The First Immortal of Destiny

The cultivators still stationed at various strongholds in Sea State had diverse backgrounds. There were disciples of the Five Great Sects, cultivators originating from minor immortal sects in various provinces, rogue cultivators, and local Sea State cultivators. Shen Mo remembered many of them; he could even name half of the cultivators from the Riverside Sect stronghold. He had also encountered quite a few cultivators from various Sea State Xiu Xian Forces, such as the Black Fish Gang.

Immediately, his Divine Sense split into countless threads, and he began conversing with his acquaintances. He also acknowledged the unfamiliar faces and offered them a few words of encouragement.

While attending to the cultivators from the strongholds who had come to pay their respects, Shen Mo also dedicated a portion of his mind to pondering a method he had obtained from Fairy Pei Yu’s soul memory.

Entrusting my Dao fruit and refining a forbidden land?

It seems the Heavenly Demon within the Near Sea Demon Cave has obtained valuable information from other demons from the Outer Zone!

The Celestial Demon Clan, though also from the Outer Zone, did not originate from the same place as the Flower Fairies, Gold Men, Thousand-eyed, and other Outer Zone species. The Heavenly Demons hailed from the Heavenly Demon Realm which, like the Primordial Realm before the cataclysmic changes, was an undecayed, floating world. In contrast, the other Outer Zone creatures came from a vast number of Withering Realms, sustaining their species’ existence by constantly migrating to the most recently withered, yet not entirely decayed, world.

Therefore, the Celestial Demon Clan initially did not possess the method for refining a forbidden land; they must have obtained it from other demons from the Outer Zone.

Once Fairy Pei Yu achieved the status of a Class V Big Heavenly Demon, she could use this method to transform the Near Sea Demon Cave into a brand new forbidden land. This way, they could descend upon another Withering Realm, obtain a new source of blood food, and wait until the Heavenly Demons in the cave became powerful enough before returning to the Primordial Realm.

However, according to Mi, the world her Flower Fairy clan inhabited before coming to the Red Flame Zone had an extremely harsh environment. Nature’s spiritual energy was almost nonexistent, and natural disasters frequently ravaged the land, making it akin to a hell. Beyond the land lay a boundless ocean, but it was a sea of death. The seawater was highly toxic, and apart from a few poisonous Gu insects and the creatures that fed on them, no other living beings existed there.

In such extreme environments, let alone creatures thriving and reproducing, even weeds and algae struggled to grow. The only surviving life forms were various insects and low-class demons. Moreover, this was not an isolated case; the environmental conditions of many Withering Realms were even worse than this poisonous sea world.

With Fairy Flower Valley, a forbidden land, offering protection, the Flower Fairy clan could survive in their previous world. However, in more severely decayed Withering Realms, forbidden lands would crumble and decay shortly after descending. Even powerful beings at the Heavenly Monarch level could not resist the pervasive decay of heaven and earth.

Considering this, even if Fairy Pei Yu advanced to Class V and refined the Near Sea Demon Cave into a forbidden land, the quest for a suitable hunting ground outside the Primordial Realm would be fraught with immense difficulty. Otherwise, given the Celestial Demon Clan’s ability to enhance their strength by Demon-corrupting and devouring worldly creatures, finding a suitable world could make it possible to cultivate more Class V Big Heavenly Demons, or even Class VI Big Heavenly Demons.

Since I’ve obtained this method, when I achieve the status of Heavenly Monarch, I will no longer need to seek the Dao from the Flower Fairy and other Outer Zone creatures, Shen Mo pondered silently, carefully contemplating this method in his heart.

To refine a forbidden land, one must either achieve the Divine Bridge Realm to become a Heavenly Monarch or possess power equivalent to a Heavenly Monarch to successfully execute the method. First, one needed to sever a small piece of heaven and earth from the original world—the Primordial Realm. Then, one’s Dao fruit had to be entrusted to this small piece of heaven and earth, refining it into one’s Dao Domain. This would form the rudimentary shape of a forbidden land. This small piece of heaven and earth was somewhat similar to a cultivator’s cave paradise. However, a cave paradise was created from nothing, while the foundation for a forbidden land was forcibly seized from an existing world; the difficulty between the two was worlds apart.

The method obtained from Fairy Pei Yu’s soul memory detailed how, upon becoming a Class V Big Heavenly Demon, she could sever a small piece of heaven and earth from the Primordial Realm. It also explained the specific process of entrusting her Dao fruit and refining it into her Dao Domain. If Shen Mo could open up a cave paradise of his own, he could skip this step, because a cave paradise was inherently a higher-level Dao Domain.

Once the rudimentary form of a forbidden land was refined, one could use the Perception Magic from the method to sense the existence of other Withering Realms. Then, by employing mana and Skills, one could break free from this world’s shackles and forcibly descend upon another world.

However, it should be noted that for a period after descending, the Protector of the forbidden land must not easily leave their ”Dao Domain.” They must use their cultivation level to resist the assimilation energy from the descended world, thereby maintaining the existence of the forbidden land. Otherwise, the forbidden land would be assimilated by the world. This, in turn, would affect the owner of the Dao Domain, causing the forbidden land’s Protector to be directly Dao-transformed. Only after the forbidden land stabilized could its Protector leave.

Reading up to this point, Shen Mo finally understood why the Class V and higher beings within the forbidden lands did not immediately venture out after descending into the Red Flame Zone. They needed time for their forbidden lands to adapt to the Primordial Realm and maintain stability. Conversely, Outer Zone creatures with weaker cultivation faced fewer restrictions; the weaker their power, the faster they could adapt to a new world.

However, if Shen Mo successfully opened a cave paradise and refined it into a forbidden land, then descended upon another world in the future, this adaptation period would be shorter, ranging from several years to a dozen at most. This was unlike some Outer Zone species’ forbidden lands, which required their clan’s Protectors to spend hundreds or even thousands of years resisting the assimilation energy of heaven and earth to stabilize the forbidden land.

From this, one could also deduce whether the Protectors of the Outer Zone creatures that had descended into the Primordial Realm had opened a cave paradise or had carved out a small piece of heaven and earth from their original world. If it was the former, Class V and above Protectors would not take long before they could freely roam the Outer Realm. If it was the latter, they would likely have to wait for hundreds or even thousands of years.

I wonder if Danchen Zi, the Divine Bridge Patriarch of the LiMountain Elixir Sect, and other Heavenly Monarchs of the Heaven Patrolling Zone, have gone to other Withering Realms using this kind of method?

If they really went to other worlds...

Did they use a cave paradise, or a small piece of heaven and earth taken from the Primordial Realm, to refine their forbidden land?

To explore other worlds, relying on the five senses and Divine Sense alone is not enough. I’ll have to bring along some Sect Disciples to scout...

If one did not intend to reside permanently in the descended world, there was no need to adapt to the new environment; one could simply move the forbidden land away and proceed to the next Withering Realm. However, for detailed exploration, enlisting the help of Sect Disciples was unavoidable.

And if one wished to personally travel through other worlds, only a forbidden land refined from a cave paradise would allow it. Otherwise, if their Dao Domain was refined from a small piece of heaven and earth severed from the Primordial Realm, they would have to wait hundreds or thousands of years. Their Lifespan might be exhausted before they could even step out of the forbidden land.

Of course, Shen Mo believed that with the experience and Wisdom of a Divine Bridge Realm Heavenly Monarch, they would undoubtedly make the best choice.

Just as his thoughts were wandering, the Sound Transmission Talisman in his robe suddenly vibrated.