Go Out for a Walk (Please Vote!)

"The Sect Leader has truly treated me well."

Fang Qing returned from the Sect Leader and received Three Source Stones.

Treasures like Source Stones were immensely valuable. They were countless times better than the Hundred Herb Liquid consumed by the disciples of Lingxu Grotto-Heaven.

Yet the Sect Leader had given Fang Qing three of them.

These Three Source Stones were indeed enough for Fang Qing to cultivate from his initial entry into the Divine Bridge Realm all the way to its later stages.

"There should be no more problems with cultivating in the Divine Bridge Realm. What comes next is figuring out how to break through to the Other Shore Realm. I want to travel for a while so that I can better break through to the Other Shore Realm."

Fang Qing pondered inwardly.

The Other Shore Realm was not so easy to break through, for there were rumors of the Calamity of Lostness.

The mysteries of the human body were endless. Cultivators began from the Bitter Sea and proceeded step by step toward other secret realms. They had to cross the Bitter Sea.

The Divine Bridge was a means of forcefully crossing the Bitter Sea.

Cultivating Divine Meridians and stretching them above the Bitter Sea toward the Other Shore—that was the Divine Bridge Realm, an exceedingly crucial realm.

Yet as the Divine Bridge spanned the void, where exactly did it have to extend to reach the Other Shore? Some people could not see through it even after a lifetime, remaining stuck in the Divine Bridge Realm, unable to cross the Bitter Sea.

This was the Calamity of Lostness.

In severe cases, one could even be deprived of all five senses, lose all spiritual perception, and become a cripple.

This was also why many elders of Lingxu Grotto-Heaven remained in the Divine Bridge Realm despite cultivating to an advanced age.

Fang Qing had now reached the Divine Bridge Realm. If he wanted to enter the Other Shore Realm more smoothly, he needed to take a walk through the Human World.

But this Human World was not the mundane world of Yan State. It was the World of Twin Dragons of the Great Tang.

The Twin Dragons of the Great Tang world was also a martial arts world, and there seemed to be no need to visit it. However, the War God Codex alone, foremost among the Four Great Strange Books, gave Fang Qing the urge to make a trip there.

The War God Codex was said to be a strange book left in the human world by some supreme Xian god. Though it was collectively known as one of the "Four Great Strange Books" alongside the "Longevity Art," "Heavenly Demon Strategy," and "Ci Hang Sword Canon," the War God Codex was in truth far more formidable than the other three.

After glimpsing the secrets of the War God Codex, the legendary Guang Chengzi had created the Daoist treasure known as the "Longevity Art."

The First Generation Evil Emperor of the Demonic Sect had then created the "Dao Heart Seed Demon" from it and recorded it in "Demonic Path Musings." Later, Di Ni, ancestor of Cihang Jingzhai, obtained it and thus created the "Ci Hang Sword Canon."

Of the Four Great Strange Books in the Great Tang World, three had actually originated from the War God Codex.

That point alone was enough for Fang Qing to decide to make the trip.

Of course, before heading to the Great Tang World, he needed to settle many matters.

Fang Qing told the Sect Leader of Lingxu Grotto-Heaven that he intended to travel and gain experience so he could break through to the Other Shore Realm sooner.

Sect Leader Li naturally supported this. Fang Qing had already reached the Divine Bridge Realm and had the Purple Firmament Sword to protect himself, so there was virtually no danger for him within Yan State.

However, Sect Leader Li also instructed Fang Qing to return within a year, because an elder would take him to Yaoguang Holy Land then.

Fang Qing naturally agreed.

Then he left Lingxu Grotto-Heaven to "gain experience."

A flash of light passed, and Fang Qing's body was no longer in the Shrouding the Heavens World. He had arrived in the Great Tang World.

When he reappeared, Fang Qing was once again in Yangzhou.

"The whole world has grown increasingly chaotic. The people truly cannot live in peace."

Fang Qing looked around. The house he had originally bought in Yangzhou had been burned into an empty ruin. Yangzhou City as a whole was filled with a decayed, desolate air, as though war had never ceased here. Many of those walking through the city were sallow and emaciated.

In just over two months, Yangzhou City had changed far too much.

Fang Qing looked farther into the distance. Numerous voices reached his ears, mostly talking about who had rebelled again, who had defeated whom, and which martial arts master had been killed by whom.

It was utter chaos.

Though only two months had passed, the situation in the Great Tang World had indeed grown increasingly ruinous.

This seemed inseparable from Yang Guang.

Yang Guang, the famous emperor of history, had possessed no small amount of ambition, yet his actions had been utter failures. He attacked Goguryeo three times without conquering it, burying an army of a million in foreign lands. Every one of his ministers wanted to rebel against him.

By now, this emperor was hiding in Jiangnan, awaiting his own death. It seemed that even he knew the Great Sui no longer had any hope of survival.

Beyond Yangzhou, the various clans across the land had begun recruiting troops and buying horses, preparing to accomplish great things in this land of mountains and rivers on the verge of collapse.

In the north was the Li Clan led by Li Yuan. In Luoyang was the Dugu Clan led by the Dugu Family. In Jiangnan, the clan following Yang Guang was the Yuwen Clan. In Lingnan was the Song Clan, led by Heavenly Saber Song Que.

Beyond that, countless sects were scattered throughout the realm. A single region often had several bizarre sects occupying it, fighting one another without end.

Fang Qing gazed into the distance. He had no interest in the slaughter between the many mundane sects and would not waste much time on such trivial matters. His foremost task now was to seek the War God Codex.

However, the War God Codex seemed to be inside the War God Temple, and the War God Temple traveled through the void of the entire Great Tang World without any fixed location.

There was, however, a treasure with a fixed location that Fang Qing could obtain immediately.

Duke Yang's Treasury.

This was a fixed treasure vault with quite a history. It had been built by Yang Su, the Grand Governor of the Sui dynasty. Yang Su enjoyed collecting countless treasures from across the realm and gathered them all in one place. Later generations called it Duke Yang's Treasury.

Rumor had it that Duke Yang's Treasury contained countless treasures of gold, silver, jewels, weapons, funds, and provisions. Whoever obtained Duke Yang's Treasury could immediately dominate the realm. It was a treasure vault contested by many ambitious heroes of the chaotic age.

Fang Qing was not interested in the gold, silver, jewels, or treasures, but there was one item in Duke Yang's Treasury that interested him: the Evil Emperor's Sarira.

The Evil Emperor's Sarira also had an extraordinary origin. The Demonic Sect called it the Holy Sarira, and it had originally been discovered by the First Generation Evil Emperor Xie Bo.

Xie Bo discovered that the sarira contained a strange power capable of absorbing and storing human True Qi and vital essence.

Cultivators spoke of the Three Primes. In Heaven, they were the sun, moon, and stars. On Earth, they were water, fire, and earth. In humans, they were Essence, Vital Qi, and Primordial Spirit.

Essence, Vital Qi, and Primordial Spirit were the foundation of cultivation.

However, because every person cultivated different methods, the Vital Qi and Primordial Spirit they cultivated differed from person to person and could not be absorbed by one another.

Essence, however, could. It could be shared between people.

Thus, Xie Bo conceived of a bold idea. If every successor poured their Essence into the sarira before death, then once future generations obtained it, their Essence could greatly increase, allowing their cultivation to soar in an extremely short time to a level others could scarcely rival.

The First Evil Emperor therefore established a rule: all cultivators of his lineage had to pour their lifelong cultivation into it before death, allowing later generations to cultivate with it.

Thus, the Evil Emperor's Sarira came into being.

Yet later generations lacked the profound wisdom to extract the beneficial Vital Qi from within the sarira. They possessed a Treasure Mountain but had no means of using it, so the Treasure Mountain was passed down generation after generation, its accumulation growing ever greater.

This Treasure Mountain was within Duke Yang's Treasury.

Fang Qing decided to take a look.

I think it is still necessary to visit Great Tang. After all, this world focuses on cultivating spiritual power. Having the protagonist go there early on to strengthen his spiritual power and open up a new path, reaching Taoist realms such as Refining Qi into Spirit and Refining Spirit into Void, should be pretty good.