Dragon Canon

A grotto-heaven was a pocket world that existed independently within the larger world.

Not only could mortals survive within a grotto-heaven, high-tier grotto-heavens boasted unique environments that allowed mortals to cultivate certain types of cultivation methods quicker or develop specific abilities.

The earliest grotto-heavens were all naturally occurring pocket worlds. Human Immortal Lords speculated that many natural grotto-heavens were formed from the remains of ancient gods and demons after their deaths.

In this world, the history of non-human races far predated that of the human race. The Northern Liao alone had a recorded history spanning three million years, while the Shamans were even older. It was said that the oldest races could be traced back tens of millions of years.

During the Distant Antiquity Era, the powerful beings of these non-human races revered the concept of returning to heaven and earth. Upon their deaths, their bodies would slowly disintegrate and become part of heaven and earth once more.

However, some ancient warriors were so powerful that upon their deaths, their bodies warped the environment around them and transformed them into all sorts of extraordinary grotto-heavens.

Some natural grotto-heavens had also manifested when heaven and earth themselves were torn asunder during a battle between two or multiple ancient warriors. Such grotto-heavens were usually fraught with danger and killed anyone who fell short of them just a little.

After the human race attained measurable progress in cultivation, they pioneered the path of artificial grotto-heavens. When a World Ruler had reached the late stage, their Imaginary World began to manifest in the realm world—blending the real and the illusory, transforming from formless to form, and adding color to emptiness.

This type of World Ruler often chose to solidify their Imaginary World before death, thereby creating a pocket world akin to a grotto-heaven. People came to call them an artificial grotto-heaven.

In terms of stability and the perfection of its laws, an artificial grotto-heaven fell far short of a natural grotto-heaven. Even so, it still allowed mortals to survive. Moreover, it gradually became complete as the cultivators living within the grotto-heaven continuously mended its laws.

Oftentimes, when a World Ruler True Lord had reached the end of their lifespan, they would connect their Imaginary World to an existing grotto-heaven either to expand its space or patch up its flaws. This way, the number of human grotto-heavens would gradually increase over time.

An Immortal Lord, of course, was in a different league altogether. They had either created a relatively complete and vast grotto-heaven—one that would qualify to be called a natural grotto-heaven—or merged their Imaginary World with reality itself, thereby transforming an entire corner of the real world.

The Founder of the Palace of Absolute Beginning was one Immortal Lord who had transformed his body into a treasure land and established the sect’s first treasure site and mountain gate.

Not only that, one of the Founder’s three disciples had passed away within the mountain gate and transformed into a ten thousand zhang tall peak, improving the mountain gate by an entire tier. His other two disciples had chosen to pass away elsewhere, transforming two plots of land into treasure lands and establishing another two mountain gates.

Speaking of treasure lands and grotto-heavens, generations of human immortals believed that the reason the foreign races remained barbaric and uncivilized, and hadn’t made any progress whatsoever for millions of years, had something to do with the fact that their warriors had always chosen to return to heaven and earth. On the other hand, the ancestors of the human race had sacrificed their bodies to protect their descendants and even transformed the cosmic power they had cultivated into a source of protection and sustenance for all future generations. That was why the human race was able to rise above countless other small races and eventually carve out a not-insignificant territory for themselves.

The grotto-heaven in the Shattered Realm was originally an artificial grotto-heaven jointly constructed by three World Ruler-stage ancestors of the Xu Clan. It was meant to be the cornerstone of the defense of Ningxi. However, the Shamans’ might was overwhelming. They were able to force Xu Wangu into retreat, defeat the armies of the Xu Clan and Western Jin, and destroy the grotto-heaven.

Artificial grotto-heavens were inherently unstable, and the Xu Clan’s grotto-heaven was still in its early stages of construction. It could not withstand the fierce war between the elite warriors of the two races. In the end, it shattered into numerous fragments and scattered across the Shattered Realm.

One of the fragments was fairly close to Qingming. Wei Yuan just hadn’t had the opportunity to prioritize its retrieval. He also assumed that the Xu Clan must have evacuated all of their personnel and important treasures already, leaving nothing behind except danger. Naturally, he felt no particular desire to explore it and was planning to wait until Qingming’s domain naturally covered that area.

But since Trueman Chu He had come to him with such solemn urgency, Wei Yuan had no choice but to take it seriously.

Just to be on the safe side, Wei Yuan felt he should confirm one more thing. “Why are you so sure there are treasures inside, Trueman?”

Trueman Chu He raised a hand and summoned a massive lingzhi mushroom on his palm. Beneath it, a small mouse with golden fur was sleeping. The moment it appeared, it suddenly stood on its hind legs, sniffed intently in one direction, and started squeaking and chirping frantically[1].

Trueman Chu He clenched his fingers and withdrew his Avatar. He then said, “My Avatar is naturally adept at seeking out treasures, especially natural spirit bodies and spirit plants. A trace of the treasure’s aura must have leaked after the Xu Clan’s grotto-heaven had shattered. On top of that, I happened to be near the area. That is why I was able to detect it.”

“What grade of spirit plant do you think it is?”

Trueman Chu He replied, “It can only be top-grade, considering how much it excites my Avatar!”

Wei Yuan was surprised. A top-grade spirit plant was a World Ruler-level spirit plant that even ordinary True Lords would vie for. The war of the Shattered Realm had caused heaven and earth themselves to collapse. Normally, a plant of this caliber could not have survived. Perhaps it was the protection of the grotto-heaven that allowed it to survive until now?

“Apart from you, is there anyone else who might know about this?”

“In this regard, this old Daoist’s ability is no less than that of a True Lord. Even so, I only detected it because I was close. So under normal circumstances, no one would know about it. However, the Xu Clan had to be aware of it—I just don’t know why they haven’t moved it. Perhaps this spirit object was originally a low-grade spirit object, but something happened to it during the collapse of the grotto-heaven, and it underwent a transformation.”

Wei Yuan nodded. It was the only reasonable explanation.

After seeing off Trueman Chu He, Wei Yuan unfolded the map and began thinking carefully. A treasure tree was valuable, but the risks were also considerable. For a grotto-heaven fragment to produce a treasure of such caliber, the dangers had to be equally sizable. Just look at Trueman Chu He—he was so worried that he didn’t even dare to claim the prize for himself.

Wei Yuan and Trueman Chu He’s relationship was strictly that of sect fellows—at least, that was what Wei Yuan felt like. Normally, the old Daoist would never have ceded a treasure to him, at least not all of it. The reason he sought him out was surely because he felt he couldn’t handle it alone.

If they were to explore a grotto-heaven, then it was only natural that they proceeded with the utmost caution. Moreover, they had to be on guard against potential orioles once they had successfully extracted the treasure.

All treasures qualified for grading were favored by heaven and earth. They had to have a minimum level of pedigree. Wei Yuan suspected that the treasure had a name and an owner prior to the shattering of the grotto-heaven; the Xu Clan just didn’t predict that it would transform. But once the treasure left the boundaries of the grotto-heaven, someone might sense its presence. That was why both the preliminary and the follow-up work were crucial.

Wei Yuan examined the location on the map. The grotto-heaven fragment lay within a range of 100 to 300 li to the northeast. Any spot within this range could be the entrance. To locate the entrance to the fragment, he would need to dispatch a lot of men to conduct a thorough search. The problem was that such a commotion would be difficult to conceal from Western Jin or the Shamans.

However, Wei Yuan had never intended to let Western Jin or the Shamans sit idly by. As long as he kept them busy, they wouldn’t notice the additional spies that had popped up in the north. This was the perfect opportunity to handle both matters simultaneously.

Wei Yuan flew out of his residence and arrived at the northwestern edge of the realm. He then concealed him with Qingming’s power and gazed toward the distant Shaman city.

The Shaman city had originally been 100 li from the realm of Qingming. In recent days, that distance had shrunk to 95 li after its border had expanded naturally. Wei Yuan had since controlled its expansion—limiting it to just 1 li per month—so as not to scare the Shamans away.

So far, the strategy had proven to be effective: despite their recent crushing defeat, the Shamans had not abandoned the city. On the contrary, they were massively reinforcing its defenses and pouring civilians, fighters, and supplies constantly into the city.

Wei Yuan had been managing his domain for quite some time. He knew that the cost of erecting a temporary, emergency fortification was several times higher than usual. Although he was unsure of the opposition’s strength and size, the fact that they had constructed such a large city in such a short time meant that they had spared no expense.

After he was done assessing the state of Shaman city, Wei Yuan felt that it was time.

He returned to the realm and, with a single command, ordered thousands of Body-tempering cultivators to begin pushing steel cylinders—each one zhang long and as thick as a water jar—toward designated areas. Several of them had literally just been rolled out of the armament workshop.

At the same time, a large contingent of Dao Foundation stage cultivators flew out from their quarters and, following their prior training, took their positions at the designated array nodes. In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Dao Foundation stage cultivators had formed a lone line that stretched over a thousand zhang. Dozens of Body-tempering stage cultivators worked together to lift a steel cylinder and place it within the array. Ji Liuli gave the array one final inspection before activating it.

As the array activated, the steel cylinders slowly began to levitate.

Wei Yuan approached Zhang Sheng’s door, knocked, and said, “Master, it is time for us to challenge the enemy.”

The door opened, and Zhang Sheng stepped out. His entire demeanor had transformed—now lofty and ethereal—as he asked in a cool voice, “What do you need me to do?”

“Simply project the air of an expert.”

1. DAWWWWWWWW ☜