Watching the bustling mortals, Wei Yuan fell into deep thought. His mindscape world was once again different from how it had been in the past.
Previously in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, the mortals had been equally busy, never resting for a single moment. Yet most of the time they had been completely vacant, with no real idea of what they were doing.
Outwardly, that state had manifested as a pretense of busyness—such as one person hauling a stone from east to west, only for another to haul it right back. Or someone hunched over a desk scribbling furiously, drafting plan after plan from scheme one to scheme seven without being satisfied by a single draft, only to circle back to scheme one and repeat the cycle endlessly.
In short, they would bustle about all day long while their work remained precisely where it started, leaving Wei Yuan with no idea who they were putting on the show for. If one observed any single individual long enough, they would find that person trapped in an endless loop between those same few actions.
Now, however, every mortal in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World truly had their own affairs to attend to. When their hands were free, they would chat with one another. Their idle chatter was no mere performance; they were genuinely communicating and exchanging information.
Take the young people before Wei Yuan right now—it was through casual conversation that they had realized the populace needed a channel to stay informed about current major affairs.
Originally, such events had been instilled directly into everyone's minds by the Creation Immortal Venerable. Since everyone knew the exact same things, there had naturally been nothing to talk about.
Lately, however, the Creation Immortal Venerable had grown increasingly lazy, seldom making an appearance and neglecting every task that fell to him. Yet if the slightest trifle displeased him, he would unleash violent storms, flashes of lightning, and crashes of thunder.
Rumor had it that the fellows at the Institute of Structural and Materials Mechanics had recently been lamenting the cruelty of fate and were secretly researching a climate intervention system.
Now that the mortal population in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World had grown vast, the disparities in the information they each acquired grew wider and wider. For instance, if an expert at the Taigong Fishing Ground landed a great fish today, unless he deliberately took a detour through the city carrying it on his back, how would anyone else know he had caught a ten-jin prize?
Thus, with mortals developing their own thoughts, they also developed their own needs. To meet the people's desire to keep abreast of world events, these youths had produced the very stone tablet Wei Yuan now held in his hands.
From these details, it was clear that the mortals' spirituality had elevated once again, leaving them virtually indistinguishable from real human beings. The only difference was that lacking physical bodies, they were free from bodily appetites, lust, and similar troubles inherent to mortal flesh.
When had these changes begun? Wei Yuan searched his memory and realized it had been a gradual process, marked by distinct turning points: when the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World had been flooded with water, and again when the sprout of Jianmu had taken root here.
Even now, careful observation revealed that the mortals' spirituality was continuing to rise. Though the increase was miniscule—discernible to Wei Yuan alone—the way they enhanced their spirituality was fascinating: through interaction. Chatting was interaction, reading stone tablets was interaction, and studying was interaction as well.
So long as they kept communicating and interacting, their spirituality would steadily rise.
Wei Yuan was watching with keen interest, almost forgetting that Zhang Sheng was still waiting for him. Seeing Wei Yuan spacing out, Zhang Sheng extended a wisp of sword qi and lightly pricked the inner side of his thigh, right near the base!
Wei Yuan leapt into the air in an instant, nearly slamming his head against the ceiling beam. Once he regained his wits, he said, "The Nether Cold Realm is still dangerous. You can only go in and test it when I'm around. We can find another time later..."
"Right now."
Wei Yuan considered that he truly had no pressing business on his hands, so he told Zhang Sheng to go to sleep while he waited in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World. But the moment Zhang Sheng entered the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, she saw a figure standing before her.
The figure radiated dazzling light, enveloped in swirling immortal mist. Not only did a column of celestial radiance pour down upon his head, but within that beam of light flitted countless small, five-colored birds. In the immortal mist around him, feather-robed fairies danced gracefully, accompanied by divine birds and celestial beasts drifting in and out of sight.
His face was entirely concealed within the blazing immortal radiance, so blinding that even Zhang Sheng could not make it out.
Seeing Zhang Sheng's stunned expression, Wei Yuan inwardly cried out in dismay. In his haste, he had actually put on his grand outfit meant for manifesting divinity before mortals!
Fortunately, his quick wit saved him. He immediately summoned two Dao Foundation warriors, who shouted from afar, "Thief, where do you think you're going!" Terrified, the gaudy, glowing figure spun around and fled. In the blink of an eye, the pursuers and the pursued vanished beyond the clouds.
Moments later, Wei Yuan came hurrying over from the distance and stopped before Zhang Sheng. "The Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World has gotten rather vast; it took me a moment to find your position."
Zhang Sheng did not expose his clumsy act of playing all four roles by himself. She quietly adjusted her state of mind and body to their peak, preparing to enter the Nether Cold Realm.
The gateway leading to the Nether Cold Realm on this side of the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World stood outside Central City, just a single li from the seashore. A wall had now been erected around the portal to encircle it, preventing any monsters from the Nether Cold Realm from bursting in should an accident occur.
Furthermore, a grand array had been laid around the gate between the two realms. The moment any creature from the Nether Cold Realm entered the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, it would immediately plunge into an environment where the Five Elements were entirely inverted, suffering a direct head-on blow the moment it stepped through and reducing its strength to merely seventy percent.
Numerous mortals were hard at work, hauling ore on specially built carts. A single small chunk of ore weighed several thousand jin; even loaded onto a cart, it required eight or nine mortals working together to pull it.
Wei Yuan led Zhang Sheng to the front of the portal, lecturing her at length on every precaution for entering the Nether Cold Realm. He rambled on until Zhang Sheng was on the verge of losing her temper before finally shutting his mouth and stepping through the portal first into the Nether Cold Realm.
With a flick of her robe sleeve, Zhang Sheng crossed between the two worlds in a single stride, arriving in the Nether Cold Realm.
Her body grew abruptly heavy. She felt an invisible force tugging at her internal organs, attempting to drag her downward and crush her flat as a meat pie.
Zhang Sheng did not deploy her Dao power right away. Instead, she endured the pull with her dharma physique until she had fully grasped the environmental changes. Only then did a faint radiance shimmer around her as she circulated Dao power to protect herself.
Upon entering the Nether Cold Realm, Zhang Sheng felt no cold; instead, a wave of scorching heat rushed straight at her. It was Longying's Nanming Li Fire—even its faint residual ripples were enough to overwhelm many Dao Foundation cultivators.
Zhang Sheng walked a circuit, inspecting every corner. The area spanned only two zhang square, and Longying along with several other dharma idols was currently excavating upward.
With nothing else to see, Zhang Sheng concentrated on observing the four dharma idols mining. As she watched, she suddenly said to the wisdom-awakened dharma idol, "You struck that sword wrong."
The wisdom-awakened dharma idol warrior said in bewilderment, "Where was it wrong?"
Zhang Sheng walked over, took the Crimson Night Immortal-Slaying Sword, and swung it casually. Before Longying could even finish exhaling a mouthful of Nanming Li Fire, several sword rays had already flown forth, sinking into the nether iron along the cavern wall. Then came a clattering roar as countless apricot-sized chunks of nether iron showered onto the ground.
Not only had Zhang Sheng's single strike sliced away several times more nether iron, but she had done so with effortless ease.
"To wield a sword to cut material, you must first deeply understand its inherent nature and seize the fleeting instant of yin-yang transformation. Using sword qi to sever a material's nature is superior; cutting its physical form is inferior. This is an immortal sword, so using the divine intent within the blade to sever material nature is exceedingly simple. So long as the material nature is sundered, even the hardest substance must split in two. If you can dissolve its material nature with a single strike, then no matter what it is, it will crumble into a pile of powder."
Seeing the dharma idol standing there blankly, Zhang Sheng frowned slightly, thrust the immortal sword back into his hands, and said, "Did you understand what I just explained? Come, try a few more strikes."
The dharma idol warrior wore a vacant expression. He swung the sword, yet once again scooped out only a tiny chunk of nether iron, exactly as before.
Displeased, Zhang Sheng turned to Wei Yuan and said, "Who is this person? I explained it so simply, yet he still cannot comprehend it. How could someone so dull-witted cultivate a dharma idol?"
Wei Yuan opened his mouth, entirely at a loss as to how to explain that this dharma idol was merely a part of his own mindscape world.
Chapter 555