NOVPUB
Chapter 660: Chapter 666: Insight
"Changhe Town?" Li Chengsheng looked at the small city before him, his eyebrows slightly raised. Could his trial really be in an illusionary realm within the same system?
If that was the case, he feared he would need to spend some time to thoroughly understand the background story, especially the reasons behind the appearance of those ghosts and what that so-called Ghost Day was all about.
"Town Ghost Division, the Thousand Ghost Tribulation..."
Without much thought, one could tell that the former must be the local organization suppressing the ghosts, while the latter reminded Li Chengsheng of the first level of trial with the Night Parade of One Hundred Ghosts. 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
If his guess was correct, then the third level of the trial would likely involve going to the county town and sheltering the civilians from the invasion of numerous ghosts.
There was no need to think too much about the future for the time being.
Li Chengsheng saw that the sky was bright, but this town, small like a city, was incredibly quiet. The city gates were tightly closed until high noon when they slowly opened.
The city walls, barely a zhang high, emitted radiant brilliance under the sunlight, appearing quite extraordinary.
He looked closely and discovered that what seemed to be ordinary stones were actually second-tier Spirit Materials!
"How could a small town gathered by mortals afford to use second-tier Spirit Materials to build its walls?" Li Chengsheng found it somewhat outrageous, but then reconsidered, realizing this was the Illusionary Realm and should not be compared to the situation in the Profound Origin Realm.
Creak—
The city gates slowly opened, and from them walked a cultivator whose realm was merely at the early stages of Foundation Establishment, followed by a few Qi Cultivation Apprentices and an elder.
"Junior Wang Qiulin pays his respects to the senior!" The Foundation Establishment bowed respectfully, his eyes full of reverence.
"May I ask which Spirit Mountain’s disciple the senior is?"
"I’m just a Wandering Taoist."
Upon hearing this, a clear disappointment crossed Wang Qiulin’s face. If he was just a Loose Cultivator, even if he was stronger than Wang, it wouldn’t be by much.
But it was better than nothing. An additional force meant that fewer civilians in Changhe Town would die in the upcoming Thousand Ghost Tribulation.
Thus, he sincerely invited, "Why doesn’t the senior rest in Changhe Town for a few days? If the senior has any needs, we will do our best to fulfill them."
"Alright." Li Chengsheng’s trial mission was to aid Changhe Town. Now that he could enter openly and aboveboard, there was nothing better, not to mention there was a reward.
"Is there a Scripture Pavilion or something similar in town? If not, please trouble yourselves to collect some books of strange and curious stories and send them to where I will be resting."
Wang Qiulin replied, "There is a small Scripture Pavilion within the town government office. There are also many vacant rooms there. If the senior is not satisfied, we can make further arrangements."
"Take me there to have a look."
After entering the town, Li Chengsheng noticed that almost every household kept their doors shut and the streets were almost empty except for their group and a few passersby who hurried along, not daring to stay outside for long.
Li Chengsheng wasn’t demanding about his accommodation for the coming days; as long as it provided shelter from the wind and the rain, it would suffice. He valued the books in the Scripture Pavilion more, as with his cultivation level, he could go several days and nights without rest.
Therefore, he did not waste time and said, "I will settle down here. I will also lend a hand during the night’s events."
"Thank you, senior! Then we won’t disturb the senior’s rest," Wang Qiulin tactfully led the others away.
They hadn’t gone far when an elder, who could hardly wait, asked, "Head Wang, what’s the capability of this Loose Cultivator? Can he truly help Changhe Town?"
"Mayor An, rest assured."
Wang Qiulin definitively said, "Much more formidable than me, with the help of this senior, the number of deaths in the town during this year’s Calamity of a Thousand Ghosts will definitely be much less."
"That’s good! That’s very good! This old man will go see what treasures are left in the storeroom to offer to this Immortal Master," said the mayor as he hurried off.
"Sigh! This world..."
Wang Qiulin murmured in a voice only he could hear, "The Yin Qi is flourishing; perhaps in less than a thousand years, this part of the world will turn into a Ghost Domain!"
External sounds, naturally, couldn’t escape Li Chengsheng’s notice. He didn’t pay attention at first, but Wang Qiulin’s last words piqued his interest.
"A Foundation Establishment Cultivator actually knows of such a major event? It seems this world is indeed in dire straits," he thought.
If before entering the town, Li Chengsheng still believed that it was just an illusionary world created by the stupa, now he started to harbor some doubts.
Because even if the stupa were an Immortal Artifact, it couldn’t possibly construct such a realistic Illusionary Realm!
To confirm his conjecture, Li Chengsheng released the Chaoyang Crow to search for the small mountain village where they had stayed for three days.
Even without knowing the exact location of the village, the Chaoyang Crow could easily find it by following the scent left behind.
Before the Chaoyang Crow returned, he focused on browsing through various books, looking for the cause of the ghost calamity and understanding the background of this world, and so on.
About an hour later, the Chaoyang Crow returned to Li Chengsheng’s side and spoke in a human voice, "Chengsheng, the village is still there. When I sneaked over, the villagers were still discussing why we left so suddenly."
"As I thought!"
Li Chengsheng rubbed his temples. This was not some illusionary world at all but a world that truly existed!
And that stupa should be a teleporting Immortal Artifact.
Still, he was very curious; if this were a real world, then why wouldn’t these Cultivators die?
’Is it because some mechanism is triggered right before death, directly teleporting them away? Or is there another reason?’
These profound questions were not only a mystery to Li Chengsheng, but even the major forces had not thoroughly researched it, and the Cultivators who had insight into this matter all tacitly kept their mouths shut, leading to hardly anyone knowing about it.
After this hour of understanding, he also figured out why ghosts were so prevalent in this world and what exactly the so-called Ghost Day was about.
It was said that five or six hundred years ago, the Immortal Tao in this world was thriving. To occupy more territory and gain more resources, the major Immortal Tao forces joined hands to conduct a massacre against the Demonic Tao, Devil Race, and other forces!
In front of the overpowering Immortal Tao powers, the other forces were as fragile as a mud wall crumbling at the touch, defeated easily; within just over a decade, they were brought to the brink of an end to their lineage.
At this point, the Demonic Tao knew they were beyond rescue, but they did not want to perish quietly.
Thus, they teamed up with the remaining forces, and with their last bit of strength, they seized control of the Netherworld of this world.
And they made a grand vow to incarnate as ghosts, eroding the impurities produced by the world.
Once the grand vow was made, it immediately received the protection of the Heavenly Dao; the Netherworld was hidden away, and by then, the Immortal Tao forces were much weakened and could not locate the Netherworld, unable to completely eradicate the remaining threats.
Thinking that ghosts had too many drawbacks and were not worth much attention, they left it at that.
Initially, the power of the Immortal Tao grew rapidly, and within mere decades, they had recovered to the level before the great war.
