Chapter 53: The Secrets of Daliang

Chu Feng was dying.

Perhaps sensing her imminent death, she spoke everything she knew directly, regardless of whether Su Chen would agree to his part.

"I believe that everything I tell you is worth the favor of Excellency Su to protect my child as they grow into adulthood."

"Excellency Su's promise should weigh as much as a thousand catties..."

Having said it all, blood continuously flowed from Chu Feng's seven orifices.

She collapsed to the ground.

Silence followed.

In her hand, that bottle of tainted demonic blood spilled onto the ground, appearing as nothing more than filthy kerosene.

"Immortal Treasure... a long-lived exotic beast that practices immortal arts?"

Su Chen felt a faint chill. Gazing toward the Imperial City, he felt a sudden, sympathetic wave of coldness wash over him.

Inside the Library of Books, there were no historical documents from three hundred years ago.

From Chu Feng's mouth, he learned that over three hundred years ago, before the existence of Great Zhou, Great Liang, and other small nations, there was only one country: the Great Yu Dynasty.

The last emperor of the Great Yu Dynasty had exhausted the national treasury and oppressed the people in a desperate search for immortal traces. This led to widespread misery and his eventual death, leaving behind a chaotic mess.

The various Grandmasters of Great Yu engaged in endless internal strife, causing the dynasty to splinter into pieces, and the whereabouts of these Grandmasters eventually became unknown.

Amidst the raging wars, two heroes emerged to quell the conflict and divide the land—the founding ancestors of Great Zhou and Great Liang.

As the new dynasties were established, the two founding ancestors, having plundered the Great Yu treasury, successively became Grandmasters.

As time flowed on, the Ancestor of Great Zhou died of old age first. The Ancestor of Liang was also nearing the end of his lifespan; despite consuming everything from human-blood longevity pills to thousand-year precious herbs, he only gained three years of life.

At one hundred and three years old, just as the Ancestor of Liang was about to die, a giant whale-like exotic beast descended from the endless ocean at the edge of the continent. Believing an immortal beast had arrived, the Ancestor of Liang was filled with awe and trepidation, leading the entire nation to worship it.

However, it was merely a long-lived exotic beast practicing immortal arts that happened to pass through. Its innate lifespan was a full two thousand years.

Perhaps seeing the Ancestor of Liang's grand hospitality and noting his approaching end, the giant whale bestowed a single drop of long-lived demonic blood.

The Ancestor of Liang's lifespan increased by thirty years, but his body gradually became demonized. His entire body, once soaked in human blood, became tainted by the longevity blood, causing him agony akin to bone-grinding and ash-scattering every hundred days.

Sensing the Ancestor's demonization, the giant whale felt a sense of guilt and bestowed a certain immortal technique, allowing him to transfer the mutated longevity blood from his body onto his descendants, though the power would be diminished. By retrieving the longevity blood, he could recover.

Such miraculous and demonic methods...

It was only then that the Ancestor of Liang realized that immortal traces were not mere legends, and that the Great Yu Emperor's search for them had not been an act of madness.

He desperately tried to keep the long-lived whale. Thirty years passed in the blink of an eye, extending his life by thirty years, but he dreaded experiencing the terror of dying of old age once again.

Thus, seeing that the exotic beast was determined to leave, he consulted the ancient books left by the Great Yu Emperor regarding immortal traces and finally found a solution.

He mixed thousand-year miracle herbs, Soul-Refining Fruits, into the water to drug the whale. He forged seven three-zhang Soul-Fixing Nails to seal and imprison it, allowing its soul to dissipate while suppressing it beneath the dark earth with the nation's destiny. Whenever the national fortune waned, the whale would surface, allowing them to take its blood to extend their lives.

Furthermore, even with its soul dissipated, the whale retained residual consciousness and would answer any question. Having lived for nearly a thousand years, its mind recorded countless wondrous techniques, allowing one to quickly reach the First Rank and touch upon the opportunities of a Grandmaster.

There were even legends of cultivation methods for immortality.

However, these methods required spiritual roots. In three hundred years, the Ancestor of Liang had only found one person with a spiritual root...

Consequently, over time, the Ancestor of Liang came to call it the "Immortal Treasure."

"So that's how it is."

"The farmer saved the snake, only to be bitten by it."

"If I were that long-lived exotic beast, I fear my end would not be much better."

Su Chen remained silent, reflecting on everything.

He had been too high-profile.

Fortunately, his identity as a long-lived being had not been exposed. Otherwise, with his meager strength—unable to even defeat a peak First Rank—he would have had nowhere to hide once noticed.

This whale, with only a two-thousand-year innate lifespan, had been hunted by the entire world. He, however, was a true long-lived being with inexhaustible lifespan. Once exposed, even the legendary Immortal Realm might go mad...

"I must change! I need to be more composed."

"Fortunately, with my long-lived constitution, I can change my appearance. I will no longer be ostentatious. By cutting ties with my past, I won't have to worry about being unable to hide..."

If that were the case, then this time, it should only be the little Emperor who dies, not Emperor Jianwu! By exposing Su Chen's identity, he was playing a dangerous game of chance.

Even the identity of Xu Ge from the pharmacy was something Su Chen wanted to discard.

At this moment, with this cautionary tale, Su Chen realized what he represented to those who, even as Innate Grandmasters, possessed only a hundred years of lifespan.

The existence of long-lived qi would likely drive every Grandmaster in the world, and even the great demons, into madness.

The jade medallion shattered, and the seeds of the two miracle herbs became stained within the toxic blood flowing from Chu Feng's lungs and seven orifices.

This was the sincerity Chu Feng left for Su Chen.

With her life, she had swallowed the secret medicine and willingly went to her death, allowing these "visceral herbs and flowers"—which were both miracle medicines and First Rank toxins—to sprout and grow.

She herself was the method by which the visceral flower seeds bloomed and bore fruit.

At this moment, the Five Viscera Grass and the Six Organs Flower were growing stems and roots within that toxic blood, anchoring themselves into the earth.

One blood-red flower stem, and one azure grass root...

"I will remember this kindness."

"I just didn't expect that despite never having a harmonious relationship with the Seventh Prince, I would end up raising his child—oh, I mean, taking him as a disciple..."

Within his body, the remaining sixty-nine strands of long-lived true qi all surged into the nascent Five Viscera Grass and Six Organs Flower before him.

A flower as red as the blood-soaked sun, and a grass as blue as the moon.

A hundred-year-old Five Viscera Grass is a miracle medicine for cleansing the five viscera; a single leaf can allow a Third Rank practitioner to undergo marrow cleansing, enter the Visceral Realm, and immediately establish the five viscera to enter the Six Organs Realm.

The leaves of a hundred-year-old Six Organs Flower are the same.

However, the tips of the Five Viscera Grass and the stamens of the Six Organs Flower are among the world's few First Rank miracle toxins; even a peak First Rank would die on the spot.

And that was only for a hundred-year-old specimen. What Su Chen saw before him, radiating crimson and azure light like the sun and moon, was a thousand-year-old specimen...

"This is likely something even Grandmasters or great demons would covet."

Plucking the leaves of the visceral herbs, Su Chen's Visceral Realm, which had been stuck for a long time, finally showed movement. The cleansing of the five viscera and the tempering of the six organs proceeded simultaneously.

In an instant, his entire five viscera and six organs were cleansed.

Normally, Su Chen should have proceeded directly to the rumored third stage: the integration of viscera and qi.

However, that did not happen.

The residual medicinal power began to cleanse the five viscera and six organs once again.

"Is this the Second Refinement of the Viscera? A second cleansing? Why have I never heard of this? Even in ancient books, there is no record. Even the most top-tier martial prodigies, after refining in the Second Rank Visceral Realm, either push for the First Rank or step into the third stage of viscera-qi integration..."

"I have never heard of a second cleansing..."

Su Chen plucked more leaves and swallowed them, continuing the refinement.

*Hmm?!*

After the second refinement, a third refinement automatically began...

"What is going on?"

Su Chen continued to pluck leaves and refine.

A long time passed.

Pluck leaf. Refine.

Pluck leaf. Refine.

...

"Nine refinements..."

"Finally, I've reached the limit."

Su Chen stood up, feeling a sense of relief. As he exhaled a breath of turbid air, the white mist from his mouth and nose actually solidified like true essence, appearing like blue stone or white jade...

Nine Refinements of the Viscera.

At this moment, although he had not yet stepped into the third stage of viscera-qi integration, the breath nurtured by his powerful viscera could shatter stone and crush iron, surpassing the Angry Qi and rivaling true essence.

Without hesitation, Su Chen pushed forward with all his might toward the third stage: Viscera-Qi Integration.

He felt that once he stepped into the third stage, his title as the strongest Second Rank would be well-deserved, possessing the true strength of the Martial Rankings—specifically, the first place on the Earth Rank (Peak First Rank List).

By then, an ordinary First Rank could be killed with a mere breath!

Even a peak First Rank could be suppressed!

Even a peak Little Grandmaster of the Dual First Rank would be unable to touch him.

At that time, beneath the Grandmasters, he would roam free and unrestrained!