Chapter 63: The World Behind the Southern Heavenly Gate, Completely Open!

Chapter 63: Chapter 63: The World Behind the Southern Heavenly Gate, Completely Open!

Wang Chongyang was knocked back seven steps by a single punch. A bitter smile appeared on his face.

"I didn’t expect there to be such an expert in this world as you, Daoist friend. I truly don’t understand—how could you have been completely unknown before this?"

The heroes on Hua Mountain were shaken to their cores. Uproar swept through the crowd as they gazed in awe at the tall young Daoist in the center. A single thought flashed through everyone’s minds: "From now on, he is the number one expert in the world!"

Chen Sha, however, turned a deaf ear to the reactions of the crowd. He merely raised his eyebrows and looked around at the world, as if waiting for something.

Right at the moment Wang Chongyang admitted defeat, everything on Hua Mountain Peak suddenly collapsed. At the same time, text from the Southern Heavenly Gate cascaded down like flowing water in Chen Sha’s mind.

"Sect Leader has successfully cleared the third subsection of the Hong Qigong Chapter: ’Five Extremes of the Jianghu, Hua Mountain Sword Discussion.’

"The dropped items in this scene include: Innate Skill Manual, Nine Yin Scripture Manual, One Yang Finger Manual, Snake Control Technique, Hong Qigong’s twenty years of Inner Strength, Huang Yaoshi’s twenty years of Inner Strength...

"This scene drops one-third of a Cosmic Light Fragment. It has successfully fused with the previous two fragments...

"Sect Leader has obtained a complete Cosmic Light Fragment space."

Chen Sha gazed at the vast, white void, thoroughly pleasantly surprised. The rewards for clearing Hua Mountain Peak this time were simply too abundant. Not only were there Divine Skills like the Nine Yin Scripture and Innate Skill, but there was also a drop of forty years of Inner Strength, as well as... he had finally successfully synthesized a complete Cosmic Light Fragment.

According to the Southern Heavenly Gate’s annotations, the function of a Cosmic Light Fragment was as follows: The Sect Leader can infuse it with True Qi, allowing the Cosmic Light Fragment to manifest corresponding entities.

Just as Chen Sha was about to test the function of this Cosmic Light Fragment, the Southern Heavenly Gate in his mind trembled violently. It shot out tens of thousands of rays of Golden Light, illuminating his Divine Soul:

"Sect Leader has cleared all Chapters of Hong Qigong. The Southern Heavenly Gate has successfully recognized its master...

"Now truly opening the First Layer of the world behind the gate to the Sect Leader..."

Chen Sha was stunned. He wondered what it meant to truly open the First Heaven.

He first took out all the items he had obtained from this Cosmic Light Fragment and placed them on his bed outside. Then, Chen Sha closed his eyes and returned to the space before the Southern Heavenly Gate.

Even before entering, he could feel that the world behind the Southern Heavenly Gate had changed. It seemed the invisible walls of fog that had initially restricted him from walking in other directions had completely dissipated.

"Well then, let’s enter!"

After a moment of consideration, Chen Sha took a step inside.

Immediately, his field of vision broadened. The path before him was no longer just the single trail leading to Hong Qigong’s temple. There were no roads at all!

Instead, with the fog cleared, there was a boundless expanse of land and mountains. Anywhere could be a road, and Chen Sha could go wherever his heart desired.

Focusing his gaze, he looked further into the distance. Across the distant land stood many temples just like Hong Qigong’s, one after another... There were so many that they were impossible to count!

This was clearly the same world he had entered before.

Chen Sha was currently standing on the slope of a massive mountain. He could overlook the distant mountains and rivers, rolling continuously under a clear blue sky and bright sun. Yet, he strangely noticed that everything here seemed to carry an aura of death.

It was rigid and perfectly still. Not even a breath of wind flowed through the air. Turning around, he saw more than a dozen temples scattered across the slope right behind him.

For some reason, this scene reminded Chen Sha of a hillside covered in grave mounds.

"These temples all exude a lifeless, dead aura. It’s a bit eerie..." he muttered.

He cautiously walked toward the nearest temple. It was the exact same size as Hong Qigong’s—a perfectly square, small structure built entirely of earth bricks. It had neither doors nor windows, and the front was completely wide open.

Enshrined within this Earth God Temple was another clay statue. It depicted a man with his hands clasped behind his back in a posture as if he were ascending to the heavens.

As Chen Sha stared at the clay statue, text descended from the Southern Heavenly Gate in his mind, introducing the identity of the temple’s owner:

"Shif Xingyu, Human Race Cultivator from the True Realm. Entered the Broken Great Vajra Realm during the Ninth Tribulation Period. Ascended from the True Realm to the First Layer of the Nine Heavens, attained the Immortal Rank, and received an Immortal Mud Body to preserve his life from corruption."

Chen Sha looked at the text in his mind.

"The Ninth Tribulation Period again..."

He had seen this introduction text once before when he entered Hong Qigong’s temple. But comparing it to Hong Qigong’s introduction now, the introduction for this Human Race Cultivator named Shif Xingyu contained a few more details, such as the additional phrases "Human Race Cultivator from the True Realm" and "Broken Vajra."

"The True Realm... that sounds like the name of a specific world," Chen Sha muttered to himself. "As for the Broken Great Vajra Realm, it seems to be the name of a cultivation realm."

Chen Sha stood in place, pondering for a long time.

He wondered what kind of world the True Realm was, and what kind of world Hong Qigong and Wang Chongyang came from.

"The phrase ’Immortal Rank’ is even more extraordinary. Is this the Immortal Realm? But why is this Immortal Realm so lifeless and devoid of vitality?" he wondered inwardly.

Filled with doubt, Chen Sha stared at the clay statue named Shif Xingyu for quite some time. Suddenly, text from the Southern Heavenly Gate appeared in his mind once again:

"Detected the existence of a ’Dao Mark’ in front of the Sect Leader. Dao Rhyme has been copied from it to manifest a Cosmic Light Fragment. Do you wish to enter the ’Seven Kills Blood Valley’ scene, the first subsection of the Shif Xingyu Chapter, for a trial?"

Chen Sha was slightly startled. Wasn’t this exactly the same sequence that occurred when he entered the three major Chapters of Hong Qigong?

"As expected, the Southern Heavenly Gate uses the figures in these Earth God Temples as Dao Marks, manifesting their past experiences into scenes within the Cosmic Light Fragments..." he deduced.

If this ’Shif Xingyu’ was the second trial character after Hong Qigong, then Chen Sha would have no choice but to choose him. But now...

Chen Sha gazed at the temples on the slope. There were a good dozen or so, and that was just on this specific hillside. He had no idea how many more were on the entire mountain, let alone in the entire First Layer of the Nine Heavens. There were far too many choices available.

He decided not to enter Shif Xingyu’s trial scene just yet. It would be better to figure out the identities of all the temple owners on this slope first.

Leaving Shif Xingyu’s temple, he headed to the next one on the slope. Dozens of steps later, he arrived in front of it. Judging by the appearance of the clay statue, the temple’s owner was a Swordsman with a blade strapped to his back.

"Xiao Wushang, Human Race Cultivator from the True Remnant World. Entered the Broken Realm during the Ninth Tribulation Period. Ascended to the First Heaven and received an Immortal Mud Body to preserve his life from corruption."

The Southern Heavenly Gate once again prompted Chen Sha, notifying him that he could enter this person’s scene for a trial. Chen Sha ignored it and continued to the next temple to observe.

As he pressed on, he learned the identities of the temple owners one after another.

"Bu Feiqing, Human Race Cultivator from the True Realm. Entered the Broken Great Vajra Realm during the Ninth Tribulation Period. Ascended..."

"Sister Taie, Human Race Cultivator from the True Remnant World. During the Ninth Tribulation Period... Ascended..."

"Dao Guang Master, Human Race Cultivator from the True Realm..."

"Zhao Huangtu, Human Race Cultivator from the True Realm..."

"Corpse Spirit Death Fiend, walking corpse from the True Remnant World. Entered the Corpse Spirit Realm during the Ninth Tribulation Period. Ascended..."

Chen Sha continued to observe the temples along his path and discovered that they housed not only human cultivators but also a few creatures that weren’t human at all.

"Mountain Crossing Snake Lord, Demon Cultivator from the True Remnant World..."

"Water Monster, Demon Cultivator from the True Remnant World..."

Compared to the number of these entities, human cultivators were by far the most numerous. Chen Sha felt he had summarized a pattern: these Ascenders primarily came from two types of worlds. One was the "True Realm," and the other was the "True Remnant World."

"What’s the difference between the True Realm and the True Remnant World?" he pondered.

It wasn’t until Chen Sha arrived in front of another temple and the Southern Heavenly Gate displayed the origin of this particular Ascender that he paused.

"This one is just like Hong Qigong—another figure from the memories of my past life," he realized.

The text flowing down from the Southern Heavenly Gate strikingly read:

"Dugu Qiubai, Human Race Cultivator from the True Remnant World. Ascended at the Innate stage to the First Layer of the Nine Heavens during the Ninth Tribulation Period, attained the Immortal Rank, and received an Immortal Mud Body to preserve his life from corruption."

The Sword Demon, Dugu Qiubai! He was a figure who appeared in the Legend of the Condor Heroes series alongside Hong Qigong and Wang Chongyang!

"Dugu Qiubai should be from the same world as Hong Qigong. Is his world of origin also the True Remnant World?"

Chen Sha was perplexed. He wondered what exactly the True Remnant World meant, and why figures from his past life, like Hong Qigong and Dugu Qiubai, were categorized into this world.