A Mortal’s Journey to Immortality: Wang Yu’s Rebirth as the Reincarnation Dao Ancestor - Chapter 152

Chapter 150 The Thousand Bamboo Cult: A Mess, Arrangements, Possession

sect’s headquarters, the numerous people and eyes involved, and the presence of the powerful Grandmaster Dayan Divine Lord, make it unsuitable for Nascent Soul formation.

Therefore, another spiritual vein treasure land must be found.

In the far west, in the Thousand Bamboo Mountains, the spiritual vein quality is decent, several levels better than that of the Taiyue Mountains in Yue Kingdom.

The mountains are rich in ironwood, fir, and other spiritual trees.

Although thousand-year-old trees are harvested by visitors, there are still many six- or seven-hundred-year-old trees.

Moreover, the most famous thing here isn’t the ironwood or fir, which can be used to craft Thousand Bamboo Sect puppets and various magical artifacts, but rather the abundant spiritual bamboo. Magical artifacts crafted from this bamboo often exist in pairs or even rows. Since the bamboos share the same roots and attributes, a complete set of magical artifacts far surpasses the power of a single artifact.

Of course, these spiritual trees can also be used to set up formations and craft array-setting tools, etc.

Thanks to the spiritual materials from this area, the Thousand Bamboo Sect can exchange for supplies worth no less than 500,000 spirit stones from the outside market every ten years.

“Huh? Why is there a sign hanging on the trunk of this spiritual tree?”

Han Li, passing a mountain peak, suddenly stopped his escape and looked down at a tall ironwood tree standing on the mountain below.

He had come here to establish a secluded cultivation cave deep within the mountains.

After all, the spiritual veins here were among the best in the far west.

Cultivating here would reduce the consumption of spirit stones.

Originally, the journey had been very smooth, and he was in a good mood.

But as he passed through this area, many doubts gradually arose in his mind.

For example, why was there a magical artifact sign hanging on the trunk of this ironwood tree, which was over nine hundred years old?

The sign clearly read “Owned by Tan Zhen of the Heavenly Pole Sect.”

It was as if it was publicly displaying its ownership.

“Master, the spiritual veins here are excellent, nurturing many spiritual trees and herbs. However, our Thousand Bamboo Sect only receives less than half the profits; the rest has been divided among the major righteous sects and high-level cultivators from various sects traveling throughout Tiannan,”

the two Foundation Establishment cultivators in charge of the area stated truthfully.

Han Li, on the other hand, thought he had misheard:

“What? Our sect’s property has already been distributed by outside cultivators? We work ourselves to the bone, only to receive a pittance?”

“Master, this has always been the case.”

“Yes, Master, we’ve heard this is an unspoken rule that’s existed for three thousand years.”

The two clearly saw that their new sect leader’s expression was no longer as pleasant as before, but dared not evade the issue, and had to explain with a forced smile:

“Moreover, we are not only responsible for the healthy growth of the spiritual trees, but also for preventing them from being stolen by outsiders, otherwise we will have to compensate them at the original price…”

Han Li’s eyes narrowed upon hearing this.

Outsiders not only wanted to take their things, but also demanded that they take good care of and safeguard the spiritual plants?

This facade is…

even more thuggish than a bandit’s.

At this moment, Han Li felt a pang of bitterness.

If the arrogant Great Evolution Divine Lord knew that his disciple was being treated like this, what kind of face would he have?

He remembered that in the original timeline, the Great Evolution Divine Lord thought his remaining power had intimidated the major powers of Tiannan.

But now it seemed that

those major powers weren’t intimidated by his remaining power, but rather had amicably “hired” the Thousand Bamboo Sect to manage this area for them.

After all, sending disciples from the other side of the Hurricane Desert to look after the spiritual herbs and trees was too troublesome and time-consuming, so it was better to adapt to local conditions and let the members of the Thousand Bamboo Sect do it.

If they took good care of it, that was to be expected.

If they didn’t take good care of it, then they would compensate for the losses.

“No wonder there are so many spiritual trees here, but so few Foundation Establishment stage puppets from the Thousand Bamboo

Sect. So that’s how it is, so that’s how it is…” “Hmph! I’ll see which powers have made this place their backyard…?”

Han Li snorted lightly, expanding his divine sense to cover a radius of a hundred miles.

It covered a large portion of the Thousand Bamboo Mountains.

“Tianji Gate, Haoran Pavilion, Taizhen Gate…”

Every major righteous sect had left their high-ranking cultivators here.

Besides the righteous path, many sects from the demonic path, the Heavenly Dao Alliance, and the Nine Kingdoms Alliance also left their mark in the far west.

He even saw inscriptions like “Owned by Lei Wanhe of Huangfeng Valley” and “Owned by Huang Nie of Huangfeng Valley.”

These two had chosen two spirit trees over eight hundred years old.

If we go back two hundred years, the spirit trees Lei Wanhe and Huang Nie chose were only six hundred years old. That was fitting for their status.

However, this behavior was anything but friendly to the Thousand Bamboo Sect.

“Sect Leader, this is actually quite good. The foundation laid by our ancestors was not something we, their descendants, could uphold. Now, just maintaining the continuity of our lineage is already extremely difficult.”

He could only hope that this sect leader wouldn’t be so foolish as to insist on competing with the various powers for resources.

This person is quite good, and generous. They don’t want him to “disappear” and cause the major righteous forces to be replaced by a stingy cult leader like Jin Bapi who exploits them.

Indeed, this newly appointed cult leader is quite good.

“Cult Leader, let the major sects of Tiannan divide up most of the resources in the far west first. We can eat our fill of the remaining resources. The key is, eat securely.”

Eating well and being well-fed is enough.

They work diligently and don’t ask for much.

From the perspective of the major forces: since the majority of the resources in the far west have already been divided up, the remaining scraps are perfectly fine to have the Thousand Bamboo Sect manage for them. They don’t need to arrange extra manpower or resources. And

if the Thousand Bamboo Sect cultivators are sensible enough to send the goods to their sects after the spiritual creatures mature, that would be even better.

Thus, it’s a win-win situation.

“Besides this spiritual vein and its rare treasures, don’t tell me that most of the associated mineral veins in the far west have also been divided up by various powerful forces?”

Han Li asked, already having a guess in mind.

His response was a series of nods from the two Thousand Bamboo Sect cultivators:

“Over a hundred micro-veins, more than thirty small veins, and three medium-sized veins, producing over two million low-grade spirit stones and over eight thousand mid-grade spirit stones annually. Our Thousand Bamboo Sect can take away seventeen or eighteen thousand of those spirit stones.”

“Master, the spirit mining industry is one of our sect’s seven pillar industries, even more important than the spirit materials and herbs business of the Thousand Bamboo Mountains.”

After all, the Thousand Bamboo Sect has nearly 40,000 mouths to feed.

Even if each Qi Refining cultivator only receives a low salary of twelve spirit stones a year, the expenditure still exceeds four hundred thousand.

This shows how vital the mining industry is.

“The far west produces nearly three million spirit stones annually, and our sect only receives seventeen or eighteen thousand?”

Han Li asked in a deep voice.

“That’s already a lot, Master,”

the two Foundation Establishment cultivators said in unison.

Upon hearing this, Han Li closed his eyes briefly.

“Heh, no wonder the Thousand Bamboo Sect has fallen…”

“No wonder the Thousand Bamboo Sect can barely survive…”

It’s contradictory, yet very realistic.

The far west has been exploited by the major powers of the Southern Heaven for three thousand years, handing over two million to nearly three million spirit stones annually. Isn’t that a total of tens of billions of spirit stones?

“No wonder the Far West hasn’t produced a Nascent Soul cultivator for so long.”

He had been wondering before, how could the Far West, with the manpower and resources of two medium-sized countries, not be able to cultivate a single Nascent Soul cultivator? So that’s the root of the problem.

It wasn’t that the conditions here were bad, but rather that the region had long been weakened by external powers, its lifeblood constantly drained.

Under such circumstances, for a Nascent Soul cultivator to emerge, it would require generations of self-sacrifice and continuous accumulation. Unless most of the Far West united and sacrificed the vast majority of its people to benefit a select few, it would be impossible.

“Perhaps the Lin family had this idea and even offered concessions to other Core Formation cultivators?”

Unfortunately, the Lin family failed.

The Jin family, on the other hand, benefited.

Perhaps the Lin family’s initial plan was good, but human nature was uncontrollable?

Or perhaps, an unseen hand was silently suppressing the Far West, preventing any more Nascent Soul cultivators from rising from this land?

Han Li pondered this.

“By the way, about Shi Jian, whom I mentioned briefly before, did he die because he made a grudge while traveling and ended up perishing with a formidable enemy? Or did he make a grudge over something so trivial and then perish with a powerful enemy after the original body ascended?”

The first draft didn’t mention it, but in his memory, Shi Jian was a decent and steady person, not the type to cause trouble.

In other words, it was most likely that worldly disputes actively provoked that kid.

And the situation with the Thousand Bamboo Sect was probably a trigger.

When the original body was still in the human realm, Shi Jian could use the original body’s power to suppress others and ignore any dissent. But if, after the original body ascended, Shi Jian still stubbornly insisted on monopolizing the vast territory of the Far West, the righteous path and other major forces might not tolerate it. Furthermore, the original body didn’t fight for the Far West’s independence like the Great Evolution Divine Lord…

Once the conflict escalated…

Han Li shook his head, secretly considering the possibilities.

In short, the more he learned about the Far West, the more vigilant he became.

The situation here is probably not as simple as he initially thought.

“To gain the favor of the Great Evolution Divine Lord, it feels like I almost fell into a huge pit?”

“No, Nascent Soul formation can’t be done in the Thousand Bamboo Mountains! This place is too dangerous!”

“There’s no guarantee that someone won’t go and tip off the major sects like the Heavenly Pole Sect…”

If a Nascent Soul cultivator were to come out of curiosity…

“We should be cautious.”

“We must change locations.”

Better safe than sorry.

He didn’t want to be taken advantage of.

“However, as long as I successfully form my Nascent Soul, the predicament that has trapped the Thousand Bamboo Sect might be resolved, allowing it to soar to the heavens. This seemingly hopeless situation for the entire Thousand Bamboo Sect can be completely turned around.”

The key to everything still lies in forming the Nascent Soul.

Therefore, after weighing the options, he still carved out a temporary cave in the Thousand Bamboo Mountains and set up a 30% complete Inverted Five Elements Array as a means of deception. But his true self had no intention of staying there for long. Instead, he concealed his tracks and went to another spiritual vein land tens of thousands of miles away.

The quality of the spiritual vein there wasn’t very good, far inferior to that in the Thousand Bamboo Mountains.

The size was also small, only sixty or seventy miles long.

Directly below the spiritual vein, there was a small spirit stone mine, producing only two or three thousand spirit stones per year.

A normal Nascent Soul cultivator wouldn’t even consider forming their Nascent Soul in such an inadequate spiritual vein.

The supply of spiritual energy at crucial moments is simply insufficient. It wouldn’t just be of little help in forming the Nascent Soul, it could even be a major drawback.

Therefore, who would have thought he would specifically come here to form his Nascent Soul?

However, this deficiency was insignificant to the wealthy Han Li.

He first had a level four dual-eyed rat locate the spiritual eye of this spiritual vein.

Then, he spent over a month setting up numerous Spirit-Binding Arrays and a 70% complete Inverted Five Elements Array.

The protective effect of the Inverted Five Elements Array is self-evident; it can buy some time against an early-stage Nascent Soul cultivator.

The Spirit-Binding Array, besides its powerful defensive effect, also locks in the spiritual energy within, preventing it from leaking out.

With his current array-setting skills, he managed to set up the Qingyang Sect’s Spirit-Binding Array quite well.

Then, he began to take out mid-grade spirit stones.

Not many, just a few hundred thousand.

Using the array, he extracted the relatively pure spiritual energy from hundreds of thousands of mid-grade spirit stones, strengthening the spiritual vein by tens or even hundreds of times in both quality and quantity.

Because of the Spirit-Binding Array, the spiritual energy wouldn’t leak out,

preventing outsiders from noticing the abnormality of the spiritual energy here.

“I still need to make some preparations…”

Han Li pondered after a moment’s thought.

According to his pre-planned strategy, he took out several level-seven demon cores and a considerable number of small, high-grade demon cores for medicinal use from his storage bag and tossed them out.

He then tossed out several golden cores, spoils of war from Core Formation cultivators,

allowing these inner cores to fully release their golden core energy or demon core essence.

“Still not enough.” It was

still lacking.

It couldn’t compare to the spiritual energy of the Azure Spirit Island spiritual vein, but it was comparable to the spiritual energy of the forty-odd layers of the Heavenly Star City Holy Mountain.

After some thought, he transplanted a Spirit Eye Tree into this cave.

Then, in a corner of the cave area, which was several dozen feet wide, he tossed about ten Spirit Eye Stones to purify and enhance the spiritual energy.

Beneath the Spirit Eye Tree, in his meditation spot, lay the largest Spirit Eye Stone, over ten feet long and wide.

This stone was far larger than the dozen or so others, each the size of a washbasin.

Its length and width were large enough to serve as a bed. Over the years, he had indeed used this stone as a bed.

Even lying on it, his cultivation would spontaneously increase.

Furthermore, because it had been nourished by the spiritual energy drawn from Biling Island for years, the quality of these Spirit Eye Stones had not diminished.

On the bed carved from the Spirit Eye Stone, a dozen Spirit Eye Pearls and hundreds of high-grade spirit stones were quietly piled up.

“Spirit Eye Pearls, Spirit Eye Springs, Spirit Eye Stones (also known as Spirit Eye Jade), and the Spirit Eye Tree! Originally, I had everything, but the Spirit Eye Spring on Biling Island cannot be touched!”

This meant that of all the Spirit Eye items, only the Spirit Eye Spring was missing to complete his collection.

“What a pity, what a pity…”

“Not quite perfect.”

Han Li, who had a slight collecting obsession, felt a little regretful about this.

But his biggest regret was not being able to form his Nascent Soul in the excellent spiritual vein environment of Biling Island.

If a pseudo-Nascent Soul cultivator’s Nascent Soul formation environment were in the Spirit Eye Lake on Biling Island, even without any preparation, the success rate would be at least 20%.

But that place absolutely could not be exposed.

Absolutely no failure was allowed.

“The environment here is barely enough.”

But it still lacked a bit of perfection.

As he spoke, he finally released the spiritual energy from the top-grade spiritual vein of Biling Island, which had been compressed multiple times within the container-type magic treasures such as the Water-Fire Gourd.

This allowed the pure spiritual energy to fill the entire cave.

It revived the newly transplanted Spirit Eye Tree, which was several meters tall, and restored its vitality.

The environment for forming the Nascent Soul was now fully prepared.

In Tiannan, he could hardly find a better environment.

Unless Seven Spirit Island could purify the boundless sea’s turbid spiritual energy layer of ten thousand feet.

“So next…”

“It’s time to take that step!”

Han Li and Feng Hun sat facing each other in meditation.

Beside him were Qu Hun and Sha Hun.

Each of them possessed a fragment of his primordial spirit.

“Out.”

With a hand seal, two green primordial spirit orbs, one large and one small, flew out from Qu Hun and Sha Hun.

After merging with his main body, the main body’s primordial spirit was replenished and strengthened considerably.

At the same time, Qu Hun and Sha Hun both drooped their heads, remaining motionless.

“Buzz…”

After merging the primordial spirits within his two externalized bodies, the main body once again separated its primordial spirit, transforming into a light orb that entered Feng Hun’s body.

“Possession!”

He was temporarily abandoning his main body to possess Feng Hun’s body, attempting his first Nascent Soul formation.

Possession inherently had many drawbacks.

[For example], if the target of possession differed from the main body’s cultivation method, there was a risk of damaging one’s vital energy and dropping one’s cultivation level.

[Another example], adapting to the new body and nurturing it to the point where it could inherit higher-level cultivation required a significant investment of time.

Furthermore, possession carries the risk of backlash.

It’s not guaranteed that a high-level cultivator will successfully possess a lower-level one. For example, the True Spirit Qilin’s attempt to possess a Crystal Clan girl failed.

In short, possession has many drawbacks.

However, these drawbacks and risks are nonexistent for Han Li and Feng Hun.

This is because he didn’t bring much cultivation into Feng Hun’s body.

He merely transferred his primordial spirit completely.

Therefore, there was no issue of spiritual energy conflict or cultivation loss.

Moreover, Feng Hun is his external avatar, which he had already adapted to decades ago. These decades of adaptation allowed his previously separated primordial spirit to control every inch of Feng Hun’s flesh, spiritual energy, and essence.

His understanding of Feng Hun’s body was no less than his understanding of his own.

Therefore, there was no need to spend decades adapting, integrating, and nurturing.

After completing the possession, he perfectly controlled Feng Hun’s body in just over half a month.

As for the risks and hidden dangers of being devoured by possession?

Let me reiterate: Feng Hun is his external avatar.

He’s a high-level puppet controlled by his consciousness.

Possessing Feng Hun presents no resistance whatsoever.

His only losses are the one and only opportunity for possession that every cultivator in the human realm has! And a Spirit-Stabilizing Pill and the resources wasted on this scheme!

That’s all!

As for the benefits of doing this?

There are far too many.

(End of Chapter)