Xu Ying and Daoist Wukong returned to the subterranean city of Qiongdu. The city remained in utter chaos, magic treasures flying wildly through the air and lives being snuffed out at every turn.
"People of the Zhao Realm, get the hell back to your realm!" several drunken outlanders bellowed toward them.
Judging by their appearances, however, these outlanders were clearly not true Holy Race natives of the other shore either. It was a mystery how they possessed the shameless gall to tell Xu Ying and his companion to get lost.
"People of the Zhao Realm look quite similar to those of the Three Realms, which is why folk from the Three Realms are often mistaken for them."
Long accustomed to such scenes, Daoist Wukong remarked to Xu Ying, "Once you spend enough time mingling down here at the bottom, you realize that races from different universes all believe themselves to be genuine new members of the Holy Race, the true masters of the other shore, and view everyone else as freeloading parasites come to enjoy the spoils."
Xu Ying gazed at these subterranean dwellers of the other shore, asking dubiously, "Can anyone ever rise above the rest down here?"
"Of course they can."
A local legend told of a Scalping Overlord, a woman named Zhong Yuliu who excelled at peeling scalps from skulls. She had amassed a fortune, eventually rising to become a Grand Dao Master before finally being slain.
The two crossed Qiongdu and arrived at the opposite bank, where a bottomless chasm lay below. An icy, bone-piercing astral wind blew up from the subterranean depths, dark and oppressive, potent enough to freeze an origin spirit and dissolve bone and flesh.
Suspension bridges spanned both banks of the chasm, with toll collectors stationed on either end. One had to pay a fee to step onto the bridge and another to step off.
Xu Ying possessed no money, and Daoist Wukong, being merely an avatar conjured from a strand of hair, naturally had none either. Fortunately, he had just bludgeoned an outlander to death and swiped the purse from his corpse.
The two made their way across the chasm. There was no such thing as a smooth path underground; the terrain everywhere was rugged and treacherous. Flying through the open air was by no means a good idea, as highway robbery and slaughter were rampant.
Xu Ying flew forward with Daoist Wukong in tow, encountering over a hundred ambushes by magic treasures within a short span. His cultivation and strength were simply far too overwhelming, however; without him even needing to mount a defense, those treasures naturally lost all their might and tumbled away.
Compared to the Indestructibles of Daoji Heaven, these subterranean outlanders were far too deficient.
"We must tread carefully and avoid flying directly over subterranean cities," Daoist Wukong warned. "There are still Indestructibles down here. Soaring over a city is a sign of disrespect to them and will only court trouble."
Xu Ying asked in puzzlement, "Why haven't they gone up to the surface?"
"That's hard to say. Perhaps their teachings conflicted with those of the Indestructibles in Daoji Heaven, and they were suppressed. There are so many people on the other shore, and many cultivate the same Great Dao. If everyone attains the Indestructible realm—say, all cultivating the Supreme Dao—who gets to spread the teachings across the myriad universes?"
Daoist Wukong continued, "After I spread my teachings and establish the Supreme Dao Sect, if you come along wanting to establish a Supreme Dao Sect as well, half my leeks would have to be ceded to you. Would the Indestructibles of Daoji Heaven ever tolerate that?"
Xu Ying inquired, "If they cannot harvest believers, how did they cultivate to become so powerful?"
"By controlling these subterranean dwellers. They send these people out to harvest their native universes, and then the Indestructibles turn around and harvest them. That is more than enough to sustain them."
Xu Ying nodded silently upon hearing this.
The two arrived at another subterranean city known as Underground Daodu. It was nestled inside an enormous sinkhole, where faint light filtered through the murky subterranean expanse and illuminated the pit, lending it a desolate and mysterious air.
Passing through Daodu and then Liangdu, Youdu, and other locales, they watched the subterranean depths gradually grow barren. Even ambushes for robbery and slaughter grew far less frequent.
*The folkways of the other shore are truly even simpler and more honest than those back in Yuanshou,* Xu Ying mused to himself.
Looking upward to examine his surroundings, Xu Ying's expression turned grave. "These sinkholes were smashed open by fists," he suddenly said.
The other shore had plundered far too much wealth from the myriad universes. As the old saying went, even the ground was paved in gold. While the other shore was not literally made of gold, its earth had been refined until it was extraordinarily resilient; the entire other shore was effectively a colossal magic treasure.
Yet these sinkholes were vast in scale and astonishing in number. Someone must have waged a titanic battle in the skies above the other shore, their downward punches punching clean through the bedrock and leaving behind all these sinkholes!
"Whoever left these sinkholes was vastly more powerful than I am."
As Xu Ying traversed the terrain alongside Daoist Wukong, he felt a faint stirring in his heart. At the bottom of certain sinkholes, he could still sense traces of exceptionally ancient Dao methods and divine abilities. They were likely remnants that had never completely dispersed.
Even so, those auras had grown extremely faint.
"The forbidden zone is straight ahead!" Daoist Wukong suddenly announced. "I am merely a strand of hair and cannot hold out long within the forbidden zone. It would be better if I attach myself to you."
He transformed into a golden monkey hair, concealing himself within Xu Ying's locks.
Xu Ying walked toward the forbidden zone, only to discover that it, too, was bathed in light pouring down from a sinkhole.
There, shrouded in radiance, an indistinct immortal mountain loomed faintly. Surrounding the immortal mountain were four banners formed purely of light, their surfaces rippling and shifting like water beneath the glare of the sinkhole.
Xu Ying peered into the distance and drew in a sharp breath. "How did the Holy Venerable and Qingxuan dare venture into this forbidden zone?"
Of the nine innate Great Daos, Xu Ying had mastered seven; his vision and discernment were naturally extraordinary.
He recognized the dreadfulness of those four radiant banners in an instant: they were cosmic innate spiritual lights akin to the Chaos Lotus!
What those four banners harbored was the innate Dao power of a cosmic Hongyuan!
Treasures of this caliber were spiritual roots born from chaos, thus termed Chaos Spiritual Roots, also known as innate spiritual treasures.
To employ universe-grade innate spiritual treasures to suppress an immortal mountain, seal the surrounding perimeter, and forge a forbidden zone—let alone the Holy Venerable and Qingxuan, even if Xu Ying stepped inside and beheld the shifting Daos within, he feared he would find them incomprehensible!
"The Holy Venerable actually chose this place as the Three Realms' foothold on the other shore?"
Xu Ying inhaled a cold breath, muttering, "As expected of the Holy Venerable, his eye is truly sharp. Where did these innate spiritual treasures come from? Who was wealthy enough to place such treasures here just to suppress an immortal mountain?"
A sudden shiver ran through him as he remembered a matter of paramount importance.
The Three Realms possessed an innate spiritual treasure: the Ginseng Fruit Tree. However, the Three Realms' Hongyuan had been discovered by Dao Zongyuan and cleaved open before it had fully matured.
The Ginseng Fruit Tree had never managed to grow to full fruition either, making it arguably the weakest among innate spiritual treasures. Even so, through a fortuitous stroke of luck, Xu Ying had planted and revived it in his Martial Dao cave abyss, and with the spiritual root's power he could unite the innate Great Daos of Chaos, Hongmeng, Wuji, and Taiyi. One could well imagine the potential of an innate spiritual treasure.
The second innate spiritual treasure Xu Ying had encountered was the Chaos Lotus. Even before it had fully matured, it was already comparable to a Grand Dao Lord.
*The Three Realms' Hongyuan and the Chaos Lotus both yielded innate spiritual treasures. Does the other shore have them as well? Do the myriad universes ruled by the other shore have them?*
*Assuming each universe possesses only one innate spiritual treasure, then across the myriad universes, there should be thousands upon thousands of them!*
*What is more, certain universes might yield more than one. For instance, these four banners likely hail from the very same cosmic Hongyuan!*
*So where have all those thousands of innate spiritual treasures gone? Are they still within the myriad universes? Would the other shore ever permit such supreme treasures to remain behind?*
*Or could it be that these innate spiritual treasures are actually right here on the other shore?*
The more Xu Ying pondered it, the more his scalp tingled. If at least thousands of innate spiritual treasures were hidden away on the other shore, why had he never seen a single one?
*I have slain so many Indestructibles, True Kings, and Dao Lords, yet not a single one ever deployed an innate spiritual treasure. Had they unleashed such a treasure, a thousand of me would have been blasted to smithereens! In other words, those Indestructibles, True Kings, and Dao Lords possessed none at all! Could they be held in the hands of the four Grand Dao Lords?*
Xu Ying immediately discarded the notion. On his journey back from the Heavenly Realm ruins to Daoji Heaven, Grand Dao Lord Taiyi had been ambushed repeatedly, yet he had never once deployed an innate spiritual treasure. Nor had the three Grand Dao Lords pursuing him used one.
This indicated that even the four supreme Grand Dao Lords held no innate spiritual treasures.
*Could it be that the three Dao Masters possess every single innate spiritual treasure across the myriad universes?*
Xu Ying steadied his mind. This was a deduction that truly made one's scalp prickle with dread. If Dao Masters Hua, Lin, and Luo truly commanded every innate spiritual treasure of the myriad universes, their supremacy would be utterly unshakeable! Even Dao Master Tongtian would be no match for any one of them!
"The other shore is truly an immovable behemoth..."
Just as Xu Ying arrived outside the forbidden zone and prepared to summon the Chaos Lotus, a voice called out: "Could this fellow Daoist be from the Zhao Realm?"
Xu Ying looked toward the source of the voice and saw several dozen figures escorting an imposing, dignified man toward him. His heart stirred slightly. *A subterranean Indestructible?*
The man appeared roughly twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old. He had not assumed the form of the other shore's Holy Race, retaining the characteristics of his native universe instead, with horns growing from his head and concealed within his hair.
Xu Ying could tell the man had cultivated to the state where the Dao was one with his body; every gesture and stride embodied principles and divine abilities.
Yet darkness did not flank him before or behind; rather, his surroundings were brightly illuminated by his own Pure Yang cave abyss.
This man had attained the Dao through the Great Dao of Pure Yang, achieving the Indestructible realm.
Daoist Wukong's voice whispered into Xu Ying's ear, "This is the city lord of Shadu, an Indestructible named Jiang Huan."
At that moment, an underground cultivator beside Jiang Huan flushed crimson, stepped forward, and shouted, "Zhao Realm dog, get out of the other shore!"
The others chimed in clamorously, yelling, "You don't belong here, Zhao Realm dog! Scram back to your Zhao Realm!"
Suppressing his temper, Xu Ying said patiently, "I am not from the Zhao Realm. I come from the Three Realms..."
"Then scram back to the Three Realms!" they bellowed.
Just as Xu Ying was tempted to bludgeon a few of them to death as Daoist Wukong had done, City Lord Jiang Huan gasped in surprise. "Fellow Daoist, you hail from the Three Realms? I know who you are—you are the Indestructible Slayer, Xu Ying! Your great renown... this Jiang has long heard of it, and I hold you in utmost admiration!"
When his companions heard that this youth was Xu Ying, a chill swept through them, and none dared shout another word.
Xu Ying smiled faintly. "Indestructible Slayer? Where did such an epithet come from?"
City Lord Jiang Huan chuckled. "There is no need for modesty, sir. Indestructibles on the other shore rarely perish; even the downtrodden Indestructibles down here are almost never slain. Yet ever since your arrival on the other shore, the casualties among the Indestructibles have mounted steadily. First, Nine Springs True King met his end at Grand Dao Lord Haoyi's enlightenment site, then at the site of Daoist Tongtian's demise, dozens of Indestructible True Kings and Dao Lords were slaughtered as blood sacrifices. Then came the reclamation of the Spirit Realm, which claimed over ten thousand trailblazers."
Listing them like family heirlooms, he continued, "And in the Jing Realm, nearly twenty Indestructibles were wiped out, including Daoshengzi, one of the foremost among Dao Lords! There is also the recent feud: five Indestructibles returned alive from the Jing Realm bearing the Xuanhuang Dao Realm Scripture, touching off a storm of blood and gore."
He sighed softly. "Though not many perished in that clash, forty-six Indestructibles were battered to the point where they had no choice but to flee to other universes and seize the bodies of their own disciples to avoid execution."
Having been kept under close watch by Dao Lord Jiuzeng upon his return from the Jing Realm, Xu Ying was unaware of this. Hearing that only forty-six Indestructibles had their physical bodies ruined, he felt a pang of private disappointment.
*I had thought a hundred or two would perish. It seems I overestimated the other shore.*
City Lord Jiang Huan sighed. "Those who died the most tragically and in the greatest numbers were the disciples of the major Dao sects. Countless lives were lost in that conflict. They were the future of the other shore, yet who could have imagined they would fall over five stone steles? For Fellow Daoist Xu to be dubbed the Indestructible Slayer is certainly no hollow reputation."
Xu Ying shook his head. "It was never my intention. My hand was forced by circumstances."
City Lord Jiang Huan chuckled. "Could it be that you have also come to explore this forbidden zone, sir? Have you heard the rumors as well?"
Xu Ying's expression shifted slightly. "You've heard them too?"
Catching Xu Ying's reaction, Jiang Huan felt a surge of smug satisfaction and gave a half-smile. "It seems the word has indeed spread. That's right—I came here upon hearing that Dao Master Ji Cang of the archaic era is about to break free. Legend has it that Dao Master Ji Cang will select exceptional individuals to inherit his supreme Dao Master teachings. Killer Xu Ying, you already possess the Xuanhuang Dao Realm Scripture, so why let your greed run rampant?"
Xu Ying replied with a smile, "If Dao Master Ji Cang truly intended to impart his teachings, we certainly wouldn't be the only ones here; other Indestructibles would surely flock to the site. Yet there is no one else around, which proves the rumor false."
No sooner had the words left his mouth than several formidable auras surged toward them, approaching unhurriedly.
Daoist Wukong's hair emitted a faint whisper: "Feng Chang, the city lord of Daodu; Miao Qi, the city lord of Liangdu; Wu Xiang, the city lord of Youdu; and the city lords of several other subterranean cities have arrived as well!"
Xu Ying asked doubtfully, "Daoist, is a Dao Master truly suppressed here? When you were trapped inside, did this Dao Master Ji Cang accept you as disciples or teach you any Daos?"
Daoist Wukong replied, "I don't know either; I cannot establish contact with my true self right now!"
At that very moment, the sky suddenly blazed with blinding radiance. Of the four colossal banners, one trembled slightly, tore free from the earth, and shot into the heavens.
A delighted voice cried out, "It is just as the legend foretold! The banner departs, and the Dao Master imparts his art! We can enter the forbidden zone now!"
Chapter 787