The Secret Way of Immortality

In the days following, Three Rivers City maintained a superficial calm, but beneath the surface, undercurrents surged, deeply affecting various factions.

The significance of Three Dragon Temple’s Abbot, Celestial Void Taoist, revealing his restored术法 (shùfǎ, magic arts) was immense. Even though he remained within the temple, the leaked aura of术法 could not be mistaken.

Those ancient cultivators who had switched to cultivating Gu worms found themselves in a dilemma, even resorting to self-mutilation to extract the worms from their bodies.

All factions were openly and secretly inquiring about the restoration of术法, until they heard that Celestial Void Taoist was preparing to convene an Ascension Conference.

Similar situations occurred in other towns, as if overnight, the severed path of cultivation had been reconnected.

However, due to the blockage of information, only Ren Qing knew through the Mycelial Soul.

As an observer of the game, Ren Qing had the clearest view, and could even vaguely perceive the direction of events.

He began to make arrangements, increasingly curious about what would happen when lifespan withered.

With the blessing of Gu Refinement术, Gu Zhenren’s strength reached the Ghost Envoy realm in just over ten days, finally posing a threat to the insect nests scattered throughout Jing Province.

He could only contact the Great Dream Pavilion in Dream City, but he could still exchange Gu worms for blood crystals, redeeming a considerable amount of resources.

However, the corresponding price was that Gu Zhenren’s body became completely inhuman.

His overall appearance resembled a half-human, half-elephant demon, covered in feather-like fur, and the Elephant Armor Gu also advanced to the Possessed Elephant Body Gu.

Only his face retained traces of human features, but his intelligence had been affected by the Gu worms, making him inexplicably irritable and prone to anger.

This showed that although Gu worm-transformed anomalies could quickly advance with external assistance, they still needed time to stabilize their cultivation.

Under the rules of Jing Province, after cultivators refined Gu worms, they were completely dominated by the Gu worms.

However, Gu Zhenren did not have much time to polish his foundation, so he had to resort to this strategy.

He led the human-insect hybrids to attack scattered strongholds of the insect nest, snowballing in strength, and the number of human-insect hybrids soon exceeded a thousand.

Gu Zhenren was no longer He Si, resorting to any means for revenge, without even considering the process.

He did not hesitate to use a Gu worm called "Aphid Cattle Gu" from the books, whose effect was relatively extreme, treating its own kind as tools.

【Aphid Cattle Gu】

【After refinement, the body will possess the strength of an ox, but the flesh and blood will be easily absorbed by the Ant Herding Gu for nourishment, requiring thirty drops of morning dew daily.】

【Once the number of Aphid Cattle Gu reaches a hundred, the Ant Herding Gu can sacrifice itself to advance the Aphid Cattle Gu into the Aphid Soul Symbiosis Gu.】

Gu Zhenren had the human-insect hybrids refine the Aphid Cattle Gu, and himself refined the Ant Herding Gu, certainly not to help the human-insect hybrids advance the Aphid Cattle Gu.

Although the Aphid Soul Symbiosis Gu could allow multiple souls to share a body, thus linking their lives, its effect on improving strength was still limited.

Gu Zhenren mainly absorbed the nutrients of the Aphid Cattle Gu to compensate for the dilemma of his body and soul not matching the Gu worms, allowing him to go further.

As long as he was restrained enough, the Aphid Cattle Gu would not affect the lives of the human-insect hybrids.

However, in Ren Qing’s view, after Gu Zhenren’s personality changed drastically, the demonic念 (niàn, thought/obsession) called "ambition" was constantly growing in his mind.

Once encountering danger, Gu Zhenren was likely to sacrifice all the human-insect hybrids to advance to the Yin Messenger realm, but the outcome would also be certain death.

The Gu worms in the Yin Messenger realm had a high probability of backlashing against their host, especially since Gu Zhenren had no means of controlling the Gu worms.

Ren Qing did not choose to interfere with Gu Zhenren’s actions.

After all, Gu Zhenren’s attacks on the insect nest had reached the limit of his current strength, and it could be felt that the insect nest’s power was shrinking.

It was impossible to demand that Gu Zhenren destroy the insect nest; it was simply unrealistic.

The insect nest should have realized that the human-insect hybrids were out of control, and began to spend more energy controlling the affiliated races.

Ren Qing was still satisfied with this chess piece, Gu Zhenren. If there was enough time, the latter might even have the opportunity to join the Forbidden Prison Hall.

Unfortunately, Jing Province was already in the final countdown.

Ren Qing sat cross-legged in the guest room, analyzing the mastermind’s plan from the clues, but still could not guess their intentions.

If they wanted to revive the ancient cultivators, what was the point of doing so?

Knock knock knock…

A knock came from outside the guest room door, and Huang Gou’er’s voice sounded.

“Shopkeeper, the Taoists, abbots, and镖头 (biāotóu, caravan leaders) have all arrived at the teahouse. Do you want to go and greet them for a while?”

Huang Gou’er’s words were full of nervousness. After all, the factions who had been staying behind closed doors had suddenly gathered in an inconspicuous teahouse.

It was said to be for the Ascension Conference, but why choose the Minghe Teahouse?

This was the first time in his life that he had seen so many important figures. When he was pouring tea just now, his legs were shaking uncontrollably.

Fortunately, Accountant Li helped him out, otherwise he might have made the shopkeeper a laughing stock.

“Huang Gou’er, I understand.”

Ren Qing casually grabbed a Taoist robe and put it on, pushed open the door and walked down slowly, immediately attracting the attention of the ancient cultivators.

Not to mention Huang Gou’er not understanding, the various factions were also unclear about the situation. What was the relationship between the Ascension Conference and the Minghe Teahouse?

Just a few days ago, they were preparing to go to Three Dragon Temple to participate in the Ascension Conference, but suddenly Celestial Void Taoist placed the location in the Minghe Teahouse.

The various factions vaguely felt something was wrong, but after thinking about it carefully, it seemed reasonable.

After all, if they were in Celestial Void Taoist’s Three Dragon Temple, if the latter had evil intentions, they would not be able to escape in time.

It was better to be in the neutral Minghe Teahouse.

They did not know that it was the Heavenly Demon Tribulation at work. No matter how unreasonable things were, they would be forcibly twisted, subconsciously and instinctively filling in the blanks.

Otherwise, how could the large and small factions have agreed without any objection?

It should be known that the other towns were already in an uproar over the Ascension Conference, and even some small factions had been eliminated because of it.

What Ren Qing wanted was to take this opportunity to test the mastermind. If the other party noticed something strange, they would definitely reveal some clues.

It would not matter who the mastermind was disguised as. With the information stream and the ghost shadows all over the corners of Three Rivers City, he could catch them at any time.

At that time, he could completely use the Heavenly Demon Possession to directly transfer to other places in Jing Province, ensuring that the enemy was always in the open and he was in the dark.

Ren Qing walked downstairs, indifferently rinsing his mouth with tea.

The hall of Minghe Teahouse currently only had a dozen or so seats, with the center deliberately left empty, and the windows on the walls tightly closed.

It clearly revealed a trace of unusualness.

Li Yaoyang sat behind the counter, no longer fiddling with his Gu worms.

His eyes were fixed on the entrance, obviously very interested in Celestial Void Taoist, and how he managed to use his soul to possess a Gu worm.

Several zombie cultivators dressed as waiters were walking in front of the tables in public, serving tea and water to those who were seated.

There were still a few days before the Ascension Conference, so the factions had not all arrived yet.

Among them, Wushan Zi and Nancheng Zi arrived earlier, but they did not dare to sit in the main seat, choosing a location near the periphery.

The main seat was currently occupied only by Abbot Liaoque of Jinshan Temple, an old monk in his seventies or eighties.

He seemed kind and benevolent, but there were inconspicuous blood stains on the corner of his robe, obviously having done a lot of evil things to restore his cultivation.

In addition, caravan leaders like Zhang Qi could only sit along the wall, and even some people stood restlessly in front of the window, shifting their feet.

Their souls were generally only in the Half-Corpse realm and the Ghost Envoy realm. In order to survive, they had tried refining Gu worms, which was despised by the Buddhist and Taoist sects.

It was not easy for insect武者 (wǔzhě, martial practitioners) to be invited to participate in the Ascension Conference, so their attitude naturally had to be correct.

Huang Gou’er followed behind Ren Qing, still feeling lingering fear until now, feeling better when he approached Li Yaoyang’s counter.

Nancheng Zi, who often came to the teahouse, said with a smile: “Shopkeeper Ren, I heard that you have been unwell for the past few days. Are you better today?”

Ren Qing waved his hand and said: “Taoist Nancheng, I am fine now.”

After hearing this, Liaoque touched his long beard and said: “If Shopkeeper Ren’s essence, energy, and spirit are damaged, you can come to the Yellow Mountain Temple. The jade fat wax there is excellent for nourishing the spirit.”

Ren Qing smiled on the surface, sneering at the so-called jade fat wax.

According to the information he had collected, jade fat wax was made from girls in their teens and twenties, and the ancient cultivators had basically gone insane.

Ren Qing talked and laughed with them, and the number of ancient cultivators continued to increase.

The ancient cultivators seemed to have forgotten about the shopkeeper’s job in the teahouse, allowing them to openly observe the Ascension Conference.

Huang Gou’er was slightly surprised to find that the immortals did not avoid him, but he was more excited.

He was full of reverence for cultivation, but unfortunately his family was poor, and he had been working as a waiter in the teahouse early on, missing the age to lay the foundation.

“Cough cough cough…”

At this time, another person walked in, and the old Taoist directly sat next to Abbot Liaoque, occupying the most central seat in the teahouse.

The others did not object to this, after all, the old Taoist was the temple priest of the Old Lord Temple, named Black Water Taoist, and his cultivation before the End of Dharma was faintly in the top three.

The soul of Black Water Taoist, at the peak of the Yang God realm, was like a firefly in the dark night.

Despite his ancient and immortal appearance, his attitude towards insect武者 was even more approachable.

But in fact, the blood sacrifice术 that arose after the End of Dharma was all researched by Black Water Taoist through killing people and refining weapons, and his hands were stained with blood.

“Bring me two taels of Return to Spring, it’s been a long time since I’ve had tea…”

“Thank you, Shopkeeper Ren.”

Black Water Taoist grinned, his teeth full of blood and flesh residue, and his tongue was obviously replaced by fish louse Gu, indicating that he had explored rudimentary Gu术, but he did not know how to advance.

Everyone was a little shocked. Why would Black Water Taoist practice Gu Refinement术 with his status? Was he not afraid of affecting the restoration of the Great Dao?

They felt that the visitor was not kind. Black Water Taoist’s philosophy was obviously different from Celestial Void Taoist’s.

Black Water Taoist ignored the gazes on him, sipping the Return to Spring and said: “I met Old Taoist Celestial Void on the road. He is walking too slowly, I’m afraid it will be a while.”

“Shopkeeper Ren, your Return to Spring tastes excellent, you have put your heart into it.”

“Thank you for the praise.”

The Return to Spring, which cost one tael of gold for one tael of tea in Three Rivers City, was sold by the catty in his stomach world. Many sheep demons used it to feed meat pigs.

Li Yaoyang looked at Ren Qing, who was completely harmonious, and could not help but twitch his mouth.

The scene in front of him made him feel outrageous, always feeling very wrong, but it was very normal on Ren Qing’s body, it could only be said that his supernatural powers were vast.

Half an hour later, the Minghe Teahouse was basically full, and everyone was silent.

As Celestial Void Taoist approached, a strange pressure arose.