Exploring Immortality Cultivation-Chapter 984 - 69: Transaction and Cultivation

In the eyes of others, a Banished Immortal seems incredibly illustrious, achieving the leap from mortal to immortal in one step. What others must struggle tirelessly to accomplish, they have already proven in a past life. The cultivation in this life is merely retracing the steps of a previous one, reaping the fruits of past efforts.

Mortals have a deep belief in karma and retribution. To them, the "past life cultivation, present life gain" of a Banished Immortal is simply the most ideal form within their dreams.

However, from the perspective of those on a higher level, these Banished Immortals are actually exceptionally unfortunate.

In essence, immortals grow stronger the longer they live. By steadily devouring the energies of all heavens and myriad worlds, they can exponentially increase in power, eventually surpassing former and potential rivals. These beings, who can roam the cosmos with such freedom, must have been extraordinarily unlucky to die in some ordinary realm, forcing them to weave a disguise while their true self sleeps deep within their consciousness.

And among this group of especially unfortunate beings, the Holy Emperor Venerable stands out as particularly pitiable.

He had barely become an immortal and had not had much time to plunder many worlds before being killed by an existence in this realm. Because of fragmented memories, he wasn't even sure whose hands ended his life, and so he lived the first few thousand years very cautiously, only daring to plan in secret.

He feared acting recklessly and consequently provoking an immensely powerful Great Power to crush him.

And then, his momentary forbearance resulted in the rise of an extremely powerful heterodox.

It wasn't until several hundred years ago that he met a second being of equal standing, similarly dead here, reborn through the method of Banished Immortal as Lord Hongtian.

In the face of Lord Hongtian, the Holy Emperor Venerable always felt pressured. Lord Hongtian's accumulation was not something he could compare to. The other party achieved in a few hundred years what outmatched the results of the Holy Emperor Venerable's millennia of planning.

Then... it seemed that due to underestimating the heterodox too much, he stumbled.

This is also a rather curious point. Lord Hongtian seemed particularly wary of the Dragon Clan yet underestimated the Human Clan. In the Holy Emperor Venerable's awareness, aside from the Ancient Dragon Emperor lurking in the Holy Dragon Abyss, the Dragon Clan posed no threat to him. [After all, the Holy Emperor Venerable only knew about the Dragon Clan in Shenzhou. The true elite of the Dragon Clan had already moved to the Jupiter Ring.] But the Human Clan... was quite terrifying.

Even though he survived, Lord Hongtian seemed to have lost so much of his memory that even his personality changed.

Yet even with that, his accumulations were still richer than those of the Holy Emperor Venerable.

Recently, the "misfortune" of the Holy Emperor Venerable seemed only to worsen. A mysterious "Banished Immortal" had set their sights on him. He had no understanding of the opponent, yet the opponent seemed to know him completely.

Moreover, in his hand, the opponent held the fragment of the Immortal Dao Burning Book List that the Holy Emperor Venerable was determined to obtain.

Through the Spirit Sense obtained from the final "Seventh Holy War," the Holy Emperor Venerable was sure that it was the Divine Tao Scroll he desired most.

In the end, the Holy Emperor Venerable still missed it.

In the Jinshen Hall, the Holy Emperor Venerable once again took out a bell.

He didn't have many of these bells left. This was the fourth to last one.

"Heavenly Lord Hong." The Holy Emperor Venerable shook the bell and said, "I've been attacked by a Banished Immortal adept in the Divine Tao."

"Adept in the Divine Tao? Banished Immortal?" The other party's tone contained three parts skepticism and seven parts curiosity: "In this realm with strong heterodox Qi Fortune, there's actually a Banished Immortal who can grow? It sounds quite intriguing! Come, come, tell me more…"

The Holy Emperor Venerable couldn't stand this jesting tone and said flatly, "He holds a fragment of the Immortal Dao Burning Book List, the Divine Tao Scroll."

"Is that so?"

A slight hint of anger flickered in the Holy Emperor Venerable's eyes: "The last time I got word of that Immortal Dao Burning Book List Divine Tao Scroll, I heard it was in the hands of the Banished Immortal Zhao Qingfeng. And Zhao Qingfeng, is your Transcend Tribulation body, correct?"

"So?" The voice carried a kind of pretended "innocence," as if saying, "I just don't understand pretending to understand."

"Do you have dealings with other Banished Immortals?" The Holy Emperor Venerable asked: "The terms I promised you last time still stand. The Divine Tao Scroll of the Immortal Dao Burning Book List, I am determined to obtain."

"I would also like to get more people from you. It's quite lonely here, really makes one feel solitary..." Lord Hongtian lamented: "But I truly don't know. Regarding Zhao Qingfeng, because of consecutive injuries last time, I can't recall."

The Holy Emperor Venerable strained to discern whether this statement was true or false. However, Lord Hongtian's tone held no fluctuations, every word was insubstantial, making it impossible to distinguish the truth.

The Holy Emperor Venerable said, "Then let's leave it at that. That Banished Immortal, I'll deal with personally. Besides, I want to modify our transaction. The population you want, I will deliver in batches within half a year. Correspondingly, within half a year you'll need to bring me the items I want in batches as well."

"Very well, how do you plan to trade?"

"First..."

............

Just as the Holy Emperor Venerable attempted to involve the entire Spirit Phoenix Island in a transaction, Wang Qi was perfecting his cultivation method.

For him, deciphering the cultivation method of the Holy Emperor Venerable, perfecting his own cultivation method, these two tasks could be combined into one.

The cultivation method of the Holy Emperor Venerable can be seen as establishing a stable system within the Chaos System and establishing a spell system within the Human Dao System. Some aspects of it vaguely connect with network engineering, which is precisely the next direction for Wang Qi's cultivation technique.

Wang Qi had once envisioned that the ultimate state of his Spirit Rhinoceros Illusion should be to spread the "self" into a broad network with the aid of outer objects, using weak cultivation to control powerful outer objects.

At such a level, a practitioner at the Golden Core Stage could transform into a Skynet and manipulate an endless array of puppets.

If the mechanisms are robust enough, a single Golden Core Stage practitioner could suppress an entire planet.

In the second confrontation, Wang Qi glimpsed many secrets.

If that vast Divine Country is the "function" of the Human Dao method painstakingly managed by the Holy Emperor Venerable, then what Wang Qi had just glimpsed, the overall structure of Spirit Phoenix Island, is the "software" of this Human Dao method.

And those "Fallen Cultivators" are the "hardware."

They are the crux of the entire Spirit Phoenix Island's Human Dao System solidification.

Originally, the Power of Human Dao did not constantly exist. It only transfers when two people make contact and generate interaction, with a weak power flowing from one person to another.

The "sum" of this weak power forms the physical entity of the Human Dao.

In the words of an Ancient Method Practitioner, the Power of Human Dao is something that does not manifest during "extinction" but reveals itself during "cause."

And for those unlucky souls whose cultivation was suppressed, part of their mana was transformed in form by the Holy Emperor Venerable, approaching the Power of Divine Tao. They have become "base stations" that receive and transmit the Power of Human Dao. Some "connections" were simply solidified.

This is the hardware foundation of the Virtual Divine Country.

He even vaguely understood the role of those cultivation methods spread by the Holy Emperor Venerable.

The practitioners of those methods might have insignificant strength, but they are a marvelous "application." The cultivation method passed down by the Holy Emperor Venerable makes subtle adjustments to the individual Human Dao system.

Those methods harness the power of Human Dao to combat opponents. The more these individuals rely on the power of Human Dao, the more active that aspect of the Human Dao becomes.

Moreover, the methods taught by the Holy Emperor Venerable are lost traditions. These methods are either closely linked to a significant element of the Shenzhou People Clan's civilization or connected to certain ancient Divine Taos.

If somewhat stretched, one could say that these methods all contain specific "memes." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

When others see those adventurers, they will naturally seek out the origins of these "Adventure Cultivation Methods." Thus, some ancient things buried in history can be rediscovered.

This approach, although it cannot reconstruct certain Divine Taos on Spirit Phoenix Island, can evoke particular "meme" impressions.

The altered cultivation methods by the Holy Emperor Venerable seemingly generate faint disturbances in the Human Dao system using these "impressions."

As for why the Holy Emperor Venerable does this, Wang Qi does not know.

However, it doesn't matter. For Wang Qi, the most significant thing is that he has found a sort of insight within this scenario.

This insight is both the way he verifies his cultivation methods and the strategy to disrupt the Holy Emperor Venerable's plan.

"Old man, let's come up with a plan and pull off something big," Wang Qi said to his ring, "Help me devise a reliable plan... I need to spread some 'original' cultivation methods."

By spreading his cultivation methods, Wang Qi can subtly change the hearts of people on Spirit Phoenix Island. More importantly, those who practice his methods will unknowingly become Wang Qi's "laying hens," a stepping stone in his attack on the Holy Emperor Venerable Divine Country.

This is akin to inserting a virus-laden USB drive into a physically disconnected computer.

Moreover, the cultivation methods Wang Qi plans to distribute are variants of the data-driven cultivation method.

If his cultivation method equates to an operating system like Windows, the things he disseminates could be seen as application programs.

Ultimately, the results of these methods will also feedback into his own cultivation methods.

This effectively turns those people into "volunteers" for experimenting with his cultivation technique, achieving two goals with one action.

Even after living for thousands of years, this kind of request is something Zhen Chan had never heard of before. However, since it was meant to trick the Emperor's Extreme Split Sky Dao, the old man gladly accepted the task.

When it comes to patience, Wang Qi has never been strong. Without waiting for Zhen Chan's response, he prepared for the first phase of his experiment—testing the waters at the Luochen Sword Palace.

Then, the next day, all Nascent Soul Stage cultivators made a complete 180 in their attitudes toward their disciples. They warmly approached their disciples, offering them one or two cultivation methods they had never seen before. The elders stated these methods were newly acquired by the Luochen Sword Palace, instructing them to practice.

On the other hand, the twelve disciples who received the "system" discovered that something extraordinary had appeared on their shopping interfaces.