"I killed that… thing before I died. The hundred Blissful Ignorance Coins must be the reward," Sun Erlang said, quickly deducing the origin of his newfound wealth.
"What… what was that?" Wang Xuanba shuddered, instinctively clutching his chest, as if the phantom pain of the beast's claw piercing his heart still lingered.
"A dream? But it felt… so real."
Sun Erlang studied the floating text, hoping to find more information.
But there were no explanations, no instructions, only the bare facts of their… deaths and subsequent… resurrection?
"It seems we're on our own," he said, his expression grim.
"Let's return to the… dog-headed beast's world," Yue Zhenwei suggested. "Those beasts were roughly equal to us in strength. As long as we're careful, avoid being ambushed… we should be fine."
"I want revenge!" Wang Xuanba snarled, his eyes burning with a cold fury. "That cowardly attack…"
They set off towards the border of the Qiuxi Region.
Along the way, Sun Erlang noticed something. There were more cultivators here than before. And they weren't listless and depressed. They were gathered in small groups, their voices hushed, their expressions… serious. As if they were… planning something.
As they tried to approach, hoping to overhear their conversations, they realized that these cultivators weren't using sound or divine sense to communicate. It was… something else. Something they couldn't perceive.
"Perhaps we should ask them," Wang Xuanba suggested, his gaze fixed on a nearby group of five cultivators, their cultivation at the mid-Foundation Establishment stage.
"Don't be reckless," Yue Zhenwei cautioned. "If I'm not mistaken, these cultivators… they can also be resurrected. They're not afraid of death. Trying to force information out of them… it won't work."
"Let's focus on our original objective," Sun Erlang added.
Wang Xuanba, reluctantly, nodded.
Sun Erlang and Wang Xuanba, their skills honed within the Dao Discussion Platform, their confidence bolstered by their ability to effortlessly dismantle any formation they encountered outside the Great Xuan Small World, had grown… arrogant. It was only their humiliating defeat at the hands of those… beasts… that had tempered their pride, instilled a sense of caution.
They reached the place where they had… died.
And they froze, their eyes widening in surprise.
"The world… it's changed," Sun Erlang said, his voice hushed.
The familiar coastal landscape of Shilin Region, the massive stone near the shore… it was gone. Replaced by a… forest of swords. Thousands upon thousands of rusted blades, their points embedded in the earth, their forms swaying gently in the wind, their aura radiating a chilling, ancient power.
A low hum, a resonant vibration, echoed through the air as the swords trembled in unison, and Sun Erlang, as if hearing a voice, a whisper, instinctively ducked.
An invisible blade of energy, sharp as a razor, grazed his cheek, drawing blood. Ignoring the stinging pain, he retreated, his movements swift, his heart pounding. He stopped only when the sense of danger subsided. Had he been a moment slower…
"This world… it's more dangerous than the others," Yue Zhenwei murmured, his brow furrowed, his gaze fixed on the forest of swords.
They explored the other worlds bordering the Qiuxi Region - a deep, dark chasm, its depths echoing with unsettling sounds, and a realm that seemed to be… a demonic sect's territory, its inhabitants, over a thousand cultivators, their auras radiating a sinister, malevolent energy, engaged in unspeakable acts of cruelty.
They saw them feasting on human flesh, torturing mortals for their amusement, refining artifacts from human bones.
The sight made Wang Xuanba's blood boil. He wanted to charge in, to slaughter them all, to purify this… hellscape.
But he held back. He was impulsive, yes, but not stupid. He spat in the direction of the demonic sect, his disgust palpable.
They reconvened, their expressions grim.
"Do we try to gather information from the locals? Or explore more of these… worlds?"
"The cultivators here… they clearly understand the rules of this… Land of Blissful Ignorance. If we ask them directly, we risk exposing ourselves."
"We might not die, but… we could be trapped here. Forever."
"What about soul searching?" Wang Xuanba suggested eagerly. "The Celestial Teacher taught us that technique. I haven't tried it on a cultivator before, but… it might work."
"We're in a dream," Yue Zhenwei reminded him. "Soul searching… it might not be effective here."
They considered their options, then decided to try it.
"Find someone… isolated. Weak."
"Subdue them, then…"
They searched for hours, finally finding a suitable target.
A lone cultivator, their cultivation at the early Foundation Establishment stage, separated from their group, their movements frantic, their expression… lost.
"Now!"
They attacked simultaneously, their combined might aimed at the unsuspecting cultivator.
A black vortex of wind, a massive gray axe, and a shimmering purple sword, their power amplified by their Heavenly Wonders, a force capable of crippling even a Nascent Soul cultivator.
But to their astonishment, the attack… didn't even faze the Foundation Establishment cultivator.
Their target shimmered, the attacks passing through them harmlessly.
They stared at the three attackers, their eyes wide with disbelief, then stumbled back, their fear evident.
And Sun Erlang noticed the text before his eyes flicker.
There were no other changes.
Except for his Blissful Ignorance Coins.
They had dropped to zero.
His face twitched.
"Mine are… negative!" Wang Xuanba wailed. "I've lost a hundred!"
Yue Zhenwei's expression darkened. "Me too."
As they exchanged frantic messages, a white light enveloped the cultivator they had attacked. They glanced at them, their eyes filled with a mixture of pity and… disdain, then vanished.
Silence.
They stared at each other, their confusion quickly turning to… understanding.
"Another rule," Sun Erlang said, his voice grim. "We can't attack… each other. We're… the same. Those… beasts… the creatures in the other worlds… they're different. We're rewarded for killing them. But attacking each other…"
"We're punished." His earlier frustration faded, replaced by a cold, calculating determination. "We don't know what happens when we lose too many Blissful Ignorance Coins. But it's best to… avoid finding out. Let's go to one of those other worlds. Recoup our losses."
They abandoned the idea of soul searching.
What was the point, if they couldn't even touch their targets?
After a brief discussion, their frustration and anger simmering, they chose the most… unpleasant of the three worlds.
The demonic sect's territory.
"Those fools… using mortal bones to refine their artifacts," Wang Xuanba scoffed. "Their cultivation can't be that high."
"And their techniques… crude. Barbaric. They might be able to scare mortals, but against my axe…" He grinned, his confidence returning.
"Still, we should be careful," Yue Zhenwei cautioned, his gaze fixed on the floating text. "We've already died once. And I have a feeling… these deaths… they're more significant than those coins."
They set off, their formation tight, their weapons at the ready.
…
The demonic cultivators, their rituals interrupted by the sudden arrival of three intruders, stared at them, their expressions shifting from surprise to rage. They screamed, their words unintelligible, their voices a guttural cacophony, then charged, their auras radiating a malevolent energy.
They unleashed a wave of attacks, spectral figures of tortured souls, their forms twisted and grotesque, their cries echoing through the air.
"Die!" Wang Xuanba roared, his greataxe cleaving through the spectral figures, their power dissipating like smoke.
He continued his assault, his axe a blur of motion, each swing sending dozens of demonic cultivators flying, their bodies broken, their souls scattered.
He was reveling in the carnage, his bloodlust growing with each kill.
"Erlang, these fools are weaker than I thought!"
Sun Erlang, equally efficient in his slaughter, didn't reply. A familiar sense of unease, a prickling sensation on the edge of his awareness, made him pause.
Like the headless beast…
He scanned the area, his gaze searching for… something… his blade still dripping with blood, his movements precise, methodical.
"Look!" Yue Zhenwei's voice, sharp and urgent, cut through the din of battle.
A massive statue, its form imposing, its aura radiating a chilling malevolence, had appeared in the center of the demonic sect's compound. It hadn't been there before. Not when they had observed this world from the outside. Not even when they had first arrived.
It had materialized silently, unnoticed, during the chaos of their assault.
It was formed from countless corpses, their bodies fused together, their limbs twisted and contorted, their faces… gone.
Only their hands remained, hundreds of them, reaching outwards, their fingers grasping, their movements… unsettling.
And with each demonic cultivator they killed, another pair of hands would emerge from the statue's surface, as if it was… consuming them, absorbing their essence.
Sun Erlang hesitated, his blade slowing.
But the demonic cultivators, their frenzy unchecked, continued their assault, unfazed by their comrades' deaths, even picking up the scattered body parts, stuffing them into their mouths as they charged, their eyes burning with a manic intensity.
"What do we do?" Sun Erlang asked, his voice low and urgent. "Kill them, or…"
It was clear that killing these cultivators was… fueling the statue's growth, the number of hands emerging from its surface increasing exponentially.
"Kill," he said, his voice hardening with resolve.
A swirling vortex of purple energy erupted from his blade, a dragon of pure power, its head snapping out, consuming thousands of demonic cultivators, clearing a path before them.
But the gap was quickly filled by more attackers, their numbers seemingly endless.
Fortunately, they weren't infinite. Slowly, gradually, their numbers dwindled under the combined assault of the three Great Xuan disciples.
The air grew thick with the stench of blood, a cloying, metallic scent that clung to them, invading their senses, their very souls, despite their efforts to block it.
The ground was covered in gore, the remnants of shattered bodies, the demonic sect's compound transformed into a… charnel house. And the ground itself seemed to be… absorbing the blood, drinking it in, its color deepening.
Sun Erlang's hand trembled as he fought to control his breathing, his body exhausted.
These demonic cultivators were weak, individually, but their sheer numbers… even if they had simply stood there and allowed themselves to be slaughtered, it would have taken them hours, days perhaps, to kill them all.
"If I were at the Nascent Soul stage… this wouldn't even be a challenge," he thought, his frustration growing. "With a Grotto-Heaven to replenish my spiritual energy… I wouldn't even need to move."
Then, a sudden realization struck him.
"This… this is… controlled difficulty?"
Now, only the massive statue remained, its presence dominating the desolate landscape.
They had tried to destroy it earlier, but an invisible barrier had prevented them from approaching.
They could only wait.
The ground trembled, the entire compound shaking violently.
The statue, previously motionless, came to life, its head lowering, its gaze fixed on the three intruders.
A pair of hands detached from its face, falling to the ground.
Then another, and another.
A rain of severed hands, their forms pale and lifeless, their touch… cold.
They shielded themselves from the falling limbs, their gazes fixed on the statue, their expressions grim as its true form was revealed.
A massive pig's head, its features… serene. Compassionate. Its eyes filled with a mournful sadness, as if… pitying them. As if they had committed some… unforgivable sin.
A sudden surge of anger, an irrational fury, coursed through Wang Xuanba.
He sensed the invisible barrier that had been blocking their path… vanish.
"I'll turn that pig's head into… soup!" he roared, his greataxe expanding, its size matching that of the statue.
He swung, his attack aimed at the statue's head, his intent… murderous.
The statue didn't move, didn't even flinch. Its mournful gaze remained fixed on them as it opened its mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth.
It caught the axe, its teeth sinking into the metal, then… it bit down.
The axe shattered, exploding into fragments of gray energy that were quickly… consumed by the statue, its massive jaws chewing, grinding.
Wang Xuanba gasped, a mouthful of blood spraying from his lips, his eyes widening, then… hardening with a desperate resolve.
"Explode!"
The gray energy within the statue's mouth erupted, swirling, expanding, threatening to tear it apart from within.
But the statue simply inhaled, drawing the energy inwards, absorbing it, its form solidifying, its aura strengthening.
Wang Xuanba stared in disbelief.
That axe… it wasn't an ordinary artifact. It was his Natal Artifact, the Mottled Time Axe, a gift from the Celestial Teacher, one of the three most valuable treasures awarded to the top disciples on the Dao Discussion Platform.
His Golden Core cultivation was based on his understanding of this axe's power, its connection to the Law of Time, its ability to… inflict wounds that aged their target, accelerating the flow of time within their bodies.
But the statue… it had absorbed the axe's power, its essence, without any ill effects.
His connection to his Natal Artifact severed, Wang Xuanba's aura flickered, his strength draining away, his body collapsing. He was alive, but barely, his injuries severe, his fighting spirit… extinguished.
It had all happened so fast.
Sun Erlang and Yue Zhenwei hadn't even had time to react.
"Something's not right," Sun Erlang whispered, using a private communication channel, while the statue was still… digesting.
"These worlds… they're trials. Tests. But that statue… its power… it's beyond even a Nascent Soul cultivator. For us, at the Golden Core stage… it's a death trap. An impossible challenge. And trials… they're meant to be… overcome."
"We've missed something," Yue Zhenwei agreed, his gaze sweeping across the desolate landscape, searching for… a clue.
The statue's aura pulsed erratically as it absorbed the Time Axe's power, its form shifting, as if on the verge of a breakthrough.
"We're running out of time," Sun Erlang muttered, his eyes scanning the area.
They had already searched the compound thoroughly. There were no other clues, nothing but corpses and… the statue.
"Where… where is the key?"
He forced himself to calm down, his mind racing, replaying the events that had led to this… dead end. From the moment they had entered this world, to the start of the battle, to… now. He slowed time, dissecting each moment, searching for… an anomaly. A pattern.
"The Celestial Teacher said, 'Change arises from adversity.'"
"To these demonic cultivators, we are the adversity, the unexpected variable. But our power is limited. We can kill them, yes, but we cannot defeat the statue. So…" His eyes widened, a spark of understanding igniting within them. "We need to… create more adversity! More chaos!"
"And that chaos… it can't come from us. It has to come from…"
He understood. He turned to Yue Zhenwei, his voice urgent. "Ignore the statue! Attack the sky!"
A swirling vortex of black energy, his Natal Artifact, the Annihilation Shattering Wind, a gift from the Celestial Teacher, erupted from his body, merging with his form as he soared into the sky.
The statue, sensing his intent, its usually serene, compassionate expression twisting into a mask of rage and… fear, roared, its voice shaking the very foundations of this world.
It was about to attack when a blade of purple light, Yue Zhenwei's Natal Artifact, the Vast Dark Purple Sky Sword, also a gift from the Celestial Teacher, intercepted it.
The purple light, shimmering, pulsing, its energy like the rising sun, its aura radiating a pure, cleansing power, halted the statue's advance, its movement faltering, its attention divided.
And in that brief moment of hesitation, Sun Erlang's black wind struck the sky above.
Cracks appeared, spiderwebbing across the… artificial heavens, the simulated sun above shattering like a broken mirror.
The sky crumbled, revealing the… truth.
They were within a cave. A large, dark, and… ordinary cave.
The statue roared in fury, its voice filled with… despair.
But it no longer cared about them. Its attention was focused on… something else.
A light, a spark of energy, detached from the statue, attempting to flee.
"You will not escape!" A voice, booming like thunder, echoed through the cave.
A bolt of purple lightning, appearing out of nowhere, struck the fleeing light, annihilating it.
Sun Erlang glimpsed its form before it vanished – a small, pig-like creature, its features… almost… human.
The lightning vanished, its purpose fulfilled, leaving behind… silence.
There were no other living beings within the demonic sect's territory.
Sun Erlang, his strength depleted, his body trembling with exhaustion, leaned against his blade, his mind… numb.
Wang Xuanba and Yue Zhenwei, their relief palpable, exchanged confused glances.
"That's it? We… won?"
"We didn't even need to fight that… pig monster. We just… broke the sky, and… a lightning bolt killed it?"
"So… all that effort… for nothing?" Wang Xuanba coughed, a bitter smile on his face.
The world around them froze, then shattered, like a million pieces of glass breaking simultaneously.
Countless images, fragments of other worlds, other realities, flooded their minds, their senses overwhelmed.
Then…
…they were back.
In the Qiuxi Region. In the Land of Blissful Ignorance.
"I'm… healed?" Wang Xuanba, who had been on the verge of death, his cultivation reduced to the Qi Refinement stage, was back to his peak Golden Core state, his injuries gone, as if the battle, the near-death experience, had been… a dream.
But it was more than just a dream.
"The sky… it's back to normal," Yue Zhenwei observed.
"And my Blissful Ignorance Coins… they're positive again! Two hundred!" Wang Xuanba cheered, examining the floating text.
Though they still didn't understand the purpose of these coins…
Sun Erlang's gaze was fixed on the text before his eyes.
Sun Erlang. Peak Golden Core. Deaths: 1.
Land of Blissful Ignorance Experience Level: 1.
Blissful Ignorance Coins: 500.
A small progress bar had appeared beside his Experience Level, almost 30% filled.
And within his mind… something new.
"Humans… the pinnacle of creation."
"The human brain… consuming it enhances wisdom."
"The human liver… consuming it improves eyesight."
"The human kidneys…"
A litany of… instructions, devoid of any malice or sinister intent, simply… facts, their truth… undeniable.
And with these instructions, memories, sensations, the taste of… human organs… flooded his senses, so vivid, so real, that he gagged, his stomach churning.
He doubled over, retching, his body wracked with convulsions.
Wang Xuanba and Yue Zhenwei stared at him, their concern quickly turning to… disgust.
When he finally regained his composure, his face pale, his body trembling, he explained what he had experienced.
Their faces paled.
"Erlang," Wang Xuanba asked hesitantly, "you're not going to… start eating people, are you?"
"This… Spirit Devouring Technique… it must be the technique used by that… pig monster. Completing a trial… it allows us to… bring something back. Something from that world." Yue Zhenwei's eyes widened with understanding.
"Try using it," he suggested.
Wang Xuanba shuddered.
Sun Erlang, after a moment of hesitation, nodded. He closed his eyes, focusing his will, suppressing his nausea, and… tried.
He opened his eyes, his gaze meeting Yue Zhenwei's. "I don't sense any others cultivating this technique."
Yue Zhenwei stroked his chin, a thoughtful frown creasing his brow. "The Land of Blissful Ignorance has existed for millennia. And yet, no one else cultivates this… Spirit Devouring Technique…"
"I understand," Wang Xuanba said, his expression hardening. "There's something… wrong with it."
Sun Erlang shook his head. "That's not the point. This technique… it's not just for consuming humans. It can be used to… absorb the essence of any… living being."
"It's not as refined as the Celestial Teacher's teachings, but it's still… a powerful technique. More than enough to reach Nascent Soul, perhaps even beyond, if one is… diligent. Resourceful."
Wang Xuanba's eyes widened. "A powerful technique… placed within a trial meant for… newcomers… and yet, no one else cultivates it…"
"There are two possibilities. Either the laws of the Land of Blissful Ignorance are different. Perhaps the 'Dao cannot be shared' rule… doesn't apply here."
"Or… these dream worlds… they're constantly changing, evolving. Perhaps the world we encountered… it was… newly formed."
(End of Chapter)