The Sky-reaching Jianmu Divine Tree was truly extraordinary. Only a small section of it grew in the Primordial World, while most of it was hidden in the void.
Without special means, an ordinary cultivator would find it difficult to take the tree even if fate led them to it. But for East King Duke, this was no challenge.
He possessed the Space Supreme Treasure, the Chaos Bead.
East King Duke had a Great World all to himself. Although the world inside the Chaos Bead had not given rise to living beings as the Primordial Great World had, it could still accommodate the Sky-reaching Jianmu Divine Tree.
He summoned the Chaos Bead from his primordial spirit and sent it circling the Jianmu. The divine tree was drawn inside. Once it vanished, the ground sealed itself and the broken space smoothed over. It was as if the tree had never appeared on Yingzhou Island at all—a truly miraculous sight.
With the divine tree in his possession, East King Duke knew he had already claimed the greatest opportunity on Yingzhou Island, so he did not explore any further.
Unlike Mount Fang Island and Penglai, whose emergence had stirred the Four Seas with one strange phenomenon after another, Yingzhou Island had appeared in complete silence. Perhaps this was because the Sky-reaching Jianmu had suppressed the island. If the three immortal islands had not shared the same origin, and East King Duke had not been Lord of Mount Fang Island with an innate connection to them, even he might not have discovered Yingzhou so quickly.
No creatures from the Eastern Sea had yet come to the surrounding waters. East King Duke decided to claim the island. After refining its core, he activated the island's Innate Guardian Great Array, then sat in the air above it and spent several decades setting up the Supreme Yang Concealment Formation. Only then was he satisfied.
Once the formations were activated, the entire island vanished from the Eastern Sea. The waters around it fell silent. Unless someone's primordial spirit cultivation far surpassed his own, even a deliberate probe with Spiritual Sense would not reveal the island.
Having finished, he returned to Mount Fang Island, pleased.
Back at his Daoist sanctuary, East King Duke once again devoted himself to secluded cultivation. The distance between Late-stage Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal and the peak seemed close enough to touch, yet somehow impossibly far. Over tens of thousands of years, there had been several times when he thought he had grasped the opportunity to break through, but each attempt had come to nothing.
In the Primordial World, the conflict among the Three Tribes had officially erupted. The aura of the tribulation outside grew ever more pervasive, and with more than ten thousand years remaining before the Dao Demon War, East King Duke had given up on breaking through for now. He left seclusion, intending to visit the Primordial Continent.
He left the Eastern Sea and flew toward the Primordial Continent. This time, he had a destination in mind—not a particular place, but a direction: Buzhou Mountain.
According to tales from his previous life, half the opportunities in the Primordial World lay on this divine mountain. That was hardly an exaggeration.
It had formed from Pangu's Spine, the source of all mountains, and bore the divine essence of Buzhou. No more needed to be said.
It had nurtured countless treasures and several Innate Divine Beings: Fuxi and Nuwa, as well as the Twelve Great Gods, who had yet to emerge, formed from Pangu's Essence Blood, and their vast race, the Witch Clan—one of the protagonists of the next tribulation.
East King Duke was no longer short of spiritual treasures, but he still looked forward to this journey to Buzhou Mountain.
He traveled without stopping, using his escape technique. In little more than a hundred years, he had reached the foot of Buzhou Mountain.
The mountain soared into the heavens, so imposing it inspired reverence. Whether it held abundant Innate Spiritual Qi was beside the point. Its very aura stirred a desire to bow before it. Even East King Duke, already a Late-stage Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal, felt insignificant.
Steadying his mind, he began to climb. After several hundred miles, he felt a tremendous aura pressing down on him: Pangu Pressure.
Countless Yuan Hui had passed since Great God Pangu created the world and transformed into all things, yet his might still endured. That alone showed how powerful he had been.
East King Duke dispelled his Great Luo Immortal power and decided to climb on foot. One Yuan Hui earlier, he had visited the Sun Star and tempered his body with the Power of the Myriad Stars, deriving the Supreme Yang Battle Body cultivation technique. He had already raised his physical cultivation to the Taiyi Golden Immortal level.
This journey up Buzhou Mountain was the perfect chance to keep tempering his body under Pangu Pressure.
Without his primordial spirit's power to protect him, the pressure bore down like a mountain weighing more than a million jin. East King Duke constantly circulated the Supreme Yang Battle Body technique, struggling upward one heavy step at a time.
As he climbed higher, Pangu Pressure ceaselessly tempered his Dao Body. After a thousand years, he could walk as easily as if on level ground, striding swiftly. His physical cultivation had also broken through to the Great Luo Golden Immortal level, bringing it in line with his primordial spirit cultivation.
Having achieved his goal, East King Duke stopped circulating the technique and flew upward on a Daoist lotus. Buzhou Mountain lived up to its reputation: Spiritual Items were plentiful along the way. They were not all high-grade, but there was no doubt why it was known as a treasure mountain.
He could hardly leave a treasure mountain empty-handed. He picked out a few rare items and took them with him.
One day, as he flew halfway up the mountain, East King Duke's primordial spirit suddenly stirred. He sensed something.
Delighted rather than alarmed, he followed the feeling and soon discovered an Innate Formation. It was clearly tied to his fate, and he broke through it without much effort.
Spiritual Mist filled the sky, taking the shape of white lotuses that guarded a crimson banner suspended overhead in the formation. Flecks of innate spiritual light shimmered across it. It was plainly no ordinary treasure.
Though East King Duke already possessed many supreme treasures, he could clearly sense that this one was meant for him. As he stepped forward, he felt a connection between the banner and his own aura.
He reached out, and the spiritual banner flew into his hand of its own accord.
He examined it with his Spiritual Sense and nodded in satisfaction.
A High-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, the Blazing Sun Command Banner, containing thirty-five Innate Restrictions. It was close to the supreme grade and ranked among the finest High-grade Innate Spiritual Treasures.
The banner bore Innate Dao Patterns. A cultivator wielding it could command True Yang Blazing Flames to attack their enemies, and its power was formidable.
After taking the treasure, East King Duke flew out of the formation on his Daoist lotus. Before he could steady himself, Three Streams of Light came hurtling toward him. In the blink of an eye, they landed nearby, revealing three Daoists.
One was an old man, one a middle-aged man, and one a young man. The old man looked kind and benevolent, the middle-aged one dignified, and the young one sharp and fierce. All three possessed a mighty Dao Rhyme, unmistakably the bearing of Great Supernatural Beings. Their temperaments differed, but their auras were connected, as if they could become one.
East King Duke already knew who they were.
"Why have you three Fellow Daoists stopped me?"
Standing on his Daoist lotus, with the Blazing Sun Command Banner he had just obtained in hand, East King Duke spoke calmly.
"I am Taiqing Laozi, Jade Pure Primordial, and Upper Pure Tongtian. Greetings, Fellow Daoist."
The old man spoke first. He was Laozi, the Grand Pure Heavenly Lord of Morality and the eldest of the Three Pure Ones.
"So it is the Pangu Three Pure Ones. My respects. I am East King Duke, Daoist Supreme Yang. Greetings, Fellow Daoists."
Laozi smiled, his eyes narrowing. "Greetings, Daoist Supreme Yang. The three of us were traveling through Buzhou Mountain when we sensed a Great Supernatural Being nearby, so we came to meet you."
East King Duke merely nodded, making no comment.
Suddenly, Primordial Heavenly Lord stepped forward.
"Our primordial spirits sensed that a treasure here was destined for the Three Pure Ones. It seems the treasure has fallen into your hands, Fellow Daoist. Why not take it out and let us have a look?"
At Primordial Heavenly Lord's words, East King Duke's expression darkened.
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