"Ghost cultivators?" Mo Tiange was puzzled.
Everything in the world had different cultivation paths. Human cultivators had their own paths, such as Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. Swordsmanship, martial arts, talisman medicine, and other branches were derived. Demonic beasts also had their own cultivation paths and eventually became demonic cultivators.
But Mo Tiange had never heard of ghost cultivators.
According to legend, after people died, their souls would leave their bodies and become ghosts. Ghosts had powers that humans didn't have.
But this was only the imagination of mortals. For cultivators, this wasn't the case.
For cultivators, humans were composed of the body and the primordial spirit. They didn't care about the soul because it had no power.
Besides, once the soul left the body, it would lose all its memories and enter the reincarnation cycle again. Therefore, ghosts didn't exist.
Reincarnation was an inherent law of heaven and earth. No matter how high their cultivation levels were, they couldn't touch it.
Lord Daoist Miaoyi didn't know how to explain ghost cultivators, so he said, "Junior Martial Brothers and Sisters, why don't we talk about it later? It's not the right time."
Mo Tiange looked around. With so many people around, it really wasn't a good time to talk, so she stopped asking.
Before long, the meeting was over. The two of them followed Xuanyin and Miaoyi back to their temporary residence.
Their temporary residence was next to Wanhe Pagoda. It was a quiet courtyard with strict restrictions.
As soon as they returned to the small courtyard, Lord Daoist Xuanyin asked impatiently, "Junior Martial Brother Shoujing, why did it take you so many years to come back?"
Nascent Soul cultivators like them knew about Mo Tiange's trip to Yunzhong. They also knew about the destruction of the undersea passage and Qin Xi's decision to cross the sea to look for her.
But they didn't expect that Qin Xi wouldn't come back for dozens of years.
During these years, they could only speculate about their situation from their Life Lanterns.
Not long after Qin Xi crossed the sea, his Life Lantern suddenly became dim. He must've been seriously injured. Later, his Life Lantern slowly stabilized and regained its brightness.
After that, both his and Mo Tiange's Life Lantern dimmed occasionally but never showed any signs of being extinguished.
This puzzled the Nascent Soul cultivators of Xuanqing School. Their Life Lanterns weren't affected, which meant that although they were injured, they would recover soon. Why didn't they come back for dozens of years?
Before, Mo Tiange couldn't cross the sea because her cultivation level wasn't high enough, but after Qin Xi went, this problem didn't exist.
It couldn't be that they hadn't met each other in dozens of years, right?
In the end, they could only guess that he was trapped by something and could not return for the time being.
Qin Xi smiled wryly. "It's not that we don't want to come back, it's that we can't."
As he spoke, he briefly told them about what happened in Returning Ruins Sea. Lord Daoist Xuanyin and Lord Daoist Miaoyi were both shocked and sighed with emotion.
"I never expected there to be such a secret place in Yunzhong," Lord Daoist Xuanyin said after listening to their story, "Fortunately, you guys have deep good fortune. Not only were you not trapped in the immortal palace, but you also profited from misfortune and obtained an enormous fated chance."
Lord Daoist Miaoyi said to Mo Tiange, "Junior Martial Sister Qingwei, your guts are too big. You haven't formed your Nascent Soul yet, but you already dared to deal with so many Nascent Soul cultivators, including so many great late stage Nascent Soul cultivators!
What if something goes wrong? "
There was a hint of reproach in Lord Daoist Miaoyi's tone, but it was also filled with concern. Mo Tiange's heart warmed. She smiled and said, "There's nothing I can do about it.
At that time, I didn't know Senior Martial Brother had also come to Yunzhong, and I couldn't find a shortcut to return to the Celestial Pole, so I had to find a way to advance to the Nascent Soul realm and cross the South Sea.
Besides, with Senior Fu Yaozi's help, those Nascent Soul cultivators couldn't do anything to me. "
"That's true, but are you so sure that senior doesn't have bad intentions?"
Lord Daoist Xuanyin shook his head in disagreement. "Fortunately, you won the bet, but doing this was too risky."
"Yes, if something like this happens again, I'll definitely consider it carefully." Mo Tiange knew her two senior martial brothers and sisters cared about her, so she didn't argue with them.
"Speaking of which, those big cultivation groups in Yunzhong really bullied people too much!" Lord Daoist Xuanyin said with displeasure, "If we were in the Celestial Pole, how could we let them treat Junior Martial Sister Qingwei like this?"
Mo Tiange wasn't really angry about this matter. She only said, "Everyone has their own standpoint." She then asked, "Right, what's with the ghost cultivators Senior Martial Sister Miaoyi mentioned?
Do ghosts really exist in this world? "
"Of course they do."
Lord Daoist Miaoyi smiled and said, "Qingwei, although you're already a Nascent Soul cultivator, you're still young, so it's not strange that you don't know …"
As she spoke, Lord Daoist Miaoyi began to explain.
When a soul left the body, it would lose its memory and become an unconscious, powerless mass of energy. It would then enter the cycle of reincarnation. This was a well-known fact in the cultivation world.
But under special circumstances, for example, when a soul had a strong obsession before death, there was another possibility: the soul left the body but still retained its consciousness.
Since it retained its consciousness, it could cultivate. Just like cultivators who advanced to the next realm, its strength would become stronger and stronger. In the end, it would cultivate a ghost body and become a ghost cultivator.
Most ghost cultivators didn't have their memories from when they were alive, but there were also ghost cultivators with strong obsessions who retained part of their memories — this kind of ghost cultivator was the most powerful.
The emergence of ghost cultivators was very difficult.
First, they had to have a strong enough obsession to allow their soul to retain its consciousness, which was even less likely than mortals with spiritual roots.
Secondly, he had to know the cultivation method. If he didn't know the unique cultivation method of ghost cultivators, even if his soul retained its consciousness, it would slowly lose its energy over time and finally enter the cycle of reincarnation without knowing anything.
The cultivation method of ghost cultivators was almost lost in the Celestial Pole, so ghost cultivators naturally didn't exist. Therefore, most cultivators didn't know the existence of ghost cultivators, including some Nascent Soul cultivators.
"We originally thought ghost cultivators didn't exist anymore, but we didn't expect that after the changes in the world this time, a continent with both ghost and monster cultivators would appear!"
"What's going on?" Qin Xi asked, "Where are we now in the Celestial Pole? What's the situation on this continent?"
Previously, Yuanzhou moved, Yunzhong disappeared, Xiaoyang appeared in Yunzhong's place, and he also discovered the monster continent. He and Mo Tiange had long guessed that the Celestial Pole wasn't where it used to be, but they didn't expect a new continent to appear around the Celestial Pole.
Lord Daoist Xuanyin said, "… Let's put it this way. The South Sea is now northeast of the Celestial Pole."
The South Sea used to be south of the Celestial Pole, but now it was northeast of the Celestial Pole … In other words, the Celestial Pole moved southwest by a whole continent?
Mo Tiange thought for a moment then reached out and drew on the table with her spiritual aura.
She drew Yuan Province first. To the south of Yuan Province was the monster continent, and to the north of Yuan Province was Xiaoyang.
Xiaoyang was originally in Yunzhong's place, which meant that to the north of Xiaoyang was the South Sea. Using the South Sea as a reference, the Celestial Pole should now be west of Xiaoyang and northwest of Yuan Province.
At this point, Mo Tiange paused for a moment then asked, "Where's this new continent?
How big is it? "
Lord Daoist Xuanyin and Lord Daoist Miaoyi looked surprised as they stared at the spiritual aura map on the table. Lord Daoist Miaoyi asked, "Junior Martial Sister Qingwei, where did you get this map?"
Mo Tiange said, "When Senior Martial Brother and I were trapped in Yuan Province, we inquired about it.
According to the people in Yuan Province, Yunzhong disappeared and Xiaoyang appeared in Yunzhong's original place. I thought about it, then the Celestial Pole should be here. "
The two Lord Daoists thought for a moment then nodded in agreement.
Lord Daoist Miaoyi reached out and also used spiritual aura to draw a circle below the Celestial Pole. She said, "The continent we're talking about is here. It's about half the size of the Celestial Pole."
According to Lord Daoist Miaoyi's drawing, this continent was connected to the Celestial Pole, and the place they were connected to … was directly south of Kunzhong City!
No wonder all the big cultivation groups joined hands to take over Kunzhong City! So that was why!
The two of them were suddenly enlightened.
There was a vast forest south of Kunwu, and this forest was the territory of demonic beasts.
This new continent happened to appear in the south of the Celestial Pole and was connected to the forest.
They now understood why so many Nascent Soul cultivators stopped cultivating and gathered together.
The cultivators of the Celestial Pole had never been afraid of demonic cultivators. For more than a hundred thousand years, they fought each other, but they also maintained a relatively balanced situation.
But it was different now. This new continent was inhabited by demonic cultivators and ghost cultivators, and it was connected to the forest. This was tantamount to the demonic cultivators' territory greatly expanding, and the former balance was destroyed.
Lord Daoist Miaoyi continued to say, "This continent is very strange. There are mortals, ghost cultivators, demonic beasts, and demonic cultivators, but there are no immortal cultivators."
"How could that be?"
Qin Xi asked curiously. "Since ghost cultivators exist, it means there are ghost cultivation techniques on this continent.
When ghost cultivators first appeared, wasn't it because immortal cultivators retained their original memories, which was why they created ghost cultivation techniques? "
He knew a bit about ghost cultivation. Even if mortals retained their original memories, it was impossible for them to create cultivation techniques before their energy disappeared. Therefore, the first ghost cultivation came from the souls of dead immortal cultivators.
"Junior Martial Brother, what you said isn't wrong." Lord Daoist Xuanyin smiled bitterly. "But that's the truth.
After this continent appeared, we sent people to investigate, but we didn't find any immortal cultivators, but there were a lot of ghost cultivators. "
If there was an abnormality, there must be a monster.
However, this matter could only be understood slowly. They couldn't know the truth all at once.
"Then what about the current situation?"
Mo Tiange asked. "So many Nascent Soul cultivators gathered together … could it be that those demonic cultivators joined forces?"
"Correct."
Lord Daoist Miaoyi nodded. "After this new continent appeared, we found that the demonic cultivators in the southern forest joined forces with the demonic cultivators on this continent.
In the past year, these demonic cultivators have become restless. Although there haven't been large-scale attacks, there have been many small-scale conflicts.
Especially in the past few months, there have been frequent sneak attacks by high level demonic cultivators, and even Nascent Soul cultivators have fallen.
All the big sects have come to a conclusion that if we don't take measures, we'll be defeated by the demonic cultivators sooner or later, so it's better to take the initiative to attack and use offense as defense. "
"… I see."
There weren't many high level demonic cultivators in the southern forest, but if this new continent was included, the number of Nascent Soul cultivators in the Celestial Pole would only be a lot more than the number of Nascent Soul cultivators in the Celestial Pole. The situation was so grim that if they waited until a real conflict broke out, it would be too late.
No wonder Lord Daoist Miaoyi said it would be good if it was just a demonic beast riot. The current situation was that the demonic beast riot had expanded several times. If the cultivators in the Celestial Pole didn't gather together, they would most likely be wiped out.