Later, on the same day—
"…"
Entering the lotus garden—that is the craft of an illusion magic array, Long Hua immediately sees Bai Wen and Zhen Huai sitting down at the stone table.
"Long-xiong, you…?"
Noticing that Long Hua's cultivation base has increased by a whole realm, Zhen Huai can't help but look to the former with sheer astonishment, while thinking—
(It hasn't even been a month since he broke through into the Foundation Establishment realm…)
Knowing exactly how difficult it is to cultivate in the Leng Bing Realm—only serves to strengthen Zhen Huai's astonishment of Long Hua's growth.
Seating himself down with Tian Cheng, Long Hua looks to the two with an odd light in his eyes, and asks—
"You two… Wouldn't happen to be weapon spirits as well, would you?"
As Zhen Huai shakes his head, he decides to leave the two to their own devices, while sipping a cup of tea in leisure.
Raising a chuckle, Bai Wen answers—
"Although there's plenty of weapon spirits out there, every worker in this village isn't one of them."
"…I see. So, how does this Partial-Apotheosis nonsense of theirs work? My current thoughts on handling them is to seal them, or cut off their head, and keep it separated from their body."
"Sounds about right. The main thing to keep in mind—is to make them certain of their death, which can be difficult to do, if their force of will is sturdy."
Hearing this from Bai Wen, Long Hua sinks into thought, and mutters—
"Convince them that they had died… Hmm."
"The laws of the Leng Bing Realm are what allow these weapon spirits to revive. Each revival can take a great deal of energy out of them. If you kill them to the point of them reaching that exhaustion point, they'd die upon their next death. Also, they can still feel pain in that state; inflicting immense pain, and whittling down their minds is another means of doing so."
"…Sounds like how a beast would be tamed."
Nodding his head, Bai Wen adds—
"Exactly, these weapon spirits and their bodies, they were all made by the Ling Yuan Ancestor to become a core foundation of his family. And due to the Ling Yuan Ancestor's reputation, as the Everlasting Spirit Realm's number one weapon smith, even an ordinary magic treasure—from the Leng Bing Realm, would fetch a substantial amount of wealth at an auction. However… Well, you've already experienced what it's like to fight one. So, you know the risks involved."
"…So, the frontline of the outer domain basically serves as a farm?"
Shrugging a shoulder, Bai Wen replies—
"Pretty much. In any case, now that you know a bit more about this realm, I can divulge a few more details to you, Lao Long."
"…Go on then."
Gathering his thoughts, Bai Wen explains—
"The reason why the Leng Bing Realm is separated into two domains—three, if you count the central domain; regardless, it's because the inner domain was originally supposed to be the place where the souls of foreign invaders were kept. I won't go too into details on the war that occurred in the distant past, as a result of these foreign invaders' arrival right now. However, the term "Sinner" was originally coined as a way to refer to these people. On the other hand, the outer domain, it was where the souls of the Everlasting Spirit Realm's natives were to be held. These natives were what you might consider to be a low-life criminal, or… Someone paid good money to have their souls be imprisoned here. Circumstances may vary depending on the individual, but wouldn't know without asking them—assuming that they would even be able to remember their life as a practitioner, after being reincarnated as a weapon spirit for the hundredth time."
Raising a chuckle, Long Hua can't help but remark—
"What a creative prison. I guess that little girl's situation isn't anything unique then?"
"It's all too common. Anyways, the inner domain eventually ripped their way into the outer domain, and from there, a second war between natives and foreigners began. Except this time, everyone's a weapon spirit and not a practitioner. Eventually, everything turned into a chaotic mess, so it's impossible to say who's a native and who's a foreigner at this point. Those ruins, as the hall calls them, they're actually sites of the previous world prior to the reset—areas that were fortunate enough to be excluded from the wipe-out phenomenon, or managed to avoid getting most of itself wiped away. Having said all that, you're able to guess why a wipe-out phenomenon happens now, right?"
Nodding his head, Long Hua replies—
"Crop harvesting season for the Ling Yuan family. A wipe-out needs to occur for the soil to settle afterwards."
"Correct. Hmm, I think that's all I've got. Anything else is either trivial information, or just stuff that you'd probably not be interested in."
As an odd gleam emanates from Long Hua's eyes, he remarks—
"…A rather distasteful bastard, this Ling Yuan Ancestor, isn't he?"
Laughing subtly, Bai Wen replies—
"I have to agree. Can you imagine what all the denizens of this world would think—if they realized that their own child, who they had given birth to, through the laws of this world, was actually someone that they had personally killed in the distant past, when they were still practitioners?"
"…"
Imagining this, Long Hua pinches the bridge of his nose. The situation that Bai Wen mentioned could go in reverse as well, making it all the more twisted.
Heaving a sigh, Long Hua says—
"Speaking of the Ling Yuan family, my increase in cultivation base this time is because I devoured the core and Nascent Soul of a person named Wang Bei Mu."
"Ah… I see. Yeah, that will definitely get the Ling Yuan family to start keeping a closer eye on the situation in this world, since they have records of that person's last known location, and the jade slip that contains their divine sense."
Out of curiosity, Long Hua asks—
"Shouldn't he be surnamed ling instead of wang?"
Shaking his head, Bai Wen answers—
"Lao Long, the Ling Yuan family, it's a giant mix pot of different families that had come together under the Ling Yuan Ancestor; there's over a hundred branches from the wangs to the qings. Think of the words "Ling Yuan" as referring to an organization, instead of an actual practitioner household. The reason Ling Yuan was picked—you can easily guess."
"…Because they trust the Ling Yuan Ancestor, but distrust one another; hence, Ling Yuan is used as a means to tie themselves together as one?"
"Something like that."
Pausing in thought, Long Hua eventually turns his attention to Zhen Huai, and says—
"To make my next breakthrough, I require the power of the five elements. Making matters worse, I need to reach perfect mastery on all of them."