Immortal Mortal Transformation

Zhao Ning and Luo Zhongjie had repeatedly practiced and tested the Body Tempering Art over this period.

In the end, they discovered that due to lacking spiritual roots, they had first practiced directly for two months without making the slightest progress.

Afterward, they followed Wang Hong's example and used pills or other spiritual items to assist their cultivation. It worked, but their efficiency in absorbing the spiritual energy within was extremely poor. It was slow, and much of it dissipated and went to waste.

It seemed that spiritual roots were not merely bridges for absorbing spiritual qi from the outside world. Even when spiritual items were consumed and absorbed within the body, they were affected to a certain extent.

As for the exact reason, Wang Hong's knowledge was still too limited for him to know. He could only investigate it further in the future.

Still, although the absorption efficiency was poor, it was far better than being completely unable to cultivate. At the very least, they could see hope of advancing further.

The efficiency of absorbing spiritual medicine while practicing the Henglian Liuhe Gong was much better. However, this mundane martial art's body tempering could not reach the heights of immortal cultivation techniques. Even if one cultivated the Henglian Liuhe Gong to its highest level, one still could not withstand a single strike from a magical artifact.

Wang Hong had been pondering how to combine the strengths of both.

First, all cultivation techniques could be divided into two major categories according to movement and stillness.

The first was moving techniques, in which the body had to move continuously during practice. These could further be divided into movement of form and intent, or movement of form with stillness of intent.

The Henglian Liuhe Gong belonged to the category where both intent and form moved. Intent led the qi, and where intent arrived, strength followed, while the body was struck with force.

The second was still techniques. When practicing still techniques, the body either stood, sat, or lay down, remaining motionless. They could likewise be divided into stillness of both intent and form, or stillness of form with movement of intent.

The Body Tempering Art belonged to the latter category, with the form still and the intent moving. During practice, the body sat cross-legged without moving, while the mind drove the spiritual energy within, coursing through the entire body like dragons soaring and tigers leaping.

What Wang Hong wanted to test now was whether using the Body Tempering Art's circulation method, combined with the Henglian Liuhe Gong's method of striking the entire body, could improve the efficiency of spiritual energy absorption.

He remembered that when he had fought Hu Qing last time, Hu Qing's powerful blows had helped his body absorb the residual medicinal power within it.

After several months of repeated experiments by more than forty people, with countless revisions along the way, the cultivation technique finally took on a preliminary form.

Wang Hong named this technique Immortal Mortal Transformation. It was divided into nine levels and would become the primary cultivation technique for the soldiers under his command.

Although this technique still had many shortcomings and was crude in many respects, this was all they could achieve at their current level. They could only wait until their strength and knowledge improved before slowly revising it. In any case, they had already taken the first step.

In a marshland blanketed by black mist, venomous insects occasionally darted out. Four men and one woman cautiously made their way through it, heading deeper into Black Dragon Marsh.

Elder Ge, who walked at the front, said, "Everyone, restrain your auras. This marsh hides a kind of Tentacle Monster. It carries deadly poison and attacks by sensing auras. As long as you conceal your auras, it will not discover you even if you stand directly before it."

A young cultivator in the group, dressed in a black robe with thick brows and large eyes, asked, "What rank of Demonic Beast is this Tentacle Monster?"

Lei cultivator said, "Fellow Daoist Wang must not have come to this area before and is unfamiliar with it. Although the Tentacle Monster is only a mid-grade first-rank Demonic Beast, because of its deadly poison, even late Qi Refinement cultivators are unwilling to provoke it lightly."

This black-robed cultivator addressed as Fellow Daoist Wang was naturally Wang Hong in disguise. With this thick-browed, big-eyed appearance, even acquaintances would not recognize him.

During this period, although he refined pills day and night, ran a shop to earn Spirit Stones, and cultivated, he had not neglected his cultivation in the slightest. He had already cultivated the Body Tempering Art to the second level.

His physical strength had now reached twenty thousand jin. His flesh was as tough as iron and stone, and ordinary low-grade magical artifacts could hardly harm him.

Thus, using the alias Wang Kun, he had joined this temporarily assembled exploration party and entered Black Dragon Marsh to familiarize himself with the terrain.

This marsh contained more than just Tentacle Monsters. Countless venomous mosquitoes buzzed around the group, searching for a place to bite.

Everyone constantly waved their hands, driving away the mosquitoes that approached. Under ordinary circumstances, they only needed to release a spiritual energy shield to block mosquito bites.

But while concealing their auras, they could not cast spells. Once they used a spell, they might draw the Tentacle Monsters over.

With no other choice, they could only drive away these venomous mosquitoes that slipped through every crack.

As Wang Hong swatted away the venomous mosquitoes, a thought suddenly occurred to him. It seemed he did not need to drive them away. Compared to low-grade magical artifacts, these venomous mosquitoes were surely still a hundred thousand miles behind. With his current body-tempering cultivation, they should not even be able to break his defenses.

He tried allowing one venomous mosquito to approach while carefully observing it with his Spiritual Sense. The mosquito landed on his leg, extended its slender proboscis, and silently pierced through his trousers.

It then secreted a venom that enveloped its proboscis and viciously stabbed toward his skin. The instant it touched his skin, the proboscis snapped into several pieces. The venomous mosquito shook its head, still unable to understand what had happened, before Wang Hong casually pinched it to death.

After that, Wang Hong casually swatted at the venomous mosquitoes while keeping watch over their surroundings.

Aside from familiarizing himself with Black Dragon Marsh's environment, he had another plan this time. He intended to transplant as many of the spiritual herbs produced in Black Dragon Marsh as possible into his space.

Although he did not know what kind of spiritual herbs the entry mission would require, if he collected one of every herb in advance and planted them in his space, then when the time came, he would not need to search everywhere for spiritual medicine.

Of course, only Wang Hong could pull off such a loophole.

First, the spiritual herbs required for the entry mission had to be freshly picked. Although jade boxes, formations, and the like could preserve their freshness, they were still vastly different from herbs that had just been harvested.

Second, every type of spiritual herb required a different growing environment. Artificial cultivation required a thorough understanding of each herb's habits, as well as spiritual fields with different environments to suit their growth. There were tens of thousands of kinds of spiritual medicine in Black Dragon Marsh; even major immortal cultivation sects could not accomplish this.

This marsh was one of the main routes into Black Dragon Marsh. If there had been any rare spiritual herbs here, they would have long since been picked clean by those who came before. Wang Hong casually dug up a small gray grass seedling, roots and all, and stored it in his storage bag.

"Fellow Daoist Wang, what use do you have for collecting these spiritual herb seedlings along the way? These herbs take decades at the least, or over a hundred years at the most, before they can be used as medicine. We Rogue Cultivators can at most grow one or two kinds of spiritual medicine. Any more than that, and it becomes difficult to cultivate them successfully." The only female cultivator in the group blinked her lively eyes and asked curiously.

"Fairy Shi, you may not know this, but I have recently been studying the growth habits of various spiritual herbs. I need a great many varieties for reference. If you have any spiritual herbs, I am willing to exchange pills or Spirit Stones for them," Wang Hong replied candidly.

"I happen to have some spiritual herbs I do not need. What pills do you intend to use in exchange?" Fairy Shi asked, blinking.

"That depends on the value of the spiritual herbs. I have Qi Gathering Pills, Rejuvenation Pills, Poison Evasion Pills, and spiritual wine that restores spiritual energy."

"Could it be that Fellow Daoist Wang is also skilled in pill refinement?" Fairy Shi asked. At the same time, the others all looked over.

Wang Hong smiled. "How could I know pill refinement? I merely had the good fortune to become acquainted with an alchemist in Qingxu City. At present, I am running errands for that alchemist."

The others revealed looks of disappointment mixed with envy. Befriending an alchemist brought enormous benefits. Alchemists were scarce resources; everyone would one day have need of an alchemist.

Seeing this, the group each took out several spiritual herbs to exchange with Wang Hong for pills. Wang Hong accepted all comers and traded for every one of them. Having obtained the items they needed, they were in high spirits, and even their pace quickened.

The five traveled onward without mishap and left the marsh. After crossing another stretch of grassland, they finally reached the first destination of their journey: Hundred Flowers Valley.

Hundred Flowers Valley covered an area of three or four li. All year round, all kinds of spiritual flowers bloomed in the valley, though only a small number could be used as medicine. Still, these spiritual flowers were also an excellent choice for brewing Hundred Flowers Spirit Wine.

Hundred Flowers Spirit Wine was brewed from various spiritual flowers. The more varieties of flowers used, and the higher their grades, the more potent its effects. The group had come here to gather flowers and brew wine.

At this moment, Hundred Flowers Valley was a riot of crimson and violet, with waves of floral fragrance drifting through it. All kinds of spirit bees and spirit butterflies fluttered among the flowers. Yet no one had the heart to admire the beauty. They plucked spiritual flowers by the handful, committing the crime of burning a zither to cook a crane.

Some of these spiritual flowers bloomed continuously all year once the spiritual herb matured. Others only bloomed once every ten years, or even once every few decades.

Everyone only picked flowers, but Wang Hong still transplanted one or two plants of every kind of spiritual flower into his space. The others had already grown accustomed to this. There were many people in the immortal cultivation world who marched to the beat of their own drum.

Suddenly, the Yu cultivator in the group pointed at a small tree two zhang tall and shouted, "Everyone, look! There's a Green-tailed Spirit Beehive here."