Chapter 27

The moment his Spiritual Sense entered the lotus platform, the mysteries of this Innate Spiritual Treasure became clear to him—

This treasure concealed two great powers:

First, the platform sealed the power of twelve layers of Spirit Seas. If fully released, it would be enough to ** a Grand Unity Golden Immortal. During the Journey to the West calamity, a certain great expert had once used a Pure Bottle containing the power of one sea to stymie the Monkey King. Yet this Spirit Sea was no ordinary water, but an innate Spirit Sea condensed from pure Spirit Liquid.

Second, the lotus nurtured twelve kinds of innate divine water, which reproduced on their own each day in an endless cycle:

Three Lights Divine Water: Sunlight, Moonlight, starlight.

Profound Nether True Water, Glazed Pure Water, Primordial Heavy Water.

Three Thousand Weak Waters, Origin Water, Yellow Springs Water.

Ren Kui Water, Taiyin True Water, Pure Water.

The twelve types of divine water churned into a sea within the lotus platform. The Three Lights Divine Water was especially miraculous—each type alone was a deadly poison, yet when the three merged, they became a sacred healing elixir. The other divine waters each possessed abilities capable of reaching heaven and earth.

"Water nourishes wood... This truly is heaven helping me!"

As an innate lifeform transformed from Purple Bamboo, Lu Tian felt an instinctive affinity for this spirit lotus. The Three Lights Divine Water and Origin Water in particular would greatly benefit his cultivation.

He immediately sat cross-legged and began refining the lotus platform.

Water Element energy surged within his kidney palace, mutually generating and transforming with the Metal Element energy of the Plain Cloud Boundary Banner within his lungs, while also stimulating the origin wood spirit in his Liver Palace. Metal generated water, water generated wood. With the three energies cycling, he completely refined the spirit lotus in only six hundred years.

The Twelve-Grade Lotus Platform appeared beneath him, while the Plain Cloud Boundary Banner snapped behind his back.

A vast spiritual pressure swept through the cave abode. Lu Tian silently assessed himself. "With my current cultivation, crushing the me from when I was in the Blood Sea would be effortless."

The Taiyi Realm was already within reach. He could clearly feel his strength growing every moment.

Suddenly—

Lu Tian's brows tightened, and his figure vanished in an instant.

Junior Brother Pharmacist had encountered danger!

Lu Tian's expression hardened as he immediately activated his escape light and sped toward the northwest.

He had failed to notice it while in seclusion. Only now did he discover that a secret message had arrived half a month ago—Pharmacist had been trapped in danger and required his assistance.

Lu Tian truly had not expected this...

Pharmacist, a Direct Disciple of Western Teachings ** with Taiyi Cultivation, had actually fallen into a crisis at Two Realms Mountain!

Two Realms Mountain was not a place rich in spiritual energy. It was merely famous for its special significance.

Under normal circumstances, few powerful cultivators would set foot here.

A Taiyi Golden Immortal should have stood at the pinnacle here.

Yet...

Since Pharmacist had chosen to seek his help rather than report to their two masters, the situation was evidently still under control.

Otherwise, given their two masters' temperaments, they would never stand by and do nothing. They were not the sort to coldly watch their ** fall into danger.

Though startled, Lu Tian did not hesitate in the slightest. Borrowing the power of the Cloud-Treading Boots, he traversed the void, covering a thousand miles in an instant.

In less than half a day, he arrived at the location Pharmacist had indicated.

Maitreya, Mahasthamaprapta, Sunlight, Moonlight, and the others had all gathered there.

The four men had unstable auras, clearly having arrived not long ago. At the moment, all wore troubled expressions and were at a loss.

Junior Brother, you finally came!

You are widely knowledgeable. Do you know what Senior Brother encountered?

This is clearly the location Senior Brother described, yet we have searched for so long without finding anything.

Mahasthamaprapta looked grave, his voice low.

Sunlight and Moonlight, standing beside him, were even more flustered—they had left the West for training for the first time, and this sudden incident inevitably left them panicked.

Lu Tian smiled calmly. "With Senior Brother's abilities, since he could send a message, he would not have mistaken the location."

"Perhaps he accidentally shattered the void while traveling and was swept into some special space..."

As soon as he finished speaking, profound divine light flickered in his eyes.

The prehistoric world was full of countless strange dangers.

Especially the space of this world—there were experts everywhere, and great powers capable of manipulating space and time were numerous.

Though one might appear to be in the same prehistoric world, a moment's carelessness could break through the boundary wall and send one tumbling into another layer of heaven and earth.

Since no one was here, and given Pharmacist's cultivation, that was likely what had happened.

This...

Mahasthamaprapta and the others exchanged glances, speechless for a moment.

The prehistoric world truly was dangerous at every step. Even traveling could bring disaster.

Lu Tian, meanwhile, skillfully entered the void and used a secret technique to inspect the surroundings.

As he looked at the scene before him, a trace of surprise flashed through his eyes as well.

The space here overlapped layer upon layer. By his estimate, tens of thousands of Spatial Folds and hundreds of thousands of Fragmented Space pieces were intertwined and piled together. The structure was chaotic, making it impossible to determine where Pharmacist had been trapped.

The other four fellow disciples followed him in. Upon seeing this, they all sucked in a cold breath.

Junior Brother Lu, what should we do now?

Everyone's burning gazes focused on Lu Tian.

At this moment, they could only rely on this junior brother to break the deadlock.

If there truly was no other way, they could only use that supreme secret art of the prehistoric world and ask their master to rescue him.

"For space to have collapsed to this extent, ancient great powers must have fought here." Lu Tian quickly analyzed the situation. "With Eldest Senior Brother's cultivation, ordinary space fragments could not trap him at all. We only need to investigate the spatial layers with intact structures."

He turned to his four senior brothers. "Please remain outside and receive us if necessary. It would be safer for me to search alone."

"If a danger can trap Eldest Senior Brother, rashly entering may bring misfortune upon you."

Mahasthamaprapta and the others exchanged bitter smiles before obediently withdrawing from the Spatial Folds.

Lu Tian drifted through the void, his Spiritual Sense sweeping over layer after layer of space like a net.

More than two months passed.

When Lu Tian pierced through a Spatial Barrier, he finally discovered the haggard Pharmacist.

Though this senior brother's Glazed Robe was still spotless, the spiritual power around him was in disarray, and the blood at his lips had not yet dried. He was clearly in poor condition.

"Senior Brother, you have waited long enough." Lu Tian went straight to the point. "Have you uncovered the mystery of this place?"

Pharmacist shook his head with a bitter smile. "This place is strange and unpredictable. Everything I see is like flowers in a mirror and the moon in water. I have tried every Method of Breaking Boundaries, yet I still cannot escape." His voice carried a hint of embarrassment.

Lu Tian nodded knowingly. "Senior Brother, adjust your breathing and recover for now. Allow me to investigate what is real and what is false."

After Pharmacist entered meditation to heal, Lu Tian immediately formed hand seals and cast his art.

Time passed.

Two hundred years flew by in an instant. Lu Tian suddenly opened his eyes, and his pupils contracted sharply!

It was actually...

He suppressed his shock and quietly set up an Isolation Barrier, pouring all his Spiritual Sense into the Zero World.

The Zero World had now evolved into a boundless battlefield.

Countless Vajra Divine Generals fought with weapons in hand. The strongest among them had astonishingly reached the Taiyi Golden Immortal realm.

The True Meaning of the Blade flowed like a trickling stream from the realm of nothingness into Lu Tian's sea of consciousness, allowing the blade in his hand to reach a new level once more.

Yet Lu Tian had no time to study it further.

With a slight shift of thought—

Golden radiance suddenly descended upon this world from the heavens.

Pharmacist, who had been ** regulating his breath, jolted awake.

He widened his eyes and looked toward Lu Tian.

That brilliant golden light was no ordinary thing. It was the Golden Light of Merit, something nearly impossible to find in the world!

Junior Brother had actually drawn Heaven-Bestowed Merit?

Pharmacist's Dao heart trembled. Though he could not see what Lu Tian was doing, such a magnificent heavenly phenomenon made him secretly form a communication seal.

The abundance of this merit rivaled what the Heavenly Dao had bestowed when Uncle-Master Zhunti reforged his golden body!

Formation Patterns circulated for forty-nine days.

A Pearly White Strange Stone suddenly appeared in Lu Tian's palm. It looked ordinary, yet faint starlight shimmered within it.

This object did not originate from the prehistoric world...

His mind shook violently. This was the core formed after a member of the Golden Vajra Tribe of the Zero World perished. It contained immense vitality and Essence of Wu Earth.

His Spiritual Sense washed over the entire space like a tide.

This seemingly ordinary world had unexpectedly formed a mysterious resonance with the Zero World, allowing him to turn imagined objects into reality—not an ordinary Art of Creation, but a true breaking of the boundary between illusion and reality!

So that was it...

Lu Tian was bathed in a Golden Sea of Merit, like a god descending upon the mortal world. This groundbreaking feat had finally earned the favor of the Heavenly Dao.

The power of merit cleansed his limbs and bones, making Lu Tian feel as though his entire body had become flawless glazed crystal.

I underestimated the amount of this merit.

He looked at the nearly solid golden ** within his body and could not help laughing. Such an enormous amount of merit would likely make even Saints covetous.

The amount of this merit was fully twice what Zhunti had received when he previously reforged his Dharma body and helped Western Teachings transform into the Buddhist sect!

Faced with such immense merit, Lu Tian did not know how to use it for a moment.

There were simply too few places where he currently needed to spend merit—regarding cultivation, his present foundation no longer required merit to accelerate his progress.

After pondering for a moment, Lu Tian decided to use this merit for a Heavenly Dao Deduction.

He wanted to uncover the mystery of this spatial layer. Only then could he more freely use this place as a bridge to materialize the illusory creations of the Zero World in reality.

As his thoughts turned, the merit within his body receded like a tide.

Though it was called a deduction, it was actually using merit as a bond to seek the true answer from the Heavenly Dao.

Supplemented by the Art of Deduction, the answer soon emerged:

Two Realms Mountain truly concealed another world within.

Beyond dividing the eastern and western regions, it also hid a Realm of Illusion and Reality.

Within the layers between the mountains, space upon space intertwined between reality and illusion.

What Lu Tian had encountered was precisely such a wondrous realm—

Because it lay at the boundary between illusion and reality, the imagined products of the Zero World could use it as a bridge to descend into reality.

The creations of the prehistoric world truly were mysterious and unfathomable...

Lu Tian could not help sighing.

Even Saints would find it difficult to exhaust the mysteries of this world.

At this point, only thirty percent of the merit had been consumed, showing that this secret was not particularly confidential.

The great powers of the prehistoric world likely all knew of this, but lacked methods like those of the Zero World and thus had not investigated it deeply.

Having obtained the answer, Lu Tian removed the Concealment Formation and revealed himself.

When he looked up, he saw concern on Pharmacist's face. "Junior Brother, have you gained any insight? I have waited here in vain for so long without discovering anything. Seeing you receive merit truly made me envious."

His words were frank, without the slightest trace of jealousy.

Lu Tian smiled knowingly. "It was merely a fortunate coincidence." He then changed the subject. "I already know how to leave. Senior Brother, please follow me."

Pharmacist nodded and did not ask further questions.

The value of fellowship between disciples lay in knowing when to stop—laugh when it was time to laugh, and remain silent when it was time to remain silent.

Lu Tian formed a hand seal and opened a passage. The two entered one after the other, their figures vanishing into the gap between illusion and reality.

After the void fissure dissipated, Lu Tian raised his brows at Pharmacist. Brilliant immortal light flowed around his fingertips as he slowly fused this distorted space. He casually took out a magic artifact, intending to refine it into a unique Grotto-Heaven Magic Treasure.

Since entering the sect, only two or three thousand years had passed in the blink of an eye...

What kind of fortune had he obtained to transform so drastically?

Pharmacist clapped his hands in amazement. As the first disciple of Western Teachings, he had always been overshadowed by this junior brother. Even more startling was that the other man still remained at the Golden Immortal realm...

Amid his envy and admiration, a trace of urgency quietly crept into his heart.

With silver light flashing, Lu Tian had already perfectly fused that strange space into the magic artifact. To him, comprehending the Law of Space was as easy as plucking something from his hand.

"The matter is settled. Let us not keep our senior brothers waiting." Before his words faded, the two figures stepped out of the void and returned to the summit of Two Realms Mountain.

The instant they appeared, both their expressions changed drastically.

The sight before them ignited their fury—Mahasthamaprapta, Maitreya, Sunlight, and Moonlight were struggling to maintain a formation, yet two Taiyi Realm Great Demons had forced them into a steady retreat!

On the left, the winged Striped-Eyed White-Browed Tiger whipped up gusts of foul wind. On the right, the Purple-Scaled Python Demon, horned like a dragon, exhaled clouds and radiance. The two demons radiated monstrous ferocity as they trapped the four holy disciples within the formation.