Chapter 35: Yang Zhengfeng's True Intentions!

"Too much..." After stepping into the Tempering Body Realm, Jiang Ning unlocked the entirety of the inherited memories that belonged to this stage. Previously, when he broke through to perfection, he had glimpsed the method of evolution through the opportunity of enlightenment, but that was only a part of the Tempering Body Realm's inherited memories.

"The so-called Tempering Body Realm allows the cultivation of techniques, and naturally, the inherited memories of the Immortal Spirit Body contain such methods... This technique is the method by which the Immortal Spirit Body continuously absorbs bloodlines to evolve itself!"

"It is named 'Genesis.'"

Such was the name of the evolution method itself. Upon entering the Tempering Body Realm, he acquired the complete first chapter of this method, making it far more comprehensive than what he'd gained before.

Jiang Ning activated the power of his bloodline—a fusion of three first-grade bloodlines, combined with the bloodline of the Immortal Spirit Body itself, forming a unique bloodline entirely his own.

"The first chapter of the technique allows evolution up to a third-grade bloodline."

Jiang Ning had never seen such a heaven-defying technique... At least, he'd never heard of any method capable of evolving bloodlines. Of course, this was thanks to the Immortal Spirit Body.

The two complemented each other; it was a unique technique belonging solely to the Immortal Spirit Body.

"There is only one inherited secret technique—Devour."

To contain all things, naturally, one can devour all things. There were no complicated secret arts handed down. This single move alone was enough to defy the heavens!

Devouring all things, transforming them into one's own energy.

Just now, as he evolved into a first-grade bloodline and activated the inherited secret technique, the devouring art began. The energy from the beast blood within the giant cauldron was frantically absorbed into his body, even the pill emitting a cold aura was swept up and devoured, instantly transformed into pure energy absorbed into his body.

Thus he crossed that chasm-like threshold.

From the Perfection of the Opening Realm, he stepped directly into the Tempering Body Realm!

...

"The other two first-grade bloodlines I refined did not have inherited secret techniques..."

Yet Jiang Ning found this normal.

Inherited secret techniques are innate skills—not every bloodline possesses them.

He was already satisfied to have inherited the secret technique of the Two-Yellow bloodline.

Nevertheless, refining these two bloodlines brought him many benefits—one strengthened his body, the other increased his speed.

Jiang Ning speculated that one came from a beast with formidable physical strength, and the other perhaps from a first-grade avian bloodline.

After refinement, he had forged a bloodline unique to himself, further enhancing his own powers.

At this moment, he felt that a single punch could carry the force of a thousand catties, and liquid spiritual energy had formed in his dantian.

The Tempering Body Realm disperses the spiritual energy in the dantian, merging it throughout the body, absorbing spiritual energy from the meridians and compressing it into liquid form.

Far more robust.

And the amount of energy Jiang Ning absorbed during his breakthrough was immense, elevating him to the peak of the first layer of the Tempering Body Realm.

"The benefits are self-evident."

Though he did not know why—evolving his bloodline brought lightning down upon him, and stepping into the Tempering Body Realm did as well—this completely washed away all traces of the Grand Dao's imprint, making his body even more formidable.

Jiang Ning felt as though he could tear open space itself.

Of course, this was merely an illusion brought on by his sudden surge in power.

"The Grand Dao's imprint has been washed away, and that feeling of dissonance during enlightenment has vanished..."

Aside from this, the unlocking of inherited memories brought an immense flood of information into Jiang Ning's mind!

It was not a technique, nor a secret art.

Yet it was a vast treasure.

Boundless and multitudinous, it rushed into Jiang Ning's memories, and as he continued to accept this knowledge, he became immersed in it.

"Alchemy, formations, countless other branches of knowledge..."

It contained far too much.

Had he not reached the Perfection of the Opening Realm and awakened his spiritual consciousness, he might have fainted from the sheer volume...

After a long while, Jiang Ning finally regained his senses from this state. He thought of all Yang Zhengfeng had done to him—the beast blood, the imprint of the Grand Dao, and that pill he had originally failed to recognize, cold and chilling...

"So this is what happened!"

He suddenly opened his eyes wide. Relying on the vast and complex inherited memories, he searched for the relevant information and finally uncovered the secret behind Yang Zhengfeng's actions!

"It was not for possession! He wants to use countless bodies to fulfill his own Dao! He wishes to deceive heaven and earth, to live eternally by the path of the wicked!"

Shock flashed in Jiang Ning's eyes!

The Grand Dao's imprint hid Yang Zhengfeng's own comprehension of the Dao—this Jiang Ning had guessed, and Li Zhenyu had not been wrong.

But Yang Zhengfeng was not seeking to possess Jiang Ning's body. By refining his body with beast blood, it was all for that pill!

He intended to combine beast blood and Jiang Ning's affinity for the natural Dao, caring little whether Jiang Ning lived or died. The shell of Jiang Ning's body, imprinted with his Dao, could be fused into the pill.

He was using beast blood and Jiang Ning's body to nurture the pill.

Sending the pill into the giant cauldron was to accelerate its fusion; his time was running short.

If successful, he would obtain a perfected pill, and Jiang Ning would surely die.

Delving into inherited memories, Jiang Ning discovered the pill was named Soul-Transforming Corpse Pill.

The name alone suggested nothing good...

It was an exceedingly strange pill, requiring dozens of herbs to coalesce, some rumored to grow only along the banks of the Yellow Springs, nearly impossible to find.

That was not all. For the pill to reach completion, it had to be nurtured with three bloodlines—the higher the bloodline grade, the more potent the final pill.

Clearly, Yang Zhengfeng had only found two first-grade beast bloods.

For the third, he planned to use a blend of various beast bloods, combined with Jiang Ning's unique physique, as the final nurturing bloodline. Moreover, Jiang Ning's body contained his own Grand Dao imprint, allowing him both control over Jiang Ning and the ability to prevent unforeseen consequences after the pill was completed—the imprint could lock the pill.

This pill's strangeness was mentioned in Jiang Ning's inherited memories: all outcomes were uncontrollable. When the pill was completed, it might trigger mutations—either rejected by heaven and earth, or the pill might develop its own consciousness and escape...

"I originally thought the Grand Dao imprint was meant to control me, or to possess me. Clearly, it was not so—the old man has far more horrifying intentions!"

Jiang Ning broke out in cold sweat.

The Grand Dao imprint was merely a contingency plan, an extra preparation outside the chessboard.

But once the pill was completed and consumed, things became even stranger.

...

The Soul-Transforming Corpse Pill, once ingested, would turn a person into something neither human nor ghost—a corpse, yet also a spirit.

On the path of cultivation: beasts cultivate as beasts; humans as ordinary cultivators, or those who stray into the demonic path.

But once this pill is consumed, one no longer belongs to any of these three branches—outside the laws of heaven and earth, outside the five elements, not part of the ghosts of the Yellow Springs. It exists between them all, surviving through subterfuge.

To become a spirit corpse is to gain one trait: immortality!

One can live forever, yet one's cultivation remains unchanged—the realm before ingestion is the realm retained after.

The higher a cultivator's realm, the higher the grade of Soul-Transforming Corpse Pill required!

A pill nurtured with first-grade bloodlines could freeze the consumer's cultivation at the Divine-Demon Realm...

"He wants to be immortal, but immortality alone is not alluring enough for a cultivator—why does he insist?"

Jiang Ning was puzzled.

He now understood why Yang Zhengfeng had captured him, and knew Yang Zhengfeng's schemes, but still could not comprehend.

Immortality is indeed tempting, yet what cultivators seek is immortality at the pinnacle.

Not stagnation—living in a form neither human nor ghost!

"Could it be that the old man has seen through the vanity of the world and only wishes to live on, witnessing others?"

Jiang Ning found this unlikely. To exist in such a manner, neither human nor ghost, through trickery, with stagnant cultivation—what merit is there?

Even if it seemed advantageous at first, madness would surely follow.

Jiang Ning did not believe the old man, with his years, could be so shortsighted. That is why, even when others obtained this pill recipe, none tried it. First, higher realms require higher grade pills.

That means more advanced bloodlines and rare herbs.

The price is too high.

Second, as a powerhouse, one would rather merge with the Dao than survive in such a form.

"This old man must have been planning from the start—since more than half a year ago, from the moment he discovered my unique physique..."

To plan so early, just for this kind of immortality?

Such immortality, for Yang Zhengfeng, would be slower than simply possessing Jiang Ning.

Jiang Ning could not fathom it.

But a moment later, he suddenly thought of those elders, remembered the strange Yang Xiangtian.

And then, the death array he sensed atop the Enlightenment Cliff!

"The true intent of Yang Zhengfeng is actually..."

His eyes widened, cold sweat pouring down, his hair standing on end!

He had thought of something truly terrifying!