Chapter 299 - The City of Vain Deaths
Yan Bugui left but Shen Lian continued to stay at the top of Zifu Peak.
He sat there cross-legged, purple Qi was billowing in the sea of clouds, looking super lonely.
In between, Gu Caiwei came once and left shortly because Shen Lian looked well. Of course, the last time Gu Caiwei met Shen Lian was already one month ago. If she saw Shen Lian again at that moment, she must have thought that Shen Lian indeed was doing very well, perhaps maybe too well.
Shen Lian looked clean and bright from his head to toes, just like the wax sculptures created by the artists in the mortal world. Although he still looked the same as before, his body was translucent and crystal clear, it was almost impossible to find any dust on him.
His charisma was so miraculous, like the Nine Heavens" celestials, transcended beyond the human world.
But if anyone looked into Shen Lian"s eyes, they could be shocked because this pair of eyes had no glow and they looked hollow.
These were not human being"s eyes, and it definitely was not any celestial"s eyes.
This Shen Lian looked as though he was just a body that had lost its soul.
His soul was really not within his body. His spirit has traveled to a place that was out of his expectation; the Taiwei Pavilion.
Due to Taiwei Pavilion"s specialty, it could allow Qi of Sky Demon to hide within and n.o.body could discover. It could even integrate with Taiwei Pavilion as one, to convert evil Qi to Qi of Dao.
Shen Lian"s physical body was still on top of Zifu Peak, together with the boulder which he was sitting on, breathing and receiving the essence of heaven and earth at the same time. The surroundings were filled with orchids. Occasionally, when a dew fell on the boulder, it would be infected by Shen Lian"s good fortune and that a strong spirituality would emerge.
This kind of strength seemed insignificant at first but after years and years, this spirituality could grow so strong that it could make the boulder turn into a creature.
Shen Lian did not bother about all these, his spirit traveled to a strange place.
In the Boundless Universe, there were actually a lot of s.p.a.ces hidden that human bodies could not enter. Even the spiritual consciousness could not even find this kind of s.p.a.ce, but they actually exist.
It was just like when one was dreaming, sometimes one would dream that one went to an unfamiliar place but everything that happened seemed so real. When one woke up, it was difficult to find any trace of that place in reality.
Perhaps that place really existed, but in reality, one could never get in there.
Shen Lian"s spirit was tracking down for evil Qi and it reached Taiwei Pavilion. However, in an instant, he came to a peculiar place. Right in front was a fortification, and on top of the city gate were five words - The City of Vain Deaths.
The City of Vain Deaths. It literally meant the residence of those that died in vain. The meaning of dying in vain was not dying of old age but due to suicide, disasters, wars, accidents, murder or being murdered. Those who died being wronged were known as dying in vain.
Shen Lian even knew that places like The City of Vain Deaths definitely did not only exist in Nine Underworlds, the Netherworlds. There was once an almighty from a Buddhist sect who sympathized with those living creatures who died in vain and so he opened up an independent s.p.a.ce to serve as shelter for these living creatures" souls, also known as The City of Vain Deaths.
The City of Vain Deaths could not accommodate living creatures. Some immortal Zhenrens who had special martial exercises could also create such a s.p.a.ce. This was a place that a living person could not enter but only the dead.
Shen Lian was a living person, but then he was a spirit, a spirit that was tracking down the source of evil Qi.
This City of Vain Deaths could even be considered still inside Taiwei Pavilion. The only thing about this place was that this s.p.a.ce was special and thus it was difficult to be discovered.
There, it did not have spiritual force, there was nothing at all.
Shen Lian stepped into The City of Vain Deaths. His speed was so fast that he entered into the city in a split second.
But he was not curious about why he could be so fast because he was as if a mere thought.
In the City of Vain Deaths, there were a lot of shops and stalls. There were also a lot of hawkers. There was a river that looked similar to River of Spirits that cut through the city center. What made it different was that both sides of the river were residences.
There were also livestocks such as cows, mules, donkeys, cars, sedan chairs, boats of various sizes, houses, bridges, towers, and buildings.
Everything here looked almost the same as the prosperous cities in the mortal world.
Shen Lian enjoyed his leisure walk. He was more like a mister that was strolling around aimlessly.
He felt that he should get a folding fan and right at this moment, there was really a stall selling folding fan that appeared right in front of him.
He seemed to forget about the strangeness of this city, that this was the City of Vain Deaths.
Shen Lian came to the stall and started choosing a folding fan from the folding fans there. He casually took a folding fan and asked the hawker, "How much does this fan cost?"
The hawker said, "Two dollars."
Shen Lian took another folding fan and asked, "How much is this folding fan?"
The hawker said again, "Two dollars."
The second folding fan"s craftsmans.h.i.+p and the fan"s surface were obviously way more delicate yet the hawker only responded with the same answer, which was two dollars.
Only when Shen Lian asked him questions like how much the folding fan cost, he would respond and the answer would never change.
He experimented with a lot of hawkers or even pedestrians. Majority of them could only speak one or two same sentences. There were even some who could not even speak. There was a similar characteristic of them, they were dead.
Just like the trees and rocks, they had no emotions, no self-consciousness, not even living creatures" vital force.
Everyone in this City of Vain Deaths all had the same look.
Shen Lian did not find the Qi of Sky Demon on them. To be precise, they could not even be considered as ghosts because ghosts had some self-consciousness. Some ghosts even had their independent self-consciousness so they were almost same as a living person.
All of them had lost the most important thing as living creatures, that was self-divine aura.
Every living creature had self-divine aura which was an evidence of self-existence.
Shen Lian went to each and every corner of The City of Vain Deaths. In the end, he realized that all the people and animals lost their self-divine aura.
There was still one more place that he did not manage to go because this place appeared suddenly.
It was a Daoist temple. When Shen Lian entered the temple, he realized that everything seemed familiar to him because all the decorations in the temple were identical to the Hall of the Grandmasters on Zifu Peak in Taixu Mountain. He saw the Grandmaster"s portrait again, that lonely but worry-free reflection.
Right beside Grandmaster"s portrait, there was another portrait which was a woman, or more like a female Daoist.
She was exceptionally graceful, just like the soft blue clouds.
He had seen this female Daoist before. She looked just like Fairy Ziling"s disciple who also was Shen Lian"s Master whom he had never met before.
He could still recall the last time when Gu Caiwei took out the portrait of Zhenren Biyun.
He also heard that Fairy Ziling thought highly of Zhenren Biyun.
This needed no explanation because Fairy Ziling had spent more than ten years in hunting for Yanxu and did not allow him to slack for even one moment.
That could be Yanxu"s most embarra.s.sing moment in life.
Perhaps if Zhenren Biyun did not die and became an immortal Zhenren, Qing Xuan would not face a downfall.
When Shen Lian was drowned in this memory, a sword aura appeared in silence.
He was so familiar with this sword aura, which was Chen Jianmei cultivation of Shapeless Sword Incantation. The person who unleashed this sword aura had swordcraft that was near perfection. It was difficult to imagine that besides Chen Jianmei, there was somebody else that could have such great attainment in Shapeless Sword Incantation.
However, this person"s attainment still had a distance that was almost impossible to exceed Chen Jianmei"s.
When the sword aura was about to touch Shen Lian"s body, he slightly opened up his mouth and there was a powerful suction that swallowed the shapeless sword forcefully. He also saw a middle-aged Daoist who was holding a sword that came thrusting from the sky.