Reverend Insanity

Since the creator had yet to name the method, Fang Yuan gave it a tentative name: life-and-death immortal aperture revival method.

The true value of this method was absolutely priceless!

If it were to be leaked out to the public, the whole cultivation world would be shaken and the current situation of the world would change. Countless Gu Immortals, even the secluded rank eights, would start researching it immediately with their full efforts and attempt to use the method.

Once a large portion of Gu Immortals obtain this method, from then on, the number of Gu Immortals in all the five regions would start to increase explosively and in unprecedented fashion.

Because the life-and-death immortal aperture contained the mysteries of both life and death, it could reduce the might of heavenly tribulations and earthly calamities. And the extent of that reduction was as high as an entire fifty percent!

What did that imply?

The cultivation journeys of Gu Immortals had two difficulties that they had to pass.

One was that of limited lifespan and the other was the presence of calamities and tribulations.

Increasing cultivation level could not increase lifespan, thus Gu Immortals could only seek out other methods to prolong their lifespans by all means possible.

Ignoring that for the time being.

Right now, calamities and tribulations were to be emphasised.

Gu Immortal would face calamities and tribulations once in a while. Heavenly tribulations and earthly calamities were like blades of an executioner hanging over the heads of Gu Immortals.

During times of peace, most Gu Immortals would die as a result of calamities and tribulations. Countless records within history and practical examples and experiences in real life served to remind Gu Immortals time and time again about how terrifying and fatal these threats were!

Calamities and tribulations were unpredictable and their power was not equal, instead the difficulty increased gradually.

Gu Immortals needed to work hard in their cultivation and raise their strength continuously to have a chance of passing the tribulations.

And cultivation was not simply a theoretical matter, resources for cultivation were required, like immortal materials, Immortal Gu, immortal killer moves, Immortal Gu Houses and so on.

An immortal aperture was the best place to cultivate and harvest immortal materials.

Because the environment of the immortal aperture was special, it had many dao marks and could grow relevant immortal materials that were suitable for the Gu Immortal, in accordance with their situation. Moreover, time flowed much faster in the immortal aperture when compared to the five regions, thus the immortal materials could be harvested more frequently and provide higher gains overall.

There was another reason as well, nurturing cultivation resources in the immortal aperture could be done much more safely and they could be carried around with the person conveniently.

It was quite dangerous to place immortal materials outside.

Not only could they be easily seized by others, there could also be overbearing experts like Blazing Heaven Demoness who would even attempt to destroy them if they were unable to obtain them.

However, the problem was that every heavenly tribulation and earthly calamity would result in heavy negative repercussions on the immortal aperture.

It was already not a simple matter for Gu Immortals to pass calamities and tribulations. To prevent damage to the entirety of their immortal aperture was nearly impossible.

The cultivation resources that were stored in the immortal aperture would often be destroyed to a large extent.

Gu Immortals would have to once again accumulate the cultivation resources to continue their cultivation, there were even some who might have to start all over from scratch.

If that happened, a vicious cycle would be formed.

Accumulating cultivation resources, cultivating, increasing in strength, passing tribulations… re-accumulating resources, cultivating, increasing in strength slowly, passing even tougher tribulations…

The calamities and tribulations would become stronger and stronger, while their resources would need to be accumulated all over again each time, greatly delaying the growth of the strength of the Gu Immortal. The strength of many Gu Immortals might be insufficient for keeping up with the required speed, their growth might even sometimes be stagnant, so how could they cope with the even more terrifying calamities and tribulations?

Thus, since ancient times, countless Gu Immortals had lost everything to heavenly tribulations and earthly calamities and perished.

Hu Immortal was a typical example.

She had passed four earthly calamities, but at the fifth calamity, she encountered a blue charm lightning shadow and died due to it. Her obsession turned into the land spirit of Hu Immortal blessed land, which was finally obtained by Fang Yuan.

Of course, there was a method to reduce the threat, that was to move out the cultivation resources in advance.

Previously, Fang Yuan had done this.

But in fact, very few Gu Immortals would do such a thing.

They were obviously not foolish, so what was the reason?

The reason was because of the targeting natures of heavenly tribulations and earthly calamities. For instance, a wood path Gu Immortal who moved out all their wood path resources before facing a calamity or tribulation may instead end up attracting a fire path calamity or tribulation.

After passing the tribulation, the immortal aperture would be greatly affected, gaining many fire path dao marks, which would cause changes in the environment and temperature.

When the wood path Gu Immortal brings back all the previously moved out cultivation resources, many of those resources would not be suitable to be cultivated in this completely new environment.

On the contrary, if the wood path resources were kept in the blessed land and attracted a wood path tribulation, the immortal aperture’s wood path dao marks would increase, although there would be losses, the environment of the immortal aperture would become even more ideal.

Countless examples of success and failure, countless summaries of the experiences of predecessors proved one thing clearly — keeping the resources when facing a tribulation was wiser than moving them away, and was even more beneficial for the Gu Immortal’s cultivation journey.

Fang Yuan had previously moved out his resources, which led to a blood path calamity that was essentially unsuitable for the growth of the previous resources.

However, Hu Immortal blessed land was not compatible with his path, so this was not a big problem.

Later on, when Tai Bai Yun Sheng faced the calamity in his immortal aperture, he chose to keep his resources even when aware of how severe the loss could be. It was because the immortal aperture that was undergoing an earthly calamity was his most essential foundation.

Only after understanding this kind of information could one truly realize the terrifying value of the life-and-death immortal aperture method!

Although Gu Immortals were high and mighty above the masses, calamities and tribulations hung above their head, they had to cultivate endlessly, and make huge progress at every phase of their cultivation, and had to keep on making more progress, only then could they continue to survive.

But if they had a life-and-death immortal aperture, everything would be different.

It directly reduced the power of calamities and tribulations by fifty percent!

With the sharp decrease in the power of calamities and tribulations, the loss of their cultivation resources would be less, while there would be no drop in the number of dao marks gained, this was enough to benefit the cycle for the Gu Immortal’s cultivation.

Accumulating cultivation resources, cultivating, increasing in strength, passing tribulations… on top the original foundation, one can continue to accumulate resources, cultivating even quicker, experiencing a greater increase in strength, and passing a slightly stronger tribulation…

With just a living immortal aperture, the calamities and tribulations would keep on growing stronger; Gu Immortals could barely endure them as it was, and as their cultivation increased, it would be even more difficult for them to advance.

And if they only had a dead immortal aperture, the immortal aperture would continue to crumble, resources could not be accumulated quickly and there was no hope of progress, it was simply a doomed ending.

However, a life-and-death immortal aperture created a cycle that allowed the Gu Immortal’s strength to snowball and accumulate, and have increasingly greater assurance in passing future tribulations!

Undoubtedly, this was an accomplishment that surpassed the current era!

It could change the whole Gu Immortal world, the entire world would be revolutionized, the history of Gu Masters would be changed henceforth.

It might seem to be simply a revival method, but it contained such monstrous power!

More accurately speaking, it was no longer just a simple revival method, it was a method of cultivation.

This technique that had improved upon the foundation of Limitless Demon Venerable’s concept was, without doubt, much more superior than the methods of cultivation that had been passed down for countless years!

Such a grand feat, in the context of Earth’s history, was like the invention of steam engine, electricity and calculator, they had incredibly significant importance!

The traditional Gu Master cultivation methods were passed down from Ren Zu’s era, and there were almost no changes done to it since.

If the life-and-death immortal aperture method was publicized, it would be akin to the theory of general relativity of Einstein which ‘overthrew’ Newton’s first law!

If it were other Gu Immortals, they might find it hard to accept this for a period of time, even thinking that this was an unrealistic fantasy, it might even be considered sacrilegious!

After all, immortal zombies had low status, while this method placed much importance on their dead immortal apertures and instead held them in high regard.

But Fang Yuan’s own soul was from Earth, he had an open mind, the authority of the traditional way of Gu cultivation had not been deeply ingrained into his mind.

At this moment, his mind was filled with exclamations of praise!

“The methods of humans continue to progress over time, history continues to be written. Gu cultivation can fully be regarded as another form of science, it continues to advance and develop with time.”

“In the past, in ancient times, there were indeed countless wise and capable geniuses who had glorious and brilliant accomplishments. But those of future generations stand on these shoulders of their predecessors, using their foundations, they are able to have even more brilliant and splendid accomplishments.”

Like this mysterious great expert immortal zombie who invented the life-and-death immortal aperture revival method, they had stood on Old Immortal Kong Jue’s shoulders, they used Limitless Demon Venerable’s accomplishments in rule path and combined them with their own talents before they were finally able to create this improved cultivation method.

Fang Yuan continued to ponder.

The more he thought about it, the more he realized the profundity and brilliance of this revival method.

During this short period of time, Fang Yuan could only scratch the surface of this brilliant technique, but he could not comprehend the essence and origin of this brilliance.

He knew that following this method was the right course and the result would also be ideal for him.

But he did not know what principles were involved in this method.

The explanation for the life-and-death immortal aperture could be said to be simple, but the principles involved in it were something Fang Yuan could still not understand.

The contents of the life-and-death immortal aperture revival method were not simple, they were very complex.

Because it subdivided every Gu cultivation path into different revival methods, different Gu worms needed to be refined accordingly.

For instance, Fang Yuan cultivated strength path, he needed a large amount of exert strength Gu, countless disappointment Gu, and many other types of supplementary Gu worms to finally create a multi-layered Gu formation.

Fang Yuan carefully thought over these ideas, feeling that they were rather interesting.

When mortals started cultivating, hope Gu was needed to awaken their aperture. This method, however, required disappointment Gu and exert strength Gu.

Without hope, how could there be disappointment?

Without disappointment, where would hope come from?

Disappointment and hope, these two concepts stood as opposites to each other but they coexisted together.

It was just like the concept of life and death. If one was gone, the other also lacked the significance for a concept of it to be formed.

Fang Yuan planned inwardly: “Disappointment Gu and exert strength Gu are merely mortal Gu, so they are not difficult to gather. There are also corresponding Gu recipes here, I can order the hairy men to refine them day in and day out. Even if the amount required is large, I can complete it within three months. Once completed, I can immediately start my revival and obtain a life-and-death immortal aperture! Except that…”

Except that the life-and-death immortal aperture that would be obtained in this way was somewhat unsatisfactory.

Because Fang Yuan’s strength path immortal aperture was already mostly disintegrated. Using just the remaining dead immortal aperture as the base, the newly formed life-and-death immortal aperture would naturally be inferior. Be it the size, the environment or its foundation, they would all be lacking.

When Fang Yuan had been forced to ascend in Northern Plains, the foundation for his immortal aperture was not high in the first place, its size was three and a half thousand square kilometers and the rate of time was sixteen times that of the outside world.

A low grade blessed land has a size of two thousand square kilometers at the maximum, it can draw in a small tributary of the river of time and create over ten beads of immortal essence, while being a land of few resources.

A medium grade blessed land can have a size of two thousand and seven hundred square kilometers to four thousand square kilometers, draw in a slightly bigger tributary of the river of time, create over twenty beads of immortal essence and have plentiful resources.

Fang Yuan’s previous strength path immortal aperture was only a medium grade blessed land. Now, if he used his currently shrunken blessed land to revive, it will definitely be a low grade blessed land, and it was very likely for it to be low grade even among low grades.

Without doubt, this would be unfavorable to Fang Yuan’s future cultivation.

However, there was a segment of content about the life-and-death immortal aperture revival method which excited Fang Yuan greatly.

During the refinement process, he could use other strength path immortal zombies’ corpses as immortal materials and refine them in a Gu formation. This would increase the grade of the life-and-death immortal aperture created, his low grade blessed land could return to medium grade, and as long as there were sufficient strength path immortal zombies, he might even be able to raise his blessed land to high grade!

When immortal zombies die, their aperture would completely dissipate and the dao marks in the aperture would stay in the immortal zombie body. Thus, immortal zombie bodies were rich with dao marks and were special kinds of immortal materials. If not for this, Old Ancestor Xue Hu would not have shamelessly sneaked into the immortal zombie graveyard to steal the corpses.

At the final part of this segment, it was clearly recorded —

If one could obtain a Great Strength True Martial Physique immortal zombie body and used it during the revival process, the life-and-death immortal aperture created would surpass that of a high grade blessed land and become a super grade blessed land!

And after the immortal zombie revives, they would possess the Great Strength True Martial Physique!!

Because Hei Lou Lan had advanced into an immortal with the Great Strength True Martial Physique and possessed a super grade blessed land, Fang Yuan understood many things regarding it.

“A super grade blessed lands has a vast space of over six thousand seven hundred square kilometers. Every year, the amount of immortal essence it produces would surpass fifty beads! The rate of time is even faster, thus precious resources can be obtained in extremely short intervals! Furthermore, the Great Strength True Martial Physique can increase my battle strength by several times!” Fang Yuan’s heart thumped with excitement.

From this point, one could also discern that the life-and-death immortal aperture method was an excellent method to raise a Gu Immortal’s aptitude!

The ten extreme physiques…

They had extremely great power, but their flaws were even bigger!

Because time flowed faster, calamities and tribulations came quicker and more frequently, their might becoming increasingly terrifying! For the cultivation of Gu Immortals, this was a big taboo!

One could find out from history that none of the ten supreme venerables had one of the ten extreme physiques. Even among rank eight Gu Immortals, it was extremely rare for someone to possess one of the ten extreme physiques.

In short, a person with one of the ten extreme physiques could be unrivaled among those of the same rank and could even fight against those that exceeded their rank, but they did not have the potential to grow and simply could not live for long under the barrage of calamities and tribulations.

However, this huge flaw did not exist to Fang Yuan!

There was only one reason for that — he possessed the life-and-death immortal aperture revival method.

And a life-and-death immortal aperture reduced the might of calamities and tribulations by half!

This lowered the danger to a completely acceptable level and formed a much more beneficial cycle.

“I can at most obtain a high grade blessed land by gathering ordinary strength path immortal zombie bodies. But if I can gather the body of an immortal zombie of one of the ten extreme physiques, I can possess the Great Strength True Martial Physique and own a super grade blessed land, moreover the calamities and tribulations would have their might reduced by half. As long as I have enough time to cultivate, my strength will continue to grow, and I would have a chance at vying for that supreme throne of rank nine!”

Fang Yuan’s eyes burned with the flames of passion.

Rank nine venerables were invincible in the world, this was a publicly recognized fact. If since ancient times, there has been not been a ten extreme physique venerable, did that imply that they would be the strongest even among the rank nine venerables?

In this world, the greatest in strength in all of history?

“I also have my first mortal aperture. If my revival goes smoothly, I can use this method again to cultivate time path and change my first mortal aperture to a super grade blessed land. At that time, not only will I have the Great Strength True Martial Physique, I will also have the Desolate Ancient Moon Physique!”

Dual Ten Extreme Physique!

And with time, a dual ten extreme physique venerable?

Thinking of this, Fang Yuan almost shed tears.

In the five hundred years of his previous life and in this life, he had wandered from place to place, enduring many hardships and taking risks amidst life and death. Finally, now, at this moment, he found a hopeful path that could lead him to the grand ambition of immortality!

Eternal life seemed to be an illusory goal, but if one did not have sufficient strength, then it was a target that was impossible to pursue to begin with.

“Strength path immortal zombies are already few in numbers, since I have joined Zombie Alliance, I am unable to target the alliance members. Great Strength True Martial Physique immortal zombie, where can I find one? Hmph. Right now, there is only one optimal target — Hei Lou Lan!!”

At that instant, Fang Yuan’s eyes shined with a ferocious light.

“Although I cooperated with you to escape from Imperial Court blessed land and have obtained many benefits later on, having a rather pleasant experience, for the ambition that I seek, you have to be sacrificed.”

A faint smile appeared on Fang Yuan’s face.

Ruthless.

Callous!