"You deduced the ninth revolution of the mysterious art as well?"
The Little Celestial Venerable could hardly believe it. More than forty thousand years ago, when Xu Ying ascended, the Little Celestial Venerable had taken up Xu Ying's ambition and begun researching how to mend heaven. It was also around that time that he discovered a stone cliff carved with the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art, after which he took up cultivating the technique.
When Xu Ying ascended, the Little Celestial Venerable's cultivation had still been shallow, not yet having reached the Intertwined Refining stage. The art Xu Ying had passed down to him only reached up to the Intertwined Refining stage of the Taiyi Inborn Technique, with no subsequent methods.
Switching to the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art, the Little Celestial Venerable had fumbled forward on his own, enduring untold hardships. Drawing on the strengths of various schools and delving deep into all manner of Dao runes, it had taken him tens of thousands of years just to deduce the art up to the seventh revolution.
Knowing that although the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art was immensely powerful, it also harbored numerous flaws, he had refrained from passing it down to Chu Tiandu. Instead, he taught him another formidable art: the Hundred Transformations Mysterious Art, also known as the Hundred Transformations Demonic Art.
Yet in just a brief span of time, Xu Ying had deduced this mysterious art all the way to the ninth revolution. It was simply outrageous!
Xu Ying patted his shoulder and smiled. "You deduced it up to the seventh revolution; I merely stood on your shoulders and followed the momentum downward. In truth, your master isn't all that formidable. Had you harmonized with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth at the Dao Revelation Ground, you too would have comprehended those Dao runes. At that point, the one to complete all nine revolutions of the mysterious art would have been you."
As if struck a heavy blow, the Little Celestial Venerable gave a muffled grunt and muttered, "If it were me, I definitely would have done better."
Xu Ying said with a beaming smile, "Knowing you can console yourself like this and haven't been crushed into despair by your master puts my mind at ease."
The Little Celestial Venerable snorted. "If I knew all the sealing runes like you do, I could have suppressed the various immortal artifacts in the Dao Revelation Ground and harmonized with the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth as well. Add in all these immortal artifact fragments I've collected, and I could have completed the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art too."
Xu Ying burst into laughter. "Then you would have had to suffer over forty thousand years of torment."
The Little Celestial Venerable began to chuckle as well, but remembering Xu Ying's forty thousand years of suffering, the smile faded from his face. Putting himself in Xu Ying's shoes, he doubted he could have stayed as optimistic.
Confronted with Xu Ying's plight, hardly anyone could avoid despair.
He began cultivating step by step according to the revised Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art Xu Ying had provided. As revolution after revolution circulated, his physical body and Primordial Spirit expanded and contracted unpredictably. His Primordial Spirit resembled a primordial deity, and the Dao strength around him grew ever more formidable!
By the time he circulated it to the seventh revolution, chains of Dao danced around him, and the glaring flaws that had previously existed between chain and chain had truly vanished without a trace!
The Little Celestial Venerable was both shocked and delighted. Xu Ying had genuinely perfected the seventh revolution!
He attempted to push through in a single breath to cultivate the eighth revolution. However, the Ancestral Court's heaven and earth were flawed and its Great Dao incomplete; unable to undergo tribulation, he had no path into the next realm, and thus could not master the eighth revolution no matter what.
Seeing him deep in cultivation, Xu Ying wandered about the space. Suddenly, he noticed the radiant glow of the Immortal Dao not far off. Approaching it, he saw magical treasures piled high alongside mountains of tomes on techniques and divine powers. In addition, there were jade slips and Dao manuals, but the vast majority were handwritten manuscripts.
Xu Ying opened several to browse. Most of the books here were manuscripts of Qi Refiners, evidently penned by practitioners across the myriad worlds of the heavens.
Besides those, there were the Little Celestial Venerable's own manuscripts detailing his comprehension of the Dao methods and divine powers from the myriad worlds, as well as the cultivation techniques he had deciphered from various sects and factions.
Walking forward slowly, Xu Ying found more and more of the Little Celestial Venerable's manuscripts—records left behind from his attempts to interpret immortal arts. Further ahead, numerous manuscripts appeared concerning the four characters: ling, yu, you, and yu.
Xu Ying gazed at the mountains of paper before him. It was a veritable mountain of books!
Waves of warmth welled in his heart as he stood before this mountain of writings, motionless for a long time. In order to decipher those four characters and help Xu Ying unravel his seals, the Little Celestial Venerable had fumbled forward from knowing nothing at all, studying relentlessly until he eventually mastered Immortal Dao runes!
Even the immortals of the Immortal Realm might not understand them as thoroughly as he did!
Xu Ying turned back to look at the Little Celestial Venerable. Though he still could not remember what had happened in his first life, he knew that the Little Celestial Venerable had always treated him as his closest kin.
To save his kin, the man had willingly spent vast portions of his life on something that anyone else would have deemed utter folly!
Immersed in cultivation, several days slipped past without the Little Celestial Venerable realizing it. When he awakened, he saw that Xu Ying still had not left the secret realm.
Xu Ying stood before a massive fragment of a magical treasure, surrounding Dao runes fluttering about as he attempted to deduce the missing portions of ancient treasures.
Numerous manuscripts had accumulated around Xu Ying. Looking over, the Little Celestial Venerable recognized them as heaven-mending Dao runes handwritten by Xu Ying, deduced from the artifact fragments.
The Little Celestial Venerable did not disturb him and quietly slipped away.
"My master completed the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art for me, but who knows if it really has no flaws left."
Arriving at Hunyuan Palace, the Little Celestial Venerable hesitated briefly before thinking, Why not test the power of the Nine Revolutions Mysterious Art? The best place to test its might is naturally that place. It's just that I have no way to go there...
Two days later, near the Boundless Sea of Fire, the Little Celestial Venerable located Yuan Qi, the big bell, and their companions hunting down experts from the myriad worlds. Accompanied by several powerful Ancestral Court experts, every one of them possessed formidable strength.
The Little Celestial Venerable summoned Nalan Du and said, "Nephew Nalan, I can let you go back, but on one condition: you take me into Weixu."
Nalan Du was both surprised and delighted, hurriedly agreeing.
Over the past few days, he had lived on edge, constantly terrified that bastards like Yuan Qi and the big bell would force him to slaughter experts of the heavens and then broadcast it far and wide, leaving him unable to sleep day or night. The Little Celestial Venerable's proposal was without a doubt a lifesaving straw.
Then Nalan Du came to his senses. "Little Celestial Venerable, you are indeed powerful, but in Weixu, you may face grave peril. I worry you won't make it back alive."
The Little Celestial Venerable replied indifferently, "That is none of your concern."
Nalan Du hesitated, then ventured, "I have one more request."
The Little Celestial Venerable frowned slightly, never fond of people bargaining with him, and said coolly, "If you want to reclaim the Immortal Dao Jade Pool, I advise you to abandon such wishful thinking."
Nalan Du shook his head. "I have no thoughts whatsoever of taking back the Jade Pool. Rather, this junior has an embarrassing ailment that's hard to speak of... It's, it's..."
Looking thoroughly troubled, he gritted his teeth, swallowed his shame, and explained the matter. The Little Celestial Venerable stared at him in utter astonishment, speechless for quite a while.
Nalan Du's face flushed crimson. "Martial Uncle, do you think you could lend a helping hand?"
In the past, relations between Weixu and the Ancestral Court had been cordial, and Nalan Du had visited several times, addressing the Little Celestial Venerable as Martial Uncle.
The Mud Pill Palace cave-heaven materialized behind the Little Celestial Venerable's head. With a slight circulation of its power, he treated Nalan Du's hidden ailment.
Nalan Du was overjoyed. Feeling himself made whole once more, tears of relief streamed down his cheeks. "Martial Uncle, forgive your nephew's loss of composure. I shall activate the spell at once and take you to Weixu!"
He cast his spell and offered up a Golden Seal-Script Immortal Talisman, which bore the depiction of a strange eye from Weixu.
The talisman soared into the air, blazing with dazzling golden light as the bizarre eye opened wide, tearing a rift across the sky.
Nalan Du bowed respectfully. The Little Celestial Venerable stepped into the rift, and Nalan Du followed closely behind. The rift snapped shut.
In that previous battle, the Ninth Immortal King and the Five Extremes Immortal King had suffered grievous injuries. Both immortal kings had incurred devastating losses: all the immortal corpses refined by the Hua family had been destroyed in the Ancestral Court, and the many experts nurtured by the family had perished there as well.
Not only that, the Five Extremes Immortal King's Twelve-Storyed Mansions and Yellow Court cave-heaven had slipped from his grasp, leaving him deeply agitated.
The Ninth Immortal King had lost his favorite disciple, and his connection to the Immortal Dao Jade Pool had been severed, filling his heart with resentment.
The two immortal kings' residences were not far apart. Right at that moment, the Little Celestial Venerable's voice rang out: "Five Extremes Immortal King, Ninth Immortal King, Fellow Daoists, this humble brother has come to visit again."
Hearing this, both were astonished and thrilled. Rushing out of their palaces, they looked up into Weixu's decayed sky to find the Little Celestial Venerable standing there, clad in robes white as snow.
"The Little Celestial Venerable is a wise man—why come seeking your own death today?" the Five Extremes Immortal King could not help but laugh.
Circulating his mysterious art, the Little Celestial Venerable laughed in return. "I came specifically to challenge you!"
In an instant, he drove the mysterious art to the seventh revolution. His physical body and Primordial Spirit merged into one as chains of Dao intertwined around him, seeping into his skin, flesh, bones, and strands of hair!
Boom!
The Little Celestial Venerable stepped forward as if trampling the heavens beneath his feet, appearing directly before the Ninth Immortal King. Before the Ninth Immortal King could even push his cultivation to its peak, his chest caved in, and vomiting blood, he went flying backward!
The Five Extremes Immortal King decisively activated the Five Extremes Immortal Array, yet in the very next instant, the immortal array shattered with a deafening roar!
The Little Celestial Venerable barged into the formation barehanded and tore the Five Extremes Immortal Array apart, nearly blowing the Five Extremes Immortal King's physical body to pieces!
The Ninth Immortal King forced himself up and flew over to assist. Yet as the two immortal kings joined forces against the Little Celestial Venerable, their dread deepened with every exchange. During their last duel against him, the Little Celestial Venerable had brandished the Heavenly Halberd, an immortal artifact of the ancient era, to force them back—and even then, it had only driven them off while costing him his life. But this time, arriving empty-handed, they found themselves overwhelmed after merely a few blows, their Primordial Spirits battered into disarray, their Dao Fields wavering and enfeebled, and their Great Dao laws on the verge of shattering!
Spitting blood repeatedly, after just ten moves, the Ninth Immortal King thought in horror, We're finished! In three more strikes at most, he will kill the two of us!
Despair gripped the Five Extremes Immortal King's heart. This brat possesses valor no lesser than Xu Ying's in his prime!
Suddenly, the Little Celestial Venerable's expression shifted slightly. Abandoning the two immortal kings, he drew himself up and laughed. "Since the master of Weixu wishes to spare your lives, this Little Celestial Venerable shall return another day to claim them!"
Even before his voice faded, deep within Weixu, a sea of crimson blood stretched out beneath mountains of piled corpses. Deep within this sea of blood and mountains of corpses, an unfathomably terrifying aura abruptly erupted.
Without a second thought, the Little Celestial Venerable activated his mysterious art, ripped through space, and transformed into a streak of light to escape Weixu!
The aura did not pursue him, receding and concealing itself once more.
Having narrowly escaped death, the two immortal kings bowed respectfully toward the mountains of corpses and sea of blood, their faces deathly pale, giving thanks for the salvation granted to them.
Nalan Du was equally pale. When he brought the Little Celestial Venerable here, he had thought the man would surely die in Weixu. Never had he imagined that the one who nearly died would be his own master!
I must never tell anyone that I brought the Little Celestial Venerable into Weixu, he thought to himself. Otherwise, no matter how much Master values me, he will surely kill me!
...
Returning to the Ancestral Court's Ziwei Remnant Realm, the Little Celestial Venerable could not hold back a hearty laugh.
Testing the waters with the seventh revolution of the mysterious art had proven extraordinarily potent, utterly trouncing his two nemeses!
Master is truly Master after all. His tongue might be sharp, but the technique he completed has no flaws—he doesn't shortchange his disciple!
Delighted, he returned to the secret realm, only to find that Xu Ying had already departed. In his wake, Xu Ying had left behind numerous divine powers composed of Dao runes. The forms of these divine powers matched the shapes of those shattered immortal artifacts from the ancient era.
The Little Celestial Venerable froze. Xu Ying had left behind these Dao manifestations to make it easier for him to comprehend.
By contemplating these Dao manifestations, mending the Ancestral Court's Heavenly Dao would become vastly easier, no longer the virtually impossible task it had once been.
He needed only stand before these Dao manifestations to comprehend the Dao runes within and grasp the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth they contained.
Furthermore, guided by these manifestations, he could reconstruct the shattered immortal artifacts and restore them!
Once the immortal artifacts were restored, repairing the Ancestral Court's broken heaven and earth would no longer be an insurmountable feat, for the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth was contained within those artifacts. Restoring them, offering them up, and merging them into heaven and earth would mend the Ancestral Court and complete the Heavenly Dao!
The Little Celestial Venerable felt a fire burning in his chest.
Mending heaven had originally been Xu Ying's lifelong wish, which later became his own. He had dedicated over forty thousand years to it. Now that Xu Ying had returned and left behind these manifestations formed of Dao runes, it was, above all, an act of fulfillment.
"Master!"
Fulfillment of his reluctance to give up and his forty thousand years of persistence!
The Little Celestial Venerable rushed out of the secret realm to the exterior of Hunyuan Palace, only to see vast purple mist suspended in the sky. The Penglai Immortal Mountain that had once rested outside the palace had vanished without a trace.
A profound sense of loss washed over him. Xu Ying and the Penglai Immortal Mountain had already left.
Collecting himself, he summoned the two black qilins. The two beasts reported, "Grandmaster Xu returned to the Penglai Immortal Mountain yesterday. Seeing that Master was away, he said he was going to Tushita Palace on the Lihen Plains to search for a method to rejuvenate the revolving heavens, and told Master not to worry."
The Little Celestial Venerable relaxed. He had worried that Xu Ying might have departed without saying goodbye, just as he had done before.
Why is he going to Tushita Palace? the Little Celestial Venerable wondered in confusion.
In the Penglai Fairy Realm, Xu Ying bathed in immortal light as he cultivated the Taiyi Inborn Technique, absorbing the sunlight of the Immortal Realm to convert it into Taiyi Origin Energy. It had been a long time since he cultivated like a normal Qi Refiner.
"Shenpo, on the day I formed my Primordial Spirit, it suffered demonic pollution, and you told me that the knot must be untied by the one who tied it, urging me to visit the demonic realm."
Circulating his art, Xu Ying continued, "Now I have obtained the Ancestral Court's Great Dao of Heaven and Earth, and my Primordial Spirit's cultivation has surged, yet my six secret depositories were crippled because of it. Tell me, will Tushita Palace on the Lihen Plains truly have a method to rejuvenate the revolving heavens?"
Shenpo was teaching the immortal plants how to sit in meditation. Hearing his question, she smiled and replied, "In your first life, didn't you attain the Dao right there and recreate Tushita Palace? If you could attain the Dao there last time, perhaps you can do so again."
Xu Ying was thoroughly astonished and said with a smile, "Shenpo seems to know my past quite well. How long have we known each other?"
Shenpo chuckled. "A very, very long time. Immortal Master Xu seems to have forgotten that it was you who carried this immortal mountain away, bringing it from the Immortal Realm down to the lower realm. Back then, I was already on this mountain."
The Penglai Immortal Mountain navigated through layers of Immortal Dao anomalous zones in the Lihen Plains, finally arriving at the ruins of Tushita Palace. Yet as Xu Ying looked out, the ruins were gone.
A Tushita Palace carved from white jade met their eyes.
The eccentric Daoist from the Dao Revelation Ground had already opened the gates of Tushita Palace and stood waiting outside, as if knowing full well that they were coming.
"Fellow Daoist Xu might not be aware," the eccentric Daoist said with a welcoming gesture and a smile, "Tushita Palace of Lihen Heaven was the Ancestral Court of the Dao Sect in the ancient era."
Chapter 372