Tie Dan opened his eyes and found himself standing before a cliff that soared into the clouds, under a dim and void deep sky, with a vast and magnificent ocean before him. There was not a hint of light around, the boundless sea surface resembling a thick pool of ink, making it hard to distinguish the boundary between sea and sky, as if it were an ocean of a Netherworld Spring. Then the inky dark tides suddenly receded from all directions, exposing the rugged mountains beneath the cliff, the island sea bed at the mountain’s foot, and beneath the sea bed, a decapitated and rotten Black Turtle.
Then again, the black tide that obscured the sky and sun gathered from all directions, converging into towering walls of water hundreds of feet high. It seemed as though a fierce beast in the dark void opened a boundless maw of terror to consume the silent solitary island and the dead remnants of the grave completely, leaving no trace behind. Yet the raging black tide, rushing forward as if to sweep away and engulf everything, broke apart before the cliff, as though crashing against an invisible Qi Wall, scattering like a sky full of sword rain.
As the roar and impact continued, the terrifying energy of the tide released from the Netherworld Spring’s dark tide like a nuclear explosion, releasing high-energy shockwaves that unleashed blinding light, erupting into a vast area of deep purple aurora in the sky, illuminating the mountains and fields akin to ancient Dao Palaces abandoned for ages.
So Tie Dan turned his head and saw behind him, right before the cliff, an altar shrine that faced the black tide, clearly with a stone statue of Xuan Nu enshrined.
Indeed, it was the true Xuan Nu, the ancient stone statue of Xuan Nu with a faceless eerie pregnant form.
However, it seemed that the pregnant Xuan Nu had already given birth, with a massive wound splitting her abdomen, its insides empty, as if something crawled out from its cavity, descending from the long-sealed shrine, broke through the talisman-sealed forbidden area, and crawled towards the decayed and corrupt ancient Dao Palace at the mountain’s foot.
Tie Dan looked around and saw that both sides of the path leading from the cliff shrine to the mountain’s foot were dotted with talisman seals pulling on ink line curse-sealed ruins. Yet these restrictions and seals seemed to have been broken by whatever crawled out earlier, leaving scorch marks on the ground like the ashes after burning.
So Tie Dan followed the traces on the ground towards the Dao Palace at the mountain’s foot. Before long, he saw three towering gate archways more than ten zhang high, with inscriptions successively engraved on them.
Yuanqiao Mountain
Yuanqiao Cangming Sea
Leisure Sect
With prior speculation, upon seeing these three mountain gates, Tie Dan made a quick calculation and gathered related clues from the "Lingxu Daoist Collection" and the "Xiaoyao Secret Transmission."
It turned out that Yuanqiao Mountain originally belonged to one of the Five Divine Mountains in the East Sea, a tourist resort developed by a company in the East Sea tourist area, which was later snatched by the Mystic Sect, becoming a primary stronghold of the Leisure Immortal Sect in the East, inheriting the lineage of Xiaoyao Cangming Sea.
Later, during the Chaos of Xiaoyao, the Mystic Sect sealed the mountain, the Netherworld Spring emerged, demons danced wildly, a Divine Lord appeared on the scene, and Daiyu, Yuanqiao, and two other mountains were moved and swept overseas by the then Three Immortals of the East Sea and Wuzhong Laojun, establishing the Outer Demon Sect, thus losing contact over the seas.
As for Penglai, Fanghu, and Yingzhou mountains, they naturally fell into the hands of the Mystic Sect, occupied by the Supreme Nine Truths Sect, becoming the orthodox inheritance of the Thunder Ancestor and the Taoist transmission of Eastern Guardian Ziwei Zi.
However, when Tie Dan first confronted Xianwei, the methods of the Penglai techniques seemed to be employed by him. Could it be, after closing himself off, the Penglai Disciples once rode whales eastward for overseas expeditions, conquering Yuanqiao Cangming Sea, wiping out the Xiaoyao Sect’s evil heretics? But then, what kind of change resulted in the Xiaoyao Demon Embryo breaking the seal from the rear mountain and emerged, leading to the extinction of the Penglai Disciples?
While guessing, Tie Dan continued along the trail of ashes into the Dao Palace, only to see in the main practice field, the bodies of Penglai Disciples strewn... no, they looked more like they were not Penglai Disciples, nor were they corpses...
Tie Dan inspected closely, discovering the attire on these people was completely different from those Penglai cultivators who fought with Chen Xuantian, instead resembling those of the Immortal Palace, all being handsome and beautiful, eternally youthful, feathered robes, gauze clothes and cloud garments, like Immortals. Furthermore, upon closer inspection, most of them did not even wear underwear, only wrapping their bodies with fine mermaid silk as if scattered across the field, their half-naked white arms fully exposed outside.
It truly is the Leisure Sect...
Tie Dan tentatively engaged in pulse and Qi viewing, discovering in fact there were no external or internal injuries on everyone, merely sleeping appearance. They had body temperatures, breathing, heartbeats, but that was all; no souls, no consciousness, obviously their Nascent Souls emerged and left, leaving behind mere bodies here, as if collapsed dead fish. Judging by their postures, it seemed a group of disciples were recently under their senior sisters’ leadership practicing sword and dance, suddenly dazed and fainting, tumbling to the ground.
The Mystic Sect has always been cautious about practicing the Primordial Spirit Technique, at least with a mentor or senior to lead during cultivation, or with a Daoist companion disciple for support, retreating and forming arrays to guard against petty harm, wishing to preserve the Dao Body like a coffin to prevent demonic harm, heavenly demon attacks.
The scene before him, it should not be the Leisure Sect engaging in unusual performance art, manifesting and abandoning the Dao Body and casually roaming to the Peak of Jiuxiao. Because Tie Dan circled around and found that even crucial places like alchemy workshop medicine stores and artifact refining workshops had no one keeping watch, the Pill Furnace burned dry, ruining a kiln of Immortal Elixir, even those guardian elders of the sect, guarding spiritual beasts, had their Primordial Spirits emerged, fainting dead all over, only leaving behind piles of dead flesh.