"Ghost Cultivators?" Mo Tiange was puzzled. The paths of cultivation varied among all things in the world. Human cultivators had the Dao, Demonic, Buddhist, and Confucian paths, which further branched into sword, martial, talisman, and medical arts. Demon Beasts also had their own cultivation paths, eventually becoming Demon Cultivators. But Ghost Cultivators—Mo Tiange had never heard of them.
According to worldly legends, when a person died, their soul would leave the body and become a ghost, possessing powers that humans did not have. But this was merely the imagination of mortals. In the eyes of cultivators, it was not so. To cultivators, a person was composed of a body and a primordial spirit. They did not concern themselves with souls, because souls had no power. Moreover, once a soul left the body, it would lose the memories of its previous life and re-enter the cycle of reincarnation. Therefore, ghosts did not exist.
As for the theory of reincarnation, it belonged to the inherent laws of heaven and earth. No matter how high their cultivation, they could not touch upon it.
Regarding the matter of Ghost Cultivators, Daojun Miaoyi felt it was not easy to explain. "Junior Brother and Sister, perhaps we should discuss this in detail later. Now is not the time."
Mo Tiange looked around. With so many people present, it was indeed not an opportune moment for conversation, so she asked no more.
Not long after, the meeting concluded. The two of them followed Dao Lord Xuanyin and Daojun Miaoyi back to their temporary lodgings.
Their temporary residence was a quiet, secluded courtyard next to the Wanhe Tower, protected by strict restrictions.
As soon as they returned to the courtyard, Dao Lord Xuanyin eagerly asked, "Junior Brother Shoujing, why did it take you so many years to return?"
Over these decades, they could only infer their situation from their Life Lamps. Qin Xi's Life Lamp had suddenly dimmed not long after crossing the sea, likely due to a severe injury. Later, the Life Lamp slowly stabilized and regained its brightness. After that, whether it was his or Mo Tiange's, although their Life Lamps occasionally dimmed, they never showed signs of extinguishing. This puzzled the Nascent Soul cultivators of the Xuanqing Sect greatly. The fact that the Life Lamps were unaffected meant that although they had been injured, they recovered quickly. So why hadn't they returned for decades? If, before, Mo Tiange couldn't cross the sea due to insufficient cultivation, that problem shouldn't have existed after Qin Xi went to find her. Could it be that in all these decades, they still hadn't met?
In the end, they could only guess that they were trapped by something and temporarily unable to return.
Qin Xi smiled bitterly. "That's a long story. It's not that we didn't want to return; we couldn't."
He then briefly recounted the events in the Guixu Sea, leaving Dao Lord Xuanyin and Daojun Miaoyi both shocked and sighing with emotion.
"To think such a secret place existed in Yunzhong," Dao Lord Xuanyin said after listening. "Fortunately, you two are blessed with deep fortune. Not only were you not trapped in the Immortal Palace, but you also turned misfortune into blessing and obtained a heaven-defying opportunity."
Daojun Miaoyi, however, said to Mo Tiange, "Junior Sister Qingwei, you are too bold! You dared to contend with so many Nascent Soul cultivators—and among them, so many late-stage Nascent Soul great cultivators—before even forming your Nascent Soul! What if something had gone wrong?"
Daojun Miaoyi's tone carried a hint of reproach, but it was filled with concern. Mo Tiange felt a warmth in her heart and smiled. "There was no other choice. At the time, I didn't know Senior Brother had also come to Yunzhong, and I couldn't find a shortcut back to Tianji. I had to find a way to advance to Nascent Soul and cross the South Sea. Moreover, with that Senior Fuyaozi planning for me, those Nascent Soul cultivators couldn't do anything to me."
"That may be so, but were you so sure that Senior Fuyaozi had no ill intentions?" Dao Lord Xuanyin shook his head, disapproving. "It's good that you gambled and won, but doing so was too risky."
"Yes, if such a situation arises again, I will certainly consider it more thoroughly." Knowing that her senior brother and sister were concerned, Mo Tiange did not argue further.
"Speaking of which, those major sects of Yunzhong are too overbearing!" Dao Lord Xuanyin said displeased. "If this were in Tianji, how could we allow them to treat Junior Sister Qingwei like that!"
Regarding this matter, Mo Tiange was not that angry. "It's just a matter of differing stances."
After saying that, she asked, "By the way, what was Senior Sister Miaoyi saying about Ghost Cultivators? Does the world really have ghosts?"
"Naturally, it does," Daojun Miaoyi said with a smile. "Qingwei, although you are already a Nascent Soul cultivator, you are still young. It's not strange that you don't know..."
Then, Daojun Miaoyi began to explain in detail.
When a soul left the body, it would lose its memories, becoming a clump of energy without consciousness or autonomy, and then enter the cycle of reincarnation. This was common knowledge in the cultivation world. But under special circumstances—for example, if the soul had a strong obsession before death—another possibility existed: the soul could leave the body while still retaining autonomous consciousness. Since it had autonomous consciousness, it could cultivate, just like a cultivator advancing in stages, growing stronger and stronger, eventually cultivating a ghost body and becoming a Ghost Cultivator.
Most Ghost Cultivators did not have memories of their past lives, but they still had obsessions. The most powerful Ghost Cultivators were those who retained partial memories due to extremely strong obsessions.
The emergence of a Ghost Cultivator was extremely difficult. First, only a sufficiently strong obsession could allow a soul to retain autonomous consciousness—a probability even smaller than a mortal possessing spiritual roots. Second, they needed to know the cultivation method. Without knowledge of the unique cultivation method for Ghost Cultivators, even a soul that retained autonomous consciousness would slowly lose its energy over time and eventually enter reincarnation without consciousness.
The cultivation method for Ghost Cultivators had almost been lost in Tianji, so naturally, Ghost Cultivators did not exist there. Therefore, most cultivators, even some Nascent Soul cultivators, did not know of the existence of Ghost Cultivators.
"We originally thought Ghost Cultivators no longer existed. Who would have thought that this Great Upheaval of Heaven and Earth would bring forth a continent inhabited by Demon Cultivators and Ghost Cultivators!"
"What's going on?" Qin Xi asked. "Where has Tianji moved to? And what is the situation with this continent?"
Previously, when Yuan Prefecture shifted, Yunzhong disappeared, and Xiaoyang appeared in Yunzhong's location, and a continent of Demon Cultivators was discovered, he and Mo Tiange had already guessed that Tianji was no longer in its original place. But they hadn't expected a new continent to appear around Tianji as well.
Dao Lord Xuanyin said, "...To put it simply, the South Sea is now to the northeast of Tianji."
The South Sea was originally to the south of Tianji, but now it was to the northeast... Did that mean Tianji had moved southwest by an entire continent's distance?
Mo Tiange thought for a moment, then used her spiritual energy to draw on the table.
First, she drew Yuan Prefecture. To the south of Yuan Prefecture was the continent of Demon Cultivators. To the north of Yuan Prefecture was Xiaoyang. Xiaoyang was in the original location of Yunzhong, which meant that now, to the north of Xiaoyang was the South Sea. Using the South Sea as a reference, Tianji should now be to the west of Xiaoyang and northwest of Yuan Prefecture.
Drawing to this point, Mo Tiange paused and asked, "Where is this new continent? How big is it?"
Looking at the spiritual energy map on the table, Dao Lord Xuanyin and Daojun Miaoyi showed expressions of surprise. Daojun Miaoyi asked, "Junior Sister Qingwei, where did you get this map?"
Mo Tiange said, "Senior Brother and I learned of it when we were trapped in Yuan Prefecture. According to the people of Yuan Prefecture, Yunzhong disappeared, and Xiaoyang appeared in Yunzhong's original location. I figured that Tianji should be here."
The two Dao Lords thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
Daojun Miaoyi reached out and, using her spiritual energy, drew a circle below Tianji. "The continent we're talking about is here, about half the size of Tianji."
Mo Tiange and Qin Xi looked. According to Daojun Miaoyi's drawing, this continent was connected to Tianji. The point of connection... was directly south of Kunzhong City.
No wonder the major sects had jointly taken over Kunzhong City! So that was it!
The two of them suddenly understood. To the south of Kunwu was a vast forest—the territory of Demon Beasts. And this new continent had appeared precisely to the south of Tianji, connecting with that forest.
They understood why so many Nascent Soul cultivators had put aside their cultivation and gathered together.
The cultivators of Tianji had never feared Demon Cultivators. For over a hundred thousand years, they had fought each other but maintained a relatively balanced situation. But now it was different. This new continent was inhabited by Demon Cultivators and Ghost Cultivators and was connected to the forest. This meant the territory of the Demon Cultivators had greatly expanded, and the former balance had been broken.
Daojun Miaoyi continued, "This continent is very peculiar. It has mortals, Ghost Cultivators, Demon Beasts, and Demon Cultivators, but no Immortal cultivators."
"How can that be?" Qin Xi asked curiously. "Since Ghost Cultivators exist, that means this continent has Ghost Cultivator cultivation techniques. At the beginning of Ghost Cultivator emergence, wasn't it because Immortal cultivators retained their original memories and created the Ghost Cultivator method?" He knew a bit about Ghost Cultivators. Even if mortals retained their original memories, they couldn't create a cultivation method before their energy dissipated. Therefore, the first Ghost Cultivators came from the souls of deceased Immortal cultivators.
"Junior Brother, what you say is not wrong," Dao Lord Xuanyin said with a bitter smile. "But the fact is just so. After this continent appeared, we sent people to investigate and found no Immortal cultivators at all, yet many Ghost Cultivators exist."
When things are abnormal, there must be something sinister. However, this matter could only be understood slowly. They couldn't know the truth all at once.
"So what is the current situation?" Mo Tiange asked. "With so many Nascent Soul cultivators gathered, have those Demon Cultivators united?"
"Correct," Daojun Miaoyi nodded. "After this new continent appeared, we discovered that the Demon Cultivators in the southern forest had united with the Demon Cultivators of this continent. Over the past year, these Demon Cultivators have been restless. Although there haven't been large-scale attacks, there have been many small-scale conflicts. Especially in recent months, high-level Demon Cultivators have frequently launched sneak attacks, and even Nascent Soul cultivators have fallen. After discussing, the major sects decided that if we don't take measures, we will eventually be picked off one by one by the Demon Cultivators. It's better to take the initiative and use offense as defense."
"...So that's how it is."
There weren't many high-level Demon Cultivators in the southern forest. But if combined with this new continent, their numbers were no less than the Nascent Soul cultivators of Tianji. The situation was so severe that if they waited until a real conflict broke out, it would be too late.
No wonder Daojun Miaoyi had said earlier that if it were just a Demon Beast uprising, it would be fine. The current situation was like a Demon Beast uprising magnified several times over. If the cultivators of Tianji didn't gather together, they would likely face imminent destruction.