by RWX
“Another batch has arrived.” One of the many bound and tormented cultivators let out a low mutter.
“One batch after another. There’s never an end.”
“Who can send a message to the people of the Mortal Realm? Tell them not to come to this ‘Sacred Immortal Realm’. Do not come!”
“I truly shouldn’t have come here.”
“I regret it so much.”
“Don’t come to the Sacred Immortal Realm.” The countless bound cultivators all mumbled and moaned in broken, pained voices.
As for the hundreds of millions of Nascent Soul cultivators and Apotheosis cultivators who had just arrived, they all knew that something was wrong. Their hearts were as cold as ice.
“Ahahaha!” Suddenly, the vast land began to tremble as a deep laugh rang out from the depths of the earth. Slowly, one mountain-like figure after another began to emerge from underground. There was over a hundred of these figures, and each one was thirty thousand meters tall. An aura of darkness spread out to cover the skies as they stared at the countless cultivators with their blood-red eyes.
A hundred towering figures, and every single one of them possessed an aura that caused the cultivators to quiver in terror.
“Where are we?!” A golden-robed man amidst the crowd tamped down his horror enough to say, “This isn’t the Sacred Immortal Rea-”
“This is the Sacred Immortal Realm.” One of the towering forms spoke out in a thundering voice that shook Heaven and Earth. As he waved his hand, he caused an enormous cloth sack to appear.
Whoooooosh.
The cloth sack gave birth to an utterly, incredibly powerful sucking force. The hundreds of millions of Nascent Soul cultivators and Apotheosis cultivators tried to resist, but they were still forcibly sucked into the cloth sack. After all the cultivators were sucked away, the cloth sack shrank in size and flew back into the towering figure’s hands.
“A few more toys.” The towering figure looked at the cloth sack, then let out a low laugh. “Master shall be excited by this! I will go deliver him his toys. As for the rest of you, stay here and deal with the disobedient ones.”
“Alright.” The other towering figures all nodded.
Whoosh.
The bag-holding figure quickly flew off into the distance.
Ning’s group of five was standing there in midair. Given Prince Greatjoy’s mastery over spacetime, the towering figures were completely unable to see them.
Ning’s group just watched silently as this all happened.
“A hundred Elder God-level golems.” Ning narrowed his eyes as he sent mentally, “And they spoke of a ‘master’. His master is most likely a Daolord.”
“Agreed. This ‘Sacred Immortal Realm’ most likely has a Daolord standing behind it.” Solewind had a solemn look on his face as well.
“This will be trouble. Let’s be careful as we investigate this matter,” Prince Greatjoy said somberly.
“Agreed.”
“Let’s go.”
The five of them left the area silently.
* * *
Book 28, Chapter 7 - The Enormous Prison
Ji Ning and the others didn’t dare to cause the slightest disturbance, for fear of drawing the attention of the ‘Daolord’ they suspected of being behind this Sacred Immortal Realm. Right now, they had the advantage of stealth. Once they were discovered, things would become difficult. This Sacred Immortal Realm was someone else’s territory, after all. There had to be many formations protecting it.
For example, that local branch of the Bluegrass Sect in the Brightshore Kingdom was only staffed with weak World-level cultivators, but they were still able to trap Ning thanks to the grand protective formation! A Daolord’s lair was an incredibly dangerous place. There was no such thing as being too careful.
But of course, Ning’s group was fairly confident. Generally speaking, they wouldn’t be worried about weaker Daolords at all.
Swoosh.
Ning’s group of five silently teleported through space to move to the margins of this great continent, the Sacred Immortal Realm. Given Prince Greatjoy’s mastery over spacetime, a spatial teleportation caused no spatial ripples at all.
“Eh?” Ning’s group stood next to some boulders at the rather ragged edges of this continent. When they looked at the chaotic space up in front of them, they saw countless streaks of golden runes flickering and flashing. An enormous, ethereal formation was covering this entire continent.
“What a powerful formation,” Heartlord Solewind said softly. “This formation is so profound that even I find it difficult to fathom. There’s no way an ordinary Daolord was capable of creating it. I wonder if this formation was purchased by this Daolord or if he created it himself.”
“Hopefully, he bought it.” Prince Greatjoy looked as solemn as the others had ever seen him.
Ning nodded as well.
Anyone capable of developing this formation was a Daolord of the Third Step, at the very least. In fact, it might even be a Verge-level Daolord of the Fourth Step! Given this Daolord also had the advantage of being on familiar terrain… they were going to be in serious trouble.
“Then how should we leave this place?” Waterlord Firesurge asked, “You all saw that spatial transfer array. It’ll only allow us to return to the Mortal Realm! Once we activate it to go back to the Mortal Realm, that Daolord will definitely find out and might chase us all the way back. We’ll have nowhere to run.”
“Return to the Mortal Realm through the formation?” Prince Greatjoy shook his head. “Those golems would probably notice as soon as we did anything, which means their master would know as well. Given how powerful Daolords are, this one would probably be able to send his will to span the entire Sacred Immortal Realm in an instant! He would be able to disrupt the transference process. We probably won’t have any chance of going back to the Mortal Realm.”
Ning, Solewind, Skyfire, and Firesurge all had heavy looks on their faces.
A Daolord definitely was an opponent who could prove to be a huge threat to them.
“We’re not going to be able to defeat this formation.” Solewind raised his head to glance at the great formation covering the entire Sacred Immortal Realm. “Even if we go back to the Mortal Realm, it won’t be of any use. Once we go back, we won’t be able to escape.”
“Let’s keep looking,” Ning advised. “Perhaps we might find something useful.”
“No other options.”
……
The five of them began to stealthily search the entire Sacred Immortal Realm.
The Sacred Immortal Realm was much smaller than the Mortal Realm, covering just a few tens of billions of kilometers! The entire continent was covered by this enormous formation, and in the very center of the continent there was a dim, faint green mist. Deep within that mist, there was a towering estate that could vaguely be seen. This was the only place in the entire continent which Ning’s group did not dare to enter.
It was highly likely that this estate was the place where the Daolord lived!
“What a terrifying aura of resentment and hatred.”
Ning’s group was standing atop a barren, black land as they stared towards the enormous black edifice off in the distance.
Above that enormous black edifice was an aura of hatred which was so strong that it had actually become corporeal. Some of the hatred was tinged with red light, while others glowed with a black aura. However, the hatred located at the highest parts of the edifice were transformed into a deep green color, a deep green which was formed as a result of the condensed hatred of countless cultivators over the course of countless years. Every so often, furious faces could be seen appearing within the aura of hatred.
“Even if I destroyed a hundred chaosworld, the hatred and resentment wouldn’t be as strong as it is here.” Greatjoy frowned.
“I can sense that there are countless cultivators imprisoned within. This aura of hatred should be generated by them,” Solewind said. “The reas
on why it is so dense is possibly because these cultivators are suffering unspeakable torments. We saw early on how many cultivators were lashed to those stone pillars.”
“Let’s go inside,” Skyfire Brightshore urged.
“Let’s go.”
They needed more information. None of them dared to be arrogant in dealing with the Daolord that might be living in seclusion within this continent.
The enormous black edifice was a jail of utterly titanic proportions, and countless cultivators were imprisoned within it. It must be understood that the Mortal Realm’s formation would activate once every century. It was only natural that many cultivators had been imprisoned here.
“This place…” Waterlord Firesurge’s face paled as he continued to walk forwards. “This place is even more terrifying than the terrible Nightmare Lands which the legends of my homeland spoke of.”
“And more terrifying than the Eighteen Hells of my own homeland.” Ning was equally somber.
This enormous prison was filled with various implements of torture and punishment. This entire prison was in reality designed strictly for the torture of cultivators. It must be understood that the Eighteen Hells of the Three Realms were designed to punish great sinners, but this place had only one purpose… to torture and torment as much as possible. This made it a thousand times as frightening, causing even the faces of these five to turn pale.
“AHHH! All of you will die one day! You demons! You devils! All of you will DIE!”
“Nooooo…”
“Spare me! Spare me! Spare me!”
“No begging. Begging is pointless.”
All sorts of voices could be heard. Some were filled with hatred, some rambled, some were frenzied, some were screaming.
The entire prison was being used to furiously torment all of the hundreds of millions of newly imprisoned Nascent Soul and Apotheosis cultivators. Some of the new abductees were still begging for mercy, but they soon realized that this was completely pointless.
Whoosh…
Ning’s group of five continued their journey through the prison. Nobody was able to see them, not even the golems responsible for torturing the prisoners.
Most of these golems were at least at the Elder God level. Some were at the True God level, and a few were even at the Empyrean God level. There had to be millions of golems within this prison.
“Who would’ve thought that the ‘Sacred Immortal Realm’ so many dreamed of was actually a hell such as this?” Ning murmured softly.
“Indeed. However, there are very few Elder God-level golems. Most are weaker… perhaps the Daolord of this land is fairly weak as well,” Solewind said.
“Hopefully.” A murderous look was in Greatjoy’s eyes.
If the Daolord was a weak one, the five of them would join forces to kill him! That would end all their worries at one go.
Whoosh.
Although there were restrictive formations scattered throughout the prison, they were meant for weaker cultivators and were completely ineffective against Ning’s group. Ning’s group was able to easily enter one of the jail cells.
This jail cell held over a hundred cultivators, all shackled in chains. One of them was a skinny old man who was seated silently in the lotus position, a terrifying look in his eyes.
“I can’t accept this. I can’t accept this!” The skinny old man growled mentally, “I have to ascend and escape. If I can escape, in the future I’ll come back and kill these devils.” To this very day, he had yet to realize that his tormentors were actually golems.
“Eh?” The skinny old man suddenly felt that something was off. Five figures had suddenly appeared before him.
“You-…” The old man was stunned. This was absolutely bizarre. These five figures were simply too clean and pristine, and none of them were wearing shackles. What’s more… the doors to the prison hadn’t even opened.
“I have some questions for you,” the skinny, bald, red-robed youth said.
“Yes,” the skinny old man said obediently. He felt a sense of absolute devotion to the man before him. If the man ordered him to commit suicide, he wouldn’t hesitate in the slightest.
As for other manacled cultivators in the jail cell, they weren’t able to see a thing.
……
As Ning’s group infiltrated the enormous prison, a figure suddenly flew out of an ancient, towering estate which was surrounded by faint green mist that was located in the very core of the Sacred Immortal Realm. This figure was dressed in light green robes, had a stooped form, and just a few green scales on his forehead. His eyes looked quite cold and insidious, and his ancient face was covered in wrinkles.
“Master.” An Elder God golem standing outside the estate, waiting respectfully.
“Mm.” The stooped old man nodded. “The new batch of cultivators have arrived?”
“Yes, they just arrived. We’ve already sent them all into the prison,” the Elder God golem said respectfully. Golems were a type of magic treasures, but when they gained sentience they would be just as intelligent as actually living beings. The difference was, they would be unswervingly loyal and would do whatever their master ordered them to do.
“Mm. Let’s go take a look.” The stooped figure nodded slowly. The Elder God golem followed behind him respectfully, and the two quickly flew into the skies. In the blink of an eye, they moved more than ten billion kilometers and arrived at the enormous prison, wreathed in an aura of baleful energy.
* * *
Book 28, Chapter 8 - The Hope of the Cultivators
The enormous prison was divided into many different regions. Within a jail cell located in one particular corner of the prison, Ji Ning’s group of five was staring at that skinny, elderly prisoner.
“I was captured and brought to this place six hundred years ago, after I travelled through the spacetime transfer array and arrived at the Sacred Immortal Realm.” The skinny old man’s eyes were filled with a reminiscent look as he said softly, “Ever since then, I’ve been imprisoned here. I’ve suffered countless torments. Some cultivators chose to self-detonate because they were unable to endure the misery. Ugh… I really wish I could go back to the Mortal Realm.”
Ning’s group all frowned. Solewind asked, “Do you know nothing about the rest of this Sacred Immortal Realm?”
The skinny old man shook his head. “I know very little. We’ve been trapped here this entire time.”
“Do you know about the ‘master’ which these devils who torture you serve?” Solewind asked.
The skinny man trembled as a look of terror appeared in his eyes. “He… he’s the master of the devils. He’s terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. After I was imprisoned here, I saw him visit the prison on two separate occasions. He used a terrifying spell to personally torture us. Countless cultivators were simultaneously tortured at the same time. He was simply too powerful, too terrifying.”
“Twice? He visited the prison twice in the past six hundred years?” Solewind’s face tightened slightly.
“He comes quite frequently,” Prince Greatjoy growled.
“We have to be careful. Who knows when this Daolord will appear again?” Ning said solemnly. He didn’t dare to spread out his own godsense, as once he did that it would be very easy for their foe to detect them.
Prince Greatjoy suddenly frowned. “I ask you this. The ancient transfer array activates once every century, which means that an utter flood of cultivators has been sent over here over the course of many years. If the torment never comes to an end… why are so many of you still alive? If you know that life will be worse than death, and that you will be subject to perpetual agony with no way of fighting back, why are you still enduring?”
Ning and the others were intrigued. Right. When faced with overwhelming power, overwhelming despair, and the prospect of never-ending torture, why wouldn’t they choose to die? Logically speaking, most would rather commit suicide than to continue like this.
“Because we are going to get revenge,
” the skinny old man growled, his eyes filled with fury and hate.
“You? How?” Prince Greatjoy was puzzled.
“If we can ascend, we can leave this place.” The skinny old man ground his teeth. “After ascending, I will become a Celestial Immortal and will be able to continue to cultivate. In the future, after I grow stronger, I’ll definitely come back and get my revenge.”
Heartlord Solewind asked, “Ascend? If you ascend, you’ll be able to escape the Sacred Immortal Realm?”
Ning and the others were all puzzled. Logically speaking, ‘ascension’ should represent ascending into an estate-world of a Daolord.
“Those who ascend can indeed escape,” the skinny old man said immediately. “Long, long ago, before our Mortal Realm even had that ancient transfer array, it was somewhat easier for cultivators to train to the late Apotheosis stage. In the Mortal Realm, there were some who were occasionally able to reach that stage, and once they did the Celestial Tribulation would soon descend upon them. After the tribulation, they would ascend to a land of Immortals.
“Later, cultivation in the Mortal Realm became more difficult. However, the ancient transfer array then appeared, and some of our ancient predecessors chose to travel through it and go to the Sacred Immortal Realm. Some of them even came back and then told their descendants and juniors that the Sacred Immortal Realm was a holy place for cultivation with incredibly dense elemental energy. As a result, successive generations of cultivators have come to this place.
“Only after entering did we realize that it was all just a trick.” The skinny old man gritted his teeth.
Ning and the other four were all extraordinary figures. They immediately understood what had happened.
Long ago, before the ‘Mortal Realm’ was discovered by that Daolord, cultivation was a much simpler path. When the enormous protective formation sprang up to protect the continent from the spatial storms around it, it naturally caused the elemental energy in the continent to grow sparse, making cultivation much more difficult. The ancient transfer array then appeared, followed by some cultivators who were soul-compelled to return from this ‘Sacred Immortal Realm’ and widely spread rumors of how wonderful it was.