Red Dust Immortal Mansion.
Ou Huang lay sprawled on a red lotus, gazing at the flower pond from afar.
The stone platform of star fragments where the statue of Loose Immortal Hongchen stood was now enveloped in countless rays of starlight.
The enormous Taiji Diagram, formed from the gathered power of water and fire, was like a towering wheel, almost touching the 'Weiyang Palace' suspended above.
"This monster. When he said it would take a year or two, I thought he was already in the late Xiantian stage, with the sixth layer of the Chiming Nine Heavens Map nearly complete."
"Who'd have thought he meant it would take a year or two to go from the early fifth layer to the completed sixth!"
Ou Huang felt as if its feline pride had been dealt a heavy blow.
Yesterday, Zhou Hao had tried circulating the Chiming Nine Heavens Map. The Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang he drew down at the time had given Ou Huang quite a fright.
That seemingly silly boy had actually sensed two Supreme Stars and possessed the legendary constitution that could manifest Taiyin in one hand and Taiyang in the other. And now he had a Chaos Star Fragment that could multiply his connection to the stars a hundredfold. He was practically cheating!
Of course, Ou Huang had been a high-level spirit beast in life, and after death had become the Immortal Mansion Spirit. It naturally had no idea what "cheating" meant, but that did nothing to lessen its shock.
Back then, once Loose Immortal Hongchen had cleared his Nine Yin Severed Meridians, he had already possessed the ultimate constitution for yin-cold cultivation methods. But even he, during the Xiantian stage, could never have drawn down as much stellar power as Zhou Hao had.
"And this is the Chiming Nine Heavens Map, famous for being the slowest and hardest to cultivate. If he were practicing an ordinary body-refining method that used stellar power, wouldn't this monster of a boy reach the Purple Mansion in just a few days?"
Ou Huang shook its head.
It wasn't so easy to cross major realms with the Chiming Nine Heavens Map.
Advancing from the first to the third layer, or from the fourth to the sixth, was merely a matter of steadily cultivating, building up strength over time, and gradually improving.
But advancing from the third to the fourth layer, or from the sixth to the seventh, meant crossing a major realm. It wasn't enough to simply gather sufficient Power of Taiyin and Power of Taiyang.
The bottleneck between the third and fourth layers—between Post-Heaven and Xiantian Lifeform—was 'yin and yang converging, water and fire merging.'
To cross from the sixth to the seventh layer, one had to comprehend 'yin and yang transforming, giving rise to one another without end.'
"Once the Chiming Nine Heavens Map reaches the peak of the Xiantian stage, his body should be able to withstand the cold of the Cold Fiend Vein. Then I can use the Immortal Mansion's Five Elements Array to protect him. He should make it." Ou Huang pondered in silence.
It never let on when it was around Zhou Hao, but ever since Loose Immortal Hongchen had left, it had been alone in the entire Immortal Mansion. Five thousand years of solitude had been a hard thing to bear.
At long last, a boy who seemed likable enough had arrived, and he had inherited Loose Immortal Hongchen's unique secret art. Naturally, Ou Huang hoped Zhou Hao would grow stronger and take it out to roam the world again someday.
"Boom~~" "Boom~~~"
The Red Lotus Flower Pond suddenly shook. Amid the countless clouds of stellar power, the streams of water and fire that had been burning and flowing in the void began to change once more.
A wisp of Lunar True Water and a wisp of Solar True Fire crossed endless worlds and boundless void, descending straight down and completely enveloping Zhou Hao.
A hazy red glow shone from the bronze statue of Loose Immortal Hongchen. The countless acres of red lotuses throughout the pond glowed as well, forming a red barrier around the stone platform where Zhou Hao sat. Only then were the endless water and fire stirred up by the Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire kept from sweeping across the entire pond.
"This freak!" Ou Huang stared in disbelief. "The bottleneck between the sixth layer and the Purple Mansion... and he just crossed it?"
What were all those cultivators who'd been trapped at bottlenecks for ten years, decades, or even a century supposed to make of that!?
"Whoosh!"
The freezing Lunar True Water and the scorching Solar True Fire flowed around Zhou Hao like water. The two mighty forces, one yin and one yang, were utterly opposed and clashed violently, yet now they were docile beyond belief, forming a Taiji Diagram of twin yin-yang fish. As it revolved, yin and yang transformed, giving rise to one another without end. Everything came about so naturally.
Yes, naturally!
Zhou Hao had studied Innate Taiji Fist under his master, True Person Daoyi, since childhood. This style of boxing took Taiji and the dialectical ideas of yin and yang from traditional Chinese Confucian and Daoist philosophy as its core. Since ancient times, countless sages had left behind their insights into yin-yang transformation and Taiji giving rise to one another.
Zhou Hao didn't dare claim to match the realm of those sages, but standing upon the foundation of their studies and his master True Person Daoyi's teachings, he had developed his own unique understanding of yin and yang and Taiji.
The sixth-layer bottleneck of 'yin and yang transforming, giving rise to one another without end' had barely hindered him at all. Once the sixth layer was complete, he naturally crossed over.
Huuu~~~~ The Taiji Diagram revolved.
A vast amount of Power of Taiyin and Power of Taiyang, drawn in by the Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire, surged into Zhou Hao's body.
Guided by the two Divine Patterns on his back, Zhou Hao's Innate God and Devil Body began to transform naturally.
Every bone, every muscle, even every cell in his internal organs madly devoured the Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang.
A small portion swam straight toward the Blue Flower in the sea of consciousness inside Zhou Hao's Mud Pill Palace, like fish following the scent of bait. The result was only natural: the Blue Flower Boss swallowed it without hesitation, turning it into wisps of Blue Flower Mist within its own space.
Whoosh~~~
The last traces of the Power of Taiyin and the Power of Taiyang were absorbed into Zhou Hao's body. The Taiji Diagram of twin yin-yang fish formed by the Lunar True Water and Solar True Fire faded away, revealing his naked body.
His flawless body had already made Shangguan Yu's heart flutter like a fawn's. Now it gleamed with an even more crystalline, jade-like radiance. Feeling the surging divine power within him and the boundless vitality contained in every bit of his flesh and blood, Zhou Hao smiled.
"The Chiming Nine Heavens Map has reached the seventh layer. From now on, my body can be called a divine body, with no vital weakness. A single drop of blood can bring me back to life!"
Once God-Devil Body Refining reached the Purple Mansion stage, one's strength rose by leaps and bounds.
When both were at the Xiantian stage, Qi Refining Path cultivators could still use their unique magical treasures to deal with God-Devil Body Refining cultivators of the same rank. As long as they didn't let them get close, they could at least keep their lives.
But once they reached the Purple Mansion stage, God-Devil Body Refining cultivators began to truly display their strength. Their divine power could attack from a distance like true essence, and they could shrug off the magical treasures of opponents at the same rank.
Even if your magical treasure was powerful, as long as it couldn't completely destroy my divine body, I could be chopped into more than a dozen pieces and still recover the instant my divine power surged.
Thus, even a God-Devil Body Refining cultivator who had just entered the Purple Mansion stage could challenge a mid-stage Purple Mansion Qi Refining cultivator across a minor realm.
And if a God-Devil Body Refining cultivator reached the Purple Mansion stage and also possessed a divine ability, they would be even more terrifying.
The most monstrous among them could cross an entire major realm and fight a Myriad Phenomena True Person head-on.
The Chiming Nine Heavens Map Zhou Hao cultivated was the foremost method of God-Devil Body Refining. Though he had only just reached the seventh layer, he was already no weaker than a late-stage Purple Mansion God-Devil Body Refining cultivator.
If he could cultivate another divine ability, such as 'Law of Heaven and Earth' or 'Three Heads and Six Arms,' then even if he faced a Starlight Dharma Image True Person like True Person Muxuan right now, he was confident he could stand and fight head-on, then withdraw at his leisure, even if he couldn't win.
"What a pity I don't have a divine ability technique." Zhou Hao sighed.
But then he thought of the secret art he'd soon be able to cultivate, one no less powerful than a divine ability, and his excitement surged again.
"Zhou Hao." A voice came from beside him. "How much longer are you going to stand there naked? I'm male, you know."
Who asked you to look...?
Origin Power surged around Zhou Hao, and a set of blue cloth robes quickly appeared over his body. They were the Human-Rank Magical Treasure he'd taken from Shang Ren's storage treasure. They weren't particularly good at defense, but they were convenient.
"Ou Huang, now that my body refining has also reached the Purple Mansion stage, can you take me to the Mystic Yin Cold Sha Vein?"
Zhou Hao tapped the ground and flew toward the red lotus where Ou Huang lay, his robes fluttering.
Watching Zhou Hao's ethereal figure after his breakthrough, Ou Huang was dazed for a moment. It was as if Loose Immortal Hongchen had survived the heavenly tribulation and returned.
"Of course." Ou Huang nodded. "Now that you've reached the Purple Mansion stage and formed a divine body, you've saved me a lot of trouble."
As it spoke, Ou Huang raised a cat's paw. A red glow appeared from nowhere, enveloping the man and cat before they vanished from the flower pond.
This was an underwater place.
The temperature was far lower than in the waters around Crouching Ox Island. Even the seawater, which seemed as though it would never freeze, was surrounded by countless shards of ice.
The seafloor was a world of ice crystals, covered in thick layers of ice as far as the eye could see.
Looking at the enormous eye-like crack in the seabed, even Zhou Hao, with his Purple Mansion divine body, couldn't help shivering.
That enormous crack was the Sea Eye of the surrounding ten thousand li of ocean. Thick ice covered the area around it, and the Red Dust Immortal Mansion was hidden within the ice beside the Sea Eye.
"Good thing Ou Huang used the Immortal Mansion's array to temporarily suppress the currents gushing from the Sea Eye. Otherwise, even if I were at the Myriad Phenomena stage, I couldn't have made it here." Zhou Hao recalled the scene he'd witnessed moments ago at the Immortal Mansion's underwater screen exit.
Countless tons of seawater gushed out through the Sea Eye fissure, and countless whirlpools tugged at one another, making the seabed resemble a world of chaos.
"That Mystic Yin Cold Sha Vein is about a thousand zhang beneath the unyielding ice of the Sea Eye."
Zhou Hao's divine sense seeped through the ice layer below. Before long, he sensed an intensely yin-cold power that faintly resembled the Power of Taiyin he had absorbed.
"There!"
Zhou Hao's eyes lit up. He summoned the Human-Rank superior-grade magical treasure, the Zhuan Mountain Seal, which he had refined after reaching the Purple Mansion stage in Qi Refining, and slammed it down on the spot he had sensed.
Boom! Crack~~~~
A thunderous crash rang out as the ice shattered. A fissure more than ten zhang long opened where the Zhuan Mountain Seal had struck.
Zhou Hao moved and swam straight down into the fissure.
First update.
Thanks to the old-timer 'Xi Xi' for the 500-point tip.
Thanks to the old-timer 'Fate's Mad Ramblings' for the 200-point tip.
Thanks to the old-timer 'Ku Rui' for the 1,500-point tip.
Thanks to the old-timer 'Clear Wind Across the Face' for the 100-point tip.
Suifeng bows in thanks for your support!
Before you continue