Chapter 357: Returning to the Jiangnan Region, Ruins of the Jiangnan Tian Family
The years quietly flowed onward like water beneath the endless heavens.
Tian Yongheng continued walking through the Mortal World alone.
Along the way, he continued witnessing the countless facets of humanity.
The Mortal Transformation Dao Scripture within his body continuously circulated silently day and night, becoming increasingly profound with every passing year.
His aura also grew more and more unfathomable.
At times, when he stood quietly beneath the stars, even the surrounding heaven and earth would unconsciously resonate faintly with his existence, as though the Mortal World itself had begun acknowledging him.
The remaining Heavenly Questions within his heart were also gradually being answered one after another.
Every experience, every encounter, and every fleeting mortal life he witnessed became nourishment for his Dao Heart.
And just like that...
Twenty-two years quietly passed once more.
At this moment, beneath a dim evening sky filled with drifting rain, Tian Yongheng finally slowly stopped walking.
Before him stretched a vast region of rivers and ancient cities.
The scent of rainwater and mortal life drifted through the wind.
State of Jiang, Jiangnan Region.
He had finally returned.
For a moment, Tian Yongheng quietly stood beneath the rain without moving.
His dark eyes silently gazed toward the distant city before him.
The city still remained there.
The same rivers, the same ancient streets, even the same misty rain drifting across Jiangnan.
Yet at the same time, everything had completely changed.
Nearly eight hundred years had passed since the destruction of the Tian Family.
Dynasties had risen and fallen countless times since then.
All beings under the Acquired Realm who experienced that era were mostly dead by now.
Every person he knew from back then was no longer in this world, even Tian Hai had undergone reincarnation and was no longer Tian Hai.
Only Tian Yongheng still remained, like a ghost walking out from history itself.
At this moment, he slowly stepped forward and entered the city.
The streets were bustling with ordinary mortals.
Vendors continuously shouted from both sides of the road and children ran through the rain laughing.
The scent of food drifted through the air, making it look no different from an ordinary mortal city, just a bit more with an ethereal aura and magnificence.
And indeed, it truly had become one.
Tian Yongheng’s Divine Sense silently swept across the entire city.
Soon afterward, he calmly withdrew it again.
Only two Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators existed within the entire city, which was once considered the capital of Jiangnan Region.
Not even a single Acquired Realm cultivator could be found.
The Spirit Qi here was simply too thin.
Compared to ordinary mortal lands in the Mythical Era, this place still possessed some spirituality, but compared to true cultivation lands, this place had long become barren across the nearby tens of thousands of miles.
Tian Yongheng quietly looked toward the distant skies.
He deduced the cause and effect in an instant.
Back then, after he escaped alongside Tian Hai, Immortal Ascension Realm experts had personally descended here.
A single attack from such beings had shattered the spirituality of the surrounding ten thousand miles directly.
He believed that in the first hundred years after that happened, even cultivation itself would have been nearly impossible in such a place.
Even after hundreds of years, heaven and earth here still had not fully recovered, only able to support cultivation up to the Foundation Establishment Establishment.
Thus, no major cultivation faction ever bothered occupying this place afterward.
To powerful cultivators, this place had already become worthless.
Tian Yongheng slowly walked through the familiar yet completely different streets.
As he passed through the city, faint memories continuously surfaced within his mind.
The place where he once bought candied fruit as a child, reading books about cultivation in the family library, sneaking out to play around...
Everything still faintly resembled the past, yet at the same time, it all felt incomparably distant.
At this moment, Tian Yongheng casually entered a mortal tavern beside the street.
The tavern was noisy and lively.
Rain continuously dripped outside while mortals drank wine and chatted loudly within the hall.
Tian Yongheng quietly sat beside a window.
No one paid attention to him, or rather, they didn’t even notice him.
Soon afterward, faint conversation drifted into his ears.
"...Old Li, didn’t you say you stumbled across some ancient immortal ruins before?"
"Hah, don’t mention it."
A middle-aged man wearing rough clothes drank wine bitterly before continuing,
"I nearly died climbing that mountain back then. And what did I find in the end? Nothing but broken walls and ruined buildings. Sure, they were incomparably grand, but that was it."
Another mortal immediately widened his eyes curiously.
"Immortal ruins?"
The middle-aged man nodded mysteriously.
"Of course. I found the ruins by accident while hunting in the mountains, but there was nothing valuable left. Probably stripped clean long ago, otherwise, why would Immortal Cultivators ignore such a place?"
The surrounding mortals immediately sighed regretfully.
Some shook their heads and others laughed dismissively.
To them, such stories were merely legends impossible to truly touch.
Not far away, Tian Yongheng quietly listened in silence.
His gaze gradually deepened slightly.
Although this city was no longer the great capital of Jiangnan Region of the past and the strongest here were only two Foundation Establishment Realm cultivators, there were still hundreds of Qi Condensation Realm cultivators and a vast number of Acupoint Opening Stage cultivators.
Despite that, the greatest number of beings here were undoubtedly mortals and Martial Artists.
Such cities had become increasingly common since the Righteous-Demonic War.
Then, after finishing the wine before him, he slowly stood up.
The rain outside continued falling softly.
Tian Yongheng quietly walked through the city according to the memories buried deep within his mind.
His footsteps were neither fast nor slow.
The farther he walked, the quieter the surroundings gradually became.
Eventually, even the bustling noises of the city faded behind him completely.
Before him appeared a desolate mountain range located strangely within the center of the city itself.
No vegetation grew here, the Spirit Qi was thin to the extreme, and even the surrounding air faintly carried traces of destruction.
Ordinary mortals rarely approached this place.
Tian Yongheng silently looked at the mountains before him.
This place...
Had once been the spiritual mountain beneath the Tian Family estate.
Back then, the Jiangnan Tian Family stood among the strongest forces of Jiangnan as a branch of the Great Tian Immortal Family and with a peak Void Refinement Realm ancestor.
Golden Core Realm cultivators guarded the clan and the city prospered beneath endless Spirit Qi.
Countless cultivators came here seeking opportunities and protection.
But now...
Tian Yongheng slowly stepped forward.
As he walked through the barren lands, strange emotions gradually surfaced within his heart.
There was no hatred, no grief, not even sorrow, but something even more complicated, a feeling impossible to properly describe with words.
The rain softly fell upon his white robes.
Eventually, after crossing the silent mountains for a long time, Tian Yongheng finally stopped.
Before him stood the ruins of an enormous estate.
There were broken walls, collapsed halls, and even ancient formation traces long since extinguished.
The once glorious Jiangnan Tian Family estate had already become a forgotten ruin buried beneath time.
Tian Yongheng quietly stood there beneath the rain, silent for a long time.
