I have Immortality In The Cultivation World

Chapter 121: 121: Unclaimed Spirit Land

External Affairs Hall, third floor.

Merely two months had passed, and Zhou Yi came again to accept a demon-slaying task.

"In recent years, I've become somewhat lazy," he mused with sudden regret, "I must be more diligent."

"That's the right attitude!"

Xiao Yuan smiled, full of admiration for the sect's system, successfully transforming a top-level idler into a hard worker, "Which task does Junior Brother Zhu plan to take on?"

Zhou Yi scanned through the available tasks with his Divine Sense and picked one suitable for his own cultivation level—it was a demon head.

——The Black Skull Demon Head from the Qiongzhou Ghost King Sect, with early-stage Foundation Establishment strength. Seventy years ago, it committed a bloodbath in Cloud Continent. Because it cultivated the White Bone Devil Technique, which was unfathomably strange, it escaped from the encirclement of the Dan Ding Sect for thirteen times.

Xiao Yuan cautioned, "The Black Skull Demon Head? If it hasn't died at the hands of demons, its strength is probably beyond the early-stage of Foundation Establishment by now."

Zhou Yi took out a fiery red treasure bead, decorated with strands of golden patterns, "To deal with devils and heretics, why need a fair fight? I have specially gathered a few Qianyang Li Fire Beads!"

"I wish Junior Brother good luck."

Xiao Yuan saw no reason to doubt him and marked the task as accepted.

Zhou Yi spent his merit points to exchange for the Nine Revolutions Spirit Refinement Art and then went to the Technique Hall to get the legacy.

With the nearly two thousand remaining merit points, he exchanged for a large quantity of life-saving and healing pills, making it seem as if he really was going out to execute demons.

...

Qing Kingdom.

Bright Moon Gorge.

Whenever the full moon appeared, standing in the gorge, one could see wisps of moonlight drifting down.

This mysterious spectacle once attracted many mortals to watch until the Shen family occupied this spirit land for cultivation. They set up layers upon layers of formations within the gorge, which was enveloped in thick fog all year round, no longer allowing anyone to witness the moonlight wonder.

After hundreds of years, the miracle became a legend, mentioned only briefly in strange tales.

At night.

A five-colored escape light landed at the edge of the gorge.

"The territories of ordinary cultivation families, they hide and protect them, fearing outsiders will know about it. The Shen family relies on the sect's resources, and it took three successive generations at the Foundation Establishment stage before they dared to occupy the entire gorge so brazenly!"

Zhou Yi didn't enter the formation, but waited outside the gorge instead.

Several days later.

A Shen family disciple emerged from the fog. Before he could even ride his flying sword, he heard someone speaking.

"Fellow Daoist, please wait."

Zhou Yi exuded the aura of a Foundation Establishment true person and said with a smile, "I come from the Dan Ding Sect, entrusted by my senior brother to deliver a relic to Shen Yun, the fellow Daoist of the Shen family."

"Please wait a moment, senior. I'll inform the old ancestor Shen."

It wasn't long before the Shen family disciple returned, and the foggy formation slowly opened to let out a mature, palace-dressed lady.

Zhou Yi took out a jade pendant, "I have been entrusted by Senior Brother Jiang to return this item to Shen Daoist."

Shen Yun took the jade pendant, caressed it for a moment, her eyes filled with tears, "How is Jiang Lang doing now?"

Zhou Yi replied truthfully, "Senior brother has gone far to Ji Continent to slay demons, and his life and death are currently unknown."

If Jiang Kang hadn't made a breakthrough to the Golden Core, he certainly would have passed away given that his lifespan was nearly exhausted.

Shen Yun wiped away her tears and nodded, "You've seen my disgrace."

"It's no trouble, I also have urgent matters from the sect, so I will take my leave now."

Zhou Yi, not willing to enter Bright Moon Gorge and without being invited, excused himself and transformed into a streak of light as he left.

...

Luo River.

Starting from the mountains at the border of Cloud and Qiong, extending to the Great Marsh of Qing Kingdom.

Snaking thousands of miles, it traversed across the territories of two states.

Zhou Yi landed outside Daze Marketplace and vanished into the depths of Luoshui River.

"This last stretch of riverbed is over twenty or thirty miles wide, and there are over a dozen big and small lakes in the middle of Luo River. Truly, this is no small feat!"

After leaving Bright Moon Gorge, Zhou Yi arrived at the Luoshui River and swept his Divine Sense from east to west across every inch of soil.

Whether the Dan Ding Sect, Marketplace, or the Cold Pool Spirit Land, they were ultimately the territories of others. Now over two hundred and eighty years old, Zhou Yi's only private domain was probably the small courtyard in Qianjing.

Similarly, he was slowly dissipating his Cultivation Technique.

Merely dispersing mana was easier, but after Foundation Establishment, the "Dao Foundation" in the Dantian had already become a part of the cultivator's body. Forcibly breaking it would cause irreversible damage to the Dantian.

Cultivators who choose to seek a new path would dissolve their powers and start over during the Qi Refinement Realm, but doing so during or after the Foundation Establishment Stage would more or less impact their future path.

The higher one went, the more difficult it became to dissolve their powers. Forcibly shattering one's Golden Core or nascent soul was no different from committing suicide.

The method Zhou Yi chose was different from others who forcibly dissolved their powers; he stayed in the mundane world for a long time, allowing his mana to naturally dissipate.

Only when the Dao Foundation collapsed on its own, which is when he would fall back to the Qi Refinement Realm, was the process slow and time-consuming, yet it wouldn't damage his Dantian.

"This period is just right for searching for spiritual lands. And when Old Yellow Bull returns from the vast mountain range, how could I not have a guard when I dissipate my powers and start anew? The disbanded masters in the stories, no matter how secluded their hiding, always have the protagonist drop from the sky!"

Zhou Yi also needed to find out whether Old Yellow Bull had claimed any territory so that he could possibly seek refuge with him in the future.

The reappearance of Xiao Tiezhu had made the Dan Ding Sect enigmatic and unpredictable, leaving uncertainty about what might happen.

"There's an iron chest under the water."

Zhou Yi's Divine Sense penetrated two to three Zhang below the water, his mana pierced through the soil, and he extracted an iron chest about the size of a human head from within.

Crushing the iron lock as easily as Hideyoshi, he opened the chest to find inside silver notes that had already rotted away, twenty to thirty Gold Bars, and various pieces of jewelry.

"Searching for spiritual lands has been too monotonous, now I've got some spending money. When I have time, I'll go to both banks to celebrate!"

The first time he dredged up Gold and Silver was somewhat satisfying, but as the search along the river progressed, he became somewhat numb to the various treasures, jade antiques, and Gold and Silver.

The bottom of the Luoshui River contained all sorts of messy things, second only to gold and jade were the bones, those with stones tied to them, those with sacks over their heads, those with chains bound to their limbs; anyway, he had never seen anyone who leaped into the river willingly. Experience the narrative at m_vl_em_p_yr

Next in line were sunken ships and stone carvings that could date back thousands of years.

"There are words on this stone statue: 'When the Luo River runs dry, rebellion will rise.'"

Zhou Yi clicked his tongue in amazement and left four characters behind the stone figure: Been here, call me at 199****.

The characters were in the common script of Cloud Continent; let the historians discover it in a few thousand or tens of thousands of years and perhaps they could write dozens of papers about it, or it might become yet another unsolved mystery.

"This stone figure is of fine quality; I wonder if it could outlast those old immortals of the Cultivation World?"

"If it can, doesn't that mean they are less enduring than a stone? That's about right, in the face of the mighty force of time, they are indeed no different from a stone…"

...

Three years went by in the blink of an eye.

More than half of the 4,000-li long Luoshui River had been searched, and no trace of any spiritual land had been found.

Originally, it was estimated that the riverbed could be searched in three years, and then the search would extend to the surrounding mountains and lakes. However, the myriad Peach Blossom Sources along the banks were too delightful, causing Zhou Yi to linger and delay the process.

"The notes of a true master wouldn't be wrong. Could it be that the snake demon also understands Formation and Prohibition?"

Zhou Yi felt the mana within his body, and signs of his Dao Foundation collapsing had already appeared. Thanks to his unrestrained spellcasting, and never using Healing Pills or Spirit Stones, the collapsing speed was dozens of times faster than under normal circumstances.

"Foundation Establishment is this slow. If I want to start over after reaching Solidifying Pill, won't I have to wait a hundred years?"

"Let's take one step at a time, maybe by then there will be a method, a Secret Technique to avoid mana and Divine Sense detection, exempt from the jade slip…"

As Zhou Yi pondered, a bellowing moo echoed, resounding on both banks of the Luoshui River.

"Old Yellow is back!"

With a wave of his hand, he left a mana imprint, turned into a flight of light, and flew out of the water, indeed seeing Old Yellow Bull standing on the bank.

Steam rose from Old Yellow Bull's hooves as he flew to Zhou Yi's side and gently nuzzled his chest.

Moo!

"You've become a great demon?"

"Have you taken over a mountain peak, towering into the clouds, and named it Mo Cloud Cave?"

"Was there originally a clan of vixen spirits on the mountain, each one beautiful, and now they've all become your maids?"

"..."

Listening to Old Yellow Bull recount his experiences over the years, Zhou Yi couldn't help but shed tears of envy. Compared to the monotony and caution of the Dan Ding Sect, it was truly a world of difference.