After settling Immortal Duohe in, Zhou Qing continued his search for Immortal Wusui, following Lord Cui's guidance.
Using Grand Teleportation once more, they arrived outside a small world.
The remains of countless human and demon cultivators were scattered throughout the void outside the small world. Zhou Qing approached and examined them, then guessed the cause of their deaths.
"Skyburner Venomwind?"
Feeling the chilling gusts that swept through the void from time to time, Lord Cui voiced Zhou Qing's guess first.
"The cultivators of this small world were rather unlucky, to have a natural calamity like this surrounding the outside of their world."
Lord Cui's voice was full of pity as he spoke.
Skyburner Venomwind was a "true wind" on the same level as Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire.
Though it posed little threat to Empyrean Gods and True Immortals like the two of them, cultivators at the Celestial Immortal level and below had almost no chance of survival if they encountered it.
Most of these fallen cultivators had ventured beyond their world while they were Earth Immortals or Loose Immortals, so naturally they had been powerless against the Skyburner Venomwind.
After reflecting on their fate, the two stopped mourning for the world and its people and entered the small world directly.
Upon entering, Zhou Qing instinctively spread his Heartforce over the world, and immediately discovered something that surprised him.
Was this... the Seven Wonders World?
The Seven Wonders World, Wondrous Dao Heaven.
On a deserted island standing alone in the sea, an old man and a middle-aged man sat around a stone table, playing a board game.
The middle-aged man played black, and the old man played white. After a fierce struggle, the middle-aged man was about to place another stone when he discovered that the white stones had already driven him into a desperate situation.
He put down the stone in his hand, rose, and cupped his hands. "Elder Xuan, your skill is superb. I, Wu Sui, admit defeat."
"Hahaha..." The old man threw back his head and laughed, quite pleased with himself.
"Fellow Daoist Wu, this old man has lived several hundred thousand years in vain. I have no other skills to speak of, only this talent for the game."
"You're too modest, Elder Xuan." Immortal Wusui shook his head.
Though Patriarch Black Turtle spoke that way, Immortal Wusui did not dare look down on the unremarkable old man before him.
As the strongest member of this world's demon race, Patriarch Black Turtle was a Loose Immortal at the three-hundred-thousand-year level, far surpassing even Immortal Duohe, whom Immortal Wusui had once regarded as a formidable enemy.
At that thought, Immortal Wusui could not help recalling the past.
The Wujiang Immortal Mansion... his clansmen... Immortal Duohe...
In particular, when he thought of Zhou Qing, whose whereabouts were unknown, a shadow fell over his face.
Back then, a moment of inattention had separated him from Zhou Qing, the most talented member of his clan. It had remained Immortal Wusui's greatest worry ever since.
Though his faint bloodline connection told him that Zhou Qing was still alive, Immortal Wusui knew nothing about his circumstances.
Concerned for the younger member of his clan, Immortal Wusui thought constantly of leaving this world to search for the missing Zhou Qing.
Patriarch Black Turtle, who was beside him, also noticed that something was amiss with Immortal Wusui and immediately sighed inwardly.
He knew something of Immortal Wusui's persistent desire to venture beyond the heavens, but could only say that he wished to help and could not.
Long ago, Patriarch Lu had come from beyond the heavens and spread the Dao in this savage world, causing many to yearn for what lay beyond.
Thus, hundreds of thousands of years ago, countless experts of the Seven Wonders World had ventured beyond the heavens to explore after achieving success in cultivation. Not one had returned to this day.
In fact, not long after those experts left the Seven Wonders World, most of the soul lamps and life tablets they had left behind had gone out or shattered.
For these reasons, in the years that followed, the experts of the Seven Wonders World had all kept as far away from the world beyond the heavens as they could, venturing there no longer.
Patriarch Black Turtle was one of them.
Thus, Patriarch Black Turtle had done his utmost to dissuade Immortal Wusui from leaving the Seven Wonders World and venturing beyond the heavens.
In his view, among the experts who had gone beyond the heavens back then, there had been plenty like him, and even quite a few stronger than him.
Yet in the end, had they not all vanished without a trace and perished beyond the heavens?
For a Loose Immortal of less than a hundred thousand years like Immortal Wusui to recklessly venture beyond the heavens would merely add another number to those who had perished there.
Leaving Immortal Wusui and Patriarch Black Turtle to their melancholy, the scene shifted to another immortal realm of the Seven Wonders World, Pure Yang Heaven.
At this moment, Zhou Qing brought Lord Cui into this strange yet familiar world.
With his feet on the soil of Pure Yang Heaven, Zhou Qing was filled with emotion.
Fate was truly wondrous. While searching for an old acquaintance from his second simulation, he had come to the world where his first simulation had taken place.
The Long Kingdom... the Zhou Clan... the Three Immortals Palace... the Pure Yang Immortal Mansion...
When he probed with his Heartforce, the cold words that had once appeared on the Infinite Simulation Panel entered Zhou Qing's mind in a vivid form.
He saw:
The land that had once belonged to the Long Kingdom had changed dynasties and become the territory of the Jing Kingdom.
The Zhou Clan had no ancestor named Zhou Xian (Zhou Qing's name during his first simulation), either. His father from that first simulation had remained childless throughout his life and ultimately chosen to adopt a child from his older male cousin to inherit the family business.
The last time the Pure Yang Immortal Mansion opened, no one had obtained the Pure Yang Medallion. The righteous, demonic, and demon factions had still divided the opportunities within the mansion among themselves.
Because he had not been there, the Three Immortals Palace had not become the target of everyone's attacks. Instead, the opportunities it had gained this time had produced another Primal Daoist, making it stronger than ever.
Seeing a worldline completely different from the one in the simulation, Zhou Qing looked as though he understood.
It seems that if a simulation fails, everything in it is but a flower in a mirror, the moon reflected in water.
"Eh?"
Just then, after discovering the opportunity Lü Dongbin had left in the Seven Wonders World, Lord Cui suddenly looked surprised.
"The Pure Yang Immortal Mansion? I didn't expect Fellow Daoist Donghua to have left his footprints in this world too."
But his surprise lasted only a moment, and he thought no more of it.
After all, Lü Dongbin's fondness for traveling the Three Realms was already a fixed impression among many great powers.
Zhou Qing also put on a surprised expression, as though he had only just discovered this himself.
After reminiscing about his first simulation, Zhou Qing did not linger. He went straight to Immortal Wusui's location with Lord Cui.
Immortal Wusui froze at the sudden appearance of Zhou Qing and Lord Cui.
Patriarch Black Turtle, however, was knowledgeable and experienced. Upon sensing the pure yang presence emanating from Zhou Qing and Lord Cui, similar to Lü Dongbin's, he immediately pulled Immortal Wusui into a bow.
"This junior greets the two seniors."
"There's no need for ceremony." Zhou Qing waved his hand, and a surge of pure yang magic power lifted the two men before him to their feet.
He then smiled softly at Immortal Wusui. "Brother Wu Sui, don't you remember me?"
"Wu... Xian?!"
Seeing Zhou Qing, whom he had thought of constantly, appear before him, Immortal Wusui immediately cried out.
Then, sensing Zhou Qing's unfathomable presence, he asked delightedly, "Wu Xian, how powerful are you now? Could it be that you've already become a Celestial Immortal, like our ancestor?"
"Hahaha..." In answer to Immortal Wusui's question, Lord Cui explained with a laugh, "Young Friend Wu Sui, the Great Emperor is now a Pure Yang True Immortal."
A Pure Yang True Immortal?
Immortal Wusui's mouth fell wide open in shock.
Though he did not know what sort of realm that was, he understood Lord Cui's meaning: Zhou Qing had become an expert who surpassed Immortal Witchriver.
"All right, Brother Wu Sui."
Looking at Wu Sui's confused expression, Zhou Qing smiled.
"I'll tell you all about what I've experienced over the years after we leave this world."
"Come, enter my grotto-heaven treasure first."
Hearing Zhou Qing say this, Immortal Wusui did not hesitate. After bidding Patriarch Black Turtle farewell, he entered Zhou Qing's grotto-heaven treasure.
Zhou Qing then turned to Patriarch Black Turtle.