Chapter 967: A True Immortal Hidden in the Lower Realm

Chapter 967: Chapter 967: A True Immortal Hidden in the Lower Realm

"Senior, you’re overwhelming me with such courtesy; I dare not accept this grand gesture!" Shen Mo waved his robe sleeve, lifting the three kowtowing figures from the ground.

Immediately, he used his concealed senses to activate "Insight into All Beings" and scrutinize the background of the hunched old man!

[Human: Yuan Xingyi]

[Realm: Spirit Sea Realm Layer VII]

[Description: This cultivator is from Day Bright Country in the Dragon Claw Realm. In his youth, he once encountered an old Taoist who was gravely injured and on the verge of death. Out of compassion, he carefully tended to the Taoist for many days.

As the old Taoist drew his last breath, feeling grateful, he imparted his legacy to him, leading him onto the path of cultivation...

He has mastered several magic cultivation methods, reaching Perfection in them, and is proficient in the divination path, using his skills to avoid several life-threatening disasters.]

[Weakness: Almost drowned when he was young, creating a flaw in his Path Heart, rendering him extremely fearful of Water-type magic.]

The feedback was rather ordinary, suggesting that the hunched old man was just a typical Spirit Sea Realm cultivator.

This did not mean Shen Mo’s suspicions were mistaken, but rather, at this very moment, the one standing before him truly was just an old man named "Yuan Xingyi" and no one else!

"Since I’ve sought out you, senior, I naturally have some confidence. Please reveal your real body!" Shen Mo stared intently at the hunched old man, saying.

To the side, Tu Lin and Fan Rongrong were filled with confusion, completely unable to understand what this suddenly appeared mysterious expert was talking about.

Even the hunched old man appeared incredibly fearful and bewildered!

Seeing this, spiritual energy surged before Shen Mo, countless lights and shadows appearing like illusions;

If one examined closely, they would find these lights and shadows to be scenes from the lives and cultivation of the immortal and mortal, spread across nine worlds, with people of all ages, most being mortals without any mana, but quite a few cultivators among them!

"These over one million two hundred thousand people should only be a part of all of senior’s incarnations. But if they were all annihilated in both spirit and form, even someone as powerful as senior would be greatly weakened, right?"

"I have issued a Heaven-level task in the Nanke Spirit Land."

"After ten breaths, tens of thousands of spirit land cultivators will come rushing out, capturing and dispersing the three souls and seven spirits of the people in the scene one by one!"

After saying this, Shen Mo fell silent, quietly watching the hunched old man.

Only to see the hunched old man’s face turn ashen, sweating profusely, caught in great panic and fear, his heart filling with endless resentment towards the mysterious power from the spirit land as he thought of the senseless deaths of millions.

"Senior, could you be mistaken? Senior Yuan is just a Spirit Sea Realm cultivator, not the person you’re looking for!" Fan Rongrong called out loudly to Shen Mo, mustering her courage.

Shen Mo seemed not to hear, still quietly waiting for the time to pass.

Tu Lin pulled Fan Rongrong behind him, activating the "Divine Light Spell," erecting a protective spirit light, then gritted his teeth and charged at Shen Mo’s incarnation.

He barely stepped forward half a step when his body was imprisoned by nature’s spiritual energy, unable to move like an insect trapped in amber!

Under tremendous pressure, the hunched old man’s mind became dazed, one moment swearing, the next wailing, then laughing crazily to the sky, and murmuring incoherently, seeming as if his Path Heart broke and he fell into madness; but just before the deadline set by Shen Mo ended, he suddenly calmed down.

In the next moment, the entire aura of the hunched old man changed, turning horrifying and profound!

Tu Lin and Fan Rongrong’s sense of the five senses wasn’t that sharp, but they also sensed something amiss, this "Senior Yuan" still hunched, still a Spirit Sea Realm cultivator, yet now he gave them an incredibly grand and powerful feeling.

"Humble Daoist Guangyuan Zi, greets fellow Daoist Qingyun!"

...

Guangyuan Zi was originally an ancient gas refiner in the Dragon Claw Realm, who cultivated to formlessness over three hundred thousand years ago and ascended to the Universal Realm following a mysterious sensing, achieving immortality in the Immortal Realm.

Later, for some unknown reason, he returned to the Lower Realm eighty thousand years ago and transformed into over ninety-nine million incarnations scattered across the nine worlds of Constelations of Horned Flood Dragon, each spreading through the Nine Realms, reincarnating endlessly as normal people, employing this method to hide from the world!

The hunched old man was but one incarnation of Guangyuan Zi.

Moreover, a disciple named "Guan Zhao" from Qingfeng Temple’s fourth generation, dozens of demons of various sizes from Wuji Palace, over two hundred people from the group of cultivators seeking to profit from this disaster, seven thousand connected to Nanke Spirit Land through the dream method... all these cultivators with vastly different identities and strengths, as well as countless mundane people, are all incarnations of Guangyuan Zi!

Each of his incarnations is an independent entity, unaware of its origin.

Before Shen Mo forced Guangyuan Zi to reveal his real body with the lives of thousands of incarnations, his true consciousness was in a state of "unaware and senseless" nirvana, seemingly not existing in this world.

Some incarnations, having cultivated to a high realm, might awaken a fraction of memories related to cultivation methods and magic. When they fell, some methods from this True Immortal Guangyuan Zi were passed on; "Plunder Yuan" and "Golden Light Spell" thus fell into the hands of Old Demon Wuji and Qingfeng True Master, for these miraculous techniques were from Guangyuan Zi!

"Senior Guangyuan, what is it you’re so determined to hide here, even at the cost of dividing into countless parts and entering nirvana?" Shen Mo inquired directly after exchanging greetings with Guangyuan Zi.

"I’m afraid!"

"Hmm?"

Guangyuan Zi, still in the guise of a hunched old man, looked up at the sky and said softly, "Eighty thousand years ago, humble Daoist had cultivated to the peak of Earth Immortal, just a thin paper wall away from the Immortal Realm, a little push would break through!" 𝘧𝓇ℯℴ𝓂

Shen Mo’s face grew more puzzled, asking, "Achieving Divine Immortal, isn’t that a step closer to the Eighth Realm? Isn’t that a good thing?"

"Becoming a Divine Immortal means I would have to guard that Heavenly Gateway, or else one tribulation after another would fall, until my cultivation level was exhausted and my soul was obliterated! Fellow Daoist Qingyun, do you know what lies beyond that Heavenly Gateway?"

"Remnants of the old era, a group of individuals twisted and corrupted by the pursuit of the Great Path, driven mad?"

Shen Mo was not entirely unaware, for the blood-stained robe bore the blood of those mad beings, and his appearance here was to deal with Lord Blue Venerable, a remnant of the old era!

Guangyuan Zi cast a surprised look at Shen Mo, pondered for a while, and continued, "Though yet to achieve True Immortal, you know quite a bit. Yet, as terrifying as those crazed ones are, they aren’t scary enough to make me avoid the world. Ultimately, they’re also a group of pitiable beings. When your cultivation level reaches that point, you’ll see for yourself at the Heavenly Gateway, and know everything!"

"I’m afraid of dying, and afraid of becoming insane, so I just hid back in the Lower Realm."

"..."