Hunyuan Immortal Sect

Chapter 529 Master Tiantong

Seeing the dark, mysterious passage that seemed to lead nowhere, Song Xian didn't hesitate. He was certain that this was the entrance to leave this world, so he flashed and disappeared into the inner chamber.

He was surrounded by endless darkness. When the light pierced through and his vision cleared, he realized he was wrong.

What comes into view is a long, narrow passage, surrounded by reddish-black stone walls.

To his upper left is a circular black hole, which is the spatial passage that was opened.

Where have we arrived?
How could there be unknown spatial realms within the world of murals?

Song Xian had never encountered this situation before. Logically speaking, there shouldn't be any hidden unknown spaces within the secret space realm.

Because the secret realm itself is an internal microcosm formed by an unstable spatial structure, and because its structure is inherently unstable, it will not continue to generate connected hidden spaces within itself.

However, after entering this secret space, one hidden space after another appeared. First, they inexplicably arrived in this mural world, and then the ghost in the main hall opened a spatial passage through its left eye, allowing them to enter here.

It's like a nesting doll, layer upon layer, one after another.

This is completely illogical. If the mural world might have been sucked into the inner room by unknown factors that are not yet clear, the fact that there is a deeper space in this mural world is too strange.

Song Xian even felt a sense of fear, a fear of the unknown power.

"Dong dong."

At that moment, a drum-like sound suddenly rang out, pulling him back to reality.

He followed the direction from which the sound came, and walked to the end of the narrow passage, where it seemed to be a cliff.

Looking down, a huge, dark red, irregularly shaped ball of flesh hangs in mid-air, connected by many thick, steel-like dark red lines that extend into the surrounding stone walls.

It looked like chains were locking up this ugly, bizarre ball of flesh.

At the bottom of the cliff, a skeleton dressed in a black Taoist robe can be seen sitting cross-legged on a golden futon.

Song Xian leaped down and came to the white, withered bones, examining them carefully.

Without a doubt, this person must have been a highly skilled cultivator in his lifetime, as can be seen from the color of his bones.

Its white bones had a faint golden hue, a change only seen in cultivators who had reached the Nascent Soul stage.

Judging from his seated posture, he was not interfered with by any external force before his passing.

Perhaps his lifespan had come to an end, which is why he sought out such a quiet place; or perhaps he was seriously injured and hid in this place.

The black Taoist robe he was wearing had rotted and was tattered due to the passage of time, while the golden futon he was sitting on was still intact, indicating that it was no ordinary item.

Song Xian bowed slightly to him, moved the body aside, and went to take the golden futon.

However, just as he lifted the body, a pale purple scroll fell out from the wide sleeve of his Taoist robe.

Although most of the black Taoist robe he was wearing had rotted over time, the cuffs were still intact, so Song Xian did not notice at first that there was something hidden inside his cuffs.

Seeing the scroll fall, he immediately grabbed it, opened it, and his pupils constricted, his mouth involuntarily opening wide.

The pale purple scroll slowly unfurled like a painting, revealing blue skies, white clouds, vegetation, flowers, deserts, rivers…

The scene in the scroll was exactly the same as the murals inside the hall, and what shocked him so much was...

The scenes within the scroll are dynamic; every blade of grass, every tree, desert, and river seems to come alive before your eyes.

The grass and trees swayed in the breeze, and swarms of butterflies danced around them.

An endless desert, with yellow sand flying everywhere.

On the vast expanse of the lake, schools of fish leap and ripple in the sunlight.

Among them are two familiar figures; Afar is depicted rushing south in the painting.

Nice stood atop a mountain, deep in thought, while a small, bright red mouse perched on his shoulder, sniffing incessantly.

Song Xian was so shocked he couldn't express it. He stared blankly at the 'scenery' in the scroll in his hand, motionless like a wooden figure.

It wasn't until Nice in the painting put the fiery red little mouse into his spirit beast pouch and then rose into the light, heading north, that he seemed to come back to his senses, blinked, and swallowed hard.

What's going on here? Is the content shown on the scroll real or fake?
If it's fake, why are Nice and Afar depicted in it?

Moreover, the scenery he saw from that lush land all the way to this main hall was exactly the same as the scene that appeared in the scroll, including the fluttering butterflies. Their expressions were not so much similar as to be identical.

But if the contents of the scroll are real, why can he see them, and why isn't he in them?

What exactly happened? Numerous questions flashed through his mind, leaving him in a tangled mess.

Song Xian took a few deep breaths, cleared his mind of distractions, and calmed himself down, his thoughts surging.

Let's assume the 'scenery' in the scroll is real. By that logic, we're now in a place that has already left the scroll's world, which is why we can observe it from the outside.

But if I return to the scroll world now, will I be able to see myself through the scroll?

Verifying this is actually quite simple; all you need to do is go back once.

"Dong dong."

Just as he was pondering, a drum-like sound suddenly rang out. He instinctively looked up in the direction of the sound and saw that the ugly, irregularly shaped, dark red fleshy ball bound by dark red chains was expanding and contracting in mid-air.

And the sound also originates from there.

Upon seeing this, Song Xian was stunned, recalling the scene when he was swallowed by the deep-sea demon whale.

Looking again at this ugly-shaped ball of flesh and the dark red lines connecting it, an idea naturally arose in his mind.

Could this be the inside of a ghost's body? Could the dark red fleshy mass be the ghost's heart or some other part? Are those lines veins and blood vessels?
The spatial passage I opened didn't connect to another space, but instead led me into the body of a ghost?
After expanding and contracting a few times, the dark red fleshy ball returned to calm, and the thumping sound disappeared.

Song Xian looked down at the scene inside the scroll again and found that Nice was heading towards the palace.

This place is not safe to stay in; we must leave as soon as possible.

If the contents of the scroll are genuine, then it must be an extraordinary treasure that must not be discovered by others.

Although he still had many unanswered questions, he knew he couldn't stay here any longer. So he put away the scroll, took the golden futon into his hand, and prepared to take it away.

Only then did he realize that there was a purple jade slip under the futon.

Purple jade slips are the highest-level jade slips in the cultivation world, with each one costing hundreds of thousands of spirit stones. They are generally used by major sects to preserve highly confidential information.

This must have been left behind by the skeletal cultivator. Song Xian immediately picked it up and probed it with his divine sense. As time passed, his expression kept changing.

After a long while, when his consciousness withdrew from the jade slip, his expression had returned to calm, but the flicker in his eyes could not hide the surging emotions in his heart.

He had just guessed that the skeleton was a Nascent Soul level cultivator in life, but the result was beyond his expectations.

The other party's cultivation level in life was not Nascent Soul, but rather the legendary Divine Transformation Realm.

In the jade slip, this Nascent Soul Realm cultivator explained his life story and background.

He was neither a monk from the Mukh Grasslands nor a monk from the Seven Kingdoms.

Instead, he came from the more distant Yinchuan continent, named Wu Tong, who called himself Tiantong Shangren.

The Yinchuan Continent is located west of the Muhe Grassland, separated from it by an endless sea. It is worth mentioning that this Master Tiantong was actually a rogue cultivator.

According to his own account, he is the only rogue cultivator in the Yinchuan continent whose cultivation has reached the Nascent Soul stage.

The reason it crossed the boundless sea to reach the South Sea of ​​the Muhe Grassland was that it obtained a clue to find the spatial node for ascending to the Immortal Realm, hoping to leave this realm and go to the Immortal Realm.

After some investigation, he actually found the spatial node in the clue, but unfortunately, the spatial node was not stable.

He guarded the South China Sea for a full hundred years. During this time, he discovered this secret realm and used it as a hidden foothold. He tried every means to repair the node, but all his efforts were in vain.

Moreover, as time goes by, that spatial node becomes increasingly unstable. According to his estimate, it will disappear in no more than four hundred years.

His lifespan was only two or three hundred years. After breaking through to the Nascent Soul Realm, he spent his whole life searching for a reliable and stable spatial node, hoping to leave this realm and go to the legendary Immortal Realm.

After searching for thousands of years, he finally found such a place. Unwilling to give up, he decided to take a gamble. As a result, he encountered a backlash of spatial power in that spatial node and was seriously injured.

Fortunately, he withdrew in time and did not lose his life.

He had originally planned to try again after he recovered from his serious injuries.

Unexpectedly, the backlash from the spatial node left a root in his body. Instead of being removed, his injuries worsened and eventually spread throughout his body. He realized that there was no hope of recovery.

He thought about how glorious his life had been, yet he was destined to die alone and desolate here. Therefore, he left this jade slip so that future generations could find it and learn about his life.

Besides his own account, the jade slip also recounted many of his secret experiences, including the origins of the pale purple scroll he left behind and the golden futon beneath him.

This scroll, named the Qiankun Mountain and River Map, is a spiritual treasure.

The golden futon is called the Gathering Spirit Treasure Futon, and it is also a spiritual treasure.

(End of this chapter)