The world is like a prison, my body is holy

After dealing with the King of Qin, Wang Wen immediately left the Jizhou camp and prepared to head to the Western Army camp.

Where is your home?

After leaving the camp, Wang Wen asked Zhao Dadan, who was accompanying him, a question.

Zhao Dadan swallowed hard and asked cautiously, "What...does the General mean by that?"

Wang Wen replied, "The fact that I showed myself in your camp certainly couldn't have escaped the King of Qin's notice. Just now in the King of Qin's camp, I also thought about whether I should just speak frankly with the King of Qin and not make things difficult for you, but who knows if he would agree to me verbally and then use dirty tricks on you later... Even if I find out afterward and avenge you, you won't be able to get out of here, will you?"

“I’ve thought it through for you. Before the King of Qin knows about this, quickly take your family and leave. You can go to Jiangnan or Yangzhou. If you don’t want to, you can go to the capital. Although you’ll lose your official position, at least you’ll save the lives of your whole family.”

Zhao Dadan listened carefully, and suddenly felt a little moved.

The fact that Wang Wen was able to tell him these things shows that Wang Wen truly put himself in his shoes and considered his feelings.

Clearly, he was no longer of any use to Wang Wen; Wang Wen could have simply tossed him aside like a rag...

He quickly made his decision, and solemnly clasped his hands, saying, "Thank you for considering my situation, General. My home is in Xiongzhou. My parents passed away many years ago, and I only have my wife and two children left. If you do not mind my humble status, I am willing to serve under your command and do my best!"

Wang Wen laughed and said, "Not bad, you have both a son and a daughter... As for whether you should serve the country or not, you can think about it some more and we can discuss it in detail later. Let's go, you can show us the way."

He grabbed the reins and pulled hard, steer the black unicorn northward.

The black Qilin moved with the speed of a shooting star, covering dozens of miles in an instant. In just a quarter of an hour, it arrived at Xiongzhou under Zhao Dadan's guidance.

This place is the most important strategic pass in the Liaodong region of the Great Zhou Dynasty. The court calls it the "North Gate of the Country." In the mouths of the common people, the area north of Xiongzhou City is the outside of the pass.

In the Liaodong Army's operational system, Xiongzhou was the Liaodong Army's main base and rear area. It should be noted that the Liaodong Army had always maintained the initiative in its battles against the Huangtou Nu (Jin people). The Liaodong Army's camps were usually scattered outside the Great Wall, and most of the time the Liaodong Army took the initiative to send troops to drive away the Huangtou Nu who were close to the Great Wall and weaken the Huangtou Nu's organized troops...

After landing, Zhao Dadan went straight home to find his wife and children, while Wang Wen and Hei Erniu, who had transformed into the Wudi Black Ox, landed on the back of the city wall. They leaned against the weathered parapet and gazed at the vast and desolate plains beyond the pass for a long time, feeling that there was a mysterious aura surrounding the land beyond the pass.

That aura, ancient yet vibrant, vast yet seemingly tinged with a hint of malevolence.

But he couldn't find the source of this aura even after using his divine sense to investigate for a long time. He began to wonder if it was his own prejudice that led him to view people with prejudice.

"Erniu, what do you think of the mountains and rivers beyond the pass?"

Hei Erniu, grinding his teeth and crunching on roasted soybeans, peeked his big head out from behind the parapet, tilting his head and looking left and right for a long time before replying, "Master, if this land were all planted with crops, how much grain would we harvest in a year?"

"That's true. Even if you plowed such a large piece of land for ten days and ten nights, you still wouldn't be able to finish it."

"That was before. I'm much stronger now. I could plow this field in ten days and ten nights..."

Wang Wen chuckled as he stroked its fur and agreed with it, without forcing it to display the Qilin's ability to uphold righteousness and ward off evil.

This fellow's Qilin body is already very close to its complete form, but because he has only recently returned to his ancestral form, he still considers himself a black ox and has no awareness of being a Qilin.

In terms of absolute strength, even if Bai Zimo and Ao Qing stood side by side, they might not be able to break through its scales.

In terms of fighting power, Bai Zimo alone could easily exhaust it...

It is a domesticated cow after all. After it was made intelligent, it has always done hard labor such as carrying loads on its shoulders and back. It lacks the ferocity and ruthlessness of wild monsters and the survival of the fittest.

However, Wang Wen had witnessed its fierce protectiveness whenever he encountered a crisis. He always treated it like a pet, like a cat or dog, and never expected it to provide much assistance in direct combat.

However, the landscape beyond the Great Wall seemed truly strange to him…

He observed for a long time, and then, seemingly unsure, released his Yin spirit, which was the divine form of Huangshan. He silently recited "Heaven and Earth are boundless, Huangshan borrows the Dharma," and opened his Dharma eye to observe the world beyond the pass.

This time, he finally saw the strange aura directly: the vast land beyond the pass was shrouded in an endless expanse of blue-gold and gray air currents.

Unlike the wispy, dark clouds he had seen over the Yellow River, which resembled a curtain of rain and were interwoven with ghostly and demonic energy, the golden-blue and gray air currents that enveloped the land beyond the pass were like the background colors of a painting, covering the vast and boundless land, with no trace of their origin.

Furthermore, although the two-colored energy streams were as distinct and easily distinguishable as the gray demonic energy and the black ghostly energy, they were constantly changing and moving, intertwined, like two sides of the same coin.

"What is this?"

Wang Wen, in his Yin spirit form, looked up at the two-colored energy currents filling the sky and earth with a tremor in his mind and spirit. Under the urge of an inexplicable oppression, he subconsciously formed a thunder spell and pointed outside the pass: "Nine Heavens Responding to the Origin Thunder Universal Transformation Heavenly Venerable, hasten as the law commands!"

In an instant, a bolt of lightning as thick as an adult's thigh shot out from behind him.

However, once the fierce lightning snakes rushed out of the city wall, their speed suddenly slowed down, and their power rapidly diminished at a visible rate. By the time they exploded, they were only as thick as a child's arm.

"Thorn."

The lightning bolts exploded, causing the surrounding golden-blue aura to vibrate violently, while the gray aura was swept away as if snow were melting in spring.

Before Wang Wen could figure out what was going on, the two-colored air currents, separated by the city wall, surged towards him like a hornet's nest that had been disturbed, following the lightning bolts.

Wang Wen dared not allow these two unknown energies to contaminate his Yin Spirit. With a thought, his Yin Spirit returned to his body like a swallow returning to its nest.

The next second, he suddenly opened his eyes and sensed a hurricane coming towards him. Without hesitation, he punched the sky.

In an instant, a powerful and imposing aura, as majestic and heavy as a mountain, burst forth from his fist, transforming into a massive fist force, as large as a seven or eight-story building, shimmering with purple light, that shot out of the city wall.

A single-inch strike opens the heavenly spirit!

"Boom."

The force of the fist broke through the hurricane and rushed more than fifty feet out of the city wall, exploding in mid-air. The remaining force stirred up layers of magnificent purple ripples, which slowly spread in the sky, stirring up gusts of wind, carrying flying sand and stones, breaking the banners planted on the city wall, and even causing the thick city wall to shake violently.

Wang Wen, his clothes fluttering, clenched his fists tightly, concentrating intently, but the strange hurricane never came again.

'What's going on?' Wang Wen wondered uncertainly to himself, 'Could it be that only magic can trigger those two strange streams of energy to counterattack? True energy wouldn't?'

Unable to figure it out, he simply gave up thinking and drew circles with both hands: "Heavenly spirits, earthly spirits, the Maoshan Hunkun Taoist has revealed his true spirit... Senior brother, senior brother, can you hear me?"

The azure water mirror condensed between his hands, but unlike the clear and smooth water mirror technique he used to practice with Master Hunkun in Yangzhou, this time the mirror surface resembled a pool of murky muddy water, constantly flickering.

Wang Wen had encountered this situation before... Back when the three sects of talismans were trapped in the Black Bamboo Valley of Emei, he and the Hunkun True Man also encountered this situation when they were communicating with the Water Mirror Technique.

After a long while, no image appeared in the water mirror technique, but the somewhat distorted, surprised voice of Master Hunkun could be heard: "Junior brother, where are you?"

Wang Wen quickly replied, "In Xiongzhou, Senior Brother. Do you know Xiongzhou?"

Master Hunkun suddenly realized: "You're in Liaodong? No wonder..."

Wang Wen knew he had come to the right person as soon as he heard this: "Senior brother, do you know about the situation outside the pass?"

Master Hunkun chuckled and said, "So your magic doesn't work outside the pass?"

Wang Wen: "It did work for me, but it feels like this world doesn't really welcome our esoteric arts?"

Master Hunkun: "It's not surprising. The area outside the pass is a separate entity, and it's not the same as my Xuanmen. When my Xuanmen's magic reaches the area outside the pass, it's difficult to control the primordial energy of heaven and earth. It's like being in the Dharma-ending Age, so it naturally won't work. If we force it, it will inevitably be disliked by the beings of heaven and earth outside the pass."

Wang Wen: "This is the first time I've heard this claim. Could it be that the areas outside the Great Wall were not under the jurisdiction of Heaven or the Underworld in ancient times?"

Hunkun Zhenren: "Of course, it is also under the jurisdiction of the Heavenly Court and the Underworld. In ancient times, no mortal spirit in this world could escape the rule of the Heavenly Court and the Underworld, and the area outside the pass was no exception."

Wang Wen: "If that's the case, then why is the primordial energy of heaven and earth in the lands beyond the pass not controlled by the techniques of the Xuanmen?"

Master Hunkun: "Even in secular dynasties, there are still vassal states, aren't there? There are three thousand Great Daos, and the Dao of my Xuanmen is only one of them. The shamanistic doctrine that all living beings in heaven and earth have spirits, which is prevalent outside the pass, may be inferior in terms of cultivation, but it is the Great Dao that can lead to enlightenment..."

Wang Wen scratched his head, still somewhat puzzled.

Seeing that he remained silent, Master Hunkun asked, "Junior Brother, have you ever seen a farmer tilling the land?"

Wang Wen: "Of course I've seen it!"

Master Hunkun: "Different fields are suitable for different crops. For example, paddy fields are suitable for rice, and dry land is suitable for wheat. However, fields are not divided into paddy fields and dry land from the beginning. Farmers need to cultivate them generation after generation, step by step turning barren mountains into fertile cultivated land, and then cultivating fertile cultivated land into paddy fields."

"Our magnificent land in the Central Plains is the fertile land that our Xuanmen ancestors have cultivated generation after generation. At its peak, all the mountain gods and land gods in the Central Plains were either conferred by our Xuanmen ancestors or worshipped by our Xuanmen disciples. This is why we, the younger generation of Xuanmen, can cultivate and perform magic in the Central Plains with ease and effortless skill."

"When our Xuanmen disciples arrive beyond the Great Wall, it's like planting rice in a dry field. If the Heavenly Court and the Underworld were still in this world, we Xuanmen disciples could still seek the guidance of our ancestral masters. But now the Heavenly Court and the Underworld are countless worlds away, and the beings of the world beyond the Great Wall naturally no longer need to give face to younger generations..."

"The teachings of the sages, which are promoted by the three religions, come from this."

After Master Hunkun's insightful yet simple explanation, Wang Wen finally understood, muttering to himself, "So it's just a case of acclimatization issues!"

"Senior brother, does that mean that as long as one's cultivation level is high enough, one can still cultivate and cast spells even outside the Great Wall?"

"That's natural. If you hold the decree of the Great Heavenly Venerable, you can walk on flat ground from the thirty-third heaven to the eighteenth level of hell, and all the gods will flee in terror."

The old Taoist priest even cracked a little joke with Wang Wen.

Wang Wen smiled and said, "Thank you for your explanation, Senior Brother. I understand now."

Master Hunkun: "We're fellow disciples, no need for thanks. But weren't you in Yangzhou just a few days ago? How come you've suddenly run off to the border?"

Wang Wen: "I just came here today to take care of some business. I'll go back as soon as I'm done."

Master Hunkun: "Then come back soon and don't linger at the border."

The old Taoist priest didn't elaborate, but Wang Wen immediately grasped the deeper meaning behind his words.

"Senior brother, you mean..."

Master Hunkun: "Junior brother, do you still remember that strange cultivator you mentioned before, the one with the snake demon by his side that you encountered in the imperial palace?"

Wang Wen paused for a second, then suddenly realized: "Senior brother, you mean that guy is a shaman from beyond the Great Wall?"

Master Hunkun: "If you hadn't brought this up today, I almost wouldn't have remembered it. The methods of that strange cultivator you described are indeed very similar to those of the disciples outside the pass... It seems that those old guys outside the pass are also getting restless."

Wang Wen pondered this matter and thought to himself, 'Yes!'

In the past, those shamans and spirit mediums outside the Great Wall were honest because there were patriarchs of the Xuanmen sect in heaven and on earth to protect them, so they dared not be disobedient.

But now that Heaven and the Underworld have both left this world, and everyone is on the same starting line, why should those heretical sects recognize the orthodox status of your Xuanmen sect?

The orthodox lineage of immortality?

If your Taoist sect is so capable, why don't you invite a deity to descend to earth and lend a hand?
Since the cultivation environment of a certain place can be transformed through generations of cultivators...

That means that the area outside the pass can also be developed into a cultivation world suitable for Xuanmen disciples to practice and cast spells.

The Central Plains could also be cultivated by shamans and Xuanmen disciples from beyond the Great Wall into a cultivation world suitable for their practice!

At that time, it remains to be seen who is the true successor and who is the legitimate heir!
How does that sentence go?

After I entered the pass, great Confucian scholars naturally debated the classics for me!

After figuring this out, Wang Wen suddenly thought of Zhi Baiqing again. Even though he had beaten Zhi Baiqing into submission, Zhi Baiqing refused to reveal the mastermind behind it all... Could it be these shamans from beyond the Great Wall?

Do all living beings in heaven and earth possess a spirit? (End of Chapter)