TBIP: Chapter 15

This book was a timely relief for Lou Xingyao, who only had a vague understanding of Tianming Continent. He didn’t care about Wen Hanshan’s unpleasant words. He just smiled and thanked him. Then he looked down to read it.

Since the book was called ‘Summary of Tianming’, it naturally recorded a lot of things related to Tianming Continent.

The first thing that caught Lou Xingyao’s eye was a map.

From the map, it could be seen that there was a main city and 108 county towns on the Tianming Continent.

Needless to say, this main city was none other than Canglan City. Pingyang County, where Lou Xingyao was born, Xilin County, the destination of this trip, and the Fufeng County just mentioned by Wen Hanshan were among these 108 county towns.

There were also countless villages dotted among them like stars. Due to the large number, they weren’t fully displayed on the map. Only a note was written on the side to indicate it.

Pingyang County was located at the easternmost part of the continent. The location could be said to be extremely remote. No wonder why it took more than a month for the third-grade chasing wind black eagle despite traveling day and night.

As Lou Xingyao thought this, his gaze moved westward, and he soon found the location of Xilin County. The distance between Xilin County and Canglan City wasn’t even half the distance from Pingyang County to Canglan City.

Lou Xingyao saw this and immediately had a specific plan for the next trip.

In addition, there were three forbidden places and 18 dangerous places in Tianming Continent.

There was no need to say much about the dangerous places. They were just places where several monsters lived and multiplied. Since there were fourth-grade monsters present, the cultivators surrounding the area were helpless. Gradually, the monsters developed on a larger scale and developed into a dangerous place.

The area wasn’t large, and the cultivators also needed a place to train, so they were allowed to stay.

Unlike the 18 dangerous places, the three forbidden areas were the most important.

From the map, the area of almost all of these three forbidden places was equivalent to the one city and 108 county towns where cultivators were active. The three places together directly occupied most of the area of the continent.

They were the Endless Forest, the Hundred Thousand Mountains, and the Death Desert.

The Endless Forest was connected to the Hundred Thousand Mountains, almost to the point where there was no distinction between them. The two dangerous places spanned the entire continent from east to west, including the entire periphery of the north. This formed an encirclement of the one city and 108 county towns.

No matter how big the Endless Forest and Hundred Thousand Mountains were, no one had ever reached the end of them. Even the map only marked a very vague size.

The reason why a forbidden area was forbidden was naturally due to their unparalleled danger.

It was rumored that in the deepest part of the Endless Forest, there were many fifth and sixth-grade monsters active there. In addition, poisonous plants, animals, and complex geographical environments were all sources of danger.

Even a golden core cultivator must be prepared to die at any time after entering the Endless Forest.

However, danger often accompanied opportunities. In addition to the high level monsters, the Endless Forest was full of rare spiritual herbs and natural treasures. People could greatly improve their cultivation if they could obtain one of them.

Even if they couldn’t find natural treasures, it was said that the Endless Forest was full of gold. There were many low level monsters and spiritual herbs in it, which could be sold at a good price among cultivators.

Therefore, even though they knew the dangers, cultivators still flocked to the Endless Forest, making it the most famous place for training on the continent.

The Death Desert was located in the southernmost part of the continent. It was named this due to its harsh climate. The desert was full of yellow sand where no grass grew. From time to time, there would be extremely strong hurricanes blowing through, trapping people deeply.

The map area of the Death Desert was far less massive than the Hundred Thousand Mountains and the Endless Forest, but its name suggested that it was no less dangerous than the latter two.

Even on the map, the location of the Death Desert was marked with a warning written in bright red lettering: Don’t enter unless you have a golden pill!

The reason hadn’t been stated, but these bright red letters were enough to make people afraid.

Therefore, the Death Desert was also called the life restricted area by the cultivators of Tianming Continent.

After carefully checking the map and having a specific understanding of the layout of the entire Tianming Continent in his mind, Lou Xingyao turned the pages.

Soon, Lou Xingyao discovered that the book actually recorded the deeds on Tianming Continent more than 100,000 years ago.

It wasn’t difficult to know from the content of the book that more than 100,000 years ago, the scale of Tianming Continent was much larger than it was now. To be precise, the current Tianming Continent wasn’t even 1% of its original size.

All of this had to start with the disaster that occurred more than 100,000 years ago.

Due to the long period of time, the specific matters of the great catastrophe, including the reasons for its occurrence, were no longer traceable. It was only known that the catastrophe was so great that the entire continent wasn’t spared and was affected. Then the Tianming Continent became its current scale and size.

Before the great catastrophe, it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that there were many geniuses on the Tianming Continent, and people often ascended. After the catastrophe, there weren’t even cultivators who could reach the integration realm, let alone great ascension or tribulation transcendence.

In the present, even the nascent soul ancestor had become a legendary figure.

The ancestor who wrote the inscription for Canglan City ten thousand years ago was the last known nascent soul cultivator on the continent. The ancestor also disappeared after leaving this writing. It was unknown whether he went to seek a higher path of cultivation or had already fallen.

The road ahead was cut off and spiritual energy became increasingly thin. This created the current situation where foundation building cultivators could dominate a county town, and the golden core cultivators could have a place in Canglan City.

The author seemed unable to hide his despair when he wrote up to here. Lou Xingyao seemed to see him through the text. His confusion and grief about the cut-off path ahead seemed to appear in front of Lou Xingyao.

Lou Xingyao wasn’t worried about this at all. It was because this information had also appeared in ‘The Dao and Heaven are Equal’.

Not only that, the novel called a world like Tianming Continent, which had the golden core as the highest cultivation level, a small world.

Above the small world, there was a middle world where the highest cultivation level could reach the deity transformation realm. Above the middle world, there was a big world where the highest cultivation level could reach the integration realm. As for the world above the big world, there was also the spiritual world where the highest level cultivators gathered and there was an ascension passage to the immortal world.

It was described in the original novel that there was more than one way from Tianming Continent to a middle world. Lou Xingyao might not have the luck of the protagonist to pick up a cross-border teleportation talisman on the street, but he could go to the Death Desert to fight for it.

That’s right. The end of the land that was regarded as a life restricted zone by the people of Tianming Continent actually connected to the desert of a middle world. If they could cross it, they would naturally find a higher path.

In the original novel, this path wasn’t a secret among the golden core cultivators.

It was just that the golden core cultivators who took root in Tianming Continent were limited by their talent and had no hope of breaking through again. Or they were lost in the power and status of a golden core being above ten thousand people on Tianming Continent, and were unwilling to take risks in the Death Desert to gamble on the slim hope.

They were unwilling to take risks. In order to ensure absolute control of Canglan City, they were unwilling to make this news public. Over time, the current situation of Tianming Continent being cut off had been formed.

It wasn’t known how the person who wrote this summary would feel if he knew the news.

Lou Xingyao sighed when thinking of this and turned his attention back to the ‘Summary of Tianming.’

In addition to the above, the book also briefly introduced Canglan City and several more famous counties, including the local customs, landforms and specialties.

The content of the second half was more like a travelogue than a summary. The author’s narrative was vivid, and the writing was interesting, so Lou Xingyao was fascinated for a while.

Time passed by little by little, inadvertently.

Wen Hanshan placed the white piece in his hand on the chessboard, and a faint smile appeared on his face. “You lose.”

On the chessboard, black and white pieces were scattered. But unlike the white pieces, the black pieces retreated again and again. Once the last white piece fell, the black pieces on the chessboard had no room to retreat and were forced into a dead end.

Lou Xingyao’s eyes scanned the chessboard back and forth, trying to find a ray of hope. However, it was in vain. In the end, he could only put down the black piece in his hand in a sullen manner. “Can’t you go easy on me?”

It was no wonder that Lou Xingyao said this. Ever since he signed the contract with Wen Hanshan, the relationship between the two of them wasn’t as unfamiliar as it was at the beginning.

In the beginning, Wen Hanshan only threw a few books to Lou Xingyao from time to time to relieve his boredom. Later, Lou Xingyao gradually communicated with Wen Hanshan about the contents of the book, which brought the distance between the two of them closer.

Then a few days ago, Wen Hanshan casually mentioned the matter of playing chess. This instantly aroused Lou Xingyao’s interest.

In his previous life, Lou Xingyao had achieved some success in Go due to his grandfather. At the age of 18, he could already defeat 70-80% of those in his grandfather’s small circle.

After his grandfather passed away, Lou Xingyao often played Go with people online. It was still difficult to meet a good Go player.

It would be better if Wen Hanshan hadn’t mentioned it. Since he did, Lou Xingyao naturally wanted to play a game with him.

Who knew that Lou Xingyao’s invincible skills in his previous life suffered a failure against Wen Hanshan? Not long after the first game started, he was defeated by the opponent.

This was the first time that Lou Xingyao had lost so badly in Go after he became an adult. Naturally, he couldn’t accept it. He immediately pestered Wen Hanshan to continue. Wen Hanshan might dislike Lou Xingyao’s poor Go skills, but he couldn’t beat Lou Xingyao’s persuasion and finally nodded reluctantly.

In the following period of time, Lou Xingyao pestered Wen Hanshan to play new games almost every day. It was a pity that Lou Xingyao had never beaten Wen Hanshan up to now.

“Don’t you feel guilty for saying this?” Wen Hanshan looked at Lou Xingyao unhappily, almost laughing at his rogue words. He was the one who pestered Wen Hanshan to play Go, but he was also the one who played tricks when he couldn’t win.

“Ahem… who made you so good?” A guilty look flashed across Lou Xingyao’s face. Now Wen Hanshan’s Go game was indeed much gentler than at the beginning.

But who made the two people not be in the same league?

If he was a folk master then Wen Hanshan was definitely at a professional level. Thinking of this, the expression on Lou Xingyao’s face became justified again.

“You…” Wen Hanshan shook his head helplessly. Finally, he could only say, “Then continue?”

“Continue!” Lou Xingyao blurted out without thinking. Then he stretched out his hand to start arranging the pieces on the chessboard.

In addition to the increasingly improved Go skills, Lou Xingyao’s biggest gain these days was the increasingly close relationship with Wen Hanshan.

In the beginning, if he wanted to play Go with Wen Hanshan, he would have to coax this person for most of the day before Wen Hanshan reluctantly nodded. Now he didn’t even need to speak, and Wen Hanshan would take the initiative to ask.

Who could say that this wasn’t a type of progress?

As Lou Xingyao thought this, he had already neatly sorted out the Go pieces. According to the usual rules, he reached out and placed the white piece in front of Wen Hanshan. Then he placed the first move on the chessboard with the black piece.

Wen Hanshan saw this and followed suit by placing a white piece on the chessboard.

As there were more and more pieces on the chessboard, Lou Xingyao’s expression became more serious. How could he still care about making Wen Hanshan go easy on him?

Wen Hanshan saw his focused expression and smiled slightly.

This person might like to cheat after the game, but he always took it seriously during the game. He could be said to have an excellent Go character.

Otherwise, Wen Hanshan wouldn’t have indulged him again and again.

Moreover, Lou Xingyao was very intelligent. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that his progress in Go skills was rapid. Wen Hanshan had never seen him make the same mistake again, which was enough to show that he had put in a lot of effort.

As Lou Xingyao’s Go style gradually approached his own, Wen Hanshan also felt a sense of accomplishment in seeing a student succeed in his studies.

Looking at the black pieces that Lou Xingyao placed on the chessboard, Wen Hanshan’s mind flashed back to the man’s seemingly true yet false complaints. The fingers holding the white piece couldn’t help pausing. Finally, it deviated a few points to the side almost imperceptibly.

Sure enough, the moment Wen Hanshan’s piece was placed, Lou Xingyao’s eyes lit up. “I caught you!”

However, before Lou Xingyao could put down the piece in his hand, the carriage shook, and the neatly arranged Go pieces on the chessboard were also scattered.

This was the first time that the blue flame wildebeest had made such a big noise since departure. Lou Xingyao didn’t care about the current game and subconsciously looked out the window.

The next moment, a towering stone tablet came into view. On the stone tablet, large characters were written in a flamboyant style:

Xilin County.