Delving into the Nine Secrets

Delving into the Nine Secrets

After leaving Spirit Lake City, Zhou Tong did not linger. He directly found a secluded place and carved out a cave dwelling within a Stone Mountain.

For a full half month, Zhou Tong remained in seclusion. The Spleen Divine Treasury within him grew increasingly profound and weighty. Streams of essence qi were born within the Divine Treasury, condensed, and finally circulated throughout his entire body.

The spleen was inherently responsible for transformation and transportation. All the essence qi Zhou Tong refined could be effortlessly transported by this Divine Treasury wherever it was needed. Throughout the process, Zhou Tong could also feel his own strength. The Spleen Divine Treasury was like the earth itself—steady and heavy.

Source qi was continuously refined into essence qi, constantly nourishing this Divine Treasury. A thunderous rumble echoed within Zhou Tong's body. He seemed to see vast mountain ranges, plains and deserts, and endless power flowing in motion.

Boom!!

With the final deafening blast, the Spleen Divine Treasury settled within the void and completely stabilized. Boundless power continued to circulate within it.

At the same time, streams of Earth Essence surged from within him. It was Innate Essence, flooding through every part of his body and filling him with an unfathomable glow, as heavy and profound as the earth.

Only after a long time did this Earth Essence gradually fade away and sink back into Zhou Tong's body.

Meanwhile, amid the hazy mist, he entered the next Divine Treasury.

A vast expanse of land remained beneath him, Zhou Tong's firmest foundation, guiding him onward in his pursuit.

Before long, Zhou Tong sensed an incomparably sharp aura. He had found the Lung Divine Treasury, which belonged to metal among the Five Elements!

"Is my path of cultivation following the generating cycle of the Five Elements?" Zhou Tong instinctively understood that the path he was taking in the Dao Palace Realm followed the mutual generation of the Five Elements.

At that moment, he finally entered the second layer of the Dao Palace: the Lung Divine Treasury.

The lungs covered the viscera and sat at the highest position. They were known as the Magnificent Canopy and called the chief of the Five Viscera. The essence qi of heaven and earth was the purest, and by breathing in and out, one absorbed the Divine Source of heaven and earth. Taking it as the core truly made it the foremost of the five great Divine Treasuries.

Having only just opened this Divine Treasury, Zhou Tong felt vigorous vitality bloom from within his body.

The lungs transported essence, qi, and spirit, dispersing them throughout the body and reaching the skin and hair, warming and nourishing the five viscera and six bowels, limbs and bones, muscles and skin. Their function was beyond imagination!

Zhou Tong continuously refined source qi and poured it all into the Lung Divine Treasury.

All qi belonged to the lungs!

With every breath, one connected with the qi of heaven!

Emperor Venerable's ancient scripture had conducted extremely profound research into this realm. The moment Zhou Tong entered it, he felt as though he had stepped into another world, becoming closer to this heaven and earth than ever before. It was as though, with every breath, he could freely draw upon the power between heaven and earth.

"The second layer of the Dao Palace!" This cultivation session lasted a full half month before Zhou Tong finally broke out of his cave dwelling.

For now, he did not intend to continue cultivating. He still needed to consolidate his foundation properly.

Although, as an Azure Heaven Hegemonic Body, he only needed sufficient resources to keep advancing, he still preferred stability. Breaking directly through to the completion of the Dao Palace Realm would bring him no benefit.

Cultivating while comprehending the Dao was the surest path!

Advancing too quickly was not necessarily a good thing. If he rushed for quick success, he might miss much of the scenery along the way.

"I should thoroughly study these two Nine Secrets first. When Yaoguang Holy Land surrounded me before, if I hadn't learned the Front Character Secret and sensed a sliver of opportunity in the unseen, I would probably have had to use a Saint Weapon!"

Zhou Tong knew very well that Yaoguang would definitely pursue him next.

But wanted notices were useless crap. With the Purple Sun Lamp, so long as no Imperial Weapon appeared and he did not encounter a Saint, he could travel wherever he pleased throughout the entire Big Dipper.

"And most importantly, this secret is of great use in the Spirit Transformation Realm of the Chaotic Ancient Method!"

Zhou Tong immediately sat cross-legged and began to study it carefully.

A faint glow emerged from his head. As his comprehension deepened, the glow gradually transformed into nine-colored divine radiance. The point between his brows in particular resembled a great sun descending, casting down countless ribbon-like rays that enveloped Zhou Tong's entire body.

The Nine Secrets—Front Character Secret!!

This secret cultivated the primordial spirit, allowing divine consciousness to become indestructible. It could even affect the physical body and expand one's divinity. Its power was unparalleled!

Those strands of light were the radiance of Zhou Tong's primordial spirit. He circulated the Front Character Secret, and the power of his primordial spirit continuously spread out from between his brows, about to extend throughout his entire body.

Buzz!

Half a month later, Zhou Tong's body trembled. As he breathed, a vast white mist surged from his nose and mouth; an earthy-yellow halo also flickered over his entire body.

Zhou Tong was astonished. Once cultivated to a profound level, could the Front Character Secret actually affect the Deities within the Dao Palace?

"I see. Expanding divinity... this is the power of the Secret of Fore!" At that moment, Zhou Tong felt as though he had grasped the truly terrifying aspect of this secret.

Beyond the changes in his Dao Palace, he felt as though Buddhist chants echoed within his primordial spirit. Ancient sacrificial sounds pierced through time and space, drifting toward him from afar.

These had originally been the Chanting Sounds of the Past Self and Dao Self within the Dao Palace, yet now they resounded within his primordial spirit, continuously strengthening it.

"If I cultivate the Dao Palace Realm to completion, the rate at which my primordial spirit strengthens will probably reach an entirely new height! I haven't entered the Immortal Platform, yet I'm already cultivating my primordial spirit!" Zhou Tong was deeply astonished. The Front Character Secret's effects were somewhat excessively powerful.

"But then again, why is it that the more I cultivate the Secret of Fore, the more I feel it has an inseverable connection to the Spirit Transformation Realm of the Chaotic Ancient Method?" The more Zhou Tong cultivated, the more mysterious the Front Character Secret seemed. Some of the principles hidden within it actually coincided with the Chaotic Ancient Method.

"Perhaps the Nine Heavens Venerables of the Mythological Era all encountered some method left behind by the Desolate Heaven Emperor. Inspired by that method, they eventually created the Nine Secrets... Perhaps that is why the Nine Secrets can merge into an incomparably terrifying immortal art!!"

Zhou Tong continued cultivating.

He had already gained some proficiency in the Front Character Secret of the Nine Secrets. Next came the Group Character Secret.

The Group Character Secret was one of the Nine Secrets that specialized in runes and formations. It excelled at combining Dao patterns and runes, allowing them to display power beyond their original level.

Dao patterns were things ancient mighty figures had inscribed after gaining insights from heaven, earth, and nature.

In a sense, "Dao patterns" were imprints of the insights gained by ancient mighty figures. The more powerful a cultivator was, the more they liked to study the Dao patterns passed down through the ages.

The Group Character Secret, which could combine Dao patterns, was an exceptionally terrifying secret technique. With it, one could deduce all Dao patterns between heaven and earth and transform them into one's own formations.

This was a supreme secret art, exceedingly complex and without end.

Previously, Zhou Tong had only given it a brief study and had not formally cultivated it.

Using this method, Zhou Tong continuously dismantled the inheritances he had obtained. He began with the Dao patterns from Purple Sun Great Sage's inheritance, then the Dao patterns of Great Sage Di Lan, followed by the Golden Crow clan's inheritance, the inheritance of the Great Accomplishment Sacred Body...

"A supreme Dao pattern secret art..." Zhou Tong first imitated these Dao patterns, but later, he gradually grasped the profundity of this secret and seized its foundation. Having obtained its essence, its forms naturally emerged. It could transform into countless variations; once he mastered the foundation, all other Dao patterns could be manifested.

Zhou Tong entered a wondrous state. More than half a month passed as he remained immersed in it, his hands constantly tracing through the void and inscribing one Dao pattern after another.

In the end, his mind shook violently, and the most fundamental rune imprint surfaced. All transformations returned to one—this was the core method of the Group Character Secret among the Nine Secrets.

Only then did Zhou Tong slowly awaken. He had already mastered the essence of the Group Character Secret and could use it to evolve all kinds of Dao patterns!

Of course, this did not mean he could casually arrange Great Emperor Array Patterns. Rather, he now possessed the foundation to comprehend Great Emperor Array Patterns.