Heavenly Abyss, Dao Path

The newcomer wore white robes and had a jade-like face, his crown-bound hair adorned with jade. His temperament was ethereal and elusive, as though he were one of the immortals—a truly excellent countenance.

It was Mu Ruo, whom he had not seen for a long time.

A trace of darkness flashed through Zhu Yu's eyes.

Seeing that he remained silent, Mu Ruo seemed to have something to rely on. His silver-flecked eyes swept Zhu Yu up and down as he said with a smile,

"Our Society's president will soon return. Xiang Sui definitely won't dare organize any more lectures. How about this: I'll gather the students, and you'll teach. We split the earnings eighty-twenty?"

As if he thought himself exceedingly generous, and was certain Zhu Yu would not dare refuse, he said leisurely, "What future is there in cultivating Corpse Seeds? Go back and prepare yourself. Leave with me, and from now on, focus solely on teaching."

"Wait a few years, and I..."

Before he could finish speaking, the Mutated Insect Beast before him spread its six legs and carried the expressionless youth as it turned and ran down a side path.

"Hm?"

Mu Ruo froze briefly. Watching the man and insect depart, the smile on his face slowly faded. Silver light flowed through his pupils as he said faintly,

"People are most afraid of not knowing how to appreciate a favor..."

He gave a cold laugh, took a single step, and his stretched-out figure vanished into the darkness.

Elsewhere.

"Eighty-twenty? Heh..."

Zhu Yu's gaze was sinister, a cold smile on his face.

Setting aside everything else, Mu Ruo's demand that he leave the Underworld Grounds alone showed that he harbored no good intentions. The profit split was probably fake as well. He clearly wanted to pen Zhu Yu up as expendable fodder and use him to support his own cultivation.

"The Society... Lian Sheng... Mu Ruo... Mang Xiang..."

Recalling Liang Kuan's earlier miserable state and Mu Ruo's contemptuous gaze as though he were looking at a monkey, a nameless flame rose in Zhu Yu's heart and burned fiercely.

If he had already established his Dao Foundation, would these people dare be so arrogant?

In the end, his strength was still insufficient!

"Phew..."

Zhu Yu drew a deep breath and turned his gaze toward the Beast Pen and Spirit Field districts. Guiding Little Black with his Divine Sense, he headed straight for the Beast Pen.

An hour later.

A beast carriage pulled by a first-rank Savage Ox slowly climbed a dirt hill and stopped before a wooden house courtyard. The burly driver jumped down and turned to the handsome youth beside him.

"Junior Brother Zhu, we'll leave it here."

Zhu Yu flipped down from the carriage and nodded slightly. "Thank you for the trouble, Senior Brother."

"No trouble, no trouble. If you need anything later, come find me again. I guarantee every demon beast I sell you will be lively and fresh."

The burly man grinned, waved a hand to open the beast carriage, then flexed his bulging arm muscles and dragged out a Wind Wolf curled up inside. It was nearly two zhang long, with glossy fur and a pale blue body.

Bang...

The burly man casually tossed it to the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. After shutting the Beast Pen, he plopped down at the front of the carriage. As he ordered the Savage Ox to turn back, he said to Zhu Yu,

"Remember, the God-Sealing Talisman only lasts three hours..."

"Travel safely, Senior Brother."

Zhu Yu nodded and watched him depart. With a thought, he summoned Little Jade from its hiding place within his sleeve. Without hesitation, he took ten Starry Wood Leaf Blades from his inner pocket and handed them over.

"Eat..."

Little Jade had been coveting the Starry Wood Leaf Blades for a long time. Upon receiving the order, it immediately clasped the leaves and began gnawing at them with great mouthfuls. Once it had swallowed them all, silver radiance flashed through its sesame-seed-sized pupils. Its wings vibrated as it pounced straight at the throat of the mid-grade demon beast Wind Wolf lying on the ground.

Its sickle-shaped forelimbs, glowing with faint red spiritual light, flashed past. The Wind Wolf's tough fur immediately split open in a vicious wound, blood spilling forth as Little Jade plunged headfirst inside.

The Wind Wolf's eyelids trembled, then suddenly flew open.

"Gurgle, gurgle..."

A hiss like leaking air sounded out. Pain and viciousness emerged in the Wind Wolf's withered yellow eyes as it raised both claws, carrying fine Wind Blades as it clawed at its own throat.

Splat...

A great torrent of blood and shredded flesh erupted.

Seeing this, Zhu Yu knew it would not survive. Feeling Little Jade's life aura gradually growing stronger, he nodded slightly, then carried the water vat filled with tiger blood and the jade jar of Meditation Fluid back toward the wooden house.

He entered the living room.

He crushed the Tiger-Pattern Flowers and Blood-Coagulating Grass he had bought, mixed them into the tiger blood, then sealed the vat with mud and laid down a simple Spiritual Power restriction before heading upstairs.

He sat cross-legged on the soft couch.

Zhu Yu set down the jade jar, took out the jade slip Xiang Sui had given him, pressed it to his brow, and sent his Divine Sense inside.

At once, a vast amount of information flooded into his mind.

After a short while.

"Phew..."

Zhu Yu withdrew his Divine Sense, an unusual expression on his face as he murmured, "Heavenly Abyss..."

According to the jade slip's records,

This world was called the Heavenly Abyss. It had no heaven, earth, or four directions, but was a bizarre Realm and Domain formed from countless broken World Fragments of all sizes gathered together.

Spirit Ruins were fragment worlds whose origins still remained, capable of nurturing extraordinary beings. Spirit Deserts, meanwhile, were World Fragments whose origins had dried up, most of them clinging to fragment worlds that still possessed origins.

The Spirit Ruins Masters Xiang Sui had mentioned

were cultivators who had refined a world's origin, or other beings who had accidentally fused with one.

They and their Origin Spirit Ruins were two bodies with one heart. If the Spirit Ruins perished, their foundation would be destroyed, and they could only drag out an ignoble existence thereafter. But if the Spirit Ruins endured, then even if they died, they would be born anew within their Origin Spirit Ruins.

The size of an Origin Spirit Ruins determined the Spirit Ruins Master's strength. The larger the Spirit Ruins, the stronger its master; the smaller the Spirit Ruins, the weaker its master.

The Heavenly Dao Sect's Dao Path was to become a Spirit Ruins Master.

Qi Refining established the Dao Foundation in order to draw in and bear a strand of origin power from the Immortal Grave Spirit Ruins. Using it as a root, one hunted and devoured the origins of other Spirit Ruins to strengthen oneself.

Once enough had been accumulated, one could begin nurturing and opening an Origin Spirit Ruins belonging solely to oneself. Once successful, one's very nature of life would leap forward. One's lifespan would reach a thousand years, and one would no longer be mortal.

Xiang Sui had specifically included a warning in the jade slip.

Origin Spirit Ruins were intimately tied to one's life. When choosing an advanced visualization diagram to establish one's Dao Foundation, the greater its compatibility with one's life, the better.

It also mentioned something else.

Whether Demon Caves or Insect Nests, both were small Spirit Ruins that True Person Yin Underworld had captured from the Heavenly Abyss with great magical power.

Because of the characteristics of those Spirit Ruins,

True Person Yin Underworld did not dare enter them lightly. Thus, disciples like them labored for him, slaughtering demon beasts and massacring Insect Beasts bit by bit to wear down the origin power of the Spirit Ruins.

At the end of the jade slip,

Xiang Sui vaguely implied that once one's Dao Foundation was close to completion, one should make another trip into the Demon Cave or Insect Nest. The more demon beasts and Insect Beasts one killed, the better...

"Senior Brother Xiang has been thoughtful..."

Zhu Yu turned the jade slip over in his hand and sighed inwardly.

Not only had it given him a deeper understanding of this world's true circumstances, it had also clarified the Dao Path of his future cultivation.

"Also, I can't keep the Demon-Rearing Record any longer..."

Zhu Yu's heart tightened slightly. Having learned the truth of this world, he suddenly felt that the Demon-Rearing Record was deeply wrong...

That cloth pouch which blocked Divine Sense, and that damaged jade stone...

The more he thought about them, the more furtive and suspicious they seemed.

"Could some Spirit Ruins Master be fishing?"

The thought flashed through Zhu Yu's mind, but he immediately shook his head and stopped thinking about it. With the True Sight Eye filtering information, so long as he did not cultivate this method, he need not worry about being targeted.

Then he used his Divine Sense to inspect his Divine Sea. Looking at the one hundred and thirty-six Soul Particles floating within, he nodded to himself.

"Two more days..."

Just as he was about to take out the Meditation Fluid and consume it for cultivation, a thought stirred in his mind. He took a pill bottle from his sleeve, opened its cap, and a thumb-sized pill, like one carved from green jade, rolled out.

At once, a fragrant scent of grass and wood slowly permeated the room.

[Warning, the Meditation Pill is releasing large amounts of hallucinogenic, aphrodisiac, diarrhea-inducing, and vomiting toxins...]