Simulation becomes reality, have I ever looked down upon the eternity?

Chapter 515 Finally Obtaining the Treasure: The Scroll of a Female Sword Immortal!

The old man's face grew increasingly panicked, yet he was utterly powerless.

"Jindu Mountain is one of the nine heretical sects, famous for its alchemy, but its scriptures record that one person accidentally entered Liangjie Mountain and obtained some rudimentary alchemy skills there."

"Countless disciples in later generations have searched for the Two Realms Mountain, but all have come to no avail. They have traversed the vast mountains of the Southern Frontier, yet they do not know that the Two Realms Mountain is located in the Central Plains of Yuzhou!"

"It seems the location of Liangjie Mountain is not static."

The old man asked in alarm, "How did you learn about Golden Gourd Mountain?"

Xu Ci smiled, "I am the thirty-seventh sect leader of Golden Gourd Mountain."

[You frowned, and the "old devil" finally revealed his identity.]

No wonder he knows so much about Liangjie Mountain; he's the leader of Jindu Mountain, one of the nine sects of heretical sects, a major sect no less powerful than Fangcun Mountain.

[But... how could the leader of a sect have fallen to such a wretched state, neither human nor ghost, forced to share a body with someone else?]

Xu Ci looked at the old man and chuckled, "You don't need to make that face. The prophecy says, 'He will come to meet a prime minister.'"

"Isn't that me, Xiangliu-kun?"

The old man shook his head. "Impossible, impossible. She said back then that she would come back, that she would come back to find us. As long as we keep this secret, no matter what we go through, if one of us attains enlightenment, even our chickens and dogs will ascend to heaven."

【"who?"】

Xu Ci stared intently at the old man in the dungeon. "Who came back looking for you?"

The old man's lips moved, as if he was about to speak, when suddenly he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

He trembled as he touched his mouth; scalding blood trickled through his fingers. Even more horrifying—his skin was visibly drying and cracking, wrinkles spreading like a spiderweb, making him appear more than twenty years older in the blink of an eye!

"No, no! I shouldn't have said that!"

The old man was terrified and frantically banged his head against the ground, his forehead becoming a bloody mess. "Spare me! Spare me for the sake of the 1400 years I've kept my mouth shut!"

His heart-wrenching screams echoed through the dungeon, as if he were begging for mercy from some unseen being.

Xu Ci frowned deeply, looking around but finding no one there.

【You also released your divine sense, but found nothing.】

Who is this person the old man is talking about?

Xu Ci suddenly made a move, injecting a stream of magical power into the old man's body and forcibly extracting a golden pill from his abdomen.

However, even after the elixir was swallowed, the old man's frail body continued to wither rapidly.

"Tell me who she is, and I can save you."

The old man shook his head. "You can't save me, you can't save me."

The young woman, who had remained unmoved until now, finally reacted. Despite her strikingly beautiful features, her expression was blank. "Father, you can go now without worry?"

"For us, death is a kind of liberation."

Before the old man could utter a sound, his body shattered like porcelain, leaving only fragments that ignited with black flames and turned to ashes.

Xu Ci looked at the young woman, "What do you know?"

The young woman shook her head. "Grandma knows, Father knows, Mother knows, but I don't know."

"So I don't even know how I died."

She showed the numerous scars on her arms, saying, "No matter what happens to me, these wounds will heal completely the next day. Even if I suffocate in the water, I will wake up."

[You seem to have realized that people created using the Eternal Porcelain are unkillable and can heal from any injury.]

[Only revealing the secret will lead to death, but this woman doesn't even know the secret?]

The woman's mother's death likely revealed a secret!

Xu Ci could only sigh helplessly, "According to you, the founder of Jindu Mountain must have obtained the alchemy manual from your grandmother."

"The patriarch, a disciple of a prestigious immortal sect, could feign affection for a countrywoman for over ten years..."

"Finally, their actions moved the woman, and she abandoned her daughter and son to elope with him out of Liangjie Mountain."

"If it weren't for the patriarch's scheme, it would have been difficult to extract his alchemy techniques."

"These three realms of mountains have three great lineages: alchemy, porcelain making, and aura observation."

Before she could finish speaking, Xu Ci suddenly pointed her fingers like a knife and plunged them into the woman's eye socket.

Strangely, not a drop of blood splattered. Instead, deep within the woman's dilated pupils, an inverted mountain peak shaped like five fingers gradually emerged.

The mountain's silhouette grew clearer and clearer, and it even began to slowly rotate within my pupils.

[You've already noticed that the Two Realms Mountain is hidden in your sight.]

Now you understand part of the ins and outs of this matter.

Instantly, the young woman burst into tears of blood and fainted.

Five streaks of light shot out from his eyes, moving at incredible speed, disappearing almost in the blink of an eye.

[You were prepared all along; the Azure Shadow Sword hovered beneath your feet, and you had already used the Sword Escape Technique.]

[More than a dozen arms extended from Xu Ci's abdomen, biting at the five streaks of light like snake heads.]

The White Snake Lady, unable to use her magic, could only watch helplessly, completely unable to intervene. She only knew how precious the treasure, which even Xu Ci sought, was, and felt it was a great pity.

[Have you also clearly seen what lies within the five streams of light?]

A bronze incense burner, about the size of a palm, filled with incense ash.

A pill shrouded in purple mist.

[A pill shimmering with azure light.]

[A lustrous and radiant jade slip.]

A scroll painting exuding an antique charm.

Xu Ci acted first, his eight black arms wrapping around the purple-gold pill. After succeeding, his eyes lit up.

Xu Ci regained her senses, but she hadn't expected you to be even faster. Black light flashed in your hand, absorbing the jade pill and jade slip.

Xu Ci was in a great hurry and used all her magic power to fight for the last two items, finally managing to take one of them, an "incense burner."

With a flick of your magic, you wrapped the last scroll in your hand.

Of the five treasures, you took three, and Xu Ci took two.

[You see, Xu Ci's face is full of satisfaction; it seems that the purple-gold pill was indeed her scheme.]

Xu Ci laughed, "Fellow Daoist Jing, your methods are truly remarkable!"

"These three treasures from the Two Realms Mountain represent a truly great opportunity."

Just as you were about to respond, you heard a sharp "snap." Turning around, you saw the young woman, though her eyes were filled with tears of blood, wore a relieved smile.

Her body peeled away like cracked porcelain, piece by piece, from which eerie black flames shot out, instantly incinerating her remains into ashes.

Xu Ci gazed at the scattering ashes and said regretfully, "It's a pity. In the end, we couldn't find out the relationship between Liangjie Mountain and this family."

You watch the ashes scatter in the dungeon, and see the woman's relieved smile; it seems everything is over.

[Xu Ci suddenly gave you a meaningful look: "But perhaps the scroll in your hand holds the answer."] [You calmly put the jade pill and jade slip into your storage bag—this storage bag was obtained when you killed the drought demon in Qinghe County, and you hadn't even shown it back at Fangcun Mountain.]

[After all, such spatial artifacts are rare even within sects. Among the disciples of Qiyun Peak and Xiaoqing Peak who accompanied us this time, apart from Yang Chen who had previously displayed them, it seems that the others have no chance of obtaining this treasure.]

The scroll in your hand is soft, and you cautiously refrain from unrolling it immediately.

What's even stranger is that this seemingly extraordinary scroll showed absolutely no fluctuation of spiritual energy; if it weren't for its material being neither gold nor jade, it would be no different from any ordinary object.

[This contrasts sharply with the jade pill from before—that pill, from the moment it was created, was full of life, dancing and flowing in your palm, radiating joyful fluctuations as if it were alive. Had you not suppressed it in time, it would have almost broken through the air and disappeared.]

You gently traced the edge of the scroll with your fingertips, but didn't rush to look at Xu Ci with a smile, "Fellow Daoist Xu... or perhaps Fellow Daoist Xiang?"

[Although you have read through tens of thousands of books in the library, including records of customs and products from the four continents and maritime regions, you have not noticed that there is such a sect leader on Golden Gourd Mountain.]

Xu Ci put away the two items, her face radiant, clearly pleased with what she had just received.

"Xiangliu-jun, that name is long forgotten."

"In this world, there is no Liu Jun like Wu Xiang, only Xu Ci."

He looked at you expectantly, "The painting in this scroll is quite extraordinary."

Instead of opening the scroll, you laughed and said, "Fellow Daoist Xu, that's not fair."

"This scroll is just an ordinary painting. No wonder Fellow Daoist Xu didn't care at all just now, and now he wants to see it for free. How can such a good thing exist?"

Xu Ci said meaningfully, "Young friend Jing, you're just being smug after getting a good deal. If it weren't for me, you would have missed out on this great opportunity."

【But you disagreed, saying, "Fellow Daoist Xu, you are mistaken. Didn't you just say it was the will of Heaven? If I weren't here today, this opportunity might not have appeared."】

[After a pause, you looked up at him. "I don't care, but Fellow Daoist Xu has planned this for many years. If it all falls apart at the last minute, wouldn't all your efforts be wasted? In that case, you should be thanking me."]

"The flowers you plant with care may not bloom, while the willows you plant unintentionally may thrive."

Xu Ci laughed heartily after hearing this, "That makes sense."

You deftly slipped the scroll into your sleeve, then looked at him with interest. "Why don't you tell me about the origins of these Two Realms Mountains? Or... the secrets of these three treasures? Then we can admire this painting together again."

[A perfectly timed look of doubt crossed his eyes: "After all... I've never heard of any Two Realms Mountain in this world."]

Xu Ci thought for a moment, "The origin of the Two Realms Mountain can be traced back to ancient times, to an era when spiritual energy was abundant. Cultivation was as simple as eating and drinking. Legend has it that an immortal lived on the Two Realms Mountain."

"He can refine elixirs, make kilns, and has eyes that can see across the nine provinces and ten regions."

[You are slightly puzzled. The great inheritance that Xu Ci just mentioned when she led you in was no less powerful than the inheritances of the Nine Righteous Sects, and it even involved ascension? How did it change?]

Xu Ci laughed, "Fellow Daoist Jing, don't say I'm deceiving you."

"Although there is only one person in these two realms, his reputation, according to records, is no less than that of the great sects of ancient times."

"One person can be worth an entire case."

[You seem somewhat shocked. Ancient sects are no ordinary sects. Even a single incomplete scripture from an ancient sect could cause a bloodbath in the current cultivation world. If what he says is true, then this immortal from the Two Realms Mountain is no simpleton either.]

"Then why doesn't this person accept disciples?"

【"unknown."】

[You didn't ask any further questions, so you must have known in your heart that Xu Ci wasn't so kind.]

"Then why would you say that Mount Liangjie is related to ascension?"

"That immortal once personally slew a true immortal who came from beyond the heavens."

A chill ran through you; had you slain an immortal?

Xu Ci laughed again, "So you can think about how extraordinary the five treasures we have are. Perhaps they are even relics of true immortals, stained with the blood of immortals."

"What are these five treasures?"

Xu Ci smiled and said, "Young friend Jing, I cannot say for sure, as these treasures all have extremely high origins. However, I can reveal a bit about the secret of the pill in your hand."

"This is a divine elixir of immortality, refined from the very essence of immortality. Consuming it will grant one the cultivation of a Great Dao Golden Core cultivator, allowing them to ascend to the heavens in a single step."

[A meteoric rise? Directly reaching the Great Dao realm.]

[This item has such effects, though you didn't completely believe it; after all, this old monster might be setting a trap for you.]

[What is this elixir of immortality? You've never heard of it either.]

What you've seen and said today has transported you back to the time when you first entered Fangcun Mountain and stepped into the world of cultivation, a time of utter confusion.

Xu Ci changed the subject, saying in a deep voice, "There's another use, and you must remember this: it must never fall into the hands of true spirits, otherwise, if they consume this pill, their bloodline will revert to its ancestral state, and they will become true innate deities."

Xu Ci remained silent, instead looking at the scroll in your sleeve, her meaning clear.

[You were already planning to open it; you might even be able to extract some information from the other party.]

[The scroll is slowly unfurled; the ink on the yellowish silk is hazy, suggesting it is a figure painting.]

Both Xu Ci and the White Snake Lady were intently watching. Although Xu Ci already knew what the most precious item was, and this painting wasn't a celestial treasure, it must be extraordinary to be treasured like this.

[In the painting, the figure of a woman wielding a sword gradually emerges.]

She was dressed in white, as white as snow. She was extremely tall, yet slender, with wide sleeves that seemed to flutter amidst a vast sea of ​​clouds, as if she were about to ride the wind and depart at any moment.

The woman wielded a long, gleaming sword in one hand.

Surprisingly, the woman's face in the painting is always shrouded in a thin mist, except for her eyes—

The artist used light ink dots to bring those eyes to life.

From afar, it resembles the moon reflected in a cold pool; up close, it's like the glint of a sword at dawn, seemingly capable of piercing through the painting and striking straight to the heart.

You examined the painting back and forth, but gained nothing. In the end, you only inscribed two lines of poetry on the left side:

"A sharp blade cuts off the path through the clouds, forbidding celestial beings from descending to the mortal realm."

The brushstrokes are sharp as swords, each line exuding a chilling killing intent.

Xu Ci smiled smugly, "As expected, that patriarch and I were right. This lord of the Two Realms Mountain is a female sword immortal!"

As you were pondering this, the great cauldron suddenly struck with a loud bang.

A myriad of rays of light emanated from the great cauldron, and characters slowly emerged on it.

~

Xuyang County, ferry crossing.

It rained heavily in Yanghuajiang River today.

Dark clouds and thunderstorms are brewing in the sky.

The river reflected the lightning in the sky.

A woman in white, alone, arrived by boat, her sleeves fluttering in the wind.

He held a large, green lotus leaf in his hand.

She looked up—her eyes, clear and cold like autumn water reflecting cold stars, were gazing at a place shrouded in mist and rain.

"I wonder if we're too late?"

(End of this chapter)