Start slaying demons from the proficiency panel.

But at this moment, things are clearly starting to look a little off.

"Shut up..." Ning Xiu pointed two fingers at his forehead and pulled hard, instantly pulling out a soul that looked exactly like him from his body.

On the face of this spirit, half of it was not Ning Xiu, but the face of the Heavenly Father, who should have long since vanished.

"I knew there was a problem. It turns out you had somehow attached yourself to a piece of my soul. It's because you didn't covet it and only activated one part of your soul that I didn't notice," Ning Xiu sneered.

"Don't kill me! We can cooperate. I can make you stronger." The Heavenly Father said in terror when he saw that his attempt to backfire had failed and that Ning Xiu had discovered him.

He already knew Ning Xiu's strength, and if he were to confront Ning Xiu head-on now, he would only face certain death. Only by cooperating with Ning Xiu could he preserve his chances of survival.

"You of unknown origin, you still want to cooperate with me?" Ning Xiu completely ignored him.

Through Xie Tiantong's understanding, he realized that these extraterrestrial beings were extremely unpredictable and should not be underestimated, as they could easily fall into traps if they were not careful.

"I can, I can help you fight against the Heavenly Immortal!"

Seeing that Ning Xiu was about to attack him, the Heavenly Father suddenly shouted.

Ning Xiu immediately stopped: "Immortal Huangtian? Who is that?"

"It's that true immortal who kept this realm captive. Believe me, without my help, you would never be his match," the Heavenly Father hurriedly said.

Ning Xiu sneered: "You've possessed a piece of my soul, and you've overheard quite a bit of information. What gives you the confidence to do so?"

"I have witnessed the power of the Heavenly Immortal. He is a True Immortal from the Lower Three Heavens of the Celestial Court, whose strength is enough to create a cage for an entire realm and imprison the four directions of heaven and earth. How could you pigs and sheep raised by him possibly be a match for him? Only if I, who know the truth, intervene to help you will you have a sliver of hope."

Let me tell you the truth: the Celestial Court holds a Grand Banquet of True Immortals every million years in the three lower heavens. True Immortals do not possess the six senses; they drink celestial wine, eat star fruits, and exchange insights on the Dao. That's why they have no time to attend to anything else.

"Once the True Immortal Banquet ends, the Heavenly True Immortal will come to this realm to harvest the medicinal herbs of those of you who have cultivated to the limit of this realm, to refine elixirs. Counting the days, the True Immortal Banquet lasts for 100,000 years and is nearing its end; your good days are also coming to an end."

Ning Xiu frowned. According to the sayings of this world, an era lasts five thousand years. Those celestial beings have not seen the Heavenly Gate open for countless eras, and ancient immortals have descended. This does match the timeline of what the Heavenly Father said.

The thought that an ancient immortal who had lived for at least a million years would become his opponent filled Ning Xiu with immense worry.

Is this old monster truly something that all the power in this world could fight against?

"Well, I advise you to accept my help. A True Immortal of Huangtian's strength is definitely not someone you can deal with. Only if I join forces with you can our chances of survival increase by three points."

The image of the Heavenly Father spoke very positively, saying that its original form had been destroyed, and now only the soul attached to Ning Xiu could survive.

If Ning Xiu were to erase it, the image of the Heavenly Father would be beyond saving.

"Only three points? What use are you?" Ning Xiu remained unmoved and directly made a move to remove the image of the Heavenly Father.

It's despicable that this thing secretly attaches itself to one's soul. Who knows what other harm it might cause if it's left behind? Someone like Ning Xiu would never allow such a time bomb to be hidden within himself.

Regardless of whether the appearance of the Heavenly Father truly wants to join forces with you, you must not keep it.

As Ning Xiu's thoughts stirred, the image of the Heavenly Father was instantly ripped from his soul. The karmic fire of the Great Black Heaven of the Floating Pagoda raged, instantly burning the image of the Heavenly Father into nothingness.

With the death of the Heavenly Father, Ning Xiu's mindset instantly became much more open, and the matter of Shuang'er could no longer stir any emotions in him.

"Time is of the essence, we must hurry," Ning Xiu thought to himself, and then left the fishing village.

……

In this world, apart from the depths of the Gray Sea, every corner has been explored by the Celestial City.

However, the depths of the Gray Sea remain unknown to this day. Even celestial beings dare not easily venture into it, lest they never return.

At the edge of the Gray Sea, Ning Xiu stood on the sea surface, gazing into the depths of the Gray Sea. In this place, he sensed a strong aura of Dao.

Furthermore, the concentration of the energy was even greater than in the Celestial City, clearly indicating that the Heavenly Immortal must have left something behind here.

With a flick of Ning Xiu's finger, a transparent wall covered in talismans instantly appeared on the sea, preventing outsiders from entering.

As Ning Xiu passed through the transparent wall, he instantly felt that his cultivation level was being suppressed. An invisible force was sealing off his entire body, suppressing Ning Xiu's strength as much as possible.

Beneath the gray sea behind the transparent wall lies a pitch-black surface, where enormous figures can be vaguely seen swimming.

Ning Xiu's arrival immediately attracted the attention of these natives. Huge figures burst out of the water, which turned out to be strange fish with human heads, their bodies covered with hideous and deformed black scales.

Furthermore, the fish's belly was covered with human limbs of varying sizes, each holding a skull.

"Roar!"

"Roar!"

"Roar!"

In response to Ning Xiu, the intruder, all the monsters let out a chilling roar. Each of them was over ten zhang long, and if they were outside, they would definitely be demon kings capable of wreaking havoc in a region.

“That Heavenly Immortal not only set up a barrier here, but also raised so many guardians. There must be something wrong.” Ning Xiu flew directly into the depths.

Every monster below that tried to leap up and attack Ning Xiu was burned to ashes by the karmic fire before it could even get close to him.

With no obstacles along the way, Ning Xiu vaguely saw a towering black shadow in his vision.

As they got closer, they saw that it was actually an enormous stone pillar, with a spiral stone staircase surrounding it, extending upwards from the sea. The surface of the pillar also featured many giant reliefs of monsters.

The reliefs are even inlaid with gemstones and gold, making it look like an epic work of art.

Who would have thought that such a thing existed deep within the Gray Sea?

At the base of the stone pillar, the sea kept lapping against the surface, and strange fish swam around the pillar, all desperately trying to climb up the stone steps and reach the top of the pillar.

But for some unknown reason, some monsters stopped moving and lost their breath halfway up the mountain.

The monsters that follow will not hesitate to push aside the corpses of their own kind, knock down the stone pillars, and continue on their way.

The entire stone pillar was covered with countless corpses of strange fish.

Ning Xiu went straight up, trying to reach the top of the stone pillar to take a look.

However, as they flew higher into the sky, they still couldn't see the top, and gradually passed through the first heaven, the second heaven, the third heaven...

As the sky turned a purple haze, Ning Xiu finally saw the top of the stone pillar.

It was an enormous palace, like a city floating in the air, incredibly vast.

"This is... the residence of the Heavenly Immortal in this realm?" Ning Xiu flew above the palace and looked down at it, muttering to himself.

The entire palace is arranged in a four-sided layout, with the White Tiger Palace Group, the Azure Dragon Palace Group, the Vermilion Bird Palace Group, and the Black Tortoise Palace Group in brown on the four sides.

In the very center was a huge altar with a large black tree growing on it. The tree was covered with wooden plaques tied with red ropes, each plaque bearing a name.

Thick incense sticks were stuck in the altar, and wisps of smoke rose up, all of which were absorbed by the wooden plaques.

Such a bizarre scene immediately put Ning Xiu on guard. Since that Huangtian Zhenxian was so powerful, why would he set up something that looked like a feng shui altar in this realm?

What is his purpose?

Ning Xiu flew directly towards the black tree, intending to see what was going on.

However, as soon as they landed, the wooden signs tied to the trees began to move without any wind, and countless souls floated out from them, ferociously lunging towards Ning Xiu's location.

Ning Xiu hadn't expected that there would be evil spirits in this palace. The incense was food for these evil spirits, allowing them to thrive.

Ning Xiu didn't even need to lift a finger; the evil spirits that approached him were all repelled, and their souls became much weaker and dimmer.

"Oh?" Ning Xiu was surprised. With his current strength, these evil spirits should have been reduced to ashes in an instant, but who would have thought that they would still be able to remain condensed and not disperse at this time.

The methods of the Heavenly Immortal are indeed quite remarkable; even the evil spirits he raises are so resilient.

The evil spirits, having been damaged, turned and scattered, heading towards the Four Symbols Palaces in all directions. Immediately, loud noises, like thunder, could be heard from within the Four Symbols Palaces.

Four ghost generals of different colors—white, blue, red, and brown—wielding different weapons, rode the wind.

"Who dares to trespass into the ancient immortal's abode!"

"He deserves to be executed! He deserves to be executed!"

Four ghost generals surrounded them, each possessing the strength of a Great Emperor. However, Ning Xiu could sense that these four ghost generals were not merely ordinary Great Emperors. If it were the group of Great Emperors who had transformed from Heavenly Beings in Heavenly City, even ten of them would probably not be a match for this one ghost general.

Ning Xiu transformed into the Great Black Heaven of the Floating Pagoda. Encountering an opponent of this strength was good news for him. Anyone killed by Ning Xiu would enter the Battle Domain of the Floating Pagoda of Rebirth and become one of his pawns, fighting for him.

The moment the four ghost generals charged forward, Ning Xiu unleashed six punches, shaking the entire realm from afar and instantly annihilating the four ghost generals.

With the death of the four ghost generals, the black tree underwent a strange change. Its leaves fell off one by one, and it soon became completely bare.

The wooden signs hanging on the trees all began to shatter, accompanied by countless mournful wails and howls.

Buzz!

The entire black tree began to sway automatically and tilt, and it was vaguely clear that something was struggling beneath the tree, trying to break through the soil.

Ning Xiu reached out and grabbed the entire black tree, uprooting it and tossing it aside.

Without the suppression of the black tree, a crater was instantly exposed, and in the crater, a purple-gold octagonal coffin was placed vertically.

The coffin shook incessantly until the lid finally came open, revealing a pale, withered arm with fingers as sharp as blades.

The arm was covered with a large number of dense ink runes, which, although ink marks, contained an extremely powerful force.

boom!

As the object inside the coffin exerted its power, the entire coffin lid flew off instantly, and a figure slowly crawled out, allowing Ning Xiu to see the true nature of this object.

It was an extremely old face, with golden nails driven into its entire body, and even thicker and larger nails driven into its eyes.

The old man climbed out of the coffin and began to forcefully pull out the golden nails from his body, roaring wildly in a fit of rage. His mouth was sewn shut with golden thread, so he shouldn't have been able to speak, but with his effort...

One by one, the gold threads broke, and finally, his mouth opened wide, filled with blood.

"Heavens! You went through so much trouble to try and steal my immortal power, but you never expected that I would escape. If you give me some time, I will definitely cut off your three flowers and break your five energies!"

The old man pulled out the golden nail from his body and roared madly.

Ning Xiu stood by the side the whole time, watching the scene warily. Although he didn't know what had happened, the person in front of him was definitely not simple and should not be underestimated.

"Who are you, and why have you come to rescue me?" the old man asked Ning Xiu, his bloodshot eyes staring at him with an extremely empty gaze that revealed a hint of cold indifference.

“I didn’t rescue you, it was just a coincidence,” Ning Xiu replied.

"You saved me, so you're my friend. I owe you a favor. If you ever encounter difficulties, you can call my name, and I'll lend you a hand to repay the kindness I showed you today," the old man said resolutely.

"Immortal Name, are you also a true immortal?" Ning Xiu asked in confusion upon hearing the old man's words.

"I am the True Immortal Qingcang of the Lower Three Heavens of the Celestial Court. I was originally a fellow immortal with that beast Huangtian. But I never expected that he would sneak up on me in order to have his own Purple Mansion Cave Heaven. He used my immortal power as the source to maintain the operation of his Purple Mansion Cave Heaven, just to satisfy his alchemy needs. I hate it when I encounter such an immortal friend who blinds me."

The old man gritted his teeth: "I'm so glad you helped me today. You stopped the great formation that was suppressing me and destroyed this Immortal-Trapping Tree, which gave me a chance to escape. Boy, remember my immortal name. If you ever encounter any difficulties, just mention my name and I will come to your aid."

The old man was covered in blood. After saying a few words, he sat down cross-legged and began to absorb the spiritual energy of this world.

Instantly, countless spiritual energies, like whirlpools on the sea, surged and billowed towards the depths of the Gray Sea, pouring powerfully into the body of True Immortal Qingcang.

The immortal's body visibly began to swell, and the bleeding from his injuries gradually came under control. Ning Xiu could sense that the immortal's strength was beginning to recover.