Unlike the sun that had evolved from the Golden Crow in ancient times, the sun after the ancient era was the embodiment of supreme yang power, possessing boundless might. Countless cultivators relied on the sun for their cultivation—otherwise, the Shining Sun Cult would never have arisen.
During the Great Qian era, the founding Emperor Qian, Emperor Zhongtian, laid down a seal upon the sun, claiming it for himself.
During the Great Yu era, the founding Emperor Yu, Wu Yao, saw the seal that Emperor Zhongtian had placed on the sun, and laid down another layer of seals on top of it.
This way, neither Emperor Zhongtian nor Wu Yao could claim the sun.
With Wu Yao suspected to have been displaced into the outside world, Lu Yang had thought the second seal could never be undone. Little did he expect that Guan Shanhai possessed the method to unseal it.
"According to Guan Shanhai's confession, Emperor Zhongtian sealed the sun to weaken the powers of the sun and moon it radiated, all so the people of the Great Qian Dynasty would worship him."
"If cultivators back then wanted to rely on the sun for cultivation, they had no choice but to worship Emperor Zhongtian. After they worshipped, a sliver of the seal would be undone, projecting the powers of the sun and moon onto that cultivator. Once the worship ended, it would be sealed once more."
"That is why in legends, Emperor Zhongtian possesses the power to control the sun and moon."
During the Great Qian era, the power of faith served as the primary method of cultivation. Temples and divine statues were seen everywhere, and people resorted to any means necessary to vie for the power of faith. As dynasties changed and cultivation methods evolved, those temples and statues faded into the river of history, becoming nearly impossible to find.
"After Wu Yao ascended the throne, he tried many times to reach the sun, but was stopped by Emperor Zhongtian's seal. Thus, he laid down a seal of his own, preventing Emperor Zhongtian from approaching the sun as well."
"As a result, the sun was doubly sealed, and the powers of the sun and moon it released were far weaker than before."
This was a matter buried in history, never recorded in the text of any ancient records.
"Going to unseal the seal Wu Yao left behind will release a portion of the powers of the sun and moon, which will greatly benefit cultivators who rely on these two powers."
As Yun Zhi flew toward the sun with Lu Yang and Yun Mengmeng, she explained the origin of the situation.
"Is the sun really that sought-after? Everyone taking turns trying to snatch it," Yun Mengmeng wondered aloud. There had been no sun in her secret realm, so she didn't quite grasp its vital importance.
With Lu Yang's current cultivation, he was fully capable of traversing space, though not as casually as Eldest Senior Sister; he would have to expend a substantial portion of his energy dealing with space's harsh environments.
Yun Mengmeng had no fear of the harsh conditions of space, but she loved looking here and touching there, seriously slowing down their flight.
Helpless, Yun Zhi had no choice but to encase Lu Yang and Yun Mengmeng inside two transparent barriers and carry them along.
During the flight, Lu Yang saw countless dazzling stars. Whenever they encountered a star, Eldest Senior Sister crashed straight through it without a second thought. Lu Yang had initially braced for impact, only to realize the star before them was merely an illusory projection.
There were also those that were not illusions, which required Eldest Senior Sister to detour around them.
"Eh? Is this star Girl Yun's Golden Core?" The Immortal Fairy noticed something unusual. The star before them indeed physically existed, but it hadn't miraculously survived from ancient times—it was filled out by Yun Zhi's Golden Core.
"Xiao Zhi's Golden Core is this big?" Yun Mengmeng was stunned. Why was her own Golden Core so small?
"It just looks big. When it comes to power, it can't compare to this immortal's Invincible Core."
"What is an Invincible Core?" Yun Mengmeng asked.
"The Invincible Core is a Golden Core that only our Immortal Lineage can form, ranking number one in power among first-grade Golden Cores! What a pity your cultivation is already too high; you've missed the window to condense an Invincible Core."
"So amazing!" Yun Mengmeng's eyes sparkled. Their Immortal Lineage was so strong!
Although Lu Yang had long known that many of the stars above were actually Eldest Senior Sister's Golden Core, knowing was one thing; witnessing it with his own eyes was another entirely.
Only by seeing it in person did he realize how terrifying Eldest Senior Sister's Golden Core truly was. If one stood upon it, one would think the ground beneath was completely flat.
And this was merely one of them. Who knew how many more of Eldest Senior Sister's Golden Cores were out there in the cosmos?
The cosmos was dark and frigid. Vast and empty, it was terrifyingly silent. Adrift in the cosmos, Lu Yang felt imperceptible; even if a cultivator possessed formidable cultivation, compared to this cosmos, they remained as insignificant as could be...
"Coming to this pitch-black place reminds this immortal: back then, Immortal Ying Tian and the other three presided over numerous stars, and the distances between stars were far too great, making travel terribly inconvenient. Whenever they had nothing better to do, they would fiddle with the positions of the stars to shorten the distances, or simply establish spatial pathways between them." The Immortal Fairy's wistful reminiscing interrupted Lu Yang's inner monologue.
After an unknown amount of time, Lu Yang saw an enormous ball of fire. Extreme heat raged through the cosmos; had it not been for the transparent barrier Yun Zhi placed around him, the temperature alone would have been enough to incinerate him.
Regarding the sun's might, countless pioneers of the Shining Sun Cult had already tested it firsthand. Lu Yang could even spot humanoid charcoals orbiting the sun in circles.
When Yun Zhi disregarded the extreme heat and moved to approach the sun further, a golden chain encircling the sun blocked her path.
Dazzling runes flickered upon the golden chain, blinding the eyes and causing the heat radiating from the sun to turn ever more terrifying. The radiant runes seemed to contain every principle in the world; a single glance would send a torrent of knowledge rushing into one's mind, threatening to burst one's spiritual space.
With Yun Zhi standing in front of him, blocking the deluge of knowledge from flooding his mind, Lu Yang could view the runes freely.
"Boss, what do all these runes mean?" Yun Mengmeng stared at them for a long time without understanding a thing, leaving her no choice but to seek help from their omnipotent leader.
The Immortal Fairy truly was omniscient. She effortlessly deciphered the runes' meaning and analyzed them for the Second-in-Command and Third-in-Command: "Although there's no subject, from the context, it's pretty much all Wu Yao cursing Emperor Zhongtian. Do you need this immortal to read the curses aloud for you?"
At the end, the Immortal Fairy hesitated, a rare blush coloring her cheeks—evidently too embarrassed to utter vulgarities.
"No need, no need!" Lu Yang said hastily.
"Then again, this sun really is a gadget made by the Ninefold Immortal. All the Golden Crows of the ancient era put together couldn't create a sun packed with this kind of might, to say nothing of the equal measure of the power of the moon contained within."
Ao Ling had once said that the sun and moon of the Xinhuo Dynasty were both created by the Ninefold Immortal using the Yin-Yang Dao fruit. To save trouble, he had simply merged the sun and moon into a single body.
At the same time, considering that this rendered sundials useless and made it hard for the common people to track the passage of time—disrupting daily life—he directly drew a clock face and hands on the sun so that everyone could see the time.
The time had been calibrated by Immortal Suiyue, guaranteed to be accurate.
Chapter 1003