The immortal is beside me

Chapter 117 Is there another upper third realm?

Zhou Qinghe looked at Xiao Yao in front of him. Her eyes were reflecting the sunlight coming through the window, as bright as the shimmering lake surface under the sun.

He raised his glass and slowly drank the remaining half of the wine in the glass: "What's the matter?"

"It's a rare opportunity to meet Brother Zhou again. How about you stay in Yingzhou for the next few days and have a few more sparring matches with me?"

The words came out of her mouth with an upward tone. Many years ago, she asked him if he wanted to go to the grassland to enjoy the mountains and rivers together, and it was the same now.

If you calculate carefully, she should be more than 1,300 years old, but she still speaks like a young person of 300 or 400 years old.

But at the moment, he didn't dislike this young man's behavior. The path of cultivation was full of hardships, and he had seen too many people wasted by time. Now that this old friend had not been worn down by time, he was also somewhat pleased.

That being said, he had more practical matters on hand.

"I do need to stay in Yingzhou for a while." Zhou Qing looked at her and said, "I heard a few days ago that there have been several soul-sucking incidents in Yingzhou, is that correct?"

This was the information Yuan Tiangang had told him earlier, and it was also the reason why he had originally planned to come to find Xiao Yao. If he hadn't heard that Xiao Yao had suddenly gone to the grassland, he would have planned to come to her in a few days to ask about this matter.

Now, due to some minor accidents, the plan has been brought forward, but it doesn’t matter.

The sudden change of topic made Xiao Yao slightly startled. Then, the brightness and joy on her face faded, replaced by the aura of a strategic-level cultivator and a top-level powerful person.

"That's right." She nodded. "Back then, there were twelve sects in Yingzhou involved, but I wiped them all out. Brother Zhou, is that why you're here?"

With a thousand-year-old friendship and her current strategic status, there was no reason to hide anything. Zhou Qing explained the previous incident of the corruption of the Buddhist heritage, and Xiao Yao's eyebrows furrowed slightly, a thoughtful look on her face.

"To pollute the Hedao-level inheritance. How could such a thing happen?"

She murmured to herself, "To be able to do this, one must be at least in the upper third realm."

As mentioned before, the upper three realms are in control of the laws, and as a former peak-level god, she has a more detailed understanding of this.

As the name suggests, the upper three realms are a general term for the three realms of law, from low to high, namely, Lianxu, Hedao, and Mahayana.

Lianxu is the first realm, which is the realm of initially touching the laws of heaven and earth and turning them into one's own realm. The leader of the Cangtian Sect who created the prosperity of the Han Dynasty was in this realm, and his power has been written in the history books of both the immortal and mortal worlds.

The second realm is to be in harmony with the Dao. It is no longer just about touching the laws, but about integrating into the Dao of Heaven and rewriting some of the laws. This is also the realm reached by Sakyamuni and Changshengtian.

Now, through Zhou Qing's words, she also understood the truth of the Hedao realm: to change the laws, one must erase one's own existence, and from then on, one's body will become the Tao, no longer existing in the world, leaving only the faith and the inheritance of the laws.

As for the Mahayana above this, even Xiao Yao had only heard of the concept, and its connotation was very simple: to break out of the laws and transcend the way of heaven.

From ancient times to the present, almost every top monk has heard of this concept, but just like the perpetual motion machine and absolute zero in modern science, it only remains at the conceptual level and no one has ever truly achieved it.

When Xiao Yao first met Zhou Qing, she doubted for a moment whether he had reached the Mahayana stage.

But then she thought, in the six hundred years she had spent in the Central Plains, she had never found any trace of his faith or the laws he had inherited. This was completely different from the Dao-level Shakyamuni and Changshengtian. Furthermore, at least for now, he was still influenced by the Heavenly Dao, clearly not yet completely detached.

But putting these aside, returning to the issue of pollution, the pure land left by Sakyamuni is undoubtedly a product of the law of the Hedao level. It can exert influence on such a product. Even if it is not Hedao, it will at least not be lower than Lianxu.

Could it be that there is another person in the upper three realms secretly operating in the Central Plains today?
"So, the recent soul-sucking incident in Yingzhou is indeed similar to what you mentioned, Brother Zhou."

After a moment's thought, Xiao Yao raised her eyes and said, "I just subdued the sects involved a few days ago, so their aura should not have completely dissipated. Since Brother Zhou is interested, how about we go to the scene and take a look?"

"I agree." Zhou Qing nodded. "In that case," he said, before Xiao Yao had already put down her wine glass and stood up. "Brother Zhou, please follow me."

She always does what she says, and this time is no exception.

Five minutes after this sentence was spoken, the two of them moved to the place where the Silver Moon Sect was previously located.

At first glance, the ruins of the sect still retained the appearance of being chopped apart by her a few days ago. Sections of broken concrete buildings were stuck in the gravel-covered land, and in the center was a long gully with traces of blood. This was the place where the leader of the Silver Moon Sect, He Xiuyong, had died.

At this time, the aftermath of the decapitation operation had not been completed yet. A long protective belt was still stretched around the sect's ruins. Several guards with the markings of the Environmental Sanitation Bureau stood in front of the belt, their faces as solemn as a rock.

But when they saw the two people coming towards them, the rocks instantly split open.

"The Divine Eagle?!"

The leading guard blinked, and the moment he saw who was coming, he quickly stepped to attention and raised his hand to salute.

"I didn't expect you to be here today. We didn't receive any notification before, maybe there was a problem with the process. We will send someone now."

"No need. I just came here on a whim today." Xiao Yao waved her hand. "Tell everyone inside to evacuate first. We need to go in and take a look."

"I'll pass it on right away." The leading guard nodded, but his eyes secretly glanced at Zhou Qing beside him, "I wonder who this person next to you is..."

“He’s mine.”

The words were drawn out, and Xiao Yao paused, as if hesitating to speak for a moment.

Zhou Qing, who was standing by, caught a glimpse of the hesitation on her face and naturally responded.

"Old friend."

It was normal for her to hesitate. After all, they were first enemies, then playmates, and finally fellow travelers. To put it simply, their relationship was complicated—but in his opinion, the term "old friends" was enough.

"Oh, I see." The leading guard looked around at the two men, a look of confusion and awe. "Then please come in, please come in."

Under the escort of the guards, the two naturally crossed the cordon and entered the venue. Standing in front of the ruins buried in dust, they seemed to be able to smell the faint smell of blood among the soil and sand.

"The construction of the sect here is quite innovative."

Zhou Qing's eyes swept across the cement pillars engraved with broken seal characters, and finally stopped at the long, fishy-smelling mark in front of the pillar.

"Is this what you did?"

He turned to ask Xiao Yao beside him. For some reason, the expression on her face seemed a little strange, as if it was because of the word "old friend" just now.

Although she found it strange, she nodded in response to the question. "That's right. Back then, the Silver Moon Sect's leader devoured human souls in an attempt to achieve a breakthrough, and I slew him and everyone else in the sect. Now that I think about it, his methods are indeed similar to the things you mentioned, Brother Zhou, that polluted the Buddhist heritage."

Zhou Qing listened to her and looked at the mess in front of him. The dirt and rocks still bore traces of being cut by the strong wind, evidence of the fierce battle that day everywhere.

He closed his eyes slightly, and his consciousness swept around, taking in every detail of this vast land.

Amidst the chaotic fluctuations of spiritual power, a familiar aura rushed into his spiritual platform.

(End of this chapter)