Heavenly Gang Source

Chapter 30: Heavenly Gang Source

Racing straight upward, He Yu transformed into a golden-black streak. He now possessed not only the cultivation of an early Loose Immortal, but also no hindrances whatsoever. His speed had reached a level he could scarcely imagine, thousands of times faster than when he rode his demonic cloud. Yet even at such speed, he still couldn't see the Firmament Gale after half a day.

The Firmament Gale really is far too high above the Primordial World! He Yu mused. Heavenly Stellar Qi lay between the Firmament Gale layer and the Firmament Thunder Fire layer. But given the vastness of the Primordial World, even with the Source of Earthly Fiend guiding him, finding the Source of Heavenly Dipper was no simple task!

The Source of Heavenly Dipper and the Source of Earthly Fiend were both supreme treasures. It was only because little time had passed since Pangu opened the world, and the Heavenly Dao had yet to emerge, that they could still be found and absorbed. By the Era of Giant Beasts, after the Primordial World had undergone its transformations, the sources of Heavenly Dipper and Earthly Fiend would merge with heaven and earth. Even if any remained, they would be pitifully scarce. This was the best time for He Yu to search. By the Era of Giant Beasts, the Primordial World would have changed, and heaven and earth would have evolved. The Firmament Gale layer would be several times higher than it was now, and the gales would be even more terrifying.

He Yu understood all this himself. Once the Era of Giant Beasts began, finding the Source of Heavenly Dipper would become far more difficult. He would have to cross a greater distance, face stronger gales, and search for an even rarer Source of Heavenly Dipper in a vast, immeasurable layer of Heavenly Dipper?

Ah! I hope my luck isn't too bad! If the Source of Heavenly Dipper happened to be at the edge of the Primordial World or above one of the Four Seas, even his Primordial Avatar might not be able to reach it.

Whoosh! Whoosh-whoosh!...

As He Yu's thoughts wandered, a howling gale suddenly drifted down from above. His heart stirred. He knew it was the Firmament Gale, and quickly focused his gaze, but he still couldn't see the gale layer at all. He Yu was startled. The howling reached him before the Firmament Gale layer even came into view. That was terrifying. The Firmament Gale covered the entire Primordial World, and could be seen clearly from far away—especially with the eyesight of a Loose Immortal like him.

As he sped upward, the howling grew louder and clearer. When it sounded like thunder, He Yu finally saw the Firmament Gale layer. All he could see was an endless expanse of hazy blue-green, stretching across the Primordial World as far as the eye could see. As he drew closer, he saw countless deep-blue wind blades filling the layer. Each blade was razor-sharp and fearsome. Though still far away, He Yu could already feel a chill.

I can't withstand this? He Yu was certain that a Loose Immortal's power was not enough to resist these blades. Unless he possessed a supreme defensive treasure, he would need to be an Earth Immortal to withstand them with his own strength.

Though shocked by the gale's might, He Yu wasn't worried. His Primordial Avatar could disperse and reform at will and feared no damage. The wind blades were indeed terrifyingly powerful, enough to tear his avatar apart, but they couldn't annihilate it.

Whoosh! Bang! Bang! Bang...

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!...

The moment he entered the gale layer, hundreds of millions of wind blades came slicing toward him. The protective barrier He Yu summoned with all his strength held for only a few breaths before being torn apart. Then the wind blades shaved away a layer of his entire Primordial Avatar. Golden-black wisps of smoke swirled around him, but before they could gather together, countless more blades came rushing in. He Yu endured an unbearable agony.

Torture by a thousand cuts!

It was as if he were being cut apart by tens of thousands, even hundreds of millions of blades. Though the Primordial Avatar had scattered into wisps of smoke and its source had suffered little damage, He Yu's consciousness clearly felt an agony twice as intense as being flayed alive in the flesh.

He wanted to kill himself from the pain, but that was a vain hope. The wind blades couldn't annihilate the Primordial Avatar; at most, they could keep cutting and splitting it apart. The Thunder Fire layer was different. Beneath its heavenly lightning and fire, he would likely be annihilated in an instant.

The unbearable agony of being cut apart went on. He Yu could only grit his teeth and endure it, pressing upward at full speed in the hope of crossing the gale layer as quickly as possible. But the layer was far thicker than he had imagined. Though the blades kept tearing and shredding him, preventing him from reassembling, his golden-black smoke still surged upward at no less than half his previous speed. Yet after a long while, he showed no sign of passing through the gale layer.

As more time passed, He Yu's pain gradually numbed him. However terrifying, pain slowly became familiar when endured for long enough.

He Yu had certainly suffered greatly this time. But as the saying went, every loss brought a gain. His state of mind had improved considerably. Pain could temper the heart. Since crossing over into the Primordial World, He Yu's life had been smooth sailing. Added to the influence of his past life, his state of mind had been extremely weak. That wasn't yet a problem for him, but once his cultivation reached the Primordial Spirit stage, it would hold him back.

The first requirement for cultivation was an unwavering Dao Heart. It was the foundation. Without one, even if someone's cultivation reached heaven and earth, they would be unable to control it. A single setback or emotional wound might even drive them into the Devil Dao, turning them into a completely irrational fiend.

Within the gale layer, the extreme agony of being flayed was gradually strengthening He Yu's state of mind. This would bring him tremendous benefits in the future. Still, he lacked an unwavering Dao Heart that nothing in the world could shake—or, as one might say, an ultimate goal. In later generations, cultivators' Dao Hearts were generally fixed on the pursuit of eternal life; the Primordial World's living beings sought supreme strength, the Great Dao of Chaos, or the pursuit of Pangu, and so on.

He had no idea how much time had passed. He Yu had even forgotten why he had entered the gale layer. Now, numbed by the extreme pain, even his consciousness had grown hazy.

Bang!

A loud crash rang out, and He Yu felt his whole body grow light. The wind blades no longer tore and shredded him. The golden-black smoke that had spread for miles gathered again, forming the Primordial Avatar. The avatar had sustained considerable damage, and He Yu's consciousness had been reduced by half. Yet it had become much more condensed, and his control over the Primordial Avatar had improved considerably—or, more precisely, his control over his power had grown stronger.

His consciousness energy spread out, covering over a thousand miles. Though its quantity had been halved, its power was greater than before.

He Yu felt a little pleased. What he didn't know was that the consolidation of his consciousness had brought him enormous benefits. Previously, his consciousness had been divided between the consciousness of his past life and that of his present life, River Crab. The two had been mixed together. Though his past-life consciousness was far stronger than River Crab's, the disparity still posed a major hidden danger that could cause serious problems in the future. Now, with the help of the Firmament Gale, they had fully merged, eliminating the danger.

The moment he entered the Heavenly Dipper layer, He Yu immediately sensed a powerful presence of Heavenly Stellar Qi. The entire layer was filled with it, though he could barely see any Heavenly Stellar Qi itself. As for the Source of Heavenly Dipper, he couldn't sense even the slightest trace of the Source of Earthly Fiend!

Whoosh!

There was nothing else he could do, so He Yu flew onward at full speed toward the distant Heaven-Connecting Pillar.

Mount Buzhou!

Mount Buzhou was the Heavenly Pillar, supporting heaven and earth and linking the Primordial World to the Heavenly Realm. It was a path between heaven and earth, and even someone without the slightest cultivation could reach the Heavenly Realm by climbing to the summit of Mount Buzhou. In particular, Pangu's Pressure around Mount Buzhou drove away the gales and thunderfire, making it an exceptionally safe route. But every advantage came with a drawback. Resisting Pangu's Pressure required a soul and consciousness of considerable strength. Using Mount Buzhou to reach the Heavenly Realm was no simple task!

He Yu knew that Mount Buzhou was the most spiritually blessed place in the Primordial World. Hongjun, the Three Pure Ones, Fuxi, Nuwa, the Twelve Ancestral Witches, the Ancestral Dragon, the Ancestral Phoenix, the Ancestral Qilin... all had been nurtured and born there. In the future, countless cultivators would even take immense pride in having come from Mount Buzhou. He Yu paid none of that any mind. He was thinking instead about the Three Pure Ones. They had been born from Pangu's Primordial Spirit, divided into three and fused with the Source of Heavenly Dipper. So there might be some Source of Heavenly Dipper left around Mount Buzhou. The chances weren't great, but it was still better than searching aimlessly!

He Yu sped toward Mount Buzhou. Pangu's Pressure was immense over the Primordial World's surface, making the mountain difficult to approach. But high above, in the sky, the pressure was several times weaker than it was on the ground. With the early Loose Immortal cultivation of his Primordial Avatar, he could approach Mount Buzhou—but climbing it was still out of the question.

Ah! Mount Buzhou is already so hard to reach. I wonder how powerful Hongjun, the Three Pure Ones, and the others have become? He Yu sighed to himself. Based on what he knew from both his past and present lives, once they took form, innate deities like Hongjun, Luo Hou, and Yang Mei all possessed the cultivation of an early Daluo Golden Immortal. As for the Three Pure Ones, Dijun, Taiyi, and other outstanding descendants of Pangu, they possessed the cultivation of a late Golden Immortal. It was simply heaven-defying!

No, I have to hurry. If I don't, once these great powers emerge, will there be any place for me to stand? A powerful sense of crisis welled up in him. Forget Golden Immortals and Daluo Golden Immortals—even an Earth Immortal or Heavenly Immortal was still an unreachable realm for He Yu. He had no confidence in catching up to those great powers of the Primordial World with his demonic body. His only hope now lay in his three avatars from different eras. It was a shortcut, and at the very least, it could give him some say in an era teeming with great powers.

Whoosh!

He sped toward Mount Buzhou, a golden-black streak spanning the sky.

Mount Buzhou was still an unimaginable distance away. He Yu had been in the Mount Buzhou Range when he ascended to the Heavenly Dipper layer, yet even now, reaching the mountain was no easy matter. As he flew at top speed, Mount Buzhou grew only slightly larger in his view after a long while. The sight made He Yu marvel at the Primordial World's vastness. Even the Mount Buzhou Range was a chasm to him; crossing it was no easy feat.

"Hm?" He Yu suddenly froze mid-flight. As he drew rapidly closer to Mount Buzhou, he felt the Source of Earthly Fiend tremble faintly.

A response!

The Source of Earthly Fiend had reacted. Though the response was faint, it still filled He Yu with excitement. Since the Source of Earthly Fiend had sensed something, the Source of Heavenly Dipper was very likely nearby.

It seems I was right. The Three Pure Ones and the Twelve Ancestral Witches all came from Mount Buzhou, so after obtaining the Source of Earthly Fiend, it's quite possible that the Source of Heavenly Dipper is somewhere within the Mount Buzhou Range! He Yu breathed a sigh of relief. He had been anxious for quite some time. The Primordial World was so vast; if the Source of Heavenly Dipper really lay at its edge, he might not reach it even after flying for a year or two!

As he drew closer and closer to Mount Buzhou, the Source of Earthly Fiend's response grew stronger and stronger!

Following the response, He Yu kept changing direction. After a long while, the Source of Earthly Fiend suddenly gave a powerful tremor, then fell still. He Yu's heart jolted. He knew he had arrived.

He looked all around, but couldn't see the Source of Heavenly Dipper anywhere. Confusion rose in his heart. There was nothing around him, yet the Source of Earthly Fiend's response couldn't possibly be wrong. He could also vaguely sense that the Heavenly Stellar Qi here was much denser than elsewhere. Clearly, this place was unusual!

The Source of Heavenly Dipper must be here. But why can't I see it? He Yu was utterly baffled.