Eternal Life Begins with Learning

The clouds burned like fire as the sun set in the west.

Within the quarry, the ceaseless roaring had finally stopped.

Even the Cultivators who operated the giant Iron Armor Puppets seemed to work from sunrise to sunset, just like Chu Mu and the others who had yet to begin their Immortal Path.

After turning in the ore from his basket, Chu Mu followed the stream of people heading out of the quarry.

Like him, quite a few other miners also spent their nights on the outskirts of the mountain.

Shacks of all kinds were built throughout the mountainside, each one spaced far apart from the next. Clearly, the miners were all wary of one another. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

In fact, this wariness was far from baseless.

Over the past few months, Chu Mu had heard news of people being murdered on more than one occasion.

A month of hard labor earned eight Broken Spirits. Killing one person could potentially net several months’ worth of another’s earnings.

Few could resist the temptation of getting something for nothing.

And according to what Chu Mu had gathered recently, these miners, much like himself, had come from all over the world.

However, their "all over the world" was different from Chu Mu’s.

After all, Cultivators were human too.

And where there were humans, there was procreation.

Among the generations of mortals that followed, some remained close to the Cultivation Immortal Realm, while others were completely cut off from it.

These Loose Cultivators were mostly of the former type, those who were close to the Cultivation Immortal Realm. A truly "wild" Loose Cultivator like Chu Mu, who was baffled by everything he saw, was likely a rare exception.

Furthermore, most of them didn’t seem to have been recruited from Jade Emperor Valley, but had come from other Cultivator settlements.

His past wanderings in Jade Emperor Valley had truly been a waste of effort.

Chu Mu’s pace wasn’t fast, but from the moment he stepped into the mountain forest, his seemingly unhurried steps concealed an extreme state of vigilance.

He wasn’t too worried about threats from Cultivators here, not even outside the quarry itself.

After all, the quarry was a restricted area, and even its outskirts were patrolled by the quarry’s Law Enforcement Team.

Any outside Cultivator who trespassed without thinking would likely lose their head.

In all this time, he hadn’t heard any news of Cultivators breaking in to kill people. The Cultivators working in the quarry all had their own living arrangements.

The only ones living outside the quarry were people like them—not quite mortal, not quite immortal.

A single Broken Spirit was a treasure, enough to breed malicious intent!

’I may have had thoughts of killing people for their Spirit Stones, but it’s not like I’ve actually done it!’

He couldn’t afford to get taken out by someone else before he even had a chance to act on his own dark thoughts.

It wasn’t until he returned to his wooden shack in the forest that Chu Mu relaxed slightly, but this sense of security was only relative.

Even though he had reinforced the shack multiple times, it only served to shelter him from the wind and rain. Its Defense was practically nonexistent.

He could demolish the shack with a single punch, and the other miners were surely no different.

The inside of the shack was completely bare. Aside from a layer of wooden planks covering the floor, everything else was extremely crude.

Chu Mu lifted the wooden planks from the floor, revealing a hole leading into the ground within the shack.

After carefully replacing the planks to conceal the entrance, Chu Mu jumped down into the hole.

The shack had no defensive capabilities, so he would live in a dugout.

Even if someone were to scout the area with their Divine Sense, they would most likely ignore what was underground out of habit.

After all, that was how a normal person thought. And if things went awry, he was ten-some meters underground with other exits. Even if something unexpected happened, he could handle it with ease.

Compared to the crude shack, the dugout was far more refined. It was fully stocked with firewood, rice, oil, salt, pots, and pans—everything he needed.

Although he had reached Divine Appearance, he had not yet reached a stage where he could go without food. Three meals a day were still essential. If he wasn’t Breathing Spiritual Qi, his appetite was frighteningly large.

It was normal for him to eat several dozen pounds of meat in a single meal.

His already inhuman body could easily absorb all the essence from meat and vegetables. If he intentionally manipulated his Qi Blood, his digestion and absorption speed was terrifyingly fast.

He wolfed down nearly half a roasted wild boar, cleaned up a bit, then sat leaning against his bed to continue studying the Puppetry Skill legacy he had obtained.

It wasn’t until late at night that Chu Mu roused himself from his deep contemplation. As he did, the Light Curtain Panel appeared in his vision.

[Name: Chu Mu.]

[Skill: Basic Blade Technique (Refined Skill) 403/5000]

[Body Refining Technique (1000/1000)]

[Alchemy: Dragon and Snake Soup: Refined Skill (653/2000)]

[Spiritual Radiance Value: 2009.1%]

The progress shown on the Light Curtain Panel was minuscule.

One could even say it was meaningless.

After all, with the Immortal Path yet to appear, none of this truly mattered much.

These past few months had been, without a doubt, wasted time.

"Huuu..."

Chu Mu let out a long breath, dismissed the Light Curtain Panel, and, unwilling to dwell on it further, went to sleep fully clothed.

The night was deep.

From time to time, sharp cries and rumbling bursts could be heard from the mountain forest.

Chu Mu had been here for over three months, and for three months, this forest had been a place of bloodshed.

Not a single night passed without gore.

The cruelty of the Cultivation Immortal Realm was on full display for these Loose Cultivators, even before they had officially set foot in it.

Chu Mu slept with a high degree of alertness. He knew exactly what the world outside was like; it was precisely because he knew that this dugout existed.

He had also prepared many countermeasures to deal with potential dangers.

However, it seemed his luck had been good lately. In all his time working at the quarry, no trouble had found its way to him.

This night seemed to be no different.

It was now past midnight, the night more than halfway over.

Chu Mu’s sleep seemed to have grown a little less vigilant.

He was completely unaware that two figures had appeared in the dense woods outside his wooden shack.

It seemed Chu Mu’s good luck had come to an abrupt halt.

The bloodshed of the jungle had finally reached him.

"This kid’s been working in the quarry for over three months and hasn’t left once. His Spirit Stones should all still be on him. He’s definitely a fat sheep!"

"Plus, he’s alone. I’ve been watching him for days."

"We take him out, and we won’t have to suffer in this damned quarry anymore..."

"You sure we weren’t spotted?"

"No way. I’m a professional when it comes to tailing people. How could I get spotted?"

"It’s late, the lights have been out for a while. The kid should be fast asleep..."

Whispers echoed in the darkness as the two figures drew closer and closer to Chu Mu’s shack.

"Careful, there’s a trap!"

One of the men hissed in a low voice when they were about twenty meters from the shack.

Both of them stopped dead in their tracks.

One of them cautiously stepped forward and brushed away the dead leaves on the ground, revealing a ten-foot-deep pit lined with sharp wooden spikes.

"That sneaky little bastard! He even coated them with poison!" one of the men cursed.

Even though he had reached Qi and Blood Great Success, and even though the pit and wooden spikes might not harm him, the poison was another story.

There were countless strange and wondrous poisons in the world, impossible to guard against completely!

"There’s more!"

The other man’s face was grim. He swept away more dead leaves nearby, revealing that the area was filled with pits. There were also wooden planks connected by straw ropes that led directly to the shack.

In other words, if someone fell into a pit, even if they dodged in time, they would land on an adjacent plank, triggering the rope and directly alerting whoever was in the shack...

"This kid is a tough one..."

The man stared at the simple wooden shack, a new wariness in his eyes.

The other man started to get cold feet. "Maybe we should back out?"

"This kid’s preparations are too thorough. He must have other tricks up his sleeve. We’ll be screwed if we mess this up..."

"We’ve come all this way. We can’t go back empty-handed!"

"No matter how thorough his preparations are, they’re just mundane tricks. There are two of us, what’s there to be afraid of!"

"Let’s go. We’ll check it out first. Be careful not to fall for this kid’s traps..."

...