Cultivating with Bragging System-Chapter 650 - 297 Leaving_2

She appeared exquisitely beautiful and delicate, like a blood rose under the sunset, making one's heart tremble. She exuded an unprecedented quality, one that was difficult to describe. It seemed she was more mature, more charming.

Xiao Qingyu spoke lightly, "There's no need to wait. Bring it to me now."

***

There was more than one passage connecting the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths. In the Cangyuan Realm alone, several such passages had been discovered. However, most of them were highly unstable, making it impossible to guarantee where one would end up. For some passages, each crossing led to a different location. One person might emerge in a great city, while another might find themselves in a desolate wasteland, teetering on the brink of life and death.

Other passages harbored hidden dangers. Travelers could encounter spatial storms at any moment and be swept away into an unknown void, with only a slim chance of survival. All sorts of possibilities had occurred throughout history, the answers summarized from the bloody lessons of countless predecessors.

The only stable, completely safe passage was in the Southern Domain.

***

Kunlun City was built against a mountain that soared into the clouds, reaching for the heavens like a celestial pillar. In fact, that's exactly what it was. The passage connecting the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths was located at the very peak of Mount Kunlun, and it opened once every thousand years.

It was said that every time the passage opened, the Kunlun Mountains would draw in a massive amount of pure Spiritual Energy from the Nine Heavens. This caused the local Spiritual Energy to become incredibly dense, creating a paradise-like environment. Though not a true Cave Heaven, it was in many ways superior to one. Every year, countless cultivators flocked here, regarding it as a sacred ground for cultivation.

Indeed, for the unaffiliated cultivators and ordinary practitioners who couldn't enter the Great Immortal Gates, the cultivation conditions here were far superior to other places. After all, thanks to the exceptionally abundant Spiritual Energy, this mountain range was rich in all sorts of spiritual items and medicinal herbs, with several Spirit Stone Mines alone.

In a place like this, competition was fierce. It was said that the local powers were the Three Sects and Six Families, each a formidable force ruling over its own territory, no weaker than some of the blessed Immortal Sects. The most abundant resources naturally fell to them.

Of course, none of this mattered to Wang Xiu.

***

He brought Yan Ji along, one man and one beast ascending the summit at great speed. The higher they climbed, the more clearly Wang Xiu could feel a tremendously powerful spatial energy ahead, blooming and twisting as if it could devour everything. But that energy was rapidly weakening. If left alone, it would probably dissipate completely in less than half a day.

I'm just in time! Wang Xiu thought.

At the summit lay a huge Heavenly Pool, its water as clear as a mirror, vast and boundless, spanning hundreds of miles. Mist and clouds drifted over it, making it seem to brim with Immortal Qi. Of course, it would have been perfect if it weren't for all the noisy chatter nearby.

"Come one, come all! Take a look at the latest and most complete strategic map of the Nine Heavens! From the great Holy Lands to the small Savage Tribes, if it breathes, it's on this map! Absolutely authentic, not a single one missing! A deal for young and old alike, no deception guaranteed! Only 100,000 Spirit Stones! For 100,000 Spirit Stones, you can't buy a loss, you can't be scammed, but you *can* buy yourself a smooth path to a brilliant future! What a bargain!"

DING!

[Detected nearby boasting. Congratulations, Host, you have gained +388 Mana!]

"The two realms of yin and yang are distinct, as are heaven and earth! The Nine Heavens isn't like the Ten Lands, where Saints are as common as dogs and Earth Immortals walk every street. You might run into a beggar on the road who turns out to be a Supreme Quasi-Emperor cultivating the path of the mortal world! If you're not careful and offend someone by mistake, you'll be in deep trouble! But if you buy this book from me, 'On the Three Types of People in the Nine Heavens You Must Not Offend,' I guarantee you'll navigate the Nine Heavens Realm like a fish in water, with insight into everything. Your success will be assured!"

DING!

[Detected nearby boasting. Congratulations, Host, you have gained +188 Mana!]

"To be honest with you all, don't be fooled by my current predicament. My ancestor was a personal guard to one of the Five Emperors of the Nine Heavens—second to only one man, but above billions of others! His Excellency traveled throughout the Nine Heavens, his knowledge vast. He recorded everything he saw and heard, including three hundred ancient Secret Realms, one hundred Supreme tombs, and the location of an ancient Great Emperor's training grounds. Frankly, if my cultivation talent weren't so abysmal that I'd just be fodder in the Nine Heavens, I would never sell such a manuscript. Now, if any kind brother sincerely desires it, for a mere one million Spirit Stones, I will reluctantly part with it!"

DING!

[Detected nearby boasting. Congratulations, Host, you have gained +299 Mana!]

"Amitabha. This humble monk, Lingjue of the Hidden Suspension Monastery on Mount Qingliang, received guidance from Mahavairocana in a dream during my meditation last night. He instructed me to come here to help all living beings resolve their difficulties and foster their karmic ties! Benefactor, I see a dark aura on your brow. This journey of yours is fraught with peril. It would be wise to donate some of your worldly possessions to accumulate immense merit. The Buddha will surely protect you and turn misfortune into fortune! A monk does not tell lies!"

DING!

[Detected nearby boasting. Congratulations, Host, you have gained +388 Mana!]

***

As expected. Wherever there are people, there's boasting.

Even on this bitterly cold summit of Mount Kunlun, so many people were here, swindling and deceiving. Yet, judging by their flushed and healthy faces, it seemed they were quite successful.

But on second thought, it was normal. Those who came here were either curious about the Nine Heavens and wished to spectate—after all, the passage only opened once a millennium and was a spectacle in itself—or they possessed considerable strength and were contemplating an attempt to enter the Nine Heavens, but hadn't fully decided. Then there were those like Wang Xiu, who were resolutely determined to enter.

Regardless of their category, people's hearts are always filled with confusion and fear when faced with the prospect of entering a completely unfamiliar world. This was especially true for the unaffiliated cultivators. With no powerful backing and no Sect archives to consult, they could only rely on rumors to piece together an idea of what the Nine Heavens was truly like. All they knew for sure was that it was teeming with powerful experts and was a much vaster world. Their hearts were surely filled with unease, so learning anything extra was always a good thing. This situation provided the perfect opportunity for these swindlers.

Moreover, Wang Xiu noticed that the charlatans here all possessed considerable Cultivation Levels, carrying themselves like descendants of renowned families who held many secret truths. The items they hawked were outrageously priced, costing hundreds of thousands or even millions of Spirit Stones. Some items were priced in the tens or hundreds of millions, and some sellers simply demanded Holy Artifacts in exchange. Their goal was to squeeze every last drop of value from these people before they left for the Nine Heavens.

After all, once the passage closed, those who left wouldn't be back for at least a thousand years. A millennium later, who would know who was who? With so much time passed, what was there to fear? Meanwhile, those who remained behind had no way of verifying if the goods sold were real or fake.

Even if those departing powerhouses were once great figures in the Cangyuan Realm, akin to gods or immortals, they were no different from ordinary mortals when facing a vast and unknown world. All in all, the place was a den of swindlers, in utter chaos.

***

Wang Xiu, of course, had no such worries. Firstly, he had assimilated the memories of Dragon Emperor Ao Lie, so he had a solid understanding of the Nine Heavens' structure, one that likely surpassed the most guarded secrets of many Immortal Sects. True, Dragon Emperor Ao Lie had left the Nine Heavens over ten thousand years ago, so the political landscape had surely changed. But this didn't matter much. The major Ancient Clans and Ancient Sects wouldn't have undergone drastic changes in that time.

Secondly, he had confidence in himself. With his current strength, even in the Nine Heavens where experts were as common as clouds, he was certainly no meek pushover.

He moved through the crowd, declining countless offers, and finally arrived at the edge of the Heavenly Pool. Hundreds of miles of azure water stretched out boundlessly. As far as the eye could see, a massive, gaseous tornado hovered silently in the very center of the Heavenly Pool, constantly shifting and exuding an aura that made one's heart tremble.

That was the passage between the realms, connecting the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths—the Stairway to Heaven