Qing Ling walked into the depths of the Blood Sea. The sea lay beneath the earth, spanning nearly half of the Primordial World.
Kunlun split into two. In the depths of the eastern land was void, perhaps the future eighteen levels of hell and the underworld of reincarnation.
The waves of the Blood Sea churned for over a hundred thousand years. How many flowers had Qing Ling planted in the Blood Sea? More than a hundred thousand.
Along the way, the seventeen tribes of the Blood Heaven deliberately kept their people away, not daring to provoke this strange flower-planter.
Their tribal lands were within the sea, not on the surface of the Blood Sea.
Qing Ling showed them respect, traveling through the Blood Sea without entering it.
They, in turn, showed Qing Ling respect by ordering their tribesmen not to provoke him.
Of course, any tribesmen who disobeyed met their end.
Ultimately, it was all about strength.
If Qing Ling were still merely a Golden Immortal or Grand Unity Immortal, then the prestige of the seventeen tribes of the Blood Heaven would not be for show.
Only with sufficient capital could one speak of reason and demand respect.
The Blood Sea was home to more than just the Bloodworm Tribe and the seventeen tribes; there were countless more bizarre Blood Spirits, and even hidden ferocious beasts.
But any who dared to provoke Qing Ling were transformed into flowers by him.
Qing Ling had comprehended the Dao of Blood for a hundred thousand years, only reaching the nascent stage, but it was enough.
The Luosheng Flowers bloomed vibrantly, exuding beauty. Growing in the filth of the Blood Sea, they were its only splendor.
From the southwest of the Blood Sea to the northeast, the Luosheng Flowers stretched, forming a diagonal line of flowers that divided the Blood Sea.
One day, Qing Ling finally reached the other side of the Blood Sea.
After a hundred thousand years of contemplation, he finally understood.
The Yin Water of Earth Source within his body made his Dao Body naturally inclined towards Yin and Earth.
His Primordial Spirit was attuned to Heaven, drawing upon heavenly fortune.
Therefore, his Dao Body should be even closer to earthly fortune.
In the depths of the earth, on the other side of the Blood Sea, Qing Ling paused.
He looked back at the flowers, and they flew to him.
This vast expanse of void was the eastern land.
The Blood Sea was immense and would only grow larger with each epoch.
But all things had their limits.
Perhaps, Qing Ling was the limit of the Blood Sea.
As a divine being of Heaven and Earth, he was acutely sensitive to the will of the world.
The call from the earth stirred his heart.
After a long while, Qing Ling descended and walked out of the Blood Sea.
The moment his feet touched the ground, golden bells chimed, and the depths of the earth trembled.
The refined Yin Water of Earth Source within Qing Ling's body quivered. The earth cracked open, and immense earthly power surged across the Primordial Continent.
Countless great cultivators turned their gaze towards the northeast of the Blood Sea, seeing the young man in green.
Some great cultivators immediately rose and rushed towards the depths of the earth.
Qing Ling was surprised, even a little panicked. He seemed to have triggered some change. Perhaps, it was fated to be this day when the Queen Mother of the West had given him the Yin Water of Earth Source.
In the depths of the eastern land, untold billions of miles below, lay a realm of void.
Qing Ling stood at the edge of the darkness, the edge of the Blood Sea.
It seemed that in the future Wu-Yao tribulation, Houtu Ancestral Witch would transform into reincarnation here.
Countless possibilities flashed through Qing Ling's mind, finally settling on the most perfect scene from his memory.
He straightened his back. Since he had an advantage here, he could not let others get ahead!
The divine patterns on his brow vibrated, he murmured divine words, and the Spring Wind Rain Banner above his head stirred, harmonizing with the wind, rain, and night dew.
The spring wind blew in all directions, returning to the earth.
In the Eastern Wilderness, on a mountain plain, a strikingly vibrant blood flower suddenly bloomed, radiating blood-red light. Wind and rain converged from nowhere, startling a pangolin that had been dozing nearby. It flipped over and tumbled down the cliff, watching in its descent as the flower it had guarded for so many years vanished into thin air.
At the same time, in the Southern and Western Wilderness, thousands of Luosheng Flowers rose into the air and flew towards the depths of the earth.
Countless Luosheng Flowers in the Blood Sea took to the sky, heading northeast.
The sky coalesced into a river of flowers, a torrent of blossoms floating in the air and landing at Qing Ling's feet.
Instantly, red covered the earth, blooming along the edge of the Blood Sea, taking root at its periphery, allowing them to glimpse the heart of the eastern earth and draw sustenance from the sea to grow.
Innumerable beings in the Blood Sea poked their heads out of the water, looking northeast. On the distant other side of the Blood Sea, a sea of red flowers had bloomed. The flowers were like blood, yet three parts more potent than blood, their leaves swaying, growing on the other side of the sea.
In the hearts of countless creatures of the Blood Sea, they saw the flowers on the other shore. They did not know the name of the flowers, only that there were flowers on the other shore.
Therefore, they were called the Other Shore Flowers.
As the flowers descended, the image of the Other Shore Flowers vanished from the eyes of the Blood Sea creatures, and that strange, beautiful scene disappeared from their sight.
In the sea, a male worm said to a female worm, "In our lives, we must cross the Blood Sea and see the Other Shore Flowers on the other side."
The male and female nestled together, gazing at the vast Blood Sea and the distant horizon, making their vow.
As the grand floral spectacle on the horizon vanished, countless beings harbored this thought.
Qing Ling, having planted a vast field of Luosheng Flowers, looked at the other shore and murmured with a smile, "It seems I gave them the wrong name. You should be called Other Shore Flowers!"
Beneath him, the myriad flowers swayed, as if they had spirits within them, echoing his words.
Many great cultivators descended from the earth, one, two, then over ten, all looking at the youth standing amidst the sea of flowers.
They had come here not for him, yet all because of him.
Qing Ling paid no mind to the great cultivators outside the sea of flowers, for every bloom within this vast expanse represented a being who cultivated the Dao.
He might not be able to defeat those great cultivators, but the brilliance radiating from these flowers could make even the most formidable cultivators back down.
This was the culmination of his countless years of effort, and the lives of hundreds of Golden Immortals and Grand Unity Immortals.
The tremor from the eastern heart of the earth grew increasingly apparent and agitated.
The earth's tremors even elicited a response from Heaven.
On Jade Capital Mountain, a Daoist frowned, his Jade Tablet spinning, revealing the contours of the Great Dao.
This was beyond his expectation. The Dao of Earth had emerged prematurely, and by a significant margin. In this era of competing Daos, it had introduced even more variables and chaos.
He hesitated, wondering whether to intervene. Intervention would create further variables and, more importantly, would incur the irreversible and profound enmity of the Dao of Earth by preventing its emergence.
If he did not intervene, the Dao of Earth would emerge, creating an opposition between Heaven and Earth, with… dire consequences.
The old Daoist fell into deep thought, his mind racing through myriad entangled causal threads and deductions, and he had a plan.
In the depths of the earth, the void shattered, and the Earthly Fiends emerged.
Endless Earthly Fiends surged forth. Earthly Fiends belonged to Yin, never seeing the sun, and congealed into water.
A river flowed from the heart of the earth, formed by the gathering of infinite Earthly Fiends. It split into a drop of black water, combining to form a great yellow river. Black represented Yin, and yellow represented the thick earth.
The Yellow Springs River emerged, without the River of Forgetfulness, only the blooming Other Shore Flowers.
Great cultivators from all directions understood, and in an instant, they simultaneously acted, vying for the waters of the Yellow Springs River, their movements as synchronized as if rehearsed countless times.
The waters of the Yellow Springs River, newly emerged from the heart of the earth, were a supreme treasure for countless cultivators practicing water and Yin Daos!
Even a single drop was an inestimable rarity.
Qing Ling did not interfere, standing by the sea of flowers, watching the river water slowly flow past the blooms. The Yellow Springs water reflected the Other Shore, and the Other Shore Flowers bloomed on the banks of the Yellow Springs.
The flowers, unbound by Yin and Yang, not part of life and death. The river, unseen by the sun, not part of vitality.
But after absorbing the Yellow Springs water, the flowers transformed.
Flowers bloomed and leaves fell, leaves fell and flowers bloomed. Flowers bloomed without leaves, leaves existed unseen by flowers.
A thousand-year blooming period, a thousand years of blossoming, and a thousand years for the leaves.
The earth trembled, and near the Yellow Springs water, a great cultivator stopped in his tracks.
As they were drawing the river water, they saw their reflections in it, and were instantly entranced.
The heart of the earth fell into an eerie silence, broken only by the gentle flow of the river and Qing Ling's caress of the flowers.