Chapter 184: Chapter 107: Mountain Sea Has Spirit (Part 2)

So it seemed.

The Immortal Arrival was imminent.

Atop the Heaven-Ascension Tower, Mr. Dayu Shu had also awakened.

"An Earth Spirit!"

"To think the World in the Palm has also given birth to an Earth Spirit!"

"Slay him!"

"I can’t be the only one to die!"

From the shattered wine gourd at Su Chen’s waist, an enraged voice roared.

It was the Celestial Will.

The last remaining wisp of Celestial Will after he had slain the heavens.

This was a tremendous Creation.

Refining it would grant a mouthful of Heavenly Dao Dragon Qi.

It was similar to the first mouthful of Mountain River Dragon Qi that burst forth in the Human World when the Dynasty was unified.

Obtaining it would guarantee entry into the Innate Realm.

And one would become one of the strongest within the Innate Realm.

"Where is the Immortal Footprint?"

The sword in Su Chen’s hand did not lower. He stared intently at the Earth Spirit Elder.

One year!

He had been searching for one year!

And for one year, the Earth Spirit had blocked him.

This was Cloud Concealment Mountain.

But it didn’t match the letter left by Zhang Gui, nor the childhood memories of the Black Abyss Sect Leader.

Zhang Gui had fallen from a cliff!

The Black Abyss Sect Leader had gotten lost in the mountain range!

"Leap from the summit, and you will find the entrance to the Human World’s Supreme Treasure, the Immortal Pavilion..."

"However, the Immortal Path has Five Heavens, and the Immortal Pavilion also has Five Heavens. They correspond to Qi Cultivation, Foundation Establishment, Golden Core, Nascent Soul, Divinity Transformation, and Daoist Venerable..."

"Sword Immortal, you have already achieved Extreme Dao Ascension. Why trouble yourself to seek the Immortal Footprint?"

"If you take this leap and enter the fourth heaven of the Immortal Pavilion—the Foundation Establishment Immortal Pavilion—as an Extreme Realm Immortal, I fear you will find it difficult to even make it out alive..."

The old man tried to persuade him.

While speaking, he swung his plow and harrow, sowing seeds into the earth.

The scene around the two of them was constantly shifting.

One moment, it was a canyon.

The next, a sheer cliff.

Then a continuous mountain range.

Only the single, illusory, heaven-reaching Hibiscus Tree remained unchanged.

This was not an Immortal Skill!

It was a technique, almost akin to the "Dao," that the Earth Spirit possessed from its mastery over the mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas.

With its feet on the ground, it was a Dao Platform!

In a way, it was even more powerful than the Celestial Will.

At the very least, Su Chen felt that this Earth Spirit had been born even before the Celestial Will came into being.

And the Celestial Will had never even noticed it.

The fact that such a world-altering opportunity on Cloud Concealment Mountain was unknown to the Dynasty, without a single word of it recorded, was likely related to this Earth Spirit’s guardianship.

"I have to save my friend!"

From the peak of Cloud Concealment Mountain, Su Chen looked down and indeed saw a sprawling, bustling immortal domain. It was filled with the furtive figures of Immortals, some in black robes, others in white, all wreathed in white mist.

This was a Workshop.

It was not the World in the Palm.

These were true Cultivators from the Human World.

"I must ask you, Senior Earth Spirit, to protect my friend."

Su Chen set down Yu Le’s corpse.

"What’s in it for me?" the old man asked.

"I won’t slay you."

With that said, Su Chen leaped from the mountain peak.

He left the old man standing there, stunned.

After a long moment, the Earth Spirit began to curse under his breath.

"This junior is too arrogant! He has no respect for his elders. He’ll trip and fall sooner or later!"

However, the Earth Spirit was helpless.

That sword strike was too powerful! It was on par with a Dao Platform!

It could slay the heavens!

So naturally, it could harm him.

This was why he had gone to the trouble of using the Mountain Range Dao Skill for a year to keep Su Chen out of Cloud Concealment Mountain. He wanted to make the Sword Immortal understand that while he had a connection to the Immortal Fate of Cloud Concealment Mountain, it was not his destiny to obtain it.

Unfortunately, Su Chen didn’t believe in things like fate.

Seeing that his Longevity True Qi was running out and Yu Le’s Vitality was about to dissipate, he had become desperate.

He had drawn his third sword.

He was about to cut down this endless mountain range.

"Back then, I shouldn’t have been so soft-hearted. Seeing that you were an orphan of the Zhu Country, I let you into the Immortal Pavilion to seek your fortune..."

"I hid for a thousand years, and just when I was on the verge of success, I was exposed."

"The seeds of cause sown twenty years ago have now borne fruit!"

"Zhu Gui, didn’t you promise me that even in death, you would never tell another soul about the opportunity on Cloud Concealment Mountain?"

The Earth Spirit Elder sighed.

He rummaged around in the tilled soil and dug out a seed.

The seed transformed into a red-robed Soul Shadow. He was tall and handsome, with a cold and stern demeanor, but his gaze was filled with a sense of loss as he looked at Yu Le’s body, which Su Chen had left behind.

"He has a new friend."

"That’s good."

"Has it really been twenty years?"

"It seems he’s become very powerful, for you to meet with him personally, Tree Ancestor..."

The red-robed Soul Shadow was smiling.

He looked in the direction Su Chen had leaped, clasping his hands behind his back and revealing a gentle smile, just as he had in years past.

"To me..."

"he is far more important than life and death..."

He was the Earth Soul of Zhang Gui.

Every fated person who went to the Immortal Pavilion carried a great fortune from the Human World and was destined to be a tide-turner who would stir up the Human World. So, the Earth Spirit waited here, taking one of the three souls—the Earth Soul—from each fated person and planting it in the tilled fields.

Using the Mountain River Daoist Technique, he intercepted thirty percent of that person’s fortune from the Human World...

"Good? What’s good about it!"

The old man’s face was wracked with worry.

He gazed at the illusory, heaven-reaching Hibiscus Tree that pierced the clouds.

If not for the fact that his main body was absorbing the Spiritual Qi from the Five Heavens of the Immortal Pavilion and was too deeply rooted to move, he would have fled without a moment’s hesitation the instant the Wind Snow Sword Immortal came toward the mountains after slaying the heavens.

"Is... is he very powerful now?"

The red-robed Earth Soul had been buried in the soil for so long that he was ignorant of the affairs of the Human World.

Only now did he belatedly realize that in the eyes of this Tree Ancestor, who was recorded in the secret lore of the Zhu Country’s royal family, there was no appreciation—only apprehension and a deep-seated fear.

"Powerful?"

"Sigh."

The Earth Spirit sighed again.

He was far beyond ’powerful.’

As an Earth Spirit, he was skilled in the art of observing fortune. He had used this art to intercept the fortunes of many prodigies of the Human Race, transforming them into the soil of these tilled fields and combining it with true Spiritual Qi from the Human World to nourish his own body for many years.

"In my long life, I, the Tree Ancestor, have observed the fortunes of many people."

"Even the two monstrous prodigies from the Immortal and Demon Sects who descended a thousand years ago—I have seen their fortunes. One was like a blazing Great Sun standing between heaven and earth, impossible to look at directly. The other was like a Demon Star glittering across the world; gazing upon it for too long would drive even me to madness."

"But his fortune..."

The Earth Spirit closed his eyes, as if not wanting Zhu Gui to see his loss of composure, or the shock and terror deep within his eyes.

The first time he had sensed this person was in the Eighth Year of Great Liang Jianwu.

In that year, the Purple Robe of the Human World, Zhang Gui, died.

The world grew dim, and the blazing sun lost its light.

In that moment, he was startled awake. He gazed out across a hundred thousand li of mountains and rivers, and finally, in the depths of the Imperial Capital’s palace, he caught a fleeting glimpse of a particular fortune.

No!

It couldn’t be called fortune.

It was a sapling! A fortune that was like the Dao itself.

He could not comprehend it.

But he was utterly shaken!

The two monstrous prodigies were destined to be undying. Once they broke free from the Palm of the Human World, they could enter the Golden Core realm and had hopes of reaching Nascent Soul, becoming future Immortal Demon Giants. But in the face of his fortune, they were like the light of a firefly...

No!

The blazing sun and the Demon Star both paled in comparison.

Not a single trace of their brilliance remained.

Even now, with the Three Fortunes of Heaven, Earth, and Man erupting from the Palm of the Human World, their combined might was merely equivalent to the blazing sun and Demon Star of the Immortal Demons, far from being comparable to this one fortune.

Perhaps only a figure from the legends, one with the potential to reach Divinity Transformation or even become a Daoist Venerable, could possess such a fortune.

"Zhu Gui, how have I treated you?"

"Never mind."

"It’s not important."

"Do you want to live a second life?"

"How about I send you to the true Human World!"

"There, even with only an Earth Soul remaining, you can still practice the Ghost Dao! You’ll have a sliver of hope to become a Ghost General or a Ghost King, on par with Foundation Establishment and Golden Core cultivators! To live a second life!"

The old man opened his eyes and looked at Zhu Gui, as if terrified that if he were a step too late, Su Chen would return and discover that he had imprisoned his dear friend’s Earth Soul in these fields to serve as Nourishment.

Above the tilled fields, the red-robed Soul Shadow stood with his hands behind his back, seemingly lost in thought. His stern eyes softened as he looked down from Cloud Concealment Mountain, his gaze falling upon Yu Le’s corpse.

"Alright!"

He had made his decision.

Even in death, he could not forget the affairs of the Human World.

Great Liang was already destroyed!

Since that was the case, he would go and live a second life!

He was willing, even if he were to die along the way.

From deep within the mountains, from the Imperial Mausoleum of the Zhu Country, the coffin that had been interred not long ago was propelled by countless tons of soil, traveling a thousand li in an instant and rising up from the tilled field.

The coffin lid opened.

It revealed the white-haired corpse inside.

"Just like the old man and the infant from seven years ago."

"Step into the Immortal Pavilion! Borrow a path to the Human World!"

"Go!"

The red-robed Soul Shadow turned into a seed, merged into the white-haired corpse, and sat up. He cupped his hands in a salute to the Earth Spirit, then also leaped from the peak of Cloud Concealment Mountain, heading for the Human World’s Supreme Treasure, the Immortal Pavilion.

’This should be enough to turn hostility into friendship,’ the old man thought.

But just as he was thinking this, he discovered that below Cloud Concealment Mountain, the entire Immortal Pavilion that Su Chen had entered was trembling.

Faintly, it seemed as if battle cries were shaking the heavens.

’Are they... fighting?’

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.