Within Xilin Commandery, news that Xiahou Che lay buried in the Immortal Tomb continued to spread.
Some said that a powerful celestial master of the Daoist sects was also buried within the Immortal Tomb, and that most of the survivors had been saved by his intervention.
The changes in the Immortal Tomb were very likely the work of this celestial master.
Others said that the Immortal Tomb was a trap Xiahou Che had laid.
Its purpose was to lure more cultivators there and devour their essence blood and divine souls to restore his strength.
Some even said that Xiahou Che had never died and had been gathering strength all along to take revenge on the Cultivation World of the Feather Transformation Marquisate.
With so many cultivators having perished on this treasure hunt, coupled with the eerie nature of the Immortal Tomb,
all manner of rumors circulated, some true and some false, with everyone offering a different account.
The matter even caused a tremendous stir in the other commanderies of the Feather Transformation Marquisate.
Experts from various factions arrived near the Immortal Tomb, openly or in secret, attempting to explore the burial site.
Without exception, however, the powerful restrictions of this forbidden land barred them all from entering.
While rumors of the Immortal Tomb swept through the Cultivation World,
Black Iron City, situated along the Southwestern Borderlands of Xilin Commandery, carried on as it always had.
Commerce in the city grew more prosperous by the day, and ever more cultivators came and went, presenting a thriving scene.
Gu Chenfeng, the City Lord of Black Iron City, was not in the City Lord's Manor.
North of Black Iron City, along the borderlands, amid towering mountains wreathed in clouds and mist year-round,
inside a cave abode deep in the mountains, sealed by