Xu Ying and Yuan Weiyang temporarily settled down in the Kunlun Ruins. Deities from all over Kunlun arrived to pay homage to the Queen Mother of the West, yet some had perished, their physical forms gone.
Their divine power lay dormant within the mountains, their divine consciousness scattered.
"The fallen deities of the Kunlun Ruins can only be awakened by the Undying People,"
the Queen Mother of the West instructed Feng Yao. "You should travel to the various sacred peaks and wake them."
Taking her orders, Feng Yao set off into the mountains. Within a few days, several more deities had revived and come to pay their respects.
The Queen Mother summoned Yuan Weiyang, then said to Xu Ying, "Lad of the Xu family, I need to borrow her for a time. On one hand, I must unravel her seals; on the other, I must borrow her strength to revive the divine might of Kunlun."
Xu Ying felt quite curious and asked, "She has seals on her as well?"
The Queen Mother nodded. "I cannot undo the seals on you, but I expect I can unravel those on her. Her seals are exceedingly bizarre—a form of reincarnation seal. Kaiming, take him to study the Heavenly Dao runes."
Kaiming acknowledged the command and led Xu Ying to the Kunlun Palace.
Inside the Kunlun Palace grew a bamboo grove of jade bamboo, the very material used to record Daoist scriptures!
This kind of jade bamboo was priceless. Even prominent, prestigious sects like Mount Emei usually possessed only a slip or two, yet an entire grove flourished within the Kunlun Palace.
The Heavenly Dao runes of the Kunlun deities were carved onto these jade-slip scriptures. Xu Ying had visited this place during his first lifetime and had studied all the Heavenly Dao runes recorded here. Looking upon them now, his past memories awakened one after another; there was no need to study them anew.
"The Heavenly Dao runes here are incomplete,"
Xu Ying observed, turning to Kaiming. "Their classifications are lacking too—certain runes are entirely absent."
Kaiming explained, "Some deities perished very long ago, so their Heavenly Dao runes were never passed down. This war did not begin forty-eight thousand years ago. In Kunlun's golden age, there were originally ten cave-heavens—like ten celestial lightwells—plunged directly into the Immortal Realm. The immortal waters of the Jade Pool could even nourish immortal roots such as the Wenyu Tree, the Pearl Tree, and the Rice Tree."
Xu Ying was stunned by what he heard.
Ten cave-heavens rooted in the Immortal Realm, drawing upon its boundless energy—such a spectacle must have been magnificent beyond imagination.
"Wait a moment, Kaiming!"
Xu Ying suddenly had an epiphany and asked, "Does a cave-heaven taking root in the Immortal Realm to draw upon its energy have any connection to a cave-heaven taking root in the Yuxu Palace, the Crimson Palace, or the Mud Pill Palace?"
At these words, both Yuan Qi and the big bell were greatly shaken, the bell letting out a sharp clang.
Xu Ying explained, "In the Six Secret Depositories of the Human Body, the cave-heavens all take root in the six great other shores, harvesting the immortal medicines from them. Then could Kunlun's cave-heavens be harvesting the immortal medicines of the Immortal Realm?"
Yuan Qi hurriedly asked, "If that's true, is the Immortal Realm another shore as well?"
The giant serpent had reaped immense benefits: he had eaten several immortal medicines, drunk the waters of the Jade Pool, sipped Jade Bud immortal tea, and gorged on Lizhu immortal fruits and flat peaches.
The bloodline within him had awakened and undergone another metamorphosis. He now stretched over five hundred zhang long, coiling like a mountain range. The twin horns behind his head resembled two strangely shaped mountain crags, with yin and yang qi swirling between them like mist.
As for taking human form, Xu Ying had long given up hope on him.
Yuan Qi had simply let himself go as well, having no intention whatsoever of assuming human form.
Kaiming's nine heads were thoroughly muddled. They stared blankly at them; despite possessing nine heads, he could not answer their questions.
Right then, the surrounding mountains suddenly stirred to life. Ancient divine might churned throughout Kunlun, and the Heavenly Dao flourished. Kaiming hurriedly called out, "Let's go outside and look!"
Xu Ying had no choice but to set his doubts aside. Stepping out of the Kunlun Palace, he looked up and saw kaleidoscopic clouds drifting across the sky while radiant vapor surged, forming natural patterns of the Heavenly Dao.
Every divine mountain of Kunlun displayed its own extraordinary phenomenon. Deities slowly rose from the mountains, standing tall and imposing upon their respective peaks, their vast, magnificent forms composed of incense smoke qi.
Divine radiance glittered around them, weaving into ribbons of light upon which their respective Heavenly Dao runes drifted and flowed.
Whoosh—
A massive ribbon formed of incense swept past Xu Ying and the others like a sprawling river, its Heavenly Dao runes shining brilliantly as they drifted through the current.
It was the flowing garment of the Queen Mother of the West.
Looking around, Xu Ying was struck with inexplicable awe.
The awakening of Kunlun's deities made this place resemble a miniature Heavenly Dao world.
At the same time, a peculiar power rose from Kunlun, establishing resonance with the myriad heavens and gradually channeling the incense qi offered by people across the myriad worlds into Kunlun.
"It is Weiyang helping the Queen Mother restore Kunlun's vitality! Could her seal have been unraveled?"
Xu Ying's heart stirred, immediately understanding why the Queen Mother had borrowed Yuan Weiyang.
Due to the bitter war forty-eight thousand years ago, the Kunlun deities remained severely depleted even after reviving. They desperately needed someone capable of connecting with the myriad heavens to channel the incense qi of the common mortals here.
The Immortal Realm had been able to annihilate Kunlun back then; doing so now would be even easier. That was why the Queen Mother was so anxious.
Though she had awakened, Kunlun remained perched on a knife's edge, liable to be destroyed at any moment.
"The worship of Kunlun by the people of the myriad worlds created dense incense qi, imbuing the mountains with spirituality and giving birth to the primordial forms of deities,"
Xu Ying told Yuan Qi and the big bell. "The deities of Mount Kunlun are the primordial forms of the Heavenly Dao gods. For reasons unknown, they declined, only to be replaced by today's heavenly gods."
Yuan Qi stretched his massive body across the ridges, exuding the grandeur of an ancient primordial deity. After some thought, he rumbled in a muffled voice, "Ah Ying, Grand Preceptor Jiang Qi under the Son of Heaven of Zhou mentioned that over sixty thousand years ago, the heavenly tribulation only spanned a range of three hundred li. He speculated that back then, the strength of a tribulation was determined solely by a Qi Refiner's own power and their personal karmic reckoning, rather than being a super heavenly tribulation. Could someone have used the Heavenly Dao gods and Heavenly Dao divine artifacts to replace the Kunlun deities sixty thousand years ago?"
Over the past few days, without any cosmetic paste to eat and with plenty of idle time, Xu Ying's mind had grown sharp again, so he had helped Yuan Qi undo his "Enclosure" character seal.
Yuan Qi's sealed memories were gradually returning, and having consumed the treasures bestowed by the Queen Mother, his mind was growing sharper by the day.
The big bell had secretly hoped that breaking the seal would turn Yuan Qi back into a foolish snake, never expecting him to become far more astute.
"This is bad!"
the big bell thought in alarm. "If the foolish snake isn't foolish anymore, it'll make me look dim-witted! In the past, Seventh Master was always at the bottom of the heap, but if he gets smarter, my status will be in jeopardy! Still, if Kunlun's immortal gold could be applied to my body, combined with Patriarch Chanchan's craftsmanship... But the immortal gold the Queen Mother granted is still in that foolish snake's belly, and Patriarch Chanchan has such a black heart..."
Though the bell had gained many benefits, the thought of Patriarch Chanchan's character made it feel its own integrity as a treasure was under threat.
Xu Ying also recalled Jiang Qi's words: Jiang Qi had suggested that sixty thousand years ago might have been when the Heavenly Dao divine artifacts were forged, from which point the heavenly tribulations came under someone's control.
Clearly, sixty thousand years ago was a crucial turning point, the era when the Immortal Realm began its plan to reinvent the Heavenly Dao.
Over the next few days, the resonance with the myriad heavens grew stronger, and Yuan Weiyang's cultivation climbed ever higher!
The Queen Mother was evidently still unraveling her seals!
Yet the aura radiating from Yuan Weiyang gradually exceeded everyone's expectations.
By the third day, her aura had already reached the level of an Ascension-stage Qi Refiner, her divine consciousness turning incomparably profound.
On the fourth day, her aura doubled again.
By the fifth day, her presence could rival those anglers, growing so formidable that it distorted the skies above Kunlun.
On the eighth day, Xu Ying saw immortal qi billowing up from Yuzhu Peak, trailing across the sky like smoke and fluttering banners.
On the ninth day, immortal radiance burst forth from Yuzhu Peak like dense clusters of Chinese peonies, their pistils and petals unfurling outward and rising higher and higher, even battering against the sealed cave-heaven hanging above Kunlun!
"Ah Ying, that girl entangled with you across ten thousand lifetimes seems to be someone extraordinary," the big bell said with deep worry.
Xu Ying gazed into the sky. The grandiose cave-heaven was rooted in the Immortal Realm, its seals clashing fiercely against the blooming sea of floral light as the talismanic inscriptions upon them were continuously worn away.
It would not be long before this cave-heaven was broken open.
On the tenth day, phantoms of the myriad worlds simultaneously surfaced in the skies surrounding Kunlun, as though all creation were being pulled closer to the sacred mountain!
Divine power boiled across Kunlun's peaks. Above each deity rose a pillar of blinding radiance that reached straight into the firmament!
Within those pillars of light, various Heavenly Dao runes manifested, drifting upward in ever-shifting forms!
Yuan Weiyang's aura climbed no further, yet upon Yuzhu Peak, it felt as though an unimaginably profound female immortal sat in stillness—flawless, undefiled, inviolable, and unapproachable.
As Yuan Weiyang's seals were unraveled, Xu Ying suddenly felt as if the thread of their ten-thousand-lifetime affinity had been severed.
He thought of Yan Bao'er from the Great Shang era, of Feng Xue'er from three thousand years ago, and of Yuan Weiyang and Yuan Rushi in this present life, a pang of worry tightening in his chest.
Their encounters, their understanding, their love across those ages—perhaps in the vast lifespan of a female immortal, it was merely a drop in the ocean, one or two tiny ripples in her memories.
Perhaps their encounters and love had also been part of the seal. With the seal undone and the affinity of ten thousand lifetimes severed, would they still be lovers in the days to come?
"The Queen Mother broke your marriage affinity; she ought to compensate you with another," the big bell said.
Yuan Qi scolded in fury, "Are you breeding pigs, handing them out just like that? It has to be mutual love!"
Xu Ying turned a deaf ear to them. Returning to the Kunlun Palace with his mind in turmoil, he casually leafed through some ancient records.
These texts were not Heavenly Dao runes, but daily journals kept by the Undying People and feathered people who guarded Kunlun.
He had no heart for reading and merely flipped through the pages aimlessly, but an entry written by a feathered person living in Tiantang City caught his eye.
The feathered people were cultivators from the myriad worlds who had ingested Kunlun's immortal medicine; their physical bodies and Primordial Spirits had undergone feather-ascension, granting them immense divine powers to summon wind and rain, alongside longevity.
Half-immortal and half-human, these feathered people served the Queen Mother of the West and guarded Kunlun.
The feathered person recorded in the book: "The Xu clan of Yuxu Peak boasts an ancient heritage. Guarding Shangdu, they excel in the Nuo method, opening the six secret depositories to refine immortal medicine and attain longevity. This Nuo method is an ancestral art kept strictly secret, capable of severing another's cave-heaven."
Xu Ying's spirits rose sharply, and he searched through the other records in the Kunlun Palace.
After combing through the palace's archives for a long time, he finally found another passage in a separate volume. It stated that the cave-heavens forged through the Xu clan's ancestral art reached the deepest depths of the six secret depositories and were the most stable cave-heavens in existence, known as the Six Secret Lesser Immortal Realms.
Tossing the book aside, Xu Ying leapt up, dashed out of the Kunlun Palace, and sprinted down the mountain like the wind, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Upper God Lu Wu—!"
Far off among the Lu Wu mountain range, divine power surged. A beam of radiant light shot out from the ocean of divine might, heading straight toward Xu Ying.
Boom!
Lu Wu landed, and Xu Ying immediately leaped onto his back.
"Upper God Lu Wu, hurry to the Divine Bridge at Yuxu Peak!" Xu Ying urged.
Lu Wu flew into a rage, roaring, "You summoned me just to ride me like a mount? I am a god, not a beast of burden!"
Xu Ying pressed, "I'm spending one of my wishes for this! Don't forget, I had four wishes—spend one and I still have three left! Move, move!"
Lu Wu had no choice but to gallop at full speed toward Mount Yuxu, grumbling, "Don't try to fool me with bad arithmetic! You've already used three, you only have one wish left!"
Xu Ying gazed toward the summit. At the end of the Divine Bridge, hovering above Yujing City, floated a cave-heaven!
That cave-heaven was precisely the Crimson Palace cave-heaven Xu Fu had seized after slaying Nuo Ancestor Nuo Fan!
Feng Xian'er had carried Xu Fu away, leaving the Crimson Palace cave-heaven behind!
This cave-heaven was very likely the one opened through the Xu clan's ancestral art described in the books!
"Nuo Fan's Crimson Palace cave-heaven must have been stripped from someone of my Xu clan!"
Xu Ying flew up before the Crimson Palace cave-heaven, steadying his breath as he reached out a hand toward it.
At that moment, the Crimson Palace cave-heaven trembled faintly, establishing a mutual resonance with his divine consciousness and soul.
Xu Ying froze, a look of utter disbelief spreading across his face. "Could the true master of this cave-heaven... actually be me?"
Chapter 264