Chapter 66: Strangeness Descends Upon the World

At that time, the first batch of Cultivators to enter the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins numbered over a hundred.

Most were at the Qi Refining or Foundation Establishment Stage.

They thought it was just an ordinary ruin, but unexpectedly, the Cloud Water Heavenly Palace was filled with strangeness. Caught off guard, this batch of Cultivators suffered heavy casualties.

In the end, less than one-tenth of them survived.

Among them was a person named Sikong Yi.

This person was only at the late Qi Refining stage and seemed unremarkable.

Everyone thought he was just lucky to survive.

No one expected that this inconspicuous Sikong Yi, after returning to Ten Thousand Immortals Island, submitted the "Cloud Water Diagram" and completed the reward mission worth as high as one hundred thousand Contribution Points.

After receiving the reward, Sikong Yi left Congyun Sea through a long-distance teleportation Formation and disappeared from everyone's sight.

Since then, Sikong Yi has never appeared again.

"Search for information related to strangeness and Sect ruins." Li Fan slowly recalled his memories from his previous life while speaking to the Tianxuan Mirror.

Instantly, thousands of pieces of information emerged.

However, most could only show the first few sentences; to get the full information, one had to pay a certain amount of Contribution Points.

Li Fan was not stingy and immediately spent 100 Contribution Points to purchase the most popular "Survival Guide for Sect Ruins."

The author of this guide was named Qi Yuanzhou, who also started as a Loose Cultivator.

He had spent years exploring various ruins and only joined the Myriad Immortals Alliance after reaching the Golden Core Realm.

Being able to retreat unscathed from dangerous Sect ruins time and again, Qi Yuanzhou naturally had his exceptional qualities.

His summarized "Survival Guide for Sect Ruins" was highly praised by many Cultivators and regarded as a gold standard.

The Cloud Water Heavenly Palace ruins were treacherous and dangerous. Although Li Fan had foreknowledge, he dared not take it lightly.

He then studied it carefully.

When the ancient Great Tribulation descended, countless Sects were destroyed, leaving only ruins scattered across the world.

Some of these ruins had already been explored countless times by Immortal Cultivators over the years, leaving them clean and devoid of anything valuable.

Others were too dangerous and vast to have been fully explored yet. Even now, many Cultivators risk entering them each year, seeking Cultivation Techniques or opportunities for Breakthrough.

Then there were those Sects that had been hidden from the world, shielded by Immortal Caves and Formations. These Sects were completely undeveloped virgin lands, full of Opportunities. Once they appeared, they would surely attract Cultivators from all around to swarm in.

The various experiences in the "Survival Guide for Sect Ruins" were aimed at the latter two types.

The guide mentioned that in today's Cultivation World, all valuable Sects worth exploring could be divided into two major categories.

One type is without strangeness.

The other type is with strangeness.

If there is no strangeness, as long as one carefully guards against Formations and mechanisms, there is generally no particularly great danger.

But if strangeness exists, one must be extremely cautious.

So-called strangeness refers to the various bizarre phenomena within the ruins that cannot be measured by common sense.

Strangeness seems not to belong to this world and often has its own unique rules.

The rules of strangeness also vary in strength.

In the Cultivation World, it is customary to classify the intensity of strangeness rules.

According to the highest Cultivator Realm they can affect, they are correspondingly divided into Qi Refining-level strangeness, Foundation Establishment-level strangeness, Golden Core-level strangeness, and so on.

Cultivators within the range of strangeness, if their cultivation is lower than the rule's intensity, must follow the rules of the strangeness.

Once violated, death is inevitable.

If the Cultivator's cultivation is higher than the strangeness rule's intensity, they might be unaffected by the strangeness and avoid death.

But no matter how high one's cultivation, one cannot change the strangeness.

Even a Dao Integration stage expert cannot change a Qi Refining-level strangeness rule.

Nor can they save a Cultivator who has violated the strangeness rule.

Once a living being enters the range of strangeness, it is triggered.

Only when a certain number of deaths occur, or the strangeness rule is solved, can the Cultivators inside leave.

The guide gave an example.

One hundred and fifty years ago, a nameless island in the western part of Congyun Sea near the mainland suddenly revealed an Immortal Cave.

From its emergence, rosy clouds emitted from within, illuminating the sky for hundreds of miles.

Many Cultivators were attracted by the treasure light and entered to explore.

After some investigation, the Cultivators discovered that this Immortal Cave was built by a Nascent Soul Loose Cultivator, Senior Hongzhi, before his death.

The cave contained over a dozen Cultivation Techniques and countless Magic Treasures.

Overjoyed, these Cultivators began to snatch them.

At that moment, a terrifying thing happened.

All the Cultivators who had smiled because they grabbed a Cultivation Technique or Magic Treasure inexplicably had their heads fly off.

Their smiles froze completely on their faces.

In an instant, more than half of the Cultivators present died.

The remaining Cultivators were terrified, thinking there were Restrictions on those techniques and treasures.

So they left the cave without daring to touch the treasures scattered on the ground.

After the news spread, naturally some Cultivators who didn't believe it came to test.

After they took the treasures for a long time without triggering any Restrictions, they similarly showed smiles of disdain or joy.

Then their heads were severed, falling to the ground.

Only one Cultivator with a congenital facial paralysis survived.

But he was also scared out of his wits by the horrifying scene. He casually grabbed a Magic Treasure and fled.

The news of another group's demise deterred all the envious Cultivators nearby.

And that Cultivator with facial paralysis, who narrowly escaped and obtained a cave treasure, naturally drew everyone's attention.

But no matter how they pressed him, the paralyzed Cultivator said he didn't know how he survived either.

Later, a clever man, after thinking for a long time, revealed the secret.

This Immortal Cave forbids smiling.

For whatever reason, once you show a smile, your head falls off.

Although this sounded absurd, after the clever man calmly walked into the cave and took out a Cultivation Technique with a straight face and unharmed, all the Cultivators believed it.

So they followed suit and took out all the treasures from the cave.

…

What happened in Senior Hongzhi's Immortal Cave was the most typical and simplest strangeness, containing only one rule.

In reality, the strangeness in those Sect ruins often involves multiple rules combined.

Strangeness is naturally extremely dangerous. Without knowing its rules, one misstep can lead to death.

But after mastering the rules of strangeness, the risk of strangeness becomes almost zero.

Based on his own experiences of surviving strangeness several times, Qi Yuanzhou summarized dozens of lessons.

First: Stay calm at all times.

Under the shroud of strangeness, anything unimaginable can happen.

Second: Do not act rashly.

Without understanding the rules of strangeness, the faster you move, the faster you die.