Reforging the Earth Immortal Lineage

Ren Qing arrived at the cave dwelling at the bottom of the well. In just a few days, it had become far more orderly.

He nodded in satisfaction, but when his gaze swept over the wooden boards covering the floor and caught sight of the bronze oil lamps hanging along the walls, he suddenly froze.

Neither the boards nor the exquisitely carved bronze lamps were things ordinary folk could afford.

Ren Qing raised a brow. At once, all the busy Black Rat Dao Children gathered before him. "This Daoist despises disciples engaging in such furtive deeds most of all. Remember this well—do not let others notice your tracks."

The Black Rat Dao Children nodded again and again. A double negative meant affirmation.

Sure enough, the immortal master added another sentence, "This will do."

Ren Qing currently had twenty-three Black Rat Dao Children under his command. Most of them were repairing the cave dwelling, and they had even planned out the areas for future pill refining and artifact forging. Ventilation was no longer a problem, either.

"Still, it's far inferior to the private rooms in the psychiatric hospital from my previous life. At least the walls there were smooth, and they even had iron bars. Such a perfect atmosphere for secluded cultivation."

"Infinite Heavenly Venerable, drinking tea and discussing the Dao with those fellow patients truly was one of life's greatest pleasures."

Ren Qing forcefully suppressed his stray thoughts and entered the cultivation chamber piled with firewood. Turning around, he instructed them, "Mouse Divine General."

"Keep adding jujube wood as needed. Watch the fire carefully—it must envelop the entire cultivation chamber."

The Black Rat Dao Children squeaked in response, utterly unaware that they were the ones doing all the dirty, exhausting work, while the Toad Dao Child who had advanced to the outer sect merely had to lie flat in the water.

Ren Qing did not delay further. He took out pine resin and mixed it with his own blood.

Then, using his chest as the center, he dipped his fingers in the resin and slowly drew talismans across his body.

As the lines wound onward, a faint glimmer flickered.

Once the talismans were complete, he waved at the Black Rat Dao Children outside the cave.

"Light it."

The moment the words left his mouth, the oil lamps ignited the strips of cloth beside the firewood. Before long, roaring flames burned fiercely, and the temperature inside the cultivation chamber soared.

The pine resin on Ren Qing's skin ignited first, sending up wisps of ghostly flame.

Agonizing pain surged over him like a tide, as though countless red-hot needles were piercing his body. His heart pounded at its utmost limit, yet the ghostly flames only burned along the talismans. Not a trace of scorching appeared on the rest of his skin.

Ren Qing's expression remained calm. Only after the ghostly flames had spread over his entire body did he force out a sentence through gritted teeth.

"Infinite Heavenly Venerable, this really hurts."

Flaming serpents licked at the cave ceiling, stretching and shrinking the shadows of the Black Rat Dao Children.

Ren Qing was completely swallowed up, while the flames continued burning without end.

For three straight days.

The firewood they had set aside should have lasted half a month, but the cultivation chamber seemed to be endlessly devouring the flames. The Black Rat Dao Children soon had to keep adding jujube wood, even sneaking into nearby households' woodsheds.

It was not until the evening of the third day that the Fire Dissolution finally came to an end.

The flames went out without warning, revealing a charred corpse seated cross-legged in the center. Its entire body had carbonized and remained utterly motionless. It did not look remotely capable of coming back to life.

Crack.

A crisp sound rang out.

Lines of fissures suddenly split open across the charred corpse. Then, dazzling immortal light burst from those cracks, filling the entire cultivation chamber in an instant.

Divine consciousness spread outward.

A waning moon rose behind his head. Amid the clouds and mist swirling around him, pavilions and towers vaguely emerged, with upturned eaves, interlocking brackets, carved beams, and painted rafters, like a heavenly palace.

Chunks of the charred shell peeled away, revealing an immaculate figure within.

Ren Qing slowly opened his eyes. A sharp gleam flashed through them and vanished, while the phenomenon gradually faded as his divine consciousness withdrew. He looked utterly ordinary once more.

He lowered his head and looked at his exposed skin. It was so smooth and delicate that not even pores could be seen.

He had attained the leakless body that ancient people of his previous life had yearned for. He could feel that his heartbeat had become exceedingly slow; he would only need to eat once every half month, and his lifespan had soared.

"This Fire Dissolution has also brought my divine consciousness close to seventy percent mastery."

"Thankfully, nothing went wrong. The Metamorphosis Immortal Art grants the flesh too much regenerative power. Ordinary fire nearly failed to reach the proper heat, forcing this Daoist to remain inside for an extra half day."

With a slight circulation of his divine consciousness, Ren Qing felt as though every thought had become unobstructed. The smallest details within and outside his body were all crystal clear.

He had only just begun to relax, intending to rest for a night before cultivating the Painting Immortality Method, when he noticed that both body and soul were at their peak. He understood that opportunity must not be missed.

He reread the Painting Immortality Method.

To begin the Painting Immortality Method, one had to transform one's fleshly body into a human-skin painting and make one's soul into the immortal within the painting, thereby using divine consciousness to wield arts that could pass falsehood for truth.

Ren Qing closed his eyes for a long while, recalling something he had noticed when Zhou Can had transmitted the Dao to him.

The initiation steps of the Painting Immortality Method were, in essence, the process of refining one's own skin into a human-skin painting.

"Through the Metamorphosis Immortal Art, this Daoist can peel off his skin intact. Could I refine it into... a human-skin painting without damaging the foundation of my fleshly body?"

"And could I use a human-skin painting in place of cultivating qi in the middle dantian?"

In his previous life, Ren Qing had looked through texts concerning the Daoist lineage of Earth Immortals. Yet by the time they had passed into the Age of Dharma's Decline, only a fragmentary scroll called the "Qi Consumption Method" remained.

The first step of the Qi Consumption Method was a hundred days of Foundation Establishment, using essence, qi, and spirit to open up the middle dantian.

It was said that humans possessed three dantians. The upper dantian was called the Niwan Palace, the dwelling place of the Primordial Spirit; the middle dantian was called the Imperial Court, used by ancient cultivators to contain the spiritual qi of heaven and earth; the lower dantian was called the Essence Chamber, where innate essence gathered.

He had attempted the hundred days of Foundation Establishment more than once. In his previous life, he simply had no way of opening the middle dantian.

This life was even stranger. He could not sense the existence of a middle dantian even with his divine consciousness. The mortals of this world most likely possessed only the upper and lower dantians.

Ren Qing had a bold idea. Not only did he want to recreate the middle dantian after birth, he also wanted to use the Painting Immortality Method to cultivate the Earth Immortal lineage from his previous life.

So what if this world lacked the spiritual qi of heaven and earth?

Wasn't the Painting Immortality Method precisely about making the false real?

"Dwelling in the central imperial court, fasting and dining on rosy clouds; condense the spirit into a single breath, and with ink strokes awaken the profound."

Ren Qing drew a deep breath and performed the Metamorphosis Immortal Art with his full concentration.

A faint glow spread over his body. A layer of skin, thin as cicada wings, slowly peeled away. Yet unlike an ordinary metamorphosis, the human skin did not lose its vitality.

Ren Qing's approach was quite ingenious. He used his divine consciousness to guide the human skin, inch by inch, until it lay flat.

Then—

Following the talismans of the Painting Immortality Method, Ren Qing carefully washed over the human skin with his divine consciousness. Wherever it passed, ripples spread across the skin's surface.

Every stroke of divine consciousness had to merge into the human skin, while the skin itself was steadily losing vitality. A stabbing pain rose in his mind, and he understood that he could not spend years on this like Zhou Can had. Time was exceedingly tight.

"Hiss."

"Such a drain on divine consciousness... even this poor Daoist cannot perform it a second time anytime soon."

Fine sweat seeped from Ren Qing's brow as his divine consciousness wound and traced like silken threads.

Suffused by divine consciousness, the human skin opened and closed as though it were breathing.

Only after completing the final stroke did Ren Qing finally press his temples. His eyes were already webbed with bloodshot veins.

With the slightest communication from his divine consciousness, the human skin transformed into spiritual light and silently entered his body.

Ignoring the pounding ache in his head, he immediately looked inward.

Within his chest, the blank human-skin scroll had connected to his blood vessels. It had clearly become part of his fleshly body. The recreated middle dantian... had succeeded.

"The Great Dao is within reach, the Great Dao is within reach!!!"