Chapter 152: Seizing the Five-Element Spiritual Roots Secret Manual-Cultivating Steadily: The Entire Immortal Realm Is My Home(The hermit possesses a clever plan.)

Putting down the jade slip recorded by the True-Refining Fiend, Shen Lian picked up the scroll, which contained the relatively complete True Five-Viscera Refining Demonic Art.

Swallowing the five viscera in Qi Refining, consuming spiritual items in Foundation Establishment, and nurturing the Yin-Yang profound breath in the Golden Core stage.

Now it was finally complete.

The old fiend's previously left-behind technique was a castrated version, missing the crucial step of nurturing the Yin-Yang profound breath with the Golden Core.

Only after this technique nurtured Yin and Yang would there be a thirty percent probability of breaking the core to form a Nascent Soul.

As for the techniques beyond the Nascent Soul stage, they were not recorded in the scroll.

Putting down the scroll, he picked up the folded animal skin. This hide radiated a restrained cyan glow, its surface marked with extremely delicate patterns and a faint aura of true dragon.

"Dragon skin?"

Immediately, Shen Lian released Sanqian from his spirit beast bracelet.

"Come and smell this."

After examining the items left by the True-Refining Fiend, Shen Lian let out a long breath and touched his own chest.

For a moment, Shen Lian felt a slight shiver of chill.

A single Deity Transformation old monster was enough to manipulate various Nascent Soul sects.

Even if there were no rumors of Deity Transformation cultivators throughout the entire Southern Continent, Shen Lian understood that just because none appeared in the open didn't mean none existed in secret.

The Deity Transformation realm belonged to the pinnacle of the immortal cultivation world. Upon ascension, one would go to another place, perhaps that distant and lofty Sun Star.

This matter was quite easy to understand; the Deity Transformation stage was the supreme existence in the immortal cultivation world, capable of wreaking havoc across the entire realm and gathering the resources they needed.

Perhaps the realm did not offer many spiritual items for Deity Transformation old monsters to use, but it was still better than going to another immortal cultivation world and acting as a grandson to Void-Refining and Dao-Integration bigshots.

Compared to that, living in this realm and finding a practitioner with a good five-element spirit root scale to undergo a奪舍 (body-seizure) was a new path of cultivation.

After all, only by merging the five elements into one could one advance to the Void-Refining stage. Those old monsters who had cultivated to the Deity Transformation realm, unable to complete their own spirit roots, would find a cultivator with a decent five-spirit root scale to seize their body—that was a new path of cultivation.

"Only when the five elements return to one can one achieve Void-Refining and Dao-Integration."

Shen Lian put away the dragon skin without forcefully prying into the other records within. Just from these two vague sentences, he was already able to guess many things.

"Deity Transformation realm, Void-Refining realm, Dao-Integration realm—these are the subsequent realms of the immortal cultivation path!"

The entire dragon skin was folded into a square. Shen Lian tried his best, exhausting all his spiritual power, to unfold it, revealing ancient cultivation texts written in golden spiritual ink.

Upon seeing the very first line of words, a tremendously intense aura caused Shen Lian's eyes to lose their sight, as if he were staring directly at the blazing sun.

A few moments later, the cyan glow dissipated, revealing a middle-aged cultivator.

"Ah... oof..."

Shortly after, the dragon skin refolded itself automatically. Shen Lian stood frozen in place, and it was only after a long while that his vision gradually recovered.

...

The rolling mountain ranges seemed endless.

Mountains beyond mountains.

Green forests echoed with endless beast roars, and a figure streaked out from a winding valley, looking somewhat disheveled as it sped across the air.

"...The celestial palace has spirit..."

Summoning his own spirit boat, Shen Lian swallowed a few Qi-Recovery Pills to refine them, muttering a few words to himself along the way.

After opening the jade box left behind by the True-Refining Fiend, he had packed his things and headed north to the Tianzhu Mountain mining region.

As for the remaining three blood coffins, their dense bloody aura was barely contained even by the third-tier talismans on the exterior; these should be the cultivation resources the True-Refining Fiend had reserved for himself.

As for the Heaven-Deriving Jade Talisman, Shen Lian had no intention of using it. There were simply too many cultivators in Tianzhu Mountain, and the aura of the Heaven-Deriving Jade Talisman was far too unique. Unless facing a life-or-death crisis, it was best not to use it.

This was the Meishan Mirror, the natal magical treasure of the Meishan Old Fiend, which the True-Refining Fiend had claimed as part of his collection after murdering his master.

As for the lower-grade five-spirit roots—those whose five spirit root scales didn't even add up to one hundred and fifty—they weren't even worth mentioning and belonged to the eliminated players.

Why were five-element spirit roots so sought after by major sects? Naturally, it referred to five-element spirit roots with high scale values, such as the female disciple that the Above-Clouds Sect recruited into the sect in the Myriad Star Sea.

Tianzhu Mountain served as the intersection point of various domains in the Southern Continent.

The entire Tianzhu Mountain mining region encompassed the northern part of the South China Sea domain, the northwestern part of the East China Sea domain, the northeastern part of the Myriad Mountains domain, the eastern parts of the Thousand Moons domain and the Moon-Deriving domain, as well as the western and southern parts of the Myriad Demons domains.

Tianzhu Mountain provided seventy percent of the mineral materials to the Southern Continent, and also supplied fifty percent of materials such as beast skins, bones, flesh, and blood.

Because the mountain ranges extended into various regions, every territory had a large mining city established by a Nascent Soul sect. Between these large mining cities, there were even more numerous smaller mining cities, and countless cultivators made their living relying on this mining region.

With this jade talisman, one could purchase spiritual items or reside within the mining cities.

There were special restrictions within this jade talisman. Cultivators stationed at various guard posts could sense the restriction inside the talisman through special magical treasures, thereby screening out demonic cultivators and members of the demon race.

...

"Fellow Daoist, is this your first time coming to the mining region?"

Driving his spirit boat at a moderate height, Shen Lian's divine sense swept across a fierce battle three thousand feet away.

Among the mountain ranges, a sky-darkening flock of black, unkempt birds was diving down from high altitude, and intense clashes constantly erupted among the mountains.

Tens of thousands of unkempt birds were besieging more than ten cultivators.

Accurately speaking, the number of cultivators should be slightly higher; however, those fellow daoists not included in the statistics were either inside the beaks or held in the sharp talons of the unkempt birds.

This was a flock of fierce beasts that had not retreated after a beast tide, but instead occupied a valley.

The entire valley was shaken violently by this herd of black-pig demons, their monstrous demonic Qi converging into a torrential flood.

Originally, this group of piglets didn't pose a major threat to Shen Lian in his current state; he could harvest some pork and demon blood.

However, reality proved somewhat contrary. Among the pig herd, there were actually two second-tier perfection-stage pig kings and a pig queen, alongside dozens of other second-tier ones.

When Shen Lian entered the mining region's mountain range, he had attempted to travel using Earth-Escaping Arts, but unexpectedly, while tunneling along, he carelessly tunneled right into the territory of a clan of Black-Blood Tusk Pigs.

This pig possessed thick skin and dense flesh, and was exceptionally skilled at reckless charges.

The moment he burst out, he was scented by this herd of demon pigs. Several thousand demon pigs lowered their heads, thrusting their twin tusks forward as they trampled the earth and charged right at him.

When these demon pigs desperately lowered their heads and rushed to gore Shen Lian, he didn't hesitate to use the Soul-Binding Seal to strike dead the pig king and pig queen, harvested the two large fat black pigs, and escaped.

After recovering his spiritual power, Shen Lian changed into a fresh set of robes, as the aura inside the pigpen had been far too pungent.

Of course, once he finished researching high-tier cleansing talismans, he would be able to use those materials.

Without hesitation, Shen Lian took a detour.

With so many avian fierce beasts, even if ninety-nine percent of them were first-tier, a pseudo-Golden Core cultivator would still have to flee in panic.

Not to mention, the soaring birds in the firmament spotted him from afar, their wings flaring as they dove straight down.

However, they could never catch up to Shen Lian.

Retreating a hundred miles backward and bursting out from a valley, he steered his flying boat toward the location of the guard post.

These were the defensive guard posts established by various major sects.

Inside the structures, Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining cultivators were stationed. At the largest architectural fortress, a pseudo-Golden Core cultivator was also sitting in command.

Buildings of this kind were built in places with majestic terrain and towering mountain postures, stretched out in a line over great distances, with some extending deep into the earth's depths.

Apart from the visible guard posts, there were also hidden ones. Shen Lian had detected one, but he very prudently retracted his divine sense.

Without a jade talisman, moving around in the mining region was extremely troublesome.

"Master, this bloodline aura is so powerful. I feel like even my bloodline is trembling."

Without Sanqian prompting him, Shen Lian could already feel the precious blood within that tiny piece of dragon bone inside Sanqian's body surging violently.

When Sanqian's large eyes caught sight of the dragon skin, a glowing light instantly appeared in them. It opened its mouth to take a bite, but the moment its teeth touched the dragon skin, it was violently batted away.

It had probably been tanned using some unknown method to conceal the aura belonging to the Dragon King; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to bring it close for observation.

At least it was a fourth-tier dragon skin.

...

A second-tier spirit vessel rescued the injured cultivators, and after killing several of the pursuing unkempt birds and gathering the spoils of war, the spirit vessel headed deep into the mountain ranges.

In the wake of a series of artillery bombardments, a piercing cry rang out from the flock of unkempt birds.

Under the continuous barrage of artillery fire, the battlefield situation quickly reversed as several spirit vessels violently rushed out from the distant mountain forests.

The leading spirit vessel reached the third-tier level, while the remaining vessels were all at the second-tier level. They looked identical, belonging to standardized spirit vessels.

The flock of unkempt birds, numbering in the hundreds, now hovered back and forth in midair, occasionally unleashing sharp slashes of demonic energy from their beaks and talons to bombard the mountains and forests below.

Then, this flock of unkempt birds actually split into dozens of teams, flying off toward the mountain wilderness in all directions.

In contrast, the Demon Domain tended to let lower-tier demon beasts assault the human race; perhaps a few promising seedlings with decent bloodlines could fight their way out.

Similarly, major sects would periodically carry out clearances of fierce beasts in the mining region.

This was easy to understand: the Deity Transformation stage was the supreme existence in the immortal cultivation world, free to roam the entire realm and gather the resources they needed.

Tianzhu Mountain, serving as the largest mining region in the Southern Continent, was roughly located in the central region of the Southern Continent, boasting an extremely vast geographical expanse.

He was driving his spirit boat at a moderate height when his divine sense scanned this massive slaughter occurring three thousand feet away.

Naturally, this was also exchanged for the lives of cultivators.

In these two scenarios, the Nascent Soul sects and the Demon Domain maintained restraint; the Nascent Soul tier would not be dispatched, and at most, there would be combat at the Golden Core tier.

As for the fierce beasts living in Tianzhu Mountain, they belonged to the outer forces of the Demon Domain, and they would periodically rush out to wreak havoc for a while.

"Fellow Daoist, Commander Xiao Xing瑞 of the Yunxing Mountain guard post here. May I ask which immortal sect Fellow Daoist hails from?"

The leading spirit vessel reached the third-tier level, while the remaining vessels were all at the second-tier level. They looked identical, belonging to standardized spirit vessels.

Shen Lian cupped his hands in a salute toward the newcomer.

"Commander Xiao, greetings. I am Lu Shan, a solitary cultivator."

Feeling the aura emanating from Shen Lian, Xiao Xingrui raised his hand and returned the salute.

Seeing that Shen Lian's realm was higher than his own, yet his tone was very amiable, Xiao Xingrui's expression relaxed as well.

Shen Lian nodded and followed Xiao Xingrui as he flew toward the Yunxing Mountain guard post ahead.

...

"Since Fellow Daoist Lu is visiting the mining region for the first time, you might not know how cunning the fierce beasts here are. They raise human pets and repeatedly sneak into our mining region, making them impossible to guard against."

"Fellow Daoist, please halt."

Having just arrived, Shen Lian felt it was best to follow their rules first.

"Xiao is just carrying out official duties, Fellow Daoist Lu, please don't take offense."

Xiao Xingrui's attitude was very solemn. "A beast tide just occurred in the mining region recently, Fellow Daoist needs to accompany me to the guard post for screening before you can enter the mining city."

A thousand feet away, Shen Lian received a voice transmission.

"Fellow Daoist is indeed visiting the mining region for the first time."

Shen Lian echoed him. The reason he didn't sneak directly into the mining region was mainly because entering required obtaining an identity jade talisman.

It was rumored that deep within Tianzhu Mountain, there were even stronger defensive guard posts, all built to protect the established mining cities.

"Fellow Daoist must have heard that a beast tide just occurred and specifically rushed here to hunt fierce beasts."

Guiding Shen Lian into the guard post, Xiao Xingrui spoke.

"Then you've come at just the right time. The beast tide only receded not long ago, but too many fierce beasts remain scattered across the wilderness—no doubt Fellow Daoist encountered them on your way here—and many fellow daoists have recently arrived to hunt."