Azure Parasol Opportunity

The immortal crane stood guard outside. With heaven and earth stretching boundlessly in all directions, he had nowhere left to flee.

"Fight. Only by fighting would there be a chance at life."

Red Cloud stepped onto the stairs and immediately felt his body sink. Not only could he no longer fly, even his dharma power had congealed.

The phantom of the Illustrated Record of Literary Fortune emerged, analyzing the information around him. All kinds of mysterious runes densely covered the stairs, presently giving off a faint firefly-like glow.

The pressure Red Cloud felt came from these runes. After the Illustrated Record of Literary Fortune deduced their nature, he found them harmless. This should have been a trial.

With that thought, Red Cloud began climbing, ascending step by step as the pressure upon him grew ever stronger.

When Red Cloud reached the hundredth step, a change appeared. The previous steps had all been white and utterly ordinary, but the hundredth step was green.

The moment Red Cloud stepped onto it, a stream of cool energy surged from the stair and entered his body. The injuries within him immediately recovered somewhat.

Sensing this miraculous change, delight appeared on Red Cloud's face. Perhaps he would not need three thousand years to recover from his injuries after all. There truly was a great opportunity here.

Red Cloud continued upward step by step. After every hundred steps, a green step would appear, and the injuries on his body rapidly healed.

When Red Cloud reached the thousandth step, another change appeared. This step was golden, and another flight of stairs extended beside it.

At the end of those stairs stood a palace, magnificent in gold and jade yet carrying an ancient, rustic air.

Red Cloud stood where he was and weighed his options before walking toward the palace. Its walls were carved full of runes, as though recounting the mysteries of heaven and earth.

Looking at the palace, Red Cloud took a deep breath. Perhaps there was something inside that could help him escape his predicament.

With that in mind, Red Cloud searched through the palace, advancing with extreme caution. With every step, he used his divine sense to probe ahead for restrictions and formations.

After making a circuit of the palace, Red Cloud found nothing—no spiritual treasures, no pills. In the end, his gaze fell upon a meditation cushion in the center of the main hall.

After considering it, Red Cloud plucked out a strand of hair and blew a breath of immortal qi upon it. The hair transformed into another Red Cloud.

At Red Cloud's command, the duplicate sat upon the cushion. Red Cloud could not afford to be careless; who knew what hidden tricks might lie here? Fortunately, nothing happened.

Only then did Red Cloud personally sit upon the cushion. He immediately felt his mind become crystal clear, his perception of heaven and earth sharper than before, as though obscure laws lay directly before his eyes.

Sensing this anomaly, Red Cloud guarded his mind tightly and began cultivating cross-legged upon the cushion.

Who knew how much time had passed? The mysterious power eventually dissipated, and Red Cloud awoke from cultivation.

"Haha, my Primordial Spirit has reached the mid-stage Primordial Unity Golden Immortal!"

Red Cloud rose excitedly. Through this cultivation session, not only had his injuries completely healed, but his cultivation had also broken through.

"What a pity. That Dao resonance is gone."

Red Cloud looked regretfully at the cushion on the ground. It was not some innate spiritual treasure, merely a mid-grade acquired spiritual treasure. It was that trace of Dao resonance that had made it extraordinary.

After thinking it over, Red Cloud decided to take the cushion with him, only to find that it seemed nailed to the floor and could not be moved at all. Left with no choice, he could only give up.

Afterward, Red Cloud gave the palace one deep look, then returned to the main staircase and continued climbing.

Just as before, there was a green step every hundred steps. After Red Cloud's injuries had healed, the energy supplied by the green steps transformed into dharma power instead.

He soon reached another thousandth step. It too was golden, and it too had a staircase beside it, leading to another ancient, rustic palace.

Red Cloud explored the palace and found a bottle of Eighth-Turn Body Tempering Pills on the divine altar in the main hall.

Without hesitation, Red Cloud cultivated within the palace. After consuming the entire bottle of Eighth-Turn Body Tempering Pills, his physical cultivation broke through, and his body reached the mid-stage Primordial Unity Golden Immortal.

Red Cloud continued climbing. Step after step, palace after palace, his cultivation steadily rose throughout the process.

By the time Red Cloud reached the mountaintop, his cultivation had broken through to the late stage of the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal. His body, Primordial Spirit, and dharma power had all reached the late stage of the Primordial Unity Golden Immortal.

As expected of the dwelling of a mighty Primordial Golden Immortal. Just a trace of opportunity had spared Red Cloud countless years of bitter cultivation.

Of course, the dwelling of a mighty Primordial Golden Immortal could not possibly be so simple. Red Cloud could guess that what he had explored did not amount to even one ten-thousandth of this ruin.

The deeper inheritances and secrets of the ruin had not revealed themselves to him, but Red Cloud was already satisfied.

The palace atop the mountain was the largest and most ancient. Red Cloud looked at it and saw three innate Dao characters upon its plaque.

"Azure Parasol Palace? Azure Parasol Ancestor?!"

Red Cloud murmured to himself. Azure Parasol Ancestor was that peerlessly brilliant great power from the era of ferocious beasts.

With that thought, Red Cloud straightened his robes, gave the palace a slight bow, then pushed open the doors and entered.

Azure Parasol Palace spanned roughly a thousand zhang in both length and width. Several thousand stellar divine pearls were embedded in its ceiling, emitting a gentle radiance that illuminated the entire Azure Parasol Palace as brightly as day.

Red Cloud walked around Azure Parasol Palace, yet still found nothing—no spiritual treasures, no pills.

The truly good things were hiding from him, or perhaps they simply had no destiny with him. Red Cloud could not help feeling somewhat regretful.

At last, Red Cloud arrived at the center of the main hall and raised his head to look at the vaulted ceiling above. The stellar pearls glittered, appearing unremarkable, yet possessing their own mystery.

"Eh? There are traces of a formation here."

Suddenly, Red Cloud's eyes lit up as though he had discovered something. The stellar pearls in the hall's ceiling had not been arranged at random; their placement contained the patterns of a formation.

Red Cloud sat cross-legged on the floor and gazed up at the vault. Behind him, the phantom of the Illustrated Record of Literary Fortune turned to a new page.

As Red Cloud comprehended the formation in the ceiling, he discovered that the formation formed by the stellar pearls seemed to transform into a black hole, directly swallowing his divine consciousness.

In his daze, Red Cloud saw a strange and mysterious scene. Within it were countless mountains and valleys, with innumerable branches, like massive dragons lying dormant beneath the earth.

Throughout the mountains and valleys stretching for hundreds of millions of li, spiritual rain fell in profusion, spiritual qi overflowed, and spiritual streams flowed like rivers.

One insignificant mountain range ran from northwest to southeast. Like a dormant giant dragon, divine light crisscrossed through it, immortal radiance drifted about it, and golden light shot in all directions.

Within the mountain range stood dense artificial peaks amid winding clouds and mist, divine springs and lakes, stone grottos and crimson cliffs, evergreen verdure, jagged strange rocks, cries of divine birds, and curling divine radiance.

With scenery and beauty such as this, starlight danced, stellar brilliance gleamed, paired rainbow phoenixes called, black apes and white cranes roamed, and divine trees and spiritual plants could be seen everywhere. A fairyland in the mortal world could be nothing more than this.

Upon seeing this miraculous and magnificent mountain range, a name flashed through Red Cloud's mind: the Azure Parasol Mountain Range.

At the highest peak of the Azure Parasol Mountain Range stood a palace ablaze with treasure light and overflowing with spiritual qi.

The palace was constructed entirely from stellar gold, divine materials, and precious jade. Multicolored light bloomed from it, while hazy vapors rose around it, making it extravagantly lavish.

The three characters "Azure Parasol Palace" brimmed with Dao resonance, while twelve streams of mysterious light descended from them, allowing one to grasp the principles of the Great Dao at a glance.

At the Three Yangs Bringing Prosperity position within Azure Parasol Palace stood an utterly unremarkable hall, bearing the three characters "Azure Parasol Hall."

A figure stood within Azure Parasol Hall.

Suddenly, that figure moved. He looked over and met Red Cloud's gaze across endless time and space.

"Young friend, what year and month is it on your side?"