Chapter 1341: An Immortal of the Immortal Spirit Realm

After changing the subject, the woman in red had no desire to continue the argument. Every time it was brought up, it filled her heart with endless sorrow.

“It’s hard to say. Perhaps he’s saying this intentionally and will leave the moment his injuries heal. That’s still a possibility. However, let’s do as you say, Junior Sister, and take a gamble. We’ll see if our judgment of character is as accurate as it has always been!”

The yellow-robed youth looked up at the cold, clear moonlight that occasionally filtered through the undulating sea of pines. He sat beneath a pine tree, and as he looked up, it was as if the moonlight itself was swaying in the night. Finally, he made his decision…

On the night of the third day, Li Yan, who was cultivating, felt his ears twitch. He had not entered a state of deep samadhi while cultivating here. As a Nascent Soul realm cultivator, his senses were of course sharp and his perception extremely keen. He was just not yet accustomed to it; this type of perception and identification was a far cry from what his Divine Sense could do.

“Fellow Daoist Li, I hope this is a convenient time?”

As Shangguan Tianque’s voice drifted in, Li Yan simply waved a hand. A gust of internal strength swept past, and the door swung open on its own. The magical power in his body was slowly recovering, but without the ability to sense his Nascent Soul, his cultivation speed was slow. However, Li Yan was utilizing the Yin-force application from his Qiongqi Purgatory Art. After mastering the sixth layer of the Qiongqi Purgatory Art, his Yin-force had become increasingly fluid. When he could fully merge the fierce and domineering Yang-force with the incomparably gentle Yin-force, he might be able to break through the shackles of the seventh layer and reach the Spirit Transformation realm.

After Shangguan Tianque arrived, he spoke with Li Yan for only the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea before summoning Yu Banjiang, giving him some instructions, and then departing gracefully. He told Li Yan to rest for half a year to stabilize his injuries, after which he could use the Immortalization Liquid the sect had prepared for him to wash his body. Li Yan agreed without hesitation. He currently had no other options. If he were to leave, he would first need to enter seclusion to recover before he could even consider the matter of the Immortalization Liquid. A short period of less than a year would certainly not be enough. It was possible that before he could recover, his soul would dissipate, and he would become a mindless, walking corpse.

Afterward, Yu Banjiang led Li Yan away from the octagonal pavilion to a cave residence in a much more secluded and quiet environment, where the spiritual energy was at least three to four times richer. Perhaps because the octagonal pavilion he had been staying in was already in a remote location, Li Yan had only seen Yu Banjiang and Shangguan Tianque during his time there since waking up; no other cultivators had appeared at all. If Li Yan’s Divine Sense were still intact, he could naturally have used it to investigate his surroundings. But as he was now, he felt no different from a blind man, completely unable to grasp the full layout of the Broken Army Sect, let alone the situation within the sect and its surroundings.

After the two left the octagonal pavilion, Li Yan felt they were heading deeper into the sect. Along the way, they encountered only five people. When these people saw Yu Banjiang with Li Yan, aside from bowing or greeting Yu Banjiang, they all cast curious glances at Li Yan. They were unable to sense Li Yan’s cultivation realm, which only heightened their surprise.

Perhaps acting on Shangguan Tianque’s instructions, Yu Banjiang simply returned their greetings with a simple nod and did not introduce Li Yan. Li Yan knew his status had not yet been formally recognized by Shangguan Tianque. The crucial point was that he was injured and in a hurry to recover. Even if the other party wanted to hold an inauguration ceremony for a new elder, how could he possibly attend? Or perhaps Shangguan Tianque had other plans. For now, however, Li Yan could only take things one step at a time. At the very least, judging from Yu Banjiang’s demeanor, Shangguan Tianque did not seem to be a bloodthirsty individual.

The Broken Army Sect felt quite large to Li Yan. After leaving the octagonal pavilion with Yu Banjiang, they walked for a full half-incense stick’s worth of time before arriving at the entrance of a cave residence. It was likely due to a no-fly restriction within the sect, as Li Yan saw no one flying in the sky, which prevented him from further assessing the situation of the Broken Army Sect. At this moment, Li Yan’s magical power was insufficient to support flight, a testament to the severity of his injuries. If Shangguan Tianque knew that Li Yan was so grievously wounded that he couldn’t fly, yet still appeared to walk with a brisk and healthy pace, who knows how astonished he would be? An injury of this magnitude would leave even most body cultivators with a listless aura, completely dispirited.

“Elder Li, this is the token for this cave residence. I have already imprinted my personal mark within it. If anything comes up, please feel free to send me a message!”

After Yu Banjiang led Li Yan on a tour of the cave residence, he noted that it was fully equipped with everything one might need: a cultivation chamber, a rest chamber, alchemy and artifact refining rooms, a beast-rearing chamber, and so on. The entire residence was at least ten acres in size. The spiritual energy here, in particular, left Li Yan extremely satisfied. He didn’t know what the true peak of spiritual energy concentration in the Immortal Spirit Realm was like, but the richness of the spiritual energy here had already far surpassed that of Ping Tu’s secret chamber, reaching a level he had never before imagined.

At this point, Yu Banjiang no longer addressed Li Yan as “Fellow Daoist” but as “Elder.” As a man at death’s door, he seemed to have let go of everything. Besides, since he was the one who had saved him, addressing him as such came naturally to Li Yan before.

“Fellow Daoist Yu, you are too kind! I wonder if you could arrange for some jade slips and texts regarding the Immortal Spirit Realm to be sent over. After all, I know far too little about this place and need to learn more.” Li Yan said with a smile. He needed to understand his situation better before he could enter seclusion with peace of mind. Moreover, through his observations while cultivating over the past few days, he had already determined that if he wanted to repair his Sea of Consciousness, he could only rely on the slow, grinding effort of water on stone, recovering bit by bit.

In fact, Shangguan Tianque had asked him what recovery pills he needed, promising to provide them as best he could, but Li Yan had refused. He didn’t want the other party to know the specific extent of his injuries right now. More importantly, medicinal pills useful for repairing the Sea of Consciousness and benefiting a Nascent Soul had to be at least sixth-rank to be effective. Li Yan didn’t think the other party could produce such pills just by his asking. To do so would only expose his many weaknesses. He still preferred to rely on True Essence Pills for his recovery, as that was a safer approach.

Yu Banjiang was not surprised by Li Yan’s request for jade slips. Anyone arriving in a strange place would want to understand their surroundings as quickly as possible. After all, a cultivator’s safety was always their top priority. The first thing they needed to ascertain was whether their environment was safe and what potential dangers lay nearby.

“No problem!” Yu Banjiang also hoped Li Yan would recover and enter seclusion soon, so he could become a great asset to the sect. His Illusion God Grass was already in hand, and next, he needed to prepare to gather the other two main ingredients for the Illusion Spirit Pill. He estimated it would take about thirty years to collect them. Although the other two main ingredients were also rare, compared to the Illusion God Grass, they would at least appear in auction houses every ten years or so. By then, Li Yan should be more or less recovered. He would have done his final part for the sect, which would fulfill one of his wishes and leave him with one less concern, allowing him to face his tribulation with peace of mind.

After Yu Banjiang left, Li Yan took out the token, and with an infusion of magical power, he activated the formation restrictions. As his Divine Sense was unusable, he couldn’t send messages to Yu Banjiang via the token, so he had to bring up such matters in person. Although Li Yan was wary of the formation restrictions here, there was nothing he could do about it. The situation certainly couldn’t be worse than it had been recently.

A day later, Li Yan put down a text and looked at the pile of jade slips and books on the floor in front of him with a wry smile. He had only pretended to look at the jade slips, as he lacked the ability to actually read them. However, through the records in the books, he had managed to learn a great deal more. The Immortal Spirit Realm was divided into only four great domains, with no other minor domains partitioned from them. Furthermore, within the four domains, there were no clear demarcations of smaller regions. It was a landscape dotted with countless sects and clans, their territories defined by the expansion of their respective spheres of influence.

There were seven major sects in the Northern Pastoral Realm, true super-sects where Body Integration cultivators were a certainty, and there might even be Tribulation Transcendence and Great Ascension cultivators present. However, the texts Yu Banjiang had brought were ambiguous on this point, offering no confirmation. A sect like the Broken Army Sect, with Nascent Soul cultivators, would at best be considered a fourth-rate sect here. In fact, if a sect’s Nascent Soul Ancestor was not skilled in combat, they might even be compared to some bottom-tier sects that only had Golden Core cultivators presiding over them.

In the Immortal Spirit Realm, sects that primarily sought longevity were plentiful. Knowing of the True Immortal Realm’s existence, their craving for the endless lifespan of true immortals was even greater, and many preferred to dedicate themselves to seeking the Way of Eternal Life.

The Broken Army Sect had only been established for two thousand four hundred years, not a particularly long time. It was founded by Shangguan Tianque and another Nascent Soul cultivator. However, Li Yan couldn’t find the name of the other Nascent Soul cultivator in the texts. A total of ten Nascent Soul cultivators had appeared in the sect’s history, yet Shangguan Tianque had told Li Yan that only two Nascent Soul cultivators were currently presiding over the sect. Li Yan couldn’t understand this. He suspected that more detailed information was likely recorded in the jade slips, which he was unable to check.

The Broken Army Sect was a relatively small sect located near the edge of the Heavenly Demon Prairie, about fifty thousand li away. For the Immortal Spirit Realm, where Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation cultivators were as common as dogs, this distance was practically nothing. Even a Golden Core cultivator with a high-quality flying magical treasure could reach the prairie in just a few days.

Even with Nascent Soul cultivators presiding, the Broken Army Sect’s jurisdiction covered an area of about thirty thousand li. In the surrounding area, there were dozens of other sects of varying sizes, but there were only a few fourth-rate sects like the Broken Army Sect. Among them was a third-rate sect called the Blood Lantern Sect, which was the hegemon within a million-li radius. This sect had five Spirit Transformation experts presiding over it. Smaller sects like the Broken Army Sect that were subordinate to it had to pay a staggering amount of Spirit Stones to the Blood Lantern Sect every year. Failure to do so would result in severe punishment, or even annihilation. In return, the Blood Lantern Sect was responsible for dealing with external invading forces and managing the various sects within its jurisdiction, balancing the powers.

The Immortal Spirit Realm was an independent, vast space, and its cultivators could also ascend to the Upper Realm—the True Immortal Realm. Not everyone born in the Immortal Spirit Realm was naturally endowed with a spirit root; mortals existed here as well, and in vast numbers. However, the number of mortals here was far less than that of cultivators, and there were no mortal dynasties or kingdoms. The mortals of the Immortal Spirit Realm were handymen driven by cultivators. Apart from some who performed extremely arduous and exhausting tasks, most mortals were bestowed with low-grade spirit artifacts and magical treasures by the cultivators who governed them, allowing them to perform tasks that only low-level cultivators could do. There were even some young and beautiful mortal women who, although unable to cultivate, were willing to use their youth and beauty to become concubines to cultivators in exchange for the long-dreamed-of longevity pills.

Although they would ultimately never achieve true longevity, coupled with the extremely rich spiritual energy of the Immortal Spirit Realm—even the spiritual energy in remote areas was several times stronger than in the lower realm—the mortals here, even without cultivating, could typically live to be one hundred and fifty years old. If they were nourished with some medicinal pills, living to three hundred was also possible, a lifespan even longer than that of a Foundation Establishment cultivator from the lower realm. By the same token, the lifespans of cultivators of all levels here were much longer than those of lower-realm cultivators. Qi Condensation stage cultivators could live for four to five hundred years, and Nascent Soul cultivators could even reach about five thousand years, roughly double that of their lower-realm counterparts, a fact determined by the laws of heaven and earth here.

Once Li Yan underwent the washing of the Immortalization Liquid, he too would be protected by the laws of this world, and his lifespan would increase manifold. This was another reason why lower-realm cultivators wished to ascend: they would have more time to cultivate. However, it was very difficult for cultivators here to descend to the mortal realm again, mainly because the laws of heaven and earth in the Immortal Spirit Realm were superior to those of the lower realm. The bodies of cultivators here were already integrated with this power. Once they descended, they would be rejected by the laws of the world below. Of course, if one had the ability to control the powerful laws of heaven and earth, it was still possible to deceive the perception of the rules and return to the mortal realm.

This was, by and large, all the information Li Yan could glean. After learning all this, Li Yan fell into a long period of contemplation, analyzing the authenticity of this information and whether he could derive more useful insights from it to further formulate his plans. He naturally wanted to return to the mortal realm, at the very least to send a message back. But according to what the texts described, the thought of returning to the lower realm filled him with a deep sense of helplessness.

He had already subtly inquired about these matters with Yu Banjiang and Shangguan Tianque. When the two learned of Li Yan’s thoughts, they both looked at him with a strange gaze. They had never imagined that someone, after surviving a life-and-death ordeal to reach the Immortal Spirit Realm, would actually want to go back to the lower realm. Here, he could cultivate continuously, constantly improving, no longer suppressed by the laws of heaven and earth, and able to unleash the true power of a cultivator’s arts. His strange idea was truly incomprehensible.

But afterward, the two still gave Li Yan an explanation. After staying in the Immortal Spirit Realm for more than three days, the aura of its laws had already begun to grow within his body. This was why Li Yan felt an abnormality in his divine soul, a sense of being slowly repelled by a certain force. It was the clash between the auras generated by the two different sets of worldly laws within his body. This process would normally be completed in about a year. After all, the power of the laws of heaven and earth here was infinite, while the power of the lower realm’s laws he carried was like water without a source. However, without the assimilation from the Immortalization Liquid, even his divine soul would be expelled from his body. Thus, the step of assimilating the soul was necessary.

Even if Li Yan wanted to go back now, it was impossible. Moreover, to get to the lower realm, he would still need to find a spatial node. In his half-dead state, it was something he shouldn’t even think about. The most urgent matter was to first recover his strength. After half a year, he would also need to use the Immortalization Liquid to stabilize his divine soul.

Subsequently, Li Yan entered seclusion to cultivate.

North Ice Continent.

In a bizarre space, the scene was exceedingly strange. The sky was like a blazing midday sun, yet the ground below was as dark as a descended night, utterly black, as if the light from the sky could not illuminate it at all. If it were only that, it would be one thing, but one moment the scene was a white sky and black earth, and in the next instant, the sky would turn as dark as ink, while the ground below shone as bright as day. This play of light and shadow shifted with every breath. Anyone within it would soon find their consciousness thrown into chaos, their heads spinning, unable to distinguish heaven from earth, up from down, or even know where they were.

Moreover, two forces existed in this space. One was as light as the wind, the other as heavy as a sacred mountain. These two forces would constantly change and invert along with the alternating black and white of heaven and earth…