After this, Xia Li talked at length with the Third Elder about the matter.

  The Third Elder appreciated Xia Li's perspective, because Xia Li's answers were different from other young people he'd met—possessing a prescience that transcended the era.

  Among them, Xia Li's concept of "bad money driving out good" particularly brightened the Third Elder's eyes, making him wish he could drag Xia Li back for a philosophical discussion.

  Xia Li had once lived in an era of information explosion, and Earth today was even more explosive—one could say he was constantly being baptized by new information every moment.

  Heaven Alliance's doctrine of realm supremacy was similar to the "traffic-above-all" mentality on the internet during Xia Li's time.

  Meaningless, eye-catching, flashy things occupied the main discourse, constantly eliminating valuable information. The monsters and demons that emerged in this process had also been quite an eye-opener for Xia Li.

  After their discussion...

  Xia Li ended the transmission and took out the Cave Heaven Gourd that Lin Ye had given him. Though small, the gourd contained its own world within.

  With just a thought from Xia Li, a suction force came from within the gourd. The next moment...

  He arrived at a small open plain.

  The space within this gourd not only had spiritual energy but also carried some vitality, which could effectively accelerate the recovery of injuries.

  "This counts as quite a fine treasure. Lin Ye is really generous."

  Xia Li quite liked the space inside the gourd. He sat down cross-legged and began cultivating. Since the Heaven Chip would automatically cultivate at all times, Xia Li wasn't particularly dedicated to active cultivation.

  Active cultivation had currently become an option for Xia Li to pass the time.

  Popping pills, refining spirit stones!

  To shake off Heaven Alliance, Xia Li also put on the Thousand Faces—Hidden Wing's technological mask—whenever he used transmission arrays in cities that had them.

  The spiritual artifact Thousand Faces was Hidden Wing's prized infiltration tool. Not only could it perfectly simulate another's appearance, but it also had extremely strong deceptive properties against divine sense probing.

  So Xia Li's journey was relatively safe, without encountering a second ambush from Heaven Alliance.

  It was just that the journey was really boring—basically constant transfers between various cities with transmission arrays. For cities that couldn't be directly reached by array, he had to travel on foot.

  Two months later...

  Desolation Continent, Tianlou Ancient City.

  Xia Li walked out of the transmission array and looked up at the yellowish sky. In the distance, he could see yellow clouds pressing down—a sandstorm was occurring nearby.

  The people in the ancient city seemed accustomed to it. The air carried the taste of sand and soil, and yellow sand constantly fell from the sky.

  Nothing green could be seen anywhere—only the oasis area occupied by the ancient city was somewhat pleasing to the eye.

  "Desolation Continent, desolation indeed—truly a wasteland."

  Besides desert, there were only barren rock flats. If not for Desolation Continent still possessing considerable spiritual energy density, probably no one would live here at all.

  Without further ado, Xia Li headed directly to the ancient city's marketplace to purchase maps, medicinal ingredients, and local gazettes before departing the city once more.

  He wasn't far from Vajra Temple now. Setting out from Tianlou Ancient City, he could reach the Buddhist sect's solitary temple deep in the desert within five days at most.

  Inside the gourd space.

  Xia Li sat on the ground, having taken out the gazette he'd just bought at the marketplace.

  The so-called gazette was a compilation recording basic local information, past history, distribution of forces, and such matters—very helpful for newcomers.

  "Desolation Continent is an ancient battlefield? The ancient battlefield of the Immortal-Mortal War..."

  "Later it also became the battleground for decisive battles between major powers..."

  "After that, demonic cultivators saw that Desolation Continent was thick with death qi and occupied it, turning it into a hellish demonic continent for a time. Then came the righteous-demonic conflicts..."

  "Finally, the Buddhist sect took over, and only then did Desolation Continent truly find peace."

  After reading Desolation Continent's history, Xia Li was quite surprised. This was an ancient battlefield that had experienced three catastrophic wars of slaughter.

  During the Immortal-Mortal War, an immortal's wrath exterminated all life on the surface—the dead and wounded numbered beyond hundreds of millions of millions!

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  During the Great Era conflicts, various powerhouses freely unleashed heaven-destroying, earth-shattering divine abilities here. Dao Merging cultivators bathed in blood, Mahayana cultivators fell.

  After the demonic path took over, they treated all living things as ants, plundering beings from surrounding continents for slaughter, completely ruining Desolation Continent just as it was beginning to recover.

  Of every ten grains of yellow sand, one was bone ash. Of every five grains, one was brown sand stained by blood.

  Seeing this...

  Xia Li lowered his head and patted his body, carefully examining the dust he brushed off. He really did find several white and brown grains.

  Those were ashes of bone and dust of dried blood.

  This entire Desolation Continent was simply a burial ground for living beings. Every whistle of the wind was the wailing of the dead.

  With this thought...

  Xia Li left the gourd and came to the desolate desert surface, deciding to traverse this weathered mountain of corpses and sea of blood on foot.

  "The Way of Heaven—diminish the excess and supplement the insufficient. The way of man—supplement the excess and diminish the insufficient."

  "Heaven's Dao is without benevolence, treating all things as straw dogs. The Immortal Dao is without righteousness, viewing beings of the lower realm as ants."

  "And living beings willingly degrade themselves..."

  "Heaven gives birth to all things to nourish man. Man has not one thing to offer Heaven in return."

  "Kill kill kill kill kill kill kill!"

  Feeling Desolation Continent's atmosphere, Xia Li couldn't help but recite these words—this was his insight while walking upon the mountain of corpses and sea of blood.

  At this moment, Xia Li seemed to see illusions. Here too, countless sages and heroic spirits had once wanted to do something, wanted to fight for some kind of change. But in the end, they too met the fate of leaving no bones behind, weathered to dust.

  "These three realms and four continents cannot be saved."

  Xia Li thought of the current situation. Heaven Alliance, the cancer of the human race, was growing powerful. The major forces, thinking the fire wouldn't burn them, each governed their own affairs.

  They mocked the demon race for its severe internal strife, yet how were they any different—the pot calling the kettle black.

  Suddenly...

  Dong, dong, dong, dong...

  Some rhythmic sound arose behind Xia Li—the sound of a wooden fish. Someone was striking a wooden fish.

  Xia Li turned to look and saw an old monk had appeared behind him at some point.

  "Greetings, benefactor. Though we travel the same path, we were quite far apart. Earlier I unintentionally overheard your words and came forward out of curiosity to ask."

  "The world knows there are two realms and eighteen continents. May I ask where the teaching of three realms and four continents comes from?"

  The old monk's expression was extremely indifferent. He appeared completely unconcerned, making it impossible for Xia Li to read what he was thinking.

  "The four great continents are a Buddhist teaching. Does the master truly not know?"

  "I know it naturally, but this teaching comes from ancient Buddhism. Even those who have entered our Buddhist sect today know little of it. How did the benefactor come to learn this?"

  "I am of Martial Realm bloodline. I inadvertently saw it in ancestral miscellaneous notes."

  Xia Li casually made up a reasonable excuse. After all, Buddhism on Earth still spoke of the four great continents.

  "So you are a descendant of the Ancestral Realm. No wonder."

  The old monk nodded.

  "Ancestral Realm?"

  Xia Li was somewhat curious. How had Earth become the "Ancestral Realm" in Buddhist terms?

  "To others it is the Martial Realm. The Martial Realm transmits martial arts and is the orthodox tradition of the Martial Dao. It is also our Buddhist sect's Ancestral Realm—the Buddhist Dao originated from the Ancestral Realm and flourished in the Mysterious Realm."

  "Buddhism originated from the Martial Realm?"

  "Indeed."

  After the old monk finished speaking, Xia Li found this quite strange.

  He hadn't expected Buddhism to also be an Earth tradition. It was just that on present-day Earth, Buddhism had almost completely disappeared. After all, electronic Buddhas don't deliver beings of flesh and blood, and Mechanical Arhats preaching the Great Data Sutra—how many could understand that?