I Idle in the World of Immortal Cultivation
Chapter 26: Gateway to the Immortal Realm
Above Suihuang City, the golden light grew brighter and brighter.
The crack in the sky expanded slowly, like an eye slowly opening. From time to time, small golden flecks broke off from its edges and floated away in the air.
Lin Luo stood on a high spot behind the crowd, the Realm-Breaking Talisman in his hand. The runes on the paper grew warm in the golden light, pulsing in perfect sync with the crack.
Yue Long squeezed close beside him, her rabbit ears sticking out from under her hat and swiveling back and forth. Bone One crouched behind him, his Shadow Cloak wrapped tight, two green flames burning softly in his eye sockets. Rat One lay on Lin Luo's shoulder, his small gray body curled into a ball, his nose twitching as he sniffed the spiritual energy in the air.
"Master, when are we going in?" Yue Long's voice was very low. The tips of her ears trembled slightly.
"Wait."
In less than half the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the crack stabilized.
The golden light shifted from blinding white to a soft gold. The center of the crack began to spin inward, forming a huge whirlpool. The whirlpool sucked at the air, creating a strong wind that sent debris rolling across the ground.
"The gate is open!"
The crowd exploded.
The Sacred Ground people walked in first, their golden robes almost blending into the golden light. People from the Demon Sect rushed in from the other side, their black robes flapping in the wind. The messengers from the Five Domains followed close behind, eyeing each other. The rogue cultivators surged forward all at once – some on flying swords, some riding spirit beasts, some running on foot.
The first wave went in.
In less than half the time it takes to burn an incense stick, the first wave came back out.
Not walking. Some were covered in blood. Some were missing arms. Some were being dragged out by others. An early Golden Core rogue cultivator rolled out of the whirlpool and fell to the ground, unable to get up. His leg was gone. Blood poured from the wound.
"There are demon beasts inside! Golden Core level! More than one!"
"This isn't the Immortal Realm! It's a battlefield! An ancient battlefield!"
"Fall back! Quick!"
The crowd pushed backward. Some fell and were trampled. Some were sucked toward the whirlpool and crawled away. Chaos everywhere – like a pot of boiling porridge.
Yue Long's rabbit ears pressed flat against her head. Her face turned pale. Her lips moved, but no words came out.
Lin Luo didn't step back. He looked down at his phone. Bone One's cultivation: Qi Gathering Layer 9. Rat One's cultivation: Spirit Gathering Layer 5. Yue Long's cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 2. His own cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 3.
Not one of them could fight a Golden Core demon beast alone.
"Let's go." He jumped down from the high spot.
Yue Long froze for a moment, then followed. Bone One followed, silent and soundless. Rat One tightened his grip on Lin Luo's collar and squeaked once.
"Master, will we die?"
"We'll revive."
"…Just keep idling?"
"Just keep idling."
---
Going through the whirlpool felt like going through a wall of water. Thick spiritual energy pressed in from all sides, soaking Lin Luo from head to toe.
His vision cleared.
Gray sky. No sun. No clouds. Just a layer of gray fog that never went away. The ground was cracked – cracks wide enough for a person to fall through, leading to a bottomless black abyss. Everywhere there were ruins – collapsed stone pillars, broken stone slabs, statues half-buried in the dirt.
Bones.
Everywhere. Human bones. Demon beast bones. Bones of races unknown. Most had weathered to a grayish white, crumbling to dust at the lightest touch. But some still had a shine – dark gold, pale silver, even a few that glowed with faint colors.
The air was thick with the smell of blood. Soaked into the dirt, seeped into the stones, congealed in the air. Years of it. A sweet, rotting smell that wouldn't go away.
Spiritual energy was thin. Less than one tenth of the outside concentration, and still falling.
Yue Long's rabbit ears popped out and swiveled. "Master, there's so little spiritual energy here."
"Use it sparingly."
Lin Luo glanced at the Shared Storage. Eight Spirit Recovery Pills left. One Life Extension Pill.
Rat One jumped down, his nose pressed to the ground as he sniffed. His little paws scratched at the stones near a crack. Then he looked up, squeaked twice in a certain direction, and pointed.
"That way."
Rat One led him deeper. Yue Long followed behind. Bone One brought up the rear.
Around them were other people who had come in. Rogue cultivators gathered in small groups, digging through bones, sifting through ruins, grabbing anything valuable. Two rogue cultivators fought over a piece of colored bone. The clash of their swords echoed across the empty battlefield.
Lin Luo didn't stop. He walked further and further away from the noise. The sounds of fighting faded. Voices faded.
Bone One passed by a colored bone and stopped. He crouched down and touched the bone. It was thick and gave off a pale silver shine. Pale green light drifted out from the bone and into Bone One's hand. His cultivation didn't move at all – stuck at Qi Gathering Layer 9. The energy in the bone was drained dry, crumbling to dust. Bone One stood up. The green flames in his eye sockets glowed a little brighter.
After about four hours, Rat One stopped in front of a collapsed altar.
The altar wasn't large. Most of it had crumbled, leaving only the bottom layer intact. Runes were carved into the stones, but they had weathered too badly to read.
Rat One crouched beside a stone slab, his little paw pointing at a crack. A faint dark gold light shone through the crack – very faint, easy to miss if you weren't looking closely.
Lin Luo tried to pry the slab up with the Greenwind Sword. The slab didn't move. He added his other hand, pouring spiritual energy into the blade as he pried. A small chip broke off the edge of the slab, but it still didn't lift. Bone One walked over, put his hands into the crack, and helped Lin Luo push. The slab flipped over and crashed to the ground, sending up a cloud of ancient dust.
Underneath was a stone box.
About a foot square. The material was not stone – it was a kind of metal Lin Luo had never seen before. Dark gray, no shine, cold to the touch like ice. The box was covered with runes, each stroke and curve as sharp as if they had been carved yesterday.
Lin Luo swept the box with his Spirit Eye Technique. The screen showed three lines.
[Ancient seal detected: Seven Kill Soul Trap. Trigger condition: Touch by non-human race. Effect: Spiritual attack. Power: Golden Core Layer 9.]
[Ancient seal detected: Blood Curse. Trigger condition: Spiritual energy infusion exceeding Foundation Establishment. Effect: Death by boiling blood. Power: Nascent Soul Layer 1.]
[Ancient seal detected: Destruction Mark. Trigger condition: Forceful breaking. Effect: Self-destruct. Power: No counter.]
His fingers stopped an inch from the box. He pulled his hand back.
There was a living thing nearby. A black-scaled lizard crawled out from under the ruins – fist-sized, heading in their direction. Lin Luo picked it up and tossed it onto the box.
The moment its claws touched the box's surface, the lizard froze. It let out a tiny scream. Its eyes burst from their sockets. Its tongue turned black. Its legs twitched twice – then nothing.
Yue Long's rabbit ears shot straight up. She jumped back, hiding behind Bone One. She stared at the dead lizard, her eyes wide, her lips moving without sound.
"Master, this—" Her voice was dry.
"I can touch it safely." Lin Luo looked at the screen. "Non-human races can't touch it. I'm human."
He reached for the box. The moment his fingertips touched the cold metal, the sensation changed – not cold, but information.
He saw a woman.
White robe. Long hair. Her face was blurry. She stood in front of the altar. In her hand was a sword with the same runes as the stone box. She was speaking, but her voice sounded like it came from deep underwater – not a single word clear. Then she turned and put three things into the box – half a broken sword, a pale green jade slip, and a piece of paper folded three times.
She closed the box. Stood up. Looked at the sky.
The sky split open.
The woman pressed her hand to the altar. The altar began to glow. The runes on the box lit up, layer by layer. She turned, drew her sword, and flew toward the brightest golden crack in the sky. Flew in. Disappeared.
Lin Luo's fingers snapped back from the box. Cold sweat ran down his back. His heart pounded against his ribs, his whole chest shaking.
[Warning: One-time spiritual information residue. Read. No lasting effects.]
[Box seal status: Confirmed. Pure human bloodline can open directly. No traps remaining.]
The box opened.
Inside lay three things. Half a broken sword. A jade slip. A letter.
The paper was pale yellow. The handwriting was neat, the strokes strong – but at the end of some characters, the brush had trembled unnaturally. Like the writer had been shaking.
"The battlefield is closing. For whoever comes after – if you can take these, at least they won't have died for nothing."
Under the paper were two things: a small glowing stone and a map made of beast hide.
[Spirit Vein Heart · Core of a complete spirit vein. Can be used to create a sect spirit vein, greatly increasing spiritual energy concentration on sect land.]
The map was made of beast hide, its edges yellowed and curled. A few ancient characters were marked on it – "Secret Realm · Unexplored."
Lin Luo put the items into the Shared Storage one by one. The broken sword. The jade slip. The map. The Spirit Vein Heart. He folded the letter and put it in too.
Rat One crouched beside the box, sniffing along its edge. He squeaked twice.
Lin Luo reached into the box and felt a hidden compartment at the bottom – a false bottom. Inside lay a spirit stone. Smaller than even a high-grade stone. Its color was transparent, like a frozen drop of water. Inside it, a soft white light spun slowly, like a tiny galaxy.
[Secret Realm Core Spirit Stone · Use unknown. Spiritual energy fluctuation: Extremely high. Recommendation: Keep safe.]
Into the Shared Storage.
The box was empty.
Just as he closed the lid, a voice came from behind the ruins. Not a demon beast. A person.
"The box… that box… someone finally opened it…"
A man in tattered gray robes crawled out from behind the ruins. His clothes had rotted into rags. His face was covered with dried blood. His hair was matted into hard clumps. His cultivation showed clearly on the Spirit Eye Technique – once Golden Core Layer 1, now Foundation Establishment Layer 3. And still dropping.
He lay on the ground, looked up at Lin Luo, and opened his mouth. His voice was as hoarse as sandpaper scraping stone.
"I guarded this box for three hundred years. From Golden Core Layer 1 down to a Foundation Establishment cripple. There were seals on this box. I couldn't break them. There were demon beasts outside the seals. I couldn't fight them. I hid in this battlefield for three hundred years, waiting for someone – someone who could put his blood on it."
He smiled, revealing broken teeth.
"You opened it. You didn't die. You're human."
He laughed and coughed, coughing up blood.
"The Spirit Vein Heart. You took the Spirit Vein Heart – that beast can smell it. It's hungry. It's been hungry for thousands of years. It will come for you. I didn't lead it here. You did. With the Spirit Vein Heart on you, you're the most delicious piece of meat on this battlefield."
His laugh grew louder, until it turned into crying.
"Three hundred years. I guarded it for three hundred years. You came and took it."
Lin Luo looked at him. "Did you clear the traps?"
"Yes." The gravekeeper pressed his face into the dirt, his voice muffled. "I led the guardian beast away. I studied the seals on this box for two hundred years – I figured out how to break them. But I couldn't open it myself. Because I'm not human."
He raised a hand and pointed at his own face. Only then did Lin Luo see – his pupils were vertical.
"Half-breed." The gravekeeper said. "Half human blood, half something else. The seal on the box only recognizes pure human blood. Not a drop less. Half a drop won't do. Half won't do either."
His body trembled – not just from crying. His cultivation was still dropping. Foundation Establishment Layer 3, Layer 2, Layer 1. When it fell to Qi Refining, his expression changed completely. Not crying anymore – fear.
"I'm dying." His voice suddenly went very calm. "I should have died three hundred years ago. I kept myself alive with the death energy of this battlefield. Now the box is open, my obsession is gone, and I can't keep myself alive anymore."
He lay still. He was still breathing, but his eyes were closed. Waiting to die.
Lin Luo crouched down and took a Spirit Recovery Pill from the Shared Storage. "Open your mouth."
The gravekeeper opened his eyes and looked at him. "Why?"
"You cleared the traps. You didn't try to take the box. You don't owe me anything."
The gravekeeper opened his mouth. Lin Luo put the pill in, then stood up.
"Whether you live or die is up to you."
He turned to leave. The gravekeeper called after him.
"The demon beast is Nascent Soul Stage, Layer 2. Its left hind leg has an old wound – I injured it three hundred years ago with a ground-vein net. Its weakness is at the base of the tail – the seam where the tail meets the body. The scales are thinnest there. And – it's afraid of fire. There's no fire on this ancient battlefield, so it's not afraid here. But outside there is."
Lin Luo didn't look back. "What's your name?"
"I forgot."
Lin Luo took two steps. A very soft voice came from behind him.
"Thank you."
The gravekeeper's voice scattered in the wind.
Lin Luo didn't stop.
---
Less than thirty steps later, a low roar sounded in the distance. Not loud, but the whole ground shook. Stones bounced on the cracked earth. Rubble tumbled from the ruins.
Rat One's ears shot up. He let out a sharp squeak.
Lin Luo turned.
A demon beast walked out from behind the ruins. Over three meters tall, its dark red scales covered with countless scratches. Its eyes had no pupils – just two dark red lights. Its tail was long, ending in a bone spike stained with something dark.
[Wild Nascent Soul Stage demon beast · Unknown species. Low bloodline. Cultivation: Nascent Soul Stage, Layer 2. Condition: Battle damage, scales broken, old wound on left hind leg. Wild – no magical abilities.]
(End of Chapter 26)
Current Status
Main Account · Lin Luo
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 3 (Displayed: Qi Refining Layer 1)
Nine Cycles Mystic Art: Second Cycle
Lightning Prison Indestructible Body: First Layer (idling)
Defense: 650
Attack: ~380
HP: ~1800
Spirit Stones: ~8250
Possessions: Spirit Recovery Pill ×7, Life Extension Pill ×1, Antidote Pill ×3, Light Talisman ×4, Mountain Pass Token ×1, Drunken Immortal Residence VIP card, Myriad Treasures Pavilion VIP card, Realm-Breaking Talisman (authentic), half a broken sword (unknown), pale green jade slip (unknown), beast-hide map (Secret Realm · Unexplored), Spirit Vein Heart, Secret Realm Core Spirit Stone
Skill: Spirit Eye Technique
Disciple: Yue Long
Alt Account · Bone One
Cultivation: Qi Gathering, Layer 9
Status: Inside the gateway · Ancient battlefield
Alt Account · Blood One
Cultivation: Qi Gathering, Layer 7
Status: Hidden – Demon Abyss second layer
Alt Account · Rat One
Cultivation: Spirit Gathering, Layer 5
Status: Inside the gateway · Ancient battlefield
Sect · Idle Sect
Sect Leader: Lin Luo
Formal Disciple: Yue Long
Members: Bone One, Rat One, Blood One
Guest Elder (temporarily away): Su Xiaoxiao
Level: 2
Idle Bonus: +15%
Special facility: Sect Gathering Array
Idle Sect Disciple · Yue Long
Cultivation: Foundation Establishment Layer 2
Status: Inside the gateway · Ancient battlefield
Four-Cultivation Body: demonic, Buddhist, human, beast
Possessions: disciple-dedicated phone, low-grade storage pouch, Zixiao Sect inheritance token
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Appendix: Special Cultivation Systems for Lin Luo and His Alt Accounts
Immortal Cultivation (Main Account · Lin Luo):
Qi Refining → Foundation Establishment → Core Opening → Fusion → Heart Movement → Golden Core → Nascent Soul → Soul Departure → Spirit Separation → Body Integration → Cave Void → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Demon Cultivation (Alt Accounts · Bone One, Blood One):
Qi Gathering → Body Refining → Core Condensation → Desire Embodiment → Devouring → Demon Infant → Soul Departure → Sense Separation → Body Fusion → Void Break → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Beast Cultivation (Alt Account · Rat One):
Spirit Gathering → Intelligence Awakening → Body Tempering → Bone Refining → Beast Core → Transformation → Soul Condensation → Spirit Roaming → Body Purification → Void Training → Great Ascension → Tribulation Transcendence
Note: The above are the exclusive cultivation systems for Lin Luo and his alt accounts. Everyone else (side characters, enemies, etc.) uses the traditional system: Qi Refining, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Soul Transformation, Void Training, Body Integration, Great Ascension, Tribulation Transcendence.
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(End of Chapter 26)