Immortality and cultivation begin with full comprehension.

Chapter 696 The Primal Secret Realm, Thousands of Spirits and Monsters (Seeking Monthly Tickets)
As dawn broke and the sky gradually brightened, Li Yunjing was the first to wake up.

Morning light streamed through the window, bathing the two women in a soft glow.

Yu Yunyi's peaceful sleeping face was filled with a satisfied smile, while Lü Ruoxi curled up in Li Yunjing's arms like a kitten.

Feeling the surging spiritual energy fluctuations within them, Li Yunjing's lips curled into a slight smile, indicating that their cultivation had yielded good results.

After this training, Yu Yunyi and Lü Ruoxi are not far from breaking through their current realm.

"time to go……"

Li Yunjing quietly got up and tucked the blankets in for them.

Today is the day we will enter the "Divine Firmament Secret Realm". Looking at his sleeping partner, Li Yunjing's eyes are full of tenderness.

Two strands of pure spiritual energy gathered at his fingertips.

He gently touched the space between Yunyi and Lü Ruoxi's eyebrows, and instantly, a force entered the two women's sea of ​​consciousness.

This is a final gift before my departure.

"Sweetie! Wait for me to come back."

He placed a kiss on each of the two women's foreheads, then turned and stepped into the morning mist.

Behind them, inside the brocade tent, Yu Yunyi unconsciously gripped the corner of the blanket, while Lü Ruoxi murmured and turned over, as if she didn't want to be separated from him even in her dreams.

At the entrance to the "Divine Firmament Secret Realm," the power of thunder was dense.

Li Yunjing stood at the end of the valley, looking at the gate of light in front of him. His purple-gold token flashed, and within the gate of light, he seemed to sense the aura of the sect leader, opening a portal for one person.

A surge of spiritual energy poured out from inside the door, drawing out the surrounding lightning power.

"The secret realm is opened!"

Li Yunjing muttered to himself, a look of curiosity on his face.

This was his first time entering the "Divine Firmament Secret Realm." To ensure his safety, he summoned a magical artifact to protect himself and rushed towards the gate of light.

The moment you pass through the portal of light, the world spins.

Li Yunjing felt his body being pulled by an invisible force, and his internal organs were displaced.

Once the dizziness subsided, the scene before my eyes was completely different.

The sky was a strange purplish-red, with nine blood moons hanging high in the sky.

In the distance, the mountains undulate like the spine of a giant beast, their surfaces covered with honeycomb-like holes, constantly spewing out bluish-purple mist.

The ground beneath my feet was soft and damp, leaving phosphorescent footprints with every step.

"The spiritual energy here..."

Li Yunjing took a deep breath and felt the spiritual energy circulating in his meridians several times faster than outside. "Indeed, it's extraordinary."

Looking around, the whole world is filled with a primitive atmosphere!
This is an undeveloped world.

Li Yunjing's boots sank into the soft moss, each step stirring up tiny fluorescent spores, making it seem as if he were walking on a galaxy under the purplish-red sky.

He crouched down and lightly touched the glowing fungi on the ground with his fingertips. The caps immediately contracted, spewing out a cloud of pale blue smoke. Twisted ancient runes appeared in the smoke and disappeared in an instant.

"interesting!"

He activated his pupil technique, and his eyes flashed with lightning.

The field of vision suddenly became a hundred times clearer.

Those seemingly ordinary mists are actually highly concentrated liquid spiritual energy, with each drop containing tiny innate Dao patterns.

A deep rumble came from afar, and the entire tundra suddenly undulated as if breathing, with pulsating, eerie blue light bands emanating from beneath the ground, much like the meridians of the human body.

He followed the spiritual veins toward the mountains, passing through a crystal forest along the way.

Those translucent crystal pillars are not minerals, but fossils of some kind of giant plant.

As his robe brushed against the surface of the crystal pillar, an ethereal echo suddenly resounded throughout the forest, and the phantom image of an ancient creature swimming appeared within the crystal.

On the thickest crystal tree trunk, there are five claw marks, each a foot deep, with golden bloodstains that will never dry at the edges.

After crossing the hills, the lake in front of him made Li Yunjing stop abruptly.

The lake water was a living mercury silver color, with face-shaped bulges constantly rising on its surface, which would then silently burst open.

In the center of the lake stand twelve broken stone statues, each with six arms, and bright red Ganoderma lucidum growing from the broken ends of three of the arms.

As he gazed at the goddess statue in the very center with its head bowed, the statue's eyelids suddenly twitched.

"Audio hallucination?"

Li Yunjing shook his head, but then heard intermittent murmurs drifting in the wind.

The sound came from a shimmering reed bed by the lake, whose spikes were actually tiny jade bells.

He carefully broke off one of the bells, and amber liquid immediately seeped out from inside, condensing into words in the air: "The pillar of heaven is broken, the earth's axis is severed."

Just as he was pondering the meaning of this ancient prophecy, the ground beneath his feet suddenly collapsed.

Li Yunjing rose into the air on the wind, and saw a huge bronze gear exposed at the collapsed spot, with half a dragon bone stuck in its teeth.

The gears turned slowly, causing a loud rattling sound of chains snapping from underground.

Three mountain peaks in the distance suddenly collapsed, revealing a giant hand bound by iron chains.

The middle finger of that hand was taller than a mountain, and its nails were covered with suppressing talismans.

Most chillingly, when Li Yunjing's spiritual power swept across the giant hand, a crack suddenly appeared in the palm, revealing rolling eyeballs.

The moment their eyes met, his mind trembled violently, and a kind of sorrow that transcended time and space flooded into his consciousness.

In a daze, I saw the starry sky collapse, and countless cultivators turned to ashes in the burning galaxy...

"puff!"

Li Yunjing spat out a mouthful of blood and forcibly severed the connection.

When I looked up again, the giant hand and the strange phenomenon had vanished, as if it had just been an illusion.

Only the jade bell reed in his hand had turned into a grayish-white bone flute at some point, with dried bloodstains remaining on the edge of the flute hole.

"It's evil!"

He wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and found a path made of glowing mushrooms ahead.

These mushrooms change color every seven steps, and the spores released between the opening and closing of their gills form arrow shapes in the air.

Although he knew it might be a trap, his instinct to explore the secret realm made him follow.

At the end of the Mushroom Path is a vertical cliff, the cliff face covered with honeycomb-like holes.

Each cave contained cocoon-like objects, some of which had broken open, revealing amber-colored crystals in the shape of human figures inside.

As his shadow fell on the cliff face, the three nearest cocoons suddenly cracked open at the same time. The crystalline humanoid figures shattered upon landing, but three palm-sized jade toads jumped out from the fragments.

These toads have naturally formed patterns resembling the Hetu and Luoshu on their backs, and they squat in a triangular formation, blowing bubbles at him.

Each bursting bubble reveals a hexagram, which, when combined, forms the long-lost opening gesture of the "Lianshan Yi".

Just as Li Yunjing was about to take a closer look, the toads suddenly croaked in unison, and the divination symbols on their skin all reversed into blood-red "ominous" characters before burrowing into the ground and disappearing.

The sound of trees falling came from the top of the cliff.

Li Yunjing leaped onto the cliff and saw a sight he would never forget.

The entire forest is migrating.

Those giant trees with bronze bark were uprooted and, like hundreds of giant pythons, twisted and crawled into the distance.

They left glowing grooves in the ground as they passed, from which countless struggling human faces emerged in relief.

"This is bizarre! This is our sect's secret realm, how come even the trees have become spirits?"

Li Yunjing stared wide-eyed and rubbed his eyes hard.

In his heart, he still thought he was under an illusion and didn't believe that there were tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of tree spirits here!

"How can this be!"

Li Yunjing's voice trembled slightly.

In the heart of the migrating forest, there stands a strange tree, half withered and half thriving.

The withered half was covered with icicles, while the thriving half bore fiery fruits.

As Li Yunjing's gaze fell upon the tree, the trunk suddenly split open, spewing out a ball of blue flame.

The flames transformed into a phantom of a phoenix in the air, scattering a burning feather at him before dissipating.

The feather vanishes the moment it touches the palm, but leaves a tiny mark on the skin.

Before Li Yunjing could figure it out, the ground suddenly bulged up.

Nine crystal roots broke through the soil and intertwined to form the shape of a throne, upon which rested a beating heart.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The heart was as smooth as jade, with golden blood vessels covering its surface. Each beat triggered a surge of spiritual energy within a radius of a hundred miles.

Even more strangely, the heartbeats gradually synchronized with Li Yunjing's breathing rate.

As he involuntarily took a step forward, a sudden sharp pain shot through his heart.

"wrong!"

Li Yunjing bit his tongue hard, and the sharp pain brought him back to his senses.

Looking at the crystal throne again, it was not a heart at all, but a parasite that was constantly changing shape, with countless transparent tentacles extending towards him.

He retreated dozens of feet and unleashed the "Yin Yang Five Elements Heavenly Evolution Sword," slashing out with sword energy. After the tentacles were severed, they emitted a miserable cry like that of an infant.

"Chirp chirp chirp..." The parasite went completely berserk, swelling into a tumor the size of a mountain, with hundreds of painful human faces appearing on its surface.

Just as Li Yunjing was preparing to fight desperately, a rainbow of light suddenly descended from the sky.

An old man with white hair and a youthful face stepped out from the rainbow light. With a gentle wave of his whisk, the mountain-like tumor vanished like bubbles.

Li Yunjing's pupils suddenly contracted.

This is clearly the "Taiyi Dividing Light Technique" recorded in the sect's classic texts, but this technique was lost 30,000 years ago!
"You're Li Yunjing?"

The old man's voice was gentle and warm, and with a flick of his whisk, he dispelled the gloomy atmosphere that surrounded him for miles.

The ancient bronze trees that had been migrating suddenly stopped, their roots re-entered the soil, and in the blink of an eye, they returned to the appearance of an ordinary forest.

"Thank you, senior, for saving me."

Li Yunjing bowed cautiously: "I don't know..."

This is the secret realm of the "Shenxiao Dao Sect," and the people inside must be the sect's senior masters.

Li Yunjing simply didn't know who this person was!

“The old Taoist Xuanzhenzi has been here for three thousand years.”

The old man stroked his beard and smiled, but his gaze swept over Li Yunjing's entire body like lightning. "You're not bad, kid. No wonder Ming Lingchuan praised you."

Three thousand years?
Li Yunjing was deeply shaken.

The "Divine Firmament Secret Realm" is almost never opened.

The old man showed no signs of spiritual energy.

They are either ordinary people with no cultivation or peerless experts whose realm is far beyond imagination.

Is this Taoist the True Lord of the Nascent Soul Realm from the "Shenxiao Taoist Sect"?

"Senior, are you the Nascent Soul Ancestor of the sect?"

Li Yunjing asked tentatively.

"That's right! That's me!"

Xuanzhenzi nodded. "In the 'Divine Firmament Secret Realm,' the passage of life can be slowed down. Ten years have passed in the outside world, but only one year has passed here, so I can last longer."

"Slow down the flow of time?"

Li Yunjing gasped.

Such heaven-defying methods are far beyond the comprehension of ordinary cultivators.

"indeed so!"

Xuanzhenzi sighed, "However, being trapped here and losing the opportunity to roam freely on 'Tianlan Star' is indeed a regret!"

"Three thousand years..."

Xuanzhenzi looked at Li Yunjing and said calmly, "It seems that your teachers, Qin Jiuxiao and Wuxing, have a great chance of breaking through their cultivation and becoming Nascent Soul cultivators! You are also a genius. I hope you can continue your efforts and catch up with their level!"

"Rest assured, Ancestor!"

Li Yunjing said confidently, "Before the Nascent Soul realm, I have no bottlenecks at all, and breaking through to the Nascent Soul realm is just around the corner! After I break through to the Nascent Soul realm, I will definitely make rapid progress and strive to shoulder the pressure for the sect!"

"Good! Good! Good! Heaven has not forsaken my 'Divine Firmament Dao Sect'!"

The old man suddenly burst into laughter, the sound shaking the ancient trees around him and causing them to rustle and shed leaves. "Boy, do you know the true purpose of this secret realm?"

Without waiting for a reply, Xuanzhenzi waved his sleeve.

Suddenly, the world changed, and the two found themselves on the moon high in the sky.

Beneath their feet was a slowly rotating crimson continent, its surface covered with glowing meridians, and at its core floated thirty-six dazzling crystals.

"The nine blood moons, each of them was once the dojo of a great figure from the Shenxiao Dao Sect."

Xuanzhenzi pointed to the crystals, "They are not at the Nascent Soul stage, but beings that have surpassed ordinary immortals and gods!"

"what!"

Li Yunjing was taken aback. He had anticipated the strangeness of this place, but he hadn't expected it to be at such a high level!
With a sweep of his whisk, Xuanzhenzi revealed the "Water Mirror Technique" before the two of them.

The mountain ranges and their contours appeared in the air.

Li Yunjing was surprised to find that this was actually a miniature version of the secret realm map, marked with thirty-six points of light. These points of light were obviously magical places in the "Divine Firmament Secret Realm".

"Thirty-six resource points correspond to the thirty-six Heavenly Generals."

Xuanzhenzi lightly tapped his whisk, and the points of light in the water mirror suddenly extended into golden threads, weaving into an intricate star map in the air. "Each resource point contains precious resources accumulated over tens of millions of years in this secret realm!"

"My Shenxiao Dao Sect has never developed this place since we acquired it!"

"There is only one goal: if the sect encounters a major calamity, all the remaining cultivators can retreat into the secret realm and rely on the resources here to start over!"

"This is the hope of our sect!"

“Over the years, besides Ming Lingchuan, only Li Cangqiong and you have come here.”

Xuanzhenzi's gaze became complicated as he said this, "I hope you will live up to the sect's expectations and be able to utilize the resources here to improve yourself."

"Yes!"

Li Yunjing was shocked, and only then did he realize what it meant for Ming Lingchuan to let him in!
Such treatment is simply unimaginable!
"By the way, Ancestor, what's the situation with this secret realm we have? Is it a naturally formed cave world? Or an extraterrestrial planet?"

Li Yunjing asked a question he wanted to know.

"hehe!"

Xuanzhenzi nodded approvingly, swept his whisk, and the water mirror switched again, revealing the edge of the secret realm.

The space there was cracked like shattered glass, and through the cracks one could see a distorted starry sky.

What chilled Li Yunjing to the bone was that strange howling sounds would occasionally emanate from some of the cracks...

"This is the truth!"

Xuanzhenzi laughed and said, "This is an auxiliary space embedded in 'Tianlan Star'!"

Before Li Yunjing could ask further, Xuanzhenzi suddenly made a hand seal.

The moon disc beneath his feet trembled violently, and dense chains of runes appeared on its surface.

"Let's go!"

Xuanzhenzi grabbed Li Yunjing's wrist, "I'll show you the truth!"

The two transformed into streaks of light and plummeted towards the blood-red continent.

As Li Yunjing passed through the clouds, he was shocked to discover that those "clouds" were actually solidified corpses.

There are humanoid creatures, demonic beings, and some deformed creatures that are simply indescribable.

They all remained in a struggling posture, as if frozen in time.

"These are all explorers from past generations."

Xuanzhenzi sneered, "They think the secret realm is a blessed land, but it is actually the greatest secret of my 'Divine Firmament Dao Sect'! Once you arrive here, all those who are different will be killed!"

"I see!"

Li Yunjing nodded secretly, a huge wave of emotion surging within him.

He never imagined that the "Divine Firmament Secret Realm" held so many secrets.

"Look there..."

"That's the 'Heavenly Crystal Vein,' containing spirit stones with a purity more than a hundred times that of those found outside."

Xuanzhenzi suddenly pointed to a majestic mountain in the distance. The mountain's surface was covered with honeycomb-like holes, each hole shimmering with a strange light. "It can produce many top-grade spirit stones and other special rare ores!"

Li Yunjing looked closely and discovered that the rays of light were actually naturally formed spirit stone crystals, the smallest of which was the size of a fist.

Even more astonishingly, several streaks of rainbow light could be faintly seen deep within the mine.

That's the legendary "Spiritual Essence," a treasure so precious that a single drop is enough to allow a Nascent Soul cultivator to break through their bottleneck!

"This is just the most ordinary of the thirty-six resource points."

Xuanzhenzi spoke with pride, “Three thousand miles to the east lies the ‘Fire Spirit Pool,’ where innate fire essence is nurtured at the bottom; five thousand miles to the west is the ‘Medicine King Valley,’ where countless immortal herbs, each a hundred thousand years old, grow…”

As the old man recounted his story, breathtakingly beautiful scenes appeared one after another in the water mirror.

A silvery metallic lake, with liquid flying swords swimming in its waters; a hill entirely made of jade slips, each slip recording ancient cultivation techniques; and even an area where time flows abnormally, where one day outside is equivalent to one year inside!
Li Yunjing was breathing rapidly. If these resources were placed outside, they would be enough to trigger a bloody war throughout the entire cultivation world.

"Ancestor, since the secret realm is so precious, why didn't the sect develop and utilize it sooner?"

He suddenly realized something: "Even if we only develop one percent of our sect's power, it will be a huge boost!"

Xuanzhenzi's smile faded: "Two reasons."

He held up one finger. "First, once we open the door and reap the benefits, we might not be able to stop. Overexploitation could cause spatial collapse and ruin the sect's grand plan!"

He then raised a second finger, "Secondly, we're not the only ones here."

The scene in the water mirror suddenly shifts to a dark canyon.

At the bottom of the valley lay countless white bones, and on top of the bones lay a giant python with nine heads.

Each snake head wore a different mask, and at this moment they all looked up, their eighteen vertical pupils piercing through the water mirror and staring directly at the two of them!
"Nine-Headed Dark Python!"

Li Yunjing blurted it out.

This is an ancient ferocious beast that has long been extinct according to ancient records. It is said that its adult form is comparable to a Mahayana cultivator!
"Not bad!"

Xuanzhenzi waved his hand to disperse the water mirror, "There are seven other such beings in the secret realm, whom we call the 'Eight Desolate Guardians.' They have an agreement with the sect that they will not interfere with our acquisition of resources, but they will also never allow excessive exploitation."

(End of this chapter)