Chapter 3

Chapter 003: Heavenly Zombie Poison

“Cough, cough, cough…”

Yue Hongling clutched her slender, elegant neck. Her neck was beautiful—truly a proper swan neck.

Her legs were long and straight, and her arms were delicate and fair; her neck was long, rounded, and proportionate.

But now, there was a clearly visible purplish-red mark on her neck, shocking to behold.

Yue Hongling gasped for breath like a dying fish.

It took her a full minute or two to recover.

Tears streamed down her face like pearls. She had stormed in to confront Lu Ye with fury, only to be treated like this—how could she possibly bear it?

If she had kicked down the door before, Lu Ye would have only punished her by making her fix it alongside him.

But now…

Why did he have to do this to her, just for two doors?

And she was even his junior sister, not to mention in her past life, she was his Dao Companion, his lover.

Couldn’t some lingering affection remain even if she had messed up a little?

She wouldn’t make that door, she just wouldn’t believe…

A cold gaze filled with murderous intent from Lu Ye flashed through her mind.

“Hmph, if I have to do it, I’ll do it!”

Fuming, Yue Hongling began to work on the door.

Meanwhile, Lu Ye slipped away to a hidden spot. This was his favorite cultivation location, found by chance, a beautiful place, and though the spiritual energy was just average, it always lifted his spirits and helped him cultivate faster.

But a woman in a flowing white dress, with her hair elegantly coiled, had been waiting there for some time.

The wind billowed her long skirt, accentuating her stunning figure.

Lu Ye…

Damn, he was way too familiar with this place—he couldn’t stay in the Grand Dao Sect any longer. He needed to find an opportunity to head down the mountain!

But since he had already seen her.

“Greetings, Master.” Lu Ye composed himself and bowed respectfully.

This was his Master, Bai Qiulan.

Well… yeah, he was a bit of a beast, and that included her too.

Bai Qiulan turned to look at Lu Ye. “Why do you only have one life?”

She asked this direct question.

“To answer Master, it’s because the disciple was unskilled in his arts, and during my attempt to break through, I merged nine lives into one, hence I only have one life now,” Lu Ye said with a grin.

Understanding finally dawned in Bai Qiulan’s eyes.

So that was it.

Everything made sense now.

“Since I have already found a method to suppress the Chaos Yin Power, you should treat last life’s events as a dream—it must never happen again. If you have any more improper thoughts, I will have to clean house,” Bai Qiulan said coldly.

“I will remember, Master!”

Bai Qiulan strode away.

Graceful and poised, with skin as white as snow and eyes like autumn waters.

The Chaos Yin Power is icy cold, and the resulting Chaos Yin Poison can cause exquisite suffering.

However, used to nurture a woman, it indeed can make her incredibly beautiful and delicate.

But Master, are you sure you’ve found a way to contain the Yin Power?

If I hadn’t used the Yin-Yang Transference Technique to transfer the Chaos Yin Poison onto myself, do you think you could have endured it?

There were only these three women connected to him in the sect, and he had already dealt with two; as for Yue Hongling, he could ignore her.

He could finally focus on cultivating.

He returned to his usual spot and started to cultivate.

“Still here, old buddy?”

“Ding! I’m here!”

The panel lit up in Lu Ye’s mind; it was an auxiliary cultivation panel with only three options.

1. Cultivate.

2. Deduce.

3. Enlighten.

“What’s the matter, no more energy needed?” Lu Ye asked curiously.

“Ding! I’ve become the Heavenly Dao—what do I need energy for?” the system retorted.

“That’s true, but you really went all in on the Heavenly Dao, directly conjuring an Eternal Great Tribulation. Is that necessary?” Lu Ye chuckled.

“Ding! It is necessary! You are my host and must be arranged the strongest!”

“Thanks a lot!”

“Ding! You’re welcome!”

Lu Ye couldn’t help but chuckle; it turned out after all was said and done, he still had something by his side after crossing over.

“Let’s start cultivating!”

“Ding! Cultivation initiated!”

The cultivation technique remained unchanged—it was still the **Nine Lives Undying Heavenly Canon**, created by the legendary Nine Lives Great Emperor, who possessed unparalleled talent and crafted this text.

However, Lu Ye was even more amazing, stretching the scripture into realms beyond its original intention, breaking through the Emperor level, moving towards the heights of Dao and Celestial Lord.

The first layer of heaven was the weakest realm, divided into stages: Postnatal, Innate, Gathering Qi, Yuan Dan, Breaking Embryo, Refining Void, and Harmonizing Dao.

The first two realms were mundane levels; typically, one would enter cultivation sects directly from Gathering Qi, especially in a top-tier sect like the Grand Dao Sect.

In the Grand Dao Sect, being proficient in Gathering Qi in three months was considered a genius, while six months was merely passing.

This was due to the incredibly dense spiritual energy in the Grand Dao Sect; even a pig left there long enough could become a spiritual pig.

By now, Lu Ye realized he’d only been in the Grand Dao Sect for a month and was already at Gathering Qi level five.

And currently?

Time passed; day by day, night by night.

Two days, Lu Ye broke through to Gathering Qi level six.

Five days, he reached level seven.

Eleven days, level eight.

Fifteen days, level nine.

His true energy was rich and refined, and his foundation was robust, even stronger than in his previous life.

In his previous life, it took him two months and four days to reach perfect Gathering Qi, drawing astonishment in the Grand Dao Sect, marking him as a key development target.

They planned to have him take an elder as his master, but Lu Ye refused.

Soon, he achieved perfect Gathering Qi.

In truth, he could have broken through to level ten, eleven, twelve…

In his previous life, Lu Ye was like that, striving to reach Gathering Qi level eighteen before choosing to use the Returning Yuan Dan to aid his final transformation into a Heavenly Stage Yuan Dan.

Yuan Dans are graded from one to nine stars, with nine stars and above being Earth Stage, and above that, Heavenly Stage, followed by Holy Stage.

All these divisions stemmed from the internal competition of different eras.

Lu Ye could have condensed a Holy Yuan Dan.

It’s just that he had collaborated with Yue Hongling previously when forming the Yuan Dan, and only one perfect Returning Yuan Dan existed, which he had given to Yue Hongling.

He didn’t stop there and chose to keep cultivating. With his talent and the insights from reliving one life, he completely didn’t need medicinal pills to help him in this process.

“Gather!”

The Yuan Dan began to form a prototype within him.

Suddenly, a majority of his true energy solidified, leaving only half to participate in the formation of the Yuan Dan.

Lu Ye was slightly startled.

He decisively interrupted the formation.

“Pfft!”

He spat out a mouthful of blood, his energy feeling drained and weak.

“What was that?” Lu Ye frowned.

“Ding! Heavenly Zombie Poison,” the system answered.

“Heavenly Zombie Poison…”

Lu Ye’s mouth twitched. Great, great, great—so you want me dead.

He couldn’t even imagine how lovely it would be if, while desperately battling the Eternal Great Tribulation, half of his power suddenly became stiff as a board.

It was also that group of women who had poisoned him.

Now Lu Ye finally understood why those women were so curious about him having nine lives but only living one—

They were aiming to kill him nine times over.

Damn, how much hatred must there be?

People say that a single day of being husband and wife holds a hundred days of affection, and a hundred days married is as deep as the sea.

“Deduce!”

“Ding! Deduction begins!”

Lu Ye knew that the Heavenly Zombie was also a formidable presence—one that a Celestial Lord wanted to live a second life but failed, dying and yet not decaying into a zombie.

“One-time? Rule-based? Forever half the energy paralyzed?”

There were methods to break it, but not something Lu Ye could achieve right now.

Luckily, he was currently at the Gathering Qi stage!

Half of his true energy? Fine, so be it. It just blocked his meridians, making him feel extremely uncomfortable.

He deduced a feasible method!

Lu Ye looked at the method and frowned.

Break through to Yuan Dan realm, alter the true energy structure, transforming true energy into true essence, thereby curing the rule-based poison.

However, given that he could only utilize half of his true energy, the Yuan Dan formed would likely barely reach the Earth Stage.

Hmm?

Got it!

He could use the perfect Returning Yuan Dan!