Chapter 594 - 22: Beiming Immortal Race

The stars shifted and the seasons turned; several years passed in the blink of an eye.

On this day, the great tomb traversed the endless Outer Void and arrived outside a World Heaven.

Feng Yan, her expression complex, steered the great tomb through the Heaven-Defining Membrane. It flew down from the Extreme Heaven, eventually stopping above a snowy mountain range.

Below, silent mountain ranges were arrayed, blanketed in white snow. A profound stillness hung between heaven and earth.

Feng Yan and Fang Cheng emerged from the great tomb. The former gazed at the sky, as clear as polished jade, then channeled her Magical Power and summoned a cyan Talisman.

Spiritual light flickered on the Talisman, transforming into layers of rosy light. It floated lazily up into the sky, then suddenly expanded like a scroll painting being slowly unfurled.

Within the painting was a magnificent and beautiful Cyan Jade Gate.

Feng Yan said to Fang Cheng, "Fellow Daoist Fang, this Grotto Heaven Secret Realm was a hiding place of mine back in the day. It’s a bit humble, so please don’t mind its simplicity."

Fang Cheng smiled. "You’re too kind, Fellow Daoist. The scenery here is magnificent. I quite like it."

As they spoke, the two passed through the Cyan Jade Gate and entered the Grotto Heaven.

Inside the Grotto Heaven was a vast, shimmering expanse of water. The Spiritual Qi was more than ten times richer than in the outside world.

The pair rode forward on a cloud of light for a moment before spotting a large, solitary reef rising from the water’s surface ahead. A peach tree grew from a crevice in the reef, flourishing splendidly. Its falling blossoms dotted the scene, creating a delightful sight.

Beneath the tree stood a ten-zhang-high jade wall, smooth as a mirror and spotless. It reflected the peach blossoms and the shimmering water, instilling a sense of tranquility in any who looked upon it.

The two descended from their Escape Light and landed before the jade wall. Ascendant Feng Yan then pointed, sending a ray of spiritual light into the wall.

In less than three breaths, the image of a lovely young maiden in colorful clothes slowly materialized on the jade wall.

The maiden had skin as white as snow and a face as beautiful as a flower. Her nose was elegantly straight, her willow-like eyebrows were long and slender, and her wondrous eyes were full of life and spirit.

Upon seeing Feng Yan, the maiden immediately knelt and said joyfully, "Disciple respectfully welcomes Master back to the estate."

With that, she kowtowed in salute.

Fang Cheng studied the maiden with great interest. How could he fail to see that she was a transformation of the peach tree? Moreover, her Cultivation was not low; she had already reached the Fifth-rank Demon Saint Realm.

Feng Yan smiled. "No need for formalities. Rise."

The maiden in colorful clothes rose cheerfully. She then performed a polite curtsy toward Fang Cheng, exuding an air of pure innocence.

Feng Yan said to Fang Cheng, "This is my disciple, Xia Yue. She is also the only person I am close to in this world."

As she spoke, she waved her hand, and three Meditation Mats appeared before the jade wall. The three of them sat down leisurely.

Feng Yan asked the maiden in colorful clothes, "Disciple, what changes have occurred in the Jade Flower Realm during my absence? Has anyone successfully undergone their tribulation and ascended?"

The maiden replied respectfully, "Master, it has been nineteen thousand, six hundred and thirty-seven years since you left this world. Disciple has gone out once every thousand years to search for any sign of you. The last time was over eight hundred years ago. As for the current state of the Jade Flower Realm, please wait a moment, Master. Disciple will go and investigate right away."

Before her voice had faded, the peach tree on the jade wall flashed with spiritual light. Countless peach blossoms transformed into fluttering butterflies, scattering magnificently before vanishing into the void and leaving the Grotto Heaven.

Feng Yan sighed and said, "For now, just tell me the major changes that have happened since I left. Stick to the important points."

The maiden nodded in acknowledgment and began to recount the story. "Back then, Master’s protracted war with your enemies affected the entire World Heaven. The conflict caused the number of Tribulation Realm experts in the Jade Flower Realm to wither and Dharma Aspect Cultivators to become scarce. The world didn’t recover for over three thousand years, until a Tribulation Realm Cultivator from the Outer Void happened to discover this realm..."

The maiden had a gentle disposition and spoke in a soft, delicate voice. In a short time, she had recounted nearly twenty thousand years of the Jade Flower Realm’s history.

That Tribulation Realm Great Power had been wandering the Outer Void and chanced upon this world, feeling as if he had discovered a treasure trove.

This World Heaven had endured the vengeful journey of Feng Yan, a Tribulation Realm Great Power, and the repercussions had been so widespread that they involved almost all the top powers of the world at that time.

Feng Yan’s revenge was a success. Relying on the Undying Jade, she recovered from the brink of death time and again, each time retaliating with even greater ferocity.

She eradicated all her enemies, down to the last root, destroying their Ancestral Lands and severing their legacies.

The constant destruction and slaughter nearly caused the world’s dao lineages to be completely severed.

The surviving sects and families were all composed of those with dwindling talent and low Cultivation. Compounded by their fragmented and incomplete legacies, no new Tribulation Realm Great Power emerged in the Jade Flower Realm for three thousand years.

A World Heaven so rich in natural treasures and cultivation resources actually had no Tribulation Realm expert to watch over it, and not even many Dharma Cultivators...

Thus, greed stirred in the heart of that Tribulation Realm Great Power from the Outer Void. He established a sect, left behind a dao lineage, and built a super-sect that came to control the entire Jade Flower Realm.

Because of the gap left by the world’s top Cultivators, this sect developed with astonishing speed, but it also grew increasingly warped.

Nearly all the cultivation geniuses of the entire World Heaven were gathered within this single sect.

All other sects and families became vassals to this sect, with the power of the entire world being used to support it.

In less than a thousand years, someone within the sect cultivated to the Tribulation Realm, shaking the world with their fame. The sect’s power grew even stronger, allowing it to dominate the world.

As for the founding ancestor, after reaping immense benefits, he returned to his own World Heaven, successfully passed the Ninth Celestial Tribulation, and ascended to the Spiritual Sky Realm.

After the ancestor’s ascension, his family’s descendants took over the sect and renamed it the "Beiming Immortal Palace."

The story of the Beiming Ancestor also gradually began to spread.

The family he came from was called the Beiming Immortal Race, a clan whose power spanned across numerous heavens.

His family’s founder had become Dao partners with a Demon Saint possessing the Kunpeng True Spirit Bloodline. They had children who all inherited the True Spirit Bloodline, granting them cultivation talent far beyond ordinary people and laying the foundation for a hundred generations of the Beiming Clan’s prosperity.

Later, the founder and that Demon Saint ascended to the Upper Realm. They then passed down a Spirit Immortal’s legacy from the Upper Realm, causing the family to flourish and prosper even more.

By the Beiming Ancestor’s generation, the Beiming Immortal Race had already produced two Spirit Immortals. The clan’s core legacies were two Spirit Immortal Techniques, and the number of Tribulation Realm Cultivators within the clan was always maintained at ten or more.

After the Beiming Immortal Race rose to prominence, it became the number one clan in the world and even renamed its home World Heaven to "Beiming Heaven."

As the clan continued to expand, the resources of Beiming Heaven alone were no longer enough to sustain the clan’s Cultivators. Thus, the Beiming Immortal Race began the grand undertaking of developing other heavens.

At that time, the Beiming Ancestor was merely one of the members of the Immortal Race’s Elder Council. The lineage he belonged to didn’t even rank in the top ten within the entire Beiming Immortal Race, so the resources he could enjoy were even more limited.

Therefore, after discovering the Jade Flower Realm, he was able to keep it hidden from the Beiming Immortal Race’s view, only occasionally returning to Beiming Heaven to show his face or undergo a tribulation.

Only after he had seized enough benefits from this world, successfully passed the Ninth Celestial Tribulation, reached the peak of his cultivation, and was about to ascend did he inform the clan of this world’s existence.

By then, he had already become the third Spirit Immortal in the history of the Beiming Immortal Race to ascend, so no one dared to make an issue of the matter.

After the Beiming Ancestor’s ascension, the status of his family’s branch within the Immortal Race skyrocketed into the top three, with a subtle trend of aiming for second or even first place.

The Jade Flower Realm was also carved up by the various lineages of the Beiming Immortal Race, with his branch taking the lead.

Since then, there has never been another case of an entire world’s resources being used to support a single person’s cultivation.

Today, the Beiming Immortal Palace is managed by the various lineages of the Beiming Immortal Race in rotation. All the major sects and families of the Jade Flower Realm obey the Beiming Immortal Palace, regularly offering up talented individuals and treasures to the Immortal Palace.

The system left behind by the Beiming Ancestor was just a leftover method the Immortal Race had used when conquering other World Heavens.

The Beiming Immortal Race currently controls seven major World Heavens, and the Jade Flower Realm is just one of them. Perhaps they will only gradually abandon this world when it reaches the end of its kalpa and enters its final tribulation, much like the Red Profound Realm.

Nearly all of the Jade Flower Realm’s resources and fortune have been plundered by the Beiming Immortal Race. In all the years since Ascendant Feng Yan left, not a single person has managed to successfully ascend.

Celestial tribulations are hard to pass, and ascension is even harder!

From ancient times to the present, it has been nearly impossible to ascend without possessing great fortune.

Not everyone can face a celestial tribulation with the same ease and nonchalance as Fang Cheng.

How many people in the world possess peerless legacies like he does, let alone have cultivated them all to the Perfect Realm?

Even in a clan like the Beiming Immortal Race, which has a legacy spanning tens of thousands of years and controls several World Heavens, the number of people who ultimately manage to ascend to the Spiritual Sky Realm can be counted on one hand.

Fang Cheng had met disciples from such clans before when he was in Qianyu Heaven. Although they could be called prodigies, they were ultimately still lacking.

After hearing the maiden’s account, Fang Cheng and Feng Yan exchanged a look, their expressions strange.

On their way here, the two had been discussing the future of the Fang Family.

Compared to the current Beiming Immortal Race, the Fang Family truly had a long way to go.

The three chatted idly for a while longer, mainly analyzing what Feng Yan needed to pay attention to for her tribulation under the current circumstances.

Logically speaking, her enemies had long since been annihilated in the river of history. Now that the Beiming Immortal Race dominated the Jade Flower Realm, the world had undergone earth-shattering changes.

Everything from the past was like smoke and clouds.

There shouldn’t be any major interference with her tribulation. What she needed to be wary of was the attitude of the Beiming Immortal Palace.

Not long after, colorful butterflies flew back into the Grotto Heaven one by one. Xia Yue then relayed the latest information these butterflies had gathered to the other two.

"A little over a hundred years ago, the Beiming Immortal Palace got a new master. His name is Beiming Yong, and he is a core figure of the Beiming Immortal Race’s Celestial Jade Lineage. He has already passed the Seventh Celestial Tribulation."

Xia Yue frowned slightly and continued with some confusion, "Rumor has it that this man is the number one genius of the Beiming Immortal Race in the last thousand years. Logically, he should have stayed in Beiming Heaven, so I don’t know why he would come to Jade Flower."

"There’s another major event. The Beiming Immortal Race’s Qionghua Conference, held once every five hundred years, is going to be hosted in our World Heaven. Dharma Cultivators under one hundred years old from the Beiming Immortal Race, as well as cultivation geniuses from the seven Affiliated World Heavens, will all gather in the Jade Flower Realm."

"It’s rumored that the Saintess of the Beiming Immortal Race has also come... It is said that she obtained the remnant soul of a Spirit Immortal from the Beiming Immortal Race and cultivated to the Late-stage Dharma Phase Realm in just sixty years."

"There’s also a rumor that this woman is the child of an incarnation a Spirit Immortal from the Beiming Immortal Race sent down sixty years ago, who then had a child with a peerless beauty from Beiming Heaven... Her heaven-defying cultivation speed is said to be entirely due to that Spirit Immortal Incarnation’s personal guidance."

Fang Cheng listened to all this as if it were just idle gossip, but he gradually gained a better understanding of the situation in this world.

What he cared about was whether this world had any Dao Pattern Spirit Jade, or other treasures that could increase his creation points.

That was one thing.

The second was whether he could purchase the precious materials and Celestial and Earthly Spiritual Objects needed to refine a Spiritual Mechanism Incarnation.

From the sound of it, although the Jade Flower Realm was controlled by the Beiming Immortal Race, it was closely connected to other World Heavens and showed signs of a prosperous era. He should be able to buy the treasures he was looking for.

...