Afterward, they carefully searched the ruins and the surrounding area, but found nothing.
"We were still one step too late."
The Xiaoyao Dao Body frowned.
"Why does it feel like this bastard can anticipate our movements? He always manages to escape death..."
"Heh. He may be able to lead you around by the nose, Daoist friend, but that does not mean he can guess how I have arranged things."
Beside him, the Undying Daoist's expression gradually calmed.
"Oh?"
Hearing this, the Xiaoyao Dao Body remained unconvinced.
The next instant, the Undying Daoist smiled at him. His figure transformed into tiny gleams of primordial spirit light that scattered between heaven and earth.
The Xiaoyao Dao Body fell silent at the sight.
Even after those motes of light had completely vanished, he remained where he was for a while, a nearly imperceptible trace of apprehension flashing through his eyes.
"A Divine Sense Avatar of a Faith Body? Just how far has your true body progressed by now? Immortality? No... impossible..."
After thinking for a moment, he still shook his head.
Countless people in this world, even many Restricted-Area Supremes, believed that the Undying Heavenly Emperor had died long ago. Yet he was one of the few who dared to conclude that the other man was still alive.
That was also why the other man had offered him, who had probed him before, another explanation.
"Did he truly slash himself with a blade... Why can't I believe it..."
The Xiaoyao Dao Body narrowed his eyes, then gazed toward the Central Plains.
"Your Faith Body has been stationed in the Human Emperor Hall ever since that day half a year ago? That man may not really deliver himself to your door..."
At the very least, both he and the other party had "appeared" outside the Drill Tower this time, yet that man had not taken the bait and headed for the Central Plains.
Otherwise, what awaited him there would only have been an inescapable net and a thunderous fatal strike.
In their plan, the bait in the Central Plains and the bait inside the Drill Tower were linked together, one ring after another.
Yet they had never expected that not only would he bite one bait without suffering any loss, but he also seemed entirely uninterested in the Central Plains, which had appeared so vulnerable after luring the snake from its hole.
With such concealment and infiltration methods, he had actually chosen not to pay it a visit?
"He is far more cautious than he was in the Primordial Era..."
At last, he took a step and headed southwest.
He did not return to the Restricted Area, nor did he go to the Southern Region.
Yet by sheer coincidence, the place where he appeared once again was less than six thousand li away from the hidden location Tan Lin had chosen to stash his treasure.
"This..."
The sudden, utterly unforeseen development gave Tan Lin, who was maintaining [Inverted All-Causes Vision], quite a fright. He had nearly thought the Soul Pearl had failed.
Fortunately, he soon discovered that the other party did not seem to be coming for him, and his mind gradually settled.
Still, that made it inconvenient for him to hide his treasure now.
"Should I... pull off something big again?"
Tan Lin studied the several new Causal Lines connected to the Soul Pearl Barrier and fell into slight contemplation.
These lines were likewise extremely mixed and tangled. Their Anchor Points were clearly located in Undying Mountain, born from the commotion just now.
Such lines could also produce Causal Points, though they needed time to settle. After refinement by the Soul Pearl, roughly three Causal Points could equal one "Firefly" produced by a Causal Line without miscellaneous hues.
But if such Causal Lines thickened later on, or if their status was high enough, then the total number of Causal Points they ultimately produced would still be quite considerable.
At least over the past half year, the channels producing Fireflies within his Deep Crimson Light Point had not been limited to the single line belonging to his young disciple, Li Qingjue.
The lines connected to Heavenly Venerable Xiaoyao, the Undying Heavenly Emperor, and even the Human Emperor Hall had also contributed enormously.
In merely the brief period when the Restricted Area had been shaken just now, quite a few Branch Lines had already sprouted from several mixed Main Lines. After settling for some time, they would give him a small recovery.
Tan Lin did not need to think too hard about those Branch Lines. Eighty percent of them likely belonged to servants under those Supremes, as well as "clansmen" who had survived to this day.
Besides that, when he had devoured essence in the Central Region and reforged his body earlier, he had also drawn up several mixed, thin lines from the Demon Race.
There were quite a lot of these lines, but they were too thin, their status too low, and they were mixed-color lines. They were not worth mentioning for now. Given enough time, those people would not know the source of the calamity and would be unable to maintain them, so the lines would break.
"Why hasn't this Xiaoyao Dao Body moved yet? Is he planning to waste time with me here?"
Tan Lin frowned slightly when he noticed that the Anchor Point of the Branch Line on his Causal Line with Heavenly Venerable Xiaoyao had not moved at all.
The Fireflies in his Deep Crimson Light Point had not blown in on the wind!
This operation had continuously maintained the dual states of [All Causes Barrier] and [Inverted All-Causes Vision], already draining the second Deep Crimson Light Point into an empty shell. Now he was still wasting it with no income, which made his heart ache for no reason.
"The Drill Tower in the Southern Region is temporarily unsuitable to return to, and I cannot go to the Central Plains either. Xiaoyao's old undead Dao Body is in the Central Region—perhaps he is waiting there for me... Maybe I can go to the Northern Region and stir up some trouble again..."
Looking at the distribution of Anchor Points at the ends of the Causal Lines, Tan Lin's thoughts shifted.
"Yes, I'll go there..."
Once he made up his mind, he acted. Opportunities vanished in an instant.
Whoosh...
The next moment.
The incomplete primordial spirit light that had gathered once more deep within his remnant soul burst forth, and he sped directly toward the Northern Region.
After moving far away from the Xiaoyao Dao Body's location, he activated the Soul Pearl, allowing crimson-gray mist to spread briefly. Then he tore open a corner of space, crossed the realm barrier, and vanished from the Central Region of the Eastern Wasteland in an instant.
Several breaths later.
Northern Region, the wondrous terrain of Nine Dragons Embracing the Pearl—Ancient Emperor Mountain.
This place differed from the dead silence and darkness of Undying Mountain.
Ancient Emperor Mountain was entirely purplish-brown. The whole mountain formed a single body, its interior covered with the Undying Heavenly Emperor's Heaven-Suppressing Runes.
The mountain's surface was bare, without the slightest covering of soil or vegetation. By now, it had long lost the magnificent scene of all races paying homage during the era of the Primordial Heavenly Emperor.
Especially near the end of the Primordial Era, when the Fighting Saint Emperor sought to transform into a War Immortal in a single lifetime, he was allegedly ambushed by the Undying Heavenly Emperor in his later years.
After suffering grievous damage to his vitality, the former changed his earlier reverence for the Undying Heavenly Emperor and even personally smashed many of the latter's sacred sites.
On the outermost layer of this mountain, there still remained traces of destruction from endless ages ago—left by saber, spear, sword, halberd, techniques, and divine abilities.
Of course, whether these marks had truly originated near the end of the Primordial Era, and whether they had truly been left by the Fighting Saint Emperor, could no longer be verified after hundreds of thousands of years.
At this moment, several thousand li southeast of Ancient Emperor Mountain.
Under the cover of crimson-gray mist, Tan Lin's incomplete primordial spirit silently infiltrated an underground mine tunnel.
He knew that if he wanted to enter Ancient Emperor Mountain without triggering those Heaven-Suppressing Runes, he could only pass through the nine underground Dragon Veins.
Otherwise, he would have to dismiss [All Causes Barrier], reveal his identity, and wait for the Undying Heavenly Emperor's subordinates in the small world within the mountain to awaken from Divine Source—or for the Undying Daoist to return from the Central Plains and throw open a "convenient door" to "invite" him in.
Rustle... rustle...
Inside the mine tunnel, corpses lay everywhere, white bones piled high.
A strange aura filled the air. From time to time, Yin Bats and other strange beasts dwelling in the dark underground depths darted out.
Tan Lin traveled more than two thousand li through the mine tunnel within this Dragon Vein before reaching its end. He was still roughly a thousand li from directly beneath Ancient Emperor Mountain.
This mine tunnel had undoubtedly been left behind by some source seekers. But they had encountered an unknown great terror along the way, and after exploring the ruins to this point, they had given up.
This was not yet the future, when someone had opened a route leading directly into the small world of Ancient Emperor Mountain.
At this time, Wu Shi had not yet been born, and the Undying Heavenly Emperor's sacred site here had not yet been looted.
The Source Heavenly Master lineage was also still far from being passed down in the Big Dipper. That "first generation" would not appear until at least over a hundred thousand years before Ye Fan's birth, when he would obtain a fragmentary copy of the Source Emperor Scripture from some ruin.
However, though the Source Heavenly Master inheritance had yet to emerge, the present Big Dipper was not without several great families proficient in Source Arts.
Cultivators' thirst for Source had created this profession. Source seekers had existed since ancient times.
But the Source Emperor was the first and only person throughout the ages to attain the Dao through Source Arts.
Over endless years, even though no one had found the Source Emperor's inheritance, some had continued exploring this path, eventually gaining their own insights and passing their experience down through bloodlines. Thus emerged families deeply versed in Source Arts.
Yet they had been born in this Ancient Era, when Dark Turmoil occurred frequently. Very few supreme lineages endured into later ages, and those families naturally suffered repeated calamities and breaks in inheritance.
Even so, in later ages, someone would still rely on his own exploration to become a Source King in the path of Source Arts, second only to a Source Heavenly Master. He would leave behind an inheritance, which became the Source King Lineage of the Post-Ancient Era.
"Looks like I'll have to make the rest of the path myself..."
The mine tunnel ended ahead. Tan Lin was not surprised, and the expression on his remnant soul remained calm.
In his First Life after coming to this world, he had once studied Source Arts.
Otherwise, how could he have continually found great medicines with merely Immortal Third Realm cultivation amid the Primordial Era, where powerful races were everywhere, and lived for five or six thousand years?
During his Second Life and Third Life, he had also used it as a supplementary path and steadily refined his cultivation.
The rare Variant Nine Nether Soul-Returning Grass he acquired in his Third Life had been extracted from a stone. Through it, he successfully cultivated both lunar and solar paths.
With the accumulation of three lives, even though he had not placed much emphasis on it in the latter two, his attainments in Source Arts had reached a level unmatched by anyone openly known in this era.
Using the power of the Soul Pearl, he bypassed layer after layer of restrictions and arrived at a secret realm deep within the mountain's belly.
Whoosh!
Before the severed path, Tan Lin's primordial spirit light suddenly blazed. An invisible divine wonder linked to the earth veins, strengthened by the Soul Pearl's dual states. Unstained by the great terrors underground, he traveled onward almost without obstruction.
A short while later.
Relying on Source Arts and the Soul Pearl, he silently shifted into that secret realm within Ancient Emperor Mountain.
There were countless palaces here, spotless and free of even a trace of dust. There were no inscriptions or marks before the jade steps.
No outsider had yet visited this place.
"I came to skim some Divine Liquid from the Undying Divine Phoenix Medicine, make a little commotion, and collect some interest. That will be enough..."
As his thoughts turned, Tan Lin silently climbed the steps. Before him, the place faintly exuded a vast sacredness, and hazy immortal energy lingered throughout the secret realm.
As he continued deeper, the immortal mist grew denser. Spiritual springs tinkled, making the place seem like an earthly paradise.
Ancient Coffins stood in the corners, while blocks of Divine Source emitted dazzling, multicolored immortal radiance.
Restrictions filled the area along the way, and Heaven-Suppressing Runes appeared and vanished from time to time. He cleverly avoided them all.
At last, he arrived at the depths of the secret realm.
Beside a stone chamber that seemed utterly out of place was an Immortal Pool suffused with seven-colored radiance.
And at the very instant he infiltrated this place, his gaze involuntarily froze.
Within that Immortal Pool, an incomparably beautiful immortal figure stood with her back to him, bathing amid the radiance and Divine Spring.
The Heavenly Emperor Dao Brother Truly Has Good Fortune (3K)
Splash...
In the spring pool was an exceptionally beautiful woman.
At this very moment, she bathed in the waters of the Divine Spring. Part of her jade-like body was submerged beneath the surface, while mist filled the surroundings. Her indistinct figure was so graceful that words could not describe it.
Within the hazy water vapor.
The woman's skin was white and lustrous as snow. Reflected by the shimmering spring water, it glowed with a warm, jade-like sheen.
Her long black hair, cascading like a waterfall, had been soaked by the spring water and clung wetly to her smooth back. Though it concealed most of her alluring form, it only added an indescribable temptation.
Drip!
In such a scene, droplets clinging to her hair would occasionally slide along those perfect curves before falling into the pool, sending rings of ripples across the spring's surface.
Though only her back was visible, the natural nobility and holiness she radiated, along with the faint charm hidden in every movement, were still enough to dim the immortal radiance of this secret realm.
She seemed to be heaven and earth's favored daughter, gathering all elegance within herself and leaving countless men bewitched.
"What is going on? Wasn't this woman sealed in Divine Source by the Undying Heavenly Emperor long ago..."
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