Heavenly Mechanism Chessboard

After the Longevity Pill, there were two more extremely rare treasures. The first was an Earth Grade Secret Skill, found in a corner of the table—clearly the room's owner hadn't valued it much, but that didn't diminish its immense usefulness.

This jade slip recorded a Secret Skill called the Gathering Yuan Art. Once cultivated, it could increase the speed of Yuan condensation. Simply put, it boosted the rate at which those in the Three Essences Realm gathered Yuan, effectively speeding up their cultivation. For the Ye Family members and the True Disciples of the Snow Mountain Sect, this was tremendous news, and it would become a foundational heirloom of the Ye Family.

The last treasure, and arguably the greatest gain from this expedition, was called the 'Heavenly Mechanism Chessboard.' You knew its name because the words were inscribed on the board itself.

Through your tests, you had discovered two functions of this chessboard. The first was divining fortune and misfortune. Since you had been teleported into the room, and the formation there had failed due to age, you could only exit from the inner perimeter of the ruins.

The reason you had managed to escape safely this time was entirely thanks to this chessboard. It predicted the safest route for you, allowing you to narrowly flee the inner ruins. Jiang Changtian's injury was sustained during that escape.

The second function of the Heavenly Mechanism Chessboard, besides divination, was its powerful control ability. During the escape, the strongest Demonic Beast you encountered was a Great Demon at the late Spirit Condensation Realm. If not for the chessboard, Jiang Changtian would likely have died in the ruins, and whether you could have escaped was uncertain. You used the chessboard to immobilize it on the spot, enabling your smooth getaway.

From the aura of the Heavenly Mechanism Chessboard, it differed from other Heaven Grade Treasures. You could sense something indescribable within it—a feeling that, based on your knowledge, only existed in treasures above Heaven Grade, Sacred Items. Yet it wasn't entirely the same. So you speculated it might be a Half-Saint Artifact.

Given your findings, it was clear that the room you entered was no ordinary place. Although the owner hadn't left all their possessions behind, what you discovered suggested that even if this wasn't the room of a Holy Land's Saint Lord, it belonged to someone closely connected to one—someone of high status, without a doubt.

After all, even within a Holy Land, Sacred Artifacts were limited in number. You guessed the reason this chessboard hadn't been contaminated and taken by the Outer Realm Sky Demon was likely because it was only a Half-Saint Artifact, and the demon hadn't sensed its presence.

Back at the Snow Mountain Sect, you kept the Calming Heart Bed, gave the Hundred Year Enlightenment Tea to Jiang Changtian, and handed the teapot to him for self-defense. If you needed it, you could take it back—after all, you were family, so who kept what didn't matter much. The priority was using what could be used now.

In the 214th year, you exchanged some of the harvested materials for medicinal herbs to refine Heavenly Origin Pills. After obtaining them, you gave them to Ye Chen, who had a master alchemist from the Blazing Sun Holy Land refine five Heavenly Origin Pills. One pill was given to the alchemist as payment, leaving four. You distributed these four pills to your wife Jiang Wen, your eldest son Ye Ping'an, your daughter Jiang Qianxue, and your friend Ye Mingyue.

That same year, Jiang Wen, Ye Ping'an, Jiang Qianxue, and Ye Mingyue all broke through to the Heavenly Origin Realm. Meanwhile, the Ye Family established itself in Yicheng City. The Liu Family handed over some resources to the Ye Family, making them the top power in Yicheng. After breaking through to the Heavenly Origin Realm, Ye Ping'an also became the current Clan Leader of the Ye Family.

You became the Fourth Ancestor of the Ye Family and the second Grand Elder of the Snow Mountain Sect. After breaking through to the Heavenly Origin Realm, your daughter succeeded her mother Jiang Wen as the Sect Master of the Snow Mountain Sect.

In the 275th year, your cultivation reached the late Void God Realm. Over the years, you had become able to easily paint Profound Grade High Rank artworks. You spent several months creating twenty Pseudo Beast paintings, signed with your real name. The Pseudo Beasts summoned from them possessed strength at the late Heavenly Origin Realm.

You gave these paintings to your son Ye Ping'an, instructing him to distribute them to the direct-line Ye Family members stationed at various resource points. With the support of these Pseudo Beasts, the previously strained Ye Family guards found their duties much easier.

Although the Liu Family had ceded many resource points, which was good for the Ye Family, their foundation was still weak. Even the three Ancestors had to personally guard and maintain these points, compressing the training time of many Ye Family Martial Artists. Now, with these Pseudo Beasts at late Heavenly Origin Realm strength, the Martial Artists had more time to cultivate.

In the 390th year, your cultivation still hadn't broken through. Your accumulation was sufficient, but you couldn't condense it into substance. No matter how vast the Void God Realm was, it remained empty. You had even spent a fortune to buy three Earth Grade Pills, yet still failed to break through. You were only a single step away from the Spirit Condensation Realm, but that one step remained insurmountable.

That same year, your son Ye Chen, who was at the Blazing Sun Holy Land, sent you good news—he had broken through to the Void God Realm. You were puzzled by this. Ye Chen had a Mid-grade Earth Grade Bone Structure, superior to your Earth Grade Low-Rank. Although you had consumed many pills in your cultivation and saved time through the Inheritance Secret Realm, how could he be so much slower than you? You couldn't understand.

What you didn't know was that even though Ye Chen had undergone the inheritance trial at the Holy Land, it was an ordinary trial—any disciple with sufficient strength and potential could pass it. Every True Disciple had undergone such a trial.

With your Innate Medicinal Heart, you had been consuming large amounts of pills since you began cultivating. Even without factoring in your constitution's boost, your cultivation speed still surpassed that of many with High-grade Earth Grade Bone Structure. As for the prince of Tianyan Kingdom, who possessed the Sacred Body Dao Embryo, his test with the Sacred Artifact had yielded a blue color! The influence of his physique was far beyond ordinary constitutions—the fifty percent cultivation speed boost wasn't additive; it was multiplicative!

For Ye Chen to break through to the Void God Realm at over three hundred years old was already astonishing. Even within the Blazing Sun Holy Land, his talent was outstanding.

Through Ye Chen's transmission, you learned that when he broke through to the Void God Realm, he and eleven others—twelve in total—had become the Golden Generation of the Blazing Sun Holy Land. The Golden Generation received greater resource support than True Disciples. Every generation of the Golden Twelve Sons were individuals with the potential to break through to the Infant God Realm.