Long River Eternity

"Perhaps Xiangliu gave some instructions to his descendants, or perhaps Ye Tingxue said something to Xiangliu at the end." Qin Hanming said indifferently.

"Could it be that Xiangliu still exists in this world?" Wei Wu asked suddenly.

"I don't know." Qin Hanming shook his head.

"Is it true that none of those powerful ancient figures are still alive today? What is the purpose of that soldier's tomb?" Lin Ding asked.

Lin Ding's soul traveled back to ancient times time and time again, and the question of the whereabouts of those ancient powerful men always lingered in his mind. Especially after seeing the soldiers' tomb this time, the doubts in his heart reached their peak.

"After that great war, spiritual energy has been exhausted. No matter if they are as powerful as Yang An and Xuanyuan, or cultivators at a slightly lower level, everyone's cultivation has gradually regressed. The lower the level, the faster the regression. In just a few years, cultivators below the Yufeng Realm have completely become ordinary people, and began to age and die normally. The Heyuan Realm was a little slower, but it only lasted for a dozen years before it also became ordinary people." Qin Hanming slowly described the situation after the spiritual energy was exhausted.

"At this point, Yang An and the core members of the Dao Court realized they couldn't just sit there and wait for death, so they all searched for a way to break the spell. However, the war had nearly destroyed the entire world, and spiritual energy couldn't be restored in the short term. So, everyone tried every possible way to seal themselves, waiting for the spiritual energy to revive in the future and break free."

"But some people took the lead in trying to seal themselves, and within a few years, they broke free. It turns out that sealing both the body and the soul, while preserving the body, seemed to imprison the soul within. If they could cultivate, it would be fine, as if they were in seclusion. But with their spiritual energy depleted, cultivation became impossible. So, after a few years, they couldn't bear the endless loneliness and broke free one after another."

"Later, Hou Tu, having previously possessed a celestial soul body and extensive knowledge of the soul, proposed that the soul and body could be sealed separately. The soul could be extracted from the body, then placed in a specific formation using its own weapon as a carrier, and allowed to sleep. However, when the spiritual energy revives in the future, someone must awaken everyone, and each body would find a satisfactory place to be sealed."

"So, the task of awakening the soul naturally fell on Yang An. He waited until everyone had sealed their bodies, then sealed their souls into weapons, and then placed them in the Soul-Suppressing Formation, nourishing the souls with a large amount of spirit stones. Therefore, the location of everyone's body is known only to Yang An."

"This is the origin of the Soldier's Tomb. However, we later modified it and added a spirit summoning array on it."

"Of course, many people also found ways to survive on their own and did not seek assistance from the Dao Court, so we cannot be sure whether there are any other people who survived."

After listening to Qin Hanming's account, Lin Ding finally understood the whereabouts of the ancient masters. Now, they only needed to wait for the revival of spiritual energy, which would be the day of their return. However, one thing remained unclear to Lin Ding. He asked, "Then why don't you seal yourselves? According to you, if you lose your cultivation and become ordinary people, wouldn't you age? Teacher Yang said that you've been ordinary people without any cultivation all these years?"

Qin Hanming smiled bitterly and said, "Because we are all cursed by time."

"Cursed by time?!" Lin Ding and Wei Wu said in unison, full of surprise.

Qin Hanming nodded and said, "That's right. Originally, we planned to seal us all together after Yang An dealt with everyone. But later, by the time he had settled everyone, we had already been ordinary people for nearly twenty years."

"They were still young, so it was difficult to notice. But at my age, I should have looked old. However, neither my appearance nor my physical functions had changed. That's when we realized something was wrong."

"So, they didn't seal themselves away, but continued to walk the world. And so, ten, twenty, a hundred years passed, and we finally discovered that we seemed to have gained eternal life."

"Eternal life? This is too incredible!" Wei Wu said in surprise.

"Is it because you traveled through time?" Lin Ding asked. After all, this was the only difference between them and others.

Qin Hanming nodded. "That's the only explanation, and that's what we think. Perhaps the time travel caused our bodies to mutate."

"That's immortality, how can it be called a curse?" Wei Wu was puzzled.

Just like Mu Changsheng before him, hadn't he done so much for the sake of immortality? So many people practiced cultivation for immortality, but Qin Hanming regarded immortality as a curse, which made Wei Wu really hard to understand.

"You'll understand later." Qin Hanming smiled meaningfully. "Okay, I've told you enough today. Aren't you going to rescue people? Hurry up and go!"

Seeing that Qin Hanming had ordered them to leave, the two of them scratched their heads, said goodbye to Qin Hanming, and prepared to leave.

As he reached the door, Lin Ding suddenly remembered what he had promised Li Bailian, and asked somewhat embarrassedly, "Um, Mr. Qin, do you have any ancient magical instruments or books on refining instruments?"

Qin Hanming looked a little puzzled and asked, "Why, do you want to learn how to refine weapons?"

"No, when I took the Innate Chaos Spear from the Holy Spear City, I promised them to exchange it for an ancient weapon or an ancient book on refining weapons. So..." Lin Dinghan said with a smile.

"You kid, you made a promise to someone else and you're leaving me to foot the bill?" Qin Hanming didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Then, with a wave of his hand, an ancient book appeared on the counter. Inscribed on it were four large characters: "Introduction to Weapon Refining." He then said, "Forget it. Even if you give them the magic weapon, they won't be able to fully understand it. Let's give them this book to study first. Their casting techniques haven't even touched the threshold of weapon refining."

Lin Ding picked up the "Introduction to Weapon Refining" and smiled bitterly. He didn't expect that the casting technique that the Holy Spear City had studied for thousands of years was not even considered entry-level in Qin Hanming's eyes. He then thanked Qin Hanming and left with Wei Wu and Feng Hao.

After leaving Nanzhou City, Wei Wu asked, "What should we do now? We don't know the location of the Northern Frost Demon Alliance. How can we save Xianxian?"

"Let's go to Holy Spear City first and give this ancient book to Li Bailian, then go back to Zhongzhou City to find Zhan Tianqiong and see if he has any information about the Beihan Demon Alliance." Lin Ding pondered.

So the two of them quickly rushed to the Holy Spear City. When they arrived at the Holy Spear City, the sky was already white. Lin Ding found Li Bailian and gave him the "Introduction to Weapon Refining".

When Li Bailian got the ancient book and saw the four big words "Introduction to Weapon Refining", there was still some dissatisfaction on his face. After he flipped through a few pages, his eyes were already glued to the book.

Seeing Li Bailian's expression, Lin Ding knew that there was no problem. After saying goodbye to Li Bailian who was concentrating on reading, he continued to rush to Zhongzhou City without stopping.