But Ye Qin hadn't entirely given up. This ruined underground imperial mausoleum was vast, likely concealing numerous burial treasures. Aside from his daily practice of the Zuo Wang Jing, he now had ample time to search these remnants, perhaps even discovering Spirit Stones here.

The thought struck Ye Qin with a sudden jolt, and he immediately set to work.

His initial target was the cluster of palaces within the inner sanctum of the mausoleum. Most of the underground tomb was in ruins, yet this inner court remained largely intact, showing no obvious signs of damage. Furthermore, the Foundation Establishment cultivators who had ventured into this tomb rarely dared to search within this perilous inner sanctum, fearing they might offend the prestige of the Holy Emperor. Thus, the likelihood of finding spiritual treasures here was relatively higher.

Within the inner court, Ye Qin meticulously tapped every stone slab on the palace walls, in every single hall and every corner, investigating whether there were hidden treasure chambers within. If a slab echoed with an unusual dong-dong sound, he would shatter it to investigate thoroughly.

After Ye Qin smashed several large stone slabs using his magical artifacts.

"Stop!" The Holy Emperor's hoarse voice suddenly rang out, halting Ye Qin's actions with a hint of restrained anger.

"This junior only intended to search for any potential treasures here," Ye Qin replied dismissively, shaking his head.

"There are no treasures in this palace; even if there were, you couldn't take them. Don't waste your effort!" the Holy Emperor stated coolly.

"If there are no treasures, why is Your Majesty so agitated?" Ye Qin was genuinely puzzled. The Holy Emperor tried hard to suppress the fury rising in his heart.

"The reliefs carved onto these stone slabs are items of immense value. I specially commissioned several Master Stonemasons to carve them. Do not destroy them indiscriminately." He understood clearly that even his anger would solve nothing. Having lost his Golden Armored Guards, he was powerless to stop Ye Qin from doing anything within these halls.

Ye Qin became even more astonished. Were these slabs truly so valuable? Even if they fetched a high price, the Holy Emperor possessed inexhaustible wealth; why should he care about a few stone slabs?

Within the massive palace, every stone slab, measuring several zhang across, was adorned with carved relief murals—totaling several thousand images. These reliefs depicted monstrous beasts, rare birds, mountains, rivers, cities, and ancient cultivators, chronicling entirely different geographical environments.

Initially, Ye Qin paid little attention to the content of these murals, but he suspected they might be connected to the palace's hidden treasure chambers. Thus, he unconsciously began an endeavor: trying to piece all these murals together to see if he could uncover something.

He found no clues to any treasure, but at that moment, he was startled to discover something else—these thousands of images seemed capable of forming one colossal geographical atlas.

Ye Qin had unexpectedly realized this fact. He moved around the great halls, memorizing the patterns of each mural, his gaze growing brighter the more he looked.

"Eh! Isn't this the Spiritual Mist Immortal Fate City? The three faint red, deep blue, and dark colored flying swords—that's the symbol of Spiritual Mist Immortal Fate City. These dozen or so murals must be descriptions of the territories within the Spiritual Mist Cultivation World."

"And here, this one is the Fiery Mountain Range, and these two are the Holy Emperor's Immortal Fate City and the Holy Emperor's Mausoleum. This entire region must be the territory of the Holy Emperor Cultivation World, which is the current Chaotic Lands."

"This is the Sky Dome Plain Immortal Fate City, the Sky Dome Plain Cultivation World!"

"This is the Myriad Moon Lake Immortal Fate City, the Myriad Moon Lake Cultivation World!"

"I’ve never seen this one before. I wonder which cultivation world it belongs to."

"Piecing these murals together... it should be a complete geographical atlas of the entire Central Continent."

By the end, Ye Qin was so shaken he staggered back several steps, looking up at the murals carved into the walls of the imperial mausoleum’s halls with absolute astonishment! Judging from these reliefs, the Four Great Cultivation Worlds were merely a small fraction of the Central Continent. On this map, there were numerous other Immortal Fate Cities and Cultivation Worlds—at least several hundred. Each Immortal Fate City was connected by lines of sight, ultimately weaving the entire Central Continent into one tapestry. These murals even meticulously recorded the dangerous demonic beasts and famous cultivator figures within each major cultivation world.

Gazing upon these murals, Ye Qin felt nothing but shock.

He had always thought the Four Great Cultivation Worlds of the Spiritual Mist were vast enough; it would take Foundation Establishment cultivators years of sword flight to reach neighboring cultivation worlds. But he never imagined the sheer immensity of the Central Continent, which far surpassed his expectations—he suspected he might never fly across all the cultivation worlds in his lifetime.

And there was even more. Beyond the Central Continent, these murals also documented the surrounding seas.

Ye Qin examined the sea regions bordering the Central Continent more closely, then muttered in sudden confusion, "This geographical survey only documents some aspects of the Eastern Sea around the Central Continent, carving out quite a few islands. But the murals pertaining to the Southern Sea, Western Sea, and Northern Sea are almost completely blank. What is the reason for this?"

"The murals in this palace depict places this Emperor personally visited, or things I have seen and heard. As for places I have never been, naturally, there are no records," the Holy Emperor's voice echoed again within the palace.

"Your Majesty has such an expansive view, having visited so many cultivation worlds. This junior is deeply impressed!"

Ye Qin said this sincerely and earnestly.

He now understood the true value of these stone slabs and certainly would not destroy them further. This colossal map was the most complete geographical atlas of the Central Continent he had ever seen. If he were to travel to these places in the future, having this atlas would make things much easier. Previously, he had seen some cultivation world atlases, but they were merely small geographical maps of the Spiritual Mist Cultivation World—their scope was too narrow, nowhere near the value of this atlas.

Ye Qin swiftly took out a jade slip from his storage pouch and began copying and recording every detail of these relief carvings.

"Heh, this is nothing much. If I weren't trapped in this underground mausoleum, I might have taken the time to visit the extremely perilous Southern Sea, or even ventured to see the Western Sea, to witness what terrifying things reside there." "Oh? Could Your Majesty tell this junior about these murals? This junior is very keen to understand the peculiarities of those places." Ye Qin was greatly interested in these regions, raising the jade slip in his hand. "Of course, if Your Majesty is unwilling to tell this junior, I won't mind treating these murals as scrap stone. After all, I have already recorded the contents of these carvings."

The Holy Emperor fell silent for a moment. While these relief carvings were indeed just stone slabs, the content represented hundreds of years of his painstaking efforts to compile. He had hired the top master craftsmen of the Central Continent to carve them into the imperial mausoleum palace to adorn his tomb. If Ye Qin were to casually destroy them, he would be so frustrated he’d nearly spit blood.

Perhaps realizing the extraordinary value of these carvings, which necessitated their preservation, he wisely compromised under Ye Qin's minor 'blackmail.'

"Very well. Since I have nothing else to do, I shall tell you about the Central Continent and the surrounding major seas. Let's start with the Central Continent..."

The Central Continent spanned approximately one billion li and housed a population exceeding one hundred billion. Mortals constituted the vast majority, while cultivators were only a small minority.

The history of the Central Continent was primarily the history of mortals, and it was also the birthplace of cultivators. During the millions of years of warfare and strife among mortal nations, mortals created martial arts and became Martial Artists. A portion of the top-tier Martial Artists, unwilling to settle for mere peerless martial skills, sought the art of eternal life.

In pursuit of the path to longevity, after hundreds of thousands of years of arduous effort, a small number of mortals with exceptionally high innate talent gradually grasped the art of cultivation, giving rise to a batch of early rogue cultivators. Devoted to the pursuit of immortality, these cultivators gradually distanced themselves from the mundane affairs of the secular mortal world, focusing exclusively on abstaining from grain and cultivating the Dao. These cultivators intermarried, forming cultivation families of various sizes, which in turn evolved into cultivation sects. The sects formed alliances, organizing themselves into Cultivation Worlds.

Currently, the Central Continent was divided into hundreds of large and small Cultivation Worlds, each containing numerous cultivation sects, cultivation families, mortal kingdoms, and martial arts gangs.

This resulted in the formation of an increasingly complete order within the Cultivation World. Every cultivator was ranked according to their cultivation strength, spirit root aptitude. Simultaneously, factors like family standing, background, backing, and marriage alliances were also heavily considered.

The Holy Emperor clearly possessed deep knowledge of the Central Continent, providing a detailed explanation of its geography, history, and other aspects.

Ye Qin listened calmly, his expression unreadable. He suddenly recalled his own marriage alliance with Huangfu Bing'er. The Huangfu Cultivation Family held deep roots within the Azure Elixir Sect and the Spiritual Mist Cultivation World, while he originated as a mere rogue cultivator, possessing low status and no family background. Such an alliance was extremely precarious. Precisely because of this, neither he nor Huangfu Bing'er dared to mention the matter within the Azure Elixir Sect, lest it invite disaster.

"Next are the conditions of the Central Continent and the surrounding seas."

In the last several hundred thousand years, as the number of cultivators rapidly grew, the consumption of spirit stones and spiritual herbs used to aid cultivation also increased dramatically. However, the spiritual resources within the Central Continent were extremely limited and growing scarcer.

To contend for these spiritual resources, the Cultivation World had engaged in countless bloody wars between cultivation worlds. Each war severely drained the vitality of the Cultivation World, sometimes even leading to the annihilation of entire realms.

A group of far-sighted, top-tier cultivators, after deep deliberation and for various reasons, decided to leave the Central Continent and venture into the perilous seas surrounding it, searching for new places to cultivate.

However, the four seas surrounding the Central Continent were far from peaceful; on the contrary, these maritime regions were extremely treacherous.

The Eastern Sea was permeated with demonic energy, with countless sea beasts lurking beneath the waves.

The Southern Sea carried demonic qi; those who inhaled it were highly susceptible to madness and transformation, becoming bloodthirsty, evil fiends.

The Western Sea was filled with a black aura of death; contact meant instant demise.

Above the Northern Sea, ice and snowstorms raged year-round, equivalent to high-level ice magic wreaking havoc across the surface. Cultivators who ventured north never returned; without exception, to this day.

Through hundreds of thousands of years of exploration, cultivators from the Central Continent discovered that the Southern, Western, and Northern Seas were all routes of no return. Only the Eastern Sea was relatively safer, allowing for sword flight passage, with numerous small islands along the way for temporary rest. Although the Eastern Sea harbored sea beasts, the islands often boasted rare spiritual herbs and medicines aged hundreds or thousands of years, possessing extraordinary value useful for cultivation.

Consequently, cultivators began leaving the Central Continent in droves, heading toward the Eastern Sea to seek islands suitable for cultivation.