Chapter 237: Entering the Return Ruins (2)

Chen Mo carefully examined the scene before him; it was dilapidated and desolate, just as he had seen previously through the puppet.

The bleak, withered yellow earth stretched as far as the eye could see; between heaven and earth, there was no sign of any vegetation, snakes, insects, rats, or ants.

Nearby, there were broken walls and ruined foundations, with many collapsed ancient buildings scattered randomly across the ground.

These structures had long since been completely weathered, most of them showing no discernible form, just piles upon piles of rubble.

Only occasionally could one see traces of man-made carvings on two or three of the building fragments.

Looking further into the distance, there was a pond; it contained water, yet there was no life within it, not even water weeds.

Everything within the Return Ruins had headed toward final extinction; apart from the living beings of Chen Mo's own epoch, only a small number of Great Abilities capable of surviving the catastrophe of destruction had not been completely annihilated by the Return Ruins.

Chen Mo looked behind him; a blue-gray stone gate stood erect, which was the other portal connected to the Gui Xu Gate within the Heavenly Court Secret Realm.

It was precisely through this portal that he had been able to cross countless barriers and step from the Heavenly Court Secret Realm into the Return Ruins.

At this realm, the vast majority of body-refining Martial Artists reach perfection, which is to say, six or seven thousand catties of strength.

It was just that his physical body was powerful, and coupled with the power of his divine sense, it had always been firmly sealed within his Shenhai.

This is because an Innate Martial Artist has Gang Qi to protect their body.

It remains only within the body and is absolutely never released to probe heaven and earth, which is why he was able to walk freely between heaven and earth.

Chen Mo looked at his left arm; on the inner side of his forearm was a bronze-colored mark the size of a copper coin.

Chen Mo clearly discovered something was wrong; the limit of the Qi and Blood power he could erupt with far exceeded that of Martial Artists at the same realm.

After all, although there is a major realm difference between the Tongmai Realm and the acquired stage, the gap is not particularly large.

One reason is that a Martial Artist's natural talent is limited, and the second is that it is difficult to find cultivation techniques that can increase Qi and Blood power so much at this realm.

To be able to reach eight thousand catties of Qi and Blood power at this realm relying solely on cultivation techniques without other means can already be called quite talented.

It seems like a small amount, but in reality, placed in the Body Refining Realm, it is already extremely rare.

The level of divine sense power he currently possessed was in no way inferior to that of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator.

What surprised him was that the Qi and Blood power of his own physical body seemed somewhat too formidable.

However, upon stepping into the Return Ruins, his divine sense power was likewise suppressed to the Qi Refiner realm.

No one could resist this pressure; the reason was simple, because within this Return Ruins, everyone's strength was suppressed.

The source of one's own Qi and Blood power is always divided into two parts.

The first is what is obtained from cultivation techniques; this portion of Qi and Blood power is approximately twelve thousand catties.

This mark came from the Gui Xu Gate; only those holding the mark can return to the Heavenly Court Secret Realm through this Gui Xu Gate.

To improve further, every step is difficult beyond measure.

This is not worth being surprised about; Chen Mo's physical body has undergone multiple Mortal Transformations, so his talent is naturally the peak of the peak.

Those without the mark, even if they arrive here and forcibly try to step into the Gui Xu Gate, will suffer boundless pressure.

From this, it can be seen that the constraints of the Return Ruins on Martial Artists only exist within the same realm.

He carefully sensed his own strength, especially the changes in his Qi and Blood power.

As for killing an Innate Martial Artist, that is not to say it is impossible, but it is very difficult.

Here, no matter who one is, one will suffer suppression.

Chen Mo could sense his own Qi and Blood level and his True Qi level.

The Inner Qi that Chen Mo condensed in the Tongmai Realm was far superior to that of ordinary Martial Artists, by an unknown margin.

Although Chen Mo is not a Qi Refiner, the growth of his Martial Dao cultivation will inevitably drive the improvement of his divine sense power.

Even though his cultivation was suppressed here, these Inner Qi were not suppressed.

If one had a divine weapon in hand and assassinated them while they were off guard, it might be possible to succeed.

He sensed carefully once more, and only then did he discover the difference.

As long as one does not exceed this realm, how much combat power one can erupt with depends on the Martial Artist's own foundation.

All are suppressed to the Tongmai Realm and the Body Refining Realm, or what is called the First Realm of Cultivation of Martial Dao.

However, among those at the same realm, there is still a distinction between strong and weak.

As for the physical body, that goes without saying.

The combat power one can exert is naturally stronger as well.

For example, Chen Mo; although his True Qi was suppressed, his control and application of his own power would inevitably far exceed that of an ordinary Tongmai Martial Artist.

Not only that, even the divine sense power within his own Shenhai was likewise suppressed.

Furthermore, the suppression of cultivation realm refers to the Martial Artist's own cultivation being suppressed.

For example, Chen Mo; even if he only used his First Realm cultivation, killing a few Second Realm experts would absolutely not be a difficult task.

Besides this, even the current Chen Mo, while only using his Tongmai Realm strength, could not possibly fight an Innate Martial Artist head-on.

Chen Mo was at the perfection of the Body Refining Realm, and his entire body's Qi and Blood could condense to twelve thousand catties; this is absolutely worthy of being called gifted, and only a supreme prodigy could reach this stage.

The Return Ruins counted the Qi and Blood power obtained from every Mortal Transformation he underwent using the Transformation Pearl as power he himself possessed.

One must know that the Mortal Transformations Chen Mo underwent had better effects each time.

As of now, the Qi and Blood power his physical body itself possessed had reached over eighteen thousand catties.

This figure is terrifying; let alone Body Refining Martial Artists, even Mortal Transformation Martial Artists, even if they cultivated to the limit, could not possibly possess such formidable Qi and Blood power.

Only a Shencang Realm Martial Artist, having cultivated to perfection, could possibly have their own Qi and Blood power reach this level.

It is just that once at that realm, the Martial Artist's own combat no longer relies purely on Qi and Blood power, but on the application of Heaven and Earth Power.

Feeling the surging and leaping Qi and Blood power within his body, Chen Mo could not help but reveal a smile.

Previously, he was still pondering how to find a way to explore within the Return Ruins.

Hunting those spirits of the epoch, or finding a way to obtain those precious cultivation resources.

This was undoubtedly an extremely risky matter; even top prodigies, or even Great Abilities far stronger than oneself, would not easily dare to do such a thing.

Because within the Return Ruins, Martial Artists are subject to too many restrictions.

And regardless of whether it is the spirits of the Return Ruins or other dangerous areas within the Return Ruins, the risks are too high, especially when exploring with the strength of the Pulse Connection Realm.

Chen Mo does not need to worry about this for the moment; although his cultivation is suppressed to the Pulse Connection Realm, his inherent Qi and Blood power is preserved and does not abide by the suppression of the Return Ruins.

This allows him to achieve extreme ferocity while in the Pulse Connection Realm.

Relying on this level of strength, let alone Post-Heaven Martial Artists, even facing an Innate Martial Artist is not a problem.

As for confronting Era Spirits of the same realm, that is naturally even less of an issue, even if those Era Spirits have a better grasp of techniques than he does and are more familiar with the environment of the Return Ruins.

Yet under the suppression of absolute power, all of this is useless.

It is just that Chen Mo is quite curious about one point right now, and that is how those naturally powerful Divine Beasts and exotic beasts enter the Return Ruins.

Not all living beings come from humble beginnings, cultivating step by step.

Some living beings are extraordinary by nature and possess extremely powerful strength even before they are born.

For example, the ancient Dragon Race; as long as they develop consciousness, even if they have not yet emerged from the egg and are strictly speaking still in an embryonic state.

Even at their weakest, they must have the strength of the Innate Realm, and if their bloodline is slightly stronger, it is normal for them to possess the strength of the Heavenly Human Realm.

Such dragons, as soon as they are born, have the cultivation of the Supernatural Realm, and with a little growth, they will reach the strength of the True One Realm.

As long as they can live to adulthood, even without any cultivation, they can possess the cultivation of the Mastery Realm based solely on their inherent bloodline talents.

Such living beings have no period of weakness at all; the power they are born with is extremely formidable. What level of strength would they maintain upon entering the Return Ruins?

However, he is only feeling curious right now, and he can also guess that given the current state of the world, it is likely very difficult for him to learn about these things himself.

The reason is simple: those naturally powerful living beings find it very difficult to survive in the Mirage Sea.

They possess unimaginable power the moment their consciousness is born, and before they have time to control these powers, they are highly likely to resonate with the Mirage Sea.

In this regard, those naturally powerful races are far inferior to the Human Race or other weak living beings.

There are rarely such formidable living beings in the world anymore, so information on what their situation would be upon entering the Return Ruins is naturally very scarce.

After sensing his own power, Chen Mo did not rush to move, remaining in place to familiarize himself with his own situation.

Given his current physical condition, rashly heading to the deeper layers of the Return Ruins might not be a good thing, even though there might be more to gain there.

It is better to explore the first layer of the Return Ruins first, then find a way to continue deeper into the second layer.

Within these two layers of the Return Ruins, he should not encounter too much danger with his current strength, provided he does not actively venture into certain dangerous areas.

As for whether to head to the third layer of the Return Ruins, he will wait and see before acting.

Chen Mo spent a moment familiarizing himself with his current power, then looked up at the great sun in the sky, using the great sun as the east to determine his direction.

He really does not have much understanding of the Return Ruins, and there are not many reference points around.

It is just that everything within the Return Ruins has already perished, and the great sun in the sky remains unchanged and unmoved, staying quietly there forever.

By using the great sun as a reference point, one can determine the direction.

Even if this direction might be wrong, as long as both he and Black Scorpion are wrong, it will not affect his ability to find the city.

As for the Gui Xu Gate left here, there is no need to do any covering up.

Because no one can destroy it; the blue-gray stone gate is merely an appearance, and the Gui Xu Gate within the Heavenly Court Secret Realm is connected to the Return Ruins space here.

To destroy it, one must destroy the nearby Return Ruins, which is fundamentally impossible.

Conversely, if someone could do it, no amount of covering up by Chen Mo would be of any use.

Furthermore, as long as he leaves this time, he will likely not return here again.

Ten days later, when the time he stays in the Return Ruins reaches the limit, the Return Ruins will directly expel him.

At that time, he will be directly pulled by the Gui Xu Gate within the Heavenly Court Secret Realm and will not need to return here.

As for the next time he descends into the Return Ruins through the Gui Xu Gate, Chen Mo can choose to descend directly into the area where he previously left the Return Ruins.

Of course, he could also choose to come here again, but that would waste more time on the journey.

After confirming the direction, Chen Mo did not linger and ran toward the distance.

Even though there were no pedestrians around, and not even any living beings, he still deliberately controlled his speed.

This way, he would not expose his full strength; as of now, he still does not know exactly what the situation in the Return Ruins is like.

He must take some precautions and conceal a portion of his strength.

After traveling two hundred miles east, the outline of a city appeared before his eyes.

This city was also entirely blue-gray, built with stone bricks, and the surface of the city walls was severely eroded by the sun and moon.

The city gates were wide open, and looking from afar, there were indeed many pedestrians coming and going.

Two characters were written above the city gate, which should indicate the name of the city, but after an unknown amount of time, these two characters could no longer be clearly seen.

As Chen Mo got closer to the city, his pace also slowed down significantly.

There were quite a few pedestrians coming and going inside the city, and even on the road outside the city, there were some pedestrians walking.

Every pedestrian had a smile on their face, whispering to one another.

Chen Mo frowned slightly; he felt something was not quite right.

The pedestrians coming and going looked very normal, and their strength was not weak; every single one of them was at the Tongmai Perfection realm.

Although there were many pedestrians in the city, this was normal; there are three thousand worlds, and the Ancient Heaven and Earth, which is of unknown vastness.

In these regions, Human Race experts have opened up countless Small Worlds to resist the Mirage Sea.

Even if only one in ten thousand or even one in one hundred thousand Small Worlds has the ability to descend into the Return Ruins.

Then the accumulated number would still be a terrifying figure.

Chen Mo was not surprised that there were so many pedestrians in the city.

It was even highly likely that what he saw was only a fraction, after all, even the first layer of the Return Ruins is quite vast in area.

As for going deeper, the Return Ruins there are closer to the previous era, the area will only be more vast, and there will be more rare treasures from the previous era remaining there.

The first layer of the Return Ruins is the closest to being completely destroyed.

When the day comes that the Return Ruins completely clears away the remnants of the previous epoch here, this layer of the Return Ruins will vanish, and the second layer will become the first.

Chen Mo stepped into the city; the passing pedestrians were quite bustling, and there were many shops operating within the city.

Every person's face was brimming with smiles, looking extremely happy and cheerful.

The scene inside the city was completely different from what he had imagined.

He had originally thought that with numerous experts gathered together, experts traveling between many worlds who had finally managed to arrive within the Return Ruins—

they would either be focused on cultivation in various places, or finding ways to explore the situation within the Return Ruins to strengthen their own power, or perhaps exchanging information about the current state of the heavens and earth, sharing the cultivation techniques they each possessed.

And by venturing deeper into the Return Ruins, there would certainly be even stronger experts, and through them, he would be able to learn more information.

However, the situation before his eyes was far from that; the surrounding pedestrians were all very strong, but they were very abnormal.

Some were eating, some were drinking tea; it seemed there was no great difference from an ordinary city.

Yet, having no difference was the greatest difference, because every person in this city possessed the strength of Tongmai Perfection, and it was a suppressed Tongmai Perfection strength.

They did not need to eat or drink.

Because their own strength was essentially still there, it was merely being suppressed.

Not only did they not need to eat or drink, but it was also almost impossible for their Qi and Blood or Inner Qi to ever be exhausted.

If viewed from this perspective, the people in this city were truly too abnormal.

Furthermore, the Martial Artists coming and going in this city were a bit too happy.

These people had different appearances, different ages, and different genders.

Yet every person had a smile on their face, and they were uniform and identical.

But apart from these anomalies, no matter how Chen Mo looked, the pedestrians he saw were absolutely normal people.

Sensing carefully, he could hear the surging of Qi and Blood within these people's bodies and the beating of their hearts.

He could also understand everything these people said; everyone was very normal.

But being completely identical in their normality was very abnormal.

Chen Mo focused his mind and listened carefully; the more he listened, the more he felt something was wrong.

Although the passing pedestrians were all suppressed to the same realm, they were a bit too uniform.

The pulse beats of these people, the frequency of their breathing, and the speed at which their hearts pumped blood were all completely identical.

This was an impossible thing; even if these people all practiced the same cultivation technique, it would be absolutely impossible to achieve this, let alone the fact that there were differences in their ages and genders.

Chen Mo frowned deeply and fell into contemplation, wanting to observe the surrounding pedestrians more closely.

However, right at this moment, someone suddenly patted him on his back!

(End of chapter)