Mysteries of the Hunyuan Realm

The Spirit-Absorbing Gourd unleashed boundless suction, targeting his innate indestructible true spirit and forcibly drawing in a portion of its fragments, sealing them within the gourd.

Yuan Lun activated the Life-and-Death Wheel. As the wheel turned, the power of life, death, and reincarnation surged forth, carrying a pressure that could grind all things to dust as it crashed directly into the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's remaining innate indestructible true spirit.

Already battered beyond recognition, the true spirit had no strength to resist under the power of the Dao of Reincarnation. It shattered even more completely, its fragments gradually suppressed beneath the Life-and-Death Wheel, never to achieve liberation for all eternity.

From the moment the four joined forces to the complete suppression of the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor, fewer than ten breaths had passed.

The Netherworld Serpent Ancestor, who had been so arrogant moments ago and had beaten Yuan Jie back step by step, met a miserable end. His innate indestructible true spirit was shattered into countless pieces and separately suppressed by the Spirit-Absorbing Gourd and the Life-and-Death Wheel. His physical body and Primordial Spirit were repeatedly smashed apart and erased, continuously refined by the Four Symbols Return-to-Origin Formation, without even a thread of strength to resist.

Several decades, perhaps a century later, with Yuan Yan's assistance, Yuan Ling and Yuan Lun completely suppressed the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's shattered innate indestructible true spirit. His physical body and Primordial Spirit, which contained the Dao intent of immortality and indestructibility, were also completely refined by the Four Symbols Return-to-Origin Formation, transformed into pure power of chaotic origin.

As for his innate origin, its imprint was refined away as well, leaving only pure origin containing the Netherworld Dao and the Nether-Poison Dao.

Yet Yuan Yan and the other three did not dare relax in the slightest. A perfected Great Luo Golden Immortal—who knew what contingencies he might have left behind? If even a sliver of his vitality escaped, they were naturally unafraid, but it might still leave future trouble.

At once, the four joined hands again and employed supreme divine abilities, using the lingering aura, Dao resonance, and karma of the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor as guides to purge every contingency he had left behind.

Only after clearing away all of the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's contingencies and ensuring he could never rise again did Yuan Yan and the other three breathe a small sigh of relief. Only then did they have time to tally the gains and losses of this battle and deal with the suppressed true-spirit fragments of the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor.

Standing in the void with his hands behind his back, Yuan Yan gazed deeply at the region below that had been ravaged by battle. After pondering for a moment, he slowly said, "The Netherworld Serpent Ancestor was at perfected Great Luo Golden Immortal realm. He must be an expert who survived from the previous calamity. Perhaps he knows how to break through to Hunyuan Golden Immortal. Moreover, his knowledge and understanding of the Primordial World should be useful to us."

"Yuan Lun, Yuan Ling, you have suppressed the fragments of the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's innate indestructible true spirit. You will search his memories."

"Also, our great battle with the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor destroyed this region, bringing karmic burden upon us. We should make amends. Yuan Jie, let us first join hands to erase the lingering power of the Dao from the battle, then restore this region. Yuan Lun, Yuan Ling, once you have thoroughly searched the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's memories, join us as well!"

"Agreed!" Yuan Lun, Yuan Jie, and Yuan Ling nodded together without the slightest hesitation.

As soon as his words fell, the four immediately split up and busied themselves with their tasks.

At this moment, the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's innate indestructible true spirit had been utterly shattered and completely suppressed. With the assistance of the Spirit-Absorbing Gourd and the Life-and-Death Wheel, it was not difficult for Yuan Lun and Yuan Ling to search and extract the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's memories.

However, after obtaining his memories, Yuan Lun and Yuan Ling learned that he had lived for more than twenty thousand yuanhui. His memories were simply too vast; sorting through them and extracting the useful portions would take some time.

On the other hand, Yuan Yan and Yuan Jie did not need much time to erase the lingering power of the Dao in this region and restore the area.

That was because their battle with the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor had not lasted very long. Although it had inevitably damaged heaven and earth, neither side had been eroded by Sha Qi or resentful qi. Both had retained their reason.

Naturally, both had deliberately avoided inflicting widespread, severe destruction upon heaven and earth and incurring even more karmic burden.

The region affected by their battle was not especially vast. Though the earth veins within the affected area had been damaged, the injuries were not overly severe.

In less than a thousand years, all four had completed their respective tasks.

At once, merit descended from heaven and earth. It was actually slightly greater than the karmic burden they had incurred from damaging heaven and earth.

Only then did Yuan Yan and Yuan Jie have time to connect their minds with Yuan Lun and Yuan Ling and receive the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's memories that they had extracted and organized.

"So that was it!" As Yuan Yan received and sorted through the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's memories, joy rose in his heart and understanding flickered in his eyes. He had finally understood how to break through to Hunyuan Golden Immortal!

To break through to Hunyuan Golden Immortal, one had to cultivate one's essence, qi, and spirit to perfection, then fuse them into Hunyuan power. One then had to merge that Hunyuan power with one's Great Luo Dao Fruit, allowing the Great Luo Dao Fruit to transform into an incomplete Hunyuan Dao Fruit and give rise to Hunyuan Ancestral Qi.

If one's accumulation was sufficiently profound and one could comprehend the mysteries of Hunyuan, allowing the Great Luo Dao Fruit to transform into an incomplete Hunyuan Dao Fruit and evolve Hunyuan Ancestral Qi, that counted as half a step into Hunyuan Golden Immortal.

After that, one merely needed time to let the Hunyuan Ancestral Qi merge with the innate indestructible true spirit. It did not need to fuse completely; initial fusion alone would allow one to break through to Hunyuan Golden Immortal.

But if one's accumulation was insufficient—whether in essence, qi, and spirit or in the Dao—the Dao Fruit could not possibly transform successfully. Naturally, one would be unable to break through to Hunyuan Golden Immortal.

What delighted Yuan Yan even more was that, after Yuan Lun and Yuan Ling deduced the matter, they discovered that cultivating the Three-Selves Dao Bodies through the Three-Selves Severing Technique, or cultivating the Three Corpse Dao Bodies through the Three Corpse Severing Technique, did not conflict with the Dao of Hunyuan.

After severing the three selves or the three corpses, one could still walk the path of Hunyuan. This instantly dispelled Yuan Yan's worries; he no longer needed to fear that this would make the Hunyuan Great Luo forever unattainable.

Yet upon careful thought, that made sense. Whether Hongjun created the Three Corpse Severing Technique after attaining Hunyuan Golden Immortal, or broke through to Hunyuan Golden Immortal after creating it, there could not possibly have been any conflict. Otherwise, what use would there have been in Hongjun creating the Three Corpse Severing Technique?

Then Yuan Yan could not help feeling somewhat surprised. The Netherworld Serpent Ancestor had actually been a figure from the early days of the Calamity of Ferocious Beasts and had survived for more than twenty thousand yuanhui.

But alongside his surprise came a measure of contempt. He had lived from the early days of the Calamity of Ferocious Beasts until now, yet had still failed to break through to Hunyuan Golden Immortal. That was truly pathetic.

However, as he sorted through and understood more memories, the contempt in Yuan Yan's heart gradually faded.

In truth, the Netherworld Serpent Ancestor's inability to break through to Hunyuan Golden Immortal could not really be blamed on him being too useless.

His failure to break through was partly due to terrible luck, and partly because the Dao of Hunyuan was truly difficult.

The Netherworld Serpent Ancestor had originally been staying peacefully in his lair when Torch Dragon suddenly came knocking. He was crushed by a single strike, leaving a flaw in his Dao heart and forcing him to submit to the Dragon Clan. After joining the Dragon Clan, he did not gain a high position. As a result, his overall fortune steadily drained away, and his cultivation progressed more and more slowly.

And while one could say he was fortunate, he had successfully survived both the Calamity of Ferocious Beasts and the Dragon-Han Calamity.

Yet one could also say he was unlucky. During the Calamity of Ferocious Beasts and the Dragon-Han Calamity, he was severely wounded several times and came close to death. Merely recovering from his Dao injuries took him several thousand yuanhui.