The middle-aged man who had appeared slowly walked toward Li Yan and continued to speak slowly, "Before I grant you this great fortune, let me briefly tell you the origin of this place." Then, as Li Yan listened, the veil over the secret realm was slowly lifted.
This secret realm was just as Li Yan had sensed; the Five Elements spiritual qi existed in an orderly fashion, arranged as Earth, Metal, Water, Wood, and Fire. Its creator was True Lord Heishui, the Sect Master of the Ji Earth Immortal Sect, one of the Five Immortal Sects in the Spirit Immortal Realm. This middle-aged man was the artifact spirit of a magical treasure that True Lord Heishui carried with him. His name was Pingtu. He had followed True Lord Heishui for hundreds of thousands of years and knew many things.
According to Pingtu's speculation, True Lord Heishui should have arrived in the Mortal Realm sometime between two and three million years ago. He had also come to find an inheritor for the Ji Earth Immortal Sect in the Mortal Realm. At that time, the various sects of the Five Immortal Sects were sparsely populated. The Ji Earth Immortal Sect had four cultivators, the Gui Water Immortal Sect had three, the Yi Wood Immortal Sect had only two, the Ding Fire Immortal Sect had five, and the Xin Metal Immortal Sect had three. When these people cultivated to at least the Spirit Transformation realm, they could freely choose whether to go out and search for sect inheritors. Upon reaching the Body Integration realm, they were required to go out and help the sect find inheritors.
At that time, the Sect Master of the Ji Earth Immortal Sect, True Lord Qianchong, had reached the mid-stage of the Body Integration realm. The other two members of his sect had also reached the early stage of the Body Integration realm. They constantly went out separately to search for sect inheritors, leaving only one Void Refining cultivator behind to guard the mountain gate. At that time, among the three members of the Gui Water Immortal Sect, only the Sect Master, True Lord Heishui, had reached the late stage of the Body Integration realm. He was so powerful that even ordinary Great Ascension realm cultivators had to be wary of him. Below True Lord Heishui were two junior brothers: one who had just entered the early stage of the Body Integration realm, named Shi Ligui, and another junior brother who had joined later, Dong Fuyi, who was only at the mid-stage of the Spirit Transformation realm at the time. The other sects were mostly in a similar situation. However, they had one thing in common: the previous generation of cultivators from the Five Immortal Sects, after reaching the Great Ascension realm, all chose to either go to the Immortal Ascension Platform or venture out in search of that sliver of a chance for immortal ascension. But since ancient times, all who had set foot on this path had vanished one by one, never to return to the Five Immortal Sects. It was unknown whether they had truly ascended to the True Immortal Realm or had perished and passed away in a foreign land.
When Pingtu heard Li Yan say that Dong Fuyi had come out of seclusion only to find a Jade Slip left by Fairy Ningke of the Yi Wood Immortal Sect, and that the other sects were all empty, he fell silent for a long while.
After a good while, he finally spoke again. With only Dong Fuyi left in the Gui Water Immortal Sect, he speculated that this could mean two things. One was that Li Yan's two martial uncles had also gone out to search for inheritors; the other was that something had happened, and Dong Fuyi was truly the only survivor of the Gui Water Immortal Sect. Otherwise, why would he have become the Sect Master? However, it was also possible that True Lord Heishui and Shi Ligui, not knowing how many years they would be gone, had left the position of Sect Master to Dong Fuyi before they left.
True Lord Qianchong had also come to the Mortal Realm after searching fruitlessly in the Spirit Immortal Realm. He stayed in the Mortal Realm for several thousand years but still found nothing. However, the Mortal Realm was too vast. His Divine Sense could not cover the entire realm, and he couldn't be sure if any new mortals who met the requirements for the Ji Earth Immortal Sect had been born in the places he had already visited. So, he slowly began to control some of the high-level cultivators and sects in the Mortal Realm, which was, of course, an easy task with his cultivation level. True Lord Qianchong had these various cultivation families and sects constantly search for suitable candidates, while he himself, due to the suppression of the Mortal Realm's worldly rules, which limited his various divine arts and cultivation, found that staying too long would affect his cultivation insights. So, he used a great divine art to pull a space from beyond the stars. After he transformed this space with his great divine art, it became like an immortal's paradise. The Five Elements spiritual qi within was extremely dense, and he had even pulled five top-grade earth-attribute spirit veins from some unknown location to place beneath it. Cultivating here for one day was equivalent to four or five years of bitter cultivation in the outside world. He established a passage between this space and the Mortal Realm, and True Lord Qianchong cultivated inside. The cultivators he controlled in the Mortal Realm would periodically report to him through the passage. If True Lord Qianchong found the content of the report to be of some value, the reporter would be granted the qualification to cultivate in this space for a certain period of time. When the first batch of cultivators who had cultivated here returned to their own families and immortal sects, the effect they brought was like a storm. If not for True Lord Qianchong's heaven-defying divine arts that made them feel not even a sliver of resistance, they would have long since attacked and tried to seize it.
But because of this, the cultivators he controlled in the outside world worked even harder and continuously expanded their own power and territory in hopes of obtaining more information. Although they didn't know why this cultivator with heaven-defying divine arts was looking for Miscellaneous Spirit Roots, and they had various speculations, no one dared to ask. Because anyone who leaked information or discussed it privately, no matter where they were, would disappear from the world after some time.
In order to be able to enter the secret realm to cultivate, slowly, the information was not limited to just Miscellaneous Spirit Roots. Clues about all sorts of rare heavenly materials and earthly treasures, traces of ancient ruins, and so on would be passed on to True Lord Qianchong. And True Lord Qianchong, just as they had guessed, would allow them to cultivate inside as long as he found the information valuable, while he himself would go out to investigate. Slowly, the matter of searching for Miscellaneous Spirit Roots became just one of many types of clues. As the years passed, fewer and fewer people questioned it. They just thought that the Miscellaneous Spirit Roots might be a sacrificial item needed by this powerful being to open some treasure or secret land. Because the vast majority of those with Miscellaneous Spirit Root aptitude that they provided would disappear without a trace afterwards. Only a small number were allowed to continue living in their original places.
Pingtu said that during those years, True Lord Qianchong had indeed obtained many treasures through various clues. With his mid-stage Body Integration cultivation, who in the Mortal Realm was his opponent? What place did he not dare to go? During that time, as one of True Lord Qianchong's commonly used magical treasures, Pingtu was by his side at all times. He truly came to know some secret matters. Of course, these were things True Lord Qianchong allowed him to know. Otherwise, he would have sealed the perception of all his artifact spirits.
Pingtu did not say where the disappeared Miscellaneous Spirit Root cultivators went, and Li Yan did not ask. The affairs of the Five Immortal Sects were extremely secret. With the cunning of those old monsters, creating confusing arrays and misleading others was a simple matter. Let alone the lives of some ants, Li Yan felt that these old monsters would be capable of annihilating the life in an entire realm to protect their secrets.
Just like that, year after year passed. True Lord Qianchong stayed in the Mortal Realm for two hundred thousand years. And in the two hundred and thirtieth thousandth year, he truly found a sect inheritor and secretly brought him back as a disciple. And the first-rate sect that had passed on this information, the "Flying Stream Sect," was completely wiped out overnight. The sects near it said with lingering fear that they seemed to have heard all sorts of explosions and shouts of killing during the night, but they were too scared by several powerful pressures to leave their gates. It wasn't until the next day, when they could no longer hear any sound, that some of the bolder ones slowly approached that first-rate sect. The scene they saw made them feel as if they had fallen into the hell of Asuras.
The once incomparably glorious, immortal-paradise-like behemoth was now, in their eyes, a scene of rubble and ruins, with corpses strewn everywhere, dismembered limbs, and guts and brains splattered about, like a giant hell of Asuras, a sight that could shatter one's heart and soul. Everything of value had been taken, leaving only a mountain full of corpses, but they were all the bodies of people from the Flying Stream Sect. The attackers had not left a single trace. This matter caused a great stir throughout the entire cultivation world for a time. Many people believed that the Flying Stream Sect had offended some powerful super-force and had been slaughtered as a result.
Pingtu only mentioned these matters briefly, but the bloody storm they implied rushed toward Li Yan. Li Yan, seeming to understand, did not make a sound, which earned him a few deep, meaningful glances from Pingtu.
Li Yan had long guessed in his heart that this was the work of that True Lord Qianchong. All that talk about a super-force and everything of value being swept clean was just a thick fog of misdirection. After the entire Flying Stream Sect was dead, he believed that no one in the world could ever know that clue again. Even the person related to the Miscellaneous Spirit Root would probably have their memory erased, or even... Thinking of this, he couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine. He secretly rejoiced that he had only met a remnant will of Dong Fuyi. If not, who knows what would have happened?
After glancing at Li Yan a few times and seeing him remain silent from beginning to end, Pingtu nodded. True Lord Qianchong had truly gone to great lengths for this disciple. Besides directly annihilating the Flying Stream Sect, not sparing a single person, he had also erased a period of memory from the Miscellaneous Spirit Root disciple's relatives and everyone in the vicinity, implanting new memories instead. In their memories, a Taoist had come to town one day. This Miscellaneous Spirit Root child, upon seeing him, insisted on following him to cultivate. The family, which was quite wealthy in the town, had begged and pleaded, and finally, the Taoist had reluctantly agreed to some things. For this, they had even held a three-day feast in the town. What the child's relatives, parents, and everyone in the town didn't know was that they had never eaten at that feast; the family had just lost a lot of silver. And with time, this matter had all turned into memories and yellow earth.
After True Lord Qianchong brought this disciple into the secret realm, he planned to take him back to the Spirit Immortal Realm after he had cultivated to the Nascent Soul realm. At the same time, he began to open up a very small number of areas in the secret realm, allowing the families and sects he controlled to enter and cultivate. He let these families slowly immerse themselves in the cultivation atmosphere and gradually overlook some things. Outside this small open area was a forbidden zone. No one was allowed to step into it; otherwise, their entire clan or sect would be directly annihilated. Even so, those families and sects were overjoyed. They entered to cultivate through lottery or duels. In the end, several large sects or powerful cultivation families each occupied some places and stayed inside long-term to cultivate, grow herbs, refine pills, raise spirit beasts, and so on.
At that time, True Lord Qianchong was focused on his disciple and paid no attention to these things. For a secret realm space like this, it was not too difficult for him to create one if he wanted to. Moreover, he also planned that after this disciple cultivated to the Nascent Soul realm, he would give this place to the people of the Mortal Realm. The spiritual energy of the Spirit Immortal Realm was no worse than here. It could be considered a reward for them finding him many treasures, especially for finding an inheritor, even though the Flying Stream Sect had no inheritors left.
The Wheel of Life and Death was the place True Lord Qianchong used to temper that disciple. It was itself a magical treasure, named the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl," and it was a top-tier magical treasure that was close to being an Immortal Artifact. With another million years of nurturing, it could possibly advance to the level of an Immortal Artifact. That was something only a Great Ascension realm cultivator could possibly possess.
Pingtu was the artifact spirit of the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl." When this magical treasure was refined by True Lord Qianchong, it could only be considered a rather good magical treasure. But the materials used for its refinement were astounding. Through pestering, betting, and trickery, True Lord Qianchong had obtained four rare items from the other four immortal sects: Northern Abyss Shadow Water, Vajra Geng Water, South-Li Yellow Flame, and Azure Dragon's Essence. Adding his own sect's Great Yi Profound Earth as a refining material, any one of these five items would have caused a boundless slaughter if it had appeared in the Spirit Immortal Realm. It would have been a bloody storm that would only end after much fighting, and perhaps even Body Integration realm old monsters would have fought over it. And at that time, True Lord Qianchong was only at the early stage of the Spirit Transformation realm. In the end, he had only managed to refine a magical treasure that could be considered rather good. In the eyes of outsiders, this was undoubtedly a reckless waste of precious materials, but in the eyes of the Five Immortal Sects, it was very normal. Their five sects had their own set of ancient artifact refining techniques. The artifacts they refined would slowly upgrade along with their master's nurturing, and it was the kind of limitless upgrade. Even the top artifact refining sects in the Spirit Immortal Realm might only have fragmented records of such things.
The "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl" was one of True Lord Qianchong's two most famous magical treasures, besides his Natal Magical Treasure. It had accompanied him through countless life-and-death battles. It contained its own space and had the ability to pull people inside. Anyone caught by it would be automatically pulled in and refined by the Five Elements within. Even a Body Integration realm old monster could not escape death. According to Pingtu, if the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl" could continue to be nurtured by True Lord Qianchong, once it advanced to the level of an Immortal Artifact, let alone a Great Ascension realm cultivator, even a Grand Luo True Immortal would probably not be able to escape their fate.
True Lord Qianchong cherished his three magical treasures, including his Natal Magical Treasure, immensely, nurturing them day after day. But in those few years, he had actually taken out the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl" and transformed it into the Wheel of Life and Death to temper his disciple, which showed how much he valued this disciple. He had transformed the Gui Water Immortal Sect's Northern Abyss Shadow Water into the giant dark shadow in the sky, the South-Li Yellow Flame into the giant yellow sphere at the ten-li mark, and the other three top-grade attribute materials into various forms of attack. At the same time, he had also left some backdoors in this top-tier magical treasure that was transformed into the Wheel of Life and Death, specifically for the disciples of the Five Immortal Sects. In fact, it was to make that disciple not just focus on fighting, but to learn to think and be good at observing and using the environment. This was the shortcut that the Golden Core cultivator from the Supreme Mystery Teachings had later discovered by accident.
Just like that, True Lord Qianchong ignored the slaughter and plunder of the cultivators in the secret realm. Even if he knew, he believed that if a cultivator did not experience a heaven-defying path, how could they go far? Later on, he even successively opened up large areas of the secret realm, letting these sects and cultivation families fight and multiply inside.
But several decades later, when that disciple had just successfully formed his Nascent Soul, and True Lord Qianchong was about to take him away from here, he happened to receive a Jade Slip on that day. Pingtu speculated that it might have been sent by True Lord Qianchong's junior brother. He didn't know the content, but True Lord Qianchong's face was extremely dark after reading it, and he was silent for several days, as if thinking about something important. Two days later, he told Pingtu that he wanted him to stay behind, still in the form of the Wheel of Life and Death, with the main task of protecting and taking care of that disciple. He needed to go out for a period of time. After he returned, they would go back to the Spirit Immortal Realm together. But he had not expected that once he left, he would never return. And that disciple, under Pingtu's care, had cultivated all the way to the Spirit Transformation realm in less than a hundred years. But at this time, this disciple no longer wanted to stay in this secret realm. He insisted on going to find his master, and also to fulfill the duty of the Five Immortal Sects to find the next generation of inheritors. After much persuasion, Pingtu was still unable to change his mind. But as it happened, when the "Five Elements Dao-Defiance Pearl" was transformed into the Wheel of Life and Death, some of its rules had been changed by True Lord Qianchong. With this disciple's cultivation level, he was unable to restore it and take it out of the secret realm. In the end, Pingtu could only give him three drops of his own origin power, which he had cultivated through bitter effort as an artifact spirit, for the disciple to carry for protection. Although a Spirit Transformation cultivator was already a top-tier combat power in this Mortal Realm, Pingtu still remembered True Lord Qianchong's entrustment and knew the importance of this disciple to the Ji Earth Immortal Sect. He resolutely took out three of the five drops of origin power he had cultivated for hundreds of thousands of years and gave them to that disciple. This, however, greatly reduced Pingtu's strength. After receiving the three drops of origin power, the disciple gave Pingtu a respectful and grand bow and then floated away. This disciple's name was: Pei Buchong.