Cultivation Begins From The Desert

"What a pity, what a pity, it's only the remains of a fake infant cultivator who failed to cross the Heart Demon Tribulation!"

"Indeed, if it were truly the remains of a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, how could they have perished in such a location!"

"I have been too greedy!"

Within Bright Hall, Xu Song, having understood the truth, looked at the remains on the ground with a face full of regret and sighed deeply.

Earlier, he had seen faint golden light spots emerging from the bones of the remains and mistakenly identified them as the remains of a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator.

But after breaking the protective array that the owner of the remains had set up before their death and examining the remains closely, he realized he had been mistaken.

These were not the remains of a Nascent Soul Stage cultivator, nor a Golden Core Stage cultivator, but the remains of a "fake infant" cultivator.

The term "fake infant" is what cultivators use to refer to a certain special realm of cultivation.

When a Ninth-Layer Golden Core cultivator prepares to refine their pill and form their infant, they must first break down their Golden Core, then fuse the dispersed Golden Core with their divine soul to form a Nascent Soul. Once the Nascent Soul is formed, the cultivator encounters the Heart Demon Tribulation.

Only by overcoming the Heart Demon Tribulation can the Nascent Soul truly stabilize, enabling the cultivator to master the unique divine techniques of the Nascent Soul Stage.

A "fake infant" cultivator specifically refers to those who have just formed a Nascent Soul but have yet to overcome the Heart Demon Tribulation.

In terms of magical power, these "fake infant" cultivators are virtually indistinguishable from Nascent Soul Stage cultivators, but lacking the divine techniques exclusive to the Nascent Soul Stage because they have not overcome the Heart Demon Tribulation.

Due to the magical power being comparable to that of Nascent Soul Stage cultivators, the bodies of "fake infant" cultivators, after being tempered by Nascent Soul Stage level magical power, naturally differ from ordinary Golden Core Stage cultivators, becoming closer to Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

However, since the "fake infant" status is short-lived, their bodies ultimately cannot be refined to the strength of Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

The remains before Zhouyang now are those left by a "fake infant" cultivator who failed the Heart Demon Tribulation.

The Heart Demon Tribulation is extremely perilous. Even those Ninth-Layer Golden Core cultivators who manage to pass the initial pill refining and infant forming stage face over a seventy percent chance of failure at this stage.

And once they fail the Heart Demon Tribulation, these so-called "fake infant" cultivators will, without exception, perish in madness!

The Heart Demon incited by the Heart Demon Tribulation directly attacks the cultivator's Dao Heart. If the Dao Heart loses its defense, even a Harmonious Celestial Immortal cannot save them.

Many Nascent Soul Stage cultivators, even those who have overcome the Heart Demon Tribulation, would choose facing the Four-Nine Celestial Tribulation encountered by True Immortals over experiencing another Heart Demon Tribulation.

Although the Celestial Tribulation is perilous, at least magical artifacts and other external objects can help weaken and resist it, but the Heart Demon Tribulation scarcely allows external assistance, relying almost entirely on the cultivator's own mental cultivation to withstand.

Evidently, the reason the owner of the remains before Zhouyang died here was due to their Dao Heart failing after trying to forcefully overcome the Heart Demon Tribulation, resulting in madness and death.

Zhouyang didn't care about the cultivation level of the remains' owner during life; while Xu Song sighed over the remains, he had already retrieved and began examining the treasures carried by the remains.

Given that the owner of these remains was a Ninth-Layer Golden Core cultivator, naturally their possessions weren't lacking.

Not to mention anything else, the pale golden robe draped over the remains was surprisingly a Tier Four Top Grade spiritual artifact.

This robe was woven from spirit silk spat by a Tier Four exotic spirit beast, the "Golden Silk Celestial Silkworm." It not only defended against attacks from same-tier flying swords but also included a defense divine technique and an escape technique, remaining perfectly intact despite the passage of countless years, its value not lower than ordinary Tier Five Lower Grade spiritual artifacts.

At the dantian location of the remains, Zhouyang found a dim spiritual light golden bell artifact, which from its position appeared to be the owner's lifebound spiritual artifact before death.

Unfortunately, with the owner's demise, the artifact lacks spiritual essence due to prolonged neglect, reducing it to a worthless item without value for refinement or use.

Possibly due to the inability to leave other external objects inside while attempting to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, aside from the lifebound spiritual artifact golden bell and the outer robe, the owner of the remains was left with only a storage ring worn on the thumb of the right hand.

Due to the passage of time, the spiritual marks within the storage ring had dissipated, making it easy for Zhouyang to open and remove all the contents after taking the ring off.

There were many items inside the storage ring, but likely due to their age, many items had lost their efficacy due to the long-term absence of spiritual qi, including several treasures that should have been Tier Five spiritual artifacts!

Even Tier Five spiritual artifacts lost their efficacy over time with spiritual qi dissipating, so the condition of other treasures is even more apparent.

Among the heap of treasures scattered on the ground, Zhouyang found only fifty-four top-grade spirit stones, while the thousands of middle-grade spirit stones had their spiritual qi dissipated, turning into ordinary crystal stones.

"Even middle-grade spirit stones and tier five spiritual artifacts have lost all their spiritual energy; could the owner of these remains be a person from ten thousand years ago?"

Zhouyang looked shocked at the wasteland of discarded items, his heart greatly shaken.

Although he had previously heard Xu Song say that the altar was a large remote teleportation array, he had realized that this underground relic was not established in the past few thousand years.

But now, seeing the treasures within the storage ring of the remains owner turned into useless items, Zhouyang just realized that he might have far underestimated the establishment time of this underground relic.

Unwilling to give up, he inspected all remaining items, especially the jade boxes specifically used for preserving rare spiritual objects, finally gaining other findings.

The storage ring of the remains owner contained over a dozen jade boxes, and after Zhouyang opened them all, he found that most of the treasures within the jade boxes had also become useless waste due to the long passage of time, with their spiritual energy dissipated.

But there were three jade boxes whose spiritual objects, due to their excellent quality and well-preserved conditions, could still be used.

Within one jade box was a fiery red feather, approximately two feet long, naturally inscribed with numerous mysterious flame patterns. Once Zhouyang took it out, the surrounding fire attribute spiritual qi rushed toward it and was absorbed completely.

After absorbing a large amount of fire attribute spiritual qi, the flame patterns on this fiery red feather suddenly blazed bright, with an apparent tendency to ignite.

"Quick, quickly put it away!"

Xu Song, who was originally contemplating the remains on the ground, sensed the change in spiritual qi and turned to glance at the fiery red feather in Zhouyang's hand, then his face changed drastically, he shouted urgently.

In fact, he didn't need to speak; Zhouyang already faintly sensed something was wrong, knowing that he couldn't let the fiery red feather in his hand continue to absorb external spiritual qi.

Therefore, upon hearing Xu Song's shout, he hurriedly put it back into the red jade box that held it originally, cutting off its contact with external spiritual qi by closing the box.

"You almost caused a major disaster, do you know that? Do you know what that thing is? If I'm not mistaken, it's the legendary Fire Phoenix True Feather!"

"Of course, a true phoenix is at least at the True Immortal level; that feather might just be an immature Fire Phoenix feather, or a True Feather of a spirit bird with extremely strong phoenix bloodline."

"But regardless of the possibility, that feather is at least the lifebound true feather of a Tier Six avian demon king!"

"Just now, if you hadn't timely put away this lifebound true feather, once it absorbed enough spiritual qi, it would directly unleash fire element divine techniques of demon king level. Not only would this invaluable feather be destroyed, but everyone here would perish in its attack!"

As Zhouyang closed the jade box, he was met with a torrent of scolding from Xu Song, it's the first time he saw the old ghost so frightened.

Yes, frightened.

The ghost category is inherently restrained by the forces of flame and thunder; the Fire Phoenix is a divine beast of fire, and its Phoenix True Flame's power might surpass Zhouyang's "Qianyang True Flame."

If Xu Song wasn't mistaken, if that fiery red feather had truly unleashed demon king-level fire element divine techniques, in addition to Golden Core Stage Ghost Cultivators like him, Nascent Soul Stage Ghost Cultivators would be in danger of perishing.

"Cough, cough, this matter was recklessness on my part, implicating you to be startled; I hope you'll forgive me."

Embarrassment flashed across Zhouyang's face, as he sincerely admitted his mistake and apologized.

After all, this issue was truly his fault; because of his error, everyone's lives were put at risk, and he certainly should apologize for that.

Seeing his earnest attitude in admitting fault, Xu Song's anger subsided slightly, and he waved his hand saying, "Forget it, a lesson learnt, kid, just be more cautious when encountering such a situation in the future."

Then he assumed a serious demeanor, looking at Zhouyang with a grave expression and explaining, "It's important to know, some powerful existences among the Tier Six demon kings, with extraordinary bloodlines, have scales or feathers containing their will and power of origin. If they don't intentionally withdraw the will within, these things, even if obtained by others, can easily lead them to self-destruction!"

"Luckily, the will of the demon king in that feather must have dissipated in the long years, otherwise once it broke free of the sealing jade box, without someone using great magical power to suppress it, it would immediately incinerate itself, turning into Phoenix True Flame to attack all nearby living beings!"

Zhouyang was hearing such matters for the first time, the Zhou Family ultimately had a shallow background; aside from disciples from major sects, it was only Golden Core Stage Cultivators who could access information involving this world's top existences.

"I have learned from this, thank you for your guidance."

He nodded in sudden understanding, saluting with hands to express gratitude.

Then he flipped his hand, storing the red jade box with the phoenix feather, directing his gaze to the other two jade boxes containing spiritual objects.