Chapter 742

Cold, thick fog churned endlessly before his eyes.

It felt like pushing through thick mud, movement sluggish and heavy.

Li Yan was not surprised; he had felt the same last time, and upon closer thought, every time he took a Yin Official task, it was the same principle.

The Yin Court used the “Owl Lord” and the “Gou Die” to form a stable channel, enabling communication, transmission of divine Gang , and summoning of Yin Court troops.

But the Erlang Shen’s Nuo mask was merely a crude prototype, and had to be used in secret, lest anyone discover it and violate the Heavenly Edicts.

Soon, the thick fog before him began to thin.

When his vision cleared slightly, he found himself immersed in boundless darkness.

As if floating in the void of the cosmos, endless and limitless.

The only things visible were forked patches of light ahead.

Li Yan knew these were the small worlds within the Great Luo Dharma Realm.

The Yin Court, Pure Land, Heavenly Court… and other entities from myth.

But this time, he had made a different discovery.

The patches of light resembled tree branches, but if he calmed his mind and examined closely, they looked more like another structure:

An ant nest!

Every patch of light had a central core.

From that core, other patches spread outward, just like ants burrowing—crooked, twisted, slanted—ultimately forming the forked light patterns.

The Pure Land, Heavenly Court, and Yin Court were connected precisely because of this.

Li Yan frowned slightly, a thought stirring in his mind.

He inexplicably felt this must be one of the Great Luo Dharma Realm’s secrets.

Shhh!

Before he could ponder further, a powerful suction pulled him.

Drawn by the bronze Nuo mask’s aura, his vision rapidly drew closer—but this time, the direction was different: toward the junction of two forked light clusters.

Li Yan suddenly recalled: the Five Generals had hinted that Erlang Shen, unable to secure his position in the Yin Court, had gone to guard the boundary between Yin and Heaven.

The thought vanished in an instant, and a vast scene surged before him:

Unlike Li Yan’s expectations, this nexus between Heaven and Yin Court held no divine aura or howling yin winds—only dead, desolate wilderness.

As far as the eye could see, a vast plain of solidified crimson lava, coated in thick, lifeless chaotic dust.

The sky was dim and murky; everything glowed with a cold, hard sheen.

The horizon stretched endlessly, yet crisscrossed by countless twisted, continuous gray-brown rock strata, forming jagged, steep, bottomless canyons.

Like cracks in the earth, or perhaps formed by mantle collisions and collapses.

Looking leftward to the earth’s edge, the sky there was a frozen cobalt blue; from the depths of the fissures glowed molten lava’s heat, and the ground was littered with sharp, glassy substances, like countless swords slanting toward the heavens.

Occasionally, massive, porous white boulders lay tilted and broken, their surfaces faintly bearing traces of colossal coiled patterns or shattered column bases.

They must have once been grand structures, but all splendor had long been eroded by wind and sand, leaving only the cold, mineral essence…

To the right, it was even more sinister and silent.

The sky sank into a deep purple bordering black twilight; the earth was covered in thick black basalt and cold, hard gray clay, like an ancient, dried riverbed.

Scattered across the riverbed were countless enormous, bizarre skeletons, some still entwined with fragments of colossal bronze chains…

This scene before him was nothing less than a battlefield of gods and demons!

Li Yan stared, dumbfounded, long before regaining his composure.

He looked toward the center where the two regions met: clearly, a ruin of ancient, simple architecture, its age unknown, long since collapsed.

Yet even its stone foundations rivaled a small mountain.

Atop the ruin, a figure sat quietly, back turned to him.

It was Erlang Shen!

At this moment, Li Yan was not physical—he observed through the bronze Nuo mask—so with a thought, his vision swiftly drew closer, arriving atop the ruin.

“You’ve come…”

A hoarse, cold voice spoke—it was Erlang Shen.

Before Li Yan could react, the voice continued: “No need to be startled. This is the Two Realms Mountain. Neither the Yin Code nor the Heavenly Edicts can detect it.”

Li Yan opened his mouth to speak, but no sound emerged.

Erlang Shen slowly rose, turning around.

After so long, his appearance had changed again, utterly unlike Yang Chenghua of the mortal world—his skin glowed with a lustrous sheen, more like a temple statue.

He did not speak aloud; instead, his third eye glowed golden, pulsing rhythmically, and his voice echoed directly in Li Yan’s mind: “This is an illusionary dream technique using the Nuo mask I left behind. Your cultivation is insufficient; your soul cannot yet converse with mine.”

“I will speak—you listen quietly.”

Seeing Li Yan nod, Erlang Shen turned again to gaze into the distance. “At first, I had no interest in this Great Luo Dharma Realm—only kept my promise to communicate with you. But after these days of investigation, I’ve found many hidden secrets here.”

To an outsider, it would seem Erlang Shen was talking to himself.

But Li Yan was utterly captivated, listening intently.

“The origin of the Dharma Realm is lost to time. Only the highest immortals—like the Three Pure Ones, the Four Sovereigns, and the Buddha—might know its truth. But they dwell deep within the Great Luo, sending only occasional messengers with divine edicts. Since ascending to the Great Luo, I have never seen a single one…”

“Within the Dharma Realm, immortals are divided into three tiers.”

“First, True Immortals: mortals who reach the ninth level of cultivation, attain the Yang Spirit, and stand at the peak of mortal power. With the chance of transcendence, they shed their mortal forms and enter the Great Luo Dharma Realm, cultivating diligently until they reach the tenth level—and become True Immortals.”

“Levels ten through twelve are all True Immortals. Most I’ve encountered are True Immortals; many cannot break through even as they face the Five Decays of Heaven. Because mortal worship is abundant, I’ve reached level ten, and thus am feared…”

“Second, Heavenly Immortals: equivalent to levels thirteen through fifteen. Those who reach this are titans of the Dharma Realm—like the Nine Heavens’ Universal Transforming Lord or the Ten Kings of Hell.”

“Above them is the Great Luo: levels sixteen through eighteen. These beings can carve out their own heavens within the Dharma Realm, with countless Heavenly and True Immortals under their protection—they are the true rulers of the Dharma Realm.”

“As for the Yin Court and Heavenly Court, some beings emerge there too: celestial maidens and spirit officials in Heaven, evil ghosts and demons in Yin, flying apsaras in the Buddha’s Pure Land. They cannot descend to the mortal realm; their origin may be tied to mortal belief…”

As Erlang Shen spoke, the earlier scene suddenly flashed into Li Yan’s mind.

From the void, weren’t those hollows branching from the forked light patches the creations of the Great Luo?

He longed to ask, but Erlang Shen clearly did not consider it significant, continuing in a low tone: “This is the general state of the Dharma Realm—not hard to learn, but concealed by the Heavenly Edicts.”

“But I’ve discovered something far more important!”

Saying this, he leaned forward and shot into the void.

Li Yan’s vision followed, and the surroundings blurred backward rapidly.

Soon, they arrived beside a deep canyon rift.

Looking down, darkness yawned, with faint white mist churning below.

The exposed rocks on either side were clear—jagged and barren.

Li Yan frowned, glancing at Erlang Shen.

The canyon was indeed grand, but he could not fathom why they had come here.

Erlang Shen wasted no words—he directly pulled Li Yan’s vision and leapt into the canyon.

The view plummeted swiftly, and Li Yan finally noticed the anomaly!

The rocks on both canyon walls were not isolated—they were layered, stacked, compressed.

This was… sedimentary rock?

As Li Yan puzzled, Erlang Shen finally halted at one spot.

And Li Yan’s eyes widened, disbelief flooding his mind.