The Immortal Path is Long

True Person Fen Hai hummed a little tune all the way back to his residence. He went straight to the study. First, he rummaged through the shelves, taking down the most precious magic treasures, pills, and rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures displayed in the center. He carefully packed them into boxes, then meticulously labeled their uses, materials, and prices. After finishing these tasks, he searched all over the room again, and with great difficulty, finally found a jade toad from a corner of the storeroom.

From the perspective of a True Person, this jade toad was of average quality, with ordinary craftsmanship. Other than being able to slightly improve feng shui and bring good luck, it was useless. But what place's feng shui could compare to Empty Valley Hanging Green?

Yet, True Person Fen Hai solemnly placed this jade toad, which was even too redundant to be a mere ornament, in the center of the treasure rack, and even wiped it clean.

Originally, this spot held three small immortal swords, which were now moved to the side.

The news of Wei Yuan successfully manifesting his visualization diagram caused a small ripple among his classmates, and then it subsided without a trace. His visualization diagram was personally sealed by True Monarch Xuan Yue, making it impossible for anyone below the True Monarch rank to glimpse it. Naturally, his classmates couldn't know the truth.

Although his classmates were curious, they quickly forgot about it.

According to historical records, the Jade Toad Gazing at the Moon Diagram had a maximum of twelve zhang, with a medium-grade anomaly. Although Bao Yun's eleven-zhang visualization diagram was a bit small, it was accompanied by a top-grade anomaly, which actually surpassed all previous sages. Cui Yu's visualization diagram was only six zhang, but its anomaly was close to top-grade, and he also received the boon of an immortal sword's sword qi, making his overall combat power not low. With the backing of the Cui family, he could still ascend further, and could be considered to have secured a spot in the Heaven Tier.

The time Wei Yuan spent expanding his visualization diagram was unprecedented, clearly indicating a lack of comprehension and talent, which was why his cultivation was slow. Wei Yuan's root bone and talent were seven chi nine, which would be considered an unrivaled genius elsewhere, but among the disciples of Taichu Palace, it was only average. He also came from a poor background, lacking enlightenment secret methods and bone-cleansing techniques, so his classmates tacitly assumed that Wei Yuan was currently relatively slow-witted and that his mind would only fully mature after a few more years.

With both root bone and comprehension combined, if his cultivation technique was also unsuitable, it was not impossible for it to take a year just to manifest his visualization diagram.

If the Jade Toad Gazing at the Moon Diagram were placed outside Taichu Palace, there were plenty of ordinary people who couldn't forge a Dao Foundation even after decades of cultivation.

The classmates tacitly agreed that this was something Wei Yuan found difficult to speak of, so they all agreed not to mention it. In reality, they had heard of similar examples many times, even if they hadn't seen them. Countless disciples from poor backgrounds achieved initial brilliance upon entering the palace, but then gradually fell behind or were even surpassed by disciples from influential families during their long cultivation journey. Many even lost their Dao heart because of this. Very few truly rose from humble beginnings to eventually become True Monarchs.

The class was calm yet tense. All the students had begun Body Forging, each pushing themselves to the limit and sprinting on the path of the Great Dao, fearing being surpassed by others.

The students were already proud and arrogant. Ji Liuli fanned the flames daily, constantly comparing them to the Zhi Gu Sect. Every class, there would be news of someone from the Zhi Gu Sect breaking through or receiving some treasure from their family, forcing everyone to cultivate desperately. They were so tired of hearing "How the people from the Zhi Gu Sect are..." that their ears had grown calluses.

After True Monarch Xuan Yue sealed off the external fortune, Wei Yuan finally embarked on the path of Body Forging.

The day he returned from Azure Hall, Zhang Sheng explained in detail the various points to note during the Body Forging stage. The first step of Body Forging was to refine the muscles and tendons, gradually transforming the physical body into the foundation material for an immortal embryo. This stage was the beginning of transcending the mortal and entering the immortal. The body would undergo significant changes, with greatly increased strength and speed, and better resistance to damage.

Wei Yuan had already deeply experienced this during the previous fight. His classmates had all begun Body Forging, and their strength had surged. Even Wei Yuan, who had been naturally strong since childhood, couldn't withstand it.

After explaining the precautions, Zhang Sheng put down three bottles of Peiyuan Pills and told Wei Yuan to cultivate on his own, then he left in a hurry.

These three bottles of Peiyuan Pills were not a three-month supply, but a ten-day supply. From now on, the dosage of Peiyuan Pills changed from one pill every three days to three pills every day.

After Zhang Sheng left, Wei Yuan didn't delay for a moment and began cultivating. This time, he still transformed into a jade toad, but looking at the clean, round moon in the sky, Wei Yuan felt somewhat unaccustomed. However, what followed was familiar content: absorbing and expelling moonlight.

As the toad opened its mouth, moonlight poured down, filling the toad's large mouth in an instant, with much spilling out. Given the size of the toad's mouth, it was a bit difficult to swallow this mouthful. After swallowing the moonlight, the toad let out a "gurg" and burped.

All this moonlight was naturally due to the miraculous effects of the three Peiyuan Pills. But moonlight alone was not enough to release the medicinal effects of the Peiyuan Pills; a torrential rain began to fall within the visualization diagram.

The jade toad adjusted its posture, aligning the round moon, its mouth, and its rear end in a straight line. Then, it tilted its head back and opened its mouth, taking another full mouthful of moonlight. This mouthful was much more comfortable; the moonlight passed directly through its throat and into its abdomen, skipping the intermediate steps.

After being force-fed moonlight all night like this, dawn broke before he knew it.

Waking from his meditation, Wei Yuan felt a subtle itching and tingling in many parts of his body, a sign that his flesh and blood were beginning to regenerate. The visualization diagram in his sea of consciousness had also changed; a small area of the ground had solidified from void to real. Judging by its size alone, it would take at least six to seven hundred days for the entire ground to solidify.

This was the result of consuming three Peiyuan Pills. The medicinal power had reached the limit that Wei Yuan could tolerate; any more and the jade toad wouldn't be able to swallow it. However, with three Peiyuan Pills a day, one day's worth of cultivation was equivalent to dozens of days of hard work. It shouldn't be this slow.

Wei Yuan found the copied notes of True Monarch Tun Yue's experience and carefully reread them. He finally confirmed that there was still a problem with his cultivation.

Only a small portion of the spiritual energy and medicinal power converted from absorbing and expelling moonlight was used for Body Forging. The rest mostly disappeared into thin air, and he had no idea where it went. However, Wei Yuan was certain that this spiritual energy and medicinal power were all within his body, not dissipating. It was as if something invisible within his body was absorbing most of the medicinal power and spiritual energy.

For his first cultivation session, judging by the volume of the solidified visualization diagram, Wei Yuan's cultivation speed was far beyond ordinary disciples, as he was essentially eating Peiyuan Pills like food. However, Wei Yuan's visualization diagram was truly outrageous; proportionally, his progress was slow to the point of being infuriating. Ordinary students generally completed muscle and tendon forging in three to four months. For those with good talent and sufficient pills, a month was not unheard of.

Wei Yuan could only try not to think about his progress.

After that, Zhang Sheng no longer visited once a month but every ten days. Each time, he brought three bottles of Peiyuan Pills and spoke more with Wei Yuan, which was considered good news.

The bad news was that the Peiyuan Pills tasted really bad, with a strange odor. Eating them was like eating...

When he ate fewer before, he didn't feel much. Now, three pills a day was different; the taste piled up and lingered, and it was unbearable. After only a few days, Wei Yuan found them hard to swallow and felt nauseous just looking at them, which was even worse than absorbing moonlight.

Despite the bad taste, one Peiyuan Pill was equivalent to over ten days of Wei Yuan's hard work. Three pills accelerated his Body Forging progress by forty to fifty times. Wei Yuan had to eat them.

Wei Yuan guessed that many people must have complained about the taste of the Peiyuan Pills, but Zaohua Temple never changed it.

Wei Yuan maliciously speculated about the thoughts of the old geezers at Zaohua Temple. After all, no matter how many Peiyuan Pills they refined, they would all be bought out. Why bother with the extra effort of improving the taste? Zaohua Temple wasn't a restaurant.

Every day before cultivating, Wei Yuan cursed Zaohua Temple in his heart, and he cursed them again after cultivating. But curses aside, he still had to take the medicine, absorb the moonlight, and so the days passed.

There was another matter Wei Yuan had not anticipated: the weekly foundation refinement by the Senior Sister still had to continue.

Wei Yuan had also asked Ji Liuli when the refinement would be completed. Unexpectedly, the Senior Sister changed her tune, saying that the path of purity was endless, and besides, Wei Yuan's foundation was still very unstable, so the refinement would continue.

So, besides taking medicine and absorbing moonlight, he also had to be refined.

At this moment, Wei Yuan realized that the immortal path was not only long but also tedious and repetitive, and he had to endure many strange things.

He wondered if those high and mighty True Monarchs and True Persons were psychologically well.

Thus, month after month passed, and Wei Yuan felt time passing slower and slower. Each night seemed to have several extra hours.