Chapter 1651: Su Hong’s Strength (Part One)

Su Hong’s beautiful eyes remained fixed on Li Yan. She bit her vermilion lip with snow-white teeth, looking hesitant despite having already spoken. Though she desperately wanted to help him, the secret passages within the trade house were never opened to outsiders. Even if she pleaded, she knew she could never convince her parents.

Unless Li Yan joined the Return-Home Trade House or held some other special status, even an immediate agreement to join wouldn’t grant a newcomer access to such a resource. Doing so would invite far too much gossip and lead others to question the Head Master’s fairness. Furthermore, once such a precedent was set, there would be no reason to stop others from demanding the same in the future.

Besides, she had invited him before, and she knew a man like Li Yan was single-mindedly devoted to the Dao. If he became a deacon, he would have to spend his days in public, haggling over prices, escorting cargo, and dealing with mundane affairs—things he would certainly loathe.

As Su Hong finished speaking, Lian and Ning were already exchanging secret voice transmissions.

‘The young miss is truly devoted. She still wants to help this boy. It’s simply not worth it, hmph!’

‘Indeed. It is unworthy of her attention. That female demon cultivator seems to have a complicated relationship with him as well. When the boy got married back on the Wind God Continent, the miss shouldn’t have attended. Her mood was abysmal for a long time after she left…’

Though the two protectors were whispering in the dark, they would never offer such advice to her face. They were mere guardians; such matters of the heart were usually left to personal maids to complain about. However, that girl Mi’er had been sent away by the young miss to focus on her cultivation and had not been by her side for years.

The current young miss possessed a much more formidable aura, and her thoughts were not easily guessed. They had no desire to carry tales to the Head Master. If she discovered they were gossiping behind her back, they would be caught in a miserable position. Besides, in the cultivation world, it was not strange for a man to have multiple Dao companions; both Lian and Ning were no exceptions.

Li Yan had not expected Su Hong to shift the topic back to spatial nodes leading to the lower realm. A sharp light flashed in his eyes. “Miss Su, may I ask how I might learn the location of that node?”

“How much do you actually know about the spatial nodes between the upper and lower realms?” Su Hong frowned. “Based on what you said before, your ascension was something of a confused accident. I believe it is enough just to be able to send information down. If traveling between the realms were truly that convenient, why would we need decades just to pass a message?”

She thought back to Li Yan’s description of his ascension. “The dangers of traversing a spatial node go without saying. As I said, perishing is the most common outcome. According to the information I’ve gathered, whether coming to the upper realm or going to the lower, the greatest issue is how to promptly remove the aura of a different realm from one’s body.”

She continued, “When going to the lower realm, the rejection is far more violent. It isn’t like ascension, where you have a year to find Immortalization Liquid. During the journey to the lower realm, the differing auras of the Heavenly Rules can cause you to be crushed out of the passage in an instant, cast into some unknown chaotic flow of space. After that… you might spend the rest of your life drifting in the endless void, waiting for death! But I am not afraid of these things. As long as there is a possibility, I wish to try. Please, Miss Su, help me!”

Su Hong’s expression flickered. She nodded slightly, then shook her head. Seeing this, the usually calm Li Yan grew genuinely anxious. If she hadn’t mentioned it, he might have given up, but her timing felt as though she were intentionally testing his state of mind.

Su Hong continued, “What you said is both right and wrong. The correct part is that ascending to the upper realm requires treasures like Immortalization Liquid to allow the soul to adapt. The incorrect part is the method of going to the lower realm. The information you’ve gathered isn’t entirely accurate; much of it consists of false leads intentionally spread by high-level cultivators of the upper realm. Let me ask you: if a cultivator doesn’t use Immortalization Liquid to cleanse themselves after ascension, what happens?”

“It is said that because the soul is rejected by the laws of this world, it will rapidly wither,” Li Yan replied.

“Then why did you say that going to the lower realm results in being instantly squeezed out due to rejection, rather than having the soul wither over time?”

“It is due to the difference between the ‘Large containing the Small’ and the ‘Small containing the Large’ within the Heavenly Rules!” Li Yan had not only searched for information but had also spent much time pondering this, so he answered quickly.

“My understanding of the Heavenly Rules may not match yours,” Su Hong said softly, “but I know of another explanation. Why is the cultivation world divided into the Mortal Realm, the Immortal Spirit Realm, and the True Immortal Realm? It is because the strength of the Heavenly Rules varies, even though their essence is the same. If we ignore geographical size and focus only on the strength of the laws, the Three Realms form an inverted tower, where each layer is stronger than the one below it.”

She elaborated, “This means the Heavenly Rules of a higher layer share the same essence as the lower layer but are far more vast and majestic. Therefore, when you ascend with the laws you cultivated in the lower realm, your own laws are too weak compared to the overwhelming presence of the same laws here. This causes interference, leading to a chaotic cultivation state. Immortalization Liquid and similar medicines are actually tools to help you stabilize yourself and block the direct assault of the external laws.”

“Simultaneously,” she added, “these liquids are refined from materials found in the Immortal Spirit Realm. Since these heavenly materials grew here, they contain the essence of this world. As you refine them, they slowly assimilate your magical power and soul. The result is merely meeting the most basic requirement for merging with the laws of this world. Even so, a bottle of Immortalization Liquid is exorbitantly expensive—not just because they are overcharging lower-realm cultivators, but because the cost is truly high. Over time, grandmaster alchemists have identified more varieties of spirit herbs and beast bones to substitute the original ingredients. Otherwise, such medicines would be even more costly.”

“However,” Su Hong’s voice grew more serious, “when we go to the lower realm, we actually only need to suppress our cultivation to match the laws of that realm. This is because your personal laws from the Immortal Spirit Realm are more expansive and already encompass the power of the lower realm’s laws. If you are familiar with the ancient history of the Mortal Realm, you would find that many sects there were founded by cultivators who descended from the Immortal Spirit Realm.”

“They did so for two reasons. First, they coveted the vast resources of disciples with spirit roots in the lower realm. Second, although resources there are weaker, it was better than everyone crowding into the Immortal Spirit Realm. If they hadn’t descended, the resources of the Immortal Spirit Realm might have been exhausted long ago. But do you know why fewer and fewer factions from the Immortal Spirit Realm descend to found sects now?”

Su Hong looked at Li Yan as she reached this point. Li Yan, who usually maintained a calm facade, now showed a look of genuine surprise. He had not expected Su Hong’s knowledge to be so profound. He knew some of this, and had guessed other parts, but the core of her explanation was entirely new to him.

What she said rang true. Many sects in the lower realm were indeed founded by cultivators from the Immortal Spirit Realm. This was part of the history of the Barren Moon Continent’s cultivation world that Li Yan had read about when he first entered the Ghost-Severing Sect. But it was true—such descents had become increasingly rare.

“The explanation I read was that the various continents of the lower realm had been carved up, and the major factions could only maintain a balance,” Li Yan answered.

“The Mortal Realm is larger than you can imagine. There are countless minor realms that are uninhabited but rich in resources.” Su Hong shook her head. What had she been doing during her years of training in the lower realm? One of her tasks, protected by experts, was to visit places that even Spirit Transformation cultivators might never find. Naturally, she couldn’t tell Li Yan the details.

Su Hong continued, “The main reason factions rarely descend anymore is that the spatial nodes leading to the lower realm have been too severely damaged. In the beginning, as long as one suppressed their cultivation, it was easy to descend because the laws you cultivated in the Immortal Spirit Realm already contained those of the lower realm. As long as you didn’t use the true power of a Spirit Transformation stage or higher, there were no problems. This created a golden age in the Mortal Realm where various cultivation factions flourished.”

“But it was precisely this reckless behavior that caused many passages to collapse. Spatial nodes are inherently unstable. When too many cultivators passed through, even with suppressed cultivation, the frequent movement and constant buffeting of auras caused the nodes to break down. Furthermore, because people felt there were plenty of nodes back then, too many cultivators descended. This led to a mix of power levels, and some failed to suppress their cultivation in time, further destroying the passages.”

“The destruction of space is never a good thing. Everyone understood this, but no one wanted to give up the rich prize of the lower realm. They wanted to prevent others from using the nodes so they could use them more. Eventually, several great wars broke out, some even taking place near the nodes within the chaotic flow of space. This caused many passages to disappear one after another.”

“It reached a point where the nodes were almost entirely wiped out, which would have meant one could only go up and never come down. Consequently, the major factions of the Immortal Spirit Realm reached an agreement to stop sending large numbers of people down. They publicly announced that the lower realm was subject to various restrictions. Of course, the first generation of cultivators knew these rumors were false, but as generations passed, the lies became accepted as truth.”

“However, the disappeared spatial nodes did not reappear with the passage of time. Only a few scattered points leading to the lower realm are held by certain factions. New ones are occasionally discovered, but travel between the realms will never be as smooth as it once was. Moreover, because so many nodes were collapsed or destroyed by cultivators, the Heavenly Rules began to fluctuate between each other, leading to an even more worrying problem: whether ascending or descending, all spatial passages have become exceptionally unstable.”