The First Immortal of Destiny

After refining the three major Dungeons into the Green Cloud Cave, Shen Mo did not immediately manifest the Green Cloud Cave at the Riverside Sect’s mountain gate. Instead, he rode a beam of light to the Black Mountain Demon Suppression Cave!

Heishan Town is located at the border of You State and Jing State, very close to the Ghost Nation Ruins.

The sect’s Supreme Elder, Feng Daogu, was originally stationed in the defense city situated between Heishan Town and the Ghost Nation Ruins. His intention was to block the continuous inflow of Demon-corrupted Soul Ghosts and acquire a large amount of blood food from them.

After the drastic changes in the world, the Ghost Nation Ruins also underwent a transformation.

An intense aura of death covered the sky and the earth, sometimes accompanied by eerie ghost music echoing through the area, with glimpses of dignified processions and terrifying ghost shadows weaving through it!

After that, no further news came from either the human city, where a large number of cultivators were stationed, or the Black Mountain Demon Suppression Cave.

The lost cultivators included not only Feng Daogu but also a Golden Core Realm cultivator from both the Heaven Sword Sect and the Ghost Corpse School, as well as numerous Sect Disciples from the Five Great Sects and various other factions.

Now that Shen Mo had become a Heavenly Monarch, he naturally needed to investigate and see if he could rescue the lost individuals.

Moreover, the Death Jaw he longed for was also in the depths of the Ghost Nation Ruins. Given the opportunity, Shen Mo wanted to delve deeper into its secrets.

「...」

Divine Bridge Realm powerhouses, using regular Escape Skills and traveling continuously without rest, could cover 500,000 to 1,000,000 miles in a day and night.

And Shen Mo, using the Soar Cloud Immortal Method, could travel over 700,000 miles in a day and night. In a single breath (five seconds), he could fly forty miles, reaching the vicinity of Heishan Town in just the time it took to drink a cup of tea (ten minutes)!

The golden rainbow landed in Jing State, only a few hundred miles from the soaring Ghost Qi.

Shen Mo stepped out of the golden rainbow, his eyes flashing as he gazed far into the ”Ghost Country.” After a few glances, he turned and left, without any intention of delving deeper!

Patriarch Feng has indeed perished. Neither the human city nor the Black Mountain Demon Suppression Cave has been spared...

The Ghost Nation Ruins... what kind of changes have occurred?

Even after rapidly retreating thousands of miles, Shen Mo’s heart still pounded with lingering fear from what he had sensed; it was truly astonishing!

Before establishing his Divine Bridge, he had passed by this place several times, observing from a distance.

In Shen Mo’s original perception, this place was no different from the forbidden lands of other Outer Zone races.

It was shrouded in dense mist, obstructing his five senses, divine sense, magic, Destiny, and other means of further exploration and perception!

Therefore, Shen Mo had initially believed that the mutation of the Ghost Nation Ruins was merely a forbidden land from the Nether Realm descending upon this site. At most, it was somewhat stronger than other forbidden lands, and the Outer Zone creatures within it were merely more bizarre and formidable!

But now that Shen Mo had advanced to a higher Dao Realm, his various perceptive abilities had also improved significantly. Only then did he realize the true situation was far from as simple as he had previously imagined.

His keener five senses and divine sense pierced through the dense mist, allowing him to vaguely glimpse the scene hidden beneath the ghostly fog.

In the heavily fortified strongholds where Human Cultivators were stationed, and in the Black Mountain Demon Suppression Cave once occupied by Foreign Realm Demons, not a single living creature could be found. Only ghostly shadows resembling cultivators and Heavenly Demons wandered aimlessly...

His special Destiny, [Insight into All Beings], had no effect on them, proving these ghostly shadows were not living beings—not even Soul Ghosts!

And within the entire ”Ghost Country,” there were many such entities.

Besides the ghostly shadows of cultivators and Heavenly Demons, there were even numerous shadows of Outer Zone creatures.

Many of these Outer Zone creatures he had never seen before, but he could vaguely discern the appearances of some, which seemed to be Flower Fairies, Gold Men, Thousand-eyed beings, Human-faced Willows, and other Outer Zone races!

Their state of existence was ghost-like yet not ghostly, resembling Evil Spirits yet not quite; they were profoundly eerie and terrifying.

Their only commonality was that all these ghostly apparitions emanated an extremely horrifying aura of decay and death.

Beyond this, there were many things within the Ghost Nation Ruins that he ”perceived” but could not distinguish, as if his entire field of vision was distorted and murky. It was difficult to describe this bizarre sensation in words.

These were the things Shen Mo perceived when he ”looked” for the first time.

When he ”looked” a second time, everything he perceived had changed, becoming even more grotesque and bizarre, even more difficult to comprehend!

Afterwards, Shen Mo perceived more. A contingent of ghostly figures resembling a ”funeral procession” moved towards the horizon, accompanied by the alternating sounds of eight musical instruments. Though they were clearly moving away from Shen Mo’s position, he felt as if they were drawing nearer to him.

There were also several entities that seemed like Evil Spirits, constantly exuding an aura of death as they drifted and submerged within the ghostly fog...

Shen Mo had a strong premonition that the current ”Ghost Nation Ruins” seemed even more dangerous and terrifying than powerful creatures like the Soaring Serpent, the Bizarre Dragon, or the Four-eyed Giant, and more so than any of the various Evil Spirits in the world!

Merely a few glances had nearly triggered the ”Three Disasters and Six Tribulations” that came after he became a Heavenly Monarch.

Only after his escaping light was far away did he realize that his [Chanjue] Destiny had been constantly warning his mind, yet he had carelessly ignored it. Had he lingered even a moment longer, he might very well have ended up dead, his Dao dissipated!

「...」

Several thousand miles away from the Ghost Nation Ruins, with a thought, Shen Mo’s divine sense extended towards the Fairy Flower Valley in Yu State.

Soon, he connected with the Class V Flower Fairy, Yao!

”Big Moro Yao,” Shen Mo began respectfully, ”may I ask if you know anything about the Ghost Nation Ruins located at the border of You State and Jing State? It doesn’t seem like an ordinary forbidden land!”

The Flower Fairy clan had migrated through multiple Withering Realms.

Yao, as the Protector of Fairy Flower Valley, naturally possessed far greater knowledge regarding forbidden lands, Evil Spirits, Withering Realms, and similar matters than Shen Mo, a native of the Primordial Realm.

Hearing Shen Mo’s inquiry, Yao was visibly startled, ”Shen, did you enter that Ghost Zone?”

”Not at all! Just standing far off and observing nearly triggered my ’Three Disasters and Six Tribulations.’ If I had actually entered, I doubt you, Big Moro Yao, would be hearing from me now.”

Only then did Flower Fairy Yao breathe a sigh of relief and proceed to tell Shen Mo what she knew.

According to her explanation, the current ”Ghost Nation Ruins” was a small world that had been tainted by the Death Ghost Realm!

Humans die and become ghosts; ghosts die and become Death Ghosts.

The Death Ghost Realm is a world where not even ”ghosts” can survive—a place devoid of any living beings, without the slightest hint of vitality!

Even Big Moro Yao did not know its exact origins.

However, the Outer Zone races, including the Flower Fairies, speculated that the Death Ghost Realm is an amalgamation of countless ”Dead Realms”—the ultimate destination for all Withering Realms.

Within the Death Ghost Realm, all beings of heaven and earth, all things, have already ”died.”

Even metaphysical concepts such as ”nature’s spiritual energy,” ”Dao Methods,” and ”The Heavens” exist there only in the form of ”Death Ghosts”!

Therefore, any living being, whether a cultivator or an Outer Zone creature, no matter how great their Skills or how all-powerful they were, would have absolutely no chance of survival once they fell into the Death Ghost Realm.

And all worlds currently in decay, like the Primordial Realm at present, would eventually be tainted by the decaying, deathly aura of the ”Death Ghost Realm.”

The Ghost Nation Ruins is precisely such a tainted area!