Immortal Dao is dead, I am the mastermind behind it all.

Shen Moyan quietly descended from the sky, straightened his slightly tattered outfit, wrapped the Heavenly Demon Sword with a layer of old cloth, and hid it under his wide robe.

He could sense faint fluctuations of cultivators' auras in the city, but none of them were particularly powerful; they were more like the everyday life of ordinary mortals.

Shen Moyan is currently only a thirteen-year-old child at the ninth level of the Qi Gathering Realm, and must keep a low profile.

…………

Outside Dongshan City.

"Speaking of Dongshan City, decades ago this place was a wild and desolate land, teeming with monsters and rarely inhabited by people." Cen Zhihong and his son sat in the swaying carriage.

He was telling his son, Cen Zhiyuan, about the history of Dongshan City.

"But who would have thought that thousands of miles away, there exists an immortal lineage, hidden for millennia?"

"When an inner disciple was born, he passed by this place and wiped out all the demonic beasts in the area, which gradually led to its current state."

"However, this area is still a gray zone on the map of Langya Prefecture."

"After all, the city lord who manages this city is not someone sent by the governor, nor is he from a hidden sect, but just a cultivator at the Transcendent Realm."

Cen Zhihong smiled and told his son that there was a no-fly zone in the city, so they couldn't fly around.

Suddenly, a scholar-like figure appeared ahead, and the speeding carriage quickly changed lanes.

"Damn it! Are you out of your mind?!"

Cen Zhihong flew into a rage and turned around to shout and curse.

"Father, please calm down. That person was blind and blocked the way," Cen Zhiyuan hurriedly comforted him.

"Honestly, if this mission weren't so special and required to be carried out covertly, I would have already crushed you in my old temper."

After a long while, Cen Zhihong calmed down and continued the previous topic:

"Inside the city, most of the people are ordinary folk seeking refuge from disaster, skilled martial artists, and refugees from Langya Prefecture."

With the rise of the new path, no one should be underestimated, even if they are ordinary people without cultivation.

As long as one's will is firm, once one walks the pilgrimage staircase and sees the [Origin Preaching Monument] that spans heaven and earth, or as time turns and one is sheltered by the Daoist shadow of the [Origin Preaching Monument], even an ordinary person can instantly gain wisdom, understand cultivation, and perhaps even transcend the mortal realm and establish a foundation a few years later.

Because everyone's aptitude is roughly the same, aristocratic families and immortal clans are doing their best to block and monopolize knowledge about cultivation, and are creating a great deal of blockade in terms of knowledge and resources.

"This place is located in the eastern part of Langya Prefecture, and it is also close to the Shiwan Mountains."

"So it's called Dongshan City?" Cen Zhiyuan asked.

"He's just like me, no wonder he's my son." Cen Zhihong smiled with satisfaction.

"Speaking of which, if the sun were high in the sky, the shadow of the Origin Preaching Stele would cover the eastern part of Langya Prefecture. On that day, my son and I might not need to go on a pilgrimage to pay homage to that mythical wonder."

"By the way, once we enter the city, we should talk less about the knowledge of cultivators, so as not to give those ignorant people a chance to be enlightened."

The carriage hurried along, kicking up a trail of dust.

Shen Moyan pressed himself against the bottom of the carriage, using his spiritual power to shield himself from the dust, and listened to their conversation.

"The Origin Preaching Monument? Am I still in the Mountain and Sea World?"

Shen Moyan remained silent.

I never expected that the extraterrestrial meteorite iron of Ren Wuchang's Heavenly Demon Sword came from the Great World of Mountains and Seas. Wouldn't it have been a detour for me to use that towering giant sword as a rare artifact to ascend to immortality?

"Stop! Show me your entry pass."

Cen Zhihong and his son arrived at the city gate, where the guards, as usual, stopped them and used their divine sense to examine them:

"Cultivators from other places need to register with the City Patrol Office and present proof of their goods."

Shen Moyan, who was under the car, used the Turtle Breathing Technique and the Concealment Technique from the Azure Sun Rising Technique to minimize his presence.

"Oh dear, look at my memory, I forgot to bring it when I left home!" Cen Zhihong covered his head, the goods behind him were quite a sight to behold.

"Sir, please forgive me." He first looked around furtively, then took out a heavy brocade pouch and handed it to the guard.

The guard weighed the brocade pouch in his hand, and a crisp sound of spirit stones colliding rang out.

"Ahem..." The guard squinted and looked around, coughing softly with a tense expression.

"Hey, I took the wrong one, sir, please be understanding." Cen Zhihong's expression twitched.

Not enough, huh?

He then took out a brocade pouch and handed it to the other person.

"Ahem, be more careful next time. Let's go."

Having accepted the bribe, the guard yielded half his body.

"Thank you, sir!"

…………

"What's in this car?"

Shen Moyan randomly picked someone, intending to conceal himself and enter the city along the way.

But to my surprise, I found an extraordinary guy.

Shen Moyan pressed himself against the carriage, carefully probing the cargo with his divine sense, and felt a sharp pain.

It was a deep darkness, so dark that the outline of the thing was indistinguishable.

"Father, are the goods we're carrying really okay? Are there any safety hazards?" Cen Zhiyuan asked with a worried expression, feeling the locked contents of the box at the back of the carriage.

"Shh, don't ask such irrelevant questions."

"Our Cen family has been in business for generations, and the most important thing for our customers is their privacy."

"This is something that the Lord of Dongshan City requested from the main branch of the Cen family. He ordered it to be transported secretly, so it must be transported secretly."

"Isn't conscience the most important thing for a businessman?" Cen Zhiyuan scratched his head.

Through the arduous journey of the past few days, he had come to a vague understanding that the business his Cen family had taken on was to transport an extremely formidable weapon.

"Conscience? Who told you that?" Cen Zhihong roared in anger.

"It's in the book, in this book called 'The Records of Mountains and Seas'." Cen Zhiyuan took out a scroll.

"In ancient times, merchants traveling between mountains and seas avoided the wealthy, the young, the old, the light, the heavy, the departing, and the arriving, seeking good fortune and avoiding misfortune..."

"Stop reading those pointless novels! You son of a bitch, you're nothing like me!"

Before Cen Zhiyuan could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Cen Zhihong.

"For businessmen, profit is paramount. They don't care about the raging floods; as long as there's profit to be made and they can exit unscathed, it's a big deal!"

"Let's find a post station to rest at first, and then go to the city lord's mansion to deliver the goods."

Looking at the bustling street, Cen Zhihong knew he needed to settle down first.

Cen Zhiyuan nodded and reached for his waist. Suddenly, his heart skipped a beat:

"Father! The number of spirit stones in the pouch is wrong!"

…………

"This is not a safe place to stay. Try not to get into any trouble."

The thing on that vehicle was shrouded in black mist; who knows what karma it might have gotten involved with.

After confirming that he was in the Great World of Mountains and Seas, Shen Moyan became extremely alert.

He quickly left Cen Zhihong and his son, taking some spirit stones with him.

Even thieves have their code of honor; he only took what he needed and left a few bags for the Cen family father and son.

"Five hundred spirit stones, I wonder how much purchasing power that is." Shen Moyan weighed his sleeve in his hand.

"Next, I need to enter the Transcendent Realm."

Having reached the ninth level of Qi Gathering, Shen Moyan had reached a bottleneck in his cultivation.

Bottlenecks are something everyone who embarks on the path of cultivation will encounter.

During the cultivation process, a cultivator's cultivation level may get stuck at a certain point, whether it is a minor realm or a major realm.

In this situation, hard work alone is not enough, and Shen Moyan knew this clearly.

He had been stuck at the pinnacle of human existence for a very long time, almost through three lifetimes.

Shen Moyan needs a stroke of luck, a stroke of luck, to help him overcome this bottleneck.

The Transformation Realm is divided into three stages: Forming the Dharma Body, Transforming into Feathered Robes, and Seeing the Mysterious and Unfathomable.

The process of "forming a Dharma body" involves compressing the spiritual energy within one's spiritual veins into magical power, which is what sustains magical spells.

"To form a Dharma body, I should convert my spiritual power into magical power, but that would take too long. According to the 'Azure Sun Rising Technique,' it would take at least ten years to absorb the essence of the Great Sun."

"If I don't encounter the right opportunity, then I can only slowly and painstakingly hone my skills."

Shen Moyan mingled with the crowd and wandered aimlessly down the street.

"Never mind, there's still plenty of time. Let's try to integrate into this world first and figure out the power structure here."

After a long while, Shen Moyan stopped in front of a small courtyard, where the sound of reading aloud could be heard.