As the phantom visions gradually faded, a pocket of space revealed itself inside the immortal ring. With a shift of Wei Yuan's divine thought, he appeared inside the ring.
A hazy gray mist permeated the space, and Wei Yuan was astonished to find that his divine sense could penetrate only a dozen or so li through it. Within the range of his vision, the terrain rolled and undulated, but the original rivers had dwindled to dry riverbeds, and the mountain peaks were rounded and blunt, devoid of any sharpness—it seemed their jagged edges had been completely corroded away over time.
He could vaguely discern that this space was divided into several distinct regions, each possessing a different topography.
In the center stood a small mountain with a flat summit, where a faint glimmer of light flickered.
Wei Yuan flew over at once. Upon the summit lay a platform, and right at its center, a thin barrier of light shielded a small patch of ground. Beneath the light barrier, a small, snow-white beast resembling a lion cub lay curled into a ball, sound asleep. Scattered beside it were several jade tablets, each glowing with a distinct hue.
Other than that, there was nothing else.
The moment Wei Yuan drew near, the snow-white lion cub awakened, baring its fangs at him. With Wei Yuan's current cultivation, he actually felt a faint prickle of danger.
Rather than rushing to attack, Wei Yuan asked, "What kind of creature are you?"
The lion cub remained on high alert while transmitting a sporadic, halting mental impulse. It did not form coherent sentences, but with the aid of Splendor of the Many Realms, Wei Yuan finally pieced together its meaning.
This little lion was the embodiment of the immortal ring's spiritual nature. It had suffered grievous injuries during its original master's final battle, after which it was sealed and buried deep underground. The scouring of several thousand years had nearly extinguished it entirely. To endure a bit longer, it had no choice but to discard all its memories and enter a deep slumber with minimal consumption, which was how it had managed to hold on until now.
*Master... where... is...* it sent across another mental impulse.
The lion cub did not speak, communicating directly through an exchange of pure intent.
After a moment's contemplation, Wei Yuan projected an image of the colossal hand bone spanning tens of li in the outside world. Although the lion cub had lost all its memories and was essentially a blank slate, it was an immortal ring's artifact spirit after all; its spiritual foundation remained remarkably profound, so it understood at once that its master had indeed fallen.
Seeing that the lion cub understood the situation, Wei Yuan said in an amiable tone, "This ring now belongs to me. Are you willing to submit to me?"
The lion cub shot back a single mental impulse: *Get lost!*
The smile instantly froze on Wei Yuan's face, then vanished as he said coldly, "I only wished to spare myself the trouble of refining a new ring spirit; it doesn't have to be you! If you continue to fail to appreciate my goodwill, I will wipe you out directly and refine this ring anew!"
The lion cub let out a wailing growl. Its gist was: *This sovereign will never be driven by a mere mortal! Get as far away as you can and drop dead!*
Wei Yuan flew into a rage and snapped coldly, "You think latching onto an immortal makes you something special? This lord has more spiritual beings stronger than you than I can count. Having one more of you changes nothing, and having one less is no loss!"
The lion cub: *Boast, go on and keep boasting!*
Without another word, Wei Yuan manifested his seventh grotto-heaven on the spot. A green-backed azure dragon began to coil and roam through the space. The moment the azure dragon appeared, its body spanned a hundred li. It had no room to stretch out in this confined space and could only fly in tight coils.
The status of this dragon was exceptionally high. Wei Yuan estimated that it was hardly inferior to the true Eastern Cyan Dragon itself, more than sufficient to suppress an ordinary immortal beast.
Yet upon seeing the green-backed azure dragon, the lion cub's fur bristled, and it let out a roar that shook the entire space! It was actually prepared to fight the azure dragon to the death!
Wei Yuan had no idea what past grudge existed between the two that they would react like this on sight. The lion cub roared incessantly, claws raking the ground, adopting a full combat stance despite the ludicrous disparity in size.
Yet despite its continuous roars of challenge, the azure dragon in the sky simply swam about on its own, completely ignoring the little creature below. This was not due to a gentle temperament, but because the current green-backed azure dragon possessed no true spiritual intelligence whatsoever, acting entirely on pure instinct.
Wei Yuan noticed two small swellings on the lion cub's back, which squirmed continuously with its movements, though he could not tell what they were for the moment.
Evidently, the appearance of the green-backed azure dragon had not intimidated it; rather, it had ignited its desire to fight.
Pensive, Wei Yuan recalled the green-backed azure dragon. Judging by its reaction, even if the lion cub's status fell short of the green-backed azure dragon, it was not by much. Looking at it this way, Wei Yuan was quite reluctant to destroy it.
With another thought, Wei Yuan shot a ray of sword qi from between his brows, and the young maiden Xihe appeared. Glancing around, she asked, "Where is this place?"
The moment it saw Xihe, the lion cub shrank back, retreating as it bared its fangs and let out low, continuous snarls.
This immediately caught Xihe's attention, and her eyes lit up. "This little thing looks like so much fun! Leave it to me—your elder sister is best at taming beasts!"
Wei Yuan asked in surprise, "You know how to do that?"
Xihe said, "Of course! Back when I was still alive, I always wanted to find a suitable mount, so I traveled the world and met countless sacred beasts and ferocious birds."
Wei Yuan found this even stranger. Generally speaking, the lifespans of sacred beasts and heavenly birds far exceeded those of ordinary cultivators, easily reaching thousands or tens of thousands of years. If the Fourth Generation Palace Master had once kept a sacred beast as a mount, it ought to still be alive and well today. Yet while the Palace of Grand Beginning held heaps of masterless immortal artifacts left behind by past generations, there was not a single sacred beast.
Wei Yuan asked, "Then why are there no sacred beasts or heavenly birds in the palace? Nor is there any record of them in your chronicles. Could it be that they perished alongside you back then?"
Xihe rolled her eyes at him. "What's so hard to understand about that? It's very simple: I tried to tame them, and I failed."
Wei Yuan nearly choked. So *that* was what she meant by being "best at taming beasts." It seemed Xihe was useless for this task as well. Still, as long as she could cow the lion cub into submission, that would make things easier; Wei Yuan could figure out a way forward later.
Xihe took another look at the lion cub and wondered aloud, "Why does it harbor such intense hatred and fear toward me? Did I kill its parents or something?"
Wei Yuan's heart skipped a beat. "What sacred beasts did you kill back then?"
Xihe thought for a moment. "Not that many, really. Just once, I happened upon a Qiongqi that was terrorizing a region, devouring people left and right. So I acted on Heaven's behalf, intending to subdue it as a mount. Who knew it would not only refuse to submit, but even dared to insult me! So I slaughtered it, turned its meat into rations, and ate it for years. I used its hide and sinews to make the hilt of an immortal sword—the very one I currently reside in, in fact."
Wei Yuan looked back at the little white lion and sighed internally.
Xihe took another close look at the lion cub, and this time she finally understood. "This is a Qiongqi? Is it an offspring or a descendant of the one I ran into back then? Where are its wings? Who chopped them off?"
Wei Yuan asked a few more questions and finally confirmed that Xihe had not been the one to cut them off.
With Xihe present, the little Qiongqi was terrified and defensive, so Wei Yuan had no choice but to send her back before considering his next move. Among his seven grotto-heavens and six true spirits, the true spirit of the Central Spirit Manor remained unknown; the Pure Land and Yellow Springs were ill-suited; the full moon could not be mobilized; and Pang Gui's status appeared lower than that of the green-backed azure dragon and Xihe.
For a time, Wei Yuan could not think of anything that could cow it into submission.
However, inspecting the surrounding environment, Wei Yuan deduced that this place ought to belong to Yin Earth. He tried channeling the aura of Central Wu Earth toward it, and to his surprise, the little Qiongqi immediately grew excited and hesitantly crept toward him. With a stir of his mind, Wei Yuan tossed out two mirage demons. The little white lion pounced with a growl and devoured them in two bites, one after the other!
Wei Yuan broke into a cold sweat—just moments ago, he had nearly thrown out the three Scenery Command mirage demons.
Having devoured the two mirage demons, the little white lion visibly softened toward him. Wei Yuan then resorted to cajolery and deception, wildly exaggerating the value of the mirage demons as equivalent to dragon liver and phoenix marrow. He utterly bamboozled the little white lion, which had lost all memory, experience, and knowledge, until it recognized him as its master before it even realized what was happening.
Once the bond of ownership was established, Wei Yuan searched through its limited fragments of memory and finally pieced together a rough picture of its past.
It had likely been slain by the immortal ring's original master, who refined its true soul into an artifact spirit and sealed it inside the ring.
The space within the immortal ring spanned roughly a hundred li across and had originally been partitioned into seven regions, each corresponding to the distinct living environment of seven major races. The boundaries of this space were extremely fragile, and beyond them raged astral winds of the void capable of shredding anything to pieces. Once a person stepped outside, unless they were an immortal or possessed an anomalous physique like Ji Liuli or Wei Yuan, they would be torn to shreds.
The true entrance and exit of this space was situated at the very center of the vault of heaven, which was why the Qiongqi's wings had been severed—to prevent it from traversing the void or escaping through the dome.
As one of the world's rarest ferocious beasts, even if refined into an artifact spirit, a Qiongqi was bound to be unruly. Presumably, the immortal ring's original master had found it an unbearable headache, which was why he severed its wings.
From the little white lion, Wei Yuan learned that this ring was named the "Spirit Herding Ring." Its original function was to accommodate vast numbers of living beings and, when necessary, refine them on the spot, converting their vitality and souls into an unmatched, devastating strike that would force even ordinary immortals to retreat!
This application was remarkably bloody and sinister, treating countless living beings as raw materials for immortal arts—surpassing even things like the Myriad Spirits Banner.
In the past, the internal space had been arranged into environments suitable for seven races, keeping their populations captive, numbering up to a million at their peak! The most powerful strike the ring's original master ever unleashed had consumed over nine hundred thousand living beings in a single breath!
Yet with the passage of countless ages, the original grand formation within the ring had dissipated, leaving behind only the empty space. The space itself had been eroded by the void, its spiritual energy exhausted until it gradually became unfit to harbor living beings. The little white lion had been forced to use its last bits of spiritual energy to erect a barrier and hide inside in deep slumber. Its original body, once a full thousand zhang in size, had dwindled over the ages until it was barely over a foot long today.
As for the jade tablets, they belonged to the ring's original master, recording his Dao path and cultivation methods. This was a complete Dao path that led straight to the immortal realm!
Wei Yuan carefully and reverently put them away. With this, Qingming's heritage expanded once more. Unlike the Dao paths of the Palace of Grand Beginning, this Dao path was held entirely in Wei Yuan's own hands, free to be imparted as he saw fit.
Apart from those jade tablets, nothing else remained in the space. All the surviving creatures had been devoured by the little white lion, and even the remnants of magic treasures had been gnawed away by it.
Even so, Wei Yuan's delight was not diminished in the slightest. Looking around, he truly appreciated the real meaning of "this item is fated with me."
In the hands of its original master, such an immortal relic had been a pearl cast before swine. Only in Wei Yuan's hands could its true might be unleashed.
Chapter 1230