Exploring Immortality Cultivation

Du Chun awoke from his unconsciousness with a sharp twitching pain in his head, as if his brain was convulsing—Wang Qi had knocked him out using brute force, so it was no wonder his head hurt.

But such incidents had happened before. Ever since he was rejected a few days ago, he had been relentlessly cultivating, and it wasn't unusual for him to injure himself in the process.

Du Chun felt dryness in his mouth. He thought of getting a cup of water to drink. However, the water in the teapot had frozen into ice chips, which stabbed painfully at his stomach when he swallowed. This somewhat sobered Du Chun, but it only fueled the fire of anger in his heart. Flinging the cup against the wall, he shouted, "Bastard!"

Strength... power...

In this world, without these two, you were less than a pile of dog poop—at least, no one dares to step on dog poop.

After being severely humiliated by that woman, even the servants started to ignore him.

His fingers tangled in his black hair, Du Chun clenched his teeth, letting the faint taste of blood spread around the corners of his mouth.

He desired strength too much.

"The humiliation I suffered that day, I don't want to experience it a second time!" Spreading out his left hand with a bloodstain, Du Chun's voice was hoarse but firm.

"Hehe, little kid, seems like you need help?" Just as Du Chun etched his oath into his heart, a bizarre, old laugh suddenly echoed in his ears.

His face changing, Du Chun swiftly turned around, his gaze sharp as an eagle's, scanning behind him, yet he found not a single person.

"Hehe, stop looking, it's on your chest." Just as Du Chun thought it was merely a hallucination, that strange laugh sounded again, without bounds.

Du Chun lowered his head, fumbling and quickly grasped his jade pendant.

"Are you the one talking?" Du Chun suppressed the fear in his heart, striving to calm his voice.

"Not bad, kid, your composure is quite good. You weren't scared enough to jump off anywhere," teased the voice from within the pendant.

"Who are you? Why are you in my jade pendant? What do you want?"

"Don't worry about who I am for now, I won't harm you. Ah, after so many years, it's lucky to finally meet someone with adequate spiritual aptitude," Du Chun suddenly felt heat on his chest as the jade talisman he had worn for thirteen or fourteen years started to levitate. What shocked Du Chun even more was the transparent, old figure fluttering above the jade talisman.

Zhen Chan, with an unfathomable laugh, asked, "Do you desire power?"

"Then sign a contract with me and become a disciple of the Mahou Sect!"

In the "Mathematics" constructed illusion of the ring, Zhen Chan shook his head and sighed, "Elder thinks, that spiel is really stupid… If we truly want to trick that jilted kid, Elder here has a few other scripts that would ensure he wouldn't even have his underwear left."

Naturally, Wang Qi couldn't possibly allow Zhen Chan to serve as someone else's external ghost 'Ring Grandpa.' This old man was still somewhat valuable and knew too many of his secrets; letting him out of his control was far too risky.

That forged jade pendant was actually an illusion terminal, capable of linking with Jarvis and projecting Zhen Chan's illusion into Du Chun's heart. Besides this, the jade pendant had no substantial function, only a protective spirit power shield. The earlier flying effect was also produced by this protective shield.

Wang Qi consoled Zhen Chan: "Old man, think of it this way, we are not tricking him, we are helping him establish the correct worldview, outlook on life, and value system..."

"What are worldview, outlook on life, and value system as methods of visualization? How are they different from the Unclean Temple, Flying Temple, and Merciful Temple?"

"…It's learning the correct way to view the world, life, and morality." Wang Qi rubbed his head, "I want him to learn how to be a good person."

"Additionally, you must also cultivate a firm belief in the Circle of Reason as the subject for subsequent empirical validation."

Zhen Chan replied irritably, "If it weren't for this matter, I definitely wouldn't let you boss me around."

If the firm belief in Holy Light is about Dao Morality, then the firm belief in the Circle of Reason is about the "Science Spirit." Wang Qi asked Zhen Chan to teach Du Chun about this, not necessarily without giving this old man a chance to adjust his own perceptions.

"Speaking of which, you need to ensure that Du Bin performs well in the family competition, so you can then continue to deceive and manipulate people, right?" Zhen Chan asked another key question, "If I were to train that kid, he would definitely surpass Du Bin in next year's family competition."

"Next year? Whether I'll be in Divine Capital next year is still uncertain. Besides, if it really doesn't work out, just tell that kid something like 'What kind of success can you find staying holed up in Divine Capital? The outside world is bound to be more exciting. What you lack is training through iron and blood.' — Why are you looking at me like that? I didn't lie to her; all the cultivators in Divine Capital uniting to attack Liuyun Sect wouldn't be able to disturb its great formation. Staying here really wouldn't hold any prospects. Not that going out would make much difference either." Wang Qi had arranged everything: "Anyway, just say that, then lead him to uninhabited places like Naxi Ancient Land, East Sea Fusang, Southern Sea Jianzhou, or Beiming Snowfield."

"By that time, if I have already left Divine Capital, go and dig a few caves, bury some things he can use. More importantly, make him deeply believe that you've deduced it all through wisdom. Admire your wisdom, get attracted by your wisdom, and then, slowly guide him... Oh, and you must talk a lot about the Circle, the Circle of Reason. In the cultivation methods, replace all instances of 'circle' with 'Circle of Reason'..."

Zhen Chan shook his head, beginning to recall in his memory those cultivation methods related to "circle."

Meanwhile, in reality, Wang Qi, with another thread of consciousness, followed Du Bin to another hidden location within the Du family mansion.

Here lay five people, all vegetative, their consciousnesses long dead. They were kept barely alive solely by an unending supply of elixirs and their own mana.

They all were cultivators whose divine souls had been damaged in the brutal family rivalries and internal conflicts of Divine Capital. To demonstrate both grace and authority, and also to win people's hearts, the Du family consistently kept these people alive with elixirs.

Of course, it was only about keeping them alive. This was also a way of establishing trust, much like the Immortal Alliance uses Divine Capital as a crucible to show their absolute integrity. These vegetative people were the Du Family's "crucible," a symbol of the Du family's credibility.

Since they are a crucible, keeping them spick-and-span was sufficient. For these vegetative people, the Du family limited their care to basic daily maintenance. If they had been truly important members of the clan, Du Bin might not have been able to bring Wang Qi here.

At this time, Wang Qi had also practiced a fair amount of Yangshen Pavilion laws; he approached and inspected the injuries of these people. Many of their neurons were likely dead, but their brain structures were mostly intact. However, being unable to receive information from the outside world or to think for an extended period, their brains had become dormant. Their souls, as spirit energy fields, existed in conjunction with "life," this complex and orderly phenomenon, so there were no issues in that regard.

"Indeed, he can already be declared dead... Although the cerebellum and brainstem are still functioning, the cortex can only elicit primitive instinctive responses," Wang Qi nodded with satisfaction. If these vegetative individuals had a chance of recovery, he truly couldn't bring himself to act. Now, even infusing the bodies with Life Flame would only give rise to new consciousnesses, amounting to a 'pseudo-corpse transformation.' Wang Qi took out a contract. Trading in people was a serious crime, but trading in corpses was much less so. Since the Du Family was, in essence, the owner of these "corpses", as long as Du Bin signed this donation consent form, Wang Qi would bear no responsibility.

After Du Bin had signed, Wang Qi pulled out three memory bodies and pressed them into the bodies of the three individuals. Suddenly, their bodies twitched as if electrified, with one even opening his eyes.

Du Bin questioned, "Brother Wang, are you trying to heal them... or make them into refined corpses, Divine Generals?"

Wang Qi gently shook his head, "It has nothing to do with Divine Tao, it's merely a Great Skill capable of working in conjunction with a Divine Tao Magic."

What Wang Qi had just implanted into those three people was indeed the Divine Plague Curse.

Unlike the Heart Demon Curse, the method of transmission for the Divine Plague Curse was strictly limited; unless someone's soul directly contacted the algorithm, they would absolutely not be infected. The transmission route of the Heart Demon Curse also included an elusive 'Divine Tao System' or 'Human Dao System.' In addition, while the Heart Demon Curse tangled souls to change one's will, the Divine Plague Curse was purely a computational method, acting directly on the consciousness without involving physical force.

Yet, this limitation made the "lethality" of the Divine Plague Curse far exceed that of the Heart Demon Curse. The Heart Demon Curse perpetually eradicated discrepancies, at most turning someone into a kind of curse spirit—a special evil ghost embodying a single pure thought. However, the Divine Plague Curse allowed for much more variation. It was akin to forcibly creating a "backdoor" in a person's consciousness. The caster could do whatever they wanted with the subject, whether it was completely erasing the subject's personality, reading memories, editing memories, or even directly controlling the body.

Moreover, the weakness in the transmission path was no issue in front of the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm. Once a subject was connected to the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm, the Divine Plague Curse would enter the realm. Subsequently, every user of the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm would unknowingly contract the Divine Plague Curse.

This was also why Feng Luoyi consistently refused to publicly disclose this invention. After reading his thesis, Wang Qi realized that writing a Divine Plague Curse was many times more difficult than crafting an ordinary computer virus on Earth. A disciple of the Wanfa Sect could easily grasp it. However, if a novice wrote a Divine Plague Curse that they didn't fully understand themselves, or if the Curse mutated, that would be really entertaining.

Wang Qi had only two requirements for the subjects of his Divine Plague Curse experiments: first, they must possess a brain and soul, but with very singular thought processes to prevent mutation; second, they must absolutely not connect to the Ten Thousand Immortals Illusion Realm, lest a Heavenly Sword descend from the sky and flatten the Divine Capital—Wang Qi believed that if Elder Feng knew of the emergence of such a Divine Plague Curse and it became undeniable, he would likely use this method to mitigate risks and create deterrence.

Wang Qi cared so deeply also for his own reasons.

In his view, the Divine Plague Curse and the Heart Demon Curse were the best combination. The Heart Demon Curse transformed the soul, setting up a Human Dao System network, then the Divine Plague Curse would spread through this network. This was truly an invincible combination.

This was the ultimate Heart Demon Trojan!(To be continued. If you like this piece, feel welcome to vote and support at qidian.com. You can also read on your mobile at m.qidian.com.)