Ten thousand years later.
While Lin Tian was refining the Innate Illusion Formation on the platform of Lone Peak.
Nourished by Lin Tian's four origin laws, the mountain ranges stretching tens of millions of miles within the Innate Ten-Direction Formation, their peaks layered in verdant green, and their countless natural treasures, exotic flowers, and wondrous fruits had actually grown even more suffused with spiritual energy.
On this day.
"Congratulations, your Evolution Points have reached ten million." "Your cultivation has advanced from the early Great Unity Golden Immortal stage to the peak of the early Great Unity Golden Immortal stage. You must obtain two origins before you can enter the middle Great Unity Golden Immortal stage."
The system notifications kept ringing through Lin Tian's sea of consciousness.
Lin Tian was delighted beyond measure.
His Evolution Points had finally reached ten million.
He had spent ten thousand years refining this enormous Innate Illusion Formation, yet had only refined half of it.
But now, he had already reached the peak of the early Great Unity Golden Immortal stage.
He needed only one more origin to step directly into the middle Great Unity Golden Immortal stage.
Moreover.
His innate divine ability, the Devouring Ability, had improved tremendously as he refined this strange and mysterious Innate Illusion Formation.
By Lin Tian's estimate, he would probably need only three thousand years to finish refining the remaining half of the formation.
Lin Tian silently sighed at how difficult the path of cultivation was.
The farther he went, the more obstacles and dangers lay along the road.
Even with an extraordinary cheat like the devouring system at his disposal.
Here in the Primordial World, he could advance swiftly in the early stages, but once he entered the Great Unity Golden Immortal realm, every step became exceedingly difficult.
If he had not previously fused the Thirty-Six Sea-Calming Divine Pearls and the Heaven-and-Earth Ruler into his body, turning those two supreme treasures into his own innate bloodline.
Lin Tian might truly have missed this Innate Illusion Formation hidden within the Innate Ten-Direction Formation back then.
And this opportunity to advance directly from the early to the middle Great Unity Golden Immortal stage would have slipped away right before his eyes.
Having finished his reflections.
Lin Tian gathered his thoughts and continued refining this mysterious and strange innate formation.
In the flick of a finger, three thousand years passed.
Three thousand years later.
"Congratulations, you have refined the Innate Illusion Formation. Evolution Points increased by 16,000."
On this day.
The system notification suddenly rang across the lake of Lin Tian's mind.
Lin Tian swayed his countless Nine Nether Vines.
At that moment, joy filled his heart.
To him, the fourteen thousand years spent refining this Innate Illusion Formation could truly be called the flick of a finger compared with the hundreds of thousands of years he had spent leveling up in the Primordial World.
During those fourteen thousand years of refinement.
Lin Tian had gone from knowing nothing about this Innate Illusion Formation to gaining a measure of understanding.
Why had the Innate Illusion Formation originally shrouding Lone Peak remained completely unaffected when Lin Tian inadvertently unleashed the Innate Sea-Covering Formation and blasted the peak to pieces?
The chief reason was this.
The Innate Illusion Formation did not depend on any mountain peak, nor did it depend on any location. It had existed alongside heaven and earth since the Primordial World took shape.
At that moment.
When Lin Tian finished refining this Innate Illusion Formation.
The Twelfth-Grade World-Purifying White Lotus within the thirty-six heavens of the Nine Nether Vine's divine leaves.
Suddenly stirred with tremendous force!
Yet throughout Lin Tian's refinement of this formation, the Twelfth-Grade World-Purifying White Lotus had shown no unusual movement whatsoever.
Lin Tian was swept up in wild delight.
The stirring of the Twelfth-Grade World-Purifying White Lotus proved that his earlier conjecture about the origins of this Innate Illusion Formation had been correct!
Lin Tian stepped into the Innate Illusion Formation.
And there.
The moment he stepped inside, the scenery around him abruptly changed.
In a single step, Lin Tian left the tens of millions of miles of lush scenery and layered green peaks within the Innate Ten-Direction Formation and entered a shattered, apocalyptic chaos of starry space, where stars hurtled wildly and countless lightning bolts and volcanoes erupted everywhere.
But having already refined the Innate Illusion Formation, Lin Tian felt no panic at the apocalyptic chaos before him.
His gaze turned toward an irregular, roughly spherical star at the center of the starry expanse.
That star had an exceedingly strange shape, like a shard broken off some piece of jade.
In Lin Tian's own words, the peculiar star resembled a cactus ball that had grown crooked.
And the Twelfth-Grade World-Purifying White Lotus within his divine leaf.
Stirred even more violently once he entered the Innate Illusion Formation!
The direction of its stirring pointed precisely toward that irregular star, which seemed to stand at the center of the universe.
Great joy immediately welled up in Lin Tian's heart.
According to legends of the Primordial World, after Pan Gu split heaven from earth, all three of his innate supreme treasures transformed into different innate supreme treasures.
The Chaos Green Lotus beneath his feet, for instance, transformed into the greatest number of innate spirit treasures and innate supreme treasures-so many that they could be called countless.
As for the Heaven-Splitting Divine Axe in Pan Gu's hands, its handle became the Chaos Bell.
Its body became the Taiji Diagram.
Its blade became the Pangu Banner.
But the treasure that inspired the greatest envy was the Creation Jade Tablet, a supreme treasure of the highest perfection, embodying every Dao art and path through which Pan Gu had unfolded heaven's mysteries within chaos, proved the Dao with his own body, and advanced step by step to the eight-bloomed Primordial Great Luo Realm!
At the moment Pan Gu's body transformed into all things, the Creation Jade Tablet.
Shattered into fifty pieces.
Forty-nine of those Creation Jade Tablet Fragments flew to various places across the Primordial Continent.
Ultimately, over the long ages of the Primordial World, Daoist Hongjun of later times collected twenty-four of those forty-nine Creation Jade Tablet Fragments.
And merely twenty-four Creation Jade Tablet Fragments were enough to allow Daoist Hongjun to become the first to attain the status of Heavenly Dao Saint.
In the end, Daoist Hongjun merged his body with the Heavenly Dao and became its representative. He also preached to three thousand Purple Heaven Guests in the Purple Heaven Palace, passing down the three thousand Great Daos.
Why, in the end, had Daoist Hongjun obtained only twenty-four fragments, unable to collect all the other forty-nine Creation Jade Tablet Fragments that had flown into the Primordial World?
Because beyond the number twenty-four, every Creation Jade Tablet Fragment was mysterious beyond mystery, belonging to the "one" in the saying, "The Great Dao numbers fifty, but one escapes."
In other words, of the shattered Creation Jade Tablet, only twenty-four fragments lay openly within Hongjun's reach.
Beyond those twenty-four fragments, all twenty-six remaining Creation Jade Tablet Fragments could be called the "one" that escaped.
To obtain any of the twenty-six Creation Jade Tablet Fragments beyond Daoist Hongjun's possession, the fortune and opportunity required for each fragment had to far surpass even Daoist Hongjun's immense providence and opportunities before there was any chance of finding it.
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