Futian Small World
After Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue entered the unknown small world ascension passage, they defied the upward force and flew downwards side by side. In their hands, like flying kites, they used spiritual energy to form silk ribbons that wrapped the remains of six low-level cultivators into dumplings, pulling them along as they flew downwards together.
Sharp blades formed from condensed spiritual energy tore through their protective shields, armored fairy dresses, and skin, leaving their bodies covered in various scars. Their nascent souls were now completely shattered, first turning into fragments, then slowly melting into liquid, and finally solidifying into fist-sized golden cores, though the surface of these cores was also riddled with fine cracks. Within the outer golden halo of merit, the golden cores slowly repaired themselves.
Once Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue flew out of the ascension passage in reverse, they were completely transformed into blood-red objects, their basic human features barely discernible. As soon as they entered the sky of this unfamiliar small world, they plummeted to the ground like shooting stars or meteorites. The remnants of the cultivators they were holding instantly turned into white mist, transforming into spiritual energy, which was then bestowed upon the small world they had unexpectedly arrived in.
Looking up from the ground, the scene resembles a magnificent aurora, bursting forth and instantly illuminating the entire small world in color—a breathtakingly beautiful sight.
Upon arriving in the sky above this unfamiliar small world, Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue instantly discerned, through a slight glimpse into its Heavenly Dao rules, that this was a blessed small world destined to become a mortal world in a few hundred years. They even faintly sensed the welcome this small world's Heavenly Dao bestowed upon them, and its gratitude for their act of transforming the remains of cultivators into spiritual energy as a gift to the small world.
It was daytime in the Blessed Heaven Small World. The magnificent phenomenon in the sky was instantly seen by many people.
In an instant, the mortals of the Blessed Heaven Small World knelt down in unison, placing their left hands on their right and bowing their heads to the ground in the most solemn kneeling ceremony. Overjoyed, they cried out repeatedly, "Auspicious omen! May Heaven bless us with favorable weather, abundant harvests, long life for our city lord, peace and prosperity for our land, health and longevity for our people, the elimination of disasters and calamities, protection from fire and water, wisdom and intelligence, the attainment of enlightenment, the protection of all gods, and the ascension of the deceased!"
Just before Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue were about to fall to the ground, they used their remaining spiritual power to gracefully land in a dense forest. Their sudden appearance startled a large flock of birds and beasts, causing them to either scatter in panic or instantly take to the air to escape, emitting noisy screams.
After a while, the forest quieted down and returned to normal.
Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue sat facing each other, about a meter apart, with a simple protective shield raised between them. Both of them sat cross-legged with their palms facing up, cultivating for a while to recover some of their spiritual power and allow their terrible wounds to heal.
An hour later, the wounds on their faces and bodies had healed under the combined effects of the pills and spiritual energy, but the cracks in their golden cores could not be healed for the time being. They immediately used a cleansing spell to clean their faces and changed into new Liuxian dresses. Their companion-type soul contract had expired after entering the Blessed Heaven Small World. They promptly signed a new companion-type soul contract.
"Should we find a place to recuperate together, or should we split up?" Lin Shi asked.
"The Blessed Heaven Small World is practically a mortal world, so there shouldn't be many cultivators. But who knows? There might be some hidden masters among them. How about we split up and find a secluded place to cultivate and heal our injuries, and explore this small world while we're at it? What do you think?"
“I can. So when can we meet again? It will take us at least ten years to fully recover from our injuries and return to our Nascent Soul stage cultivation, which is about to allow us to ascend to the Upper Realm. Should we meet again when our cultivation is almost fully restored?”
"Okay. Then let's agree on a specific meeting place ten years from now."
"Okay, then it's settled for now. If anything comes up, we can contact each other via telepathy."
"Okay, see you in ten years!"
After Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue made their agreement, they each chose opposite directions and headed towards the deep mountains and forests.
Lin Shi first carefully selected a secluded stone cave in a high mountain, where she secluded herself to cultivate for nine years. Once her physical condition had basically recovered, the cracks on her golden core had healed, and her cultivation had returned to the peak of the Golden Core stage, Lin Shi ended her seclusion and came out to travel in the Blessed Heaven Small World.
Lin Shi traversed mountains and valleys, passing through various villages, towns, and cities, before beginning to gather basic information. Sometimes she concealed her presence and figure, walking through bustling cities; other times she crouched on the rooftops of inns and other places, secretly eavesdropping on the idle chatter below. She also went to the main urban areas of various cities, sneaking into their libraries to browse through the relevant Blessed Heaven Small World texts.
Two or three months later, Lin Shi had a clear understanding of the overall situation of the Futian Small World.
The Blessed Heaven Small World is indeed roughly classified as a mortal world. Although the spiritual energy of the entire small world is abundant, no cultivators have ascended to the upper realm for at least two thousand years. There are still some cultivators remaining in this small world, but they are at most at the Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment stages, and they learn their skills as ordinary martial arts.
The Blessed Heaven Small World comprises five cities, each named after one of the Five Divine Beasts: Azure Dragon City in the east, White Tiger City in the west, Vermilion Bird City in the south, Black Tortoise City in the north, and Yellow Dragon City in the center. The current city lords are Qin Yuan, Bai Kunwu, Zhu Yong, Lü Qiwen, and Huang Chenghua, the latter two being female city lords. All five city lords are military generals, possessing both literary and martial prowess, wisdom and courage—truly formidable figures. Even from afar, Lin Shi could sense their overwhelming imperial aura and unparalleled, exceptional fortune. She couldn't even imagine the incredible opportunities and destiny they would have had if they were cultivators.
The city lords of each major city have all risen to power within the last decade. This is also somewhat related to the celestial anomalies caused by Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue entering the Blessed Heaven Small World. The city lords of the five cities are all young and promising, currently only around thirty years old. Nine years ago, when they took power through the celestial anomalies, each of them was only in their twenties, not yet thirty.
Over the past decade, the lords of the five major cities have waged wars in the south and north, virtually annihilating all the surrounding smaller cities. Currently, only the five major cities remain in the Futian Small World, along with some remote, impoverished, and neglected small tribes.
The five major cities compete and check each other, but almost all of them are eager to annex the other major cities and become the true overlords of the Futian Small World. In recent years, they have all been tacitly recuperating, preparing for war, and waiting for the right opportunity.
Preparing for war isn't something to rush. The five major cities even hold a grand event every five years to facilitate inter-city exchange. This seems to be a tradition preserved from the time when cultivators in the Blessed Heaven Small World were still ascending, used for inter-city cultivators to compete and exchange skills, thereby improving their cultivation abilities. But after so many years, it has long since changed. It's already quite good if the major cities can maintain friendly exchanges, sit together, avoid conflict, and enjoy singing and dancing performances.
Having roughly grasped the situation of the Blessed Heaven Minor World, Lin Shi left the city and crowds again, heading to the countryside to search for secret realms and minor spirit realms. Unexpectedly, Lin Shi found several ancient, forgotten secret realms and reaped a bountiful harvest. She crafted several storage bracelets and filled almost all of her portable minor spirit realms with cultivation resources such as spirit stones, spirit ores, and spirit herbs and plants. She also crafted numerous armors, shields, protective barriers, formations, and longswords, enough to sustain her for several hundred years.
However, Lin Shi did not exhaust the resources. She still left corresponding cultivation resources for future cultivators and helped set up protective formations for those secret realms and similar places to prevent them from completely disappearing into the world over time.
It wasn't until a month before the ten-year agreement between Lin Shi and Ye Ruxue was due that she returned to the great city and its inhabitants. She first went to Qinglong City and witnessed the most realistic and brutal war scenes in the mortal world.
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