Chapter 60: The Local Immortals Are So Insane! (Subscriptions Requested)

Yuan Zhu discovered that through query exchanges, he could also indirectly answer questions and clear up doubts. After acquiring some basic knowledge, he immediately grew interested and inputted names like the Holy Light and Buddhism that he had already encountered.

He wanted to see if there were corresponding exchanges available. To his surprise, there were quite a few.

The minimum requirement for Holy Light-related exchanges was to bear a Stigmata. He had already witnessed a [Stigmata]; it was the severed finger of that doctor in the Holy Light Department at the Second Municipal Hospital. That kind of wound, existing in a state between combustion and dormancy, was a Stigmata.

With this wound (Stigmata), one could ignite their life, converting and generating Holy Light, thereby bestowing grace upon the common people. All enhancements in the [Holy Light System] were based on the Stigmata.

The Stigmata never healed; it was a symbol of divine miracle, continuously burning the user's life until the day their life was extinguished. Even if you cut off the finger, the Stigmata would randomly appear on another part of the body to continue burning life.

Therefore, the [Stigmata] carried beautiful connotations such as self-sacrifice, immolation, burning oneself to illuminate others, and bringing light.

Relying on this set of rhetoric, the Holy Church frantically brainwashed the lower classes in the Western world of the Primordial Continent, wildly expanding its missionary work, associating itself with the 'divine,' and becoming the spokesperson of the divinity.

The power of [Holy Light] possessed extremely overbearing exclusivity, along with a weak supplementary healing effect.

Relying on this characteristic, Holy Light cultivators could easily purify pollution. Its essence was to use the ultra-strong repulsive force of 'Holy Light Pollution' to clear out other pollutions, and then squeeze and overdraft the patient's vitality to achieve rapid self-healing.

The manifested effect was that whenever Holy Light appeared, evil spirits retreated, and even wounds healed automatically—simply a miracle! Consequently, people developed a pious faith in the Holy Light.

As for the internal deficit and overdraft of one's own body? I was already polluted; isn't it completely reasonable for my body to feel a bit weak?

...

The Buddhist system was the same; the foundational base of its cultivation was the Buddha Cocoon. A preceptor was required to administer precepts to the physical body, transplant the Buddha Cocoon, and accept Buddhist magical power before one was considered to have successfully converted to Buddhism.

Furthermore, the characteristics of Buddhist magical power were the exact opposite of the Holy Church. While Holy Light was overbearing and exclusive, Buddhist magical power possessed a super-strong 'assimilation effect.'

On the mental path, it could deeply brainwash believers, correct their thoughts, construct a spiritual legal net, and eventually pickle and process the soul bit by bit until it achieved a high degree of resonance with oneself. At that point, one could absorb and assimilate it, constantly strengthening the divine soul, undergoing reincarnation, achieving a rounded divine soul, and transforming into a Buddha.

On the physical path, the Buddha Cocoon could be used to transform all kinds of powerful creatures and monsters, subtly modifying and correcting their bloodlines and pollution bit by bit, condensing essence, producing zero-rejection Buddhist organs, and then recovering and re-integrating them. Finally, step by step, one optimized the physical body, ultimately attaining Buddhahood in this very lifetime with an indestructible diamond body.

Regardless of which path to Buddhahood one took, it was inseparable from the 'Buddha Cocoon.' And the Buddha Cocoon itself carried the original owner's 'mental information and flesh-and-blood information.' This was both a systematic inheritance of Buddhist knowledge and a test.

You would never know whether the preceptor who initiated you was truly compassionate or feigning compassion.

Were you truly digesting and absorbing the knowledge and power contained within the 'Buddha Cocoon,' completely subduing it to make it your own, innovating upon it, and becoming a new generation of Buddhist powerhouse?

Or would you be inversely converted and subdued by the 'Buddha Cocoon,' ending up as mere nourishment and stepping stones on your preceptor's path to Buddhahood?

"Holy crap, this Du Ling Buddhism is so twisted!" He thought of his various encounters in the Crimson Realm; this stuff really wasn't something ordinary people could handle.

...

Next, Yuan Zhu filtered out his most anticipated native immortal cultivation system, discovering that it actually had two different foundations: [Spiritual Roots] and [Bone Structure]. These two belonged to two entirely different immortal cultivation systems.

There were actually two different kinds of immortals?!

[Spiritual Roots] corresponded to plants and the spiritual roots of heaven and earth, forming the foundation of the mainstream [Kunlun Immortal Mountain Qi-Refining System] of the Primordial Continent today. Its transcendent source (the source of pollution) was the 'Kunlun Divine Tree—Immortal Flat Peach Spiritual Root' from Eastern mythology.

Among the twelve ruling deities currently common in Du Ling, the ninth-ranked [Peach (Year)] was the symbol of the Kunlun lineage. Yet, [Peach] was merely a fruit nurtured by the 'Kunlun Undead Holy Mother.'

The introductory foundation of a Kunlun Qi-refiner was to implant spiritual roots (roots and tendrils) into the flesh and blood, gradually replacing the nerves and blood vessels, and to absorb the 'spiritual Qi' recognized by the Kunlun lineage, thereby consuming Qi and attaining longevity.

The introductory information was simple and crude—was it truly a 'spiritual root' in the literal sense?

This couldn't help but make Yuan Zhu think of the 'respiration' universally present in plants. Could this be the essence of 'Qi-refinement'?

As for [Bone Structure], it was the worship of the Yellow Heaven that the remnants of the New Continent's Yellow Heaven still believed in. Although the [Yellow Heaven] was dead, it clearly wasn't dead completely, and corresponding transcendent powerhouses still existed.

However, the exchange items regarding the [Yellow Heaven System] in the Gods Space were obviously not as numerous as those in the [Kunlun System]. He only found the most basic 'Bone Structure Implantation Surgery,' which required 1,000 points. The content was also very simple:

Arbitrarily select a section of one's own bone, have the Gods Space operate on it to completely strip it out, and extract the bone marrow for later use. Grind the bones into powder, mix them with special soil, stir evenly, and then blend in the bone marrow and spiritual water to knead into a clay. Reshape it, fire it at a 1:1 ratio into bone-shaped bone china, and re-implant it into the body.

After this bone-replacement surgery was completed, the 'new bone' inside the body would be called [Bone Structure], which was also the foundation of cultivation for the [Yellow Heaven Immortal Court System].

After reading all this, Yuan Zhu felt utterly terrible.

These four factions were already recognized as the most legitimate, safest, and most widely disseminated transcendent systems.

One featured a Stigmata scar that never healed, another was a blind-box trial of transplanting a Buddha head cocoon into the flesh, a third involved planting grass inside the body to consume Qi and attain longevity, and the final one required firing porcelain bone structure to secure a place among the immortals...

"This is not the immortal cultivation I wanted! Judging by the art style, it's even less reliable than 'data-driven immortal cultivation'."

The sprite chimed in: "Correct! These are all heresies! They are all demonic paths! So evil! How could the local natives desecrate the sacred immortal cultivation system? Boss, let's not cultivate these immortals. Let's continue perfecting your [Tiger Demon Template], create a brand new path to immortality, and thoroughly shock these ignorant and narrow-minded local bumpkins!"

Before the two could finish exchanging remarks, other independent and niche cultivation tracks, such as [Sword Immortal], [Emergence Immortal], and [Corpse-Dissolution Immortal], began popping up successively in the enhancement list, falling far short of [Kunlun] and [Yellow Heaven].

They felt more like other pollution systems that had arbitrarily slapped on the title of [Immortal] in a forced association.

Yuan Zhu, who had already been thoroughly shocked by the two strongest native immortal paths, felt a instinctive resistance and dared not look any further, fearing it would damage his fragile mind...

Just then, Meng Xiyue, who had been discussing enhancement routes on the other side, suddenly spoke up and asked, "This won't do, and that won't do either. Zhou Chu, you're so overbearing! Hey, Lü Rang, are you afraid of pain?"

"Not afraid. Since I was a kid, I was bullied and ostracized by my classmates. My family is poor and I had no money to pay tribute to the school bullies, so I was often beaten up. After graduation, I was constantly extorted. To protect myself, I joined a local gang and put on these nose rings and lip studs. It's not that I actually like these things; I just wanted to fit in so I wouldn't be bullied. As long as I can grow stronger, mere hardship and fear of pain are nothing. I'm only afraid of dying."

Meng Xiyue narrowed her eyes: "The pain I'm talking about doesn't have to be ordinary pain; it means hurting continuously."

"What kind of enhancement is it? Just tell me. It only costs 400 points to settle, and it's powerful enough. Having some side effects is only natural! I don't care." Lü Rang was unmoved by her threat.

Meng Xiyue said, "Then you should become a [Sword Immortal]! This is a legitimate system recognized by the New Federal Government, with peerless lethality, and is heavily sought after by the military. Most of the top-tier Sword Immortals on the West Coast serve and hold appointments in the military. Becoming a [Sword Immortal] will not only grant you self-protection power, but also secure a bright future for you in the real world. Your background is clean, the cultivation system is safe, and your strength will be formidable—you will no longer be a mere mortal. If you have this woman vouch for you, you might even become an officer."

With that, she gave Zhou Chu a provocative look, implying: *See? Who says I'm setting people up and can't pick a good enhancement?*

Zhou Chu also nodded in agreement: "The [Sword Immortal System] is not bad; it just requires enduring the agony of blade edges self-inflicted. If you choose this path, you must firmly guard your original intent and remember never to fall into becoming an [Evil Sword Immortal]. Right now, the Security Bureau and the military have a massive number of wanted warrants for Evil Sword Immortals."

Holy shit, another immortal cultivator?!

He had just browsed through [Sword Immortal] moments ago, and he hadn't expected that a Sword Immortal was actually about to be born in their team!

Regarding Lü Rang's choice, he had nothing to say. Since he didn't understand anything himself, he wouldn't interrupt. In fact, Yuan Zhu even harbored a faint anticipation for the other party to complete the [Sword Immortal] enhancement, just so he could see what the difference was between the local immortals and the [Great Desolation Immortal Scripture] or the immortals from his hometown on Earth.