Chapter 138 A Solution?

The sword spirit led Li Chang'an through the main hall of the divine palace and headed towards the very center of the magnificent architectural complex.

The road became smoother and smoother until we finally arrived at the edge of a lake.

The lake stretches to the horizon, its water crystal clear, reflecting the blue sky, with white clouds drifting lazily across it.

Li Chang'an and the sword spirit stepped onto the water, and saw ripples spreading out beneath their feet.

He suddenly remembered that this place was exactly the same lake he had seen when he was forming his core and overcoming his inner demons.

Li Chang'an had never seen this lake before, yet it appeared when he was overcoming his inner demons.

Li Chang'an already had an answer in his heart.

This must be related to his past life.

The sword spirit spoke, confirming his guess: "This is the Divine Realm."

"The Divine Realm?"

As soon as Li Chang'an finished asking the question, the basic manual answered it for him.

Li Chang'an examined it carefully and finally came to the conclusion: the Divine Realm is similar to the Mountain God Realm, and is the highest level of the realm.

The sword spirit walking in front gradually stopped.

When Li Chang'an came to his senses, he found that they were standing in the middle of the lake, and in front of them, a bare clump of lotus flowers without stems or leaves was growing.

The lotus flowers were very large, about a meter in diameter, as tall as Li Chang'an's knees. They grew close to the water's surface, pure white, with golden patterns on the edges of their petals, and radiating a faint golden light.

【Pure Heaven Reflecting Water Lotus】: Reflecting the ultimate truth of heaven and earth, pure and flawless.

Li Chang'an looked at the simple introduction in the basic manual and fell into deep thought.

Although the basic manual did not specify the grade of these lotuses, he guessed that they must be at least celestial objects.

Li Chang'an couldn't help but ask, "Senior, are these lotus flowers related to the rules of heaven and earth you mentioned earlier?"

The sword spirit nodded: "Mm."

Li Chang'an stroked his chin thoughtfully.

These lotus flowers, planted in the divine realm, are related to the rules of heaven and earth and will surely be of great use.

As he pondered, he heard the sword spirit slowly say, "This lake was formed from the divine power of the Boundless God, and it is also the source of the Mirror Condensation River."

Li Chang'an came to his senses.

No wonder the Ningjing River water is so effective; all sorts of spirits and monsters love it.

It turns out that it contains divine power.

The sword spirit flicked a silver-white sword light at the Pure Heaven Reflecting Water Lotus, and instantly, a figure appeared above the lotus.

The person was dressed in white, wearing a lotus crown, and had his long hair tied up high.

The moment he opened his eyes, Li Chang'an, who was standing in front of the Pure Heaven Reflecting Water Lotus, was slightly startled.

The reason is simple: the person in the picture—no, he—looks exactly like the person in the picture.

Li Chang'an quickly realized that it must be his previous incarnation, the Boundless God Venerable—Ji Chang'an.

The Boundless God in the picture is not looking at Li Chang'an.

The background behind him was probably the main hall of the shrine, with its simple furnishings that Li Chang'an had seen when he passed by.

As the screen zoomed in, Li Chang'an saw that the one standing in front of the Boundless God was the Sword Spirit.

In the scene, the God of Boundless spoke: "Li'e, I already have a way."

The sword spirit crossed his arms and leaned against a pillar, simply watching him silently.

The Boundless God smiled gently, raised his hand, and on his palm was a small golden rune forming a "door" shape, which was a miniature version of the entrance to the Mysterious Spirit Immortal Mountain.

"The mountain gods of the four mountains have already bestowed their power upon me, and I will also leave all my divine power within the Xuanling Immortal Mountain. Six thousand years later, someone will inherit the Xuanling Immortal Mountain, and their destiny will be bound to it. As they cultivate, the spiritual energy of the Xuanling Immortal Mountain will reach its peak. At that time, the spiritual veins of the Cangxuan Realm will be exhausted. As long as the Xuanling Immortal Mountain is incorporated into the Cangxuan Realm, our divine power will become the new spiritual vein of the Cangxuan Realm."

The sword spirit slowly frowned: "Why bother? You have the power of creation; you could simply save a few people and then create another one after the Cangxuan Realm is destroyed..."

The Boundless God Venerable still smiled, shook his head, and interrupted him: "Li E, such a choice goes against my principles."

The sword spirit listened in silence for a long time before asking, "You are a god, and your divine power is hard-earned. Is it worth it to do this?"

The Boundless God put away the Mysterious Spirit Immortal Mountain in his hand, stepped forward and patted the sword spirit on the shoulder: "There is no question of whether it is worth it or not."

He is a deity, worshipped and believed in by the people, and he cannot let them down.

There's no question of whether it's worth it or not, only willingness.

The scene ends here.

In that final scene, Li Chang'an seemed to sense what the Boundless God Venerable was saying.

He raised his hand to his chest, then came to his senses and asked, "So what should I do next?"

How can Xuanling Immortal Mountain be incorporated into Cangxuan Realm? Can he do it now?

The sword spirit turned to look at Li Chang'an and said, "What you just saw was his initial plan."

Li Chang'an was slightly taken aback.

"When he left all his divine power on the Xuanling Immortal Mountain, at the moment of his demise, he saw the future once again."

“In the past, some people with exceptional talent were regarded as the darlings of Heaven. The Boundless God Venerable originally thought that the darlings of Heaven six thousand years later could meet his requirements, but with the loss of spiritual energy, this world can no longer nurture new darlings of Heaven.”

"Therefore, at the last moment, he peeled off a wisp of his soul, and through several reincarnations, the soul was gradually restored, and he became the person on whom expectations were placed."

Li Chang'an stared blankly and said, "That is, me."

"Yes." The sword spirit nodded. "You are his reincarnation, and your soul is more in harmony with the Xuanling Immortal Mountain. Perhaps you can meet his requirements more easily."

"But with a crucial wisp of his divine soul missing, his divine power cannot be fully preserved, thus creating a flaw in the plan. Now, to merge Xuanling Immortal Mountain into Cangxuan Realm, a medium is needed."

"What medium?" Li Chang'an asked, puzzled.

The sword spirit didn't speak, but instead raised its sword finger and pointed it upwards behind the Pure Heaven Reflecting Water Lotus.

The lake began to tremble violently, first with ripples spreading rapidly in concentric circles, then with waves rising up.

Li Chang'an quickly circulated his spiritual power to stabilize himself, and then saw a huge sword covered in black energy slowly rising from the bottom of the lake behind the Pure Heaven Reflecting Water Lotus.

The waves on the water grew even more turbulent until the sword was completely lifted off the lake and hung suspended above the water.

A silvery-white sword light rippled from the sword, and the previously trembling lake surface instantly became calm.

The sword light affected Li Chang'an, forcing him to take two steps back.

After he calmed down, Li Chang'an took a closer look at the sword.

The sword was entirely black, exactly the same as the black sword Li Chang'an usually used, and it also had two silver-white characters on the blade: Li'e.

Is this also the Sword of Departure? What about the black sword?

Li Chang'an was almost dumbfounded.

Seeing his dazed expression, the sword spirit explained, "The Li'e Sword that you used was just a clone of my true self."

Li Chang'an is currently just a mortal cultivator and cannot yet obtain the true body of the Li'e Sword; he can only use a clone.

Although the black sword, as an avatar, can only unleash one-tenth of the power of its original form, that is enough. Even if Li Chang'an wields the avatar Li'e Sword, he can still dominate the world and become the number one person in the Cangxuan Realm.

Li Chang'an gradually snapped out of his daze.

He looked at the imposing Li'e Sword before him and slowly frowned: "The medium... is it you?"

"Yes. With the power of my true form, all the divine power of the Boundless God Venerable can completely replace the spiritual veins of the Cangxuan Realm. After that, the spiritual veins will never dry up again, and the Cangxuan Realm can last for countless generations."

Like a nail, it firmly anchored the "new spiritual vein" of the Cangxuan Realm.

Li Chang'an's brows furrowed even more: "Then will you also disappear? Like the Boundless God and the Mountain Gods?"

The sword spirit simply nodded and said nothing more.

Li Chang'an subconsciously shook his head: "I can't do that."

The sword spirit was puzzled: "Why? You have not disappointed his expectations. The spiritual energy of Xuanling Immortal Mountain has now reached its peak. With my help, you can merge Xuanling Immortal Mountain into Cangxuan Realm. You are fully capable of doing that now."

Li Chang'an said, "I'm not doubting my own abilities!"

After denying it, he frowned and stared at the sword spirit, saying, "The thing is, I just can't do it!"

He spoke those two sentences with great emotion, and it took him a long time to calm down.

The sword spirit looked at him without saying a word.

Li Chang'an calmed down and gave a dry laugh: "No wonder you've been talking so much today. It turns out you wanted me to clearly and explicitly send my friend to his death."

Li Chang'an didn't want to look at the suspended Li'e Sword again, and turned to leave.

"Li Chang'an." Behind him, the sword spirit called out softly, "Don't you want to save the world anymore? What did you just say?"

What did he just say? He said he wouldn't judge whether someone deserves to live based on how close or distant they are to him.

Li Chang'an stopped, but didn't turn around: "I never said I didn't want to save the world! I... I haven't forgotten what I just said. It's just..."

He clenched his fists tightly: "Every time after the mountain god is worshipped, their last wisp of soul disappears in front of me, and I can only watch helplessly. That feeling is already very painful."

“But they made their choice six thousand years ago, and I can’t change it. All I can do is see them one last time, say goodbye to them, and remember what they did for this world.”

“But now it’s different. You’re still alive. What you want me to do is send you to your death with my own hands.”

"I can't sacrifice my friends to save the world!"

Li Chang'an turned his head and looked at the sword spirit in confusion: "My life has been completely arranged by you. Now, I'm not even allowed to make such an important choice?"

What he learned tonight caught him completely off guard, and in the end, he didn't even know what he was saying anymore.

Li Chang'an withdrew his gaze and quickly left the divine realm.

The sword spirit remained silent, his brows furrowing slightly.

Perhaps it's not a good thing to understand human emotions too much. For example, at this moment, he immediately understood how cruel the Boundless God and his arrangements were to Li Chang'an, and he could no longer utter words of dissuasion.

Li Chang'an is not the Boundless God Ji Chang'an; he is an independent individual.

As Li Chang'an himself said, he wanted to make his own choices.

...

The next day, Tianxuan and his companions saw the Xuanling Immortal Mountain after it had been unsealed.

The little ginseng was especially happy. With the seal broken, it could travel back and forth between Wuying Mountain and Xuanling Immortal Mountain. When it got bored of growing medicinal herbs, it would go to Xuanling Immortal Mountain, bury itself in the immortal soil, and take a short nap.

The mushroom spirits stared longingly at Li Chang'an, which softened his heart. He dug up some immortal soil and piled it around the mushroom spirits and the Xuan Tang tree.

The Xuanling Immortal Mountain is too cold, and the fungus spirits don't like cold environments. Now that their own bodies are growing in a celestial land, they are all extremely happy.

After having the spirit birds deliver the spiritual plants and vegetables for the day, Li Chang'an sent a message to Yuheng, asking him to come to Xuanling Immortal Mountain and bring him some immortal soil.

Yuheng was naturally aware of the function of the celestial soil.

He stared at Li Chang'an in shock, then, without delay, quickly handed over the sacred soil to the regions where the spiritual veins were depleted.

A small patch of sacred soil restored the soil of Anguo and several surrounding countries, allowing residents to resume normal planting and animal husbandry for the time being.

The depletion of spiritual veins naturally affected the animals as well, but unlike plants, the animals did not die immediately when the spiritual veins were depleted.

Most of them died after losing their food supply, but fortunately the government and monks intervened in time to prevent a large-scale extinction of the animals.

Now that we have the sacred soil, there is even more hope.

After learning that the celestial land was donated by Li Chang'an, netizens immediately flooded his Weibo page with tears and gratitude.

With the situation in the Cangxuan Realm temporarily stabilized, Li Chang'an busied himself examining various ancient cultivation texts.

The Immortal Soil can sustain the Cangxuan Realm for another two hundred years. During these two hundred years, he must find a way to avoid sacrificing the sword spirit.

Many ancient books collected by the Cultivation Alliance have been uploaded to the Fangcun device. Li Chang'an quickly finished reading them, focusing on those related to spiritual veins.

He has been unusually silent these past few days, spending all his free time examining ancient texts. Tianxuan guesses that something must have happened, perhaps related to the Cangxuan Realm.

However, his cultivation level is not high enough at present, and his scope of divination is limited, so he cannot help Li Chang'an yet.

Tianxuan then cultivated even more diligently.

During this period, another major event occurred in the Cangxuan Realm, which had gradually stabilized.

Monster rifts have appeared on a large scale in the Cangxuan Realm.

Fortunately, Yuheng and Tianquan had already secretly informed all countries and cultivation sects to make preparations. Apart from the initial injuries to people, the subsequent monster rifts were resolved in a timely manner.

Ling'an City has the most monster rifts.

However, thanks to the array set up by Yuheng, these monster rifts were quickly resolved, and for the time being, they did not have much impact on the residents.

However, just half a month later, the monsters appearing in the monster rift were getting stronger and stronger, and the cultivators were finding it increasingly difficult to deal with them.

Among all the cultivation sects in the Cangxuan Realm, the Qingfeng Sect is currently the strongest.

All the elders and disciples of the Qingfeng Sect were dispatched, formed into teams, and participated in the operation to eliminate the monster rift.

Since they had all gone to patrol and deal with the monster rifts, Li Chang'an stopped selling the fruits and vegetables to the outside world and instead supplied them to the cultivators to replenish their spiritual energy.

There aren't enough people to deliver packages now, so only the spirit kites are responsible for delivering them, and they've started working in shifts day and night.

The spirit kite responsible for the night shift may also encounter a monster rift in a certain place during its flight.

Without a second thought, they swooped down, and a beam of azure light pierced through the newly appeared rift between the monsters, wiping out the monsters that hadn't even had a chance to crawl out.

Before the patrolling police and monks could react, the spirit kites flapped their wings and continued delivering goods or going home along their routes.

It can be said that these spirit kites delivering packages have helped alleviate the pressure on the monster rift to some extent.

Ling'an City has the most monster rifts and the strongest monsters. Gradually, Yuheng was finding it difficult to cope.

The residents were also uneasy, but now there was a risk of monster rifts appearing everywhere, and even if they wanted to leave, they didn't know where they could go.

Li Chang'an quickly drew some defensive talismans and handed them over to the Cultivation Alliance.

These talismans can set up protective barriers for a certain area. Although they cannot directly eliminate demonic beasts, the talismans drawn by Li Chang'an, with his Tribulation Transcending stage cultivation, are more than enough to protect people from the harm caused by demonic beasts.

At the same time, more and more areas are becoming depleted of spiritual veins. Surprisingly, these areas do not follow the trend from west to east as people previously thought, but appear suddenly without any pattern!

*

"With the celestial soil and high-level talismans you provided, people's lives are temporarily stable." Yuheng was on Xuanling Immortal Mountain, receiving a new batch of celestial soil and talismans from Li Chang'an.

"However, the locations where spiritual veins are drying up are unpredictable, and we have not been able to find the cause."

Spiritual veins are like the roots of a tree. Could they also die randomly like the roots of a tree?

Yuheng dared not draw a conclusion, and finally said only, "I will try my best to find out the truth, and I will tell you as soon as possible."

"Okay." Li Chang'an nodded in agreement and watched Yuheng leave Xuanling Immortal Mountain.

He returned to the pavilion in the courtyard to continue examining the ancient books, when he caught a glimpse of the sword spirit on the second-floor balcony, leaning slightly against the balcony railing.

The sword spirit slowly said, "Demon beasts are species that came from chaos, feeding on the primordial power of various worlds."

The origin of the Cangxuan Realm is spiritual energy, and demonic beasts feed on spiritual energy.

The spiritual energy is already scarce, and if it is consumed by a large number of demonic beasts, the spiritual veins will naturally dry up.

Upon closer examination, the phenomenon of spiritual vein depletion and the appearance of such anomalies did indeed begin after the large-scale appearance of the demon beast rifts.

Li Chang'an paused, switched to WeChat to send a message to Yuheng, and then continued browsing the contents of the ancient book without saying a word.

He knew that the sword spirit's story about the monsters still revolved around the matter of being a "nail".

Li Chang'an didn't want to discuss this matter with him, so he simply remained silent.

Knowing his attitude, the sword spirit didn't say anything more, and moved a deck chair over to lie down and sunbathe.

Li Chang'an had searched through all the ancient books on the small screen, but he still couldn't find a way to solve the problem of the depleted spiritual veins.

Fortunately, the Qingfeng Sect still has a large number of ancient books. Xie Kuling granted him the highest level of access, allowing him to freely enter and leave the Qingfeng Sect's library.

Li Chang'an can now spend eleven hours a day in the Cangxuan Realm, and he spends all eleven hours in the Qingfeng Sect's library.

They couldn't find a way to deal with the depletion of spiritual veins, but they did find a book that recorded the history of the Qingfeng Sect.

Li Chang'an hesitated for a moment, but still picked up the thick ancient book.

The formation of the Qingfeng Sect was left by the Boundless God Venerable to protect the Xuanling Immortal Mountain. Perhaps in the history of the Qingfeng Sect, we can find the Boundless God Venerable's words about the depletion of spiritual veins.

The moment I touched the ancient book, a faint golden light flashed across the words on the cover.

Li Chang'an turned to the first page, and the ancient book slowly floated up. As the pages turned, the words fell off, glowing with a faint blue light, and floated before his eyes.

As Li Chang'an saw those words, his pupils gradually turned into a brilliant gold.

He stared blankly at the flying words, images flashing through his mind.

...

Xie Jin, the ancestor of the Xie family, was the first follower of the Boundless God.

When they met, Wuya God Venerable was still Ji Chang'an, a cultivator in the Mahayana stage.

Xie Jin, on the other hand, was just an orphan that Ji Chang'an had picked up.

The Cangxuan cultivation world at that time was extremely cruel, with the strong being respected, and cultivators living every moment in the struggle for rare treasures and the desperate fighting.

Xie Jin's father was lucky enough to obtain a treasure from a secret realm, but it was discovered by a member of a powerful family.

The man arrived at the Xie family home with his family guards, where he killed and robbed them of their treasures.

Xie Jin, still an infant, was protected by his parents using their last bit of spiritual power through a secret spell, preventing the wealthy young man from discovering him.

Three days later, Xie Jin, who was starving and on the verge of death, was found by Ji Chang'an.

After that, Ji Chang'an raised Xie Jin and taught him cultivation. When Ji Chang'an attained the Great Dao and transcended the Immortal level to ascend directly to godhood, Xie Jin was harmed by a villain and almost lost his soul.

The Boundless God saved him, restored his soul, and bestowed upon him the best Heavenly-grade Water Spiritual Root in the world.

That was a Heavenly-grade Water Spiritual Root bestowed by the God, which was purer and more powerful than other Heavenly-grade Water Spiritual Roots, and could be passed down to future generations regardless of restrictions.

Unable to repay the life-saving grace and blessings bestowed upon him, Xie Jin swore to follow the Boundless God for all eternity.

For the next thousand years, Xie Jin kept his promise and followed the Boundless God, occasionally helping him resolve some human affairs.

Until more than six thousand years ago, demonic beasts, an alien species that came from chaos, invaded the Cangxuan cultivation world and greedily devoured the spiritual energy of the Cangxuan world.

The Cangxuan cultivation world is richer in spiritual energy than the mortal world. After devouring the spiritual energy, the demons and beasts become even stronger. In addition, the demon race and the demons and beasts collude and eat many people, causing rivers of blood to flow in the cultivation world.

The Boundless God Venerable single-handedly drove all the demon beasts to the Demon Realm and set up a restriction to prevent the demon race and demon beasts from invading the Cangxuan Realm on a large scale again.

But it was at this moment that he discovered that the chaotic energy carried by the demon beast had polluted the spiritual veins of the entire Cangxuan cultivation world.

The Boundless God had no choice but to eliminate the polluted spiritual veins, but at the same time, the cultivation world was on the verge of destruction.

Fortunately, the Boundless God Venerable broke through the limitations of the rules of heaven and earth, merging the cultivation world and the mortal world. In the eyes of the world, this time the Boundless God Venerable exhausted all his divine power and perished.

However, in reality, the Boundless God is still alive.

In the instant he broke through the rules of heaven and earth, he also saw the future of the Cangxuan Realm.

The monsters came from chaos, and the guide for them was the gradually weakening aura of the world's origin.

Even without the invasion of demonic beasts, the loss of the Cangxuan Realm's original spiritual energy is a predetermined future that cannot be changed.

Therefore, the demonic beasts come to the Cangxuan Realm. Once they have devoured all the spiritual energy of the Cangxuan Realm and caused it to undergo a transformation, they will leave and move on to the next world.

It can be described as beset by internal and external troubles.

The merged Cangxuan Realm actually had spiritual veins that were already at their weakest point.

The Spirit Race, the Immortal Race, and even the God Race also noticed this trend and invested in the spiritual veins of the Cangxuan Realm, but they could only prolong it for a period of time.

The Boundless God saw this, bid farewell to each of his acquaintances, and finally came up with a plan: to ask the mountain gods of the four mountains to join forces with him and gamble on the future.

Without hesitation, the mountain gods of the four mountains poured their power into the Mysterious Spirit Immortal Mountain.

Then, just as the sword spirit said when Li Chang'an was in the divine realm.

However, there is a small part of history in the records left by Xie Jin, the ancestor of the Xie family.

The Xuanling Immortal Mountain is too special, and its existence is bound to attract the covetousness of some demons and monsters.

The Boundless God Venerable set up an array to prevent the Xuanling Immortal Mountain from being invaded by demons and evil spirits, thus ruining the plan.

But what needs to be guarded against is never just evil spirits.

Xie Jin was also seriously injured at that time. Grateful for the kindness of the Boundless God, he used his Heavenly-level Water Spirit Root as the core of the formation and left a blood curse, making the Xie family descendants the guardians of the formation for generations.

The formation was not only to prevent evil spirits, but also to prevent the Xuanling Immortal Mountain from being opened prematurely by human intervention.

Once the deity's prohibition is broken and the Xuanling Immortal Mountain is opened prematurely, the spiritual energy within will rapidly dissipate, ultimately destroying the entire blessed land.

The plan of the Boundless God was thus wasted.

Therefore, when the deity said that Xuanling Immortal Mountain would be closed for six thousand years, that meant six thousand years.

That concludes the record.

The words slowly fell, but after a flash of blue light, they formed a faint human figure.

"God," the man called softly.

Li Chang'an stared blankly at him, vaguely noticing similarities between Xie Kuling and Xie Xuan.

Li Chang'an immediately realized that this person was Xie Jin.

He said, "My name is Li Chang'an."

Xie Jin seemed to know that the Boundless God Venerable had finally peeled off a wisp of his divine soul in the Xuanling Immortal Mountain.

So he wasn't surprised at all, and smiled slightly, "I know you are the reincarnation of a god. It's just that I can't call you by your name directly."

"I've seen you in the library for several days now, and you seem lost. Have you encountered something difficult to solve?"

Li Chang'an pursed his lips, lowered his eyes, and asked, "Is that the only solution to the depletion of spiritual veins?"

"So that's what you're troubled by," Xie Jin said with a smile. "There is indeed only one solution. The heavy responsibility of saving the spiritual veins of the Cangxuan Realm certainly requires more than one god."

Li Chang'an remained stunned for a long time.

Does that mean that there is absolutely no other way besides sacrificing the sword spirit?

Xie Jin looked at him, about to say something, when he heard a commotion outside the library.

He turned his head and looked at Li Chang'an, saying, "Someone has come looking for you. I hope the God will keep this a secret for me and not tell my descendants that I am still alive."

He sighed deeply and said, "The blood curse I left behind has imprisoned my descendants for six thousand years. I have no face to face them."

Li Chang'an had no choice but to nod: "I promise you."

"Thank you." Xie Jin clasped his hands in a salute, and his figure vanished.

The blue light inside the room disappeared, and the Qingfeng Sect's records returned to their simple and unadorned form, falling back into Li Chang'an's hands.

Li Chang'an put the record back in its original place, and the next second he saw Tianxuan appear behind him with Xie Kuling, looking very serious.

Tianxuan didn't have permission to enter the top floor of the library, so she had to forcibly drag Xie Kuling up there.

Li Chang'an looked back and discovered that Tianxuan had actually broken through to the Nascent Soul stage.

Before I could even offer my congratulations, I heard Tianxuan's urgent voice:

"Li Chang'an, something has happened in the demon realm!"