Source Heavenly Arts

A slender skiff sailed down the river. Lofty green mountains rose along both banks, cliffs towered above the water, and the cries of apes mingled with birdsong. Lu Chen stood alone aboard the boat, his hands clasped behind his back, his black hair stirring gently and his sleeves fluttering in the wind, like a Banished Immortal wandering the mortal world.

The river was sometimes placid, sometimes swift. The light boat rose and fell with the waves, steadily making its way onward.

After making inquiries, he finally found the ancient ruins in the Great Wilderness-the Fallen King Tomb, where two peerless figures had met their end tens of thousands of years ago.

The vast Great Wilderness teemed with life and lush vegetation. Only this place stood like a lonely island in the ocean, without the slightest trace of vitality.

According to ancient tales, this was the Burial Grounds of a peerless Divine King. His strength defied the heavens, and he had been invincible beneath them, advancing beyond the Great Accomplished God King level to reach the realm of the ancient sages.

In the Post-Desolate Ancient Era, heaven and earth suppressed cultivation, making it difficult even to become a king. An Eastern Wasteland Divine Body that had broken through to the Saint realm was terrifying to the extreme, virtually unrivaled in the world. Such a figure could sweep across the Five Regions and search all beneath heaven without finding a worthy opponent.

That peerless Divine King had a close friend, the legendary first Source Heavenly Master, and they entered their twilight years together.

But ominous afflictions befell that First-Generation Source Heavenly Master. All manner of terrifying, uncanny events followed one after another, dreadful beyond measure.

In the end, the invincible Divine King accompanied the First-Generation Source Heavenly Master into this vast, sparsely inhabited Great Wilderness. They lived here in seclusion in their final years, preparing to withstand those mysterious horrors.

Alas! For all the peerless Divine King's dazzling talent and heaven-defying divine arts, he could not change the fate approaching them. After the two had lived in seclusion for a time, a world-shaking battle erupted here, sending tremors throughout the Eastern Wasteland.

The Divine King's realm was too high, and the aura of the battle too terrifying for outsiders to discover what happened within.

Yet on that day, some saw bloody light fill the sky and the peerless Divine King unleash his most powerful arcane art, overturning heaven and earth. Eerie crimson radiance shrouded the entire Great Wilderness.

That aura, as though heralding the destruction of the world, stirred even the oldest living fossils in the Eastern Wasteland. They were shaken beyond measure, unable to imagine who in that age could fight the peerless Divine King to such an extent.

When everything subsided and the many powerful cultivators arrived, the peerless Divine King had already fallen in blood. His scarlet blood dyed the earth red, and both he and the First-Generation Source Heavenly Master had vanished like smoke, leaving not even their bones behind.

That was how the Fallen King Tomb earned its name. The land's color came from the blood of that peerless Divine King of ancient times. It contained divine blood, and even after the passage of long ages, its color had not faded in the slightest.

Even now, the world did not know what the "ominous affliction" was that the sage-realm Divine King and the First-Generation Source Heavenly Master had resisted together, or how it had brought down such extraordinary heroes.

"A Divine King Body at the Saint realm and the First-Generation Source Heavenly Master—both were figures whose brilliance defined an age. Unfortunately, what they faced was a curse laid by two Ancient Supremes!"

Lu Chen arrived on the bloodstained land and silently bowed to the two ancient predecessors, paying his respects to those heroes of the past.

He knew that the ominous affliction of a Source Heavenly Master's twilight years was difficult to break. Even the appearance of a living Great Emperor could hardly avert it, for it was a curse jointly cast by two Ancient Supremes, the Source God and the Source Ghost.

In later times, the ominous affliction had still erupted in Ye Fan's twilight years during his second life as the Heavenly Emperor. Only after he used his invincible combat strength to slay its two sources, the Source God and the Source Ghost, did he finally dispel it.

After arriving at the Fallen King Tomb, Lu Chen remained there, devoting himself to cultivation and contemplation. At last, half a year later, while his soul was fused with the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda, he captured the traces of the Dao that the First-Generation Source Heavenly Master had left in heaven and earth. He had the Spirit-Communicating Divine Pagoda inscribe them, forming a profoundly mysterious scripture of Source Arts.

The scripture's opening passage explained its purpose. The Source Heavenly Arts were not merely wondrous teachings for finding source and tracing veins; they also expounded upon the relationship between heaven, earth, and humanity. Through source nurtured by nature, one could draw near to the Great Dao, ultimately achieving unity with heaven and earth and wielding nature's mysterious, mighty power.

"Look upward to observe the patterns of heaven; look downward to observe the laws of earth. Observe the markings of birds and beasts, and what befits the land..."

"Inner qi germinates; outer qi takes form. Inner and outer act upon one another..."

"Qi disperses when borne upon the wind and halts when bounded by water. The ancients gathered it so that it would not scatter, and guided it so that it would come to rest..."

Lu Chen's spirit merged with the Spirit-Communicating Divine Pagoda as he contemplated the mysteries of the Source Heavenly Arts within. This knowledge differed from methods of immortal cultivation. Vast and profound, with limitless wondrous applications, its Source Arts approached the Dao itself.

If he comprehended the Source Heavenly Arts to their utmost, he would possess might comparable to a Primordial Saint. Driving mountains, herding seas, plucking stars, and grasping the moon would be nothing to him.

Though Source Arts were not a method of immortal cultivation, they approached the arts of the Dao. Their scope was broad, emphasizing observation of the configurations of mountains and rivers, the structure of the terrain, and changes in celestial phenomena. They encompassed yin and yang and the five elements, as well as methods of resonance between heaven and humanity-mystery within mystery, profound and difficult to understand.

"Above, conform to the patterns of the stars; below, reveal the map of the land. Heaven and earth bring forth creation; the trigrams move and settle..."

Lu Chen felt that the difficulty of the Source Heavenly Arts was no less than that of ancient cultivation scriptures. They were simply beyond the ability of ordinary people to learn. No wonder only five people had attained the realm of Source Heavenly Master throughout the long ages.

He could not help marveling. To comprehend Source Arts to their utmost and become a Source Heavenly Master, a figure rare in both ancient and modern times, required not only exceptional talent but also long years of effort. It could never be achieved in a single stride.

Now that this wondrous method was in his hands, he could not afford to slacken. Whether immortal cultivation or Source Arts, both demanded wholehearted study and understanding.

Thus, Lu Chen did not leave for the time being. Here, where the invincible Divine King had fallen, he devoted himself to cultivating the Solar True Scripture and carefully studying the Source Heavenly Arts.

Although his resources were limited, the nearly one thousand jin of variant fire crystal source in his possession were enough for his cultivation in the Wheel and Sea Secret Realm.

With each advance into a new realm, the resources required for cultivation increased tenfold over the previous realm.

Taking Ye Fan's Desolate Ancient Sacred Body as an example, the fifth heaven of his Dao Palace required ten million jin of source, the fourth heaven one million, the third heaven one hundred thousand, the second heaven ten thousand, and the first heaven one thousand.

The Other Shore realm therefore required one hundred jin, the Divine Bridge ten jin, and the Life Spring only one jin. As for the Bitter Sea, since he had yet to cultivate Dharma Power, he could not refine source containing such immense vital essence at all. These were the resources the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body required before the Four Extremes Realm under the suppression of heaven and earth.

Ordinary cultivators consumed ten times less than the Sacred Body, or even a hundred times less.

With innate aptitude like Lu Chen's, comparable to those supreme physiques, he could use the same amount of resources as an ordinary cultivator and then break through to the next realm.

He could also use the immense quantities of resources that Ye Fan did before breaking through to the next realm, building up a formidable foundation. Naturally, there was also the question of how much time it would take.

Every Human Body Secret Realm continually expanded and grew. Even after one reached the fifth secret realm, the Immortal Platform, the preceding Sea of Bitterness, Dao Palace, Four Extremes, and Dragon Transformation Secret Realm continued to grow. Only upon reaching the peak of Quasi-Emperor did the Five Great Secret Realms truly attain ultimate, complete perfection.