The First Immortal of Destiny

Chapter 774 774: True Immortal Cave Mansion_1

"At that time, I also harbored this doubt, so I questioned Ciji in detail." The Silver-haired Child poured himself a cup of spiritual wine, downed it in one gulp, and then continued his aged narrative.

Fulong Immortal Master's good friend, who had celebrated his four-thousandth birthday, was known by the Daoist name Immortal Master Cizi.

This individual hailed from a Cultivating Family with a ten-thousand-year legacy and formidable influence. This family controlled several human countries populated by both immortals and mortals, ruling over hundreds of millions of individuals.

Those at the very apex—the nobility and high-ranking cultivators—almost all originated from this family. Through marriage, they recruited promising young talents with outstanding cultivation aptitude, irrespective of gender. This practice infused fresh blood into the family, nurturing even more exceptional descendants and ensuring the family's undiminished prosperity for millennia!

Immortal Master Cizi's father was a young prodigy who had married into the family. His mother, too, was a distinguished choice from within the clan. Before the couple cultivated to the Spirit Sea Realm, they were compelled by pressure from the family's upper echelons to bear numerous offspring. Subsequently, both cultivated to the peak of the Golden Core Realm and held considerable status within the family.

Consequently, Immortal Master Cizi and his siblings almost never lacked cultivation resources before they condensed their Golden Cores!

However, neither his parents nor any of his siblings cultivated to the Divine Bridge Realm. Only Immortal Master Cizi distinguished himself; after protracted cultivation, he progressed step by step to the Formless Realm. He was merely one major Realm away from True Immortal.

After attaining the Formless Realm, Immortal Master Cizi neither established a Sect nor passed down his lineage of teachings. Instead, he began to foster his descendants.

Like his parents, he had married and sired his own children before reaching the Spirit Sea Realm!

Naturally, his children, and their children in turn, had long ago succumbed to old age. His descendants were countless generations removed from him, yet Immortal Master Cizi continued to invest considerable effort in them.

By the time Immortal Master Cizi celebrated his four-thousandth birthday, nearly half the members of that Cultivating Family were his direct descendants, revering him as their patriarch!

Back to the story.

Immortal Master Cizi's fostering of his direct descendants to strengthen the family was merely a notion instilled in him since childhood, something he did as a matter of course.

His lifelong pursuit, like that of other Formless Realm cultivators, was no different: to cultivate into a True Immortal—even if it meant becoming a Ghost Immortal, the lowest of the Five Immortals—so that he might enjoy a Lifespan of one hundred thousand or even a million years!

By a stroke of fortune, after obtaining clues regarding a True Immortal's Cave Mansion, he spared no effort to find its location. He explored it alone initially, but because the True Immortal's Cave Mansion was exceedingly perilous, he was forced to withdraw. He then used the pretext of celebrating his birthday to invite his fellow Daoist friends to explore the Immortal Mansion together!

So that's how it is! Before inviting you all, Ciji had already explored the True Immortal's Cave Mansion. A look of sudden realization appeared on Shen Mo's face.

If it had been him, after finding an Immortal Mansion with great difficulty, he also wouldn't be in a hurry to share it.

Only when he was unable to secure the benefits within the True Immortal's Cave Mansion on his own would he invite trustworthy fellow Daoists. They would join hands to overcome the hardships, at the cost of relinquishing some benefits in exchange for these otherwise unobtainable rewards!

After Immortal Master Cizi explored the True Immortal's Cave Mansion once, he presumed its original master had most likely perished.

Though referred to as a Cave Mansion, it was, in reality, a cave paradise.

However, this cave paradise had long ago degenerated and fallen into the mortal realm, becoming a vast, boundless Dungeon fraught with peril.

If this Immortal were still alive, how could his cave paradise possibly lack the strength to sustain itself and fall from the void?

Urgently invited by Immortal Master Cizi, Fulong Immortal Master and the other three Formless Realm Immortal Masters followed Immortal Master Cizi into this Dungeon.

For the five Formless Realm experts, the outer areas of the Dungeon were not particularly dangerous. However, as they ventured deeper, it was fraught with Demons, perilous terrains, Evil Spirits, Prohibitions, and killing formations, making every step a gamble with death, teeming with danger!

Fulong Immortal Master was attacked by an unknown Evil Spirit while heading towards the core of this Cave Mansion, and unfortunately died on the spot.

His entire collection of magic treasures and spiritual items, including the Five Dragon Divine Chariot, was lost within!

"After I reached the Divine Bridge Realm and awakened my previous life's wisdom, I suffered from a lack of resources, and my cultivation progress has always been exceedingly slow!

"Hence, I thought of Immortal Master Cizi and my other four friends. I called out their real names and Daoist names, hoping they would assist me on my journey, but none responded. They were all Formless Realm Immortal Masters. In such circumstances, they either perished in the True Immortal's Cave Mansion, like my past self, or they failed to achieve True Immortality and died of old age, their eight-thousand-year Lifespans exhausted.

"Later, I also visited the Sects and Cultivating Families they belonged to.

"Aside from the Cultivating Family Cizi hailed from, the other powers had either lost their lineage or declined. According to their descendants, none of the four, including Ciji, ever returned after they left. This confirmed my earlier suspicions: all of them, without exception, had perished within the True Immortal's Cave Mansion!

"Therefore, to retrieve the remains of my past self, the Five Dragon Divine Chariot, and all my magic treasures and spiritual items, I can only rely on myself!"

At this point, the Silver-haired Child's juvenile face seemed somewhat melancholy, and his eyes held an unprecedented depth of world-weariness.

The Silver-haired Child wanted to explore the True Immortal's Cave Mansion again. However, relying solely on himself, it would be exceedingly difficult to cope with the numerous dangers within the Dungeon. Thus, he could only emulate Immortal Master Cizi and broadly invite trustworthy friends and fellow Daoists to accompany him.

As for seeking out Shen Mo, the reason was quite simple!

When Shen Mo, a Divine Bridge Immortal Master, purchased the original site of the Dragon-suppressing Sect, he did not abuse his power to oppress the weak, nor did he seize it by force. The price he offered was quite reasonable, resolving the pressing crisis for nearly a thousand cultivators of the Fulong Sect!

It was due to this connection, coupled with Shen Mo's upright and incorruptible nature, that the Silver-haired Child extended him an invitation.

Besides Shen Mo, the Silver-haired Child also invited two other Divine Bridge Realm cultivators. One was a descendant of Immortal Master Cizi, and the other was the Law Master of the Mechanic Sect, which had always maintained a good relationship with the Dragon-suppressing Sect.

"Although it's highly probable that Immortal Master Cizi and the other three fellow Daoists perished in the True Immortal's Cave Mansion, they likely didn't take the treasures from the Immortal Mansion Dungeon.

"However, my purpose in inviting you, Fellow Daoist Qingyun, and the other two fellow Daoists to re-explore the Immortal Mansion Dungeon is not for those immortal treasures in its core. That place is a deathtrap even for Formless Realm experts. With only our Divine Bridge Realm strength, venturing deep into the Immortal Mansion would likely mean our utter demise, both body and Dao!

"For this venture, if we can even manage to retrieve the remains of my past self and those of Ciji and the others, along with their relics, we'll have to burn copious amounts of incense to thank the high heavens for their benevolence.

"If this expedition proceeds smoothly, the remains of my past self, the Five Dragon Divine Chariot, and other magic treasures and spiritual items will naturally belong to me. As for Ciji's relics, they should rightly be claimed by his descendants. However, the descendants of the other three fellow Daoists have been disappointing; not a single one has cultivated to the Divine Bridge Realm. Fellow Daoist Qingyun, you need not worry about entering a treasure mountain and returning empty-handed...

"Moreover, even if we only manage to recover the remains of my former self, or the remains and relics of Ciji, the spoils will be divided according to the effort each fellow Daoist contributes!"

Shen Mo thought for a moment, feeling that this method of allocation was quite reasonable.