Chapter 140: The Primordial Forbidden Land
Hong Chenji slowly exhaled a turbid breath, his voice hoarse. "I am now afflicted with the Five Declines of Heaven and Man. My death is near… Do you know why?"
Ji Hongli idly played with her hair. "I do not."
Hong Chenji ignored her indifference and continued. "Because I once went to a certain place…"
He raised his eyes to study Ji Hongli. Seeing her still uninterested, he pronounced each word clearly: "Beyond the Northwestern Sea, at the edge of the Great Wilderness, there stands a mountain split and unjoined. It is called Buzhou."
"What?!"
For the first time, Ji Hongli's usually lazy eyes snapped wide open.
Seeing this, Hong Chenji's lips twisted into a bitter smile. "That's right… I went to the Primordial Forbidden Land—Buzhou Mountain."
His words fell like thunder. Even the air in the hall seemed to freeze.
The casual aura around Ji Hongli instantly vanished, replaced by a suffocating pressure.
She stared at Hong Chenji, her voice for the first time weighted with gravity. "You actually dared… to set foot there?"
…
The Xuan Ying Continent was vast beyond measure. The names of the Seven Forbidden Lands had shaken the ages.
Yet few knew that these seven were divided into two kinds.
Four of them had formed from anomalies of the current era.
Places such as the Ten Thousand Ghosts Cavern—dangerous indeed, but still ventured into by reckless cultivators.
Over the ages, many had seized unimaginable opportunities there and returned alive.
In modern times, that cavern had even been occupied and developed by the Ghost Suppressing Army, its dread gradually fading.
But the other three were different. They had existed since the primordial age, feared as the Three Ancient Forbidden Lands.
These were places that even Saint Realm experts at the peak would blanch to hear of!
They were: Guixu, Kunlun, and… Buzhou Mountain.
According to legend—
Guixu devoured all things, even time itself. Kunlun was ethereal and elusive; all who entered would be lost forever.
But most mysterious of all was Buzhou Mountain: "Beyond the Northwestern Sea, at the edge of the Great Wilderness, there stands a mountain split and unjoined. It is called Buzhou."
Ancient records claimed Buzhou was once the Celestial Pillar of the primordial world, a bridge between the mortal realm and the Immortal Realm.
After the heaven-shattering cataclysm, Buzhou was cast adrift into endless void beyond the continent, vanishing from sight.
When the bridge between upper and lower realms collapsed, mighty beings once sought Buzhou to rebuild that connection. None ever returned. Then, countless years later, the mountain suddenly reappeared at the northwest of Xuan Ying.
But by then, Buzhou had become a forbidden land.
Even Saint Realm cultivators who approached it would go mad without reason.
One Saint Realm pinnacle forced his way inside. Three days later, his soul-lamp was extinguished. His avatar, left outside the mountain, bled from all seven orifices, shrieking "Do not gaze upon it!" before exploding.
Even the demon race once lost a Saint Sovereign to Buzhou.
Now, hearing Hong Chenji claim he had entered that mountain and returned alive—how could Ji Hongli not be shocked?
Hong Chenji's withered fingers tapped lightly on the armrest. His hoarse but resolute voice continued: "The two matters I spoke of are thus. The first is my experience within Buzhou Mountain. I have told no one. I meant to take it with me to the grave. The second…" He paused. "When I fall, I ask that my body be buried in Immortal Spirit City."
"Ancestor, reconsider!"
Hong Tianque leapt to his feet, the muscles in his face twitching violently.
"Reconsider, my ass!" Hong Chenji roared. His cloudy eyes burst with terrifying light. "The Hong family now faces annihilation. If this can purchase even a sliver of survival, why not?!"
Hong Tianque staggered back two steps, his face twisted in genuine grief and despair.
His expression was no act—for the resting place of a fallen Saint was among the greatest fortunes in all the world!
A Saint was one who seized heaven's creation itself. At the moment of their death, their life's cultivation, Dao resonance, and laws all flowed back into the world, forming a unique Dao-Fall Land.
Just like a whale's fall in the ocean—when one whale dies, life blossoms for ten thousand.
Their blood becomes spirit springs. Their bones give birth to mineral veins. Their hair grows into rare herbs and flowers.
What was even more precious was the fragments of the Great Dao scattered at the death of a Saint. These would condense into a unique Dao Mark Domain. Cultivating there was equivalent to directly comprehending the life-long insights of a Saint Realm powerhouse!
Rarest of all was the Dao Burial, performed with the Saint's own will.
Just like the condition Hong Chenji now proposed—if he willingly chose to dissolve in Immortal Spirit City, not only would a cultivation holy land be created, but a trace of Dao Spirit would remain to guard it.
That was equivalent to gifting Immortal Spirit City a living Saint's inheritance!
Ji Hongli, for once, fell into deep thought.
The hall grew deathly quiet. Everyone held their breath, waiting for this peerless powerhouse's decision.
At last, her red lips parted. "Interesting…" A flicker of amusement shone in her eyes. "A willing Dao Burial Saint truly is of greater value than destroying the Hong clan."
"But…" Ji Hongli's tone shifted suddenly. Her lips curved with playful mischief. "Since it was my little disciple who was bullied, let her decide."
"Me?" Chen Xingcai's eyes widened, her finger unconsciously pointing to herself. In an instant, every gaze in the hall pierced her like arrows, making her feel prickled and uneasy.
Ji Hongli gave a small nod. "Yes. You will decide."
Chen Xingcai drew a deep breath, thought for a moment, her eyes spinning quickly, then suddenly broke into a bright smile.
"The second condition may be generous, but—" she straightened her back, her clear voice ringing like a bell. "I, Chen Xingcai, along with my senior brothers and sisters—are we not all geniuses of heaven? We do not need the corpse of some old man to achieve greatness!"
She lifted her chin proudly. "Master often says: the true strong forge themselves into the furnace, with heaven and earth as the fire, to refine the supreme Dao. To rely on outside power is to fall to the lower path! Even if one day I prove the Dao of Saint, I will carve my own road!"
"And besides…" she wrinkled her nose in disgust. "Burying an old man who makes people uncomfortable in our home? Just thinking about it is gross."
"You!" Hong Tianque erupted in fury, his true essence surging violently.
"Hahahaha!" But Hong Chenji suddenly burst into wild laughter. His gaze swept across Hong Tianque and Hong Longxiang, finally resting on Chen Xingcai. With a long sigh he muttered, "Pity, pity…"
"So then…" Chen Xingcai blinked her eyes playfully. "I choose the first condition."
"Good!" Hong Chenji agreed without hesitation, then turned to Ji Hongli.
Ji Hongli nodded. "I said the decision lay with my disciple. Naturally, it stands."
Chen Xingcai instantly perked up, her face full of expectation.
But then, her master waved a hand. The world seemed pressed into silence, even the air frozen still.
Now she could only see Hong Chenji's lips moving—yet not a single sound reached her ears.
She pouted, clearly displeased.
So after all that talk, she was the one to choose—yet she couldn't hear a thing!
But the next instant—
Ji Hongli's voice sounded softly by her ear. "Be good. This is not something you can touch yet."
…
On the other side, with a flick of Ji Hongli's jade hand, an invisible barrier instantly enveloped the two of them, cutting off every outside sense.
Only then did Hong Chenji let out a long sigh of relief.
"Speak," Ji Hongli said.
"As it should be," Hong Chenji nodded. His voice suddenly turned distant, as though drifting across countless years. "That year… I had pushed the Ancestral Dragon Fist to its ninth and highest level. My heart was arrogant, my pride without restraint."
A glimmer of memory passed through his clouded eyes. "I heard then that the old monster of the Zhao clan had just come out of seclusion. I went to meet him. But upon arrival, I was told he had gone to the southwestern wilderness…"
"Strange though it was, I calculated a moment of fate and found that I too had fortune waiting in the southwest. So I followed heaven's signs and set out in pursuit…"
…
(Don't worry—the protagonist has not yet appeared.)
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