Eternal Life Begins with Learning

Chapter 419: Chapter 386: Heaven Can Be Deceived

Leaning back by the window, Chu Mu’s gaze was somber as he looked out at the secret deep-sea stronghold.

The deep-sea island, a hundred acres in size, wasn’t particularly large, but it was fully equipped. From what he had seen on his way in, the island had everything a stronghold could possibly need.

After observing for a moment, his gaze shifted, and Chu Mu finally turned to look at the room behind him.

The room was ordinary, and he didn’t bother to inspect it as meticulously as he usually would. In a secret place like this, whether or not there was anything unusual no longer mattered.

The truth was quite clear. Fu Song had invited him here for a reason that was perhaps related to Alchemy or Artifact Refining, but that relation was definitely not as simple as he had first thought.

If it were merely a matter of ordinary Alchemy, there would have been no need to bring him to this secret deep-sea stronghold.

The Outer Sea was vast. Where couldn’t one perform Alchemy or Artifact Refining?

Why expose this secret stronghold to him?

From what he could see, this secret stronghold must have existed for a long time. It was surely a secret the Yun Xiao Business Alliance was keeping from the Vast Sea Chen Family.

It might even involve deeper secrets.

After all, the Chen Family had ruled the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World for tens of thousands of years. In all that time, where had all the factions with cultivators who had a hope of reaching the Nascent Soul Realm gone?

The Yun Xiao Business Alliance couldn’t possibly ignore this, and neither could the other powers under the Vast Sea Chen Family’s rule.

Yet, such a secret had been laid bare before him, an outsider.

Clearly, even if this was truly about Artifact Refining or Alchemy, it must involve some sort of secret for them to choose this hidden place in the deep sea as the location.

What he needed to consider was no longer the matter at hand, but what would happen to him... after it was all over.

Chu Mu’s brow was tightly furrowed. As he was lost in silent thought, a sudden knock came at the door.

The door opened, and Fu Song’s cheerful voice reached his ears.

"Fellow Daoist, the True Master requests your presence."

Chu Mu nodded without a word and followed Fu Song down the street. In just a few moments, they arrived outside a large hall in the center of the island.

"Fellow Daoist, the True Master is waiting inside the hall."

Chu Mu glanced at Fu Song. His eyes shifted, finally settling on the great hall before him.

The hall was majestic, shimmering with a flowing light. A curtain of light, like water, separated the inside from the outside, making it impossible to see anything within from where he stood.

He took a step forward, and the light curtain offered no resistance. His entire body passed through it. At the same time, Chu Mu clearly sensed several gazes converging on him the instant he entered the hall.

In that instant, his Divine Soul Blade sent out frantic warnings. An indescribable feeling of palpitations surged through his entire body. Although no aura was revealed, under those unbridled gazes, Chu Mu felt as if he had no secrets left, as if he had been seen through completely.

His usually robust Essence, Qi, and Spirit seemed to be completely frozen at that moment, unable to move in the slightest.

’This is terrifying!’

Chu Mu suppressed the tremor in his heart and struggled to raise his head to look into the hall. The owners of those several gazes were all existences he was powerless to resist.

In other words, there were several beings in this hall whom he could only look up to in awe!

Soon, the figures seated in the hall came into Chu Mu’s view.

The man on the left had a pale, clean-shaven face and wore a magnificent brocade robe. Although Chu Mu had never met him, he had seen his portrait in the Yun Xiao Trading House. This was True Master Yun Xiao of the Yun Xiao Business Alliance, whose cultivation was said to be at the Middle Stage of Golden Core.

The man on the right wore a short robe of coarse cloth, looking like a common old farmer. His face was unfamiliar, but his cultivation aura was clearly much stronger than even True Master Yun Xiao’s.

As for the person seated in the main position, they were shrouded in a hazy mist that completely concealed their form. To the naked eye, one could only make out a rough humanoid shape.

And their cultivation aura...

’Nascent Soul!’

With just a single glance, Chu Mu immediately retracted his gaze, his heart filled with terror!

He had long suspected it, but to have it confirmed with his own eyes...

The Yun Xiao Business Alliance had a Nascent Soul Great Power!

’What does this mean?’

Chu Mu cursed his misfortune, filled with endless regret. This deal was a straight-up death trap!

"This pill... little friend, can you refine it?"

At that moment, True Master Yun Xiao, seated on the left, suddenly spoke. A jade scroll then shot out, coming to a halt and hovering before Chu Mu.

Chu Mu silently accepted the jade scroll and probed it with his Divine Sense. The next second, as if he had seen something unbelievable, his pupils contracted, and his standing figure trembled slightly.

After a moment, he slowly lowered the jade scroll, the shock still lingering in his eyes. Without the slightest hesitation, he clasped his hands and bowed. "This pill... this junior can refine it."

Hearing this, True Master Yun Xiao couldn’t help but show a flicker of joy. He was about to speak, but then, as if remembering something, he quickly looked toward the mysterious Nascent Soul on the main seat. "Senior, what do you think..."

It was unclear what the mysterious Nascent Soul had communicated, but True Master Yun Xiao nodded repeatedly like a yes-man. "This junior understands, of course."

Chu Mu didn’t dare to look too long. He clutched the jade scroll tightly, his breathing becoming much lighter.

Before the people in this hall, he was no different from the livestock-raised humans that had stood before him.

When the gap in realms was large enough, it was the difference between heaven and earth. He was just an insignificant... ant!

"Go back and prepare. In three days, you will refine this pill."

At this, Celestial Cloud True Master spoke.

"This junior obeys."

Feeling as if he’d received a heavenly pardon, Chu Mu bowed deeply and quickly turned to leave.

The terrifying gazes that had been fixed on him didn’t seem to fully dissipate until he had completely stepped out of the light curtain.

Fu Song had an apprehensive look on his face and seemed about to ask something, but before he could open his mouth, Chu Mu tossed the jade scroll into his hands.

He subconsciously inspected it, but then, as if he realized something, his face instantly turned deathly pale. He shoved the jade scroll back into Chu Mu’s hands as if it were a hot potato.

"Fellow Daoist, you’ve completely ruined me!"

Fu Song let out a wail and, with a THUD, fell to his knees before the great hall, kowtowing and trembling.

Chu Mu paid him no mind. He glanced back at the majestic hall, then strode away down the street.

As for Fu Song...

What was supposed to be a perfectly normal transaction had ended up dragging him into this death trap.

’Since I’ve been dragged into this, Fu Song will have to come down with me!’

Back in his room, Chu Mu set up an isolation restriction. He held the jade scroll containing the pill recipe, his once-calm expression turning dark and uncertain.

The pill recipe was unorthodox, one might even say bizarre and terrifying!

Live-slaughter pill extraction was already an extremely cruel method of alchemy.

But for this pill recipe, the target of the live slaughter was a Bloodline Golden Core!

In other words, the main ingredient for this pill recipe was a Bloodline Golden Core True Master!

According to the pill recipe, while the Bloodline Golden Core was still alive, one was to extract their Bloodline Golden Core, draw out their Divine Soul, smelt it with the power of Supreme Yang and Firmness, and then fuse it with dozens of support ingredients. The final formed pill was called the Heavenly Deceit Pill!

This Heavenly Deceit Pill was even more peculiar. It had no supportive effects for one’s cultivation, nor did it have any calming or healing properties. In fact, it even caused significant negative erosion.

After all, extracting a Bloodline Golden Core and drawing out its Golden Core Divine Soul meant draining a Golden Core True Master of all their Essence, Qi, and Spirit, leaving behind nothing but a meaningless husk.

A pill formed in such a way, no matter how thoroughly it was smelted with Supreme Yang and Firmness, could not possibly avoid the corrosive backlash from the Golden Core’s Essence, Qi, and Spirit.

And the effect of this pill was just as its name implied... to deceive the heavens!

A cultivator could change their appearance and form at will, but the one thing they could never change was their Divine Soul Aura.

In the Cultivation Immortal Realm, one’s Divine Soul Aura was equivalent to an identification marker.

An identification marker that was virtually impossible to alter!

But this pill, the Heavenly Deceiver, could change it!

By live-slaughtering a Bloodline Golden Core to extract and form the pill, a cultivator who consumed it could completely conceal their own aura for the duration of the pill’s effect.

While under the pill’s effect, the user would instead exude the Divine Soul Aura of the slaughtered Golden Core True Master, allowing them to pull off the perfect deception and flawlessly impersonate the sacrificed Bloodline Golden Core until the effect wore off.

Most importantly, when refined with this live-slaughter method, the Divine Soul would still exist. This meant that even after being formed into a pill, with the Bloodline Golden Core’s consciousness gone, the victim had not actually perished and was still technically in a living state.

This living state would continue until the pill’s effects disintegrated, at which point it would finally end.

In other words, things like soul lamps or life lamps would only be able to detect the death of the slaughtered Bloodline Golden Core after the pill’s effects had dissipated.

Without a doubt, this Heavenly Deceit Pill was a near-perfect tool for deception!

Chu Mu took a deep breath, trying hard to suppress the tremor in his heart.

He was still struggling to pursue the Golden Core Realm...

And now, this pill recipe actually required the live slaughter of a Bloodline Golden Core cultivator.

And he was the one who had to refine it...

In other words, he would have to personally draw out the soul and extract the core of a Golden Core True Master, refining them into a pill...

"Heavenly Deceit..."

Chu Mu let out a long breath and leaned weakly against the window. He couldn’t bring himself to think about it anymore.

’Live-slaughtering a Bloodline Golden Core cultivator... so who... who would be the Golden Core True Master to be slaughtered?’

’What kind of deception is the Yun Xiao Business Alliance trying to pull?’

’The possibilities seemed endless...’

A Golden Core True Master was a top-tier existence in any faction.

Even if the Heavenly Deceit Pill’s effects only lasted for a few short days, there were obviously a great many things one could do with a few days of perfect deception.

Framing an innocent party, spying on secrets, sowing discord...

In just an instant, Chu Mu had thought of countless uses for this Heavenly Deceit Pill.

After all, it was common knowledge that a Divine Soul Aura could not be faked.

Even in a sect like the Longevity Sect, a cultivator’s identity was verified by their Divine Soul Aura.

The vast surveillance network of the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World also identified people by recording their Divine Soul Aura.

By using the Heavenly Deceit Pill to pull off a deception and frame someone, the impersonated faction would be in a situation where even if they were innocent, they would be seen as guilty.

Chu Mu pursed his lips. Given the Yun Xiao Business Alliance’s power in the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World, the only target that would warrant such an elaborate and painstaking scheme from the Yun Xiao Trading House was clearly the Chen Family, which had ruled the Vast Sea Cultivation Immortal World for tens of thousands of years.

As his thoughts reached this point, the gloom in Chu Mu’s heart deepened.

He, an outsider, was participating in and witnessing this entire painstaking conspiracy from start to finish.

’So when this is all over, will they let me live? Will they leave behind a fatal liability like me?’

’If I were the one planning this, would I leave such a fatal loophole?’

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