Chapter 44: The Thirty-Third Heaven of Separation and Sorrow

After a refreshing breeze swept by, Wu Xian opened his eyes once more.

This time, he appeared in the exact spot where he had first entered the blessed land.

Unlike his previous arrival, it was now daytime. The densely packed malicious specters were all lying dormant, allowing Wu Xian to finally take in the full landscape of this place.

This was an endless, desolate wilderness.

Boundless and vast, scattered with rugged rocks and overgrown with wild weeds, the sky was a cloudless, brilliant blue. An unsettling silence hung in the air—no wind blew, no birds sang, no insects chirped; he could even hear his own breathing.

Four statues surrounded him.

Three of them were statues of the Three Officials of Heaven, Earth, and Water, resting on silver pedestals.

The fourth was a human-sized stone statue, sitting cross-legged on a rock. Its shoulders were bare and armless, with a white candle burning on each of its left and right shoulders.

Wu Xian licked his lips.

The face of the stone statue was his own face!

Amidst the four divine statues stood a familiar door—the entrance to Wu Xian's detective agency. As long as he opened this door, he could return to reality.

Free from the pressure of the specters, Wu Xian was not in a hurry to leave. He climbed atop his own statue, pulled out a monocular telescope, and peered into the distance.

Looking from a higher vantage point, he realized this place was not completely barren.

In the distance, circular clearings dotted the landscape, each separated by dozens of meters. Every clearing also featured statues, some adorned with pillars and walls. It seemed each plot belonged to a Chosen One.

Wu Xian scanned through these clearings and quickly spotted some acquaintances.

Shi Ji had obtained some item and was joyfully doing a hip-shake dance amidst the divine statues.

Wen Chao was holding a magnifying glass and a small notebook, earnestly studying a divine statue.

Yet, Wu Xian searched twice over without finding Su Huijin. Instead, he only found a clearing completely swallowed by weeds, inside which lay a dilapidated stone statue missing half its face. The contour of the statue strongly resembled Su Huijin.

"It seems these stone statues reflect the status of the Chosen Ones within the blessed land."

"Su Huijin is already dead, so her plot has vanished and her stone statue is shattered. Every inch of this wilderness might well be the burial ground of a fallen Chosen One."

Wu Xian continued his observation and soon noticed another unusual sight.

A procession was moving across the wilderness.

Leading the procession was a ghost clad in a black robe and a black pointed hat, its feet hovering above the ground without touching it. This was a netherworld messenger, holding a chain that bound more than twenty human beings behind it.

Wu Xian's pupils dilated.

He had seen every single one of these twenty-odd people before!

They were none other than the surviving natives from the blessed land!

"Why are they appearing here?"

"Where are they being taken?"

Wu Xian kept staring and watched as these people entered a door. Behind the door, a white minivan was vaguely visible, though its license plate number was indistinguishable.

The people vanished upon entering the door.

A moment later, the netherworld messenger emerged from the door and suddenly turned its head to glance in Wu Xian's direction. Startled, Wu Xian jerked backward and tumbled heavily onto the ground, his heart pounding frantically.

After calming his nerves, Wu Xian no longer had the courage to climb back up.

"There are far too many secrets hidden in this wilderness. I'll slowly explore them in the future."

With that, he opened his Chosen One tally, and new information appeared on the front page.

'Greetings, Chosen One.'

'Your current location is the Thirty-Third Realm of Hatred and Separation, a transit hub between the blessed land and the mortal dust. Please wait for a time while the immortals and deities review your performance in the blessed land to determine the appropriate reward.'

'Please verify your current status.'

Remaining Lifespan: 20 years
Dao Karma: 0
Permanent Slot: 0
Blessing Slots: 3

Wu Xian was slightly stunned.

Lifespan was easy to understand—how many more years he could expect to live in the reality without accidents.

He hadn't expected that, young as he was, he only had twenty years left to live. It seemed his previous lifestyle had indeed overdrawn his vitality severely.

Wu Xian gave a self-deprecating chuckle. "Eat what I want, drink what I want, I must treat myself better from now on... After all, I'm practically someone with his neck deep in the dirt."

Blessing slots were also straightforward; they represented the number of blessings he could utilize simultaneously. Since he currently possessed only a single blessing, he didn't need to worry about blessing slots for now.

Then what did Dao Karma mean?
Did high Dao Karma mean living longer? Or perhaps granting explosive combat prowess capable of slapping a specter to death with a single palm?

Wu Xian felt that the blessed land didn't operate quite like that.
Chances were, this so-called Dao Karma would affect the difficulty of the blessed land—the higher the Dao Karma, the stronger the specters encountered...

The Permanent Slot was somewhat more puzzling.
Fortunately, a stream of information immediately flooded into Wu Xian's mind.

The so-called Permanent Slot was a rare enhancement for Chosen Ones, independent of items and blessings. Each Permanent Slot allowed a Chosen One to bring one of their owned divine abilities, magical artifacts, or talismans into the next blessed land.

Wu Xian's current Permanent Slot count was 0.
This meant that none of the leftover talismans and magical artifacts Wu Xian possessed could be brought back to reality, nor could they be carried into the next blessed land.

This realization made Wu Xian wince slightly.

From this perspective, even exceptional performance in the blessed land offered no major advantage for the next trial; every entry into the blessed land was a hellish experience starting completely from scratch.

While Wu Xian was pondering these three attributes, the immortals' and deities' review of Wu Xian concluded.

New text materialized on the Chosen One tally.

[Congratulations to the Chosen One, Wu Xian, for clearing the blessed land 'Phantom Hotel'.]
[Reward: 30 days of rest time.]

Wu Xian deduced that this reward was granted to everyone who cleared the blessed land. For at least thirty days, Chosen Ones would not be forcibly dragged into another trial.

He liked this reward very much. Who wouldn't want a longer vacation when leading a normal life?

[Your performance in this blessed land has been rated as 'Outstanding' by the immortals and deities. Reward: One Permanent Slot, two pieces of premium incense, and one year of lifespan.]

"It seems the rewards are distributed based on performance within the blessed land... The better the overall performance, the better the rewards."

Among these rewards, what surprised Wu Xian the most was the Permanent Slot.
Just moments ago, he had been fretting over his inability to carry his acquired items into the next blessed land. Now, with this Permanent Slot, he could choose one item to bring along into his next trial!

In the context of the blessed land's mechanics, starting with an item versus starting completely from scratch made a world of difference in difficulty!

With those two pieces of spirit incense, the number of times he could pay respects to deities had increased to three.

Unfortunately, Wu Xian only had one Permanent Slot, meaning he could only choose one item out of nine to bring into the next blessed land, while the other two deity-worshipping items would simply be wasted here.

Even so, this was far better than having no Permanent Slots at all.

As for the extra lifespan... Wu Xian would never complain about having more.

[Congratulations on gaining the favor of 'Judge Cui of the Underworld Law'. You have been gifted a qualification for a solo blessed land. Surviving this blessed land will grant you a personal blessing from Judge Cui.]

Accompanied by the text, an invitation letter quietly materialized in Wu Xian's hand.
As long as this invitation letter was torn up, he could directly enter the blessed land.

Wu Xian rolled his eyes.

So their struggles in the blessed land were essentially just dangerous monkey performances staged for these immortals and deities. The deities wouldn't help when the monkeys encountered danger, but once the performance ended, they would toss a few peanuts and melon seeds to the monkeys they found pleasing.

[Congratulations on triggering 'Disaster Retrospective'. Based on your performance during the retrospective, you are rewarded with three hundred karmic virtues.]

Wu Xian was taken aback for a moment.
So the scenario he had just experienced was called a Disaster Retrospective, and it seemed not everyone had the chance to experience it.

Wu Xian couldn't quite figure out the deeper significance of the Disaster Retrospective, but three hundred karmic virtues were certainly appealing. The next time he encountered the God of Wealth Wuxian, these karmic virtues could be converted into underworld paper money, allowing him to go shopping at the Tathagata Multiverse Store.