Just then, a simply dressed middle-aged man and woman walked in from outside the door with a girl of about fifteen or sixteen years old.
They were slightly taken aback when they saw Ling Yi, clearly not expecting an outsider to be present in their home.
"Hello young man, it's been a long time since the Undying City has had any new guests," the middle-aged man said with a smile after putting down his Ling Yi.
"My name is Ling Yi. Please forgive me for disturbing you." Ling Yi still couldn't sense any Spiritual Power from them; this family were all ordinary people.
"Hehe, this Undying City is a cursed place. Whether ordinary people or cultivators, everyone keeps their distance. As long as you don't get close to that Undying Tree, you'll be fine."
" The Undying Tree? Is that the tree in the center of the city?" Ling Yi asked.
"Honey, we have guests today, so let's make fried rice with cured pork."
After the middle-aged man finished speaking, he licked his lips first, as if recalling the aroma of fried rice with cured pork.
"I think you're just craving something sweet, but it's true, it's been a long time since I've cooked a proper meal."
The dialogue itself sounds fine, but it's quite bizarre if it's said by a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl.
Ling Yi was completely dumbfounded.
"Haha, does Young Master Ling have many questions?"
Ling Yi nodded. "I'm incredibly suspicious. Something's wrong with this Undying City, and something's wrong with this family too."
"Young Master Ling must be from out of town, right?"
"I've traveled from afar, and this is my first time visiting the Undying City!"
The middle-aged man revealed an expression of certainty, then pointed to the eight- or nine-year-old girl and said, "This is my mother, she is over three thousand two hundred years old."
Over 3,200 years old? This girl? No wonder she speaks so maturely.
"My wife is the one cooking, and this is my daughter!" the middle-aged man said, pointing to a middle-aged woman who was about his age.
Ling Yi's curiosity was piqued. He was certain these people were ordinary people, but how could ordinary people live for so long?
Could it be that the people of this Undying City are truly immortal?
"I believe Young Master Ling has already guessed that although we are ordinary people, in a sense, we are indeed immortal."
"Hmph, what immortality? It's nothing more than endless Reincarnation of birth and death," the little girl retorted with an air of maturity.
" Reincarnation?" Ling Yi looked at her.
The girl's voice, filled with the marks of time, slowly said, "We are all ordinary people. Ordinary people die, but after each death, we are transformed back into babies."
"This cycle Reincarnation endlessly, but everyone's lifespan is different, so the cycle of Reincarnation is also different, which is why age and generation become confused."
"I, this old woman, Reincarnation once every 130 years, but my son Reincarnation once every 60 years. I Reincarnation once, but he will Reincarnation twice. Do you understand?"
Ling Yi nodded, understanding, but why? Could it be because of the Undying Tree in the city?
"About four thousand years ago, this place wasn't called the Undying City, but the Snow City. One day, a huge black Rift suddenly appeared above the Snow City, and a seed emitting a gray celestial glow fell from the sky."
"Mother, it's a black and white light, not a gray light," the middle-aged man corrected.
"Hmph, what's so important about Yan Se? Go help your wife, don't get in my way." The girl was annoyed by the middle-aged man's undermining, and she scolded him and sent him away.
After the middle-aged man left, the girl continued, "That seed happened to fall into the center of Snow City, and after about a thousand years, it grew into a giant tree a hundred meters tall, which is what it looks like now."
"In the past thousand years, countless cultivators have regarded the Undying Tree as a treasure, but anyone who attacked or even approached Undying Tree has died, including powerful cultivators at the Undying Tree Tribulation Transcendence Realm."
Ling Yi asked, "Is it only targeting cultivators?"
The girl nodded. "Cultivators are destined to die, but ordinary people are trapped in Infinite Reincarnation from that point onward."
"Many people from the nine immortal Asgard died here. As the number of deaths increased, the cultivators became afraid, so this Snow City was renamed the Undying City."
"We ordinary people won't die even if we don't eat or drink; we can live like normal people."
"But similarly, we are also trapped in this Undying City, unable to even leave through the city gates."
No wonder there's no sense of life or activity in the city despite its million inhabitants; it turns out the people here don't need to eat or drink, so naturally they don't need to cook.
For thousands of years, no one Fire Starting to cook, so naturally, the warmth and vitality of cooking have disappeared.
"What about the people who came in from outside?" Ling Yi asked again.
"Outsiders are unaffected. As long as they don't get close to the Undying Tree, they can come and go as they please. However, over the years, the Undying City has long been regarded as a forbidden zone and a dead zone by outsiders, and no one dares to approach it anymore."
Ling Yi is becoming increasingly curious about the Undying Tree and hopes that Yin Chen can figure something out about it.
Ling Yi Yinyin had a vague feeling that this Undying Tree would be of great use to him.
Through chatting, Ling Yi learned the family's names.
The girl, who looked about seven or eight years old, called herself Lady Li. The middle-aged man was named Li Yunhu, and the woman, who was about thirty years old, was Li Yunhu's daughter, named Li Yueting.
As for Li Yunhu's young wife, she also referred to herself as Lady Li, without a specific name.
The fried rice with cured pork that Li Yunhu couldn't forget was just so-so. Apart from a little saltiness, the cured pork was like dry wood, with no meaty flavor at all, and it was hard to tell how long it had been sitting there.
However, the Lady Li family ate with great relish.
As darkness fell, Ling Yi was speechless to find that the entire Undying City remained completely dark.
It was completely plunged into darkness, but in many homes, sounds unsuitable for children could be heard.
It's only a little past 7 pm.
But thinking about it, it makes sense. The people of the Undying City can't get out, and outsiders don't dare to come in.
It's likely that the city's original resources have long been completely depleted.
Oil lamps and candles were long gone, no question, and there was nothing to do all night...
[ Ling Yi: Old man Wuchen, get me a solar-powered lighting system!]
[ Zhuge Wuchen: Received! But boss, what do you need this for?]
[ Ling Yi: Enough with the nonsense, this is for ordinary people!]
[ Zhuge Wuchen: It has been stored in the System Space. Please check, boss!]
A dozen minutes later, the once pitch-black courtyard was suddenly illuminated by a light as bright as day.
Lady Li, with her short legs, ran out of the room. When she saw the metal pillar hanging in the middle of the yard and the ring of Light Emission on it, she became very excited.
" Wu Bai... For Wu Bai, the Undying City has never seen the light of night. Is this some kind of magical artifact?"
"Hmm..." Ling Yi was taken aback for a moment!
Should I explain the principles behind light Light Emission and solar power generation?
"I guess so!" Ling Yi said casually. The principle behind this thing was too complicated to explain, so Ling Yi was too lazy to explain it.
Soon, a crowd of onlookers appeared outside the courtyard. Although they looked to be of all ages, each of them wore a look of weariness and numbness.
Even when they saw the light, they were only excited for a moment before falling back into silence.
Three words flashed through Ling Yi's mind at that moment: living dead.
Sometimes, not dying is not a good thing, especially for ordinary people who are trapped in a corner of the world, living day after day in a repetitive Reincarnation, for whom living has become a kind of suffering.
In comparison, the Lady Li family's situation is already considered good.
Just then, Yin Chen suddenly appeared beside Ling Yi.
"That Undying Tree seems to be something special!" Ling Yi said.
This guy at least has the incredible Divine Ability of quantum Quantum Deduction, which allows him to deduce everything. The fact that Yin Chen spent so much time on just one tree is quite remarkable.
"Boss, it's the Power of Reincarnation!"
"I already guessed it, so what?"
"Boss, among the thirty- Daoist Arts of the Nine Palaces Realm, there is no Law of Samsara," Yin Chen emphasized.
"No?" Ling Yi Ling Yi knew that there were thirty- Daoist Arts in the Nine Palaces Realm, but he didn't really know what those laws were.
"Boss, the thirty- Daoist Arts of the Nine Palaces Realm are: metal, wood, water, fire, earth; light, darkness, wind, thunder, ice; life, death, poison, blood, life; shadow, speed, weight, air, fog; sound, wisdom, learning, planting, and prediction!"
"Chaos, destruction, cause, injury; time, space, emptiness, teaching, struggle, killing!"
Ling Yi: "..."
Are you sure these are all laws? I understand the first few, the Five Elements, and I understand some of the middle ones too—fate, time, space—but what are the rest?
" The Law of Samsara does not belong to this realm, but it can be devoured by the Nine Palaces Realm. However, this Reincarnation Divine Tree, also known as the Undying Tree, has already developed sentience and does not want to be devoured by this world, so it guards its own domain."
"Boss, this Reincarnation Divine Tree is extremely useful to the Blood Shadow Realm. If we could deduce the method for cultivating Law Seeds, it might be possible to transform the Blood Shadow Realm into a truly great world."
"This thing can actually be deduced?"
" The Reincarnation Divine Tree itself evolved from a seed of the Law of Samsara. Since the Law of Samsara is like this, other laws can naturally also evolve into seeds of laws."
"You're getting more and more Primordial World," Ling Yi thought, his head throbbing with pain.
"Just tell me the success rate. If you're only guessing and don't have absolute certainty, then don't waste your time."
"I need your calculations of the evolutionary process of the Reincarnation Divine Tree before I can obtain accurate data. If we focus all our efforts on the calculations, it will take approximately three years."
"You should deduce the thirty- Daoist Arts first, and then study this."
Ling Yi didn't want to waste too much time on something so unreliable.
Moreover, Ling Yi doesn't need to evolve the Blood Shadow Realm into a real world right now, so it's completely unnecessary.
So what if you carry a whole world with you?
Every world his Blood Shadow radiates from will slowly turn into his backyard.
Why bother creating your own world?
"Then this Reincarnation Divine Tree..." Yin Chen was somewhat frustrated.
He really wanted to reverse-engineer the law seed, but he couldn't disobey Ling Yi's orders. However, he couldn't just let this Reincarnation Divine Tree go.
"What will happen to the Undying City if this tree is gone?" Ling Yi asked again.
"They have been corrupted by the Power of Reincarnation. If they can cultivate and reach the Spirit Platform Stage, they will most likely be able to master the Reincarnation Divine Ability."
"Otherwise, as the Power of Reincarnation dissipates, they will only become ordinary people."
"Go dig up the tree!" Ling Yi waved to Yin Chen and said.
The tree still needs to be dug up; such a treasure is rare and hard to come by. Now that we've found it, we certainly can't let it go.
After seeing Yin Chen off, Ling Yi said to Lady Li, "I will arrange for an array master to come and inscribe Qi Gathering Formation Pattern for you. I wish you success in your cultivation."
"I'm definitely taking the tree with me. You can name three conditions as compensation to the Undying City."
Li Yunhu asked excitedly, "Can the Undying City really return to normal? Can we also return to normal?"
Ling Yi nodded. With the Undying Tree dug up, the Undying City would naturally return to normal.
"I don't want anything, I just want to die a normal death. I've lived too long, I'm tired."
This answer was unexpected, but it's also understandable.
Ling Yi reminded them, "You must understand that once you die, you're truly dead. There is no Law of Samsara in this world."
"I will arrange for the array master. As for whether or not you will cultivate, that's your own decision. Before I leave tomorrow, you can discuss how to use these three conditions."
Just then, the entire Undying City suddenly trembled violently, and then a dazzling green light burst forth from the direction of the city center.
But the green light disappeared in just a moment. Clearly, Yin Chen had succeeded, and a new tree had appeared within the Blood Shadow Realm.