Gou Dao and Cultivation of Immortals, Start from Farming

Leading the way was the towering, star-fortress-like Rift Universe. At the bow, Xiao Jingtian, clad in black armor, his face as cold as frost, his eyes like lightning, looked down upon the Illusionary Spirit Sea below—a sea that, though calm, still contained boundless spiritual power.

"Pass on my orders!"

Xiao Jingtian used the ship's array to send his command directly into the minds of the three armies, like thunder.

"The four guardians, Tian Shu, Tian Xuan, Tian Ji, and Tian Quan, are arranged according to the positions of the Nine Palaces to form the 'Nine Revolutions Soul-Suppressing Array'!"

"The armies of Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Yaoguang shall guard the central government and be ready to wipe out the remaining rebels at any time!"

"The Burning Heaven Valley, Sword Sect, and Hundred Herbs Sect will fight alongside the ship, each fulfilling their respective duties!"

Each military order was like a mountain collapsing and the earth splitting, precise as the law, allowing no hesitation.

In an instant, the Celestial Dynasty fleet moved.

A torrent of water, forming a net that blots out the sky and the sun!
Three hundred and sixty-five main battle celestial ships, following mysterious trajectories, slowly embedded themselves into various void nodes throughout the Illusionary Spirit Realm. Atop the celestial ships, pillars of light soared into the sky, runes flowed, and Daoist rhythms arose spontaneously.

The beams of light crisscrossed and intertwined to form a picture, as vast as a starry sea and as intricate as the secrets of heaven. Even a master of array formations would find it difficult to see its full picture.

The Rift Universe sits firmly in the center of the star map, like an imperial star descending upon the world, suppressing all wilderness.

"Activate the core of the formation!"

Xiao Jingtian let out a low shout, his hands forming a hand seal, and his magical power surged into the bow of the ship like a river flowing backward.

Om-!
The inscriptions on the ship's hull shone brightly, and a vast and profound aura erupted, seemingly capable of suppressing the souls of countless ages!

At the same time, two supreme treasures rose into the air from the depths of the fleet.

Firstly, there is the Seven Treasures Glazed Lamp, its body crystal clear. The flame within is neither gold nor fire, but a warm, clear light, pure and cleansing, capable of washing away all the filth of the world. This is the Pure Heart Glazed Lamp, forged by the combined willpower of countless cultivators in Chaos City, specifically designed to break through inner demons and purify the soul.

Secondly, there is an array formed by nine thousand nine hundred and ninety-nine flying swords. The swords are as thin as cicada wings, their color like frost and snow. Their cries are not for killing, but rather a clear and melodious sound that cuts through distracting thoughts and solidifies the Dao heart. This is the Sword Sect's most treasured artifact—the Heart-Slaying Sword Array!
The Pure Heart Glazed Lamp hangs atop the great array, its light shining through the ages, like a purifying sun illuminating the Illusionary Spirit Realm.

The Heart-Slaying Sword Formation transformed into a silver galaxy, swirling around the formation, its sword intent chilling, shattering all spiritual corruption!

The power of the two treasures, combined with the Nine Revolutions Soul-Suppressing Array, formed a spiritual purification domain spanning countless miles!
"Refining!"

A glint flashed in Xiao Jingtian's eyes, and he uttered a single word.

Rumble!
As the grand formation activated, the purification domain, like divine iron from outer space, slowly sank down and crushed fiercely into the Sea of ​​Illusions!

Sizzle... sizzle...

The sound of purification echoed throughout heaven and earth, beyond description.

The vast ocean formed by the negative emotions of billions of living beings is violently evaporating under this great force!
Resentment, madness, despair... all these thoughts, under the radiant light of the Pure Heart Glazed Lamp, melted away like snow meeting the blazing sun, transforming into the purest, most fundamental spiritual power. And those illusory spirits formed from evil thoughts, before they could even roar, were annihilated by the Heart-Slaying Sword Formation.

This is—the refinement of a world!
The Celestial Dynasty is using such domineering methods to try and transform this chaotic nightmare land into a pure spiritual treasure trove!

Every blade of grass and every tree has returned to the celestial realm!

This is not an exaggeration, but a world-shaking event that is unfolding right now!
Within the fleet, countless cultivators sat cross-legged, circulating their cultivation techniques and greedily absorbing the purified, pure energy. Some cultivators, who had been stuck at their cultivation bottlenecks for years, even sensed a loosening of their power at this moment!

This is the supreme opportunity to conquer all realms!
……

At the forefront of the purification field, a silver figure, like an arrow released from a bow, plunged headlong into the still unsettled Illusionary Spirit Sea.

It was the bright moon.

Five hundred Nightmare Puppet Guards followed closely behind, forming a sharp cone formation.

The puppet guard, who had previously nearly collapsed from absorbing too much negative emotion, was now thriving. Its "Nightmare Core," having been baptized by the Illusionary Spirit Origin bestowed by Li Mu, had already undergone a transformation—its capacity had increased a hundredfold, and its transformative effect was far superior to before.

"Awooo—!"

Deep within the Phantom Sea, lingering evil instincts retaliated, causing the sea to churn and monsters formed from emotions to burst forth.

There is an "embodiment of rage" that is as red as blood and burns with invisible flames. Its roar can ignite the deepest anger in a cultivator's heart, causing them to go into a demonic state.
It is the embodiment of sorrow, with its gray robes and mournful appearance, and the withering of everything it passes by. Its weeping can rob people of their fighting spirit and plunge them into endless grief.

There is a "musical embodiment" with a seductive figure and a charming laugh. The illusion is extremely beautiful. Once you are immersed in it, your soul will dissolve in the bliss.
Even more so is the "Incarnation of Fear," which is formless and shapeless, leaving only a distorted shadow, capable of arousing the deepest fears of living beings, causing them to destroy themselves from their inner demons.

Joy, anger, sorrow, happiness, grief, fear, shock...

The seven emotions and six desires, and countless fragments of emotions and wills, have now transformed into the most treacherous army!
Even with the protection of a great formation, ordinary celestial armies would still suffer heavy losses if they encountered this.

However, what they faced was the bright moon and the Nightmare Puppet Guards!
"swallow."

Bright moon's golden eyes were indifferent, its divine sense as cold as ice, reaching the core of each puppet guard.

The eyes of the five hundred puppet guards suddenly gleamed with a sinister light, revealing a...greed! They were, after all, predators of emotions!
Facing the "Incarnation of Wrath," a puppet guard neither dodged nor evaded, a dark vortex suddenly appearing on its face as it swallowed the burning rage whole. The puppet's body trembled slightly, and the core of its nightmare shone even brighter.

"Anger" is its food!

Several puppet guards surrounded the "Avatar of Sorrow," their pitch-black arms piercing straight into the energy body of grief.

"Sadness" is its tonic!

The embodiment of sorrow let out a silent shriek, its form rapidly thinning until it was completely absorbed.

As for the "Incarnation of Joy" and the "Incarnation of Fear," they have met their match. The Nightmare Puppet Guardians are inherently emotionless and fearless; illusions and fears are merely snacks of varying flavors.

On the battlefield, the one-sided slaughter instantly transformed into a... **feast for the senses**!

Leading this army of spiritual calamities, Mingyue, like an indestructible dagger, pierced straight into the core of the Illusionary Spirit Sea. Along its path, all the emotional incarnations were transformed into resources for the growth of the puppet guards.

The puppet guard's aura rose steadily, and its dark body grew increasingly profound, seemingly capable of devouring all light.

Mingyue stood before the formation, her silver hair flying. She did not make a move, but she used her divine sense to command five hundred puppet guards, condensing them into a "devouring will".

She clearly sensed that the more she absorbed, the faster she digested the "Illusory Spirit Origin" bestowed upon her by Li Mu. Her newly broken realm was rapidly stabilizing, and even... slowly rising!
Her puppet spirit body is transforming in an unprecedented direction—no longer just a puppet, but more like an emotional black hole with self-awareness!

……

In the deepest part of the Illusionary Spirit Sea lies the source of all thoughts and the core of all dreams.

Here, there is only deathly silence.

A nearly transparent will trembled.

This is the origin of the progenitor of phantom spirits.

Li Mu severed its root of resentment, but did not extinguish its existence. At this moment, it was like a madman whose spine had been removed; all madness had vanished, leaving only weakness and bewilderment.

It "saw" that its world was being eroded and purified by a golden "plague".

It "senses" that the power accumulated over billions of years, the people formed from the dreams of all living beings, are being devoured and refined by a pitch-black army.

That's its flesh and blood, its bones, everything about it!
The tide is over...

No, there is still a glimmer of hope!
The instinct for life gives rise to a resolute will, which grows wildly from the depths of that weak will!

I was born from the dreams of all living beings, and gather the emotions of all spirits!
I am this world, and this world is me!
Since you want to take everything from me, then... we'll perish together!
"All souls grieve!"

A resolute and deathly thought erupted from the deepest part of the Illusionary Spirit Sea, instantly sweeping across the entire realm!

It resonates with the deepest sorrow and the most utter despair in all fragments of dreams throughout history!

Om-!
The Phantom Realm trembled violently!
The array patterns of the Nine Revolutions Soul Suppressing Array flickered wildly, almost collapsing!

The sky lost its vibrant colors, turning into a lifeless, leaden gray.

The Illusionary Spirit Sea ceased to boil, solidifying into a stagnant pool as black as ink.

A single tear fell from the sky.

Then the second drop, the third drop...

Billions of drops of black rain poured down!

This rain has no substance or form, yet it can penetrate all laws and fall directly into the soul!

In the Celestial Dynasty fleet, a Celestial Immortal was sitting cross-legged refining his Qi when suddenly his face turned deathly pale, and without warning, he coughed up blood from his heart. His eyes lost all their luster, leaving only an empty and sorrowful void.

"It's meaningless, everything... it's all meaningless..."

He muttered to himself and then raised his palm to strike the top of his head!
"town!"

Xiao Jingtian roared, and the Lieyu Ship's divine light surged, forcefully suppressing his soul. However, similar situations had already erupted in various parts of the fleet!
Even immortal lords and immortal kings felt a deep sorrow surging in their souls, their Dao hearts wavering, and they almost succumbed to despair.

This is what is meant by "all spirits grieving together"!
It does not harm the physical body, nor destroy the magical artifacts, but only defiles the "meaning"!
To drag the entire world into eternal nothingness and desolation is... a self-destructive act of mutual destruction!

Bright Moon and Nightmare Puppet Guard were also affected. The Puppet Guard's devouring momentum slowed down abruptly, and its core was even stained with a trace of deathly ash.

The bright moon was the first to be hit, and immense sorrow, like a tsunami, pressed down, threatening to completely drown its will—it was the dying cry of the entire world!
...At the bow of the Lieyu, Li Mu's figure had reappeared without anyone noticing.

He silently observed the black rain, looked down at the Dead Sea, his eyes calm and undisturbed.

"Using the birth and death of one realm to evoke the sorrow of the end of all beings, it can be considered a way."

Li Mu spoke calmly, as if commenting on a cup of fine tea.

"Unfortunately, your roots are wrong."

As soon as he finished speaking, he slowly opened one eye between his brows.

Neither blood nor flesh, but a vertical pupil formed from chaotic runes—the **Chaotic Eye**!

With the opening of the Dharma Eye, the true nature of the Illusionary Spirit Realm is fully revealed!

Li Mu saw the primordial will beneath the Dead Sea that had triggered the "sorrow of all spirits";

Even more so at its core, deep within, lies a barely perceptible thread of cause and effect...

This line connects to the past, pointing to a long-forgotten memory.

"I see."

Li Mu's lips curled slightly, as if he had realized something.

"It is not that evil intentions are born, but rather that love turns to hatred, and faith turns to resentment."

"Your madness stems from betrayal."

Li Mu slightly raised his right hand, bringing his index and middle fingers together, and pointed at the air.

It's not about the origin, but rather—it's about time!
hum!
The void rippled like water, and a long river composed of countless fragments of light and shadow slowly emerged.

Li Mu's gaze traced back along the line of cause and effect, instantly traversing billions of years, reaching the moment of the birth of the Illusionary Spirit Realm!

The scene unfolds—

At that time, the dream world was dazzling and pure.

In the center stands a woman, formless: sometimes she transforms into spring breeze, sometimes into summer rain, sometimes into autumn leaves, and sometimes into winter snow. She is formed from the most beautiful emotions and dreams in the world, and is the progenitor of the first generation of phantom spirits, revered as the "Heavenly Venerable of Emotions and Will" who is closest to the Great Dao.

Beside her, there was always a handsome man—a cultivator she had met in a dream of the mortal world, whom she took as her Daoist partner and devoted herself to.

She manifested countless paths for him, helping him to comprehend the laws;

Gather his willpower and temper his soul;
Furthermore, it opened up the origin of the world to him without reservation.

The scene freezes on a crucial moment—the Celestial Venerable of Emotions and Will is about to reach the highest realm, his primordial will pure and undefended.

A struggle flashed in the man's eyes, but he was ultimately consumed by greed. He unleashed the filthy forbidden weapon he had prepared beforehand and stabbed it fiercely into her core essence!
"Why……"

Her mind was filled with disbelief and pain.

"Hehe...why?"

The man laughed maniacally: "You monster, you dare to talk about love? Your existence, your world, are all resources for my ascension to the Dao!"

"From this day forward, there will be no more Heavenly Venerable of Emotion and Will in this world, only me—the Ancestor of Dream Devouring!"

Endless betrayal, endless pain, endless resentment...

It completely polluted that pure origin.

Love turns into extreme hatred, faith into extreme doubt, and purity descends into madness.

She was not dead, but she was already "dead".

From then on, the Phantom Realm was no longer beautiful, and nightmares began to emanate from the dream world.

She became the progenitor of the phantom spirits in later generations, who devoured and destroyed chaos with madness.

……

"So that's how it happened."

Li Mu withdrew his gaze, his expression remaining indifferent.

Li Mu had no intention of judging right or wrong, nor did he care to pursue the "Dream-Eating Dao Ancestor" who had long since vanished into the depths of time and space.

There was only one thing he needed to do—to end this situation.

Li Mu reached out and probed into the surging river of time.

Traveling through billions of years, we arrived precisely at the moment before the Celestial Venerable of Emotions was assassinated.

The man was not stopped, nor was the Heavenly Venerable warned.

Changing the past will inevitably lead to karmic retribution, which even he does not wish to be tainted by.

Just as the forbidden weapon was about to fall, he flicked his finger.

A wisp of chaotic energy silently merged into the origin of the Celestial Venerable of Emotions and Will.

This energy neither attacks nor defends, neither increases nor decreases.

There is only one thing to do—sever the inevitable cause and effect between "betrayal" and "resentment"!

Give her a chance:
Is it sinking into resentment, turning into nightmares?
Or... let it go?
The moment a thought arises, the cause and effect are severed!

The moment Li Mu intervened and ended the matter was only a fleeting instant in reality, but the Phantom Spirit Realm had already undergone a complete upheaval!
The “grief of all souls” vanished like a bubble.

The leaden sky fades, returning to the vibrant colors of a dream.

The black rain turned to light, scattering like stardust.

The desolate, illusory sea surged violently, finally... finding liberation!
"what--!"

A long sigh rose from the heart of the sea, containing pain, relief, and gratitude.

Immediately, the vast sea of ​​illusions rapidly contracted, and billions of dream fragments and endless spiritual power collapsed towards a single point!
Finally, it condensed into a fist-sized, crystal-clear seed—

It seems to contain countless emotions flowing and dying within, yet it remains pure and flawless.

The Seed of Emotion and Will is the essence of a realm, the condensation of the Dao and principles of a quasi-Dao realm expert!
The seed of Tao hovered in the void, its halo gentle, devoid of any violence.

Li Mu remained calm and reached out to grab him.

The seed of Tao transformed into a stream of light that entered his palm and then disappeared into his body.

On the Chaos Dao Tree, a brand new flower bud is quietly forming, waiting to bloom.

The Ancestor of Phantom Spirits, this being who spanned eras, has thus... returned to his origin.

The Phantom Realm has become an empty shell.

However, for the Immortal Dynasty, this shell is still an unparalleled treasure! Li Mu turned around and his gaze fell on the silver figure below.

The bright moon kneels on one knee in the sky, its head bowed deeply.

She personally witnessed miracles: the world wailing, cause and effect reversed, and a world returning to dust.

The reverence for its master is etched into the deepest part of the puppet spirit's essence.

It's not just about the Creator and the puppet, but more like... ants looking up at the heavens.

"The origin of this world has been eliminated; the rest is entrusted to you."

Li Mu's voice was as calm as the wind.

"Transform this realm into the seventh war puppet breeding base of my Immortal Dynasty."

"As you command, Master!"

The sound of the bright moon is more resolute than ever before.

Li Mu nodded slightly, his figure flickered, and he disappeared as if he had never appeared.

Only this completely "purified" new world remains, awaiting the Celestial Dynasty's takeover and reshaping. (End of Chapter)