Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 14 Discussion
Although Liang Yu knew about the Path to Immortality in the Mortal World, he didn't say it directly, only hinting at it in passing. This was because, as the Celestial Venerable of Longevity had said, the three Celestial Venerables who had severed their own ties could no longer walk this path.

Moreover, even if they didn't commit suicide, they most likely wouldn't have succeeded.

Fortunately, the carefree Celestial Venerable changed the subject in time: "Fellow Daoists, the path to immortality will open in a few hundred thousand years. I wonder if this time it's true or not?"

The Underworld Lord shook his head and said, "Entering the Immortal Realm is no easy feat. Over the past millions of years, there have been paths to immortality, but no one has ever succeeded. As for the one that will be available in a few hundred thousand years, regardless of whether it is true or not, even if it is, it will probably be very difficult to enter."

The Celestial Venerable of Nirvana said, "I hope it's true. Our calculations differ. Besides this time, there will be another one in hundreds of thousands of years, and another one in over a million years. Who can say for sure?"

The Celestial Venerable of Longevity said, "The Celestial Venerable of Boundless Life refined that chaotic body into a five-colored altar. His calculations showed that it would take millions of years. Moreover, this is also the calculation result of most of us."

Liang Yu was conflicted again. He still couldn't say that the path to immortality basically requires a contemporary Daoist to come up with the right time, the right place, and the right person before one can enter.

Because once it's revealed, it's tantamount to extinguishing their hopes, and Liang Yu doesn't even dare to imagine what those mentally broken Celestial Venerables might do.

Forget it. If I achieve something in the future, and you haven't fallen into depravity, I will guide you to continue the path to immortality, to fulfill our friendship today. Right now, I myself may not even be able to succeed, so there's no point in saying it.

Liang Yu stopped worrying and his mind cleared. He smiled and said, "Things that are hundreds of thousands of years from now are useless to think about now. Let's talk about what's in front of us."

So the five of them stopped discussing becoming immortals and started talking about various methods of achieving longevity.

The Celestial Venerable of Longevity truly deserves to be the creator of the Secret of the Word "Zhe". Although he was only a special kind of Daoist who had not made outstanding contributions in battle, he was able to live for 15,000 years in one lifetime.

He believed that the lifespan of enlightened beings rarely reached 15,000 years, not because they lacked lifespan, but because certain issues in their daily practice and combat led to the accelerated depletion of their lifespan. If they could maintain the most ideal state, then all enlightened beings could live to 15,000 years.

Of course, exceptions apply to those with special physical conditions.

The other four researchers, after conducting experiments, rejected this theory. Maintaining an ideal state at all times could indeed achieve the theoretical lifespan limit, which is 15,000 years.

In reality, apart from the Longevity Celestial Venerable who created the Secret Word, anyone else would need to expend a great deal of energy to maintain this state, and this state could even change for various reasons, thus requiring constant deduction.

In this way, the energy consumed in the process may actually lead to a shorter lifespan.

The Celestial Venerable of Longevity was able to do this because his mastery of the "Zhe" secret technique allowed him to maintain this state almost instinctively, without needing to expend any extra effort. But who could surpass the Celestial Venerable of Longevity in the realm of the "Zhe" secret technique? Even catching up would be extremely difficult.

However, the method used by the Celestial Venerable of Longevity truly extended the lifespan of each incarnation to its limit. Although the people could not maintain the state he described at all times, they still gained something from it.

After all, they cannot reach the ultimate ideal state, but they can use this to adjust themselves to maintain the most natural state and reduce consumption.

However, the Underworld Lord seemed to have some other insights.

Liang Yu thought of Duan De's lifespan of 15,000 years in his previous life, and perhaps this was one of the reasons.

Finally, the Celestial Venerable of Longevity revealed his research on bloodlines and physiques. Although it focused on strengthening the source of life and enhancing qi and blood to prolong life, Liang Yu benefited greatly from it. His divine blood surged, and he gradually began to shed his divinity, returning to his original simplicity.

Next was the Celestial Venerable of Nirvana. He proposed that, in the cultivation system of this world, a cultivator's physical body is actually half a step above their primordial spirit. The physical bodies of those who have attained enlightenment are often nearly immortal and indelible, but their primordial spirits will turn to ashes and vanish with the end of their lifespan.

When a cultivator dies, although their vital energy and blood are the first to deplete, their primordial spirit is the first to perish. So, if the primordial spirit could be as immortal as the physical body, could one's lifespan be extended to the same extent as the physical body?

The group learned the latest secret of the previous word and the Heavenly Art of Annihilation from the Celestial Venerable of Nirvana, but after studying them, they still believed that the method was of little use.

However, it does indeed have the effect of prolonging life; for those who have attained enlightenment, it is enough to sustain them for another thousand years.

However, the Celestial Venerable of Nirvana still greatly inspired everyone. This is because it is indeed the norm in this world for the primordial spirit to decay before the physical body. By refining the primordial spirit, even if lifespan doesn't increase significantly, one can still achieve greater perfection.

Afterwards, the Celestial Venerable of Nirvana also demonstrated the essence of the Pre-Word Secret for foreknowledge. The precognition of the Pre-Word Secret is not a true method of foreknowledge; it is more like a kind of natural, instinctive feeling that arises after cultivating the primordial spirit to its extreme. The so-called path of utmost sincerity can lead to foreknowledge, which is nothing more than this.

This prompted the group to sigh in amazement, as the mysteries of the primordial spirit were no less profound than those of the human body's secret realm, making this a new direction for research.

The Underworld Lord then shared his method of attaining enlightenment through communicating with the spirit of the Emperor's Corpse. After communicating with the spirit of the Emperor's Corpse, although the physical body remained unchanged, the primordial spirit was entirely new. The Underworld Lord now had no memories of his previous life as a Tribulation-Transcending Celestial Venerable.

In theory, the Reincarnation Seal is the key to breaking through this problem, but even the current Underworld Lord has not fully understood it, let alone other successors.

The other people in the underworld caused the corpse disaster for two reasons: first, they couldn't find a suitable place to raise corpses; second, they tried to awaken the past life memories of the spirit mediums without the reincarnation seal, such as by forcibly instilling past life memories or by awakening memories through blood sacrifices of their descendants, thus creating a bunch of mentally deranged monsters.

Although the method of achieving immortality for the Underworld Lord has not yet been fully realized, his insights into the physical body and the primordial spirit remain profound, effectively supplementing some of the assumptions made by the Celestial Lord of Longevity and the Celestial Lord of Nirvana.

After listening to the insights of the Celestial Venerable of Nirvana and the Venerable of the Underworld, the Celestial Venerable of Freedom was inspired and came up with a peculiar idea.

Could merging with the primordial spirit of another person and seizing their physical body slow down the decay of that spirit? As long as the main body remains oneself, it seems that it would only result in having more memories.

However, without thinking it over, he began to showcase his results.

The Celestial Venerable of Freedom pushed the secrets of the Word "Xing" to their limit, thereby comprehending the laws of time. He then began to utilize these laws, employing a method that could slightly alter the flow of time, thus slowing down his own aging process.

Everyone was amazed; the laws of time were indeed wondrous. Although this method could only extend one's lifespan by a thousand years at most, with continued refinement, it was not impossible to live forever, or even reverse aging.

No wonder the Carefree Celestial Venerable wanted to comprehend the Immortal Bell, because it was not only a way to perfect his Dao, but also a possible path to immortality.

During his conversations with them, Liang Yu realized that these celestial beings were indeed very knowledgeable. In addition to the methods for prolonging life in each lifetime that they had mentioned before, they had also studied in great depth the methods for transforming into a new life.

Besides the well-known elixir of immortality and the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill, the methods of accumulating immortal essence, studying the internal secrets of the elixir of immortality, and even transforming into a holy spirit have all been researched.

However, this method of transforming oneself into a Holy Spirit is not so thorough. It merely uses the method of heaven and earth nurturing the Holy Spirit to transform oneself, rather than completely converting oneself into a Holy Spirit.

After listening to so much, Liang Yu put forward his own idea, which was to deduce a special physique through postnatal development.

(End of this chapter)