Rebirth of a Quasi-Immortal Spirit

Before she could even think, Gao Zhun had already completely immersed himself in the state of enlightenment. The so-called state of enlightenment is when one's consciousness enters a mysterious state, at which time one's soul power will surge for a short period of time, and one can instantly gain benefits that cannot be obtained in ordinary times through high-speed soul training.

Each moment of enlightenment is difficult to sustain for a very long time, ranging from the time it takes to drink a cup of tea to a quarter of an hour. Of course, the duration will increase with the increase of cultivation level and the enhancement of soul power. The longer the moment of enlightenment, the greater the benefits gained after it ends.

Gao Zhun's enlightenment lasted for a full quarter of an hour, which was almost the longest she could sustain enlightenment with her current cultivation and soul power. After all, she had comprehended a sword move. The difficulty of comprehending and creating one's own sword move while cultivating a top-level sword technique was almost unimaginable for ordinary people. However, once successful, its power would be equally surprising, almost essential for challenging opponents of higher levels, escaping danger, and killing to steal treasures!

Having emerged from her state of enlightenment, Gao Zhun suppressed her desire to test the power of that sword move. In her view, such a powerful technique should be saved for a surprise attack, to wreak havoc on both the opponent and herself. She could almost picture the humiliating defeat of her enemy, who thought they had the upper hand, only to be turned around by her single move—that feeling was simply too exhilarating!

After her enlightenment, she began cultivating again to break through to the Golden Core stage. With the breathing of spiritual energy and the circulation of true energy, Gao Zhun guided the spiritual energy to transform into true energy, continuously nourishing the Jade Palace in her dantian. As time passed, the forging of the Jade Palace was about to be completed, and a rapidly circulating energy ball appeared in her dantian. Just as the energy ball formed, Gao Zhun seemed to hear a "poof" sound in her mind, as if she had broken through some shackles. She officially stepped into the peak of Foundation Establishment. Another month and a half passed in her focused cultivation.

Two months of continuous cultivation not only didn't cause Gao Zhun any discomfort, but the progress in her cultivation had also greatly strengthened her spiritual sense. The clarity and comfort of her mind almost made her want to cry out. No wonder there were always some cultivation fanatics in the cultivation world; besides pursuing immortality and unparalleled strength, they probably simply enjoyed the comfort that came with improved cultivation. Besides, in cultivation, time has no limits. Compared to those who secluded themselves for hundreds of years or even went into deathbed seclusion, her two months were insignificant. And considering the 1,500 years of innate lifespan she could gain upon achieving the Golden Core stage, she had nothing more to say. She simply continued absorbing spiritual energy.

Perhaps even Heaven and Earth felt that Gao Zhun's cultivation was going too smoothly, so they secretly set a trap for her on her path. As a result, Gao Zhun tragically discovered that she had encountered a bottleneck. Every cultivator will encounter bottlenecks to some extent on their path of cultivation. However, her previous cultivation had been too smooth, and this sudden bottleneck made her feel uncomfortable. It was as if she had a breath stuck in her chest, unable to go up or down, causing her all kinds of pain.

"Quickly, a peerless master will bestow upon me their power and initiation!"

After another half month of fruitless cultivation, the person gave up the struggle. For bottlenecks, it is impossible to solve them by staying in a house in seclusion. Every time this happens, it means that the cultivator is missing an opportunity, but it also gives the cultivator a chance to accumulate strength and then make a breakthrough. After understanding these two points, Gao Zhun stopped being persistent and turned to look through the books in the study.

Gao Zhun decided to familiarize herself with the strange city of Yongcheng first, starting with a map. Fortunately, there was one in her study. Using it, she located the barren mountains and desert she had visited earlier. Sure enough, it was a desolate, undeveloped area. The map even had helpful annotations: the area was called the Sunset Desert, and ten thousand years ago it was called Sunset Valley. It seemed to have become a desert in the last hundred years. Heh, she'd actually experienced all of this… And as for Sunset Valley, she'd never seen anything like a valley in that remote, desolate place. The changes were huge; a mere hundred years had passed, and everything had changed dramatically…

Like the Sunset Desert, the Luoshui Kingdom is also located at the southern end of the map, but one is in the southwest and the other in the southeast, spanning a distance of almost a million miles... A million miles would take her half a month to fly continuously on her sword, and this is the closest country to the Sunset Desert...

After looking at the entire topographical map, Gao Zhun no longer had the mood to complain about Yongcheng. She changed her opinion. This was a barren and abandoned city. Yongcheng was originally only the size of Earth, and the only area suitable for cultivators to live in was the southeast corner, which accounted for one-tenth of the entire city's area. The rest of the area was either an uninhabited desert like the Luoxia Desert or a sea area where even sea creatures could not survive. She suspected that with the rate of desertification of the city, this last tenth of paradise probably wouldn't last much longer. She did not ignore the large areas on the map that were described indistinguishably from the ordinary Luoxia Desert. The nine-tenths that disappeared were almost all due to the collapse of the laws in the last thousand years.

The laws collapsed… Gao Zhun suddenly realized something. The law of conservation of energy—yes, that's right, the legendary law of conservation of energy. No matter how strong the effect of Yongcheng on these outsiders was, it was diverting a portion of the city's energy to them. Therefore, even if Yongcheng was once incredibly prosperous and its spiritual energy incredibly abundant, it couldn't withstand the relentless influx of outsiders. She couldn't estimate how many outsiders had arrived since the strange laws of Yongcheng were born. So many outsiders were being forcibly accelerated in their cultivation; even a money tree, after countless years of continuous shaking, would inevitably wither. Clearly, Yongcheng's energy was rapidly depleting. Perhaps before long, this place would become a dead land due to the collapse of its laws…

"What kind of secret could have led that supreme being to create such a law governing Yongcheng, preferring to let this place collapse rather than allow anyone to discover even a glimpse of it?"

Indeed, Gao Zhun was certain that the laws governing Yongcheng were not naturally formed, but rather created by the legendary supreme being, in order to conceal certain secrets.

Perhaps, if many people thought of this, they would have already had the idea of ​​giving up. However, cultivators would not. It is said that wealth and honor are sought in danger. If one is afraid of the methods of a supreme master and stops moving forward, then what kind of cultivation is it?

I might as well go back home and farm!

Well, let's just consider it a secret realm left behind by someone else. Gao Zhun believed that the benefits of unlocking this secret realm in Yongcheng would be far greater than quickly achieving the Nascent Soul stage. He just didn't know if she had that kind of luck.

Gao Zhun spent another half a month in the study, mainly collecting books and materials about Yongcheng. She focused more on the legends and customs related to Yongcheng, much like back on Earth, where every country had its own legends. Yongcheng, a city that encompassed several countries, had countless and comprehensive legends, but only a handful of them seemed somewhat useful to her…

When Gao Zhun emerged from seclusion, Ah Zhong had been waiting outside for a long time. During her seclusion, she hadn't paid much attention to the outside world, but now, seeing this, she frowned and asked, "Has something happened outside?"

Ah Zhong nodded and recounted the changes that had occurred in the outside world over the past three months. As Gao Zhun had predicted, the laws of Yongcheng could no longer continue. Through his years of work in Luoshui Kingdom, Ah Zhong discovered that some outsiders were discussing how their supply courier had not arrived in Yongcheng for a long time. It was estimated that Yongcheng had probably closed its entrance. At this moment, apart from the outsiders who were already there, the entire city of Yongcheng only allowed people to leave, not enter. It seemed that Hai Huasi, the one who created the laws of Yongcheng, had left a glimmer of hope for the city. It was likely that the closure of the entrance meant that the outsiders only had three years left.

This discovery inevitably reminded Gao Zhun of a poem he had seen in his study before—

Layer upon layer of obstacles, year after year, day after day, only a few remain. Heaven and earth gather together, generation after generation of outstanding talents, all sharing the same dream.

Looking back now, isn't the first half of this poem a perfect depiction of the countless outsiders who have come to Nanning to search for treasures throughout the ages? From the initial layers upon layers of obstacles, to now, with the entrance closed, only a few people remain.

As for the second line of the poem...

"Qiankun, heaven and earth, Qian is heaven, Kun is earth; Qian is yang, Kun is yin. The combination of yin and yang heaven and earth is the primordial chaos, and the legendary primordial land of Yongcheng is located at the source of the Luo River—Yunzhou. Come on, Ah Zhong, let's go to Yunzhou and become the most outstanding talents, haha."

A prodigy? Ah Zhong shook his head. He couldn't deserve such a title. A prodigy should be like his second-generation master.

The Luoshui Kingdom was located in the upper reaches of the Luoshui River, so it only took Gao Zhun and his companion a few days to travel along the river to its source. Unlike in the Luoshui Kingdom, after arriving in Yunzhou, Gao Zhun began to stroll through the streets of Yunzhou. Since waking up on the Immortal Spirit Continent, she had never really paid attention to anything in this world. As for sightseeing, she had only ever seen the unchanging, desolate landscape along the official road of the Sunset Desert for a long time.

"Ah Zhong, have you ever been to Yunzhou?"

As Gao Zhun walked with Ah Zhong through the streets of Yunzhou, watching the ordinary people desperately hawking their wares just to make a living, she felt a chill in her heart. Did these ordinary people know that their homeland, on which they depended for survival, was being destroyed step by step because of the greed of outsiders like them?