"Senior, are you Taiqing Daode Tianzun?" Qiu Changtian bowed.

"Taiqing Daode Tianzun?" the old man asked in surprise, "What kind of Taoist name is that?"

Qiu Changtian was stunned when he heard this.

Judging from the old man's expression, he didn't seem to be lying. Or, given his terrifying cultivation and high status, he probably wouldn't bother to lie about this.

So he is really not the Great Pure Daode Tianzun? Or...

"Perhaps this is a Taoist name that the human race collectively bestowed upon him posthumously after he left this world," Kunlun Jing explained.

Qiu Changtian thought about it and thought it was possible, so he stopped worrying about the other party's identity.

"Let's not talk about anything else." The old man continued calmly, "Originally, this secret realm has its own rules. It's not easy for me to interfere."

"But the reason why I came out to stop you is that there are no other cultivators in the secret realm except you. If we wait any longer for you to fight against the demon, we don't know how long it will take."

"It was just luck." Qiu Changtian said modestly, "I'm sorry to have caused trouble for you, Senior."

The old man waved his hand and said:

"It was just a fluke, and that's not an understatement."

“Luck and fortune are the most difficult things to grasp in this world. Some people try their best but live a mediocre life, unwilling to die; while others are idle and lazy but encounter opportunities one after another and rise to the top.”

"To be able to get the word 'lucky' is already the most difficult thing in the world. If you really got the position of the master of Qibao Xuanyuan by luck, you should say it proudly."

"But from my point of view, your success this time was not so much a fluke as it was the result of your accumulated experience in the past... But how many great opportunities did you have to accumulate to reach your current level of cultivation?"

At this point, the old man suddenly laughed again and said:

"But let's not talk about this. Isn't the outside world coming to an end?"

"What do you mean by this, senior?" Qiu Changtian immediately became alert, thinking that the old man in this secret realm might not be an illusion, but a powerful clone who could sense the situation in the outside world?

“Hey.” The old man sneered and said, “Only when the end of the world is approaching, from Baiyujing to Daguangming Palace, these four secret realms will be revealed and opened.”

"Since you can enter the Seven Treasures Mysterious Garden Secret Realm, it means that the outside world can't hold out for much longer... What's wrong, didn't your sect tell you about this?"

Qiu Changtian: ...

"I'd like to hear the details." He decided to pretend that he didn't know and see if he could get more information from the old man - maybe there were some secrets that even those immortals didn't know.

"This is not a complicated matter." The old man turned around and said with his hands behind his back, "Birth, aging, sickness and death are the cycles of nature. No matter whether you are a mortal or a cultivator, you cannot escape this cycle."

"Even if it is the world, since it has a starting point in time, it will naturally have an end point of destruction."

"And the world you live in has actually entered the late stage of its lifespan a long time ago... Haven't you noticed that many powerful Taoist methods in history have been lost one after another?"

"Indeed." Qiu Changtian pondered and said, "I originally thought that it was because everyone in the cultivation world cherished their own things and was unwilling to pass on the Taoist secrets, which led to the extinction of the Taoist tradition once the sect was destroyed."

"What you said is indeed a reason." The old man sneered, "But think about it, the more powerful the Taoist secrets are, the stronger the cultivator who masters them will be. The strength of the entire sect under their control will be significantly improved, and it will also be easier to recruit talented disciples."

"Why would such a sect weaken and even fall into ruin at some point?"

Qiu Changtian thought for a moment and asked tentatively:

"Senior, do you mean that there is a problem with the recruitment of disciples?"

"As the world enters its late stages of life, the concentration of spiritual energy between heaven and earth will inevitably decrease," the old man said indifferently, "Geniuses will still emerge, but the overall quantity and quality will inevitably continue to decrease."

"In the past, every elite disciple in a sect had a unique and powerful martial art. Gradually, no one could cultivate it to perfection. Then everyone could only cultivate it to the point where it was barely usable. Then it became difficult to even get started... Until no one could get started, what else could be done to prevent the art from being lost?"

"In addition to the reason you mentioned, everyone is too proud to pass on their unique skills to anyone other than their own disciples, which has exacerbated the deterioration of the overall strength of the cultivation world. If my guess is correct, there are probably only a handful of Chaos Daluo Jinxians out there right now, right?"

Qiu Changtian: ...

"What's wrong? Could there be more than ten people?" The old man stroked his beard in surprise and said, "That's beyond my expectation."

"Reporting to you, Senior." Qiu Changtian said with a folded hand, "There are no Chaos Daluo Jinxians now, only Daluo Jinxians."

The old man was stunned for a moment, then said in shock:

"There's not even a Chaos Daluo Jinxian? This is too much decline!"

"In this case, aren't you destined to be buried with this world?"

"Excuse me, senior." Qiu Changtian was also surprised and said, "What do you mean by 'destined to be buried with this world'? As far as I know, if you can ascend to heaven, you can use the power of ascension to transcend this world and go to the fairyland..."

"It's not that simple!" The old man frowned and denied, "The so-called power of ascension is just the ability to break free from the shackles of this world."

"You know, from this world to the next, there is an almost infinite Chaos Galaxy in between, and there are many demons blocking the way. If you are not a Chaos Daluo Jinxian, then you don't have a Chaos Immortal Body. How can you get through so many difficulties and obstacles? You will definitely die on the way, there is no other possibility!"

"To ascend to what you call the Immortal Realm, one must at least have the strength of a Chaos Daluo Jinxian... Well, if one only has the cultivation of a Daluo Jinxian, but can be accompanied and protected by a Chaos Daluo Jinxian, then one can also cross the Chaos Galaxy."

"So that's how it is." Qiu Changtian was amazed and asked, "What about the Golden Immortals, Heavenly Immortals, and Earthly Immortals?"

"The Golden Immortal's origin is flawed, so there is no way he can successfully ascend, whether he has the protection of the Chaos Daluo Golden Immortal or not." The old man said without hesitation, "What are the realms of Heavenly Immortal and Earthly Immortal?"

Qiu Changtian explained it to him, and the old man sneered unceremoniously:

"What immortals are there? They are all incomplete things. What kind of immortals are they?"

"Boy, if you want to ascend to immortality in the future, you can only ascend to the Chaos Daluo Jinxian. Don't dream of any other possibilities!"

As he said this, he suddenly waved his sleeves.

Qiu Changtian felt the world spinning around him, and then he realized that he was no longer in Qibao Xuanyuan.

The surroundings were pitch black and chaotic, with a few starlights flickering like lamps.

This place is actually outside the celestial sphere, in the universe?