Although the Xiaoluo Secret Realm lived in seclusion from worldly strife, this did not mean its inhabitants were cold or indifferent. On the contrary, when venturing outside for training, they would act chivalrously when the situation called for it and heal the wounded and rescue the dying when needed. The Xiaoluo Secret Realm had been passed down for over a hundred thousand years, saving countless people, many of whom later chose to stay within the realm.
When Qiānlíng mentioned that she had brought back a person from her latest training expedition, and a strange one at that, Ancestral Patriarch Dānqīng Lǎozǔ wanted to go take a look. Naturally, the ever-curious Qiānniǎo followed along.
Soon, they arrived at a garden within the Xiaoluo Secret Realm.
Three or five people stood nearby talking and immediately bowed upon seeing Ancestral Patriarch Dānqīng.
"Where is he?"
"In the inner room. Xuěhuān is examining him."
Xuěhuān was also an immortal of the Xiaoluo Secret Realm, a Great Luo Golden Immortal as well, and one particularly skilled in medicine.
Entering the inner room, a gentle-looking woman stood by the bedside—this was Xuěhuān. Lying on the bed was a man who appeared to be in his early twenties, with ordinary features—neither handsome nor ugly, the kind of common face you'd lose in a crowd.
He lay there quietly, not even breathing. If not for the faint trace of life energy emanating from his body, he would seem exactly like a corpse.
"Sister Ling'er, is this the person you brought back from outside?" Qiānniǎo blinked her eyes as she looked at him and said, "He doesn't seem to be an immortal."
All immortals, after their physical bodies undergo the Immortal Tribulation, are no longer flesh and blood but Great Dao Immortal Bodies, containing Great Dao Immortal Aura.
But this man's body was neither a Great Dao Immortal Body, nor did he possess any Great Dao Immortal Aura. Thus, Qiānniǎo immediately concluded he was not an immortal.
"And... not only is he not an immortal, he doesn't even seem to be a cultivator, right?"
Then Qiānniǎo noticed that the person on the bed had no cultivation base, no destiny, and no spiritual aura—just like an ordinary person from the mortal world. Puzzled, she asked, "Sister Ling'er, didn't you go to the Liúshā Small Secret Realm for this training trip? Did you also visit the mortal world?"
"We didn't go to the mortal world. We stayed in the Liúshā Small Secret Realm the whole time."
"Then where did you find him?"
"In the Liúshā Small Secret Realm."
"That can't be right," Qiānniǎo said. "If I remember correctly, the Liúshā Small Secret Realm is a new secret realm that formed only a thousand years ago. And you said it's very dangerous inside. How could there be an ordinary person there?"
"That's why he's a strange man," Qiānlíng said seriously. "The natural environment inside the Liúshā Small Secret Realm is extremely harsh. Ordinary immortals can be annihilated if they're slightly careless. Even with my cultivation level, I didn't dare be careless there. When we found him in the Liúshā Small Secret Realm, he was lying in a deep pit, seemingly unaffected by the realm's harsh environment."
"Heavens! How is that possible?" Qiānniǎo exclaimed in astonishment. "He's just an ordinary person with a flesh-and-blood body. Could it be stronger than your Golden Immortal body, Sister Ling'er?"
Qiānlíng shook her head. She didn't know either.
By the bedside, both Xuěhuān and Ancestral Patriarch Dānqīng were examining the mysterious man's condition. The more they examined, the more puzzled and curious they became. Especially the man's physical body—it could be described as extremely bizarre and chaotic. Whether it was his acupoints or bones, his meridians or blood, even his internal organs were all tangled together in a mess—as chaotic as could be. More seriously, his acupoints, bones, and meridians all seemed as if they had rusted. His body was filled with rust-like impurities, densely packed everywhere, completely blocked.
"This Ancestral Patriarch has cultivated for over tens of thousands of years, yet I have never seen such a chaotic, utterly terrible physical body. It's simply... simply..." Ancestral Patriarch Dānqīng frowned and shook his head. He thought and thought but couldn't find the words to describe this man's body. It felt as if the man had been burned by fire into a pile of mud, then had his appearance restored by a master of medicine, but his insides remained a pile of mud.
"His body being so chaotic likely isn't innate; it was probably caused later," Xuěhuān said doubtfully. "But I truly can't imagine what he experienced to make his physical body become such a disorderly mess. What's even more incomprehensible to me is that, despite this, he's still alive."
"Not only is he alive, but his body has also mutated for some reason. It's probably this mutation that allows him to be unaffected by the harsh environment in the Small Liúshā Secret Realm." As Ancestral Patriarch Dānqīng spoke, he raised his hand and flicked his finger. A shimmering light shot from his fingertip, transforming into a sharp sword that stabbed toward the man's arm. Unbelievably, when the light-sword touched the man's arm, it was as if a clay ox had entered the sea—it was simply swallowed up.
Ancestral Patriarch Dānqīng tried several times in succession, each time projecting a light more powerful than the last. Yet without exception, whenever they touched the man's physical body, they were all swallowed up like clay oxen entering the sea.
This scene left Xuěhuān, Qiānlíng, and Qiānniǎo unable to believe their eyes. They all knew the Ancestral Patriarch was a Great Luo Golden Immortal, one who had cultivated for tens of thousands of years. Even a mere flick of light from him contained millions of profound mysteries and divine abilities, its power immensely formidable. At the very least, Qiānlíng, as a Golden Immortal, believed she wouldn't dare directly receive a flick of light from the Ancestral Patriarch. Xuěhuān, who knew the Ancestral Patriarch's prowess even better, certainly wouldn't dare either.
Yet they couldn't fathom how several projections of light from the Ancestral Patriarch could all be swallowed by this man's chaotic physical body.
"Ancestral Patriarch, his body... how can this be?" Both Xuěhuān and Qiānlíng were seeing such a bizarre situation for the first time. They found it incredible and unfathomable.
Ancestral Patriarch Dānqīng did not respond, only frowning deeply as if pondering something.
"Could he be some kind of demonic artifact cultivated by those fiends?" Qiānlíng had heard that some fiends, in order to forge powerful magical treasures, liked to use human bodies as cauldrons. Others refined undead or even zombies.
"Unlikely," Xuěhuān replied. "If he were a fiend-refined artifact, he would have died long ago. He couldn't possibly still have life energy. Moreover, fiend-refined artifacts all carry evil aura. Although his body is chaotic, it doesn't have any evil aura."
Nearby, Qiānniǎo also speculated, "Then could it be that he was once a master who cultivated wrongly? Maybe he Qi Deviation and turned into this? Otherwise, how could his body be so strange?"
"Qiānniǎo, have you been listening to too many legends and stories?"
"What? Am I wrong?"
"If he were once a Great Dao master, even if his cultivation went awry, his Great Dao body wouldn't revert to a flesh-and-blood body."
"The master I'm talking about doesn't necessarily have to be a Great Dao master. Can't a flesh-and-blood body become a master? Are you saying cultivators can't defeat Great Dao beings?"
"Then tell me, have you ever seen a master who is a cultivator with a flesh-and-blood body?"
"I haven't seen one, but that doesn't mean none exist in heaven and earth! You Di wasn't a Great Dao being, yet he still beat the Great Dao into a rout, didn't he? And You Di didn't have a Great Dao body either."
Qiānlíng looked at Qiānniǎo and shook her head somewhat helplessly. "Silly girl, it's true that You Di wasn't a Great Dao being and didn't have a Great Dao body. But he possessed the one and only Absolute Body in the Great Desolate, said to be unshakable even by heaven and earth."