Chapter 615: The Eerie Realm

After probing behind the door with his spiritual sense and detecting no obvious danger, Wei Yuan summoned the Maiden Yin-Yang and the Ice-Glass Divine Wood, instructing them to stand guard at the entrance and come to his rescue immediately should they detect anything unusual. He then stepped into the light gate.

The instant he crossed the portal, Wei Yuan felt a strange, scorching power rush toward him. Immediately following this, the subtle surface layers of his Primordial Spirit began to change, twisting and growing, with a faint intent to detach, as if it were about to sprout another part possessing its own self-awareness.

Wei Yuan had encountered a similar situation in the Gloom-Cold Realm. He immediately channeled his Dao power to protect his Primordial Spirit, attempting to suppress this strange, abnormal movement. However, the ratio of power consumption left Wei Yuan greatly astonished; he needed to expend ten units of Dao power to suppress one unit of the mutation.

This indicated that the essential level of this eerie realm was extremely high, at least one major tier higher than the level he currently occupied.

At this rate of consumption, and considering Wei Yuan felt he must reserve half of his Dao power for emergencies, he estimated he could only operate in this realm for one hour.

Fortunately, as the twisting power continuously eroded him, the Red Lotus Honglian Puti sensed it and transmitted strands of power through the light gate, bestowing a blessing upon Wei Yuan. The Red Lotus Honglian Puti seemed to be the very nemesis of this twisting power. Upon receiving this blessing, Wei Yuan's Dao power consumption dropped to three units to offset one unit of the twisting, and his operational time increased accordingly to three hours.

Wei Yuan's Dao power far exceeded that of an ordinary Dharma Form and was already equivalent to an entry-level Grand Void. Even so, he could only operate for three hours; those ordinary Grand Voids without the assistance of the Red Lotus Honglian Puti would likely not even be able to hold out for one hour.

With the entrance being this difficult, one could imagine that the danger level of this realm was far above that of the Gloom-Cold Realm.

At this moment, a cluster of black Qi gathered in the air, transforming into a small bird that fluttered around Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan's heart stirred; he extended his hand, and the small bird landed upon it.

This was a small bird black all over—black feathers, black beak, black eyes, black claws. If one did not observe it with spiritual sense, it was merely a pitch-black mass; one could not tell at all that it actually had over a dozen eyes growing on it, distributed all over its body.

The small bird flapped its wings and chirped incessantly. Wei Yuan naturally and instinctively understood its meaning.

"Cheep! I am you, and you are me. I have already died along with this world, and you will soon be the same as us. But now you are still alive, and there is still a chance! Save me! Save me!!!"

Before Wei Yuan could respond, the small bird suddenly exploded, splattering Wei Yuan with black flesh and blood. The blood, viscous like ink, splashed everywhere, and many feathers also stuck to Wei Yuan's body.

Wei Yuan was greatly startled. He took a step back and shook his hands, only to find that the flesh and blood stuck to them could not be shaken off no matter what.

As for the feathers that had landed on his body, they actually drilled directly into Wei Yuan's flesh, and then the other ends stood upright, as if these feathers had originally grown on Wei Yuan himself.

Another small bird appeared in the air, circling Wei Yuan.

Having learned the lesson from the previous one, Wei Yuan no longer let it get close. The black bird chirped anxiously, flying faster and faster, until finally, it exploded in mid-air. Wei Yuan dodged in advance and was not affected.

After another moment, a new black bird appeared. Wei Yuan frowned and once again extended his hand to let it land. It seemed that only by letting it land on his hand could he figure out what it was saying.

"... We were torn apart and devoured, forced to be severed from the entire world. They took everything from this world, leaving behind only ruins and our corpses..."

"Who are 'they'?" Wei Yuan asked.

"Do not face them, do not see them, hide! They are..."

The small bird's voice suddenly turned into a chaotic, ear-piercing noise; Wei Yuan could not understand the meaning at all. Then, the small bird suddenly exploded, once again splattering Wei Yuan with black blood.

Wei Yuan waited for a moment, and another small bird appeared.

This time its voice became unusually mechanical, the tone flat without a hint of fluctuation: "The passage is currently in an active state and can be maintained for seven hours and fifteen minutes; please find supplementary energy as soon as possible. Standby mode can be maintained for another one hundred and ten hours; please find supplementary energy as soon as possible."

Wei Yuan dared not mention "them" again and chose a gentler question: "Where can I find supplementary energy?"

The small bird's voice turned into chaotic noise again.

Wei Yuan tried asking again: "Where can I find some information?"

The small bird looked toward Wei Yuan, and a light screen appeared in Wei Yuan's consciousness, listing many options:

Environmental Database: Module missing.

Functional Database: Module missing.

Hostile Organism Database: Module missing.

R&D System: Module missing.

All options showed the module as missing; clearly, this so-called system had been completely destroyed. If it were an ordinary cultivator, they might have given up by now, or tried to find a way to locate the missing modules to complete this system.

However, Wei Yuan possessed the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo and saw things that other cultivators could not possibly see.

"How should I search for the missing modules?" Wei Yuan asked while gently gripping the small bird. Then, the next moment, he flashed through the light gate and returned to the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo.

Almost at the same instant, the Ice-Glass Divine Wood shot out a beam of immortal cold Qi, freezing the small bird into a deep blue block of ice.

Inside the ice, the small bird's feathers bristled, a third claw protruded from its abdomen, and its head twisted in agony, about to explode. But at this very instant, it was completely frozen by the Ice-Glass Divine Wood.

However, the moment the Ice-Glass Divine Wood froze it, the small bird had not yet shown any abnormality; it was only after being frozen that it began to mutate and self-destruct, finally being stopped just at the edge.

Being able to complete the majority of the self-destruction process while resisting the immortal cold Qi of the Ice-Glass Divine Wood indicated that the essence of the small bird was in no way inferior to the Ice-Glass Divine Wood; it was only sealed because its own power was too weak.

At this moment, the maiden sitting on the Ice-Glass Divine Wood also wore a look of shock, seemingly frightened by the power of the small bird.

Wei Yuan said to the Maiden Yin-Yang: "This small bird seems to be a magic treasure, but it has been completely damaged; all functions are missing, and the memory data is gone. However, I discovered that the architecture it uses to store and process data is extraordinarily profound, stronger than our existing system architecture by several Mind-Reflection Worlds. See if you can restore its system architecture and use it on our system."

The Maiden Yin-Yang scrutinized the bird and said solemnly: "I will try." "Be careful, it will self-destruct; it is very troublesome after self-destructing." Wei Yuan showed his hand covered in black blood.

The Maiden Yin-Yang transmitted a thought: "I will try first; if it doesn't work, I will refine it, and I can still obtain most of the system."

Wei Yuan then had the Ice-Glass Divine Wood release a stream of cold spiritual Qi to cover his body. Sure enough, the stickiness of the black blood and feathers greatly diminished. Wei Yuan forcibly refined the parts inside his body with Dao power, then collected the fallen feathers and flesh, handing them over to the Maiden Yin-Yang for further research.

Subsequently, Wei Yuan sent a thought to the shadow in the middle of the moon: "What exactly is behind the door?"

The Three-Eyed Bird Head replied: "Caught by fishing."

Wei Yuan was startled.

Upon reaching the Immortal stage, one's body becomes the Dao, and the Mind-Reflection World can no longer be advanced. It is said that at this time, some immortals with great supernatural powers begin to fish, hooking some drifting small worlds or even fragments of grotto-heavens, refining them and integrating them into their Mind-Reflection World to perfect it.

Could it be that the eerie realm behind the door was fished from beyond the heavens by the Three-Eyed Bird Head using similar means?

Seen in this light, this confirmed that the Three-Eyed Bird Head indeed possessed immortal means, with supernatural powers so great they were difficult to fathom.

Wei Yuan withdrew from the door, and the light gate entered a dormant state. Just as Wei Yuan was about to ask what to do if the light gate closed when the dormancy time was up, the Three-Eyed Bird Head transmitted two images: one was the luck of a Pill Pearl, and the other was a Dharma Form filled with despair.

Thus, Wei Yuan understood: either sacrifice a Dharma Form, or provide luck of the same level as a Pill Pearl. By comparison, Wei Yuan felt the difficulty of the latter was clearly lower.

!

It seems that this expedition to the Red Sand Oasis cannot accommodate Cui Yu; he must find a way to capture two living Dharma Forms.

Thus, a new task appeared in the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo: how to capture a Dharma Form alive.

Under this task, hundreds of answers appeared instantly. The mortals who answered were each filled with confidence in their own methods, as if they had truly captured a Dharma Form alive before.

Among them, one answer stood out in the blink of an eye and obtained the one-sided support of the "Crouching Dragon and Phoenix Chick": seduction.

Wei Yuan's expression was very ugly; he felt it was time to tighten the reins on these "Crouching Dragons and Phoenix Chicks."

Subsequently, the answers gradually increased, with many practical schemes appearing. Clearly, the cultivators in the Azure Void were entering the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo one after another and providing answers based on their own knowledge and experience.

One answer quickly climbed at rocket speed, overwhelming the seduction option. Wei Yuan took a look and saw the answer was simple, consisting of only a few words: rush up, stick to them, knock them out.

The answer also included a video: a petite, pure maiden crashed into a mountain peak at full speed like a cannonball, and then the whole screen shook. This was the cultivator responsible for recording the video being knocked off balance himself.

The maiden collided with the mountain peak, and instantly the mountain collapsed and the earth cracked; large swaths of boulders rolled down, and half the mountain peak collapsed, revealing the bare interior. The maiden, however, was unsteady on her feet and a little dizzy.

So that was how one "sticks" to them; indeed, few Dharma Forms could withstand that. This answer was very "Feng Tingyu."

Below this answer, countless "Crouching Dragons and Phoenix Chicks" were deeply conquered by the maiden's style, fantasizing about becoming that mountain peak.

Some believed that such a female cultivator was the only match for the Creation Immortal Venerable; but immediately, more people retorted: How is the Creation Immortal Venerable worthy?

Wei Yuan was pondering whether he should research some immortal means, such as giving someone a bolt of lightning if they recited his name. Xu Wangu played this hand very skillfully.

Another answer also received support from many: poisoning.

The answer listed several different types of poisons, targeting different categories of Dharma Forms. But it specifically emphasized that once the correct poison was successfully administered, one must be timely with the antidote; being slightly slow would easily result in harvesting a corpse.

Judging from the efficacy of these poisons, Sun Yu's medical Dao had improved again.

Wei Yuan's own idea was to find a few suitable magic treasures to bind and capture the opponent, for instance, getting a "Binding Immortal Rope" or something similar. But unfortunately, none of the "Crouching Dragons and Phoenix Chicks" could think of this point, which made Wei Yuan secretly anxious.

After watching for a while, Wei Yuan let the "Crouching Dragons and Phoenix Chicks" continue to think of ways, while he headed straight for the Merit Hall, preparing to exchange for a spirit treasure specifically for defense, and then go to probe the world behind the light gate first, clarify the situation, and then make a decision.

That eerie realm was extremely dangerous; Wei Yuan felt the only ones most suitable to go were himself and Dharma Forms of Su Xuejing's level, and the rest could only be Grand Voids and above.

After selecting for a long time in the Merit Hall, Wei Yuan finally picked a spirit treasure named "Soul-Illuminating Ghost Candle." Upon obtaining it, it was a remnant candle an inch long; after lighting it, the candle flame would automatically attach to the soul and Primordial Spirit, and when the soul encountered fatal damage, it could block it once, with the candle flame taking the damage in place of the soul.

This candle was made from the whale oil of a Spirit Sea Giant Whale and was a Grand Void-level spirit treasure, but it had already been used three times, with only the last time remaining, which was why it could be exchanged for with Heavenly Merit.

Wei Yuan returned to his residence and lit the candle flame, and saw a point of spiritual light like a firefly slowly drifting into Wei Yuan's brow. Subsequently, his entire Primordial Spirit emitted a layer of faint light, already in a protected state.

But this spirit fire could only be maintained for two hours, so there was no time to lose. Wei Yuan entered the Human Realm Renjian Yanhuo again and appeared in front of the light gate, just about to enter, when he was grabbed by someone.

He turned his head to look and saw that the one grabbing him was actually Feng Tingyu.

"Let me go in for you; I am most skilled at exploring unknown worlds," Feng Tingyu said with rare seriousness.

Wei Yuan shook his head: "No, it is too dangerous inside. Such matters should naturally be handled by me first. Wait until I have probed the reality before you come in to seek opportunities."

"But..."

Wei Yuan pressed his hand over Feng Tingyu's mouth and said: "There are no 'buts'."

On such major matters, Wei Yuan was quite arbitrary.

He checked the time; the soul candle's flame had already begun to fade bit by bit, so he took a step across the light gate and entered the eerie realm.

(End of chapter)