Tribulation Transcendence, Qi Refinement, Cultivating Truth to Ascend as an Immortal

Seven days later, inside the Celestial Venerable Hall.

Wang Ping sat upright before the shrine, pushing his Spirit Sense to its utmost limit as his blood and qi boiled. His eyes stared fixedly at the Celestial Venerable statue, which showed only its back.

Yet the result remained unchanged.

For seven days, no matter what Wang Ping did, how he circulated his Spirit Sense, or how he sensed the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, the Celestial Venerable statue had never been willing to turn around for him.

"What garbage immortal cultivation!"

Thinking this, Wang Ping looked again at the jade slip in his hand. You Daoist Nun had given it to him. As his Spirit Sense entered it, a passage of scripture immediately surfaced in his mind:

[Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method].

"This is a secret method of Dragon-Raising Peak, one of the Immortal Sect's Eight Peaks. It uses one's body to raise beasts, gathering six types of Desire Beasts into one, then ultimately refining a Defective Spiritual Root."

"Although cultivators with Defective Spiritual Roots cannot [refine qi], and have no hope of the Great Dao, they can still cultivate spells. Quite a few Force Servitors and Dao generals in the Immortal Sect have Defective Spiritual Roots. They may have no future to speak of, but they can still handle miscellaneous chores and hard labor for the true immortal cultivators—the Immortal Sect's oxen and horses."

Wang Ping carefully read through the jade slip.

Unlike the [Heavenly Book of Self-Transformation and Command over the Desire Realm], the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] was clearly aimed at the lower-end market, with far more detailed content.

That included the realms of immortal cultivation.

"What is immortal cultivation?"

"To sum it up, it is actually nine words: [Tribulation Transcendence, Qi Refinement, Cultivating Truth to Ascend as an Immortal]."

"It is said that these nine words were the true words left behind by the Immortal Sect's founder, that Celestial Venerable, after he witnessed the suffering of all living beings at the end of the ancient era and was moved to speak."

"The Celestial Venerable's words became law. With nine words, he set the laws of the world. From then on, the orthodox system of immortal cultivation was anchored by these nine words."

"For mortals to cultivate immortality, they must first transcend three tribulations: the Human Tribulation, the Heavenly Tribulation, and the Life Tribulation."

"At the First Tribulation Realm, one faces the Human Tribulation."

"The so-called Human Tribulation refers to the calamities of the human body. In the mundane world's red dust, blades and weapons are hard to guard against. One moment of carelessness can lead to injury and damage to one's dharma body."

"To reach the First Tribulation Realm, one must cultivate four traits: Spirit-Communing Thought, the Perfectly Sealed True Body, Cosmic Circulation Breath Intake, and the Qi-Manifesting Technique. Only after refining true Dharma Power does one succeed. Only those with Dharma Power can cultivate spells to their highest realm; otherwise, it is like fishing for the moon in water."

Wang Ping's gaze shifted slightly when he read this.

"No wonder..."

His [Qi Suppression] had long since reached the level of renewing bones and reconnecting sinews with the boost from his Force Servitor experience, yet he had never been able to take it a step further.

"I thought my comprehension was simply too poor."

Wang Ping suddenly understood, resolving a major doubt in his heart.

"Now it seems that I failed to refine Dharma Power. My physical foundation does not meet the standard, which is why I cannot reach the realm where True Qi covers the body and blades cannot pierce it."

At the Second Layer of Tribulation Transcendence, cultivators faced the Heavenly Tribulation.

This tribulation referred to the three tribulations of wind, fire, and lightning.

After cultivators refined Dharma Power, they could master spells, then use techniques to comprehend Dharma, and Dharma to comprehend the Dao, until their spells underwent a qualitative transformation and manifested divine abilities.

It was a process of refinement.

The entire process was like forging a weapon. Bì Wind stripped away the impurities in a spell, Yin Fire tempered its foundation, and Heavenly Thunder tested its strength.

Once the Heavenly Tribulation was overcome, the cultivator's spells would ascend into divine abilities.

As for the Third Tribulation Realm's Life Tribulation, the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] did not mention it. It seemed to believe that anyone cultivating this method would never reach that level anyway.

"Only after transcending all three tribulations can one refine qi."

As for "Qi Refinement," which lay beyond Tribulation Transcendence, the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] contained no detailed explanation, only a passage both profound and obscure:

"The body is the dwelling-place of spirit and qi. Qi resides within the body, while spirit rests in the sea of qi. Thus qi reaches the realm of Communing with the Divine, drawing in the mysterious spring and sounding the heavenly drum. It enters from the heavenly gate and permeates all within and without, burning the body until body and fire shine as one. Preserve it thus until form merges with qi and abides in true nature; only then may one attain the fruit of the ancient immortals' Entering the Dao through Qi Refinement."

Wang Ping found it utterly incomprehensible.

The cultivation method's description praised "Qi Refinement" to the skies, calling its practitioners [Qi Refiners]. It seemed entirely different from the "qi cultivation" he understood.

And the supposed hopelessness of a Defective Spiritual Root actually meant being unable to refine qi.

All these descriptions stirred immense curiosity within him.

What kind of mighty power did Qi Refiners possess?

"You Daoist Nun... is she a Qi Refiner? Or is she still undergoing Tribulation Transcendence? What a pity. Without seeing a Qi Refiner's divine abilities, it is difficult to make an accurate judgment."

Wang Ping let his imagination run wild for a moment before reining in his thoughts.

"I cannot aim too high. I should focus my efforts on the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method]. No matter what, I should first refine a Defective Spiritual Root."

Wang Ping rose, dusted off his robe, and walked out of the Celestial Venerable Hall.

You Daoist Nun's temple was enormous, complete with pavilions, terraces, and towers. However, his residence was not inside the temple, but outside it.

Strangely enough, outside the temple stood an even larger temple. Yet when Wang Ping emerged from the inner temple and looked back, he discovered that the massive inner temple was merely a painted gate upon the outer temple's wall. Only those holding a token could freely enter and leave the inner and outer temples.

"A Grotto-Heaven hidden within another..."

Watching the gate on the wall slowly close and turn from a real object into a painting, Wang Ping could not help clicking his tongue in wonder at the lofty methods of immortals.

Only then did he look around.

Unlike the inner temple, the spiritual qi of heaven and earth outside was much thinner, nearly identical to the world where the Great Shun Celestial Dynasty stood. It was clearly several shades less immortal.

Still, the temple itself was quite large. It seemed to have been built upon a mountain, and its structures were all very new, as though they had only recently been completed. Some even bore traces of repairs. Unfortunately, the materials appeared to be ordinary, and although there were many rooms, every single one was empty. Aside from him, there was not another person in sight.

"This seems to be the previous attendant boy's mess."

Wang Ping recalled what You Daoist Nun had told him before entering seclusion. When the previous attendant boy had been around, he had brought many beautiful maidservants into the temple to wait upon him.

Unfortunately, he was already dead.

Thus, the rules were abolished. All the maidservants were sent back to the mortal world, his belongings were cleared away, and only a few odds and ends remained.

"Who knows what mistake he made to end up so unlucky..."

Wang Ping shook his head, then followed the cultivation method's sensation to a corner of the temple. He pushed open a large door and looked at the several enormous black shadows coiled within.

These were the resources You Daoist Nun had said the previous attendant had left for him.

Looking over them, he found several strange beasts: an eagle carving, an ape, a leopard, and a white whale shrunk countless times and placed in a vat.

"So these are the Six-Desire Beasts..."

The [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] had four layers. In each of the first three layers, one needed to control two types of Desire Beasts. The fourth layer then united all the Desire Beasts as one.

Once the Six-Desire Beasts were fused into one, all he needed to do was merge himself with them to refine a [Six-Desire Chaos Demon], which would serve as a Defective Spiritual Root.

Wang Ping swept his eyes across the beast room and silently calculated. "Heaven Carving, Deep Ape, Rock Serpent, Whale Swallower, Bandit Leopard, Steel Flood Dragon... Four are gathered here. As for Rock Serpent and Steel Flood Dragon, I heard they died when the previous attendant boy caused trouble, so I will have to raise those two strange beasts myself."

That was not bad. At least he already had four.

The beast room also contained corresponding Desire Beast eggs for the two that were missing. As long as he used the cultivation method to hasten their growth, raising them anew would only be a matter of time.

"Roar!"

Just then, a roar interrupted Wang Ping's thoughts. It came from Bandit Leopard, which had been resting with its eyes closed. Now, it stared at him with tiger-like ferocity.

The next instant, the world in Wang Ping's eyes seemed like an animation from which a frame had suddenly been removed. Bandit Leopard, which had been lying before him just moments ago, appeared before him in the blink of an eye. Its bloody maw opened wide, sharp steel teeth carrying a stench potent enough to make one faint as they viciously bit for his throat!

In that flash of lightning and spark of flint, Wang Ping struck out with a backhand palm.

As he launched the strike, the collision of his muscles and bones rang out from within him like the roar of tigers and dragons, as if a powerful bow were slowly being drawn inside his body.

"Bang!"

His arm became the bow, his palm the arrow. A lightning-fast afterimage lashed across Bandit Leopard's head, forcibly knocking that savage leopard head three inches aside.

"So hard..."

Wang Ping frowned deeply. As he pulled back and retreated, he rotated his wrist, once again feeling the gulf between immortal cultivation and martial arts—a gulf wider than a chasm.

"This Bandit Leopard is absolutely no ordinary beast. Its body is absurdly powerful. Even with Inner Force enhancement, I could only knock it flying. Though it has never learned martial arts, it clearly possesses other mystical methods—like that speed just now, as though a frame had been skipped... It is no weaker than an Inner Force Martial Master!"

And this was only a single strange beast.

In the Great Shun Court, an Inner Force Martial Master could dominate an entire county. Yet in the Immortal Sect, such strange beasts were merely resources for servant disciples to cultivate with.

At this thought, Wang Ping's heart surged ever more fiercely.

"I still have to cultivate immortality!"

"Defective Spiritual Root or not, I must first find a way onto the immortal path. Even if the Great Dao offers no hope, that is something to consider only when the road has truly run out."

Next, he looked toward the other Desire Beasts in the beast room. With Bandit Leopard leading the charge, the rest of the Desire Beasts were clearly growing restless as well.

But that was no problem.

With a thought from Wang Ping, the world before his eyes immediately froze. His field of vision split in two at that instant: one half reality, the other a towering book.

[Peace Scripture], activate!

Entering the [Peace Scripture] space, Wang Ping immediately walked to the third scripture volume, [A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold]. Then, concentrating his thoughts, he began to write:

[I promise that I will certainly cultivate the "Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method" to...]

Wang Ping's movement paused slightly. As a faint radiance flickered across the book, he swiftly received an insight as though divine inspiration had descended. "It cannot be directly completed."

"With my current talent, [A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold] has a time limit of one thousand days—nearly three years."

In other words, only something he could accomplish within a thousand days could have its completed result borrowed in advance through [A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold].

"That means the scripture volume judges that I cannot cultivate this method to completion within three years."

At this thought, Wang Ping considered for a moment before adding the rest of the promise:

[...the second layer.]

The moment his brush fell and the sentence ended, dazzling brilliance erupted from the scripture volume. In a daze, Wang Ping seemed to see scene after scene of himself practicing the cultivation method.

The next second, countless insights related to the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] surged endlessly from the depths of his heart like floodwaters bursting through a collapsed dam. During this process, his eyes gradually changed as well. Ring after ring of sinister purple light ignited within his pupils.

"Ah, I understand!"

Returning to reality, the four Desire Beasts in the beast room had already surrounded him. Yet Wang Ping did not show the slightest fear. He merely glanced calmly at them.

The purple light in his eyes flickered faintly.

Immediately afterward, the four Desire Beasts froze in place at once. Their originally vicious eyes gleamed with the same purple radiance as Wang Ping's, and they then prostrated themselves on the ground.

"Just as expected, it works."

Wang Ping nodded in satisfaction. All Desire Beasts were born with innate flaws, and the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] could perfectly restrain them.

Yet soon, he lowered his gaze again.

Within his vision, the scripture volume of the [Peace Scripture] flickered in and out of sight. However, this volume had now turned gray, clearly unable to be used again.

"If I want to use it again, I must rely on myself to cultivate the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] to the second layer. Right now, I have merely borrowed the method's effects and practical experience in advance. I have not actually reached the corresponding level. Still, with these things in hand, working backward will only be faster."

Wang Ping made a rough estimate.

"Without [A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold], relying on myself alone, I would probably need at least a year to cultivate the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] to the second layer."

"But now... at most another half month."

"Within half a month, I can truly cultivate the method to the second layer. Then I can borrow in advance once more. My cultivation speed will far surpass anything outsiders could imagine!"

Ascending to heaven by stepping on my own left foot with my right—this is my peerless talent, enough to drive others to despair!

At this thought, Wang Ping was filled with motivation. He immediately began cultivating to repay his debt while raising the two missing Desire Beasts, preparing for a second loan.

Three months later, inside the temple.

Within the beast room, Wang Ping sat cross-legged, his hands forming seals and his expression calm. The light of the setting sun shone through the window onto him, casting a long shadow.

Then the seals in Wang Ping's hands changed.

As his seals changed, the shadow behind him also twisted into strange forms: sometimes a leopard, sometimes an ape, sometimes an eagle carving spreading its wings...

Once the seals had changed six times in succession, six strange beasts had appeared around him. Purple rings of light spun within every beast's eyes.

"Huu..."

Only then did Wang Ping let out a long breath. He immediately smiled with satisfaction. "Finally repaid it. Only the final step of unification remains."

Two and a half months earlier, he had borrowed once again and raised the [Six Desires Heaven's Free Attainment Method] to the third layer. He had been repaying that debt until now. However, as [A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold] opened once more, he could already see the gate to the fourth layer's completion and the condensation of a Defective Spiritual Root opening before him.

Who could compare to such cultivation speed?

At least according to the records in the cultivation method's jade slip, among all those who had cultivated this method throughout the ages, not a single one had reached his level of completing it in three months.

A peerless prodigy of borrowing—who else but me?

"Lend it to me!"

With a thought from Wang Ping, the bottleneck that had felt as solid as a boulder, with no flaw to be found, shattered at once. Countless inspirations filled his mind.

Following those inspirations, the seals in Wang Ping's hands began changing once more. His ten fingers intertwined, and at last formed a seventh hand seal entirely different from the previous ones.

Almost simultaneously, the six Desire Beasts circling him raised their heads. Then they dissolved, turning into shadows that began piecing themselves together. The leopard's speed, the carving's wings, the ape's strength, the whale's breath, the flood dragon's physique, the serpent's recovery... countless traits were recombined.

At last, a new shadow emerged.

The shadow overlapped with Wang Ping's own, then slowly stepped out from the darkness and transformed into a burly giant standing behind him.

"Ho ho..."

Wang Ping studied the burly giant with great interest. "So this is the Six-Desire Chaos Demon condensed after the Six-Desire Beasts unite as one, as described by the cultivation method?"

Strong—extremely strong!

Nearly three meters tall, every inch of its muscles seemed to contain explosive strength. Its fingers were thicker than Wang Ping's arms, and its breathing sounded like wind and thunder.

Next, Wang Ping lowered his head again.

Standing in the setting sunlight, he had no shadow beneath his feet... Or rather, his shadow had already merged into the Six-Desire Chaos Demon before him.

Standing upright, without a shadow!

"In this state, unless it is a spell, any attack directed at me will be transferred to the Six-Desire Chaos Demon and cannot harm my true body."

This was the manifestation of the cultivation method's completion. Beyond that, this Six-Desire Chaos Demon could serve as his third eye, surveying everything around him.

Closing his eyes, Wang Ping linked his consciousness to the Six-Desire Chaos Demon and looked around. Though his own eyes saw nothing, he overlooked the myriad phenomena of heaven and earth as clearly as the lines on his palm.

This was [Spirit-Communing Thought].

At this thought, a wave of satisfaction abruptly rose in Wang Ping's heart.

Though this was only one of the four cultivation traits required for the First Tribulation Realm, only a small step upon the long immortal road, it was a great step for him personally.

"In other words, from this day onward, I am an immortal cultivator."

Thinking it over carefully, martial arts were not all that great. Though they were carefree and exhilarating, one's life only lasted several short decades. By the time one looked back, one would already be gray-haired and aged.

How could that compare to longevity and eternal sight?

Immortal cultivation was still far better!