Necropolis Immortal

The ball of medicinal liquid solidified into a cerulean blue pill after a rush of water origin energy. Lu Yun heaved a long sigh of relief. His first attempt at recreating the properties of one of the thirty-six earthly treasures after his awakening had been a resounding success! He’d even come across more understanding of dao.

This was the ultimate peak of dao and would be very helpful when he became the heavenly dao in the future. Naturally, he didn’t realize it at the moment.

“I have the Eye of Nullification, connate five elements, and Hongmeng true qi. It seems easier to refine higher level medicines and spirit herb attributes in this life than it was in my past reincarnations!” A smile floated onto his face.

The experiences, memories, and knowledge of his three thousand lifetimes were now in one body. His understanding of certain disciplines was greater than when he first obtained that knowledge. Although a myriad of methods existed in the world, they were all derived from great dao.

The methods used might vary, but the nature remained the same.

From dao came one, and one begat two, two gave birth to three, and from three resulted all living things!

After one understood the basic theory of origin, one could derive thousands of various daos. This was the enlightenment that Lu Yun had grasped while he refined the Dragon Transformation Grass. It was a theory that could also be utilized in the opposite direction. All things could become dao!

That was the most important piece of knowledge gleaned.

He was a part of “all things”. If the Dragon Transformation Grass could transform into all things, then all things could transform into Dragon Transformation Grass. He’d succeeded this time, but he might not the next.

There were too many attributes involved with the grass. If it wasn’t for his harvest of everything within that herb garden, he wouldn’t have so quickly refined the Dragon Transformation Grass. Even a clever housewife could not cook a meal without rice. If he’d lacked those spirit herbs, Lu Yun would’ve failed to distill the medicinal attributes that he needed.

“Oh?” As he regarded the cerulean pill in his hand, the young man jerked with shock. He hastily whipped his head around in the direction of the cave entrance.

A massive head had poked in at some point in time.

It was black all over and nine meters tall, a perfect plug for the entrance. Antlers that looked like withered branches stuck to its head and a pair of crimson eyes stared fixedly at the pill in Lu Yun’s hand.

“So pureblooded jiao do exist… but this one seems to have declined back to the empyrean immortal realm due to certain injuries.” His Eye of Nullification immediately plumbed the depths of the new arrival.

Pureblood Jiao were the same as dragons—dao immortals as soon as they were born. Adult jiao could become immortal overlords, but the one in front of him had declined to empyrean immortal. It was less than even a newborn jiao.

“Roar!” The gray jiao growled when it saw Lu Yun regard it and bobbed its head slightly.

“Eat this pill.” Lu Yun relaxed when he sensed that it wasn’t hostile. It’d come to prevent the Dragon Transformation Grass’ aura from expanding further.

Being an earthly treasure, the grass possessed an extremely strong aura. He’d chosen to refine it within the lake as a safeguard against its aura from spreading. However, it’d diffused regardless and summoned a pureblood gray jiao from the depths. Since it could spread downward, that meant it could very possibly extend upward as well.

……

Countless spirit beasts howled near Jade Ice Lake, having surrounded the body of water. Snake-type spirit beasts were the majority. Dragons were lascivious beasts and nearly all the worlds possessed creatures that carried draconic bloodline. The Dragon Transformation Grass was sacred to the race and also bore an almost fatal attraction to anything with a draconic bloodline.

The spirit beasts sensed the grass’ aura when Lu Yun refined it; there were plenty of their type in Fallen Leaf Mountain. Of course, most of them carried very faint traces of draconic bloodline. Most were heavily intermixed with other species, such as the scaled-dragons or hornless dragons. Their ancestors hadn’t been true dragons, to say nothing of descendants with just a drop of their bloodline.

Long Aotian’s bloodline was true draconic bloodline, something that none of these creatures could measure up to.

Hundreds of creatures with draconic bloodlines were gathered around Jade Ice Lake. The strongest among them was a fifth rank blackwater snake king. Blackwater snakes were the most pureblood of draconic bloodlines in worlds of cultivation, which was why Lu Yun had chosen its inner core to refine the Dragon Transformation Grass with.

Countless heads of black spirit beasts poked out of the lake’s surface and growled warningly, facing the creatures on the shore in a standoff.

Innumerable cultivators also crowded around, having detected the abnormality the moment something cropped up with the lake. Cultivators from the four cities around Fallen Leaf Mountain—Fallen Leaf, Rain Swallow, Ice Moon, and Iron Curtain—were present.

“These spirit beasts all possess draconic bloodlines. Since they’ve gathered here… has the last of the thirty-six earthly treasures, the legendary Dragon Transformation Grass, appeared in the lake?” mused a surprised elder that resembled a ball of flame as he had red eyebrows, a red mustache, and red hair. Bright red long robes rounded out the look.

“Master, do those legendary heavenly and earthly treasures really exist in the world?” An extremely ugly young man stood next to the elder. His lips were disproportionately thick, his nose smashed in, one of his eyes twice the size of a regular eye while the other was only the size of a peanut. His complexion was muddy and skin coarse, giving one an uncertain feeling of whether he was man or ghost. His voice also grated on the ear, like the sound of withered branches rubbing against each other.

However, no one dared look down their nose at him. Although he looked only fifteen years old, he’d already reached initial soul separation!

Soul separation was a divide between cultivators. Those who reached this level could project their own image and owned partially immortal bodies. They were hailed as earthly immortals.

The elder in red robes blazed with an aura that stretched for the skies. He didn’t bother concealing his aura as a high level cultivator and it was plain that they came from highly ranked cultivation empires.

“They must exist if they are recorded in books. There is none other than the legendary Dragon Transformation Grass that can attract all creatures with draconic bloodline in Fallen Leaf Mountain.” The elder swallowed hard. “Jade Ruins Realm is far from an ordinary world of cultivation if they even have this level of treasure!”

“Then what are we waiting for? With master’s cultivation, it’d be an easy task to venture into the lake and take the grass!” The gray-robed young man’s misshapen eyes gleamed with excitement.

“Calm down,” the elder chuckled ruefully. “Although the Dragon Transformation Grass is the last of the thirty-six earthly treasures, its true value isn’t any less than the ten heavenly treasures. The unfortunate thing is that it’s applicable only to dragons or those with draconic bloodlines. That is why it is listed last. Otherwise, it absolutely bears the potential to be listed at the head of the earthly treasures.”

“So master means that the grass is useless for us?” Disappointment flashed across the young man’s face.

“Dragon Transformation Grass is useless for human cultivators, but it can help those with draconic bloodline return to their origins! If we can capture a spirit or monster beast with draconic bloodline and use it to activate their bloodline, that will mean we have a dragon for a pet!” the elder chuckled.

“I see! Then allow me, master. I have my eyes set on the blackwater snake king. Tsk tsk, it’s on par with a soul projection cultivator!” The young man looked eagerly at the blackwater snake king on the banks of Jade Ice Lake.

“Don’t move for now,” his master shook his head. “There is much beneath the surface at play here due to Immortal Burial Valley. There are at least three people in the vicinity whose cultivation I cannot see through!”

“You’re already an awakened powerhouse, master! Is there anyone here who rivals you?” The young man jumped with surprise.

“It’s better to be careful!” The elder shook his head, failing to note the light flashing through the young man’s eyes.

……

Noon the next day, the sun directly overhead.

It’d been a full night and half a day since Lu Yun refined the Dragon Transformation Grass.

“Hahaha, so it is that thing’s presence, there’s no doubt about it!” Raucous laughter exploded from the sky as a black cloud floated over. A black aura immediately enveloped the premises, causing the spirit beasts and black beasts in the waters to snarl with unease.

“Monster spirit!” gasped the cultivators hidden in the forest.

Monster spirits were evolved from spirit beasts. Beasts that couldn’t take human form were called spirit beasts, or at most immortal or divine beasts if they reached immortality. Those that could were called monster beasts or monster spirits. Monster spirits were innately powerful, far stronger than human cultivators of the same level. Some with connate talents could even kill their peers.

“Hiss!” The blackwater snake king reared upward when it saw the black cloud descend. Its neck flattened and its tongue flickered in and out, rasping warning sounds.

The black cloud faded away to reveal a young man dressed in emerald green robes with emerald green eyes. He silently hovered thirty meters above the lake surface.

“It really is that thing! To think that the legendary Dragon Transformation Grass would appear here!” A long forked tongue darted out of his mouth to lick his nose. “And to think that I, Ancestor Bi Chen, would have a chance of transforming into a dragon!”

“Old Monster Bi Chen!” shrieked the red-robed elder when he heard the name. “Isn’t the tyrant of Barren Mountains in closed door cultivation in the mountain range? He broke through to become a monster immortal, what’s he doing here??”