What the hell is this place?
Even the earth and sky were pitch black.
This was a big problem!
Although it didn't look dangerous, he couldn't cultivate in such a desolate place, could he?
After flying three hundred li with his sword, Wu Tao finally confirmed that there were no traces of human activity nearby.
Furthermore, besides scattered broken rocks and a few strange animals, there was nothing here. He hadn't even seen a single blade of grass.
With a sigh, Wu Tao flew back to the dilapidated palace.
In the stone chamber, Wu Tao lay on the bed, idly staring at the stone slab above.
By now, Wu Tao's injuries had healed somewhat. As a congenital sword body born after heaven, his recovery ability and physical fitness far surpassed that of ordinary cultivators of the same level.
If it were an ordinary Foundation Establishment stage cultivator, they would have died from such severe injuries long ago. However, Wu Tao had stubbornly survived thanks to his robust physique.
As time passed, his wounds began to heal.
At least, he wasn't bleeding uncontrollably like before.
After resting on the ground for a while, feeling exhausted, Wu Tao struggled to stand up, leaning his entire body against the wall and gazing out the window.
...
At this moment, Wu Tao leaned against the wall, his eyes fixed on the window. His body remained tense, showing no signs of relaxation.
In a strange place without the protection of formations, doing otherwise would be suicidal.
Suddenly, a faint "rustling" sound reached Wu Tao's ears.
This was not the sound of wind blowing through leaves, but the specific vibration of the ground caused by someone or something walking or tapping.
Wu Tao's body instantly tensed. He scanned his surroundings with his divine sense and found that it was just a wolf demon at the Qi Refining stage, drawn by the scent of blood. He breathed a sigh of relief.
With a movement of his divine sense, the Chuxi sword instantly transformed into a golden stream of light, severing the wolf demon's head with ease.
Then, the Chuxi sword immediately returned to Wu Tao's side.
...
After an unknown number of months spent here, Wu Tao's injuries had finally completely healed.
With a blank expression, he took his artifact and flew into the sky. Then, using the Chuxi sword, he destroyed the dilapidated palace, completely burying the long-distance teleportation array in the ruins.
This was to the greatest extent possible to ensure his secret would not be discovered by others.
Then, Wu Tao gritted his teeth, set a direction, and sped away without looking back.
...
According to Wu Tao's speculation, since someone had set up a teleportation array here, it meant that there must be people nearby. Otherwise, who would be so foolish as to build such an expensive long-distance teleportation array in such a desolate place?
Of course, Wu Tao did not know which direction was the correct one.
But he had already decided. He planned to fly in his current direction for several days and nights.
If he encountered no sign of cultivators or mortals, he would change direction and try again.
Although this method was extremely foolish, it was Wu Tao's only viable option in this completely unfamiliar place.
While flying in the air, Wu Tao finally encountered light.
He looked down. Below were vast expanses of rifts, peaks, wilderness, and Gobi. Many exotic plants he had never seen before also passed by like fleeting shadows.
Azure Yu trees swayed slowly in the wind, resembling weeping willows, while fiery red Ci grass spread densely all around.
Winged snakes, purple-skinned wild boars, spotted yaks, stone centipedes, thunderbirds, and many other demonic beasts thrived between the sky and the earth.
Perhaps Wu Tao's luck was truly good today, as he only flew for half a day before making a discovery.
In the distance, a sky-piercing pillar of fiery red light stretched across the horizon, radiating infinite light and heat, creating a world of brightness.
Beneath this pillar of light, a colossal architectural complex became clearly visible.
"A giant city!"
It was a city of unprecedented and immense scale.
Wu Tao had never seen a city of such grandeur and magnitude in the immortal cultivation worlds of Qingzhou, Donghai, or Yanzhou.
From afar, the outline of the city seemed comparable to the surrounding mountain ranges, indicating its terrifying size.
"How many people can possibly live in such an enormous city?"
Wu Tao marvelled inwardly, making a rough estimation that yielded an unbelievable number.
"Fifty million, no, at least a hundred million people!"
A city capable of housing a hundred million people – what a terrifying number!
After all, the daily needs of a hundred million people, from consumption to waste, were all contained within its massive walls.
Under the illumination of the nearby light, the terrifyingly vast city finally revealed its true appearance before Wu Tao.
The formidable city walls were tens of thousands of feet high, constructed with black ironstone blocks, each several feet in size.
The entire city was cast from iron and stone, and above it, there was an ultra-large anti-flying formation.
Such a colossal city, naturally, did not exist in isolation.
Around it, villages and towns were scattered like stars, strategically positioned at several locations, subtly encircling the giant city, resembling a protective barrier for it.
Above the giant city and the surrounding villages and towns, streams of escaping lights, like meteor showers, continuously moved to and fro.
In terms of cultivator density, it was something Wu Tao had never witnessed before. Even at the Taiyi Immortal Sect's encampment, he had never seen so many cultivators entering and exiting at once.
And that pillar of fiery red light that illuminated the surroundings, upon closer inspection, turned out to be a gargantuan volcano, tens of thousands of feet high, spewing countless fiery red flames into the sky amidst billowing black smoke.
The immense fiery red flames, shot from the crater, transformed into numerous vibrant arcs, blooming like red lotuses or streaking across the sky like a dazzling meteor shower, colourful like fireworks.
Then, under the control of the surrounding super formations, the vast flames churned and swirled layer upon layer, surging upwards like colossal waves in a sea of fire, roiling in the air.
The fiery red flames leaped skyward, their blazing light reflecting on the boundless darkness, turning the surrounding area for tens of thousands of miles into daylight.
The volcano continuously churned with flames, accumulating thicker and thicker, poised to erupt at any moment.
"Are the cultivators here that powerful?"
"The man-made sun, which only existed in theory in the Nine Provinces' immortal cultivation world, has become a reality here."
Wu Tao, who was only one step away from the Core Formation stage, understood how difficult it was to achieve this.
First, maintaining this giant volcano in a constant state of eruption was extremely challenging. It required diverting an underground river of magma to achieve this.
Even more difficult was the fact that the terrifying flames spewing from the crater flowed far faster than ordinary flames.
Moreover, their temperature was hundreds of times higher than that of ordinary flames.
To use it as a man-made sun for illumination, an extremely powerful formation would have to be set up on the volcano.
...
Meanwhile.
This place seemed vastly different from the Nine Provinces' immortal cultivation world.
In the Nine Provinces' immortal cultivation world, apart from immortal cultivation families living with their blood-related mortal relatives, no other cultivators lived together with mortals.
Even solitary rogue cultivators without ambition would, at most, serve as guest elders in the imperial palaces of mortal dynasties to enjoy a wealthy later life.
The vast majority of cultivators resided either in sects or established their cave dwellings in places with spiritual veins.
This place was different. Judging by the scale and layout of the city, the cultivators here must live within the city.
Otherwise, why would cultivators go to such great lengths to accommodate the needs of mortals?
As for why they did this, Wu Tao, a newcomer, had no idea.
Wu Tao did not choose to enter the giant city along with the other escaping lights.
He was still unclear about the situation here.
Rushing into a place densely populated by cultivators could lead to unforeseen accidents. It was better to find someone to ask and gain some understanding of the situation first.
With this thought, Wu Tao flickered and appeared directly in a small village.
It was dusk, and the day's hard labour had just ended. All the villagers were in the village.
They were eating, chatting, gathered in small groups.
Therefore, as soon as Wu Tao appeared, he was immediately discovered.
"Ah!"
First came a startled cry, followed by all the villagers, young and old, kneeling down in unison.
"Hmm?"
Seeing this, Wu Tao frowned slightly.
"Strange! Very strange!"
The villagers' attitude surprised Wu Tao greatly.
His first encounter with the people in this region presented a situation completely different from the Nine Provinces' immortal cultivation world.
Mortals in the Nine Provinces' immortal cultivation world reacted to cultivators in one of two ways.
The first reaction was usually fear. Trembling, they would wish to flee, as if they had seen man-eating wolves or tigers.
The second reaction was to prostrate themselves, hoping to enter the immortal cultivation world by seeking apprenticeship or attaching themselves to powerful figures, thereby becoming lofty cultivators.
"In fact, Wu Tao himself entered the immortal cultivation world after being adopted by a kind old cultivator."
...
Therefore, the look in the villagers' eyes made Wu Tao subconsciously feel that something was very strange.
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