Shrouding the Heavens: The Years as the Female Emperor's Sternest Master

The power of Lunar and Solar?

Li Qingjue recognized the source of this aura. The cultivation method her master had first taught her for opening up the Sea of Bitterness was the "Yin-Yang Mill Scripture."

After advancing into the Life Spring previously, she had condensed strands of Divine Marks within her Sea of Bitterness using divine power, forming them into a tiny Yin-Yang Millstone that drew in the yin and yang energies between heaven and earth.

"How could it be such a coincidence..."

Li Qingjue's gaze flickered faintly.

She deliberately began circulating the millstone within her Sea of Bitterness, making it turn slowly. Invisibly, it seemed to merge with this world.

The crushing pressure enveloping her petite body dissipated as a result.

"This..."

This discovery astonished her. Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind, and as her emotions surged, she felt goosebumps rise all over her body.

She was no longer the ignorant girl from over half a year ago, one who had yet to come into contact with cultivation and knew nothing of the path of the Dao.

She had already deeply experienced just how profound the "Yin-Yang Mill Scripture" taught by her master was. Compared to the cultivation methods practiced by those cultivators slain in the deep mountains and old forests, it was unknown how much more superior it was.

It knew all manner of hidden secrets from the Primordial Era and understood ancient divine script...

It possessed countless inconceivable abilities...

And it was so familiar with this place!

Over the past half year, one event after another had piled up. Now that Li Qingjue connected them all, she suddenly arrived at an answer regarding her master's identity.

Could her master be the Human Emperor?

The Human Emperor is the only person from ancient times until now to have successfully cultivated both Lunar and Solar and attained the Dao!

Over the past few months, she had heard this statement countless times from passing cultivators, so often that her ears had practically callused over. Yet before today, she had never seriously pondered the question.

Because she had felt that those great figures of legend were simply too far removed from her.

Yet she had never expected that the Human Emperor had actually been right by her side all along.

His remnant soul resided within her Bronze Ring.

"What exactly did Master experience back then to end up in such a state..."

Thinking of how illusory and transparent Tan Lin's remnant soul had been, Li Qingjue inexplicably felt a trace of heartache.

Countless thoughts surged through her mind, and Li Qingjue's steps suddenly slowed.

She stopped outside the stone forest. The abnormal fluctuations of Lunar and Solar power all around put her on alert.

Something seemed to have come out from inside the forest...

Bang!

Just as the thought crossed her mind, a massive boulder the size of a calf exploded within the stone forest.

Crash...

Amid the fragments of stone flying through the sky, a foul wind swept toward her, followed by a swift, slender shadow pouncing at her.

Through the shattered rocks, Li Qingjue saw a primordial beast with two horns of different colors.

Its body resembled a jackal's while its head resembled a wild ox's, making for an exceedingly bizarre appearance. The saliva dripping from its mouth directly corroded the rocks in the forest, leaving countless tiny holes like honeycombs.

Whoosh!

The beast was far too fast, and the strength of its aura was well above hers. It had at least reached the Divine Bridge Realm, perhaps even the Other Shore...

She could not evade it!

With just one glance, Li Qingjue determined her predicament.

Thump!

Thump... thump...

Li Qingjue's heart pounded wildly. Faced with this sudden attack, she was startled but not flustered. At the very least, her mind remained clear.

Months of surviving alone in the Vast Mountain Range, along with Tan Lin's brutal instruction, had long taught her to bury the instinct of fear deep in her heart.

Meanwhile.

Within the same world, deep underground six thousand li away.

There stood a vast underground palace whose exact location even the soldiers and generals who had once followed the Human Emperor across battlefields did not know.

This enormous palace was buried within natural underground passageways. Built upon Nine Nether Black Jade, it seemed isolated from this world, leaving the Human Emperor Hall disciples who had entered this time to search completely empty-handed.

Perhaps those people would instinctively assume that what they sought should be on the uppermost level, or at the formation eye of that Quasi-Emperor Array Diagram?

Tap!

A floor tile paved from an entire piece of Purple Marrow Crystal was suddenly stepped upon.

The tile still retained the yin and yang energies of old, now condensed into frost. The crisp sound echoed through the palace.

The dome was embedded with densely packed fragments of stars to replace daylight.

The towering palace walls around it stretched like undulating mountain ranges. Each corridor pillar required a hundred people to encircle it, and the reliefs upon them depicted flowers, birds, fish, insects, and human ancestors from the Primordial Era. Everything within the palace was incomparably magnificent.

A jade wall ten thousand zhang high, based in Profound Origin Stone and edged with divine metal second only to the nine immortal metals.

Whoosh!

The crimson mist surrounding Tan Lin's remnant soul slowly dispersed as he released the All Causes Barrier.

Once he fused with the fragment of his true soul left here, it would inevitably trigger the Profound Firmament Nine Truths Soul-Slaying Formation that had long been set outside the tower.

Having reached this place, there was no longer any need to hide.

The difficult part was how to obtain that fragment of his true soul, ignore the restraints of the external formation, and leave safely.

Fortunately, it seemed that the Ancient Emperor's daughter from the Primordial Era had already resolved that problem for him?

This underground palace, once his place of secluded cultivation and enlightenment in the Eastern Wasteland, was not only a foothold from which he monitored the movements of numerous primordial clans, but also the place where he met in secret with that Ancient Emperor's daughter during breaks from training soldiers.

That was right—the Ancient Emperor's daughter whom he had once ruthlessly suppressed with his superior cultivation and captured at the border between the Central Plains and the Eastern Wasteland.

In truth, if not for the self-initiated actions of the soldiers and generals under his command afterward, perhaps he would never have become entangled with her any further.

Later, this place came to hold countless memories of the two of them.

At the time, he had thought this affair had caused him great misery, but looking back now, it had been a blessing in disguise.

For now, he only needed to keep a close watch on the movements along those few lines in the restricted zone before deciding whether to stay or leave.

Rustle... rustle...

Tan Lin did not pause for even a step as he made his way deeper into the underground palace.

He already had a premonition that the fragment of his true soul was most likely in that place.

Before long, he entered the inner hall.

A dust-sealed Human King's throne hung above a nine-step platform, while the bronze lamp trees lined up beneath the steps on both sides had accumulated an unknown thickness of dust.

However, the lamp oil refined from the blood essence of primordial Fallen Feather royal clans within the lamps had not dried up to this day.

The farther inward he went, the more stagnant the air became, as heavy as iron.

Only the Lunar chill that occasionally drifted out from the depths of the earth veins and the Solar divine fire flowed through the gaps of the palace halls, forming a gorgeous mist where the two extremes intertwined.

When he had built this underground palace for enlightenment, he had used seven Lunar Star Cores and seven Solar Star Cores, burying them deep beneath the palace passageways. Combined with the Yin-Yang Mill Formation Diagram he had created himself, they gradually formed a secret place suited to his simultaneous cultivation of Lunar and Solar.

Whoosh...

At last, Tan Lin's remnant soul stopped and rose into the air, silently gazing at a painting hanging on the eastern stone wall of the underground palace's inner hall.

The material of the painting itself was extraordinary—or rather, it was a powerful artifact. Despite the tens of millions of years that had passed, it showed not the slightest sign of age.

His deep gaze fixed upon the painting as he slowly raised a hand and gently stroked the figure within it.

The figure in the painting was naturally that Ancient Emperor's daughter. She had purple hair and wore purple robes, with a flowing ribbon woven from starlight around her waist. Her figure was proud and graceful, and a divine halo shone behind her, making her appear all the more noble and exalted.

Her face was hidden behind a faint mist. Only a pair of noble golden eyes, smiling toward the front, pierced through the flow of time as though they were looking directly at Tan Lin before the painting.

Buzz...

After they stared at each other for long enough, the Ancient Emperor's daughter's golden eyes seemed to shift, as though she had come alive.

Tan Lin was not surprised by this.

He knew it was merely the painting's spirit at work.

"Come out... Have you not had enough of staying here for nearly a million years?"

Tan Lin said flatly.

However, he was not speaking to the painting's spirit.

Rustle...

The moment his voice fell, the painting suddenly stirred without wind. The faint mist concealing the figure's face slowly flowed before finally seeping out of the painting.

The mist had no definite form, as though it were merely a mass of flowing "air," an intangible breath.

Yet the instant it emerged, it slowly entered Tan Lin's remnant soul body.

Unlike soul fragments, this was an irreversible phenomenon. Once the two met, they would inevitably merge.

The next instant.

Boom...

Tan Lin's remnant soul rapidly solidified at a speed visible to the naked eye.

The Primordial Spirit fluctuations contained within the Soul Pearl also surged by geometric multiples in the span of a single breath!

In an instant, it successively surpassed the Immortal Fourth Realm, Immortal Platform Level Five, and Immortal Platform Level Six, finally stabilizing at the Primordial Spirit strength of a Great Saint!

Suspended in midair, Tan Lin felt the power he had once possessed gradually returning. His expression remained as still as an ancient well, without the slightest ripple.

Compared to his peak, this little strength was not worth mentioning at all.

Unfortunately, the origin and blood essence of his previous life had already been devoured by the Supreme Beings, and the Primordial Spirit he had now reassembled was incomplete as well. Otherwise, if conditions permitted, he could have reshaped a physical body using his Primordial Spirit and origin.

"Can you... take me with you as well?"

At the end, just as Tan Lin was preparing to leave this place, the painting's spirit emitted a trace of divine consciousness.

Chapter 18: I Embarrassed Master

Deep within the underground palace, as Tan Lin's Primordial Spirit grew stronger, time and space seemed to freeze.

"Can you take me with you as well?"

The woman in the painting seemed to have truly come alive as she begged Tan Lin for a chance.

However, at this moment, Tan Lin had no time to concern himself with her.

Whoosh!

Invisible crimson mist from the painting's spirit flowed and suddenly churned violently around Tan Lin's remnant soul.

Within the barrier of the Soul Pearl, a Deep Crimson Light Point fell into Tan Lin's palm.

With a thought, he suddenly activated the power of the Soul Pearl.

All-Cause Vision activated!

Light and shadow shifted as his status rose, rose...

Tan Lin's eyes grew increasingly profound.

Buzz...

All the threads of Causal Lines connected to the barrier of the All-Causes Soul Pearl appeared in his field of vision once more.

Sure enough, it was almost exactly as he had anticipated.

The mysterious disturbance caused by the fusion of the true soul fragment instantly drew the attention of the Profound Firmament Nine Truths Soul-Slaying Formation outside.