After the first hundred days of cultivation focused on human path, Lo Jik spent the next twenty days digesting the rewards while simultaneously working with Hu Mei Er to accumulate more rewards. In fact, he would soon obtain another round of gold achievements because he had to summon rewards from five different achievements earlier. Those five achievements had already accumulated till a few silver achievements.
Of the six rewards, the easiest to digest were the two luck path true inheritances. Unfortunately, Lo Jik was also extremely short on luck path materials. He couldn't save enough for even a single luck path immortal gu. But this issue did not impede him from refining several mortal luck path gu worms. Furthermore, Hu Mei Er was going to become a luck path immortal in time. Lo Jik could give her several luck path immortal recipes and, in turn, Hu Mei Er could refine at least two luck path immortal gu worms using heaven qi and earth qi gathered during an immortal's ascension.
Of course, that's assuming the fact that she nurtures sufficient human qi to summon abundant heaven qi and earth qi.
Due to luck path's innate connection with human path, Lo Jik also found it easier to create human path killer moves with luck path effects.
Next, there were Thieving Heaven and Long Hair True Inheritances.
The former deepened Lo Jik's understanding of theft path. He further shared these findings with Xin Cheng. As for Long Hair True Inheritance? It was actually funny. After the initial feeling of being overwhelmed due to the sheer number of immortal gu recipes for different paths, Lo Jik actually made a great progress in digesting them. The reason was simple. He was a grandmaster in all known paths. Once Lo Jik focused on these recipes, several of its profundities from poison, blood, blade, sword, and other paths instantly became clear. Not only did they become clear, but comprehending each recipe enriched his refinement path foundation by another notch.
Lo Jik had the highest number of refiner and hairy men clones. These two researched refinement paths and delved into these recipes several times. It might have only been twenty days in Hu Immortal Blessed Land, but 120 days had already passed in his human path blessed land. In these 120 days, thousands of refiner and hairy men clones researched these recipes, modified them based on their intuition in every other path, and made these recipes simpler, better, and more efficient.
It was as if Lo Jik researched hundreds of immortal gu recipes several thousand times! The sheer pace with which his foundation in all the paths grew could not be described with words.
After these two rewards, Lo Jik focused on one of the simpler rewards.
Only a little amount of it was left.
In Lo Jik's human path aperture was a shallow lake. This lake was almost dried. In the center of this lake was a tiny pool of ghostly-blue radiance. This water exuded a strange fragrance. Sniffing it would instantly relax a gu master and it would even affect a gu immortal. If scanned using Lo Jik's method, one would notice the water was filled with soul and human path dao marks, the latter being the majority of it.
This liquid was mentioned in <
But that wasn't the case. It was merely a tale.
After hundreds of thousands of years, the founder of soul path, Spectral Soul Demon Venerable claimed Dang Hun Mountain and Luo Po Valley to be the supreme treasures of soul path.
Dang Hun Mountain could strengthen the soul. The Guts Gu formed within Dang Hun Mountain was the best tool to strengthen the soul and did not have any side effects.
Luo Po Valley refined the soul. One couldn't endlessly strengthen the soul or they risked a backlash due to accumulated impurities. The Bewilderment Fog inside the valley loosened the strengthened soul and Luo Po Wind cut the soul, refining it and getting rid of impurities.
But there was another aspect to soul cultivation.
A soul path gu master or any other gu master for that matter could not endlessly strengthen and refine their soul. Doing all this agitated the soul. At times, an agitated soul could flow up and act weirdly, leaving the gu master dazed and defenseless.
One also needed to rest and pacify the soul.
Until now, one of the best methods to rest the soul was simply by sleeping.
However, it's said that Bewitching Soup found in Bewitching Lake of the legends was the true best method!
Thus, it was also called Pacifying Soul Soup.
One of Lo Jik's reward was a portion of this soul path treasure.
Needless to say, Lo Jik used it to not only finalize and improve the recipes for False Guts and Fake Soul, but he used the water as a material to refine a food path gu worm and a human path gu worm.
Lo Jik could not have refined this rank 5 food path gu quickly without Wine Drinker Immortal Gu.
In the legends, Verdant Sun once called Bewitching Soup a top-tier wine! There was some truth in that claim.
Lo Jik controlled the recently refined rank 5 gu worm as it floated above the shallow lake.
'Activate.'
His gaze shined brilliantly.
The gu worm suddenly spat out a geyser of fragrant water!
But the moment it spread down and fell like a waterfall upon the lake, more than half of lake evaporated into more fragrant vapors before dissipating. Only twenty percent of the water remained by the time it reached the bottom of the lake. Even then, Lo Jik sensed the water in the lake slowly dissipating.
'It is to be expected. Guts Gu cannot be used outside Dang Hun Mountain. I have a few ways to deal with it, but the fact is that Guts Gu can only be produced due to the dao marks on Dang Hun Mountain. Similarly, Bewilderment Fog and Luo Po Wind do not blow beyond Luo Po Valley. Bewitching Lake is found within Door of Life and Death. It must have its own dao marks. That special environment is most suited in producing this pacifying soul soup.'
Lo Jik observed this water.
There was a reason why he was pressed on time to understanding and utilizing water from Bewitching Lake to quickly refine gu worms.
Unlike its counterparts, Bewitching Soup did not instantly vanish. But it showed signs of dissipation once Lo Jik moved it inside his human path blessed land. He tried several means of preventing its disappearance. He would have tried to create a formation but there simply wasn't enough time. Formations took time to set-up, time which he could otherwise spend deducing these two recipes. Even adding the clones did not make a lot of difference in terms of preserving Bewitching Soup, so Lo Jik spared no effort in refining gu.
This food path rank 5 Bewitching Wine Gu was one of the two gu worms.
When observed carefully, there was a slight difference in the water created by this gu worm and the one Lo Jik obtained from his trait.
'But… these complications will vanish once I advance the recipe to the level of an immortal gu.'
Lo Jik was quite certain of this. So, his Wine Drinker Immortal Gu spent a lot of time deducing this recipe. It helped that they just obtained so many immortal gu recipes to learn from and refer.
Of course, Lo Jik still planned on finding ways to properly preserving this material and setting up a business to sell it. This was a unique material and Lo Jik could establish a monopoly.
With that, Lo Jik glanced at other human path gu worms.
One of the rank 5 gu worms looked like a dark-grey drain fly. It was none other than Fake Soul Gu—Lo Jik's attempt at creating a human path soul refinement gu. He was quite pleased with the result even if it did not match his earlier expectation of dual cultivation. This gu worm formed a passive defense around the soul that strengthened and repaired itself by consuming the impurities in the soul. Not only was it a gentler method of refining the soul, it did not add unnecessary dao marks on the soul and make it less compatible with the body.
Lo Jik glanced at the other two.
One looked like a caterpillar. It was plump and greyish and appeared extremely cute.
Rank 5 False Guts Gu.
With a thought, Lo Jik activated the gu worm and fed it a human's soul. The use and feeding of this gu worm were combined.
False Guts Gu consumed the soul and turned round like a ball. It rolled on the ground and eventually digested the soul. Finally, it spat out a greyish-blue lump of light that shot out of Lo Jik's aperture and entered his soul.
Closing his eyes, Lo Jik experienced the effects and smiled softly.
'Strengthening effect is no different from Guts Gu but…'
Lo Jik sighed.
Again, to replicate Guts Gu entailed replicating the entire Dang Hun Mountain! Of course, that was impossible.
While the effects of False Guts were as good and gentle as the real thing, the issue arose in its feeding requirement.
Guts Gu could be created using souls of any living being. The quantity of soul and their types affected the production of Guts Gu, but the effects of Guts Gu themselves were not affected by the quality of the souls.
Meanwhile, False Guts only worked on human souls.
To be precise, it worked best when used with souls of humans alone!
Lo Jik tried using the souls of other variant humans but the effects were not even 20% of a human soul.
So, to become independent from Guts Gu, Lo Jik had to massacre who knows how many mortals and collect their souls.
'But that is too complicated. I will also lose my current identity as a righteous path gu immortal once this matter gets out.' Lo Jik did not care about being branded as a demon or killing people. Back then, in Ba Gui Blessed Land, he cold-heartedly massacred an entire tribe of hairy men without batting an eye. What troubled him were his circumstances.
Did he even have the time to engage in such a time-consuming task?
'I can only rely on Treasure Yellow Heaven to purchase these mortal materials… mortal… materials…'
Lo Jik fell into a daze before throwing his head back and laughing loudly.
No!
He did not have to kill anyone at all!
He did not have to purchase mortal materials at all!
Sea of Wealth churned and instantly confirmed Lo Jik's guess, producing a large wave of human souls.
In essence, human souls were a soul path mortal material!
Resolving this issue, Lo Jik grinned and activated the last of the three gu worms.
Rank 5 Soul Pacifying Fog.
The gu worm exploded. It was a one-time consumable gu. However, Lo Jik controlled the fog and allowed it to wrap around his soul.
Instant relief and relaxation washed over Lo Jik as his thoughts also grew spirited.
'But the effects aren't as great as drinking bewitching soup.' Lo Jik noted. He would have to consume three Soul Pacifying Gu for the effects of one jar of bewitching soup. But there were also advantages to using a gu worm, such as a killer move.
With these three human path gu worms and Accumulation Gu, Lo Jik could form a killer move meant to cultivate the soul endlessly! At least, he wouldn't have any problems surpassing his current limits of a thousand-man soul.
As for his other rewards, Lo Jik placed the unknown human path ancient desolate beast in Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven to observe. Lo Jik currently did not have the strength to tackle ancient desolate beasts, especially the unknown ones. The mountain, a true resource point, was placed inside his human path blessed land. This mountain appeared ordinary at a glance. However, it had an extraordinary relationship with dream path. Anyone who sleeps on this mountain would enter self dream realms!
Since dream path gu worms weren't always tangible, Lo Jik planned on investigating this mountain deeper and explore its secrets.
Lastly… he still did not know what to do with Emperor City. Lo Jik's many clones were still studying the gu house. It simply had too many gu worms.
His cultivation did not stop after dealing with the rewards. After spending one-third of this time with human path, Lo Jik spent the second half of his secluded cultivation comprehending dream path. Dream path was an outstanding source of strength in this era, especially if one realized how quickly it could raise a gu master's attainment.
However, at this stage, almost every gu master and gu immortal were at the earliest step while Lo Jik had rushed past all of them. He studied Dream Wings Immortal Gu Worm not only to decipher other dream path immortal recipes but also to acquire the effects of Dream Wings by deducing its mortal recipe. This way, he could return the immortal gu to Feng Jin Huang without feeling any loss.
However, dream path was still more challenging to explore without any great directions. He observed the aspect of dream summoning by Dreamer Gu and their use of various dream path gu. Not only that, as a dream path great grandmaster, Lo Jik revised all his experience in dream path with a new and more proficient perspective. This was a time-consuming method of cultivation but one Lo Jik found the most suitable.
Along the way, Lo Jik did acquire more rewards. But this time he held back his greed and aimed for platinum achievement. The various golden and silver rewards glittered in his treasure space. Some had a massive group of Lifespan Gu, some had dream and luck path desolate beasts, some had strange inheritances.
However, Lo Jik had a greed for platinum!
If he could summon Emperor City and a complete resource point at golden achievements, then what would be the next logical step?
What was more precious to a gu immortal than these resources?
If he could gain incomplete portions of a Secluded Domain of Heaven and Earth… then what did he stand to gain at platinum?
As such another hundred or so days passed. But Lo Jik did not stop cultivating dream path. He was engrossed in it and realized he had too many benefits in cultivating it to not prioritize it over strength path.
Finally, during the last seventy days, Lo Jik focused on strength path.
His strength path cultivation mostly consisted on researching new strength path material, which his Martial Artist, Monk, Refiner, and Hairy Men clones had already done extensively. The benefits of such clones was truly mind-boggling.
Even if they were at mortal realms, just the benefit of shared attainment and proficiency made it easier for Lo Jik to leave several responsibilities to these clones.
As such, he could truly cultivate all the paths even if he was only focusing on dream, luck, human, and strength paths.
For strength path, Lo Jik had to devise several killer moves involving the effects of different paths to deal with other gu immortals when the time arose.
One of the first killer move, centered around rank 5 Fickle Heart Strength Gu, was a strength path cultivation killer move.
Mortal killer move—Fickle Body Strength!
*Boom*
A massive fog consumed a flying bear corpse. Flying bears boasted snow-white fur and were extremely powerful. Currently, Lo Jik used this strength and food path compound killer move to cover this corpse with a purplish fog.
Soon, white emerged in this fog and it started to move strangely.
The fog eventually took shape of an extremely life-like flying bear as it roared and charged into Lo Jik's body!
His body trembled with sharp and unforgiving pain assaulting his senses. Sweat soaked his body while he stayed still for a few minutes. After a short while, Lo Jik activated All-Out Effort Immortal Gu.
*Whoosh*
Phantom of a flying bear appeared above him, roaring soundlessly!
'Using food path, I modified the effects of Fickle Heart Strength Gu Worm. Now, it does not need to eat several hearts but one body is adequate enough to acquire the dao marks related to beast strength phantom.'
He clenched his fist and smiled.
'This is the benefit of multiple attainments.'
He did not have difficulty deducing such a killer move at all. Furthermore, Fickle Heart Strength already showed signs of food path ingenuity.
As such, Lo Jik could now 'eat' desolate beasts and gain their strength! Using these phantoms with All-Out Effort Gu was already the same as using a basic immortal killer move. But Lo Jik wouldn't do so easily.
Immortal killer moves expended immortal essence.
He would rather utilize a strength path killer move with All-Out Effort and Accumulation mortal gu worms to achieve the same effect!
This was just the beginning of his strength path cultivation.
He continuously created several killer moves, most of them far surpassing top-tier killer moves sold for 6-10 immortal essence stones in Treasure Yellow Heaven. He steadily accumulated strength and practice in activating these killer moves.
Soon, it was time to exit his seclusion.
***
Alternate Title: The second coming of Spectral Soul even before Spectral Soul's first coming; Lo Jik's advancement in soul cultivation; Doing all this and still not a supreme grandmaster; Verdant Sun's spiritual son; Verdant Sun later making a deal with Star Constellation *Lo Jik taking notes and planning to sell his booty to Star Constellation, too*; Verdant Sun: I dream of Alabama *Lo Jik: Say no more, Elder Bro! Here, a dream realm with Ancient Desolate Moon*; Lo Jik getting some of Verdant Sun's good shit; Spectral's Desolate Soul Vs Lo Jik's Divine Soul; Mi Yao: I shall spend years developing this compound killer move as my trump card! *Lo Jik:… five days, take it or leave it*; Unlimited human souls; Fate Gu crying in corner seeing Wealth Gu get exploited!; Heaven's Will: That's why I took that fucking thing off of Ren Zu!; Heaven's Will: I will fuck Lo Jik up *Also Heaven's Will once it sees Love Gu on his shoulder and Divine Concealment around his otherworldly soul: Perhaps I did go a little too far*; Lo Jik: Immortal beast strength phantom gu worms? Pfft! Check this shit out *Devours a desolate beast and shits out strength phantom*; Lo Jik making Imaginative Strength proud
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