag and carry them with him.

Of course, this does not mean that his losses were small.

The nearly one hundred second-tier mid-grade spirit talismans alone were worth tens of thousands of spirit stones in total, not to mention the second-tier high-grade magic weapon 'Turtle Spirit Shield' that was blown to ashes.

He's not fighting with magic, he's clearly throwing spirit stones at people!

"My four years' worth of supplies," Li Ping sighed slightly. "It's no wonder you died under such an offensive."

After all, even a genuine second-tier mid-grade spirit talisman maker like Meng Qingyi would probably need decades to accumulate so many talismans without a 100% success rate.

"Hopefully, what this demonic cultivator has can make up for my losses! The entire fortune of a late-stage Foundation Establishment demonic cultivator must be considerable!" Li Ping thought to himself, a hint of anticipation creeping in.

Instead of immediately checking the contents of the two storage bags he had obtained from the other party, Li Ping continued to use his divine sense to examine the damage to the cave.

To his surprise, the power of this explosion failed to shake the cave's formation or destroy the underground second-tier high-grade spiritual vein.

He was secretly relieved by the result.

The formation itself is a minor issue; if he accidentally damages the spiritual veins of Immortal Peach Mountain, he'll have no choice but to flee before the Meng family demands compensation.

"Is it because of the demonic cultivator's blood-red crystal artifact?" Li Ping recalled the scene of the previous battle and had a guess in his mind.

In fact, he guessed correctly. After Yan Kun entered his cave, he was worried that Li Ping would activate the magic array to escape, so he used the blood-red crystal ball magic artifact to isolate him, forming an independent space to contain Li Ping.

As a result, after the talisman was activated, the power that scattered after the explosion was completely blocked by the blood-red crystal ball.

After the crimson crystal ball was blasted into ashes, the remaining small portion of its power impacted the cave's magic array, but naturally it couldn't affect the array much, let alone destroy it.

……

"What kind of cultivation technique did this demonic cultivator practice? How come his body is still so tough even though he's dead!" Li Ping exclaimed in disbelief.

He wielded his flying sword and hacked away for several hours, almost breaking the sword itself, before finally chopping the charred humanoid figure left behind by the demonic cultivator into minced meat.

Then, he cast several fireballs with a hand seal, completely obliterating them.

Seeing that there was still no movement, Li Ping confirmed that the demonic cultivator had indeed died under the lightning and fire long ago, and his act of reducing the demonic cultivator to ashes was completely unnecessary.

After several hours, Li Ping's injuries had mostly healed. He then changed into a white robe and got up to walk towards the pool of demonic ash.

With a flick of his sleeve, he dispersed the ashes, revealing the intact, blood-red armor plates beneath.

The blood-red armor plates have a smooth surface and mysterious patterns around them. Judging from their appearance, they seem to be parts of some kind of armor.

"What exactly is this thing?" Li Ping waved his hand, and his magic power controlled the blood-red armor pieces to float into his hand.

But the moment the armor plate landed in his hands—

A crimson ball of light shot out directly from the armor plate. Before Li Ping could even react, the crimson ball of light had already stuck to his face and then passed right through him.

At the same time, an extremely excited voice rang in Li Ping's mind: "Haha... I never expected that the Western Wilderness cultivation world would have a 'Body of Immortality'! This is truly a stroke of luck! Kid, you destroyed my body, so your Body of Immortality is mine now... Hahaha!"

"What?" Li Ping was shocked. He immediately sat cross-legged and focused all his attention on resisting the other party's attempt to possess him.

The demonic cultivator in the trench did not hide his remnant soul on his body, but rather inside the blood-red armor plates, catching Li Ping off guard and taking him completely by surprise.

After all, who would have thought that these blood-red armor plates contained a secret that could allow a remnant soul to find peace?

But what Li Ping didn't expect was that after the demonic cultivator's remnant soul rushed into his body, it failed to reach his sea of ​​consciousness and start a battle to seize his body. Instead, it was directly sucked into the purple space in his sea of ​​consciousness.

"Where am I? How did I get here?"

Enveloped in endless purple energy, the demonic cultivator's soul screamed in terror, but did not struggle for long.

"Boom!"

Amidst the purple aura, a bolt of lightning appeared out of nowhere, striking the demonic cultivator's soul squarely, blasting it into fragments and causing it to dissipate.

At the very moment his soul dissipated and he died completely, a blood-red stream of light, resembling a worm, shot out from the demonic cultivator's soul, seemingly trying to attach itself to the soul of some creature.

But in the Purple Qi Space, there is only a vast expanse of purple energy; how could a soul possess it?

Before long, the crimson light was completely worn away and disappeared into the purple aura space.

"Phew! What a cunning demonic cultivator!" After a close call, Li Ping couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

At the same time, he couldn't help but wonder what that blood-red light that burst forth from the demonic cultivator's soul was.

When he saw the blood-red light burst forth, he had a vague premonition that if it were to attach itself to his soul, it would probably not be a good thing.

Fortunately, the blood-red light was eventually dissipated by the purple aura space and failed to attach itself to his soul.

……

Having been frightened by the remnant soul of the demonic cultivator, Li Ping became even more curious about the blood-red armor plates.

After all, as far as he knew, even a second-tier high-grade magic weapon, unless it was specially crafted, could not allow a soul to hide inside.

These blood-red armor plates are also incredibly hard, further highlighting their preciousness!

"Could it be a magic weapon?" Thinking of this, Li Ping couldn't help but feel a little excited.

A wisp of divine sense cautiously probed into the blood-red armor plate and successfully refined it.

In an instant, long passages of text and images flooded Li Ping's mind...

After a long while, Li Ping opened his eyes, looked at the blood-red armor plate in his hand, and showed an expression of disbelief.

These blood-red armor plates were actually jade slips for transmitting skills, which contained a top-tier dual cultivation technique for both physical and magical bodies, called the "Nine Tribulations True Spirit Holy Scripture"!

For now, Li Ping can only see the cultivation method for the first tribulation. Only after he has mastered the first tribulation will he be able to see more content.

Upon seeing this set of techniques, Li Ping finally understood why the demonic cultivator's divine body was so tough, and he also understood how the demonic cultivator had managed to sneak into Qinglong Mountain and abduct Lin Yue in full view of everyone.

It turns out that the Nine Tribulations True Spirit Holy Scripture, as a top-tier cultivation technique, not only allows cultivators to develop magical power that is a notch deeper than those of other cultivators of the same level, but also enables them to cultivate their bodies to be comparable to magical artifacts of the same level.

Cultivators who practice the "Nine Tribulations True Spirit Holy Scripture" possess physical toughness and strength that are even more exaggerated than most demonic beasts of the same level. They can fight demonic beasts with their bare hands and tear apart magical artifacts with their bare hands!

The fact that the demonic cultivator dared to throw his storage bag to Li Ping and then attempt to fight him head-on suggests that he was extremely confident in his physical strength.

"No wonder it's so tough, you can't even cut it, it's a body cultivator!" Li Ping thought to himself.

In addition to having a powerful physical body, cultivators who practice the Nine Tribulations True Spirit Holy Scripture also have a special ability: they can control their entire body's muscles and bones, change their body shape, and alter their appearance!

Dai Sangyu's disciple, Lin Yue, had already received the Foundation Establishment Pill and was in seclusion in a secret chamber on Qinglong Mountain. The demonic cultivator may have simply changed his appearance, disguised himself as one of her close associates, and infiltrated Qinglong Mountain to abduct her.

Li Ping secretly wondered, "Perhaps the 'Hu Feng' appearing before me isn't his true appearance!"

However, since the demonic cultivator was burned to a crisp, Li Ping had no way of knowing his true appearance.

……

Ten thousand miles away from Fenglan Immortal City, in the Yue Kingdom, lies the ancestral home of a Foundation Establishment Immortal Clan.

The entire Ling Mountain was completely silent and extremely quiet.

In their family palace.

A sinister-looking young man, dressed in a blood-red robe and with strange vertical lines between his brows, sat on the stone chair at the top, looking down at the scene with great interest, like a god.

In the center of the palace, hundreds of people were tearing at each other in a frenzy. Among them were fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, grandfathers and grandsons… but at this moment, they had all forgotten their identities, leaving only the most primal instincts. !

The entire palace was littered with corpses, rivers of blood flowed, and the air was thick with the stench of blood.

Suddenly, the strange young man frowned, and with a flick of his wrist, a palm-sized blood-red token appeared in his hand.

The next second—

"Click!"

Under the watchful gaze of the sinister youth, the blood-red token shattered instantly.