242: Chapter 242 Old man!

An unknown amount of time passed.

Consciousness awakened from an endless dark vortex.

A rough, prickly sensation came from his back.

Gu Changsheng snapped his eyes open.

His back instantly tensed like a bow.

There were no astral winds tearing through the Void Realm, nor any bone-chilling ice plains.

He was lying on a wooden bed covered in straw.

His first reaction was to defend.

He instinctively probed into his Sea of Consciousness; the taiyin submerging spirit jade was still there.

The storage ring was also securely fitted on his thumb.

He attempted to mobilize the Wither and Flourish Dharmic power within his Dantian.

Deathly silence.

That vibrant Wither and Flourish dao seed was now tightly entwined by a layer of invisible grayish-white chains.

As soon as a wisp of the blue-black Dharmic power leaked out, it was forcibly crushed by the ubiquitous suppressive force of heaven and earth.

This power was incredibly brutal and utterly unreasonable.

It completely severed the resonance between a Cultivator and the Heaven and Earth Spiritual Qi.

Suppression of Laws.

The Heavenly Laws of this grotto-heaven had completely imprisoned the external system of techniques.

Gu Changsheng closed his fingers and squeezed hard.

Bang!

The air in his palm was forcibly squeezed until it exploded, letting out a muffled sonic boom.

The surging airflow blew the straw on the bed, scattering it in all directions.

A series of crisp cracks erupted from his knuckles.

Faint golden hidden patterns flashed briefly beneath his skin.

His powerful Physical Body's blood Qi was still surging, not having been diminished in the slightest.

The foundation tempered by the Dragon Transformation Pool, combined with three years of baptism by the Wood-attribute Origin...

...had become his greatest trump card at this moment.

Dharmic power sealed? No matter.

Relying solely on this Physical Body, he could still tear apart an Early Stage Purple Mansion Yao Beast with his bare hands.

Gu Changsheng lifted the worn beast hide covering him.

His legs dangled off the edge of the bed, and his feet stepped onto the dirt floor.

After losing his Dharmic power barrier, his physical senses were infinitely magnified.

He could clearly catch the faint rustling of a withered leaf hitting the ground ten zhang away outside the house.

The air was thick with the fishy scent of soil and the smell of some unknown wild beast's droppings.

His gaze swept across the surroundings.

Walls built of adobe, and a leaky thatched roof.

Several strings of dried beast meat hung in the corner of the room.

A rusty iron pitchfork leaned against the corner.

A large patch of dried purple-black blood remained on the tips of the fork, emitting a nauseating stench.

Gu Changsheng's gaze fixed on that patch of blood.

The blood contained not a single trace of Demonic Qi, only pure, violent blood Qi.

Extremely primitive characteristics of a farming and hunting civilization.

Creak.

The worn wooden door was pushed open from the outside.

The friction of the door hinges produced a piercing screech.

Gu Changsheng's muscles instantly tightened.

His legs bent slightly, and his spine, like a great dragon, was poised to strike.

He was ready to erupt into an attack at any moment.

Coming in was a young boy of seven or eight, wearing coarse hemp clothes covered in patches, holding a chipped black ceramic bowl in his hands.

A strong, bitter medicinal smell spread through the room.

Holding the bowl, the boy looked up and met Gu Changsheng's gaze; his hands shook violently, and the medicinal soup almost spilled.

“Big brother, you're finally awake!”

The boy exclaimed in surprise and quickly approached the bed.

Gu Changsheng withdrew the terrifying blood Qi fluctuations around him.

His straightened back slowly relaxed.

He leaned back onto the pile of straw, pulling his lips into a gentle curve.

Disguise was a compulsory course for the Longevity Tower Lord.

There was no need to use force against a Mortal child with no cultivation.

“Where is this?”

Gu Changsheng's voice was calm as he spoke.

The boy held the ceramic bowl and carefully handed it forward.

“This is Luoxia Commandery, the nearby Liuxi Village.”

“My grandfather went to the back mountain to gather herbs and found you by the stream.”

Luoxia Commandery? Liuxi Village?

Gu Changsheng quickly filtered through the Northern Plains intelligence provided by the Taiqing Sect in his mind.

It didn't match at all.

This grotto-heaven world actually had a complete system of Mortal administrative divisions.

He didn't take the bowl of medicine.

His gaze swept past the boy's shoulder toward the door.

“Little brother, when your grandfather saved me, were there any other people around?”

“For example, a woman wearing a white dress?”

The boy tilted his head and thought for a moment.

He shook his head vigorously.

“There was no one else.”

“Grandpa said that at the time, you were the only one by the stream, big brother, with half your body soaked in the water.”

“He even thought you were a floating corpse.”

Gu Changsheng's knuckles lightly tapped the bedboard.

As expected.

The spatial vortex behind the bronze door was a random teleportation formation.

That woman Wen Yuechan must have been flung to some remote corner by the spatial turbulence.

This was for the best.

Without that dead weight, he could act even more unscrupulously in this grotto-heaven.

Gu Changsheng raised his hand, feigning to rub his forehead, while his Divine Sense forcibly broke through the storage ring's Restriction.

Ten Mid-Grade Spirit Stones silently shattered inside the ring.

Turning into pure energy.

Deep within his Sea of Consciousness, the golden panel vibrated loudly.

[Deduction initiated.]

[Target: Current grotto-heaven world rules and intelligence.]

Rows of scarlet characters cascaded down in his mind like a waterfall.

[Intelligence 1: This realm is named the 'Desolate God Grotto-Heaven'; its Heavenly Laws are incomplete.]

[Details: Formed from the evolution of an ancient powerhouse's internal world after their fall. This realm's Heavenly Dao rejects all external technique fluctuations; Cultivators' Dharmic power is absolutely imprisoned.]

Gu Changsheng's gaze swept over this line.

He understood clearly.

This perfectly matched his perception from earlier.

This world was an absolute Spirit-Severing Land.

[Intelligence 2: The natives of this realm do not cultivate Dharmic power, specializing instead in blood Qi and the Physical Body. They revere the hunting of Desolate Beasts and the devouring of blood crystals.]

[Note: Desolate Beasts gestate blood crystals within their bodies, containing extremely pure attribute-less blood Qi that can be directly absorbed, ignoring Bottlenecks.]

blood crystals?

Directly absorbed, ignoring Bottlenecks?

Gu Changsheng's eyelids lifted slightly, a flash of greed passing through them.

This thing was even more overbearing than the top-grade Medicinal Pills of the outside world.

Specializing in blood Qi? Rejecting Dharmic power?

This was practically a hunting ground tailored for him.

Once those Purple Mansion True Persons from the outside world fell into this realm...

their Dharmic power would be sealed, and their Physical Bodies would be weak.

Whereas he, Gu Changsheng, relying on this monster of a Physical Body tempered a thousand times...

it would be a dimensional strike here.

[Intelligence 3: The situation in Luoxia Commandery.]

[Details: Liuxi Village is under the jurisdiction of the Luoxia Commandery border. Recently, Desolate Beasts have been rioting frequently, and the village is facing the threat of a beast tide.]

Gu Changsheng dismissed the panel and refocused his gaze on the chipped ceramic bowl in front of him. He reached out and took the bowl from the boy's hand.

The rough ceramic bottom rubbed against his palm.

The medicinal soup in the bowl was pitch black, giving off the earthy smell of low-quality grass roots.

He didn't even bother to smell it.

He placed the medicinal bowl directly on the wooden stump by the bedside.

“Thank you, little brother.”

Gu Changsheng softened his tone, trying his best to appear harmless.

“I encountered mountain bandits on my journey, accidentally fell off a cliff, and drifted here with the current.”

The lie he fabricated on the spot was flawless.

The boy didn't doubt him and nodded vigorously.

“Grandpa said you suffered a very serious internal injury and lost a lot of blood.”

“Big brother, hurry and drink the medicine. Grandpa exchanged two beast hides for this red thread grass to brew it.”

Internal injury?

Gu Changsheng sneered in his heart.

The cutting force of the spatial turbulence had indeed left several gashes on his body's surface.

But with his Physical Body's self-healing ability...

in the short time he was lying in the stream, the wounds had long since healed without even leaving a scar.

This grandfather and grandson were quite kind-hearted.

In this cruel Cultivation World, the kind-hearted were often the first to die.

While he was thinking...

a sudden burst of noisy footsteps came from outside the door.

Intermingled with coarse shouting and the muffled sound of heavy objects hitting the ground.

“Old bastard! Hand over the red thread grass!”

“The village chief has ordered that all medicinal herbs in the village must be handed over to treat the Guard Team's injuries!”

“You dare to hide it? Do you want to watch the village be trampled flat by Desolate Beasts?!”

Immediately after, there was a dull slapping sound.

Accompanied by the old man's pained groan.

The boy's face instantly turned deathly pale.

He turned around abruptly.

He ran out the door, stumbling.

“Grandpa!”

Outside.

A burly man with a fleshy face kicked the boy over.

His rough leather boot stepped directly onto the boy's thin back, grinding down hard.

The boy let out a shrill scream.

“Little brat, where is the red thread grass?”

The burly man drew the thick-backed cleaver from his waist.

The blade pressed against the boy's neck.

The old man knelt in the dirt, frantically kowtowing and begging for mercy.