I was forced to cultivate immortality when I just wanted to lie down

Chapter 391 The Immortal Gathering at Penglai, Opening Up a Divine Realm (Seeking guaranteed monthly votes at the beginning of the month)
While the Venerable Fuluan was still standing outside as punishment, Xu Qing, who had finished discussing important matters inside the Bone Temple, suddenly took out a jade tablet from the Landscape Map.

"Brother Exorcist, you are very knowledgeable. Do you recognize the purpose of this sign?"

The Demon Exorcist Lord glanced at it and exclaimed in surprise, "An invitation to the Penglai Immortal Gathering? You have quite the good fortune!"

"It's a pity, though."

Xu Qing raised an eyebrow: "What's a pity?"

The Demon Exorcist explained, "The Penglai Immortal Gathering is also called the Gathering of Immortals. It is held once every six Jiazi (60-year cycles) and is a grand gathering of immortals and gods that is no less than the Peach Banquet in the Upper Realm and the Ullambana Festival in the Buddhist Realm."

"This jade token is the membership certificate for the latest Immortal Gathering. However, before the grand gathering began, the Underworld was suddenly thrown into turmoil, and all the immortals in the Three Realms and Six Paths were shocked. They had no choice but to postpone their participation. Later, the road to heaven was cut off, and the Three Stars, Eight Immortals, Five Directions, Five Elders and others could not descend to the mortal world, so they could not go to Penglai Immortal Island."

"Looking back now, this grand event has been delayed for two thousand years!"

The Demon Exorcist sighed, "Those who can obtain this jade token are all immortals and saints; even I am not qualified to attend the grand gathering."

"However, Brother Xu, there is no need to feel sorry. As long as you can hold on until the great calamity ends and the Heavenly Road is clear, Penglai will surely restart the grand gathering. At that time, even if you only have one day left to live, you will be able to survive and obtain the opportunity to become an immortal."

"Lifespan." Xu Qing held the jade tablet in his hand, speechless for a long time. He had been thinking that this jade tablet might have some kind of immortal connection, but he never expected that it would turn out to be a stepping stone to encountering an immortal and extending one's lifespan.

Seeing that Xu Qing remained silent, the Demon Exorcist True Lord thought he hadn't understood, so he reminded him again: "Don't think I'm exaggerating. That gathering of immortals not only includes immortals and gods from the upper realm, but also the master of Kunlun Mountain and the Five Gods of the Five Directions."

"By then, even if you pick up a peach pit that someone else has left over, you can live for more than a thousand years. If you eat a good peach pit, it is not impossible to live for ten thousand years."

"."

Xu Qing curled his lip upon hearing this. So he went all the way to Penglai just to scavenge for leftovers?
Putting aside the fact that he doesn't need to eat peach pits to prolong his life, just based on his relationship with the monkey behind the Little Water Curtain Cave, do you think he could eat leftovers when he goes to Penglai?
However, even if a grand event were to be held in Penglai right now, Xu Qing might not necessarily set off immediately.

The titles of "Master of Kunlun Mountain" and "Five Gods" sounded impressive and mysterious, but Xu Qing, a zombie who wasn't even a Kuiba, dared not go and join in the fun.

Alright! It seems we can only keep this sign for now and make a decision when heaven and earth are connected and a meeting is held in Penglai.

Two days later, at the True Lord's Bone Temple.

"Fellow Daoist Xu"

Master Fu Luan, who had been standing outside as punishment for a long time, shamelessly approached, but was completely ignored by Xu Qing.

"Exorcist Brother"

The Exorcist Lord closed his eyes and sat in meditation, ignoring him.

Nuo Xian didn't feel embarrassed. Seeing that the two powerful figures in front of him had reached a consensus, he took out some spiritual incense and went to the statue of the True Lord to worship.

"."

Xu Qing looked at Nuo Xian, whose skin was even thicker than his own, which once again confirmed his previous assessment.

This Master Fuluan is truly a person who is single-mindedly pursuing the Dao and is willing to make any compromise for the great cause of becoming an immortal.

Such people are often the most ruthless and heartless.

Inside the incense hall, the Demon Exorcist True Lord held a jade slip and sat in meditation for more than half a year. During this time, Xu Qing and the Luan Master were not idle either. The two took turns acting as caregivers. One of them cultivated while the other went out to hunt ghosts, much like a family of three with two husbands taking care of an ugly wife in confinement.

"How many years have you been in the Xuanmen sect since you, Fellow Daoist Fuluan?"

On this day, Master Fuluan captured over a hundred skeleton ghosts. Xu Qing, under the pretext that ghosts would have better effects after being exorcised, intercepted them halfway and forced them to perform a ritual.

After the exorcism of these skeleton ghosts was completed, while the exorcist was tearing apart the evil spirits and enjoying the moment alone, Xu Qing and the Venerable Fuluan chatted idly.

"I entered the Xuanmen after the First Emperor unified the six kingdoms, and it has been more than two thousand years since then."

Xu Qing glanced sideways in surprise, never expecting that this seemingly respectable Nuo Immortal was actually a living ancient relic.

"Where is your secular home, Fellow Daoist Fu Luan? Judging from your accent, you seem to be from Tianjin. Could it be that we are from the same hometown?"

Master Fuluan's eyes flickered, and he said with a smile, "It's quite a coincidence that my family name is also Xu, and I am from the same clan as Fellow Daoist Xu. However, I am not from Tianjin. I cultivate wherever I can reach in the world."

"As for accents... hehe." Master Fuluan chuckled, "Over the years, I have traveled to the Three Mountains and Five Peaks, and the Four Seas and Eight Deserts. Not to mention Tianjin, I can speak the local dialects of Yuzhang, Qilu, Zhongzhou, and even the Western Regions, Japan, the cold lands of the North, and the countries of Nancuo!"

My family?

Xu Qing's heart stirred, and he asked, "Since Fellow Daoist Fu Luan is a figure from more than two thousand years ago, you must have met the First Emperor."

Master Fuluan paused, then said in a cryptic tone, “Emperors, generals, ministers, and nobles are all, in the end, just passersby in this mortal world. Even if we once served the imperial family, a hundred or a thousand years later, who can distinguish who is the ruler and who is the subject?”

Xu Qing recalled the golden statue hidden beneath the Temple of the Heavenly General and couldn't help but ask, "Does that fellow Daoist know the whereabouts of the twelve golden statues cast by the First Emperor after he collected all the weapons in the world?"

"Of course I know! Those golden figures were the manifestation of the First Emperor's will to unify the six kingdoms, and they were used to punish those who disobeyed. Unfortunately, the world later fell apart again, and the true dragon disappeared. Ten of the twelve golden figures were melted down by later generations and cast into worldly coins."

Master Fuluan said with some relief, "That Jurchen is not someone to be trifled with. The old dynasty is already dead, yet it still tries to bring the founding emperor back to life. It's better to destroy it."

"."

Xu Qing's expression was strange. It seemed that this Nuo Immortal was unaware that the Twelve Golden Men had transformed into corpse puppets and resurrected in the Yin River.

"Fellow Daoist Fuluan, don't underestimate the bond between ruler and subject!"

Nuo Xian frowned, not quite understanding what Xu Qing was saying.

Just as he was about to press for more information, he was suddenly interrupted by the Exorcist Master:
"The smell of this food is so bland today; even a candle has more flavor than this."

Master Fuluan quickly stepped forward and coaxed, "True Lord, don't be angry. Since the taste is not good, I will go and catch a new ghost!"

After saying this, Master Fuluan, carrying the sword box on his back, hurriedly left the Bone Temple.

As Xu Qing looked at the burly, dark-faced man whose skin was bluish-purple and whose aura was becoming increasingly violent, his sense of urgency also increased.

He has now mastered two of the Heavenly Divine Powers in the Ruyi Treasure Book, and has learned most of the Seventy-Two Earthly Divine Powers. He has also made progress in the Earthly Divine Transformations he learned in the Little Water Curtain Cave.

The cultivation of the Earthly Fiend Transformation is extremely profound. Xu Qing studied it along the way and could roughly divide it into the transformation of inanimate objects and animal objects.

The former requires observing the forms of all things, while the latter requires understanding the spirit of 'moving' things.

To transform an inanimate object, one must visualize its shape until the mind and spirit are in harmony, and the vague object appears clearly in the sea of ​​consciousness. Then one can attempt to transform the object.

If you want to transform into a tiger or leopard, you must learn the posture and demeanor of tigers and leopards when they walk, sit, lie down, and even hunt.

When one has mastered the art of human transformation, even if one has only grasped the basics of a transformation, then practice will lead to mastery.

When Xu Qing was comprehending the changes of the Earthly Fiends, he also discovered a shortcut. This method was a quick way to achieve enlightenment. He obtained the technique of creating livestock by performing a ritual to help a shepherd in the past. He combined this with the essentials of cultivating the Earthly Fiends and deduced a kind of "evil art".

With this technique, to transform into a rat, one only needs a rat skin. When the transformation is desired, one can perform the "Stepping the Dipper" ritual on the skin, using the Earthly Fiend transformation to activate one's mind, and then roll on the ground to become a rat. The Earthly Fiend belongs to Yin, while the Heavenly Dipper belongs to Yang; one is turbid, and the other is clear.

The Earthly Fiend Technique is inherently prone to leading to heresy and evil paths, and Xu Qing happens to know a lot about the cultivation principles of evil techniques and demonic arts.

It's no wonder that he was able to deduce such evil magic when the two met.

However, Xu Qing only had a fleeting thought before decisively extinguishing the idea of ​​using his physical body to cultivate the Earthly Fiend Transformation.

Regardless of whether this method is against the natural order, just the fact that Xu Qing revealed his idea of ​​ruining this proper method would probably get him beaten into a pig-like state by the master of the Little Water Curtain Cave!

Furthermore, true Earthly Fiend transformations can be performed at will, without relying on any external objects. If one does not strictly demand of oneself, and the speed of transformation is slow when fighting with others in the future, revealing flaws, no one will give him a chance to regret it.

The master of the Little Water Curtain Cave was exceptionally gifted and learned all the transformations in just two or three years. Although Xu Qing lacked talent and comprehension, he had plenty of patience.

If it takes ten years to achieve something, it will take a hundred; if it takes a hundred, it will take a thousand. As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. It just takes a little more time, and time is the one thing he has in abundance.

While Master Fuluan was away, Xu Qing found a quiet place and began to practice the transformations he had already learned.

He changed forms repeatedly, sometimes appearing as a monkey from Monkey Mountain, and sometimes as a black cat that looked seven or eight parts like Xuan Yu, but with two bells jingling around its neck.

Then there's the ugly black and white crane, the magnificent tiger with its drooping forehead and golden eyes, and the human-faced crow taking flight.

After learning the Earthly Fiend Transformation, Xu Qing spent a lot of time observing the small animals in the Immortal Hall. Over the years, he has been able to transform into most of the animals that walk or crawl on the ground, but he is always a little lacking when it comes to flying animals.

For example, the crow, after its transformation, either looks quite similar but cannot fly; or it can fly but still retains the characteristics of its original form.

However, the transformation of the birds was not due to Xu Qing's inadequate observation, but rather because his cultivation level was lagging behind.

Xu Qing pondered that perhaps one day when he was fully trained in flying zombies and had accumulated ten thousand years of cultivation, he would be able to break through to the third level of Kuiba realm and transform into any flying bird at will without any restrictions.

Besides the crow, there is another change that Xu Qing still finds particularly regrettable, and that is the transformation of the nine-tailed spirit fox.

Xu Qing had previously tricked Bai Qiuyu into thinking that the fortune teller would turn into a fox so that his mother could observe her.

To everyone's surprise, the fox wouldn't let him touch it. Xu Qing had just touched its tail and hadn't even had a chance to process what it was doing when the fox, as if under stress, refused to change back into its original form.

If he had known this would happen, he should have restrained himself. But then again, apart from a saint, who could resist touching that tail?
In the days that followed, Xu Qing practiced the response speed of the Earthly Fiend Transformation. When ordinary people practice archery, they still need to strike first. Although the Way of Transformation is not a method of attack, it requires even more to shorten the casting time of the transformation.

Several more months passed, and Xu Qing continued to improve his cultivation. In addition to his increasingly profound supernatural abilities, he could now use the Earthly Fiend Transformation at will, instantly transforming into familiar still objects or animals.

But none of this could put Xu Qing at ease.

Regardless of the methods to avoid the changes of the Three Calamities and Five Tribulations, or the various heavenly books and supernatural powers in the Wish-Fulfilling Treasure Book, these can at most be considered methods of protecting the Tao.

It still doesn't play a crucial role in dealing with and eliminating the laws of ghosts.

If Xu Qing wants true peace of mind, the only way is to continue to deepen his study of the Heavenly Gang Axe Technique, so that the axe technique, which can only be deduced up to the thirty-second level at its original limit, can be further improved.

The Heavenly Gang Axe Technique has a total of thirty-six levels. The first twenty levels were not difficult for Xu Qing, but the cultivation of each level after the twentieth level was almost the sum of the previous levels.

Now that he has overcome the hurdle of the thirty-second level, Xu Qing realized that he had underestimated the difficulty of cultivating the Heaven-Opening and Earth-Creating Divine Power.

Starting from the thirtieth floor, the amount of mana and mental energy required to cultivate the Heavenly Gang Axe is several times that of the previous floor. After reaching the thirty-second floor, even if Xu Qing cultivated day and night, he still could not advance any further.

To increase his chances of defeating the Ghost Law, Xu Qing simply stopped helping the Exorcist Lord hunt ghosts. He handed over all the dirty and tiring work to the Spirit Master and then went into complete seclusion to study the deductions.

Wherever his mind went, in the realm of nothingness, Xu Qing wielded a large axe, constantly slashing and maneuvering.

Here, Xu Qing forgot about the passage of time in the outside world, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to cultivation for one year, two years, three years.
During this time, Master Fuluan, who was running back and forth, sensed the violent aura hidden within Xu Qing more than once.

The Demon Exorcist felt it even more clearly. When Xu Qing entered his third year of meditation, the two of them unanimously left Xu Qing and went to the temple courtyard outside the incense hall to cultivate.

The two were afraid that if they got too close, they might accidentally startle Xu Qing and be accidentally injured by him!
"Brother Exorcist, is Fellow Daoist Xu really not suffering from a cultivation deviation?"

The Demon Exorcist Lord opened his pitch-black eyes, devoid of any whites, his entire being shrouded in a black mist of resentment. Suppressing his primal urge to devour the Spirit Master, he spoke in a hoarse voice:
"Fellow Daoist Fuluan, rest assured, even if Brother Xu does indeed make a mistake in his cultivation, I will be the one to become a demon before him!"

"."

Master Fuluan felt a chill run down his spine and immediately took several steps back. He had almost forgotten that the two people in the Bone Temple were nothing but tigers and wolves, and they both looked even more sinister than Gui Lu!
Even a dignified Nuo Immortal who had cultivated for two thousand years felt fear at this moment.

Let's hope that before Ghost Law is eradicated, he gets eliminated by these two monsters first.
Inside the incense hall at this moment.

The human body's divine realm is a celestial palace, but it is nowhere to be found.

Xu Qing, who was constantly rehearsing the Heavenly Gang Axe Technique in the darkness, finally stopped.

He closed his eyes and fell into silence, remaining motionless like a piece of wood for seven days before slowly raising the great axe in his hand.

The transformed giant axe seemed to weigh as much as a thousand mountains and rivers. Xu Qing's mind was buzzing. At a certain moment, he suddenly heard a crisp sound like a jade chime shattering.

Xu Qing remained unmoved. At that moment, he felt as if the world had turned upside down, and the great axe that he had been struggling to lift suddenly became weightless.

Unconsciously, Xu Qing comprehended the laws of heaven and earth, broke free from the shackles of the rules, and reversed the axe's momentum, which should have fallen and struck the ground, into falling towards the 'sky'.

Despite the fact that the axe was only about the height of a person when it was used to strike, it seemed as if it was falling from the thirty-third heaven. Moreover, it was continuously pressed down by a pair of large hands during its fall. When it finally came down, the power contained in the axe had increased to the thirty-third level!
Within the chaotic divine landscape, a deafening roar suddenly resounded, and Xu Qing's vision instantly brightened.

However, while he was deducing the thirty-three layers of the Heavenly Gang Axe Technique, he inadvertently broke through the seventh common knowledge that had been blocked for a long time—the Hidden Brightness Knowledge.

Practitioners possess nine supernatural abilities: eye, ear, mouth, nose, tongue, body, mind, extremities, and internal organs.

Zang is the storage of clear consciousness. After opening, it can build a bridge to connect heaven and earth, enter the divine scene, perceive the inside and outside, and comprehend the true mystery.

The process of Xu Qing closing his eyes to comprehend the Heavenly Gang Axe Technique was also the process of refining his divine vision. When his axe technique underwent a qualitative change, the previously chaotic divine vision was also opened up.

As the divine landscape opened up, Xu Qing seemed to vaguely grasp the profound mystery of the Heavenly Gang Axe Technique's creation of the world.

However, his magical power was too weak, and what he saw was not real, so he could not immediately comprehend the principles that transcended the essence of heaven and earth.

Seven days passed in the dream, but seven years had already passed outside the temple.

Xu Qing opened his eyes, but he did not see the Exorcist True Lord, nor did he see the Spirit-Supporting Master. All he saw was the True Lord's Bone Temple, which had been split in two.

"."

Xu Qing was speechless.

He was merely deducing the Heavenly Gang Axe Technique with his eyes closed, so how could it still affect the outside world?
Xu Qing walked out of the Bone Temple and saw a hideous demon god, several dozen feet tall, and a painted-face Nuo fairy staring at him warily outside the temple.

This must be a case of going mad from spiritual practice, right?

(End of this chapter)