The reappearance of Kunwu Mountain, an ancient immortal mountain, has caused a stir throughout the cultivation world. Countless cultivation sects, independent cultivators, and practitioners of both righteous and demonic paths have gathered at Kunwu Mountain.
After all, it's an ancient immortal mountain, so it's not surprising that it might contain some ancient treasures. Every cultivator would want to gain some benefit from it.
Strangely, this major event that shocked the entire cultivation world only lasted for about a month before quickly subsiding.
It's impossible for no one to know what happened in such a momentous event. But even those who do know are tight-lipped about what happened.
In fact, when the spearheads first appeared at Kunwu Mountain, the Ye family, the strongest cultivation family in the Great Jin Dynasty, had already entered it. However, in the end, none of the Ye family's elite troops survived, and the once number one family in the Great Jin Dynasty completely declined and disappeared from the cultivation world.
The righteous and demonic factions that followed the Ye family also suffered heavy casualties. It is said that, because of this incident, the righteous and demonic factions even organized forces to go to Kunwu Mountain, but in the end they left in silence once again. After that, Kunwu Mountain was completely sealed off again.
Countless small and medium-sized sects wanted to know what exactly happened at Kunwu Mountain back then, what kind of spiritual treasures and opportunities appeared there, and who ultimately obtained them. However, those who truly knew the truth were all leading figures of the righteous and demonic paths of the Great Jin Dynasty. No one in this world dared to question them.
Much later, someone found a survivor from the Ye family. He was a formation master who hadn't entered the core area of Kunwu Mountain and had miraculously survived. He then went into hiding, but was eventually found.
From him, the cultivators of the Great Jin Dynasty learned that the initial group of cultivators to enter Kunwu Mountain was not from the Ye family. People had entered before them, and ultimately, those were the ones who reaped the benefits of Kunwu Mountain. However, who exactly these people were and what benefits they received were beyond his level of knowledge.
Even with the combined efforts of the righteous and demonic factions of the Great Jin Dynasty, they ultimately failed to create any significant disturbance. This leads one to wonder what those individuals obtained at Kunwu Mountain that made all the cultivators of the Great Jin Dynasty willingly withdraw from this competition.
.............
Ultimately, the beneficiaries were Lu Xuan and Han Laomo. To be precise, it was the entire Hidden Immortal Sect. On that day, Lu Xuan reached an agreement with Long Meng. He would help her completely devour Yuan Sha's clone, repair her damaged primordial spirit, and continue her cultivation path.
The plan went much more smoothly than expected. Although Yuan Sha's true cultivation level was far beyond their ability to contend with, after so many years of attrition, the power they could ultimately mobilize was only around the mid-stage of the Nascent Soul realm.
Lu Xuan already possessed the combat power of the early Nascent Soul stage. With the assistance of the Zhou Tian Star Array and the weakening effect of the Pure Yang White Bone Fire, he ultimately succeeded in defeating Yuan Sha. This allowed Long Meng to reclaim the Silver Moon Wolf Body and successfully devour Yuan Sha's avatar.
After this battle, Longmeng and Yinyue were completely separated into two independent individuals. This was also one of Lu Xuan's goals. He did not want his spirit pet Yinyue to merge back with Longmeng.
After defeating Yuan Sha, Lu Xuan possessed the Dragon Transformation Seal and the Crystal Stele of Kunwu Mountain. He quickly mastered some of the restrictions of Kunwu Mountain. With the help of these restrictions, Lu Xuan easily slaughtered the entire Ye family. He showed no mercy even to the various sects of the Great Jin Dynasty that entered later.
His ruthless killing startled Han Li, who initially thought his senior brother, the sect leader, was possessed. However, it was ultimately discovered that Lu Xuan was merely weakening the entire cultivation world of the Great Jin Dynasty, as he intended to monopolize Kunwu Mountain.
That's right, Lu Xuan not only wanted all the magical treasures of Kunwu Mountain, he planned to directly occupy Kunwu Mountain as the sect headquarters of the Hidden Immortal Sect.
This idea startled Han Laomo. But after Lu Xuan displayed all the power of the Hidden Immortal Sect, he felt that it wasn't impossible.
At this time, Lu Xuan's disciples and concubines in the Hidden Immortal Sect were mostly at the late Nascent Soul stage. With the assistance of the Chaotic Star Sea Palace and various outer sect elders, there were over forty Nascent Soul cultivators alone. Their combat strength surpassed that of the strongest sect in the Great Jin Dynasty.
The key is that Lu Xuan possesses the Locked Life Token. This means that the four guardian spirit beasts of Kunwu Mountain have become his subordinates. These four are not ordinary late-stage Nascent Soul cultivators. They are simply trapped in Kunwu Mountain, unable to advance. Theoretically, these four are all at the peak of the late-stage Nascent Soul realm, possessing the potential to advance to the Divine Transformation realm.
With the addition of these four late-stage demon cultivators, as well as Lu Xuan and Han Laomo, the Hidden Immortal Sect's combat power was already unparalleled in the world. They directly and domineeringly declared that Kunwu Mountain belonged to the Hidden Immortal Sect.
Neither the Great Jin Dynasty nor any other independent cultivators could accept such an operation. However, Lu Xuan had control of the Kunwu Mountain's restrictive gates. They were essentially powerless to stop him. After all, for so many years, apart from the Ye family, no one had even been able to locate Kunwu Mountain.
Moreover, once the restrictions on Kunwu Mountain are manipulated, their effects go far beyond mere concealment and obstruction. Many of these restrictions are deadly; anyone who isn't a Nascent Soul cultivator is practically guaranteed to die.
However, Lu Xuan did not rely entirely on the power of the restrictions. He even opened up Kunwu Mountain once, attracting experts from both the righteous and demonic paths of the Great Jin Dynasty to come for a meeting. On the spot, he overwhelmed the world with his cultivation level.
In truth, given Lu Xuan's cultivation level, no Nascent Soul cultivator in the mortal realm could defeat him without him appearing. Those Nascent Soul cultivators were all old and frail, hiding in their caves and refusing to come out. Let alone fight Lu Xuan. After all, Lu Xuan didn't have their lifespan limitations. If they fought unrestrained, they would inevitably suffer losses.
After that battle, although the major sects were still unconvinced, they had to admit that the Hidden Immortal Sect's strength was indeed beyond their ability to contend with. To subdue the Hidden Immortal Sect, all the sects of the Great Jin Dynasty would have to cooperate fully.
However, the various sects of the Great Jin Dynasty have accumulated so many complex grudges and entanglements over the years that even they themselves are finding it difficult to untangle them. Unless the Demon Realm invades again, full cooperation is impossible.
Thus, the Kunwu Mountain incident came to an end.
After occupying Kunwu Mountain, Lu Xuan announced its closure, entering a period of seclusion for arduous cultivation. This seclusion lasted for a thousand years.
Over the course of a thousand years, the Hidden Immortal Sect had even begun to fade from people's memories. Many minor sects in the cultivation world had even begun to forget that it was once the number one sect in the mortal realm. And then, Kunwu Mountain suddenly opened again.
The reopening of Kunwu Mountain is a major event for the Great Jin Dynasty. After all, when Lu Xuan led the Hidden Immortal Sect to seize Kunwu Mountain and reap its benefits, the entire Great Jin Dynasty was in a state of unease for quite some time, fearing the emergence of an ambitious figure who wanted to unify the cultivation world. However, the Hidden Immortal Sect's subsequent announcement of the mountain's closure brought a sigh of relief to everyone.
Now that the Hidden Immortal Sect has reappeared, it's unknown what changes it will bring to the cultivation world.
Soon after, astonishing news arrived: the Hidden Immortal Sect was sending out invitations to all the major sects in the world to attend a ceremony at Kunwu Mountain—a ceremony for ascension.
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Chapter 557 I've Been Waiting for This Long (The Finale)
Lu Xuan didn't know where he was. But he could feel that the spiritual energy around him was so dense that he was almost suffocating. Yes, it was that exaggerated. The spiritual energy of the entire world was so dense that he didn't even need to circulate any mental techniques; he could inhale incredibly pure spiritual power simply by breathing.
Simply put, in this world, you don't need to do anything; just surviving is enough to become a spirit. A true spirit in the real sense. You just need to take deep breaths every day, reach the maximum Qi cultivation level in one day, Foundation Establishment in three days, and Golden Core in one month. However, going beyond that requires corresponding cultivation techniques.
The progression from Golden Core to Nascent Soul involves more than just accumulating spiritual energy; it also requires a certain degree of sudden enlightenment. This even raises a problem: if someone doesn't understand any cultivation techniques, they will quickly and automatically advance to Golden Core. However, without knowing how to shatter the core to form a Nascent Soul, they can only passively accumulate spiritual energy, ultimately consuming it to death.
That's right, ordinary people simply cannot survive in this world; they would be overwhelmed by spiritual energy. It's that exaggerated. In fact, Lu Xuan hasn't found any trace of humans in this world so far. He's only seen all sorts of strange beasts that he doesn't dare to look at for long.
These strange beasts lacked human weaknesses; most were exceptionally gifted, possessing innate supernatural abilities and cultivation methods passed down through their bloodlines. Furthermore, they had a unique characteristic that humans couldn't match: they could grow larger and larger with the accumulation of spiritual energy, their increasingly massive bodies bearing ever greater amounts of spiritual power.
Therefore, determining which beasts to avoid is actually quite simple: the larger they are, the more dangerous they are. Even if they aren't particularly intelligent, the immense spiritual power they possess gives Lu Xuan the feeling of facing a miniature sun. He doesn't even dare to approach them.
This world was vast beyond measure, and Lu Xuan still didn't know where he was or how much he had explored. He only knew that no matter how far he explored, all he saw was an endless expanse of sky and earth. He had once seen a dragon by the sea. Not one of the Flood Dragons and Monsters he had killed in the past, but a real dragon.
The creature rose from the sea, conjuring clouds and rain in the sky. Lu Xuan secretly extended his divine sense to observe, discovering a result that left him speechless. His divine sense couldn't even cover the dragon's entire body. Because it was simply too enormous...
Most of the demonic beasts Lu Xuan had encountered were mindless and unaware of his spying, which is why he made that move. However, when he scanned the area with his divine sense, he clearly felt that the dragon had reacted slightly to his gaze. But there was no further reaction. Because in the dragon's eyes, he was probably less than a mosquito, so the dragon completely ignored Lu Xuan.
This relieved Lu Xuan, but also left him with lingering fear. It seemed this world did have intelligent, supernatural beasts; he just hadn't encountered any before. This made sense, actually. In this kind of world, the lifespans of those beasts were extended without limit. Their growth cycles should have been lengthened as well.
Besides demonic beasts, there were all sorts of spiritual plants. Basically, even the wild grass by the roadside would have been top-grade spiritual herbs in the mortal world. Wild grasses and flowers with even a slight hint of sentience were considered top-quality spiritual herbs that couldn't be found even in the spirit world of the mortal realm. As for those sentient plants, they go without saying. Most of them were enormous, and the spiritual power they contained was probably too much even for immortals in the mortal world to withstand.
Moreover, these spiritual herbs are extremely difficult to refine. Just think, a Vermilion Fruit the size of a house, bursting with spiritual energy inside, cannot be shrunk using magic at all. A typical alchemy furnace... simply cannot contain it!!!
After a period of exploration, Lu Xuan was basically certain of one thing: he had likely arrived in a primordial world—a time before the true creation of heaven and earth, before the birth of humankind.
He had seen all sorts of true dragons, phoenixes, qilin, and black tortoises in this world. There were also creatures like the Bifang, Qingluan, and Qiongqi. However, he hadn't encountered any of the legendary ancient deities. Figures like Hongjun, the Queen Mother of the West, and Lu Ya Zhenren were nowhere to be found.