In the summer of the twenty-fourth year of Zhaoning, Wei Yuan stood in midair, looking down at the vast, boundless sea of clouds beneath his feet. Within this sea of clouds lay one billion strands of human luck. In comparison, the islet of Dao Foundation karmic luck had shrunk into a pebble, the dharma idol karmic luck was entirely invisible, and the Scenery Command karmic luck was like faint pinpricks of starlight, easily overlooked unless one peered closely. Having surpassed one billion, the sea of karmic luck was calm no longer; waves surged and crashed, with arcs of lightning faintly darting within. What was more, deep beneath the seabed, something seemed to be gestating.
Ordinary immortals could not peer into the sea of karmic luck, but Wei Yuan was already a foremost master of karmic luck in this era, exceptionally attuned to every variety of it. The gestating entity merely flashed by amid the billowing waves, yet Wei Yuan still caught a trace of its substance. Could this be newly born Human Sovereign karmic luck? Was this how the luck of a Human Sovereign was produced?
Wei Yuan fell into deep thought. If so, the seat of a Human Sovereign was not bestowed by heaven after all, but forged by rallying the collective might of the masses to act against the heavens. This coincided precisely with Wei Yuan's Three Realms Ruyi Sutra. When he wrote the sutra back then, Wei Yuan had not known so many grand truths; he had simply felt, guided by his years of experience, that this was how things ought to be done. When he first laid his plans across Western Jin, he had only hoped to gather one or two hundred million strands of human luck, holding no great expectations. Yet he had never imagined that the power of identity and belonging would be so formidable, sweeping across all of Western Jin and wringing out every last bit of human luck. Moreover, during the rollout, all the neighboring states were drawn into its orbit, contributing a vast harvest of human luck that even exceeded the annual intake of the State of Zhao, which had historically reaped the most.
In the end, before he even realized it, his human luck had surpassed one billion.
One billion strands of human luck seemed to mark a pivotal threshold. The sea of karmic luck transformed once more, beginning to gestate Human Sovereign luck. Wei Yuan felt his body turn light and weightless as his personal status elevated yet again. This sensation was remarkably similar to the one he had experienced that day in the Sea of Bitterness.
Wei Yuan's heart stirred. Was it time to court death again?
The last time he courted death, he had exposed the Buddha's health bar, immediately making the entire world view Wei Yuan in a new light and causing all the clownish schemers to vanish in an instant. Qingming had been able to settle down peacefully in its corner, monopolizing the global arms trade and nearly fleecing every nation out of their breeches.
This time around, shouldn't he court death on an even grander scale? Wei Yuan felt his strength had progressed further over the past few years. With the Splendor of the Many Realms steadily maturing, in terms of sheer complexity, the volume generated every day had long surpassed the wildest imaginations of immortals. The data volume of a single central city alone was equivalent to seven or eight miscellaneous immortals. The development of the otherworldly battlefield proceeded day after day; in ordinary times, daily battlefields were maintained for individual squads to explore and pioneer on their own. Every month, a major battle was launched on a fixed schedule, where tens of thousands of puppets entered the fray together to harvest military merits.
Every battle on the otherworldly battlefield fed back into the Splendor of the Many Realms, enabling more cultivators to reach the Dharma Idol realm. Every additional dharma body puppet accelerated the expansion of the otherworldly realm. By now, the Leaf of the Great Dao had grown into a small tree bearing dozens of leaves, its capacity to breathe chaos enhanced a hundredfold. At the base of the Leaf of the Great Dao's roots, a few new specks of fresh green had appeared. These were newborn particulate lifeforms clustering together into colonies, manifesting as tiny patches of moss. Meanwhile, the roots of the Leaf of the Great Dao steadily released moisture that seeped upward through the earth, already gathering into a few small puddles on the ground.
This water was condensed entirely from the vital energy of heaven and earth—pure innate water. Bringing even a single drop back to this realm would make it an immortal-grade treasure material. These few small pools alone were worth hundreds of millions of Qingyuan.
Innate water possessed wondrous potency for nurturing life. At this moment, numerous particulate lifeforms were multiplying within it, forming microscopic colonies invisible to the naked eye. Every single speck of particulate life carried its own karma, capable of resonating with chaos and converting it in minuscule amounts.
Tiny as these particulate lives were, their status was astonishingly exalted, on par with Scenery Command.
Now, this domain of life laid the Great Dao of heaven and earth bare before Wei Yuan, unveiling the true meaning behind each stage of cultivation in full for the first time. Dao Foundation marked a creature's first fundamental rebirth, granting the power to breathe spiritual energy and strengthen oneself, as well as breathe chaos in trace amounts. And spiritual energy was the sustenance provided by a mature heaven and earth for the living beings of this world.
If one wished to move about in the otherworldly realm, Dharma Idol was the threshold of entry. Yet a Dharma Idol could only survive in a relatively protected environment. Only Scenery Command inherently possessed a mindscape world, relying on it to erect a protective barrier that allowed unhindered traversal through the otherworldly realm. Furthermore, only at Scenery Command did a cultivator gain the capacity to breathe chaos consciously and cultivate with it.
Yet for Scenery Command, breathing chaos was merely a supplementary measure; one still had to rely primarily on the vital energy of heaven and earth—or spiritual energy for even better results.
Only immortals, having established grotto-heavens in the immortal heaven, could truly rely on breathing chaos as their primary path, ceaselessly converting chaos into the matter, vital energy, and spiritual energy of tangible heaven and earth. Viewed in this light, immortals were essentially beasts of burden of a higher dimension, responsible for carving the desolate chaos into a world where mortal populations could thrive. At this moment, Wei Yuan finally grasped the true reason for an immortal's existence. Only with immortals could a world receive endless replenishment and sustained nourishment, gradually expanding to sustain more peoples until a second and third immortal emerged.
From this angle, an Immortal Sovereign roaming beyond heaven in pursuit of transcendence posed a profound dilemma. The departure of an Immortal Sovereign inflicted a tremendous loss upon their native world. Conversely, an Immortal Sovereign carrying vast oceans of resources to a new heaven and earth would naturally receive the grandest welcome from that new realm.
Wei Yuan now understood many supreme truths of heaven and earth. In terms of attainment regarding the dawn of creation and the awakening of all things, ordinary immortals lagged far behind him. With one billion strands of human luck as his bedrock, Wei Yuan felt an inspiration and began examining the authorities of the various grotto-heavens.
Central Wutu did not yet have a spirit mansion, which was a regret. Many authorities encompassed by the Pure Land and the Yellow Springs were already claimed, with the Ancestral Shamans and the Pure Land occupying the lion's share. Yet plenty remained, and they were formidable indeed. For instance, the Yellow Springs Grotto-Heaven's power to draw souls was in truth the authority to ferry living spirits, subordinate to Samsara. While not a supreme cosmic dao like Samsara itself, it was a vital authority second only to it; on this alone, one could become an exceptionally mighty immortal. The authorities of the sword dao were somewhat convoluted. Xi He inherently held many authorities belonging to the Fourth Generation Palace Master, but most of them had already found new masters—half in the Sword Palace, and half split between the Pure Land and the Academy—leaving the Palace of Grand Beginning with nothing at all. The few that remained were obscure or low in status.
Judging from the distribution of these authorities, the fall of the Fourth Generation Palace Master in those days was deeply suspect; most likely, the Academy had a hand in it as well.
As for the Evil Sun Heavenly Pillar, needless to say, its authority was exceedingly tyrannical, yet even if offered to him, Wei Yuan wouldn't dare accept it.
The Ancient Full Moon carried numerous authorities. Most of Taiyin had already been claimed, for across the world, cultivators who cultivated by breathing in the moon were as numerous as hairs on an ox, treading many different dao paths. However, the Ancient Full Moon was a unique Dao Foundation with many exclusive authorities by no means inferior to Taiyin.
The authorities of Permanence and Time carried by the green-backed azure dragon were mostly vacant, chiefly because their status was so exalted that exceedingly few ever practiced them. The Dharma God possessed a host of authorities, but every one of them had been claimed.
The Central Spirit Mansion seemed to hold a host of formidable authorities, yet seemed not to at the same time.
Having reviewed the various spirit mansions, Wei Yuan had a clear understanding: any random combination of these usable authorities would be enough for him to cultivate all the way to Immortal Sovereign. With authorities and status both well in hand, Wei Yuan resolved to disregard the remaining tens of thousands of years on his progress bar; at most, it would just mean letting the heavenly tribulation strike him a bit longer. The current Heavenly Dao was utterly drained of creative inspiration, incapable of conceiving any new tribulations.
And so, hesitating no longer, Wei Yuan resolved to ascend to immortality right where he stood!
Chapter 1426