Dragon veins rose and fell in winding, tangled lines. Nine Ancestor Dragon Veins merged among them, like the great spinal dragon of Lingbao Tianzun swallowing and releasing a dragon pearl, poised to leap into the Immortal Altar, as they crept toward the Heavenly Soldier Ancient Star Domain.
Lingbao Tianzun had split into five parts here all those years ago. No one knew whether his nirvana had failed, whether his cultivation had gone wrong, or whether this had been his plan all along.
"The Red-Dust Immortal Path is unimaginably difficult."
Lin Xian sighed. This path was not easy to walk. No matter how dazzling a genius might be, one wrong step could reduce ten thousand ages of effort to nothing.
Even the Immortal Emperor had nearly died during his repeated transformations, leaving behind a Divine Thought. The Azure Emperor's Immortal Realm Evolution had failed, leaving him sitting fruitlessly within the Desolate Pagoda. And there were the Netherworld Emperor, the Empress, and the God Emperor-none could be called anything less than extraordinary, yet they still wandered in a haze through the mortal world.
Those who had failed, such as Xue Yueqing and the Fighting Saint Emperor, had not lacked ability. They had simply taken the wrong path, with no way to turn back.
Lingbao Tianzun was different, however. He had lived for far more than ten or twenty thousand years-at least three lifetimes. An outstanding figure like him had countless contingencies. If even one or two were triggered, a thread of hope would remain.
The Human-Faced Bronze Ghost Lamp had reaped tremendous benefits from the Heavenly Venerable's five great secret realms: the Sea of Bitterness, Dao Palace, Four Extremes, Dragon Transformation, and Immortal Altar. Now it underwent changes mysterious beyond mystery, like the secret writings formed when ancient Heavenly Venerables chanted Brahmic