Ten Thousand Years in the Past
Sang Ying moved her fingers; beneath her was a patch of damp mud, the sticky, strange texture making her feel resistant.
The stench wafting in from all directions assaulted her nostrils, making it difficult for her to breathe several times. Sang Ying frowned, struggling to circulate her Spiritual Power, and silently recited a cleansing Method Formula.
As consciousness gradually returned, all of Sang Ying's senses slowly awakened. She felt excruciating pain throughout her body, as if every bone in her body had been broken and reassembled.
Her eyelids felt as heavy as lead; she struggled to wake up, but to no avail.
Sang Ying could only continue lying on the ground, feeling the insects crawling over her hands and head from time to time, and feeling the sensation of these insects trying to eat her.
After an unknown amount of time, the insects, unable to pierce the cultivator's flesh, reluctantly departed, allowing Sang Ying to regain peace. She seemed to slowly regain her strength and was finally able to try opening her eyes.
The moment Sang Ying opened her eyes, she met a pair of blood-red eyes. A crow with a jet-black beak stared intently at her, its large eyes gleaming with curiosity, as if observing the person in front of it who should have been dead.
Sang Ying took a deep breath and used her arms to support her limp body.
Her movements didn't startle the crows, but they did startle the other birds pecking at the carcass nearby. They flapped their wings and flew in unison to the withered tree next to them, seemingly quite frightened.
Sang Ying ignored the birds and looked around. She then used her Divine Sense to examine the scattered bones and confirmed that the people had been dead for many days before she finally realized that she had ended up in a mass grave.
No wonder there was such a strong stench of decay earlier.
This unnamed place has a gloomy sky; even at night, not a single star can be seen, and the moon's shadow is nowhere to be seen.
Sang Ying sat there for a while, feeling stronger, before she began to try to draw upon the Spiritual Qi here.
Unlike the three small worlds she had previously inhabited, the Spiritual Qi here was extremely mixed. Not only were Spiritual Qi of various attributes mixed together, but there was also a dusty, grayish aura mixed in with it.
Sang Ying could only carefully peel away the gray substance before she could barely absorb the remaining Spiritual Qi.
"Looking at it this way, this isn't a good place at all!" she sighed softly.
The Spiritual Qi is clearly so abundant, yet it's difficult to absorb due to its numerous impurities. These cultivators are supposed to be cultivating to absorb and accumulate Spiritual Qi, but now even absorption has become a problem. It's likely that the people here won't be able to follow the proper path of cultivation.
While Sang Ying was lost in thought, the beautiful red-eyed, black-feathered crow was curiously observing her. This crow was probably the leader of the flock here; it was quite bold and seemed to have some kind of spiritual cultivation.
Seeing that their leader was still standing safely next to the strange man, without any signs of being beaten, the other birds quickly relaxed and flew back to the mass grave to continue their feast.
Seeing this, Sang Ying didn't pay much attention. She quickly gathered her strength and staggered to her feet from the mass grave.
The mass grave was in a good location, probably in a desolate back mountain. It was surrounded by dead trees, and there was a high cliff in front of it. Sang Ying exhaled a heavy breath before moving her body out of this mountain of corpses.
She also took a look at the corpses scattered all over the ground. After realizing that there was still lingering Yin Qi in the wounds on these people, Sang Ying was certain that this was probably the legendary Hidden Nether Realm.
The Cultivation World has five major worlds: Beautiful Orchid, Immortal Spirit, Black Tortoise, Cloud Mulberry, and Hidden Nether Realm.
The first four all follow the orthodox path of cultivation, and regardless of whether the Spiritual Qi is abundant or not, the cultivators there are always clean and radiant.
But the final Hidden Nether Realm was quite different.
Because the Spiritual Qi in this realm is mixed and impure, cultivators cannot absorb it normally. The strange gray aura also mixes into the clouds, obscuring the sun.
Therefore, the entire Hidden Nether Realm was shrouded in a gloomy gray sky, never seeing the sun, and lacking clean Spiritual Qi to enjoy. The Hidden Nether Realm then embarked on an extreme path of cultivation, shifting from cultivating the path of life to cultivating the Dao of Death.
The most famous practices in this world are corpse refining and corpse raising, in addition to the Five Poison Gu Technique, which also holds a place in the field.
Years ago, Sang Ying had heard about the unique customs of this place and wanted to visit, but she never expected to come here so unexpectedly.
When Jiang Zhuoxue pushed him through that "door" earlier, he clearly begged himself to find his past self.
However, Sang Ying also vaguely guessed that this was probably the former Hidden Nether Realm, but Sang Ying had no idea how many years ago he had sent her back to.
Stumbling out of the mass grave, Sang Ying rubbed her aching temples and continued to probe out with her Divine Sense.
She hasn't found a better way to absorb Spiritual Qi yet. Removing impurities from Spiritual Qi is not convenient, especially since her cultivation level is now high and she needs more Spiritual Qi. If she abuses it, she might end up with insufficient Spiritual Qi in her body, which would cause her trouble.
In this unfamiliar world, Sang Ying dared not make any rash moves.
Behind her came the sound of flapping wings. Sang Ying turned her head warily and saw the crows from the mass grave chasing straight after her.
The crow was quite impolite. Seeing that Sang Ying seemed to be stopping to wait for it, it crashed headfirst into her arms, completely disregarding whether it was clean or not, and whether Sang Ying would mind.
Fortunately, it had cultivated itself, so although it lived in a mass grave, it didn't smell bad. Its feathers were smooth and beautiful, even more so than other people's carefully raised pets.
Sang Ying tried to shake it off, but the bird was very stubborn, its claws gripping Sang Ying's clothes tightly and refusing to come down.
After a brief standoff, Sang Ying finally gave in first.
The female cultivator walked through the withered forest, and a black raven landed on her shoulder.
With her Golden Core Late Stage Divine Sense, Sang Ying quickly discovered the most convenient route down the mountain. The two of them, one human and one crow, crossed the bizarre and withered trees and headed towards the bustling town below.
As for the birds that lost their leader, they were only sad for a short while before throwing themselves into the endless task of eating.
People in each small world have their own way of life. Even in the Hidden Nether Realm, which is never exposed to the light of day, there are a large number of native inhabitants.
Most of them wore drab gray robes, whether to highlight their unique status or simply because they liked the monotonous color, it's unclear.
In the midst of the gray and black, Sang Ying's blue dress was the most striking color. People on both sides of the street glanced over unconsciously, but after noticing the crow on her shoulder, they silently looked away.
Sang Ying belatedly realized that it was perhaps this crow that made her seem out of place here.
Sang Ying randomly found a stall, asked the price, and bought a bottle of pills.
After seeing that the stall owner's attitude towards her had softened considerably, Sang Ying seized the opportunity to ask, "Fellow Daoist, I have a favor to ask. I come from the outside world and wonder what method they use here to record the years?"
The stall owner glanced at her clothes and the crow on her shoulder, a smile appearing on his face beneath his hood, "How strange, people from other small worlds actually come here. But don't be afraid, it's not as scary as people say outside. Besides, you even dare to keep a crow, so you probably don't care about those rumors, right?"
Sang Ying turned her head and met the crow's small eyes. The crow tilted its head, seemingly not understanding what Sang Ying was looking at.
"Although we don't have much contact with other small worlds, we still use the same calendar. Isn't it exactly three hundred years since the founding of the Heavenly Empire?"
The stall owner's words struck Sang Ying like a hammer blow to the head, and the phrase "three hundred years of Tianyu" kept echoing in her mind.
Three hundred years of Heavenly Rule? It really is three hundred years of Heavenly Rule!
A full ten thousand years have passed since she arrived here!
So, is this the place where Jiang Zhuoxue suffered?