Volume One, Chapter Twenty-One: The Undying Demon Body? What a Rip-Off!

Chapter Twenty-One: The Undying Demon Body? What a Rip-Off!

The sliver of Chiyou the God of War's soul, before self-destructing, imprinted the cultivation method for the Undying Demon Body into Tu Zhe's sea of consciousness.

From the moment he was reborn into Jin Mu's knee until his birth, Tu Zhe hadn't had a moment's peace these past two days. Now, he finally had time to open that strand of awareness and carefully study the cultivation information Chiyou had left him.

In his previous life, many ancient texts in that world recorded the marvels of Chiyou and his seventy-one brothers’ bodies.

The "Guizang: Qishi" states: “Chiyou had eight arms and eight legs, climbed the Nine Marshes to battle Kongsang, and was slain by the Yellow Emperor at Qingqiu.” Tu Zhe had seen that eight-limbed form when he was a ghost; it was certainly no fabrication. The question remained: how could he have so many arms and legs?

Could it be related to his cultivation technique? Or perhaps that was the final form of the Undying Demon Body?

But that raised another issue.

If that was the ultimate form of the Undying Demon Body, then how could Chiyou and his brothers have been killed and dismembered by the Yellow Emperor? That seems a far cry from something truly 'undying'.

He had to find out the reason Chiyou’s body was dismembered.

What could those reasons be?

One possibility was that Chiyou’s Undying Demon Body technique wasn’t the best; perhaps it refined the body to be extremely tough, nearly impervious to weapons—much like the Iron Shirt technique from his previous life. If that was all it was, then calling it the "Undying Demon Body" was an exaggeration. However powerful, such a technique might not be worth the trouble.

But, damn it, this technique was called the Undying Demon Body! It was the very same cultivation method that the traitor Jiang You had pursued Chiyou’s soul across heaven and earth to obtain. How could it be so feeble?

This led to another possibility. Perhaps the Undying Demon Body was an outstanding, rare technique—one few in heaven or earth possessed. But if so, how could Chiyou’s body have been dismembered?

Let’s look at other records; there must be more clues.

The "Longyu Hetu" and the "Taiping Yulan" record: “Chiyou and his eighty-one brothers had beastly bodies and human speech, copper heads and iron foreheads, and ate sand and stones.”

The reliability of such imperial compilations seemed questionable—Chiyou’s soul fragment had clearly mentioned seventy-two brothers. He couldn’t remember which book said it, but he recalled one mentioning Chiyou and his brothers ate iron, stone, and sand.

Wait, there was something there.

He couldn’t remember where he read it, but it stated Chiyou consumed not just sand and stones, but "iron-stone sand."

Iron-stone sand?

Did anyone actually eat that? Chiyou was also known as Dayou; "You" means “farmer,” suggesting Chiyou was a master cultivator of crops. Why eat iron-stone sand when he had grain?

Was he mad?

Clearly not.

So, why eat iron-stone sand? The crux of the question seemed to be revealing itself.

Chiyou was not only a preserver and developer of agricultural civilization but also the founder of metallurgy and the era of cold weapons.

The "Guanzi: Dishu" says: “The mountains of Gelu yielded water and gold. Chiyou received it and fashioned it into swords, armor, spears, and halberds. That year, nine lords took up arms. The mountains of Yonghu yielded water and gold. Chiyou received it and made the halberds and glaives of Yonghu. That year, twenty lords took up arms.”

See? That was revolutionary metallurgy!

And there was a crucial question.

Chiyou, who could grow crops and smelt metal, didn’t eat grain, but iron-stone sand.

Damn it, was his stomach a furnace? Did iron-stone sand melt into molten iron inside him? What kind of joke was that?

Wait—

Maybe it wasn’t a joke.

How could one digest iron-stone sand? Even if you had a stomach of iron, could you really digest it?

But Chiyou and his brothers had copper heads and iron foreheads, which clearly meant they could digest it.

What is iron-stone sand? It’s clearly metal ore.

So, they digested metal ore, smelted the metal into their bodies, making themselves as hard as steel?

It was almost certain—no, it was absolutely so.

Melting and digesting?

Best to look at what Chiyou's soul fragment actually left behind regarding the Undying Demon Body.

Tu Zhe dove into the memories left by Chiyou’s soul fragment and began to read.

“Humans have three souls and seven spirits. The three souls: heavenly, earthly, and vital. The seven spirits: Corpse Dog, Hidden Arrow, Sparrow Shade, Devourer, Non-Toxin, Purifier, and Stinking Lung. The Devourer refines food into essence, essence into qi, and thus sustains life. What is refinement? Envision the Devourer as a furnace, the Fire Qilin igniting the flames, combining the fire within stone, the fire within wood, and the fire of the void—together the True Samadhi Fire.”

Damn, isn’t that just like the real fire cultivated by the Red Boy? The Devourer is basically a stomach. Treat the entire stomach as a furnace, refining iron-stone sand to obtain golden essence and divine fluid, tempering the bones and body—how could that not be powerful?

It sounded formidable, but then why was he dismembered? Wasn’t it called the Undying Demon Body? If undying, he should have been unkillable.

Copper head and iron forehead!!!

That was it.

Why only a copper head and iron forehead? Why not an entire body as hard as diamond?

The technique itself didn’t seem flawed, so perhaps Chiyou and his brothers had only reached the initial stage—just copper heads and iron foreheads?

If the whole body had become as hard as steel, the Yellow Emperor shouldn’t have been able to dismember Chiyou’s body.

Tu Zhe felt his reasoning was fairly rigorous.

He continued to explore Chiyou’s memories:

“Envision the Fire Qilin within the Devourer; the Samadhi Fire is far from perfect. If you obtain the Fire God Qilin, the Earth God’s Fire Spirit, the Wood God’s Fire Heart, and the Void Fire Crystal to nurture within, then the Samadhi Fire will soon be perfected. As the Devourer grows into the Furnace of Creation, no metal remains un-melted, no metal unrefined. Only then can the Undying Demon Body be achieved; when achieved, one becomes invincible.”

Damn, invincible—that’s great. But where would I find a Fire God? The Fire God was supposed to be Zhu Rong, wasn’t it? Even if I found Zhu Rong, the Fire Qilin is a divine beast, not my creation—why would it help me? I’d be lucky if it didn’t kill me.

Then there’s the Earth God, likely Houtu, who’s in cahoots with the Yellow Emperor—fat chance she’d give me her fire spirit.

The Wood God? Who knows where that one is. Even if I found him, how would I ask? And would asking even help?

Void Fire Crystal? I have no idea what that even is, let alone where to find it.

Tu Zhe laughed. The dog beside him tugged at his face: “Brother Rogue, you’re laughing like a lecherous, resentful widow...”

He kept reading, plunging his consciousness back into Chiyou’s memories.

“The so-called undying means the body cannot be chopped; if chopped, it cannot be destroyed; if destroyed, it cannot be ground; if ground, it cannot be shattered; if shattered, it cannot perish. Even if reduced to dust, it can instantly recover—again and again—hence, undying.”

Damn, that’s powerful! The body is impenetrable; even if struck by divine weapons, broken, or ground to powder, it can recover in an instant. That’s what you call undying.

“Yet, to achieve the undying body, one must refine the ‘Shirou’ of Mount Di, fusing it into the body for the power of undying.”

Damn it!

Tu Zhe remembered that the "Classic of Mountains and Seas: Overseas Southern Classic" recorded: “Mount Di—Emperor Yao is buried in the sun, Emperor Ku in the shade. There are bears, wild boars, tigers, gibbons, leopards, Lishu, and Shirou.” Guo Pu annotated: “Shirou gathers flesh, shaped like a cow’s liver, with two eyes. No matter how much is cut off, it instantly grows back as before.” This monster, Shirou, was like a cow’s liver with two eyes; whatever meat was sliced off, it regrew in a blink. A veritable meat bank. Refining this beast supposedly grants immortality—believe it or not, I do.

Problem is, where is Mount Di, where is Shirou?

Oh brother dog, life is just so exasperating for me...

And then?

“To obtain the Furnace of Creation and unite the power of undying, one must still forge the bones with celestial gold, fill the marrow with celestial silver, condense the seven spirits with Grand Supreme Golden Essence, fashion the skull with seven-colored glazed gold, refine the three souls with the golden spirit of the Metal God, recast the seven spirits with sandalwood gold, use water-gold for veins, flesh, and skin, undergo nine smeltings and nine purifications, and finally, with Black Sea Water Essence of the Water God Xuanming—nine dippings and nine temperings—for completion.”

Awooo—

“Brother Rogue, what’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong? Nothing, it’s just that my ancestor Chiyou wasn’t just a little bit of a scam artist...”

“You mean, cultivating the Undying Demon Body is extremely difficult?”

“Difficult? It’s not just difficult—it’s damn near impossible. Think about it: gold, wood, water, fire, earth—all five great gods have to be involved! That’s the problem, right? You want their treasures to cultivate your own powers—who birthed me, anyway?”

“You miserable rogue, there’s no free lunch in the world. Look at you, so spineless—I could strangle you...”

“Hiss—honestly, it’s not that I’m afraid of hardship. The real issue is: where is Shirou? Where are the gold and silver? And Grand Supreme Golden Essence—do you have any? If you do, I’ll kowtow to you! Damn it, this is just a straight-up scam...”

“You rotten rogue, you good-for-nothing. Can’t you think of a solution? Are you just going to give up? This is a technique that gods, immortals, dragons, arhats, vajras, heavenly kings, and even the Eight Divisions of Heaven would drool rivers over...”

“Is it that powerful? Heh, dear dog, don’t you know your brother’s true nature? Take it slow—haste makes waste. As long as you’ve got Brother Rogue, there’s always more solutions than problems, right? Ha ha!”

At that moment, Qin Lei and Shudra returned, carrying the Tianxutuo flavor and Tianxutuo wine.

The Tianxutuo delicacies and wine were each stored in treasure vessels imbued with spatial power.

Jin Mu and his brother came over and exclaimed, “They actually gave you pure Tianxutuo? Tsk, and the wine is white too—the finest kind. Has the sun risen at midnight?”

Tu Zhe replied calmly, “It must be so. The steward of the Miaoxiang Heavenly Nourishment Garden surely knows what happened at the Miaojiang Heavenly Treasure Pavilion yesterday. If they tried any tricks at this moment, they’d have to be the dumbest idiots alive...”

Qin Lei watched his easygoing big brother, feeling that this man’s natural roguishness and laziness always carried an unforced freedom. It was clear he hadn’t come from some government office. As for himself, he’d spent so many years wearing a face as stiff as a coffin lid that he’d forgotten how to smile.

What a peculiar word, “what,” he thought. Why was it so interesting?

Jin Mu said, “You two had better eat and drink quickly—I bet you’re both starving. Eat up and restore your bodies to fullness, so you’re ready for the trial.”

Jin Si added, “A word of advice: when eating and drinking, reveal your true forms or you won’t absorb and digest quickly enough.”

Tu Zhe looked at Qin Lei. Qin Lei nodded.

With a thought, the two brothers’ bodies instantly expanded to half a yojana tall, towering and imposing.

Tu Zhe declared, “Let’s begin!”