Perfect World

Chapter 746: Chapter 746: Origins
 

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Immortal?

Shi Hao also narrowed his eyes, which glittered with divine light as he opened and closed them. This was not the first time he had heard these two words, and clearly, they were of great significance!

He felt that it probably didn’t refer to a single person; maybe it was a group of creatures, perhaps a special era, or possibly something else unfathomable!

Indeed, after Qi Daolin mentioned the term, he fell silent for a long time, always staring into the sky as if trying to see through the starry rivers of the universe to something beyond.

“Hmm? No slacking off, it’s time to cultivate.” Qi Daolin turned his head, glanced at him, and said this before returning his focus to the profound starry sky.

“It’s already the middle of the night in Tiandu, still cultivate? It’s time to meditate and comprehend the Bone Text.” Shi Hao grumbled.

“Go on, don’t want to learn the Eight-Nine Heavens Technique anymore, huh? Otherwise, I might as well clear out the sect.” Qi Daolin said expressionlessly, obviously in a very bad mood.

“Damn it all!” Shi Hao had no choice but to hoist a mountain on his back and dash off, muttering curses under his breath. How unlucky he was, he must have joined some cult. Who cultivates like this?

He always considered himself very diligent, not just a foodie but a cultivation fanatic who never slacked off, but today he was being “motivated” like this, forced to strive even harder, or else he’d be kicked out of the sect!

“Dong dong dong!”

The ground shook, and all the living beings in this desolate wilderness were dumbfounded, only seeing a mountain racing through the night, a bizarre sight indeed!

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Because Shi Hao’s stature was negligible compared to the mountain, he was practically obscured while carrying it on his back, nearly invisible from a distance.

That night, the legend of the “Crazy Mountain” was born in the desolation.

A few days later, Shi Hao’s footprints were scattered far and wide, and on this day he finally stepped onto the grasslands, entering the border area between the Fire Province and the Celestial Immortal State, not too far from the Celestial Immortal Academy.

“What is that thing, a mountain moving?” someone exclaimed in astonishment, their face a picture of seeing a ghost.

Especially the students from Celestial Immortal Academy who were out searching for Divine Mines in the grasslands—they were gobsmacked upon seeing a mountain racing at great speed.

“This is… a Mountain Spirit!”

“No, that’s a Mountain Treasure, a mountain nurturing an Immortal Essence into a treasure that’s now become enlightened. Quick, chase it!”

As a result, the place became bustling as many people started to move quickly, flying through the air or rushing on the ground, all in pursuit.

“Catch it, even if it’s a Mountain Spirit, it must have nurtured a Rare Divine Material at its core.”

Shi Hao had to exert more effort, integrating his body, Bone Text, and spirit into one, transforming into a beam of light along with the mountain, vanishing over the horizon.

This outcome stunned everyone, leaving them silent for a long time. This was too bizarre! If the mountain had simply flown away, that would have been one thing, but it actually hopped and trembled, bounding away rapidly—where was the justice in that?!

A few days later, Shi Hao sat down exhaustedly, looking at Qi Daolin with profound resentment. Incredibly, that old man had made him run like mad for three days and nights!

“Go…” As soon as Qi Daolin uttered this word, he was interrupted by Shi Hao’s wailing, “Just kill me now!”

In the past, he had been cursed as someone who infuriates humans and ghosts alike, but today he was oppressed so miserably, giving him a sense of the karma of a villain grinding against another villain, rendering him speechless.

Shi Hao couldn’t take it anymore; this was too monotonous, carrying a mountain and dashing madly every day, leaving him half-dead from exhaustion.

“What I mean is, go, take a rest and gather your strength. In the path of cultivation, you must understand how to relax. Only through tension and relaxation can you grasp the proper principle.” Qi Daolin said.

“I @#￥￥#…” Shi Hao cursed inwardly.

A light wind blew, ancient trees swayed, leaves rustled incessantly, and some thousand-year-old vines glowed with rainbow light, a sign of becoming spiritually enlightened.

The mountain was still the same, but it had become much more desolate.

During Shi Hao’s “relaxation,” he returned alone to the Supreme Dao Ground, following his memory, but the place he saw was vastly different from the first time.

The mountains were majestic, but far too desolate.

He trekked onward and finally saw the ancient stone steps, but they were cracked and collapsed, in complete ruin.

He abruptly looked up, his expression freezing, petrified at the spot. Where was that towering and majestic mountain gate that reached into the clouds?

Weeds grew wildly, the desolation was enough to engulf a person, and the place was littered with broken walls and debris, telling tales of mournfulness and decay, and some kind of sorrow.

“What place is this?”

Shi Hao was sure he hadn’t taken the wrong path, but it was completely different from the first encounter.

The gateway that once stood as tall as the mountains, reaching into the clouds, had disappeared, leaving only wild grasses, cracked foundations, old nails, fragments of tiles, and broken stone columns.

He stood beside the collapsed wall, touched it with his hand, and immediately a bewitching light flared up. The powerful characters had not been destroyed, a testament to the past glory of this place.

Extraordinary arrays had guarded it; it couldn’t simply have fallen to the passages of time. Judging by the ruins here, it was clearly destroyed in a great battle.

“I thought I’d joined a glorious school, but it turns out even the mountain gates and Divine Palace have been razed to the ground. I’ve been had!”

All evidence indicated that he had been duped, with no connection to the Celestial Immortal Academy at all. Although he had known this for a while, he always felt that the Supreme Dao Ground couldn’t be that bad. Yet, who would have thought that this not-so-bad glorious school had long been annihilated!

Shi Hao walked further in, climbing other tall mountains, where ancient trees swayed and weeds grew anew. The immense Heavenly Palace was no longer there, only ruins, ghostly fires, cold and desolate.

He wandered a great circuit here, convinced that this place had been abandoned.

“This old man, truly shameful.” Shi Hao muttered to himself as he walked, thoroughly hoodwinked.

With such a decrepit Dao ground, he was still expected to someday reign supreme over the world. Otherwise, he would be considered an unworthy descendent and expelled?

After making a long circuit, Shi Hao sat on a recumbent ox stone, pausing there.

He didn’t know how long had passed before he suddenly heard voices. A group of young people was approaching from outside the mountain, nearing the mountain gate.

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“See? This is the place, with quite a few remnants still around,” someone said, leading the way and giving an introduction.

Shi Hao was astonished. Listening to their conversation and following their gestures, they seemed to be paying homage to an ancient site as if it had now become a place for nostalgic reflection.

“Look, this shabby little mountain gate caused a huge commotion back in the day, but it was eventually crushed into pieces,” someone commented.

“This is the Supreme Dao Ground, huh? Looks pretty good. It must have been magnificent in the past,” a girl said.

“Wrong, it was just a shabby little mountain gate to begin with. What you see now is its true form,” a young man with his hands behind his back said.

Not far away, Shi Hao felt displeased. After all, he was currently the sole disciple of the Supreme Dao Ground, which made him the eldest brother among them. Hearing their disparaging remarks about the place made him quite uncomfortable.

“I think, the Supreme Dao Ground must have been quite imposing in its heyday,” the girl remarked.

“Little Rou, junior sister, you can’t just judge by appearances. This place never had any glory to speak of, but rather an infamous reputation you could say this tiny broken school is notorious,” the young man with antlers said with a smile, turning to the person leading the way. “We just joined, why not let Brother Liu explain to us?”

“You flatter me, Brother Deer,” Brother Liu replied with a laugh.

“Although I come from far away, I have also heard of the Supreme Dao Ground. It caused a big uproar back then, involving many major schools, but I don’t know much about it. Please, Brother Liu, enlighten us,” Jing Xiaorou said.

Through their conversation, Shi Hao learned that most of these people were new talents who had recently joined the Celestial Immortal Academy, guided by several senior students to see the landscape and scenery here.

“Speaking of which, the Daolord of the Supreme Dao Ground is truly a…” Brother Liu paused, glancing around.

“What is it, a gifted individual?” someone asked.

“A top-quality freak!” assured that there were no other people around, Brother Liu let down his guard. He had heard that those who bad-mouthed that Daolord had been dealt with terribly.

So much time had passed, that person should be long gone by now, right?

“What makes him a freak?”

“Back then, the Daolord was universally hunted, becoming an outcast with everyone wanting to beat him up like a street rat,” Brother Liu said. These words naturally stirred surprise among the new students.

Upon hearing this, Shi Hao was stunned for a moment. Were they talking about Qi Daolin?

“Can you imagine, this person was pursued by experts from various schools. The entire world was his enemy. How terrible must one be to come to that? There used to be a saying to describe him, ‘so rotten that he has sores on his head and pus oozing from his feet’—the absolute worst.”

“What did he do to earn such infamy?” someone inquired.

“Do you see these mountain gate ruins? They used to be majestic and boundless. But do you know how they came to be?” Brother Liu asked with a smirk.

“How did they come to be?”

“He stole them from another school. Originally, this was the archway of Creation Academy, but he shamelessly carried it off in one night and brought it here,” Brother Liu chuckled.

The group was dumbfounded. Can one even do that?

“Do you know how he explained it? He said he missed Creation Academy, so he stole the gate because he had once trained there for a while,” Brother Liu continued.

Everyone wanted to laugh but also felt amazed, asking, “Such a person was a disciple of Creation Academy?”

“Not only that, but he was also a disciple of our Celestial Immortal Academy,” a senior sister chimed in.

“What did he do in our academy?”

“Of course, if he hadn’t done anything, he wouldn’t be the infamous Daolord Qi. He took advantage of our Great Guardian Spirit’s slumber and used the Phoenix Beak Scissors he stole from our old Dean to cut off most of its feathers, intending to make a shoddy fan. How despicable is that?”

The crowd was in an uproar. This Daolord was utterly shameless.

“How could he steal the old Dean’s treasure?” someone asked, puzzled.

“Well, that’s because… he almost stole the old Dean’s great-granddaughter too, you know what I mean!” Brother Liu coughed out the words.

“My God, the old Dean’s great-granddaughter, that wouldn’t happen to be the current Vice-Dean, would it?” Jing Xiaorou exclaimed.

“You… it’s good that you understand, but these are things from many years ago, and one must not discuss them carelessly within the academy,” someone whispered a reminder.

From a distance, Shi Hao felt sour. This old fellow was a flower thief himself and still had the nerve to criticize him.

“See that giant palace site on the mountain? Allegedly, it was stolen from the Celestials Clan. Originally named Heaven Tower, he brought it here because he longed for the days spent at his former school, so as to reminisce about it,” someone else continued with the introduction.

“What?” The crowd widened their eyes, somewhat at a loss for words.

“Did he join the Celestials Clan and do such absurd things?”

“Not just the Celestials Clan. Back then, this Daolord successively joined over a dozen major schools, each time turning traitor and escaping after stealing secrets,” Brother Liu elaborated. He then added, “And that’s just what we know of, some schools are too embarrassed to mention it.”

Another senior sister supplemented, “Can you imagine? Those dozen or so schools were all top-level and unparalleled ancient traditions, dominating their respective domains and overlooking the Hundred States!”

Everyone was flabbergasted, finding the man somewhat incomprehensible.

“How to put it? This person was extremely sleazy, stealing teachings, clubbing teachers over the head, and blackmailing his schoolmates. His evil reputation is notorious, beyond the scope of writing,” a senior sister stated.

“There’s even more to the story, his background and so on.”

“Eh, there’s someone here. Are you also here to visit the old ruins?” someone exclaimed, noticing Shi Hao.

“Hey, bro, are you here to check out this dumpy little mountain gate too?” someone inquired.

Shi Hao looked up and said expressionlessly, “This is my school.”

“What? Haha… There’s actually someone who would join this notorious little wreck of a place. Are you out of your mind?”

The group burst into laughter and surrounded him, pointing and staring at Shi Hao as if he were a freak, laughing non-stop. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to vote for a recommendation ticket and a monthly pass at QiDian (qidian.com). Your support is the greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)