Testing the Machine

A magical wonderland.

Ye Yan looked at Gu Jinlai with a hint of guilt in his expression. "Eighteen spirit crystals, tens of thousands of five elements materials, and at least dozens of Dao artifacts... This... Sect Leader Yu Feng's contribution to the Creation Sect is too great."

"These supplies are all circulating within our Creation Sect. As the sect leader, I should naturally take it as my responsibility to strengthen the Creation Sect and make it rise to prominence."

Gu Jinlai this, and they've all glanced up at the sky.

Within the constantly activated Creation Heavenly Dao, Jiang Yujian's aura had completely merged with the power of Creation Heavenly Dao.

A month ago, he had already broken through to the True Immortal realm. In the past month, he has been mastering the Creation Heavenly Dao.

With the tireless help of Ye Yan, the former ruler of the Creation Heavenly Dao, his control over the Creation Heavenly Dao is now nearing its end.

It's estimated that he will soon become the Lord of Creation and Heavenly Dao and end his seclusion.

After looking at it for a moment, Gu Jinlai withdrew his gaze and turned back to Ye Yan: "Elder, I have been reading through the sect's records during this period of time, and I have a few questions in my mind. I wonder if you could help me answer them?"

"You say."

Ye Yan nodded.

"The purpose of building a grotto-heaven is to collect spiritual energy. The method for collecting spiritual energy is the Spiritual Energy Technique. However, in my observation, the Spiritual Energy Technique used by our Creation Sect, or rather the entire Xuanxian Realm, seems to be imperfect?"

This Gu Jinlai.

"You were actually able to see that the Spirit Technique was incomplete."

Ye Yan was somewhat surprised to hear this, and then he explained, "Actually, this is not a secret. Ten thousand years ago, the environment of the Xuanxian Realm was good, and spiritual energy and Spiritual Qi filled every corner of the world. Although our world has some spirit-gathering arrays that come into contact with 'spiritual energy,' there is no such thing as 'spiritual energy technique.' The real spiritual energy technique actually comes from the evil god who brought calamity to the Xuanxian Realm ten thousand years ago."

"An evil god? Spiritual manipulation... is that a skill left behind by that evil god?"

"To be precise, it was a skill created by the brilliant leader of the coalition against the evil god, based on the evil god's method of devouring the spiritual energy of heaven and earth. Therefore, the skill itself is imperfect."

Ye Yan said, "It can only serve as an auxiliary skill to help people collect spiritual energy. At most, some people have added other uses to it in order to achieve certain purposes."

"It's inherently flawed..."

Gu Jinlai, he frowned.

"If that human emperor were still alive, he might have perfected the Spiritual Mechanism Technique. But in our Xuanxian Realm, the Spiritual Mechanism Technique is what it is, and after ten thousand years of spread, it is known to everyone."

Ye Yan said.

"The Human Emperor".

This honorific title has appeared more than once in Gu Jinlai books.

It is said that only human emperors who ushered in an unprecedented and glorious era can be called human emperors.

The name of this human emperor is often associated with the truth of how the Xuanxian Realm defeated that evil god ten thousand years ago.

"Therefore... if we want to obtain the method to defeat that evil god, we can only ask this human emperor alliance leader from ten thousand years ago in person."

Sighs Gu Jinlai.

That is, he is still alive.

As he rose to a high-ranking position in the Creation Sect, he gained access to the sect's most secret texts, which had been passed down for tens of thousands of years. He learned that the Xuanxian Realm was called the Xuanxian Domain ten thousand years ago.

Back then, they were summoned by the Xuanhuang Immortal Dynasty and gathered the strength of the surrounding human races to form an alliance to resist the invasion of the evil god.

Their leader was Zhou Huang, the ruler of the Xuanhuang Immortal Dynasty.

At that time, he was revered as the Human Emperor by many surrounding human forces.

Gu Jinlai were deeply shocked when they learned of this information.

I was awestruck by the power of that evil god.

But...

After thinking it over carefully, he realized that he had underestimated the difficulty of defeating the evil god deep in the spirit world.

What is a Xuanxian?

A celestial being who can incorporate the grotto-heaven and the Dao of Heavenly Dao into their body.

Their biggest advantage over the celestial beings who are confined to one place is that they can move freely.

Just like two characters whose stats are 10 in attack, 10 in defense, and 0 in speed, while the other character has 10 in all three stats, the resulting difference will be unimaginable.

The Mystic Immortal has a hundred ways to weaken the Celestial Immortal.

For example, severing his Spirit Vein, driving away all the living beings around him, or simply absorbing all the spiritual energy around him.

Even the strongest Celestial Immortal, the Immortal Lord, couldn't help but leave his grotto-heaven.

Facing a Xuanxian who possesses their own grotto-heaven and the Heavenly Dao, death is almost inevitable.

However, no matter how much advantage Xuanxian has over Tianxian, it cannot prevent the fact that they almost cannot break through the grotto heaven of a Celestial Lord head-on.

And what about spiritual beings, like creators?

Why did Zhao Xi build his grotto-heaven to stretch for thousands of miles? Did he not know that the larger the grotto-heaven, the more difficult it would be to break through to the Xuanxian realm?

That's not the case.

Instead, only a vast, sprawling grotto-heaven, supplemented by the power of numerous true immortals, can withstand the Creator's erosion.

This is still under the condition of a few creators.

If ten or eight creators were to attack together, even if Zhao Xi possessed a vast and expansive grotto-heaven, it would still be difficult to avoid the fate of his grotto-heaven being breached.

This demonstrates the power of the Creator.

Even a creator as powerful as God is merely a life form created under the influence of that evil god.

To put it nicely, they are protectors; to put it bluntly, they are tools.

If the tools created by the evil god have such terrifying power, how could the few immortals in the Xuanxian Realm possibly defeat that terrifying evil god?

"For ten thousand years, many people have tried to improve the Spiritual Art, but even the most skilled cook cannot make a meal without rice. The biggest problem in our Xuanxian Realm is not that the Spiritual Art is not sophisticated enough, but that... there is really no spiritual essence left."

As Ye Yan spoke, he couldn't help but shake his head.

"Were they all devoured by that evil god...?"

Gu Jinlai also felt a bit regretful. "I originally wanted to know how the Xuanxian Domain defeated that terrifying evil god back then, and whether that evil god could reproduce the achievements of that year if it reappeared. Now it seems... I'm afraid I won't get the answer."

"Replicating their past achievements? It's almost impossible."

Ye Yan said, "Back then, thanks to the abundant spiritual energy, our Xuanxian Realm had very close connections with the surrounding realms through the technology of the interdimensional gate. We exchanged ideas and made progress together, and our overall strength was even greater than it is now. However, since the spiritual energy faded ten thousand years ago, the connections between the realms have almost been severed."

At this point, his lips twitched. "The energy consumed by operating the boundary gate is too much, even more than activating the Heavenly Dao. Currently, only the Xuan Yuan Sword Sect can barely support this kind of consumption."

Gu Jinlai has been in the Xuanxian Realm for more than half a year.

Especially in the past few months, he has been traveling in mortal kingdoms far from Spirit Vein, and he clearly felt how scarce Spiritual Qi was in those mortal kingdoms.

"It is said that some scholars in the Xuan Yuan Sword Sect claim that if we cannot find a way to stop the decline of spirituality, it is estimated that in another eight thousand to ten thousand years, the Xuanxian Realm will become completely unsuitable for cultivators to live in, and the Spirit Root in everyone's body will degenerate. At most, people will achieve something in martial arts... Immortals will disappear from the world."

Ye Yan's eyes were full of worry. "More than ten years ago, the Chi family accused the Xuan Yuan Sword Sect of intending to build a super cave heaven that spanned tens of thousands of miles, to incorporate all the spiritual energy of the entire Xuanxian Realm into this super cave heaven to ensure the circulation of spiritual energy, to survive the period of spiritual energy extinction, and to wait for the day when spiritual energy could be revived. Although this news was refuted by the Xuan Yuan Sword Sect, if it were true... I'm afraid all the forces in the Xuanxian Realm would embark on the path of building super cave heavens as a precaution."

After he finished speaking, his expression became extremely solemn.

The reason for his solemn expression has been known Gu Jinlai.

If it really comes to that...

The existing rules of the Xuanxian Realm will be completely broken.

The competition among the top powers for the spiritual opportunity may drag the entire Xuanxian Realm into a deep abyss of war.

"Forget it, forget it, stop worrying unnecessarily."

Ye Yan waved his hand. "Eight thousand years, ten thousand years, that's still a long way off for us. Even the celestial immortals won't live to see that time. We true immortals would probably have already died by then because our minds couldn't withstand the weight of time."

Gu Jinlai nodded, but did not continue the topic.

At that moment, the Heavenly Dao of Creation above the Creation Cave Heavenly Dome surged rapidly, and all the flowing light condensed on Jiang Yujian's body, causing his entire body to shine brightly.

After the light dissipated, Jiang Yujian, whose aura was almost completely integrated with the Creation Heavenly Dao, manifested from within.

"It's a success."

Ye Yan couldn't help but smile.

"The Creation of Heavenly Dao".

There has always been some expectation, both in Gu Jinlai.

Jiang Yujian, who was in the Creation Heavenly Dao, seemed to find it very novel. After adapting for a moment, he took a step and appeared next to Gu Jinlai and Ye Yan.

"Master, Third Brother, I've kept you waiting."

Jiang Yujian said excitedly.

"It's alright. Now that you have finally mastered the Heavenly Dao of Creation, I can retire with peace of mind."

Ye Yan said, "The most important thing in the cultivation from True Immortal to Celestial Immortal is to integrate one's own Dao Fruit into the Cave Heaven, so that one becomes one with the Cave Heaven. We have the Cave Heaven, and we even have the Heavenly Dao required for the second step of Celestial Immortal Dao Master. What you need to do next is to constantly hone your divine sense, so that your divine sense can complete its transformation, so that it can support the resonance between the Dao Fruit and the Cave Heaven."

"I see."

Jiang Yujian nodded solemnly.

Gu Jinlai reading books over this period of time, I have gained some understanding of the cultivation of the three stages: True Immortal, Celestial Immortal, and Mysterious Immortal.

The transition from True Immortal to Celestial Immortal is a process of integrating one's own Dao fruit into a grotto-heaven.

For ordinary True Immortals, the most crucial step is actually building a Grotto Heaven, which is why many forces regard Grotto Heavens as the foundation of their sects.

It's no exaggeration to say that the number of grotto-heavens a sect possesses means that it may produce several celestial immortals in the future.

Um...

This excludes the situation in the world of immortals where top-tier resources are readily available and even illusory immortals can easily create their own grotto-heavens.

Once a True Immortal possesses a grotto-heaven, they need to integrate their Dao Fruit into the grotto-heaven, at which point they and the grotto-heaven will be almost a single entity.

This is also why celestial beings are called "true immortals of the grotto heavens".

However, achieving the fusion of the Dao Fruit and the Cave Heaven is not an easy task.

A cultivator must have a sufficiently powerful divine sense to support a grotto-heaven.

In fact, whether it is nurturing the Heavenly Dao, embracing the Heavenly Dao, or even embracing the grotto-heaven, once external conditions are set aside, it is all a process of spiritual breakthrough and mental transformation.

In a direct confrontation between a peerless true immortal and a celestial immortal, or between an immortal lord and a profound immortal, the advantage of a celestial immortal and a profound immortal lies only in their divine sense.

"The oldest cultivation system only has the simple stages of refining essence into qi, Qi Refining qi into Spirit Transformation, Spirit Refining into emptiness, and refining emptiness into the Dao. Although these crude divisions of realms have become outdated over time, some of the profound truths they contain are still thought-provoking. Before becoming an immortal, cultivators cannot escape the constraints of the physical body. Even if they Spirit Transformation or return to emptiness, they have never completely completed the cultivation of refining essence into qi."

Ye Yan said with a sigh, "Until the moment we become true immortals, we will no longer eat grains or worry about birth, old age, sickness and death. We will live on wind and dew, and live a carefree and long life. As long as our mind and spirit are strong enough to support us, we can truly achieve immortality."

Gu Jinlai, people have been moved by what Ye Yan said.

High Antiquity Blue Star also mention refining essence into qi, Qi Refining qi into Spirit Transformation, Spirit Refining into emptiness, and refining emptiness into the Dao.

He always had a feeling that a civilization of cultivators must have existed on Blue Star a long time ago.

And...

The so-called cultivation civilization should have a common origin.

We just don't know where the source is.

"So, True Immortals, Celestial Immortals, and Profound Immortals are actually completing the path of Qi Refining and Spirit Transformation? That is, the fifth stage of cultivation mentioned in ancient books?"

Jiang Yujian was somewhat surprised.

"Perhaps the ancients were deliberately mystifying things, or perhaps we have misunderstood. However, at this stage, we are indeed seeking a transformation of our mind and spirit."

Ye Yan said, "As for when I will finish this path, when I will finish the path of Spirit Refining and returning to the void, when I will enter the Dao from the immortal realm, and even when I will finally refine the void and merge with the Dao, summarizing the three thousand Great Daos into one, reaching the ultimate of the Great Dao, the end of the Great Dao, I do not know."

Jiang Yujian shook his head after hearing this. "It is indeed too early for us to discuss these things now."

"Brother, have you now completely mastered the Creation and Heavenly Dao?"

That topic has never been continued, either in the Gu Jinlai.

"Haha, I wouldn't dare say I've completely mastered it, but I can certainly utilize some of its mystical abilities."

Jiang Yujian said with a smile.

"Oh?"

Gu Jinlai directly took out a set of blueprints. "Brother, take a look. With the power of creation and the way of Heavenly Dao, can these tools be made?"

Jiang Yujian took the blueprints and examined them carefully.

After a long while, he looked up again and said, "It should be possible to make... but it's a mortal object. No matter how exquisite it is, what kind of magic can it produce?"

"Haha, it's good that you can create them. Brother, you must not underestimate these mortal objects. As long as there are enough of these mortal objects, you can kill even a True Immortal and break through a Heavenly Immortal's Grotto-heaven, and it won't consume any spiritual energy."

This Gu Jinlai.

Upon hearing this, Jiang Yujian and Ye Yan both looked at Gu Jinlai with somewhat strange expressions.

Using mortal objects to fight against true immortals and break into the celestial cave?

Are you kidding me?

Gu Jinlai didn't say much, but turned to Jiang Yujian: "Brother, are you willing to believe me? I have Secret Method that can use the possession of your Primordial Spirit to pass on the specific methods for creating these mortal objects to you. During this process, you must not resist or reject them. Once you have these methods, you can follow the instructions and use the Heavenly Dao creation to create these mortal objects. After I assemble them, you will naturally know the true power of these mortal objects."

"Possession of the Primordial Spirit?"

Jiang Yujian laughed, "You are my third brother. If I don't trust you, who else can I trust? Besides, I was able to become a true immortal so quickly and take control of the creation and the Heavenly Dao, all thanks to my third brother."

After saying that, he sat down directly, looking like he was ready to do whatever he wanted. "Come on."

"Brother, be careful."

Having discussed Gu Jinlai, he directly unleashed the Void Projection Technique.

However, while in the Void Projection state, he keenly sensed the interference of the cave environment on the Void Projection technique.

Seem...

Unable to pinpoint Jiang Yujian's spiritual radiance.

"Huh?"

As the master of the cave, Jiang Yujian sensed something and looked at Gu Jinlai with some surprise. "Third brother, are you using the technique of Primordial Spirit possession?"

"You sensed it?"

There have been some surprises Gu Jinlai.

However, considering that the cultivation of a True Immortal is precisely to unify their Dao Fruit with their celestial abode, and that reaching the Celestial Immortal stage...

The grotto-heaven is equivalent to their immortal body.

It's understandable that Jiang Yujian sensed something.

"Elder brother, please take note."

At that moment, Gu Jinlai directly chose the method of searching with his "eyes" and found Jiang Yujian's spiritual radiance. He activated the Void Projection Technique and his True Spirit was instantly projected into Jiang Yujian's Primordial Spirit.

"This power..."

Ye Yan, standing to the side, sensed the unique fluctuations of the Void Projection Technique from Gu Jinlai, and vaguely perceived something, but couldn't quite make out what it was.

Gu Jinlai immediately used his True Spirit to guide Jiang Yujian's mind to resonate with it.

Jiang Yujian also sensed Gu Jinlai's intention and quickly followed his True Spirit's guidance, causing the two to enter a state of resonance.

In the state of resonance, the production method of materials related to the Cheng Ying mecha, which Gu Jinlai, was quickly transmitted to Jiang Yujian.

Jiang Yujian was also absorbing the energy rapidly.

It took Jiang Yujian almost half a month to fully absorb the methods for creating these materials.

"You really want to produce these mortal items? I've estimated that the amount of energy required to activate the Creation Heavenly Dao and produce such a mortal item is probably no less than that of a spirit crystal."

Jiang Yujian said.

Gu Jinlai didn't speak, but instead took out a storage ring. With a wave of his hand, he transferred piles of various materials out of the storage ring.

The function of creation Heavenly Dao...

It's somewhat similar to a 3D printer.

It can quickly create objects that cultivators need based on the resources provided by the cultivators, but it cannot create something out of nothing.

"I'll provide the spirit crystal. As for whether it's worth a spirit crystal or not, you'll know once the first Cheng Ying mech is built."

This Gu Jinlai.

Seeing this, Jiang Yujian nodded.

Let alone the spirit crystals and materials from Gu Jinlai, even if he provided nothing at all, he would do his best to satisfy the desire to create these mortal objects.

Moreover, the process of activating the Creation Heavenly Dao itself is a process of comprehending the Creation Heavenly Dao.

The Heavenly Dao is ever-changing.

Soon, the light belonging to the Creation Heavenly Dao enveloped the piles of materials that Gu Jinlai taken out from his storage ring.

Under the Heavenly Dao of creation, all materials seemed to be decomposed on their own and reshaped and recombined at an extremely fast speed in a special way.

Yes!

Extremely fast!

Gu Jinlai, it's as if we're seeing a super-large industrial machine tool producing some ordinary, unremarkable machines.

Before long, a sixty-six-meter-tall Cheng Ying mecha was created from scratch and sculpted before the eyes of people from Gu Jinlai.

"So?"

Looking at the Cheng Ying mech he had created using the Heavenly Dao of Creation, which had no spiritual fluctuations whatsoever, Jiang Yujian turned to Gu Jinlai with some trepidation.

That's it.

The True Spirit of the Gu Jinlai directly possessed him and quickly merged into this Chengying mecha.

Instantly, the True Spirit Mech seemed to come "alive," constantly adapting under the control of True Spirit throughout Gu Jinlai.

"This thing can actually move?"

"It seems to be some kind of weapon manipulation technique? But this device itself also provides kinetic energy, and it seems to be quite powerful..."

Jiang Yujian and Ye Yan examined the Cheng Ying mecha for a while.

Although this Cheng Ying mecha was not controlled by True Spirit, but was a special version modified for Primordial Spirit cultivators and controlled by divine thought, Gu Jinlai still fully adapted to it after an hour.

He then smiled and extended an invitation to the two of them, "Let's leave the cave and find a place where I can show you its power."

That's exactly what I was thinking.

Jiang Yujian and Ye Yan both nodded.

As Ye Yan opened the cave, Gu Jinlai also activated the nuclear fusion reactor on the Cheng Ying mecha, which had undergone several improvements.

Terrifying energy was injected from the reactor into the six engines on its back and feet. With a burst of blue light, this behemoth, 66 meters tall and weighing tens of thousands of tons, flew out of the cave and soared into the sky. With a violent acceleration, it broke the sound barrier and shot towards the horizon with a deafening roar.

"Wow, it's actually this fast? This is interesting."

Jiang Yujian and Ye Yan were quite surprised and followed closely behind Cheng Ying mecha.

As the two continued their pursuit, the astonishment in their eyes grew stronger. By the time they had chased each other for tens of thousands of miles and arrived above a vast mountain range, their astonishment had turned into disbelief.

"This flight speed... even Mahayana Saint cannot match it! Even a True Immortal who has manifested in True Immortal form is not much faster than it. If it is only used to deal with Immortals in the Dao Attainment Realm, the speed is more than enough."

Jiang Yujian exclaimed in surprise.

"It's still a bit lacking. Its agility is far inferior to that of a Dao-proving Immortal. However, considering its advantage in straight-line speed, these gaps can be bridged."

Ye Yan said.

"The most distinctive feature of this weapon of war is not individual combat, but rather, like heavy infantry, it advances in a group with concentrated fire, using attack range and firepower coverage to saturate and bombard the enemy."

Gu Jinlai, he said, "I'm here to show you the weapons of the Cheng Ying mech. I won't go into detail about the laser cannons and electromagnetic cannons, which can only threaten Mahayana Saints. The main thing is its nuclear shells! These shells come in three sizes: small, large, and destructive. Their ranges can also be divided into short-range (within a hundred miles), medium-range (within a thousand miles), and long-range (over a thousand miles)..."

As he spoke, he directly chose to activate the large nuclear artillery shell and fired it at a medium range.

The next moment, flames shot out.

A shell over four meters long was launched at extremely high speed, whistling as it flew into the sky.

"The speed is a bit slow. If it were on a scale of thousands of miles, even a Dao-proving immortal could dodge it, let alone a true immortal who has condensed an immortal body. It can only bully cultivators at the Mahayana and below."

Ye Yan quickly offered his comments.

"I know, but what if... I launch eight at once?"

Gu Jinlai, a single thought can evoke a feeling.

Seven more shells followed in quick succession.

These seven nuclear shells, along with the previous nuclear shell, formed a vast area of impact, covering a radius of tens of miles.

The eight nuclear shells, based on their speed, formed two double quadrilaterals and detonated simultaneously after flying 600 miles.

Suddenly...

The terrifying radiance, with power comparable to that of a great Divine Ability being, was released, instantly illuminating the sky as if it were daytime.

And the same shimmering light flashed eight times, turning an area spanning dozens of miles into a living hell.