Duobao Enters the Taiyi Realm, South Pole Attains Zenith Heaven

Within Kunlun Mountain, the voice of the saints expounding the Dao echoed through the peaks.

Amid the mountain ranges, young spirit veins began to take shape one after another, while countless innate mineral veins came into being.

The flowers, grasses, and trees in the mountains absorbed the saints' Dao essence, drawing in and exhaling spiritual energy several times faster than before. Some rare flowers and exotic herbs with deep foundations transformed, after absorbing blossom after blossom of golden flowers, into distinctive spirit roots.

Birds, beasts, insects, and fish rich in spiritual nature were enlightened by the saints' teachings. One after another, they awakened their intelligence, becoming mountain sprites and stepping through the gates of cultivation.

Upon the Dao platform of Three Purities Peak, the saints' disciples received the saints' personal exposition of the Great Dao, and their cultivation realms rose at a staggering pace.

A peculiar tremor startled Yellow Dragon from his listening. Looking toward the source of the disturbance, he saw that it was Duobao, the senior disciple of the Sect of Interception seated beside him. Phenomena roared around Duobao's body.

Above his head, a jade platform formed from numerous Great Dao laws slowly emerged. It was the foundation of the Dao Duobao had condensed.

At that moment, Tongtian looked at Yellow Dragon and the others, whose attention had been affected by Duobao's breakthrough. With a sweep of his sleeve, a clear radiance enveloped Duobao and the law phenomena around him, and Duobao's aura abruptly vanished.

Yellow Dragon looked at Duobao, who was clearly still sitting there, yet seemed separated from him by countless worlds.

The saints' exposition continued. Yellow Dragon and the others no longer dwelled on it, closing their eyes to listen to the Great Dao as they swiftly entered a state of enlightenment. Their auras slowly began to rise.

Within Tongtian's enveloping divine power, Duobao's aura continued to climb. The phantom of his Dao foundation above his head slowly approached perfection after refining countless laws.

Once all the laws Duobao cultivated had merged into the phantom overhead, that Dao foundation gradually turned from illusory to solid.

A point of light condensed respectively from Duobao's body, mana, and Primordial Spirit, then slowly flew into the Dao foundation that had turned solid, as though three Great Dao seeds had been planted. Duobao's aura suddenly changed, and the myriad phenomena converged into one. He had already stepped into the Taiyi Realm.

After Duobao's aura vanished from the lecture platform, Jade Pure immortal light blazed from Guangchengzi, foremost among the Twelve Golden Immortals of the Sect of Elucidation. A bright moon rose amid numerous phenomena.

His aura surged as well, charging toward the Taiyi Realm.

Yuanshi nodded and tapped with the Jade Ruyi. A gentle immortal radiance swept Guangchengzi up, isolating all phenomena.

Several days later, Golden Spirit's aura abruptly erupted. Four divine radiances—azure, white, red, and black—burst from her body! The divine lights intertwined, forming a treasure pagoda above her head.

"Good!"

Tongtian swept his sleeve again. Clear radiance swept forth, enveloping Golden Spirit and her Four Symbols phenomena within it.

Countless golden flowers drifted swiftly down.

At the center of the Dao platform, South Pole Immortal Elder, who had been the first to follow Yuanshi, had remained seated in meditation with his eyes closed, his aura deep and unfathomable. Just as Golden Spirit began to break through, three enormous flower buds appeared above South Pole's head.

He slowly opened his eyes.

Those eyes were as deep as though they concealed the birth and death of billions upon billions of plants. A phantom of a great river, its waves surging and rolling, descended from endless void!

"Buzz—!"

The entire world seemed to tremble. The sky above South Pole Immortal Elder's head silently split open into an enormous "mouth." Beyond it was not any place within the prehistoric world, but a boundless River of Time, flowing on without cease!

The River of Time!

Its waters churned, spanning ancient and modern times. Countless worlds were born and perished within it, while the shadows of billions of living beings flickered in and out. Fragments of the past, present, and future intertwined and flowed within!

Countless peak existences throughout the prehistoric world were drawn by the manifestation of this River of Time. They immediately knew that another Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal had been born.

Terrifying power of time poured down. Even the starlight above Kunlun's summit was drawn into the river's phantom! Between heaven and earth, only the roar of the great river remained.

From beyond countless pasts and futures, beyond layer upon layer of space, figures resembling South Pole transformed into streams of light. Crossing endless time and space, they converged upon him!

With every stream of light that merged into him, the aura of the Three Flowers above his head solidified further, growing ever more profound and weighty. His figure blurred, then sharpened again beneath the washing of the River of Time.

When all the "him"s returned as one, the phantom of the River of Time slowly faded away, leaving behind a mark containing the mysteries of time, branded within the Three Flowers above his head.

A Zenith Heaven Dao essence of eternal return to one and the annihilation of myriad kalpas swept across Kunlun like a tidal wave! Heaven and earth resonated, Dao sounds rang out on their own, and golden lotuses surged forth!

The Three Flowers above South Pole's head, nourished by his essence, qi, and spirit, slowly bloomed petal by petal—one grade, two grades...!

In the end, they bloomed to eight grades.

Delight appeared on Yuanshi's face. "Good! Eight-grade blossoms—the quasi-saint realm is within reach!"

Yellow Dragon and Xuandu had only recently entered the Golden Immortal realm. Yellow Dragon had even reached the middle stage of the Golden Immortal realm after the previous discussion of the Dao. During this exposition by the three saints, the two had each only broken through a minor realm within the Golden Immortal realm. Yellow Dragon reached the late stage of Golden Immortal, while Xuandu reached the middle stage.

Taking advantage of the Three Purities' joint exposition, with the Great Dao laws descending in person, Yellow Dragon devoted himself fully to comprehending the laws, constantly tempering and reinforcing his own Dao foundation.

Perhaps a long stretch of time had passed, or perhaps only an instant. The saints' exposition came to an abrupt end, and heaven and earth returned to tranquility. The final golden flower sank into the mountain beneath their feet.

The Dao essence suffusing Kunlun began to recede. The figures of the Three Purities saints upon the Dao platform shifted from illusory to solid, then from solid to illusory.

When Yellow Dragon awoke from his enlightened cultivation, the three masters had already vanished from the platform.

A voice sounded within Yellow Dragon's heart!

"Your master, your eldest martial uncle, and your third martial uncle have each left behind the legacies of the Dao of alchemy, the Dao of smithing, and the Dao of formations—the paths in which we excel. The Dao of alchemy seizes the creation of heaven and earth; the Dao of smithing turns decay into the miraculous; the Dao of formations can probe the hidden mysteries of heaven and earth."

"Three legacies. The alchemy legacy lies before the Supreme Pure Palace, the smithing legacy before the Jade Pure Palace, and the formations legacy before the Upper Pure Palace. If you are interested, you may freely choose one as an auxiliary to your cultivation!"

Yellow Dragon looked around and discovered that Duobao, South Pole, and Guangchengzi were still cultivating in enlightenment, while Xuandu's figure had seemingly disappeared.

"Presumably, he has already gone to inherit the alchemy Dao left behind by Eldest Martial Uncle."

With that thought, Yellow Dragon rode a streak of escaping light toward the Jade Pure Palace.

Before the Jade Pure Palace stood an additional enormous cauldron, slightly imbued with Chaos. It was oval in shape, with ancient, bold lines, standing roughly nine feet tall. Its belly was rounded and weighty, giving off the majestic impression that it could contain heaven and earth and refine all things.

A vast Divine Smithing Diagram coiled around the cauldron's body. Within it, divine beings gathered innate divine iron and star essence, seized the essence of the sun and the brilliance of the moon, and drew in the source of the Five Elements. Within divine flames in the void, they hammered, shaped, inscribed patterns, and forged all manner of immortal artifacts and spirit treasures.

Every flame, every piece of divine material, every hammering motion in the diagram contained the smithing legacy Yuanshi had left behind.

Yellow Dragon sat cross-legged before the inheritance cauldron, holding a tea leaf in his mouth. He split off a strand of his Primordial Spirit and lightly touched the cauldron's surface. In an instant, Yellow Dragon's Primordial Spirit was drawn into the cauldron.

The patterns on the cauldron blazed with light. Vast, mist-like knowledge of artifact refinement—material selection, the melting and shaping of spiritual materials, the inscription of spirit patterns, and the imprinting of the even higher-level innate spirit restrictions—poured into Yellow Dragon's mind like a raging flood.

Who knew how much time had passed before the inheritance ended.

Yellow Dragon reached up and rubbed his swollen head, muttering!

"Innate spirit artifacts... acquired spirit treasures...!"

"Innate spirit artifacts actually seem quite simple. As long as the materials contain spiritual energy, they only need a little tempering and shaping, then the inscription of various spirit patterns and the awakening of their spirit!"

"The better the material, and the more spirit patterns inscribed, the higher the quality of the spirit artifact."