Several hours later, Lin Sheng finally arrived at the Changsheng Abode.
The moment he entered the secluded cultivation chamber, he immediately activated the surrounding restrictions, sealing the entire area from outside perception before retrieving the crimson orb and the storage ring he had taken from Mo Tou's corpse.
He first examined the crimson orb.
Now that he had some time to study it properly, he could sense the five demonic Divine Abilities contained within it, each one existing as a distinct seed of power. They were connected to the orb through an intricate network of formations, and beneath those fluctuations, Lin Sheng could detect something else.
'A pulse'
It was extremely faint, almost indistinguishable from the fluctuations of the treasure itself, but it appeared at regular intervals, resembling the heartbeat of a living creature.
Lin Sheng's eyebrows rose.
"Interesting."
He carefully extended his mental perception, examining the inner structure of the treasure, and the more he studied it, the more surprised he became.
The crimson orb was clearly designed to eventually become a Spiritual Treasure through the birth of a Treasure Spirit. Its current structure already possessed the necessary foundations, and the five Divine Ability seeds were likely intended to become part of the Treasure Spirit's future abilities.
However, he hadn't expected the process to have already begun.
There was a faint spiritual consciousness forming within the treasure, although it was still extremely immature, barely possessing enough awareness to respond to the fluctuations surrounding it. It was not yet a true Treasure Spirit, but the regular pulse suggested that the process of nurturing one had progressed considerably further than he had initially assumed.
Lin Sheng examined it for a while longer before finally storing the orb away.
"That fellow certainly invested quite a lot into this thing."
He couldn't help feeling that Mo Tou's ambitions had been rather extraordinary. If the treasure had been allowed to mature, it might genuinely have become a formidable Spiritual Treasure, and with the additional Divine Ability seeds it was designed to nurture, its future potential would have been considerable.
Unfortunately, its previous owner was already dead.
Lin Sheng then turned his attention towards the storage ring.
He had obtained it from Mo Tou's corpse, and considering the latter's identity, there was bound to be something valuable inside. He casually extended his mental perception towards the ring, intending to examine its contents.
The moment his perception entered it, however, a piercing light suddenly erupted.
WENG!
A brilliant spiritual radiance shot out from within the storage ring, following the connection formed by Lin Sheng's mental perception as it rushed directly towards his consciousness.
Lin Sheng's head rang violently.
His body staggered a step, and for an instant, his vision became blurred.
Then he heard laughter.
It came from somewhere within his spirit, a sinister, delighted voice that seemed to reverberate directly through his consciousness.
"Jie jie jie! What a magnificent Sea of Consciousness! And this physique..."
The laughter became increasingly excited.
"What an exquisite body, you certainly have plenty of secrets. Since you've already brought me here, why don't you simply let me take over?"
Inside Lin Sheng's Sea of Consciousness, a mass of spiritual light had already begun taking shape.
The light gradually condensed into the phantom figure of Mo Tou.
Lin Sheng's expression changed slightly.
'So he prepared a final trick'
He immediately understood what had happened.
Mo Tou had apparently left a fragment of his spirit inside the storage ring, using it as a trap to invade the consciousness of whoever attempted to examine its contents. The moment Lin Sheng's mental perception entered the ring, the fragment had followed the connection and forced its way into his Sea of Consciousness.
It was a rather insidious method.
If this had happened to an ordinary Golden Body cultivator, the consequences could have been disastrous. Even if their physique was powerful, their spiritual foundation might not have been sufficiently developed to resist the invasion of a former True Monarch's soul fragment.
However, Lin Sheng's expression soon returned to normal.
This was hardly a serious problem.
Mo Tou, on the other hand, was already examining the enormous Sea of Consciousness surrounding him.
His phantom spirit looked around with undisguised greed.
He could sense the extraordinary stability of this spiritual space, and the density of the consciousness within it was far beyond what he had expected from an external cultivator. Even more astonishing was the spiritual platform supporting the Sea of Consciousness, which possessed an exceptionally solid foundation.
'What an incredible foundation!'
Mo Tou's eyes gleamed.
He had originally intended to seize Lin Sheng's body after weakening him through their battle, but now that he had entered his Sea of Consciousness, he realised that he might have encountered something far more valuable than he had anticipated.
'This fellow's physique is extraordinary, and his spiritual foundation is equally impressive. There are definitely secrets hidden within this body!'
He immediately looked towards the centre of the Sea of Consciousness.
There, surrounded by layers of spiritual light, was a spherical existence.
Lin Sheng's True Spirit.
Mo Tou's expression became excited.
He knew that he couldn't directly possess Lin Sheng's body through ordinary means. A Nascent Soul True Monarch could normally use their Nascent Soul to possess another body, but this opportunity was limited to once. Attempting a second possession would result in the complete annihilation of the Nascent Soul.
He had already used that opportunity when he took over He Jinfeng's body.
There was no second chance.
However, there was another method.
True Spirit Devouring.
It was a far more dangerous technique, requiring the invader to pass through the opponent's spiritual defences and directly reach their True Spirit. Once there, the invader could attempt to devour the target's spiritual essence, memories, and consciousness, gradually replacing the original owner.
Naturally, this method carried enormous risks.
The Sea of Consciousness wasn't merely a container for spiritual power. It was the foundation upon which a cultivator's consciousness and memories existed, and the True Spirit contained the most fundamental imprint of their existence.
Attempting to devour another person's True Spirit meant exposing one's own spirit to the target's memories, emotions, experiences, and personality.
Even if the devouring succeeded, the result was rarely a complete continuation of the original invader.
The two spirits would inevitably influence one another, and the resulting existence would usually become something entirely different from either of them.
In the worst cases, the conflicting memories and personalities could cause the invader's consciousness to become disordered, eventually destroying the very identity they had intended to preserve.
For that reason, even among True Monarchs, very few were willing to attempt True Spirit Devouring.
But Mo Tou had no choice.
His Nascent Soul possession opportunity had already been exhausted, and his current existence was nothing more than a fragment of his former spirit. If he wanted to escape his present predicament and obtain a body with extraordinary potential, he had to take risks.
More importantly, this was the Golden Age of cultivation.
The world had changed.
Unlike the period in which he had originally cultivated, the restrictions imposed upon the world seemed to have weakened considerably, allowing cultivators with sufficient potential to pursue realms that had once been completely inaccessible.
If he could seize Lin Sheng's body, master its secrets, and eventually reach Rank 5 Treasure Body, he might obtain an opportunity to ascend beyond the limits that had imprisoned cultivators of his generation.
The prospect was simply too tempting.
Mo Tou immediately flew towards Lin Sheng's True Spirit.
However, just as he was about to pass through the outer layers of the spiritual foundation, he suddenly heard Lin Sheng's voice.
"Wait! Don't be rash!"
Mo Tou turned his head.
The surrounding spiritual light trembled, and he could sense Lin Sheng's consciousness attempting to interfere with his movement.
"Please, we can discuss this!"
The voice sounded somewhat hurried.
Mo Tou laughed.
"Hahaha! Now you know how to beg?"
He had already decided that Lin Sheng's fate was sealed.
Although the opponent's Sea of Consciousness was unusually powerful, Mo Tou was still a former True Monarch. Even if he had been reduced to a fragment spirit, his understanding of spiritual cultivation was far beyond that of an ordinary Golden Core cultivator.
He immediately accelerated.
Lin Sheng's apparent panic only made him more confident.
'You should have thought about this before killing me!'
The phantom spirit passed through the outer layers of Lin Sheng's soul and finally arrived before the spherical True Spirit.
Mo Tou stopped.
For a brief moment, he examined the object before him, and the greed in his eyes became almost tangible.
"Wonderful..."
He raised both hands.
The spiritual energy surrounding his phantom began revolving rapidly as ancient incantations emerged from his mouth, forming strange runes that gradually gathered around the spherical True Spirit.
He was preparing to begin the devouring process.
But at that exact moment—
BOOOOOOM!
An unimaginable force descended.
The entire ground beneath the Sea of Consciousness seemed to awaken, and an immense gravity erupted from every direction, pressing Mo Tou's phantom spirit directly towards the ground.
His body slammed face-first against the spiritual surface.
"What?!"
He tried to move.
But he couldn't.
It was as though an entire world had suddenly descended upon him, pressing his spiritual body into the ground with an overwhelming force.
Before he could understand what had happened, an enormous diagram appeared beneath him.
A brilliant yellow sun emerged from the ground, its surface covered in intricate patterns resembling the origin of the earth itself.
The light illuminated the entire Sea of Consciousness.
Mo Tou's expression changed drastically.
'What is this?!'
He immediately attempted to resist.
The spiritual pressure of a former Nascent Soul True Monarch erupted from his phantom spirit, and although he was merely a fragment, he still possessed a portion of the spiritual authority he had once commanded.
A terrifying pressure spread outward.
However, his current condition was far from what it had been during his peak.
He could barely unleash a fraction of his former power, and even that was less than one hundredth of the spiritual pressure he could have released as a True Monarch.
Nevertheless, he believed it should be sufficient.
After all, he was facing a cultivator whose cultivation had not even reached the Nascent Soul Realm.
Unfortunately, Mo Tou had underestimated his opponent.
Lin Sheng remained seated within his Sea of Consciousness, his eyes closed as he calmly controlled the Yellow Origin Sun diagram.
His Spiritual Platform had already reached its peak, and the spiritual pressure he could release had been pushed to the extreme of what a Golden Core-level Shen could achieve.
Although there was still a considerable difference between his current spiritual foundation and that of a genuine Nascent Soul True Monarch, Mo Tou's fragment was far too weak to overwhelm him.
The pressure from the Yellow Origin Sun diagram continued increasing.
Mo Tou's phantom spirit trembled.
His resistance began collapsing.
"What kind of spiritual foundation is this?!"
He struggled desperately, attempting to force his way out of the gravity pressing against him, but every movement only caused the yellow radiance beneath him to shine more brightly.
Lin Sheng finally opened his eyes.
He looked down at Mo Tou's struggling phantom with an indifferent expression.
Mo Tou's confidence disappeared.
For the first time since entering the Sea of Consciousness, he realised that something was terribly wrong.
The opponent hadn't been frightened.
He hadn't been helpless.
He had simply allowed Mo Tou to approach.
And now...
He was trapped.
"Wait!"
Mo Tou immediately changed his tone.
"Young friend, listen to me! I have many secrets that I can share with you. There are things you cannot possibly know about this continent, secrets concerning the major powers, ancient inheritances, and even the Forbidden Lands!"
Lin Sheng remained silent.
Mo Tou struggled to raise his head.
"I can tell you everything! I know the secrets behind the major factions, I know where their hidden treasures are located, and I can even tell you how to reach the higher realms!"
His voice became increasingly urgent.
"Spare me, and I will tell you everything!"
Lin Sheng watched him quietly.
It wasn't that he wasn't interested.
On the contrary, the secrets of a former True Monarch were undoubtedly valuable, particularly someone who had survived the transition from one era of cultivation to another.
However, as he examined Mo Tou's spiritual fragment, Lin Sheng gradually realised something.
This spirit was still carrying an enormous amount of information, but its structure was unstable. The longer it remained within his Sea of Consciousness, the greater the risk of it attempting another desperate counterattack.
There was no reason to leave such a threat alive.
Moreover, Lin Sheng already possessed a method of dealing with spiritual invaders.
His gaze shifted towards the Yellow Origin Sun diagram.
The diagram suddenly shone.
A faint golden flame emerged.
At first, it was no more than a single strand of light, barely thicker than a hair, but the moment it appeared, the entire Sea of Consciousness trembled.
Mo Tou's expression froze.
His eyes widened.
Then, as though he had recognised something impossible, his voice suddenly became shrill.
"Sun True Fire?!"
He stared at the golden flame in absolute disbelief.
"How can you possess Sun True Fire?!"
Lin Sheng didn't answer.
The flame moved.
It wrapped around Mo Tou's phantom spirit, and the moment it made contact, the demonic spiritual energy surrounding him began to burn.
FWOOSH!
Mo Tou let out an agonised scream.
"AAAAAH!"
This was not ordinary fire.
The pain was incomparably more terrifying than having one's physical body burned alive. The Natal Solar True Fire was scorching his spirit directly, penetrating his consciousness and burning away the very foundation of his existence.
Mo Tou struggled violently.
His phantom spirit twisted as he attempted to escape, but the Yellow Origin Sun diagram held him firmly in place, preventing even the slightest movement.
The golden flames continued spreading.
His spiritual energy began disintegrating, and the memories contained within his fragment were gradually exposed as countless fragments of consciousness.
Mo Tou's expression twisted in agony.
"You... you bastard!"
His earlier pleading vanished.
"May you fail your Tribulation! May your body collapse when you attempt to reach Rank 5! You will never—"
His curse was cut short by another wave of flames.
The Natal Solar True Fire engulfed his phantom spirit completely.
Mo Tou's screams echoed throughout the Sea of Consciousness before gradually weakening, his phantom figure becoming increasingly fragmented until even the last trace of his consciousness disappeared.
Silence returned.
Only countless fragments of spiritual light remained, floating above the Yellow Origin Sun diagram.
Lin Sheng watched them for a moment.
Then, behind him, a towering structure slowly manifested.
The Nine-Layer Spiritual Platform Tower.
Its nine levels emerged one after another, each layer releasing a faint radiance as the tower began rotating on its own. A powerful suction force spread outward, drawing the fragments of Mo Tou's spirit towards it.
The fragments entered the tower.
WENG!
Lin Sheng's body suddenly froze.
An enormous wave of information surged into his consciousness.
Memories, cultivation techniques, ancient histories, spiritual insights, and countless scattered experiences flooded his mind in an instant, threatening to overwhelm his perception.
His expression changed.
He immediately activated his chip.
The enormous flow of information was divided, organised, and gradually arranged into separate categories, allowing him to process the memories without being overwhelmed by their sheer volume.
Even so, the process took considerable time.
---
An entire day later, Lin Sheng finally opened his eyes.
He was still seated in a lotus position, his expression somewhat tired as he examined the information he had managed to organise.
Although the Nine-Layer Spiritual Platform Tower had absorbed Mo Tou's spiritual fragments, it hadn't instantly transformed every memory into something Lin Sheng could understand. Many of the fragments were incomplete, some were damaged by the Natal Solar True Fire, while others contained memories that had become disordered during Mo Tou's long existence.
Nevertheless, the information he had recovered was already astonishing.
First, he finally learned the identity of Mo Tou.
Mo Tou was his Daoist name.
He had once been a demonic cultivator of the Profound Union Sect, one of the strongest demonic sects during the final period before the Dharma Decline of his era.
His talent had been extraordinary.
He possessed a Heavenly Spiritual Root, his comprehension was excellent, and his cultivation foundation had been carefully established through the resources and inheritances of a powerful sect.
Under ordinary circumstances, someone with his aptitude should have reached the True Monarch Realm before the age of five hundred.
However, his circumstances were far from ordinary.
During his generation, the continent was gradually entering a period of resource depletion. Spiritual energy was becoming increasingly scarce, heavenly materials were harder to obtain, and many ancient cultivation grounds had already been exhausted.
Even with the backing of the Profound Union Sect, Mo Tou's cultivation progressed considerably slower than expected.
It had taken him nearly seven hundred and fifty years to become a True Monarch.
That was an astonishingly long period for someone of his talent.
In a prosperous Golden Age, a cultivator with the same aptitude and a comparable sect background should have reached the True Monarch Realm in less than five hundred years, perhaps even considerably earlier.
But Mo Tou had been born at the wrong time.
As resources became increasingly scarce, conflicts among the major factions grew more intense. The righteous factions frequently used the excuse of eliminating demonic cultivators to launch attacks against demonic sects, and although some of those operations genuinely involved dealing with dangerous demonic practitioners, they were also a convenient means of seizing resources.
After all, when the resources available to cultivators began diminishing, the easiest way to obtain more was to take them from someone else.
Eventually, several major righteous sects joined forces and launched an assault against the Profound Union Sect.
At that time, Mo Tou had only recently entered the True Monarch Realm.
He was still far from being an experienced True Monarch, and when the sect was attacked, he found himself facing several powerful opponents whose cultivation and combat experience far exceeded his own.
He managed to escape.
But the price was enormous.
His Monarch Body suffered a severe Dharmic injury, one that proved impossible to completely repair. Even after escaping the destruction of his sect, he realised that the injury had permanently damaged his foundation and cut off his path towards further advancement.
He could still survive.
He could even preserve his Nascent Soul and attempt another possession.
But what would be the point?
The continent was already approaching the Dharma Decline, and as a demonic cultivator who had lost the backing of his sect, his circumstances would have been considerably worse than before.
He would have to compete for increasingly scarce resources while avoiding the pursuit of the righteous factions, all while carrying a damaged foundation that made further advancement almost impossible.
Mo Tou therefore made a different decision.
He chose to corpsify his body and bury himself, intending to wait until the Dharma Decline had passed and the next Golden Age arrived.
He believed that the remaining period of decline would not last too long.
Unfortunately, he had miscalculated.
The Dharma Decline lasted far longer than he had expected, and the passage of time gradually consumed his remaining lifespan. His Monarch Body slowly decomposed beneath the earth, his flesh and bones disappearing until he was left with nothing more than a single finger.
By that point, his original lifespan of approximately two thousand five hundred years had nearly been exhausted.
Attaching his already weakened Nascent Soul to the remaining finger hadn't been particularly difficult, but his strength had deteriorated so severely that he could no longer perform a proper possession.
He needed another method to obtain a body.
That was when he encountered He Jinfeng.
The rest of his history was already familiar to Lin Sheng.
Mo Tou had deceived He Jinfeng, used him to recover his strength, and eventually taken over his body through Nascent Soul possession.
Lin Sheng's expression became contemplative.
'So he really was a True Monarch from the previous Golden Age.'
But what interested him even more was the information Mo Tou possessed regarding the current era.
According to Mo Tou's memories, during his time, it had been widely accepted that the Dharma Decline would last approximately one thousand years.
True Monarchs could still survive such a period if they prepared adequately, although doing so required considerable resources and a willingness to sacrifice much of their remaining lifespan.
Golden Core cultivators, on the other hand, generally couldn't survive long enough to witness the arrival of the next Golden Age.
Their lifespans simply weren't sufficient.
A cultivator at the Golden Core Realm might live for a thousand years, but when faced with a prolonged period of declining spiritual energy and dwindling resources, even the most talented individuals would eventually reach the end of their lives.
This was one of the reasons True Monarchs held such extraordinary positions during the Dharma Decline.
They were among the few who could reasonably expect to survive it.
Lin Sheng continued examining Mo Tou's memories.
Then he discovered something considerably more important.
The secrets of the major powers.
His expression gradually became serious.
According to Mo Tou, the reason the current major factions possessed such extraordinary foundations was closely connected to the Forbidden Lands scattered throughout the continent.
Within some of those Forbidden Lands, there were ancient existences who had survived countless cycles of Dharma Decline and Golden Ages.
Divine Transformation cultivators.
Lin Sheng's eyes narrowed.
'Divine Transformation?'
Mo Tou's memories revealed that these ancient cultivators had deliberately sealed themselves within the Forbidden Lands, using extremely profound methods to preserve their existence until the world once again reached a level that permitted them to pursue the next realm.
The world had experienced countless cycles of decline and prosperity.
However, the limits of each Golden Age were not necessarily identical.
Some Golden Ages had only permitted cultivators to reach the peak of the Golden Core Realm, while others had allowed the emergence of True Monarchs. There were even periods in which the world's restrictions had been sufficient to support Divine Transformation cultivators.
Mo Tou's own era had been one of the latter periods.
No.
More accurately, during his generation, the world had already reached a state in which True Monarchs could exist, but Divine Transformation was beyond the limits of the world.
That distinction was extremely important.
A cultivator could possess sufficient talent, resources, and comprehension to reach Divine Transformation, but if the world itself didn't permit such an existence, then advancing further would be impossible.
No matter how extraordinary one's foundation was, there was no way to force the world to accommodate a realm beyond its current limits.
This meant that some cultivators who had reached the peak of the True Monarch Realm could only remain trapped there, unable to take the final step.
It was an incredibly cruel situation.
Imagine spending thousands of years cultivating, overcoming countless bottlenecks, accumulating an extraordinary foundation, and finally reaching the very threshold of the next realm, only to discover that the world itself refused to allow you to advance.
Those cultivators could only wait.
And some of them had waited for far longer than ordinary cultivators could imagine.
Lin Sheng's gaze became increasingly thoughtful.
The major powers had apparently discovered a way to preserve their strongest ancestors through these cycles.
But another question immediately arose.
Divine Transformation cultivators possessed considerably longer lifespans than True Monarchs, yet even they had limits. A newly advanced Divine Transformation cultivator might live for approximately five thousand years, while those who reached the peak of the realm could extend their lifespan to around seven thousand years.
That was an extraordinary amount of time.
But it was still finite.
If the cycles of Dharma Decline and Golden Age continued repeating for countless generations, even a Divine Transformation cultivator couldn't simply remain alive indefinitely.
So how had these ancient beings survived?
If the Divine Transformation ancestors of the major powers had truly died, those factions wouldn't possess the foundations they currently enjoyed. Their ability to suppress other forces, maintain their authority, and protect their inheritances across generations was clearly connected to the existence of those ancient figures.
Lin Sheng slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze turned towards the distant horizon, as though he could see through the mountains and into the countless Forbidden Lands scattered throughout the continent.
'What exactly did they use to preserve themselves?'
He returned his attention to the information organised by his chip.
There were still many incomplete memories, and Mo Tou's knowledge of the highest levels of the major powers was naturally limited. He had been a True Monarch in a previous Golden Age, not someone who had personally witnessed the secrets of every Divine Transformation ancestor.
However, the information he had obtained was already enough to change Lin Sheng's understanding of the Eastern Region.
The current Golden Age was clearly more complicated than he had imagined.
And the Forbidden Lands were probably hiding far more than ancient inheritances and dangerous demonic creatures.