Immortal Mortal

Mo Wuji knew for sure that since those Howling Wind Beasts were fighting here, the treasure they were fighting over would definitely be nearby. They probably went further away to prevent damaging this area, hence the treasure must have been around there.

Immediately, Mo Wuji traced the path that the gusts came from, and even before half an incense’s time was up, he found a slope with extremely dense spiritual energy. The slope was not that steep, and was completely green, a good contrast to the barren Lost Sky Ruins.

But there’s nothing here? Mo Wuji was afraid that he had seen wrongly, using his spiritual will to scan the slope time and again, even looking underground. However, he did not find anything, but if there was something off about the place, it would be the two large rocks at the top of the slope which had a temporarily made cave at their side.

Without question, this cave belonged to one of the Howling Wind Beasts.

Since this location had been occupied by one Howling Wind Beast, but another one still came over to snatch an item, it was indicative that this item was really something.

The roars echoed out from afar again. It seemed like the Howling Wind Beast would be returning before long.

The spherical flying ship was brought out. Since he couldn’t find the treasure, it was not fated for him to do so. Thus, the best move would be to leave, before he wouldn’t be able to once the Howling Wind Beast came back.

But why did the Howling Wind Beast set up two giant rocks at the side of the cave? Before Mo Wuji left, he went to check out what lay between the two large rocks, and he saw a light grey grass stalk there.

This stalk of grass was too ordinary, with only a few centimeters in height and no offshoots. More accurately speaking, this was not a stalk of grass, but a blade of grass, because something shaped like a leaf grew out from the top of it.

This stalk of grass did not give off anything like other spiritual herbs, and did not look like one either. Mo Wuji only noticed it before as the weeds around this small grey grass had been cleared away, leaving this lonely stalk there. Could this unassuming stalk of grass that even looked like a weed be a treasure?

The roars came closer by the minute, and Mo Wuji could not think so much anymore. Regardless whether it was a treasure or not, he would inspect it later.

He scooped the blade of grass into a jade box, and quickly entered the spherical flying ship. The next moment the ship turned into a black line, zipping through the air into the horizon.

A few minutes later, the sound of the Howling Wind Beast going bonkers echoed out, and the level of rage it had was as though someone had kidnapped his wife. Could this blade of grass be a treasure? Mo Wuji took it out again. The light grey colour was very ordinary, with nothing much standing out. The only interesting thing was that this grass had some weird rune on it.

After staring that the grass for a good hour, Mo Wuji kept it back into his storage ring. He simply could not identify what made this grass valuable.

Since his encounter with the Howling Wind Beast, Mo Wuji became even more careful. He dared not cultivate, instead only studying Chu Xingzi’s Array Dao while steering the flying ship forward.

But even though he was on the highest alert, about half a month of flying later, he was still marked by a gigantic flying demonic beast.

The flying demonic beast looked a little like an owl, having two yes that were like two large lanterns, and its body was a few times bigger than the flying ship.

Initially, Mo Wuji intended to avoid this gigantic flying demonic beast altogether. However, before he could steer the flying ship away, a large pair of wings came flapping.

His field of vision was blocked out for a whole, then the whole flying ship was slammed downwards by the large wings. If not for the decent defensive capabilities of the flying ship, it would have been smashed to pieces.

In his mind, Mo Wuji was panicking, and he used all of his spiritual will to stabilise the flying ship, turning it in a different direction, then charging away in a slanted position.

As the flying demonic beast saw that Mo Wuji did not plummet to the ground, it gave chase. It had no intention of letting him escape.

By then, Mo Wuji had filled the spirit stone groove with Earth grade spirit stones, and he was trying his best to push the flying ship forward.

Even so, the flying demonic beast was still hot on his tail. Who knew what kind of grudge it had with him, as it closely followed behind the flying ship. It seemed as though as it would not rest until it caught up with Mo Wuji.

Thankfully, while he was unable to shake off the flying demonic beast, it did not manage to catch up with the flying ship either.

This cat and mouse game in the air lasted for days. At first, Mo Wuji wanted to slow down a little to throw a few electroballs at the demonic beast when it approaches. But after thinking of the immense strength of it, this was a risk he was not willing to take. WIth his Yuan Dan Stage cultivation level, he probably would have been killed by the demonic beast way before he could release any lightning bolts.

There was no other way but to keep running.

Another two days passed, and to Mo Wuji’s surprise, the flying demonic beast that had been pestering him for days had vanished.

But before he could celebrate, a terrifying force pulled the flying ship downwards, and it plummeted once again.

Scanning outwards with his spiritual will instantly, Mo Wuji discovered that this time it was not the flying demonic beast, but gravity from the ground. He was in the middle of a endless swamp, and the suction had come from it.

The gravity became stronger over time, and no matter how Mo Wuji steered the flying ship to go upwards, he could not escape from this frightening gravity.

Hence, he decided to keep the flying ship, and fall from the sky alone.

With a ”Splat!”, he dove deep into the swamp’s mud.

Mo Wuji initially thought that the flying ship could not counter the gravity, but now that he was in the swamp, he understood that even without the flying ship, gravity was still pulling him further and further down, and his speed of descent was increasing.

Any deeper, and he would be killed by the pressure if he had not suffocated yet. Mustering his elemental energy, Mo Wuji finally halted his dangerous descent.

Then he began to climb up slowly. At the start, every time he climbed up a little, he would sink back down again. But eventually he got the hang of things, and his climbing speed increased significantly as he used both his spiritual will and elemental energy.

At his cultivation level, he might not suffocate to death after being submerged in the swamp for half a year to a year, but if he couldn’t climb out, it would just be a matter of time. It would be a joke if a cultivator that was about to advance to the True Lake Stage suffocated to death in a swamp.

A few days later, Mo Wuji became even more relaxed, and began to cultivate while climbing. He used his modified cultivation technique, the Reverse Circulation Immortal Mortal Technique, to cultivate, which made his cultivation level improve quite a bit. Moreover, with the reverse circulation cultivation technique, his climbing speed increased tremendously too.

The spiritual energy present in the swamp was not only rich, but also very pure.

Cultivating while climbing. Anyway, Mo Wuji wasn’t in a rush like before.

No matter how fast he climbed, it was nowhere close to the speed that he plummeted at before. So he continuously climbed upwards for seven to eight days, and when light finally fell on his eyes, he knew that he had made it out.

Before his whole body left the mud, both of his legs seemed to be tangled in something, and the next moment, an even stronger force tugged at his feet. Mo Wuji, who had already climbed out of the swamp, was pulled back in again.

After being trapped inside the swamp for so many days, even though something was pulling him down again, Mo Wuji remained extremely calm. His spiritual will swept out, and detected that there were two vine-line things pulling his legs.

Seeing that this force was going to drag him into the depths unknown, Mo Wuji used the Scholar’s Heart in his Mind Palace to coat his feet.

Violent trembling could be felt coming from below, then the things that were grabbing his feet turned to ashes and disappeared. Mo Wuji heaved a sigh of relief, and increased his speed to get out of the swamp.

When he used the Scholar’s Heart to burn the vines at his feet, he could feel that those things were not simple. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have caused such violent trembling.

Whatever it was, it probably got shocked by Mo Wuji’s fire. A day later, he finally got out of the swamp again, and the thing that tangled his feet did not appear.

On the surface of the swamp, Mo Wuji lay prone, looking out at the surroundings. It was swamp everywhere, and the sky was greyish all round. There was nothing to take bearings from, and no north, south, east or west.

After a moment of hesitation, Mo Wuji drew out a low grade flying ship. He wanted to test if flying ships could be used as normal ships, at least not sinking in the swamp.

However, Mo Wuji got disappointed almost immediately. When he just took out the flying ship, it sank down swiftly, not even allowing him to retrieve it.

The scenery in all directions looked the same, so Mo Wuji couldn’t help it but pick a direction based on feeling, and started moving out. He decided to cultivate while moving. In his cultivation journey till now, he had experienced too many incidents. He had opened 102 meridians, so cultivating while moving wasn’t impossible.

Perhaps Mo Wuji was the only one that could perform such a feat.

…

The Fallen Ruins. This place looked like a temporary market, with many disorganised buildings and scattered stalls al around. If someone saw this place, he would think that it hadn’t been established for long.

In reality, the Fallen Ruins had existed for even longer than some other cultivation cities in Zhen Mo Continent. After so many years, it never managed to become an actual city because not many people would stay here for long, on top of the sparse spiritual energy present and its remote location.

With the sparse spiritual energy and no one living here for long, logically speaking, there should have been extremely low numbers of people coming here. But the reality was the complete opposite. The Fallen Ruins never had a lack of people arriving.

This was because the Fallen Ruins was situated at the edge of the Lost Sky Ruins, and even though the Zhen Mo Continent was very vast and wide, there weren’t many places that were as good for hiding as the Fallen Ruins. That’s right, the Fallen Ruins existed for people to hide from their enemies. In the Zhen Mo Continent, almost half of the cultivators would flee to the Fallen Ruins when being hunted down.