Immortality begins with meditation puppets

Chapter 272 The Furnace Child is Formed, the Cave Dwelling Emerges

Two months of hard work, grinding runes and refining puppets day and night.

Even if the two women and the bear on the first floor were very good at selling goods, they still couldn't sell all the puppets he had made.

Even today, he still has over a thousand first-tier monster-type puppets in his possession, which he cannot use for the time being. He can only give them to his fellow cultivators in the Immortal City so that they can use these puppets to cause even greater trouble after their caves are created.

And all his hard work has finally paid off.

The Soul Demon Rune has been upgraded to Tier 4. This rune is essential for crafting the Evil Refining Furnace Child, so it cannot be taken lightly.

He had upgraded the sealing rune to level four. This rune determined whether evil spirits could be properly refined in the furnace and whether the furnace lid could be closed. He wouldn't feel at ease without level four.

Once the Fire Rune is upgraded to Tier 3, it becomes a superior version of the Yang Fire Rune, offering better results than the Yang Fire Rune. Although it's only Tier 3, with a dozen or twenty more attempts and the trials of failure, you'll eventually succeed in upgrading it to Tier 4.

In addition to the exorcism runes that were already at the fourth level, there were also biomimetic runes.

Not only does it meet the basic rune requirements for refining alchemy furnace dolls, it can even refine them into five-star furnace dolls of all four tiers!

No wonder the Lin family is a family of Golden Core cultivators; their status is far greater than that of the Wang family.

Not only did they send him materials and runes, but they also sent him Golden Core Dharma Bone and Golden Core Soul.

Lin Feng's Golden Core technique was used to fuse third-tier obsidian soil to forge the furnace body.

Using Lin Feng's Golden Core soul as the main soul, along with numerous Foundation Establishment and Qi Refining vengeful spirits and ghostly shadows from the Lin family's Spirit Pearl, the furnace body is sealed and becomes fuel for refining evil spirits and exorcising demons.

By this time, the entire puppet was largely sponsored by the Lin family. If this puppet could achieve great things in the future, the Lin family would surely have their name on the merit list.

That was the end of the gifts from the Lin family.

He searched the Lin family's treasure trove but could not find that third-tier fire source.

This source of fire can be either a third-tier fire-type demon core or a third-tier fire-type essence core. Only a fire source of this level can be combined with the fire runes drawn inside the furnace and use many soul monsters as fuel to unleash the Netherworld Soul Fire, which is difficult for even Golden Core cultivators and false infant evil spirits to withstand!
The Lin family doesn't possess treasures of this caliber, and Yuanlai Tower and Baibao Pavilion have long since disappeared. Even if he had spirit stones, he wouldn't have a way to buy them.

Left with no other choice, he had to sacrifice himself. For the past two months, he had even stopped communicating with Hongshang, just to save his energy and use it all to brand Feng Zhuhai.

Having given up alcohol and women, and with his body in excellent health, he imprinted the Phoenix Boiling Sea more than ten times in two months, finally raising this Dao pattern to the third level.

After consuming the Spirit Nourishing Pill, which increased his mana by 50%, he could summon a third-tier fire phantom that would last for a short time by gathering all his mana.

Although it was done with great effort, and the magic power was insufficient to support the fire phoenix in displaying its many talents, it was more than enough to be used as a furnace fire.

However, every time he uses the furnace doll, he needs to breathe fire himself, which is not as easy as having a demon core.

This was a last resort; once conditions improve, he will definitely provide it with a proper source of fire.

After all, he didn't mind being a fire starter, but for a divine beast like the Fire Phoenix to be just a phantom and serve as a source of fire was really too much of a waste. If it fell outside, what would the demon beasts who regarded the Fire Phoenix as sacred think? What would the Fire Phoenix clan members who were proud of their bloodline think?
The source of the fire was his strict self-discipline, abstinence from lust, and self-cultivation, which allowed him to cleverly solve the problem by using the Phoenix Boiling Sea Pattern.

With the birth of the Demon Refining Furnace Child, all that remained was to draw runes.

He immediately applied the principles of rulership, ministership, assistance, and command that he had learned from Master Tong to this puppet.

It uses fourth-order exorcism runes as its ruler, fourth-order sealing and soul-devouring runes as its subjects, and fourth-order bionic and fire-separating runes as its assistants, along with many third-order runes such as materials, space, and mountain-moving runes.

In this way, the effect of the fourth-tier exorcism rune is maximized.

The effects of the other runes were also improved to a certain extent, and the coordination and linkage between the runes were also smoother and more seamless, so much so that after the puppet was made.

The panel accurately rated it as a Tier 3 Ultimate Exorcism Puppet.

This furnace-shaped doll was his final preparation for dealing with the great calamity of the Immortal City!
·······
The wind howls and the snow falls.

This day.

The White Cloud Immortal City has a third-order Radiant Sun Formation to block the cold air from the outside.

All the rogue cultivators in the entire White Cloud Immortal City who stepped out of their spirit houses felt a chill in their bodies. Considering the consequences of such an unusual phenomenon, their hearts felt even colder than their bodies.

Snowflakes drifted down.

A beam of light shot straight into the sky.

The cultivators turned their heads and saw that the Spirit Light Fruit had appeared in the Hundred Beasts Mountain Range to the east.

The spiritual light resembled a pillar of heaven, upon which numerous runes appeared, condensing into various illusions such as mountains, rivers, land, immortal birds, and beasts. The spiritual light spread for thousands of miles, and within it, a Dao pattern formed from ice and snow faintly appeared, with a humanoid, vermilion-jade-shaped spiritual object constantly leaping about.

"With the emergence of the cave dwelling, myriad phenomena arise from the talismans, the Five Elders Dao patterns, and spiritual objects that have formed infants—everything is there. The rumors are indeed true!"

Inside the White Cloud Immortal City, several Golden Core cultivators and third-level high-level cultivators from the Cloud Mountain Sect flew out of the Cloud Mountain Hall. Some of them shouted loudly, overjoyed.

The Yunshan Sect had spared no effort in securing the Jade Wall Immortal's cave dwelling, believing they had done everything in their power to handle any opponent.

But if they don't find what they want in this cave, then all their efforts will have been in vain.

Now, the strange phenomenon that has emerged from this cave has confirmed that their sacrifice was not in vain. They are so excited by this phenomenon that they can't wait to rush to the cave.

"Sect Master, let's act quickly, lest the demon kings get there first!"

A Golden Core elder asked the sect leader, Bai Mei, with a look of great urgency.

Sect Master Bai Mei remained calm and composed, showing no sign of anxiety, as if he wasn't the one who had decided to gamble away the entire sect's resources and lead everyone in a high-stakes gamble.

"The Nascent Soul Cave has many restrictions. With the demon kings' shallow knowledge of formations and restrictions, they will not be able to break through the restrictions in a short time."

Our most urgent task is to feed the demons first!

Sect Master Bai Mei's tone was cold and ruthless as he coldly surveyed the scattered cultivators in the city, as if they were all pigs, dogs, cattle, and sheep.

"Using a city's worth of rogue cultivators to feed Gao Erqiang? Sect Master, you absolutely cannot! This demon is now only one step away from becoming a false infant. With my thunder magic and the Five Thunder Shuttle, I can barely suppress it now. If I let it devour the flesh and blood of living beings, I fear it will become too powerful to control!"

Lei Guang Shangren, Lin Shuangmu's master, a Golden Core Peak cultivator and a third-tier Limit Array Master, stepped forward and addressed Sect Master Bai Mei in succession.

Following him, elders from the sect, including Li Mubai and Master Xiashan, also spoke out to dissuade him.

In their hearts, they always knew that the sect dared to feed demons for its own use because it had the support of Master Lei Guang.

He not only knows how to set up the True Fire Bell Thunder Formation, which is specifically designed to counter evil spirits, but also has mastered the Earth-level Taoist technique Five Thunder Yang Fire. Coupled with the third-tier exorcising magic weapon Five Thunder Shuttle, he has helped the sect deal with countless evil spirits over the past thousand years. As long as Gao Erqiang has not advanced to the False Infant stage, with him around, he can only be the dog of their Yunshan Sect.

The premise is that this fiend must not be allowed to advance to the level of a false infant!

In fact, in recent days, the Golden Core cultivators of Yunshan Sect have been intentionally suppressing Gao Erqiang, not giving him the opportunity to continue releasing red lanterns to improve his realm. In this way, there are still hundreds of thousands of rogue cultivators left in the city.

"I'm not afraid it will eat us, I'm afraid it won't. You all go to the west to deal with those demonic cultivators. Now that the cave has been created, they should be getting restless. As for the affairs in the city, Lei Guang and I will take care of them!"

Sect Leader Bai Mei made the world's decisions with a single word.

Although the elders still had concerns, they were forced by his consistent power and the fact that demonic light was indeed rising from the west, indicating that the demonic cultivators were launching a full-scale invasion. They wanted to reach Baiyun Immortal City and quickly seize the Nascent Soul Cave. The situation was critical, and they did not have time to think. They rushed to the western battlefield to try to hold back the demonic cultivators.

Following the Golden Core elders, Lin Rushan, Haiyunlou, and many other Yunshan Sect disciples also rushed to the western battlefield to provide reinforcements.

Without any Yunshan disciples, they mobilized the scattered cultivators in the city to help, as usual.

Because nowadays, the last bit of value these rogue cultivators have is used to feed evil spirits.

Streaks of blood extended from the Gao family's butcher shop, instantly spreading throughout the entire Immortal City.

At the same time, countless red lanterns rose from Gao's butcher shop, a dense array of lanterns depicting human heads that sent chills down the spines of onlookers and made their legs tremble.

There were blood-red patterns on the ground, and lanterns on top of them. But surprisingly, these blood-red lanterns did not attack the rogue cultivators as Sect Master Bai Mei had expected.

On the contrary, wherever the blood patterns passed, bursts of violent sounds would often be heard, causing the immortal city to crumble and rocks to fall, with streaks of black energy escaping out. This commotion caused the Cloud Mountain Palace to become restless, as if it were being bombed.

"Who buried so many lightning-exploding stones in the city? No, these are not ordinary lightning-exploding stones; they seem to be engraved with exorcism runes and another kind of unknown rune!"

Sect Master Bai Mei brought over a Thunderstorm Stone, which had a humanoid shape with a belt-like ring around its waist. With a slight activation, the ring rapidly contracted, amplifying the explosive energy within the Thunderstorm Stone several times over.

"Someone has teamed up with Gao Erqiang!"

White Eyebrows flung away the fragments of the exploding Thunderstorm Stone in his hand and snorted coldly.

Meanwhile, Lei Guang Shangren, who was standing to the side, felt a chill in his heart as he looked at Bai Mei’s right hand, which was emitting a few wisps of black energy. He was about to use the excuse of subduing Gao Erqiang to slip away from Bai Mei’s side.

Suddenly, Bai Mei reached out and shot out a beam of black light that struck his sea of ​​consciousness.

In an instant, Master Lei Guang felt a demonic figure with bull horns, a human face, and a horse body appear in his sea of ​​consciousness. The demonic figure had an old, drooping face, like an ugly old woman, and it approached the Thunderfire Golden Core he was nurturing with a cold smile!
"Grandma? After the great upheaval a few years ago, the sect leader said that this evil spirit had been sealed in the Cloud Mountain Palace. How could it still come out to harm people? White Eyebrow, you lied to us?"

The sect leader released evil spirits into his sea of ​​consciousness. At this moment, how could Lei Guang Shangren not know that Bai Mei was no good? He angrily questioned him.

"How could Yunshan Palace imprison Granny? Yunshan Palace is Granny, and Granny is Yunshan Palace! In fact, I am Granny, and you are Granny. This vast Yunshan Sect and this magnificent Baiyun Immortal City are all Granny!"

Bai Mei burst into laughter.

“My master warned us long ago that the Cloud Mountain Palace was a scourge. In order to obtain this treasure, we were ostracized by the cultivation world of the Central Plains and forced to retreat to the foot of the Hundred Beast Mountain. We thought we could subdue the evil spirits sealed within the treasure, but we never imagined that the treasure itself was an evil spirit, an evil spirit in itself!”

Master Lei Guang was filled with sorrow. After the evil spirit entered his sea of ​​consciousness, he discovered that the evil spirit was more like the body's master than he was.

His own soul was completely unable to resist and could only watch helplessly as it crushed his golden core, broke his bones, and sucked away his spiritual roots.

The soul of a Golden Core cultivator is far more resilient than that of an ordinary person, but this also causes them immense suffering. They watch helplessly as the evil spirit devours them, and even the desire for a quick death is a luxury.

As the evil spirit turned its gaze to his remaining soul, Lei Guang Shangren, in his dying moments, suddenly slammed out the Five Thunder Shuttle.

Even with his full power, this exorcising artifact was no match for the evil spirit that had been absorbing the blood and flesh of the Yunshan Sect for a thousand years.

Therefore, at this moment, the Five Thunder Shuttle did not fly towards the old woman who had devoured him and transformed into his likeness. Instead, it flashed with dazzling lightning and soared into the sky.

What the world doesn't know is that a thousand years ago, before the Yunshan Sect sought the Yunshan Palace, it was not only not an evil sect, but a glorious orthodox sect known throughout the Central Plains for its thunder magic and dedicated to eliminating evil and demons!

Just one glance at those two strange and evil mountains a thousand years ago could have destroyed the entire sect's millennia-old heritage today.

"We are all sinners, our minds clouded by evil spirits, which led to the complete destruction of our sect's foundation. Now we only pray that the sect's heritage will not be lost, and that future generations will be able to revive the sect's inherited thunder magic!"

The final mournful cry of Master Lei Guang before his death caused Bai Mei, who was about to subdue the Five Thunder Shuttle, to pause slightly.

"They are all sinners!" he sighed, then stopped looking at where the Five Thunder Shuttle, which contained most of the sect's inheritance, was heading.

He then turned his cold gaze to Gao Erqiang, who had come out of the Gao family's butcher shop and was bowing to him.

"Sect Leader White Eyebrows? Granny? Or perhaps the Evil Mark Soul Devourer?"

Gao Erqiang tilted his head and asked with a smile.

"Call me Sect Master Bai Mei. I have nurtured this body for a thousand years and have developed some affection for it."

Upon hearing this, Gao Erqiang nodded: "Fellow Daoist is quite skilled, turning the people of an entire sect into cattle and horses to create these countless incarnations, and then forcibly raising me, is it to seize the Blood Pagoda from me?"

Sect Leader Bai Mei also nodded:

"The evil patterns of the Three Directions and Five Elders may converge into the Four Imperial Evil Patterns. We are born because of the evil patterns, and our path is entirely dependent on them!"
To be honest, when I heard of your appearance several years ago, I was overjoyed and thought day and night about merging with you. Unfortunately, you were too weak at the time and I had to help you so that you could enjoy your meal to your heart's content.

Now, if we join forces and further corrupt that Immortal Ice, merging the three evil runes into one, we can become a fourth-tier Great Evil, converting the beings of several nations and achieving the great feat of the Earth Demon Heaven. In the future, we will no longer need to hide, fearing both the Central Plains Martial Kingdom and the Penglai Immortal Kingdom. This world rightfully deserves our place!

Sect Leader Bai Mei grew increasingly agitated as he spoke, and upon hearing that he intended to devour him, Gao Erqiang's smile remained unchanged; he simply cupped his hands and said:

"I have only recently developed sentience and am content with my current level of cultivation. Without your grand ambitions, I cannot fulfill your wish to offer myself to you!"

"You want to rebel against me? Then why don't you devour these rogue cultivators I prepared for you? Without the strength of a Nascent Soul cultivator, you are far from being my match!" Sect Master White Eyebrows continued to laugh.

"Because I can't distinguish which of these people who have been to Yunshan Palace is your incarnation, I dare not swallow them, I cannot swallow them, they are poisonous!"

Upon hearing Gao Erqiang's words, Sect Master Bai Mei immediately stopped smiling and coldly looked at the Gao family's butcher shop behind Gao Erqiang.

Gao Erqiang also looked at the Cloud Mountain Palace behind him, as well as the entire White Cloud Immortal City!

"Is that your true form?" Sect Master Bai Mei pointed to the two red lanterns hanging on the door of the Gao family's butcher shop.

"Isn't this also your true form?" Gao Erqiang stomped on the White Cloud City beneath his feet.

The words of the Dao had just fallen.

Both sides attacked simultaneously!

Sect Leader Bai Mei reached out with his claws, the blood-red claws with their white bones transforming into blood-red bull hooves the instant they were extended. With the force of a collapsing mountain, they struck the Gao family's butcher shop, instantly crushing it into dust.

Gao Erqiang ignored the butcher shop completely, instead mingling the two lanterns in front of it with the lanterns in the sky. Soon after, the lanterns scattered, leaving the sect leader, Bai Mei, with nowhere to attack.

He himself turned into a pool of blood, and following the blood patterns on the ground, he detonated the explosive stone golems buried all over Baiyun City!
"Is that the name? Fellow Daoist Su, no, that's what Di Jun told me. This puppet is quite useful, but the exorcising aura on it makes me feel a bit uncomfortable. However, what's even more uncomfortable is the white-browed creature that has taken an entire immortal city into its body?"

As Gao Erqiang bombed the buildings in the city, he heard the commotion at Yunshan Palace. Sect Master Bai Mei was furious and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

Although the sect leader, Bai Mei, had not expected that he had such a plan, he quickly realized what was going on after suffering a small loss.

It followed Gao Erqiang closely, and wherever it went, all the blood patterns were shaken back and dispersed. While constantly shrinking Gao Erqiang's space, it also sent out one after another puppet-like, mindless cultivators from the Yunshan Palace.

They aimed their spears at the red lanterns in the sky, intending to capture them all in one fell swoop.

Two evil forces clashed. In the white clouds of the sky, evil clouds filled the sky, and the air was filled with blood. In an instant, the entire White Cloud Immortal City was shrouded in blood-red evil mist. The divine sense of cultivators and the perception of body cultivators were all blocked by this evil mist.

"A good opportunity, let's see who's the best!"

"Has the Old Eccentric of Yunshan gone too far?"

"Slay all the Cloud Mountain dogs and liberate White Cloud City!"

"With this blood mist here, we have no way to escape White Cloud City!"

"Look at those deep craters that Gao Erqiang blasted out! They're ten feet underground, and they're writhing like flesh and blood, gushing blood!"

"Bomb! Bomb! Bomb! White Cloud Immortal City is this old dog's true form. Bomb it to pieces and create a bright and clear world!"

"Following the deep crater blasted out by Gao Erqiang, throw the Soul Explosion Puppet given by Fellow Daoist Su. This puppet will explode twenty times in a row, and that old evil fellow will definitely be in deep trouble!"

"People from Yunshan Palace have arrived. They are those fellow Daoists who disappeared without a trace. They all went to Yunshan Palace and have long been brainwashed by evil spirits, becoming evil spirits!"

"No, among them are some old cultivators from the Yunshan Sect who have died over the years, Foundation Establishment cultivators, Golden Core cultivators, and damn it, there are even a few third-order body cultivators!"

"Stop blowing up the crater! Concentrate your firepower on these evil spirits!"

"There are too many evil spirits, let's run!"

"Where can you run to? With that blood mist around, who can escape!"

(End of this chapter)