"The place where the Ancestral Celestial Master attained enlightenment, yet beyond these thirteen characters, I feel no other divine power. The Qingqiang sacrifice and this stele inscription should have no relation. If it were meant to suppress something by being left here, the inscription seems to have had no effect."
The Dao of Supreme Purity and Primordial Beginning is the main cultivation method for Supreme Purity cultivators, passed down from the Ancestral Celestial Master, said to be a transmission from Laozi, who received the twenty-four chapters of Supreme Purity Daoist texts.
Ji Xiang pondered for a moment, then white clouds surged from his body, covering the stone tablet and stripping away the form and spirit of those thirteen characters.
As the form and spirit of the thirteen characters were lost, these thirteen characters gradually became invisible to people and began to fade. Ji Xiang released his immortal divine sense, sensing all directions, but found no change.
"Just in case."
This place is the true Wawu Mountain, its real appearance. Famous mountains and great rivers are often concealed by restrictions or illusions, their true forms hidden within grotto-heavens or dharma realms, which is not particularly unusual. For example, the true form of Qingliushan, belonging to the Lushanshan Sect, is in another world, not in the human realm.
There must be great danger in the mountains. Taking the inscription left by the Ancestral Celestial Master at the moment of his enlightenment might help avert disaster at a critical moment.
He moved forward, past the stone tablet.
Suddenly, a voice appeared in his mind.
[Returned to position.]
Descending from the void, not from any direction in the heavens and earth, Ji Xiang stopped abruptly. He looked back, and the stele of Zhang Daoling had vanished!
As for the ten-thousand-zhang high ghost, it did not appear either, so this voice did not come from it.
Ji Xiang was surprised. He quickly walked back to his original position, but the scenery had changed. In an instant, the clouds and mist before his eyes cleared, revealing a vast and boundless high sky and a great river. The river flowed wide and ceaselessly, but beyond the river, the world's border was still covered by layers upon layers of immense formations, preventing all living beings from entering or exiting.
The immortal energy here was extraordinarily dense, and demonic energy also surged to the sky. Spiritual energy surged, abundant and plentiful.
This is not the human world!
"The level of this spiritual energy..."
Ji Xiang tested it. Merely by casually casting a lightning spell, he suddenly caused thunder to rumble in the sky. When he used the Golden Light Spell, it also shone brightly, and the surrounding heaven and earth spiritual energy gathered. With just a slight intake and exhalation, he felt as if he had grown three heads and six arms. The surrounding spiritual energy could be extended infinitely under his control and changed at will.
An unbelievable thought arose in his mind.
"Could this place be... the Inner Mountains and Rivers?!"
There was indeed a path to the Inner Mountains and Rivers before Wawu Mountain, but he never expected to enter by crossing the stele of Zhang Daoling, completely isolated from the human world. Looking at the formation wall outside the great river, it seemed that even in the Inner Mountains and Rivers, Wawu Mountain was extremely special, perhaps even inaccessible to those at the Heavenly Heart realm.
Within the Inner Mountains and Rivers, it was also a perilous place?
"Strange, strange! The passage between the outer and inner mountains and rivers is severed. Could it be that the only way to enter Wawu Mountain is through the stele of Zhang Daoling in the human world?"
Immortals entering the Inner Mountains and Rivers were like fish in water, but at the same time, they were further away from the Heavenly Dao. Ji Xiang could sense this. The responsiveness of the Demon King was gradually decreasing. Although the power of spells had greatly increased, and his immortal energy and divine abilities had likely grown, he could no longer mobilize the "Dao" between heaven and earth to assist him.
Fortunately, the Primordial Thunder Sound was a new path. Ji Xiang tested it slightly, emitting a soft sound, and the thunder sound remained, which finally put his mind at ease.
Lightning spells without Dao only possessed considerable power. Without the nature of "Dao" within them, it meant that lightning could not slay evil spirits, and water could not extinguish fires. The principles of all things in the world would fade. Even if drought or flood occurred, mortals would not be burned or drowned to death.
The five elements of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth would only retain their forms and their mutually restrictive properties. Thunder could not be the wrath of heaven, and yin and yang could not harmonize each other. Ghosts could roam in broad daylight, and demons would not fear Buddhist dharma or thunderous sounds.
In this light, the Heavenly Heart realm cultivators in the Inner Mountains and Rivers, each dividing a celestial domain, perhaps it was precisely because there was no Dao that they achieved Heavenly Heart, existing as substitutes for "Dao." Human hearts replaced Heavenly Hearts, establishing the rules of the celestial domains and completing these missing Daos, thus preventing the dharma in the Inner Mountains and Rivers from ultimately taking a single path, and maintaining most of its original appearance.
Buddha was still Buddha, Dao was still Dao, Fangshi was still Fangshi, and Confucianism was still Confucianism.
Otherwise, if the nature of Dao were lost, Buddha would be Dao. Dao would emerge from Confucianism, and Confucianism would merge with Fangshi. The three teachings and the Fangshi would truly be one family.
*Crack...*
Demonic energy surged in the mountains, very active, as if some monster was awakening. At the same time, the voice of the ten-thousand-zhang high ghost reappeared. The first sacrifice had not yet ended. Now that it had recovered, those hanged corpses reappeared in the sky.
Ji Xiang frowned. Engaging in a protracted battle with the ten-thousand-zhang high ghost was an unwise decision. He immediately employed transformation techniques.
Demonic energy began to rise from all corners of the mountain, forming one demon soldier after another in Ji Xiang's perception. However, they were vastly different from the demons of the current era. Each of them was ten zhang tall, extremely ferocious, with grotesque and varied faces. In one hand, they held an axe, and in the other, they wielded a snake.
Two green snakes!
However, the expected attack did not come. After appearing, these demon soldiers moved collectively in a certain direction, their numbers increasing. They were like believers attending a pilgrimage. Ji Xiang followed them to the deepest part of Wawu Mountain and saw an ancient, simple great temple.
Outside the great temple, demon soldiers gathered. What shocked Ji Xiang was that to the west of the temple, a colossal green bronze ram, as large as an ordinary mountain, lay with a broken horn and a corpse at its feet. However, the immortal energy on its body still lingered, and it was unclear how many eons it had been dead.
There was a gash on its head, as if it had been killed by a sharp weapon.
Inside the great temple, a divine platform was empty.
Ji Xiang entered it and approached the divine platform. Suddenly, a force burst outward from his body, attracted by the divine platform. Subsequently, his external appearance also changed, transforming into the White-Faced Zhenwu.
[From the time of Yin and Zhou, the tortoise was worshipped by all beings in the world as a supreme deity of the underworld and the earth. Later, it also served as the god of darkness and the god of the north, the ruler of the nether and the bright, and the embodiment of yin and yang. In the Qin and Han dynasties, the divine tortoise guarding the north was called Xuanwu. Above Xuanwu, there was often a feathered person holding the immortal herb of immortality, with the Yellow Dragon Ganoderma blooming all over his body, worshipped by the Han people.]
[Xuanwu, as the lord of the nether, rules death beneath the earth; the feathered person, as the lord of the bright, rules life on earth.]
That inexplicable voice sounded once more, and by this time, Ji Xiang had discovered who was speaking.
It was himself.
To be precise, it was the form and spirit of this White-Faced Zhenwu!
Ji Xiang did not hesitate. He enveloped himself with the Tongtian Mingyan smoke and then stripped the form and spirit of the White-Faced Zhenwu from his body. As expected, after the White-Faced Zhenwu separated from Ji Xiang, as a being of form and spirit, it clearly possessed self-will. In its eyes, filled with majesty, a bright light gradually emerged, as if containing the sun, moon, and stars.
"Ancestral God?"