3 Annual Ceremony

Yi Shen plowed the fields of crops as glistening sweat beaded off his skin. He took a moment to take a breather, staring off into the distance.

Because Yi Shen used Time Anchor Immortal Gu with Reincarnation Immortal Gu, he knew that this place was 800 years in the past.

But, this also begged the question: If he was born 800 years ago, then why did he inhabit the body of a beastman?

The beastmen race were a variant human race, but they had long gone extinct since the Olden Antiquity Era.

There was a possibility he could've reincarnated into any race or species, but not one that was extinct during this specific time period.

Unless something went wrong with the activation of Reincarnation Immortal Killer Move, this shouldn't be the case.

This particular thought had been bugging Yi Shen's mind since his rebirth. But, he was not in a place to seek the answers he wanted.

Although there was one thing that he was sure of. And that's that he was currently inside of someone's Immortal Aperture.

During the Immemorial Antiquity Era, the sky had nine heavens: Red Heaven, Orange Heaven, Yellow Heaven, Green Heaven, Azure Heaven, Blue Heaven, Purple Heaven, White Heaven, and Black Heaven.

Now, in the current era, only Black Heaven and White Heaven were left, which gave the world a day and night cycle.

But, this trait was not apparent in this place. There was only a day cycle.

When someone undergoes Immortal Ascension, their Aperture turns into an Immortal Aperture.

Depending on their rank, the Immortal Aperture is either a Blessed Land or Grotto-Heaven.

Blessed Lands can only have a day cycle or a night cycle. Grotto-Heavens alternate between the two.

It seems that the place he reincarnated into was not ordinary, considering that it was a Blessed Land.

Yi Shen frowned as he thought of this. Being reincarnated into a Blessed Land is not very beneficial for him. Rather, it implicates him quite a lot.

If the Blessed Land's owner was still alive, and found out of Yi Shen's identity, then he would be at his complete mercy. He would not be able to do anything against a Gu Immortal.

Another case, is that this Blessed Land is ownerless, which would then be in control of its Land Spirit.

If it were controlled by a Land Spirit, then it would ease up Yi Shen's problem by quite a lot.

Gu Immortals are constantly inspecting their Immortal Aperture, Land Spirits do the same, but they don't have the same intelligence and wisdom compared to an actual living person, be it human or variant human.

Of course, even a Land Spirit can find out something suspicious about Yi Shen if they used certain Wisdom Path methods.

That's why, these past 15 years, Yi Shen has not broken out of character even once. Who knows, a Divine Will might even be observing him right now.

This was a huge thorn on Yi Shen's side, one that he couldn't remove currently.

Because of this, he would not be able to leave this Immortal Aperture unless he himself becomes a Gu Immortal.

Although there are some advantages such as the environment being richer in primeval essence and the time flow being much faster than the outside world, but the disadvantages greatly outweigh these advantages.

Another problem being that Blessed Lands go through Calamities & Tribulations. Yi Shen had not even stepped on the path of a Gu Master yet, even ordinary beasts can kill him, not to mention Calamities & Tribulations which can kill Gu Immortals.

In conclusion, Yi Shen reincarnating in this exact place did him more damage to his plans than necessary.

First of all, knowing that he was in a completely foreign place from the Five Regions, how will he make use of his knowledge?

The precious knowledge that was stored in his memory consisted of many locations of inheritances that would be beneficial in his journey. Future events where a lot of opportunities would open up, making Yi Shen gain immense power.

But, he could no longer make use of that now that he knew he was inside of a Blessed Land.

Due to this, Yi Shen had no choice but to make new arrangements to his plans. If he were back in the Five Regions, then he would make use of this advantage to grasp all of the great opportunities available, soaring to the sky and shaking the heavens.

But, things did not always go as planned.

"Heh, it seems even the heavens themselves are wary of me, purposely weakening me like this. So be it, I'll play your game."

If the whole world was against him, then let the whole world be against him. Nothing will be able to stop his relentless walk on the path of cultivation.

Soon, he would be able to commence his plans, tomorrow being the start of the equivalent of an Awakening Ceremony back in the Five Regions, they call it an Annual Ceremony here.

"With the flow of time being much faster here, coupled with the rich primeval essence, it will be much easier cultivating to Rank Six!"

...

Today was the day of the Annual Ceremony, one would be able to tell the festive atmosphere from afar.

Some children were running around, eating and laughing with each other. Many stalls had been erected, some selling wares, others selling food.

It was joyous all around.

Inside of Wu Qing tribe's pagoda, Lao Qiu and the elders walked downstairs as hundreds of beastmen walked behind them. They were walked down to the bottom floor of the pagoda, where they then stopped at.

"It is good that everybody is here on time. Today is a special day for the tribe, we will be conducting and following the traditions of our ancestors. It is called the Annual Ceremony."

Lao Qiu was standing in front of two majestic pillars, one was carved with drawings of flames, the other was carved jaggedly, representing the earth. Both of these pillars were planted against a wall.

"Today will determine whether you'll walk down the path of a Gu Master or not."

Upon hearing the words 'Gu Master' the youths eyes lightened up.

Gu Master!

They are people who can use wondrous abilities that go beyond common sense. If one becomes a Gu Master, even with low talent, they can gain a huge increase in status and income.

Naturally, these youths did not want to pass up the opportunity of becoming a Gu Master. Especially those who came from commoner families.

Many of them had high hopes, including the leader and elders. Out of the hundreds of youths here, mostly half of them would not be able to awaken their aperture.

This was not very favorable for the tribe, but it was a much better situation than the previous Annual Ceremony. Back then, they didn't even have half of the amount of beastmen present today, which does make a difference when compared.

One of the elders who guided the youths, stepped forward. He had the head of a toad and had a wide body.

Lao Qiu stepped aside to make away for the elder, Tu Chan.

Tu Chan stopped at the wall between the two pillars. His mouth and cheeks swelled up, opening his mouth to throw up a ball of dark mud.

The ball of dark mud fell on the wall, which then transformed upon coming in contact with it. The wall had turned into loose soil, not long after it lost its structure and fell to the floor.

After the dirt fully disappeared, a hole had opened up on the wall. It was a passageway lit up by torches.

Lao Qiu went first, turning around to speak to the beastmen.

"Follow me."

The elders followed suite, so did the beastmen group. They were led down the lit passageway. At the end of the passage, was an underground cave. Large torches were placed on the cave walls, burning with bright light.

The beastmen group were astounded by the sight in front of them. Orange-red stalactites were glowing like molten lava on the roof of the cave. Long, brown vines crawled up the cave walls.

The whole cave was illuminated with the color of fire, it reflected off of the beastmen's faces.

The group continued walking deeper into the cave, at the end, they stopped at the image of a mural painted on cave wall, below it a river of light blue water. There were not many torches here, but the river of water emitted a dim blue light.

The river was large and wide, Flowing from the depths of the cave. One could see fish and aquatic plants, the sand beneath the river of water was dark brown.

In one section of the river, was a collection of crimson red lotuses that had flames on the tip of their countless petals. Another section contained floating rocks that looked ordinary to the eye.

The crimson red lotuses and the ordinary floating rocks were both important foundations of the Wu Qing tribe.

The beastmen in the back were in awe of the beautiful scenery in front of them.

As they murmured between each other, Yi Shen quietly observed the mural in front of him. His outside appearance was normal, he looked calm and collected, but in reality he was shocked.

'This... no doubt about it... this is the painting of an Immemorial Desolate Beast ー Earth Tremoring Flame Phoenix!'

The mural depicted the image of a grand phoenix bathed in flames while it flew over land. Although the mural had greatly deteriorated in quality, Yi Shen was still able to accurately discern the beast portrayed in the mural.

This was a great shock to Yi Shen. He lived here for 15 years already, but he had never heard anyone mentioning this.

Yi Shen's thoughts rapidly collided with each other as they churned in his mind.

'How do these mortals know about the existence of an Immemorial Desolate Beast? Did the Blessed Land's owner tell them?' All kinds of thoughts appeared in his mind.

Yi Shen did have the right to be shocked, these mortals should not even know about the existence about anything beyond mortal level cultivation.

There was one factor that could be taken into account here. In some instances, Gu Immortal owners do not hide their existences in front of their descendants living in their Immortal Aperture.

But, did this not properly explain why they knew of this beast's existence. It is not likely they saw it firsthand, otherwise they would've been most likely killed.

It was then that Yi Shen remembered something about beastmen, something about their culture.

There was not many records known about the beastmen race, but the few that still existed explained that beastmen worshipped fierce beasts as some sort of deity.

'But this just brings me back to square one. How did they know of its existence beforehand?' Yi Shen thought.

He was broken out of his stupor as Lao Qiu shouted to the beastmen group.

"We will now be commencing the ceremony. Everybody, bow down and follow our leads!"

Lao Qiu was the first to walk towards the mural, he got down on his knees and kowtowed. Soon, everyone else followed suite.

"The one who was born from the deepest depths of the earth, grace us with sound of the earth trembling.

"The one who burns all evil ablaze, bathe us with your purifying light.

"Eat away all of the impurities that linger in this world, allow us to become one with your divine flame."

"Oh, Supreme Deity, please grant us your blessings once more!"

Lao Qiu and the rest of the elders recited these lines over and over. The beastmen behind also followed their lead. Everybody was chanting out these lines, like some fanatics.

Yi Shen also had no choice but to follow as well, he couldn't help but think of how crazy they were.

It was an odd scene when looked from afar. At the front, you had Lao Qiu and the elders kowtowing, their heads bumping on the floor. Behind them, were hundreds of other beastmen imitating the same act.

A few moments later, the fanatical chanting had stopped. The first to get up were Lao Qiu and the elders. The rest slowly got up, waiting for any further instructions from their tribe leader.

Lao Qiu stared at the beastmen with a look of pride, he spoke while turning his attention towards the river of water below the mural.

"Good, you all did an amazing performance. Now, we shall formally begin the awakening process!"