Outside the Longevity Realm, Chaos spread vast and endless.
The Daoist secret realms that once swelled like stars fused into cages of flesh and blood, filthy palaces, and thereafter had their essences drained, transforming into cancerous ruins.
Tao Qian stood on the Miraculous Tree Treasure Boat, navigating through the wreckage, unaware if it was the power of the Purple Smoke Divine Light overflowing from the treasure boat or the effect of the Pure Spirit Immortal Qi from Master Tao, who had stepped into the Perfect Realm of Ultimate Happiness. Where he passed, the dry and stenchy flesh vanished at a faster rate.
In this vast ruin, treasures and provisions were everywhere to be seen, even some damaged Secret Books and precious spiritual materials, among others.
However, Tao Qian did not reach out to take them. First, these things were all tainted with evil poison; second, they all had owners, rightfully to be reclaimed by the Ancestor God Forbidden Technique and each returned to the Human World.
What caught his gaze were a great number of survivors.
Such as not far ahead, half of a ferocious gaping maw floated, obviously torn from a body akin to a Demon God.
Within that gaping maw, surrounded by a ring of terrifyingly sharp teeth, was unexpectedly a lake teeming with multicolored liquids that seemed boundless to mortals, but to the strong people in the Daoist Transformation Realm, it was probably just a pond for keeping fish.
Indeed, it was just so.
"Li Wanshou, the bastard, actually contained the 'Immortal Fish Pond' in his mouth?"
"Were those spiritual liquids nothing but his saliva?"
The moment this thought emerged, Master Tao was at a loss for words.
He silently cursed "Li Wanshou truly deserves death," then immediately turned to look at the vast Immortal Fish Pond that was continuously being drained.
Inside the pond, many Immortal Fish, large and small, were originally Human Clan Cultivators.
They had cultivated Li Wanshou's propagated "Immortal Fish Technique," only to end up in such a predicament.
Now that this Immortal Fish Daoist was dead and gone, the Ancestor God Forbidden Technique adjudicated justly; many fortunate fishes in the pond, not yet affected, also met with different fates. Filtered by the forbidden technique and returned to the Human World, all the Immortal Fish restored their human forms, sin cleansed, some emerging unharmed, while others, too deeply evil, perished alongside.
This process operated on its own by the forbidden technique, requiring no concern from Tao Qian.
At this moment, he was looking at the banks of the gradually drying pond, a filthy muddy expanse filled with assorted flotsam: treasure fragments, broken spiritual materials, mutated insects, and a great number of rotting fish corpses.
Within the corpse mud thrived numerous scavenging creatures.
One such "catfish," slow-moving with white barbels and scales, and a distorted body, caught his eye through Spiritual Resonance Sensing.
Its original Divine Soul immediately revealed itself to be an old, numb Human Clan senior covered in tumors.
This catfish had lived by scavenging in the pond, fighting with many mutated bugs and vicious fish. It was expected that its soul should have long lost its human shape, wandering in a daze, upside down and insane.
...
Wu Ming, a resident of Seeking Immortal County.
Fate had led him to the boundless Immortal Pond, where he transformed into a catfish, cultivating in the quest for the Dao.
He had long understood that his fate was wicked, yet being at the very bottom of the Cultivation World, he was utterly incapable of resistance.
Fortunately, the lowest layers also had their strokes of luck.
Over the years, he, too, had wished to eat the bait thrown by the Immortal Fish Daoist, but being so weak, he couldn't even compete with a fish bug, let alone those larger and smaller fish, each with their own level of cultivation.
In the end, he could only dig for food in the mud to survive, already numbed; his eyes milky and blind yet, surprisingly, he retained a sliver of aspiration towards the Dao, struggling to maintain a fragile equilibrium between purity and filth in his soul.
Wu Ming had not entertained a thought for many years, acting solely on instinct.
He didn't know how much longer he could hold on—perhaps a year, perhaps a day— it all depended on fate.
And it was exactly at this moment, in those murky fish eyes, that they suddenly reflected Pure Spirit Immortal Light.
He saw a hand of an Immortal reaching out, digging through the silt and effortlessly lifting him up.
The filthy fish body, upon touching the palm bursting with Spirit Light, suddenly shivered, throwing up a large amount of filthy mire. Its heart and mind, confused for many years, began to awaken slowly.
Upon opening his eyes, he saw a very unfamiliar, yet clearly True Cultivator Daoist smiling at him.
What was more incredible was that this Daoist even respectfully greeted him:
"The younger generation, Tao Qian, has the honor of meeting Seeking Immortal Hermit Wu Ming, senior."
"Senior, do not be alarmed. You might not recognize me, but it is truly because of the 'Nameless Secret Manual' left behind in Seeking Immortal County that I was able to pursue Daoist cultivation."
"It contained not only the Immortal Fish Technique but also the record of your many years seeking the Dao, which was greatly beneficial to me."
Tao Qian said this.
The catfish that Wu Ming had transformed into immediately struggled and leaped.
Laboriously raising his head, he spat out several cloudy bubbles towards Tao Qian, clearly eager, instinctively trying to warn him of something.
But, having not communicated with anyone for years, to make things clear would take no less than dozens of bubbles.
His soul being weak, he could only foam at the mouth after a few bubbles.
Seeing this, Tao Qian hurriedly cast a spell to heal him, simultaneously spouting words that left Wu Ming stupefied on the spot.
"Senior, do not be hasty. I know what the 'Immortal Fish Technique' is all about."
"Its chief culprit is the Immortal Fish Daoist Li Wanshou, who used it to fish for, and dupe the common folk with that magic skill."
"Li Wanshou, along with several other mutated emperors among the alchemists, has been executed by my disciple and me, reduced to ashes, dead and destroyed, never again able to harm people..."
Each word was troublesome to say, so Tao Qian simply pointed a finger at him, not only thoroughly purging the evil poison within Wu Ming but also injecting the entire sequence of events.
The next moment, the catfish body burst apart.
A somewhat murky white light flickered, finally revealing Wu Ming's old visage and body.
An old man of a hundred years had lived his life futilely, never managing to grasp the Dao.
But such tenacity inspired much admiration in Tao Qian.