Using entries to cultivate immortality in chaotic times

To rapidly replenish the Spiritual Energy in his Tao Foundation through absorbing it from Spirit Stones, he would need at least 300 Spirit Stones.

This is just...

300 Spirit Stones would be enough for a little fellow at the first level of the Qi Refinement Realm to shoot straight to Foundation Establishment, yet here they were, only enough to fill up his Tao Foundation with Spiritual Energy?

For some reason, he had a vague premonition that his unique way of fighting as a Magic Practitioner might indeed be quite powerful, but it could very likely consume a massive amount of Spirit Stones.

Just then—

"Fellow Daoist, wait a moment!"

Chen Qiu was walking along the main road of Wentian Market with Fat Long when he suddenly heard a voice near his ear, turning his head to look at the source of the sound.

The street was now nearly devoid of pedestrians, and a lonely old man with a full head of silvery hair sat on the side of the road, holding a battered black banner and speaking in a hoarse voice that seemed to laugh non-laugh.

"Fellow Daoist, a few days have passed, and the number of Wandering Ghosts around you has become too many to count."

"Won\'t you let me do a reading for you?"

"It\'ll only cost you one Spirit Stone."

"Otherwise, within three days, a grave danger will surely befall you."

On the black banner, there were two rows of somewhat crooked and twisted characters embroidered with white thread.

\'Dare not divine it all, for fear of heaven, earth, and spirits.\'

\'Words can\'t be spoken plainly, lest the world falls into chaos.\'

"Can you speak?"

Fat Long reached the old man\'s side with an expressionless face, squatted down, and spoke in a hoarse voice, "Those in your line of work can\'t get any business without cursing people, right?"

"Not so, not so."

The old man shook his head, stroked his beard, and laughed mysteriously, "Divination is a tradition of ten thousand years, it isn\'t about deception."

"Alright."

Chen Qiu also squatted down in front of the old man, chuckling as he tossed out a Spirit Stone, "Then give me a reading and let\'s see what you can come up with."

This was already his second encounter with the old man.

Seeing this, a glint flashed in the old man\'s eyes, and he hastily stuffed the Spirit Stone into his chest as if fearing it would be snatched away in the next second, then he closed his eyes and began to murmur mysteriously while making calculations with his fingers.

At that moment—

"Hey! You immortal conman, are you scamming people again?"

A voice suddenly erupted on the street, and dozens of Wentian Market guards were seen hurrying over, while the old man picked up his black banner and ran toward an alley without looking back.

He hadn\'t run far when it seemed he remembered something, abruptly ran back to Chen Qiu\'s side, said a few urgent words, and then hurried off once again, vanishing into the distance of the alley.

...

"Mr. Chen, you weren\'t swindled, were you?"

"This old guy has been in Wentian Market for over a decade, and he doesn\'t really know how to predict anything; he just makes things up."

"It\'s you."

Chen Qiu withdrew his gaze from the old man\'s departing back and looked at the head of the guards with a smile, "Thanks for the warning. Are you off duty?"

He remembered this guard, the one who had collected the body after he killed the Huang Family\'s Seventh Elder at the city gate of the market.

"Not yet, we\'re on patrol tonight."

The head guard spoke helplessly, "Whatever that old guy says, you shouldn\'t believe it. I remember there was a man he fooled into believing that if you knelt and kowtowed towards the east every morning, the next random entry for your child who breaks through a layer in the Qi Refinement Realm would definitely be a good one."

"You\'re telling me that isn\'t just fooling people? Mainly because when I tried to explain it to that man, he wouldn\'t believe me, saying that the old guy didn\'t even take a penny from him, so why would he lie to him?"

"Why the east?"

"Because where he sits every day is just to the east of that family\'s house."

"Just don\'t believe anything he says, anyway. Today there was even a Cultivator in a red robe with long hair who came to have his fortune told by the old guy, and he seemed excited as he departed, flew off towards the west right after leaving the city, looking like he got fooled quite badly too," said the head guard.

"Wait a minute..."

Fat Long\'s expression suddenly became odd, "You mean a Cultivator in a red robe with long hair?"

"That\'s the one, do you know him?"

"I guess you could say we\'ve met before..."

Fat Long fell silent suddenly, remembering that Demon Cultivator who had mentioned before that a fortune-teller in Wentian Market told him he would encounter double happiness that day. It seemed this fortune-teller might indeed be inaccurate.

They didn\'t continue the conversation.

The two parties went their separate ways, and Chen Qiu stood in place with his eyes narrowed slightly, pondering something.

Before escaping into the alley, the old man had returned to whisper a few words to him, which left Chen Qiu momentarily uncertain about their significance.

"Kid, it\'s true that I was spouting nonsense with the fortune-telling, but with your case, I actually do know something."

"You definitely have a green entry \'Resentful Spirit Summoning.\' Don\'t look at me like that, the resentful energy on you is almost ten fathoms higher than Wentian Fang Market. I could see the resentful energy over your head before you even entered the city—it\'s too eye-catching."

"I\'ve seen someone with this entry before, and it is indeed a very powerful one. It can turn the creatures you\'ve killed into resentful spirits that attach to you and fight on your behalf for an hour."

"But think about it, resentful spirits are born from deep resentful energy. Ordinary people would catch a cold or get sick just by touching them, not to mention dying of serious illnesses if they stay for too long. You\'re directly carrying six or seven thousand of them, are you trying to become the Resentful Spirit King or what!"

"You must deal with all these resentful spirits within three days, or the consequences will be unimaginable. I\'ve seen someone with this entry before; within just half a year, the person went completely mad, neither human nor ghost. Another half a year later, they were found having bizarrely hung themselves in a desolate temple outside the city, where the body was already rotten and crawling with maggots."

"The resentful spirits on you are far more numerous than his. When using this entry, make sure not to store too many resentful spirits on yourself and... remember at all costs, the stronger the resentful spirit compared to your strength, the faster the corruption will be."

"If you can find a way to remove this entry, do so as soon as possible. Otherwise, no matter how careful you are in using it, the resentful spirits will still corrode you. It\'s only a matter of how fast. I\'ve never seen anyone with this entry die a peaceful death."

"Look after yourself. For this Spirit Stone, I truly didn\'t earn it in vain."

...

"Brother Qiu, what are you thinking about?"

"Nothing."

Chen Qiu shook his head and after pondering with a frown for a while, he then turned to Fat Long and asked, "Have you felt the weather getting colder?"

"Yeah, it\'s almost winter, of course it\'s getting colder."

"What I mean is, have you felt a chill?"

"What kind of chill?"

Fat Long, somewhat confused, touched the back of Chen Qiu\'s hand, then suddenly jumped up with a shudder: "Brother Qiu, why is your body so cold? It\'s like you\'re a dead corpse."

"..."

Chen Qiu didn\'t say anything else but shook his head and headed straight for the guest room. Although he had been feeling cold these past few days, he hadn\'t taken it seriously, assuming it was just the dropping temperatures. Being prompted by the fortune-teller, he indeed felt something subtly amiss.

He was carrying more than six thousand demon beast resentful spirits, including the one from a demon cultivator with a seventh-layer Foundation Establishment Cultivation. These were all supposed to be his trump cards, prepared for slow use in the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm that was soon to open in Fufeng City.

Carrying so many resentful spirits on oneself was indeed a bit excessive.

So be it.

Once he entered the Secret Realm tomorrow, he planned to release all these resentful spirits, lest they actually corrode him. Releasing so many resentful spirits all at once, he just hoped it wouldn\'t frighten the other cultivators also entering the Heavenly Dao Secret Realm.

Tsk.

...

That night, using the Enlightenment Stone, Chen Qiu raised his cultivation of the Thunder Summoning Technique to the highest level, which is Great Perfection. A mysterious understanding suddenly emerged in his mind.

The three characters of the Thunder Summoning Technique, inscribed on his Tao Foundation, seemed to grow even deeper.

The Thunder Summoning Technique he could now unleash was as thick as a hundred-year-old tree and capable of striking enemies within a hundred fathoms. Such a move was already difficult to defend against for an ordinary Foundation Establishment Cultivator at level one.

And he could unleash it four or five hundred times.

This was the power of the pink entry \'Dantian Expansion (Unique).\'

But before going to sleep,

Chen Qiu sighed softly, took out a pile of Spirit Stones from his bosom, and laid them on the bed to start absorbing enough Spiritual Energy to fill his Tao Foundation. Even with his superior mental method for Foundation Establishment, \'Seven Lights Questioning the World,\' this was still a very time-consuming task.

An hour consisted of eight quarters, with the time of three cups of tea equaling one quarter.

Last time, it took him the time of one cup of tea to fill his Tao Foundation. This time, it took... less than half an hour to fill his Tao Foundation.

This was because he used a \'Mid-grade Foundation Establishment Soul Absorption Talisman.\' Otherwise, it would have taken at least four hours.

Forget about not sleeping tonight, he wouldn\'t even make it to the Secret Realm.

That was just ten thousandths, what to do if it were a hundred thousandths in the future...

Lost in his thoughts, Chen Qiu drifted into a fitful sleep. A great battle awaited him tomorrow, and he needed an early rest to prepare for the next day.

...

The next day, at dawn.

Chen Qiu set out early with his companion from Wentian Fang Market, bringing along the two scholars, and returned to Fufeng City.

Last time he left Fufeng City in a rush; this time, he was unsure of the whereabouts of those who had pursued them. If fate allowed them to meet again, it would be a good opportunity to let the other party realize what it meant to see someone in a new light after just three days.

Today\'s Fufeng City was bustling due to the soon-to-open Secret Realm.

The streets were filled with vendors shouting out their wares. Foundation Establishment Cultivators, who were seldom seen on ordinary days, were almost everywhere today. The arrogant young masters of Foundation Establishment families, who were usually quite conspicuous, were nowhere to be seen today; no one knew which corner they were cowering in.

Just upon entering the city,

A disheveled boy, eyes lighting up at the sight of Chen Qiu and his party\'s luxurious robes, jogged over with a look of anticipation and said somewhat nervously, "Greetings to the four Immortals. An hour from now at the city square, a Foundation Establishment Cultivator with the entries \'Bull Strength\' and \'self-extinguishing root\' is planning to publicly chop up eight bulls to see what random entries he may get."

"Would you Immortals be interested in watching?"

"For just one Spirit Stone, you can watch from a close distance, and all the random entries obtained will be publicly shown to everyone."

"Many from the great families and sect disciples have gone. There are so many people there, it\'s quite lively."

"Oh...?"

Fat Long\'s expression slowly turned peculiar. A public execution?

Could this be the guy from the auction who spent 1500 Spirit Stones on the green entry \'self-extinguishing root\'?