Chapter 38: The Starry Domain and the Heavenly Pagoda
"Barrier realm?" Lin Yuan asked, his voice perfectly steady.
Despite his best efforts to maintain a stoic, unreadable facade, the Nascent Soul expert standing amidst the rubble was no ordinary observer. He had lived for centuries, his perception honed to a razor’s edge. He instantly caught the subtle flicker of surprise in Lin Yuan’s pupils.
The expert tilted his head, his eyes narrowing.
’He doesn’t know,’ the expert mused internally, a sense of bewilderment washing over his mind. ’He genuinely does not even have a slight clue what or where the barrier realm is!’
The expert stared at the young man hovering before him in sheer disbelief. In the vast cultivation world, every single Core Formation expert in the region, and even the surrounding provinces, knew about the barrier realm. It was one of the most monumental event in this era.
’Who exactly is this person?’ the expert wondered, his gaze scrutinizing Lin Yuan. ’He has the physical durability of a primordial monster and a flawless Golden Core, yet he lacks the foundational common knowledge of a Qi Condensation street rat! Was he just born months ago? Did he sprout from a rock in the middle of nowhere?’
Despite his burning curiosity, the expert simply sighed, rubbing his temples as if dealing with a particularly slow disciple.
"Yes, brat. The barrier realm," the expert drawled, adopting a patronizing tone. "It will open exactly five years from now. But you cannot simply stroll in like you strolled onto my mountain. The spatial tearing at the entrance will instantly shred even that body of yours into fine mist. To enter safely, one must possess a barrier token."
Lin Yuan absorbed the words, Everything the man had just said was completely new to him. He had absolutely no idea what this realm entailed, where these tokens could be found, or what forces would be competing for them.
The transmigrated memories of his body’s previous owner were useless; that poor fool had been a lowly outer-city debtor who worried more about his next meal than grand events like this.
However, Lin Yuan made a deliberate choice to remain silent. He did not ask what a barrier token looked like, nor did he ask where the realm was located. He actively masked his absolute cluelessness.
His reasoning was grounded in sheer, pragmatic survival.
This Nascent Soul expert was a moody, childish, and highly eccentric weirdo. One moment he was throwing a lethal palm strike capable of leveling a supreme mountain, and the next, he was casually chatting about the barrier realm. If Lin Yuan revealed the true depths of his ignorance, this unpredictable monster might see an opportunity for manipulation.
What if the barrier realm was an absolute death trap, a meat grinder for Core Formation cultivators, and the expert deliberately watered down the description of its dangers to trick Lin Yuan into acting as a vanguard or cannon fodder? What if the expert fed him conflicting and heavily biased information regarding the tokens, sending him on a fool’s errand that would only benefit the expert himself?
Lin Yuan simply could not trust this weirdo cultivator. In the Nine Provinces, knowledge was power, but revealing a lack of knowledge was akin to handing your enemy a loaded crossbow and pointing it at your own chest.
"I see," Lin Yuan finally replied, his tone entirely neutral, projecting the aura of a man who simply needed to confirm a minor detail rather than one hearing about an entire new world for the first time.
The expert groaned, throwing his hands up in the air. The brief flash of intrigue he had felt toward the mysterious youth rapidly evaporated, replaced by his usual, childish impatience.
"You see? Is that all you have to say? Ugh, you are incredibly boring to talk to!" the expert complained, waving his hand dismissively toward the horizon. "I have wasted enough time on you. I have a delicate pill in my furnace that has been severely neglected because of your flashy breakthrough. Take your body, and leave my mountain! Shoo!"
The Nascent Soul expert turned his back, preparing to enter his cave.
"Before I leave, Senior," Lin Yuan called out, his voice cutting through the thin mountain air. He needed to extract one last piece of reliable information without exposing his ignorance. "Why is the opening of the barrier realm so critically important to you?"
The expert paused. He looked over his shoulder, a smirk playing on his lips.
"Important? It is not just important, junior. It is the sole reason old monsters like me bother coming out of closed door cultivation." the expert scoffed, turning back around to face Lin Yuan.
The expert raised his hands, gesturing toward the rolling white clouds that stretched across the heavens. "When the barrier realm opens, it does not just reveal a piece of forgotten land. The massive spatial tear draws in countless treasures from Heaven and Earth, pulling them across its vast starry domain directly into its center. It is a cosmic whirlpool of supreme artifacts, lost inheritances, and primordial arts."
The expert’s eyes widened with a fanatical, greedy light. "We are not talking about standard spirit stones or low-tier flying swords. Any treasure imaginable may be found drifting within that realm. Items that defy the very laws of life and death, artifacts that can sever karma, pills that can reshape destiny... they all wash up on the shores of the barrier realm."
To prove his point, the expert simply flicked his right wrist.
Buzz!
The space above the expert’s palm violently distorted. A burst of brilliant light erupted, forcing Lin Yuan to slightly narrow his eyes.
Hovering gently above the expert’s hand was a small nine-story pagoda. It was no larger than a teacup, yet it radiated an aura so incredibly ancient, heavy, and profound that the ambient spiritual energy of the mountain actively fled from it in sheer terror.
"I obtained this little toy when the barrier realm last opened, exactly two hundred and ninety-five years ago," the expert said. "It is a supreme defensive artifact."
The expert looked up at Lin Yuan, his grin widening into something truly terrifying. "When fully activated, this pagoda can absolutely withstand any attack from any cultivator in the Soul Transformation realm and below. Not even a demi-god of the Nine Provinces can scratch me when activated."
Lin Yuan’s breath caught in his throat.
Such defenses! The Soul Transformation realm was universally revered as the absolute pinnacle of existence in the Nine Provinces. It was the realm of living myths. And yet, this pagoda, a treasure pulled from the starry domain of the barrier realm, could completely nullify the wrath of such a monstrous entity!
With another casual flick of his wrist, the Nascent Soul expert put the pagoda back into his spatial storage. The heavy, oppressive aura vanished, leaving the mountain peak feeling strangely empty.
"Five years, junior," the expert said, his tone final. "Find a token, or miss the greatest opportunity of your miserable life. Now, get off my mountain!"
Without another word, the expert stepped backward into the his cave, instantly disappearing from Lin Yuan’s senses entirely.
Lin Yuan stood alone on the shattered precipice. The roaring gales returned, whipping his robes around his body.
He looked out toward the distant horizon where Azure Cloud City lay hidden beneath the clouds. His heart, previously content with merely breaking through to the Core Formation stage, was now beating with a frantic new purpose.
If a treasure as heaven-defying as a pagoda capable of blocking a Soul Transformation attack could simply be found drifting in the barrier realm... then what else was there?
Lin Yuan activated his Immortal Cloud Step, dissolving into a wisp of mist as he launched himself off the peak.
Any treasure imaginable, Lin Yuan thought, the expert’s words echoing in his mind.
A fierce light ignited within his pupils as he shot through the sky. If the barrier realm truly pulled treasures from across the starry domain, then surely, a supreme treasure capable of removing the Soul Transformation restriction from his wife must be waiting there.