The End of the Immortal Path

Uncle Tong said softly, "You were just calling him a fool, but Song Qing is genuinely lucky. Of course, it also has something to do with his character.

"If you were in his shoes, you wouldn’t be able to become friends with a Golden Core Ancestor either."

The young guard nodded. "That’s true. I won’t deny it, he does have his merits. It’s quite enviable. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to live in the Sect."

"Then do you want to go?" a sudden voice asked.

The two looked outside and found Song Qing standing there, though they didn’t know for how long.

He looked rather haggard, with obvious dark circles under his eyes.

The young guard immediately stood up, nervous. "How much did you hear?"

Song Qing answered honestly, "I heard everything."

The young guard sat back down, feeling like it was all over for him.

Uncle Tong, however, said, "Come in and sit down. Did you come back alone?"

"Miss Cheng brought me back. I have to leave in three days. I came looking for him." Song Qing looked at the young guard.

"Looking to settle scores with me?" the young guard said. "I may have spoken ill of you, but I was telling the truth. My words might have been harsh, but you’re the one who did those things.

"If you want me to compensate you, fine, but you can’t ask for too much."

Song Qing didn’t say much more. Instead, he took out an envelope and looked at the young guard. "A letter of appointment from the Sect. I want to hire you."

The young guard froze, finding it hard to believe.

Song Qing continued, "You can go work in the Sect, but it’s just as a chef in a shop. Also, Young Master Jiang is facing an unprecedented crisis, so going there will be dangerous. You need to think it over carefully."

The young guard didn’t even hesitate. "Just tell me who we need to kill," he said immediately.

—

Meanwhile, in a lavish room.

Tantai Xue laughed in exasperation. "What do you mean, ’things are strict lately, the Messenger can’t receive any Spiritual Source, so progress is stalled’?

"What kind of trash is the Ling Hua Immortal Spirit recruiting?"

The Spiritual Tablet also let out a sigh. "It is indeed surprising. To have Spiritual Source that can’t be spent."

Tantai Xue sighed helplessly. "Raise the price. I want to see this Messenger again."

She had never imagined there could be such a difficult Messenger.

He didn’t seem to care one bit about awakening the Immortal Spirit.

Elsewhere.

Chen Shi met with the rotund man.

Both of them had a headache.

If the Messenger couldn’t receive Spiritual Source, he definitely wouldn’t do anything.

Others didn’t know, but they did.

The Messenger was a mole from the Sect.

He couldn’t care less whether the Immortal Spirit lived or died.

He only wanted Spiritual Source. Even if their identities were exposed, as long as the other party was short on Spiritual Source, he would definitely report them one by one.

He didn’t care at all about the consequences.

So no matter how the mysterious Immortal Spirit’s subordinates urged them, they had to deliver the Spiritual Source first.

"Have you made contact?" the rotund man asked.

"Yes. We can only buy it secretly at night now. We’re afraid of being reported and targeted by certain people," Chen Shi said helplessly.

What they feared now wasn’t being discovered as members of the Immortal Spirit Sect.

It was the fear of being reported, and then having those people use the Peak Master’s attitude as a pretext to target them.

"The person you send must be discreet. Don’t let them get caught," said the rotund man.

Chen Shi sighed. "The one we sent is a woman. There are plenty of excuses she can use."

Then, the rotund man said, "We’re slowly filtering out those loyal to the Messenger. Some people’s attitudes are unclear, but others are extremely unyielding.

"It’s not having much of an impact for now, but the longer this goes on, the more likely it is that trouble will start."

"It’s fine," Chen Shi said calmly. "I’m the one communicating with that mysterious person now. Doesn’t she know many people’s identities? We can buy the information, report them, send the list to the Law Enforcement Hall, and leave the Messenger’s name out of it while delivering his Spiritual Source."

The rotund man: "..."

——

At this moment, Jiang Man was neither curious about the letter nor concerned with the Evil God.

There was only one thing on his mind: to cultivate nonstop and break through his current level of Cultivation.

Everything else was just a means to become stronger.

Now that he had a path to strength, there was no need to pay attention to anything else.

The Bai Family Ancestor, the awakening of the Evil God...

All of it could wait.

「Six days later.」

Jiang Man consumed thirteen Mind Stabilizing Pills and successfully opened his third Spirit Gourd.

His Spiritual Level reached the Late Stage.

Next was his Physical Body.

Just like with his Spirit, it took two and a half days for the Flesh Body Gourd to accumulate 10% of its required energy.

In a little over a month, he could smoothly advance to the Late Stage of the Physical Body.

All that remained was to see how difficult it would be to fill the Cultivation Gourd.

「End of the seventh month.」

The Flesh Body Gourd reached 60% accumulation.

「Eighth month, tenth day.」

The Flesh Body Gourd reached 100% accumulation.

Jiang Man didn’t stop, but continued to press for a breakthrough.

This time, it wasn’t as smooth.

It took a total of eighteen Glazed Pills to successfully open the third Flesh Body Gourd.

He had consumed sixty-eight Chao Yuan Glaze Pills in total.

This speed was only possible because his Hundred Rivers Series had reached Great Success, and his Golden Core, Physical Body, and Spirit were all seamlessly connected.

Under normal circumstances, sixty-eight pills would have been far from enough.

Now, Jiang Man was left with twelve Chao Yuan Glaze Pills, eleven Chao Yuan Dingshen Pills, 30,000 Spiritual Source, and over forty red fruits.

Even if the red fruits could substitute for Shaoyin Pills, it still wouldn’t be enough to advance to Golden Core Perfection.

Jiang Man did the math and realized that achieving a quick breakthrough was truly difficult.

He voiced his troubles to Old Huang, but Old Huang paid him no mind.

It was now the twentieth of the eighth month. There wasn’t much time left before the Immortal Sect Grand Competition in the tenth month.

"Still no reaction from the Unparalleled Celestial Pride Fate Chart?" the Old Yellow Ox suddenly asked.

Jiang Man nodded. "None. It’s been almost a month with no reaction at all. I have no idea what kind of trouble it’s brewing this time."

This wasn’t the first time the Unparalleled Celestial Pride had gone silent, so Jiang Man wasn’t surprised.

’Let it struggle. I’ll see what its limits are.’

The Old Yellow Ox reminded him, "Then you need to be careful. The Fate Chart might only react once you’ve entered the Immortal Sect Grand Competition.

"At that point, you’ll have no resources and no one to explain things to you.

"It’ll be very easy for problems to arise."

Jiang Man thought for a moment. "The next requirement from the Fate Chart will, at most, make me advance to the Primordial Spirit realm, right?"

The Old Yellow Ox didn’t answer.

It didn’t know.

"Actually, there’s an option that could save you a lot of Spiritual Source," the Old Yellow Ox said.

"What is it?" Jiang Man asked.

"Give up on improving your Physical Body and Spirit." The Old Yellow Ox looked at Jiang Man and spoke seriously. "Your Spirit and Physical Body have already reached the Late Stage, which meets the basic requirements for advancing to the Primordial Spirit realm.

"Plus, you’ve already integrated your Golden Core with your Physical Body and Spirit.

"Your current condition is far, far above the baseline.

"Your probability of successfully forming a Primordial Spirit is over fifty percent.

"The only side effect is that after you advance, you won’t be able to reach your absolute peak state as a Primordial Spirit."

"So I wouldn’t be invincible among those of the Same Tier?" Jiang Man asked.

The Old Yellow Ox nodded slightly. "But you’d still be far stronger than someone at Golden Core Perfection."

Jiang Man nodded. Old Huang’s suggestion could be a backup plan.

As for now....

Jiang Man chose to sell all his remaining Elixirs and buy Chao Yuan Shaoyin Pills.

The twenty-three Elixirs sold for two thousand each.

That’s a total of 46,000 Spiritual Source. Adding his original 30,000, he now had 76,000 in total.

Chao Yuan Shaoyin Pills sold for 2,800. Buying from the Law Enforcement Hall gave a 5% discount.

That meant he could buy twenty-eight pills.

Twenty-eight pills plus the red fruits would give him over seventy in total.

Jiang Man began cultivating All Rivers Flow into the Sea to fill his Cultivation Gourd.

He could consume two Elixirs a day.

After three and a half days, he had only accumulated 10%.

That meant it took seven pills for 10% accumulation.

He would need seventy pills to reach 100%.

After that, Jiang Man started eating the fruits to advance.

It also took three and a half days to accumulate 10%.

But he only consumed five fruits.

At this, Jiang Man breathed a sigh of relief. It was enough to break through to Golden Core Perfection.

The only question was whether he had enough time.

「First of the ninth month.」

The Cultivation Gourd reached 30% accumulation.

「Eleventh of the ninth month.」

Sixth Layer.

「Twenty-fifth of the ninth month.」

100%.

There were five days left.

Jiang Man felt it might not be enough, but he could give it a try.

———

Meanwhile.

Qin Wen found Ye Jingtian again. "It will be the first of the tenth month in a few days. We will be some distance apart at the start, so we’ll need you to submit your position every two hours.

"That way, we can rendezvous as quickly as possible and face the upcoming challenges together."

Ye Jingtian nodded. "We will."

「First of the tenth month.」

The Immortal Sect Grand Competition was about to begin.

Ye Jingtian and the others arrived at the Law Enforcement Hall.

They saw Jiang Man walking out from inside.

In a secluded spot, Ye Jingtian gave Jiang Man 80,000 Spiritual Source and a Secret Skill, saying calmly, "A person named Qin Wen gave these to us. The Secret Skill is for reporting our position to them.

"We couldn’t refuse, so once we’re inside, we will use the Secret Skill to tell them our location.

"If you want to report your position yourself, you can do that too.

"As for the Spiritual Source, they only gave us 50,000.

"We added 30,000 of our own."