On Kunlun Mountain, the Sage's voice echoed through the peaks as he preached the Dao.
Throughout the mountain range, young Spirit Veins began to form, and countless innate mineral veins emerged.
The flowers, grasses, and trees absorbed the Sage's Dao resonance, taking in and releasing spiritual energy several times faster than before. After absorbing the falling golden flowers, some rare plants with strong innate foundations transformed into distinctive Spiritual Roots.
Birds, beasts, insects, and fish with abundant spiritual potential awakened under the Sage's guidance. They became mountain spirits and took their first steps on the path of cultivation.
On the teaching platform at Three Purities Peak, the Sages' disciples heard the Great Dao expounded by the Sages themselves, and their cultivation advanced rapidly.
An unusual tremor roused Yellow Dragon from his listening. He turned toward its source: Duobao, the Interception Sect's senior disciple, sat beside him, surrounded by roaring phenomena.
Above Duobao's head, a jade platform condensed from multiple laws of the Great Dao slowly appeared. It was the foundation of the Great Dao he had formed.
Seeing that Duobao's breakthrough had disturbed Yellow Dragon and the others, Tongtian swept his sleeve. Clear light enveloped Duobao and the manifestations of law around him, and Duobao's aura abruptly vanished.
Yellow Dragon could still see Duobao sitting there, yet he felt as though countless worlds separated them.
The Sages continued preaching. Yellow Dragon and the others put the matter aside, closed their eyes, and listened to the Great Dao. They soon sank into comprehension, their auras slowly rising.
Within Tongtian's Magic Power, Duobao's aura continued to climb. As it absorbed the many laws, the phantom foundation of the Great Dao above his head gradually neared completion.
When every law Duobao cultivated had merged into it, the foundation began to turn from illusion into substance.
Then a point of light emerged from each of Duobao's body, Magic Power, and Primordial Spirit. They floated into the solidifying foundation like three seeds of the Great Dao. Duobao's aura changed abruptly, and his myriad manifestations drew together as one. He had entered the Taiyi Realm.
On the teaching platform, after Duobao's aura disappeared, Jade Purity Immortal Light blazed around Guangchengzi, leader of the Twelve Golden Immortals of the Sect of Elucidation. A bright moon rose amid his many manifestations.
His aura surged too, pressing toward the Taiyi Realm.
Heavenly Venerable Yuanshi nodded and pointed his Jade Ruyi. Gentle immortal light wrapped around Guangchengzi, sealing off every manifestation.
Several days later, Golden Spirit's aura erupted. Four shafts of divine light—azure, white, red, and black—burst from her! They intertwined and formed a pagoda above her head.
"Good!"
Sect Master Tongtian swept his sleeve again. Clear light swept over Golden Spirit Holy Mother, enclosing her and her Four Symbols manifestations.
Countless golden flowers drifted down.
At the center of the platform, South Pole Immortal Elder, who had followed Yuanshi longer than any of the others, had sat with his eyes closed and his aura deep and still. Just as Golden Spirit began her breakthrough, three enormous flower buds appeared above his head.
He slowly opened his eyes.
His gaze was so deep it seemed to hold the birth and death of countless plants. From the endless void descended the phantom of a river churning with waves!
Hum—!
The whole world seemed to tremble. Above South Pole Immortal Elder, a vast rift silently opened in the sky. Beyond it lay no place in the Primordial World, but an endless, ever-flowing River of Time!
The River of Time!
Its waters surged across past and present. Countless worlds rose and fell within it, and the shadows of countless living beings flashed in and out. Fragments of past, present, and future flowed together!
Countless supreme beings across the Primordial World sensed the River of Time appear. They knew another Great Luo Golden Immortal had been born.
Terrifying power of time poured down. Even the starlight above Kunlun Mountain was drawn into the river's phantom! Only the river's roar remained between heaven and earth.
From countless points in the past and future, across layer upon layer of space, figures resembling Nanji became streaks of light. They crossed endless time and space to converge on him!
With each light that merged into him, the Three Flowers above his head grew more solid and substantial. Beneath the River of Time's scouring, his figure blurred, then sharpened again.
When every other version of him had become one, the river's phantom slowly dispersed. It left behind a mark containing the mysteries of time, branded into the Three Flowers above his head.
The Dao resonance of Great Luo—eternal, unified, untouched by myriad calamities—swept across Kunlun like a tide! Heaven and earth resonated, Dao Music sounded on its own, and golden lotuses sprang forth!
The Three Flowers above Nanji's head, nurtured by his Essence, Qi, and spirit, slowly opened petal by petal. First grade, second grade...!
At last, they bloomed to the eighth grade.
Relief showed on Yuanshi's face. "Good! Eight-grade blossoms. The Quasi-Saint realm is within your reach!"
Yellow Dragon and Xuandu had both only recently entered the Golden Immortal Realm. Yellow Dragon had reached its middle stage after their last Dao discussion. During this sermon by the three Sages, each advanced just one minor stage: Yellow Dragon reached the Late Golden Immortal Stage, while Xuandu reached the middle stage.
With the Three Pure Ones preaching together and the laws of the Great Dao manifest before him, Yellow Dragon devoted himself to comprehending those laws and steadily strengthening his foundation.
Perhaps a long age passed, or perhaps only an instant. The Sages' sermon came to an abrupt end, and silence returned to heaven and earth. The last golden flower sank into the peak beneath their feet.
The Dao resonance filling Kunlun began to fade. On the platform, the figures of the Three Pure Ones shifted from illusion to substance, then from substance back to illusion.
When Yellow Dragon woke from his contemplation, the three elders were gone from the platform.
A voice sounded in Yellow Dragon's heart!
"Your master, your eldest martial uncle, and your third martial uncle have left behind the traditions we each know best: alchemy, artifact refining, and formations. Alchemy seizes the creative power of heaven and earth; artifact refining turns the ordinary into the extraordinary; formations reveal the hidden workings of heaven and earth."
"The alchemy tradition lies before the Supreme Pure Palace, the artifact-refining tradition before the Jade Pure Palace, and the formation tradition before the Upper Pure Palace. If you wish, choose any one to aid your cultivation!"
Yellow Dragon looked around. Duobao, Nanji, and Guangchengzi were still absorbed in cultivation and contemplation, but Xuandu was nowhere to be seen.
He must have gone to receive the alchemy tradition left by eldest martial uncle.
With that thought, Yellow Dragon rode a streak of light toward the Jade Pure Palace.
Before the Jade Pure Palace stood a new cauldron, about nine feet tall. Its oval shape was faintly indistinct, and its simple, powerful lines framed a rounded, weighty body. It gave the impression that it could contain heaven and earth and refine all things.
The vast Divine Smithing Diagram wrapped around the cauldron. In it, divine figures gathered innate divine iron and star essence, drew in the essence of the sun and the radiance of the moon, and captured the source of the five elements. Amid divine flames in the void, they hammered, shaped, and inscribed materials, refining all manner of immortal artifacts and Spirit Treasures.
Every flame, every piece of divine material, and every hammer stroke in the diagram contained the artifact-refining tradition Yuanshi had left behind.
Yellow Dragon sat cross-legged before the cauldron with a tea leaf in his mouth. He extended a thread of his Primordial Spirit to touch its surface, and his Primordial Spirit was instantly pulled inside.
The diagram blazed. A vast flood of artifact-refining knowledge poured into Yellow Dragon's mind: how to choose materials, melt and shape spiritual materials, inscribe spirit patterns, and, at a higher level, imprint innate spirit restrictions.
After an unknown span of time, the transmission ended.
Yellow Dragon rubbed his aching head and murmured, "Innate spiritual artifacts... acquired Spirit Treasures...!"
"Innate spiritual artifacts seem simple enough. Take a material containing spiritual energy, temper and shape it, inscribe spirit patterns, then awaken its spirit!"
"The better the material and the more spirit patterns inscribed, the higher the artifact's quality."
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