212: Leaving Qingzhou to the west, I first heard of Buddha and Mara.

Shen Yuanmo left Qingzhou City and traveled a hundred miles before his figure faded into a desolate forest.

He stood in place, his Magic Power vibrating within his body like water ripples.

An invisible ripple spread out, severing all the intricate threads of Karma connecting him to the Shen Family and Qingzhou City, letting them sink into nothingness.

From this moment on, he was no longer the Qilin Son of the Shen Family.

He was merely a solitary traveler moving between heaven and earth, an unremarkable Loose Cultivator.

Having finished all this, Shen Yuanmo did not fly away on his sword.

That would be too fast, too conspicuous, and he would miss too many things.

Like a true ascetic monk, he placed his feet upon the solid earth and walked step by step toward the extreme west of the Immortal Dynasty territory.

Shen Yuanmo's pace was slow; his vast Divine Sense was no longer a drawn sword, but had transformed into silent spring rain, quietly covering the world within a hundred-mile radius.

He saw a wild rabbit, using its nascent spiritual intelligence to discern the medicinal properties of a Spiritual Plant, nibbling cautiously.

He heard a Mortal couple in a distant village arguing loudly over the ownership of a sack of coarse rice, only to reluctantly reconcile amidst the cries of their child.

He felt the spiritual vitality of the earth, flowing like a Bloodline through mountains and rivers, noting where it converged into vital points and where it withered into sorrow.

These were all sights he had never stopped to appreciate before.

The former Shen Yuanmo’s gaze only focused on the rise and fall of his Family, the Bottleneck of his Cultivation Technique, and the weak points of his enemies.

His Dao was a sharp blade piercing the heavens—keen and ascending, yet suspended high above and lacking Foundation.

Now, he intended to immerse his Dao once more into the masses of living beings and the vast expanse of the Mortal World.

To feel the most genuine cycles of flourishing, decay, sorrow, and joy.

A month later, at the edge of the horizon, a magnificent city built from massive black stones rose from the ground, resembling a dormant ancient behemoth.

Black Stone City.

This place was the boundary between the Southern Border and the Western Desert, where the laws of the Immortal Dynasty had become nothing more than a scrap of paper.

It was a paradise for desperadoes and a gold mine for opportunists.

The towering city walls were riddled with knife marks and sword holes as dense as a honeycomb, and dried, blackened bloodstains testified to the city's brutal rules.

There were no Immortal Dynasty soldiers at the city gate, only a few fiercely Aural Foundation Establishment Cultivators, whose eyes scanned every entrant like hungry wolves as they lazily collected Spirit Stones.

Shen Yuanmo paid a few Low-Grade Spirit Stones and walked into the city, his expression unperturbed.

The chaos and bloodshed within the city were more blatant than he had anticipated.

Cultivators radiating Evil Qi were everywhere on the streets, and scenes of deadly duels sparked by a colliding gaze drew no onlookers.

The sour stench of poor-quality spiritual liquor mixed with the metallic odor of cheap medicinal herbs and fresh blood, creating a unique and sickening smell in the air.

Shen Yuanmo acted as if he noticed none of this, walking straight into the largest restaurant in the city.

Listening Wind Tower.

The clamor inside the building was deafening. He found a corner seat, ordered the cheapest spiritual tea, but his Divine Sense spread out like an invisible net, capturing every sound in every corner.

"Did you hear? That ruthless guy from Baiyue Prefecture wiped out the Song Family in Zhongzhou!"

"Golden Core killing Half-step Soul Transformation? That's an outrageous exaggeration! I bet some Old Monster made a move and just used his name!"

"Whether it's true or false, that area around Qingzhou is a forbidden zone now. Not even a Nascent Soul Ancestor dares to tread lightly there!"

Most of the discussions still revolved around the monstrous wave he had personally set off.

Shen Yuanmo listened to these rumors concerning himself, his heart as calm as still water.

What he was waiting for was not this outdated news.

"Wang Laosan, you're back from the west. What good stuff did you dig up this time?" a burly man at the neighboring table shouted loudly.

The skinny Cultivator, called Wang Laosan, plopped down, took a deep gulp of liquor, his face showing the lingering fright of surviving a disaster.

"Don't even talk about it! I almost died in that damned place! The Spiritual Qi is as thin as the Mortal World, and it's even poisonous! Man-eating Sand Scorpions are everywhere. You couldn't pay me to go back!"

"Hahaha, you coward!" A flushed Golden Core Cultivator slapped the table, mocking him with a slurred tongue. "Further west than the Western Desert, *that's* the real treasure land!"

"I'm telling you, once you leave the Western Desert, you're no longer in the territory of our Great Qian Immortal Dynasty! That place... is the Ten Thousand Buddhas Demonic Land!"

"Shh! Old Brother Li, are you trying to get yourself killed?" The faces of the people at his table changed drastically, and they reached out to cover his mouth.

"Ugh... what's there to be afraid of!" The drunkard pulled free, but his voice involuntarily dropped eight octaves, his eyes mixing a strange sense of awe and fear. "There... there is no Immortal Dynasty, no Spiritual Qi... only... the Buddha's compassion... and the Devil Head's sneer..."

"Ten Thousand Buddhas Demonic Land."

These four words seemed like a forbidden spell.

The entire noisy restaurant fell into a dead silence that lasted for a full breath.

All the Cultivators who heard that phrase showed complex expressions interwoven with fear, curiosity, and greed, but mostly a deliberate avoidance.

Following the silence was an even louder clamor of chatter, as if everyone was using noise to cover up the name they had just heard.

Ten Thousand Buddhas Demonic Land?

A flicker of light flashed in Shen Yuanmo's eyes.

His gaze slowly swept through the building, finally settling on an old Cultivator drinking alone in a corner.

This person was a Late Golden Core Stage Cultivator with a steady Aura, and he hadn't spoken a single word the entire time.

But when he heard the phrase Ten Thousand Buddhas Demonic Land, the hand holding his cup paused for an extremely subtle moment.

Shen Yuanmo stood up, carrying his teapot, and walked over to the old Cultivator's table.

"Fellow Daoist, may I borrow a seat?"

The old Cultivator lifted his eyelids, his murky gaze sweeping over Shen Yuanmo, and spat out three words: "It's full."

Shen Yuanmo was unconcerned; he merely flicked his finger.

A delicate jade bottle slid smoothly to the old Cultivator's hand without making a sound.

"Fellow Daoist, when you fought someone years ago, you must have been left with a Sword Qi beneath your third rib on the left side of your chest that is difficult to eradicate."

"Every time it rains, when Magic Power circulates past that point, it feels like needle pricks and ant bites, causing unbearable pain."

The old Cultivator's pupils suddenly contracted into dangerous pinpricks.

The terrifying Aura of his Late Golden Core Stage cultivation erupted violently but was instantly suppressed back into his body, yet his pair of murky old eyes locked onto Shen Yuanmo.

"Who exactly are you?!"

This old injury was the greatest secret of his life. How could this young man see through it with a single glance?

"A passing Loose Cultivator." Shen Yuanmo sat down calmly. "The Medicinal Pill in the bottle in exchange for information about the 'Ten Thousand Buddhas Demonic Land.' Fellow Daoist, do you think this is a worthwhile trade?"

The old Cultivator stared at Shen Yuanmo for a long time, seemingly trying to find the slightest flaw in his expression.

Eventually, he slowly picked up the jade bottle and uncorked it.

An indescribably pure medicinal fragrance wafted out. Just inhaling a trace of it brought a long-lost sense of comfort to the stagnant Meridians that had been troubled for years!

It was a High Grade Healing Spirit Pill of perfect quality!

Wild joy and greed burst forth in the old Cultivator's eyes. He swiftly recorked the bottle and stuffed the jade bottle into the deepest part of his Storage Pouch.

He waved his hand to set up a soundproofing Restriction, his voice extremely low and laced with a warning.

"Young man, knowing too much will get you killed."

"That place is not somewhere people like us should go."

"I only want to know what is there." Shen Yuanmo's tone was completely unwavering.

The old Cultivator sighed, knowing he couldn't dissuade him.

"Ten Thousand Buddhas Demonic Land is what they call it outside the Immortal Dynasty."

"There is no Spiritual Qi there, or rather, the 'Heaven and Earth Origin Qi' there cannot be absorbed by us immortal Cultivators; instead, it erodes our Dao Foundation."

"The people there do not cultivate immortality or practice Qi Refining. They worship Buddha, or... believe in devils."

"At the end of the Western Desert, where the yellow sands stop, there is a solitary city called 'Wusheng City.' That is the furthest west we Immortal Dynasty Cultivators can go, and it is the only passage to the Ten Thousand Buddhas Demonic Land. Past Wusheng City is another world."

After the old Cultivator finished speaking, he got up and left without another word.

Shen Yuanmo did not stop him.

The [Insight into Origin] quietly operated. Every word, every expression, and every subtle fluctuation of the old Cultivator's Divine Soul was analyzed and dissected in his mind.

It was all true.

More interestingly, when the old Cultivator mentioned "worshipping Buddha," Shen Yuanmo detected an extremely faint energy residue on him that was completely different from the Spiritual Qi system of this world.

That was not Magic Power, nor Divine Sense, but a power condensed from pure spiritual will.

"Incense Power Of Will... a power system based on the spiritual level?"

An unprecedented light shone in Shen Yuanmo's eyes.

His journey was to seek the Dao, the Great Dao that exists between heaven and earth.

And now, a path completely different from the Immortal Dao was laid out before him.

He immediately stood up, tossed down a few Spirit Stones, and without a moment's hesitation, walked out of the Listening Wind Tower.

Target: Wusheng City.

He was going to witness firsthand what kind of world lay beyond the Immortal Dynasty!