Chapter 87: Innate Level Meeting

Chapter 87: Chapter 87: Innate Level Meeting

Successfully cleared all Chapters of Dugu Qiubai.

Inside the Jade Void Cave on Dao Yi Mountain.

Chen Sha abruptly opened his eyes and looked at the clearance reward in his arms. This time, something he had never seen before appeared.

[A Copy of Dugu Qiubai’s Sword Dao Insights]

"What is this?" he wondered.

Chen Sha stared at the transparent mass of gas in his hands, which seemed to have streaks of Sword Qi swimming within it. From its appearance, it looked exactly like the "True Qi reward" he usually received after clearing a stage.

"Could it be..." Chen Sha guessed, "After consuming it, I can obtain Dugu Qiubai’s Sword Dao Insights?"

However, considering that even Power could be extracted from the Cosmic Light Fragments, it seemed quite normal that Sword Dao Insights could be extracted too.

After a brief moment of thought, Chen Sha closed his eyes and swallowed the transparent mass of "Sword Dao Insights."

BOOM!

In an instant, it was as if he had experienced a sudden enlightenment. He felt like he had become the Incarnation of Dugu Qiubai, experiencing his entire sword-practicing career...

From Sharp Sword without intent to flexible sword’s Impermanence...

From flexible sword’s Impermanence to heavy sword without an edge...

From heavy sword without an edge to wooden sword without equal...

Finally, from wooden sword without equal to the Realm where Dugu Qiubai broke open the Celestial Gate in the Cosmic Light Fragments—No Sword, No Move!

The person was the sword!

The Qi was the move!

"Formless Sword Qi!"

Chen Sha slowly opened his eyes. Acting on a sudden burst of inspiration, he casually waved his hand. A streak of Sword Qi roared out from between his fingers!

With another thought.

BUZZ.

In an instant, his entire body was surrounded by Ten Thousand Swords Body Protection. Streaks of Sword Qi emerged from his skin, swirling around him like a miniature galaxy!

Chen Sha was greatly astonished. "Is this a ’Realm reward’?"

The Cosmic Light Fragments could actually extract someone’s Realm in a specific field and allow him to absorb it!

"The Southern Heavenly Gate! This is all because of the Southern Heavenly Gate inside my body!"

Only then did Chen Sha begin to carefully ponder the shocking scene he had witnessed in the final Chapter of Dugu Qiubai.

"In the Cosmic Light Fragments, Dugu Qiubai’s sword strike exceeded the limits of that world, reaching the standard for Ascension. Thus, the ’Southern Heavenly Gate’ appeared in the clouds..."

Faintly, certain clues began to connect in Chen Sha’s mind, converging into a gradually complete hypothesis. "Could it be that, whether in the True Realm or the True Remnant World, all Ascenders will summon the ’Southern Heavenly Gate’ once they meet the conditions for Ascension..."

This was the door leading to the Nine Heavens.

He continued to theorize, "Ascenders from different worlds step through the Southern Heavenly Gate and enter the First Layer of the Nine Heavens. There, they receive an Immortal Mud Body and are enshrined in a small temple. That is how the temples in the First Heaven came to be..."

In mythology, the Southern Heavenly Gate was precisely the gateway that separated the Immortal Realm and the Mortal Realm. Inside the gate was the Immortal Realm, and outside was the Mortal Realm. Therefore, if one wanted to become immortal and live forever, they had to cross the Southern Heavenly Gate to join the Immortal Rank.

However, Chen Sha thought of the Earth God Temples and the mud bodies in the First Heaven. "Does that count as joining the Immortal Rank? They’ve just turned into the living dead!"

Trapped within clay statues, unable to move—if Ascending to immortality meant becoming a truly emotionless "clay idol," then it would be better not to become immortal at all.

Chen Sha shook his head. "It shouldn’t be as simple as I think."

He still felt that the mud bodies in those temples held a much greater secret.

But the most crucial question remained. "Why did the ’Southern Heavenly Gate’—the gateway that guides Ascenders from different worlds into the Immortal Realm—appear inside my body and recognize me as its master?"

Chen Sha asked himself again, "Also, is the Southern Heavenly Gate inside me the only one, or does every different world have a door like this?"

If there was only one, didn’t that mean the Southern Heavenly Gate inside him was the singular Immortal Gate that had guided Ascenders over the past countless eras?

Suddenly, a loud shout came from outside the Jade Void Cave.

"Sect Leader, come out quickly! Song Yu and those two children have returned to the mountain, and they’ve brought bad news!"

Chen Sha immediately walked out of the cave. He still remembered that Song Yu had encountered danger at the foot of the mountain, prompting him to send out a Grandmaster Incarnation projection to intervene.

Could it be...

Stepping out, Chen Sha immediately asked, "Where is Song Yu?"

The Elder who had come looking for him said urgently, "He is in the Sect Leader’s Hall right now. He said that on his way back, he saw a large group of experts gathering toward our Dao Yi Mountain..."

Chen Sha’s heart stirred. A large group of experts heading toward Dao Yi Mountain?

SWISH!

Before the Elder could even finish his sentence, the Sect Leader transformed into a golden afterimage and swept past him, heading straight for the Sect Leader’s Hall.

"I’ll head over first," Chen Sha’s voice echoed.

The Elder stood there in a daze, watching Chen Sha’s figure disappear from sight in the blink of an eye like a bolt of golden lightning.

In the Sect Leader’s Hall.

Numerous Elders surrounded the newly returned Song Yu, frantically bombarding him with questions one after another.

"Are there really a large number of Martial Arts experts marching toward our Dao Yi Mountain?"

Song Yu wasn’t the only one surrounded by the Elders. Lin Qingqing and Qii Zhengyi, who had been down the mountain for a year, had also returned with him. However, the Elders currently had no mind to care about how the two juniors’ experiential journey had gone. Instead, they were horrified by the shocking news Song Yu had delivered.

As it turned out, on his way back, the Dao Yi Sect’s Eldest Senior Brother had spotted a large group of people gathering toward Dao Yi Mountain from afar. Realizing something was wrong, he quickly deduced that this massive force was likely targeting their Sect. Thus, not daring to let Lin Qingqing and the others rest, they spurred their horses on through the night, managing to arrive ahead of the group to report the news.

Covered in the dust of travel, Song Yu looked deeply unsettled. "When I spotted them, they were camped in Xiaoting Town, eighty miles away. That is a mandatory checkpoint on the way to our Dao Yi Mountain. Although I rushed back overnight, they were also traveling under the stars. Their speed won’t be much slower than mine. I estimate they’ll arrive at our gates very soon!"

"Are you overthinking this?" one of the Elders frowned. "Perhaps it’s just some faction passing by our Dao Yi Mountain?"

"I saw world-renowned Grandmasters among them!" Song Yu immediately retorted. "Blood Sword Yan Kai, Divine Monk Iron Tree, Evil Daoist Guo Chaoyang, and others... Seven in total. Besides them, there are dozens of Grandmaster experts and over a hundred First-class Experts riding alongside them.

"They are all from the First-Grade Hall!

"Elder Chu, do you really think these peerless experts from the First-Grade Hall appearing at the foot of our Dao Yi Mountain is just them simply passing by?"

Hearing this, Elder Chu’s face inevitably paled. "You’re saying the people gathering at the foot of the mountain are from the First-Grade Hall?"

The expressions of the other Elders changed simultaneously. "Are you sure it’s them?!"

"How could I be wrong when I can recognize the Grandmasters among them!" Song Yu said anxiously. "During the years of the First-Grade Hall’s rise, the faces of their experts have never been a secret. Furthermore, after the Extraordinary Nine Monsters attacked the mountain last time, I specifically went down the mountain to investigate the roster of experts within the First-Grade Hall. It’s definitely them!"

The Elders exchanged glances, their eyes filled with horror.

"To think that after a year, they would turn out in full force to attack our Dao Yi Mountain!"

"Is it still for Ancient Transformation Dragon?"

"Just what is the relationship between the person behind the First-Grade Hall and that old monster?"

Song Yu was already anxiously looking around the hall. "Don’t worry about the reasons right now. The enemy army is at our gates! We must come up with a plan to deal with this. It would be best to have Junior Brother Sect Leader... Is he still in seclusion?"

At that moment, Chen Sha’s voice drifted in from afar.

"I’m here."

The Sect Leader’s Hall had been in a chaotic uproar, but the moment these words hung in the air, they acted like a tranquilizer, instantly quelling all the tension and unease among the Elders.

Everyone turned around to look, only to see Chen Sha appearing at the doorway, clad in a loose Daoist Robe.

"Greetings, Sect Leader!"

"Teacher!"

"Junior Brother Sect Leader!"

In an instant, everyone bowed in greeting.

Chen Sha waved his hand lightly and turned his gaze to Song Yu and the other two. After a year apart, the three of them had undergone significant changes. With just a brief look, he noticed that Song Yu had already stepped into the Grandmaster Realm, while Lin Qingqing had reached the level of a First-class Expert. As for Qii Zhengyi, his complexion had gotten a bit darker.

"Junior Brother, right now at the foot of the mountain..." Song Yu was about to carefully repeat what he had just said to Chen Sha.

Chen Sha said slowly, "There’s no need to repeat it. I already heard the details on my way here. In other words, the First-Grade Hall currently has seven Grandmasters, leading dozens of Grandmasters and over a hundred First-class Experts, ready for a massive invasion of our Dao Yi Mountain..."

Seeing Chen Sha getting straight to the point, Song Yu hurriedly added, "I can’t be sure if it’s only these experts. Perhaps there are even more powerful figures hidden among them..."

After all, judging from the First-Grade Hall’s full mobilization this time, it was as if they wanted to completely overturn Dao Yi Mountain. Going to such lengths, the mysterious Great Innate behind the First-Grade Hall might have come along this time as well.

"Junior Brother, we still don’t know if they will attack from the front mountain or the back mountain. To be safe, we’d better quickly evacuate everyone to the back mountain. With Junior Uncle holding the fort there..."

Just as Song Yu was speaking, a woman’s voice, ringing out like the sharp clash of swords between heaven and earth, suddenly pierced the ears of all the Elders inside the Sect Leader’s Hall.

"Dao Yi Sect Leader, come out and see me!"

Instantly, the expressions of all the Elders drastically changed.

"The aura of this voice transmission is..."

A First-Grade Great Innate!

Chen Sha looked outside the hall, inevitably surprised. "So the First-Grade Hall really does have a First-Grade Great Innate?"

Song Yu’s reaction was even more extreme. His face turned ghastly pale. "It’s the First-Grade Hall! They’ve already come up the mountain this quickly?"

Chen Sha was completely unpanicked. He said slowly, "The person outside is a First-Grade Great Innate, so her movement speed is naturally much faster than the Grandmasters. Since she’s already at our door, come with me to see just what kind of character this guest from the First-Grade Hall is."

From the sound of it, the visitor seemed to be a woman.

Song Yu, still unaware that Chen Sha had already broken through, suggested, "Junior Brother, we should first send someone to invite Junior Uncle..."

Before he could finish, Chen Sha was already walking out of the hall with his hands clasped behind his back.

Although the Elders had been startled by the female Innate’s voice transmission, after Chen Sha spoke, none of them seemed to try and stop him. One by one, they followed Chen Sha outside.

Song Yu was momentarily dumbfounded. He had only been down the mountain for a year. How come no one seemed to know the terror of a First-Grade Great Innate anymore? Why was everyone so unbothered?

Outside the hall.

Chen Sha slowly stepped out and immediately sensed the female Innate’s location. He looked up.

In the distance, on the highest eaves of the palace complex on Dao Yi Mountain, stood a tall, powerful woman. She made no attempt to hide her terrifying aura.

It was none other than the female Sword God, Shangguan Qing!

She was also looking at Chen Sha as he walked out.

Their eyes met across the distance.

Shangguan Qing smiled faintly. "So the First-Grade Great Innate on the mountain is your new Sect Leader."