Before the Mountain Gate

To be fair, whether it's blasting mountains to create tunnels, digging bridges and paving roads, or even excavating a bunch of Spiritual Qi pipes at the bottom of mountains, creating artificial immortal mountains and spiritual mountains is something that Heavenly Gate excels at.

However, the fact that Hu Mang could suppress the mountain ranges of dozens of peaks and harmonize the Yao Qi with just one talisman was something he had never seen before in Heavenly Gate.

Because Heavenly Gate simply doesn't have any naturally formed sacred mountains with their own inherent mountain ranges!

It's all a bunch of man-made landscapes!

Since it's all man-made, it would be good enough if this mountain had any spiritual energy or Spiritual Qi at all.

Looking at the snake demon's cave that had vanished at some point, the Hu Mang let out a long sigh. For the first time, it felt that it would be necessary to further its studies in civil engineering if it had the time.

When Hu Mang returned to Wangsong County, he found that the beast tide had long since dissipated. Apart from a pile of bloodstains and wild animal carcasses on the wall, there was no evidence that the beast tide had ever existed.

In addition, even the Rogue Cultivator on the wall have disappeared.

Hu Mang found County Magistrate Hu, who was arranging the aftermath, at the county government office and inquired about the reason.

"You mean those Rogue Cultivators? Fellow Daoists Ling Yan and Chu Yue from the Divine Sword Sect have already taken them ahead via the teleportation array to the Divine Sword Sect's Void-Slaying Platform for their entrance examination. As for you, little brother, you'll probably have to wait a couple of days until this Spirit Path node is activated before you can leave."

Turns out, after all that, I ended up being the last one.

Hu Mang looked around but didn't see the Wu Hun master instructor who sounded very capable.

"Is Instructor Wu going too? Isn't he a master of three Spirit Root?"

You probably wouldn't pass that entry-level qualification exam.

He said he was going to try his luck; even if he didn't pass, he could try again at the Mysterious Peak Sect, and there was enough time.

"I see."

Then, under the guidance of County Magistrate Hu, Hu Mang went to visit his fox mother. After being asked the three soul-searching questions by the fox mother, "Have you eaten?", "Are you married?", and "Have you joined a sect?", he politely declined the invitation to stay in the backyard of the county government office and went directly to the cheapest inn in the county town. Then, with a flash of light, he was teleported back to Zheng Family Garden.

He still has the corpse of a thousand-year-old snake demon to deal with!

Three days later

"Little Hu, if you have another good opportunity like this, don't forget me! Damn it, Old Zhu called me before saying you were gone, it almost drove me crazy! This is how you manage someone I asked to mentor!"

At the entrance of Zheng Family Garden, Hu Mang was seeing off his senior civil engineering colleague, Zhao Tiezhu. Although his colleague was still in Java, supposedly working on the third phase of the Ling Power Station project, that didn't mean he couldn't make extra money in his spare time, especially lucrative side jobs.

At the construction site, Zhao Tiezhu gave a signal, and seven or eight bored civil engineers from Golden Core Engineering Department started building a high-rise building in Zheng Family Garden.

So this speed was extraordinary; the building was completed in less than half a month.

After bidding farewell to Zhao Tiezhu, Hu Mang went to the newly built research building and embedded one Taiyin Spirit Stone after another into the array eye. After embedding about a hundred Mid-Grade Spirit Stone, he activated the "Mysterious Yin Demonic Dao Spirit Gathering Formation". Immediately, a cold wind rolled and Ghost Qi vibrated. The local Spiritual Qi concentration visibly increased, quickly rising from the low Spiritual Qi area to the mid-level Spiritual Qi area.

Although it can't compare to some of the sect buildings in the holy land, it's not a problem for basic research and cultivation.

The only problem is that this Spirit Gathering Formation consumes Spirit Stone exceptionally fast, requiring a replacement every seven days. In other words, it consumes Spirit Stone worth millions of Spirit Coin every seven days.

However, Hu Mang said he didn't lack Spirit Stone; what he wanted was the results.

As for Sun Jidao Doctor Sun, he knew he had been dragged into this mess by the Hu Mang when he arrived. He focused on not seeing what he shouldn't see and not asking what he shouldn't ask, and devoted all his energy to studying "Innate Acupoints".

Hu Mang was quite satisfied with the other party's condition. The atmosphere in Nanyang was very nurturing. Don't be fooled by the other party's current state of saving lives; he believed that it wouldn't be long before the other party couldn't resist conducting "physical experiments." At that point, there would be no choice but to go down this path to the end.

The research building is located in the middle courtyard of Zheng Family Garden, which is in front of Hu Mang's residence. At this moment, Hu Mang bypassed the residence and came to the back courtyard of Zheng Family Garden.

If it were a dry earthwork, one would naturally be able to see that there were also many signs of earthwork here.

If you've ever been to the Bai Household, the sight will be even more familiar, because the "Soul-Binding Willow" in the backyard are almost identical to those outside the Bai Household.

The willow branches drooped down, dense as a curtain.

A chilling aura permeated the air, not the natural cold of autumn and winter, but a kind of cold that seeped into your bones, as if something unseen was pressing against the back of your neck, breathing cold air.

The fine wrinkles on the bark are not naturally formed textures, but rather the outlines of blurry human faces; some have clearer features, with the positions of eyebrows and eyes visible; others are just a blurry bump, as if they have been forcefully smoothed out by something.

Although they were transplanted not long ago, these "Soul-Binding Willow" seeds are changing every day. I believe that before long, they will be able to raise little ghosts just like the Liu Household.

Under the barrage of various beauty and health-preserving treasures from the Hu Mang, Liu Manqing finally pulled out her family's Private Dragon, and also threw in a small bag of Soul-Binding Willow seeds as a bonus.

However, after reading Liu Wuniang's research notes, Hu Mang discovered that it was not quite what he had imagined.

To be precise, she is quite different from both the mainstream in Heavenly Gate and the mainstream overseas.

The artificial Ghost Dragon Vein of Heavenly Gate is designed as a Yin-Yang Passage, suppressing ghosts and controlling Ghost Vein. Although it is a ghost path, it is not as grand and righteous as it seems.

The group of people studying Dragon Vein overseas mainly focus on cyber dragon raising. They use the "powerful resurrection effect" that Dragon Vein bring to stuff all sorts of Divergent Method and mechanical Law Artifact into them. Their ultimate goal is to stuff their own brains into the Dragon Vein' brains and achieve the cyber immortality that Jiang Kuisha talks about.

What Liu Sanniang sought was to transform from a snake into a dragon, absorb the dragon energy of the secular dynasty, and allow her physical body to return to yang, regain her youth, achieve immortality, and even gain some additional benefits, such as snake-dragon blood, physical transformation, and the ability to control snakes.

Compared to the previous two, the purpose of the Private Dragon Liu Household was actually the most "pure".

No wonder he's a big shot who owns dozens of beauty salons; his goal has always been the same.

Hu Mang wanted to cultivate the "ghost ship" in the direction of the "Yin-Yang Passage," so these Private Dragon materials were not entirely useless, but basically of little use.

The biggest problem with the Liu Household their Private Dragon is that it needs a sufficiently powerful Snake Vein that matches the Dragon Vein to nurture it.

Liu Wuniang used her own body back then, and even suffered a lot in order to cultivate her snake body to the point of "Snake Vein".

This is also the most precious part of the data: cultivating the snake's body into Snake Vein.

Although there are many pythons in Nanyang, snake spirits of Liu Wuniang's caliber are truly rare. Therefore, after learning about the "Liu Household Dragon-Raising Method," even the Hu Mang were considering giving up.

But wasn't this just fortuitous opportunity that it was the corpse of a thousand-year-old python spirit?

According to the standards of the Heavenly Gate, a thousand-year-old snake spirit in the Azure Mysterious Realm would be at least ten thousand years old. Moreover, Hu Mang had seen the internal markings of the python's body and found that it already had "Snake-Dragon Mark."

The so-called Snake-Dragon Mark is a sign that appears when the bloodline of a snake-like demon undergoes a qualitative change during its long cultivation process. If an ordinary snake demon is lucky enough to touch the boundary of dragon transformation, this pattern will begin to grow in its body.

Back then, Liu Wuniang not only tormented herself to the point of near death in order to obtain this "Snake-Dragon Mark," but also killed a considerable number of the Yu Dynasty royal descendants, in order to forcibly induce this "half-dragon pattern."

Since things had come to this point, the Hu Mang was naturally unwilling to give up, so it followed suit and buried the python's corpse directly in Zheng Family Garden.

The corpse was enormous, encircling almost half of the park. If the construction of the building hadn't started beforehand, Hu Mang really wouldn't know what excuse to use to bury it.

"Putting everything else aside, if I were to encounter an exceptionally unlucky situation, this 'Private Dragon' at least gave me a chance to possess a physical body," the Hu Mang muttered to itself.

The greatest advantage of the Liu Household Dragon-Raising Method is that it allows the user to use their snake form to save their life in critical moments!

"It's almost time to go back to Wangsong County's Spirit Path."

So Hu Mang toured around in front of the various alley owners, made an appearance, and then traveled back to the Azure Mysterious Realm once again.

The Hu Mang pushed open the rickety wooden door, the hinges letting out a sharp groan, as if it were about to fall apart at any moment.

Outside the gate on the street, more than one person was looking up at the sky.

A special, Spiritual Qi rainbow appeared in the sky, its four sides also shimmering with flowing light, its colors constantly shifting. Sometimes it was as blue as the deep sea, sometimes as green as a forest, and sometimes it transformed into a dazzling purple-gold, as if a river woven from light was flowing ceaselessly through the passage.

As a result, the Spiritual Qi concentration in Wangsong County surged, rising directly from a low- Spiritual Qi area to a high- Spiritual Qi area, from 28 points to 81 points.

Even within the Heavenly Gate, the Hu Mang had rarely seen such a concentration.

The entire county town was enveloped in a rosy glow, as if it had entered a fairyland.

"Little brother, it'll be too late if we don't leave now."

Just as the Hu Mang flew into the air, it heard County Magistrate Hu's shout. It quickly cupped its hands in greeting, then plunged into the rainbow light, its figure instantly Rainbow Transformation and disappearing into the void.

Seven days later

The largest mountain range in the Liang Kingdom, the Heavenly Peak Mountains, stretches like a green spine across the land, extending for thousands of miles from south to north. Its main peak pierces the clouds, and the upper part of the mountain is shrouded in clouds and mist all year round, as if it connects with the sky.

The Mysterious Peak Sect's mountain gate is located at the deepest part of this mountain range. It is said that one must pass through three canyons and cross four streams to see the giant stone gate with the words "Mysterious Peak Sect" engraved on it.

A group of Rogue Cultivator anxiously on the outskirts of the mountain range, hoping to be guided into it by a disciple.

Hu Mang was sitting on a large rock, calm and composed, with a token in his hand and no sign of panic.

And more and more Rogue Cultivator are also flocking to this place.

Compared to the Divine Sword Sect, which has strict requirements for accepting disciples, the Mysterious Peak Sect is undoubtedly more suitable for picking up bargains.

Then, Hu Mang saw a familiar figure.

"Chief Instructor Wu!" Hu Mang exclaimed in surprise.

Wu Hun also saw Hu Mang and gave a slightly embarrassed smile.

"Fellow Daoist, we meet again."

Hu Mang glanced around and whispered.

"Didn't work?"

Wu Hun sighed, "I've been eliminated in the very first round."

"Well, it's alright, at least it won't delay our journey," Hu Mang offered a different perspective to comfort him.

"Yes, unlike me. I flew from the southernmost to the northernmost part of the Liang Kingdom for three days and three nights without closing my eyes. I was almost exhausted to death."

Jiang Mingshan, sporting panda eyes, said quietly.