Chapter 497: Ancient Mine

A shattered qi planet and a blood-red sea... Is that... Earth?

In the haze, Wang Sheng felt as if he had returned to more than twenty years ago and was once again seeing the illusion that he had witnessed during his battle with Ziyun.

An illusion? Yes, this has to be an illusion, not reality. Is it hinting at something?

The scene changed, and Wang Sheng felt himself enter a painted landscape. Before him, the immortal from long ago glided by on his small boat. He had seen this trace of the Dao when he had made a breakthrough in his Heavenly Ziwei Sword Intent. Ziwei had left it behind within the Great Dao.

The little boat drifted away, and the surroundings dimmed into darkness. Wang Sheng felt a coldness pierce his bones. Unable to move, he just kept sinking into an unfathomably deep abyss.

Within the darkness, Wang Sheng noticed a dot of starlight, with more and more appearing after it.

He soon calmed down. Though caught in some hallucination, he was at least still conscious, which suggested that the dragon that had swallowed him hadn't killed him. He could also faintly sense that his body was still intact. On the other hand, it was possible that the creature hadn't dissolved him yet because it suffered from indigestion.

What will I face next? Its digestive tract? Where did this azure dragon come from anyway? Yaoyun called it a fiend cultivator at the Heavenly Immortal Realm, but that doesn't explain why it's so huge.

"

Yaoyun... Yaoyun?

"

"

Mm, I'm here, but be careful. We're trapped in its divine ability. Don't let it notice us.

"

Hearing Yaoyun speak settled Wang Sheng's heart.

The moment he fell into the abyss in the dragon's maw, his immortal power had been instantly sealed. As he sank in the darkness, a force kept corroding his Primordial Spirit. He lasted only a moment before losing consciousness.

Wang Sheng didn't know how long he had slept, but he had at least regained his awareness now. It was faint—too faint to even sense the state of his body—but at least he was alive.

There was a simple logic to it. Considering the creature didn't kill him immediately, it likely wouldn't bother to later. This reasoning only worked under the assumption that it wasn't storing him as food, though.

He found his situation absurd. An azure dragon had swallowed him whole, and he was now drifting in a daze. He had no clue what fate awaited him.

Am I really just winter rations now? Will some kind of fortuitous encounter come from this colossal creature devouring me?

With nothing else to do, this strand of Wang Sheng's consciousness started wandering.

Is this a chance to grow stronger, like the ones in the online cultivation novels I used to read in my previous life? Maybe while I'm in here, I would break free of my restraints and find a dragon pearl or true dragon blood. I'd make rapid progress in my cultivation like a soaring rocket, smoothly growing stronger with a silly grin.

Wang Sheng couldn't help but curse himself for getting carried away.

Ever since he regressed, he had never relied on flashy tricks to cultivate. On the contrary, he took every necessary step to advance. After escaping the Earth Qi Seal, he gathered more resources, smoothened his cultivation path, and had a thousand-year-long dream in the Platform of Immortal Dreams. That was how he ascended to immortality, surpassing his senior sister and master, so quickly.

Every progress he made in his cultivation stemmed from genuinely comprehending his realm. He had never taken any hollow shortcut.

Looking back, he had walked his path with no regrets. Looking forward, he couldn't help but be completely confident in his future.

Wang Sheng still felt a bit frustrated, though. Having his life in another's hands felt unbearable. Hence, he vowed to work a thousand times harder so he would never be in such a predicament again.

Unfortunately, even after waiting quietly for a long time, his consciousness remained confined to a small space within his body.

The divine ability around him showed no sign of receding, preventing him from going anywhere.

Eventually, he saw strands of light. A fierce wind swept him upward from the abyss and hurled him onto a pile of gravel, but that was the least of his worries. There was no air around him, and the primal qi was thin.

They were still in the ancient battlefield.

He regained control of his Dao Body, allowing him to once again sense the pressure and unease from before. Light then flickered beyond his eyelids. Lying on the ground, he instinctively opened his eyes to a striking scene.

A massive glowing dragon hovered in space, facing the boulder that Wang Sheng lay upon. Within the immortal light, it shrank to mere dozens of meters in the blink of an eye.

It was certainly an azure dragon—one that appeared often in the history of the Hua Republic. He remembered it well.

The immortal light around it rippled with a profound Dao Rhythm. It then rose upright and transformed into a human in a light-blue robe. He was leaning on a cane with a dragon-head carving that didn't have a beard.

Wang Sheng noticed that the creature's dragon form was missing the left hind leg, and his human form's left leg had been severed below the knee.

Now an old man with gray-white hair, the creature was still fairly tall and slender, but he had wrinkles all over his face. Two deer antlers protruded from the top of his head.

The old man tapped the space near Wang Sheng, and Wang Sheng felt an additional layer of restriction envelop his Primordial Spirit. Though he had just regained the ability to move, he now lay powerless again, unable to even speak.

"This shuttle of yours isn't bad, Little Fellow." The Heavenly Immortal old man clicked his tongue in amusement as he played with the Shadowless Shuttle. "The Heavenly Court used to ride this fine vessel back in the day, but it's rare to find one in such pristine condition now. It will make a fine addition to my collection. Not bad, not bad at all. It still has all its functionalities."

The old man then pinched Wang Sheng's pendant. With a glare, he shattered its restriction. Everything inside it poured out and floated above Wang Sheng. Fortunately, ever since Wang Sheng realized he could hide the Qiankun Ring in the sword core of Flying Haze, he had placed all his important items in the ring.

Still, Ascended Immortals had to be wealthy to have such resources in their pendant. There was a pile of Spirit Stones and alchemical pills, and several Light Edge Swords.

"Your sect is quite generous to give you so many Spirit Stones, Kid," the Heavenly Immortal commented. "These broken swords do not have the slightest bit of spirituality or spiritual insight. What's the point of keeping such things? Oh, you even have wine."

He took a swig from the beverage.

"Not as good as Springwood Wine, but it has its own flavor. Not bad. It's such a pity that you bumped into me and disturbed my sleep. It's been so many years since I last managed to rest peacefully, and you just had to ruin it, you little brat! If we weren't short of hands right now, and you weren't tough enough to endure the work here, I would have treated you as a snack already."

Wang Sheng simply closed his eyes and sighed.

The Heavenly Immortal stroked his beard, glanced at Wang Sheng, and asked calmly, "You're not even going to resist?"

Wang Sheng didn't answer. He just kept his eyes closed, appearing ready to accept whatever fate awaited him.

The Heavenly Immortal chuckled lowly, lifted Wang Sheng, and leaped. Wang Sheng saw the scenery spin past at high speed. He had no idea how far they traveled, only that they still hadn't left the ancient battlefield.

Soon, he saw a piece of land covered in the light of an array. The dome had a diameter of more than a thousand

li

, and the land it protected resembled an almost completely conical iceberg with a sharp peak. A lot of beings worked on the peak, and many more hung from the cone below, seemingly chiseling away at the stone.

Wang Sheng observed for only a few seconds before the Heavenly Immortal carried him into the array. He instantly felt an unfamiliar pressure coming from the land itself.

The pressure from the Heavenly Immortal stemmed from his realm; it was akin to the aura of an apex predator. Though intense, it wasn't overwhelming. Wang Sheng's Dao Heart could withstand it.

On the other hand, the pressure from the land made his Dao tremble. A powerful being with a divine ability had likely fallen here most unwillingly, leaving behind a powerful echo of the Great Dao.

A place like this almost certainly hid a great treasure.

Treasure or not, I have far more pressing matters at hand. Even if I were to find a treasure and keep it for myself, it might not help me get out of here. I have to focus on finding a way to escape.

Ahead of them, a man respectfully asked,

"Elder Long, what is that?"

Wang Sheng realized that he had been carried to an area near the peak and dropped before a cluster of small houses.

The Heavenly Immortal casually flung him over. He rolled twice like a salted fish before two armored cultivators stepped forward and pressed him down with immortal power.

"

Mid-stage and late-stage Primordial Immortal Realm,

" Yaoyun telepathically reported, then reminded him not to act rashly.

The Heavenly Immortal stroked his beard and chuckled. "A blind little Ascended Immortal Realm brat disturbed my rest. He's quite sturdy, so I brought him here. Put him to good use."

The man from earlier, a middle-aged scholar, gave the old man a Daoist salute. "Thank you, Elder."

With a glance, he instantly saw through Wang Sheng's cultivation. He nodded in satisfaction.

Turning back to the Heavenly Immortal, he requested, "He won't be able to mine with his Primordial Spirit sealed. Please remove the restriction on it, and I'll place a new one on him. Still, considering the depth of his cultivation, he probably can't even move down there."

"Alright. I'll leave this to you. I'll stand guard outside."

The Heavenly Immortal brushed his sleeve, and the restriction around Wang Sheng's Primordial Spirit vanished.

The old man yawned. "Make sure to be careful when you go out to catch people. Do not ruin our reputation."

"Rest assured, Elder. We'll always be cautious."

The old man tapped his cane and leaped away, disappearing within the array.

The scholar looked down at Wang Sheng with slight disdain. "Toss him somewhere and let him recover for now. Once he's back on his feet, send him outside to break stones. His cultivation is too shallow to even be useful right now."

"Yes, sir!"

The two armored immortals quickly shackled Wang Sheng's hands and feet. They then lifted him and tossed him into a wooden cage in a corner.

Wang Sheng hadn't spoken a single word the entire time. When the two Primordial Immortals left, not even sparing him a glance, a faint gleam finally returned to his dim eyes.

That day, he learned that the Ascended Immortal Realm he had so gruelingly struggled to reach wasn't even enough to qualify him as a miner.

In these times, even hauling bricks required certificates.