Chapter 1623: Chapter 67: This World and Heaven and Earth! (2)
"If you have something to say, just say it." the old man said.
Hearing this, Jiang Ning did not dwell on it: "Senior, what lies further north beyond the northern Barbarians?"
"It is a world of ice." the old man said.
"And further north than that?" Jiang Ning asked again.
"Still endless glaciers." the old man said.
"Has Senior ever reached the end?" Jiang Ning asked.
"I know what you wish to ask." The old man looked at Jiang Ning and nodded approvingly: "This spirit of inquiry you have is very good. Only with enough thoughts and enough thirst for knowledge can one avoid following the beaten path and gain extraordinary progress upon the road of Martial Arts."
After saying this, the old man continued the previous topic: "Stepping into the further northern reaches, I too never reached the end. After entering that farther northern heaven and earth, the cold grew increasingly terrifying; heaven and earth themselves seemed frozen, space itself seemed sealed in ice. At that time I could only walk on foot, unable to employ any spatial powers. In the end, even with my physique, I felt my body about to be frozen solid, so I withdrew and returned."
"As for the north, it is a heaven and earth sealed by wind and sand, a true land of death."
"As for the east, aside from the Demon Clan in the sea, there is only the boundless ocean. In the deeper parts of that ocean are world-shaking waves and storms that annihilate all things. I went too deep and had no choice but to retreat."
"The south is the place where Ancient Great Demons slumber. There, I encountered a shape-transformed Demon Clan expert who made even me at that time feel apprehension—he is the lord of the Demon Country of the Hundred-Thousand Great Mountains, Xuandu. His true body is transformed from a nine-headed dark bird, having existed for who knows how many thousands of years; his wings are like clouds, covering the sky and blotting out the sun. I exchanged three moves with him, and in the end we both stopped."
"And it was precisely within the Southern Ridge Mountains that I found a Five-Colored Ancient Array from the Ancient Era. Relying on the accumulation I had built up before, I activated it. The Ancient Formation broke through the boundary, and I went to another world."
"I stayed three days in that realm."
"In those three days, I trod many places. That realm was Liyan Heaven—ten thousand miles of red earth, all living beings extinguished, the Heaven and Earth Spirit Mechanism exhausted, all things withered."
"Three days later, just before the grand array was about to fail, I withdrew and returned."
Hearing these words, Jiang Ning’s heart was shaken.
With what he had seen and heard before, combined with the recollections of the old man before him, he understood even more clearly.
This heaven and earth were not the planetary cosmos he had understood in his previous life, but a completely different world.
Beyond Great Xia, in the four directions of south, north, east, and west, even with the abilities of a Martial Saint, one still could not see a boundary.
The means of a Martial Saint—sitting in Shangjing County, yet in a single instant able to behead an Immortal Dao expert above the Eastern Sea, able to turn into a streak of flowing light and slay the Flying Immortal Sect’s Ling Xuzi atop Yunyin Peak in Guangning Prefecture.
Such methods, if placed in his previous life, could appear in an instant at any place on a planet, could traverse the starry sky with his body and step into the mysterious depths of the cosmos.
Yet within this heaven and earth, one still could not glimpse its full extent.
And beyond this heaven and earth, there were still vaster heavens and earths.
The old man before him had once gone to Liyan Heaven.
Liyan Heaven—ten thousand miles of red earth, all living beings extinguished, the Heaven and Earth Spirit Mechanism exhausted, all things withered.
And he also knew that the senior sister Shen Yueru he had acknowledged in the Inner Realm of the Shangyang Immortal Sect did not belong to this world he was in.
Red Flame Cave Heaven, the current Chieftain of the Red Flame Sword Sect.
Yet Red Flame Cave Heaven did not exist in the world where Great Xia now lay.
And besides Shen Yueru, there was also that Demon Clan man named Bai Li.
A shape-transformed Great Demon, possessing the bloodline of the Nine-tailed Heavenly Fox, who had once gifted him a strand of gold-natured qi.
He even suspected that the realm where this Bai Li resided likewise did not belong to this heaven and earth he was in, nor to the heaven and earth where Shen Yueru resided, but was yet another heaven and earth.
Aside from these, the mysterious woman who had previously been sealed in an ice coffin had displayed the ability to cross realms and left this world.
At this moment he understood in his heart that this world was far vaster and more mysterious than he had imagined.
The Ten Directions of Realms, the Ancient Heavenly Court, the drastic change in the environment of heaven and earth, all kinds of unresolved mysteries—all pointed to the mystery of this world.
He could not help but secretly clench his fists.
Since he had set foot on this path and possessed the fortune of that panel, he naturally wished to see a vaster heaven and earth.
"Is there something you wish to ask?" The old man took a sip of tea, looked at Jiang Ning’s absent-minded expression, and spoke.
At the sound of his voice, Jiang Ning instantly returned to himself.
"Senior, there is something I do not understand. I wonder if Senior could clear my confusion."
"Speak." the old man said.
"Senior, when the environment of heaven and earth changed, the Immortal Dao declined from then on, and Martial Arts began to flourish. Why is this? What entanglements and events occurred in between?" Jiang Ning voiced the doubt that had lingered in his heart for a long time.
Hearing this question, the old man could not help but shake his head.
"This question of yours is also one I have pursued for several hundred years. In truth, not only you are curious; I am likewise curious."
"Even Senior does not know?" Jiang Ning was stunned.
The old man looked at Jiang Ning: "Do you know anything of the realms above the Immortal Dao?"
"I know a little." Jiang Ning said.
"Do you know how the realms are divided?" the old man asked again.
"After attaining immortality, the Immortal Root grows; this is the Human Immortal Realm. When the Immortal Tree blooms with the Flowers of the Great Dao, that is the Heavenly Immortal Realm. Condensing the Dao Fruit is the True Immortal Realm. Beyond that are the unknowable Heavenly Venerate Realm and Daoist Ancestor Realm." Jiang Ning said.
Hearing this, the old man nodded slightly.
"What you said before is correct, which shows your knowledge is greater than I imagined. But the final Heavenly Venerate and Daoist Ancestor are not separate realms. A Heavenly Venerate can be a Daoist Ancestor; a Daoist Ancestor can also be a Heavenly Venerate. The two are not independent realms. Strictly speaking, Heavenly Venerate is a realm, while a Daoist Ancestor is the master of a single Great Dao, and is likewise a Heavenly Venerate."
Hearing this, understanding dawned in Jiang Ning’s heart.
In the Inner Realm of the Shangyang Immortal Sect, he had seen a sermon left by a Heavenly Venerate who had once existed.
The Nine Netherworld Tribulation Fire True Skill he now mastered came from the legacy of the Nine Netherworld Tribulation Fire Great Heavenly Venerable.
Heavenly Venerate, Great Heavenly Venerable.
He silently repeated these titles in his heart.
From that existence alone, he knew how powerful the Shangyang Immortal Sect had been in the Ancient Times.
Heavenly Venerate was the highest realm along the Immortal Dao.
And the title of Great Heavenly Venerable undoubtedly indicated that one’s power was by no means that of an ordinary Heavenly Venerate.
These thoughts flashed through his mind, and then he came back to himself.
Seeing the clarity return to Jiang Ning’s eyes, the old man continued.
"I can only tell you that the great upheaval in the Ancient Era was certainly related to those above the True Immortal. Those figures possessed extraordinary traits: once seen, they are forgotten; if one’s level has not reached theirs, one cannot retain any memory of them."
"I once sought many secret histories concerning the change in the environment of heaven and earth in Ancient times, yet in the end I gained little."
"Perhaps I once read some things, learned some things, but in the end none of the memories were preserved. So you need not take this matter too much to heart."
"You must understand that even with my current strength, I am still far inferior to such existences."
"True Immortals, Heavenly Venerates, and Daoist Ancestors are truly great beings who have grasped the Dao and principles of the very source of heaven and earth, and possess the ability to recreate heaven and earth."
"After years of exploration, I have only arrived at one conclusion."
"The source of heaven and earth today, compared with that of the Ancient Era, is nearly exhausted. Liyan Heaven is its representative: the source of heaven and earth completely dried up, no Spiritual nature remaining, ten thousand miles of red earth, all vitality severed, reduced to a dead realm."
"This may also be related to the cultivation method of the Immortal Dao. The path of the Immortal Dao is a method of stealing Heaven’s secrets. Even though one returns all one has obtained in life to heaven and earth upon death, the opening of one Cave Heaven after another is, in my view, like tumors clinging to heaven and earth, cutting off the source of heaven and earth."
"The drastic change in the environment of heaven and earth may be related to this."
Hearing these words, a look of contemplation appeared on Jiang Ning’s face.
Then he nodded in considerable agreement.
"What Senior says is very reasonable. Stealing Heaven’s secrets and returning them to heaven and earth after death could still be considered a kind of balance. But with the existence of Cave Heaven Blessed Lands, they become tumors that sever Heaven’s secrets in one place after another. Yet there is also something very strange: where have the true experts of the Immortal Dao gone? Heavenly Venerates, Daoist Ancestors—how great those existences are."
The old man said: "This is also something that has always puzzled me."
He then added: "In short, this world is too mysterious. If one wishes to seek the truth, those in the Upper Three Heavens might know something, but the ones who truly know are only those figures who survived from that era. Yet even if you encounter them in the future, you may still not obtain the truth, because any conversation concerning those existences will automatically erase the related memories."
Hearing this, Jiang Ning deeply sympathized.
He had also encountered such figures a few times.
The Divine Woman Statue in the Water Moon Sword Palace, the Great Heavenly Venerable in the Inner Realm of the Shangyang Immortal Sect.
In those memories, even now he still could not recall their faces.
But it was somewhat different from what the Martial Saint before him had said.
Regarding those existences, he still retained many memories.
