February 29, approaching midnight, both sea and sky darkened.
In the vast East Sea, on a massive island shrouded in fog and far from the normal shipping lanes.
A huge fleet composed of more than a dozen large sea ships had furled their sails and dropped anchor, quietly mooring in a natural bay.
At this ti, most of the ships were silent and dark, without a ray of light or a whisper of human sound—the passengers had clearly all disembarked.
What was strange, however, was apart from the lush peach forest that seed to stretch without end, the island seed almost uninhabited, with no sign of where they all had hidden themselves.
"Sigh!"
Zhu Bo’an leaned against the gunwale of one of the ships, exhaling deeply.
Imdiately, the sll of briny, fishy seawater once again filled his nostrils.
It made this young man, who had never left the inland from birth, shake his head vigorously.
Even after many days at sea, he still wasn’t quite used to life aboard a ship.
It wasn’t until he gazed upon the blurry island in the night, beautiful despite its haziness, that his spirits finally lifted.
"I’ve always found excuses not to disembark, not to set foot on land, choosing to stay and guard the ship on the spot, and have finally toughed it out until the last day of February.
According to Master, once March begins tomorrow, I should be able to rest on the island, right?
The feeling of solid ground underfoot is so much better.
Even though my status as a Red Seal Mage prevents from getting seasick, after spending so much ti on board, I feel like I am swaying even when walking.
When using the bathroom, I worry I might accidentally fall into the sea—it’s hardly a way for anyone to live."
Zhu Bo’an, following Su Guyun, a fair number of No-Life Dao disciples, and thousands of Moluo people from Chuyun Country, had already spent quite so ti at Dushuo Mountain.
Although he hadn’t encountered the mythical guardians Shentu and Yu Lei said to reside here, neither had he witnessed the profusion of ghosts and monsters allegedly rampant in this Earth Gate.
Perhaps due to its location on a spiritual nexus, the island’s peach trees were already laden with juicy peaches that quickly regrew once plucked.
The trees on the island could sustain an upwards of ten thousand people.
Compared to the chaos of the mainland, Dushuo Mountain seed like a peaceful paradise, not at all the fearso place imagined.
"But what dangers could such a seemingly idyllic place hide?"
Thinking of Wang Yuan’s instructions, Zhu Bo’an shaded his eyes and looked toward the deeper parts of the island.
At the sa ti, an enormous, pitch-black figure slowly erged from his shadow.
The dark apparition was a giant human-faced owl standing ten feet high, its back vaguely shadowed with what seed like hundreds of necks; each feather bore a terrified human face,
In fact, each head belonged to a cultivator it had devoured, and every feather to a wicked villain it had consud.
The core ability of the Three Vultures Power Technique—Owl God Snatching Food.
In the process of establishing a Dao Foundation, the more villains devoured, the more perfect the foundation. The sa held true after becoming a Red Seal Mage.
Going undercover in the No-Life Dao had few other advantages, but it was rife with sect demons to take charge of.
The giant owl’s head shook slightly, and it swapped its primary head for a spare one at its back.
As the giant owl switched heads, Zhu Bo’an’s Daoist aura changed instantaneously.
It was the No-Life Dao inheritance of the Pill Fire Golden Lotus Skill!
This was how Zhu Bo’an, after half a year undercover, had managed not to slip up until now—once mastered, it allowed for countless avatars.
Eating a No-Life Dao disciple granted him their Daoist skill and the creation of an avatar.
However, this avatar and what Su Guyun sought—the original principle of One Qi Transforms Into Three Trues—weren’t the sa.
No matter how many avatars Zhu Bo’an had, those distinct traits all ca from the consud ghost souls; they were purely derivative, unable to differ from what they had been in life.
The benefit was that it traded the potential for future advancent to rge all Precept Taboos into the Three Vultures Power Technique.
He wouldn’t have to endure dozens or hundreds of different taboos, preventing an inadvertent, grueso death.
The Three True Dharma Body, with its One Qi Transforms Into Three Trues, could separate certain aspects of oneself to create two other selves that could grow independently.
Whether practicing Daoist skill, training in military skill, or cultivating the Scholar’s Ascension Technique, all could coexist without interference, not affecting one another.
If one attained immortality, so did the others; if one couldn’t die, the others too could be reborn.
In comparison, the philosophy of the two was vastly different.
Yet Zhu Bo’an still hadn’t uncovered what exactly Su Guyun’s promotion ceremony was, nor why he had traveled the long distance to Dushuo Mountain.
"Moreover, since coming to Dushuo Mountain, the White Lotus Holy Daughter has strictly prohibited any communication between us, we are all monitoring each other.
Anyone caught whispering is imdiately sent to the ’Deceit Realm·Taoyuan’ just like the Moluo people, not to erge for at least a month.
But the more they forbid us to know, the more curious I beco!"
After holding it in for several days, and with February nearly passed, Zhu Bo’an could no longer contain his curiosity about the island’s secrets.
With a wave of his hand.
Fluttering—!
A large flock of black owls rose from the shadows behind him, flying toward Dushuo Mountain.
Over the sand, over the hills, over the valleys with flowing streams, over the peach forest that was already laden with peaches in February...
Aside from the entrance to the "Deceit Realm・Taoyuan," hundreds of owls had flown all over the island without discovering any peculiar place.
It was only after Zhu Bo’an dispatched an owl avatar to venture close to the periter of the Deceit Realm entrance that he found sothing odd about a "No-Life Dao" Senior Brother.
When the owl looked over, this Senior Brother, who was clearly assigned to the night watch, was using the campfire light to shake his head and scribble a short piece of writing on the ground:
"...Traveling along the stream, forgetting the path’s distance. Suddenly encountering a peach forest, hundreds of steps flanked by the banks, with no mixed trees, the grass fresh and beautiful, petals falling chaotically.
... At the end of the forest by the water’s source, a mountain appears, with a small mouth, seemingly radiating light..."
After finishing, he read it and appeared quite satisfied, even signing his na at the end: Sun Hongcai.
The writing was quite good, and the strength of the brush strokes was primitive and vigorous; even Zhu Bo’an, who ca from a scholarly family, had to greatly praise the word "good."
However.
Zhu Bo’an distinctly rembered that this sowhat familiar "Senior Brother," who was surnad Pang and called Qijin, was a butcher who slaughtered pigs for people before joining the Sect!
He didn’t even know how to write his own na before joining the Sect.
Where did he get any literary talent, and the na "Sun Hongcai" that sounds so talented?!?!
"Unless..."
Suddenly, a cold wind inexplicably burst through Zhu Bo’an’s neck, causing him to shiver violently.
anwhile, the other owls also promptly discovered anomalies.
Downstream of the stream flowing out of the "Taoyuan."
A rabbit that had been drinking water suddenly kicked its legs and clumsily fell to the ground.
Then, seemingly completely forgetting it had limbs, it flopped on the ground like a fish out of water, using only the strength of its waist to keep bouncing.
Desperately inching closer to the stream, it couldn’t wait to jump in.
Different from its movents on land, it wriggled into the water with practiced ease and then... just "gurgled" down and sank.
"This..."
Combining the various strange sights within "Taoyuan," Zhu Bo’an seed to have realized sothing in a mont of clarity, his heart pounding heavily.
However, before he could contemplate further, he heard soone shouting from the shore:
"Miss Su orders that there’s no need to leave people to watch the ships anymore. Everyone must imdiately enter Taoyuan, no mistakes allowed!"
Danger—!
...
At the sa ti, at another "Earth Gate" location in the Desert North Luofeng Mountain.
The gold and azure Dharma Light behind the Ghost Gate grew increasingly strong, turning Wang Yuan’s at Body as if it were encased in gold jade.
The ti was drawing very close to the six-day deadline set by the "Gatekeeper," and the "Two Realms Dharma Body" was almost complete.
His at Body, inside and out, was covered with dense runes and seal characters, with only the last—and the most critical—head part remaining.
Because Wang Yuan had allowed for so ti in advance, there was still almost a day left before the spring festival of "Earth Mother Black Sky" ended, the advantage was with !
Just when Wang Yuan felt his Lucky Stars Shining and thought he might be able to coast to the end without waves,
An oil lamp suddenly popped out beside him, from which ca the earth-shattering wail of Zhu Bo’an:
"Master! Save !
Su Guyun forcibly ordered everyone to enter the Deceit Realm imdiately, and I can’t hold out until tomorrow, the first day of March.
I just discovered a trendous secret.
The foundation of the "Deceit Realm・Taoyuan" in Dushuo Mountain seems to be the "Human-Faced Peach Immortal Skill" of the Peach God Tao, and also our Yin Mountain Taoism’s... "Six Paths of Reincarnation"!
It’s too weird here, too creepy!
I wanted to figure out where exactly the ’Yin Mountain Taoism’ in the mountain ca from, so I had the owl avatar co early to the entrance of that Deceit Realm.
Wait, this... this seems to be that year’s Zhou..."
But as he spoke up to this point, the communication abruptly cut off.
Wang Yuan’s heart had already tightened when he heard "Six Paths of Reincarnation."
He was focused on continuing to listen, but the sudden "..." at the end had him frustrated as if he had heard "to learn what happens next, please wait for the next episode," and he beca crazed.
He couldn’t help but curse at the oil lamp that had dimd:
"Zhu Bo’an! You little punk, what the hell is going on there?
Can’t you learn from the people of Dai State to speak in inverted sentences? When you speak, you have to put the most important things at the beginning!"
"Idiot, you’re just a!!!"
But at this mont, Wang Yuan, who was too upset to speak clearly, did not have the energy to worry about his missing little disciple.
Seeing that the Daoist Skill was "unbalancing" and reaching a critical point, the "Earth Mother Black Sky," which had been sitting quietly atop the Dharma Altar for nearly seven days, finally responded for the first ti.
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