This is how immortals are cultivated

Fang Suichu called the practice here "cultivation of ghosts", but for the people in this world, it is "cultivation of immortals".

But Fang Suichu called it the Way of Cultivation, and Li Qingming did not object. After all, the cultivators in this world were inherently strange and twisted.

"The so-called soul-inducing is to absorb a little bit of the spirit of spirits, ghosts and gods. Let this spirit merge with the body. And in this process, the body will gradually acquire some of the characteristics of the spirits."

As he spoke, Li Qingming secretly looked at the stiff broken arm in Fang Suichu's hand. The sharp black nails extending from the fingertips of the broken arm were chilling.

This arm was extremely hard. Li Qingming had personally seen Fang Suichu use his arm to split the iron chains of the cell. It was obviously no ordinary thing.

To be honest, Li Qingming was really curious about how Fang Suichu killed the Taoist priest.

If it weren't for the fact that Fang Suichu was still Fang Suichu, and didn't have the obvious strange and inhuman features of a person who practiced ghost cultivation, she would have thought that Fang Suichu had been possessed by a ghost.

"Before the Taoist priest was killed, I heard him say that his master, the head of the Taoist temple on the mountain, was in seclusion, seeking a breakthrough."

"If the master of the temple really breaks through, what will it be like?"

"That's 'Spiritual Secret'. Practitioners in the Spiritual Secret Realm are what we call masters. Even among the nations, they can receive a blood salary from the court."

"Of course, even though he's considered a master, he's no longer truly 'human' at this point. He's more like a goblin than a human."

"What about the spiritual secrets?"

When Fang Suichu asked this question, Li Qingming rolled his eyes.

"Beyond the spiritual secrets, the mortal world can no longer see them. If you are lucky enough to see them, congratulations, we mortals are doomed."

"In short, a cultivator at the Lingmi Realm can easily destroy a town. According to what you said, even if the master of Changyin Temple hasn't reached the Lingmi realm, he's close. If he loses control, he'll be a monster infinitely close to the Lingmi realm."

While the two were talking, Wu Yuanshuo, who had been silently following them and walking quickly, suddenly spoke:

"Sister Li, Brother Suichu, something seems to be wrong..."

Wu Yuanshuo pointed his finger at a dead tree beside the mountain path.

"We seem to have walked this way."

Li Qingming looked at the tree that Wu Yuanshuo pointed to, and she did feel that it looked somewhat familiar.

"Yes, we walked this way."

Fang Suichu now has a very good memory. He didn't pay attention to it before, but after Wu Yuanshuo reminded him, he realized that he had seen this tree not long ago.

It is impossible to get lost on such a small mountain path, so there must be a problem.

"Is it the work of a demon?" Li Qingming asked.

It is easy to encounter all kinds of strange things in the mountains and wilds, and the phenomenon of strange obstacles causing strange walls is not uncommon.

“Not quite…”

Fang Suichu's five senses were now extremely sharp, and he could sense strange things to some extent. Just like the Taoist priest, the feeling he brought was completely different.

He didn't feel the same as when he met a Taoist priest.

"No matter what it is, we can't delay any longer." Fang Suichu said.

"Xiao Shuo, come..."

Fang Suichu first put the Zhengyang Sword on his waist, and then waved to Wu Yuanshuo.

Wu Yuanshuo approached Fang Suichu ignorantly but heard the prompt "hold tight".

He held the girl's hips with his right arm, and the girl subconsciously stretched out her hands to hug Fang Suichu's neck. With a subconscious scream, Wu Yuanshuo was picked up with one hand.

"Mrs. Li, you come too..."

Fang Suichu stretched out his other hand towards Li Qingming, and before he could react, he picked him up. To be more precise, he carried him up and put him on his shoulder.

Li Qingming's pair of slender white legs moved subconsciously, but after being slapped hard on the buttocks, Li Qingming's body instantly became extremely stiff.

This was also because Li Qingming's upper body was at the back, so Fang Suichu and Wu Yuanshuo could not see that Li Qingming's face had turned red.

"Fang...! You did this on purpose!"

Li Qingming gritted her teeth and said in a deep voice, but before she finished her words, she felt a sense of weightlessness.

Fang Suichu had already started moving. He jumped down the mountain path in one step, jumped into the dark woods beside the mountain path, and then began to move at an extremely high speed.

The whistling sound of the wind passed by his ears, and Li Qingming could see the scenery on both sides quickly passing by. Fang Suichu would sometimes leap, leaping several feet before landing on the ground. Sometimes he would turn, stomping on the tree trunk in front of him, shaking the branches, and then using the reaction force to sprint.

Fang Suichu was like a tiger rampaging in the forest, and he easily conquered the difficult and hostile forest.

Wu Yuanshuo was in Fang Suichu's arms, and was protected by Fang Suichu's arms. Even though there was a strong wind blowing in his ears, he just closed his eyes and quietly felt the sense of security brought by the solid and warm chest.

Li Qingming, who was being carried, was about to curse. She felt that her heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and other internal organs were shaking as Fang Suichu moved, as if they were about to jump out of her throat.

After an unknown amount of time, the dense forest disappeared again, and Fang Suichu returned to the mountain path with Li Qingming and Wu Yuanshuo. The lonely, dead tree beside the path was still there.

Putting down the two women on his shoulders and in his arms, Fang Suichu looked down at the mountain below, which was half-hidden in the white mist, and said:

“No way…”

Li Qingming was bending over, covering his chest with one hand, trying to suppress the nausea that made him want to vomit.

She really wanted to beat up the young man next to her, but now was not the time to waste her energy on these meaningless things.

"Maybe... a maze."

Li Qingming said a term that Fang Suichu was very familiar with.

It seems that in the world of Xiugui there are things similar to the hundred arts of cultivating immortals.

"Unconsciously reversing our perceptions, or even distorting the geographical orientation... Such maze techniques do exist."

"There was already a formation in the market town we stayed in before, but its function was different."

"But, it shouldn't be like this... According to what you said before, this Changyin Temple should be a wild one, so why would it have a legacy like formation?" Li Qingming murmured.

"I knew it wouldn't be that simple..."

A sigh came from beside him, and Li Qingming looked at Fang Suichu who was sighing.

"There's actually a setting like a fog gate..."

"What do you mean?"

"You don't understand..." Fang Suichu shook his head:

"Anyway, if we don't break this maze, we won't be able to get down the mountain, right?"

"And the easiest way to break the formation is to kill the person who built it."

"That's not wrong. Otherwise, we'd just have to try our luck and see if we can find a loophole."

"There's no time to try our luck." Fang Suichu interrupted Li Qingming and said affirmatively.

"Why are you so sure? Maybe there's a chance if you try again." Li Qingming said gritting his teeth.

Going back to look for the abbot of Changyin Temple who is suspected to be close to the spiritual secret realm would be courting death.

"Because..." Fang Suichu started but didn't finish his words.

Because he heard the system's voice.

[Congratulations to the host, you have encountered another adventure. ]

[In the sect where the host belongs, your master, who has been in seclusion, learned from the eldest brother that a talented disciple has joined the sect, and he was so excited that he came out of seclusion early.]

Just as Fang Suichu finished speaking, a sharp roar pierced through the white fog and woods and came from the mountain.

Chapter 9 Weird Things

"Ugh——"

A sharp roar, not like one coming from a human body, came from above the mountain path, from the direction where the three had just come down. Upon hearing this sound, both Li Qingming and Wu Yuanshuo couldn't help but feel a chill that penetrated into their bones.

Li Qingming immediately understood what Fang Suichu meant by "it's too late".

It was the abbot of Changyin Temple who was in seclusion as mentioned by Fang Suichu. The Taoist's master had come out of seclusion.

"Qingming, you and Xiaoshuo should try again to see if you can find a way out of this maze."

"What are you going to do?" Li Qingming immediately caught the message from Fang Suichu's words.

"Of course, I'm going to challenge the boss in the boss room and find a way to open this fog door."

After getting the answer from Fang Suichu, Li Qingming remained silent.

Because, it doesn't make sense.

The maze trapped them, although Li Qingming could bet that the formation was not perfect and there were loopholes that could give them a chance of survival.

But this glimmer of hope is too slim.

As for the imminent threat, no matter if they forced their way out and lost control and turned into terrifying monsters, or remained normal, because they killed the Taoist priest, the temple master would inevitably fight them to the death.

No matter what, he had to face the abbot of Changyin Temple. The only chance of survival was to kill the abbot. Not only could he dispel the maze, but he could also completely eliminate the trouble.

When Li Qingming was silent, she saw Fang Suichu make some moves. She saw Fang Suichu take out a black bead from his arms and throw it directly into his mouth.

Not only that, Fang Suichu also took out another black bead from his arms.

Seeing the bead, Li Qingming was stunned for a moment, then seemed to think of something, her pupils shrank slightly, and she pounced on Fang Suichu and pushed his hand away.

"Are you crazy? Fang Suichu! Spit out the beads for me now."

The corpse bead almost fell to the ground, but fortunately Fang Suichu was quick-eyed and quick-handed and caught the bead from mid-air.

Li Qingming's aggressive look frightened Fang Suichu for a moment. It was the first time he saw Li Qingming so anxious.

However, this was not the end. Li Qingming pounced on Fang Suichu again and tried to strangle his neck, as if he wanted him to spit out the precious pill he had just swallowed.

Fang Suichu also came to his senses at this time. He pressed Li Qingming's forehead with one hand, forcing her to wave her arms continuously in place.

"Qingming, do you recognize this bead?"

"That's something transformed by a spirit, called a 'spiritual material' by practitioners. It's extremely poisonous to normal people. Even touching it could affect them and cause them to become seriously ill."

"Fang Suichu, I think there's still something wrong with your brain. It's just that you've gone from being stupid to being crazy. Find a way to spit it out quickly. Even if you want to die, don't be so impatient!"

Li Qingming now looked at Fang Suichu with a strange look in her eyes. A few days ago, when Fang Suichu's dementia had cleared up, she had noticed something was amiss. There was another aspect of Fang Suichu's behavior that was unusual. It wasn't until today that Li Qingming was completely certain. Fang Suichu wasn't just suffering from dementia; it was clearly developing into epilepsy.

Who would use a severed arm as a weapon? Who would swallow something as strange as a black bead?

"Calm down, Qingming." Fang Suichu didn't know what Li Qingming was thinking at the moment. He said in a deep voice:

"I don't know how to explain this to you... but taking this stuff is fine for me. And, when you told me this, I've already taken similar things several times in the past few days."

"Why do you think that Taoist priest takes me away every day? Could it be that he really sees my talent and wants me to become his disciple?"

Fang Suichu's serious words gradually calmed Li Qingming down.

"Are you serious? Have you come into contact with this thing before?"

"Yeah, one hundred percent true. Do I look like I'm in trouble now?"

Seeing that Li Qingming gradually calmed down, Fang Suichu let go of Li Qingming and opened his arms to show his appearance.

Indeed, after swallowing the bead, Fang Suichu did not show any abnormal reaction at all. In fact, his face became even more rosy than before.

"How could this be..." Li Qingming stood there in a daze. She was sure that Fang Suichu had indeed swallowed the strange creature.

This scene inevitably challenged her common sense.

Indeed, Fang Suichu had just led them through the forest at such a fast speed, for such a long time, without even taking a breath. She should have realized then that Fang Suichu's body was already different from that of an ordinary person.

However, Li Qingming really did not feel any abnormal and filthy feeling brought about by any weirdness from Fang Suichu.

"Brother Suichu, are you really okay?"

Wu Yuanshuo also asked Fang Suichu with concern. She didn't have as much knowledge about strange things as Li Qingming, but she was smart enough to understand from Li Qingming's behavior how inappropriate and dangerous Fang Suichu's behavior was.

"It's really okay, Xiao Shuo, when have I ever lied to you?" Fang Suichu slowed down his tone and touched Wu Yuanshuo's head.

Fang Suichu really liked this girl. Who wouldn't like a sweet, sensible, and approachable girl? As for Li Po Niang, although Fang Suichu often quarreled with her, he actually had a good impression of her.

Part of this good feeling is even innate, some reactions inherited from this body, while the other part is accumulated over these days.

These days, Fang Suichu has been under a lot of pressure since he traveled through time. If it weren't for his two cellmates, the pressure would be even greater.

"Anyway, I'm going to meet the abbot."

"We ignored him before because we thought it was better to have less trouble than more. Now that he's actively looking for trouble with us, there's no way we'll let him go."

"Xiao Shuo, you and Qingming should first look for a way out. If you find one, that would be great, then go down the mountain directly. If not, that's fine, just wait for me to come back."