Born with immortal seed

Chapter 368 Nascent Souls from All Sides
There was still a month until the sword duel mentioned in Tang Fei Zhenjun's letter, which was more than enough time for the two of them to fly at their current speed.

However, Ge Cang said he would take his flying magic weapon to travel and chat along the way, which would definitely be much slower than flying on a sword and using lightning escape.

"If one day I can find a fourth-order grand formation to encompass the entire Black Mountain, I can finally travel far away in peace..."

The spirit boat flew slowly, leaving a white trail that lingered across the sky above Black Mountain.

"There will be such a day. At worst, we can go to the Central Region to find a master of array formations to help us set up an array. If we pay enough, we can always acquire a fourth-order array that has flowed out of a fallen sect."

Bai Zichen could certainly understand the meaning behind Ge Cang's words; he had rejected many opportunities for the sake of the Qingfeng Sect.

Whether one goes to the Central Region alone or swallows one's pride and joins the Holy Lotus Sect, the path to Nascent Soul will definitely be smoother.

Staying in the sect means bearing a heavy burden and paving the way for all cultivators.

Once Ge Cang completes the opening and refinement of his Nascent Soul realm, staying in the cultivation world of Liang Kingdom will be utterly meaningless and a pure waste of time.

However, his sense of responsibility to the sect, especially his self-blame for Elder Yang's self-destruction, made it impossible for him to leave gracefully.

He abandoned his sect and freely traveled to the blessed lands, secret realms, and ruins of the world.

The Ghost Spirit Sect's invasion coincided perfectly with the timing of Ge Cang's journey to the Lotus Blossom Secret Realm, ultimately leading to the deaths of thousands of disciples and the self-destruction of Elder Yang's Golden Core, resulting in their mutual destruction with the Corpse-Stiff Old Man.

Ge Cang always felt a sense of guilt.

But it's impossible to let a cultivator with the potential to become a Nascent Soul cultivator waste so much of his time on this. Even if Bai Zichen grows up, there won't be a successor in sight; it'll just be another person trapped in a prison.

This is the awkward situation where both of them possess the potential to become deities and have a bright future.

For example, the True Lord of the Ice Soul Palace certainly doesn't have this problem.

Only a fourth-order grand formation can allow the Qingfeng Sect to establish a foundation for ten thousand generations.

Even without the two of them, the combined strength of several Core Formation cultivators and the array was enough to withstand the attack from the Nascent Soul True Monarch.

In the cultivation world of Liang Kingdom, it is highly unrealistic for a force to emerge capable of breaking through a fourth-order grand formation.

As for the sects from other countries, Bai Zichen and Ge Cang were merely traveling; they weren't dead.

By leaving behind a secret communication tool, as long as the sect can hold out for two or three years, it can return in time no matter how far away it is.

"I heard that the underground palace in Wanxian Gorge sank, and even the Netherworld Coffin sank down?"

Ge Cang was not so optimistic. He avoided the topic and talked about the biggest thing that had happened in the Hejian branch in the past few years.

“I took a look, and it should be caused by the Netherworld Coffin. No matter what methods were used, the coffin has been steadily descending by ten feet every year... At present, the only thing we can do is to fill the cracks with gravel and sand to prevent the collapse of the entire underground palace.”

Bai Zichen dared not easily touch the Netherworld Coffin, an ancient artifact used by great figures in ancient and medieval times for reincarnation, lest his mind be corrupted by the Netherworld energy.

The work of filling the soil was initially handled by outer disciples, and five of them died within a month.

They were then reassigned to menial tasks and fire-making jobs, and eight of them died the following month.

The Wanxianjian area could only open the mission to independent cultivators in the river region, offering a high reward of fifty spirit stones per day.

Those who can work continuously for thirty days can become apprentice servants without taking an exam.

These conditions attracted thousands of reckless cultivators who risked their lives to fill the cracks.

"The Underworld Coffin is ultimately an evil object. Perhaps it would be a good thing if it could be completely sunk underground..."

After a few casual words, Ge Cang began to talk about the problems he encountered in his cultivation after reaching the Nascent Soul stage, as well as some of his insights. He mentioned which problems could be resolved by taking precautions before reaching the Core Formation stage, and which problems required attention to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

The spirit boat passed far past Zengguang Immortal City, a huge and magnificent city whose shadow could be seen even from hundreds of miles away.

"Speaking of which, True Lord Du from Zengguang Immortal City is also on the list of attendees for this ceremony."

When Bai Zichen saw Zengguang Immortal City, he recalled his experience of coming to the city to participate in the auction years ago, where he almost died at the hands of the cultivators from the Outer Sea Dragon Gate.

"This True Lord Du has rarely appeared in recent years, supposedly because he has been cultivating the next generation of successors for the Du family. However, the Du family has quite a few Core Formation cultivators, but it seems that there isn't a single one at the late Core Formation stage. True Lord Du must be quite old by now."

"Is the legend of the number one immortal cultivation family in the Northern Region, blessed with good fortune and producing Nascent Soul cultivators generation after generation, about to come to an end?"

Even if a Nascent Soul Grandmaster can select outstanding talents from among hundreds of millions of people under his command, he may not be able to guarantee that there will be no Nascent Soul True Monarchs.

Only a handful of genius disciples in each generation are capable of cultivating to the point of perfect Core Formation and are qualified to shatter their core and transform into an infant.

Moreover, most Nascent Soul cultivators only have enough treasures for one person to use, such as the Nascent Soul Transformation Pill and the Tribulation Crossing Treasure.

If you bet on the wrong horse, all the careful cultivation over two or three hundred years will be wasted, and you'll have to start all over again.

Cultivation families can only select immortal seedlings from their bloodline descendants. Even if the Du family were to expand to the same size, the number of cultivators would only be around ten thousand.

In terms of average aptitude among cultivators, the Du family members are definitely inferior to any Nascent Soul sect, which is an inevitable result of limited talent pool.

The Zengguang Du family has managed to maintain such a high success rate even without possessing any divine beast bloodline, which explains why they are said to be a family favored by the Great Dao.

"True Lord Du should be close to eight hundred years old. He has been the lord of the Immortal City since he can remember, and has supported the Du family for hundreds of years... What I find strange is that the Du family can bring out the Heavenly Dust Pill as the grand prize, so why doesn't he take it himself?"

A hint of confusion flashed in Ge Cang's eyes; this was something that no one could understand.

The early and middle stages of the Nascent Soul realm have completely different meanings. Even if their lifespans are the same, no Nascent Soul True Monarch would give up the hope of breaking through to the next realm.

Moreover, Zengguang Immortal City, situated at the crossroads of four kingdoms, is a veritable treasure trove, and it's certain that some Nascent Soul Grandmasters would be envious.

As an advancement pill for the Nascent Soul stage, the Heavenly Dust Pill is of great help in breaking through the bottleneck of the early Nascent Soul stage; otherwise, so many Nascent Soul True Monarchs would not have been so eager to obtain it.

"Perhaps he already took one and failed to break through?"

Bai Zichen said uncertainly, "The Heavenly Dust Pill is also a rare treasure for the Du family, who have the advantage of the Immortal City."

Gathering enough medicinal herbs for a furnace is still achievable for the Du family, whose wealth rivals that of Tao Bai.

However, the difficulty of refining a fourth-grade top-quality pill is astonishing. Even if a master of fourth-grade pill refining were to try, it would be normal to fail four or five times in a row.

Even if a batch of Heavenly Dust Pills is refined, only one pill will be produced.

If Du Zhenjun has already used one, then the second Heavenly Dust Pill will most likely be used to exchange for other treasures to ensure the family's inheritance.

"I wonder what price this Heavenly Dust Pill will fetch at auction. Those Nascent Soul True Monarchs who have been stuck at their bottlenecks for many years will probably spare no expense..."

As a newly promoted Nascent Soul cultivator, Ge Cang had not yet reached the peak of the early Nascent Soul stage, so his desire for the Heavenly Dust Pill was not that strong.

As the person who triggered the four Nascent Soul phenomena, he was quite confident that he could cultivate to the mid-Nascent Soul stage without the help of elixirs.

Of course, the prerequisite is having a suitable advanced cultivation technique.

……

Meili Snow Mountain, covered in snow.

A young man with sinister eyes and an arrogant expression sat with his eyes closed, holding a thin sword in his hand, his left arm bare beneath his Taoist robe.

The slender sword was dull and lacked any precious aura or spiritual light; at first glance, one might mistake it for ordinary iron.

Only upon closer inspection can one discover that all the light around the rapier has been swallowed up by the blade, forming an extremely dark halo.

The wind and snow stopped automatically in front of the young man, the snowflakes fell to the ground, and the fierce wind softened.

A clear boundary had already appeared in front of him.

A fox-faced snow beast ran up the mountain, but as soon as it took a step forward, it was struck by lightning and fell to the ground, motionless and lifeless.

Not far away, two cultivators, one old and one young, stood side by side, their killing intent soaring to the sky, almost tangible.

"somebody is coming!"

The young cultivator raised an eyebrow, and the two of them looked at the distant horizon at the same time. A beam of light, as powerful as a torrent of steel, appeared and landed on a mountaintop.

He glanced around and greeted the sinister-looking young man and the two men from afar.

"It is Tie Shu of the Nine Forging Sect, a Nascent Soul Body Refining cultivator who has cultivated their sect's Nine Forging Body Technique to the fifth level, and his physical body can rival that of a fourth-order great demon."

The old man had done his homework and knew the visitor's identity, status, and special skills very well.

"No matter how strong the physical body is, can it withstand a single strike from the Killing Demon Sword? These insignificant sects in the Northern Region would have been wiped out long ago if they were in the Central Region."

The boy snorted coldly, not taking the newcomer seriously.

The old man shook his head slightly. Junior Brother Kong has innate sword bones and is walking another supreme path in the Killing Sword Sect.

Xiang Ji transformed his own arm into a flying sword, while he, on the other hand, refined the flying sword into his sword bone, making the sword bone increasingly powerful.

Since he began cultivating, Junior Brother Kong has consumed seven third-tier flying swords and countless second-tier flying swords.

If he could devour a few fourth-tier flying swords, he could quickly boost his cultivation to the mid-Nascent Soul stage.

Even a super sect like the Killing Sword Sect only has a few fourth-tier flying swords in total, so there's no way they could possibly use them as resources for his advancement.

Several hours later, someone arrived riding a dark river, its beginning and end nowhere in sight, and it pressed down on the snow while still in the air.

They chose a distant mountain peak, where the water rippled and the figures of the cultivators could not be seen.

“Zengguang Duheng, he’s here too… That makes sense, Zengguang Immortal City isn’t far from here, so he can be considered a half-host.”

The old man's face was solemn. The reputation of Zengguang Immortal City was not limited to the Northern Region; the reputation of the Du Clan's Xuanming Heavy Water was well-known throughout the Central Region.

"The Du family, blessed by heaven, are only a foot and a half from the sky. I'll have to see if the Xuanming Heavy Water can suppress my flying sword when I get the chance!"

The boy was eager to try, his eyes filled with fierce fighting spirit as he gazed at the dark water.

In the following two days, two Nascent Soul cultivators, Bei Yuan Nianhua Luohan and Da Huang Cheng Tuo Shangren, also arrived.

Seven Nascent Soul True Monarchs have gathered on Meili Snow Peak, each exuding immense power and drawing upon the spiritual energy of their respective regions.

The sky and earth changed color, dark clouds covered the sky, and a storm was brewing.

(End of this chapter)