Different heavens and earth

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Chapter 30: Different heavens and earth

"Becoming an immortal was easier said than done!" Chen Beiwu glanced toward the village school, filled with emotion.

After studying the jade slip for two days, he had finally mastered the Southern Wilderness Language.

That female bandit cultivator had been clever enough. The Southern Wilderness Language recorded in the jade slip was nine parts truth and one part falsehood, an attempt to trick him.

Fortunately, Chen Beiwu had remained near the village school out of caution, poring over a great many introductory books until he successfully identified the erroneous words in the jade slip.

You actually dared to replace "senior" with "dumbass," "fellow Daoist" with "your fucking mother," and "fellow Daoist, please wait" with "your fucking mother died young"... You certainly didn't die an undeserved death.

Chen Beiwu shook his head, paying little heed to the petty trick she had left behind before her death, and casually took out a dozen or so books.

"A comprehensive gazetteer of the Southern Wilderness"

"Miscellaneous accounts of rogue cultivators"

"Nine Tests of Qi Refining—Five Great Sects"

"Nine examinations of Qi Refining-the Five Great Sects"

As he leafed through these books, Chen Beiwu gradually gained a clearer understanding of the Southern Wild Region.

The Southern Wild Region was boundless, situated at the southernmost end of the continent with the Endless Sea at its back. It held countless spiritual veins, immortal mountains, and cultivation sects, while the dynastic powers that chose to attach themselves to those sects were too numerous to count.

Without exaggeration, there were as many as three named cultivation sects just around the Marshland Kingdom, to which Waterside Mountain Town belonged. The sight left Chen Beiwu momentarily stunned.

Good grief. In the Immortal Alliance, only a Golden Core True Person could establish a sect.

He had never expected the Southern Wild Region to be so lawless. A single Foundation Establishment Rogue Person, or even a handful of mortal Qi Refining cultivators, dared occupy a low-grade spiritual vein and claim to have founded a sect.

Rather than sects, these cultivation organizations without a Golden Core True Person presiding over them were more like cultivation lineages whose members supported one another.

According to some diaries left in the storage bags, the two brothers, Tong Yu and Zhong Shan, had once founded a cultivation sect with Lin Yu. But poor management had soon caused it to fold and become a den of thieves.

Even late Qi Refining cultivators can casually occupy a first-tier spiritual vein and claim it as their own. No wonder the Southern Wild Region dares call itself boundless. Chen Beiwu felt a flicker of delight.

The fewer cultivation resources there were, the fiercer the competition.

Conversely, the fact that Foundation Establishment cultivators in the Southern Wild Region could disregard first-tier spiritual veins meant this world had abundant resources. Such veins were so plentiful that higher-level cultivators disdained them altogether. For Chen Beiwu, that was undoubtedly excellent news.

He took out "A comprehensive gazetteer of the Southern Wilderness" and skimmed it. He discovered that the Marshland Kingdom lay within the Mountain Annihilation World of the Earth Evolution Realm. It was merely an insignificant dot on the map of the Southern Wild Region's nine realms, but the information about it was extremely detailed.

Clearly, the author of "A Thorough Record of the Southern Wasteland" had spent a lifetime mapping only the Earth Evolution Realm, one of the Southern Wild Region's nine realms. The maps of the remaining eight had all been compiled and transcribed from hearsay, making their accuracy difficult to judge.

Clearly, the author of "A comprehensive gazetteer of the Southern Wilderness" had spent a lifetime mapping only the Earth Evolution Realm, one of the Southern Wild Region's nine realms. The maps of the remaining eight had all been compiled and transcribed from hearsay, making their accuracy difficult to judge.

Rogue cultivators have it far too hard. To do well in the Southern Wild Region, I must join a major sect, Chen Beiwu thought.

The Immortal Alliance valued order. Even a Golden Core True Person would not kill a Foundation Establishment cultivator and seize their possessions without cause, because the gains would not outweigh the losses: the Immortal Alliance would punish them severely.

But the Southern Wild Region was different. There was no order here; strength reigned supreme.

If small sects were already so meek and submissive, rogue cultivators in the Southern Wasteland had an even harder time getting by, simply because they had none of the five essentials.

If even small sects had to bow and scrape so humbly, rogue cultivators in the Southern Wilderness had an even harder time getting by, for they were people with five things lacking.

What were those five things?

No spiritual land: without a permanent cave abode, they could only occupy spiritual veins in barren mountains.

No backing: without a sect's protection, they had no reinforcements when enemies appeared and could only weather the assault themselves.

No inheritance: lacking a systematic cultivation method, they practiced from fragmentary texts. Trying to break through to Foundation Establishment was like blind men feeling an elephant.

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No resources: competing for resources meant risking their lives, and even if they luckily obtained an opportunity, a major sect might snatch it away.

No status: their unorthodox backgrounds earned them contempt, and even if a powerful cultivator killed them in the street, no one would care.

To put it bluntly, rogue cultivators were unregistered nobodies. Sect disciples could easily use them as cannon fodder to scout the way, or powerful cultivators could plant restrictions in them to use them for possession or as shields against tribulations.

Of course, the Southern Wild Region was not entirely without rules.

Five major cultivation sects held the reins within the Earth Evolution Realm: the Mirror Moon Palace, the Mysterious Sword Pavilion, the Greenwood Sect, the Flameburn Sect, and the Heavy Gold Sect.

These five sects possessed inheritances of mystic law true canons and had Nascent Soul True Lords presiding over them. With countless subordinate sects beneath their banners, their influence was immensely powerful, and the Earth Evolution Realm's cultivation world respectfully called them the Five Great Sects.

Without exaggeration, even Golden Core True Persons could only obey the rules laid down by the Five Great Sects, not daring to violate them at will.

Thus, the Earth Evolution Realm's cultivation world could barely maintain a measure of order on the surface. Behind the scenes, however, neither rogue cultivators nor small sects had an easy life.

After a moment's hesitation, Chen Beiwu decided to inquire about the Mirror Moon Palace and see whether he could join this major power.

He had little choice. Chen Beiwu had originally wanted to be a rogue cultivator, but rogue cultivators lacked all five things, and the Southern Wild Region was simply too chaotic.

With his cultivation at only the seventh level of Qi Refining, encountering a Qi Refining bandit cultivator like Lin Yu was still manageable. But if his luck turned bad and he encountered a Foundation Establishment bandit cultivator launching a sneak attack,

that could cost him his life.

Aside from that, Chen Beiwu also wanted to join the Five Great Sects to verify a suspicion he harbored.

What did that mean?

Chen Beiwu suspected that the natural environment of the Southern Wild Region was entirely different from that of the Immortal Alliance on Heavenly Abyss Star.

During the Primordial Era, Heavenly Abyss Star's Great Dao had been stable.

Even if cultivators bridged heaven and humanity, shed their mortal bodies, reached the states of three flowers gathering at the crown and five qi returning to the origin, and condensed supreme magical power, they still struggled to invoke the laws of heaven and earth's Great Dao through spell arts, much less contend with the divine abilities of great demons.

The Demon Race, however, enjoyed heaven's unique favor. Without needing to cultivate, they could invoke the laws of heaven and earth's Great Dao through their bloodlines alone, allowing their divine abilities to unleash power capable of destroying heaven and earth.

Precisely because of this, humanity was weak during the Primordial Era. Not one human could comprehend heaven and earth, attain the Dao, and become an immortal, while great demons ran rampant, ravaging the world, yet could successfully condense Dao Fruits and ascend.

Precisely because of this, humanity had been weak during the Primordial Era. Not one human could comprehend heaven and earth, attain the Dao, and become an immortal. Meanwhile, great demons ran rampant, ravaging the world, yet could successfully condense Dao fruits and ascend.

Fortunately, an unrivaled mighty figure had arisen among humanity and, with great wisdom, pioneered the beast-borrowing cultivation Dao that terrified the Demon Race.

By the present day, the Immortal Alliance's cultivation philosophy had taken shape. It followed the path of cultivating oneself through the outer Dao.

In simpler terms, it meant borrowing beasts to cultivate and attain a Dao fruit, placing greater emphasis on spiritual roots and resources.

The Southern Wild Region's cultivation philosophy, however, used spell arts to cultivate oneself and connect with heaven and earth. In simpler terms, it meant attaining a Dao fruit through dual cultivation of nature and life. It followed the old path of Heavenly Abyss Star's cultivators during the Primordial Era, placing greater emphasis on aptitude for spell arts-comprehension.

These two philosophies ultimately reached the same destination by different roads, yet they were fundamentally different.

Chen Beiwu picked up "Collected commentaries on profound abyss arts" and opened it. The more he thought about it, the more plausible his suspicion seemed.

Although he cast exactly the same spell arts, their power in the Southern Wild Region was several times greater than in the Immortal Alliance.

At first, Chen Beiwu had assumed that the Southern Wild Region's exceptionally dense spiritual energy had multiplied his spells' power, and he had not given it much thought.

Only today, after reading the Southern Wild Region's cultivation methods and understanding their underlying cultivation philosophy, had he immediately realized what was happening.

If my suspicion is correct, my aptitude for spell arts should let me join the Five Great Sects without difficulty. Chen Beiwu's eyes shone.

(End of chapter)