Flesh Opens a Grotto-Heaven, Divine Bridge Explores the Inner Landscape

Sun Dao, Pure Yang, Taiji, Devouring!

These four Great Daos were each formidable existences ranked among the foremost of the three thousand Great Daos.

An ordinary cultivator could dominate a region with just one of them, yet Yuan Ming had comprehended all four the moment he entered the Golden Immortal Realm.

Though he had only grasped them at a preliminary level, their potential and power already far surpassed cultivators of the same realm.

Yuan Ming slowly opened his eyes. Within them, visions of a Golden Crow Patroling the Sky, Yin-Yang Rotation, and Chaos Return to Void flashed past and vanished.

He felt the surging new power within his body, as well as the four Great Dao traces in his consciousness, clear as pillars holding up the heavens. Heroic fervor surged in his heart.

The Golden Immortal Realm truly is boundless!

With a thought, a wisp of Solar True Fire danced at his fingertip. Yet at its core lay a thread of Devouring power, as though it could suck even light into itself.

Having entered the Golden Immortal Realm, Yuan Ming did not slacken in the slightest.

True Immortals were merely the first step of a ten-thousand-mile march. Only upon reaching the Golden Immortal Realm did one truly gain the qualifications to stand firm in the Primordial World.

He did not rush to leave seclusion. Instead, he sank his mind into that still vaster and deeper Dao realm and began deducing the second layer of the Formless Scripture.

A Golden Immortal was imperishable and indestructible, sharing the lifespan of heaven and earth.

Its hallmark was opening a Grotto-Heaven blessed land within the body, forming its own cycle. From then on, one's dharma power would flow without end, nearly inexhaustible.

At that moment, Yuan Ming's consciousness sank into his body. It was a world far broader and more real than before.

At the dantian below his navel lay the already-opened, boundless Physical Bitter Sea. The vital essence of life surged like a golden ocean.

At the center of the Sea of Suffering, the resplendent Divine Bridge forged through the first layer of the Formless Scripture, linking body and soul, now spanned the heavens, incomparably stable.

And in the "sky" of this bodily world, within an unknowable place beyond all perception, a newly born Grotto-Heaven was slowly taking shape.

This Grotto-Heaven absorbed Yuan Ming's Golden Immortal-level dharma power and his comprehension of heaven and earth. Chaos qi filled its interior, while earth, water, fire, and wind had only just settled. Though it still appeared barren, it already possessed the embryonic form of a world. This was the manifestation of his Golden Immortal Dao Fruit.

At the same time, through that stable "Divine Bridge," Yuan Ming's consciousness could delve deeper into the mysteries of his own soul—a still more profound domain of the Inner Landscape.

The Inner Landscape was not a tangible space, but an inner universe woven from mental images, Dao laws, and the origin of the soul.

Here, thoughts could become mountains and rivers, emotions could summon wind and thunder. It contained endless potential and mysteries.

Fleshly Grotto-Heaven... Divine Bridge Inner Landscape...

Yuan Ming's divine sense flowed and contemplated between these inner and outer worlds like a creator god.

Suddenly, inspiration struck him. An unprecedented and extraordinarily audacious notion lit up within his Dao heart like lightning cleaving through Chaos!

Ordinary Golden Immortals use their Grotto-Heavens to carry dharma power and evolve divine abilities, and that is already remarkable. But my Formless Scripture must go further!

His train of thought grew ever clearer, like drawing silk from a cocoon, allowing him to glimpse a corner of the Great Dao's true face.

If I merely use the Grotto-Heaven as a source of power, that would be taking the low road and betraying the name "Formless."

Why not use this Fleshly Grotto-Heaven—this body tempered through countless trials and already possessing Golden Immortal indestructibility—to bear and solidify that illusory Divine Bridge Inner Landscape, which yet contains infinite possibilities?

Once this thought arose, it could no longer be suppressed!

In ordinary cultivation systems, a Grotto-Heaven was a Grotto-Heaven, and the Inner Landscape was the Inner Landscape. Though connected, they were as distinct as the Jing and Wei Rivers.

But what Yuan Ming intended to do now was shatter those established barriers!

He wanted that "Divine Bridge" connecting inside and out not merely to link the Sea of Suffering and the soul, but to become a bridge connecting the "Fleshly Grotto-Heaven" and the "Divine Bridge Inner Landscape."

No, not merely a bridge. He wanted the Fleshly Grotto-Heaven to become the "foundation" and "framework," completely and truly incorporating the originally illusory, shifting "Inner Landscape world"—so vulnerable to interference from heart demons—and manifesting it within the Grotto-Heaven!

Then, wherever his thoughts moved, the laws of the Grotto-Heaven would follow!

The suns, moons, stars, mountains, rivers, lakes, and seas visualized within the Inner Landscape would no longer be phantoms. They would project real Dao-law effects within the Grotto-Heaven.

This was the core path of the second layer of the Formless Scripture.

Using the body as a universe, using the Grotto-Heaven to bear the Inner Landscape—achieving a deeper unity and resonance between body and soul, between the inner world and the outer cosmos.

The flesh opens a Grotto-Heaven, the Divine Bridge explores the Inner Landscape; in the end, the Fleshly Grotto-Heaven bears the Inner Landscape, turning the Inner Landscape from illusion into reality and the Grotto-Heaven from reality into mystery! The illusory and real give rise to one another. Formless, yet lacking no form—only then is it the Great Dao!

The direction was clear, but the road ahead remained covered in thorns.

How could the tangible space of the Grotto-Heaven perfectly merge with the illusory mental images of the Inner Landscape without conflict causing collapse?

How could he ensure that the Dao laws of the Inner Landscape manifested stably within the Grotto-Heaven?

Yuan Ming continued to experiment, adjusting amid failure and rebuilding at the edge of collapse.

This was painstaking work, requiring an ocean of dharma power as support, as well as unparalleled Great Dao comprehension and control.

Fortunately, he possessed the [Great Dao Comprehension] Entry.

After deducing the second-layer technique of the Formless Scripture, Yuan Ming did not immediately rush into secluded cultivation.

Purple Abode Province itself was a vast treasure trove. How could he enter a mountain of treasures and return empty-handed?

This place had once been the headquarters of the Immortal Court established by Dongwang Gong, and it was also one of the Primordial World's foremost Grotto-Heaven blessed lands.

Even after the Wu-Yao War, when Eastern Emperor Taiyi had shattered it with the Chaos Bell, "a starving camel was still bigger than a horse." Countless precious Innate objects surely remained scattered throughout these vast ruins.

Yuan Ming concealed his aura and began carefully searching among the broken walls, shattered ruins, and fractured mountains and rivers.

His divine consciousness spread out like a dense spiderweb, overlooking not even the faintest abnormal fluctuation of spiritual qi.

Yuan Ming's targets were clear: Innate spiritual materials, spiritual roots, and perhaps even surviving secret treasures of the Immortal Court that had endured the great calamity without being completely annihilated.

Any one of them would be an immense boon to the Human Race, whose foundations were still shallow.

However, Yuan Ming did not know that when he had triggered the Ninefold Lightning Tribulation to break into the Golden Immortal Realm, its vast heavenly might had already drawn the attention of many Demon Race clans in the East Sea.

At this moment, these alarmed Sea Race great demons were silently closing in from every direction, following the lingering aura of the Heavenly Tribulation and the ripples of spiritual qi caused by Purple Abode Province's reemergence.

The Myriad Immortals Array that had once protected Purple Abode Province had long since been smashed to pieces beneath Eastern Emperor Taiyi's peerless divine might.

Thus, these supreme great demons from the East Sea entered this former sacred land with almost no obstruction.

When these demons sensed that, though Purple Abode Province lay in ruins, its vast Innate spiritual qi was still dozens of times denser than the outside world's, they instantly went mad!

"Roar—!"

"Such dense Innate spiritual qi... There must be a supreme treasure here!"

"It is the aura of that tribulation-crossing cultivator! He must still be here!"

Greedy roars and demonic winds instantly shattered Purple Abode Province's deathly silence.

Pairs of scarlet and ghostly green eyes lit up amid the mist and the shadows of the ruins.

An Xuansha Flood Dragon, a thousand zhang long and crowned with a single horn, rode black clouds as it became the first to discover Yuan Ming, who was carefully investigating before the ruins of a collapsed palace.

"Human Race? You dare trespass into my East Sea forbidden land, trigger a Heavenly Tribulation, and alarm all quarters! Hand over the treasures you obtained here at once, and perhaps I will leave you an intact corpse!"

Icy killing intent mingled with the fishy, salty sea breeze, pressing down upon Yuan Ming as though it had substance.

At the same time, powerful waves of demonic qi rose from other directions. Clearly, more great demons were rapidly closing in.

Yuan Ming slowly straightened up. His gaze swept over the menacing Xuansha Flood Dragon, then toward the faint figures farther away. At once, he understood.

"Heh, mere True Immortals dare bully me?!"