Chapter 329: The Realm War

The great upheaval at the Artifact Saint Palace caused earth-shattering changes to the landscape south of Jingcheng.

The former site of the Artifact Saint Palace, the Refining Workshop, was once merely one among many markets in the southern district of Jingcheng. After the palace's mountain-protecting formation was destroyed, the sealed space ruptured, causing all the mountains and rivers that had been folded away due to the realm's extinction to unfold completely.

Nowadays, the Refining Workshop is gone, three-quarters of the southern city district has vanished, and the South City Gate was torn apart by the spatial expansion; traveling further south reveals nothing but a vast, barren wasteland.

High in the sky, Hua Changxi, Tong Yao, Jing Liao, and Yan Zhenzhen stood on the deck of a flying ship, gazing down at the drastically changed earth below.

Yan Zhenzhen said, "This great upheaval at the Artifact Saint Palace isn't entirely a bad thing; at least it has revealed the approximate size of Xuanyuan City, the heart of the Central Continent."

Tong Yao nodded and said, "Xuanyuan City backs onto the Central Sacred Land, with the four directions of east, south, west, and north guarded respectively by the four great sacred lands of Pills, Artifacts, Talismans, and Formations. Judging from the southern region we just flew over, Xuanyuan City's area must be at least a thousand times larger than that of Jingcheng."

Yan Zhenzhen smiled and said, "I can't wait to see the full appearance of Xuanyuan City; I truly hope the four great sacred lands will quickly break through their sealed spaces."

Jing Liao hurriedly said, "The sealed spaces cannot be broken open recklessly."

Yan Zhenzhen replied, "I know, I know; I was just expressing a hope."

Hua Changxi listened silently to the conversation among the three without making a sound.

Xuanyuan City? That must be the ancient name for Jingcheng from the上古 period.

Tong Yao smiled and said, "I've heard that Xuanyuan City is not even the largest cultivation city in the Four Spirit Realm."

Both Hua Changxi and Yan Zhenzhen looked over at him.

Tong Yao continued, "The main continent of the Four Spirit Realm consists of the Four Quadrant Continents, so naturally, the central cities of those four quadrants lie upon the Central Continent."

"The central cities of the Four Quadrant Continents are named after the continents they represent: Green Dragon City, Zhu Que City, Black Tortoise City, and White Tiger City."

"These four Spirit Cities all connect to the Nine Heavens."

Hua Changxi could not help but speak up: "What about Xuanyuan City? Does Xuanyuan City connect to the Nine Heavens?"

Tong Yao shook his head and said, "Although Xuanyuan City does not connect to the Nine Heavens, the divine trees of the five great sacred lands do; each of the five great sacred lands connects to one of the five heavenly gates of the Nine Heavens."

Hua Changxi asked again, "And what about the four Spirit Cities? Do they also connect to the heavenly gates?"

Tong Yao replied, "The Spirit Cities do not connect to the heavenly gates, but rather to the Imperial Palaces of the Four Directions."

Hua Changxi grew curious: "What exactly lies above the Nine Heavens?"

Tong Yao shook his head and said, "My understanding of the Nine Heavens is limited to matters concerning the Realm Gates."

This knowledge exists only because an elder from the Artifact Saint Palace during the ancient era once accidentally obtained an opportunity to ascend to the Nine Heavens to cultivate the Realm Gates; he left behind a few scattered words in his travelogue, which Tong Yao happened to see.

Jing Liao suddenly interjected, "There is a Realm Battlefield."

Hearing this, Hua Changxi, Tong Yao, and Yan Zhenzhen all looked over at him.

Tong Yao frowned and asked, "Is it the kind of Realm War I am thinking of?"

Jing Liao nodded and said, "It is exactly the kind you are thinking of."

"The extinction of a realm stems from no more than two causes: first, the exhaustion of the realm's resources; second, an invasion by external enemies."

"The Four Spirit Realm possesses companion stars, the Sun Star and the Moon Star; as long as there is no massive leakage of spiritual energy, theoretically, resources should never be exhausted."

"According to ancient records in the Talisman Saint Pavilion, the reason the Four Spirit Realm went extinct in ancient times was that the fierce conflict between the Human Race and the Demon Race attracted the covetous gaze of powerful enemies, ultimately forcing the realm to be sealed at the cost of the deaths of the Four Spirit Emperors."

Listening to this, the expressions of Hua Changxi and the other two grew somewhat serious.

Hua Changxi could not help but say, "Cultivators from the outside world have already infiltrated the current Four Spirit Realm; you are all aware of this, aren't you?"

Tong Yao nodded and said, "We know. After the resurgence of spiritual energy, the realm barrier loosened, allowing external cultivators to sneak into the Four Spirit Realm through various secret realms."

"Because they infiltrated so early, although the Four Spirit Realm had begun to revive, the spiritual energy was still very thin. Those external cultivators who, for various reasons, failed to leave the Four Spirit Realm in time either chose to settle down here, developing into cultivation families, or chose to establish sects and recruit disciples widely."

"Nowadays, some of the more active cultivation families and sect disciples have shadows of external cultivators behind them."

Speaking to this point, Tong Yao sighed: "After hundreds of years of development, external cultivators have become deeply intertwined with the residents of the Four Spirit Realm; it is a case of me within you and you within me."

"Tracking the identities of these external cultivators is extremely difficult."

Yan Zhenzhen also sighed and said, "Let us hope the external cultivators discover the Four Spirit Realm a bit later, so that the cultivators of the Four Spirit Realm may have more time to grow."

Jing Liao raised his head to gaze at the firmament, his face filled with compassion: "The Four Spirit Realm is a rare realm in the universe capable of self-sufficiency; for other realms, producing a single Emperor is already remarkable, yet the Four Spirit Realm supports four Imperial positions. Such a realm, even when sealed, remains an object of covetous desire."

"Now that spiritual energy has revived... perhaps, in places we cannot see, someone is already fighting for the Four Spirit Realm."