Chapter 18: Immortal Cultivation Method

Chapter 18: The Art of Ascension

The one who had shattered his jar was found, yet Danyang Zi felt not a shred of joy; his expression a tangled web of emotions, he glared at Zhengkun's mangled remains and viciously kicked them away.

"I raised you as if you were half a son to me! And this is how you repay me!"

A deathly silence fell over the cavern, broken only by Danyang Zi's ragged, hurried breathing.

This tense stillness lingered for the span of two incense sticks before Danyang Zi slowly raised his hand, pointing a finger straight at Li Huowang amidst the crowd. "You, come here, and kowtow to the Patriarch."

Li Huowang paused in slight bewilderment, but under the gaze of everyone present, he stepped forward, knelt upon the ground, and bowed deeply to the three statues carved into the wall.

Having completed the elaborate ritual of three bows and nine kowtows, Li Huowang, now holding three joss sticks, already understood the old Taoist's intentions. "From this day forth, you shall be this Daoist Master's final disciple!"

"Yes, Master." Li Huowang was so thrilled that his very heart and liver seemed to tremble. "This moment has finally come. Rest assured, Scabby Head, I will absolutely help you attain the Dao and 'ascend to immortality'!!"

"Follow me, I have a task for you," Danyang Zi said, carefully cradling the remnants of the vase-headed girl's skull in his palms.

Trailing behind Danyang Zi, Li Huowang revisited familiar ground, arriving once more at the old man's quarters.

"Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!" The black threads coiled around the stone tablet danced swiftly like serpents, slithering into Danyang Zi's sleeve, fully revealing the so-called Heavenly Book before his eyes. "Can you make out what is written upon it?"

Feigning a meticulous examination, Li Huowang asked with a hint of feigned confusion, "Master, you once told me that the path to immortality requires the dual cultivation of internal and external elixirs. But something is amiss; there is no mention of internal elixirs here."

"Hmm? What?!" Danyang Zi's expression darkened and shifted as he glanced at the corpse of the vase-headed girl nearby.

"Absolutely certain," Li Huowang declared with ironclad conviction.

Heaven only knew what nonsense the vase-headed girl had spun for Li Huowang before; if he failed to play along, his deceit would be instantly exposed, so rather than risk that, it was better to come clean and start afresh.

Besides, he wasn't lying—this was the truth. The so-called ascension technique Danyang Zi had relied on was indeed a fabrication of the vase-headed girl, utterly false from the start.

Of course, the tale he was about to spin wouldn't be any more truthful.

Danyang Zi pondered with a shifting, gloomy expression; at first, he refused to believe Li Huowang's words, but his suspicious nature soon bred more and more doubts.

No wonder he had failed to ascend after all this time, and no wonder the girl claimed the words on the Heavenly Book kept changing and could never be memorized by rote—so that was the truth of it.

"Hawk—ptoo!" A disgusting glob of thick green phlegm was spat directly onto the vase-headed skull by Danyang Zi, who then turned to Li Huowang. "Then tell me, what does this Heavenly Book say?"

"Well... it is a set of internal cultivation techniques. It states that at the twilight of the old year, just before the new year dawns, one must consume and cultivate alongside several external elixirs to intercept the stream of celestial spiritual energy infused into the mortal realm by the Heavenly Dao, drawing it into the body to attain the Dao and ascend." Li Huowang stared at the stone tablet, his brow furrowed as he spoke with grave solemnity.

"There are quite a few elixirs to be consumed. Take one formula, for instance: it requires two taels and four mace of cinnabar, one mace of white qianzi, one tael and two mace of arsenic, and... Lord You? Master, what sort of medicinal ingredient is this Lord You?"

Danyang Zi did not answer, but simply stared quietly at Li Huowang. "Boy, that little wench managed to fool me, but you wouldn't be deceiving me too, would you?"

Li Huowang replied with unyielding certainty. "Master, this is the very method of ascending to immortality! How could I possibly deceive you? I yearn to become an immortal too!"

"Good!" Danyang Zi clapped his hands heavily and burst into laughter. "Then this time, master and disciple shall ascend together."

Li Huowang's expression froze for a fleeting second before twisting into extreme exhilaration. "Is this true? Master, is this truly possible? Thank you, Master! Thank you, Master!!"

Danyang Zi scrutinized his expression closely, and finding no trace of anomaly, nodded in quiet understanding.

"Yes, there is no rush for the elixirs. First, tell me that cultivation technique, and once we master and practice it thoroughly, we shall refine the external elixirs. There are still some days until the New Year, after all."

"Yes, Master!" Li Huowang then recited a so-called technique of the inner and outer grand heavenly cycles to Danyang Zi.

That day, Li Huowang lingered in Danyang Zi's chambers for a long while, not returning until the dead of night.

Carrying a lantern, Li Huowang walked through the tunnels, his heart buoyant as his plans progressed smoothly; his goal would soon be within reach.

After such a long period of suffocating oppression, something good had finally come to pass.

When he arrived at the material storage room, he found that the remaining disciples were indeed still awake.

Seeing it was Li Huowang, everyone swarmed forward like a hive of bees, their eyes alight with excitement; they all understood what today's events signified, especially since Li Huowang had deliberately tipped them off beforehand.

"Rest easy and wait for my good news. You will all be going home very soon."

As soon as Li Huowang spoke these words, everyone was nearly moved to joyous tears; they could finally go home.

"Senior Brother Li, you are my benefactor, my second parent! You are a living bodhisattva!!" One of the disciples, afflicted with polio and bearing withered limbs, knelt excitedly on the ground, ready to kowtow to Li Huowang.

He seemed to have set a precedent, as the others immediately followed suit.

After coaxing them for quite a while, Li Huowang finally brought this farce to an end. "If it weren't for all of you this noon, I would have been done for. Does that mean I should be kowtowing to you instead?"

As they climbed up from the floor, each face was wreathed in beaming smiles, as joyous as if celebrating the New Year.

Gazing at these smiling faces before him, a trace of warmth blossomed in Li Huowang's heart; in this alien world, these bizarrely visaged fellows were truly his companions.

"Senior Brother Li, I played my part well, didn't I? That Scabby Head is like a fool, completely taken in by my tricks." Gouwa patted his sunken chest, grinning cheekily as he fished for praise from Li Huowang.

"Indeed, you acted brilliantly. If not for your little stunt, Danyang Zi wouldn't have let it go so easily."

While the others crowded around Li Huowang, chattering and asking a barrage of questions, someone else was fretting over a different matter.

"Senior Brother Li, are you alright? He really didn't make things difficult for you, did he?" Bai Lingmiao walked over, asking with a hint of worry.

Hearing this, Li Huowang recalled Danyang Zi's words about ascending together; the old Taoist's intent to use him as a guinea pig for the elixirs was something he would keep to himself—there was no need to burden her with it.

"He's even having me translate the contents of the Heavenly Book for him now. What could possibly happen to me? Rest assured, I'm doing perfectly fine."

After chatting idly for a moment, Li Huowang's expression turned solemn. "The first day of the New Year is almost over, and those Lord You statues will soon be back from the market. Let's make this brief—I still need your help with something. Did your grandfather tell you any other stories before?"

He hadn't quite finished fabricating the recipe for the ascension elixir on the Heavenly Book.

Plain cinnabar, a mere mercury ore, would no longer suffice; he needed to add other ingredients, things as sinister and macabre as could be.

He had not forgotten the extent of Danyang Zi's power. The old man had to be killed thoroughly and completely.

(End of Chapter)