Gateway of Immortality

Chapter 137: Slashing the Primordial Spirit

"greetings, senior brother gong."

qin sang bowed respectfully.

"it's you!"

senior brother gong clearly still remembered qin sang. his expression turned complex as he spoke, "junior brother qin, are you here to select an art? you are free to browse any of the arts for the second level. you can choose one for free. however, if you wish to cultivate a spell, you will need to exchange spirit stones for it, and its cost will depend on the power of the spell."

upon entering the grand hall, qin sang immediately noticed how different the interior was from the alchemy room. in the hall stood dozens of jade pillars, each with a glowing orb floating above it, while the walls at the back were lined with jade slips.

he approached one of the jade pillars nearby and glanced at the characters inscribed on it. to his surprise, it happened to be the thoughtless art.

sweeping his spiritual consciousness over the orb, qin sang carefully examined it. as expected, the thoughtless art was a cultivation art that directly aimed at the spiritual infant realm. however, just as the sect leader had mentioned, it had only one divine ability during the foundation building realm, and that ability was meant for escaping.

if one chose this art, they could forget about engaging in direct combat without powerful artifacts.

and to gather top-grade artifacts would require an immense amount of effort. even though qin sang possessed several top-grade artifacts, they were rare even among foundation building cultivators.

withdrawing his spiritual consciousness from the orb, qin sang began to wander around the hall. each glowing orb contained a different cultivation art, but the core portions of these arts were sealed behind barriers. only after selecting an art could he request senior brother gong to pass it on outside.

the arts were filled with various mysteries, broadening qin sang’s horizons. many were incomplete, though there were also complete arts that led directly to the divine transformation realm.

for some reason, it had been countless years since a divine transformation cultivator had appeared in the small cold domain. numerous brilliant talents, like founder kuiyin, had all ended their lives at the spiritual infant realm.

qin sang dared not think that far ahead. whether or not an art was incomplete didn't matter to him; as long as the foundation building realm part was complete, that was all he needed.

he also reviewed the few arts recommended by sect leader yu.

just as the sect leader had said, with his talent, he could only choose from the thoughtless art or similar ones.

even so, the hope of forming a golden core remained slim.

the sect leader had subtly advised him.

"only a rare few foundation building cultivators can form a golden core. rather than chasing after such a distant, illusory hope, many prefer to choose a powerful art, one that allows them to live freely, pursue their desires, and not waste two hundred years of life in vain."

according to the art, cultivators had to pierce their primordial spirit with their spiritual sword, forcing themselves to endure the constant agony of sword qi gnawing at their spirit. this pain originated from the depths of the soul, a level of torment unimaginable.

but that was not all—primordial spirit sword nourishment had an even more terrifying requirement.

while cultivating this art, one had to visualize the killing symbol described within it, drawing the intent of slaughter into their primordial spirit. the final step was to condense the killing symbol into the sword itself—nourishing the sword while refining it at the same time!

with the primordial spirit constantly subjected to the influence of slaughter, if one’s mind was overwhelmed by it and they could no longer maintain their true nature, there would only be one outcome: being dominated by the intent to kill, losing all sense of self, and turning into a mindless killing machine!

as one’s cultivation progressed, the condensed killing intent from the symbol would grow even stronger. no matter how resolute one’s mind, the erosion of their consciousness would be inevitable.

there should have been a secret art within this cultivation method, one that allowed the primordial spirit to resist the killing intent and keep one’s mind clear. without it, there would be no way to cultivate this art at all.

how had senior qingzhu managed to practice this incomplete art?

"it’s said that senior qingzhu used a secret art to directly split his primordial spirit in half, using one half to nourish the sword. this mitigated some of the inherent dangers of the art, but even then, he ended up half-crazed. if you're worried about your foundation, you needn't take such a huge risk. taiyi core sect is the top authority in alchemy, and they may have ways to restore your foundation. junior brother qin, are you sure you want to cultivate primordial spirit sword nourishment?"

after speaking, senior brother gong gave qin sang a deep, penetrating look.

qin sang was left speechless. he had thought he was already harsh enough on himself, but when faced with senior qingzhu’s actions, he couldn’t help but feel inferior.

a foundation building cultivator could indeed split their consciousness and control multiple artifacts at once, but that was only splitting their spiritual consciousness.

to split the primordial spirit in half, survive, and even form a golden core within forty years, breaking the sect’s record—what kind of immense willpower was that?

qin sang took a deep breath and nodded. "please pass on the art, senior brother."

senior brother gong’s earlier reminder had only come from a place of concern upon seeing qin sang.

seeing that qin sang had made up his mind, he refrained from further persuasion. placing his hand above the glowing orb, he activated the barrier. a beam of light shot out from the orb and entered qin sang’s forehead.

the complete cultivation art now appeared in qin sang’s mind. with just a brief glance, he saw the core of the art, the killing symbol, and immediately felt a sharp pain stabbing at his spiritual consciousness.

at that moment, senior brother gong suddenly spoke up, "i won't hide it from you, junior brother qin—i once considered risking everything to cultivate this art, so i studied it for some time. based on my observations, this art requires an extreme level of killing intent. simply visualizing the killing symbol won’t be enough—you must walk the path of slaughter to truly comprehend it. i hope you will take care of yourself."