I'm only one year old, what the hell is the counterattack system?

Chapter 418 The place where the Dao ends is the Netherworld (Please subscribe)
Chen Yi chimed in with a few disjointed words.

His understanding of the "Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss" mostly came from what he heard from other people in Xun Wangtian.

To be precise, only the Sword Maniac is the most enthusiastic about collecting information on the various realms of Taizhou Mountain; most others don't pay much attention to these things.

For example, Ah Lang.

Aside from cultivating and exploring secret realms, he rarely concern himself with anything else.

According to Qingfeng and Xiaoliu, once Alang enters a meditative state, he becomes completely focused.

Moreover, his cultivation methods are completely different from other body cultivators, mostly self-torture-style, such as bathing in lava or climbing mountains of knives, as if only by doing so can his cultivation progress be faster.

And there's Little Willow.

It's not that she cultivated like Ah Lang insanely, but rather that most of the things she cared about were quite strange.

The previous claim that "Chen Yi is the inheritor of the ancient Taoist court" came from her mouth.

According to Chen Yi's observation, Xiao Liu'er is not as simple as she seems on the surface. She may be related to some ancient inheritance, which is why she is so concerned about everything related to the ancient inheritance.

The Eighth Prince and Qingfeng were completely immersed in their own world, their minds neither on cultivation nor on gossip.

As for the two Daoist masters, Zhao Muzi and Zhao Tianhe, it goes without saying that they spent their days cultivating themselves with ancient scriptures and lamps, their minds wandering beyond worldly affairs.

It was around midnight when the Second Master led everyone to settle down in the Valley of Forgetfulness.

Despite being called a valley, this place is actually a lush forest with towering mountains on both sides. Aside from a few gaps where one can glimpse the "Bridge Between Heaven and Earth" in the night sky, even Mount Taizhou is only vaguely visible.

Chen Yi then instructed Daoist Zeyang to lead a group of Daoist cultivators to set up camp here, first building a temporary camp, and then constructing a complete outpost after assessing the surrounding conditions.

Everyone else was also assigned tasks.

The scouts went to explore the surrounding environment.

Some Confucian and Buddhist monks use trees to set up protective seals to prevent the arrival of demons, ghosts, and other dangers.

The second gentleman observed this without offering any guidance, but he did tell Chen Yi about the situation here:

"This is at the foot of Mount Taizhou, and usually very few people come here."

"Like the area behind the human city, there is a large area, but apart from scouts, not many people usually go there."

Chen Yi used his mental perception to survey the surroundings and indeed found that there were not many living beings within a radius of ten thousand miles.

He smiled and nodded, saying, "Second Master knows more about this place. I hope you can help them familiarize themselves with it as soon as possible."

Upon hearing this, the second gentleman thought for a moment and understood, then asked with a smile, "When do you plan to leave here?"

Chen Yi thought for a moment, then looked towards the direction of Mount Taizhou and said, "Just a day or two."

"Since you already know about Daoist Zhao Muzi, I won't hide it from you. This trip to the Tai Zhou Mountain region was at the invitation of Daoist Zhao Muzi and others, to explore a secret realm together."

"The opening of that secret realm should not be far off."

"Oh?"

The second gentleman paused for a moment, looked at him thoughtfully, and suddenly asked, "Is the secret realm you mentioned an ancient secret realm that only opened once every ten thousand years?"

Chen Yiqi asked, "Does Second Master know about this?"

"heard about it."

When the second gentleman saw that he admitted it, his face became serious, and his tone became solemn.

“When I came down from the mountain before, I heard many people talk about that secret place.”

"It is said that there are many dangers in there, and even in the outer secret realm, there have been powerful beings above the fifth level of supernatural power who have perished there."

"Furthermore, there are many restrictions on both the outer and inner areas. For cultivators like you and me who have surpassed the fifth level of the Divine Power Realm, once we venture deep inside, we are likely to perish."

At this point, the second gentleman paused and looked at Chen Yi, reminding him, "There is another point to note."

"Within that secret realm, there are many rare and precious materials passed down from ancient times. The more precious the treasure, the greater the danger around it."

"It could be a formation or restriction, a rare and exotic beast with the bloodline of an ancient demon, or some kind of puppet monster. But that's only one possibility; the most important thing is..."

Suddenly, the second gentleman seemed to realize something, a smile appeared on his face, and he shook his head, saying:

"I almost forgot, you went with Daoist Zhao Muzi and the others. Ordinary cultivators would avoid you like the plague, and they probably wouldn't even think of robbing you of the treasures you've set their sights on."

Chen Yi smiled, cupped his hands and said, "Thank you for the reminder, Second Master. I will be more careful when I go."

Danger often represents opportunity.

This is an eternal truth.

This is true not only on Mount Taizhou, but also on the Tianyuan Continent.

When faced with a treasure that can move people's hearts, given a certain opportunity, there will always be people willing to take some risks to seize it.

Indeed, ordinary cultivators would avoid Xun Wangtian and his group.

However, powerful cultivators like those from "Pure Land of Bliss" would naturally not miss any opportunity to strengthen themselves.

Chen Yi understood this very well.

While the two were chatting for a few minutes, Master Zeyang had already led his men to build a temporary camp, and there were people around carving talismans and arrays for defense.

The entire camp was not large, about ten miles in length, with over a thousand houses and a canteen specifically for feeding the hungry. It could be considered as luxurious as possible in its simplicity.

Before long, the sky began to lighten, but a layer of dark clouds gathered, and a fine drizzle began to fall.

In the dim light, the array around the houses lit up, giving the temporary camp, surrounded by dense forest, a bit more life.

The mood of the group was not affected, and they dispersed to take up their rooms.

Chen Yi did not go back, but continued to discuss the next steps with the Second Master.

During this time, he inquired about the River of the Underworld.

"Second Master, you seem to know a great deal about the situation in the Nether River?"

When he mentioned this, the second gentleman was not surprised and nodded with a smile.

"It's just a coincidence."

"When I left the human race, the first realm I went to was called Nanhua Cave Heaven. It was a world where Taoism was the main tradition, and the practice of cultivating Taoism was prevalent. There were thousands of Taoist temples in the entire realm, scattered in different famous mountains and rivers."

"It's worth mentioning that within that realm, there was a court similar to the Wei Dynasty that controlled the world, and there were also some Confucian and Taoist cultivators. It was while I was traveling there that I obtained a treasure map to a Confucian and Taoist inheritance cave..."

As the second gentleman recounted his story, a strange sense of emotion inexplicably surfaced on Chen Yi's face.

To be honest, the second gentleman is very fortunate.

After obtaining the ancient Confucian and Taoist heritage cave map from Nanhua Cave Heaven, he traveled to several realms in search of clues about that cave.

After going through countless hardships and encountering various calamities, they finally found the cave dwelling in a small realm called Qufu halfway up Taizhou Mountain.

Fortunately, the cave that the Second Master found was extremely well hidden and had not been discovered by anyone else for countless years, so he had exclusive access to that secret treasure. It contained not only the inheritance of ancient Confucian and Taoist sages, cultivation manuals and other texts, but also some magical artifacts and treasures, as well as descriptions of the ancient world.

The River of the Underworld is one of them.

In that book, which resembles a travelogue, the River of the Underworld is described as follows: "Where the road ends, there lies the Underworld."

Seeing that Chen Yi seemed interested in this statement, the Second Master offered a few more explanations:

"According to that sage, the world may seem to have countless great paths, but they can all be summarized by the two words 'yin and yang'."

"Yang is above, Yin is below."

"Above, there is no end; below, there is no abyss."

“And the ‘Nether River’ is the road leading to the Abyss, and also one of the paths to the Great Dao.”

After listening, Chen Yi looked at him thoughtfully. He could vaguely sense the location of the Nether River in his mind's perception, and couldn't help but look back.

"Does the Second Master mean that the Great Dao is hidden on the other side of the River of the Underworld?"

"probably."

The second gentleman sighed and shook his head, "The ancient sages spoke with great certainty, but I am not entirely clear about it."

"However, judging from the ghost king today, there must be something else going on in the Nether River. It also shows that the rules of the ferrymen are still applicable."

Applicable to...

In other words, although Mount Taizhou has undergone changes since ancient times, the rules of the Netherworld River have remained unchanged.

No, it should be that the Nether River has been the way it is today since ancient times, from that unknowable period of time.

"I had never heard of the Ghost King possessing intelligence before, but seeing it today, I am indeed quite surprised."

"Who says it isn't?"

The second gentleman smiled again, pointed towards the Nether River, and said:

"Although the River of the Underworld is mysterious, as long as the rules remain, we don't need to worry too much."

Even if a Ghost King is powerful enough to disregard the rules of the ferryman, there are ways to deal with it.

Chen Yi raised an eyebrow slightly. "I'd like to hear the details."

“Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism each have their own methods of dealing with this. For example, if we can obtain the ancient teachings of the sages of Confucianism and Taoism, we will have many ways to deal with this.”

"The methods of the Daoist sect are countless. Take your swordsmanship, for example. If you cultivate it to a high level, you can slay ghosts and monsters. However, such methods all require the Yang-type Daoist lineage."

"Needless to say, Buddhism is the most mysterious and unpredictable place in the world when it comes to the power of merit and vows. Even I don't know enough about the power of vows in Buddhism."

The second gentleman paused, a hint of reminiscence on his face, "I once met an ascetic monk on Mount Taizhou, and he left a deep impression on me."

"For a hundred years, he has remained silent, reciting scriptures every day. His merits and vows far exceed what one can imagine."

"Even though his cultivation was only at the Celestial Realm at that time, and his Buddhist supernatural powers were only at the third level, he could still unleash the power of the sixth level of supernatural powers when he spoke. With a shout, he could eliminate all forces outside of Buddhism within a radius of ten thousand miles. It was truly terrifying."

After listening, Chen Yi smiled and said, "A Buddhist master with a green lamp and an ancient Buddha, chanting scriptures with a wooden fish, has remained unchanged for hundreds of years. Such a Buddhist master is indeed not comparable to an ordinary monk."

Regardless of the ultimate outcome of such perseverance.

The sheer difficulty of the process is astonishing.

Just like when Chen Yi obtained the "Teleportation Divine Power," he experienced a dream where he was surrounded and killed by demons.

What seems like a fleeting moment has actually been hundreds or thousands of years inside.

For someone with a weak will, let alone achieving anything in cultivation, it would be quite remarkable if they could avoid mental collapse due to too many deaths.

The Second Master nodded. “Taizhou Mountain has experienced countless calamities since ancient times. Everyone has taken a different path. Until the very end, no one knows whose path is the only one.”

Is the "Tao" the only one?

Chen Yi chuckled, “Second Master, your words are so grand and impressive. I haven’t thought that far ahead.”

The second gentleman glanced at him and said with a smile, "Don't underestimate yourself. Among all the people I know, you have the best chance."

"If we achieve something in the future, or even just approach the level of Daoist Zhao Muzi, we can ensure that our human race will not perish for a thousand years."

Chen Yi smiled and said, "Second Master, you flatter me."

He knew his own situation; if he could successfully obtain the inheritance of the ancient Daoist court, he might have a chance to catch up with Zhao Muzi and the others in terms of cultivation as soon as possible.

However, his level of supernatural abilities and the number of supernatural abilities he possesses are still far from sufficient.

Leaving aside Zhao Muzi, the general, and others, even the White Mountain Ancestor, whom he knew, possessed four great supernatural powers. With their combined abilities, they could even compete with powerful beings at the ninth level of supernatural powers.

Comparatively speaking, Chen Yi's accumulated knowledge was ultimately somewhat lacking.

The two then stopped talking about that topic and instead began discussing future arrangements for the human race.

Upon hearing that the Second Master wanted to take Daoist Zeyang and the others to a suitable secret realm for training, so that they could become familiar with the terrain of the Taizhou Mountain region, he was impressed.

Chen Yi thought for a moment, then took out a treasure map from his Sumeru bag and placed it on the table, saying:
"I happen to have a treasure map here, sir. Why don't you take a look?"

The second gentleman took it and glanced at it. His smile faltered slightly, and he asked in surprise, "This is the Valley of Forgetfulness?"

Chen Yi nodded and said with a smile, "It is indeed the Valley of Forgetfulness."

“I obtained this treasure map from Jiang Yunni earlier and originally planned to go and explore it when I had time. Now I need to hurry to Taizhou Mountain to meet up with Daoist Zhao Muzi and others. I will leave this treasure map to you, sir.”

His next move was uncertain, as was his return date; the treasure map could only remain a collectible for him.

Rather than letting the treasure gather dust, it would be better to give it to Second Master and Daoist Zeyang to familiarize themselves with the rules of the Taizhou Mountain area.

Moreover, the location on this treasure map happens to be right where they are currently staying—the Valley of Forgetfulness, which is very suitable.

"However, I have not confirmed the authenticity of the secret realm on the treasure map. If you ultimately fail to find it, please forgive me."

Seeing that he was speaking earnestly, and after examining the treasure map in his hand, confirming that the place marked on it was indeed called "Forget-Worry Valley," the second gentleman couldn't help but smile and say:
"Having stayed on Mount Taizhou for so many years, I know that the treasure map is purely a matter of luck. Even if we don't find that secret realm, it will still be beneficial for them to become familiar with the process of exploration and training."

Chen Yi nodded, and seeing that he had put away the treasure map, he got up to say goodbye and leave.

The second gentleman saw him out of the house and asked, "When do you plan to set off for Mount Taizhou to meet up with Daoist Zhao Muzi?"

Chen Yi thought for a moment, "Two days later."

"During this time, I will confirm the meeting point with Master Zhao and the others. I will also set off once the outpost here is completed."

Upon hearing this, the second gentleman, understanding the situation, bowed slightly and smiled, saying:

"Then I wish you success and further advancement in your cultivation."

Chen Yi smiled and cupped his hands in thanks, "Thank you for your kind words, sir."

(End of this chapter)