Qi Zhiheng naturally didn't believe his nonsense, so he put on a serious face and pretended to be anxious, saying, "How could this be? Senior, may we go up to the bell tower again to take a look?"
The Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable readily agreed: "Of course, no problem. Since the banquet isn't ready yet, let's go take a look at the Bell Tower first. After you've seen it, you can stay here and keep me company. It's quite lonely for me to be guarding this city all by myself."
Qi Zhiheng said, "You're joking, aren't you? There are people in this city, and it looks lively to me. How can it be so deserted?"
The Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable smiled meaningfully and said, "Young friend, you really know how to joke. Don't tell me you didn't notice the abnormality of those 'people' inside and outside the palace."
Since the other party had already been frank, Qi Zhiheng felt embarrassed to continue pretending to be blind, so he took over the conversation and said, "It is indeed a bit strange, but I am only a junior with shallow knowledge and do not know the reason."
"You're too modest. With your abilities, you can't be considered ignorant. If you were ignorant, how did you manage to leave the palace right under my nose? Alas, it's a pity you went out last time; all the banquet I prepared was wasted," said the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable.
Qi Zhiheng smiled awkwardly, not expecting the other party to bring up Ao Bing's matter so openly. He could only laugh it off and say, "Senior is too kind. It was just a coincidence, nothing more. I am truly sorry that you wasted a whole banquet."
The Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable generously said, "There's no need to take it to heart. It's just a banquet. I'm not so poor that I can't afford to waste a single banquet."
"Senior, do you know what kind of hidden illness these people suffer from? I wonder if this will cause them any harm?" Qi Zhiheng didn't care whether the information he received was true or false, and asked all his questions at once. He would find a way to analyze whether the answers were right or wrong.
The Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable explained, "There was no harm. These people were citizens of my city back then. When the disaster struck, they were buried with me."
"Disaster?" Qi Zhiheng said, "I haven't heard of any disasters outside."
The Seeking Dao Spiritual Venerable was initially surprised, then frowned and said, "You haven't even heard of the disaster?"
"I would be grateful for your guidance, Senior." Qi Zhiheng humbly sought your advice.
The Seeking Dao Spiritual Venerable looked towards the direction of the bell tower, as if recalling some distant memory: "Do you know that there are other cultivation methods in this world besides spiritual cultivation?"
Qi Zhiheng's heart stirred slightly, but he did not show it on his face: "Please enlighten me, senior. We have never heard of any other methods before."
The Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable looked at Qi Zhiheng and said, "I know you probably can't believe it, but there is actually another way of cultivation in this world, which is to cultivate truth and immortality, and to cultivate in order to ascend to immortality!"
"Becoming an immortal? Isn't that something that only exists in legends?" Qi Zhiheng confirmed his guess; this Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable was indeed following the path of cultivation.
Seeing that he didn't believe him, the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable was also a little excited: "I knew you wouldn't believe me. But everything I said is true. Back then, I followed the path of cultivation. Relying on cultivation techniques, I was the strongest among my peers in the Xuanling Continent."
"I've long heard of your illustrious reputation, senior, but I never expected such a compliment," Qi Zhiheng said.
The Seeking Dao Spiritual Venerable waved his hand and said, "There's no need to dwell on things from thousands of years ago. Let's continue our previous topic."
Qi Zhiheng gestured for the other party to continue.
“Back then, I pursued the Great Dao, but I couldn’t find a way to break through to a higher realm. And this cultivation also has its limitations. This world restricted me. After I started cultivating, I became an anomaly. This world could not tolerate me, so it sent down divine punishment.” The Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable’s expression became sorrowful at the right time. “At that time, because my cultivation had reached its peak and I wanted to break through, it was at that time that I was punished by the heavens. They locked me and the residents of this city into this world, and we could no longer get out.”
Qi Zhiheng: "..." He pretended to listen attentively.
If Qi Zhiheng hadn't been a cultivator himself, he would have been completely fooled by this guy. What heavenly punishment? Advancement just meant facing a lightning tribulation. And the talk of reaching the peak was just a lie to fool spiritual cultivators. He already knew that it was impossible to advance to the Golden Core stage here, let alone reach the peak of the Spirit Venerable realm. A pseudo-Core cultivator simply couldn't make much progress.
"Perhaps it's because of my cultivation, when I woke up again and saw that the whole city was still intact and the residents were still alive, you have no idea how I felt at that time." The Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable looked conflicted. "Unfortunately, after observing for a while, I realized that all of this was just an illusion. These people were like walking corpses, as if they had no souls. Apart from my orders, they repeated the same things and conversations every day. They were no longer considered to be alive."
The Seeking Dao Spiritual Venerable said with a sorrowful expression, "If I could, I would give up all my cultivation to ensure the peace and well-being of the people of this city for a lifetime."
Qi Zhiheng offered a perfunctory consolation: "Please accept my condolences, senior."
“Thousands of years have passed, and there’s no such thing as ‘comfort in mourning’ anymore. I’ve long since gotten used to it. It’s just that I’ve been staying here for a while and I’m a little lonely. It’s good that you two brothers are staying here to keep me company,” said the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable with satisfaction.
Qi Zhiheng: "..." Who would want to stay and keep you company!
Qi Zhiheng said, "I never imagined that you cared so much for the people. It seems that people outside have a deep misunderstanding of you."
"Misunderstanding?" Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable looked at Qi Zhiheng. "I haven't heard from the outside world for thousands of years, and I don't know what the outside teams think of me."
"Of course, there are many people outside praising your great achievements. However, they say that back then, when you were about to die, you wanted to follow the example of a local tyrant and drag the people of an entire city down with you."
Upon hearing this, the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable's face immediately darkened, perfectly portraying how he was misunderstood by everyone despite clearly caring for the people of the world.
“Those are just fools, fools. Senior, you don’t need to be angry about this,” Qi Zhiheng reassured him.
The group quickly arrived at the foot of the bell tower. They had been in a hurry before and hadn't had a chance to properly observe the bell tower.
Qi Zhiheng's hand touched the material of the bell tower. The material of the bell tower was indeed excellent, even surpassing the building materials used in the palace.
He thought of the clock tower's peculiar nature; as a passage between two worlds, it must be quite old.
The group went up the stairs to the top floor, but the array that had been set up on the top floor was gone, leaving only a smooth floor.
Qi Zhiheng sighed and said, "I never thought that this time we really can't go back."
Yang Yitian frowned as well. He looked carefully and confirmed that there was no longer any formation. He was somewhat dejected: "Are we really not going back?" He appropriately expressed his disappointment.
Qi Zhiheng, seemingly lost in thought, patted Yang Yitian on the shoulder.
The Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable led his people to a grand hall and took their seats. The "servants" there brought dishes to the table one by one.
Qi Zhiheng wasn't afraid to eat the food here. He had already checked the spiritual herbs, and since there was nothing wrong with them, the ingredients should be safe to eat as well.
After the banquet, the Seeking Dao Spirit Venerable had someone lead them to their rooms to rest.
After entering the room, Qi Zhiheng used his soul power to isolate the surroundings.
Yang Yitian plopped down on the bed and complained to Qi Zhiheng, "That old man is a complete liar. He even pretends to be deeply in love when he lies. Do you think he might have used some evil magic to sacrifice the entire city in order to break through to the false core, which is why he attracted some kind of divine punishment?"
Qi Zhiheng pondered for a moment and said, "The Heavenly Punishment is fake, but he must have made a deal with something."
"How do you know?" Yang Yitian sat down cross-legged.
"It's just a guess," Qi Zhiheng explained. "That clock tower wasn't built by Xun Dao. If you've looked closely, you'll see that the materials used to build the clock tower are the best on the entire island. Even Xun Dao's residence doesn't use materials that are even a tenth as good as the clock tower's. The surrounding palace, however, was built by him. I suspect that the treasure he obtained was that clock tower. All the other buildings are built around this clock tower, which can only mean two things: either Xun Dao installed the clock tower, or the clock tower was originally on this island."
"Because the clock tower was originally there, it became a passage between the two worlds. If you say that Xun Dao built it himself, I don't believe he has such great ability." It's not that Qi Zhiheng underestimated Xun Dao. Xun Dao's soul power is not as high as his own. That's why he dared to discuss things with Yang Yitian here.
Yang Yitian lay down on the bed and said to Qi Zhiheng, who was sitting on the edge of the bed, "Why do you think Xun Dao is treating us like this? Is it really because he's too lonely? To be honest, I'm quite scared of all the living dead in the city."
"You're just listening to his nonsense. There's no divine punishment. It's probably just like you said, that they made a deal with something and sacrificed the entire city's population," Qi Zhiheng sighed.
"Then what's in it for him?" Yang Yitian couldn't understand.
Qi Zhiheng said, "What's in it for him? He's lived for thousands of years longer, what do you think he's after?"
"Exchange lifespan? What's the point of living that long if you're stuck in this crappy place?" Yang Yitian thought about it from his own perspective. If he had to stay in this place with a bunch of inhuman creatures, he'd rather die sooner.
Qi Zhiheng narrowed his eyes and said, "What if there's a chance to leave?"
"That teleportation array is really gone; we probably can't leave now," Yang Yitian thought to himself, feeling a pang of regret.
Qi Zhiheng said, "That's hard to say. We might be the key to his departure."
Qi Zhiheng's words made Yang Yitian shudder: "He wouldn't be thinking of using us as sacrifices or something, would he?"
Qi Zhiheng shook his head; he had no idea. "Let's wait and see."
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