Who Let Him Cultivate Immortality

Damn it, what kind of luck was this? He had merely come out to refine a Ten Thousand Soul Banner, ended up with a bunch of unresponsive livestock, and now he had encountered one of the strongest Unity stage powerhouses.

The great struggle of this era hadn’t even fully erupted, and yet he was already facing such an opponent?

If this continued, he would be the one to lose!

Run!

The shriveled old man no longer had any desire to continue the fight and immediately turned to flee.

His vast survival experience told him that just because he couldn’t win now didn’t mean he couldn’t win in the future. As long as he cultivated diligently, he could take his revenge later. Who would mock him for running away today if he triumphed tomorrow?

He didn’t target Lu Yang or Peach Blossom Leaf. Though their foundations were solid, their Cultivation levels were too low—they were likely just the disciples of his opponent. For demonic cultivators like him, personal survival was paramount. The idea of kidnapping disciples for leverage was laughable in their eyes.

The shriveled old man left six demonic heads behind to block Vice Sect Leader Petrified and transformed into a streak of light, flying away.

“Damn it! The old bastard’s shameless—he just up and runs!” Vice Sect Leader Petrified cursed loudly, disgusted by the lack of dignity his opponent showed.

That being said, if he were in the shriveled old man’s shoes, he would’ve made the same choice.

Suddenly, the space rippled, and a figure silently appeared behind the fleeing shriveled old man. Holding an object resembling a brick, the figure swung it at the old man’s head.

The shriveled old man stumbled, plummeting from the sky.

“Who is it?!”

He quickly took a defensive stance, but the blow had been too hard, and too expertly delivered. Dizzy, he struggled to stand.

Realizing another expert had appeared, he prepared to flee again.

The figure with the brick curled his lips into a cold smile that sent chills down one’s spine.

“You think you can run from me?” The figure’s gaze locked onto the shriveled old man, leaving him momentarily stunned and unable to resist.

The old man was dazed for only half a second, but for Unity stage cultivators, that was enough to make a big difference.

The figure kicked the shriveled old man over, pressing him to the ground with a heavy stomp.

The shriveled old man attempted to escape underground, but the figure remained unhurried. Pointing a finger at the ground, the earth beneath instantly hardened like meteorite iron, rendering it unbreakable. No matter how hard the shriveled old man tried, he couldn’t break through.

“Turning Earth into Steel?!”

(TL Note: This was used in chapter 180 by Lu Yang’s senior brothers)

Both the shriveled old man and Vice Sect Leader Petrified exclaimed at the same time, recognizing the technique—a grand magical ability that could restrict earth-based escape techniques. It had nearly been lost to history and was only known by the Five Great Immortal Sects and ancient cultivators.

The figure looked coldly at the shriveled old man, applying more pressure with his foot, causing the old man to scream in pain.

“Who are you?” the shriveled old man demanded, glaring at the figure.

Had it not been for this person’s sudden appearance, he would have already escaped.

Yet he couldn’t muster the will to resist. The techniques this figure had just demonstrated were even stronger than those of Vice Sect Leader Petrified.

Vice Sect Leader Petrified also eyed the figure warily. The fact that this person had intervened at a critical moment implied he had been following them all along, but Vice Sect Leader Petrified hadn’t sensed him at all.

An unfathomable mastery of concealment techniques!

The figure’s gaze was deep, like an ancient well, impossible to read. He glanced at the fallen shriveled old man, then at Vice Sect Leader Petrified, his tone calm yet filled with arrogance and disdain.

“I am the Netherworld Heavenly King, Protector of the Heavenly Court Sect.”

Vice Sect Leader Petrified’s expression shifted slightly. As he had suspected, the figure was a Protector of the Heavenly Court Sect.

And with the title “Netherworld,” could he be connected to the ancient Nine Nethers?

The shriveled old man was utterly confused. Heavenly Court Sect? What kind of organization was that?

The shriveled old man had investigated the major powers of today, but he had never heard of anything called the Heavenly Court Sect.

Lu Yang and Peach Blossom Leaf looked at the Great Elder, who was arrogantly stepping on an ancient Unity stage cultivator while dismissively mocking the Vice Sect Leader of the Demonic Sect. They struggled to hold back their desire to complain.

When Lu Yang went to meet the Vice Sect Leader of the Demonic Sect, a dangerous endeavor, the Dao Seeking Sect naturally sent someone along.

Originally, Lu Yang hadn’t planned to let anyone follow him, but somehow the Great Elder had heard that he and Peach Blossom Leaf were meeting Petrified Bone, and the elder insisted on coming along, offering to protect them.

The reason given was to safeguard the future of the Dao Seeking Sect.

Seeing the Great Elder now, Lu Yang thought that protecting them was just a cover. It seemed more like the elder wanted to seize the opportunity to show off.

Once Vice Sect Leader Petrified confirmed that the Great Elder was an ally, he relaxed. He crouched down and slapped the shriveled old man twice, demanding answers.

“Tell me, why did you kill all those livestock?”

The shriveled old man was furious, feeling utterly insulted. “Do you think I’m crazy, slaughtering livestock? I’m a demonic cultivator, not a butcher! If I’d known the blood energy came from a slaughterhouse, do you think I would’ve wasted my time refining the Ten Thousand Soul Banner?”

Petrified Bone thought about it and figured the shriveled old man had a point. He slapped him two more times.

“Then explain how the villagers disappeared!”

“What villagers? When I got there, the place was already empty!”

The shriveled old man was baffled. He had no enmity with Petrified Bone, so why was he being targeted?

“Are you sure it wasn’t you?”

“It wasn’t!”

Vice Sect Leader Petrified could tell the shriveled old man wasn’t lying. After all, they were both demonic cultivators, and there was no reason to hide the truth when it came to killing.

“That’s odd…”

At the Dao Seeking Sect, at the Everlasting Pasture.

The former Sect Leader of the Undying Sect stood gazing over the endless pastures, where cows and sheep lazily grazed in peaceful tranquility. He sighed softly.

“My Lord, what’s troubling you?” The three female ghosts, Little Five, Little Six, and Little Seven, approached him with concern.

“I was just thinking back to my time as the Sect Leader running a slaughterhouse.”

“You ran a slaughterhouse too?”

“Well, of course! Who doesn’t have a hobby or two?”

“I never told you this before, but before I joined the Undying Sect, my family ran a slaughterhouse. Later, we were caught for tax evasion, and the authorities came after us. Seeing that I had potential, the Undying Sect took me in.”

“And before I knew it, I became the Sect Leader.”

“After I became Sect Leader, I often reminisced about my days running the slaughterhouse. My subordinates were always as dumb as pigs, and when they angered me, I’d think about killing them. But we had too few people in the Undying Sect, and replacing subordinates was hard, so I bought a bunch of puppets. I built a small village out in the wilderness and named it Huai’an Village.”

“I controlled the puppets and disguised them as villagers, opening up a slaughterhouse. Every day I slaughtered pigs, pretending they were my subordinates. I did this for about three or four hundred years, and eventually, the place became a well-known, long-established slaughterhouse in the area.”

“Then I got caught, and the slaughterhouse was confiscated. The pigs, cows, and sheep were all sold by the authorities, and they ordered me to cease all puppeteering activities. The puppets were also taken by the court.”

“Now Huai’an Village is nothing but an empty shell, just filled with useless blood energy. The authorities don’t know what to do with it, so they’ve just left it there.”

“Won’t the blood energy be used by demonic cultivators for things like refining a Ten Thousand Soul Banner?” Xiao Qi asked with concern, remembering how close they came to being turned into souls for a banner.

The Sect Leader burst into laughter.

“Impossible! What kind of idiot demonic cultivator would use such blood energy to refine a Ten Thousand Soul Banner?”