"Lord Fifth knows!"

"You don't know!"

"Arrrrhhhh! Fine!" squawked the parrot, flapping its wings. "You shall know how powerful an ancient Celestial bird is!" The parrot's eyes had turned green; its dignity had been questioned! A multicolored light suddenly blazed out from it, filling the entire small mountain in the space of a single breath.

Then, the light returned, as if it had collected something from within the mountain. The light gathered together, transforming into a pile of black soil the size of a fist.

"See?" said the parrot arrogantly, its voice shrill. "The secret of these black-colored lands can be found within this very mountain. This was refined out by me, Lord Fifth, personally!"

Off to the side, the meat jelly watched in a daze, completely quiet, as if it had just been enlightened. Despite its apparent sudden realization, however, it quickly grew more curious.

"What the heck is it?" it said. It rolled its eyes as it considered Meng Hao's words from just now, and then the arrogant posturing of the parrot. Suddenly, it felt very excited and gushed, "You're trying to use that crap to fool us, you old bird! You don't have any idea at all what it is!"

The parrot looked scornfully at the meat jelly. This time, it didn't react at all like it had toward Meng Hao, causing the meat jelly to stare dumbfounded.

Meng Hao's eyes glittered as he looked closely at the soil, which was actually a dark purplish-green. Just looking at it, he didn't see anything unusual; in fact, it seemed quite ordinary.

"You don't even know where this random clump of mud came from, and yet you dare to claim that you're omniscient?" said Meng Hao coolly. It seemed that the parrot… didn't like to be provoked by people.

Even though the meat jelly had tried this method moments ago, to no effect, Meng Hao decided to try it out one more time.

Even as the words were leaving his mouth, the parrot's colorful feathers stood up on end, a green light shone from within its eyes, and a white Qi began to seep out from the top of its head. It seemed that its dignity had been seriously slighted, something it couldn't accept in its arrogance.

Apparently it could ignore whatever the meat jelly said, but not even the slightest bit of provocation from Meng Hao.

"You dare to look down on Lord Fifth!?" shrieked the parrot furiously. "Lord Fifth is an ancient Celestial bird! There's nothing I don't know! Mountains and Seas, the Heavens, who doesn't know that if you have faith in the Lord Fifth, you can attain eternal life!? You listen to Lord Fifth, buddy. This stuff is Immortal Sense soil! Many years ago, an almighty member of the senior generation painted a talisman out amidst the stars. He threw it down, with the intention of sealing this particular planet. However, someone else blocked it, and as the talisman entered the planet, it was burned into ash.

"However, that almighty ancient had an exceedingly high Cultivation base, and therefore, the magical symbols he painted contained divine abilities. Even though it became ash, it still contained the power of an Immortal. The ash fell down onto this very land. That's why the soil in this place is black, because the land here contains the remnants of that burned talisman! I, an ancient Celestial bird, saw all this happen, so many years ago. How could I possibly be mistaken!?"

After hearing all this, Meng Hao's pupils constricted, and his heart trembled.

A Cultivator who wielded power great enough to be able to paint magical symbols among the stars, and use them to seal an entire planet…. Before the events at the Rebirth Cave, Meng Hao would not have easily believed that such a thing could be true. But after seeing Choumen Tai, he now had a much greater understanding of such matters.

Right now, he breathed deeply as he looked at the incensed parrot, having already been seventy to eighty percent convinced of what it was saying.

"Some almighty person capable of painting a seal that can lock down a whole planet, that's just shocking," he thought. "But for someone to interfere with it, to burn it and cause the ash to create the Black Lands… well who was that?" At the moment, the character Ji was hovering in his mind.

"It can be hard to distinguish illusions from reality," said Meng Hao coolly. "That's a nice story, but who knows whether it's true or not?" Actually, Meng Hao was mostly convinced already, but he allowed no change of expression to appear on his face.

The parrot looked even more enraged. It flew around in circles around the Immortal's cave, glaring at Meng Hao. Then, it opened its mouth and spit out a glowing green light which shot toward Meng Hao.

It happened so fast that Meng Hao had no chance to dodge. The green light entered into him through his forehead, transforming into information that branded itself onto his mind.

The information consisted of a few hundred characters. They were complex, but after examining them, Meng Hao realized what it was: a vision technique.

"Use this technique, and look again! This Celestial technique has been branded onto you, so there's no need for enlightenment or study. Just use it!" The parrot glared at Meng Hao, apparently unwilling to rest until Meng Hao believed what he said.

Meng Hao closed his eyes. When he opened them, the pupil of his right eye shrank. As it did, he felt as if Cultivation base power were suddenly being emitted out of his right eye.

In an instant, it felt as if his Cultivation base were withered, causing Meng Hao to feel quite alarmed. Suddenly, a strand of the Immortal spiritual energy within his body went toward his right eye, fusing with it.

He felt a stab of pain in his right eye, and tears flowed out of it. His vision grew blurry, but then cleared. Now, the world as he viewed it through his right eye looked very different, although it was hard to describe exactly how.

He looked down at the violet-green clump of soil.

Even at first glance, Meng Hao's mind was shaken. Slowly, pulses of a golden-colored aura became visible, floating up from the soil and congealing in the air to form faint magical symbols. The symbols, of course, were golden-colored; furthermore, they emitted an intense pressure that only Meng Hao was able to sense.

Under the influence of the pressure, the magical symbols seemed to transform into tiny people. All of them floated there in front of Meng Hao, and they appeared to be painting something.

There was only a tiny bit of pressure, but it caused Meng Hao's mind to fill with a roaring sound, and his Spiritual Sense to grow unstable. He suddenly closed his eyes, cutting off his vision and thus ending the technique. Even still, his face was pale, and it took him a while to recover his senses. When he opened his eyes, his right eye was filled with veins of blood.

"Well, did you feel it?" asked the parrot haughtily. "Lord Fifth knows everything. This is nothing but a clump of dirt with a bit of magical symbols in it. If you had encountered the ash created by the true Immortal Talisman that year, you wouldn't have been struck absentminded, you would have been struck dead!

"You know, soil like this is everywhere in this black-colored land. You can't say there's a huge amount, but there is quite a bit. People like you who can actually gaze upon the will of the Immortal Talisman, well, let's just say you're as rare as phoenix feathers and unicorn horns. Were it not for the fact that this area is suppressed, it wouldn't have lasted until now.

"If this soil is taken away from this land, then it will become useless. Oh, and let me tell you another secret. If you possess enough fortune and luck, you can collect more soil like this, and then you might gain enlightenment regarding some of the divine abilities within the magical symbols of that almighty senior. Now, please repeat after me in a loud voice: Have faith in the Lord Fifth, gain eternal life! When the Lord Fifth appears, who dares to cause strife! Many years ago, countless people chanted these very lines!" It looked at the pale-faced Meng Hao even more egotistically, apparently more and more convinced of how powerful it was.

Meng Hao ignored the parrot. "Such a powerful aura… especially considering this is just a tiny clump of soil. And yet, it contains such shocking power. To think that there is more of this dirt throughout the Black Lands…." He began to breathe deeply, and his eyes glowed.

He suddenly thought of the words of the Demon Sealing Jade.

"An Immortal of the Ninth Mountain; the pinnacle of brushwork; magical symbols of all creatures; collapse of the Heavens…. The power is fused within this land, transformed into destruction, and filled with Demonic life force. This land… can be used to cultivate… the art of Righteous Bestowal!"

Meng Hao's eyes glittered. The method for cultivating the art of Righteous Bestowal already existed in his mind. During his time focused on healing his injuries, he'd had no time to work toward enlightenment, but having seen this clump of soil, he suddenly found himself lost in thought.

Time slipped by. Soon, half a month had gone past. The parrot and the meat jelly had disappeared somewhere, and were no longer in the Immortal's cave. The interchanges between these two old enemies usually involved the meat jelly provoking the parrot in some way. However, the parrot was always able to respond with only a few words that would send the meat jelly shrinking in on itself.

Meng Hao was focused on the art of Righteous Bestowal. Occasionally he would use the vision technique to examine the soil; each time he would come up lacking in some aspect of enlightenment or another. As he continued to study it, he would sometimes take out Ji Hongdong's bag of holding. The magical sealing symbol was still there, but it was growing weaker. After a few attempts at breaking it, Meng Hao got the feeling that it wouldn't be long before he would be able to open the bag.

Time slowly passed. Other than research, he spent his time thinking. He didn't consume the Outlander Pill that Master had given him. True, it could extend longevity, but more importantly, it could be used to suppress the Resurrection Lily.

He could only consume three in his life, and did not wish to squander those opportunities.

As for the Primordial Heavenly Replenishing Pill, it could also extend longevity, but he only had one. At the moment, he didn't have enough Spirit Stones to duplicate a copy, so after a moment's thought, he sealed it back up. At the moment, he was completely recovered; his longevity was significantly shortened, but it wasn't an extreme emergency.

For now, what he was most worried about was the Heavenly Tribulation that would come with his Perfect Gold Core. Right now, he had all the ingredients he needed to make the Perfect Core Pill, except for one plant.

The plant he needed wasn't extremely rare; Meng Hao guessed that even in the Black Lands, he would most likely be able to get ahold of one.

However, after thinking for quite a long time about the Heavenly Tribulation, Meng Hao still had no idea how he would deal with it, other than the meat jelly.

On one particular day, after gaining a bit of enlightenment regarding the Celestial soil, Meng Hao's mind suddenly quivered. He sent his Spiritual Sense out roughly fifty kilometers out from his Immortal's cave. There, he could see Huang Daxian, very cautiously leading a group of grim, malevolent-looking Foundation Establishment Cultivators in his direction.

"Seniors," he said in a low voice, "up ahead, the four of you will be able to see the place where that guy is staying." His nose was bloodied, and his face swollen, and it seemed he was even missing a few teeth. His expression was very dispirited.

"Cut the crap," said one of the four Foundation Establishment Cultivators with a cold snort. "Keep leading the way!"

"I really want to see if this guy truly has the superhuman abilities you claim!" said another. "And then there's the supposed medicinal pills!"

The four Cultivators' eyes glittered with avarice. Among the four, one was surprisingly of the great circle of Foundation Establishment. The other three were in the mid Foundation Establishment stage. These four held sway over the region with iron fists, and they were quite well-known. Their bodies were festooned with what could almost be called totem tattoos, very similar to those of Western Desert Cultivators, although not quite the same.

The four of them exchanged glances and began to converse in hushed tones.

"We'll need to be careful. With so many medicinal pills, he must not be an ordinary person. Make sure not to damage his bag of holding before he dies, otherwise this trip will have been in vain."

"Right. We'll all attack at once, and wipe him out. Don't give him a chance to destroy his own bag of holding before that!"

Huang Daxian looked furious, but didn't dare to say anything other than to mumble in agreement with them.

Meng Hao retracted his Spiritual Sense. Huang Daxian was branded with his Spiritual Sense, so Meng Hao was aware of all of his activities, including the disaster he had brought upon himself because of the medicinal pill, and how he had been captured.

If he wanted to, Meng Hao could just exterminate all of them. However, after thinking about the Celestial soil which contained the Celestial talismanic symbols, he changed his mind and allowed Huang Daxian to lead them here.

"I need enough Celestial soil. The more the better. That will increase my ability to achieve full enlightenment." Meng Hao closed his eyes.