Chapter 68 Even a Half-Immortal Has to Push a Cart! Is the Path to True Immortality Hidden in a Cornbread Bun?
In the northern suburbs of Qingyun City, night fell quietly.
Torches on the construction site lit up one by one, brightly illuminating the bustling building base.
"Clang! Clang! Clang!"
Demon Venerable Wanhua struck the broken bronze gong in his hand and shouted in a raspy voice, "Dinner time! Everyone line up! The wall was built well today, so the Young Master has rewarded us with Pickled Vegetable Chunks!"
Tens of thousands of elites from the Zixiao Holy Land, along with the newly recruited Sword Cultivators of the Blood Sword Sect, instantly dropped their bricks and lined up in a long queue like a dragon with glowing eyes.
Meanwhile, by a mud pit at the edge of the crowd...
Cangqiongzi, a Half-step Loose Immortal, gripped a rusty shovel tightly in his hand, his entire body trembling.
His Star Dao Robe, which symbolized his supreme status in the Middle Continent, was now covered in stinking yellow mud. His iconic crane-white hair was also matted into hard clumps by the muddy water.
"What a disgrace... I, a dignified Half-step Loose Immortal, went into seclusion for ten thousand years, only to have my Protective Immortal Aura shattered by a Fire Poker on my first day out, and then be pinned in a mud pit to work as a laborer?!"
Cangqiongzi gritted his teeth, attempting to forcefully break through the Seal within his body.
However, no matter how he urged his Primordial Spirit, the barrier sealed deep within his Qi Sea was like an insurmountable primordial divine mountain. Forget immortal power; he couldn't even conjure a simple Fireball Technique now.
"Old Ancestor, don't waste your energy."
Lei Mingzi walked over carrying two cracked bowls and sighed deeply, "The blow you just took was thrown by that lord's personal old servant. Never mind you; even if a True Immortal descended to the Mortal Realm, they would have to behave themselves in this territory."
Cangqiongzi glared at his worthless grand-disciple and roared in a low voice, "Lei Mingzi! As a Grand Elder of the Holy Land, not only do you not think of resisting, but you're actually here mixing mud with such smugness? You've completely disgraced our Zixiao Holy Land!"
"Old Ancestor, you don't understand at all."
Lei Mingzi shook his head, looking at Cangqiongzi with the pitying gaze of someone who had already experienced it.
"What is the ultimate goal of our cultivation? It's the Origin of the Great Dao! Look at this construction site, look at that wall!"
Lei Mingzi pointed at the high wall that had just been built, his eyes full of fanaticism. "You think we are suffering? Wrong! That supreme existence is using the most back-to-basics method to temper our superficial Dao Hearts! Didn't you notice just now? How much terrifying Life Qi is contained within the soil beneath us?"
Cangqiongzi froze for a moment.
He had been too busy being angry, but at Lei Mingzi's reminder, he subconsciously squeezed a handful of the yellow mud in his hand.
Even without the perception of immortal power, relying on his half-immortal level physical touch, he actually felt a faint but extremely pure Mother Qi of Heaven and Earth from the coarse mud and sand!
That was the residual aura emanating from the roots of the Primordial World Tree in the courtyard!
"This soil... is actually even more profound than the ninth-rank Spiritual Vein of my Zixiao Holy Land?!" Cangqiongzi gasped, his eyes widening suddenly.
"Understand now?" Lei Mingzi stuffed a bowl into Cangqiongzi's hand. "Don't just stand there, hurry up and eat. This is the dinner we earned by laying three thousand blue bricks today. After eating, we have to work overtime tonight to level the foundation."
Cangqiongzi looked down and saw two hard, coarse-grain steamed buns lying lonely in the bowl, accompanied by a few strands of dark pickled vegetables.
"I achieved Inedia ten thousand years ago! How could I eat such pig food meant for common Mortals..."
Cangqiongzi's pride as a half-immortal flared up again, and he was about to smash the bowl.
But at that moment, his stomach actually let out an extremely loud "growl."
After losing the nourishment of his magic power, his half-immortal body was now frantically sending him a primitive signal called "hunger." He hadn't experienced this feeling in ten thousand years.
Looking around at the Soul Transformation and Void Returning Stage Elders who were devouring their steamed buns, and even fighting over an extra strand of pickled vegetable.
Cangqiongzi swallowed his saliva.
He tentatively picked up a steamed bun and took a small, disgusted bite.
The coarse texture scraped his throat, but as the steamed bun went down, an extremely subtle yet vast and boundless pure energy instantly exploded within his withered limbs and bones!
"Boom!"
It was as if an ancient thunderclap had struck within Cangqiongzi's mind.
What was this steamed bun made with?
It was clearly kneaded from the Water of the Great Dao from Lin Yuan's courtyard well that had comprehended supreme creation, and grains containing the Primordial Laws!
Those dark strands of pickled vegetables even exuded a sense of life, death, and cycles of growth that made his Divine Soul tremble!
"Heavens... this is no Mortal's steamed bun; this is simply a supreme Immortal Pill that could allow someone to ascend in broad daylight!"
Cangqiongzi was so moved that tears streamed down his face, and his Dao Heart completely surrendered.
He stuffed the rest of the steamed bun into his mouth in large gulps, even carefully picking up the crumbs that fell onto the muddy ground with his fingers and licking them clean.
As this "Immortal Pill" meal was consumed,
The Half-step Loose Immortal Bottleneck that had troubled Cangqiongzi for a full ten thousand years began to collapse like rotten wood!
In the sky, the originally clear night suddenly changed. Spiritual Qi from thousands of miles around converged frantically, turning into a pitch-black Loose Immortal Lightning Tribulation that rolled violently over Qingyun City.
A True Immortal Tribulation!
Cangqiongzi had actually attracted the Lightning Tribulation to transform into a True Immortal just by eating a steamed bun!
All tens of thousands of Cultivators on the construction site stopped what they were doing and looked at the sky in terror. Lei Mingzi was scared to the point of Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering: "Old Ancestor! You've attracted a Lightning Tribulation! This will destroy the construction site!"
However, before the Lightning Tribulation could brew its first bolt of lightning,
From the dilapidated courtyard just a wall away, a lazy and even somewhat sleepy cough suddenly rang out.
"Cough... Who's thundering in the sky in the middle of the night? So noisy."
It was Lin Yuan's voice.
Along with that casual cough,
The True Immortal Lightning Tribulation in the sky, which spanned thousands of miles and was enough to blast ten Mahayana Stage old monsters into ashes, was slapped hard by an invisible hand.
With a "poof,"
The tribulation clouds filling the sky instantly vanished without a trace, leaving not even a spark behind. The night sky over Qingyun City returned to its starry tranquility.
Meanwhile, the Realm within Cangqiongzi's body underwent a bizarre sublimation in an instant.
He had become an immortal.
Without any Lightning Tribulation baptism, he was unreasonably forced into becoming a Loose Immortal by that single cough!
But hiscultivation was still firmly suppressed at the level of a Mortal.
Quiet.
A deathly silence.
Holding the empty bowl, Cangqiongzi stared blankly at the sky, then at the blue brick wall that had just been built nearby.
His worldview was completely shattered at this moment, then reconstructed in an extremely crude manner.
Dispersing a True Immortal Lightning Tribulation with a single cough?!
What kind of immortal is this? No, this is simply a supreme taboo who treats the Heavenly Dao like a footmat!
"I understand... I finally understand!"
Cangqiongzi suddenly smashed the empty bowl in his hand, his eyes shining as he pushed aside Lei Mingzi and rushed straight to the wheelbarrow used for transporting bricks.
"Everyone move aside! I'm taking this cart of bricks!"
Bare-chested with bulging muscles, the dignified Loose Immortal Cangqiongzi was now like a most fanatical believer, pushing a wheelbarrow weighing thousands of catties across the construction site so fast he left afterimages.
"Lei Mingzi! Your mud-mixing speed is too slow! Don't delay my wall-building to attain the Dao!"
"You Blood Sword Sect brats over there! Don't slack off! If anyone dares to delay the lord's project, I'll bash them to death with a brick!"
Looking at the Loose Immortal Old Ancestor who was working frantically on the site, doing the work of a hundred people by himself,
Lei Mingzi swallowed his saliva and silently picked up his trowel.
"It's over, the Old Ancestor is even more into this than I am. I have to work harder, or else the spots for pushing carts tomorrow will be snatched up by him."
In the night, this construction site, which gathered the top combat power of the Middle Continent, became even more bustling.