Exploring Immortality Cultivation
Chapter 425 - 178: The Rebirth Process of Realism

Zhen Chan, following Feng Luoyi's orders, watched over Wang Qi. But the longer he waited, the less confidence he had in Wang Qi's survival.

"He must be dead..."

When red blotches, signifying death, began to appear on Wang Qi's exposed skin, Zhen Chan nearly lost his mind.

"This... He must be completely dead, right?"

The heart was not entirely destroyed, there was no breathing, blood circulation had stopped, and even blood seepage had occurred to form the blotches... He was definitely dead!

Indeed, in the Ancient Method of the Cultivation World, there had been those whose physical bodies decayed, yet they still lived on. But such individuals were at least in the Nascent Soul Stage or beyond, when their souls underwent a qualitative change and no longer depended on the brain. Even if Wang Qi had a defiance of heaven's will, he was still only in the Qi Cultivation Stage!

How could he possibly survive this?

The only thing that distinguished Wang Qi's body from a typical corpse was the increasingly high temperature of his body. But this abnormal high heat was clearly the byproduct of evil power invading the body.

If this didn't count as death, then what exactly were the standards for death?

If this question was left for Wang Qi to answer, he'd find it difficult to articulate a reason. The boundary between life and death has always been blurry, especially in a world where supernatural powers exist. A heart that has stopped beating doesn't signify death, nor does a shattered body; even someone like Zhen Chan, with an incomplete soul, could be considered to still be alive.

According to the standards of the Modern Method, life is defined as the spontaneous creation of negative entropy. However, no one has been able to precisely measure a person's entropy and then make an accurate determination: once entropy exceeds this limit, the person can be declared dead.

No one could pinpoint the exact threshold between life and death.

But life finds its own way.

The Life Flame and its associated Lower Divine Powers are deemed "undying" strengths because, in any situation, they can provide the most fundamental negative entropy for the cultivator's physical body, protecting the last thread of vitality.

For example, experts like Ai Qinglan could survive even with their bodies severed and heads smashed.

However, the "World-Purifying" evil power of the Hongyuan Divine Sect is exactly the Entropy-increasing Power that opposes the Life Flame, which is why Wang Qi's physical body began to decay. If one looked closely, on his neck, there was a delicate Spirit Prohibition blocking the invasion of evil power. Weak mana was combined in the most complex fashion to resist the spread of "death." Above the Spirit Prohibition, Wang Qi's head was intact.

And this head was even brewing a counterattack.

The Light of Visualization, Soul Light, and the Radiance of Heavenly Calculation Power, these three merged to create the "form" of the Holy Light, thus defining a bias towards the spiritual realm. The closer to the brain it got, the stronger the power of the Holy Light. Although Wang Qi had already lost consciousness, the biological instinct to survive kept going. This primal driver gathered the Holy Light around his head. And because the head was the source, Wang Qi's brain cells retained all their vitality, without the slightest damage.

However, the power focused on the spiritual realm was far too weak in meddling with the physical body. The Holy Light near Wang Qi's head rushed down following the soul, but as soon as it passed through Feng Luoyi's Restriction, it quickly faded away. After consuming Wang Qi's physical body's liveliness, the World-Purifying Evil Power had become too strong.

And so, a new mutation began to take place.

The Holy Light penetrating Wang Qi's physical body kept waning, but there was always a portion that managed to repel the evil force and enter Wang Qi's Mana Flow. The Holy Light overpowered by the evil force was eliminated, while the triumphant Holy Light accumulated within the meridians. This sifted Holy Light, along with the residual Mana Flow, circulated through the body and was once again filtered. After selection, the Holy Light returned to the head, imparting its properties back to the mechan ism of the Holy Light itself.

Then, the Holy Light began to transform.

On the third day, Wang Qi's physical body started to decay and emit a foul stench. Feng Luoyi's Spirit Prohibition also began to waver. But by then, Holy Light had already amassed enough changes.

The quantitative evolution had begun.

"Bang." A pale white flame appeared on Wang Qi's neck, landing precisely on the fragile Spirit Prohibition, at the battleground where Holy Light clashed with evil power.

The Qi Cultivation Stage Restriction, incapable of withstanding the clash of two extreme forces, finally shattered spectacularly. As heat always flows from a warmer body to a cooler one, the high-entropy evil force fiercely pounced towards the gathering spot of Negative Entropy Force. The flame burning on Wang Qi's neck seemed to move downward as if alive—no, the flame itself was life, was spiritual.

The battle between the evil force and the flame was akin to a clash between ten thousand eggs and a rock. The Holy Light, metamorphosed into flame, exhibited strong Negative Entropy Force. Any evil force that approached it was neutralized, "swallowed" by it. The white flame grew brighter and stronger. And the Holy Light stubbornly resisting throughout Wang Qi's body was also injected with new strength, becoming more powerful. The remaining cells within the decaying flesh were awakened. The body secreted new enzymes, dead parts were digested and reabsorbed. Cells infused with potent vitality began to divide. Stem cells redifferentiated, and lost tissues were regenerated.

Of course, in Zhen Chan's eyes, this phenomenon could be summed up as—Wang Qi's body decayed exceptionally fast.

Fortunately, when Wang Qi awoke, this mysterious process had already ended. Unfortunately, he awakened amidst a heap of corpse fluids.

"Ugh… Gag…" The revived Wang Qi retched a few times from the overwhelming stench but managed to spit out nothing. Ironically, he felt an uncontrollable urge to lap up the decaying liquid on the ground—all of which had seeped out from his body. If it were a normal person, such dehydration would have been fatal long ago.

In addition to the thirst, an unprecedented hunger surged from his stomach, scorching Wang Qi's sanity.

Wang Qi struggled to get up, but his muscles, having lost a tremendous amount of cells, were extraordinarily weak. Wang Qi leaned against the wall to stand, stumbling away from the pool of corpse fluids, then tore off his foul-smelling clothes and discarded them, carrying only the two Storage Bags and the Seeking Dao Jade, Kun Mountain Sword that he would use again. Fortunately, he had been out tracking wild Demon Beasts and had enough clean water and soapnut pieces for cleansing in his Storage Bag. After spending three to five minutes, he finally rid himself of the stench on his body. The odd taste in his mouth was also dispelled by something akin to chewing gum.

Wang Qi forcefully suppressed his intense hunger and spat out the chewing gum. He had deduced from that large pool of liquid on the ground what had happened. In simple terms, his body was as if it had been recast, with proteins, fats, etc., all consumed. Now, every cell in his body was screaming for nourishment!

Wang Qi took out several syringes from the Storage Bag. In Shenzhou, oral potions were popular, but injectables were not unknown. Compared to oral potions, injectables acted faster, and many components that would degrade in the digestive tract could be effectively introduced into the body. These injectables were the widely used Counterattack Potions from Tianling Ridge, specially designed for situations of limb regeneration and massive nutritional depletion.

As the contents of the injection entered his body, they were absorbed by the cells at an incredible rate. After the burning sensation throughout his body subsided, Wang Qi finally breathed a sigh of relief and asked Zhen Chan, "Old man, where are we?"

(To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)

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