Eternal Life: I Have the Favor System

"Yes, sir!"

The disciple quickly departed.

"Where did this Qi Refining manual come from?"

"I find this whole situation very strange,"

Li Mao frowned.

"If this Evil Cultivation Method disappears completely within three days, then someone else is behind it. But if it remains in Great Yuan, then the imperial family must be involved,"

Zhang Xuan snorted coldly.

"But how did they get it?"

Li Mao asked, puzzled.

"Where is Yun Hong now?"

Zhang Xuan asked.

"He’s with another team, heading toward Qiling Prefecture,"

Li Mao explained.

"Tell him to get his ass back here. I’m going to interrogate him myself."

Zhang Xuan’s tone left no room for argument.

"Alright."

Li Mao nodded.

"Zhang, how did you determine that this Qi Refining manual is an Evil Cultivation Method?"

Chu Lingguang asked, picking up a scrap of paper from the ground.

This Qi Refining manual had, in fact, come from him. He had given it to Yun Hong, who hid it in his sword and passed it to the Seventh Prince at the foot of Yuanchu Mountain.

The Seventh Prince then had people work through the night to copy it, sending the Qi Refining manual to every corner of Great Yuan.

The manual was now most prevalent in places far from the Imperial City. Even so, Zhang Xuan suspected the imperial family. After all, among mortals, who else but the imperial family had the power to distribute a cultivation manual throughout the entire nation?

Furthermore, no trace could be found of the people at the shops that made the copies.

This was clearly a premeditated act, a blatant defiance of Yuanchu Mountain.

"Junior Brother Chu, what do you mean by that? Are you perhaps interested in this Evil Cultivation Method?"

Zhang Xuan demanded.

"Not at all. I’m just curious how you knew this Qi Refining manual was an Evil Cultivation Method, Zhang. I’d like to learn from you so I don’t misjudge something in the future,"

Chu Lingguang said humbly.

"You’ve only just left the mortal world, Junior Brother. You don’t understand the intricacies of these things yet. I can’t explain it to you in a short time. Once we’ve slain every demon and eradicated every weird thing in the world and returned to the sect, I’ll explain it all to you properly,"

Zhang Xuan said with a smile.

"Very well."

Chu Lingguang could only let it go.

But inwardly, he was cursing. ’Yuanchu Mountain has absolutely no basis for labeling things as demonic. The Qi Refining manual I provided isn’t some Evil Cultivation Method.’

He himself had relied on this very Cultivation Technique to successfully convert his Qi Sea Power into Spiritual Power, evolve his Dantian into a Star System, and successfully step into the Qi Refining Realm.

It was just as the rumors said. Yuanchu Mountain would never allow a Cultivation Skill that could help True Martial Realm experts break through to appear in the Great Yuan Territory. No matter what kind of skill it was, as long as it could help a True Martial Realm expert advance, it would be branded an Evil Cultivation Method.

’I wonder how many people will be able to continue practicing the Qi Refining manual under Yuanchu Mountain’s interference?’

SWOOSH!

Zhang Xuan slashed his sword at the ground.

He had long since cultivated the Demon-slaying Sword Technique to the level of Great Success and mastered multiple Divine Abilities. Combined with his own power at the seventh level of the Qi Refining Realm, his strength could only be described as terrifying.

Chu Lingguang stood to the side, his Void Technique spreading out. He saw that Zhang Xuan’s single strike had incinerated most of the vines beneath the Blood Wolf Cave.

He followed up with three more slashes.

All the vines under the Blood Wolf Cave were destroyed.

But three auras shot out from underground like three Spiritual Snakes, fleeing into the distance.

’The weird things.’

Chu Lingguang saw that one of the vines was dragging a Spiritual Monkey. The vine had already pierced the monkey’s heart, and their fusion had reached a critical point before being interrupted by Zhang Xuan.

The other two vines had also found hosts: two pangolins.

The vines grew underground.

Creatures like pangolins, Earth Rats, weasels, and Snake Demons, which liked to hide in caves or burrow underground, had a natural advantage.

They could often discover the weird things before humans and quietly complete the fusion process.

"After them!"

Zhang Xuan chased after the Spiritual Monkey. Once the monkey completed the fusion, its Spirit Beast bloodline would allow it to grow far faster than any human expert. In the future, it would become a Demon King that only a Foundation Establishment Realm expert could handle.

Li Mao also charged toward one of the pangolins.

"Junior Brother Chu!"

He didn’t forget to call out to Chu Lingguang.

WHOOSH!

Chu Lingguang knew what Li Mao meant. With a flash, he shot after the last, slowest-moving vine.

’They all say I have a Spiritual Root. Last time, when the vine was fusing with Xie Xiaohuan, it practically jumped onto me when it saw me. I wonder if this vine will try to latch onto me too?’

Chu Lingguang thought to himself.

He was tempted to let the pangolin go and help it complete its fusion. However, Li Mao and Zhang Xuan would surely demand a report from him later. Besides, if the pangolin fused and became a world-shaking Great Demon, it would threaten human safety in the future.

Every three hundred years marked a Reincarnation Node. The ones that truly fused with the weird things were mainly the Demon Beasts within the Hundred Thousand Mountains. They could rely on their bloodline talents to be the first to find the strange entities.

Moreover, the Hundred Thousand Mountains were sparsely populated, with some areas that even members of Yuanchu Mountain and the Demon Sect dared not enter carelessly.

SWISH!

Chu Lingguang used the Demon-slaying Sword Technique, sending out a rainbow-like slash.

The rainbow arc shot forward and seemed to stick to the pangolin, setting the vine ablaze. The pangolin rolled on the ground in agony.

"CHIIII!"

The pangolin let out a furious cry, baring its teeth.

Its body began to swell at a visible rate.

Chu Lingguang remained vigilant.

He may have slain a Wolf Demon before, but this pangolin in front of him could actually manipulate Spiritual Qi. It was no ordinary Demon Beast; it might already have one foot in the Qi Refining Realm.

BANG!

Just as he was fully on guard, the pangolin plunged its head into the ground and began digging frantically, trying to escape.

Chu Lingguang didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The creature was either a coward or it was at a critical point in its fusion and didn’t want to fight.

So, he unleashed two more slashes.

The rainbow arcs poured into the hole.

White smoke billowed out from within.

"CHIIII!"

The earth trembled.

The pangolin was enraged. It heaved the ground beneath Chu Lingguang’s feet upward, as if the peak of a mountain were rising from the plains.

CLANG!

Chu Lingguang put his full power into a downward thrust.

The sound of striking metal rang out.

The pangolin had tough skin and thick flesh. Its layer of armor was difficult to damage, even with a Divine Weapon.

Having no other choice, Chu Lingguang could only resort to his Telekinesis.

A powerful wave of Telekinesis, sharp as a nail, pierced the pangolin’s Sea of Consciousness.

At that moment, the power of his elementary Telekinesis technique took effect. As Chu Lingguang focused his Telekinesis to attack the pangolin, the power rhythmically formed a Sword Shadow that slashed down on the creature.

An invisible bloody glow appeared underground.

Then, a vine shot out of the earth.

Apparently, the pangolin had suffered a critical hit, and the fusion had been halted. The vine dragged the pangolin’s heart out from the ground. Having lost its heart, the pangolin’s body slumped to the ground, dead.

The interruption at the critical moment of fusion had severely damaged its Vitality.

Chu Lingguang’s Telekinetic Sword Shadow, in particular, had shattered its final defense and broken its spirit. This caused the vine to abandon it, forcefully terminating the fusion and ripping its heart from its body.

This bloody scene made Chu Lingguang question the dangers of these weird things.

’If a human were to fuse with one and be disturbed at the critical moment, would the vine rip out their heart too? Would it search for another host, regardless of whether the human lived or died?’

’Back then, if I hadn’t been there to guard Qin Yu...’

’If the other members of the Demon Suppression Bureau had rushed in and saw Qin Yu fusing with the weird thing, would their interference have caused the vine to choose someone else to fuse with?’

’It seemed like an unsolvable problem.’

Suddenly, he felt a suction force.

It was Zhang Xuan’s power.

He was carrying the Spiritual Monkey’s corpse. Seeing that Chu Lingguang’s feet were entangled by the vine, he gathered his Spiritual Power, forming several blade-like shadows that chopped the vine to pieces. He then drew the fragments into his hand and forcibly refined them with his Spiritual Power.

Chu Lingguang glanced down at his feet. Zhang Xuan’s control was precise; he hadn’t been harmed at all. But as Zhang crushed the vine fragments and absorbed them with his Spiritual Power, Chu Lingguang’s powerful Perception Power sensed that something was wrong.

He felt that it wasn’t refining. It was absorbing.

Zhang Xuan was using his Spiritual Power to "refine" the vine powder and absorb it into his own body.