Li Cha returned to the newly renovated Yun Hua Grotto-Heaven. Feeling the rich spiritual energy and peaceful Dao Rhyme within, both far surpassing the outside world, his heart was utterly tranquil. Though his journey to The West had taken quite some time, his gains had been abundant. Not only had he settled karmic ties and improved his state of mind, but he had also obtained Three Lights Divine Water and several spiritual treasures. His Tea Dao was complete save for the final step.
He had originally intended to rest for a while, carefully reflect on what he had gained, and then proceed with that final brewing. But someone could not wait any longer. Less than a year after his return to the grotto-heaven, clear fluctuations came from the Qiankun Seal and Sever Formation outside.
Two incomparably powerful yet utterly distinct auras arrived together. One was ethereal and elusive, while the other was cool and vast.
Li Cha smiled helplessly and could only open the formation gate. Great Immortal Yang Mei and Fairy Wang Shu entered side by side. Yang Mei wore a faintly amused expression, while Wang Shu's beautiful face clearly held a trace of barely suppressed urgency... and a hint of coming to demand an explanation?
"Ah! What wind has blown the two of you to my humble abode today? I am truly flattered. My poor home is honored by your presence!" Li Cha hurried forward with an enthusiastic smile, joking as he tried to muddle through.
"Daoist Friend Yun Hua, cut that out!" Fairy Wang Shu was not falling for it. Her beautiful eyes widened as she got straight to the point, her tone carrying a touch of reproach. "You actually dared to hide it from me! Where is the Primordial First Tea? If Daoist Friend Yang Mei had not told me, I would never have known you were keeping such a treasure hidden away. If you do not give me an explanation today, do not blame me for dispensing with courtesy and tying you up to take you to the Moon Star to brew tea!"
Her words were half-jesting, but the desire in her eyes was absolutely genuine. Ever since learning from Yang Mei that Li Cha possessed Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea far surpassing even Enlightenment Tea, she had felt as though a cat were clawing at her heart. She had wanted nothing more than to taste it immediately. Had she not considered that Li Cha's work straightening out the Earth Veins in The West was an act of merit, she truly might not have waited these thousand years.
Yang Mei stroked his beard and laughed. "Daoist Friend Li Cha, the tea worm in my belly has been hooked by your 'First Tea' for over a thousand years. If I still cannot drink it today, I fear even my Dao Heart will become unsteady."
Seeing these two supreme powers acting as though they would not leave without tea, Li Cha knew he could not fool them any longer. He shook his head with a bitter smile. "Fine, fine. It seems I cannot escape today. Please wait a moment, fellow Daoists."
His expression turned solemn as he sent his Spiritual Sense into the Chaos Pearl. A moment later, an ancient wooden box appeared in his hands. The box was neither gold nor jade. He had personally carved it from a small remaining section of branch from the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree. Natural Dao markings faintly appeared upon it, making it a rare spiritual object in itself.
Li Cha carefully placed the wooden box upon the Sacred Spirit Table and gently opened the lid.
In an instant, an indescribable Chaos Dao Rhyme spread from the box, accompanied by a faint, elusive, extraordinary fragrance that seemed capable of stirring the origin of life itself! Merely a trace of that scent invigorated Yang Mei and Wang Shu. They felt the mana throughout their bodies become livelier, while tiny impediments accumulated during their past cultivation showed signs of loosening!
Inside the box, cushioned with Ten-Thousand-Year Warm Jade, lay five tea leaves.
The leaves possessed a strange form. Rather than resembling ordinary leaves, they looked more like miniature Chaos nebulae bearing Great Dao Patterns! They were a deep, profound chaos hue, as though containing endless voids within them. The divine patterns naturally inscribed upon them were more than a hundred times more intricate and profound than those of Innate Enlightenment Tea! Four leaves were flawless, their Dao Rhyme complete. Only one had a smooth notch along its edge, as though a sharp blade had cut off a corner. Yet the Dao Rhyme it contained remained vast and astonishing, merely somewhat restless and unsettled.
"This is... Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea." Li Cha's voice carried a trace of reminiscence and emotion. "Only these five leaves remain in existence. As for this damaged leaf, when Great God Pangu comprehended the Dao in the past, he had a sudden insight, and the intent of his axe lightly touched it, leaving this behind."
Yang Mei and Wang Shu both turned solemn. Their gazes locked onto the five tea leaves, especially that damaged one, as though they could sense the supreme Dao Rhyme from the instant of World Creation.
"A Primordial Chaos Spiritual Root, worthy of its name!" Yang Mei deeply inhaled the drifting tea fragrance and felt his understanding of space subtly stirred. He praised it from the heart. "Before even drinking it, merely smelling its fragrance has already slightly elevated one's Dao realm. It is truly extraordinary! Far beyond Enlightenment Tea!"
Wang Shu's beautiful eyes likewise shone with brilliance. Her earlier urgency had transformed into boundless anticipation.
Li Cha spoke no further. He closed his eyes and slowly adjusted his breathing and state of mind. To him, brewing this tea was not simply to satisfy the palate. It was a sacred ritual, the ultimate expression and pilgrimage of his own Tea Dao. It had to be approached with a devout and peaceful heart.
A moment later, he opened his eyes. They were clear and tranquil, while an unhurried smile rested on his lips.
He first ignited Five Elements True Fire with the Five Elements Furnace. This time, his control over the heat was refined to the utmost degree. He then took the Precious Vase gifted by Wang Shu and slowly poured the Three Lights Divine Water, shimmering with strange radiance in the three colors of sun, moon, and stars, into the Shouyang Pot. As the divine water entered the pot and merged with its pure yang Dao Rhyme, it emitted a faint, clear chime.
Once the water temperature was just right, Li Cha used the Spirit Origin Ruler to guide it from afar. The Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea leaf with the damaged edge seemed drawn by an invisible force and lightly drifted into the pot.
"Fizz."
An exceedingly faint sound, like the first breath of an embryo when the Great Dao first opened.
The next moment, a fragrance beyond description in any worldly language erupted from the mouth of the pot!
This fragrance was not merely aromatic. It seemed to contain the vast desolation of Chaos, the magnificence of World Creation, the sprouting of life, the enlightenment of wisdom, and the intertwining of myriad Daos... It was formless and intangible, yet everywhere at once, instantly surging into the depths of the Purple Mansions and primordial spirits of the three present!
Yang Mei felt the scene before him change. He seemed to behold Three Thousand Demon Gods rising and falling within boundless Chaos, and the magnificent sight of Pangu swinging his axe to create the world! His countless years of accumulation and insight into the Great Dao of Space found an outlet at that moment, surging, reorganizing, and sublimating wildly!
Wang Shu, meanwhile, seemed to stand within an endless starry sky, witnessing the eternal cycle of stars being born, moving, and falling into extinction. The mysteries of the Grand Celestial Stars unfolded before her with unprecedented clarity, while the powers of lunar yin and solar yang naturally merged within her body!
As the brewer, Li Cha felt it most deeply. The fragrance stirred memories buried in the deepest reaches of his soul—of that distant past when he had still been the Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea Tree, silently observing the evolution of myriad Daos. Tea Dao, the Five Elements, space, stars... all manner of insights flowed together like streams joining the sea.
He steadied his mind and poured the brewed tea into three Tea Cups temporarily refined from spiritual jade. The tea was chaos-colored, as though a tiny primordial universe lay within it, with countless fine Dao markings arising, fading, and drifting through its depths.
The three exchanged glances and saw shock and anticipation in one another's eyes. They raised their cups together and drained the tea in a single gulp!
The instant the tea entered his mouth, Li Cha's body shuddered violently. His eyes instantly grew moist, and two streams of tears slid down his face uncontrollably.
Indescribable!
Any words seemed pale and powerless at this moment. It was not a flavor that simple bitterness, astringency, freshness, sweetness, or mellowness could describe. It was the taste of the Dao! The taste of life at its beginning! The taste of Chaos and order intertwined! It was a supreme pleasure that transcended every sensory experience and reached directly to the origin of the soul! He had pursued the Tea Dao his entire life, and only at this moment did he truly understand what the ultimate realm of tea was! He wept from overwhelming emotion and fulfillment.
Yang Mei and Wang Shu were the same, immersed in that unparalleled flavor and Dao realm, unable to extricate themselves.
Yang Mei in particular began to emit violently fluctuating aura beyond his control! Manifested patterns of Space Laws emerged around his body, winding, combining, and splitting apart! The countless spatial divine abilities he had once comprehended—Space Folding, Distance within Reach, void exile, spatial annihilation...—began evolving on their own like a revolving lantern. They threw the surrounding space into chaos, yet contained some supreme and transcendent order!
His aura was slowly but incomparably firmly rising! Rising! It broke through the Peak Quasi-Saint barrier that had trapped him for countless Yuanhui and touched that mysterious realm of freedom and boundless ease—the Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal realm!
Li Cha and Wang Shu simultaneously awoke from that ultimate Dao realm. They stared at Yang Mei in horror, then both raised their heads, their gazes seeming to pierce through the grotto-heaven's barriers toward the sky beyond!
A terror so immense it made their souls tremble was madly gathering beyond the nine heavens! It was the aura of the Primordial Grand Unity Golden Immortal tribulation! Far more terrifying than the pseudo-saint tribulation Luohu had forcibly invoked!
Hongjun had not yet become a saint, yet Yang Mei was about to invoke a true Primordial Thunder Tribulation first because of a single cup of Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea!
Yang Mei suddenly opened his eyes as well. The usual calmness was gone from them, replaced by unprecedented gravity and... a trace of excitement. He rose to his full height, space ripples violently spreading around him as he prepared to receive the baptism of this supreme heavenly tribulation.
"Daoist Brother, wait!" Li Cha suddenly called out to stop him.
Yang Mei looked at him in confusion.
Li Cha's expression was grave as he swiftly transmitted his voice. "Daoist Brother, the Primordial Thunder Tribulation is no trifling matter. Its disturbance will be too great. Daoist Friend Hongjun is on the verge of becoming a saint. If you undergo tribulation in the Primordial Wilderness now, unforeseen complications may arise. To avoid further trouble, why not undergo the tribulation within boundless Chaos? The laws there are chaotic, and it can also conceal the heavenly secrets."
Upon hearing this, Yang Mei gave Li Cha a deep look and instantly understood his meaning. Hongjun's path differed from his own. If Hongjun learned before becoming a saint that Yang Mei had attained the Primordial Grand Unity first, complications might arise. Undergoing tribulation in Chaos was indeed the best choice.
"Thank you for the reminder, Daoist Friend!" Yang Mei hesitated no longer. He nodded to Li Cha and Wang Shu, and the power of space around him erupted. His figure instantly became illusory, and in the next moment, he had completely merged into the void and vanished. Clearly, he had directly broken through the Primordial Wilderness' barrier and entered the dangerous yet boundless Chaos to face his own Primordial Thunder Tribulation.
Within the grotto-heaven, Li Cha and Wang Shu exchanged a glance. Both saw shock and excitement in the other's eyes. A single cup of tea could help someone see through the gate to the Primordial Grand Unity realm! This Primordial Chaos Spirit Tea was even more heaven-defying than they had imagined!
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