Red Dust Immortal Mansion! (Seeking collection, seeking recommendations!)

Zhou Hao felt space and time shift, much like when he was first enveloped by the light of the Taiji Stone and transported to the Wilderness World.

By the time the surroundings calmed and he could move his body again, he had appeared in a quaint, ancient corridor.

"Where is this?" Zhou Hao observed his surroundings. Everywhere he looked, he saw Red Copper Statues, and unsurprisingly, they were all Feifei.

Looking at the statues scattered along both sides of the passage—the largest the size of an adult, the smallest no bigger than a baby's hand—Zhou Hao couldn't help but sigh.

"Have I arrived at a Feifei's nest?"

Of course, he actually had other guesses in his mind.

"A ruin."

These two words surged through Zhou Hao's mind.

Was it the cave dwelling of an ancient immortal?

Or was it like the Winged Snake Water Mansion that Ji Ning visited, a legacy left behind by an ancient True God?

Zhou Hao's heart burned with anticipation.

In this world where immortals and demons lurked, there were simply too many ancient myths, legends of primordial gods and demons, and tales of Pangu creating the world or Nuwa creating humans and mending the heavens.

In the endless passage of time, no one knew how many powerful beings had emerged.

Among them, there was no telling how many immortal mansions, divine ruins, and the like had been left behind.

Not to mention the adventures Ji Ning encountered that Zhou Hao had read about in the original story, even among the people he had met, Yuan Lie had obtained a God-Devil Body Refining technique and the Chaotic Cloak Staff Technique, while Yang Yun had also had an encounter on her way to Jade Dragon City, rumored to be entering a cave dwelling left by an ancient immortal.

There were simply too many people who stumbled into ancient immortal caves or divine ruins like this.

Of course, some were lucky enough to gain benefits and rise to prominence.

Others were unfortunate; if the owner of the cave dwelling walked a wicked or demonic path, or if a righteous immortal had left behind a special trial, it was possible to end up trapped in the ruins forever.

"So idle, and so fond of cats... he shouldn't be hard to get along with."

Zhou Hao looked back; not far behind him was the exit of the corridor, where an invisible barrier blocked the vast, endless water outside.

The water beyond the barrier seemed even colder, freezing thick frost at the exit of the corridor. Sensing the familiar chill in the air with his divine sense, Zhou Hao confirmed that he should still be in the sea area around Crouching Ox Island.

"The most likely candidate is that Loose Immortal who once occupied Crouching Ox Island."

Zhou Hao took out a beast-skin garment to wear and then proceeded forward along the corridor.

Regardless, since he had the fortune to arrive here, it would be a waste of an opportunity not to explore.

As Zhou Hao advanced, the Feifei statues scattered along the sides of the corridor became fewer and fewer, and at the same time, they looked newer, as if they had just been made.

"Just made?" Zhou Hao's heart jolted. "Could there still be someone in these ruins?"

Turning a corner, Zhou Hao's pupils constricted.

This was a massive hall, several dozen zhang high and nearly two hundred zhang in length and width.

What shocked Zhou Hao most was that in the center of the hall, a copper furnace over twenty zhang high was suspended in mid-air. Below it, the ground had collapsed, and deep purple flames surged from beneath, burning the bottom of the furnace to a glowing red.

A white Feifei, which could be described as a civet cat but looked more like an ordinary orange cat from Earth, lay lazily on a jade stone seat nearby, one raised paw occasionally waving toward the copper furnace.

"A cat... is refining artifacts?" Zhou Hao was dumbfounded.

Puff! A muffled sound echoed.

A red light sprayed out from the copper furnace and hovered in mid-air not far in front of the white Feifei.

"Hmm~~~~" The white Feifei slowly rose and stretched on the jade seat. "Among all Feifei, I am truly the most handsome."

Zhou Hao looked at the red light that had just flown out of the copper furnace.

Sure enough, it was a newly made Red Copper Statue, and its posture was exactly the same as the Feifei stretching in front of him.

"So those statues were all made by this Feifei." Zhou Hao realized. "I was wondering, who would be so idle..."

However, it was rare for a Feifei to be this idle, even though this was his first time seeing one of these creatures, which were said to be kept as pets by high-level immortals to relieve boredom.

The white Feifei waved its paw to push the statue into a corner, then turned its body to look at Zhou Hao, its jewel-like cat eyes seemingly filled with joy: "You've finally arrived."

"Who are you?" Zhou Hao was cautious.

Although this Feifei, which looked very much like a cat, appeared cute and harmless, who knew how deep its cultivation was?

What if, besides being narcissistic and liking to make statues of itself, it also liked to eat people... cats eat meat, right?

"Me? I was originally a Feifei. After I died, my soul was refined by Red Dust into the spirit of this Immortal Mansion."

The white Feifei licked its paw and then smoothed the white fur on its forehead.

"Red Dust used to call me 'Ou', but I feel that the single character 'Ou' is not enough to reflect the temperament of a Feifei Emperor. Therefore, you may call me... 'Ou Huang'."

A cat that had been dead for who knows how many years, with a slightly abnormal brain and extreme narcissism...

Zhou Hao instantly made his judgment.

"Uh, Ou, Ou Huang." Zhou Hao suppressed the urge to retort. "You said 'Red Dust' refined you into the Immortal Mansion Spirit, so is 'Red Dust' the master of this place? Where is he now?"

"Fifty thousand years ago, knowing he couldn't pass his nine-hundred-thousand-year Loose Immortal tribulation, he left the water mansion alone." Ou Huang shook its head. "He's probably been dead for tens of thousands of years by now."

Zhou Hao nodded secretly; it was just as he had thought.

If the Master were still here, I imagine no one could stand having their dwelling occupied by countless Feifei statues.

"You said just now that I finally arrived. Have you been waiting for me?" Zhou Hao asked.

"Not waiting for you, but for whoever held the Signal Talisman of the Red Dust Immortal Mansion," Ou Huang said bitterly. "Back then, before Red Dust left, he said a descendant would arrive with the talisman in at most a thousand or eight hundred years. I ended up waiting for a full fifty thousand years!"

"Is this the Signal Talisman?" Zhou Hao took out the Red Copper Statue from his Mustard Stone Space once more.

"Mm, that's it." Ou Huang looked at the statue, a flicker of nostalgia in its eyes. "Red Dust made that for me with his own hands. It was the very first statue I ever had."

So... you've spent these fifty thousand years just making statues of yourself?

"Kid, is your surname Ling?" After a moment of reflection, Ou Huang looked at Zhou Hao and asked, "Was this statue passed down through your ancestors? Why did it take until today for you to show up?"

Ling? Could that be the surname of the Loose Immortal Hongchen? Zhou Hao thought to himself.

Although he guessed that claiming to be a Ling might bring him quite a few benefits, he wasn't about to lie to the spirit of the Yi Water Mansion, especially one that looked like a rather abnormal cat.

"My surname is Zhou, Zhou Hao. Not Ling," Zhou Hao shook his head. "I bought this statue at a marketplace."

"You're an honest kid, at least." Ou Huang nodded. "This hall contains a bloodline array left behind by Red Dust. If you weren't a descendant of the Ling Clan, I would have killed you the moment I activated it. Since you aren't, there's no need for verification. Come, follow me to collect the benefits Red Dust left behind."

When Ou Huang mentioned the array and the bloodline verification, a lingering fear washed over Zhou Hao. He was glad he hadn't tried to pass himself off as a descendant.

But when it followed up by telling him to come and collect the benefits, Zhou Hao was stunned.

We're just going to take the benefits?

What about the trials?

Shouldn't I have to complete some challenge, defeat a number of puppets, endure great hardships, face death a dozen times, and only then receive the legacy of the senior Loose Immortal, leaving me to be filled with gratitude and a deep sense of how hard-won immortal destiny is, before rising to greatness from there...

"What else did you expect?" Ou Huang seemed to see right through Zhou Hao's thoughts and scoffed. "He clearly wanted his legacy to continue, yet he would have left behind so-called trials to create obstacles? Do you think Red Dust was that kind of vulgar person?"

"Besides, there's only one Signal Talisman. If I don't give it to you, what, am I supposed to keep it for myself? It has to go to someone eventually. Since you're the one who arrived, it's yours."

You guys are certainly free-spirited! But I love it!!

However, Zhou Hao still had some doubts: "But what if an evil person had arrived?"

"What is good? What is evil?"

"Do you think you're good just because you say you are? Are you evil just because you've done bad things?" Ou Huang shook its head dismissively.

"Even the Heavenly Dao's merits and sins are merely shackles placed upon powerful cultivators to keep them from slaughtering living beings at will."

"The human heart is the most difficult thing to fathom. One thought can lead to Buddhahood, the next to becoming a demon. Since there is no standard to judge good and evil, why bother distinguishing between them?"

Zhou Hao listened in a daze.

At first glance, these words seemed somewhat heretical, but upon closer reflection, they actually made a fair amount of sense.

He knew that in the Wilderness World, there was indeed a concept of merit and sin.

Take some evil cultivators or demonic cultivators who slaughter countless beings to refine their techniques, accumulating monstrous sins. But why do they kill? Is it for the sins imposed by the Heavenly Dao?

Obviously not.

It is because such cultivation allows them to increase their strength far faster than normal cultivation; it brings benefits.

The sins imposed by the Heavenly Dao are for punishment and warning, to prevent other cultivators from following suit.

And as for merit.

Doing good deeds brings merit; with more merit, one's luck grows stronger. Stronger luck provides more opportunities to encounter various fortuitous encounters, and when facing danger, one is aided as if by the gods, finding more paths to survival... the benefits are numerous.

So why do people do good deeds?

Because they are naturally inclined to?

It's because having more merit is beneficial to oneself!

Why am I thinking about this? This is clearly a philosophical question! Better leave that for those high-virtue cultivators to rack their brains over.

Zhou Hao smiled self-deprecatingly.

I'm just a common man. As long as I can keep a clear conscience and manage to keep living, that's enough.

Seeing Ou Huang pacing with an elegant feline gait toward another corridor on the side of the hall, Zhou Hao quickly followed.

Free benefits—my conscience tells me I cannot refuse!