Chapter 144

To the north, a caravan of over a hundred people left the human world, passing through one dead city after another.

The gray-black cities were empty, becoming ancient amidst the wind, sand, and gloomy mist, while some villages had even been "inhabited" by ghost servants—ghost servants of all kinds.

But Song Cheng did not need to take action against these ghost servants; A Ting's little animals had already dealt with them, and whenever they encountered anything tricky, Song Cheng would casually kill it in seconds.

Past the dead cities, there were vast stretches of barren fields.

Rivers flowed, and as the caravan moved forward, they resembled an endless silver giant python leading toward the horizon, originating from some mountain.

On the long journey, the people in Song Cheng's carriage slowly became more lively, beginning to talk about their pasts and their experiences, while Xiao Mo'er listened intently.

She could not see and was a bit slow; she had never left Huangcheng in this life, nor had she interacted with many people. When she heard everyone talking about the past, she would often ask silly questions, then stare with those glass-like, pure white eyes, full of envy.

Song Cheng did not avoid suspicion, teaching his two daughters the method of "Ghost-Suppression Fusion" right in front of Ding Yuan and Ling'er.

This technique was very profound, so profound that it did not look difficult at all.

Yet for Song Cheng, he was extremely troubled.

If he had enough time, he wouldn't need to be this panicked.

But the problem was, at this level, every single thing you do requires a massive amount of time.

He was currently "Mysterious Grade Jiappin," and he had roughly organized a set of unverified "Earth Grade Grade D" cultivation techniques from the legacy of the Jilei Mountain Mountain God's Yin She.

And what he had to do was:

First, after encountering a "Broken Land," execute that "Earth Grade Grade C" technique, perfect it, master it, and then successfully possess the "Broken Land" to become a "Zhen."

Second, successfully abandon the "Zhen body," and like an old bird feeding a fledgling, deliver the food into his daughter's mouth, handing over the "Zhen body" he had discarded for his daughter to fuse with.

But how could these two steps be easy?

For the first step, even if he could succeed, he had no idea how long it would take. What if he mastered it, but his daughters were all dead? What then? For the second step, how does one abandon a "Zhen body"? If a "Zhen" loses its "body," is it still a "Zhen"? When he possesses the mountains and rivers, what becomes of his own body?

Therefore, Song Cheng had a contingency plan.

A contingency plan he himself was not even sure about.

That was to "re-open the Ghost Tower and imprison evil ghosts."

If there were enough evil ghosts, and the number of evil ghosts he could bring out when his soul left his body reached eight, then... was he not equivalent to a Zhen?

After all, his understanding of a "Zhen" was "a living person who possesses the terrifying soul power of multiple evil ghosts."

By then, he would indeed be a living person, and he would indeed be able to pull eight ghosts out of the Nine-Layer Nether Tower; who would dare say he was not a Zhen?

Therefore, he had to do it.

Because he felt that only if he became both a "Zhen" and a "Zhen" simultaneously would the hope be greater.

Thus, when the caravan passed near Chenyang Prefecture in the former Beixue Zhou and sensed the main body of the Paper Ghost, he gave everyone a heads-up, then used Dharma Heaven and Earth to transform into a Li Fire Kunpeng, first clearing a "ghost-free zone" of over a hundred miles in the surroundings, then lunging directly at the Paper Ghost.

He was worried about spending too much time, so after actively entering the Paper Ghost's Reappearance World, he went mad, unleashing all his power to quickly experience the Paper Ghost's Reappearance World and capture the Paper Ghost into the tower.

The story of the Paper Ghost was still a sad story, the story of an "Evil Flower."

The Paper Ghost was originally a young woman from a paper doll shop. She missed her deceased husband, so she painted the paper dolls to look like him. Originally, this would not have been an issue, but as luck would have it, a disaster happened to occur in the village where the paper doll shop was located. A man in the village had long coveted the beauty of the woman in the paper doll shop and deliberately spread rumors, saying that everything was caused by that woman. The man wanted to use this to force the woman into a desperate situation so he could then use "clearing her name" as a bargaining chip to take the woman. But the woman refused and loudly exposed the man's conspiracy. The villagers, of course, did not believe her, but the man was still annoyed and ashamed into anger; he went out and deliberately killed people, then framed the woman for everything. The villagers were already superstitious and feared evil, and coupled with their varying degrees of closeness, they grabbed the woman and burned her along with her paper dolls.

The seed of evil finally bloomed in the Yinrang.

That young woman became the Paper Ghost.

Song Cheng experienced everything she had experienced, only when he was about to be burned to death at the end, he directly channeled the power of the "Great Dark Heaven" and the "Human Skin Ghost."

In an instant, a torrential flood arrived from afar, and the floating iron cages opened one by one; the Rabbit Girl, Sheep Girl, Leopard Girl, and others all moved out.

Many ghost servants were drowned by the black flood and sank to the bottom of the water, while those still struggling were swarmed by the Leopard Girls and grabbed directly into the cages.

The scene fell into stillness, and both sides began a kind of subtle fusion.

After a long time, the cages closed.

The Paper Ghost was successfully devoured by Song Cheng.

A woman in white, quietly cutting paper in the corner, appeared on the sixth floor of the Nine-Layer Nether Tower.

Song Cheng also returned.

But when he walked out of the Reappearance World, he discovered that the scene outside had changed; at least the green leaves had turned yellow and withered, flying and stopping in a dispirited manner with the cold, gloomy wind.

Upon asking, he learned that about two months had passed.

Song Cheng felt somewhat helpless; even though it felt like only a moment had passed in the Reappearance World, two months had already drifted away outside.

This was the terror of the Reappearance World.

Even though he was now more powerful than a "Zhen" and a "Zhen," once he truly entered the Reappearance World, the only power he could use was still the power of the Double Ghost.

His "four" strong powers stopped at the "Reappearance World."

When he killed the "Jilei Mountain Mountain God" and the "Doctor," he had taken advantage of the situation, seized the opportunity, and struck suddenly when both sides were at their weakest and had both suffered heavy losses; otherwise, how could it have been so easy?

Not to mention anything else, if that Doctor just dove into the Reappearance World, Song Cheng would be unable to do anything to him.

As for the "Zhen," Song Cheng did not know.

In the carriage, Ding Ling was telling Xiao Mo'er the story of "how she and Big Sister A Ting performed chivalrous deeds," and Xiao Mo'er listened very happily; although she had been eating dried meat every day these days, she still felt very happy.

She would occasionally ask "Where is Mother?" and occasionally wake up crying in the middle of the night because she missed her mother.

To be honest, she did not understand the significance and cruelty of this trip at all.

And Su Ningyu also told her, "It's just accompanying Father to play a game; once it's done, Xiao Mo'er will be able to see things."

On the perimeter, none of the barbarian guides had left; they also silently ate their dried meat, watching the surroundings vigilantly, waiting for that mysterious existence.

And only after seeing Song Cheng appear from the gray mist in the distance did they heave a sigh of relief.

"Continue the journey."

Song Cheng said.

After speaking, he got on the carriage and drove it... the carriage wheels rolled heavily over the gloomy black soil of the Ghost Domain, heading deeper inside.

The caravan traveled along the way, stopping along the way, and Song Cheng devoured ghosts along the way.

Thus, a whole year passed, then another year, and it took a full fourteen months to imprison the remaining five ghosts into the first to fifth floors of the Nine-Layer Nether Tower.

Of course, Song Cheng had also tested it; the Ghost on the first level cannot enter the You She.

And the same level cannot hold two Ghosts.

Time passed, winter arrived.

The long, drawn-out jolting made A Ting's complexion increasingly pale; she had already closed her eyes, and the little animals were all listlessly huddled inside the carriage.

Xiao Mo'er also began to understand that this was not a game; every day she cried her heart out, saying she "missed Mommy."

But the journey had to continue.

The carriage followed the water source coming from the North Land, continuing forward.

The water was clear, sparkling with golden light in the daylight; it was a rare sight that gave one a sense of traveling.

In the distance, there were mountains.

But those mountains were different from the mountains in the interior; the mountains there did not rise up and then fall back down. They only rose up, like a staircase to the heavens. Once the carriage went up the mountain, the terrain elevated, and it could not go back down.

This was the grassland.

On the grassland, there was much extreme weather, but even if it were thunderstorms or rainstorms, they still relied on the clouds.

Song Cheng manifested his Dharma Heaven and Earth and blew a breath, and the clouds flew far away.

The extreme weather was no longer extreme.

Along this journey, food for the group was not a major problem, because the accompanying carriages carried enough food for a hundred people to eat for several years—it was almost like pulling a warehouse, a great, great amount.

As for water, there was no shortage either.

Even if they could not find a ground spring, there was plenty of rainwater.

This rainwater was different from the rainwater before Song Cheng's transmigration; it was drinkable, truly pollution-free.

I do not know how much time passed, but the group began to see large, vast areas of abandoned tent sites. Those tents had long since collapsed and mixed with the soil, yet one could still discern traces that people had once lived here. But that was a very, very long time ago.

The guides who had followed them were only ordinary people. Even though their vitality was superior to ordinary people, under the successive years of Yin energy erosion, some were already failing, so they came outside the main carriage to "bid farewell" to Song Cheng.

"My Lord, my body is already failing; I cannot continue to travel far with you. This was once my hometown when I was young; I implore you to allow me to stay." The Barbarian who spoke was already trembling, the Yin erosion having reached his bones.

These guides had long known that this journey was heading toward death; now they were simply choosing where to be buried.

Song Cheng knew this too.

Therefore, he left behind some dry rations and water, casually cleared the surrounding Ghost servants, and then departed.

Behind him, the Barbarian sat on the ruins of his homeland, took out a Beast Bone Horizontal Flute from his bosom, brought it to his cracked lips, and closed his eyes to play. The flute sound was deep and mournful, sending off the caravan.

Song Cheng, meanwhile, expanded his own Yang energy, but his Yang energy was too intense, so he did not stay in the carriage either.

The caravan traveled deeper and deeper.

The number of people accompanying them grew fewer and fewer.

Whenever they passed the ruins of a tribe, a guide would stay behind, choosing their homeland as their graveyard.

Some "graveyards" could live a few more days, while others could not live at all, because here there were not only "Ghost Pits," but also many "Ghost Springs."

From the deep, dark pits that led to who knows where, murky yellow rivers were surging out.

And those guides who requested to stay, after watching the caravan depart, would quickly end their own lives with bone knives.

Thus, Song Cheng's group walked for who knows how much longer; the seasons were already hard to distinguish, but Song Cheng could tell from his points that two more years had passed since he filled the Ghost Tower.

Finally, upon arriving at a desert, the Yin energy had reached its extreme, and the last two Barbarian guides also came before Song Cheng's carriage to say goodbye.

"My Lord, this desert is called the Death Vast Sea, and it is also the end of our Barbarian nomadic lands. If the place you are looking for is not in the desert, then follow the desert further west... No one has ever explored there."

"If we die here, it still counts as dying in the old Barbarian lands."

"Mm."

Song Cheng nodded, left dry rations and water for the two, and then pulled the cargo carriage to start heading west.

The naturally formed Ghost River was indeed slow, but as they entered the depths, many signs were already very obvious.

Ghost Pits were everywhere, and Ghost Springs surged. Inside the carriage, the laughter was gone; A Ting was tightly wrapped in a cotton-padded jacket, sleeping more and waking less; Xiao Mo'er had long since cried until her throat was hoarse, and at this moment she was silent, not knowing what she was thinking. Ying'er and Ding Yuan were doing alright.

Ling'er seemed as if she had found release; she looked at the boundless desert outside and did not speak.

The undulating desert in the cold Ghost Domain revealed a ghastly white like bone fragments. The sand was whipped up by the Yin wind, dancing all over the sky; the wind, howling like ghosts, seemed to be playing a requiem.

Ghost servants were everywhere, and the density had reached a terrifying level.

If not for Song Cheng constantly maintaining a strong "Yang energy area," they would have been unable to move an inch.

"Here, every place is a Ghost Domain. If we find the Four Fierce Lands, and then discover broken land near the Four Fierce Lands that is not a Ghost Domain, that should be the target." Song Cheng maintained his composure.

He gritted his teeth and continued to search.

While searching and seeking, one day, Song Cheng felt the aura of the "Four Fierce Lands"; the "Four Dimensions" were in chaos.

In such a place, whoever had not reached the Completion of the "Mysterious Grade Grade B" would die upon arrival.

Even if one had reached Completion, it was still a difficult struggle.

But Song Cheng directly manifested his Dharma Heaven and Earth, holding the carriage in his hands, and walked through this Four Fierce Land.

Ten thousand Ghosts turned into a vortex beneath his feet, entangling his feet, but they only entangled and could not stop him. However, it was impossible for Song Cheng to maintain this state of Dharma Heaven and Earth endlessly, so usually, after a day, the group would often rest in one place for a long time.

Another night, in the small tent, A Ting and Xiao Mo'er were asleep, Ding Yuan and Ying'er sat holding their blades, but Ling'er was uncharacteristically clinging to Song Cheng, wanting to be close to him no matter what.

The dragon played in the shallow water, then returned to the deep pool.

Amidst the bubbling sounds, accompanied by suppressed phoenix cries and the curling of toes... everything finally submerged again in the silent night of the remote desolate domain.

"Young Master..." Ling'er hugged Song Cheng's neck, looking at him earnestly, two lines of tears flowing from her eyes. She was about to speak, but was pressed by Song Cheng's finger.

"Don't say unlucky things."

Song Cheng understood why Ling'er was so eager today; it was like a dying cat wanting to cling to its owner—Ling'er wanted to die in his arms.

"But I really can't go on... I feel like everything has been like a dream since I met you... But being by your side is truly wonderful." Ling'er said a few words intermittently, her breath as thin as a thread, her eyes closing as if she were about to depart.

Song Cheng saw that she was merely weak, so he hurriedly took some Saving Essence Pill he had obtained from Tong Niangzi, fed her one in a rush, and then channeled his Qi to help her digest it.

The next day, at dawn, Ling'er actually opened her eyes and weakly scanned her surroundings.

Song Cheng picked her up and said softly, "It will be alright."

The gentle words, along with the improvement in her body, gave Ling'er a sliver of courage; she nodded lightly, though she was too weak to reply.

In this way, the group searched for another two months or so, and the carriage was filled with a deathly stillness.

Then, on an ordinary, monotonous, and dull morning like any other, the wolf carriage finally stopped. A high mountain in the distance was steaming with heat; the peak was bare, black smoke billowed from deep within, and the mountainside was scattered with a strange, pitch-black, porous rock. Large, thick white clouds like frozen snow waves pressed against the firmament, casting vast, clean shadows.

At the foot of the mountain, there was actually a silver stream and lush green grass, and on the grass, a group of small deer were even lowering their heads to graze. However, Song Cheng saw at a glance that those small deer were not ordinary deer, but a type of magical beast that had reached the Jin Realm level, which could also be seen from their huge, rock-hard antlers that displayed red spots within.

"A volcano! This is a volcano!"

Song Cheng could not help but become excited.

The surrounding area was still covered in pale snow, yet only that mountain was so scorching, so... unrelated to the cold.

"Is a volcano a Broken Land? When a piece of land faces Extinction, is a volcano the mountain and river available for possession?"

Song Cheng could not help but ponder this.

Just as he was thinking, Xiao Mo'er's murmuring voice came from beside him.

"So warm, so warm."

Hope also flickered in Ling'er's eyes; she lay against the carriage window, her pair of eyes shining.

It seemed that in that radiance, there was already a small wooden house by the river, a new life, and a future. In truth, Ling'er had not intended to return alive, so she really liked this place; she even fell in love with it at first sight. To be able to die amidst such green mountains and clear waters at the ends of the earth could also be considered happiness.

"Master..." she muttered softly, but she did not dare to persuade him.

Fortunately, Song Cheng drove the wolf carriage directly toward the foot of the volcano.

Afterward, the small wooden house was built, and simple clothes racks were set up. After Song Cheng completed the safety inspection, the women began to bathe happily. Song Cheng naturally did not watch; he sat beside an old tree with exposed aerial roots that had a sense of age, observing the black smoke deep in the mountain, attempting to discern some data, because he still could not distinguish whether this place was a "Broken Land" or a "Town."

From the stream, the sound of the women's laughter came from time to time.

"The water is warm, so comfortable."

"There are little fish here too. Oh, what kind of fish is this? I've never seen it before."

"Hee hee hee, this fish even kisses my toes, it's ticklish."

Splashing water, crystal clear, was scattered into mid-air, refracting seven-colored light in the setting sunlight.

"It's so magical. It's snowing in the distance, and there are Ghosts wandering in the snow, but here it's like spring." Ying'er was also very happy. Although her will was firm, being able to come here also brought a sense of joy at having "survived a disaster."

That long journey seemed to have finally settled, and those taut heartstrings slowly calmed down.

Subsequently, the group began to improve the wooden house, setting up a scene for a long stay.

It must be said that the group had brought quite a lot of things with them.

Tong Niangzi not only equipped everyone with life-saving Pills to replenish their vitality, but she even provided many witch herbs for the "Barbarian Beast Taming Secret Technique." No one present actually knew how to "tame beasts," yet Ling'er, who was "a jack-of-all-trades at everything," actually knew how.

Ling'er soon began to tame the surrounding magical beasts and animals.

Meanwhile, A Ting lay weakly on the newly built wooden bed; she could not even command the small animals anymore.

Ying'er was improving the wooden house, while Ding Yuan guarded outside A Ting's door and told stories to Xiao Mo'er.

Song Cheng began to patrol everywhere to determine the situation here.

Half a month later.

Three wooden houses had been built.

One, for Song Cheng and Ling'er.

One, for A Ting and Ding Yuan.

One, for Xiao Mo'er and Ying'er.

Xiao Mo'er gave this place a name, calling it "Ice Volcano."

Everyone followed her and called it that as well.

And Song Cheng also completed his exploration and danger elimination of the Ice Volcano. He determined that this was not a "Town," but truly a "Broken Land." The reason there was a volcano was entirely because it was "forced."

The dense Yin energy repelled the Yang energy, and the weak Yang energy gathered in one place like defeated soldiers; naturally, it would erupt into earth fire, which would last for many years.

But when the Yang energy was exhausted, this place would slowly cool down and eventually turn into a Ghost Domain swallowed by Yin energy, falling into endless dead silence.

Since he had confirmed it, Song Cheng began his half-baked "possession of mountains and rivers" plan.

He began to circulate the broken technique he had obtained from the Mountain God of Jilei Mountain.

This was originally a very dangerous thing, but Song Cheng's thinking was very simple—since even the weak Mountain God of Jilei Mountain could succeed in possessing mountains and rivers, there was no reason he could not.

It was precisely because of this philosophy that he dared to try.

One day... two days... one month... two months... nearly a year later, on a certain day, Song Cheng's eyes suddenly lit up.

His panel finally underwent a long-awaited change.

【Name: Song Cheng】

【Talent: Chang Sheng Bu Lao】

【Add Points: 35529 points】

【Realm: Mysterious Grade Jiappin】

【Technique】

Wood Spirit Evergreen Scripture (Earth Grade Grade C) (Not Yet Initiated (0/512)) Clearly, this "Wood Spirit Evergreen Scripture" was the technique cultivated by the Mountain God of Jilei Mountain.

Song Cheng had been grinding and testing for this past year, trying every possible method, and he had finally found the opportunity within that broken technique.

Without any hesitation.

"Add Points!"

In an instant, Song Cheng's points decreased by 7168, but the "Wood Spirit Evergreen Scripture" reached Completion directly.

A technique that others might spend hundreds or even thousands of years to successfully cultivate, he could bring to Completion as long as he found the opportunity.

Countless memories of hard work and sweating poured into his mind.

At the same time, strange emotions surged in his heart.

Before this, he was still thinking about how to perform soul possession on a shattered land of mountains and rivers.

After all, even for the most broken land of mountains and rivers, he could not simply have his soul leave his body and dive headfirst into the earth as he would when possessing an ordinary person, could he?

But now he understood.

The general steps were similar, but before the soul possession, he had to complete one crucial task, and that was visualization.

And the object of his visualization was, surprisingly, a Tower.

He began to visualize.

It was not the Ghost Tower, but a pure White Tower.

The Tower was nine stories high, and each story emitted a soft white light. Song Cheng walked and walked, wanting to go directly to the top floor as he did in his own Ghost Tower, but he failed. When he opened the door of the White Tower and walked into the first floor, the Tower vanished, and what appeared before him was a pure white Domain; his Soul felt as if it were soaking in a warm spring, and every bone in his body felt relaxed. Yet, Song Cheng faintly sensed that if one had not possessed a powerful physique and had come here directly, they would likely be annihilated, body and Soul, by the white light in an instant.

Not long after, he began to feel an indescribable anxiety and powerlessness, as if he had soaked in a hot spring for too long.

The next instant, the pure white Domain vanished, Song Cheng returned to his original spot, and his Soul was coated with a faint layer of white light.

At this point, the center of the earth began to exert a strange attraction upon him.

Song Cheng headed straight toward that center of the earth.

During the process, many white lusters coiled around him, but because he was visualizing the White Tower, those lusters only attached to the surface of his Soul; when he reached a certain point at the center of the earth, his Soul suddenly jolted.

Dense white light radiated from his Soul, casting itself like a spiderweb into every corner of this Ice Volcano, and a feeling of "the earth and mountains and rivers are my skin" arose spontaneously from the bottom of Song Cheng's heart.

At this moment, he was slowly turning into the Ice Volcano.

And at the mountain peak, that youth in the black robe who had lost his Soul remained sitting there.

Eyes closed and smiling, just as if he were fast asleep.

(End of this chapter)