Seven days later, inside the Heavenly Venerable Hall.
Wang Ping sat upright before the shrine. He pushed his spiritual sense to the absolute limit, causing his blood and qi to boil. He stared fixedly at the Heavenly Venerable statue, which only displayed its back.
However, the result remained unchanged.
It had been seven days. No matter what Wang Ping did, how he circulated his spiritual sense, or how he sensed the spiritual qi of heaven and earth, the Heavenly Venerable statue before him simply refused to turn around.
What garbage immortal cultivation!
Thinking of this, Wang Ping looked back down at the jade slip Daoist Nun You had given him. He sent his spiritual sense inside, and a passage of scripture immediately surfaced in his mind:
【Sovereign Attainment Method of the Six Desire Heavens】.
“This is the secret method of the Dragon-Rearing Peak, one of the eight peaks of the Immortal Sect. It is a method of raising beasts with one’s own body, gathering six types of desire beasts into one, and finally refining a Flawed Spirit Root.”
“Although Flawed Spirit Root cultivators cannot 【Refine Qi】 and have no hope for the Great Dao, they can still practice spiritual arts. Many lishi and Daoist generals in the sect possess Flawed Spirit Roots. They have no future, but they serve as the sect’s beasts of burden, handling chores and doing hard labor for true immortal cultivators.”
Wang Ping carefully studied the jade slip.
Unlike the 【Scripture of Paranirmitavaśavartin Governing the Desire Realm】, the 【Sovereign Attainment Method of the Six Desire Heavens】 clearly targeted the lower market, featuring much more detailed content.
This included the specific realms of immortal cultivation.
“What is immortal cultivation?”
“In summary, it boils down to nine characters: 【Transcend Tribulations, Refine Qi, Cultivate Truth to Ascend Immortality】.”
“Legend says the sect’s founder, the Heavenly Venerable, left behind this mantra at the end of the Immemorial Era after witnessing the suffering of all living beings.”
“The Heavenly Venerable’s words became law, establishing the world’s principle with nine characters. From then on, these nine characters anchored the orthodox system of immortal cultivation.”
“For a mortal to cultivate immortality, they must first transcend three tribulations—the Human Tribulation, the Heaven Tribulation, and the Fate Tribulation.”
“The first stage of Transcending Tribulations faces the Human Tribulation.”
“The Human Tribulation refers to physical disasters. In the mortal world, weapons are hard to guard against; one moment of carelessness leads to injury, damaging the spiritual body.”
“To master the first stage of Transcending Tribulations, one must cultivate four traits: Spiritual Consciousness, Flawless True Body, Circulatory Breathing, and Manifesting Arts through Qi. Only then can one refine true spiritual power. You must possess spiritual power to cultivate spiritual arts to their highest peak; otherwise, it’s useless.”
Seeing this, Wang Ping’s gaze flickered.
No wonder…
Even with the experience boost from being a Lishi, his 【Qi Ward】 had reached the bone-connecting and sinew-linking level long ago, yet he could never progress further.
I previously thought my comprehension was just too low.
Wang Ping realized the truth, clearing a major doubt in his mind:
Now it seems it was because I hadn’t refined true spiritual power. My ‘hardware’ didn’t meet the standard, preventing me from covering my body in true qi to become invulnerable to weapons.
In the second stage of Transcending Tribulations, cultivators face the Heaven Tribulation.
This tribulation refers to the three calamities of wind, fire, and thunder.
After refining spiritual power, a cultivator can master spiritual arts, use spiritual arts to understand principle, and use principle to comprehend the Dao, until the spiritual art undergoes a qualitative change and manifests as a divine ability.
This is a process of refinement.
The entire process is like forging a weapon: astral winds strip away the spiritual art’s impurities, yin fire burns its foundation, and heavenly thunder tests its strength.
Once the Heaven Tribulation is passed, the cultivator’s spiritual arts will sublimate into divine abilities.
As for the Fate Tribulation of the third stage, the 【Sovereign Attainment Method of the Six Desire Heavens】 omitted it. It seemed to assume that anyone practicing this method would never reach that level.
“Only after transcending all three tribulations can one refine qi.”
As for the “Refining Qi” stage above Transcending Tribulations, the manual lacked detailed descriptions, offering only a highly profound and mysterious passage:
“The body is the cavernous abode of spirit and qi. When qi dwells within the body, the spirit finds repose in the qi sea. Thus, qi reaches the divine realm, drinks from the profound spring, sounds the heavenly drum, and enters the body through the heavenly gate. It tempers the body until the flesh shines with the brilliance of fire. Preserve this state until form and qi become one and return to the true nature. Only then may one attain the fruition of the ancient immortals—refining qi to enter the Dao.”
Wang Ping felt completely lost.
The manual praised “Refining Qi” to the extreme, calling its practitioners 【Qi Refiners】. This seemed completely different from his own understanding of “Qi Condensation.”
The so-called “hopelessness for the Great Dao” regarding Flawed Spirit Roots actually meant they were unable to Refine Qi.
These descriptions sparked an immense curiosity within him.
What kind of mighty power did Qi Refiners actually possess?
Daoist Nun You… is she a Qi Refiner? Or is she still Transcending Tribulations? Unfortunately, without seeing a Qi Refiner’s divine abilities firsthand, it’s hard to judge accurately.
Wang Ping let his imagination run wild for a moment before reeling in his thoughts.
I shouldn’t bite off more than I can chew. I need to focus my energy on the 【Sovereign Attainment Method of the Six Desire Heavens】. Regardless, I must refine a Flawed Spirit Root first.
Wang Ping stood up, patted his robes, and walked out of the Heavenly Venerable Hall.
Daoist Nun You’s Daoist temple was massive, lacking no pavilions or terraces. However, he didn’t live inside the temple, but outside it.
Strangely enough, outside this temple lay an even larger temple. But when Wang Ping walked out of the inner temple and looked back, he found that the massive inner temple was merely a door painted on a wall in the outer temple. Only by holding a token could one freely enter and exit the inner and outer temples.
“A hidden world of its own…”
Watching the door on the wall slowly close and transform from a physical object back into a painted mural, Wang Ping clicked his tongue in wonder, marveling at the profound methods of immortals.
Then, he surveyed his surroundings.
Unlike the inner temple, the spiritual qi of heaven and earth in the outer temple was much thinner. It felt almost identical to the Great Shun Dynasty’s world, noticeably lacking in immortal aura.
However, the temple itself was quite large, seemingly built on a mountain. The buildings were very new, looking recently constructed with some signs of repair. Unfortunately, the materials used seemed ordinary. And although there were many rooms, they were all completely empty. Besides him, there wasn’t a single person here.
“Seems this is my predecessor’s fault.”
Wang Ping recalled what Daoist Nun You told him before she went into seclusion. When the previous attendant boy was here, he recruited many beautiful maids to serve in the temple.
Too bad he was dead.
Therefore, the old rules were scrapped. All the maids were dismissed back to the mortal world, and his belongings were cleared out. Only a few miscellaneous items remained.
“Who knows what mistake he made to be so unlucky…”
Wang Ping shook his head. Following the senses of his cultivation method, he arrived at a corner of the temple. He pushed open a set of large doors and looked at several massive, dark silhouettes lurking inside.
These were the cultivation resources Daoist Nun You mentioned his predecessor had left behind.
Looking inside, he saw several strange beasts: an eagle, an ape, a cheetah, and a beluga whale that had been shrunk countless times and placed in a vat.
“These are the Six Desire Beasts…”
The 【Sovereign Attainment Method of the Six Desire Heavens】 had four layers. The first three layers each required controlling two desire beasts. The fourth layer unified all the beasts into one.
Once the six desire beasts were smelted into one, merging oneself with them would refine a 【Six Desires Primal Heaven Demon】, which served as a Flawed Spirit Root.
Wang Ping’s gaze swept across the beast pen as he calculated silently: “Sky Eagle, Deep Ape, Rock Snake, Swallowing Whale, Marauder Leopard, Steel Wyrm… Four of them are gathered here. The Rock Snake and Steel Wyrm supposedly died suddenly when the previous attendant boy caused trouble. I’ll have to raise those two myself.”
Not too bad. At least he had four ready.
The beast pen also contained eggs for the missing two desire beasts. By using his cultivation method to accelerate their growth, breeding them anew was only a matter of time.
Roar!
At this moment, a roar interrupted Wang Ping’s thoughts. The Marauder Leopard, which had been resting with its eyes closed, was now glaring at him menacingly.
The next instant, the world in Wang Ping’s eyes seemed to skip a frame. The Marauder Leopard, previously lurking ahead of him, appeared right in his face in the blink of an eye. It opened its bloody maw, its sharp steel teeth carrying a nauseating stench, and viciously bit at his neck!
In a flash, Wang Ping delivered a backhand palm strike.
As he threw the palm, his colliding bones and sinews produced a sound like roaring tigers and chanting dragons, as if a powerful bow were slowly being drawn taut inside his body.
Bang!
Using his arm as a bow and his palm as an arrow, he whipped a lightning-fast afterimage onto the Marauder Leopard’s head, forcibly deflecting the ferocious beast’s skull by three inches.
“So hard…”
Wang Ping frowned deeply. Retreating quickly, he rolled his wrist, once again feeling the insurmountable chasm between cultivating immortality and practicing martial arts.
This Marauder Leopard is no ordinary beast; its physique is absurdly strong. Even with my internal force enhancement, I could only knock it away. Although it hasn’t learned martial arts, it clearly possesses other miraculous abilities, like that frame-skipping speed… It’s no weaker than an Internal Force Master!
And this was just a mere strange beast.
In the Great Shun Dynasty, an Internal Force Master could dominate an entire county. Yet in the Immortal Sect, such a beast was merely a cultivation resource for chore disciples.
Thinking of this, Wang Ping’s heart pounded with excitement.
I definitely have to cultivate immortality!
A Flawed Spirit Root it is, then. I’ll find a way to step onto the immortal path first. Even if there’s no hope for the Great Dao, I only need to worry about that once I’ve reached the end of the road.
Next, he looked at the other desire beasts in the pen. With the Marauder Leopard leading the charge, the rest were clearly growing restless.
But this wasn’t a big problem.
With a thought from Wang Ping, the world before him instantly froze. His vision split in two: one half reality, the other the towering book.
【The Taiping Classic】, activate!
Entering 【The Taiping Classic】 space, Wang Ping immediately walked up to the third scroll, 【A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold】. Concentrating his will, he began to write:
【I promise I will definitely cultivate the “Sovereign Attainment Method of the Six Desire Heavens” to the…】
Wang Ping paused slightly. As the book flickered with a faint light, a sudden stroke of insight hit him: “I can’t push it straight to perfection.”
“With my current talent, the time limit for 【A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold】 is a thousand days, nearly three years.”
In other words, he could only take an advance loan using 【A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold】 for a goal he could realistically achieve within a thousand days.
“Meaning, the scroll judges that I cannot cultivate this method to perfection within three years.”
Realizing this, Wang Ping thought for a moment before finishing his promise:
【…second layer.】
As the pen lifted and the sentence finished, a dazzling brilliance instantly erupted from the scroll. In a daze, Wang Ping saw scenes of himself practicing the cultivation method.
The next second, countless insights related to the 【Sovereign Attainment Method of the Six Desire Heavens】 surged from the bottom of his heart like floodwaters bursting a dam. During this process, his eyes gradually transformed, and ring after ring of eerie purple halos lit up in his pupils.
“Ah, I am enlightened!”
Returning to reality, the four desire beasts in the pen had already surrounded him. Wang Ping showed no fear; he simply cast a calm glance at them.
The purple light in his eyes flickered slightly.
Immediately, the four desire beasts froze in place. Their previously ferocious eyes also took on a purple glow matching Wang Ping’s, and they prostrated themselves on the ground.
“It really works.”
Wang Ping nodded in satisfaction. All desire beasts possessed innate flaws; the 【Sovereign Attainment Method of the Six Desire Heavens】 countered them perfectly.
However, he quickly lowered his eyelids.
In his vision, the scroll of 【The Taiping Classic】 faintly appeared. However, the scroll had turned gray, clearly indicating it could no longer be used.
To use it again, I must reach the second layer of the method through my own effort. Right now, I’ve merely taken an advance on the method’s effects and practical experience. I haven’t actually reached that level. But with these insights, reverse-engineering the cultivation process will only be faster.
Wang Ping made a rough estimate.
Without 【A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold】, it would probably take me at least a year to cultivate the method to the second layer on my own.
But now… half a month at most.
Within half a month, I can truly cultivate the method to the second layer. Then, I can just take out another loan. My cultivation speed will far exceed anyone’s imagination!
Leveraging one step to boost the next to ascend—this is my peerless talent!
Brimming with motivation, Wang Ping immediately began cultivating to pay off his loan, while simultaneously breeding the two missing desire beasts to prepare for his second loan.
………….
Three months later, inside the Daoist temple.
In the beast pen, Wang Ping sat cross-legged, his hands forming seals. His face was calm as the fading sunlight shone through the window, casting a long shadow behind him.
Suddenly, the hand seals he formed shifted.
As his hand seals changed, his shadow began twisting into bizarre shapes—a leopard, an ape, an eagle spreading its wings…
After his seals changed six consecutive times, six strange beasts surrounded him. A purple ring of light spun in the eyes of each beast.
Phew…
Only then did Wang Ping exhale deeply, revealing a satisfied smile.
I’ve finally paid it off. Just the final step of unification remains.
Two and a half months ago, he took out another loan, elevating the method to the third layer. He had been repaying that loan up until now. With 【A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold】 active again, he could see the gates to the fourth and final layer—condensing a Flawed Spirit Root—opening for him.
Who could compare to this cultivation speed?
At least according to the jade slip’s records, achieving perfection in the method in just three months was something no past practitioner had ever accomplished.
The prodigy of taking loans—who else could it be but me?
Lend it to me!
With a thought, the bottleneck that once felt as solid as a boulder, lacking any weak point, broke in response, transforming into countless inspirations filling his mind.
Following these inspirations, the seals in Wang Ping’s hands shifted again. His ten fingers intertwined, finally forming a seventh seal completely different from the previous ones.
Almost simultaneously, the six desire beasts circling him raised their heads and dissolved. They turned into shadows and began piecing themselves together. The leopard’s speed, the eagle’s wings, the ape’s strength, the whale’s breath, the wyrm’s physique, the snake’s recovery… various traits recombined.
Finally, a brand-new shadow emerged.
This shadow overlapped with Wang Ping’s own shadow, and eventually stepped slowly out of the darkness, manifesting as a burly giant standing behind him.
“Hoho…”
Wang Ping appraised this burly giant with great interest. “Is this the Six Desires Primal Heaven Demon mentioned in the manual, condensed after unifying the six desire beasts?”
Strong. Very strong!
Nearly three meters tall, every inch of its muscle seemed to pack explosive power. Its fingers were thicker than his arms, and its breathing sounded like wind and thunder.
Wang Ping then looked down.
He stood in the fading sunlight, but cast no shadow… or rather, his shadow had merged into the Six Desires Primal Heaven Demon before him.
Standing upright without a shadow!
“In this state, unless hit by a spiritual art, any attack aimed at me will be redirected to the Six Desires Primal Heaven Demon. My true body won’t be harmed.”
This was the manifestation of having fully mastered the method. Moreover, the Six Desires Primal Heaven Demon could serve as his third eye, allowing him to observe everything around him.
Closing his eyes, Wang Ping linked his consciousness to the Six Desires Primal Heaven Demon. Even without using his physical eyes, he could survey the world around him with perfect clarity, as though looking at the lines on the palm of his hand.
This was 【Spiritual Consciousness】.
Realizing this, a sudden wave of satisfaction swelled in his heart.
Although this was only one of the four cultivation traits required for the first stage of Transcending Tribulations—a tiny step on the long road to immortality—it was a giant leap for him personally.
“In other words, from today onward, I am an immortal cultivator.”
Thinking carefully about it, practicing martial arts wasn’t all that great. Sure, it was carefree and dashing, but a mortal life was only a few short decades. By the time you look back, your hair is already white.
How could it compare to eternal life and observing the world for ages?
Cultivating immortality is much sweeter!