Born with immortal seed

Chapter 791 Ten Lands of Fengdu
A disdainful snort came from the shadows, and a blurry sword light slashed down, actually suppressing the divine sense clone instead.

Boundless malevolence spread with the sword light, and Bai Zhaoqing fainted instantly, his fate unknown.

Although the dazzling sword light was tenacious, it was rekindled by sparks after being extinguished, and ultimately could not amount to anything.

It seemed to be a force from a higher level that utterly crushed it.

The shadowy figure extended a tentacle, swept Bai Zhaoqing away, and vanished in the blink of an eye.

Ten breaths later, a ball of lightning appeared, spreading into a huge lightning net that circled back and forth like a sieve twice.

They gained nothing, and once again, lightning flashed towards the direction of Rotten Axe Mountain.

Only the Sanchuan River remains, flowing along its course as if nothing had happened.

……

Shaohua Cave Heaven.

Lightning crackled, and the Purple Star Thunder Sword returned to Bai Zichen's hand.

"Within ten breaths, eliminate a wisp of my divine consciousness and retreat calmly... Are there still Nascent Soul cultivators in this world unknown to me, who wish to be my enemies?"

Even a mere wisp of spirit can easily defeat 99% of the Great True Lords.

To win so quickly and without leaving a trace, not even a trace of aura, he didn't believe that anyone other than a Nascent Soul cultivator could do that, except for those at the Nascent Soul stage.

From sensing the destruction of his divine sense, which was separated by the Binding Technique, to exiting his cultivation state and descending upon the Three Rivers River five thousand miles away with his omnipresent presence, he only took ten breaths.

Even at that speed, Bai Zhaoqing couldn't be saved.

The tribulation of becoming a Nascent Soul cultivator cannot be concealed; in the cultivation world, it is extremely difficult to undergo tribulation in secret.

If you go to those remote, sparsely populated places, the commotion of the heavenly tribulation won't be transmitted, but the most basic conditions for a fifth-order spiritual land won't be met.

In the world of cultivation, there are many strange and unusual sects, as well as sects that specialize in studying astrology and predicting major events.

According to them, whenever a cultivator attempts to break through to the Nascent Soul stage, it will be reflected in the celestial phenomena.

If we fail, our starlight will fade, and no one will care.

If successful, starlight will illuminate every inch of the earth, and we will ascend into the constellation.

Taking the results backwards, their predictions were quite accurate; they predicted almost every Great True Monarch's activation of the Nascent Soul Heavenly Tribulation.

He has been a Nascent Soul cultivator for hundreds of years, while those Nascent Soul cultivators who are hiding in their grottoes and barely surviving should have their last drop of lifespan squeezed out.

Furthermore, after the events involving the Asura Ancient Demon and the Eight Desolate Sword Lord, it's even stranger that the Nascent Soul cultivator wanted to provoke him.

When conflicts arise between Nascent Soul cultivators, unless an overwhelming force is formed and the two are entangled back and forth several times, their lifespans will be lost in the hundreds of years.

This is why everyone becomes restrained and polite upon reaching the Nascent Soul stage, and rarely makes a move.

Unless it involves a life-or-death struggle over the Great Dao, a blood feud that is etched into one's bones and lasts for ten lifetimes, or a general conflict of interest between disciples and outsiders, no Nascent Soul cultivator would intervene.

Otherwise, a Nascent Soul cultivator would quickly exhaust their lifespan, let alone two thousand years.

Back then, the Heavenly Punishment Peak Master secured his position as the number one cultivator in the cultivation world with his extraordinary abilities, precisely because he truly possessed the skill to kill other Nascent Soul cultivators at any cost.

The price he paid wasn't enough to kill him outright.

This is the true source of the Heavenly Punishment Peak Master's power.

Now, Bai Zichen is even stronger and younger.

This means that the cost that can be borne is greater.

"Zhao Qing is merely a Core Formation cultivator, yet he has prompted a Nascent Soul cultivator to take action. He is clearly targeting me... I must find out who is behind this, or I will hunt him down to the ends of the earth!"

Bai Zichen's eyes were icy cold; he had not forgotten the existence of a mysterious adversary in the cultivation world who had once instigated the Green Lamp Arhat to plot against him.

Bai Zhaoqing's disappearance is most likely the work of the same person.

It's a good time to settle old scores and new grudges all at once.

At Bai Laozu's command, Rotten Axe Mountain immediately mobilized and conducted a thorough internal investigation.

Soon, a series of clues were gathered and presented to him.

The letter left in the room by Bai Zhaoqing, the funeral of Fu Donghai, the steward of the General Affairs Hall, and the disappearance of Kuang Shu, the elder of the General Affairs Hall, were all mentioned. On the day of the funeral, a disciple saw the two talking to each other...

One incident after another made Kuang Shu of the General Affairs Department the prime suspect.

“Master, we have opened the coffin and examined Fu Donghai’s remains. He did indeed die of old age, and there were no signs of external injury or poisoning.”

Li Guizhen knelt by the lake, lamenting inwardly that such a thing happening at Lankeshan was a grave dereliction of duty on his part.

In particular, Bai Zhaoqing was under his care, and Kuang Shu's promotion to elder was also approved by him.

It would be better if Kuang Shu were captured or killed, but if he voluntarily betrayed the sect and defected to the enemy, it would be a major earthquake for the entire Qingfeng Sect.

Even the elders and other disciples have been infiltrated, especially in a sect like Qingfeng Sect that is in a period of rapid growth and has a promising future. Those in charge of the sect must take responsibility for this.

It is unknown how many members of the Elders' Council will be implicated, leading to a major reshuffle.

Since this involves Elder Bai, it doesn't matter which faction you belong to or whose path you take; it's all in vain.

"The biographies of Kuang Shu and Fu Donghai have been fully compiled. The two had a close relationship and had known each other since they were outer disciples... The places they traveled together that are worth noting include the coastal islands, Fengdu in the ten Western Regions, and the Earth Mother Cave in the Central Region."

Li Guizhen had clearly put in a lot of hard work; he hadn't just waited for his subordinates to collect the information and deliver it to him.

"But the Nascent Soul Transformation Technique that Junior Nephew Zhaoqing mentioned in the letter was something that Junior Sister Su and I searched the entire Three Rivers River region but couldn't find. Judging from his life, Fu Donghai didn't have time to go to the Central Region Secret Realm to obtain those two ancient books. It's highly likely that the contents of the letter are fake, or even that the letter wasn't written by him."

"The Ten Earthly Fengdu..."

Bai Zichen's expression shifted as he thought of that Ghost Lord.

The Ghost Lord of Fengdu in the Ten Lands is a fifth-order Yin God, but due to many restrictions, he is rarely considered an evolved god.

Other Nascent Soul cultivators in the True Realm intervened, causing their lifespans to diminish.

A fifth-tier Yin Spirit leaving the Ghost Realm may face a major flaw in their cultivation, encountering a counteracting supernatural power, and could even be killed by a Nascent Soul cultivator.

But regardless, they are all at the Nascent Soul level.

If he were to take action, defeating the divine sense clone would make sense.

Moreover, it is said that the Ghost Lord has remained hidden in order to overcome the inherent flaws in the path of Yin Gods.

If he finds a way, his strength will definitely improve by leaps and bounds.

"In addition, only this envelope was found in Zhaoqing's room; the other letters were nowhere to be found, which means he must have been carrying it with him at all times."

Li Guizhen then presented another envelope.

Bai Zichen drew ten strands of sacred beast aura and gathered them in his eyes, causing his pupils to suddenly dilate, and in an instant, hundreds of worlds were born and destroyed.

The overwhelming aura of the sacred beast caused several fleshy hands to sprout from its eyes, grabbing haphazardly.

One of them even grabbed its own eyeball and squeezed it so hard it was about to burst.

Two more ancient trees suddenly burst forth, their roots spreading inward to form a fine net, as if trying to penetrate deep into the head.

"Duh!"

Bai Zichen shouted and pushed the Candle Dragon Yin-Yang Eyes to their limit, barely managing to digest the aura of these sacred beasts.

The strange phenomena quickly disappeared, as if it had just been an illusion.

But he knew in his heart that if he had not merely absorbed the aura of the sacred beast, but instead opened the crystal and actually placed that drop of sacred beast's blood in front of him, the terrifying scene just now might have come true and could never be undone.

Perhaps only after I reach the Void Refinement stage can I consider the feasibility of directly absorbing the power from the essence blood of sacred beasts.

With the added blessing, Zhulong's Yin-Yang Eyes stared at the envelope. What was originally an ordinary piece of paper kept changing in his eyes, receding back into a piece of white paper, then into a bunch of dried spiritual herbs, and finally returning to a few faint white spiritual lights.

Releasing from its constraints, the faint white light soared into the sky, resolutely drifting westward.

"The Western Regions... could it really be the Ten Lands of Fengdu?"

Bai Zichen closed his eyes, which were somewhat numb with pain, and could hardly believe how smoothly things were progressing.

However, the Yin-Yang Eyes of the Candle Dragon on him have the ability to trace back to the source. This sign indicates that the envelope or the letter itself originated in the Western Regions.

It's possible that the opponent couldn't have predicted this supernatural ability and was therefore off guard.

The stone house of the universe slowly opened, and Li Guizhen was the first to be hit, as if he were seeing a long river rushing towards him.

Being in it, swaying and drifting, I felt small and helpless.

Upon closer inspection, there was clearly nothing in front of me; everything seemed perfectly normal.

He secluded himself for hundreds of years, which was equivalent to the total amount of time he had spent cultivating in his entire life. When Bai Zichen took this step forward, he felt a sense of the vicissitudes of life.

Having been away from the world for hundreds of years, only managing to act a few times through his divine consciousness clones, he felt a sense of alienation from the outside world.

"You've lured me into a trap, now let's see if your trap is sturdy enough, or if it'll burst..."

With a wave of his hand, twelve flying swords shot out from the bottom of the lake, forming a line and returning to the Supreme Pure and Subtle Sword Box.

Having been away from the real world for hundreds of years, Bai Zichen thought he would smoothly cultivate all the way to the peak of the Nascent Soul stage.

But since some people don't want to give him this opportunity, it's not impossible for him to leave the pass early.

How could he be someone whose progress is limited by decades of cultivation?

He only had a few impressions of Bai Zhaoqing, but as a descendant of Bai Jiu'an, the Bai family of Fufeng was actually his emotional attachment to his uncle.

Before his uncle's grave, he made a vow that he would never let his family line die out.

We've finally produced a disciple with the potential to reach the Nascent Soul stage; how can we allow others to harm him?

Moreover, this person hiding in the shadows has plotted against him time and time again, and this time he has even targeted those around him. He would not believe that the reason was merely to capture a Core Formation clansman to take revenge on the Sword Lord of Time.

If we can't eliminate them in one fell swoop, having such an enemy lurking in the shadows is a real nuisance.

It's time for the cultivation world to hear the name of the Sword Lord of Time once again, lest the new generation forget his abilities.

……

With a single thought, the ends of the earth become near.

This is a bit of an exaggeration for Bai Zichen.

The description of him traveling to the North Sea in the morning and to Cangwu in the evening is not an exaggeration at all.

The distance from Rotten Axe Mountain to Fengdu in the Ten Lands is more than a million miles. Even many Nascent Soul True Monarchs would not choose such a far place for training.

It is only because Kuang Shu and Fu Donghai, two Foundation Establishment disciples, had traveled to such remote places with caravans when they were young that it is worth suspecting.

A day later, he arrived at the legendary Fengdu, the capital of the Ten Lands.

The place was eerily cold and gloomy, with a winding, downward-facing passage leading to who-knows-where.

The passageway was littered with bones, exuding a chilling and malevolent aura. Ice had formed on the mountain walls and the ground, and the cold seeped straight into one's soul.

Those with lower cultivation levels could easily fall ill from the cold air if they merely lingered at the entrance.

It's not that no one in the cultivation world is curious about the Ten Earthly Fengdu, but among all the Nascent Soul True Monarchs, the best one would go deep into the 8,000-foot depth, ultimately abandoning his physical body and only having his Nascent Soul left to escape in a sorry state.

Other Nascent Soul cultivators haven't even achieved this level of success; they've only scratched the surface.

Black winds swept down from the lowest level, bringing with them howls of ghosts and endless evil.

"The direction remains the same, the envelope still points to something connected to this place... Could it really be that the Ghost Lord intervened and kidnapped Zhao Qing?"

Bai Zichen was filled with doubt; the implication was far too clear.

However, since we've already come this far, we certainly won't give up until we've gone out to explore and study it.

"Bai Zichen requests that the Ghost Lord of Fengdu appear for a meeting."

He spoke softly, not loudly, but his voice traveled through the passage, and could be heard clearly even if one traveled tens of thousands of feet underground.

They called out three times and waited for half an hour, but not a single ghost cultivator showed up.

"If you won't come out, I'll have to take matters into my own hands and force you to appear..."

Bai Zichen casually sat on a black rock, drew a Treasure-Dropping Golden Coin Sword, and slashed it into the passage.

The light of the money sword illuminated the darkness, penetrating deeper and deeper, revealing the world hidden underground.

There was a zombie with a bluish-gray body sitting in a pit of dead bodies, actually assuming a Taoist cultivation posture, exhaling and exhaling cold, deathly energy.

It was evident that his physical body was constantly expanding, with a faint dark light emanating from it, making him even more powerful.

There were countless zombies like these, all of which were revealed by the sword light.

Some were still immersed in their cultivation, while others were startled by the sword light and fled in panic.

Hundreds of feet further down, the golden light and shadows revealed a group of ghosts, men, women, young and old.

Most of them had their eyes closed, their faces were pale, and they wandered aimlessly around the area.

Only when death energy erupts and forms fragments of ghost crystals will the ghosts show a sliver of intelligence, and they will fight each other for this object.

They descended for what seemed like an eternity, reaching depths of tens of thousands of feet, where a vast plain appeared. The soil beneath their feet was dark red, and black clouds formed the sky above.

There was a constant, eerie wind and ghostly wailing, rising and falling, making one's scalp tingle.

Within a radius of several miles, one could see wandering ghosts everywhere by the roadside. Upon seeing the golden light above their heads, they all prostrated themselves on the ground, too afraid to move.

"What a strange place... It doesn't resemble a grotto-heaven, nor is it quite the same as the real world. Is this the Ten Lands of Fengdu?"

Bai Zichen's true form had not yet arrived; he could only sense the changes through the omnipresent sword light, so his perception was certainly not profound.

But those subtle changes in space could not escape his keen senses.

"Could there really be such a thing as the underworld... But this place was clearly transformed from a grotto-heaven of the Taibai Sword Sect, only it became a ghost city after undergoing changes. Perhaps it was because the nature of the grotto-heaven was special that it achieved such a miraculous state."

A hundred miles ahead, a row of majestic city walls came into view, and a towering stone tablet that seemed to pierce the clouds came into sight.

The stone tablet bears the three large characters 'Fengdu City' written in floral and bird patterns.

"At this point, you still want to avoid seeing me?"

Bai Zichen had already sensed the powerful aura emanating from the city, cold and eerie, blending seamlessly with the ghost city before him.

Seeing that the Ghost Lord was in the city but avoided being seen, his suspicions about him deepened.

He had dealt with the ghost cultivators of Fengdu before, and they had a tacit understanding regarding the matter of the Green Lamp Arhat.

It's simply unacceptable to ignore someone after they've identified themselves.

(End of this chapter)