Da Ming: The system granted me immortality; I clock in every day.

The wolf king couldn't understand human speech; it only took it as the prey's dying cry.

With a powerful push off the rock with its front paws, its massive body shot out like an arrow, carrying a stench, and with its gaping maw wide open, lunged fiercely at Li Changqing's throat.

Seeing that the king had launched an attack, the remaining demon wolves also leaped out of the bushes in unison, blocking all of Li Changqing's escape routes.

Just as those foul-smelling fangs were less than a foot away from Li Changqing's throat.

Li Changqing slightly raised his eyes.

In those originally gentle and carefree eyes, at that moment, it seemed as if the sun, moon, and stars were flowing and dying.

A vast, boundless, and supreme pressure, transcending countless ages and surpassing all living beings in this world, was suddenly released from the thin man in the blue robe!

There were no gusts of wind carrying sand and stones, nor any earth-shattering light or shadow.

It is merely an absolute hierarchy suppression originating from the depths of the soul and the very source of one's bloodline.

"Waaah..."

The wolf king, hovering in mid-air, seemed to have crashed into an invisible iron wall.

Its ferocious eyes were instantly filled with extreme fear.

Its massive body suddenly stiffened in mid-air, then crashed heavily onto the muddy ground half a foot in front of Li Changqing like a lump of mud.

The demonic wolves that pounced on them were terrified out of their wits.

They twisted their bodies forcefully in mid-air and crashed heavily to the ground.

All the demon wolves, including the arrogant wolf king, had their limbs outstretched.

It pressed its proud head firmly against the damp earth, its whole body trembling violently, and let out a pitiful, fearful whimper like that of a puppy.

Faced with this overwhelming pressure, their proud scales and sharp teeth appeared so laughable and fragile.

They were so exhausted that they didn't even have the strength to escape.

We can only submit to this supreme being, whose origins are unknown, in the most humble manner.

Li Changqing lowered his eyes and looked at the wolf king lying at his feet, gently tapping the ribs of his folding fan twice on its huge head.

"The rules of this New World need to be changed. From now on, if you see someone from the Ming Dynasty, go around them. Understand?"

The wolf king dared not resist in the slightest, desperately rubbing its head in the mud and whimpering in submission.

Li Changqing did not kill him.

He strode through the pack of trembling, crouching wolves and continued his ascent up the cliff.

Only when the figure in the blue robe completely disappeared into the thick fog did the suffocating pressure slowly dissipate.

The wolf king, feeling as if he had been granted a pardon, scrambled and stumbled, leading his pack in a hasty retreat towards the other side of the jungle without looking back.

They dared not approach Wolong Ridge again.

Following the winding mountain path, Li Changqing climbed to the halfway point of Wolong Ridge.

The spiritual mist here is so thick that you can't see your hand in front of your face.

Between the crevices of the rocks, one can occasionally see some crystals that shimmer with a faint light.

Those were the most natural, unpolished, low-grade spirit stones.

Li Changqing walked to a huge cave.

This cave is the outlet of the spiritual vein. There is no vegetation around the cave entrance, and the rocks are smooth as jade from the pure spiritual energy that overflows from it all year round.

He stood at the cave entrance, closed his eyes, and his vast divine sense spread like ripples along the earth's veins into the depths of the ground.

In his perception, beneath the Wolong Ridge lies a massive spiritual vein stretching for tens of miles.

The spiritual vein was like a sleeping underground dragon, slowly radiating boundless vitality.

At the very core of that spiritual vein, Li Changqing sensed a strange fluctuation that was different from that of the demonic wolves, more obscure and more ancient.

"It's not a ferocious beast."

Li Changqing opened his eyes, a hint of surprise flashing in them.

"This fluctuation carries traces of a human-made formation. Although it has been eroded by time and is in a dilapidated state, the method of setting up the formation is consistent with the Taoist tradition of the Central Plains."

He raised an eyebrow, a hint of interest stirring within him.

This new continent is separated from China by a vast ocean. How could there possibly be a formation set up by human hands?

Could it be that before the alchemists of the pre-Qin period two thousand years ago, someone had already set foot on this land?

Or perhaps, there are even deeper secrets hidden in this world?

"It seems that this new continent, besides gold, silver and spirit stones, also has some old stories worth exploring."

Li Changqing opened his folding fan and did not rashly venture into the cave to investigate.

Since the ancient formation is dilapidated and buried deep underground, disturbing it now might cause the earth's veins to tremble.

The army will arrive here in a few days to mine spirit stones.

It's better to wait until Wang Shouren and the Ming soldiers have established a firm foothold on this land before slowly dispelling this fog.

He found a flat boulder, swept away the dew with his sleeve, and sat down cross-legged.

He took a gourd from his waist that was filled with wine at some unknown time, and uncorked it.

He tilted his head back, facing the cold moonlight that pierced through the thick fog, and took a big gulp of spicy liquor.

A night breeze swept by, fluttering the hem of his blue robe.

In this desolate and foreign land, thousands of miles away from the Ming Dynasty, in this deep mountain forest full of ferocious beasts and spiritual veins.

He sat alone on the boulder, drinking coarse liquor.

There was no sound of court intrigue, nor any noise of the marketplace.

Only the vast spiritual energy of heaven and earth accompanies the eternally unchanging, cold and bright moon.

"Raising a cup to invite the bright moon, with my shadow, we become three." Li Bai must have felt the same way when he wrote this poem.

He chuckled and hung the gourd back on his waist.

The path to immortality is like this endless night.

Those soldiers, artisans, and merchants of the Ming Dynasty were the guiding lights he lit in the darkness.

He watched as the lights gathered in the mortal world, spreading like wildfire and illuminating the originally dark cultivation civilization.

This kind of pleasure is enough to soothe the loneliness brought on by those long years.

The east was gradually turning a pale white.

The faint light of dawn pierced through the thick fog of the New World and shone on the cliffs of Wolong Ridge.

Li Changqing stood up and brushed the morning dew off his blue robe.

He took one last look at the deep cave, turned and walked towards the gradually awakening Zhenhai Fortress below the mountain.