A Vessel Where Dao and Principle Intertwined

"Though their energy, realms, and identities differed, the beings of both worlds pursued the most fundamental goal: immortality and ascension."

"This was not the Red-Dust Immortal Path, but the True Immortal Method of the Chaotic Ancient Era. By borrowing the power of heaven, earth, and the universe, one could achieve eternal life and indestructibility. This was also the most common and orthodox method of becoming immortal. Throughout the endless river of ages, the Red-Dust Immortal Method—transcending the universe and relying on one's own immortality—was the aberration."

"Immortals of the second stage could ascend to the Immortal Realm, while Saints could remain indestructible through countless tribulations. This was not a method of relying on oneself, but one of relying on the Immortal Realm for longevity."

"The Eight Extraordinary Skills, as well as the Eclosion Ascension and Secret of Immortality behind them, might be related to Unifying with Heaven and Earth. The Twenty-Four Solar Terms Tongtian Valley was a qi formation."

"They all sought immortality. There would always be paths in this world that crossed. There was no question of which was superior; they merely happened to meet from time to time."

Lin Xian fell into thought. Though he was only in the Wheel of the Sea Secret Realm, he possessed a lofty perspective and knew many secrets. Drawing upon the essence of both worlds gave him some insights of his own into becoming immortal.

To verify his conjecture, he closed his eyes again and focused on cultivating the Tianxuan Scripture.

Though the Tianxuan Scripture was an ordinary Wheel of the Sea cultivation manual, the minimum standard for creating a method in the great universe of Shrouding the Heavens was that of a Saint.

A single drop of blood from an ancient Saint could crush mountains and rivers; a strand of hair could slay mighty cultivators. With a mere gesture, they could create small worlds. They were existences akin to gods.

To Great Emperors and True Immortals, scriptures created by Saints were crude and worthless. Yet to ordinary cultivators, they were supreme scriptures.

"Utter stillness, the ultimate origin. Empty and lofty, towering over the kalpa's peaks. Vast and open, the scripture of penetrating mystery. Who could fathom this remote obscurity..."

Lin Xian recited the scripture, using the Qi-State Origin-Flow to cultivate the Saint's grand method and comprehend its mysteries.

Within his Wheel of the Sea, an emerald-green wheel of light radiated vitality, standing in stark contrast to the dark, silent Bitter Sea of extinction. A Life Spring ran through them, blooming with platinum divine light. It was the source of magical power, sometimes transforming into countless divine swords, sometimes evolving into a dazzling great star.

The great star illuminated the qi infant, drawing it upward to reside within it and become a primordial spirit. Immortal qi swirled around it, and a divine figure could vaguely be seen seated within. He was called Tianxuan, wearing a Seven-Star Crown, vermilion shoes, and robes of purple clouds. Supreme and noble, he suppressed the Wheel of the Sea.

Around Star Lord Tianxuan, countless divine lights flickered within the dark Bitter Sea, as if carrying a sky full of stars upon their backs while dwelling below in the Netherworld Capital.

Streams of divine light shot into the heavens, evolving into countless chains and shackles that rang with metallic clamor. They suppressed the mind and formed a phenomenon—the All-Heavenal Star-Dipper Diagram.

The Qi-State Origin-Flow could transform all kinds of qi, and Innate Supernatural Abilities could dissolve them. Then... what about stellar force?!

In an instant, Lin Xian opened his eyes. His starry gaze shone brilliantly as he looked toward the sky, at the most dazzling, glorious, radiant star in the depths of the universe.

The great sun, the solar star, a fixed star!

Perhaps this world had never lacked energy. What it lacked were means of using it.

The countless living beings of the world lowered their heads to seek their paths, fighting and scrambling all their lives. But had anyone ever gazed upon the stars and yearned for that silent, profound universe?

He too was a fool obsessed. The Great Dao had never been beneath his feet. The Great Dao was in the heavens!

Only today did he understand the vastness of the universe and the infinity of time and space. What was the Old Celestial Master? What was Zhang Huaiyi? What was Wugensheng? They were nothing but ants, motes of dust.

Lin Xian attained enlightenment. All his troubles vanished; he no longer doubted. He softly said, "The Great Dao is in the heavens, shining like the morning star."

At that moment, he held the universe within his heart.

He stared at the great sun for a long time, until his eyes turned bloodshot. Then Lin Xian slowly withdrew his gaze and sat cross-legged once more. Xia He, Innate Supernatural Abilities—he cast them all from his mind.

In the end, all things and all methods had to be rooted in oneself, with oneself as supreme. The Qi-State Origin-Flow was merely a tree, a branch of the Great Dao. At its foundation, he needed roots of his own.

At that moment, only one thought remained in his heart: forge a vessel of his own, a vessel capable of drawing down the star force of the heavens.

"What lies above form is called Dao; what lies below form is called vessel."

Carry the Dao with a vessel!

This was also the distinctive feature of the Shrouding the Heavens method. Though Wheel of the Sea cultivators could refine four vessels, most Great Emperors and ancient sovereigns would temper one vessel as their life-bound object, pursuing the supremacy of a single vessel, one vessel to break ten thousand methods.

An Emperor's vessel was not merely a weapon. It was an extension of a Great Emperor's life and the manifestation of his Dao Fruit.

Divine patterns, like divine chains, coiled through the air above the dark Bitter Sea, rising and falling with the Wheel of Life. This was their original form, condensed from vital essence.

Lin Xian did not rashly forge a vessel. Cultivators could refine their "divine patterns" into all manner of shapes. Something as simple as the fifty-meter greatsword he had wielded before was the most straightforward and brutal use of divine patterns.

But forging a vessel required numerous, complex divine patterns.

When tempered to the deepest level of Dao, they could even give birth to Dao and principle, forming the foundation for Saint weapons and Emperor weapons.

Thus, refining the primitive "divine patterns" into a "vessel" was of utmost importance to cultivators. Everyone had to treat it seriously, for it would become the foundation of their future ability to control objects.

The form of one's divine patterns often determined one's final life-bound weapon. If the final divine patterns of a supreme being took the shape of a sword, then his Emperor weapon would certainly be a sword, such as the Immortality Sword or the Primordial Emperor Sword.

"What is my weapon? What is my vessel?"

"Saber, spear, sword, halberd; axe, battle-axe, hook, fork; staff, lance, club; whip, mace, hammer, claw? Or perhaps bells, cauldrons, towers, seals, and the like?"

"None of them. To carry Dao with a vessel, it must carry my Great Dao, my soul, my life. It would be almost like remolding another me."

"Then what form am I?"

"The Xuanhuang Cauldron that reigns supreme on the Emperor's path? The bloodthirsty, slaughtering Undying Saber? The peerless Beginningless Bell of all ages? The Goddess Furnace with its countless harem? No, none of those are right. I am an existence that encompasses all things and embraces a hundred rivers."

"I am a diagram, a cosmic diagram containing the stars of the heavens and the myriad phenomena of existence."

"Even trapped within this mortal shell, I still regard myself as the king of the infinite universe!"

With that thought, Lin Xian determined the form of his vessel. He did not use too many chains of divine patterns, first drawing out two of them: one symbolized the dark Bitter Sea, and the other symbolized the Wheel of Life.

Between the cycle of life and death, yin and yang opened forth. This was the profundity of the Wheel of the Sea Secret Realm, a truth that Sage Tianxuan had only understood after becoming a Saint. Unfortunately, his foundation had already been set, and regret came too late. He could only annotate this point in his own scripture.

He hoped that Tianxuan's descendants who obtained his scripture would not repeat the path of his mistake.

"Yin and yang open forth; the path reveals itself!"

Borrowing the power of life and death, of yin and yang opening apart, a Life Spring surged forth like a heavenly river hanging in the sky. Against the backdrop of the dark Bitter Sea, it resembled a Milky Way within the deep black universe, its white silver light and golden divine power reflecting one another.

"Stars enter the Heavenly River; when the waters run clear, the Saint emerges."

Lin Xian was invigorated and gave it his all, refining this incomparably exquisite scroll. With the separating intent of life and death, yin and yang, he guided forth a certain mysterious concept of the universe.

Life and death, yin and yang, space and time.

The so-called universe was time and space. Just as life and death generated and restrained one another, time and space were also mutually dependent yet mutually contradictory existences.

The great universe of heaven and earth, the small universe of the human body—the Netherworld Bitter Sea and the Wheel of Life were another layer of universe.

But the concepts of cosmic time and space were too profound; only Saints could comprehend them.

As a Wheel of the Sea cultivator, Lin Xian could not touch even the slightest part of them. Being able to gain a trace of understanding was already thanks to the Saint's scripture. He could only sample it lightly and stop there. The scroll he sketched could only be seen as a Heavenly River of brilliant starlight.

Only by advancing further and examining it closely would one discover that the river of stars was wrapped in a dark, silent universe. This was not a painting of the Heavenly River, but a cosmic diagram.