Chapter 196: The Plan Unfolds

As ripples spread outward, a figure slowly emerged from the vortex at the center—a representation of the fleeing Foundation Establishment cultivator.

In Chen Luo’s hand, the shadow sat at the heart of the whirlpool, surrounded by the power he had stirred up. This invisible force bridged projection and reality; even the scene outside Gu Wang Peak began to shift accordingly.

The face of the desperately flying Foundation Establishment cultivator twisted, but then turned into madness as his speed increased further. The three Flying Sky Rats trailing him also quickened their pace. The front two spat out circles of black mist like chains, reaching towards the man ahead. The one at the back halted, extracting a small jade-green bottle from its fur as it stood guard.

They too sensed something amiss and had intentionally left someone behind to counter any potential ambush.

“You think you can save yourself alone?” The man’s face was contorted with madness. “Is there such an easy escape in this world?”

Chen Luo continued to swirl his fingers. As the frequency of rotation increased, strands of unseen energy were drawn in, encircling the blood-fleeing man.

How dare they disrespect my elder brother! I must kill them!

When did I become so cowardly?

Two figures, long forgotten by the man in blood escape, materialized in his mind. They were his former shidi and shifu. The apparition was uncanny, as if they had grown from within his own body.

“Hm?”

The escaping man immediately sensed something amiss. He dispersed his divine sense, enveloping himself in a haze of blood-red mist. He began scrutinizing his condition, suspecting he’d been cursed.

Yet strangely, he couldn’t find the source of any curse nor any signs of attack.

“Something’s off!” The man’s eyes turned crimson. He could distinctly feel someone was trying to harm him, but he just couldn’t locate his enemy.

While he stood bewildered, the world around him distorted. In a flash, he found himself back at that long-forgotten mountain gate. Even the grass swaying at the entrance looked exactly as he remembered. There, once again, he saw his beloved shimei—the woman who had died over one hundred seventy years ago.

The woman leaned against the door, her eyes brimming with tears.

“Shimei!”

At that moment, the Blood Escape man could no longer hold on. Letting out a crazed roar, he charged towards the two approaching rat monsters. His entire body seemed to ignite like a burning flame as he desperately engaged the flying rats with his life on the line.

Caught off guard by the Blood Escape man’s sudden attack, the two flying rats were initially overwhelmed. However, they quickly reacted and began a coordinated counteroffensive.

Moments later, the Blood Escape man once again found himself at a disadvantage in this life-or-death struggle. Just as the rats thought they had him defeated, the Blood Escape man retracted his aura and let out an insane shout:

“You dare hurt my shimei? I’ll take you both down!”

Boom!

His spiritual energy spiraled out of control, causing his body to explode on the spot. A circular blood mist swept across the area, severely injuring both black sky rats. Fortunately, another flying rat arrived in time to catch its falling companions.

The three flying rats rested briefly in mid-air, tending to their wounds.

“Eldest Brother, that person from the mountain must have interfered,” one said. “Without his help, this guy never would’ve dared to self-destruct.”

“We’ll discuss it later!” replied the eldest brother.

The trio cast wary glances back towards the source of conflict. The uninjured rat then reached for the Blood Escape man’s pouch of holding, which remained after his demise. With this, they transformed into a streak of light, swiftly retracing their steps away from the scene.

“Remarkable technique, Senior,” Su Linlin marveled.

She had been a keen observer of Chen Luo’s display, her eyes never straying from the scene until the Blood Escape Foundation Establishment cultivator met his demise by self-destruction.

It was precisely because she had witnessed it all that her astonishment grew.

The power Chen Luo now commanded seemed to transcend the bounds of Foundation Establishment. It evoked memories of an infamous Core Formation patriarch from the dark annals of evil cultivation—a figure who had once dominated the landscape with his mastery of demonic energies.

“A mere trick,” Chen Luo demurred, withdrawing his hand as the swirling force before him dissipated into specks.

The Demonic Heart Art was among the most familiar techniques to Chen Luo. However, its potency had gradually waned since he reached Foundation Establishment. In this instance, he had experimented by infusing the Blackstone Secret Technique within the Demonic Heart Art. This fusion breathed new life into what he had nearly abandoned, unleashing unimaginable power. He now had a rough conjecture about the mysterious forces at play in the air.

Demonic Hearts.

What remained unclear was how these powers had materialized and how best to harness them. When facing true adversaries, they wouldn’t afford him such leisure for preparation. Additionally, there was the issue of energy expenditure; despite appearing effortless, he had actually drawn upon nearly half of his spiritual energy reserves—the very essence of his being.

“All the ingredients I need for my medicinal pills are listed there. Come back to me after you’ve purchased them.”

With his new discovery in the Demonic Heart Art, Chen Luo was eager to begin his research and no longer felt inclined to continue socializing with the fox girl.

Having resolved this matter, it was time to bid farewell to their guest.

“Until we meet again,” Su Linlin said, not lingering any further. Her mission here had been to establish connections with the powerful figures on Gu Demon Mountain, which she had accomplished. Now, it was time to return to her clan territory.

After seeing off Su Linlin, Chen Luo retreated to his room and began emptying out the contents of various storage pouches filled with miscellaneous cultivation manuals.

For the past three years, he had focused primarily on mastering the Demon Bone Array Sigil Art and the Blackstone Secret Technique. It was now time to organize and review the gains from his recent ‘corpse house’ expedition.

He dumped the contents of the coffin-bearer old man’s and Old Demon Fang’s storage pouches onto the table. Additionally, there were peculiar insect eggs gifted by the local cultivator clans that needed to be refined as well.

Setting aside the spirit stones separately, Chen Luo sifted through the clutter and found two particular cultivation manuals: the Corpse God Incantation from the coffin-bearer old man and the Metamorphosis Spell from Old Demon Fang. Although these techniques hadn’t caught the attention of the dried corpse brain earlier, Chen Luo recognized their unique merits and deemed them suitable for his current stage of cultivation.

Outside, snow fell silently.

Inside his cultivation chamber, Chen Luo sat with furrowed brow, deep in thought.

The candlelight flickered incessantly, casting dancing shadows on the walls.

Chen Luo had mastered the Coffin-Bearing Old Man’s corpse god curse in mere hours, but he found himself stymied by the Transformation Technique. The Old Demon Fang’s technique was extreme; it required forsaking physical cultivation practices to pursue. For Chen Luo, such a method of cultivation was clearly unacceptable—he could never abandon his painstakingly acquired ‘Demon Bone Array Sigil Art’ for a single technique.

He had been grappling with this dilemma for days.

His spiritual cultivation hadn’t suffered either. After reaching forty-nine spiritual energy dragons, his progress slowed dramatically—the fiftieth dragon remained nothing more than a faint shadow.

He finally understood why Foundation Establishment cultivators often spent centuries cultivating. As one advanced, the quality of spiritual energy required increased exponentially. Beyond the mid-Foundation Establishment stage, simply relying on breathing exercises became insufficient for enhancing spiritual energy. Even with the boost from second-order spirit meridians, the improvement remained frustratingly slow.

Given Chen Luo’s aptitude, even if he followed the prescribed path on the mountain, it would take at least fifty years to reach late Foundation Establishment.

“Abandoning my body refinement practice is not an option,” Chen Luo sighed.

The mummy brain showed no interest in transformation techniques, not offering even a single hint throughout their time together. The Core Formation brain’s perspective remained crystal clear: cultivation realm is everything.

It was urging him to abandon his pursuit of these low-level divine abilities.

Setting down the bone scroll, Chen Luo walked over and picked up the final set of ingredients for Nourishing Pills. With the Transformation Technique proving impenetrable for now, his only option was to enhance his cultivation realm first.

He lit the furnace and began to cook.

Soon, a batch of pills emerged, yielding three successes this time.

Chen Luo immediately popped one into his mouth. As the medicinal power dissolved within him, he felt his spiritual energy gathering slightly faster. The 50th strand of the Qi Condensation Dragon solidified further, with the left claw now partially manifesting.

But… that was as far as it would go.

Nourishing Pills were effective for early Foundation Establishment, but they lost potency once reaching the mid-stage. Given Chen Luo’s current attempt to break through to late Foundation Establishment, the benefits from Nourishing Pills were minimal. Unless consumed in large quantities, they wouldn’t have any significant impact.

After digesting all three pills, Chen Luo didn’t rise immediately.

He felt an overwhelming sense of being stuck.

Every divine ability within his reach had already been mastered; his cultivation realm could only be slowly accumulated over time.

How did ancient cultivators practice their art?

Chen Luo had no desire to follow the modern path of grinding away at his cultivation realm over time; it was far too slow and fraught with variables such as aptitude, resources, and spiritual energy availability—any one of which could render his efforts futile. More importantly, all the knowledge he’d gleaned so far—from both the seven kingdoms era and today’s land of evil cultivators—pointed to a single type of Golden Core:

The Crimson Pill.

Chen Luo recalled the great tomb in Yue Kingdom and his teacher Zhangqing Zhenren’s practice of ancient cultivation techniques. These methods had been abandoned due to shifts in heaven and earth that altered available resources. Yet within these ancient practices, Core Formation was divided into three tiers, with the Crimson Pill being the lowest level. The minds of deceased cultivators Chen Luo had acquired, having failed to achieve anything beyond ‘Crimson Pill,’ were now fixated on this stage, their Daoist aspirations dashed.

From the outset, Chen Luo never entertained the idea of forming a mere Crimson Pill.

However, without achieving the Crimson Pill, how could he hope to form any kind of Golden Core? Lacking the necessary knowledge, even the brains of dried corpses couldn’t offer better advice. Just as during Foundation Establishment, he needed to keep pace with new information before the dry corpse brains could discern the most perfect path forward.

After much deliberation, Chen Luo couldn’t devise a suitable plan.

He rose and walked over to a cabinet, retrieving a bamboo scroll from within. This scroll was personally inscribed by Chen Luo, documenting his recent research on mysterious forces.

It encapsulated the only strategy he had conceived using all those brains at his disposal.

Insufficient spiritual energy? Simply increase the quantity! The roaming mystical energies were otherwise wasted; why not assimilate them into himself as fuel for his advancement? Besides, the dry corpse brain hadn’t detected any danger, so this practice seemed ideal! At worst, could it be less effective than the hopeless Crimson Pill stage?

Unfolding the bamboo scroll onto the table, Chen Luo picked up a nearby brush.

The power within him began to shift as the Blackstone Secret Technique was once again activated. His inner Demonic Heart Art circulated, and when their powers merged, they underwent an immediate qualitative transformation.

His eyes turned gray-white during this process, while his divine sense condensed into a single point, focusing precisely on the tip of the brush.

He dipped the brush into the inkstone beside him, absorbing just one drop of ink.

The brush hovered above the bamboo scroll.

Gravity drew the ink towards the brush tip, coalescing into a single droplet that fell with pinpoint accuracy onto the fourth row of blank space in the scroll.