Thus, Wa Huang deduced a Longevity Method based on this.
Wa Huang believed that if immortals could transform into Immortal Divine Medicine after death and continue existing in the world, then perhaps Great Emperors could transform into Divine Medicine after death and continue living on. Perhaps Saints could transform into Saint Medicine after death and continue living on as well.
And so, this Transformation Medicine Longevity Method came into being, in the hope that one day, one could reopen one's intelligence in the form of Spiritual Herbs and live another Lifetime.
As his Lifespan neared its end, this Great Sage decisively chose to try the immature Longevity Method first created by Great Emperor Nuwa.
He sacrificed everything he possessed to a Longevity Fruit Tree, then imprinted his Life Imprint onto its only Ginseng Fruit.
He hoped to continue his life in the form of a Ginseng Fruit.
When this Ginseng Fruit fully ripened, it would be the moment he was reborn with intelligence in the form of Spiritual Herbs—and the day he transformed into human form once more.
Unfortunately, this Longevity Method was extremely immature. Even Wa Huang did not know whether it could succeed.
After sacrificing everything he had, that Great Sage only managed to give the Ginseng Fruit sixty percent of the medicinal efficacy of an Elixir of Immortality.
As for the Life Imprint, there was no reaction whatsoever.
Rebirth with intelligence was even more out of the question.
Moreover, while the Divine Medicine was being nurtured, the Heaven and Earth Essence outside suddenly began to decline sharply.
Earth entered the Era of Dharma Decline.
This directly interrupted the process of nurturing the Divine Medicine.
If it had been continuously nourished by sufficient essence, perhaps one day, the Imprint he had carved into that Ginseng Fruit truly might have had a chance to nurture entirely new intelligence.
Later, to ensure that the grade of the Longevity Fruit Tree and the Ginseng Fruit upon it did not decline, the Deity within this Quasi-Emperor Divine Weapon could only squeeze the essence from the other Medicine Fields in the Small World as much as possible, using it to nourish the Half-Divine Tree and Ginseng Fruit atop the mountain.
After being drained for several hundred thousand years, even this Chaos Small World had nearly dried up.
If no one used magical power to refine it and replenish its essence, this Small World might completely dry up in no more than a few thousand years.
In the end, the Half-Divine Tree and Ginseng Fruit would wither and die from a lack of essence.
This was also why the poisonous insects Li Zhi encountered were not Spiritual Insects, and why the Spiritual Herbs in the Medicine Field had degenerated into ordinary medicinal plants.
After understanding everything, Li Zhi had no intention of picking the Ginseng Fruit immediately.
Instead, he considered how to leave this place first.
Whether he should pick it or not was a serious problem.
Who in this world could face an Immortal Divine Medicine—even half of one—and remain calm?
Other than a Great Emperor, there probably weren't many.
Of course, it wasn't that Li Zhi didn't want to pick the fruit right away.
It was just that he truly had nothing capable of preserving its medicinal efficacy.
Moreover, the entrance to this Great Sage Mystic Realm was near Jade Emperor Peak. If he encountered cultivators coming to pay their respects after leaving, he would probably die without a burial place the moment they saw him carrying half an Immortality Elixir.
Besides, all medicine was three parts poison.
Although Li Zhi was not proficient in medicine, he knew this principle.
No matter how nourishing something was, it could not be consumed in excess. Otherwise, it would cause indigestion and turn something greatly nourishing into something highly toxic.
Lacking even the most basic knowledge of cultivation, Li Zhi did not know whether the Ginseng Fruit on the tree could be eaten raw. But he did know that, with his current mortal physique, he would certainly be unable to digest the enormous spiritual power contained within it if he consumed it rashly.
There was a high chance that he would be burst apart by the fruit's surging spiritual power after eating it.
But not eating it did not mean he could not make use of it.
Li Zhi recalled the effects of the Ginseng Fruit in the hands of Great Immortal Zhen Yuanzi. An ordinary person only had to smell it to gain three hundred and sixty years of life.
Although the two things came from different worlds, Li Zhi secretly wondered whether he could give it a try.
Afterward, Li Zhi stood beneath the Ginseng Fruit, raised his head, and began cultivating the Breathing Method.
Sure enough, as the Breathing Method circulated, he felt a wisp of exotic fragrance rush toward him.
Once the fragrance entered his body, he immediately felt all the cells in his body begin cheering with excitement.
The strength he had originally felt could no longer increase once again began to rise rapidly.
His limit of two thousand jin of strength in one arm was swiftly broken.
Over the next short ten days, his strength rose to the level of five thousand jin in one arm.
After reaching this level, continuing to cultivate the Breathing Method and absorb the medicinal fragrance no longer made the cells in his body cheer with excitement.
It seemed that the medicinal fragrance alone could no longer let them continue evolving.
Moreover, it seemed that the Ginseng Fruit had stopped releasing its fragrance.
Perhaps it was only an illusion, but Li Zhi felt that the fruit was not as plump as it had been ten days ago. Even the hazy radiance on its skin had faded considerably.
In just ten days, his strength had undergone a world-shaking transformation. His entire body seemed to have been reborn, and even the scars on his body had faded considerably.
Li Zhi could not help wondering whether his current strength was greater than Ye Fan's before he opened his Bitter Sea.
Standing beneath the Longevity Fruit Tree and looking down over the entire Small World, Li Zhi could not help feeling a surge of heroic ambition. He almost felt as though he could trample the world beneath his feet.
But when he lowered his head and glanced at the Medicine Fields beneath the mountain, the heroic ambition that had just risen instantly vanished.
Those insects were simply impossible to guard against.
After surviving countless near-death experiences and finally climbing to the mountaintop, he would probably have to endure another wave of attacks from the little creatures on his way down.
It wasn't that he lacked confidence in himself.
Rather, the densely packed scars on his body constantly reminded him that he was still only a mortal.
The slightest carelessness could leave him caught in the insects' encirclement, with a high chance of disaster.
Furthermore, he was not sure whether leaving this Magic Treasure Space required some special method.
They said that Saint Weapons possessed spirits. Then a Quasi-Emperor Divine Weapon should have intelligence as well, right?
At this thought, Li Zhi respectfully bowed toward the sky before him. "Senior, can you let me out?"
The sky remained utterly unchanged. Even the clouds overhead did not move in the slightest. The Deity of the Hundred Herbs Diagram ignored him.
Li Zhi gave an awkward smile and thought, The Deity within a Divine Weapon isn't a person. How could it speak human language? We probably need to communicate through divine sense.
He then sat beneath the Longevity Fruit Tree, emptied his mind as much as possible, and tried to communicate with the Deity of the Hundred Herbs Diagram through his heart.
One minute, two minutes, fifteen minutes, half an hour passed, yet the Deity of the Hundred Herbs Diagram still paid him no attention.
Afterward, Li Zhi tried several other methods of communication, but he still received no response from the Deity.
He could not help wondering, "Do I really need to cultivate magical power before I can communicate with the Deity within this Quasi-Emperor Divine Weapon? Or has the Deity within this treasured diagram already died?"
After failing to establish communication, Li Zhi temporarily abandoned his plan to leave immediately.
The environment here was fairly good and suitable for reading scriptures and comprehending the Dao.
He planned to read through the scriptures of the Primordial Longevity Art several times, then chant them beneath the Longevity Fruit Tree.
He would see whether he could grasp the insights into the scriptures possessed by the Great Sage who had sacrificed everything to the Longevity Fruit Tree. If he could resonate with those insights, it would bring him boundless benefits in his future cultivation.
The more he studied the scriptures, the more Li Zhi admired the talent of the Longevity Daoist, who had created this Cultivation Method.
Unlike ordinary cultivators, who pursued powerful combat strength,
the Primordial Longevity Art created by the Longevity Daoist brought the word "longevity" to the fullest extent. It accumulated boundless Life Force within the body, and after one cultivated to the Quasi-Emperor realm, one could practically be called a human-shaped Immortal Medicine.
No wonder he had possessed the one Lifetime of Lifespan that only a Great Emperor Level powerhouse could have, despite cultivating only to the Quasi-Emperor Triple Heaven.
He had nearly dissolved all the Killing Aura within his body, so it was no wonder people said that he was three parts weaker than others of the same realm.
This Cultivation Method had practically abandoned its strengths in every other aspect and pursued longevity alone.
Just as in Journey to the West, in the conversation between Patriarch Bodhi and Wukong,
the Grandmaster asked Wukong, "How about I teach you the way of the 'technique' school?"
Wukong asked, "What does the way of the technique school involve?"
The Grandmaster replied, "The technique school consists of inviting immortals, supporting spirit-writing, asking divinations, and casting yarrow stalks. It teaches the principles of seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune."
Wukong asked, "Can one attain longevity through this?"
The Grandmaster said, "No."
Wukong then said, "I won't learn it. I won't learn it."
Afterward, the Grandmaster asked Wukong whether he wanted to study the ways of the "flow," "stillness," and "motion" schools.
After understanding their main principles, Wukong refused to learn any of them.
Wukong would learn neither this nor that. He only kept asking the Grandmaster whether such wondrous methods could lead to longevity.
As the saying went, dazzling flowers gradually cloud the eyes; only Wukong sincerely sought the Dao.
Wukong held firmly to his goal of longevity, refusing to be distracted by those flashy and pointless things and going straight to the heart of the matter.
Could any of these wondrous methods lead to longevity?
If they could not bring longevity, he would not learn them, no matter how powerful they appeared.
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