Gateway of Immortality-Chapter 800: The Foundation of Cultivation
The Heavenly Demon Body Refinement drew upon the power of the stars in the cosmic orbit to temper the body.
According to the art’s description, during the process of cultivation, while channeling the cosmic orbit’s stellar power into the body, another sinister and chaotic force would also be drawn in.
This force was known as stellar malevolence. It was born alongside the cosmic stellar energy, and any primordial spirit invaded by it would meet a grim fate. The primordial spirit would fall into madness, lose all reason, and eventually become something unnameable, dying a miserable death.
However, the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement utilized the bloodline power within demonic beasts to refine this stellar malevolence, extracting purified starlight energy to temper the body. At the same time, this process would gradually enhance and purify the bloodline.
This was the greatest secret of the entire art.
Immortal cultivators lacked the bloodline of the demon race and were therefore incapable of refining stellar malevolence. Cultivating this art would be tantamount to suicide, but this was precisely where Qin Sang saw opportunity.
Under the protection of the Jade Buddha, he believed he could resist the invasion of stellar malevolence into his primordial spirit.
After all, the Jade Buddha had never let him down through numerous trials.
When the demon race cultivated the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement, they had to activate their bloodline power first to perform the refinement. They couldn’t allow even a trace of stellar malevolence to remain. Their cultivation speed depended heavily on the strength of their bloodline, in other words, their innate talent.
But Qin Sang didn’t need to divert his focus to refine the stellar malevolence. This alone placed him on par with the most gifted of the demon race. His cultivation speed would surpass theirs by a significant margin.
Of course, by doing so, the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement would effectively become a pure body-refining art in his hands. But if his understanding of the art was correct, then even as a body-refining art alone, it stood among the finest he had ever encountered in his life. It truly lived up to the name of the heavenly demon.
This realization filled Qin Sang with delight.
Yet he remained level-headed. After all, this was a top-tier art devised by a demon, and no human cultivator had ever practiced it before. The Jade Buddha might be able to protect him from stellar malevolence, but the art itself could still produce unforeseen consequences.
For instance, at the moment of initial cultivation, one needed to visualize the form of a heavenly demon to resonate with the stars. The demon race would visualize their ancestors to establish their path. But what should he visualize?
Moreover, what Qin Sang had before him now was only the first four stages of the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement.
If his understanding was correct, these aligned with the first four major stages of cultivation: Qi Refining, Foundation Building, Golden Core, and Spiritual Infant.
In his view, the fourth stage was already extremely obscure and difficult to comprehend. He wasn’t sure whether randomly visualizing a demonic beast would cause unpredictable results.
His grasp of the demon race's language was superficial at best. Though he could barely understand the contents, his interpretations could be flawed, and he didn’t dare act recklessly.
Unfortunately, the rest of the content was shrouded in mist, completely hidden from view.
This indicated that the art was indeed complete, but his current cultivation was insufficient, and he hadn’t gained full recognition from the bone flute.
This only made it harder for Qin Sang to let go. The Heavenly Demon Body Refinement might be far more than just a path toward the Divine Transformation Realm; it could be even leading toward a higher realm
Even so, before deciding to cultivate this art, he would need to properly study the demon race's language and comprehend the entire art. Otherwise, one wrong step could bring irreparable consequences.
One way or another, Heavenly Demon Body Refinement had offered Qin Sang a sliver of hope.
Ever since obtaining the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment, he had reviewed countless arts over the past century. Shaohua Mountain alone had over a hundred manuals, but aside from Wu Shang’s Core Formation and the witch race’s life-bound insect gu techniques, few were truly suitable for him.
And given his limited talent, he lacked the capacity to divide his focus too broadly.
The Heavenly Demon Body Refinement might just be another art that fits him. More importantly, it was a body-refining art that did not conflict with the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment, making them compatible for dual cultivation.
The reason these two arts suited him so well was largely due to the Jade Buddha.
One could even say that his entire cultivation path had been built upon the Jade Buddha as its foundation.
And the significance of the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement extended far beyond just compatibility.
Because he had yet to uncover any leads on the Ten Divine Woods, his ebony sword remained stagnant. Qin Sang’s cultivation was constantly at risk of reaching a bottleneck.
Without strengthening himself further, he would not be able to pass the trial of the path of swords. Beyond the path of swords might lie a connection to an ancient teleportation array. If he failed to find it, he would never return to the Small Cold Domain to seek the Infinite Blood Mulberry Wood. He would be completely trapped.
During the trial, both astras and insect gu would be sealed. He could only rely on his own body.
Body refinement was an ideal choice.
Cultivating both spells and body wouldn’t just double his strength, it would elevate it exponentially.
Even without reaching the peak of the third stage of Heavenly Demon Body Refinement, he could still gain power equivalent to the peak of the late stage of the Core Formation Realm, opening up a new path. At the very least, he wouldn’t have to chase the Ten Divine Woods so desperately for now.
"On Tianxing Island, I can seek out knowledgeable seniors to study the demon race's language. Once I learn it, I can research the art in detail. Since this art has no precedent, I’ll have to figure things out on my own..."
Qin Sang put the art away and toyed with the bone flute. Suddenly, he noticed something unusual.
There was no doubt that the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement and Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment were both top-tier arts, even in ancient times. One belonged to the demon race, the other to humans.
And yet both had shared the same fate.
It wasn’t until Qin Sang was transported to Canglang Sea that, by sheer luck, he managed to gather the full cultivation art. Otherwise, those three fragments of the bone flute might never have come together.
A chill crept up his spine.
There was a question he had always carried in his heart. Whether in the Small Cold Domain or Canglang Sea, countless legends of the ancient cultivation world had circulated, all attesting to the astonishing might of ancient cultivators. Some stories even spoke of ascension to immortality.
Yet in the cultivation world today, late-stage Spiritual Infant cultivators were considered top-tier. Divine Transformation Realm cultivators had vanished entirely, and those in higher realms existed only in legends.
The path to immortality had been severed. Top-tier cultivation arts were scattered to the winds.
Is this all a coincidence?
Or deliberate?
Qin Sang lowered his gaze, thoughts surging like a tide. But with his current low cultivation, his primary goal remained forming a Spiritual Infant. There was no use in thinking too much. On the bright side, if the Primordial Spirit Sword Nourishment, like the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement, had only been scattered and not destroyed, then he still had a sliver of hope to gather the complete art.
***
Tianxing Island.
After discovering the Heavenly Demon Body Refinement, Qin Sang wasted no time and set off for Tianxing Island.
For the time being, he planned to pose as a rogue cultivator and rent a cave dwelling there. He had far too much to do and would need to remain on the island to gather resources.
The Inner Sea was far safer than the Demonic Sea. Qin Sang traveled alone and encountered no obstacles, soon arriving near Tianxing Island.
The command token he held for the Qiongyu Merchant Guild could no longer be used. Fortunately, he had anticipated this and had already forged the identity of a rogue cultivator, which he had used in the Demonic Sea. Now was the perfect time to use it again. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂
Canglang Sea was far vaster than the Small Cold Domain, but since the majority of it was ocean, most islands with spiritual veins were under the control of major powers.
After the war between righteous and devilish sects ended, they had joined forces to divide the sea into four regions and set rules for governance.
Even independent sects or groups outside the righteous and devilish paths faced fewer problems when their disciples traveled openly under an established identity.
