Practice begins with immortality

At night, the castle was silent except for the sound of the cold wind. On one of the city walls, a hundred soldiers patrolled, using their spiritual sense to survey the distant landscape. Wang Bai was one of them.

Seven hundred new recruits took turns patrolling the area, one batch per day. After all, prolonged exposure to this soul-sapping wind could damage the immortal body. Besides the patrollers, everyone else remained in their rooms, either meditating to absorb the free immortal energy or contemplating their future plans.

Wang Bai, perched on the city wall, gazed into the distance. Through his divine pupils, he pierced the mist and snow, seeing something invisible even to others: a creature the size of a small mountain, resembling a white bear but with horns on its head. Surrounding it were dozens of other creatures of the same size, though far weaker.

"It seems that this is the snow beast. It is indeed a life form of Tao!" Wang Bai thought to himself.

Back in the heavens and myriad worlds, through the lotus platform in his mind, Wang Boming realized the forms of life, which can be roughly divided into five types:

One is life that is born with a soul and a body. This is also the life form of the vast majority of people in the world, and they will maintain this state throughout their lives.

Two and three are actually lives that are missing one of the elements, without soul or body. They are either ghosts or zombies.

The fourth type is life that acquires a soul or body after birth. The former, like the snow beast, is a form of life that, under the influence of the rich Dao, gives rise to a soul from a dead object. Other types include high-level artifact creatures, and like the huli, originate from corpses. The latter are cultivators who alter or replace their bodies for a specific purpose.

The fourth type of creature is generally stronger, because those who can do this are extraordinary.

The fifth type of being is a unified being of soul and body. During the twelve stages of the path to enlightenment, each time one breaks through the first eleven, a brief resonance occurs between the true soul and the body, allowing the cultivator to evolve. It can be said that cultivation is all about unity.

The fifth form of life that has achieved the unification of spirit and flesh, the flawless immortal kings of the Twelve Tribulations True Immortals, have gained infinite power and are in a state of infinite evolution every moment. With each passing moment, they become countless times stronger than the previous moment.

Moreover, when they complete this great process, they can use their present victory to prove their past victory. Simply put, at that moment, whether it is him in the past, him in the present, or him in the future, they will directly become this fifth life.

The only beings that can kill them within the Tao are probably those who are equal to them or those who surpass them: those who have attained the Tao and unified the infinite past, present, and future as well as the infinite causal lines, and the Heavenly Dao, which represents the Tao and theoretically possesses the total power within the Tao.

............................................

In this way, the night passed without any incident. After completing the handover, Wang Bo and his group returned to their residence.

Before returning to his room, Wang Bo saw five people standing in front of his house. Three men and two women, led by a middle-aged man with a sword on his back.

When the middle-aged man saw Wang Bai coming back, he immediately stepped forward and clasped his hands together and said, "My name is Xiao Lin, nice to meet you, fellow Taoist."

"I wonder what your name is?"

"My name is Wang Mu."

"So it's Fellow Daoist Wang..."

"I wonder what you guys want from me?" Without waiting for Xiao Lin to finish his words, Wang Bai interrupted him and asked about their origins.

"Fellow Daoist Wang is quite impatient. The thing is..." Xiao Lin said to Wang Bai, "As an ascended being, you must understand that there are bound to be differences in strength within the same realm, and the same is true in the immortal realm."

"From what I've heard, the Jackdaw Legion, and indeed this world, is divided into four levels of strength and accumulation in the fairyland: A, B, C, and D. Most of us who have ascended are at the lowest level, D, which is the level of just entering the fairyland."

"It is said that a Grade A immortal cultivator can fight against dozens of Grade D immortals at the same time and not be at a disadvantage. He is considered a master in the Jackdaw Legion. We also have several such people in our legion, all of whom are powerful and influential."

"However, to reach Rank A, one must refine at least 5,000 Immortal Stones. This is just the requirement for Immortal Power. With so many Immortal Stones, relying solely on one's own military power would require at least a thousand years of service. But war can cause immortals to appear at any time. Remember, this is an immortal war, its brutality and strength far surpass those of the lower realms. Even True Immortals of the First Tribulation, who are a major realm higher than us, often fall on the battlefield."

"So if we Ascendants want to survive, we can only stick together. Each person contributes five immortal stones per year, and there are seven hundred of us. If each person contributes one or two, that's over a thousand immortal stones. Give them to the best among us to use, and become Class C or even Class B. This will increase our chances of survival on the battlefield."

"Of course, the Immortal Stones are for everyone to use. If you think you are strong enough, you can also strive for it."

Before he finished speaking, Wang Bai replied, "Fellow Daoist Xiao, I'm used to being alone and don't want to join any small group. Please find someone else."

After saying that, without waiting for anyone to react, Wang Bai went straight into the house and closed the door.

"Another self-righteous person." The man sighed and said.

"Well, there are seven hundred of them. It's impossible to bring them all in. It's understandable that some don't want to join. I just don't know how long they can survive," one of the two women said. At the same time, the other woman said, "We've already persuaded two hundred and thirty fellow Taoists to join today. Too many people would be difficult to manage, so why not just call it a day? Two hundred to four hundred immortal stones a year is more than enough. The veterans say we can still maintain peace for at least two or three years."

"Besides, sometimes the Legion will lead a team to clear out the snow beasts, and they'll give out fairy stones as rewards. And I don't think we're that unlucky."

"So let's do our best and leave the rest to fate! Some people have already realized this and are doing the same thing."

As they spoke, they searched for the next Ascendant. As for coercion, they hadn't considered it. After all, they were all Ascendants, so the difference in strength wasn't huge. Furthermore, as a legion, the Jackdaw Legion's leaders wouldn't tolerate such a thing, so the matter could only be discussed.

Not only these people, but also several equally powerful ascenders are forming cliques and factions in order to strengthen their strength in preparation for the war that is bound to happen in the future.