Exploring Immortality Cultivation

In a courtyard of Divine Capital, Wang Qi once again stood before the Circle of Reason.

"When I first created you, it was just to collect data. Little did I expect that now, I would be relying on you to save my life."

Wang Qi laughed self-deprecatingly, hanging various instruments and talismans on that gold and jade Circle, beginning a new round of data collection.

Then, he placed his palm onto the jade circle, once again channelled his mana, and made new adjustments to the divine spirit inside.

He had tried to adjust the Circle of Reason long ago, attempting to forcibly erase the Heart Demon Algorithm within the divine spirit. However, he later realized that this was unrealistic. The Heart Demon Curse was an essential part of the divine spirit's body, much like a spine. Wang Qi could change the structure of the Heart Demon Curse while ensuring the stability of the divine spirit's "body", but he could not completely remove it. Doing so would not only cause a complete failure of the divine spirit power, but also lead to the collapse of the divine spirit's structure.

The Circle of Reason was originally his experimental subject for the "Class Two Anti-Demon Spell"—a method that turned the Heart Demon Algorithm into meaningless code, as opposed to the "Class One Anti-Demon Spell," which directly refined the Heart Demon Curse Power and disconnected from the network. Due to scant success, Wang Qi had not continued. But now, with Ai Qinglan's assistance, this "Class Two Anti-Demon Spell" was gradually being perfected, prompting him to restart this validation.

The members of the "Circle of Reason" had long been incapacitated by Wang Qi's tactics, completely unaware of his arbitrary actions towards their revered divine figure. With every tremor of the non-personality god, more and more data were accumulated. The Heart Demon Curse Network and Wang Qi's thoughts were directly connected. Together with Jarvis's power, Wang Qi handled several strands of data simultaneously as his mind allowed. The data feedback from the Circle of Reason grew more abundant, and Wang Qi's understanding of the divine spirit deepened.

Now, he could even create a self-growing "god" with his bare hands. In terms of understanding gods, no one in Modern Immortal Tao could surpass him.

Now, he could be considered an expert in the field of Divine Tao.

Meanwhile, on the other side of Divine Capital, Du Chun was stretching his body, reciting scriptures. The gang qi within him vibrated, beginning to circulate along a peculiar trajectory. Invisible true qi rolled under his skin like shifting muscles. At the same time, his physical body divine treasure and the essence qi of organs were guided by his unique mana, rallying throughout his body and strengthening all bones and muscles.

"To reach great heights, one must build a solid foundation!" Zhen Chan shouted from the side: "This organ essence qi is the greatest treasure within the human body, normally accessible only during the Nascent Soul Stage. Now, oh, my technique has activated it for you ahead of time!"

"Yes!" Du Chun responded loudly. Even though it was still the bitter cold winter, his body was already drenched in sweat. He did not mind this hardship and exhaustion.

These days, he had not refrained from trying to enter Divine Capital, seeking aid from the Imperial Family and other friendly noble families. However, for some reason, whenever he entered Divine Capital, hostile cultivators appeared, troubling him. On the other hand, the local cultivators of Divine Capital that he knew had not shown up even once.

Zhen Chan had analyzed for him—suspecting that the purge against the Du family might involve other forces, even the Imperial Family's intervention.

Despairing of the entire world, Du Chun knew that if he lost his life, he had nothing left, and without power, he couldn't even protect his own life.

—In fact, the Heart Demon Curse Network had given Wang Qi a surveillance network that covered the entire Divine Capital. Meanwhile, the jade pendant on Du Chun that allowed Zhen Chan to reveal himself also functioned as a tracker. With such a great disparity in information, it would be too brainless for Wang Qi and others not to use Chen Feng's illusion techniques to trap this poor kid in a false world.

After completing a set of Guiding Skill, Du Chun looked at his hands, surprised, and said to Zhen Chan, "I really didn't expect it, Elder Zhen. The technique you gave me initially seemed like roadside goods, almost like a defective copy. I really didn't expect it to have so many wonderful uses."

It must be said that Ai Qinglan's level of writing techniques was very high, contrasting sharply with her carefree behavior. She had simply changed the frequency of heartbeat and breathing, added a few divine skills and spells, and included a set of Guiding Skill, allowing Du Chun to break through the original cultivation system on his own—unbeknownst to himself.

Zhen Chan seemed a bit distracted. He casually remarked, "Ah, yes, I didn't know when it was freshly developed..."

"Ah?" Du Chun asked in confusion: "Wasn't this created by you for me?"

Zhen Chan, unflinchingly patching up his own explanation, said, "The Circle of Reason, profound and unfathomable. Once you grasp this layer of wisdom, it isn't hard to see the infinite possibilities hidden within this set of techniques…"

Inside the illusion, Wang Qi, who had been monitoring the entire process, couldn't help but smile at Zhen Chan: "Old man, you're pretty skilled at tricking people!"

Zhen Chan was multitasking, fooling Du Chun while also speaking to Wang Qi: "After reaching the Divine Separation Stage, many cultivators specifically study how to deceive low-level cultivators who are after a bargain in situations with only a residual soul, ultimately taking possession of them."

Wang Qi's expression instantly turned horrified: "Damn, does that mean if I had followed your plan, I would have ended up the same?"

"You are a different case, used for expanding influence rather than taking possession."

"Let's skip this topic," Wang Qi shook his head, continuing the previous discussion with Zhen Chan: "This Law was recently researched by the Banished Immortals. Take a look, do you recognize it?"

Meanwhile, in the deeper recesses of his mind, several other consciousness streams quietly pressed on with other minor projects.

Du Chun once again entered into cultivation meditation. Utilizing the jade pendant he had left earlier, Wang Qi gathered another round of data.

Just then, a dialogue box suddenly popped up in Wang Qi's view: "The new round of data is out. Senior Sister Ai will probably finish today. Come back soon. —Chen Youjia."

Wang Qi's spirits lifted.

Since Ai Qinglan had helped them overcome their greatest obstacle, Wang Qi and his team's research progress had advanced by leaps and bounds. However, Ai Qinglan ultimately couldn't handle everything on her own. Now, about thirty percent of the anti-demon spell research had been handed over to luck and skin color by Ai Qinglan. The rest, Ai Qinglan herself took on the foundational work of the Anti-Demon Method and Divine Spirit System; Chen Youjia was responsible for turning the first class Anti-Demon Spells created by Ai Qinglan into engineered, technical solutions; Chen Feng handled the aspects of the anti-demon spell involving thought and soul—that is, the principles; Wang Qi, having the strongest computational power, took on the technical details of the Class Two Anti-Demon Spells.

The seamless cooperation of the four individuals led to this terrifying progress.

And now, the Anti-Heart Demon Spell was finally about to be developed, and the crisis caused by Heavenly Sword was also coming to an end!

Wang Qi walked on the street, overwhelmed with emotions.

At this moment, it was still the tenth day of the first month, and by all accounts, the festive period was still ongoing. However, Divine Capital was dead silent, devoid of any festive atmosphere.

A considerable number of people had been infected by the Heart Demon Curse, their personalities becoming extreme and bizarre. The rest who remained uninfected were also restricted from freely walking the streets due to martial law intended to stop the spread of the Heart Demon Curse. The entire Divine Capital had become desolate.

It will get better… probably.

——————————————————————————————

Divine Capital was in a state of desolation, and the Imperial Palace was no exception.

With Wang Qi's continuous upgrades on the Xia Gai Demon Worm, the pervasive Grand Pestilence Curse had unknowingly contaminated most of the Imperial Palace. Court ladies, eunuchs, and guards had almost become a part of the Grand Pestilence Curse Network. However, because Wang Qi deliberately suppressed the effects of the Heart Demon Curse, their behaviors did not show any overt abnormalities; they simply seemed more pessimistic than before.

It was indeed oddly timely for them to become pessimistic. Due to certain reasons, the entire Imperial Palace had fallen into an atmosphere of despair.

The reason…

Looking at the guard in front of him, whose mana and soul had been dyed blue, Zhao Qingfeng softly shook his head, "Your Majesty, you have failed again."

For some reason, recently, the Yi Family, determined to cooperate with the Banished Immortals, had started using the guards around them for trial tests and medications.

Emperor Da Lian, Yi Xuansheng, looked indifferently at a middle-aged man dressed as a noble, "Uncle Qi."

"Your Majesty, it is my incompetence," Prince Dan, Yi Qi, bowed deeply.

Zhao Qingfeng waved his hand, "It doesn't matter, Wang Qi's Gu Technique is not something that can be cured by medicine."

Yi Qi clenched his teeth, "If only we could get another batch of 'medicine men'..."

Zhao Qingfeng glared at the two of them, "We must keep enough people at all crucial places! Don't ruin the big plan just to break this Divine Art."

Yi Qi was dismissive, "We might not need so many people..."

"It's better to be safe than sorry. It seems Prince Dan has forgotten what we are involved in, hm?" Zhao Qingfeng's tone was low and implicitly threatening.

Yi Qi was still unconvinced, "Wang Qi's deliberate hijacking of Immortal Alliance's technology is more important!"

Zhao Qingfeng was about to say something when Lin Xiaoyun, the Banished Immortal Zhao Qingfeng had sent to try practicing the Refining God Demon Technique, quickly approached, "Brother Zhao, there are results."

Zhao Qingfeng looked at Lin Xiaoyun's ashen face and asked, "What happened? Was there a trap set in that technique? Don't worry, your brother will definitely..."

"There was no trap," Lin Xiaoyun's voice trembled slightly, "But…it's even more terrifying than a trap."

"What happened?"

Lin Xiaoyun saw the guard deeply infected by those three people's intentional guidance, and whispered, "This is a Divine Skill automatically formed by that cultivation technique—see for yourself..."

Lin Xiaoyun placed his hand on the body of the guard, radiating blue, and then activated the Divine Skill inherent in the Refining God Demon Technique. Spell Power surged towards Lin Xiaoyun, but he showed no signs of infection; instead, he refined that Spell Power.

"Having the ability to refine magic spells… to have such a capability!" Emperor Yi Xuansheng was so shocked he didn't know what to say, while on the other hand, Prince Dan felt his value had been utterly negated.

The impact on Zhao Qingfeng was greater than the sum of their reactions. With his eyes wide as if he had seen a ghost, he exclaimed, "This is against our Law!"

There was no trap in Wang Qi's cultivation technique, but rather… we had fallen into a trap...

Zhao Qingfeng felt his blood turn cold, gradually solidifying. (To be continued. If you like this work, feel free to visit Starting Point (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please go to m.qidian.com to read.)