The moment he stepped onto the island, a vast aura washed over him. Unlike Fangzhang Island's austere solitude, it was indescribably fresh and sacred, as though it could cleanse every impurity in the world and purify the origins of all things.
The aura was so pure that a single breath left him refreshed. His Primordial Spirit seemed washed clean by sweet rain, turning crystal clear, and even the obstacles he had encountered in past cultivation seemed to loosen.
At the island's heart lay a Jade Pool formed from the purest Innate Spiritual Qi. Its waters were clear to the bottom, yet a hazy glow shimmered over them.
A lotus floated quietly on the water at the pool's center.
Its flower was flawlessly white, untouched by dust. Its twelve tiers of petals unfolded in layers, looking as though they had been carved from the finest mutton-fat white jade, yet holding a vitality and spirituality far beyond any stone.
A soft, sacred halo enveloped the lotus. As it flowed, it gave off a supreme Dao rhyme that could purify all things and drive away evil.
Great Dao Runes flickered in and out of existence above its Lotus Platform, revealing the highest mysteries of the Way of Purification. It was the Twelve-petal Pure World White Lotus, one of the Primordial World's few top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasures!
What made Zhenyuanzi's gaze sharpen even more was the pool of divine water nourishing its roots.
Ripples crossed the water, which shone with three brilliant colors at once: gold, silver, and purple!
The gold blazed like the sun overhead, the silver gleamed as coolly as a bright moon, and the purple held the depths of a sky full of stars.
The Three Divine Lights blended perfectly. None clashed or obscured the others. Instead, they gave off a boundless innate vitality and spiritual Dao rhyme that seemed capable of nurturing all things.
This was Three Lights Divine Water, known as Primordial's First Healing Sacred Medicine, with the miraculous power to restore flesh to bone and revive the dead!
Even Zhenyuanzi, an experienced Innate Great Power who possessed an Innate Spiritual Treasure such as the Book of the Earth, could not keep a flicker of amazement from his eyes.
The Twelve-petal Pure World White Lotus was an all-round treasure, combining defense, support, and aid in comprehending the Dao.
Its Purifying Qi not only warded off External Demonic Interference but also helped cultivators comprehend the Dao. It cleared the mind, kept stray thoughts at bay, and made cultivation twice as effective;
Its defensive power was even more astonishing. Seated upon its Lotus Platform and guarded by Treasure Lotus Radiance, one was all but invulnerable to magic. Evil retreated, and ordinary divine abilities and spells could scarcely draw near;
Even in attack, its Purifying Divine Light could dissolve an opponent's abilities and purify their magical power. Its mysteries seemed endless.
Three Lights Divine Water was no less wondrous. No matter how grievously the body was damaged or how deeply the Primordial Spirit was wounded, so long as a trace of the true spirit remained, one drop could reverse life and death and restore the sufferer to their former state.
It could also nourish spiritual roots, refine magical treasures, and improve pill quality, all with miraculous results.
Yet the Great Dao was just: what became too full would overflow. A heaven-defying divine object like this came with strict taboos.
Its healing power rested entirely on the perfect fusion of the sunlight, moonlight, and starlight divine waters. Not one could be missing. Only while all three lights remained present and in balance could it wield its supreme power to bring back the dead.
If the three separated, or if any one of them was absent, their nature would immediately undergo a terrifying reversal.
Golden Sunlight Divine Water became a deadly poison that eroded flesh and bone; Silver Moonlight Divine Water became Malevolent Sha that corroded the Primordial Spirit and soul; Purple Starlight Divine Water became a nightmare that devoured true spirits and conscious thought.
The difference between life-saving sacred water and a fatal poison lay in whether they were united or divided. The danger was impossible to predict. Even if an ordinary person obtained it, without the proper method, they would gain nothing and might instead be harmed.
With his profound cultivation, Zhenyuanzi naturally understood all its intricacies.
With a thought, he carefully took several containers from his own space. He had prepared them long ago specifically to hold top-tier spiritual items.
These Jade Bottles had been crafted from Heart of Ten-thousand-year Innate Warm Jade. Exceptionally gentle, they preserved the vitality of spiritual liquids better than anything else. Mysterious array patterns to stabilize energy and seal spiritual activity had also been carved into them beforehand.
He formed a profound hand seal. His immense magical power moved with the precision of the finest carving knife, drawing Three Lights Divine Water from the Jade Pool.
The rippling divine water became a stream woven from three colors and flowed steadily into the Jade Bottles, without a drop left behind.
Whenever a bottle was full, Zhenyuanzi immediately sealed it with several powerful restrictions. Only after ensuring that none of the water's spirituality could escape and that the sun, moon, and star lights remained in perfect balance did he store it away.
Having secured enough Three Lights Divine Water to make any great power fight for it, Zhenyuanzi steadied his mind. Only then did he turn his full attention to the Twelve-petal Pure World White Lotus glowing sacredly before him.
An Innate Spiritual Treasure of this grade could not be claimed merely by guiding it with Dao rhyme, as Bitter Bamboo had been. He would have to put in the painstaking effort to refine it slowly with his own Primordial Spirit and magical power, imprinting his unique Primordial Spirit Imprint upon its Core Restriction. Only then could he truly command its power, linked to it in mind and spirit as naturally as he moved his own limbs.
Once again, he found a quiet spot beside the lotus pool and sat cross-legged.
He closed his eyes, focused, regulated his breathing, and circulated his qi until he reached his peak. His mind became clear as a mirror, undisturbed by the slightest ripple.
Only when his Essence, Qi, and Spirit were full and perfectly harmonized did he slowly open his eyes and look calmly at the Pure World White Lotus.
The next moment, a tightly focused thread of Primordial Spirit Power, imbued with his own Dao Fruit and Great Earth Origin Aura, slipped from the Cinnabar Field between his brows.
Pure and gentle, that strand of Spiritual Sense Power carried the weight and tolerance of the Virtue of Wu Tu. Like a thread both soft and strong, or a trickle of running water, it carefully touched the outermost Xiantian Restriction of the Pure World White Lotus and began to probe within.
Hum—
At first, a faint light flashed across the Pure World White Lotus. It gave a barely audible chime, and its petals drew slightly together, releasing a gentle but resolute halo of resistance.
This was the spirituality born within an Innate Spiritual Treasure: an instinctive rejection of outside forces and an act of self-protection. A top-grade spiritual treasure had its pride.
Zhenyuanzi neither grew impatient nor tried to force his way in.
His Spiritual Sense Power remained even and calm. With patient, painstaking effort, he let it seep in little by little.
His magical power was as vast as the sea, sustaining the refinement without pause. As he refined the first restriction, he did not simply batter it with brute force. Instead, he carefully sensed and sought to understand the trace of the Initial True Meaning of "purification" within it.
His earlier study of Bitter Bamboo's law of "salvation" helped him. The two shared subtle common ground in cleansing thoughts and clarifying the Dao heart. Drawing on that insight now, he met less resistance and found the refinement smoother.
Time once again lost all meaning in the depths of refinement. The process was slow and grueling.
As a top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, the Twelve-petal Pure World White Lotus held layer upon layer of restrictions, seemingly beyond count. Every one was profoundly intricate and contained truths of the Great Dao of Purification.
Zhenyuanzi had to expend an ocean of magical power to wash over and attune himself to those restrictions bit by bit. At the same time, with each layer he refined, he had to divide his attention to understand the fragments of Great Dao Law within it and compare them against his own path.
It tested not only his magical power but also his cultivation and insight to their limits.
He sat motionless, like a mountain that had stood since ancient times.
At times, the Dao rhyme around him shifted, giving off the same pure white, sacred light as the lotus. Radiance flowed, and purifying power spread, answering the glow of the Pure World White Lotus itself;
At others, he was enveloped by his own pure, profound-yellow Guardian Earth Divine Light. Heavy and steady, it stabilized the refinement and shielded him from any backlash of law that the deeper restrictions might cause.
Fine beads of sweat, infused with Dao law, sometimes appeared on his brow, only to be evaporated by his magical power.
Through that long, motionless vigil of refinement, Zhenyuanzi's understanding of the Way of Purification advanced at a speed he had never known before.
Many old questions about warding off evil, avoiding tribulation, and strengthening the Dao heart suddenly became clear. Meanwhile, the constant feedback and cleansing from the Spiritual Treasure Origin Power made his magical power purer and more concentrated, like hundred-refined steel with every impurity removed.
The bottleneck that had long held him at Peak Great Luo Golden Immortal, seemingly unbreakable, yielded another small but solid step under this opportunity and his hard work.
An indescribable barrier still stood between him and the Primordial Chaos Great Dao. Yet it seemed a shade thinner than before, allowing him a faint glimpse of the wider world beyond.
At last, he broke through the forty-eighth restriction, fully understood the final Core Origin Restriction, and imprinted his own Primordial Spirit upon it. At that instant, the entire Twelve-petal Pure World White Lotus shuddered. Its light drew inward rather than shining out, leaving it softly luminous and translucent, as though it had become one with Zhenyuanzi.
It gave a clear, delighted chime, bright and lingering like a young phoenix's first cry, conveying acceptance and affection for its new master.
Then the white lotus became a gentle, peaceful streak of white light. Shrinking at will, it rose of its own accord, entered Zhenyuanzi's brow, and sank into the deepest reaches of his boundless sea of consciousness.
The lotus hovered quietly beneath his immense Primordial Spirit, slowly turning and scattering a rain of light filled with sacred purifying power. It nourished his Primordial Spirit, making it ever clearer and stronger. Formless Inner Demons, Impure Thoughts, and External Evils could not come near it.
Thus, he had completely refined the top-grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, the Twelve-petal Pure World White Lotus. After the Book of the Earth, formed from the Earth Fetal Membrane, it was now another powerful treasure to protect him on his path!
It combined offense and defense and could aid cultivation as well. Its value was beyond measure.
Zhenyuanzi let out a long breath of turbid qi containing Dao rhyme and slowly stood.
He felt the seamless bond with the Pure World White Lotus in his sea of consciousness, its power as easy to direct as his own limbs. Even with his unshakable Dao heart, he could not quite hide the satisfaction on his face.
On Fangzhang Island, he had obtained Bitter Bamboo and comprehended the mysteries of salvation. On Yingzhou Island, he had claimed the white lotus and divine water, greatly increasing his strength. The rewards of this journey had far exceeded his expectations.
His gaze shifted as though it could pierce the void, turning toward the last immortal island—the one most compatible with his origin, from which the strongest call had come.
What he had gained on Fangzhang and Yingzhou was already a tremendous opportunity. What opportunity aligned with his Dao might Penglai, the final island, hold?
With a thought, the array patterns beneath his feet rippled once more.
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