Having found divine fire that had not completely died out in Fire Demon Ridge, Lu Chen began tempering his first artifact, which would also be his life-bound artifact.
Time flew by, and three months passed in the blink of an eye.
With the divine fire here, he finally tempered the primordial divine patterns into a nine-story Treasure Pagoda. It looked as though it had been cast from divine iron, shining brilliantly, simple and natural, as if born of heaven and earth.
The divine patterns had taken shape, but they still needed to merge with a physical weapon to become a complete weapon.
Within his Life Spring, a piece of immortal gold shrouded in purple mist was being nurtured. It was the Divine Mark Purple Gold he had found in the Heavenly Court Ruins.
Ever since Lu Chen had opened his Bitter Sea, he had kept the immortal gold inside it, nurturing it within his vital essence.
A single flower held a world. From the moment the Bitter Sea was opened, it was like a small world, expanding as one's cultivation grew until it eventually became as vast and boundless as a true universe.
The clearest example was the Sea of Bitterness that manifested deep in the universe after Heavenly Venerable Lingbao's death. Countless stars hung in its sky, and shattered stellar remains falling into its Bitter Sea stirred only a few splashes, seeming utterly insignificant. That alone showed how vast and boundless it was.
Of course, Lu Chen's current Sea of Bitterness was far from comparable to a Heavenly Venerable's, but it already had the power to fit Mount Sumeru inside a mustard seed. This spatial profound meaning came naturally with cultivating the Shrouding Method, allowing the Sea of Bitterness to serve as storage space.
Of course, aside from Magic Treasures and divine objects, cultivators generally would not place other items directly into their Sea of Bitterness. They usually packed them into a spatial artifact first, then stored that artifact inside.
Once again drawing the blood-colored divine fire from the earth veins into his body, Lu Chen envisioned the tower's form and began heating the palm-sized piece of Divine Mark Purple Gold, intending to cast it into a nine-story Divine Tower.
Divine Mark Purple Gold was an immortal material reserved for Great Emperors. Melting it down and forging an artifact was certainly not something that could be done overnight. It would be a lengthy process.
One month, two months...
The blizzards of Fire Demon Ridge continued unabated, showing no sign of stopping. Endless snowflakes blanketed the land beyond the extinct volcanoes, forming ranges of ice and snow that encircled the many dead peaks.
Though this was the site of a powerful ancient legacy, few cultivators came to explore it. A strange fluctuation lingered here, supposedly a curse born of the resentment left behind by a dead Saint Spirit of the Fire Clan. Even powerful cultivators recoiled at the sight, unwilling to come here and become tainted by it.
Little did they know that a low-level cultivator had dared to explore its depths, even digging deep into the place where the Great Perfection Saint Spirit had fallen to forge an artifact with the divine fire in its earth veins.
Another three months passed. Lu Chen tempered it with his heart and forged it with his spirit. With the power of the blood-colored divine flame, the rare immortal gold began taking the shape of a nine-story Treasure Pagoda, though it would still take considerable time to form completely.
Although the artifact was not yet finished, his cultivation was growing rapidly. His divine power source gushed forth, radiant light filling the sky as a stretch of heavenly vein formed above the mist-shrouded Bitter Sea, becoming a divine rainbow that extended toward the unknown.
He had reached the third stage of the Wheel and Sea Secret Realm-the Divine Bridge.
The human body contained endless mysteries. To climb higher and travel farther, cultivators had to explore the next secret realm-the Dao Palace. But the Bitter Sea was boundless. How could they cross it and enter the other secret realms?
Only by cultivating a heavenly vein could they cross the Bitter Sea and reach the Other Shore. This was the Divine Bridge.
Cultivation knew no years, and time slipped swiftly away.
A year after Lu Chen arrived at Fire Demon Ridge, a bank of mist appeared before him as he cultivated and forged his artifact. At first, it startled him, and he thought someone had ambushed him.
But he soon realized that this was an obstacle on the path of cultivation, the Calamity of Lostness-a journey in which cultivators questioned their own hearts.
If their Dao hearts were not firm enough, if they hesitated here and harbored fear, they might become lost forever, reduced to cripples bereft of all six senses.
"The Great Dao Treasure Pill forged an unsurpassed foundation for me, and my foreknowledge showed me that becoming an immortal is no empty fantasy. All I need is courage and fearlessness, and I can advance triumphantly, singing all the way. What is there to be lost about?" Lu Chen's divine sense took human form upon the heavenly vein's Divine Bridge, and he strode resolutely forward without the slightest hesitation.
The mist churned, and the Divine Bridge extended with his steps. In just a few strides, he broke through the fog in his heart and arrived in a pure land. This was the fourth minor stage of the Sea of Bitterness-the Other Shore.
From here, he could already gaze toward a palace complex deep in the sky. It was the second great secret realm, located within the human chest-the Dao Palace.
After undergoing nine transformations of life and death in the pure land of the Other Shore, he would be able to leap upward, enter that palace complex, and open the next great secret realm.
Having crossed two stages within a year, Lu Chen's body, Dharma power, and divine sense had all grown stronger. He could draw in more divine fire to forge the immortal gold, and finally, a month later, he refined the Divine Mark Purple Gold into a Treasure Pagoda, making it his life-bound artifact.
He rushed out of the passage, three thousand zhang deep, reached the volcanic summit, and brought out the completed Divine Tower.
The nine-story immortal gold pagoda, one foot tall, hovered in midair, wreathed in hazy purple qi. Countless divine marks covered its body, as though they contained the mysteries of the creation of heaven and earth.
"Although it still can't compare to Ye Fan's Cauldron of All-Things Mother Qi, I can find more immortal gold to melt into it later." Lu Chen gazed at the Purple Gold Divine Pagoda in utter delight.
At the very beginning of cultivation, how many people in the world could obtain immortal materials reserved for Great Emperors to forge their artifacts? Perhaps only Ye Fan.
And now he too possessed such fortune, proving that the immortal path lay within reach and the Great Dao held promise.
He also harbored an ambition: to gather all nine immortal metals one day and melt them into his little pagoda.
According to ancient legend, if someone forged an artifact from the nine immortal metals, it would have the potential to evolve into a true immortal artifact after becoming an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon.
Ye Fan would later prove this as well, forging a Nine-Colored Immortal Cauldron.
On this journey, his cultivation had grown considerably, and he had successfully forged his life-bound pagoda. Lu Chen could truly be said to have reaped a rich harvest.
But he did not immediately leave the place where the Fire Clan's Saint Spirit had fallen. Instead, he sat cross-legged in the air, suspending the Purple Gold Divine Pagoda above his head. His entire soul merged with the pagoda as he carefully sensed its mysteries.
Clang!
After a long while, Lu Chen became ethereal as an immortal, as though he had fused completely with the Divine Tower. The immortal treasure gave a metallic tremor, like an artifact with a living pulse.
Clang... clang...
The pagoda shone dazzlingly, flashing with ten thousand rays of purple light. It continuously gave off clear, trembling notes that echoed slowly through the sky, as if it were capturing traces of the Great Dao.
Three days later, waves of scripture recitation suddenly rang out across the place where the Great Perfection Saint Spirit had been born and fallen. It was as though the Divine Tower's immortal light had captured a mysterious scripture and imprinted it upon its nine stories.
After a long while, the recitation stopped, and the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda fell silent. Lu Chen slowly awoke from the merging of souls, his face alight with wild joy.
"Just as I thought, this piece of Divine Mark Purple Gold from the Heavenly Court Ruins is extraordinary. It is immortal gold that was refined until it awakened spiritually and attained an immortal nature, unlocking its ultimate profound meaning."
The world's nine immortal metals were not merely supremely strong and hard, capable of bearing the Dao and arts of Ancient Great Emperors and becoming Extreme Dao Weapons. Each also possessed its own ultimate profound meaning.
Phoenix Blood Red Gold, one of the nine immortal metals, could gain the power of phoenix nirvana-rebirth through fire-once its ultimate profound meaning was brought forth through refinement.
The Undying Heavenly Emperor's Five-Colored Heavenly Blade contained Phoenix Blood Red Gold. In a battle in later years, Ruthless Great Emperor's Devouring Heaven Demon Jar broke it, and it was precisely through the ultimate profound meaning of Phoenix Blood Red Gold that it underwent nirvana and rejoined itself.
The ultimate profound meaning of Divine Mark Purple Gold, meanwhile, was to awaken spiritually and attain an immortal nature through refinement, allowing it to capture the Great Dao runes between heaven and earth.
Especially when entering ancient sites and exploring ruins, such a heaven-defying immortal treasure could copy the various rune traces left behind by predecessors who had comprehended the Dao. Its wondrous powers were endless.
The Immortal Exquisite possessed similarly heaven-defying abilities, but it needed nourishment from true immortal qi to display such wonders, making it almost meaningless in this mortal world.
Refining Divine Mark Purple Gold to the point of spiritual awakening and divinity was likewise incredibly difficult. Legend held that only those approaching immortality could accomplish it.
As far as Lu Chen knew, among those below the Great Emperor level, only Ye Fan's second disciple, Little Pine, whose veins carried Kunlun Immortal Blood, had refined Divine Mark Purple Gold to such a degree, using it to copy numerous supreme scriptures on Earth.
Naturally, Lu Chen did not currently possess such near-immortal ability.
Rather, this piece of immortal gold from the Heavenly Palace ruins had long ago been refined to spiritual awakening by Emperor Zun. Having cultivated to such heights, he had nearly become a true immortal. There was almost nothing in the world he could not do.
Unfortunately, a divine war had later erupted, and the Ancient Heavenly Court had collapsed, leaving this supreme treasure behind.
Once his excitement subsided, Lu Chen began examining the scripture that the Divine Tower had copied from the Great Perfection Saint Spirit's land.
Only after a long while did he understand which scripture he had obtained. He murmured, "So it's this one!"
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