Chapter 66: Eerie Descent into the World

When the Cloudwater Heavenly Palace ruins first opened, hundreds of cultivators entered. Most were at the Qi Refinement or Foundation Establishment stages. They had expected an ordinary ruin, but instead, the Cloudwater Heavenly Palace was filled with strange anomalies. Caught off guard, this group of cultivators suffered heavy casualties. In the end, fewer than one-tenth of them emerged alive.

Among those who survived was a person named Si Kongyi. He had only reached the late Qi Refinement stage and seemed unremarkable. Everyone assumed he had simply been lucky to survive. No one could have imagined that this unassuming Si Kongyi was the one who, after returning to Myriad Immortals Island, submitted the "Cloudwater Scroll" and completed a bounty mission worth a staggering 100,000 contribution points.

After receiving his reward, Si Kongyi departed the Cloud Mist Sea via a long-distance teleportation array and vanished from sight. Since then, Si Kongyi has never reappeared.

"Search for information related to anomalies and sect ruins," Li Fan slowly recalled his experiences from his previous life as he spoke to the Heavenly Profound Mirror.

Instantly, hundreds of pieces of information appeared. However, most only showed the first few sentences; accessing the complete information required paying a certain amount of contribution points. Li Fan was not stingy and immediately spent 100 contribution points to purchase the most popular "Sect Ruin Survival Guide."

The author of this guide was Qi Yuanzhou, also a rogue cultivator. He had spent years exploring various ruins, cultivating all the way to the Golden Core stage before joining the Myriad Immortals Alliance. To consistently emerge unscathed from the perilous sect ruins, Qi Yuanzhou naturally possessed extraordinary abilities. His "Sect Ruin Survival Guide" was highly praised by many cultivators and regarded as an invaluable resource.

The Cloudwater Heavenly Palace ruins were bizarre and dangerous. Although Li Fan had foreknowledge, he dared not be careless. He began to study the guide meticulously.

When the ancient catastrophe descended, countless sects were annihilated, leaving only crumbling remnants in the world. Some of these ruins had already been explored countless times by cultivators over the years, leaving them bare and devoid of anything valuable. Others, being too perilous or vast, remained largely unexplored. To this day, many cultivators still venture into them annually, seeking cultivation techniques or opportunities for breakthroughs. Then there were those sects that had been hidden from the world by grotto-heavens and formations. These were completely untouched territories, veritable treasure troves of opportunities. Once they appeared, they would inevitably attract a swarm of cultivators from the surrounding areas.

The various experiences summarized in the "Sect Ruin Survival Guide" were specifically for the latter two types of ruins. The guide stated that, in the current cultivation world, all valuable and explorable sect ruins could be divided into two broad categories: those with no anomalies, and those with anomalies.

If there were no anomalies present, then as long as one was careful of formations and mechanisms, there was generally no exceptionally great danger. However, if anomalies were present, extreme caution was required. "Anomalies" (詭異) referred to various strange phenomena within the ruins that could not be measured by common sense. Anomalies seemed to belong to another world, often possessing their own unique rules.

The strength of anomalous rules also varied. In the cultivation world, it was conventionally agreed to classify the strength of anomalous rules. According to the highest cultivation realm they could affect, they were accordingly divided into Qi Refinement-level anomalies, Foundation Establishment-level anomalies, Golden Core-level anomalies, and so on.

Cultivators within the coverage of an anomaly, whose cultivation was lower than the strength of its rules, had to obey the anomaly's rules. Once violated, death was inevitable. If one's cultivation was higher than the anomaly's rule strength, they might be unaffected and escape death. However, no matter how high one's cultivation, one could not change the anomaly. Even Dao Integration stage powerhouses could not change a Qi Refinement-level anomaly's rules, nor could they rescue cultivators who violated those rules. An anomaly would be triggered once living beings entered its range. Cultivators could only leave once a certain number of deaths had occurred, or if the anomaly's rules were successfully deciphered.

The guide provided an example. One hundred and fifty years ago, a grotto-heaven suddenly appeared on an unnamed island in the western part of the Cloud Mist Sea, near the mainland. From the moment it manifested, it emitted a radiant light that illuminated the sky for hundreds of miles around. Many cultivators were drawn by the precious light and entered to explore. After some investigation, the cultivators discovered that this grotto-heaven was constructed by Venerable Hongzhi, an ancient Nascent Soul rogue cultivator, before his demise. The grotto-heaven contained over a dozen cultivation techniques and countless magic treasures. The cultivators were overjoyed and began to snatch the items.

It was then that a terrifying event occurred. All the cultivators who smiled after obtaining a cultivation technique or magic treasure were inexplicably decapitated, their smiles frozen on their faces. In an instant, more than half of the cultivators present perished. The remaining cultivators were terrified, thinking there were restrictions on those techniques and treasures. They left the abundant treasures untouched and fled the grotto-heaven.

When the news spread, naturally, some disbelieving cultivators came to test it. After they took treasures and nothing happened for a long time, they all displayed smiles of disdain or joy. Immediately, their heads separated from their bodies and fell to the ground. Only one cultivator, who was naturally expressionless, survived. But even he was scared witless by the horrifying sight; he simply grabbed a treasure and fled in a panic.

The news of another group's demise deterred all the covetous cultivators in the vicinity. The stoic cultivator who had narrowly escaped death and obtained a treasure from the grotto-heaven naturally attracted everyone's attention. But no matter how much they pressed him, the expressionless cultivator claimed he had no idea how he survived. Later, a clever man pondered for a long time before revealing the secret: the grotto-heaven forbade smiling. For any reason, once a smile appeared, the person would be decapitated.

Though this seemed utterly absurd, when the clever man calmly walked into the grotto-heaven, retrieved a cultivation technique with a serene expression, and emerged completely unharmed, all the cultivators believed him. They then followed suit, retrieving all the treasures from Venerable Hongzhi's grotto-heaven.

What happened in Venerable Hongzhi's grotto-heaven was a most typical and simple anomaly, containing only one rule. In reality, anomalies within sect ruins often consisted of multiple composite rules.

Anomalies were naturally incredibly dangerous. Without understanding their rules, a slight misstep would lead to death. However, once the anomaly's rules were mastered, the risk became almost zero. Based on his numerous personal experiences of surviving anomalies, Qi Yuanzhou summarized dozens of invaluable lessons.

First: Always remain calm. Under the influence of an anomaly, anything incredible can happen.Second: Do not act rashly. Without understanding the anomaly's rules, the faster you move, the faster you die.