Chapter Eleven: The Ancient Sage of Guangyuan
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“Only those of the immortal path can withstand the earth dragon entering the body?”
“Does this mean I must attain immortality within three to five years? Yet, throughout history, no one has ever achieved such a feat…”
“Could it be that after finally breaking free from my innate limitations, I now face certain death?”
At this point, Qingyuan’s heart was in turmoil.
Yet, having once been unable to cultivate, enduring the tedium of fruitless days and nights of practice, he had learned to govern his emotions, never losing his composure.
He drew a deep breath and circulated his vital energy, forcing himself to remain calm.
The next passage, perhaps, could be considered a method of salvation.
The immortal wrote that, years ago, while journeying through the world, he had acquired a certain treasure, but as the time was not yet ripe, he had set it aside.
Later, when arranging the myriad patterns of the geomantic array here, he had on a whim linked the earth dragon with that treasure.
Should one obtain that treasure, and combine it with the earth dragon, a marvelous artifact would be forged.
If, due to the earth dragon’s presence within, one were to suffer future afflictions, this treasure could also be used to dispel them.
However, the treasure was hidden in another place.
“Is there still a sliver of hope?” Qingyuan sighed, yet felt no relief.
The immortal had originally lingered here, awaiting the condensation of the earth veins, but unforeseen events led him to abandon the place.
He believed that, by the time he returned, the veins would have been formed for many years, the mountain god already dead, and perhaps some human or spirit might have entered, claiming the earth dragon.
Since he would no longer be present, he would not monopolize it, and thus he left these words: whoever was fated would find them, and thus destiny would be fulfilled.
Yet as for the other treasure, it would reach its full potential before the earth dragon was formed.
Perhaps it had already been claimed, or perhaps the immortal himself had retrieved it earlier.
In the end, the immortal left a clue: if one could follow the map and unite the two treasures, then they would be the destined one.
Upon reading this, Qingyuan’s gaze dropped lower and he suddenly drew a sharp breath, struck with shock.
At the end of the text, a name was inscribed: The Ancient Lord of Primordial Karma, Guangyuan.
“The Ancient Lord of Primordial Karma, Guangyuan?”
Qingyuan stood stunned.
He had heard this name before.
Long ago, he had chanced upon it from the lips of the Grandmaster Zixiao, and later encountered it within ancient records.
This Lord was an ancient immortal, whose attainment predated even the Grandmaster Zixiao.
It was said his age reached back to unfathomable antiquity, perhaps even making him one of the oldest immortals of the present world—traceable to the very dawn of heaven and earth.
Some even claimed he was an immortal born with the world itself.
Yet, according to the records, though the Ancient Lord of Primordial Karma had achieved enlightenment eons ago, he had never reached the realm of the Hunyuan Golden Immortal.
For that final step required more than the mere accumulation of years; it was bound up with the entire cosmos.
“The Ancient Lord of Primordial Karma, Guangyuan.”
“So it was this venerable one.”
“No wonder he could imprison the great mountain spirit and condense the earth veins into the earth dragon.”
“No wonder he possessed such magnanimity, willingly leaving the earth dragon and that treasure for the fated to claim.”
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Thinking thus, Qingyuan felt profound respect and bowed low in reverence.
...
“Junior Qingyuan, born without the root of immortality or divine fate, of shallow fortune, thus unable to cultivate. Today, to have received the Lord’s opportunity is as if granted new life. Such boundless grace and virtue defy words.”
He knelt on both knees, pressed his forehead to the ground, performing three bows and nine prostrations to express his gratitude.
“I have yet to acquire the other treasure and dare not claim the title of disciple, yet your beneficence is as a mountain, forever etched in my heart.”
With a sharp crack, as he rose, the words before him suddenly fell away, dissolving into dust.
At that moment, the rock wall broke apart.
Beyond the wall stood a stone table.
Upon it rested a dark-hued box.
Qingyuan stared in astonishment for some time before stepping forward to pick up the box, discovering it was remarkably heavy, leaving him to wonder at its material. Then he noticed another inscription on the stone table.
...
“To the one who acquires my treasure—if you can offer three bows and nine prostrations in sincere gratitude, you have passed the test of character.
This is one of the Ninefold Treasure Cases, a vessel passed down for a thousand years. After many trials, only the final layer remains, forged from crimson-tempered goldstone.
Within lies a map indicating the location of the treasure.
To open the case, another key is required.
Because of its unique material, it cannot withstand the erosion of divine flesh and blood, so it is kept elsewhere in this mountain.
Qingyuan was somewhat surprised, then saw, at the end, another note: The key is not a test. It is merely hidden well, difficult to find, but once discovered, easily retrieved.
Committing the key’s location to memory, he took the dark stone box and withdrew.
He gazed at the place where the mountain spirit’s core had once been, feeling a strange sense of unreality.
Before, a five-clawed golden dragon had been shackled here—actually, an earth dragon capable of reversing rivers and splitting the land.
The mountain god had died, and the earth dragon was obtained.
Now, the earth dragon resided within him.
He, who once lacked the roots and bones of immortality, who had no destiny whatsoever—
Now...
He had dragon bone in place of immortal bone, dragon sinew for immortal root, dragon veins as his own meridians.
Henceforth, he would walk the path of cultivation!
The earth dragon had gathered the force of the mountains, the earth energy accumulated over millions of years. Now that he had absorbed it, his innate aptitude was without peer.
Indeed, it was precisely this overwhelming potential that no mortal could bear, thus leaving behind the fatal curse.
Despite his lingering concerns, there was no denying that he had set foot on the path of cultivation.
The road to immortal longevity now lay open.
“The way closed to me before is now unblocked.”
“No matter what... Even with future afflictions, at least I now possess the roots and bones of cultivation, the qualification to walk the immortal path.”
He clenched his fists and smiled, clear and elated.
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...
He picked up his long saber, finding it suddenly light, but paid it little mind.
Sheathing the blade, he took up the iron staff and looked back the way he’d come.
Earlier, when the earth dragon had thrashed, the rock wall had collapsed, blocking the passage with fallen stones.
Fortunately, the rocks were not large. He stepped forward, placed his hand on a stone, and prepared to exert his strength.
Boom!
The stone was flung upward, rolling several yards away.
Qingyuan stood in a daze for a long while.
Only after quite some time did he recover.
“This...”
He was incredulous. “I’ve cultivated true energy, but at this stage, though one can circulate it through the organs and meridians, prolonging life and easing the body, the energy cannot yet leave the body, nor can one perform magical arts, nor does it increase physical strength much. But this…”
“Could it be... the earth dragon within also grants enhanced strength?”
He remained where he was, tested his strength several more times, and found that rocks he once struggled to budge now yielded easily to a single push.
He pondered for a moment, but could make no sense of it, so he continued on his way.
As he walked, a sudden flash of insight seemed to ripple through his mind, as if he were on the verge of grasping something.
But just then, his gaze fell upon something and he paused in surprise.
“My strength has increased several times over—no wonder the long saber now feels so light. But this iron staff... it still feels perfectly balanced, neither too light nor too heavy.”
Qingyuan fell silent.
He had always treated the iron staff as a mere tool—used to stoke the fire in the immortal palace, then later as a weapon for self-defense in the mortal world, but never as a treasure. Most often, it simply served as a memento of the Immortal Palace of Zixiao.
Yet it had first shattered the spectral bone of the mountain fiend, and now, even with his newfound strength, it remained perfectly suited to his hand.
It seemed, upon reflection, that the iron staff was not so ordinary after all.
Thinking further, he recalled many odd occurrences over the years, though he’d always dismissed them as trivial.
“In the immortal palace, how could any object be mundane?”
He mused, “It rested beneath the Eight-Dragon Divining Furnace, surviving the immortal fire unscathed. Even if it was a common item to begin with, after being tempered by the immortal flames, it must have absorbed a trace of their essence.”
Yet he felt there was more to the staff—some deeper secret yet unrevealed.
But no matter how long he pondered, he could not unravel it.
To dwell on it further was pointless. At this moment, his thoughts were fixed on one thing: that he could now cultivate, and his heart brimmed with joy.
The First Heaven, the First Floor of Daoist cultivation: the Tower of Qi Refinement.
To step through this gate was to nourish life and extend longevity.
From this moment, he had set foot on the path of cultivation, the immortal way open before him.
ps: I had intended to add extra chapters for our new banner master and the rankings push, but was reminded of the new book rankings’ word count restrictions, and so, regretfully, the bonus chapters must be postponed. My apologies.