Obtaining the Apricot-Yellow Banner, a Treasure of the Expounding Sect

A powerful curiosity suddenly welled up within him, and he became deeply interested in the realm he currently occupied!

"What level had I actually reached? Had I already become a Grand Luo Golden Immortal? Or was I a Quasi-Sage of an even higher level?"

He pondered this secretly. He had never even considered realms below that of a Grand Luo Golden Immortal.

After all, he was an innate deity born of the Earthly Dao, bearing a heavenly mandate and shouldering a great mission of Merit. With such a noble status, how could his cultivation be so lowly?

By all reason, shouldn't he have possessed the strength of a Grand Luo Golden Immortal from the moment he was born?

Yet when he focused and searched the depths of his mind for specific descriptions of cultivation realms, he found no definite information.

He found only some vague distinctions: cultivators who had just taken form were usually called True Immortals; those who cultivated a Dao Fruit could be honored as Dao Lords; powerful beings who attained the Dao of Hunyuan could be called Heavenly Venerables; and those who ultimately attained the one and only Great Dao reached the Transcendence Realm, becoming worthy of the title Dao Ancestor.

After carefully sorting through and considering this information, he finally gained a rough understanding of the divisions between these realms. The stage of taking form roughly corresponded to the levels of Heavenly Immortal and Golden Immortal;

after cultivating a Dao Fruit, one should reach the level of a Grand Luo Golden Immortal. As for beings who attained the realm of Hunyuan, they were presumably around the level of Quasi-Sages. At this thought, he could not help but feel full of anticipation and yearning for his future path of cultivation.

He slowly closed his eyes, completely immersing his mind within his body as he carefully sensed his current condition.

Gradually, he noticed that there seemed to be four mysterious and powerful true intents within his chest.

The black true intent was like deep, tranquil water, flowing without end; the white true intent resembled dazzling metallic radiance, sharp and resilient; the green true intent was like flourishing trees, brimming with vigorous life; while the yellow true intent resembled vast, solid earth, steady and weighty.

These four true intents each shone with their own unique light as they continuously circled within his chest, seemingly harboring a strong desire to merge together.

Yet whenever they were about to touch, they seemed to be obstructed by some invisible force, unable to truly unite.

He secretly wondered, What exactly was still missing? This feeling of being so close yet perpetually unable to achieve it left him both confused and anxious.

!Right, fire was missing. The Five Elements consisted of metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. He had now cultivated four true intents, so there should have been a true intent of fire as well. He circulated his cultivation method again, but could not comprehend the existence of fire.

He began recalling how he had cultivated his first four true intents.

The first was earth, which he had possessed innately. Li Zhengyuan was a deity of the Earthly Dao, so he was naturally close to earth. The second was metal; earth gave birth to metal, so that made sense. But why could wood not give birth to fire?

As he pondered, he suddenly discovered that a small flag within his Purple Abode was swaying. That was it!

Upon sensing it carefully, he discovered that it was the innate spirit treasure, the Yang-Earth Apricot-Yellow Banner! It turned out that it had drawn upon the Geng Metal Ore Vein beneath Five Villages Temple, drawing out Geng Metal qi for his cultivation.

The more Li Zhengyuan looked at it, the more delighted he became. What a Supreme-Grade Innate Spirit Treasure. This treasure had certainly stolen the spotlight during the Investiture of the Gods.

Jiang Ziya's success in the Investiture of the Gods had depended greatly on this banner's protection.

But wasn't this a treasure of Jade Void Palace?

How had it ended up inside his Purple Abode?

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