A Loose Cultivator's Path to Longevity

In the Quiet Chamber, Lü Zhong was visibly frustrated.

The Nourishing Spirit Skill didn’t seem difficult. At least, judging from the book’s contents, he figured that with his foundation in Magic Techniques, even if he couldn’t master it right away, he should have at least been able to get the hang of it quickly.

But as it was, he couldn’t find the slightest clue.

It felt as if he were practicing from a fake Magic Technique Book; otherwise, he wouldn’t be in this strange predicament.

’Perhaps this Nourishing Spirit Skill holds some secret I don’t know about.’

Lü Zhong suspected this was very likely the case.

If one could master the Nourishing Spirit Skill from the book alone, that Heling Sect disciple probably wouldn’t have tossed it aside; he’d more likely have guarded it with his life. After all, had he escaped, he could have used this skill to rise through the ranks. While reaching Core Formation might have been uncertain, achieving Foundation Establishment would have been a sure thing.

The image of the three gray-robed men flashed through his mind. Lü Zhong figured that if he wanted to find any useful clues, he’d have to start with them. After all, it stood to reason that the Heling Sect disciple had been killed by those three.

Closing the book, he rose from his meditation cushion.

He walked over to the Talisman-Making Table, took out the Soul Bead he carried, and prepared to attempt refining a Mechanical Soul.

A Mechanical Soul’s shape was not fixed; it depended entirely on the creator’s intent. The only crucial component was the internal Binding Spirit Ring. One simply had to craft an outer shell to house the Spirit Ring and the Soul Bead, and then inscribe the corresponding Runes on the shell.

And just like that, a simple Mechanical Soul would be complete.

Lü Zhong didn’t know how to craft a Binding Spirit Ring, but he could spend Spirit Stones to commission an Artifact Refiner. He had placed an order before leaving the city, and while the ten Binding Spirit Rings he received weren’t a lot, they were enough for multiple attempts.

Thanks to his experience with Talisman Making, Lü Zhong successfully created a Soldier Level Mechanical Soul in under an ancient hour.

This Mechanical Soul was spherical and had a dim, lusterless appearance.

A newly crafted Mechanical Soul starts in a dormant state; it requires a Soul Bead to provide the Power of the Divine Soul to activate it and enter normal operation.

When he pressed a Soul Bead into the Mechanical Soul, the Runes on its surface quickly lit up.

Lü Zhong inspected it for a moment, then prepared to install it in the body of a Mechanical Beast.

According to the classifications of Puppet Mechanicians, this Mechanical Soul belonged to the Soldier Level, the lowest of the Soldier, General, King Third Levels.

Mechanical Souls were only downwardly compatible, so a Soldier Level Mechanical Soul could only operate Low Tier Puppets. This type of Puppet usually had no combat ability, much like Xiaoqi’s old Mechanical Fox, which was one kind of Soldier Level Puppet.

After some thought, he decided to install it in a Mechanical Flying Bird.

His goal was to test whether he had successfully crafted the Mechanical Soul.

The result was somewhat disappointing to Lü Zhong. No matter how he tried to control it, the Mechanical Flying Bird equipped with the new Mechanical Soul showed no signs of movement. Once he put the old Mechanical Soul back in, everything returned to normal.

Clearly, the problem lay with the Mechanical Soul he had created.

After a night of tinkering and adjustments, another night had passed.

...

Lü Zhong yawned. Having gone without sleep for months, he felt a hint of fatigue.

But as his gaze fell on an exquisite sphere on the table, his expression immediately became excited again.

After a whole night of struggle, he had finally overcome the difficulties of creating a Mechanical Soul. While it was only a Soldier Level Mechanical Soul, it was enough to achieve his goal of posing as a Puppet Mechanician.

The next step was to commission custom Mechanical Beast bodies from a workshop.

As for the choice of Mechanical Beast, Lü Zhong selected the Copper Leopard Mechanism Beast, which excelled at hit-and-run harassment tactics. He planned to create a hundred of them at once to support the seven Mechanical Beasts that served as his main fighting force.

He pushed the door open, and the brilliance of the rising sun fell upon his face.

After the war between the Three Sects, Yongling City had become more prosperous with each passing day.

The crowds on the streets were increasing at a visible rate, and previously closed shops were reopening one after another. However, as the workshops had not yet fully recovered their production capacity, the quantity of goods on the shelves was still low, and prices were slightly higher than before the war.

Everything seemed to be heading in a positive direction.

But even Lü Zhong could see this was just the brewing of a storm.

Yongling City’s renewed prosperity was built upon draining the Golden Rainbow Sect and the Luoyun Sect. It was by attracting the Loose Cultivators who had once wandered the wilds—and even those skilled Loose Cultivators from the two sects’ own Workshop Markets—that the city found itself in its current thriving state.

One could only imagine what the Golden Rainbow Sect’s Yanling Mountain Market and the Luoyun Sect’s Luoyun City must look like now.

The underlying conflict hadn’t been resolved, so the outbreak of a second war between the Three Sects was entirely foreseeable. The only questions were when it would erupt, and how brutal it would be.

He arrived in front of the workshop.

Lü Zhong was about to head inside when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught three figures emerging one by one from a Pill Shop.

Even though all three were disguised, he recognized them at a glance.

It was them—the three gray-robed men who had pursued the Heling Sect disciple.

Without a sound, Lü Zhong followed.

With the scene-rewinding ability of his Gray Mist Space, he could trail them from their blind spots continuously, with no risk of being discovered.

As he tailed them, he saw that the three would sometimes gather and other times disperse.

The man he was tracking ducked in and out of the city’s Spirit Medicine shops and Pill Shops.

’They really are being cautious,’ Lü Zhong mused, trying to guess what purpose could possibly drive them to take such action and purchase Spirit Medicine in bulk.

For some reason, he was sure it was related to the Nourishing Spirit Skill.

It was highly probable the trio had obtained something from that Heling Sect disciple.

The chase lasted for an ancient hour, and Lü Zhong finally followed his target to the trio’s resting place.

It was an inn.

Lü Zhong requested a room close to where the three were staying.