Born with immortal seed

Chapter 890 Pulling Up the Grass and Planting the Roots
Dark clouds surged, ghosts howled, and a chilling wind blew.

There is a dark palace, half hidden in the underworld and half concealed in the void, filled with eerie ghostly energy.

From beginning to end, there was not a trace of human presence.

The palace was silent and still, as if it had been so since time immemorial, its tranquility undisturbed since its construction.

"Old Wu, come out and get some sun, stop pretending to be dead!"

A beam of golden light descended, shining brightly like the sun, completely out of place in this place.

The sound reverberated back and forth, dispersing the thick, sea-like black clouds and revealing the ancient, dark palace.

One by one, the indistinct, ever-changing ghosts lay on the main hall, their originally fierce and ugly faces shrunken into a ball.

I could actually see a hint of docility and obedience in it, and I wish I could crawl into the palace.

"After being the Lord of Crimson Wheel City for so many years, his temper is still so fiery. I hope he doesn't hurt my little darling."

An old voice seemed to come from the coffin, wet and sticky, and a ghost with a face and features rapidly grew to the size of several acres.

"I've come all this way, are you still unwilling to show me your true form?"

The golden light subsided, revealing an old man with disheveled hair and beard, his face marked with furrows as if hoeed back and forth.

If you met him for the first time, it would be hard to imagine that this was the Crimson Wheel City Lord who had held the position of city lord in the Five Emperors City for nearly 100,000 years and had once competed for the position of one of the Five Sons of the Human Race.

With his late-stage Integration Realm cultivation, he became the pillar of the Five Emperors City, giving countless independent cultivators a backbone. Even the most ambitious individuals dared not harbor any disloyal thoughts with the City Lord of Crimson Wheel in charge.

"I can't even tell which one is the real one, so what difference does it make?"

The old ghost Wu mentioned by the City Lord of Crimson Wheel changed several times before the palace door finally opened and a thin, bony cultivator walked out. His eyes were deeply sunken, with only two balls of ghostly fire flickering inside.

"Welcome to the underworld, the land of reincarnation."

Among the top-tier forces in the Immortal Realm, the Underworld is the most mysterious. Its background, origins, members' names, and main cultivation techniques are all a mystery.

The Lord of the Prefecture is the most respected, and he commands eighteen judges, all of whom are said to possess the cultivation level of the Integration Realm.

However, various parties speculate that these judges must have other identities, otherwise so many hidden fusion beings would not have appeared in the Earthly Immortal Realm.

Legend has it that the underworld possesses a supreme treasure of reincarnation, capable of manipulating the afterlife and holding the secret to eternal life.

Of course, many people believe that this is a misconception, and that immortality is exclusive to Mahayana immortals and cannot be attained by others.

At most, they have more advantages than other cultivators when they are reincarnated, and can live a second or even a third life at a lower cost.

This alone is enough for a powerful being to transform themselves and become a member of the underworld.

"You've made a terrible mistake as the lord of this prefecture. You're not even as good as those judges who are living a carefree and happy life in the various regions..."

The Lord of Crimson Wheel City flicked his sleeves and strode into the Netherworld Palace.

"What kind of body is this? How did it get so rotten? It's the kind of body that I wouldn't even accept as a disciple in the Five Emperors City."

The two men were quite different in age and were the leaders of two major forces, and they met early on by chance.

Despite their different stances and vastly different social statuses and backgrounds, they forged a private friendship.

"Each life is worse than the last. Even with the Mirror of Reincarnation protecting the soul from obscurity, the origin is becoming weaker and weaker... and the realm of true immortals is still a distant and unattainable goal."

Old Wu exuded an aura of death, as if he were about to reach the end of his life at any moment, making it hard to believe that he was the renowned Lord of the Underworld.

Among the cultivators of the Earthly Immortal Realm, it is impossible for anyone to have lived longer than him, or even personally experienced the glorious period of the Heavenly Emperor.

Even the five sons of the human race, after two or three reincarnations, had their original essence drained, and there was no possibility of starting anew.

Old Ghost Wu possesses the Evergreen Dao Body, whose lifespan can break through the shackles of heaven and earth, reaching three times that of a normal cultivator.

In his first life, he lived for a full 360,000 years before passing away peacefully.

No one knew that he had secretly joined the Underworld and become a judge of the underworld, and had also gained the recognition of the Reincarnation Realm.

This rare treasure of the Heavenly Palace appeared alongside the Underworld. No ruler of the Underworld has ever been able to truly control it. It can only help people be blessed with divine light during their reincarnation and preserve the wisdom accumulated in their previous lives.

Otherwise, the mystery of the womb after reincarnation would not be solved for thousands of years, thus losing the advantage of reincarnation.

The Mirror of Reincarnation seemed tailor-made for him, perfectly suited to Wu Laogui, and able to unleash its full power.

The Evergreen Daoist Body, renowned for its boundless lifespan, ended up entering the gates of the underworld; it can only be said that it was a matter of timing and fate.

He ascended to the position of Lord of the Underworld through this, and after accumulating cultivation over several lifetimes, he successfully advanced to the Perfect Integration Realm.

In terms of true strength, they are no less than the Five Sons of Humanity.

Even the disciples of the Underworld don't know how many times the Lord of the Underworld has reincarnated or what new supernatural powers and secret techniques he has learned.

However, there are too many constraints, and if he were to exert his full strength, he fears that his own primordial spirit would not be able to withstand it.

Even if one reaches the Reincarnation Realm, one may accumulate more and more true essence and master more powerful supernatural abilities, but one will be further and further away from the Great Dao.

Throughout history, only two individuals have been able to transcend the vast fusion of beings, and no pattern has been found among them.

For a cultivator like Wu Laogui, who possesses top-tier aptitude in any era, finding the right path forward is difficult, but judging whether the path he is on is much easier.

Even if one were to accumulate merit for ten more lifetimes, it would be insignificant to Mahayana Buddhism.

"Tell me, what important business did you come here for... Otherwise, you wouldn't have stepped into the Netherworld so easily. Those little darlings are afraid of you, but once the Great Sun Path is tainted by the Netherworld's energy, it's very difficult to expel it."

Old Wu took away the spirit wine brought up by two ghost servants. A pale green fluorescent light floated in the wine cup, as if there were living things swimming around.

"My family is unworthy. They've been picking and choosing for years, and not a single one of them has amounted to anything. They finally produced a seed that could be combined with a celestial being, but it was all lost in the abyss..."

The Lord of Red Wheel City grabbed the wine cup and drank it all. The wine soaked his beard, and two tiny crabs, each the size of a soybean, crawled out.

After crawling out two steps, the Yin Crab instantly burned into nothingness.

"With so little lifespan left, it's too late to cultivate another one. It's better to take advantage of the perfect origin and place our hopes on the next life as soon as possible."

"I wish to have a next life; I request permission to use the Mirror of Reincarnation!"

Old Wu's withered and sunken face showed surprise as he exclaimed, "How could it be like this!"

The Lord of Crimson Wheel City is quite old, but he still has at least ten thousand years of lifespan remaining.

Few people would make the same choice to give up so decisively in exchange for a more elusive and completely uncontrollable afterlife.

He was not a low-level cultivator, but a great figure standing at the top of the entire Earthly Immortal Realm.

"After Hui'er died, I tried to cultivate a few more people, wasting countless rare and precious materials, but none of them could be helped... Knowing that your Reincarnation Mirror is precious and never lent out, I can leave behind a celestial fire that is a reward for lending the treasure."

The crystallization of the Great Dao in the late stage of the Integration Realm is a shortcut to heaven for cultivators who are walking the same path.

The Lord of Crimson Wheel City clearly felt that none of his juniors could hold onto this opportunity, so he was willing to exchange it for a chance to use the Mirror of Reincarnation.

"You're not telling me the truth? If your Uncle Jin were to pass away and come to me begging for my help, wouldn't I agree?"

After the initial shock, Old Wu returned to his deadpan expression, his voice becoming a flat, monotone line.

He had met the descendant mentioned by the City Lord of Crimson Wheel. He had reached the peak of the Void Refinement stage early on and was only one step away from entering the Body Integration stage. His cultivation aptitude and Dao talent were both top-notch. However, he died in a sword duel with someone in the Heavenly Abyss.

This incident dealt a heavy blow to the Lord of Crimson Wheel City, who no longer had the will to wholeheartedly cultivate a second one.

Moreover, he killed his junior's opponent in a sword fight, achieving perfect mental state. Relying on his battle merits in Tianyuan, he exchanged for the Primordial Qi Qing and successfully ascended to heaven.

His subsequent cultivation speed was like a cheat code, surpassing his predecessors one after another.

In the vast Nine Realms, they are the most outstanding rising stars, and are hailed as having a great chance of challenging for the position of the Five Sons of Humanity.

This made it impossible for the Lord of Chilun City to retaliate, and he even had to worry that the other party might launch an attack on the Jin family after he left.

"Taibai of the Dao Court is already in the late stage of the Integration Realm. Although I failed to kill him in my three attempts, I suffered a lot and had to hide in the outer world for over a thousand years..."

When talking about this person, the Lord of Crimson Wheel City could not hide his hatred, as well as his deep admiration.

He had the same cultivation level as his seventh-generation descendant back then, and now, after so long, he's standing on the same level as him, who has cultivated for 100,000 years.

The key is that there are too many young people, so it goes without saying which side has more potential.

Is that all?

The Lord of the Underworld revealed an ugly smile and said, "If you want to borrow the Mirror of Reincarnation, you'd better explain more clearly... No matter how wonderful your Great Dao Crystal is, it won't be of any value if no one in my manor can use it."

Old Wu's words were so blunt that they changed the expression of the Crimson Wheel City Lord. How could he feel good about having his life's hard work discarded like a worn-out shoe?

But circumstances forced us to yield.

"You should know where my cultivation originated. As a rogue cultivator, I patrolled the heavens on behalf of the sun, suppressing those who also followed the Pure Yang Great Sun Dao, causing them to either switch to other paths or perish. What a miracle... But starting ten years ago, the true meaning of the Great Dao has been declining continuously, and has already returned to the level of ten thousand years ago, with no sign of stopping."

"If one cannot maintain the Dao attainment of the late stage of the Integration Realm, what good will it do to live out the rest of one's days? It would be better to return to the cycle of reincarnation as soon as possible."

The Lord of Crimson Wheel City's expression shifted, and he sighed softly.

"Has the Great Sun God-King completely perished?"

Old Wu crushed the wine cup in his hand, immediately realizing the reason.

Uncle Jin came from a humble background, and for three generations they couldn't even find a Nascent Soul cultivator. Yet, on the day he achieved Nascent Soul cultivation, he refined a stubborn stone he had picked up from a street stall. Inside was a drop of golden blood that he couldn't refuse and merged into his body.

It was only later that I learned that this was the origin of the divine blood of a Great Sun God among the innate deities, containing everything about that ancient god. Under normal circumstances, it could completely regenerate a beggar version of the Great Sun God with a drop of blood.

For reasons unknown, he fell into the mortal world and was refined by a Nascent Soul cultivator, who helped him embark on a prosperous path and become the number one cultivator in the Five Emperors City.

When Wu Laogui first met the Lord of Chilun City, the latter had not yet merged with the body. It was because he sensed the Origin God Blood that he knew this young man would have a bright future, so he humbled himself and befriended him.

"Probably so."

The Lord of Crimson Wheel City closed his eyes helplessly, only realizing after more than 100,000 years of pride that the blood of the Origin God had never truly been transformed into his own.

They rose to power by relying on ancient gods, and they declined because of ancient gods; this was their destiny.

"Who slew the Great Sun God? Has someone filled the position of the Eternal Heavenly Venerable, or is it that person's reincarnated form returning from tribulation..."

Old Wu was horrified. At their level, it was no secret that ancient innate gods had died but not perished.

The Daoist court has allowed this to continue for tens of thousands of years, so it is naturally powerless to deal with it.

Only those who have inherited the mantle of the Great Dao of Time and are either immortal celestial beings or heavenly emperors who have undergone tribulations can completely obliterate the innate divine imprint in the lower realm.

This clue is far more important than simply the complete demise of the Great Sun God and the instability of the Crimson Wheel City Lord's foundation.

This matter is entirely worth lending out the Mirror of Reincarnation.

(End of this chapter)