Chapter — The Mysterious Domain
The story begins inside the Demonic Mouth, where Die Yuan is still furious after everything that has happened.
He walks forward for a while, but suddenly, the space around him changes.
In the blink of an eye, Die Yuan finds himself in a completely different world.
Die Yuan looks around with a slightly surprised expression.
"Hmm… What kind of world is this? Is this still the Blue Star?"
He closes his eyes for a moment and carefully senses his surroundings.
"No… this doesn't feel like the Blue Star. This seems to be a completely different domain."
A strange energy fills the entire area. It is incredibly pure, far purer than the ordinary energy he had encountered before.
Die Yuan slowly opens his eyes.
"This energy is extremely pure. Whoever created this place must have been a powerful cultivator."
He looks around the mysterious surroundings.
"Judging from the energy and the laws contained here… the owner of this cave was probably a Great Saint Realm cultivator."
Die Yuan then continues walking deeper into the domain.
After walking for some time, he suddenly reaches the top of a huge cliff.
He stops.
The scenery in front of him leaves even Die Yuan slightly stunned.
Below the cliff, enormous mountains stretch across the horizon. Yet from this height, those gigantic mountains look surprisingly small.
The sky is vast and clear, painted with shades of deep blue and golden yellow. A brilliant sun hangs above the horizon, while a magnificent rainbow stretches across the sky.
Birds fly freely through the clouds.
Everything looks peaceful.
Beautiful.
Almost unreal.
Die Yuan quietly looks at the scenery for a few moments before speaking.
"Hmm… It seems the person who created this place must have loved nature."
He gives a small smile.
"That must be why this place was designed with such an incredible view."
He pauses before adding jokingly,
"I have to admit, this Great Saint had quite a good taste."
Die Yuan looks around again.
"Although… with beauty like this, I feel like the creator was probably a woman."
He suddenly tries to rise into the air.
But the moment he attempts to fly, an invisible force pushes against him.
Die Yuan raises an eyebrow.
"Hmm?"
He tries again.
Nothing happens.
He immediately understands.
"The Dao Laws of this place are restricting flight."
He looks toward the path leading down from the cliff.
"Looks like I'll have to explore this place on foot."
A faint smile appears on his face.
"Hmm… That might actually be more interesting."
He takes a step forward.
"But before that, I need to find the center of this domain."
Die Yuan becomes more serious.
"Ever since I entered this place, the world energy has been constantly telling me not to use my own power."
He looks at his hand.
"It seems this domain itself wants me to discover everything on my own."
Die Yuan sighs.
"Well, I guess there's no other choice."
He starts walking.
"At least one thing is certain…"
"I'm going to have plenty of time to explore this place."
The Mysterious Couple
Meanwhile, somewhere else within the domain, another beautiful scene appears.
A gigantic waterfall pours down from a towering mountain, its crystal-clear water crashing into the lake below.
The sound of the flowing water is peaceful and soothing.
Beside the waterfall stands a small, simple house.
Inside the house, two people are sitting across from each other, playing chess.
One of them is a beautiful young woman dressed entirely in white.
Across from her sits a young man.
The young man stares at the chessboard with frustration.
The woman calmly makes her final move.
"Checkmate."
The young man freezes.
He looks at the board.
Then at the woman.
Then back at the board.
"Again?!"
The woman simply smiles.
The young man complains,
"Come on! I've already lost seven times!"
The woman calmly replies,
"Gong Si Wang, what can I do? You're simply not good enough at chess."
Gong Si Wang sighs.
"I know you're good at chess, but you're seriously too strong."
He looks toward the woman.
"By the way, what do you think about that person who entered this realm?"
The woman, Gong Si Wang, looks slightly curious.
"The person who was angry inside the realm?"
"Yes."
Gong Si Wang thinks for a moment before continuing.
"I have a feeling he's either an extremely powerful cultivator… or perhaps even a Demonic Cultivator."
The young man becomes serious.
"That's what I was thinking too."
He looks toward the distant mountains.
"And wasn't this realm originally created to help identify and capture Demonic Cultivators?"
Gong Si Wang nods.
"That's right."
She then begins explaining the ancient history behind this mysterious realm.
The Age of the Demon King
"In ancient times, countless Demonic Cultivators appeared throughout the Immortal Land."
"The reason behind that disaster was one person…"
"Demon King Valtherion."
The atmosphere becomes heavy as soon as his name is mentioned.
"Valtherion once brought absolute chaos to the four heavens and the twenty-eight vast lands."
"To defeat him, seven Great Saints had to join forces."
"But even seven Great Saints working together were unable to easily defeat him."
"Valtherion was so powerful that he could fight all seven of them alone."
"The battle continued for nine days and ten nights."
"Yet even after such a terrifying battle, the seven Great Saints still couldn't kill him."
The woman pauses.
"So, they made an unimaginable decision."
"They sacrificed their own lives to create a powerful Heavenly Shield."
"But creating that shield required an enormous amount of power."
"Thousands of Martial Emperors and Martial Great Emperors had to sacrifice themselves."
"Many of the strongest cultivators in the Blue Star were nearly wiped out during that era."
"To maintain the Heavenly Shield, the power of ten Core Martial King Worlds was also consumed."
"After the shield was finally completed, countless cultivators throughout the Blue Star had perished."
"Even the seven Great Saints had to sacrifice their souls."
The young man listens silently.
"But there was something even stranger…"
"During that battle, the Supreme Ruler of the Heavens never appeared."
"No one knows why."
"Even now, the reason remains a complete mystery."
"After Valtherion was sealed, his seven generals survived."
"They eventually escaped to different domains and established their own territories."
"But some Demonic Cultivators remained behind in the Immortal Land."
"And they began hunting ordinary mortals."
The Spirit
The woman continues speaking.
"Because of those Demonic Cultivators, countless innocent people disappeared every day."
"Mortals could do nothing."
"They could only run, hide, and pray that they wouldn't become the next victims."
"Then, one day…"
"A mysterious spirit appeared."
"No one knew where it came from."
"At first, the mortals were terrified of it."
"But as time passed, they slowly became familiar with the spirit."
"They realized that it wasn't there to harm them."
"It was actually helping them."
"The spirit eventually witnessed the Demonic Cultivators slaughtering innocent people."
"But the Immortal cultivators did nothing."
"So the spirit made a decision."
"It would hunt the Demonic Cultivators itself."
"But there was one major problem."
"The spirit wasn't powerful enough."
"It possessed nowhere near enough strength to fight those cultivators directly."
"However…"
"It possessed something else."
"Intelligence."
"The spirit began creating traps specifically designed to capture Demonic Cultivators."
"Slowly, its methods began working."
"Fewer and fewer mortals started disappearing."
"But the problem was far from solved."
"Even though the number of deaths had decreased, Demonic Cultivators were still hunting innocent people."
Among the mortals, however, there was one particularly strange young man.
Unlike the others, he possessed an unusually strong physique.
He was still only a mortal, yet his strength was completely different from that of ordinary people.
And more importantly…
He was the one person who constantly helped the spirit.
He assisted it with almost everything.
One day, the young man finally approached the spirit.
He lowered his head slightly and said,
"Sir… I wanted to tell you something."
The spirit looked toward him.
The young man's name was…
Shen Luo.
And unbeknownst to everyone…
Shen Luo's appearance would eventually become one of the most important turning points in the history of this mysterious realm.