After the path was cut off

"What do you mean, Senior Brother?"

Shen Bai did not answer immediately, but picked up the teacup and gently blew away the floating leaves.

"The Yunmeng Great Swamp is about to open."

Yunmeng Great Marsh.

The moment those four words entered his ears, Li Wangxiang's heart jolted.

How could it be Yunmeng Great Swamp?

That place was clearly a forbidden zone left behind after the Great Sage of the Overturning Sea and the True Lord of Kunyuan perished together. According to the sect's old calculations, it should have been sealed for at least two hundred years, and should absolutely not have been opened at this time.

Moreover, that area was originally reserved as an outpost for the war to open up the East China Sea.

With the war in Kitahara still unresolved, how could a new situation suddenly arise?

Kitahara……

A thought that he himself did not want to think about suddenly flashed through his mind.

With the destruction of Beichen Immortal City, the supply, rotation, and rest of the cultivators on the Northern Plains front lines have been effectively severed. If even Beichen cannot be saved, then the war situation in the Northern Plains...

Li Wangxiang's breath hitched slightly as he finally realized what he had overlooked.

In the days since he woke up, he has been so focused on his own situation that he has overlooked this most important overall situation.

If Beiyuan is defeated, the human race will have to start anew.

And the Yunmeng Great Marsh is the starting point of this new situation.

But he still couldn't quite believe it: "The war to open up Kitahara was lost?"

Shen Bai's tone was calm, but his words were chillingly cold.

"It wasn't a defeat, it was a rout. All the human cultivators have withdrawn from the Northern Plains."

Li Wangxiang was shocked.

The Pioneering Wars lasted so long that everyone assumed that humanity would only move forward and never truly retreat.

Over the course of more than nine thousand years, celestial cities have sprung up one after another, and desolate territories have been incorporated into the human race's domain. Who would have thought that today, the words "withdraw completely" would be heard in the Northern Plains?

If this had happened before the Beichen Incident, who would have believed it?

But thinking about it more deeply, is this really just a counterattack by the demon race?

The vanished treasure mirror, the chaotic dream, the Taiyin decree resounding throughout the Purple Star... one thing after another, at this moment, all suddenly cast a deeper shadow.

He forcibly suppressed the surging thoughts in his mind:

"The Yunmeng Great Swamp is not yet ready to open, and the spiritual energy is unstable. Releasing this spiritual land to the sect's disciples at this time is tantamount to sending them to their deaths!"

Shen Bai looked at him and said calmly:

"What else can we do if we don't open it? The cultivators who withdrew from the Northern Plains still need to be settled. There's no extra food or resources in the territory to support them for nothing."

"The war to open up the East Sea is the real focus, and the Tianxuan Sect has been planning for this for a century. Yunmeng serves as an outpost, and its spiritual lands cannot be given to those who retreated from the Northern Plains. No matter how difficult it is, we must ensure that our sect members are firmly stationed there."

Li Wangxiang frowned.

He himself might not be afraid of such a dangerous place, but his relatives were ultimately just mortals and could never establish themselves in a place like the Yunmeng Marsh.

"The Yunmeng Marsh is so dangerous that even cultivators might not survive, let alone mortals." He paused, "Give me a spiritual land that is closer to the Central Plains."

Shen Bai looked at him, and that slight smile from before resurfaced.

"Junior brother still doesn't understand the pioneering war."

"Spiritual lands are never readily available. Only when a new situation begins will a sect release a large number of lands to contend for at once."

"If it weren't for the Beichen Incident that caused the sudden collapse of the situation in Beiyuan, even if Junior Brother wanted to leave the sect and establish his own, he might not have been able to find this path."

Li Wangxiang's face darkened.

Having said that, how could he not understand?

Shen Bai's smile earlier was not out of admiration, but rather to see if his true junior brother could swallow his words.

His acceptance of the offer indicated that his desire to leave his clan was far greater than his desire to "protect his relatives."

No, this road will most likely end here.

But he only hesitated for a moment. Beichen, Baojing, Daoji... none of them were things he could afford to waste time on.

At this point, he no longer cared whether Shen Bai would notice anything.

"Why test me, senior brother? I must protect my family, and I must leave the sect."

"Do you have a map of the sacred land of Yunmeng Marsh?"

Shen Shenbai's eyebrows twitched slightly.

"Of course there are."

"May I take a look?"

"There is nothing wrong with that."

Shen Bai flicked his sleeve, and a long scroll slowly unfurled on the table.

As the scroll unfolds, a subtle light ripples across the paper, water veins flow, mist swirls, and forests undulate, as if the vast Yunmeng Marshland stretching for 30,000 miles has been captured within a small space.

Looking out, the vast expanse of waterways stretches as far as the eye can see, with water flowing endlessly.

The three main water veins surge from the north, center, and south, and are drawn by the sea eye. They clash with the remaining power of the True Lord and the Great Sage of yesteryear, swirling and swirling together, ultimately forming four progressively deeper rings of heaven-returning energy within the great swamp, forming a semi-embracing shape '⊂', heading towards the sea.

Li Wangxiang's eyes lit up, as if he had finally seen a glimmer of hope. "This map is so exquisite and detailed. Who has the ability to delve into that spiritually chaotic region and create such a map?"

Shen Bai's expression turned solemn.

"Drawn by a true man using the methods of seeing the heavens and hearing the earth."

What you see today is still the same as before.

Li Wangxiang was overjoyed; the opportunity to attract the ancestor's attention had finally arrived.

Since it was drawn by a real person, it must have left traces, and his eyes can be used to find the source.

At that very moment, that faint, strange feeling in his eyes resurfaced once more.

He glanced in that direction without making a sound.

This time, the sacred sites marked on the map lit up in his eyes one by one.

Like stars scattered in the night. Most are of similar brightness, with only one or two standing out.

But there was one place that wasn't just bright; it was blindingly bright.

That place is located inside the second ring and is called the Abyss of Corruption.

Li Wangxiang stared at that name, his breath catching for a fleeting, almost imperceptible moment.

In a daze, he had a faint illusion: as if a gaze had lingered on this name for a long time.

He suppressed the turmoil in his heart and raised his hand to tap.

"Senior brother, I've made up my mind. I intend to take this place and establish my own sect."

Shen Bai looked in the direction of his fingertip, first slightly startled, then his brows furrowed slightly.

"This place? The Boiling Water Abyss?"

Almost at the very moment those three words were uttered, the scroll on the table suddenly trembled very slightly.

The tremor was so slight, as light as a breeze brushing the corner of a piece of paper.

Shen Bai was completely unaware, but Li Wangxiang's heart skipped a beat.

A faint sense of surprise seemed to descend upon the side hall, piercing through layers of void.

"what?"

Just one sound.

But this made Li Wangxiang's hair stand on end, and he was stunned.

He recognized the voice.

[逝水] (Shi Shui) - Real Person.

It turned out to be the real person of [逝水].

【Xiyang】Daughter of Zhenjun, 【Shishui】True Man.

------------

When they returned to the cave, it was nearly dusk.

The setting sun cast its slanting rays through the clouds, casting a golden shadow on the ground through the window.

Li Wangxiang leaned back in the recliner by the window, remaining motionless for a long time. The sound of surprise and doubt kept replaying in his mind.

He had seen the owner of that voice twice before.

The first time was fifty years ago.

At that time, he was still in his hometown in Zhongzhou, just an ordinary child. The immortal descended from the sky and pointed out the direction of the Tianxuan Sect to his elder brother, instructing his brother to lead him there to seek immortality.

From that day on, his life was completely changed.

The second time was thirty years ago.

The decree of the True Man suddenly appeared at Tianzhu Peak, summoning the four of them, master and disciples, to pay homage.

There was no junior sister at that time; there was the senior sister.

The real person only issued one order.

He ordered his eldest sister to kill everyone in Qixia Town before committing suicide.

Qixia Town is the hometown of our senior sister.

Whenever Li Wangxiang thought of this, a chill ran through his chest. If the [Passing Water] Immortal had also commanded him to kill his brother, to kill all his relatives…

He still remembers that day, how the expression on his master's face gradually crumbled.

I also remember how my senior brother became more and more silent each day after that.

The Tianzhu Peak lineage changed completely after that.

Therefore, he always held the True Man of [Shishui] in both reverence and fear.

But now, there was no room for retreat. Now that he had attracted the attention of the [Passing Water] True Man, the Corrupted Water Abyss had to be taken down.

Li Wangxiang slowly sat up, took out the map rubbing that Shen Bai had given him before parting from his sleeve, and spread it out again.

Without the overwhelming pressure of the original image, the mountains and rivers on the paper appear much clearer.

The Yunmeng Great Marsh faces the East Sea, with four layers of winding paths leading up to it.

The first ring is relatively stable in terms of spiritual atmosphere, with neat ley lines and the densest distribution of spiritual lands. This part is a place where one can still establish a foothold.

However, the "Corrupted Water Abyss" is located inside the second ring.

The area is damp and stagnant, with chaotic spiritual energy, and several nearby branch veins are also intertwined and clashing. Judging from the map alone, let alone establishing a celestial sect, even for ordinary cultivators to stay there for an extended period would probably not be an easy task.

Moreover, there are only a little over thirty spiritual lands of all sizes around the Abyss of Corruption.

Of these, only seven are of the second order or higher.

Moreover, they are all second-tier low-grade.

These seven locations were further divided among seven different sects, with only Yunyin Lake belonging to the Tianxuan Sect.

How did the real person come to notice such a place?

After a moment of silence, Li Wangxiang finally rolled up the map slowly.

Whatever the answer may be, one thing is clear—

If he wants to conquer the Rotten Water Abyss, he can no longer just focus on cultivating and breaking through realms as before.

Development, operation, bidding...

These "common tasks" that he used to disdain have now become unavoidable obstacles.

If you can't understand it, you can only learn it from scratch.

Li Wangxiang reached into his sleeve, took out the jade pendant that belonged to his senior brother, and gently channeled his spiritual power.

A pale white jade light slowly shone forth.