My version of Heavenly Dao is too old, so it's full of bugs.

Chapter 260 People Entering and Leaving the Forbidden Area
"not good!!"

After Li Wei arrived in Misty City, Zheng Youlan received the news immediately and was filled with anxiety.

Based on her understanding of those two forces, they would never allow someone like Li Wei, who has the ability to influence the situation, to go to the other side's territory.

Therefore, Li Wei would inevitably be prevented from leaving the city.

But unexpectedly, this kid also possessed the Kunpeng Extreme Speed, which allowed him to break free from the power of the remnant soul of the Bewitching Master and the core of the Mechanical God.

She miscalculated this time.

"If Li Wei could get information from over there, he would see through my lie. Fortunately, neither side is easy to deal with, and they certainly wouldn't easily tell him the secret."

Soon, Zheng Youlan received another message: Zhang Hebei, the city lord of Misty City, had initiated a deal with Li Wei.

After reviewing the transaction details,
Zheng Youlan's expression immediately darkened.

"To exchange memories for intelligence, plus the support of the Mist City, is practically a free gift. Li Wei certainly won't refuse, right?"

……

"I reject!"

Li Wei's answer greatly exceeded Zhang Hebei's expectations.

He couldn't help but ask doubtfully, "Inspector Li, would you like to reconsider? We can offer even better terms!"

All you need to do is sacrifice your useless memories to obtain various intelligence and promises of becoming a god, have the opportunity to leave this place, and even get their help to seize the top godhood in the Rusty City.

This is such a rare opportunity!

This guy actually refused?

Does he have some unspeakable secret in his memory?

Zhang Hebei's guess was correct.

Li Wei has too many shameful things in his memory.

Specifically targeting the old-era loopholes in the lightning tribulation, the dark web connection between the Golden Core cultivator Xiao Zi, and the loopholes in the three thousand levels of Qi Refining and the unlimited growth of flesh and blood, etc.
This time, in order to defeat the White Bull Demon King, he used almost all of his trump cards, and each of these trump cards was a deadly weapon. If they were discovered, wouldn't the other party have a handle on Li Wei?
He must be crazy to sell his memories!

Therefore, Li Wei refused again, saying, "Fellow Daoist Zhang's conditions are very tempting, but unfortunately there is no room for negotiation on this matter."

The harsh living environment of Misty City made the cultivators here inherently more warlike, and their mutated, twisted bodies further amplified their bestial nature.
So when Li Wei rejected Zhang Hebei twice in a row, the expression on his face immediately turned cold.

"Inspector Li, although you are a divine official of the Thunder Department, this is a forbidden area for bewitching souls, and everything must be done in accordance with the rules of the forbidden area for bewitching souls!"

"If you've come here to do business with us, then the fog will welcome you wholeheartedly. But if you're not sincere about doing business, then you can leave!"

Li Wei gave him a deep look and said, "I can trade other things with you."

"But for now, we only need your memories. I'm not interested in anything else."

Before Zhang Hebei could finish speaking, he saw Li Wei take out a green fruit covered in embroidery.

His eyes suddenly widened, and he couldn't help but exclaim in surprise, "This is... a Dao Seed?"

Moreover, it is a mechanical path!
How did that kid get such a thing?

Didn't the Nascent Soul cultivator he killed already self-destruct?

Could he possibly extract the laws from the remnants of a Nascent Soul cultivator's self-destruction and condense them into a seed?
Zhang Hebei immediately raised the level of danger posed by Li Wei to several notches, and couldn't help but think to himself:

'I never imagined that the immortal cultivation techniques in the outside world had developed to this level. No wonder this kid was able to kill a Nascent Soul cultivator with only a Core Formation cultivation!'

Thinking of this, Zhang Hebei's attitude softened considerably: "Inspector Li wants to use this to make a deal with me?"

Li Wei subconsciously rubbed his index finger.

He had discovered during his previous encounters with the Nascent Soul cultivators in Rusty City that the Nascent Soul cultivators there were weaker than he had imagined, and their mechanical cores were extremely outdated.

Even the mechanical laws that Zheng Youlan used were extremely simple.

In the entire Rust City, only the Dharma Limb technology has any redeeming qualities; it doesn't seem like a place capable of developing Dao Seed Cultivation Technology.

Zhang Hebei's reaction now confirms another guess in Li Wei's mind.

That peddler is acting strangely!

After keeping his doubts to himself, Li Wei smiled and said, "Since City Lord Zhang recognizes this, things will be much easier!"

"This thing comes from the White Bull Demon King that I killed before. Although it was not fully mature for various reasons, it still contains some fragments of the laws of the mechanical path, and there is a certain probability that someone can master the mechanical path laws cultivated by the White Bull Demon King."

"Using this in exchange for some information from you, that shouldn't be too much to ask, right?"

After hesitating for a moment, Zhang Hebei asked, "What do you want to ask?"

"Rust City told me three ways to leave, and I want to know if there are any problems with these methods. At the same time, I want to know what the educational principles of Rust City are all about!"

Zhang Hebei shook his head: "These are two separate issues."

Li Wei frowned slightly, thought for a moment, and then said, "Then you should mainly tell me about the principles of education! As for the three ways to leave, you just need to tell me if there are any problems with these methods, and if there are any other methods. You don't need to give me a detailed explanation!"

In Zhang Hebei's view, intelligence was the least valuable thing. If they could exchange it for a Dao Seed, they could achieve their goal, although the process would be a bit more troublesome.

So after thinking about it, he quickly nodded in agreement.

"make a deal!"

Li Wei laughed and tossed a contract over.

Zhang Hebei carefully reviewed the document and, after confirming there were no problems, quickly signed the contract. After receiving the Dao Seed from Li Wei, a hint of excitement appeared on his face, and his tone became much more lively: "It is indeed the Dao Seed of the Mechanical Dao! Since Inspector Li is so generous, I won't hold back either."

"First of all, the three methods that Rust City told you are all problematic, and we also have a fourth method in our possession."

Li Wei's eyes narrowed instantly.

really!

That woman wasn't telling the truth!
Compared to Zheng Youlan, Li Wei certainly trusts the contract more.

After all, these contracts were personally drafted by the Heavenly Dao 1.0 system, and they also contained the power of Li Wei's Divine Firmament Tribulation Technique. If Zhang Hebei was lying, Li Wei would be able to sense it.

Zhang Hebei said in a tempting tone, "Would Inspector Li like to know more details? If you still have something as good as the Dao Seed, I promise to tell you all the secrets."

After closing his eyes and thinking for a moment, Li Wei said, "No need, because I've already guessed pretty much everything."

Zhang Hebei was genuinely surprised: "You're not joking, are you?"

Li Wei's natal golden core, Xiao Zi, has been spending a lot of time in the library of the Thunder Academy in Zhongzhou. She's not only looking at various papers on ascension, establishing a divine position, and the laws of the education system, but she's also searching for a lot of information about the Forbidden Land of Bewitching Souls and the Bewitching Smoke Killing Technique.

Therefore, Li Wei had long seen through the flaw in Zheng Youlan's words.

However, to further verify his guess, Li Wei observed Zhang Hebei's expression as he said:

"Although the Bewitching Forbidden Land is a killing move by immortals, the power of the killing move is mainly concentrated on the Mechanical God, that is, on the Bewitching Coffin behind your Mist City. The sealing power in other places is not actually that strong."

"Therefore, there is no need for ministers from the Heavenly Court to take action; ordinary gods could also use the Bewitching Smoke technique to save people!"

"To build a teleportation array for leaving, you don't need to gather the power of everyone in the Bewitching Forbidden Land. Each of your cities has the power to build the array and penetrate the bewitching smoke."

"As for ascending to godhood! This can indeed break the seal of the Bewitching Forbidden Zone, and you few may indeed possess godhood, but I suspect you are still lacking other necessary conditions!"

"For example, immortal techniques and immortal bodies!"

"As far as I know, the corpses of dead gods cannot be baptized to produce immortal arts and immortal bodies."

"So the ascension to godhood was a lie from the beginning. Zheng Youlan wanted to trick me into practicing the Imperial Cultivation Advancement Law. She must have had other purposes."

As Zhang Hebei listened to Li Wei's analysis, he could still maintain a calm expression, but his heart was already filled with surprise.

Is this the foundation of cultivators from the outside world?
Just one clue is enough to see through Zheng Youlan's lie!

Is this a coincidence? Or has he truly learned the secrets of the Forbidden Land of Bewitching Souls?

Do not,
It's impossible for an outsider to know so many secrets!

Zhang Hebei then forced himself to remain calm and said, "Is there another way?"

Li Wei said deeply, "If either the Resurrected Mechanical God or the Lord of Bewitching Souls is resurrected, then the Forbidden Land of Bewitching Souls will naturally collapse!"

Zhang Hebei finally couldn't hold back any longer, and a look of surprise appeared on his octopus-like face.

This undoubtedly proves that Li Wei's guess was correct!

Zhang Hebei realized he had given himself away, so he sighed and said, "As expected of the Thunder Department Inspector, your observation skills are indeed sharp!"

"That's right! The conditions Zheng Youlan gave you were actually the conditions for clearing the Forbidden Land of Bewitching Souls at its strongest ten thousand years ago."

"Over the years, with the erosion of the laws of the Mechanical God, the sealing power of the Bewitching Forbidden Land has weakened year by year, making it increasingly easier to leave!"

"Especially after the death of the previous Heavenly Emperor, during the period from the end of Heavenly Dao version 6.0 to the beginning of Heavenly Dao version 7.0, at least 20 teleportation ceremonies were held in the Bewitching Forbidden Land, and each time it was the same cultivator who entered and exited here."

Li Wei straightened up immediately: "Are you sure?"

"Well, it's one thing if we can't find it once or twice, but that person teleported more than twenty times in a row. If we can't even find it, we might as well all become blind and deaf."

Zhang Hebei sneered, "Of course, because of the special nature of the Bewitching Forbidden Land, I have no way of knowing where the formation was set up!"

"But interestingly, it was precisely when that mysterious being entered and exited the Bewitching Forbidden Zone multiple times that the Rust City's Education Advancement Law System made a major breakthrough!"

"The Rust City, which originally only had one kindergarten, one primary school, one middle school, and one university, expanded by more than twenty schools in one go to serve as a base for the law, and began its first expansion of education enrollment."

"Then it took about three thousand years to fully develop the educational system of laws that you and I see today!"

The establishment of a system of rules inevitably requires a long period of time to gradually explore and learn through practice.
Such sudden breakthroughs in technical difficulties are not uncommon, but this happened precisely when a certain cultivator repeatedly entered and exited the Bewitching Forbidden Zone.
This is such a coincidence!
Li Wei already harbored suspicions about Chu Zeng, and now his doubts only intensified. He couldn't help but ask curiously, "Didn't you investigate back then?"

"Of course we've investigated!"

"We noticed something was wrong as soon as Rust City started recruiting. Whether it's to find a way out of here or to protect our living space, we have to stop Rust City!"

"Therefore, Mist City and Rusty City cooperated immediately and launched a war together!"

"However, the advantage of the educational advancement law was simply too great. With countless students replenishing our fighting strength, Rust City blocked our attack. After a century of fighting, all three of us suffered heavy losses and were unable to continue fighting. In the end, we had no choice but to compromise with each other."

"Since then, Rust City has provided us with educational services and opened up the rules of educational advancement to us!"

“Every year we need to spend a lot of resources to purchase educational services from Rust City, select elite students to study in Rust City, and obtain diplomas to advance their careers.”

As for those cultivators who were unable to participate in the study abroad program, they could only face the Heavenly Tribulation head-on to advance their cultivation.

This is also the fundamental reason why the number of cultivators in Water Rust City and Misty City is generally less than that in Iron Rust City. It's not that these two cities cannot accommodate more people, but most of their populations have been killed by lightning tribulations!

"Through years of research, we have discovered that the Imperial Cult Advancement System in Rusty City clearly involves other forces, and this force is very likely to be..."

Zhang Hebei shut his mouth and suddenly pointed upwards.

Heaven?!
A look of realization dawned on Li Wei's eyes, yet he also felt it was perfectly natural.

(End of this chapter)