Chapter Seventeen: The World’s Prohibition

"The Yupei herb must be taken to the Supreme Sect for processing as soon as possible; if delayed, its quality may suffer. We've already lost two days here, and time is pressing. Xiaomei has some spatial transmission abilities, so it’s best that you go. Luokong, you and your group should protect the sect leader as you head to the Divine Farmer Sect to exchange the medicinal herb Zhuyu. I have some matters that require my return to the sect," Senior Sister Lingmei said, her demeanor transformed, now solemn and resolute.

It turned out that the group had harvested Yupei herb on Mount Zhaoyao, but after two days of searching, Zhuyu was nowhere to be found. Yupei herb could not be left unattended for too long. So, they returned to Jianmu to send messages to their respective sects for assistance. Yet, just as they left Jianmu, they were attacked by ninjas.

It was on this very day that word arrived from the sect: within the Divine Farmer Sect, Zhuyu was being cultivated in their medicinal gardens, and they were willing to trade Zhuyu for Yupei herb.

The Divine Farmer Sect was located in a remote area. Because the nearby teleportation arrays had been destroyed by the chaos of war, few cultivators traveled there, and no sect had gathered the resources to restore them. Thus, there was no direct teleportation array to the area.

They could only first teleport to the Great Western Array, then pass through the Mage Tower, and finally transfer near the Divine Farmer Sect in the Central Plains.

Wu Ming had read many novels about traversing the Western world. He was quite interested in the magical realms of the West, so upon learning he would have to pass through the magic world, he felt a surge of excitement at the prospect of witnessing the elemental mages and the exotic atmosphere described in those stories.

Indeed, the Western world was a world in itself—or perhaps every realm was its own independent world. Their nexus was Jianmu, or, one could say, all the small worlds together formed a complete World Tree.

Strictly speaking, each world was a branch of the World Tree, or rather, the World Tree connected every world through its limbs. The complete form of the World Tree grew across the three realms of heaven, earth, and man: its trunk rooted in the Shanhai world, its base deep in the Nine Netherworlds, and its canopy reaching the heavens.

Since the combined suppression and sealing by the Nine Cauldrons and Twelve Golden Men, Jianmu—the true body of the World Tree—had fallen into the crevice between the mundane world and the spirit realm of modern society. Its shadow appeared in every world.

Thus, to traverse realms, one had to pass from the human world through Jianmu into the spirit realm as a transit point. The human world lacked sources of spiritual power, so Jianmu had mutated; its exact situation remained unknown.

Wu Ming had once spent three years in the spirit realm, which translated to just three days in the human world. After reading through the Daoist sect’s investigations and ancient records on the transformation of worlds, he had pieced together a wealth of complex information, though much of it was imprecise.

In essence, since the last great upheaval, Jianmu had changed. Its true body now grew in the fissure between the human world and the spirit realm, absorbing nourishment from the mortal realm. Its branches connected, nurtured, and sustained all worlds, serving as the principal pathway between realms.

At the location of Jianmu in the spirit realm, not only was the seal reinforced, but major sects from every realm jointly stationed guards to ensure its safety. Thus, under ordinary circumstances, no one could freely traverse between worlds.