After probing past the portal with divine sense and detecting no obvious danger, Wei Yuan summoned Maiden Yin-Yang and the Bingli Divine Wood, instructing them to stand guard at the entrance and immediately rush in to rescue him if anything went amiss. Then, he stepped through the portal of light.
The moment he crossed the threshold, an eerie, searing force surged toward him. Immediately following, the subtlest surface layers of his origin soul began to alter, twisting and growing as though on the verge of peeling away, threatening to spawn a separate part endowed with its own consciousness.
Wei Yuan had encountered a similar situation in the Nether Cold Realm. He at once circulated his Dao power to protect his origin soul, attempting to suppress the bizarre anomaly. However, the ratio of power consumption astounded him: he had to expend ten portions of Dao power just to suppress a single portion of mutation.
This indicated that the intrinsic tier of this eerie world was extraordinarily high—at least an entire major echelon above his current level.
At this rate of consumption, and considering he felt he had to retain half of his Dao power for emergencies, he estimated he could only remain active in this realm for two hours.
Fortunately, as the twisting power relentlessly eroded him, the Red Lotus Bodhi sensed it and sent wisps of power across the light portal to bestow a blessing upon Wei Yuan. The Red Lotus Bodhi seemed to be the natural nemesis of this twisting force; with its blessing, Wei Yuan's Dao power consumption dropped to three portions to neutralize one portion of distortion, extending his active duration accordingly to six hours.
Wei Yuan's Dao power far exceeded that of ordinary Dharma Idols and already matched an entry-level Scenery Command cultivator. Even so, he could only stay active for six hours; ordinary Scenery Command cultivators without the aid of the Red Lotus Bodhi likely could not even last two hours.
With entry itself proving so arduous, it was evident that the danger of this world far surpassed that of the Nether Cold Realm.
At that moment, a mass of black mist converged in the air, transforming into a small bird that circled around Wei Yuan. An idea sparked in his mind, and he reached out; the little bird landed in his hand.
It was an entirely black little bird—black feathers, black beak, black eyes, black talons. Without observing it with divine sense, it appeared as nothing more than a solid mass of ink-black; one would never discern that over a dozen eyes actually dotted its body, scattered across its form.
The little bird fluttered its wings, chirping noisily. Wei Yuan naturally understood its meaning.
"Chirp! I am you, and you are me. I have already died alongside this world, and soon you will be just like us. But right now, you are still alive, you still have a chance! Save me! Save me!!!"
Before Wei Yuan could respond, the little bird suddenly burst, splattering him with dark flesh and gore. Blood as viscous as ink sprayed everywhere, and numerous feathers stuck fast to his body.
Shocked, Wei Yuan took a step back and shook his hand, only to find that the flesh clinging to his skin could not be shaken off no matter what he did.
Moreover, the feathers that had landed on him actually drilled straight into his body, their opposite ends standing upright as if they had grown from Wei Yuan's flesh all along.
Another small bird appeared in the air, circling around Wei Yuan.
Taught by the previous encounter, Wei Yuan would not let it draw close. The black bird chirped anxiously, flying faster and more frantically until it burst directly in midair. Having dodged in advance, Wei Yuan was not caught in the blast.
After another moment, a new black bird appeared. Frowning, Wei Yuan extended his hand once more to let it land. It seemed he could only understand what it was saying when it perched on his hand.
"...We were torn apart and devoured, forced to separate from the entire world. They took everything from this world, leaving behind only ruins and our corpses..."
"Who are 'they'?" Wei Yuan asked.
"Do not face them, do not look upon them, stay away! They are..."
The bird's voice suddenly dissolved into a harsh burst of static and noise, completely unintelligible to Wei Yuan. Then it abruptly blew apart, splattering him once again with black blood.
Wei Yuan waited a moment, and yet another small bird appeared.
This time, its voice sounded remarkably mechanical, completely devoid of inflection: "Passage currently in active state; sustainable for seven hours and fifteen minutes. Please find replenishing energy source as soon as possible. Standby state sustainable for one hundred and ten hours. Please find replenishing energy source as soon as possible."
Not daring to mention "them" again, Wei Yuan chose a milder question: "Where can I find replenishing energy?"
The bird's voice turned into static once more.
Wei Yuan tried another question: "Where can I find some data?"
The little bird looked at Wei Yuan, and a light screen appeared in Wei Yuan's consciousness, listing numerous options:
Environmental Database: Module missing.
Functional Database: Module missing.
Hostile Organisms Database: Module missing.
...
Research and Development System: Module missing.
...
Every option displayed "Module missing." Clearly, this so-called system had been completely ruined. An ordinary cultivator might have given up at this point, or sought ways to track down the missing modules and reconstruct the system.
Wei Yuan, however, possessed the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World, allowing him to perceive things no other cultivator could see.
"How should I search for the missing modules?" Wei Yuan asked, gently closing his hand around the little bird. In the very next instant, he flashed through the light portal, returning to the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World.
Virtually at the same moment, the Bingli Divine Wood shot forth a ray of immortal frigid qi, sealing the little bird within an azure block of ice.
Inside the ice, the bird's feathers bristled as a third claw protruded from its belly. Its head twisted in agony, on the verge of exploding. But in that split second, the Bingli Divine Wood froze it completely solid.
Yet, at the instant the Bingli Divine Wood froze it, the bird had not yet exhibited any abnormality; only after being encased in ice did it begin mutating and detonating, barely stopped at the brink.
That it could withstand the Bingli Divine Wood's immortal frigid qi and carry out most of its self-destruction process showed that its underlying nature was in no way inferior to the Bingli Divine Wood's; it had only been sealed because its own power was too depleted.
At this time, the woman seated upon the Bingli Divine Wood also wore a shocked expression, seemingly startled by the bird's power.
Wei Yuan said to Maiden Yin-Yang, "This little bird seems to be a magical treasure, but it has been completely wrecked. All its functions are missing, and its memory data is gone. However, I discovered that its internal architecture for storing and processing data is exceptionally profound—several mindscape worlds ahead of our current system architecture. See if you can reconstruct its system architecture and apply it to our system."
Maiden Yin-Yang examined the bird and said gravely, "I'll try."
"Be careful. It self-destructs, and the aftermath is troublesome." Wei Yuan showed his hand coated in black blood.
Maiden Yin-Yang sent back a thought: "I'll give it a try first. If that fails, I'll refine it—that will still yield most of the system."
Wei Yuan then had the Bingli Divine Wood release a stream of frigid spiritual qi over him. Sure enough, the adhesiveness of the black blood and feathers drastically lessened. Wei Yuan forcefully refined the portions inside his body with Dao power, then gathered the shed feathers and flesh and handed them to Maiden Yin-Yang for further study.
Afterward, Wei Yuan sent a thought to the shadow in the moon: "What on earth is behind the door?"
The three-eyed bird head replied, "Reeled it in while fishing."
Wei Yuan was taken aback.
At the immortal stage, having embodied the Great Dao, one's mindscape world could advance no further on its own. At that point, it was said that some immortals of vast divine abilities would begin "fishing"—reeling in wandering minor worlds or even fragments of grotto-heavens to refine and merge into their mindscape worlds, thereby perfecting them.
Could the eerie world behind the door have been reeled in from beyond the heavens by the three-eyed bird head using a similar method?
Viewed this way, it confirmed that the three-eyed bird head indeed possessed immortal methods—its divine powers vast and unfathomable.
Once Wei Yuan withdrew from the portal, the light portal entered a dormant state. Just as Wei Yuan was about to ask what would happen if the dormancy period expired and it closed, the three-eyed bird head transmitted two images: one was an orb of karmic luck, and the other was a Dharma Idol filled with despair.
Wei Yuan understood at once: he either had to sacrifice a Dharma Idol cultivator, or provide karmic luck on the level of the orb. In comparison, Wei Yuan felt the latter was clearly far less difficult.
It seemed that on this expedition to the Red Sand Oasis, he wouldn't be able to accommodate Cui Yu; he would have to find a way to capture a couple of live Dharma Idols.
And so, a new task appeared in the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World: *How to capture a Dharma Idol alive.*
Within moments, over a hundred answers popped up under the prompt. The mortals offering responses were each brimming with absolute confidence in their methods, as if they had actually captured Dharma Idols alive before.
In the blink of an eye, one answer stood out and garnered overwhelming support from the peanut gallery of self-proclaimed masterminds: *Seduction.*
Wei Yuan's expression darkened; he felt it was high time to tighten the screws on these "crouching dragons and fledgling phoenixes."
As more answers rolled in, quite a few highly practical proposals emerged. Clearly, cultivators from Qingming had logged into the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World one after another and contributed answers based on their own knowledge and experience.
One answer rapidly rocketed to the top, blowing past the seduction option. Wei Yuan looked, only to find the answer was as blunt as a few words: *Charge in, grapple close, knock them unconscious.*
Attached to the answer was a snippet of footage: a petite, pure-looking young girl hurled herself at top speed like a cannonball straight into a mountain peak, sending the entire scene shaking violently. This was because the cultivator recording the image had been knocked off his feet by the shockwave.
When the girl collided with the peak, the earth shattered and the mountain crumbled; massive boulders tumbled in cascades as nearly half the peak collapsed, exposing its bare stone interior. As for the girl, she swayed on her feet, looking slightly dizzy.
So *that* was what was meant by "grapple close." Indeed, very few Dharma Idols could withstand such an assault. This answer was classic Feng Tingyu.
Beneath the answer, countless armchair geniuses were deeply captivated by the maiden's glorious bearing, fantasizing about being that mountain peak.
Some opined that such a female cultivator was the only worthy match for the Creation Immortal Venerable; yet even more people immediately retorted: *How could the Creation Immortal Venerable possibly be worthy of her?*
Wei Yuan found himself pondering whether he ought to develop some immortal methods—like striking down anyone who spoke his name with a bolt of lightning. Xu Wangu was extraordinarily adept at that trick.
Another answer also gained substantial support: *Poisoning.*
The response listed several different poisons tailored against various types of Dharma Idols. However, it placed special emphasis on the caveat that once the targeted poison took effect, the antidote had to be administered without delay—hesitate even slightly, and one was likely to end up with a corpse.
Judging by the potency and effects of these poisons, Sun Yu's medical dao had progressed yet again.
Wei Yuan's own inclination was to find a few suitable magical treasures to bind and capture his opponents—something like an Immortal-Binding Rope, for instance. Unfortunately, not a single one among this batch of "geniuses" could come up with such an idea, leaving Wei Yuan secretly exasperated.
After browsing a bit longer, Wei Yuan left the armchair strategists to brainstorm further and headed straight for the Hall of Merits. He intended to redeem a defense-specialized spirit treasure, then scout the world behind the light portal first, assessing the situation thoroughly before making any decisions.
That eerie world was extraordinarily perilous; Wei Yuan felt the only Dharma Idols suited to enter were those at his or Su Xuejing's tier, while anyone else would have to be at Scenery Command or above.
Browsing the Hall of Merits for quite some time, Wei Yuan finally chose a spirit treasure called the Soul-Illuminating Nether Candle. Upon acquisition, it appeared as an inch-long candle stub. Once lit, its flame would automatically attach to one's spirit and origin soul. If the spirit suffered lethal damage, the flame could block it once, taking the blow in place of the soul.
Crafted from the oil of a Spirit Sea colossus whale, this candle was a Scenery Command-grade spirit treasure. However, having already been used three times with only a single use remaining, it was eligible to be redeemed with heavenly merits.
Returning to his dwelling, Wei Yuan lit the candle flame. A speck of spiritual glow, shimmering like a firefly, floated gently into his glabella. A hazy, faint luminescence spread over his entire origin soul, placing it under protective ward.
Yet this spiritual flame would only last for four hours. Wasting no time, Wei Yuan entered the Smoke and Fire of the Mortal World once more and appeared before the light portal. Just as he was about to step through, someone grabbed hold of him.
Turning his head, he saw that the one holding him back was actually Feng Tingyu.
"Let me go in your place. Exploring unknown worlds is what I'm best at," Feng Tingyu said with rare earnestness.
Wei Yuan shook his head. "No. It's too dangerous inside. In matters like this, it is only right that I go first. Once I scout out the truth, you all can enter to seek opportunities."
"But..."
Wei Yuan covered Feng Tingyu's mouth and said, "No 'buts.'"
On matters of such gravity, Wei Yuan was thoroughly dictatorial.
Checking the time, he noticed the nether candle's flame was already dwindling bit by bit. Without further ado, he took a step across the light portal and entered the eerie world.
Chapter 612