Traveling through time to cultivate immortality: a life and death test

Liu Xing slowly awoke, opening his eyes to find himself in a small, enclosed room, about three square meters, like a prison. Powerful restrictions blocked his consciousness, preventing him from sensing the outside world. Sound and spiritual energy were blocked, a complete vacuum, cut off from the world. He tried to move his hands and feet, to channel his spiritual energy, but luckily, everything worked smoothly, without any restrictions on his movements.

Liu Xing, utterly anxious, paced back and forth in the cramped space, exploring every corner, searching for a way out. He even unleashed a top-grade flying sword to attack, but it proved impervious. As his mana drained further and further, he realized he couldn't replenish it while isolated by the restriction. Startled, he stopped wasting his mana and calmly analyzed his situation. He figured a full-force attack with his talisman might break through the space. But the situation was unclear. Even if he did, if the enemy was waiting outside, he would still be vulnerable and his strength would be inadvertently exposed.

He tried to recall the entire process of his capture. First, a gust of demonic wind struck, sending a shudder of fear through his heart. Then, a muffled groan pierced his mind, and he lost consciousness. He could initially determine it was a spiritual attack. The entire incident was so brief that, aside from retracting his magical weapon and noticing that other opponents had also been attacked, he had no time to react.

He had definitely been captured, and attacked by a master at least at the Jindan stage or above. Even a Foundation Establishment stage expert wouldn't have left him defenseless. As for who had captured him, he had no idea. Since his opponent had also been attacked, it couldn't have been just him, so he could rule out a Jindan master from the Xuanyin Sect. Those captured were all Qi Refining stage cultivators, and masters above the Jindan stage wouldn't have valued their cultivation or treasures. Therefore, he wasn't being captured for financial gain. He checked himself, finding no injuries, and his storage bag and other belongings were also intact. His life was safe for the time being, but he didn't know what would happen to him next.

Since his life was temporarily safe, he could only react flexibly later. After Liu Xing calmed down, he stopped struggling and sat cross-legged, taking out his spirit stone to restore his mana. Now was not the time to conserve spirit stones; he had to recover to peak condition as quickly as possible to deal with any crisis that might arise.

Perhaps it was because he'd been stuck at the peak of the eleventh level for too long, allowing his mana to build up deep enough; or perhaps it was the recent string of unexpected events and the pressure of facing life-or-death crises that had loosened his bottleneck. In just three days and nearly five hundred spirit stones, he inexplicably broke through to the twelfth level. He didn't stop there, advancing at a breakneck pace. He began taking mana-boosting elixirs, chugging through bottles of priceless, unavailable elixirs like they were free. He consumed another five hundred spirit stones, spending nearly a month raising his mana to the peak of the twelfth level. His bamboo flute absorbed spiritual energy, purified it, and fed it back to him, producing sound in an instant. Without someone constantly observing him, it would have been undetectable. After the bamboo flute's purification, his spiritual power was now three times that of a typical peak Qi training cultivator. His mana was approaching that of a mid-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator, and his spiritual awareness was as strong as that of an early-stage Foundation Establishment cultivator. After more than a month of hard training and improvement of magic power, he felt that if he fully activated the talisman at this time, even a cultivator in the middle stage of foundation building would be seriously injured if not killed by a single blow, and he felt more confident.

After his magic power increased, he didn't blindly attempt to attack the cage. First, the past month had been peaceful, and his captors hadn't yet reached the point of punishing him. Second, despite his own immense power, he still wasn't strong enough to face a Jindan-stage cultivator. No matter how he struggled, it was useless. He could only wait for an opportunity. So he seized the opportunity to study other unique skills. The Blood Concealment Technique was relatively simple. He had already mastered it thoroughly during his escape, and could use it at any time to escape. With this ability, escaping from a Foundation Establishment-stage cultivator wouldn't be a problem. However, he only had ten Blood Burning Pills, so he had to use them sparingly. Each use also burned one-third of his blood essence, and the aftereffects were terrifying. Therefore, he shouldn't use this secret technique unless it was absolutely necessary. Another secret technique was the Turtle Breathing Technique, an essential skill for concealment and stealth. He had previously obtained this technique from a poor scholar, but due to his limited knowledge of classical Chinese, he had never been able to comprehend it. Later, he obtained ancient texts from Taoist Chongxu that helped him complete his knowledge. However, a series of events that followed left him with no time to practice this technique. Now that he was imprisoned here, unable to break free, it was perfect for him to calm down and concentrate on studying this technique.

He then took out Taoist Chongxu's ancient text notes and the original text of the Turtle Breathing Technique, examining them word for word. Comprehending this technique was incredibly demanding, requiring repeated study and understanding, with absolutely no room for error. A single misstep could lead to a huge loss. At best, he wouldn't achieve true supernatural powers, and all his efforts would be wasted. At worst, he could go mad and explode. Fortunately, Liu Xing was a man of profound learning and extensive knowledge. By consulting various sources, he spent ten days translating and thoroughly understanding the entire technique. According to the technique's description, once mastered, practicing it would render one invisible and undetectable to cultivators of the same level. Even cultivators of a higher realm would remain motionless, unable to detect them. However, once the technique was activated, the breath-holding technique would automatically break. This delighted Liu Xing. This meant he was unrivaled among his peers. Whether concealing himself to obtain treasure or ambushing the enemy, he would be unstoppable. Even escaping from the clutches of a Foundation Establishment expert would be much easier. Compared to the "Ten Directions Breath Concealing Technique" which can only conceal one's level of cultivation, it is many times more powerful.

Liu Xing, overjoyed, immediately focused his mind and began practicing according to the technique. Although he had fully grasped the technique, it remained extremely challenging. The path of practice was peculiar, and many meridians were obscure and difficult to locate. If it weren't for the strange effect of the pale yellow component in Liu Xing's spiritual energy, he would have never achieved success. No wonder this technique was useless in the hands of others; the requirements were far too high. Even so, it took Liu Xing three months to achieve minor success, a surprising victory that allowed him to exploit the carelessness of fellow cultivators. He expected that achieving full mastery would require even more time.

In this dark prison, Liu Xing spared no expense in spending a large amount of spirit stones to calm down and improve his cultivation and practice his skills. He was completely unaware of what was happening outside.

Numerous Qi Refining cultivators were imprisoned in other cages, ranging from tenth to twelve levels. Some attacked their cages, some sat in silence awaiting their opportunity, and some screamed frantically, each one restless and distracted. They were held in various locations within the hands of the seven clans of this demon realm, waiting only for the secret realm to open. They would become the targets of the demon clan's most talented hunters—blood slaves.