The Science of Cultivation-Chapter 254: Between Real and Illusionary

Wei Ping was taken aback by the abrupt appearance of the girl who had saved him from the slug Qi beast. It caused him to even ignore the scene where the remains of the slug began to dissipate into the air, directing his attention to his savior instead. That was because he recognized her to be a disciple of Wang Yongjun, one of the successors of the Lingering Impact Technique he learned from an old expert he had encountered during his travels alone.

“I d-didn’t expect to see you here—well, in hindsight, I should’ve, b-but not so suddenly, like this.”

“Hmm, so Senior Uncle has forgotten about us already?” Wang Xiuying brought her paper fan up to her chin, donning a hurt expression. “That’s too cruel. Especially when Master told me to be on the lookout for you. He had high expectations of you. It seems you didn’t betray them, but alas, you have moved past us.”

“I’m looking for-forward to seeing your Master. He is participating in t-the section for late-stage cultivators, right?

Seeing how Wei Ping ignored her teasing, the young woman didn’t maintain her act and shrugged.

“Of course. You should know it’s always been his goal to convince Grandmaster to start an organization, so he needs to show off and prove himself to be the strongest among the Eight Demon Pillars.”

“I-Is your Grandmaster here, too?” Wei Ping hurriedly asked.

He still remembered the unkempt appearance of this teacher of his. At first, he had thought he was a simple beggar on the streets. Through some unexpected turn of events, the beggar he encountered had taught him a technique that was not only integral to himself, but for aiding his group to break through their mortality as well.

Since the first chapter of the Lingering Impact Technique had such a great impact, Wei Ping desired to obtain the second chapter of this technique. If his mentor was here, it would be the perfect opportunity.

“No, Grandmaster never cared for these events. It’s just me and Master. Anyway, we can catch up later. We need to focus on surviving the first round!”

On cue to her words, several more slugs burrowed out of the sand dunes. The young woman stared at these new foes with an excited grin. She was eager for the challenge.

“Xiuying, do y-you know if these Qi beasts are real?” Wei Ping asked. “Is this some illusion we’re ca-captured in, or is this some sort of pocket realm?”

“Senior Uncle, if what you’re getting at is if these beasts can kill us, then the answer is yes. It’s not likely, as the formation master responsible for bringing us here is actively overseeing everything, but they are only able to bring you out when they sense you’re wounded by a threshold. If you take a bad hit, they won’t be able to save you.”

“Why d-did the remains of that last slug disappear, then?”

“This place is an illusionary realm, but the Qi beasts are real. It’s just that they may not be what they appear, but it shouldn’t matter. Their attacks will line up with what you see.”

“What?”

“No time to go into detail right now. Let’s take care of them first.”

Wei Ping looked around at the newcomers moving to surround them and nodded.

“I’ll f-follow your lead.”

***

Li Lang didn’t know how large the desert area he had been transported to was. However, he could tell it was as large as the Yellow Qilian province. There should’ve been thousands of participants for the early-stage category only, and considering how he hadn’t spotted anyone after traversing the desert for so long, it would only be natural for him to come to that conclusion.

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

This chapt𝓮r is updat𝒆d by ƒreeωebnovel.ƈom.

That was why, after a while, he decided to stop moving around. It would waste his energy. Instead, he settled down in the pit of one of the larger dunes and executed his Wave Dampening Art to the best of his abilities. The point was to hide his aura to prevent the Qi beasts from finding him.

Unfortunately, the technique he devised didn’t have such great stealth capabilities. It could only weaken the flow of the aura, not hide it completely. No one knew if his methods had any effect. Still, he used what he had and hid away from the burning sun, using the hills of sand as cover.

He took the opportunity to go over his items, preparing for the future.

Hmm, my spear skill isn’t anything special, but I’m proficient enough not to hurt myself. Maybe I should coat my spear in some of the new poisons I developed? Then I can start testing, albeit I’ll have to take the risk of confronting more Qi beasts. I don’t even know if they are illusions or real Qi beasts like the ones in the Crucible.

Oh well, it shouldn’t be too dangerous with experts overseeing this event.

With the revelation that he had the talent to practice MATs consisting of five attributes, Li Lang had inadvertently neglected his other research. Combat techniques were one of them, and so were his poisons.

He had long known most toxins only served to drain the victims of their Qi reserve rather than do direct damage. The defenses of those in the Foundation Establishment Realm were just too strong. They didn’t need to consciously direct their energies to cleanse the foreign substances, and their Qi would do so automatically. It was practically an autonomic function, like the beating of the heart or breathing.

Li Lang hadn’t found a good idea how to bypass this powerful defense until he started working on updating his pill recipes to their Earth-grade equivalents. In the process of doing so, he tested the new pills, checking their efficacy. The Recovery Pill, which was one of the most common pills, was naturally among them.

By observing the healing process multiple times, an idea had sprouted within Li Lang’s mind, but it wasn’t until the downtime on Sword Saint Isle that he had a chance to create these new poisons. Having realized his spear artifact was capable of harming Qi beasts of the Foundation Establishment Realm, he was eager to get the tests started.

Without the convenient function of his old spear, which could load cartridges of poison, Li Lang had to employ the classic method of smearing the poison directly on the spearhead. The quantity this system could deliver paled in comparison to his old spear, and the poison could degrade from exposure to the elements. He had tried to address this issue by adding the cartridge mechanics to the exterior of his spear artifact, but this had never worked out. It was too easy for it to be destroyed, and it just wasn’t possible to hollow out an artifact without destroying it.

Thankfully, those drawbacks didn’t matter to his current test. The surrounding area was infested with Qi beasts.

Once he was ready, he climbed out of the sand dune and openly trekked across the desert. He would only fly up occasionally when the sand swallowed him up to his knees. It served as a reminder that this place wasn’t a normal desert, and some strange powers acted on it.

Putting in no effort to hide, it didn’t take long before something burrowed out from below. A violet carapace glittered under the blazing sun as it lunged toward Li Lang. He instantly dove out of the way and assessed his new opponent. He had to wait until gravity did its work on the curtain of sand to identify the target.

It was a purple scorpion, no bigger than a go-kart, but it was quick and agile. With a good chance it was venomous, Li Lang covered himself with the Primordial Star Fire to be safe before continuing to engage. It took full advantage of the heavenly flame’s properties to be able to have different temperatures without any transfer of heat. He could stay safe while it would burn everything that tried to touch him, including any venoms.

Without fear of being poisoned, the fight quickly devolved into a standard brawl, with a constant exchange of attacks. Li Lang eventually managed to land a powerful thrust that broke past its hard carapace on the scorpion’s hind legs.

Li Lang immediately retreated and went into observation mode.

The powerful scorpion should shrug off the poison if he used cyanide, but his new batch was all made from various Earth-grade materials. He used the processing methods within the Vengeful Leaf Compendium, but it was truly a custom brew.

With such a distinction between mortals and cultivators, Li Lang had no qualms about trying to create new poisons using unique resources only found in this world, but that wasn’t the only reason he became so adventurous with his ingredients. His new idea wasn’t aimed at causing damage in the traditional way, so he wanted to test out as many combinations as possible to compare the results.

He carefully watched as the scorpion prepared itself to lunge at the prey before it. Just as it went into action, it suddenly tripped and crashed into the ground!

Li Lang didn’t dawdle and instantly moved around the scorpion to inspect the leg he had injured. The wound had healed up, but it was a different shade of purple now. It marked where he had struck, but otherwise appeared fine. There was no bleeding or any other visible wounds. Despite that, Li Lang smirked.

All that’s left is to evaluate which formula is the most effective now.