He devoted himself wholeheartedly to his research.

Luo Yu returned to the heart of the formation square with Luo Li. The group of foreigners had already gone to sleep, Qin Yue was quietly meditating, while the old man and Gong Jin Qian were still muttering in low voices. When they saw Luo Yu appear, they pulled him aside and questioned him for quite a while.

Luo Yu replied anxiously, “Dad… it’s like this, I really can’t do anything about it. I can’t drive him away, and he likes her too… If they end up together, at least they can keep me company in the future… I don’t want to oppose it.”

Hearing this, the old man fell silent. Why does a man take a wife and start a family? Isn’t it so that there’s someone to spend a lifetime with, happily? Now there were grandchildren, and both had cultivated to immortality. If Chu Chu stayed together with him, they could have a long and lasting life. He himself was getting old and no longer wished for immortality; after he was gone, he worried his grandson would be lonely… Forget it, he’d just turn a blind eye.

Having come to terms with it, the old man let out a long sigh. “A grown son is no longer under his father’s control.”

Luo Yu realized his grandfather had relented. Fearing he might feel sad, Luo Yu quickly changed the subject to the flat peaches, talking about how they could teach him techniques after eating them, which soon shifted the old man’s attention and cheered him up.

They stayed in the formation for two days. Seeing that the repairs would still take time, Luo Yu and Qin Yue grew concerned that someone might come to buy magical artifacts, so they returned to the old residence to watch over “Ba Qi.”

Luo Yu set up a very complex formation in the courtyard of the old house: it had both defensive and mana-suppression functions. Only staff members with a specially crafted jade token could open the formation gate and enter or exit. In the middle of the courtyard, he marked out a smaller formation where mana could be used for testing magical artifacts, and only staff could escort clients inside. If anyone attempted to attack recklessly, the formation would automatically activate its defenses, counterattack, and sound an alarm.

Aside from the formation, four zombies and fierce ghosts, each as powerful as a Foundation Establishment cultivator, were stationed to protect the staff. Though they couldn’t use mana here, their physical strength was immense, and they couldn’t be killed by physical attacks. They could easily handle two or three cultivators whose mana was suppressed.

A large sign was erected outside the courtyard, shrouded in an illusion to mislead mortals. On the sign, five glittering gold characters read “Ba Qi Magical Artifacts Shop.” Beside the door, a smaller sign instructed, “Please ring the bell to shop,” and a bronze bell was chained just below. When the bell was rung, a “sound transmission formation” would relay the sound inside.

There still weren’t any customers. The two ate serpent demon pills and studied the “Heavenly Steel Golden Dragon Manual,” even gathering various snakes and lizards for research. Using their divine sense, they examined the meridians of reptiles, trying to match them to human meridians. They discussed and took notes, revising and supplementing as they went… After a few days, they finally produced a human version of the “Heavenly Steel Golden Dragon Manual.” The early stages of the manual differed greatly from the original, but as it progressed, it became much more compatible with humans, requiring fewer changes—this indirectly confirmed Luo Yu’s “universal principle” theory.

With their research complete, the next step was to practice the technique. However, some auxiliary medicines were necessary for training, such as the Golden Condensing Grass, which strengthened the physical body. Without these, the body couldn’t withstand the rigors of the manual; some of the more forceful mana circulation methods could seriously damage the body.

Moreover, their research showed that practicing the manual was no easy task—the body would have to endure significant hardship, likely no easier than the legendary Bone Refinement and Marrow Cleansing. Luo Yu started to have second thoughts: Grandpa hates pain the most… Isn’t the Golden Sacred Armor already enough? Why bother practicing this? I’m very busy and have no time…

So Luo Yu generously declared, “You practice it. I’m not going to. I doubt there’s enough of those auxiliary medicines even for one person. I need to research how to make vampires immune to sunlight; I don’t have time.”

Qin Yue shot him a look and mocked, “Just admit you’re afraid of pain.”

Luo Yu blushed, bristled, and slapped the table. “I’m giving you the chance! You hear me? You’d better thank me properly! This is outrageous!”

Qin Yue snorted. “Don’t worry, I’ll thank you properly.” With that, she took the jade book and the Golden Condensing Grass solution and went off to practice.

Luo Yu shook his fist at her retreating figure, swaggering as he launched into his new project.

Luo Yu began his research with zombies. In his view, zombies and vampires were most alike—they were both corpses. The difference was that zombies were dead corpses, while vampires were living corpses. Both shared a sensitivity to sunlight: sunlight could harm zombies, but not destroy them, while it could reduce vampires to ashes. This suggested that both creatures might harbor the same substance in their bodies, but vampires had it in greater concentration.

Ordinary fire produces light, and so do electric lamps. But these natural sources of light had no effect on either creature. Sunlight, however, was different. Yet sunlight is just fire burning—so why is it unique? Ah, perhaps it’s because it comes from beyond the Earth, an alien ecological environment, and maybe the burning matter contains substances absent from Earth… or perhaps it’s an untraceable, “virtual” material?

With this idea, Luo Yu dragged a zombie out into the sun. Now he had no psychological shadow about handling zombies—he used them as casually as homegrown vegetables: dig when you need, fry when you want. The poor zombie’s status was lower than a pet’s.

After some time in the sun, blisters began to rise on the zombie’s skin. Luo Yu observed closely with his divine sense—now strong enough to rival a Core Formation cultivator, about equal to Lampes. Years of alchemy and delicate separations had made his control of divine sense incredibly refined, even breaking through certain internal “rules” and allowing him to perceive phenomena at a micro level that even Nascent Soul cultivators would struggle to catch.

Through observation, he found that a certain substance in the zombie’s cells would rupture under sunlight, rapidly heating up and decomposing. Luo Yu named it “Corpse Dissolution Type I,” jotted it down, scraped some blisters from the zombie to continue sunning, and then let the poor thing go. It promptly scurried back to the shade, squeaking pitifully.

After a short while under the sun, the blisters dried up into a heap of dead ash.

His conclusion: when Corpse Dissolution Type I heats up and decomposes, it damages surrounding normal substances, leaving only inorganic matter behind.

A few more experiments revealed a pattern: lower-level zombies had more Corpse Dissolution Type I and were more vulnerable to sunlight. Higher-level zombies gradually developed antibodies, optimizing this substance and evolving it. If a zombie continued to evolve, it would eventually become immune to sunlight. Luo Yu named this antibody “Corpse Servant Type I.”

He continued investigating the origins of Corpse Dissolution Type I and soon concluded that it was a mutated substance produced by the accumulation of yin energy acting on cells; it served no real purpose for the zombie and was somewhat superfluous, so Corpse Servant Type I would later eliminate it.

Luo Yu believed that Corpse Servant Type I might be the key to saving vampires. Present analyses suggested that the immune system in vampires had been destroyed.

Next came the second experiment: stabbing a zombie with a silver instrument.

The result: silver had no effect on zombies. Luo Yu smacked his lips—seemed the stuff inside vampires was a variant, or perhaps fundamentally different from zombies.

The third line of research involved souls. Luo Yu captured several ghosts and exposed them to sunlight. Days of study revealed that, unlike zombies, ghosts were formed from condensed yin energy; more precisely, yin energy would enter the soul, and according to the soul’s shape, it would roughly coalesce into a shell. But because the soul didn’t know how to guide yin energy, it would grow wildly and look quite unlike its living appearance, resulting in their hideous, distorted forms.

Prolonged sunlight would gradually dissipate this yin shell, a process agonizing for fierce ghosts, like being flayed alive. Their cries were pitiful. Luo Yu, feeling a twinge of sympathy, silenced them with a mute spell and ruthlessly continued the experiment. After several days, part of the ghost’s form vanished, leaving its soul incomplete. Only then did Luo Yu release it.

This phenomenon was very similar to what happened to vampires: as the body vanished, so too did the soul. In fierce ghosts, body and soul were merged—could it be the same for vampires?

The research continued. Luo Yu found a kind of virtual substance inside ghost bodies, produced automatically during condensation, which clung to yin energy much like glue, binding the soul and ghost body together. Luo Yu called this “Soul-Adhesion Type I,” and then summarized his findings, pondering the case of vampires.

Judging by Corpse Dissolution Type I and Soul-Adhesion Type I, both matched what was seen in vampires. Luo Yu speculated: if the soul and flesh were tightly bound by this adhesive, the soul couldn’t escape the body. At the same time, the adhesive would obstruct and block the meridians, so when exposed to sunlight, the corpse-dissolving substance would activate, and the soul would have nowhere to flee, perishing with the body.

However, the corpse-dissolving and soul-adhesion substances in vampires must differ somewhat from those found in zombies and ghosts; additionally, there was something in vampires that reacted terribly to silver. Moreover, the substance binding soul and flesh together was strange, likely similar to “mana,” existing between the virtual and the physical, able to flow through the incorporeal and affect the corporeal. If it were likened to a formation, it would be a kind of “machine language,” interfacing between software and hardware.

With research at a temporary halt, the next step required a vampire to act as a test subject. Luo Yu didn’t slack off, and instead began studying the programming of ancient grand formations.

One day, Luo Yu was sprawled on the ground tinkering with a formation when he heard the doorbell ring.

His heart leapt with joy: Finally, a customer!

He scampered to the door, only to find a long-haired, ethereal-looking handsome man standing there. Luo Yu stared in surprise. “...Uncle Su?”

Su Sangyi smiled faintly. “No need to be alarmed, young friend. I’m not here to settle old scores… Won’t you invite me in?”

Luo Yu snapped back to his senses, forced an awkward smile, and opened the formation gate to let him in.

Su Sangyi swept the area with his divine sense and praised, “Truly, heroes arise from the young. The defensive formation here is worlds apart from the Bamboo Cottage—truly humbling for me.”

Luo Yu blushed, stammering, “Uncle Su flatters me… I… I’ll go call Qin Yue.”

Su Sangyi smiled, “Since you call me uncle, I’ll be frank. Yue’er is my niece, and you’re family too, so I’ll call you Xiao Yu.”

Luo Yu nodded, about to speak, when Qin Yue emerged, greeted Su Sangyi with a bow, and said, “Qin Yue greets Uncle.”

Su Sangyi glanced at the two of them and sighed, “To meet again after parting and find you both have reached Foundation Establishment—such fortune, if word spread, would surely incite envy. Yet you two make no effort to keep a low profile, but instead act in the opposite manner. Why is that?”

Luo Yu was perplexed. “We’re very careful—we haven’t bullied anyone in the cultivation world.”

Su Sangyi asked, “Are you two behind the recent thefts from the major sects?”

Buddy Cultivators, Chapter 60—Buddy Cultivators Full Free Read—Chapter 60, research concluded!