Near Immortal, Near Demon

What had he just said? Wang Xuan was annoyed. In such a desolate place, under such a terrifying atmosphere, he absolutely could not speak recklessly.

There was not a sound. A wan, deathly pale moon abruptly appeared high in the sky. Mugwort grew thick amid the dim ruins, and the scene was becoming increasingly wrong.

That woman floated in midair beneath the night sky, her loose hair covering her face. She was less than a few feet from Wang Xuan, and those vivid red little shoes hung right before his eyes.

Wang Xuan's heart pounded wildly. Was this a remnant of the Female Daoist practitioner's spiritual energy? And why had the moon appeared too? It had nothing to do with brightness or purity; it looked like a bloodless, deathly pale face.

He stopped talking. At a moment like this, silence was golden. He would respond to ten thousand changes by remaining unchanged.

He circulated the Root Method of the Pre-Qin Daoist practitioners, drawing Mysterious Factors from the void. Like scattered specks of starlight, they drifted down among the eerie, terrifying broken walls and ruins.

The woman in midair also made no further movement. She merely hovered there, her white robes strikingly conspicuous in the night. Her figure was slender and looked beautiful, yet her long hair covered her face. She resembled a faceless female ghost, silent and still, truly unnerving.

Wang Xuan waited for a while. The woman beneath the pale moonlight remained silent and motionless, confronting him just like that.

He felt that waiting like this was not a solution, so he spoke with great seriousness and sincerity. "I had no intention of offending you. I merely entered this Inner Scenery Realm by accident. As someone from later generations, my words and conduct may not conform to the rites of the Pre-Qin era, but that does not mean I disrespect you at heart. Times have changed; people nowadays all speak this way. If you believe there are any formalities I should observe, I can make them up."

Yet the mugwort-choked ruins remained deathly silent. The woman showed no reaction.

Wang Xuan considered whether he should move around more. If his feet stirred up a few more wisps of wind, perhaps these remnants of spiritual energy from the past would disperse.

He wanted to go around the woman and leave the ruins.

As he moved, the rubble on the ground and several half-collapsed walls vanished, but the woman continued hovering in the air.

And without a sound, at the instant he went around her, she abruptly appeared before him again. Those vivid red shoes were level with his brow.

Wang Xuan realized something was wrong. A chill rose along his back. Something had truly gone awry in the Inner Scenery Realm; there was something off about this woman.

How had she appeared just now? A bolt of lightning had descended from the sky, dazzling beyond compare, and then she had manifested.

If she really were some evil spirit or demon ghost, she should have feared lightning. What was going on with her?

Was she merely a particularly dense clump of residual spiritual energy? Wang Xuan avoided her and headed out of the ruins, but the woman followed him throughout the process, always hovering before his brow.

Wang Xuan's head throbbed. Had she set her sights on him and locked onto him? What did she want? On second thought, he was no longer afraid. She had been dead for three thousand years—what could a remnant of spiritual energy possibly do?

He refused to believe in evil. He left the ruins and began practicing the Golden Body Art on his own, pretending not to see her. Power circulated throughout his body, and flecks of golden light flashed in his eyes.

His spiritual power was abundant, and he remained calm and composed. If ghosts and monsters truly existed, then the yang energy on his body should have been frighteningly dense. After all, he was young and full of vigorous blood and vitality, with no fear of ghostly things.

Wang Xuan was exceptionally steady as he practiced the Golden Body Art. The movements of this physical technique were naturally quite broad, and once, he actually brushed against the woman's red shoe and white robe.

With a swish, she dispersed and vanished from sight.

Wang Xuan remained calm, without any joy. He followed his own rhythm. When one saw monsters often enough, the monster would defeat itself!

His strength was steadily growing. Standing in that clear and empty flow of time was incomparably important even to Pre-Qin Daoist practitioners; it was one of the sources of their power.

All the more so for Wang Xuan at his current stage. As time vanished, his body surface trembled, and faint gold emerged when he activated powerful physical techniques.

Only when he became exhausted once more and stopped did he prepare to circulate the Root Method and draw in Mysterious Factors.

Suddenly, he sensed something unusual. A cold, shadowy wind blew across his neck. Only then did he realize that, at some unknown time, the woman hovering before him had changed places.

He had been too absorbed in practicing the Golden Body Art and had ignored everything outside. Now, as he turned around, he discovered in shock that the woman was behind him, her snow-white long dress fluttering, her red shoes dazzling.

"There's wind..." This made his heart flutter. The situation was becoming worse and worse. Could the Female Daoist practitioner's residual spiritual energy interfere with the Inner Scenery Realm?

He turned around, but the woman followed him like a shadow. She moved with him, always hovering behind his back, those red shoes nearly touching his shoulder.

It was truly like a thorn in his back, almost unbearable.

He started analyzing what exactly was happening. Theoretically, when a person died, their light went out, leaving nothing behind.

The Female Daoist practitioner had died three thousand years ago. If she could come back to life, she would not have waited until now.

"Residual spiritual energy..." He was certain that the problem lay there. Had it originally been scattered throughout the Inner Scenery Realm, or had he... brought it in not long ago?!

When he considered the latter possibility, Wang Xuan's scalp prickled. He had shattered the Ascension Stone, and its Mysterious Factors, along with the Female Daoist practitioner's residual spiritual energy, had rushed in with him. Was that what had caused this anomaly?

Theoretically, the dead could not be revived. But the Inner Scenery Realm was unlike the real world. It remained incomprehensible; even the ancients had left no clear descriptions. It was mysterious and unfathomable. If something abnormal could happen here, it was not impossible.

"Whether you were originally here or I brought you in, what exactly are your intentions and demands? Can you make them clear to me? Following me like this forever is not a solution."

Wang Xuan kept his back to her and did not turn around again. He truly wanted to understand what this remnant of spiritual energy was trying to do.

He did not entertain any romantic fantasies. Things like, "A woman three years older brings gold bricks; a woman three thousand years older grants one a place among the Transcendent Immortals." If he truly had such thoughts, and the Female Daoist practitioner's residual spiritual energy really had serious problems, it would probably kill him horribly at once!

Unfortunately, the woman continued hovering silently behind him. The sight was indeed unnerving—loose hair, white robes, red shoes, no visible face, like a hanged ghost beneath the pale moonlight.

After speaking several times without receiving any response, Wang Xuan completely gave up. He stopped trying to communicate with her. If anything was going to happen, then let it happen. He would not concern himself with it anymore.

Within the Inner Scenery Realm, Mysterious Matter drifted down. Once Wang Xuan's spirit became vigorous again, he resumed practicing the Golden Body Art, letting the woman float behind him.

Just like that, several years passed. Wang Xuan felt that he had been inside for seven or eight years, and he pushed the fourth level of the Golden Body Art into its late stage!

He had cultivated from the late stage of the third level to the late stage of the fourth, and his strength had truly risen by a large margin. Golden radiance occasionally flashed deep within his eyes.

"An ordinary dagger might not even be able to pierce my flesh." Wang Xuan's cold and quiet heart grew fervent. Once he entered the Inner Scenery Realm, his strength would increase enormously. To him, this place was mysterious and unknown, containing hope and powerful strength. As Mysterious Factors drifted down, the increasingly declining Old Arts might be able to change their current state because of it.

During the Pre-Qin period, Old Arts had been exceptionally brilliant. Battles between powerful Daoist Masters might have involved power at the level of ascension, and in the era when Daoism was first established, there were all kinds of myths and legends as well.

As time flowed on to the present era, not many people still walked the Old Arts path. Since modern times, even producing a grandmaster had become exceedingly difficult, let alone someone transcendent.

Soon, the Inner Scenery Realm began to shake and grow unstable. Wang Xuan knew that the time had come. He was about to leave this Void and Silence Land.

The two Ascension Stones had allowed him to remain here for seven or eight years, displaying astonishing value.

Wang Xuan spoke solemnly. "I'm leaving. If my strength permits it, after I go out, I'll find a way to preserve your physical body and do my best not to let them act recklessly!"

He was about to leave, and he hoped this woman would not stir up demonic trouble and would let him depart smoothly.

Of course, he was not merely saying it casually. He sincerely felt that if his Old Arts succeeded in the future and he could interfere with the experiments beneath the Greater Khingan Range, he would certainly lend a hand. He truly felt that the Female Daoist practitioner was pitiful.

Boom!

A dazzling bolt of lightning streaked through heaven and earth. The pale moon in the sky fell, appearing directly behind the woman. It actually transformed into a blood moon, making her appear even more demonic.

Lightning intertwined. The woman before the blood moon raised her head, and the long hair on her face drifted aside, revealing her true appearance. She truly was the Female Daoist practitioner. Her skin was snowy white and crystalline, her beautiful face almost unreal, like an exiled immortal descending into the mortal world, without a single flaw to be found.

In white robes and red shoes, she hovered before the blood moon, bearing a unique aura somewhere between immortal and demon that left an exceptionally deep impression on Wang Xuan.

A woman who had died three thousand years ago was Looking at Wang Xuan in the Inner Scenery Realm. In the end, he did not know whether it was an illusion, or whether the light and shadows had twisted and blurred before the Inner Scenery Realm vanished, but he seemed to see that woman smile.

Near immortal, near demon—her bearing was peerless, her aura incomparably unique. Even as Wang Xuan found her breathtakingly beautiful, he shuddered from head to toe, always feeling that she was uncanny.

The next moment, he completely left the Inner Scenery Realm and abruptly opened his eyes. In an instant, two faint golden gleams seemed to streak across the room.

Wang Xuan rose to his feet, the golden radiance deep in his eyes fading away. He felt the strength of his body in reality; his physical technique had indeed advanced to the late stage of the fourth level of the Golden Body Art.

He took a dagger and drew it across his arm. It was actually bounced away at once, leaving only a faint blood mark. Powerful vitality surged, and the seeping thread of blood soon disappeared.

The fourth level of the Golden Body Art not only comprehensively increased the toughness of his flesh, but also made his spiritual power increasingly vigorous and powerful. Furthermore, it made his body's recovery ability even more astonishing, full of vitality. His physical constitution had improved across the board.

As for his offensive power, needless to say—it far surpassed what it had been before!

Wang Xuan smiled. There was no reason not to be delighted by such an achievement. He felt an indescribable sense of gain and satisfaction, his body and mind clear, pure, and joyful.

More importantly, because of the two Ascension Stones, he had explored a viable path. The slow-to-show-results Old Arts might be able to shine brilliantly through him once again.

"Some Thousand-Year Ancient Temples have stood firm without falling, and there have always been legends of great virtuous monks transforming into rainbows. Could that be equivalent to ascension?"

"Some famous Daoist mountains, as well as their ancestral temples, have never lacked legends of ascension and immortals flying away. If nothing unexpected happened, they should have left behind strange objects."

Wang Xuan Believed that wherever an ascension explosion had occurred, strange objects like Ascension Stones had most likely been left behind.

Thus, that night, he entered dreamland wearing a satisfied smile. Even when he woke at dawn, he was still smiling. But he soon had no choice but to quickly get dressed and wash up, because he had to go to work that day. He had only taken one day off to explore the Greater Khingan Range; if he did not leave now, he would be late.

Thanks to: King Lin Xu, jcwei1203, Lifelong Eternal Wisdom, Eternal Slumber Melody, Hao Hao Who Likes to Eat Beef.

Thank you to the above alliance leaders for your support!