“Go to another Immortal Domain.”
Such was the decision the figure in beast-hide robes arrived at in his mind.
There was no other way. He had become notorious in this domain; his lifeforce signature was marked. If he made a move anywhere, other immortals would recognize him at once and then alert the major Immortal Cities, triggering endless pursuit.
Even so, the beast-hide figure felt no regret. After all, by killing the Beihan Immortal City Lord’s offspring, he had obtained a treasure that boosted his own strength several levels. Even if he had to do it all again, he would unhesitatingly deliver the fatal blow.
Cultivation is all about struggle—struggle against other immortals, against the heavens and earth themselves!
To the beast-hide figure, any immortals lacking real power yet hoarding abundant cultivation resources were nothing but prey, nourishment along the path of his cultivation.
“Let’s see which Immortal Domain I should choose.”
He knew the choice was crucial, at least insofar as it would affect his next phase of cultivation.
“Huh? The Xuantian Immortal Domain has apparently produced a top-tier alchemy master named Yun Zhenzi?” The beast-hide figure’s interest was piqued.
Every top-tier alchemy master is typically filthy rich. Years ago, the beast-hide figure had tried to assassinate one, only to be thwarted by elite Jade Immortals the alchemist had hired. Indeed, these eminent refiners guard their lives jealously and are willing to spend enormous sums on their own protection.
“This Yun Zhenzi is a newly risen top-tier alchemist with no top-level Jade Immortals hired yet?” The more he read, the more interested he grew.
Yun Zhenzi’s last recorded venture out into the world was nearly ten million years ago. At that time, his combat strength within the Jade Immortal realm had been only slightly above average.
Which, to the beast-hide figure’s eyes, made him a prime target—easier, in fact, than the city lord’s son from Beihan Immortal City. Any newly advanced top-tier alchemist surely possessed wealth that far exceeded that of ordinary Jade Immortals.
“The treasure I took from the Beihan City Lord’s offspring raised my power several ranks, so taking down a mere newly minted top-tier alchemist will be child’s play,” the beast-hide figure told himself confidently.
As for intelligence reports that Yun Zhenzi remained exceedingly low-profile, rarely leaving his dwelling—that posed no problem at all. Having once dared to slay a city lord’s progeny inside an Immortal City and then slip away under countless arrays, this man was sure he could pass quietly through Cangwu Immortal City’s defenses and sneak into Yun Zhenzi’s cave dwelling.
“All right, the Xuantian Immortal Domain it is,” he muttered.
He rose to his feet and merged into the world, vanishing without a trace. The Xuantian Immortal Domain happened to lie next to the Northern Daylight Immortal Domain, so it wasn’t too far. With Yun Zhenzi as such an ideal target, completing this job would secure him ample cultivation resources for some time.
Inside the cave dwelling…
In the cultivation zone, Lin Yuan was still seated cross-legged.
Just then, the space before him rippled slightly, and a figure appeared. It was the Yin Primordial Spirit.
“Here are some cultivation resources,” Lin Yuan said, opening his eyes. He produced a spatial ring that floated before the Yin Primordial Spirit.
In reality, the “Lin Yuan” who stayed in this A-grade dwelling was not his true body but his Yang Primordial Spirit. Because the A-grade cave dwelling in Cangwu Immortal City included an irregular fissure connected to the Immortal Realm’s origin—where the Dao Ancestor resided—Lin Yuan wasn’t about to let his true body remain there for extended periods. In case something extreme happened and he drew the Dao Ancestor’s attention, losing his primary self would be far worse than sacrificing a single Primordial Spirit.
Hence, over the past five centuries, even though nothing unexpected had ever transpired, he still maintained his strategy: keeping his true body hidden away somewhere, while the Yang Primordial Spirit stayed in Cangwu Immortal City, gathering a wealth of cultivation resources to send back to the main self.
Now that the Yin Primordial Spirit had arrived, its purpose was to deliver the resources the Yang Primordial Spirit had acquired to the real Lin Yuan.
With a whoosh, the Yin Primordial Spirit took the cultivation resources and instantly vanished from the dwelling.
Before long, it traveled to some underground site billions upon billions of miles from Cangwu Immortal City. A spacious subterranean palace lay there, and in its center, Lin Yuan’s true body sat cross-legged.
Whoosh—
The Yin Primordial Spirit appeared and lifted the spatial ring.
Lin Yuan devoured everything within the ring in one motion, then paused, turning to regard a certain direction. From the underground palace’s surface, the void shuddered faintly, releasing threads of black energy. Soon, seven or eight fiends emerged into view.
“Over the past few decades, the Abyss of Demons’s invasions of the Immortal Realm have become more and more severe,” Lin Yuan reflected.
That was evident from how fiends appeared in the Immortal Realm with growing frequency. Even this remote location he had carefully chosen for seclusion saw periodic intrusions—never mind the rest of the realm.
“Why doesn’t the Dao Ancestor intervene?” Lin Yuan frowned in puzzlement.
Though the Dao Ancestor stood aloof, these fiends undeniably plagued the Immortal Realm’s population. The Immortal-Demon War cost innumerable Golden Immortals their lives, and even Jade Immortals couldn’t all avoid disaster.
With the Dao Ancestor’s rank-twelve prowess, subduing the Abyss of Demons Progenitor or stopping such fiendish invasions should be well within his grasp. Yet the Immortal-Demon War kept repeating, while the Dao Ancestor simply observed from the origin realm.
“Never mind,” he thought, reining in his musings.
“It’s no concern of mine why the Dao Ancestor doesn’t intervene. My current objective is to strive toward the seventh level of time-space comprehension and, possibly, the rumored Chaos Rule.”
“But I do need to handle that newly formed Abyss of Demons passage,” Lin Yuan remarked, glancing toward the surface. After those seven or eight fiends arrived, the spatial flow stabilized, and a dark passageway roughly tens of meters wide began to take shape.
If he left it alone, it would spawn fiends unendingly. Even if it never revealed his underground palace, the gateway could expand and draw the attention of Jade Immortals from the major Immortal Cities, who would then dispatch numerous immortals to reseal it. In that scenario, they might discover this location.
Fiends possessed low intelligence, functioning mostly on instinct shaped by the aura of the Abyss of Demons Progenitor. Jade Immortals, on the other hand, had endless methods. Lin Yuan had no desire to invite trouble.
In the next instant, the Yin Primordial Spirit disappeared.
By the time it reappeared, it was already on the surface, right in front of the rapidly stabilizing Abyss of Demons passage.
“Graaar!”
“Rooooar!!”
All seven or eight fiends were thrilled to enter the Immortal Realm for the first time. For them, the immortal qi and the flesh and souls of Immortals were indescribably delicious. Jade Immortals’ bodies, in particular, were the greatest of boons. Any fiend that managed to survive its mission and return home would become many times stronger—tens or hundreds of times, even.
Yet before they could even get their bearings, their consciousnesses were yanked into darkness, and their bodies and souls reverted into base devilish energy.
“So this devilish energy is an emanation of the Abyss of Demons Progenitor?”
Lin Yuan’s Yin Primordial Spirit had used primordial power to “reduce” their bodies and souls to a single thread of intangible devilish aura.
“Abyss of Demons Progenitor…”
He studied it for a few moments, allowing that wisp of aura to scatter. It was never wise to retain even a scrap of presence belonging to a rank-twelve ultimate being, especially now that the Progenitor was due to awaken—potentially at sixty percent consciousness. In such a state, any fraction of aura could become a “compass” for the Progenitor’s will.
Gazing upon the dark portal, Lin Yuan merely had to concentrate for the surrounding time-space to collapse. The Abyssal gateway dissolved at once.
“Once I’ve mastered the seventh level of time-space, perhaps I’ll pay a visit to the Abyss of Demons,” Lin Yuan mused. That degree of insight in time-space would grant him enough confidence to protect himself at the rank-twelve “Path-Clearing” level. The Abyss of Demons was a strangely configured realm; if he had the chance, he would like to explore it.
Moments later, the Abyss of Demons passage disintegrated entirely, as though it had never existed. Only then did Lin Yuan turn to leave. These entrances vanish quite often, from the fiends’ perspective; if one closes, they simply search for another.
Time passed…
Ten years later—
Cangwu Immortal City, cave dwelling district.
Having assumed the appearance of a scrawny Golden Immortal, the beast-hide figure arrived outside Feixian Palace.
“That’s presumably where Yun Zhenzi’s dwelling is,” the beast-hide figure thought, eyeing the dwellings.
The Thirty-Three Immortal Domains were boundless indeed, so even though the Northern Daylight Immortal Domain bordered the Xuantian Immortal Domain, it had taken him a full ten years to get here.
“Ten years gone by, and still no sign that Yun Zhenzi has hired top-tier Jade Immortals to guard him?” The figure’s face flickered with surprise. During those ten years, he’d never stopped collecting intelligence on Yun Zhenzi, yet he heard nothing about the man employing any of the top Jade Immortals.
“Does he trust the city’s protective arrays so thoroughly, or did he secretly hire someone without my knowledge?” The beast-hide figure dismissed the thought. He had already come this far and fully intended to succeed. Even if Yun Zhenzi had discreetly hired elite protectors, the beast-hide figure would attack.
Thanks to the treasure he seized from the Beihan City Lord’s offspring, his power had soared. He was sure he could kill Yun Zhenzi swiftly, even under the protection of top-tier Jade Immortals.
“The City’s great arrays, huh?”
He strolled up to the entrance of the cave dwelling area with a slight smile, then fused himself with the surroundings, sliding into the district in near silence. Moving from one cave dwelling to another, he finally reached a A-grade dwelling—the one Lin Yuan inhabited.
“Evidently Yun Zhenzi is on friendly terms with the City’s high command. I can feel how much denser these formations are.” The figure’s expression grew momentarily grim.
“Not that it matters.”
He was able to bypass the city’s arrays because he held formidable insight into time and space. Every great formation hinged on time-space in one way or another. Mastery of time-space rendered the majority of arrays worthless.
“Time-space…”
His pupils shone with pale radiance. Moments later, he stepped inside the A-grade dwelling itself.
“Yun Zhenzi should be in the cultivation zone,” he muttered as he made his way deeper, scanning his surroundings until he headed for the heart of the dwelling.
It wasn’t long before he reached the entrance to the core area.
“Yun Zhenzi…”
A rush of excitement flitted across his face. He had managed to infiltrate this place without triggering any alert, so he had little doubt about killing Yun Zhenzi.
Rustle…
In the next instant, he vanished again, slipping into the cave dwelling’s cultivation zone—like a stone dropped into an endless ocean.
But the moment he emerged into the core zone, he realized the world had changed. Suddenly, he faced an infinite spread of overlapping time-space—a colossal domain stretching out beyond sight.
“What… is this?”
He stared in confusion, turning again and again, surveying his surroundings. A wild, unthinkable idea struck him:
Am I lost?!
...
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