Chapter 144: An Immortal’s Assistance
After returning to Grey Peak, Yaan faced the white-haired immortal in his cave abode yet again. Like before, the young-looking man sat in the centre of the square stone room, calmly watching Yaan without any fluctuations to his expression. An invisible pressure once again descended upon Yaan…
This person did not even need to use any sort of aura or technique to pressure him. Merely being watched casually like this, having the tranquil blue gaze of this immortal lingering on his body, was enough to remind Yaan of his weakness. In this situation, Yaan could only remain silent and wait…wait to see what this immortal had to say this time.
When the white-haired man finally spoke, his words cut straight to the point.
"Your methods are unscrupulous, atypical for the righteous path…but effective nonetheless when considering your overall circumstances and desires. You do not wish to progress your standing within the righteous faction, you merely wish to survive as you bide your time until you find a way to leave this place…"
Yaan felt gloomy when the man slowly and methodically pointed out all of his thoughts over these past few months. He was reminded once again that immortals could not be judged using normal standards.
"Regardless, you passed the task that I set out for you." The Immortal Ancestor went on. "You trained the disciples appropriately, whilst making adjustments towards the nature of the trial, continually and subtly over time, ensuring that all were able to survive. The trial itself was not optimal, but your methods of self-preservation are indeed so. Your experience in the righteous faction is lacking, but this result proves that your adaptability is satisfactory…"
Still remaining silent, Yaan narrowed his eyes. It seemed that he was being praised…? Just where was this going exactly?
Despite being praised, he did not have a good feeling about this.
"You have proven your ability to survive and adapt. Now, prove to me that you are able to cultivate - to overcome the hurdles of cultivation. You have three years to form your Vital Qi Core. Fail, and you will die at my hands."
Yaan's eyes widened and he stared at the man before him incredulously.
Firstly, how did this person know that he planned to cultivate the Four Paths Cultivation Technique? Yaan had never mentioned this to anyone, nor had he even started to cultivate this method properly as of yet! Could it be that the Immortal Ancestor was actually able to read his mind…?
He naturally wouldn't voice his concern aloud, but he could definitely say something about this new requirement!
"Three years? This is impossible." Yaan stated flatly. He honestly believed that this person was either messing with him, or he simply did not understand the path that Yaan needed to take from here onwards in order to form the Vital Qi Core! However, as Yaan was about to explain this further, his mouth dried up when the white-haired immortal spoke in his place.
"You possess four of the five Mythril Rank progressive body constitutions and your vital cultivation is at the Early 4-Star Realm. In order to form the Vital Qi Core, there are many steps…you must first develop all five Obsidian Rank constitutions. You must use a method to remove your Vital Core and regress your vital cultivation. You must cultivate your Innate Qi up to the 9th Layer Qi Palace Realm. You must also develop your psyche cultivation further to assist with the ascension to the Vital Qi Core Realm…"
Yaan could only stand there silently for a moment. Finally, he asked:
"Why do you know that I'm cultivating the Four Paths Cultivation Technique?"
"That is not for you to know, not yet."
Yaan's expression darkened.
"Since you know the difficulties that I must face to cultivate this technique, you must understand that it's impossible to reach that point in just three years…" Yaan said slowly.
"It is possible…barely…with my assistance, it is barely possible."
For a second, Yaan paused. His heart skipped a beat at the implications of those words. For a moment, he even forgot about his fear, about his desire to leave these lands…
The assistance of an immortal…
"Your assistance?"
"Indeed – you need my assistance. Your talent in Qi refining is only average, so your only hope is the Fiend Transformation Technique, but there are no resources sufficient to let you ascend your constitutions to the Obsidian Rank in the South…without my assistance, you cannot progress in the Southern Continent."
After saying this, the young man stood up, then casually waved his hand. His sleeve whipped up a gust of wind, picking up Yaan and dragging him out from this cave. The surroundings blurred around Yaan for a moment, until everything came to a stop. Due to the sudden and extreme burst of momentum, Yaan was forced to take a deep breath.
When he recovered from the sickening movement speed, he looked around, then immediately froze.
They were standing side by side in a plain stone hall, similar to the one from before, but much larger. The hall itself was laden with formations, runes and inscriptions, but that was not what caught Yaan's attention.
His gaze landed upon the shackled captives, the Origin Soul Realm cultivators whom were all unconscious and chained to giant stone pillars.
All 250 of them.
"I collected these mortals from the Demonic North, they should make suitable cultivation resources for you. With these resources, there is no need to completely cripple your vital cultivation; simply removing your Vital Core and returning to the 3-Star Realm should be sufficient." The white-haired immortal spoke casually.
After getting over his shock, Yaan's eyes lit up.
He had been considering the matter of restarting his cultivation for some time now, but he still wasn't sure how exactly he should go about it. The Spirit Plane Lord taught him various methods that he could potentially use, which could be adjusted according to his circumstances.
Originally, Yaan planned to completely cripple his Vital Energy, taking himself down to the level of a 1-Star Realm demon.
In the Fiend Transformation Technique, in order to progress with both Qi and body, it was easiest to undergo each ascension side by side. It would cause Yaan some issues if he dropped below the 1-Star Realm, so he planned to revert to the 1-Star Realm, then to cultivate his Innate Qi to the Qi Gathering Realm, then to ascend with both paths simultaneously from there on. Of course, dropping his cultivation was no simple matter, he would be badly injured each time he did so, whilst each realm drop would be accompanied by some degree of danger.
If he only dropped to the 3-Star Realm however, cultivating Innate Qi by refining Slaughter Aura would simply be far too inefficient when compared to the perfect scenario wherein his vital cultivation matched his Qi refining cultivation. If he cultivated Innate Qi from scratch whilst having 3-Star Realm vital cultivation, he would only be able to refine a fraction of Innate Qi from each portion of Slaughter Aura…
Not only that, but the realm breakthroughs would also be more arduous. This was actually less of an issue though, since he could make up for this difficulty by using his Psyche Power to stabilise the breakthrough.
Now, after being presented with 250 Origin Soul Realm powerhouses, Yaan's thoughts surged.
Even if refining Slaughter Aura was extremely inefficient, what did that matter if he was able to freely slaughter Origin Soul Realm cultivators? The amount of Slaughter Aura generated from a single Origin Soul Realm cultivator would be many times stronger than that from a Spirit Core Realm cultivator!
But Yaan quickly calmed down. He couldn't cultivate Innate Qi yet - he still needed to resolve the issue of his Vital Core. And before even thinking about his cultivation, he still wanted to ask the white-haired immortal some things…
"Why are you helping me?" Yaan turned to the immortal and asked directly, not bothering to hide his suspicion. "You threaten my life, then provide me with this absurd level of assistance whilst continuing to threaten my life. You also said before that you would 'devour me'…are you just fattening me up to eat me later on?"
Yaan could not help but think like this, since it really felt like this might be the case!
"You don't have the qualifications to ask me questions like this." The immortal replied nonchalantly. "Do as I say, accept my assistance, cultivate and reach the Vital Qi Core Realm within three years…or die."
Yaan let out a sigh, even though this answer was not outside of his expectations.
"Could you at least tell me when these tests will end? When will you stop controlling my life, if ever?"
The immortal seemed to ponder this for a moment. In the end, much to Yaan's surprise, he actually gave an answer.
"Adaptability, cultivation, dao. These are the three things that I wish to test you on. You have proven your adaptability to new circumstances, now I wish to see if you are able to cultivate beyond reasonable expectations. If you pass this test, I will finally test your dao by sending you to take the Xuqi Sect entrance examination in four years time. I am telling you this now so that you know…your dao heart must become beyond exceptional if you wish to pass my third test."
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