Chapter 628 - 565: As One Pleases

Chapter 628: Chapter 565: As One Pleases

"Junior Brother, do you know how many Cultivators have come to this place in the past eight hundred years?"

At the peak, on ground paved with Jade Stone, stood a magnificent hall hundreds of zhang tall.

Before the great hall, green smoke curled upwards from a thriving Incense Burner. Yun Qianshan stopped, turned, and seemed to ask casually.

Chu Mu’s brow furrowed slightly, and he remained silent.

Seeing this, Yun Qianshan turned to look at the majestic hall, his voice low. "In the past eight-hundred-some years, our Celestial Palace has organized a total of over three hundred and seventy thousand Cultivators to step foot in this place."

"On average, nearly five hundred Cultivators have entered this mountain every day."

At this, Yun Qianshan suddenly gave a strange smile. "Junior Brother, do you know how many of those three hundred and seventy thousand-plus Cultivators ultimately survived?"

Chu Mu’s eyes narrowed, his guard rising instinctively. But he quickly seemed to realize something. He took an imperceptible step back, a serious expression dawning on his face, and chided, "Senior Brother, you’ve gone too far!"

"Hahaha..."

Seeing his reaction, Yun Qianshan laughed loudly, but this time, his laughter held none of its earlier heartiness. Instead, it was filled with a deep sense of desolation.

He said no more. His tall, straight figure seemed to hunch over slightly as he slowly walked toward the great hall.

Chu Mu hesitated, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and followed close behind.

As he followed Yun Qianshan up the final step leading to the great hall, the scene within came into clear view.

The hall was not empty as he had expected. Instead, it was filled with countless rows of neatly arranged candles.

Behind each candle stood a spirit tablet, and on every tablet, a name was clearly engraved.

The entire hall was filled with innumerable candles, and behind them, innumerable spirit tablets.

The entire great hall was like a colossal place of worship, memorializing countless Cultivators.

"There are a total of 363,672 spirit tablets in this hall."

"Each spirit tablet represents a disciple of our palace who has stepped into this place over the years."

"Some were in the Qi Cultivation Realm, some in the Foundation Establishment Realm, and there were quite a few in the Golden Core Realm. There were even many Nascent Soul seniors among them."

Chu Mu took a deep breath and asked tentatively, "They... all perished?"

Yun Qianshan shook his head. "Yes, and no."

Chu Mu frowned. "Senior Brother, what... do you mean by that?"

Yun Qianshan abruptly changed the subject, asking instead, "Junior Brother, do you know what the Scorpion Eggs truly are?"

Chu Mu hesitated. "A wisp of the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother’s Divine Soul?"

"Correct, but also incorrect."

Yun Qianshan shook his head again and said slowly, "The so-called Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother is actually just a name we Lower Realm Cultivators use."

"According to the naming conventions of the Upper Realm, its true name should be the Celestial Derivation Holy Beast."

"The so-called Celestial Derivation refers to its terrifying Divine Techniques, which are like the very evolution of heaven and earth."

"And the name Holy Beast comes from certain Upper Realm races that were controlled by this beast and came to worship it as a totem."

"The most terrifying thing about the Celestial Derivation Holy Beast isn’t the endless Beast Tides it spawns, but its Divine Techniques of derivation, which are like the creations of heaven and earth themselves."

"No one knows the true form of the Celestial Derivation Holy Beast. Under the power of its terrifying Celestial Derivation Divine Techniques, it can devour the essence of a Demon Beast and directly evolve into a corresponding Demon Beast species. This evolution can even be passed down to the clans it spawns."

"Ever-changing, its celestial derivations are impossible to predict!"

"Even in the Upper Realm, this beast is considered taboo."

"Whenever it appears, all factions will unite to hunt it down, a battle to the death."

"The Celestial Derivation Holy Beast that fell into this world was being hunted by Great Divine Power Cultivators from the Upper Realm. It shattered space, was swept into Spatial Turbulence, and ultimately crashed into our Cultivation Immortal Realm."

"The reason it’s called the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother in this realm is simply because after falling here, while it was heavily injured and its consciousness was in a state of Chaos, it happened to devour a Tier Four Yellow Sand Nine-hooked Scorpion."

"Perhaps to conceal itself and avoid another relentless hunt, it evolved into the so-called Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother, giving rise to the endless Sand-tailed Scorpion Race."

"And it was for this reason that both the human and Demon races missed the period when the Celestial Derivation Holy Beast was at its weakest and most vulnerable."

"It used the war between humans and Demons as an opportunity, using the endless Sand-tailed Scorpions it derived to deceive both races into thinking it was just an ordinary Demon Beast species."

"The laughable thing is, back then, the Demon Court even appointed several Tier Four Sand-tailed Scorpions as Demon Kings, granting them command over tens of thousands of Demons to rule over territories, which allowed it to plunder immense amounts of Blood Qi and life force to heal its wounds."

"Little did they know that even a Tier Four Sand-tailed Scorpion was merely a Puppet controlled by the Celestial Derivation Holy Beast."

"When it needed them, they were Tier Four Sand-tailed Scorpions. When it didn’t, they were just lifeless husks."

"Leveraging the power of the Demon Court, and taking advantage of the opportune war between humans and Demons, the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother plundered and devoured immense life force and Blood Qi, successfully surviving its most vulnerable period."

"By the time it revealed its fangs, it was already too late."

"In this realm, even Nascent Soul Great Cultivators working together could not stop it in the slightest. It had become an almost invincible, terrifying existence."

"The Demon Court was annihilated, the Celestial Palace fell, and a cataclysm that would last a thousand years began."

"Although it was later suppressed by a senior from the Upper Realm, due to the limited power of the descended incarnation, even that Great Divine Power senior from the Upper Realm couldn’t completely destroy it."

"They could only use a Great Divine Technique to establish this cage, pass down the Soul Purification method, and had no choice but to leave this Cultivation Immortal Realm."

"And it is for this reason that Purifying Soul Mountain exists."

"And it is also why we Celestial Palace Cultivators have had this mission for eight hundred years, throwing ourselves into the fire one after another like moths to a flame."

"Outside Purifying Soul Mountain, that boundless Desert Sea is not a purely Illusory World. Strictly speaking, it’s an Illusory World woven from the mental world of the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother."

"To step into the Desert Sea is to step into the mind and heart of the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother. It is Divine Soul touching Divine Soul, heart reflecting heart."

"Once inside, one will inevitably be tainted by a trace of the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother’s essential aura. Those Sand-tailed Scorpions are, in fact, thoughts from its Divine Soul. The destruction of each Sand-tailed Scorpion means being further tainted, further corroded."

"It is borne by the Divine Soul and sealed upon the heart."

"Ultimately, this becomes what we call the Scorpion Eggs."

"And to purify the Scorpion Eggs, one must also work with the Divine Soul and the heart."

"That is... Soul Purification, Purifying Heart."

"Soul Purification is equivalent to Purifying the Heart, and Purifying the Heart is equivalent to Purifying the Soul."

"The two are complementary and interconnected, but accomplishing these four words is as difficult as ascending to the heavens."

"Once a Scorpion Egg matures, its host becomes one body with two souls, inseparable. They are both human and scorpion, a Divine Split of the Celestial Derivation Holy Beast."

"The reason you haven’t felt anything too unusual yet, Junior Brother, is only because you are still within this cage."

"The suppression of the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother was established by that Great Divine Power senior from the Upper Realm. Within this place, the Divine Techniques of the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother—or rather, the Celestial Derivation Holy Beast—are suppressed to their absolute minimum."

"If we were in the outside world, forget about a Scorpion Seed maturing—a mere wisp of its aura would be enough. We Golden Core Cultivators would likely be reduced to its Puppets."

"But no matter how strong the suppression is, it is still just suppression. The beast’s terrifying nature obviously hasn’t changed."

"It attaches to the Divine Soul and reflects in the heart."

"To achieve Soul Purification, you must first achieve a Purifying Heart."

"You must maintain the clarity of your spiritual altar, find that trace of defilement within your heart, then use your heart to enter that defilement, falling into an eternal dream. You must exist within that filth and darkness, yet not be stained by it in the slightest..."

At this, Yun Qianshan looked at the countless spirit tablets in the hall. He was silent for a moment before saying slowly, "A body in darkness, a heart toward the light."

"They have all fallen into darkness, into the defilement of the heart, into that eternal dream."

"Some have been completely eroded by the darkness, tainted by the defilement. They have become one with that wisp of the Sand-tailed Scorpion Mother’s Divine Split, completely inseparable."

"Others are still holding on, struggling within that boundless defilement, resisting its corrosion, not knowing when they will ever be able to completely purify the filth and return to the purity of their hearts."

Then, Yun Qianshan looked at Chu Mu:

"A body in darkness, a heart toward the light."

"In Purifying the Heart and Soul, in the descent into boundless defilement, this is the most important thing."

"Ten thousand calamities cannot wear down the spirit, nor can suffering break the will!"

"No matter how desperate, how powerless, you must hold on."

"Only then is there a sliver of hope for survival."

"Otherwise, it is complete damnation. You will be sealed here for all eternity with that wisp of Scorpion Soul, never to be reborn."

"My own state of mind is flawed, so I can only while away my time here. But every junior and senior brother who emerges from this place, I personally welcome them."

"These brothers, their Cultivation levels vary. Every one of them compiles their experiences within the heart’s defilement into a volume and hands it to me."

"As of today, in the Scripture Pavilion on Purifying Soul Mountain, there are 8,152 such volumes."

"I have read them all, studying every word and sentence, trying to feel their meaning and comprehend their hearts."

"Without exception, it is the same for all of them."

With that, Yun Qianshan let out a long breath. With a wave of his hand, a cloud-shaped Jade Talisman appeared, hovering before Chu Mu.

"This talisman is the access token for the Purification Soul Pavilion. The pavilion is just behind this Soul Sacrifice Hall. With this Jade Talisman, you can view all the records stored inside."

"As for your residence, Junior Brother..."

"I was thinking of arranging a place for you to rest quietly for a few days, but once I started talking, I couldn’t seem to stop myself. After all this, I doubt you’ll be able to rest peacefully anyway."

"So, let’s just follow the custom of Purifying Soul Mountain: do as your heart desires."

"Live wherever you wish, Junior Brother!"

"Only by acting as you please can you find that trace of defilement deep within your heart..."

...