Lotus Seeds Sprout

By now, Bai Jing's mastery of the Devouring Great Dao had reached forty-seven percent. Once it reached fifty percent, he would break through to the mid stage of the Mixed Yuan Golden Immortal.

Seventy percent mastery of the Devouring Great Dao meant the late stage of the Mixed Yuan Golden Immortal; ninety percent meant the peak of the Mixed Yuan Golden Immortal; and one hundred percent would allow one to attain the Dao through laws. The same applied to all other Great Daos.

Thus, Bai Jing brewed a pot of Enlightenment Tea. After draining it in one gulp, he slowly closed his eyes.

With the dual support of the Creation Jade Disc Fragment and the Enlightenment Tea, it took Bai Jing merely three thousand years to bring his mastery of the Devouring Great Dao to fifty percent.

Though this speed could not compare to the rate at which he comprehended laws while listening to Dao Ancestor Hongjun's teachings, it was certainly not slow.

Without exaggeration, beneath the Saints, Bai Jing's speed in comprehending laws was absolutely the fastest in the entire Primordial World.

And as Bai Jing's mastery of the Devouring Great Dao reached fifty percent, his physical body breaking through to the mid stage of the Mixed Yuan Golden Immortal naturally became a matter of water flowing into its channel.

In barely a thousand years, Bai Jing completed his breakthrough, and his physical body reached the mid stage of the Mixed Yuan Golden Immortal.

Bai Jing turned his awareness inward and swiftly confirmed his condition. A mid-stage Mixed Yuan Golden Immortal body was far stronger than one at the initial stage. If this had been when they fought over the Eastern Green Lotus Treasure-Colored Banner at Treasure-Splitting Cliff, then even without the Primordial Measure of Heaven Ruler, Bai Jing was confident he could face Jieyin and Zhunti one against two.

Of course, more than thirty thousand years had passed since the third lecture at Zixiao Palace. Jieyin and Zhunti possessed Primordial Purple Qi, so they could not possibly have remained standing still; presumably, both had also broken through to the mid stage of the Quasi-Saint realm.

But even if they had broken through, Bai Jing felt that with the Primordial Measure of Heaven Ruler in hand, the pair still would not be his match.

"The first little goal is complete. Next, it's time to study the Hongyun Escape Art." With that, Bai Jing casually put away the Creation Jade Disc Fragment.

Bai Jing's fragment of the Creation Jade Disc contained only the Devouring Great Dao, the Dao of Artifacts, and the Dao of Enchantment. It offered little help in comprehending escape arts. Fortunately, he had the Enlightenment Tea Tree.

Bai Jing brewed another pot of tea, then began comprehending the Hongyun Escape Art.

Hongyun's escape art imposed certain requirements on a cultivator's true form. It was best suited for spiritual beings transformed from things as light as clouds, wind, or fire.

Bai Jing had no way to alter the weight of his true form, so he could only improve the escape art itself.

After spending ten thousand years, Bai Jing finally finished modifying the Hongyun Escape Art and cultivated it to major accomplishment.

Bai Jing's modifications sacrificed roughly ten percent of the escape art's speed, but transformed it into an escape art suitable for all living beings to cultivate. Once cultivated to major accomplishment, its speed should rival Dijun and Taiyi's Golden Crow Rainbow Flight Technique. Bai Jing was already extremely satisfied with this.

Bai Jing named this improved escape art the White Lotus Escape Art.

Lastly came the cultivation of artifact-refining techniques. Bai Jing had cultivated beneath the Creation Jade Disc Fragment for nearly three yuanhui, and his mastery of both the Dao of Artifacts and the Dao of Enchantment had exceeded ten percent.

With such solid theoretical support, Bai Jing was also exceptionally quick at putting theory into practice.

For the first few hundred years, he was still somewhat awkward, but afterward, his artifact-refining techniques grew increasingly skillful.

Bai Jing did not discard those failed artifact-refining products. Instead, he swallowed them whole. Even a mosquito's leg was still meat!

After roughly a thousand years, Bai Jing's artifact-refining techniques had begun to look quite convincing, and he even refined a longsword for use in exchanging pointers with Yuanshi Tianzun.

"It's about time to leave seclusion!" With a thought, Bai Jing vanished from Yingzhou Immortal Island.

Just as Bai Jing emerged from Yingzhou Immortal Island, an immense amount of merit appeared out of nowhere and poured into his body.

Bai Jing was somewhat bewildered at first, but after making a calculation with his fingers, he quickly learned where this merit had come from.

During the twenty thousand years of his seclusion, the Witch Clan had repaired another twenty percent of the Western earth veins. By now, one-third of the Western earth veins had been restored.

The merit from repairing the earth veins had been divided into four portions: forty percent fell to the ancestral witches who led the effort, forty percent went to all members of the Witch Clan, Bai Jing—who had devised the plan for the Witch Clan to obtain the Earth Book—received ten percent, and Zhenyuanzi, who had lent out the Earth Book, received ten percent.

Once he understood the source of the merit, Bai Jing let out a breath of relief. He then guided it all into the Source-Yang Cauldron and poured it into the six lotus seeds of the Merit Golden Lotus.

As immense merit flowed in, the Merit Golden Lotus seeds grew at a visible rate.

First, tender shoots emerged. Then the shoots grew bit by bit. When the merit was finally exhausted, six third-grade Merit Golden Lotuses had appeared amid the Three Lights Divine Water in the Source-Yang Cauldron.

The Source-Yang Cauldron had now become an ocean of lotuses: one ninth-grade World-Purifying White Lotus, three sixth-grade World-Purifying White Lotuses, nine third-grade World-Purifying White Lotuses, and six third-grade Merit Golden Lotuses.

The potential of the World-Purifying White Lotuses had already been exhausted, leaving them with little possibility of further growth.

But the third-grade Merit Golden Lotuses had a chance to grow into ninth-grade Merit Golden Lotuses.

Bai Jing nodded in satisfaction. If all six Merit Golden Lotuses grew into ninth-grade lotuses, then together with the ninth-grade World-Purifying White Lotus, even if there was still some deficiency after swallowing the origins of the three spiritual treasures formed from the disintegrated Chaos Green Lotus, it would be enough to make up for it.

"Next, it's time to head to Kunlun Mountain and fulfill the appointment!" The next moment, Bai Jing transformed into a streak of white escape light and vanished from the East Sea in an instant.

With the White Lotus Escape Art, coupled with his physical body's breakthrough to the mid stage of the Mixed Yuan Golden Immortal, Bai Jing reached Kunlun Mountain in merely a little over twenty years.

Bai Jing stopped before Kunlun Mountain, hovering in the air as he gazed upon the immortal mountain before him.

Misty clouds scattered brilliant colors, rosy radiance drifted in the air, spiritual qi gathered into fog, and immortal light converged into rainbows. It truly was an immortal mountain and blessed land worthy of bearing the destiny of the Three Pure Ones!

"No wonder that since ancient times, whenever the immortal mountains of the Primordial World are ranked—no matter who does the ranking or how they rank them—Kunlun Mountain always stands among the top three!" Bai Jing could not help sighing.

Bai Jing paused here partly to admire the scenery of Kunlun, but naturally also to await the Three Pure Ones' arrival. With the Three Pure Ones' cultivation, once he arrived outside Kunlun Mountain, they would naturally know.

Sure enough, before long, a hearty burst of laughter rang out from within Kunlun. "Hahaha~ Fellow Daoist Bai Jing, you finally came! My second brother has been waiting for you for ages."

The moment Tongtian finished speaking, divine light gathered, and three figures appeared before Bai Jing.

From left to right stood an elderly Daoist, a middle-aged Daoist, and a young Daoist. They were naturally Laozi, Yuanshi, and Tongtian.

The three greeted Bai Jing with a Daoist salute. "Greetings, Fellow Daoist Bai Jing."

Bai Jing returned the salute. "Greetings, fellow Daoists."

After exchanging greetings, Yuanshi Tianzun stepped forward and said with a smile, "Fellow Daoist Bai Jing, you finally came. It has been forty thousand years since we parted at Zixiao Palace. I had thought you had forgotten our appointment!"

"I would not dare forget. It was merely that after listening to Dao Ancestor's teachings, I gained some insight and thus entered seclusion for a time."