Sword Gorge.
Everyone arrived here, then walked straight through, and only after walking a few more miles did they realize that the small ditch they had just passed seemed to be their destination.
Bai Zimo looked embarrassed, coughed, and led everyone back.
It truly was a loess ditch, overgrown with tangled cogongrass, half withered and half scorched, like a miserable remnant after a wildfire.
"Do we have to dig three feet deep?" The Taoist frowned, surveying the surroundings with his compass.
Li Dingxun stared at the ground beneath his feet; he had indeed overlooked the unique nature of this place earlier.
Many places in the Realm of Extinction have underground caverns, some even containing houses and various ruins, all long abandoned.
Li Dingxun could perceive these underground things and should not have missed them, but he was more concerned with one thing, so much so that he was completely engrossed.
The breathing of the Realm of Extinction.
The breathing of this world.
It wasn't a breath that stirred airflow, nor a vocalized breath; it transcended the biological concept of "breathing."
It was a rhythm.
A silent rhythm, one that even absorbed extraneous noise.
The Realm of Extinction contained all natural landscapes, but these landscapes were mere shells; all colors, masses, and movements were present, yet they lacked independent individuality.
Some higher will suppressed the evolution here.
It was like the surface of the sea covered with a film, where the peaks and troughs of the waves were suppressed to a fixed range.
The mountains here would not collapse, the water here would not dry up, the plains here would not sink, and the trees here would not spread.
However, the cycle of rise and fall still existed.
Li Dingxun's eyes spanned across the years.
The boundary between life and death was so blurred, a grey area between life and death, dominating this place.
Plants withered and yellowed, yet with the arrival of spring, they turned green again.
Seeds were sown repeatedly, but never sprouted.
Grains of sand were scattered by the wind, yet new winds brought new sand, filling the gaps. Sand dunes lowered, then slowly piled up again.
People came here. They lived cautiously underground; their lives, lives—
Life slowly became a noun, stripped of its verbal connotation.
Every day, they ate the same fish from the same river.
Li Dingxun touched his stomach; sure enough, last night's delicious meal had been digested, and all the heat and nutrients it provided had vanished, returning to those three lively fish, now swimming freely in the sinkhole where they had rested last night.
Do people starve to death if they don't eat? No, not in the Realm of Extinction, as long as they join the Realm of Extinction.
That voice, always ignored in his ear—Join, join me.
His eyes were transmitting this message, his ears were transmitting this message, his nose, skin, and tongue were all being subtly informed of a message—Join the Realm of Extinction, merge with Heaven and Earth.
Look, let go of self-attachment, let go of the obsession of being human, and merge with the world—how wonderful!
So those evil spirits in the wind, they, or rather, what they once were, possessed wisdom, capable of understanding what "I" was and what "the world" was.
Once one had self-attachment, one would be lured by the will of the Realm of Extinction.
A trap specifically targeting wisdom.
Li Dingxun stood there, lost in thought, while the Taoist had already started digging.
"Good thing I brought a shovel, otherwise we'd have to use Mo Yun's sword," the Taoist chuckled while working. The swordsman on the side hugged his beloved sword, his gaze vigilant.
Li Dingxun looked at this carefree Taoist.
The chief disciple of the Three Sects, Wang Ping'an.
The youngest person to enter the Dao in Ran Mountain in three hundred years.
He might have also sensed something.
Li Dingxun then turned his head to stare at the swordsman.
And this Bai Zimo, with his clear Sword Heart, a natural prodigy; just from his current anxious state, he must have realized the malice of the Realm of Extinction.
Finally, there was the carefree Fu Xixi, this little fishing girl, whose hundred meridians were all open.
"Sun Lichai…" Someone murmured. Li Dingxun pressed his forehead, pushing in a pair of hard bumps; the time was not yet right.
Everyone watched the Taoist laboring, while the little girl made sarcastic remarks, such as, "Why are you so skilled? Could it be that your ancestors were tomb raiders?" and "Oh, don't praise him, he hit a rock."
The Taoist's face flushed red, and he dug silently.
Soon after, the shovel struck something. The Taoist stumbled but his face lit up with joy, shouting, "It's open!"
With a few more digs, a slanting underground tunnel was revealed. Wang Ping'an gasped for a moment, then took a candle from his luggage, lit it, held it in mid-air with his internal energy, and extended it down into the tunnel. It reached the bottom, and the candle did not extinguish.
"The air circulation is very good; let's go straight down."
Everyone slid down like on a slide, only the little girl's clothes were covered in dust, while the others remained clean and fresh.
"Why is that? Does even dust discriminate?"
"Hmph, who told a certain someone not to use internal energy to protect her clothes?" The Taoist bickered with the little girl while lighting a torch to illuminate the small cave.
It was a square underground secret room with several vents, eight walls, text on the walls, a pile of rotten bamboo slips on the ground, and several boxes buried within the pile of bamboo slips.
"That's right, just as my grandfather said, it's senior Mo Yun's Xin Jian Jing (Heart Sword Sutra), the 'Crippled Sword Young Master' from back then!" Bai Zimo stared at the text on the wall, his voice filled with excitement.
The little girl asked, confused, "Brother Bai, didn't you say we were looking for your grandfather's relics? How did it become something about the Crippled Sword Young Master?"
"My grandfather was a disciple of the Crippled Sword Young Master, but he didn't pass on the inheritance to his descendants; instead, he followed his master's last wish and buried it. I'll tell you the full story later."
"Oh."
"The bamboo slips can't be read anymore," the Taoist said, dragging out three boxes and opening them. "One box of gold, one box of weapons, and one box of musical instruments. Hey, not bad at all."
Bai Zimo cupped his hands to Li Dingxun, "Young Master Li, we had an agreement. You may take these valuables as you wish, and you may also copy the cultivation method on the walls. I only ask for the Crippled Sword Young Master's ink-jade broken sword from back then."
Li Dingxun smiled and said, "I don't care for these things; they are all yours. But I still warn you, do not touch that broken sword yet."
"Why is that?" Everyone was puzzled.
"This is related to your past life, and also to the environment of the Realm of Extinction. In short, let the young Taoist keep it for you, including the Xin Jian Jing (Heart Sword Sutra) on the walls. Do not practice it yet; wait until you return to the Divine Land and find a quiet room to consider it."
Of course, they had to listen to Li Dingxun's words. Immediately, the three prepared to return, but after everything was packed and they were ready to depart, Li Dingxun remained still.
"Brother Li? Let's go, hurry up." The little girl waved and urged him cheerfully.
"You all go, I will stay here."
The three were puzzled. The Taoist asked, "Aren't you still going to The Ends of the Earth? After the Realm of Extinction's volcano becomes active, you won't be able to enter or exit, will you?"
Li Dingxun smiled freely, "Mere magma, what could it do to me even if I took a bath in it? I am staying here for a promise I once made."
There were no epiphyllum in the Realm of Extinction.
The little girl was about to persuade him further, but the two men stopped her and led her back.
Li Dingxun shouted to their retreating backs, "Absolutely do not attempt to commune with Heaven and Earth here! Remember, remember!"
Looking back from a distant mountain, the little girl gazed at the tall man. His figure was like a speck of dust, yet his presence, filling Heaven and Earth, was like a towering ancient tree, deeply moving.
"The Realm of Extinction is so dangerous, why didn't you try to persuade Brother Li?"
The swordsman and the Taoist exchanged a smile.
"Little sister, you must understand, there is a kind of person in this world whose words carry weight, and no one can obstruct his path. Your Brother Li is such a person. Since he said he would stay to fulfill a promise, then nothing anyone says will be of any use; he will fulfill it even if he is shattered to pieces."
"Hmph, you men are all reckless brutes."
"Hahahaha!"
The ancient Jianghu, nothing more than singing a song and letting out a long roar to the sky.
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