Chapter 452: Arriving at Nine Clouds City, Converging at Shengzhao Water

At this very moment, Du En and Anshen have already walked out of the Flowing Cloud Mountain Range, and are on the road to the nearest major cultivator city, which is that Nine Clouds City.

"Does Fellow Daoist Anshen have no discoveries either?"

"None. I went to the other side of the Flowing Cloud Mountain Range and roughly scanned the area within a radius of one hundred thousand miles. Whether it be various cultivator markets and towns, or the territories of mortal dynasties, I did not discover any abnormal situations. Everywhere is just a picture of ordinary normalcy."

During the conversation, both of them appeared earnest, and their tone even carried a sense of solemnity.

Du En could not help but frown slightly, reflecting on the various information obtained from those three people, and a trace of strangeness also rippled across his calm face.

Because everything appeared too normal; there were simply no obvious suspicious points.

No, if one had to say, there actually was one small point.

Du En raised his hand to touch the space before him, only to see that at the spot his fingertip pointed, an area the size of a palm, the space seemed to give rise to ripples and swayed slightly, and then, there was no then.

"The space of this realm is truly different from the ordinary. Even with the power of us, we can actually only interfere to this extent, and are completely unable to perform spatial manipulation and movement as we did in the past. Fortunately, some of Fellow Daoist Anshen's spatial techniques are not affected."

"That is essentially creating temporary false layers within the overall dense interior, and the consumption of magic power can be described as increasing sharply."

Anshen replied, and could not help but frown again, especially puzzled: "However, this is indeed a very abnormal situation. The space as a whole seems to really no longer be layered, becoming a seamless whole. But how could this be? If the spatial state were in this condition, it should also bring significant influence to the surface environment; it is impossible for it to still maintain such an incomparably normal and ordinary state!"

Those cultivators were simply too inferior, and it was not because of the influence of this spatial state. At least the two of them were different from them, and at this moment they were not using any methods, but having arrived in this Star Realm, apart from being unable to manipulate space, everything else was incomparably normal.

Therefore, Anshen was quite suspicious and uncertain about this point. If he had not already used his own methods to confirm that he had not fallen for some illusion technique or stepped into some illusion realm, he would probably be suspicious of everything everywhere, rather than just the current level of emotional fluctuation.

Of course, the current bizarre situation was also enough to make him feel uneasy inside, but he did not reveal it, restraining himself and remaining calm.

"The influence of spatial layering on the surface's normal state, to tell the truth, this point is not easy to say. It is possible that it was like this from the beginning. However, as it is now, it truly requires one to praise the methods of the Supreme."

"No wonder someone like True Monarch Chengxu needed to use the King's Legacy Treasure to be able to utilize an opportune moment to let us squeeze in through the gap. But looking at it now, this kind of spatial state fused into one is probably just to seal off the interior and exterior, avoiding the infiltration and interference of extra factors."

Du En was as calm as ever, and while speaking, he was actually still having other thoughts rippling in his heart.

After he stepped onto the Path of Luxuriant Separation not long ago, having just adapted to the bizarre and confusing temporal sensations within, a piece of extremely ordinary jade slip appeared before his eyes, accompanied by a voice transmission from True Monarch Chengxu.

"Recorded in this jade slip is a Heavenly Grade Dao Art, named Four Spirits Sealing Prohibition. I hope you can learn it quickly, and at the last resort, be able to use it without sparing sacrifice to pry open the legacy true law of the Four Spirits of Heaven, to form that Four Walls and Twenty-Eight Mansions sealing dead end."

That extremely serious and earnest tone at the time represented the worst judgment made by that True Monarch.

It was possible that the Nirvana Profound Strategy that could pull out the main body of Phoenix's Remnant Hatred was actually just a superficial means of mutual destruction; the real trump card for the worst-case scenario was actually this Four Spirits Sealing Prohibition! As for the fact that he could know about previous events, Du En was not particularly surprised or astonished, at most feeling a bit inwardly stern, not to mention that the current situation was actually not as the other party had thought.

"Unfortunately, this assumption is impossible to realize now, because the Vermilion Bird Holy Spirit has abdicated, and I have not yet fully ascended to the position. At present, the Four Spirits of Heaven are missing the south; he still miscalculated..."

Du En thought this in his heart, while his footsteps did not stop.

He glanced again at Anshen, who was also sighing with emotion.

True Monarch Chengxu had extra layouts on his side, and on his side, nine times out of ten, there were likely some as well, only the one man and one god did not mention it.

Du En did not mention it because it was a wasted move; saying it or not saying it had no influence on the current situation, and even saying it might easily make people mutter and suspect why it wasn't mentioned.

As for Anshen, well, one can only say he is worthy of being himself.

"However, he should know that the overall situation is the most important, so there is no need to care too much. Of course, the necessary precautions cannot be less..."

As his thoughts flowed, a city gradually came into view.

The destination had been reached.

Nine Clouds City.

A majestic city on the Void-Micro Continent of the Azure Profound Star Realm, located in the southwest of the continent, covering an area of ten thousand miles, with city walls one hundred feet high, tightly wrapping the inner city area, while outside there were still large areas of buildings and various types of production sites.

Overall, it looked similar to the small cities under the governance of the Falling Feather Immortal Sect, just appearing smaller and shorter, but it was still clearly stratified with a layout that had a large gap between the inside and outside. It seems that no matter where one goes, as long as there are people, there will be a division of high and low.

However, compared to the cities within the main territory of the Falling Feather Immortal Sect that engaged in pointless struggles for hegemony and wasted cultivators all day long, the situation here was clearly much better. All kinds of people were just struggling and working hard for their own Immortal Dao.

The people outside the city were all rogue cultivators with low cultivation, looking at the city walls before them with only eagerness and envy. The patrol guards on and off the city walls were arrogant and did not even look at others straight on.

Du En and the others were mixed in with the people queuing to enter the city, looking at this city before them with no ripples in their hearts, both of them currently pondering the possible suspicious points within Azure Profound.

Silently queuing, calmly entering the city, not attracting any attention at all, or rather, it should be said that among the thousands of people coming and going, absolutely no one could see them.

Just like the little trick of manipulating memories before, it was all just a type of great magic power of the Deity Transformation stage, picked up with ease, yet it was already beyond the understanding of cultivators below the Deity Transformation stage.

However, these various cultivators of this realm did not notice, but someone not of this realm quickly discovered the unmasked behavior of the two.

Consequently, a figure dressed in colorful, gaudy clothes suddenly appeared on the bustling street ahead, also unknown to the crowd of cultivators, appearing exceptionally hurried and rushed. Seeing the man and the god, a look of excitement like seeing a savior appeared on his face, and he headed straight toward the two of them, approaching rapidly.

Sheng Zhaoshui! It really was him.

Du En did not feel surprised when he saw the other party.

Having learned of his disappearance from Nangong Sheng's mouth earlier, Du En suspected that the other party had been secretly dispatched to do something. Appearing in the Azure Profound Star Realm now seemed exceptionally logical.

"Haha, you guys finally came!"

Before he had even walked close, Sheng Zhaoshui had already spoken, unable to contain his joy. Du En was fine, just nodding slightly.

Anshen could not help but scrutinize this helper for the trip, a subordinate under True Monarch Chengxu.

Colorful and gaudy, layered upon layers, he wore at least five layers of clothes on his body, all with bright colors, as if he had just finished visiting a brothel and was running around wearing the clothes from there.

With stubble on his chin, his unkempt face appeared exceptionally weathered, secretly carrying a haggard look. Although he carried a trace of the charm of a mature middle-aged man, it was more sloppy and casual.

In short, it was hard to give a good impression to Anshen, who liked tight, regular planning, and his brows had already secretly furrowed.

If it were not for the fact that his strength was still quite good, also at the Deity Transformation Perfection, and also a weak heaven-gifted genius, he would have suspected whether True Monarch Chengxu had just thrown over an abandoned piece, and this time was completely thinking of borrowing his junior brother's forces to achieve his own assumptions.

"Deity Transformation Perfection, a weak heaven-gifted genius, Your Excellency's progress is so fast."

Du En looked at Sheng Zhaoshui and spoke calmly, "It has only been a few years since I last saw you, and you have actually reached this stage, far leaving behind peers like Nangong Sheng and Jiang Ying. Should I say that last time you were indeed faking the fight?"

"Don't mention it. I could have such great progress, wasn't it because I was careless and lost Jingzhou last time, losing to you in the Grand Competition? That time was not a fake fight; I wanted to win. I never imagined I would be defeated like that, so afterwards, the True Monarch said I was too lazy and could not be a model for the Senior Brother, so he threw me into the Time-Space Secret Realm. It took one hundred years of cultivation to reach this stage before I was let out to do work."

Thinking of this experience, Sheng Zhaoshui was full of resentment. Looking at Du En, he felt that he was simply blaming the victim! Then, he could not help but sigh with great emotion: "Moreover, isn't this completely not leaving you behind? You used even less time than me to cultivate to the late stage of Deity Transformation, approaching perfection, making me feel inwardly stern as soon as I got close, instinctively not daring to be careless... What exactly is your situation? This shouldn't be, right?"

Speaking to the end, this Sheng Zhaoshui, who was still very familiar upon seeing Du En again as if seeing an old friend, spoke his own emotional and astonished words.

There were definitely truths, but one could not believe them entirely.

In that gaze, there were faint undercurrents; he did not seem to think this was an unexpected matter, but rather had a color of "as expected," feeling that he had not misjudged him back then.

"That is a long story. Rather than wasting time talking about this here, it is better to talk about the matters in this Star Realm first. We just arrived and are completely confused. You came earlier, so you should have found out something; otherwise, we would not have appeared in the Flowing Cloud Mountain Range, and you would not have happened to be lingering in this Nine Clouds City."

Skipping over the other party's probing tone, after finishing these words, Du En introduced the teammates to each other simply.

"Anshen?"

Sheng Zhaoshui appeared somewhat surprised, because deities are quite rare, or rather, it should be said that nowadays, apart from humans and demon beasts, all other myriad spirits are simply as rare as phoenix feathers and qilin horns, all barely hanging on to life, and can only be encountered in the remote corners of the starry sky.

Not to mention the spirits of deities, which were already scarce to begin with.

"The current me is no longer the Dark Deity."

The Dark Deity was still emphasizing this, paused, and then continued: "This Fellow Daoist Sheng, calling me Fellow Daoist An, or even Daoist An, is actually fine."

"Hmm? A single-character name? A single-character Daoist title? That really is quite rare, wait..."

"Let's have less idle chatter."

Du En interrupted Sheng Zhaoshui, who was about to keep muttering on and on.

However, judging from their subconscious reaction, the situation in this Profound Azure Star Realm was clearly not that tense, and there was still enough room for maneuver.

That was also true; facing the schemes of a Supreme, the True Monarch would not want people to just come and die in vain as a snack, so they would certainly leave as much leeway as possible to allow the three of them to work together to maneuver and disrupt it.

This could barely be considered good news.

Although, with Sheng Zhaoshui's account, the situation suddenly became obscure and confusing again.

"As for the situation here in Profound Azure, how should I put it? It's just that kind of most ordinary and normal place, a plain and simple cultivation world where people are unaware of the scenery outside the star realm, and there are legends of ascending to the upper realms. According to my research, the Pivot Star where the Immortal Sect is located can be said to be effectively isolated from the world."

"Of course, if it were truly isolated and sealed like this, it would actually be fine; at least one could see more anomalies. It's a pity that although the space here is special—according to what the True Monarch said, it was forcibly glued together from the deep layers to the surface—I have been to the starry sky above, left the main body of the star realm very smoothly, and looked around the surroundings, but I couldn't find any problems at all."

As Sheng Zhaoshui spoke, their footsteps moved.

Their figure quickly disappeared; it was not spatial movement, just very fast movement, and they returned to the place they had just been staying.

Du En followed closely behind, appearing here as if by spatial movement.

Drunken Moon Pavilion.

A restaurant.

Sheng Zhaoshui opened a private room and set up a table of wine and food. They had originally been drinking to relieve boredom, but now it was clearly impossible to drink, so they pointed a finger directly, and a map appeared above the table.

Waving their hand again, amidst rippling water, they used a certain Daoist technique to recreate the first-person perspective scene of their previous exploration of the starry sky inside the private room.

The spiritual light emitted by the Profound Azure Star Realm was pale cyan and not very bright, because the spiritual veins on it were only at the fifth rank, which was simply not enough to shine alongside the Great Sun.

In the surroundings within this star system, there were only some dead stars with no spiritual Qi and extremely poor environments, at most containing some graded mineral materials. Sheng Zhaoshui had carefully screened them one by one, and they were all low-grade spiritual objects created ten thousand years ago by the radiance of the sun and the star realm.

In short, following the footsteps of those who came before, Du En could not find the slightest clue of any anomaly, and even if it were them doing it, they were afraid they would only have this result.

The Dark Deity, however, changed their opinion of Sheng Zhaoshui because of this, although they still did not like their somewhat flippant demeanor.

After the Daoist technique was performed, Sheng Zhaoshui shrugged, grabbed a handful of peanuts to snack on, and signaled for the two to look at the map.

That was naturally the map of the Profound Azure Star Realm, drawn by Sheng Zhaoshui themselves, which could be said to be quite detailed, with five continents and four oceans, on which islands were scattered like stars, seemingly separated from each other, forming more than a dozen regional cultivation worlds, but in fact, they were connected in secret, with some hidden passages and channels specifically marked.

The Profound Micro Continent where Nine Clouds City was located was naturally one of them, belonging to a relatively large region. The cultivators with the highest cultivation levels were three great cultivators at the early stage of Soul Formation, and the City Lord of Nine Clouds City, Master Nine Clouds, was exactly one of them.

However, compared to the level of a Supreme's schemes, this level of cultivation was truly unsightly! (End of chapter)