Chapter 621 - 558: Ancient Secrets

Chapter 621: Chapter 558: Ancient Secrets

"Scorpion Eggs..."

Chu Mu muttered to himself unconsciously. At this moment, it seemed even the mental clarity provided by his Spiritual Radiance Blessing struggled to keep his mind stable.

He stared blankly at the mysterious characters, which were hard to discern with the naked eye. After a long moment, he managed to lower his head and look at the glaring crimson mark on his wrist.

’Scorpion Egg gestating... Scorpion Egg maturing...’

The literal meaning was obvious.

This glaring crimson mark, this lifelike Sand-tailed Scorpion pattern, was actually a... Scorpion Egg!

’So, it’s something like a curse? Or a backlash?’

Realization seemed to dawn on Chu Mu.

This wasn’t the first time he had experienced something like this.

Back in the Demon Realm, when he was forced by that True Demon to undergo the Refinement of the Heart of the Demon Realm, every Demon he slaughtered—which were manifested by the Heart of the Demon Realm—forced him to endure a wisp of backlash from it. This ultimately evolved into the terrifying Demonization Erosion.

For an ordinary person, escaping the fate of being completely eroded and demonized would have been next to impossible.

If he hadn’t happened to cultivate the Great Sun True Flame, which naturally suppressed wicked things like Demonization Erosion, and if he hadn’t also completed the Refining of the Supreme Treasure, the Nine Dragon Prison Suppression Tower, he would never have survived until now.

And this time...

This crimson mark obviously hadn’t appeared for no reason.

The greatest possibility was clearly related to this.

The slaughter was also a form of backlash.

And this backlash eventually condensed into the so-called "Scorpion Egg."

’In other words... the more I kill, the faster the "Scorpion Egg" will gestate, until it finally matures?’

’But why...’

’...would this stone monument, or rather, this so-called "Purifying Soul Mountain," require the "Scorpion Egg" to mature before one can enter?’

Chu Mu glanced around. Endless Sand-tailed Scorpions were, as always, loyally carrying out their mission, blocking and killing any outside Cultivators who approached this place.

It seemed that the existence of this "Purifying Soul Mountain" was a fatal threat to the Sand-tailed Scorpion Race...

Chu Mu took a deep breath. As the Divine Soul Blade in his Sea of Consciousness hummed, an invisible sharpness flowed around his body.

In an instant, it severed all the negative emotions in his heart.

His gaze cleared. Under the Spiritual Radiance Blessing, his thoughts surged, and he quickly sorted out a clear chain of events.

From entering this Desert Sea for the trial, to the endless bloody slaughter, to his deceptive infiltration and disguise, and finally, to this very time and place...

’Clearly, no matter who comes to this sea of sand, they’re bound to engage in bloody slaughter, and thus, they’re bound to receive this... "Scorpion Egg!"’

’And the appearance of this "Purifying Soul Mountain," the meaning revealed by the stone monument, and the conditions for entry...’

’In other words, this "Scorpion Egg" is actually the core of this Trial Secret Realm...’

’However, the backlash in the Demon Realm was due to the Refinement of the Heart of the Demon Realm. It was because my Divine Soul Body entered the illusory lands of the Demon Realm and my Divine Soul had direct contact with the Demons that the backlash occurred.’

’But in this Desert Sea, why would merely slaughtering Sand-tailed Scorpions cause a "Scorpion Egg" to gestate?’

’Or could it be that this Desert Sea is also... "illusory"?’

’Purifying Soul Mountain...’

Chu Mu silently contemplated the name. ’One part "purifying," one part "soul"...’

’A mountain of Soul Purification...’

’To purify the Divine Soul?’

"If the Scorpion Eggs originate from our slaughter of the Sand-tailed Scorpions, does that mean we need to kill even more... Sand-tailed Scorpions to make the egg mature?"

Qin Zhaoxue had also calmed down. She looked at Chu Mu and sent him a voice transmission.

"Judging by this mountain’s conditions, that should be the case, barring any surprises."

Chu Mu nodded slightly. It was undoubtedly obvious.

However...

No one could be sure if this "Scorpion Egg" was a good or a bad thing, or if this Purifying Soul Mountain was part of the trial, or... a trap.

Qin Zhaoxue’s delicate brows furrowed. Naturally, she had thought of this as well.

But the question was, how could they tell the difference?

It seemed to be another unsolvable puzzle.

At this moment, after a brief thought, Chu Mu suddenly changed the subject.

"I have heard that in ancient times, several calamities that swept across the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm all originated from the Sand-tailed Scorpions. The horror of these calamities was in no way inferior to the Demon Race’s invasion."

"Does Miss Qin know any of the secrets behind this?"

Qin Zhaoxue was slightly taken aback. After a moment of silence, a voice as crisp as a silver bell slowly sounded in Chu Mu’s ear.

"Your information should be correct, fellow Daoist."

"In my clan’s secret codices, there are also quite detailed records of the Sand-tailed Scorpion calamity in ancient times."

"These records all come from my clan’s predecessors’ explorations of ancient secrets, so their credibility should be fairly high."

"According to the codices, the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother was probably not a native creature of this Cultivation Immortal Realm..."

Chu Mu was surprised. "Not a native creature?"

"Correct."

Qin Zhaoxue affirmed, "The appearance of the Sand-tailed Scorpions is likely closely related to the Upper Realm. According to my clan’s records, it had to do with a war in the Upper Realm back then."

"A Great Divine Technique from the Upper Realm must have shattered space, causing a heavily injured Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother to fall from the Upper Realm into the Cultivation Immortal Realm."

"Unfortunately, at that point in time, it was right when the Demon Race invaded. The Demon Race’s calamity swept through the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm, and under their invasion, the whole realm was too busy to fend for itself and was steadily losing ground."

"This state of disarray not only allowed the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother to safely pass through its most dangerous and vulnerable period, but the bloodshed stirred up by the Demon Race’s invasion also provided the heavily injured creature with a massive amount of Blood Qi to heal."

"Therefore, only a few hundred years after the demonic calamity ended, the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother started another calamity that swept across the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm in order to fully heal its injuries..."

"For a Cultivation Immortal Realm that had just caught its breath from the demonic calamity, that catastrophe was no different from total annihilation. According to records, it was precisely that calamity that almost directly established the fractured state of the Cultivation Immortal Realm today."

Chu Mu asked, puzzled, "So you’re saying that in ancient times, the Cultivation Immortal Realm was a single entity?"

"Not exactly a single entity. It would be more accurate to say it was an entity organized by race."

Qin Zhaoxue nodded. "In ancient times, all Human Race Cultivators were under the rule of a power called the Celestial Palace."

"In that era, the Celestial Palace hung high in the sky, situated in the center of the continent, and ruled over all the Human Race Cultivators in the Cultivation Immortal Realm..."

"Meanwhile, all the Demon Races of the Cultivation Immortal Realm were under the rule of a power called the Demon Court. The Demon Court was located in the center of the Vast Sea, and countless Demon Beast Races were under its command."

"Legend has it that in the Demon Court, there was a Ten Thousand Beasts Banner that held the Life Souls of the major clans of the Demon Race. With a single command from the Demon Court, the endless Demon Races would almost all obey without question."

"The Ten Thousand Beasts Banners used by the various Demon Race clans today are all imitations of that Ancient Demon Court’s banner."

"It’s said that before the Demon Race invaded, the state of the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm was one of constant struggle for supremacy between the Human Race and the Demon Race."

"In that era, with both sides consolidated under the Celestial Palace and the Demon Court, the wars were endless. The longest recorded war even lasted for hundreds of thousands of years..."

"After the Demon Race invaded, forced by their terrifying pressure, the two sides had no choice but to reluctantly band together for survival. The Human Race and the Demon Race formed a temporary Alliance."

"But once the Demon Race’s invasion ended, their Alliance naturally existed in name only. A mere hundred years after the invasion concluded, for reasons unknown, the two sides started another great war before they had even finished recuperating."

"And that Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother was extremely cunning. It bred countless Sand-tailed Scorpions, participated in the war under the guise of being part of the Demon Race, and then used the spoils of that war to rapidly strengthen the Sand-tailed Scorpion clan..."

"In the end, that war between the Human Race and the Demon Race naturally became a case of ’the snipe and the clam grapple, and the fisherman profits’."

"In that battle, the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm was almost completely overrun..."

"It’s rumored that both the Celestial Palace and the Demon Court tried to contact the Upper Realm many times, but at that time, the Upper Realm seemed to be experiencing some kind of calamity of its own and was slow to respond."

"Later on, the Celestial Palace fell, the Demon Court was destroyed, and the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm was, for all intents and purposes, completely conquered. Humans and Demons alike became like stray dogs before the endless Sand-tailed Scorpion Tide."

"This continued for nearly a thousand years. In the history of the Cultivation Immortal Realm, this thousand-year period is known as the Age of Extinction."

"Just like with the Demon Race, countless Demon Beast species perished in this calamity. For the Human Race, the lineages of countless clans were also severed..."

"It wasn’t until a thousand years later that the abnormalities in the Cultivation Immortal Realm finally attracted the attention of the Upper Realm."

"A Great Divine Power User from the Upper Realm descended and personally acted to suppress the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother."

"After that, without the coordination of the Celestial Palace and the Demon Court, and with the Great Divine Power Cultivators from the Upper Realm only suppressing the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother, the countless remaining Sand-tailed Scorpions were never dealt with."

"Thus, the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm, both the Human and Demon races, were naturally like a tray of loose sand, which gradually led to the current fractured state of the realm."

"For example, the Ancient Immortal Dao Sect was rumored to have been founded by an Elder from the former Celestial Palace. And the predecessor of my Great Heng, the Star Constellation Divine Palace, also originated from an Elder of the Celestial Palace..."

"Therefore, in the Cultivation Immortal Realm today, when the major powers study ancient secrets, they often use this calamity as a dividing line."

"The time before the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother’s calamity is classified as the true ancient era. Although the time after the calamity is also commonly called ancient, a more specific classification would be the ’recent ancient’ era."

"After all, the calamity started by the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother, that Age of Extinction, almost brought about the de facto annihilation of the entire Cultivation Immortal Realm."

"Countless legacies, countless Secret Techniques, the fruits of wisdom from innumerable predecessors—almost all of it was destroyed in that calamity, their lines of inheritance completely severed, disappearing from the world."

"Even now, many of the so-called Ancient Techniques are actually just products of the ’recent ancient’ era. The legacies of true ancient Secret Techniques that have been passed down to this day are few and far between."

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