Seeking Immortality in a Bizarre World

The treasures detailed on the list were far more complete and varied in kind than the previous ones.

This was an exchange list that ordinary cultivators had no chance to see: the Ancient Soul-Losing Bell, several top-ranked Divine Skills, and Longevity Fruits.

Precious treasures were always internally circulated within the Town Demon Alliance and were not easily shown to outsiders.

The Insect External Incarnation scrutinized the exchange list from top to bottom, searching for items to acquire.

It's imperative to acquire the crafting method for the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower, followed by the Longevity Fruit Tree. It isn't that I need Longevity Fruit to extend my life, but the mutated Longevity Bizarre hasn't been found, and it's suspected to be related to life-extending items. It's worth trying, even at some cost; success would be a cause for celebration. If the mutation fails, the loss wouldn't be severe and would still be within an acceptable range. The combined price of the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower and the Longevity Fruit Tree is still less than the undiscounted cost of crafting the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower.

The crafting method for the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower and the Longevity Fruit Tree cost seventy million Town Demon Alliance contribution points, leaving two hundred and thirty million contribution points remaining.

The Insect External Incarnation took the crafting method for the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower and examined it closely.

The Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower and the Demon-Sealing Tower had different crafting methods; many materials were replaced, and the complexity of the Inscription of Magical Treasures was several times greater. The Demon-Sealing Tower was intended for cultivator use, a simplified version of the Magical Treasure crafting method. To make it usable by cultivators, the amount of crafting materials was greatly reduced, and the Inscription of Magical Treasures was also simplified.

The Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower was different. It was a Sect's Magical Treasure specifically designed to seal a large number of Bizarre Demons. Its size and material consumption were tens of times larger, and the required materials were terrifyingly vast.

The Insect External Incarnation had acquired thirteen pieces of Profound Underworld Essence Stone from the Seven Seas Tower, which was just enough to craft a small Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower. Chonglou True Lord also had reserves of the other auxiliary materials, which saved him a lot of time.

Should I acquire the Ancient Soul-Losing Bell? Spending one hundred and forty million Town Demon Alliance contribution points would leave ninety million, at most enough to exchange for the Divine Skill, Great Blue Finger.

After exchanging for the Five Elements Divine Thunder and the Great Blue Finger, he had forty-one million Town Demon Alliance contribution points left.

Jia Ren's intention in acquiring the Soul-Losing Bell was to replicate it; it wasn't necessary to waste so many Town Demon Alliance contribution points.

Could I possibly borrow it for a while to study? Whether successful or not, I have to try.

"May I borrow the Soul-Losing Bell for a few days?"

"That won't be a problem!"

If it were anyone else, the Internal Affairs Director would not have lent out the Soul-Losing Bell. Even a small act of negligence on his part could not be covered by Fan Xin. Zhen Yi was different. With the Alliance Hierarch as his backer, this was a risk worth taking.

"Thank you, Brother Fan."

I can borrow the Soul-Losing Bell to study it. If I can replicate the Inscription, I can integrate it into my own system without merely copying it. Thus, the contribution points for exchanging the Soul-Losing Bell can be saved for more treasures.

"Exchange for the Divine Skills: Five Elements Divine Thunder, Great Blue Finger, and Star Luo Chess Board."

He was still eight million Town Demon Alliance contribution points short, so he made up the difference with a Golden Core Formation Pill and some materials.

With this, all the Town Demon Alliance contribution points were spent.

The Insect External Incarnation returned with the treasures to an unused courtyard in Eastern Forest Market City and entered the Mountain and Sea Pearl.

The main body stopped cultivating and dedicated itself to studying the Inscriptions and materials of the Soul-Losing Bell, aiming to master it quickly and return the Ancient Treasure.

The Insect External Incarnation, wearing the Evil-Warding Full Body Armor, entered the Medicinal Garden and proceeded to a Bizarre Garden specially established for Bizarre Demons. This place was perpetually under a Demon Sealing Formation to prevent contamination of the Spirit Medicine and the Spirit Beasts within the Mountain and Sea Pearl. The Bizarre Garden was gloomy and chilly, the air damp and cold, with various Bizarre Objects intermittently emitting spine-chilling noises.

The Insect External Incarnation found an empty spot and planted the newly acquired Longevity Fruit Tree. He took the collected blood and flesh of a Longevity Bizarre from the Evil-Absorbing Jade Box and applied it to the Longevity Fruit Tree. He visited it periodically.

「Half a month later」

The Longevity Fruit Tree was still alive. Its trunk and branches resembled human flesh, with vein-like patterns similar to human meridians.

The mutation was a success! Does this mean I can craft my own Longevity Gui Talisman? Or perhaps treasures that affect a target's lifespan? I'll call you the Longevity Trickster Fruit Tree then!

While studying the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower, Jia Ren also worked on creating his own Longevity Gui Talisman and Lifespan Specter Pill. He had made many types of Bizarre Talismans before, so the difficulty of creating a new one was greatly reduced. The Burning Spirit Pill his original body had taken was a treasure that reduced lifespan in exchange for a short boost of vitality. Among Talismans, there was the Withering and Flourishing Talisman, which could stimulate spiritual objects to accelerate growth and mature rapidly. The drawback was that these force-grown spiritual objects would also perish shortly thereafter. Jia Ren could use these two as a starting point to decrease the difficulty of creating his own Bizarre Talisman and Bizarre Pill.

He focused on studying effects that reduced lifespan, refining and combining them into life-reducing talismanic patterns. He paired these with the Longevity Trickster Fruit Tree and the blood and flesh of the Longevity Bizarre to craft the Longevity Gui Talisman.

Time flew by, and two years passed in the blink of an eye.

Inside the Mountain and Sea Pearl, a ninety-foot-tall giant pagoda stood, bearing some resemblance to the Demon-Sealing Tower, but the inscriptions carved on it were much more intricate.

The Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower had a ninety-nine-foot version and a nine-hundred-ninety-foot version. The nine-hundred-ninety-foot version was the Town Demon Alliance's Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower, and its crafting consumed many treasures. In earlier years, when materials for Warding Off Evil were abundant, four such towers were crafted in the Four Great Desolate Domains. Now, in an era where such materials were scarce, not even several Great Sects of the Western Wasteland Domain combined could gather enough materials to craft one.

The Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower that Jia Ren crafted was the ninety-nine-foot version. This treasure was not a Life-bound Magic Treasure, nor could it be stored in his Dantian. Neither the Storage Bag nor the River Mountain Bag had sufficient space to contain such a treasure. If he hadn't crafted the Mountain and Sea Pearl and upgraded it to the God Transformation Level, endowing it with tens of millions of cubic units of space, he would never have considered making such an item.

The Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower is the true Demon-Sealing Tower. What ordinary cultivators use can only be considered a simplified version. Only Great Sects and powerful factions would craft such an item, using it to seal a large number of Bizarre Demons. This was a pure Demon-Sealing Magical Treasure, possessing immense power to suppress and seal Bizarre Demons. Compared to a Demon-Sealing Tower of the same rank, the sealing capacity of the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower was more than three times greater.

The greatest advantage of the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower was its sufficiently large interior space. Even the smaller version had ninety-nine levels, each several times broader than those in a Demon-Sealing Tower, allowing it to accommodate many more Bizarre Demons. With this treasure, he could seal Bizarre Demons by the hundreds. Once the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower was filled, there would be no lack of Sacrificial Fire. His Personal Treasured Demon-Sealing Pagoda would take the elite route, sealing powerful Bizarre Demons to provide more Sacrificial Fire. The Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower would take the quantity route, sealing more Bizarre Demons.

In two years, the progress on the Supreme Demon-Sealing Tower had been smooth, but there had been no breakthroughs with the Longevity Gui Talisman and Lifespan Specter Pill. This was because the concocted Talisman Ink would not blend, which was the reason for the failures.

Why isn't the Longevity Trickster Fruit Tree working?

"Could it be that I need Longevity Trickster Fruit?"

Since the previous year, the Longevity Trickster Fruit Tree had sprouted pale flower buds, seeming poised to bear Longevity Trickster Fruit. However, only three pale flowers had sprouted on its branches, far fewer than expected. Even if the plan was feasible, the Longevity Gui Talisman and Lifespan Specter Pill could not be mass-produced.

There were only two solutions. First, find more Longevity Fruit Trees, mutating a vast number into Longevity Trickster Fruit Trees to produce Longevity Trickster Fruit and increase the total quantity. The second was to craft Magic Artifacts and Magical Treasures of the Longevity Bizarre type. Such treasures would not be consumables and could be used long-term, solving the quantity problem. To craft Longevity Bizarre-type treasures, he would have to wait until the Longevity Trickster Fruit had grown.

There's no chance of this happening in the short term. As the date for leaving this world approaches, I'll consider solving the problem after entering the Mysterious Realm.

Although there had been no results with the Longevity Gui Talisman and Lifespan Specter Pill, the Split Bizarre experiment had been a success. Just the previous day, the Splitting Specter Talisman had been created and was awaiting testing.

This matter was left to the Insect External Incarnation. Meanwhile, Jia Ren went to the Alchemy Room to refine the elixirs needed for his cultivation.

After slaying Zhuang Bo, he had acquired a vast number of spiritual medicines from the Ancient Spiritual Medicine Garden, an astonishing amount. The most precious was a spiritual medicine over five thousand years old, possessing formidable medicinal power—enough to make even a Divine Transformation Cultivator's heart race. There were also five other spiritual medicines over three thousand years old. Thousand-year spiritual medicines were too numerous to count, totaling over three hundred—truly a staggering wealth. If Zhuang Bo had put them up for sale, Jia Ren would not have had the financial power to acquire them all. If not for Zhuang Bo's penchant for murder and plunder, and his subsequent targeting of Jia Ren, he would have missed this opportunity.

The top-tier medicinal herbs are temporarily of no use; they might become invaluable when my Cultivation Level reaches the Nascent Soul and God-Transforming Phase.

Inside the Alchemy Room, elixirs refined from thousand-year spiritual medicines were completed, exuding an amazing fragrance. Golden Core Cultivators typically used elixirs refined primarily from spiritual medicines over five hundred years old. However, Jia Ren used thousand-year spiritual medicines as the main ingredients, crafting elixirs with even better effects. Each pill was a peerless divine product.

A batch of Jade Sea Lingluo Pills was completed, exuding a rich fragrance. After consumption, his cultivation speed surpassed what it was before.

Jia Ren collected the elixirs and entered the Cultivation Room for secluded cultivation, assimilating the medicinal power to advance his Cultivation Level.

Meanwhile, the Insect External Incarnation left Eastern Forest Market City, found a deserted area, and caught an unlucky Fox Demon.

"Today, I'll try it out on you!"

The First Order Fox Demon, suppressed by powerful Spiritual Power, was unable to move. Tears filled its eyes, giving it a pitiable, weak, and helpless appearance.

The Insect External Incarnation was devoid of emotion, remaining entirely unmoved.

As a Splitting Specter Talisman was activated, the peculiar power of the Split Bizarre affected an area several tens of zhang around. Instantly, the Fox Demon's body and limbs detached and scattered, running off into the distance. The Fox Demon let out a pitiful cry, its head floating in the sky as it chased after its fleeing body parts. If it could not reassemble its body within the duration of the Splitting Specter Talisman's effect, it would truly die.

"Can it continue to split?"

"If cultivators and Magical Beasts split into even smaller entities, the difficulty of reassembling their bodies increases."

A second Splitting Specter Talisman was thrown, but the Fox Demon's body did not split further, remaining in its separated state. Using two Splitting Specter Talismans together extended the duration of the Split Bizarre's power.

"Using multiple Splitting Specter Talismans together means the enemy lives longer… That's still a negative effect! If the Splitting Specter Talisman is paired with the Bewildering Charm, and the split body parts get lost, unable to reassemble, wouldn't that mean there's no chance of being put back together?"

At this thought, the Insect External Incarnation's eyes shone brightly, as though it had discovered a new realm of possibilities. The two together were a perfect match.

"This thing is really useful!"

Pairing the Splitting Specter Talisman with the Bewildering Charm could achieve area-of-effect attacks, killing invisibly. The more individuals split, the more chaotic the scene would become, and the harder it would be for them to reassemble their own bodies.

What if they end up reassembling with parts from someone else's body? What then?

Jia Ren couldn't help but imagine a cultivator with a dog's head...

While his mind wandered, the Tongluo Sound Disc rang.

"The time to leave this realm is near. Prepare to accompany me to the Mysterious Realm."