Longevity: Starting as a menial servant in the Green Wood Sect

Chapter 78 Exploring the Path to the Underworld

The deeper one goes, the more intense the bone-chilling cold becomes. This cold is not the simple low temperature of winter snow, but a malevolent energy that can penetrate the skin and reach the very marrow. If an ordinary person without cultivation is not protected, they will freeze to death on the spot after only a quarter of an hour in this fog, their blood freezing into black ice.

Gu An sat hunched over on the carriage shaft, which was covered in filth and blood, and flicked the whip made of twisted animal sinew in his hand idly.

He looks so different now that even his closest friends might not recognize him.

To match his identity as the "recycling team leader," and to survive in the territory of the Corpse Puppet Sect, he not only covered his entire body with foul-smelling corpse oil, but also pushed the "Corpse Control Technique" to its limit.

The life force within his body was forcibly reversed by the "Life Forest Wood Technique," suppressed to the deepest point of his dantian. What flowed through his meridians was no longer the warm and moist green wood spiritual energy, but a gray, lifeless, and heavily earthy fake corpse aura.

His face was a sickly bluish-gray, his eyes were sunken, cloudy and lifeless, staring blankly into the void ahead. His lips were slightly parted, and occasionally he would twitch uncontrollably. He looked exactly like a half-crippled person who had spent years with corpses and whose brain had been invaded by corpse poison.

"call……"

Gu An exhaled a breath of white air, which dissipated as soon as it left his mouth, without any warmth.

"This place is practically a natural breeding ground for corpses."

He secretly became wary.

Visibility was reduced to less than thirty feet. In the gray haze, one could occasionally see the twisted and grotesque shadows of withered trees, resembling menacing ghosts. The air was filled with a stale, sweet, and pungent odor, the distinctive smell of a large number of corpses piling up and fermenting.

If it were anyone else, even a cultivator at the mid-stage of Qi Refining, they would have to constantly activate their protective spiritual light to resist the erosion of the evil energy in this environment.

But Gu An felt as if every pore on his body was opening up.

The Yi Wood True Qi within his body, refined through countless trials by poisons, was like a joyful fish, greedily devouring the surrounding Yin Sha Wood Qi. This environment, far from suppressing him, actually provided a slight boost.

"The first checkpoint should be just ahead."

Gu An squinted his cloudy eyes and vaguely saw two huge towers standing in front of him through the gray fog.

The tower was entirely black, constructed from some unknown black rock, and its surface was covered with dark red runes. At the top of the tower, a huge white skeletal skull hung, its eye sockets burning with eerie green flames, serving as both illumination and warning.

"stop!"

A cold, hoarse growl came from below the tower.

As the voice faded, several figures emerged from the shadows and stood in front of the beast-drawn carriage.

Those were four disciples of the Corpse Puppet Sect dressed in black robes. They were all pale-faced, with sinister eyes, and surrounded by lingering black energy.

Beside them, three large, green-furred zombies were led around the wheelbarrow. Thick iron chains clung to their necks, drool dripped from their mouths, and their bloodshot eyes were fixed on the severed limbs on the wheelbarrow, emitting longing growls from their throats.

"The recycling team?"

The leader, a disciple of the Corpse Puppet Sect, had a hooked nose and his cultivation level was around the fifth level of Qi Refining. He didn't approach, but instead covered his nose in disgust and pointed at Gu An with his bone staff.

"Token".

Gu An didn't speak, but slowly and stiffly pulled two plaques out of his pocket.

One was the waist tag for the recycling team given to him by Zhou Tong, and the other was a skull-shaped black token extorted from a bald, burly man on the black market.

He shrank back as if afraid of the light, trembling as he handed over the token, muttering indistinctly, "Delivery...delivery...fresh..."

The hook-nosed man didn't reach out to take it; instead, he released his divine sense and scanned Gu An and the tokens without restraint.

At that moment, Gu An's heart almost stopped beating.

He fully activated the Corpse Control Technique and Turtle Breathing Technique within his body, locking away the last trace of life force belonging to the living, while actively guiding the death energy in his meridians to spread outwards, catering to the opponent's spiritual probing.

In the senses of that hook-nosed man, Gu An before him was like a piece of rotten wood buried in the ground.

The spiritual energy fluctuations were extremely weak and turbid, and the meridians were filled with mottled corpse poison, clearly indicating that years of contact with corpses had completely destroyed his foundation. In the cultivation world, such a person would be nothing more than a bottom-tier consumable; let alone cultivate, it would be a stroke of luck if he could live for another three to five years.

"It stinks like hell."

The hook-nosed man withdrew his divine sense, and the wariness in his eyes vanished instantly, replaced by deep contempt and disgust.

He did not discover Gu An's disguise.

After all, who would have thought that a useless rogue cultivator at the third level of Qi Refining would possess such a profound secret technique that could simulate corpse energy? And who would have thought that beneath this half-dead body lay a ruthless heart capable of killing beyond one's level?

"That black token was given to you by Baldy Zhang, wasn't it?"

The hook-nosed man glanced at the black skull token and sneered, "That bald guy certainly knows how to save trouble. He doesn't dare come to this yin and evil place himself, so he just brings in some short-lived ghosts to die."

Although his words were harsh, upon seeing the token, he clearly regarded Gu An as one of his own—or rather, a laborer controlled by the peripheral forces of the Corpse Puppet Sect.

"Go in."

Hook-nosed man waved his bone staff, and the green-haired zombies blocking his way, though roaring unwillingly, obediently made way under their master's control.

"Remember, you can only move around in the landfill and the outer mine tunnels. If you dare to trespass into the core forbidden area and get torn to pieces by the armored zombies and fed to their dogs, don't blame me for not warning you."

"Yes...yes..."

Gu An nodded and bowed woodenly, climbing back onto the carriage shaft like a puppet on a string.

"drive……"

He gave a hoarse shout and squeezed his legs tightly around the scaled beast's belly.

The cart started moving again, and under the disdainful gaze of the Corpse Puppet Sect disciples, it slowly drove into the gate between the two dark towers.

……

After passing through the checkpoint, the scene before us suddenly opened up, but it was also even more shocking.

This is an enormous natural sinkhole, like a scar on the earth. The four walls of the sinkhole are densely covered with countless dark mine tunnels, like a honeycomb.

At the bottom of the sinkhole lies a vast flat area.

That place was simply hell on earth.

Thousands of rotting corpses and severed limbs were piled up haphazardly, forming small mountains. Countless vulture-like birds circled and pecked at the corpses. Blackish-red blood flowed on the ground, converging into foul-smelling streams that meandered towards a huge abyss in the center of the sinkhole.

That place is the legendary "corpse-raising pool," which is also the core of the entire No. 3 mine.

Gu An controlled the scaled beast, driving it along the winding plank road towards the landfill at the bottom of the sinkhole.

Along the way, he saw many disciples of the Corpse Puppet Sect dressed in black robes, driving hordes of walking corpses to move ore. Those walking corpses were incredibly strong and tireless, clearly much more useful laborers than mortals.

"This Corpse Puppet Sect has truly made the most of the dead."

Gu An observed coldly, but in his mind he was rapidly calculating the terrain and route.

According to the map provided by Shen Wan, the abandoned ventilation vent is located in the southwest corner of the sinkhole, near a long-collapsed mining area. The Nine Dragons Demon-Suppressing Cauldron is located directly below the abyss in the center of the sinkhole, and is intricately connected to the landfill.

About half an hour later.

The cart finally stopped at the edge of a landfill specifically used for dumping discarded corpses.

This was the bottom of the sinkhole. Apart from the pervasive stench of corpses and the buzzing of dead flies, there was hardly any sign of living people. Only a few low-ranking zombies, acting as guards, wandered around in the distance.

"This is it."

Gu An jumped out of the car and pretended to move the severed limbs from the vehicle.

The moment his hands touched the blood-soaked black soil, his dormant [Spirit Plant Affinity] talent, deep within his mind, trembled without warning.

No, it's not just trembling.

It was a resonance akin to a long-awaited reunion, yet tinged with a sense of awe.

Gu An's eyes narrowed slightly, but he did not get up immediately. He remained in a half-kneeling position, as if he were tidying up the scattered body parts, but in reality, he had his hands deeply embedded in the soil.

"The element of wood is the guide, and the earth's veins are the root."

He silently recited the mantra, mobilizing the refined Wood Qi within his body, which had undergone countless purifications, and then, with utmost secrecy, probed into the ground through his fingertips.

His senses expanded rapidly with the spiritual energy.

We passed through thick layers of humus, through hard rocks, and through those crisscrossing underground rivers that resembled blood vessels...

Ten zhang... fifty zhang... one hundred zhang...

When they reached a depth of nearly three hundred feet, a vast expanse of blue light suddenly appeared in Gu An's "vision".

It was an extremely subtle yet vast, majestic, and ancient aura of change. It was like a heart buried deep underground, beating at an extremely slow yet incredibly firm frequency.

dong... dong... dong...

Each pulsation caused the surrounding earth's energy to resonate.

In the very center of that blue light, Gu An "saw" a blurry shadow.

It was a huge square cauldron.

Nine lifelike bronze dragons coiled atop the cauldron. Although the erosion of time and the obscuring of filth had dimmed most of these dragons, and they were even shrouded in black malevolent energy, a pure azure light still stubbornly flickered at the very bottom of the cauldron, relentlessly suppressing the terrifying demonic energy below that was attempting to break free of the seal.

Nine Dragons Demon-Suppressing Cauldron!

found it!

Gu An's breath hitched, and his fingers instinctively gripped the soil.

The location of this cauldron is actually right below this landfill, separated from the corpse-nurturing pool in the center of the sinkhole by only one wall!

What horrified him even more was that around the cauldron, there was another wave that felt both nauseating and familiar—the aura of the Tai Sui.

Clearly, although the Corpse Puppet Sect has not yet fully controlled the Nine Dragon Cauldron, they are using the filthy blood of the Corpse Nourishing Pool to gradually pollute and corrode this ancient seal through infiltration.

"These lunatics..."

Gu An withdrew his senses and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.

Now that the location is determined, the next steps are clear.

He must sneak underground through the abandoned ventilation vent to find the array node of the Nine Dragons Cauldron, and use the secret method taught by Ancestor Qi to reactivate the restrictions on the cauldron, or simply use the force against him and refine it in reverse.

However, he had a small task to complete before that.

Gu An stood up, patted the dirt off his hands, and glanced casually at a shadowy corner at the edge of the landfill.

It was a pile of rocks, and because of its low-lying location, it was filled with the corpse water that flowed down from the mountain of corpses all year round, making it look particularly gloomy and damp.

However, in Gu An's perception of [Spiritual Plant Affinity], several wisps of cold and pure spiritual energy fluctuations were emanating from the crevices of that pile of rocks.

That was the unique aura of a high-level Yin-attribute spiritual plant.

"Soul-Slaying Grass".

Gu An's heart skipped a beat. This was something Shen Wan had specifically requested, and it was also key to suppressing the poison damage in her body. More importantly, this thing was a hot commodity in the market, and a single plant could sell for at least a dozen spirit stones.

Gu An looked around.

Several zombies in the distance were wandering with their backs to this side, and no one was paying attention to them.

"Chance."

Gu An didn't rush over directly. Instead, he clutched his stomach, pretended to have to relieve himself, and walked towards the pile of rocks while cursing under his breath.

"This lousy place doesn't even have a toilet... I'm about to burst..."

As he unbuckled his belt, he stumbled into the shadows of the pile of rocks.

As they drew closer, the chilling spiritual energy became increasingly clear.

Using a large rock as cover, Gu An quickly crouched down.

Three tiny, jet-black grasses were growing in the crevice between two moss-covered rocks.

This grass has no veins; its leaves are long, thin, and curled, like ghostly hands reaching towards the sky for help. At the top of the stem, a tiny blue flower, no bigger than a fingernail, blooms, with a distorted human face faintly visible in its stamen, emitting a soft, eerie glow.

It really is a Yin Soul Grass! And judging by its color, it's at least fifty years old!

A hint of joy flashed in Gu An's eyes.

He pulled a specially made jade shovel from his pocket—a special tool for harvesting medicinal herbs, which could lock in the medicinal properties to the greatest extent.

However, just as his jade shovel was about to touch the Yin Soul Grass...

Gu An's hand suddenly stopped.

It hung in mid-air, completely still.

A faint, yet undeniably present, breathing sound reached his ears.

The sound didn't come from the wind, nor from the distant zombies, but from...

Gu An's gaze slowly moved down and landed on a pile of seemingly messy rubble next to the Yin Soul Grass.

The pile of rubble was grayish-white, covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs, and looked to blend in with its surroundings without any apparent abnormality.

But in Gu Ann's extremely keen perception, this pile of "rubble" was fluctuating almost imperceptibly at an extremely slow frequency.

Once... twice...

It's like a sleeping chest.

Deep within the cracks of those rubble, a faint, dark red metallic luster shone through, along with an extremely restrained yet incredibly violent aura of malevolence.

That is……

Gu An's pupils instantly shrank to the size of pinpoints, and every hair on his body stood on end.

This is hardly a pile of rubble.

This is clearly a creature using earth-遁 (earth-遁 is a technique for escaping into the ground) to fall asleep and disguise itself as a rock—

Armored Corpse!

Moreover, judging from its size and the degree of refinement of its baleful aura, it is definitely not a half-finished product that has just been refined, but a mature body that has been nurtured for at least ten years!

Its body was curled up, and the black iron scales on its back were perfectly integrated with the rock. The three Yin Soul Grasses grew right in the crevices of its rock-hard back!

This is what's called symbiotic relationship!

The Yin Soul Grass thrives on the aura of corpses, and the high-level corpse aura emanating from this armored corpse is its best nourishment.

If Gu An's shovel strike had awakened the monster...

In this narrow pile of rubble, facing a heavily armored corpse comparable to a late-stage Qi Refining cultivator, impervious to blades and spears, engaging in close-quarters combat...

Gu An felt a chill run up his tailbone and straight to the top of his head.

"Gulp."

He swallowed hard, forcibly suppressing his instinct to turn and run away.

You can't run.

Once it turns and runs, the wind and spiritual energy it creates will instantly awaken the monster.

必须冷静。

Gu An remained in that squatting position, motionless.

He pushed the "Corpse Control Technique" within his body to its limit, suppressing his heartbeat, breathing, and body temperature to zero.

At this moment, he is nothing more than a stone, a corpse, and a pile of excrement.

He stared intently at the pile of "rubble," observing its breathing rhythm.

Inhale...exhale...

Every ten breaths, this armored corpse would give an extremely faint breath.

The three Yin Soul Grasses would sway slightly with each breath.

"Want to take it?"

Gu An asked himself this question in his heart.

Reason told him that turning around and leaving quietly was the safest option.

But those three Yin Soul Grasses were right there, and they were not only related to Shen Wan's recovery, but also to the success rate of breaking the formation later.

"Fortune favors the bold... but one shouldn't risk their life."