The Quest for Immortality

The Barbarian Elder stood there, stupefied like a stone sculpture, completely bewildered by what had happened despite his life’s experiences.

In the blinding golden light, he seemed to see the fearless and invincible tribal Barbarian God being torn apart by the bare hands of an infant-like... unknown creature, and then swallowed into its belly.

Even the eruption of Wutu Volcano wouldn’t be more terrifying than this incident.

The Barbarian Elder began to tremble all over. With fear in his heart, he widened his muddied eyes, trying to glimpse the unfathomable existence within that cluster of golden light.

But as soon as the Barbarian God died, the dreamscape shattered.

The surrounding stone temple and altar started to distort.

Once everything calmed, the Barbarian Elder opened his eyes and found himself still kneeling inside the mountain cave, in front of that shallow and crude offering table.

The blood patterns beneath his feet hadn’t dried, facing a barren stone wall.

The heat in the mountain, the low calls of birds and beasts, the stale scent of the cave, and the damp coolness gradually returned to his flesh.

The Barbarian Elder only felt as if he had a dream.

In the dream, he summoned his courage, bravely fighting the Barbarian God, yet despite all his efforts, he couldn’t defeat the Barbarian God.

It was at that moment that a Divine Lord descended from the heavens and casually killed the Barbarian God.

All these years, day and night, he had hoped for such an intervention, and sometimes would dream of it.

But he knew it was illogical.

This was merely his delusion.

It was just the fantasy of the powerless wishing for a deity to save them from sorrow and despair.

”So now... am I dreaming? Or in reality? If it’s reality, should I still offer Little Zatu to Mr. Barbarian God...”

For a moment, the Barbarian Elder couldn’t discern reality from the illusion.

Just then, a sharp pain arose within his Divine Sense.

It felt as if his Divine Thought had an arm torn off and his chest split open, a pain like ten thousand needles stabbing deeply into the Elder’s Sea of Consciousness.

The Barbarian Elder’s body trembled, and cold sweat soaked his back.

Not knowing what to do, a clear, slightly resonant voice rang in his ears:

”Focus, meditate, restrain yourself, all external appearances are illusory thoughts, all pain is merely the mind’s delusion.”

The words were pronounced clearly, not the voice of any Barbarian Cultivator.

Yet this voice seemed to carry a force as clear as spring water, purifying the heart with magic.

The Barbarian Elder, subconsciously guided by this voice, stabilized his mind, discarded pain, and held firm to his true self.

After a long while, the wounds on his Divine Soul temporarily healed.

The tendency for the Divine Soul to split due to depletion also halted.

The Barbarian Elder slowly lifted his head, only to find that standing before him, sometime unnoticed, was a mysterious youth.

He struggled to describe the feeling this youth gave him.

The robe was plain, dust-covered, yet the gaze was exceptionally bright, with compassion and kindness residing in the depths, an insightful profundity, along with an unquestionable dignity.

His face was as fair as jade, possessing the determination of a male yet the gracefulness of a female, like a being from the heavens.

The youth stood there naturally, seemingly resonating with the earth’s breath, connecting with the fortune of the heavens.

A thought escaped the Barbarian Elder’s mind:

”Even a Divine Lord walking the world might appear this way...”

The Elder stared, dazed for quite a while, when suddenly alarmed in his heart.

The scene of the Barbarian God being torn apart resurfaced in his mind.

He didn’t know if the Barbarian God was truly dead, or if it had something to do with the mysterious youth before him.

But he knew, whether related or not, the unfathomable youth before him was not someone he could offend.

The Barbarian Elder immediately lowered his head, bent at the waist, and solemnly bowed to Mo Hua:

”I, Zamu, greet... Senior.”

He didn’t know Mo Hua’s age, but he definitely wouldn’t dare to act grand.

In the Dao there is no hierarchy, the accomplished are revered.

Even upon a random meeting, with no familial ties, encountering a cultivator with greater attainment, regardless of appearance, humbling oneself and respectfully calling the other ’Senior’ is always proper.

Mo Hua’s impression of the Elder indeed piqued further.

No matter whether it was for his grandson or for his tribe, as a cultivator able to fight ’Barbarian God’ with his life, his character and bravery were evident.

”Is your name Zamu?” Mo Hua asked.

It was a crisp youthful voice, seeming very young.

But the Elder dared not slack, cupped his hands and replied: ”Yes.”

”Are you a clan elder?”

The Elder said: ”Yes, I am the elder of Wutu Mountain, Wutu Tribe.”

Wutu?

Mo Hua was slightly puzzled.

Though he reminded himself, the Barbarian script of the Great Wilderness and the text of the Taoist Court were different. ”Wutu” was likely Barbarian script, but directly ’transliterated’ following the Taoist Court’s unification of script.

Including the Elder’s ”Zamu” might also be.

”Then let me ask you,” Mo Hua’s gaze subtly shifted, ”Where is this place, located in which area of the Great Wilderness? How far is it from the Nine State?”

The Barbarian Elder paused.

He hadn’t expected this mysterious youth to inquire such a ’basic’ question.

Did he come here without knowing where this place was?

Or is it... was he really dropped from the sky?

The Elder thought for a bit, not daring to hide anything, and said:

”To ’Senior,’ this is Wutu Mountain Range, situated south of vast wilderness, west of Endless Abyssal Swamp, one of the three thousand realms of the Great Wilderness. As for how far from the Nine State...”

The Elder laughed bitterly, ”In my whole life, I’ve never left this Wutu Mountain, nor do I know how vast it is outside.”

”Just hearing some clan elders say, the Nine State belongs to the ’extreme north,’ unknown how many tens of thousands of miles away, with the desert stretching endlessly, sea of sand vast and boundless, impossible to traverse in a lifetime...”