If Ren Qing had not mistaken it, the fox skull before him was actually part of a True Immortal's corpse. The rest of its body should still be buried beneath the soil.
It had been at least five or six thousand meters tall when alive. The mountain itself was the True Immortal's grave mound.
Something was wrong.
Ren Qing looked surprised. He had not expected that even after being reduced to bones, the True Immortal would still retain a trace of vitality.
Otherwise, given the corpse's radiance, the ecosystem within a radius of ten thousand li would have undergone drastic changes.
"North Pole... Lord of the North Pole, this humble one is Angran Jushi, from Futu Jie. I am a wandering cultivator of the Spirit Division realm, and my main cultivation technique is..."
Angran Jushi had already realized Ren Qing's identity.
That body formed from light and shadow was precisely the characteristic of the rumored Lord of the North Pole Star. Moreover, the other party had already made a great name for himself throughout the various layers of Jingzhou.
According to Lady White Bone's speculation, the descendants of the Heavenly Court's immortals and gods had most likely already obtained the inheritance of the immortal positions, such as the elusive Dragon King of the Four Seas and Lord of the North Pole Star.
Lord of the North Pole Star had suddenly appeared in Futu Jie precisely to retrieve an immortal position.
Thinking of this, Angran Jushi became agitated. He stared at Ren Qing with burning eyes, opening his mouth several times without knowing what to say.
Ren Qing paid no attention to Angran Jushi. He would deal with the True Immortal's corpse first.
However, he had descended here through a bacterial soul after all, so he could only use Zhili Technique and part of Heavenly Demon Tribulation. Otherwise, having the main body of the ghost shadow transport it would have been the safest option.
The sunlight became dreamlike and surreal, while the trees withered at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Angran Jushi stared in astonishment. The vines beneath his feet suddenly developed characteristics of flesh and blood, secreting a viscous fluid as they writhed slightly.
Large numbers of colorful mushrooms sprouted across the surface of the vegetation, extracting what little nutrients remained and growing vigorously.
Soon, the entire fox's head was revealed.
The bone remained sturdy. Vaguely, one could still see translucent gelatinous matter inside. It should be marrow that had retained its vitality.
Ren Qing glanced at Angran Jushi, who had fallen to his knees, and could not help sighing at how fortunate he was.
He had only just disguised himself as the Heavenly Dao's consciousness and instructed the cultivators to search for immortal positions, yet Angran Jushi had immediately discovered a ready-made immortal position.
It was simply that this immortal position was somewhat similar to the Heart Moon Fox of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions from his previous life.
A stream of information surged forth.
Immortal Position: Heart Fire Star Lodge
The Heart Lodge was the fifth star of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions and the fifth star of the Azure Dragon. It was the essence of the dragon's lower abdomen, with its full name being the Heart Moon Fox.
Ren Qing nodded inwardly. This world had no explicit concept of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions, but it was indeed connected to the immortals and gods of his previous life.
He did not know the ancient history of this world, but judging from various aspects, dynastic succession should have existed here as well.
Perhaps the wheel of history had suddenly rolled down a mountainside at some crossroads?
"Hee hee hee..."
The crisp laughter of a young woman came from not far away. After the fox demon dealt with Angran Jushi's technique, it charged toward the two of them.
As the fox demon gradually approached the immortal position of the Heart Fire Star Lodge, its aura grew stronger.
Its strength at the Yin Difference realm actually transformed into the Yang God realm in a matter of moments, and it even showed signs of potentially evolving toward the Heavenly Aberration realm.
The injuries covering the fox demon's body also recovered substantially as a result, and its speed increased further.
Angran Jushi's face went pale. Seeing Ren Qing staring intently at the immortal position, he hurriedly warned him, "Lord of the North Pole Star, be careful..."
Before he could finish, the approaching fox demon suddenly underwent a strange transformation.
At some point, its snow-white fur had become dotted with black spots. In the blink of an eye, the black spots spread until they covered all its fur.
"Crack, crack, crack..."
A strange sound came from the fox demon's throat, while its four limbs began moving out of coordination.
A muffled explosion rang out.
Its two eyeballs fell out. Two lingzhi mushrooms grew from its empty eye sockets, while fungi had already silently spread throughout its brain.
The fox demon crashed heavily to the ground, powdery gas spilling from its mouth and nose.
After a moment, only a fox's pelt remained. Its flesh and bones had long since become a breeding ground for fungi.
Angran Jushi's face went white with terror. The terrifying methods of Lord of the North Pole Star were utterly beyond his imagination. If the other party harbored any hostility toward him, he probably would not even know how he had died.
The mushrooms dragged the True Immortal's corpse out from beneath the earth.
The exposed head had been reduced to bare white bone, while the body was still covered in rotten flesh. Even its internal organs would occasionally twitch.
The remaining vitality had gathered within the marrow. It was entirely possible that the immortal position was hidden there as well.
Although the possibility of the Heart Fire Star Lodge reviving was virtually nonexistent, Ren Qing estimated that extracting the immortal position would take at least half a year.
During that time, he had to proceed cautiously. An immortal position going berserk was no joke.
Thinking of the promise made by the Heavenly Court consciousness, Angran Jushi suppressed his fear and cautiously asked, "Immortal Venerable, what do you think..."
Ren Qing did not answer. His main body, far away in the Buddhist World, continuously employed Zhili Technique, causing one bacterial soul after another to descend into Futu Jie.
Angran Jushi wisely shut his mouth. Several dozen Lord of the North Pole Stars now stood before him.
Their auras were similar, but the patterns displayed by their light-and-shadow forms were all different, creating an indescribable sense of terror.
The bacterial souls surged toward the Heart Fire Star Lodge like fledgling swallows returning to their nest. Flesh resembling fungal mycelium gradually filled the skeleton, soon transforming it into a jade-like body several thousand meters long.
Ren Qing breathed a sigh of relief. He had to admit that the Heart Fire Star Lodge was much easier to deal with than the Matchmaking Immortal.
The Matchmaking Immortal's body was still alive, whereas the Heart Fire Star Lodge had already died. Only its immortal position was barely maintaining a fragile balance.
Ren Qing hesitated for a moment before employing Zhili Technique once more.
The corpse of the Heart Fire Star Lodge vanished from Futu Jie. It traveled through an illusory dream and arrived directly beside the underground river's dwelling, where it was sealed in the water together with the Matchmaking Immortal.
Only after completing all this did Ren Qing finally feel completely at ease.
"Immortal Venerable..."
Angran Jushi was still unwilling to give up, his expression exceedingly humble.
He had already prepared himself for making the trip in vain. He was simply afraid of angering Lord of the North Pole Star, in which case even death would become a luxury.
"Angran Jushi."
Ren Qing turned around and pressed a finger against Angran Jushi's brow.
Angran Jushi could not help trembling all over. His soul seemed to be pulled away somewhere. Before losing consciousness, he vaguely heard Ren Qing say,
"I will lead you to the Dream City of Heavenly Court. You can exchange resources there, but do not tell too many people about the immortal position."
"The inheritance of the Heart Fire Star Lodge's immortal position will naturally be handled by the Heavenly Court consciousness."
"Mm, good luck."
A trace of pity was mixed into Ren Qing's gaze as the bacterial soul sank into the ground.
Angran Jushi could not respond. His consciousness had already arrived in Dream City.
Looking at the dream city through which more than a million cultivators traveled, he fell into a profound daze. Only then did he realize the depth of Heavenly Court's foundation.
Only Heavenly Court could accommodate cultivators of all races in peace.
The statues of Heavenly Court's immortals and gods alone revealed that at least half were nonhuman immortals and gods, showing that the ancient era had already been extremely inclusive.
Most importantly, a section titled "Spirit-Entering Technique" had appeared in Angran Jushi's memories.
The Spirit-Entering Technique emphasized communicating with the Heart Moon Fox of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions and cultivating with the aid of immortal qi, allowing one's body and soul to naturally undergo transformation.
Angran Jushi wandered through the streets and alleys of Dream City with an idiotically delighted smile. Eventually, his footsteps stopped beside the Great Dream Technique Pavilion.
Looking at the characters on the plaque, he could not help muttering, "Great Dream Technique Pavilion, a place that houses the techniques of the myriad heavens, where one can attain longevity and the Dao."
Angran Jushi had finally found a path to escape the fate of being a wandering cultivator.
After asking several passersby, he learned that to earn blood crystals, one either had to work as an assistant in a shop or possess skills in alchemy or artifact refinement.
Someone like Angran Jushi, who had no foundation in any craft, could only go to the notice board and accept missions.
He did not immediately head for the notice board at the city gate. His consciousness returned from Dream City to his body, and a wave of weakness surged through him.
Angran Jushi had lost too much flesh and blood and was not far from death.
He stuffed some easily digestible food into his mouth, then sat cross-legged and cultivated the Spirit-Entering Technique, sketching the complete form of the Heart Fire Star Lodge in his mind.
Given Angran Jushi's temperament, cultivating the Spirit-Entering Technique was not difficult.
He soon felt a mysterious aura pour into his body through the crown of his head. His body and soul felt nourished, greedily absorbing the incense aura.
The incense aura was mixed with the believers' expectations toward the Heart Moon Fox, which was why the many Flesh Incense Immortals in the Stomach World each possessed different auras.
Immersed in the Spirit-Entering Technique, Angran Jushi's bottleneck at the Spirit Division realm loosened without him realizing it.
Although the Spirit-Entering Technique was something Ren Qing had created to deceive cultivators, he had to admit that incense aura could indeed strengthen a cultivator's foundation.
Once the foundation became more substantial, it was equivalent to increasing the capacity of the wooden bucket used to hold water.
Angran Jushi had already been stuck at the perfected Spirit Division realm for several hundred years. Advancing to the Spirit Division realm was therefore as natural as water flowing into a channel, yet he attributed all the credit to the Spirit-Entering Technique.
The Eye-Digging Method, whose upper limit had been the Golden Core realm, had now been cultivated to the Spirit Division realm, making the path of advancement immediately clear.
Angran Jushi's depleted lifespan was also replenished, allowing him to live for at least a thousand years.
Satisfied, he ended his secluded cultivation and prepared to find a secluded place to continue cultivating, preferably taking the opportunity to reach the Heavenly Aberration realm.
However, after Angran Jushi had taken only a few steps, his expression suddenly stiffened. His hands moved incredulously toward his bare upper body.
The burly, heavily furred man had actually transformed into a delicate woman because of cultivating the Spirit-Entering Technique. Even the final section of his coccyx had developed a tingling pain.
It was as if a tail were about to grow from it.
Angran Jushi collapsed onto the ground. He finally understood why Lord of the North Pole Star had pitied him and said, "Good luck."
"So an immortal position... is simply drawing closer to an immortal or god..."
He quickly fled Futu Jie, not daring to let his old friends learn of his current condition. He was five hundred years old, after all. He still had some dignity to preserve.
At the same time, an anomaly arose in Heavenly Court.
Among the several hundred statues of immortals and gods placed at the Southern Heavenly Gate, one suddenly began emitting a faint radiance, quickly attracting the attention of the cultivators.
They surrounded the statue and looked at one another, their eyes filled with disbelief.
The statue was the Heart Moon Fox of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions. It had originally been badly damaged, covered in cracks, with most of the inscriptions carved across its surface missing.
Now, without any warning, the statue of the Heart Moon Fox suddenly became complete, and the inscriptions had also vanished.
Two other statues were in the same condition, namely the Dragon King of the Four Seas and Lord of the North Pole Star. Clearly, the statues were connected to the inheritance of the immortal positions.
Lady White Bone remained silent for a long while before looking up and asking, "Heavenly Court consciousness, has the inheritance of the Heart Moon Fox returned to Heavenly Court?"
"The Heart Moon Fox was obtained by Angran Jushi half a day ago. Angran Jushi has already been appointed to the immortal ranks and received the protection of Heavenly Court."
The cultivators said nothing more. Almost instinctively, they looked toward the statues at the entrance of the Southern Heavenly Gate.
Although there were more than three hundred statues in total, the number of cultivators within Heavenly Court continued to increase.
Furthermore, they understood that immortal positions were opportunities that could be encountered but not sought. Killing a True Immortal was unrealistic, so it seemed that digging up ancient graves was their only option.
Some cultivators looked regretful. They knew Angran Jushi.
Wasn't Angran Jushi merely an ordinary Spirit Division realm wandering cultivator? Even he had managed to obtain an immortal position. Surely there could be no danger involved.
If they had maintained a better relationship with him back then, perhaps the opportunity would have fallen to them.
Ren Qing had not concealed Angran Jushi's identity. After all, there were only several hundred people in Heavenly Court, so investigating someone's identity was far too easy.
He estimated that unless Angran Jushi had something wrong with his head, he certainly would not return to Heavenly Court in person. Dream City alone was enough to guarantee him food and clothing without worry.
Just as Ren Qing expected, news that the immortal position had returned to Heavenly Court quickly spread.
The various factions became restless and immediately took action, dispatching large numbers of cultivators to investigate clues regarding Heavenly Court.
This included wandering cultivators who had undergone zombification, proving that Wuming was not sitting idly by.
The cultivators already inside Heavenly Court naturally seized the time to search for traces of immortal positions. Wasn't becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao right before their eyes?
Invisibly, the turmoil surrounding the War of Enfeoffing Immortals grew increasingly intense.
This situation also suited Ren Qing's plans. He always felt that he was only a few steps away from becoming an immortal, so he had to be even more cautious now.
Ren Qing's main body was likewise progressing smoothly in secluded cultivation within the Buddhist World.
The pelt, as a Flesh-and-Blood Artifact, would not encounter any particularly obvious bottlenecks before reaching the Yang God realm as long as it had sufficient incense aura.
Ren Qing deliberately accelerated the spread of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions throughout the mortal world.
The concept that a month contained twenty-eight days had already become deeply ingrained in people's minds. Even the Three-Character Classic used to teach children had added the names of the Twenty-Eight Lunar Mansions.
The faith in the other immortals and gods of Heavenly Court was also gradually fermenting.
Most of the other immortals and gods were connected to corresponding duties. For example, the Star Lord of Angri was responsible for announcing the time, so cultivating their faith was comparatively simple.
Ren Qing sat cross-legged inside the cavern dwelling in Black Crow Matriarch's abdomen. The Heavenly Dao insect people coming and going completely ignored him, busy filling the blood pool.
There was no aura of the Heavenly Demon within Black Crow Matriarch's body. It was mainly filled with yin qi.
Ren Qing fearlessly removed his pelt and hung it on the rock wall in front of him, watching as it struggled incessantly with remarkable sentience.
The incense aura of the Ghost Metal Goat poured madly into the pelt, nourishing every strand of fur and allowing the pelt to contain even more Heavenly Demon aura.
The instant the pelt advanced to the Yin Difference realm, its eyeballs began to move.
Ren Qing could feel an indescribable instinct emerging within the pelt toward flesh and blood. It wanted to approach the blood pool and devour the rotten flesh and pus-filled blood inside.
He glanced at the Heavenly Dao Crack and casually tossed the pelt into the Stomach World.
The pelt was directly suppressed in the depths of the Wine Sea. Since he had not yet ventured deeper into the Buddhist World, it was the perfect opportunity to grind away the pelt's instincts.
Ren Qing then began advancing the final realm of Heaven and Earth Genesis, "Birth of Myriad Things."
The Heavenly Dao Crack had already completely healed. If he did not expend lifespan now, it would be too wasteful not to make use of Fleshly Tathagata, his newly acquired cheat.
Would you like to advance to Birth of Myriad Things? This will consume forty thousand years of lifespan.
Ren Qing methodically circulated Heaven and Earth Genesis. During each Grand Zhou Cycle, his consciousness entered the darkness of a void and hollow space.
The ruined corpse of Zhenyuan floated up and down.
"Zhenyuan is the innate spiritual root hidden within the acquired."
"When the spiritual root returns to its origin, the innate and acquired merge into one, becoming the complete Supreme Ultimate."
"Two eight make one jin, complete and without loss, perfectly round and radiant."
Ren Qing was already accustomed to this. After waiting for a moment, the information stream arrived and plundered away, causing Zhenyuan's skeleton to gradually disappear.
In the end, even his head vanished, with only Zhenyuan's brain remaining.
Ren Qing guessed that only after officially becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao would the immortal position completely merge with him, allowing him to possess the full might of Zhenyuan Earth Ancestor.
Before his consciousness returned to his body, he suddenly noticed something strange about Zhenyuan's brain.
The brain radiated the special aura unique to an immortal position, yet Zhenyuan's corpse had previously possessed nothing special.
After Ren Qing's consciousness returned to his main body, he continued pondering this seemingly ordinary matter.
The Heavenly Aberration realm was the process of merging with an immortal position. He had already reached the perfected Heavenly Aberration realm, so whatever remained of the immortal position must be its core.
Could the immortal positions of this world have been refined from the brains of True Immortals?
Ren Qing remained dazed for a long time before examining Heaven and Earth Genesis at the perfected realm.
Each advancement within the Heavenly Aberration realm did not noticeably strengthen the body and soul. It was mainly reflected in the completeness of the transformed immortal body.
Ren Qing feared that the immortal body would provoke a reaction from Black Crow Matriarch, so he only possessed partial immortalization.
He stared at his right arm. His index finger gradually became crystal clear, while the surrounding air twisted and the yin qi scattered in all directions.
On his index finger, one could see the pavilions and towers within the Heavenly Palace. It was as though a single palm could contain everything within the Stomach World.
In his normal state, Ren Qing could project objects within a ten-li radius of the Stomach World.
But after transforming into Zhenyuan Earth Ancestor, merely throwing a mountain peak could crush a Heavenly Aberration realm cultivator to death, and he could also summon an army of several hundred thousand in an instant.
Ren Qing withdrew Heaven and Earth Genesis and closed his eyes to stabilize his cultivation.
Overall, among his five techniques, the boost to strength provided by Heaven and Earth Genesis was certainly less obvious than that of the others.
The strength of Heaven and Earth Genesis still depended heavily on the Stomach World.
If the Stomach World had enough Heavenly Aberration realm cultivators, he could summon them through the Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth and sweep across the major factions of this world.
After all, what the Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth summoned were merely projections. Their deaths and injuries would not affect the main bodies.
Nevertheless, Ren Qing still chose to advance Heaven and Earth Genesis because his current position was somewhat awkward, neither here nor there.
The Heavenly Aberration realm could not threaten him, yet Ren Qing could not threaten an Earth Immortal either.
The enormous gulf between realms could not be compensated for by a profound foundation. Moreover, becoming an immortal and attaining the Dao was a complete divide between heaven and earth.
In addition, the number of immortal offices had increased substantially.
The Human Immortal Office was no longer restricted. Like the Ghost Immortal Office, it generally had no limit on the number of immortal offices. The Earth Immortal Office had gained eight more, while there were four Divine Immortal Offices.
Unfortunately, there was still no Heavenly Immortal Office.
Seeing this, Ren Qing gradually opened up positions in the Human Immortal Office of the Stomach World.
The condition was that one had to have refined a Ghost Immortal Office for more than two hundred years and reached the Heavenly Aberration realm. Only then would one receive the favor of the Heavenly Dao and have one's immortal office elevated.
Ren Qing immediately bestowed the four Divine Immortal Offices upon his four techniques.
The Divine Immortal Office was extremely special. It could merge with the laws of the Heavenly Dao and was already very close to an immortal position, but it could not break through the restrictions of the Heavenly Aberration realm.
The four Divine Immortal Offices subsequently formed four seals.
The black-jade seal incorporated "life and death."
The mixed-jade seal incorporated "disease."
The glazed-jade seal incorporated "soul."
The blood-jade seal incorporated "flesh and blood."
---
Lifespan: None
Techniques:
Heaven and Earth Genesis (Birth of Myriad Things)
Immortal Body: Myriad Phenomena Return to One (False)
Divine Ability: Method of Modeling Heaven and Earth
Immortal Position: Zhenyuan Earth Ancestor (False)
Immortal Office: Heavenly Dao
Corpse Fengdu (Heavenly Lord)
Immortal Body: Undying Imperial Corpse (False)
Divine Ability: Death Gives No Birth
Immortal Position: Fengdu Corpse Emperor (False)
Immortal Office: Ghost Immortal
Ancestral Lineage Derivation (Yinglong)
Immortal Body: Imperial Vein Ancestral Dragon (False)
Divine Ability: Dragon Roar Within the Casket
Immortal Position: Primordial Unity Ancestral Dragon (False)
Immortal Office: Blood Immortal
Zhili Technique (Dao Gives Birth to One)
Immortal Body: Filth-Accumulating Pestilence Dream (False)
Divine Ability: The World Is Like a Dream
Immortal Position: Zhili Dream Immortal (False)
Immortal Office: Disease Immortal
Heavenly Demon Tribulation (Heavenly Demon)
Immortal Body: Formless World (False)
Divine Ability: Walk Among Mortals
Immortal Position: Freedom Heavenly Demon (False)
Immortal Office: Soul Immortal
---
After merging with the immortal offices, Ren Qing felt that the four immortal positions had become even easier to control.
His determination to first advance Heaven and Earth Genesis to the Earth Immortal realm grew even firmer. The Heavenly Immortal Office should be able to allow an immortal position to break free from its connection to this world.
As Ren Qing approached the threshold of becoming an immortal, he was somewhat uneasy about the Three Dao Ancestors. His main concern was that some unexpected complication might arise.
Ren Qing picked up the pelt that had reached the Yin Difference realm and put it on. He was prepared to set out for Jingzhou immediately to search for the three lost immortal positions.
"If I successfully obtain the three immortal positions, I'll have seven unclaimed immortal positions..."
He narrowed his eyes. It was about time to use the immortal positions to construct the restricted zone. He estimated that it would take some time for it to fully form.
The immortal positions subsequently collected by the various factions should already be gradually added to the restricted zone.
Ren Qing wanted to create a small world independent of this world, become a True Immortal within it, and prevent himself from being besieged by the Turbid Immortal.
He transformed the pelt into a mass of black mist and arrived beside the foul-smelling blood pool.
The blood pool seemed to be a Bottomless Pit. No matter how the Heavenly Dao insect people harvested their own limbs, the water level of the pool did not appear to change at all.
Ren Qing estimated that the blood pool was Wuming's means of attracting the Corpse Immortal to the Buddhist World, but he would not make use of it for the time being.
He flicked drops of dark-red blood into the pool. The bloodline of the Fengdu Corpse Emperor silently hid within it.
Compared with the chunks of flesh inside the blood pool, Ren Qing's blood was insignificant. However, it contained the yin qi of the Fengdu Corpse Emperor.
Ren Qing was confident that after the Corpse Immortal swallowed the flesh and blood in the pool and then suffered severe damage from the Heavenly Demon aura, his blood would play a major role.
He planted several spies before hurriedly leaving Black Crow Matriarch's nest.
The moment he reached the outside world, the pelt eagerly absorbed the Heavenly Demon aura, causing a layer of flesh and blood to grow beneath the thin skin.
As a precaution, Ren Qing elevated the Ghost Immortal Office within the pelt to the Human Immortal Office.
He traveled through the Buddhist World at a speed of a thousand li a day. The dead silence and darkness contained no fresh sights, leaving him with nothing to do but repeat the journey.
Most of the black goats in the Buddhist World were at the Yin Difference realm. However, upon seeing a pelt at the same realm, they instead chose to keep their distance.
Ren Qing realized that the artifact he had accidentally refined really was independent of the Supreme Heavenly Demon.
In a sense, they should all belong to the descendants of the Daode Heavenly Venerable, except that the pelt had been firmly bound by Ren Qing's various techniques.
Ren Qing had no concept of time in the darkness. He did not know how long it took before he reached his destination.
The pelt could barely withstand the concentration of Heavenly Demon aura here. Going any deeper would certainly damage it or cause its flesh and blood to become activated.
He stopped and understood why the Medicine-Pounding Rabbit Immortal had abruptly disappeared. A gigantic circular pit lay before him.
It was obvious that the pit had been created by the Taiyin Star Lord.
"So, the three immortal positions really have gathered together now?"