"Heavenly Dao above, I, Ancestral Dragon, am willing to use this broken body to forever guard the sea eyes of the Four Seas, quell the waters' disasters, and atone for the Dragon Clan's monstrous sins of slaughter!"
"Heavenly Dao above, I, Primordial Phoenix, am willing to use this broken body to forever guard Immortal Volcano, pacify the poisonous fire within the earth veins, and repay the Phoenix Clan's endless karmic debts!"
"Heavenly Dao above, I, Beginning Qilin, am willing to use this broken body to forever guard the Primordial Wilderness, dispel the baleful aura between heaven and earth, and bear the Qilin Clan's endless karmic burden."
"May the Heavenly Dao bear witness!!!"
The oaths of Ancestral Dragon, Primordial Phoenix, and Beginning Qilin announced the departure of the Innate Three Clans. The Dragon-Han Great Tribulation had come to an end.
At this time, the Myriad Races had declined, while the battle between Hongjun and Luohu over the demonic Dao was still far in the future.
With the Dragon Clan retreating into seclusion, the vast East Sea would remain safe for a long time.
And I had long since attained Great Luo Golden Immortal. It was time to take form and enter the world.
At that thought, East King Duke's mind stirred. Brilliant light immediately burst forth, profound Dao Sounds rang out, and Pure Yang Qi overflowed, forming a massive vortex.
The vortex of Pure Yang spun without pause, madly drawing in the surrounding Innate Spiritual Qi and continuously expanding.
Within the enormous vortex stood a golden figure, towering in the air.
He wore a flowing golden Daoist robe and a Pure Yang treasure crown. He had the appearance of a young man, and his entire body radiated Pure Yang aura like the great sun of the Primordial Wilderness.
East King Duke sensed the world around him and proclaimed:
"Great Dao above, I am East King Duke, my Daoist title is Donghua!"
For an innately sacred being like him, appearance and name were born of heaven and earth. They corresponded to one's origin and aligned with one's Dao path; they could not be chosen casually.
After Donghua's words fell, nothing happened. Only two streams of spiritual light flew toward him from afar.
With a thought, Donghua understood the details of his two companion Spiritual Treasures.
One was an azure great bell, an Innate Spiritual Treasure with thirty-six Innate Restrictions, named Jingyang.
The other was a gilded Daoist robe, likewise an Innate Spiritual Treasure with thirty-six Innate Restrictions, named Pure Yang.
Donghua did not hurry to leave the place where he had taken form. Instead, he began focusing on refining his Spiritual Treasures.
After all, in the Primordial Wilderness, Spiritual Treasures were part of one's strength and the best means of increasing combat power.
Forty-nine restrictions made a supreme treasure.
Thirty-seven to forty-eight restrictions made a Top-grade Spiritual Treasure.
Twenty-five to thirty-six restrictions made a high-grade Spiritual Treasure.
Thirteen to twenty-four restrictions made a middle-grade Spiritual Treasure.
One to twelve restrictions made a low-grade Spiritual Treasure.
In the Primordial Wilderness, Spiritual Treasures were divided into Innate and Houtian types. This had nothing to do with whether they had been nurtured by heaven and earth.
Those containing Innate Undying Spiritual Light were Innate Spiritual Treasures; those without it were Houtian Spirit Treasures.
A Spiritual Treasure's power was affected by its grade. Houtian did not necessarily mean weaker than Innate.
The reason Innate Spiritual Treasures far surpassed Houtian ones and drew cultivators like moths to flame lay in the laws contained within them.
Another reason was that Hongjun's method of Severing Three Corpses required Innate Spiritual Treasures to house the Three Corpses. Of course, to meet that requirement, one had to at least refine the Spiritual Treasure first.
After refining one, a cultivator could comprehend the laws within it.
Moreover, a Spiritual Treasure's origin inherently carried an Innate Undying Spiritual Light, making it nearly indestructible.
Ordinary damage could be repaired by absorbing the Primordial Qi of heaven and earth. Even if a Spiritual Treasure were completely shattered, it would merely return to its origin and rejoin heaven and earth.
As long as its spiritual light remained undying, it only needed to await the arrival of fate before being reborn through creation and choosing another master.
Because an existence like the Qiankun Cauldron could turn Houtian into Innate, Innate Spiritual Treasures had no fixed number.
To use a Spiritual Treasure, one first had to refine the restrictions within it, unless its owner opened the restrictions and lent it out.
Donghua's two companion Spiritual Treasures were both top-tier high-grade Innate Spiritual Treasures, and he was quite satisfied with them.
After all, the only ones with better companion Spiritual Treasures than his were Taiqing, Taiyi, Di Jun, Minghe, and Zhenyuanzi.
Not to mention Kunpeng and Hongyun, who did not even possess a single companion Spiritual Treasure.
Over several thousand leisurely years, Donghua refined eighteen restrictions in each of his two companion Spiritual Treasures. With his early Great Luo Golden Immortal cultivation, this was already his limit.
Only companion treasures bound to one's life and cultivation could bear deeper refinement at a lower realm.
For an ordinary Great Luo Golden Immortal, refining a low-grade Spiritual Treasure with twelve restrictions would be the limit.
As Donghua's companion Spiritual Treasures, the Jingyang Bell and Pure Yang Daoist Robe naturally contained the Pure Yang Law.
When the laws of a cultivator and a Spiritual Treasure complemented each other, refinement would yield twice the result with half the effort.
During these years of refining his companion Spiritual Treasures, Donghua not only raised his cultivation to the middle stage of Great Luo Golden Immortal.
Through comprehending the Pure Yang Law contained within them, he also deepened his understanding of the laws.
After putting away the two Spiritual Treasures, Donghua took a single step and left the Innate Formation that had nurtured him, officially entering the Primordial World Heaven and Earth.
"Zifu Continent."
The instant he emerged from the formation, this name naturally appeared within his mind.
For any top-tier Grotto-heaven Blessed Land, its name was imprinted upon heaven and earth and contained the secrets of the land's origin.
Once a fated person entered it, the blessed land's true name would naturally resonate, emerging in the cultivator's mind as though linked by karma.
As one of the world's finest immortal mountains and blessed lands, Zifu Continent was protected by an Innate Great Array. Not only was its Spiritual Qi incomparably abundant, but it could also isolate the heavenly secrets within from those outside.
Donghua slightly spread his divine sense, and his Great Luo divine consciousness immediately found the formation's core. In an instant, he refined it.
From that point on, this East Sea immortal realm belonged entirely to Donghua.
Using the formation's power to sense the entire island, he felt the veins of its mountains and rivers stretching across his palm. Every subtle movement of every blade of grass, tree, spirit, and beast appeared with perfect clarity.
Yet after investigating, the result was just as he expected. More than half the continent's spiritual beauty had been claimed by him, and among what remained, there was little that could move his heart.
It was time to see the outside world. Having come to the Primordial Wilderness so long ago, he had already grown impatient.
After leaving Zifu Continent, Donghua did not hurry along. He merely strolled across the sea's surface.
With every step he took, the space beneath his feet naturally contracted, and he appeared ten thousand miles away. This was the great Supernatural Ability later known as Shrink Ground into Inch.
The East Sea was boundless; ten thousand years passed in an instant.
The Dragon Clan had once dominated heaven and earth, but now karmic burden bound them, forcing them to shut their gates tight.
Meanwhile, the countless scaled creatures left without restraint had yet to erase their old karma and had accrued fresh sins. Most were ignorant and unenlightened; even those with intelligence remained immersed in warfare among scales and armor.
Whenever Donghua encountered stubborn creatures burdened with karma that gave rise to greed and killing intent, he showed no mercy. With a flick of his finger, he brought tribulation upon them and reduced them to ashes.
This was not done for the sake of killing, but to cleanse the filth left behind by the old tribulation. It could also be considered the completion of the last fragment of heavenly fate for those trapped within it.
After all, only such Innate objects could catch the eye of a Great Luo Golden Immortal and offer some benefit to his Dao path.
Donghua stood in the air, his robes fluttering in the faintly salty sea breeze.
He had remained in these waters for decades. His divine sense spread like a net, sweeping through one empty stretch of sea after another, yet he had found nothing.
Just as his thoughts stirred and he was nearly ready to abandon this region for another.
In an instant, an indescribably subtle sensation lightly tugged at his spiritual awareness.
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