I became an immortal in the mountains

Chapter 925 Are they all clones?!
The voice clearly came from an extremely distant place, but since the two realms overlapped, Gu Yuanqing also heard the voice, while Li Miaoxuan simply followed Gu Yuanqing's gaze.

Then Gu Yuanqing saw Zhou Wei and Feng Yue exchange a glance, both seemingly seeing surprise in each other's eyes, before quickly leaving, leaving only the other ancient spirits still attacking.

This is the first change in nearly two years.

While continuing to slay the Yin spirits, Gu Yuanqing said, "Something has changed in the Ancient Realm. Just now, I seemed to hear someone shouting angrily in the Ancient Realm. Judging from Zhou Wei and Feng Yue's reactions, this person is likely Emperor Wei Wuji of the Great Wei Dynasty. It seems that he has noticed something amiss."

“How could you not know about such a huge change! It’s very likely that when you used the power of the Taixu Creation Wheel to kill them completely, these powers would return to the Ancient Realm. But now these powers have been devoured by the Northern Spring Realm, which is different from what was originally expected,” Li Miaoxuan said.

Gu Yuanqing said, "So they weren't simply looking for death, but rather wanted to use the power I gained after killing them to do something, or perhaps both. It's a pity, if I had a few more years, I could have refined all these vengeful spirits."

Li Miaoxuan chuckled: "These people from the ancient realm have lived for so many years, it's actually beyond my expectations that they've realized this now."

Gu Yuanqing smiled and said, "That's true. However, since things have come to this, there's no need to be as cautious as before."

As he spoke, Gu Yuanqing's mind stirred, and the sword energy barrier above the Northern Spring Realm suddenly changed.

Suddenly, the Myriad Manifestations Sword Formation, which covered the entire Qian Yuan Realm, took shape.

All things return to their origin, and all realms are eternally secure!
All the evil spirits that entered were instantly suppressed.

Gu Yuanqing raised his hand and grabbed, causing spatial ripples to spread. One by one, the Yin spirits disappeared into thin air, all of them being moved to the boundary between the Northern Spring Realm and the Qian Yuan Realm, where they instantly collapsed.

The intense yin energy immediately dispersed, or rather, these were not simply yin energy, but fragments of the soul.

Gu Yuanqing then used the Art of Manipulating Objects to accelerate the Northern Spring Realm's absorption of these fragments.

Although a large portion of the power of the Yin spirits still fell into the ancient realm, the power absorbed far exceeded the Yin energy simply drawn back after killing the Yin spirits. The gains in a short time were greater than those in a whole day in the past.

It's not that Gu Yuanqing didn't know how to do this before.

This is because, firstly, the speed at which the Northern Spring Realm absorbs souls is limited, and secondly, the Yin spirits of the Ancient Realm do not all rush in at once, but rather enter gradually over the course of a month.

If the methods are too drastic, it will be easier for others to see through the trick, so they want to obtain it slowly by gradually boiling the frog in warm water.

Now that the people of the Ancient Realm have noticed the anomaly, and perhaps before long the entire Ancient Realm will recede, he naturally wants to obtain as much as possible before this happens.

Perhaps completely refining these evil spirits would be against the natural order.

However, since they were enemies, why would Gu Yuanqing care about such things?
Li Miaoxuan could sense the changes in the external energy. She glanced at Gu Yuanqing but didn't say anything more.

suddenly……

"Huh!" Gu Yuanqing exclaimed in surprise.

Li Miaoxuan looked at Gu Yuanqing and asked, "What's wrong?"

Gu Yuanqing did not answer, but closed his eyes, as if he was carefully sensing something.

After a long pause, he said with a strange expression, "These ghosts are a bit odd."

"Strange?" Li Miaoxuan was somewhat surprised. Of course it was strange. People in the Ancient Realm were neither born nor die. There was almost nowhere else in the world like this except for the Ancient Realm. However, she knew that Gu Yuanqing was definitely not referring to this, but something else.

“They are too similar,” Gu Yuanqing said.

"Too similar? In what way do you mean?" Li Miaoxuan asked.

Gu Yuanqing said, "Their aura, I mean their origin."

Upon hearing this, Li Miaoxuan also focused her mind and extended her divine sense to scan the Yin spirits and Yin energy left behind by Gu Yuanqing outside the Northern Spring Realm.

After a moment, she showed a slight surprise: "It seems that is indeed the case. Although these ancient beings who have turned into ghosts seem to control different Great Daos and feel very different, if you carefully comprehend them, you can detect many similarities at their core. If you hadn't brought it up, I would never have noticed it."

Gu Yuanqing said, "It's not just you, I'm the same way. In the past two years of fighting against it, I didn't feel it at all. If it weren't for the fact that the power absorbed by the Northern Spring Realm is too much today, making the feeling even more obvious, I would have had difficulty noticing it either."

Li Miaoxuan said, "They are all yin spirits, and since they are clearly under the same curse or magical power, they have many similarities, so it is naturally difficult to detect them."

"Miaoxuan, do you think they look like clones of the same person?" Gu Yuanqing suddenly asked again.

"A clone of the same person?" Li Miaoxuan turned to look at Gu Yuanqing, her tone hesitant, because this idea was too unexpected.

Gu Yuanqing nodded slowly: "Although it's just a guess, don't you think it looks really like it?"

Li Miaoxuan finally realized that Gu Yuanqing was serious about bringing this up, and not joking.

Such a guess completely overturned everyone's previous understanding, but since Gu Yuanqing brought it up, she also considered it carefully.

After a moment, he slowly said, "Although it is indeed possible, it is just as you said, too incredible! You must know how vast the Ancient Realm is, and the people of the Great Wei Divine Dynasty number in the hundreds of millions. If the attackers are all clones, then are all the hundreds of millions of people in the Great Wei Divine Dynasty also clones?"
What level of cultivation must this person possess to be able to create so many?
Moreover, the ancient realm has a traceable history spanning millions of years, and there is no one...

She wanted to ask why no one noticed, but then she suddenly realized that even she, a celestial being, had never noticed anything unusual when she saw these spirits, let alone others.

Throughout the entire Linglong Realm, the only ones with higher cultivation levels than her are those old fellows in the Ancestral Hall of the Ancient Divine Sect, but even if they knew, how could they possibly reveal it to outsiders?

Furthermore, if a powerful being were to create so many clones, it would most likely be for the purpose of comprehending the Dao. Others, even if they saw through it, would not actually reveal it, otherwise they would be inviting karma and courting death.
Gu Yuanqing looked at the Yin spirits that were still rushing down and slowly said, "Perhaps it is because they are too huge that no one can detect them. If I hadn't killed and devoured so many today, I would never have thought of it."

Moreover, this also explains why I felt back then that killing even one person would trigger a warning from my Dao heart, making me feel that I would incur a great karmic debt.

Li Miaoxuan sorted out her thoughts; Gu Yuanqing's guess could indeed explain many things.

As he said, even if the ancient realm was cursed by someone, leaving these people neither alive nor dead, or if someone used great supernatural powers to keep the people of the ancient realm forever, after billions of years, it shouldn't cause any karmic consequences from actually killing one of them.

After all, with so many people, why would the killing of just one insignificant person warrant the attention of a truly powerful being?
She pondered for a moment and said, "If it is really as you think, then this person may have divided into billions, obscuring the memories of the clones, evolving a country, and experiencing reincarnation within it. His purpose should be for cultivation."

Gu Yuanqing nodded and said, "That's my guess too. However, it seems that this person's cultivation has encountered some problems, or he has been ambushed, resulting in his clone being neither alive nor dead and being fixed at a certain spacetime anchor point."

“This might explain why the people of the ancient realm wanted to die through you. Perhaps only the clones that you severed using the Dao of Creation could truly escape this state,” Li Miaoxuan said.

Gu Yuanqing raised his head: "But now, the power of those I have killed has not returned, so..." The two of them talked back and forth, speculating on the various possibilities and supplementing each other's logic.

With each additional word spoken, it seemed as if they were confirming that this guess was not just a guess, and a hint of shock appeared in their eyes.

Li Miaoxuan said, "There's one more thing that we might have overlooked."

"Which point?" Gu Yuanqing asked.

Li Miaoxuan said, "Actually, don't you think the attack on the ancient realm this time was somewhat coincidental?"

Gu Yuanqing narrowed his eyes slightly: "You mean the Blood Moon aura of the Demon Realm?"

Li Miaoxuan nodded: "Although this is just my speculation, do you think it's possible? The Demon Realm is for suppressing the Great Demon of the Underground Cave. The Abyss Demon Clan that the Ancient Divine Sect is suppressing also seems to be related to the Great Demon of the Underground Cave. The Demon Refining Array of the Floating Realm and the Domain Array of the Exquisite Realm seem to be related to this. What about the Ancient Realm?"

Could it be the same? This time, not long after you sensed the aura of the True Demon of the Underground Cave in the Linglong Realm, the Ancient Divine Sect, which had been silent all along, came knocking on your door.

Is there any connection between these two things?
Of course, it's also possible that I'm overthinking it.

“The Grand Venerable of the Primordial God Sect should know about these things; the Ancient Realm was summoned by him. Zhou Wei and Feng Yue of the Ancient Realm also know this. Although I only spoke a few words with them that day, I could tell that they know a lot,” Gu Yuanqing said.

Li Miaoxuan said, "I'm afraid they won't tell us, and if they really reveal the secret to our faces, it might not be a good thing."

Gu Yuanqing said, "There's another person who might know something!"

"Who?" Li Miaoxuan asked.

With a flick of his sleeve, Gu Yuanqing unleashed a divine essence formed from golden runes, shaped like the Heavenly Bell—it was Zhuo Ming.

This time, even though Gu Yuanqing lifted the restrictions, he still did not show his face.

Gu Yuanqing smiled calmly: "Since you're unwilling to come out, you're of no use to me. I might as well just refine you directly!"

Upon hearing this, Zhuo Ming still did not react.

Gu Yuanqing chuckled and said to Li Miaoxuan, "He seems to think I can't do anything to him."

“After all, he is a true god,” Li Miaoxuan said with a smile.

"That's true! However, since he's courting death, I'll grant his wish." Gu Yuanqing smiled calmly, and with the enhancement of his artifact, the power of the Northern Spring Realm immediately pressed towards the divine spark.

Golden light flashed wildly above the divine core, and the Heavenly Law Bell emitted a rapid buzzing sound.

When Gu Yuanqing captured Zhuo Ming, the Northern Spring Realm was still only a Cave Heaven, and Gu Yuanqing was only a Chaotic Undying. Although he could suppress and imprison Zhuo Ming, it would be difficult for him to truly kill and refine him.

But now Gu Yuanqing has reached the Great Perfection of the Void Immortal realm, and the Northern Spring Realm has improved many times over compared to before. This True God's Divine Spark is simply not enough to support him.

The power of the Northern Spring Realm was like an invisible millstone, grinding over the divine spark layer by layer. The golden light was gradually worn away, turning into scattered specks of light.

"Zhuo Ming, this is your last chance." Gu Yuanqing's voice was calm. He flicked his finger and Dao Source True Fire flew out, turning into a raging fire that enveloped Zhuo Ming's divine spark.

The power worn away by the power of the Northern Spring Realm was quickly decomposed by the control of objects and then slowly refined by the Dao Source True Fire.

The divine essence trembled violently, yet remained unresponsive.

Gu Yuanqing shook his head and said no more.

Suddenly, the power of the Northern Spring Realm intensified, the light above the divine core began to tremble violently, and some of the true runes even began to collapse.

"Gu Yuanqing!" a roar erupted from within, "You dare!"

Gu Yuanqing smiled calmly: "What do I have to be afraid of? You're really getting senile. Even in this state, you still dare to threaten me? It seems you can't tell the situation from the surface."

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Yuanqing pointed his finger, and the power of the Northern Spring Realm increased once again.

Now, the divine essence that had intertwined to form the Heavenly Law Bell began to crumble, and Zhuo Ming's illusory divine soul appeared, his body twisting violently as he let out a shrill scream.

"Stop! Wait!" he shouted urgently.

Gu Yuanqing slightly raised his hand and finally stopped.

The Heavenly Bell flickered with light and shadow, revealing its divine soul in its entirety.

Zhuo Ming's face was grim. He glanced at Li Miaoxuan, then finally fixed his gaze on Gu Yuanqing, and slowly said, "I can tell you, but how can you guarantee that knowing everything will still allow you to spare my life!"

Gu Yuanqing laughed and said, "I thought you really didn't care about life or death."

Zhuo Ming coldly said, "If I didn't want to live, why would I possess someone else's body? You don't need to mock me. I told you before that if I told him, he would definitely not spare me. If I would die whether I told him or not, why should I tell him?"

Gu Yuanqing said calmly, "At least you won't die so soon. If I'm in a good mood, I might spare your life. Don't try to negotiate with me. I don't have that much patience, especially not now!"

As he spoke, Gu Yuanqing raised his hand and waved it, and the scene of the Qian Yuan Realm appeared before Zhuo Ming's eyes.

Seeing the phantom of the ancient realm and the ever-approaching vengeful spirits, Zhuo Ming naturally knew what this meant.

He looked at Gu Yuanqing with a hint of mockery: "I thought you were really not afraid of my Ancient Divine Sect! However, the fact that you were forced to use this move is already something to be proud of."

Gu Yuanqing said, "Perhaps you misunderstood. I showed it to you to show you that even if your Ancient Divine Sect used all its means, it still couldn't do anything to me. So, don't expect to escape one day. Besides, now, apart from the information you know, the only thing you are still useful to me is your divine spark. If I refine it, it might help me advance my cultivation!"

Upon hearing this, Zhuo Ming's expression changed drastically.

Gu Yuanqing smiled and said, "So you know better than anyone how to choose. If you're willing to talk, let's pick up where we left off and talk about the Great Wei Dynasty. If you still don't want to talk, I don't want to waste any more words, so I'll just send you on your way!"

(End of this chapter)