A Farmer's Journey To Immortality

The pressure inside the cave remained constant.

Neither Aksai nor his clone could relax even slightly.

Thankfully, Aksai had recovered an authority pass from Arkaal’s storage ring, which made cracking the 4th Order formation a bit easier.

A 4th Order formation was like an operating system, and the Formation Genie was like an artificial intelligence with antivirus features.

Someone who created the formation or operated it with full access was like an account in the operating system with administrative privileges. In the current formation, Nascent Soul King Qishan was the formation’s admin. Someone like Arkaal only had a simple user account that could enter and leave using the correct credentials.

The authority pass Aksai had recovered from Arkaal was like a passkey with a valid username written on it. However, Aksai did not have the correct password corresponding to that username. Even if he did, it was still only a simple user account with limited access.

Thus, Aksai and his clone were facing many difficulties. Even so, Aksai was glad to have the authority pass.

Now all he needed to do was test the password using Nuri’s computational powers. And after gaining access, he would transform the simple user account into an admin account. Only then could he escape safely.

The runic changes Aksai and his clone were doing in real-time were akin to SQL injections that were used to hack accounts in Aksai’s previous world. The Heretic Dao concepts were akin to a certain form of computational language that was used to make those injections. It had to be noted that without Nuri’s help, Aksai couldn’t think of breaking this formation with his current cultivation base at all.

The more Aksai and his clone worked on the formation, the deeper their understanding became. The runes started making more sense. The flow of formation energy became clearer.

Even the concepts of the Heretic Dao slowly became easier to grasp. Eventually, both Aksai and his clone entered a strange focused state.

A special zone.

A state close to enlightenment.

Their minds worked faster than ever before. New ideas formed naturally. Complex rune structures became easier to understand.

Even Nuri herself started changing under the extreme pressure. Her processing speed reached new heights. To handle the increasing complexity, she began developing newer neural pathways and optimized networks within herself.

Her calculations became faster, sharper, and more efficient.

Time slowly passed.

One hour.

Maybe two.

Neither Aksai nor the clone paid attention anymore.

Eventually—

A large spectral notification suddenly appeared before both of them.

[Final sealing layer identified.]

[Formation stability reduced below critical threshold.]

[Recommended action: Simultaneous array collapse.]

Aksai and his clone looked at each other briefly.

Then both of them moved at the same time.

Their Spirit Essence erupted outward together.

Multiple runes across the cave shattered simultaneously.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The entire cave shook violently.

Cracks spread across the massive sealing formation.

The glowing runes flickered chaotically as the Formation Genie desperately tried to stabilize the structure.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The gu insect spirits only followed limited default responses.

Although their sheer numbers made the formation complicated, they lacked true creativity.

Nuri had already predicted most of their reactions beforehand.

The final array eyes collapsed one after another.

Crack!

Crack!

Crack!

Then—

RUMBLE!

The giant stone gate sealing the cave slowly started moving.

Dust and broken rocks fell from above as the entrance gradually opened. Fresh air rushed into the cave for the first time in a very long while.

Aksai slowly lowered his hands. His clone did the same. Both quietly stared at the now-open entrance. A faint smile finally appeared on Aksai’s exhausted face.

A Core Formation Lord had just forcefully undone a powerful 4th Order sealing formation in barely a few hours. Even among geniuses, such a thing was almost unheard of.

And yet—

He had actually succeeded.

Aksai slowly raised his hand.

“Alright. You can go back now,” he said calmly.

The clone nodded once. In the next moment, its body dissolved into soft green and blue particles before disappearing completely.

A faint ripple passed through Aksai’s mind as the clone’s remaining thoughts and understanding flowed back into him completely. The strange feeling lasted only for a second before everything settled down again.

Aksai lightly rubbed his forehead.

“A slight headache,” he muttered softly. “But it was worth it.”

After calming himself slightly, he finally started walking out of the sealed chamber. He calmly walked through the stone passageways until he eventually returned to Arkaal’s apothecary.

The moment he stepped inside, he stopped briefly. Then a faint smile slowly appeared on his tired face.

The apothecary looked exactly the same as before.

Countless shelves filled the massive underground hall. Bottles, herbs, scrolls, bones, poison sacs, alchemy cauldrons, talismans, manuals, and strange spirit materials could be seen everywhere.

Some items were sealed inside glass containers. Others floated inside poison liquid. Some were protected behind small formations.

The entire place smelled of medicine, herbs, poison, and old wood. Aksai slowly looked around the apothecary with shining eyes.

“I didn’t get a good look last time but this place really is full of treasures. Arkaal alone was richer than me and my entire guild,” he murmured softly.

It could be said that this place was one of the royal faction’s hidden treasure vaults.

Arkaal had clearly spent centuries gathering resources from countless places. And now—

Everything belonged to Aksai. A faint grin appeared on his face.

“Well then,” he muttered while cracking his fingers lightly. “Time to rob this place clean.”

The next moment, spectral notifications started appearing before his eyes.

[Scanning resources…]

[Identifying Spirit herbs…]

[Identifying poison materials…]

[Sorting by order and rarity…]

[Nuri recommends prioritizing 4th Order resources.]

Aksai immediately started moving through the apothecary.

He first approached a large shelf filled with jade boxes. The moment he opened one of them, dense Spirit Essence spread into the air.

Inside rested a dark-red flower with silver veins running through its petals.

[4th Order Spirit Herb identified.]

[Blood Vein Soul Orchid.]

[Recommended use: Soul nourishment and poison refinement.]

Aksai’s eyes brightened slightly. Without hesitation, he waved his hand and sent the jade box into the Enchanted Everwood Farm.

Whoosh.

The box disappeared instantly. He moved toward the next shelf. Soon, more and more items started disappearing.

Rare poison herbs.

Rare 3rd and ancient 4th Order beast cores.

Spirit fruits.

Poison crystals.

High-grade talismans.

Alchemy furnaces.

Large sealed jars containing refined poison blood.

Even several strange gu insect eggs stored inside special containers were taken away carefully.

Nuri continuously identified and sorted everything for him.

[3rd Order poison talisman.]

[Low threat.]

[Useful for mass warfare.]

[4th Order defensive talisman detected.]

[Recommended priority retrieval.]

[Ancient poison cultivation manual identified.]

[Possible connection to Heavenly Poison Sect.]

Aksai’s movements became faster and faster.

At this point, he no longer even needed to inspect every item personally. Nuri handled most of the identification process for him.

Whenever something valuable appeared, spectral markers highlighted the item immediately. Anything below 3rd Order was mostly ignored unless it looked particularly rare, useful, or expensive.

The Enchanted Everwood Farm continuously absorbed resources one after another. The shelves slowly became emptier.

Aksai eventually arrived near a section filled with books and jade slips.

Thousands of them.

Some contained poison formulas. Some contained cultivation methods. Some recorded alchemy knowledge. Others described rare demon beasts, poisonous lands, or ancient ruins.

A few even contained records regarding gu insects and their breeding methods.

There were many jade slips here that were somewhat identical to what Aksai had acquired from the Heavenly Poison Sect. However, a significant portion of these materials had been modified by Qishan using his own understanding, making them quite unique from their original counterparts.

Aksai’s expression became serious.

“These are worth more than spirit stones. Old Gu Poison King, thanks a lot, man. I hope you rest well eternally with your bugs and bees,” he muttered softly.

Knowledge was one of the hardest things to gather in the cultivation world. Even harder was acquiring someone’s personal understanding of that knowledge after they had spent their entire life studying and researching it.

If the poison cultivation knowledge Aksai had acquired from the Heavenly Poison Sect was like a classic book, then Qishan’s interpretation of that same poison cultivation was like a set of personal notes written on the book itself. It carried the unique perspective he had developed over the centuries, which had eventually allowed him to become known as the Gu Poison King in his prime.

Aksai’s acquisition was no different from accepting the Gu Poison King as his master after his death. At least, most traditional Spirit cultivators would see it that way.

Unfortunately for Qishan, Aksai wasn’t one of them.

Without hesitation, he started storing the books rapidly.

Entire rows disappeared into the Enchanted Everwood Farm.

Nuri immediately began organizing everything into categories inside her internal database.

[Knowledge archive updated.]

[Heretic Dao compatibility detected.]

[Poison refinement methods added.]

[Formation theory records added.]

Aksai nodded lightly while continuing his work.