stonecrandall Page 98
Page 98
The mansion was completely empty, with no furnishings whatsoever, except for a colossal jade disc standing in the very center.
The jade disc was perfectly round, made of neither gold nor jade, with a surface as smooth as a mirror, yet as deep as the night sky, as if countless stars were slowly flowing inside, filled with indescribable mystery and enigma.
This is the so-called "Immortal Map"!
The jade disc is devoid of any pictures, writings, or patterns, resembling a wordless book from heaven.
The moment Zhang Yunyuan gently placed his palm on the jade disc.
A torrent of information, far more powerful and vast than any he had experienced in the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley, surged into his sea of consciousness like a bursting dam!
Those are countless ancient secrets, the roars of rare birds and beasts, and the afterimages of the war between gods and demons.
It is a magnificent epic of this world from its birth to its evolution, and the understanding and pursuit of "Tao" by countless brilliant minds.
Amidst this vast sea of information, Zhang Yunyuan finally found what he was looking for.
—Records concerning the last "True Immortal".
He was an extraordinary person born in the ancient primordial era.
He was exceptionally talented and, in the end, defied the heavens on his own, successfully breaking through the distinction between immortals and mortals before the end of the Dharma era, and shattering the void to depart.
But before he ascended, he seemed to have a premonition of something.
He sealed a wisp of his divine consciousness, along with his life's legacy and the greatest secret about "becoming an immortal," within this Hun Tian Jade Wall, leaving it for someone destined to receive it.
His physical body, which failed to ascend, was frozen by his supreme magical power and hidden deep within the Kunlun Mountains, where it remained untouched for eternity.
That place is the legendary "Immortal's Tomb"!
Chapter 113 Kunlun Immortal Tomb, the Secret of Immortality
From the shores of the East China Sea to the summit of the Western Regions, it spans the entirety of China.
Following the crystal-clear spiritual guidance on the jade disc map, Zhang Yunyuan and Feng Baobao traveled westward, eventually venturing deep into the uninhabited Kunlun Mountains.
This place is covered in ice and snow all year round, the air is thin, and the wind is as sharp as a knife.
Even decades from now, in a technologically advanced era, the most outstanding mountaineers will not be able to venture into such a perilous place.
But for Zhang Yunyuan and Feng Baobao now, this harsh environment is nothing.
The Golden Light Mantra covered the entire body, like a warm barrier, blocking out all the cold air.
They stopped beneath a vast, ancient glacier.
That concludes the guidance provided by the Jade Disc Diagram.
The legendary immortal tomb is hidden beneath this seemingly ordinary glacier.
However, when Zhang Yunyuan carefully sensed the place with his Hunyuan Dao Qi, he found it to be completely empty, with no abnormal energy fluctuations whatsoever.
It's as if that so-called "immortal's tomb" is just a vague and illusory legend.
Zhang Yunyuan understood instantly.
That ancient immortal set up an incomparably sophisticated illusion array here.
It did not use powerful energy to build barriers, but rather cleverly distorted the spatial rules of this place, causing all explorers to fall into a state of "seeing but not seeing".
Ordinary methods of breaking the seal are completely useless in order to break this formation.
We must examine the root of the rules to see through their falsehood.
Zhang Yunyuan took a deep breath and held nothing back.
He recalled the Zhenwu Qimen he had obtained at Wudang Mountain.
This technique does not emphasize changes in time and space; its core lies solely in guarding and dispelling illusions.
It is precisely the nemesis of this formation.
Zhang Yunyuan stepped forward with his feet in a gaiter, his hands forming hand seals, and the primordial energy within his body began to circulate rapidly.
"True Martial Arts vanquishes demons, dispels illusions and reveals truth!"
An invisible Qimen formation instantly unfolded around him, covering an area of a hundred meters in radius.
Within the Zhenwu Qimen formation, all laws are impervious, and illusions are revealed on their own.
The world before his eyes suddenly changed.
Glaciers are still glaciers, and snow-capped mountains are still snow-capped mountains, but the "rules" that make them up appear distorted and discordant in his eyes, like reflections in water.
Among these distorted reflections, one area stands out particularly clearly as if shrouded in a thin layer of window paper.
Zhang Yunyuan's eyes flashed with a sharp light, and he pointed his fingers like a sword, pointing them out from afar.
A golden sword aura, condensed to its fullest extent, shot out from his hand and pierced the most illusory node with unparalleled precision.
A crisp cracking sound, seemingly from another dimension, rang out.
The scene before Zhang Yunyuan's eyes was like a shattered mirror, crashing to the ground.
The glacier disappeared, replaced by a deep, bottomless fissure composed entirely of millennia-old ice.
At the end of the crevice, a magnificent ancient tomb, completely frozen and radiating a faint, precious light, stood silently.
The Immortal's Tomb has been found!
The two descended through the ice crevice and arrived at the Immortal Tomb.
Inside the tomb, there were no luxurious burial objects, only an ice coffin in the center.
Through the transparent ice that has remained unmelted for millennia, one can clearly see that inside the ice coffin lies a lifelike, incorruptible body of an immortal.
He was a man with a peaceful face and skin as smooth as jade, looking as if he were alive, as if he had simply fallen into a deep sleep.
Her appearance, her demeanor, and the otherworldly aura emanating from her body were strikingly similar to Feng Baobao's!
Beside the ice coffin, several jade scrolls written in celestial script floated quietly.
Zhang Yunyuan reached out and took the jade slips into his hand.
As his divine sense probed in, a series of ultimate secrets, enough to overturn the entire world of supernatural beings, surged into his mind!
The essence of the Eight Extraordinary Techniques is not simply powerful magic.
These are eight distinct paths that a brilliant and powerful being from ancient times deduced after failing to ascend to immortality. These paths allowed mortals to defy fate and ultimately forge an "immortal body."
Spirit Capture and Command, Feng Hou Qi Men, Divine Strategy Refinement...
Every path, when taken to its extreme, can lead to a unique immortal body quality.
If one can gather the essence of all eight extraordinary skills, one can forge the legendary "perfect immortal body" that is indestructible and flawless!
However, he only possessed the physical form of an immortal, not the true immortal.
To truly transcend life and death, one also needs the corresponding "method to become an immortal" and the crucial "foundation for becoming an immortal"—a blessed land!
Indeed, there exist several blessed lands in this world, created by powerful extraordinary individuals who have surpassed the "Peak" realm.
Yuntai Grotto, Twenty-Four Seasonal Valley, Penglai Water Palace, Kunlun Immortal Tomb... are all included here.
These are all legacies left from the ancient times when spiritual energy was abundant.
These extraordinary individuals, who surpass all others, have a special name: Half-Immortals.
However, as the spiritual energy of heaven and earth gradually dwindled, these "demigods" no longer appeared in the world, and their lineages were mostly severed.
Some have already ascended to heaven, while others remain on Earth in some secluded paradise, living in seclusion.
Among these blessed lands, the Twenty-Four Solar Terms Valley is not the strongest.
The jade slip clearly delineates the realms above the pinnacle: Acquired, Innate, and Golden Core!
Once you reach the summit, living to be over a hundred years old is no problem.
Once you reach the day after tomorrow, you can live to be two hundred years old!
Once one enters the "Innate" realm, one's lifespan will greatly increase, one will remain forever young, and one will be invincible in the mortal world!
Even Zhang Zhiwei, who inherited the Heavenly Master's teachings, is limited by the environment of this Dharma-ending Age. Without a heaven-defying opportunity, the limit he can reach in this life is probably only "half-step innate".
Upon seeing this, countless clues seemed to be instantly connected in Zhang Yunyuan's mind.
He understood instantly!
Wugensheng must have learned this part of the truth by chance!
The “sincerity” and “completeness” he pursued may be a path to “becoming an immortal” that he himself explored!
The reason he ultimately left so resolutely was most likely to seek out other, more powerful, and more complete blessed lands.
His so-called unlocking of Feng Baobao's memories must be about obtaining the method to become an immortal and using even greater power to break through it.
Moreover, what he's looking for isn't just a way to remove the restrictions on Feng Baobao.
It is also to make up for the regret that when the Thirty-Six Thieves gathered the Eight Extraordinary Skills, the most crucial "Dual-Handed Technique" was missing, which caused a fatal flaw in Feng Baobao's "perfect immortal body"!
What he wants is true immortality!
Thus, a secret far grander and more ancient than the "Jiashen Rebellion" and the "Eight Extraordinary Skills" was finally revealed to Zhang Yunyuan, revealing only the tip of the iceberg that had been frozen for millennia.
Chapter 114 News of Zhang Huaiyi
After leaving the Kunlun Immortal Tomb, Zhang Yunyuan and Feng Baobao found a place to cultivate in seclusion and strive to break through to the Acquired Realm.
In the blink of an eye, several years have passed.
The turmoil of the Jia Shen Rebellion was eventually smoothed out without a trace by the invisible hand of time.
Twenty years is enough time for a newborn baby to grow into a tall young man, and enough time for the once thrilling grudges in the martial arts world to settle into vague legends told by storytellers.
At the foot of the Kunlun Mountains, in a secluded courtyard, the autumn wind swirled a few withered yellow bamboo leaves, which landed on the stone table.
Zhang Yunyuan sat at the table, his gaze fixed on the freshly brewed tea in front of him, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly involuntarily.
The water in the teacup was a deep, almost black color, with tea leaves floating and sinking, clearly having been thoroughly scalded by boiling water, and now emitting a bitter, almost burnt aroma.
He called out.
A girl wearing a coarse cloth apron emerged from the kitchen, her hands still dusted with flour. Her eyes were as clear as a mountain stream, yet as empty as the sky after a snowfall.