In the Secret History Archives, tucked away in a corner, Lu Shan’s entire body no longer shimmered with the faint blue water-like light.
After slaying the Green Sparrow, Consort Qi, and thousands of ghostly creatures, the Twelve Meridians and his dantian—the energy center—were completely emptied of the Yuan Gang energy that had once been so full it was about to burst.
Not a trace remained.
Only the dantian's mid-chest acupuncture point, the Dan Zhong, which had originally been tightly blocked by his innate primordial essence and unopened, now transformed into a small, hazy space the size of a water jar when viewed with his divine soul’s spiritual light.
Within Lu Shan’s entire body, his vast ocean strength—his Canghai Jing energy—condensed into a sesame-seed-sized drop of black, lacquer-like primordial liquid.
It hovered quietly inside his Dan Zhong point.
The Great Supreme Beimei Immortal Sect’s immortal cultivation root method, the Infinite Return Void Body, places this Dan Zhong acupuncture point as the place of ‘Return Void’ within the body.
This small drop of primordial liquid was the ‘Return Void Immortal Yuan’.
Lu Shan had poured all his previous cultivation into this, and it was comparable to a martial cultivator’s centuries of painstaking effort to gather Yuan Gang energy.
Yet he had only condensed this tiny drop of Return Void Immortal Yuan—showing just how high the quality and power of this immortal Yuan truly was.
Condensing this Return Void Immortal Yuan was a process of winnowing the dross, rebirth, and transforming the body’s very foundation—reversing fate and crossing the threshold from mortal to immortal.
Only with this drop of Immortal Yuan could Lu Shan, in the truest sense, ascend from a mere mortal to tread the wondrous immortal path.
When all his Yuan Gang transformed into Immortal Yuan earlier, Lu Shan’s body had endured tens of thousands of crashes and beatings from the Yuan Gang energy, making his body far tougher than before without any second thought.
This was the body-tempering effect that came with the Infinite Return Void Body.
Compared to the pinnacle of the immortal path’s fruition, this small strengthening effect was barely worth mentioning.
“True inheritance is just one sentence, false inheritance leaves one heartbroken,” Lu Shan murmured softly to himself as he toyed with the ring that had flown out from the stone tablet.
He studied the countless overlapping ripples engraved on the ring, whispering, “All those things like martial cultivation foundation nurturing, meridian expansion, channel opening, acupoint breaking— and the higher levels like vein relocating, channel merging, acupoint fusing, and so forth—turns out, they’re just the techniques of the forge realm in immortal foundational cultivation.”
“Foundation nurturing, meridian expansion, channel opening, acupoint breaking—those are the true foundational methods.”
“Relocating veins, merging channels, fusing acupoints—that’s when the heavens and earth went strange, martial cultivators lost their way and came up with all sorts of side-paths and crooked methods.”
“As for those cross炼* cultivation techniques, they’re even more trivial and disgraceful—not worth even mentioning beside this root method.”
“This world turns everything upside down.”
Lu Shan rubbed the ring against his face, then tried it on his left middle finger.
The ring flashed faintly and shrank slightly, fitting perfectly around his knuckle.
Shaking his head, he slipped the ring off and pressed it over his heart.
Before entering the Secret History Archives, he didn’t have this ring.
Wearing it openly outside would be like confessing his secret without a word.
“I always thought this world was the ‘declining era of martial cultivation.’”
“But it turns out, the ‘decline of martial cultivation’ was only the final curtain. The real truth of this world is the ‘end era of immortal cultivation,’ the age when the immortal path fades.”
“There are immortals, after all!”
Lu Shan’s eyes burned with fervor as he stared at the stone tablet: “Maybe I should raise my life goal a little. Like... first trying to live ten thousand years?”
“But this world—oh, the Supreme Sacred Heaven! The divine mechanism shattered, the immortal path was cut off, and all orthodox immortal methods became nothing but legend.”
Frowning, Lu Shan followed the orthodox methods of the Infinite Return Void Body, silently circulating his profound skills, hoping to cultivate.
From the void above, a stifling chaos and muddled aura pressed down.
Lu Shan tried turning the Infinite Return Void Body’s method many times, but he couldn’t draw any power from the void as the technique said.
There was no progress at all.
That sesame-seed-sized drop of Return Void Immortal Yuan still remained the same size.
Then, Lu Shan activated the Canghai Jing功法 again.
A trace of Yuan Gang energy slowly grew from his flesh and blood.
Once a slight strand had gathered, he activated the Infinite Return Void Body again.
The tiny strand of Yuan Gang was drawn into the Dan Zhong point.
The small drop of Return Void Immortal Yuan flickered faintly, absorbing the Yuan Gang with seemingly no change itself.
“Definitely no doubt now. Martial cultivation can be practiced, but the immortal path is severed.”
“So that means my visualization chart is even beyond the Infinite Return Void Body? Mysterious and unfathomable. It’s by following this chart in visualization that I nurtured this cluster of spirit light in my divine soul, and that’s why destiny favored me today.”
Lu Shan fell into deep thought.
Clearly, that visualization chart was profound beyond words—a powerful support.
But the chart was so enigmatic that Lu Shan had no clue what its ultimate outcome would be.
Though following the chart’s vision let him continually cultivate his spirit light, the path ahead was pitch black.
He simply didn’t know where the chart ended.
Whereas the supreme foundational immortal method of the Northern Ocean Immortal Sect was different—an openly clear path, a heavenly way.
With this inheritance, Lu Shan knew exactly where to go and how to progress!
Only, in this world, the immortal path was broken.
“No, no, that can’t be right. What does the sudden appearance of those female ghosts mean?” Lu Shan shook his head gently and smiled slightly.
If the immortal path had truly broken, those evil spirits, those demons and ghosts, shouldn’t even appear!
“So it seems the fate of the Supreme Sacred Heaven is not yet over? Or else the heavens and earth’s mechanism is awakening, and the immortal path will open once again?”
Muttering softly, Lu Shan picked up from the pile in front of him a variety of strange materials—beast bones, tortoise shells, and other weird things—all bound into ancient secret manuals.
Near ancient, middle ancient, far ancient.
The old eunuch had brought him more than a dozen of these now-unimaginable techniques—ones that martial cultivators today thought simply impossible to practice.
Having gained the Infinite Return Void Body inheritance, Lu Shan looked at these ancient methods and nodded repeatedly.
These were no mere cross炼妙法 at all.
They plainly pointed straight at immortal cultivation truth.
Though far from the power of the Infinite Return Void Body, these techniques weren’t wild fabrications from the ancients; they were genuine immortal path guides.
But because this world’s spiritual mechanism shattered and the immortal path was broken, no matter how good these true cultivation methods were, they offered no effectiveness—less even than ordinary martial cultivation manuals that still allowed one to gain power beyond mortals.
“This is troublesome.”
Lu Shan felt a headache coming.
“Ahu, and all the brothers.”
“This is going to be problematic.”
“A bunch of dumb guys who can’t even master the Canghai Jing energy, never mind immortal techniques like Infinite Return Void Body.”
“If this world truly is seeing the mechanism’s revival, I can’t be the only one cultivating immortality. I won’t let Ahu and the others waste their time on low-tier cross炼 martial arts. I, Lu Shan, just can’t do that.”
“But they’re so stupid, really.”
Lu Shan fretted aloud as he recorded each of the dozen or so ancient secret true techniques the old eunuch had brought, then studied them in his mind.
Countless exquisite true words churned in his head, making that bright spiritual light within feel a sharp ache in his brain.
“Well, whatever. Let’s see what kind of fate Ahu and the others have.”
Lu Shan lightly clapped his hands and called out loudly, “Which eunuch is here?”
After a while, the old eunuch hurried back with a few hundred little eunuchs trailing him.
Each held or carried some strange rare objects.
Among them was a translucent, milky-white glazed Buddhist statue.
The statue stood with one foot firm on the ground, the other trampling a grotesque demon face, one hand tightly gripping a fiery Vajra sword, the other holding a lotus-shaped demon-subduing pestle.
The light of a night pearl shone on the statue.
As the twenty or so panting little eunuchs carried it forward, a faint flicker of pale red light glimmered deep inside the statue.
A glimmer of ghostly light hung in Lu Shan’s pupils.
No mistake—this was yet another heirloom treasure comparable to the stone tablet of the Jingyang Lu clan.
“This Buddhist statue is surprisingly wondrous and magnificent. Don’t know which clan’s inheritance treasure this is.”
Lu Shan noticed that on the statue’s robes and sleeves, tens of thousands of tiny characters were engraved in delicate seal script.
“The ‘Wrath of the Karmic Fire King’,” said the old eunuch as he directed the little eunuchs to gently set down the statue, causing the floor to emit a low ‘hum.’ “This is the ancestral secret technique passed down from the Duke of Ye, founder of a kingdom.”
He lightly tapped the statue and shook his head. “Alas, twenty-one years ago, the Duke of Ye’s family got tangled up in a massive military embezzlement case. The Grand Chancellor personally handled the investigation, and the entire Duke of Ye clan was executed—nine generations wiped out.”
The old eunuch mumbled, “I still remember among the founding dukes, only the Duke of Ye’s family still diligently practiced martial cultivation. That Duke of Ye was the Grand Commander of five armies, and the sons of the clan all served within the five military offices—truly full of heroes.”
Suddenly realizing himself, the old eunuch quickly glanced at Lu Shan and bowed smilingly, “I’m getting old and like to ramble about things, some appropriate, some not so. The Duke of Ye’s embezzlement was massive, and really, it was well deserved.”
Lu Shan looked at the old eunuch, then patted the Buddhist statue. “Wrath of the Karmic Fire King—a fierce and powerful name. This is Buddhist cultivation?”
The old eunuch laughed, “Looking at this statue, how could it not be Buddhist cultivation? But from reading the secret archives here, I recall this Wrath of the Karmic Fire King has an extremely simple entry method, yet an extremely painful process. Without great perseverance and strong will, one cannot complete it.”
“And besides, this is already ownerless goods.” The old eunuch glanced at Lu Shan again. “If Lord Tianyang wants to train personal guards, and can find some honest, tough men unafraid of hardship, this Wrath of the Karmic Fire King indeed is the best choice.”
Lu Shan’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Entry is extremely simple?”
The old eunuch covered his mouth and laughed, “So simple it’s almost outrageous.”
Lu Shan nodded slowly, “Any weaknesses besides the extreme pain?”
The old eunuch said, “Also very costly, because of the suffering, it heavily damages the body and requires excellent medicinal broths to nurture.”
Lowering his voice, the old eunuch added, “One person practicing consumes hundreds of thousands of strings of coins per year. Ten men would drain millions. If more practitioners, the money spent would be beyond gold mountains and silver seas.”
“So I heard the Duke of Ye resorted to embezzlement also for his family members... Ah, I’ve blabbed too much. Old age makes it difficult to keep quiet.”
Lu Shan folded his hands behind his back and stared quietly at the statue again and again, then cracked a grin.
“The others aren’t worth a look. This one will do.”
“Old eunuch, if I take this stone tablet and Buddhist statue from the Secret History Archives, will there be any problem?”
The old eunuch shook his head with a smile, “What could it matter? Isn’t this the Emperor’s decree?”
“Besides, you’re also from the Jingyang Lu clan, and the Duke of Ye’s lineage has no descendants left. You taking these two treasures is absolutely fine.”
(End of chapter)