Chapter 204: The Primordial Wilderness, Land of Wuqi

There was no transition where his vision first went dark before gradually brightening.

The scenery changed abruptly. In an instant, he found himself in an entirely different world.

The outstanding talents from the Hundred Schools who had participated in the grand gathering alongside him were nowhere to be seen.

Li Shun looked around and found himself standing upon a somewhat desolate wilderness.

A howling wind swept out from the depths of the wasteland, carrying with it a faint chill.

The surroundings were utterly silent, so quiet that it felt somewhat eerie.

Even the sky was gloomy and overcast.

"This place..."

Li Shun instinctively felt uncomfortable.

However, he did not act rashly. Instead, he first examined the condition of his body.

Although he knew that the world he currently occupied was a primordial wilderness illusion created through a secret technique by the combined efforts of the Hundred Schools, Li Shun still thoroughly inspected his body with his divine sense and reached out to touch his own skin.

The incomparably real sensations flooding his mind were completely indistinguishable from reality.

For a moment, Li Shun almost believed that he had truly traveled back to the primordial wilderness of ancient times.

"An illusion of this level..."

"The utmost illusion made indistinguishable from reality, where truth and falsehood can no longer be discerned. It truly lives up to its reputation."

Li Shun could not help but marvel inwardly.

"Fortunately, even though this illusion has almost perfectly recreated the body and divine sense of Li Shun, there is still one thing it cannot manifest."

"Fangcun!"

Li Shun silently called out in his heart.

As expected, there was no response.

At present, only a strand of his consciousness had been projected into this illusory body. It was only natural that he could not summon Fangcun.

"I will first see if I can fly."

His first priority was to determine his current location.

However, everywhere he looked was an endless wilderness.

Even vegetation was exceedingly sparse, leaving him with no landmarks whatsoever.

Li Shun circulated the principle qi throughout his body and attempted to rise into the air.

It went smoothly.

He did not feel the slightest influence from the restrictions imposed by the Mount Dai seal.

"Just as I thought!"

"That mysterious man in black removed the restrictions imposed by the Mount Dai seal on me. He can likewise influence this primordial wilderness illusion."

At this thought, Li Shun's thoughts momentarily stalled.

That mysterious man in black had an unfathomably profound origin and cultivation. Moreover, the faction behind him was powerful enough to influence the affairs of Great Qian.

There was no doubt that he knew Li Shun represented the Spring and Autumn Brush lineage at this Hundred Schools Gathering.

"Perhaps removing the seal's restrictions was intentional."

Although it would not actually have much impact, being able to fly as soon as he entered this unfamiliar primordial world was still extremely convenient for Li Shun.

At the very least, after rising into the air, he immediately spotted something unusual in the wilderness.

On the otherwise flat ground, countless mounds suddenly protruded from the earth.

They resembled enormous stones, or perhaps individual trees growing on their own.

Only after Li Shun approached did he discover that these protrusions were actually mounds of earth.

Thousands upon thousands of them stretched across the land, interconnected with one another.

"They weren"t formed naturally..."

Li Shun narrowed his eyes and hovered in midair, carefully observing the ground below.

Ever since entering this region, he had vaguely heard strange, faint sounds.

They resembled water droplets falling upon stone, yet also sounded like the continuous pounding of war drums.

And there was more than one source.

After listening carefully for a moment, Li Shun reached a conclusion.

The sounds were coming from within the countless mounds rising from the earth before him.

Just as Li Shun was hesitating over whether to dig open one of the mounds and investigate...

The soil beneath his feet suddenly exploded.

A figure shot toward Li Shun like an arrow.

However, ever since arriving here, Li Shun had remained on constant alert, his nerves taut with vigilance.

The instant the figure appeared, he sensed something was wrong.

"Unmindful of all things, seeing without seeing, hearing without hearing."

"No harm can reach my body!"

Rows of golden characters suddenly exploded into existence.

While layering numerous protections over Li Shun's body, they simultaneously transformed into several golden chains that bound the attacking figure firmly in midair.

"Hm?"

The moment Li Shun unleashed the techniques of the Confucian Spring and Autumn lineage, he immediately noticed something different from when he cast them within the world of Great Qian.

"In this world, although I am still at the Spirit Resonance upper-tier, the power of every move and technique is clearly far greater than it was in Great Qian."

"The actual power of my Spirit Resonance upper-tier techniques can already rival the power of the Grotto Mystic realm in Great Qian."

"Has it effectively been raised by an entire major realm?"

Li Shun understood in an instant.

This was undoubtedly because the Heavenly Dao of the primordial wilderness world was complete.

Although Great Qian was also incomparably vast, it was ultimately merely a fragment that had split away from the primordial wilderness.

Li Shun stared intently at the strange figure he had restrained before him.

Even though it was firmly bound, it continued struggling frantically.

It vaguely possessed a humanoid shape.

Yet its four limbs could twist into all manner of bizarre forms, as though its entire body contained no bones at all and was composed purely of flesh.

Perhaps because it had spent countless years underground, the monster's skin was grayish-white.

After struggling for a long while and realizing that escape was impossible, a vicious glint suddenly flashed through its tiny eyes.

Its entire body abruptly contracted inward.

In an instant, it shrank by an entire circle.

Yet moments later, it violently expanded at a speed dozens of times faster than its contraction.

The entire process was like a mass of rotten mud suddenly exploding before Li Shun.

In an instant, the monster's flesh and blood burst through the restraints and scattered everywhere like a torrential rain, splattering the ground in all directions.

Yet something strange happened.

The ghastly pale flesh did not simply remain scattered upon the ground.

Instead, amid violent tremors, every fragment began converging toward the same direction once more.

Li Shun's expression changed slightly.

"Raise the flame upon the lofty altar, thereby illuminating the rites to the divine."

In the blink of an eye, another line of golden characters was formed.

It transformed into raging flames that engulfed the writhing masses of flesh scattered across the ground, burning them all.

Yet when the monster's flesh was consumed by the flames, there was no pungent smell of burning flesh.

Instead, it gave off a faint, earthy scent, like soil washed clean by spring rain.

Countless agonized wails seemed to rise from within the flames below.

The sound was enough to make one"s skin crawl.

Li Shun remained unmoved.

His principle qi surged violently, causing the flames to burn even more fiercely.

The monster's vitality was astonishingly tenacious.

Even under the torment of raging fire, its flesh diminished at an extremely slow pace.

It seemed that this was not a body of flesh and blood at all, but rather a body made from earth and stone.

Among all the ancient records Li Shun had studied before this, there had been no mention of a monster like this.

Just as he was carefully observing its behavior within the flames...

Perhaps affected by the creature's miserable wails, rustling sounds suddenly began emerging from the countless, seemingly endless mounds surrounding him.

It was as though something within every mound was struggling to break through the earth.

Li Shun"s expression immediately changed.

Even dealing with a single monster had already been troublesome.

If all of them emerged at once, he would certainly find it difficult to cope.

He had yet to even see the shadow of the Tongtian Divine Mountain.

With his thoughts racing, Li Shun immediately decided not to continue entangling himself with the monster.