Chapter 212: Wilderness Beneath Mount Buzhou

Having once experienced the contamination of divine power and fallen into the state of a divine servant, Li Shun already understood the reason behind this arrangement.

“It should be to prevent the disciples of the Hundred Schools who enter the Primordial Wilderness Illusionary Realm from being influenced by divine power and having their wills twisted.”

Li Shun's mind was clear now, so he naturally answered without hesitation and passed the test.

Zhao Cheng's expression softened somewhat before he began asking about Li Shun's experience this time.

Naturally, Li Shun could not truthfully reveal that he had encountered the [Formless Hanging Skull] atop Buxian Mountain. Otherwise, it would be impossible to explain how he had managed to maintain his sanity in the presence of a [God].

Thus, Li Shun mixed truth with falsehood. He only described his experiences in the Land of Wuqi, concealing everything that had happened afterward when he encountered the God.

“That wilderness seemed endless. The Ten Suns in the sky and the Blue Moon were both extraordinarily strange.”

“This disciple was incompetent. Until the illusion ended, I was unable to escape that wasteland.”

A look of shame appeared on Li Shun's face.

As expected, a trace of disappointment flashed through Zhao Cheng's eyes.

But he quickly consoled him.

“This is not your fault. Every time the Primordial Wilderness Illusionary Realm opens, countless disciples of the Hundred Schools enter it, yet only a handful are capable of reaching the summit of the Tongtian Divine Mountain. The information you managed to bring back is already a great contribution.”

As he spoke, Zhao Cheng once again unfolded the map of the Primordial Wilderness in midair.

His gaze wandered across it before finally settling on a region in the northern part of the map.

“The Land of Wuqi. If my guess is correct, it should be somewhere around here.”

As he spoke, Zhao Cheng drew a circle on the map.

Li Shun noticed that to the north of the Land of Wuqi, a mountain called [Mount Fuyu] had been marked.

“From the looks of it, the place where I descended was very close to this Tongtian Divine Mountain. What a pity...”

Zhao Cheng, however, shook his head slightly.

“If you really encountered Mount Fuyu, that might not necessarily have been a good thing. According to legend, this mountain is the burial place of Emperor Zhuanxu, and strange phenomena abound there. The senior who encountered this mountain back then could not even make it to its foot. He merely observed it from the outskirts and nearly lost his life.”

Li Shun nodded, then could not help sighing.

“From the looks of it, the Primordial Wilderness really is an exceedingly dangerous place. With strength capped at the Spirit Resonance realm at most, exploring it is simply too difficult.”

Zhao Cheng nodded in agreement.

“That is why the Hundred Schools have spent all these years researching methods to increase the capacity of the Primordial Wilderness Illusionary Realm. In the beginning, the illusion realm could barely accommodate cultivators below the lower-tier Spirit Resonance realm. Raising its limit to upper-tier Spirit Resonance today was already the result of countless efforts by our predecessors.”

“Unfortunately, raising the upper limit of the illusion realm to the Grotto Mystic realm still appears to be a distant prospect.”

“We can only send as many people as possible and hope that someone will eventually succeed.”

As though he had suddenly thought of something, Zhao Cheng's brows furrowed.

He abruptly changed the subject.

“No. That wilderness where you descended... You did not encounter any people of the Wuqi Kingdom. You only encountered their tombs, which were also newly formed. It was not the Wuqi Kingdom, but the Wilderness of Wuqi...”

As he spoke, Zhao Cheng erased the circle he had previously drawn on the map.

He then shifted its location.

From roughly due north, he moved nearly half the width of the map and redrew the circle in the northwest.

“The Wilderness of Wuqi and the Wuqi Kingdom. What's the difference between them? Why are they so far apart?”

Li Shun asked curiously.

“According to the ancient records, the people of Wuqi originated from the Wilderness of Wuqi. The Wilderness of Wuqi lies beneath Mount Buzhou.”

“After the Heavenly Pillar of Buzhou was broken, the Wilderness of Wuqi was no longer suitable for habitation. Thus, the people of Wuqi migrated eastward to establish a new kingdom.”

Zhao Cheng slowly explained.

This was the first time Li Shun had ever heard of such an obscure piece of history. His eyes instinctively turned toward the Tongtian Divine Mountain that marked on the map.

“Mount Buzhou.”

“The Wilderness of Wuqi lies to the west...”

Just as Li Shun was pondering this in silence, a strange and powerful fluctuation suddenly erupted from within the manor.

A dark-green pillar of light shot into the heavens, forcibly suppressing even the fading glow of the setting sun.

“What is this...?”

Zhao Cheng's expression abruptly changed. With a flicker of his figure, he vanished from where he stood.

Li Shun also turned his gaze toward the green pillar of light.

Within it, a frail figure was floating in midair.

His hair and beard stood on end, flying wildly against the current.

Li Shun recognized this figure. He was one of the Mohist disciples attending the gathering this time.

His name was Zou Mo.

At this moment, Zou Mo seemed to have fallen into some kind of madness. His pupils had disappeared completely, leaving only the whites of his eyes.

He was howling words that no one could understand, seemingly meaningless utterances.

What made one's scalp go numb was that as Zou Mo continued to shriek, the green light descending from beyond the heavens grew increasingly dark and ominous.

Behind him, long serpents began to emerge one after another.

Yet the faces of these serpents were exactly the same as Zou Mo's.

In an instant, thousands of serpents crawled out from Zou Mo's body. They flicked their forked tongues, staring warily and menacingly at the figures gradually closing in around him.

The standoff did not last long.

The towering pillar of light remained at its peak for only a brief moment.

Very soon, high above the vast heavens, it seemed as though an invisible giant hand had reached out and severed the source of the green light.

The pillar of light consequently began to dim rapidly.

Zou Mo, however, became even more frenzied.

He brandished the countless long serpents behind him like tentacles, launching an attack against the figures surrounding him.

Just as the battle reached a stalemate, the scene in the sky suddenly vanished.

“Hm?”

Li Shun was stunned.

But he quickly realized that the battle had not ended.

Rather, a great expert had intervened and directly isolated the battlefield from the outside world.

No one could know what happened afterward. Every disciple of the Hundred Schools within the manor who had witnessed the scene was ordered to remain inside and strictly forbidden from leaving.

It was not until the day was nearing its end that Li Shun saw Zhao Cheng again.

He appeared to have just endured a fierce battle. His face was filled with exhaustion.

“Cough, cough...”

Every so often, he coughed once or twice, seemingly having suffered considerable injuries during the battle.

“Martial Uncle...”

Li Shun looked as though he wanted to speak but hesitated.

Zhao Cheng waved his hand.

“I know what you want to ask. Since you have entered the Primordial Wilderness Illusionary Realm before and personally witnessed the original state of this world, you are qualified to know everything. However, before that, you must first swear an oath.”

As he spoke, Zhao Cheng took out a somewhat weathered wooden tablet.

There were no characters carved upon it. Yet when Li Shun looked at the wooden tablet, the magnificent scenes of an entire world seemed to appear before his eyes in a daze.

Mountains and rivers, plains and wilderness, lakes and seas.

Even the countless living beings of the world.

From its blank surface, the wooden tablet seemed to outline an entire world.

“This is [Heaven and Earth].”

“Kneel before this wooden tablet and swear your oath in its presence.”

“You must not reveal anything you see today to anyone outside, not even the slightest detail.”

Zhao Cheng presented the wooden tablet of Heaven and Earth before Li Shun.

Naturally, Li Shun did as instructed, murmuring the words of the oath.

A strange sensation slowly surfaced within his heart.

It felt almost like when he cultivated the Twelvefold Longevity Methods, as though he were forming some kind of contract with Heaven and Earth.