Chapter 313: True Immortal of Longevity

Chen Luo descended from the sky, his Core Formation aura sweeping through the valley. Instantly, the Heaven and Earth Primordial Qi within the valley began to flow violently, and semi-transparent shadows turned to gaze at him. Hovering in mid-air, Chen Luo extended a hand, and a torrent of Yin Thunder erupted from his palm.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Yin Thunder descended like a lightning net, sweeping across the valley in a dense barrage, pulverizing the swaying shadows below. Even the rats foraging in the crevices of the rocks were struck, their bodies charred black, smoke rising from their twitching limbs, and the savory aroma of cooked meat wafting into the air.

These shadows were Chang Gui, spectral servants crafted by Xue Ning and bound to the Ghost Temple. Unless Chen Luo pledged allegiance to the temple himself, they would never obey his commands—not even if Xue Ning’s original mind returned, for her physical body had already perished.

Anything that couldn’t be used had no reason to exist.

After the thunderous assault, the valley fell silent, the swaying shadows vanished. Landing on the ground, Chen Luo extended his Divine Sense.

“Deepest part.”

Xue Ning’s brain materialized before Chen Luo, the familiar scene evoking a deceptive sense of “coming home.” As her brain appeared, Chen Luo witnessed a completely different vista. The dilapidated temple vanished, replaced by a gray-white sky and a dark gray building with upturned eaves at each corner. Twisted yellow talismans clung to its edges, connected by crimson threads that stretched from the eaves to the spire atop the structure. The talismans, meant to ward off evil, were densely packed along these threads, creating an eerie atmosphere.

Is this the perspective of a Ghost Cultivator? Chen Luo wondered. This was his first time experiencing such a viewpoint, vastly different from the perception of Divine Sense.

Through the eyes of a Ghost Cultivator, Chen Luo saw a path undetectable by Divine Sense. This path could only be observed, not traversed.

Ghost Cultivator’s Path: Abandon your physical body to enter.

Lower-Tier Ghost Cultivator’s Path: Unsuitable.

The Mummified Brain and the Demonic Heart Ancestor’s brain also materialized. These two held unique perspectives on Ghost Cultivators. The reason Ghost Cultivators could roam freely in the Seven Kingdoms Land was due to the Southern Heaven Domain’s lack of effective countermeasures. In the Upper Realm, where complete Immortal Path traditions thrived, a Ghost Temple would likely be suppressed the moment it emerged. The true Immortal Path was profound and unpredictable, leading to ultimate immortality. How could the Southern Heaven Domain, lacking even a Divine Transformation legacy, compare?

“Is this how the Ghost Temple crosses the Ten Thousand Demon Mountain?”

Chen Luo pondered for a moment before venturing deeper into the collapsed palace.

A dilapidated stone platform stood before the ruins. As Chen Luo entered the hall, a circular formation materialized on the floor, and a dense web of restrictive threads filled the air.

This was Xue Ning’s vault for the spoils of the Six Kingdoms’ wars. Lower-Tier Ghost Cultivators regularly transported stolen goods here, carrying only a fraction in their Pouches of Holding.

“Stone Gate Yin-Yang Rotation Formation, No-Life Restriction.”

Hanging Brother’s brain didn’t recognize the formation or the restriction. But that didn’t stop Chen Luo from navigating it using Xue Ning’s memories.

He casually shattered each restriction, his feet landing precisely on the Life Gates of the formation, as if he had walked this path a thousand times before.

The heavy stone gate creaked open.

A dark, winding passage appeared, and Chen Luo stepped inside. Along the way, he encountered several more restrictions and traps, but “Xue Ning” easily disarmed them all. After all, she had designed these defenses herself; they couldn’t possibly stump her.

In the square secret chamber, corners were piled high with spirit stones.

Here, spirit stones were scattered carelessly in the corners like trash. The cabinets along the stone walls were filled with precious materials: pills, spirit talismans, and cultivation techniques. On the opposite wall, jars and bottles held poisons seized from Nine Poisons Valley and Corpse Puppets from the Corpse-Raising Sect.

My Corpse King!

The Zombie Cult Leader’s mind raced. He instantly recognized the contents of the casket: the Corpse King he had spent his entire life refining.

“The materials to repair the Corpse King are here.”

With a flick of his sleeve, Chen Luo stored everything away. Finally, his gaze settled on a hanging ink painting at the front.

The painting depicted a dilapidated old temple, resembling a Mountain God Temple. Two weathered plaques hung on either side, their inscriptions too faded to read. Above the entrance, a central plaque proclaimed “Longevity Temple” in bold characters. Beside the temple stood a black stone, its base fringed with weeds. One smooth face of the stone was covered in densely packed scriptures.

A figure in Daoist robes sat cross-legged atop the stone. Though motionless, the figure radiated an aura of delivering a sermon.

Faint ghost shadows swirled below, listening to the sermon. Even insects peeked from the cracks in the rocks, including a caterpillar with half its body protruding.

Chen Luo clearly saw the title of the scripture.

Within his External Brain, the Mummified Brain offered an unprecedented evaluation. The moment it saw the scroll, corresponding memories automatically surfaced. This startled Chen Luo and fueled his speculation about the origins of the Millennial Ancient Kingdom’s Imperial Preceptor.

“Could the caterpillar in the painting actually be that Imperial Preceptor?”

Recalling the kingdom’s most common saying, “The Bitter Sea is boundless; turn back and the shore is at hand,” Chen Luo grew increasingly convinced of his theory. Like the Demonic Heart Ancestor, this caterpillar had descended from the Upper Realm and possessed extraordinary origins. No wonder it had claimed such vast territory and rivaled the Seven Patriarchs of Jade Purity.

In his mind, Xue Ning’s brain conjured the corresponding memories. From a Ghost Cultivator’s perspective, the painting revealed an entirely different scene—no people or objects, but a secret Ghost Cultivation technique that could lead directly to the Nascent Soul realm! It was precisely this secret that had driven Xue Ning to join the Ghost Temple and switch to cultivating this method.

From this perspective, Xue Ning could be considered a distant descendant of the Millennial Centipede Spirit, a disciple of the ‘Immortal’ depicted in the painting. It was no wonder she could cultivate the technique within it.

“A Ghost Cultivator’s technique?” Chen Luo sensed something amiss.

The lecturer had been an Immortal from the Upper Realm. How could the technique they imparted be limited to Ghost Cultivation? It must have been misinterpreted. Chen Luo stowed the painting away and turned his attention to a purple bottle nearby.

Inside shimmered a glass-like liquid.

This was the Soul Liquid Xue Ning had refined over the years using the Ghost Temple. Even this small bottle represented countless lives taken. When Chen Luo touched the bottle, an intense chill radiated from its surface, the icy sensation piercing directly into his divine soul.

“Demonic cultivators’ practices defy the will of Heaven. I shall bear this karmic burden.”

With compassionate resolve, Chen Luo carefully stored the bottle.

After thoroughly searching the secret chamber, he even scraped up the spirit stones from the floor, peeling away the earth beneath and gathering it all into his sleeve. Then, transforming into a streak of black light, he returned to the Immortal Sect.

Several years later, the Seven Kingdoms had been reshuffled. The Ghost Temple had slaughtered most of the original royal families, leaving only the Shi Kingdom relatively intact. Under the leadership of the God Lake Immortal Sect, the Seven Kingdoms formally unified. The Shi Kingdom’s royal family ascended to the throne, renaming the nation “Cang,” signifying a unified great power bordering the Cang Sea to the north.

Upon his coronation, the first act of the Cang Kingdom’s emperor was to honor the Sect Leader of the God Lake Immortal Sect, Void Sage, as the “Grand Immortal Master,” and to bestow upon Chen Luo the title of “True Immortal of Longevity.” The emperor himself declared himself a great-grandson of the True Immortal’s lineage.

Following this, he commissioned the compilation of numerous texts glorifying the legends of the “Immortals.”

As Void Sage’s sole personal disciple and a True Person-level powerhouse, Chen Luo naturally became the central figure in these legends. This propaganda transformed Black Mountain Village, Chen Luo’s birthplace, into a sacred site. Countless scholars and poets yearning for the Immortal Path flocked there, hoping to bask in its immortal aura. The village had long since shed its former poverty, and no one dared collect taxes there anymore. Outside the village, numerous residences were built, and many high-ranking officials sent their children there, hoping they would be born as “villagers of Black Mountain Village.”

This status would grant them preferential treatment when joining the Immortal Sect, allowing even those with slightly inferior Spirit Root aptitude to remain on the mountain.

“Is this Black Mountain Village?”

Several figures descended from the sky, their eyes sweeping over the impoverished mountain village before them. A flicker of doubt crossed their faces. The place was utterly ordinary—spiritual energy was scarce, and its remote location made it seem utterly unrelated to the legendary True Immortal of Longevity.

Five years had passed since the Ghost Cultivator Uprising, and the Cultivation World of the Seven Kingdoms had gradually recovered. Surviving Immortal Cultivators returned to their Sects, beginning the process of rebuilding the order of the Cultivation World. With the presence of Void Sage, a Core Formation Ancestor, the structure of the Cultivation World remained largely unchanged.

Chen Luo, now a Core Formation cultivator himself, remained Void Sage’s Personal Disciple but held a status equal to that of the Sect Leader. Those who had witnessed the Ghost Cultivator rampage knew better than anyone the true strength of this little-known “True Immortal of Longevity.” He had single-handedly ended the Ghost Temple Uprising, defeating an enemy that the combined forces of the three great Core Formation Ancestors had failed to subdue. The Cang Kingdom Emperor’s bestowal of the title “True Immortal of Longevity” made it clear: in the eyes of the Cang royal family, Chen Luo was the only cultivator with a genuine prospect of achieving immortality.

“Let’s go in and take a look. There might be more to this place than meets the eye.”

The group entered the village.

The once-impoverished Black Mountain Village had transformed into a bustling small town in just a few years. If not for the fear of disrupting its original structure, it likely would have expanded into a fortified city. In a cultivation world, constructing cities was far from unimaginable, and the speed at which they could be built far exceeded ordinary people’s wildest dreams.

As the group entered the village, they noticed the streets were remarkably clean, and many of the buildings were newly constructed.

“There’s an inn over there. Let’s go inside and ask around,” Lu Kuang, the leader, said, withdrawing his Divine Sense with a slight frown. He had just sensed that the village had very few Immortal Cultivators—only about twenty, including their group of five. Most were at the Qi Refining realm, with only one at the Foundation Establishment stage.

“Be careful. Whoever killed Xue Ning must be formidable,” the middle-aged cultivator with the strongest Divine Sense among them warned telepathically.

The group entered the inn.

Contrary to their expectations, the place was bustling with guests, and a raised platform stood at the center. A man perched on a high stool was vividly recounting the True Immortal of Longevity’s battle against a Ghost Cultivator, his vivid descriptions making it sound as if he had witnessed the clash firsthand.

Lu Kuang and his four companions listened for a while, but they soon noticed something amiss.