Time flew by. Lu Chen had already spent nine months at the Fallen King Tomb.
After absorbing the essence from over a hundred pieces of variant fire crystal source, he had reached full perfection in the Wheel and Sea Secret Realm. His body had undergone nine cycles of withering and renewal-the nine transformations of the Other Shore. Divine life energy overflowed from him, restoring vitality even to dead wood.
After the Divine Spring and Sacred Fruit of the Desolate Forbidden Zone, and the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill of the Heavenly Court Ruins, this was his third complete rebirth.
With every movement of his hand, Dharma power surged within him. He awoke from meditation and abruptly opened his eyes, gazing up at the mist-shrouded sky and down at the vast, boundless earth. This new transformation had changed even how the world appeared to him.
After a long while, he took out another fist-sized piece of fire crystal source, preparing to break into the Dao Palace Secret Realm in one stroke.
The Wheel and Sea Secret Realm lay below the navel, while the Dao Palace lay above it, corresponding to the five internal organs within the torso.
It contained five Dao Palaces, which could generate Dao power and produce immense vitality, serving as the places that nourished a person's life.
The heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys were collectively called the five internal organs, or the five spirits. They stored essence without letting it escape and harbored life without decaying, forming one of the body's most vital secret realms.
If a person could nourish these spirits and keep them from perishing, youth would endure. The five energies would circulate, linking heaven and earth in an unending flow, allowing that person to exist forever between them.
For cultivators seeking immortality, this secret realm was indispensable. To climb still higher, pursue the Dao, and seek immortal ascension, they needed all the more to evolve the five elements within the human body here.
The fire crystal source was quickly refined, releasing a haze of crimson essence containing terrifying divine energy.
At the same time, solar essence was drawn down from the sun above. Together with the crimson divine energy, it formed a golden bronze furnace that enveloped his entire body.
At this moment, he used the profound methods of the Solar True Scripture to forge a Fortune Divine Furnace, treating his own body as a Great Dao Treasure Pill to be tempered in every possible way.
Flowers bloomed on the Other Shore, clouds gathered and dispersed, and a divine palace emerged. Lu Chen clearly saw an immense gate to the Heavenly Gate above his Sea of Bitterness. He only needed to soar straight into the heavens to break into the next great secret realm.
"The Divine Bridge spans the sea, the pure land reaches perfection, and I ascend to the next heaven."
A lingering voice of the Dao echoed through his Sea of Bitterness. A heavenly vein stretched across the sky, and a Divine Bridge manifested, extending beneath his feet. It carried him straight into the clouds, through the Heavenly Gate, and into a new world.
Boom!
From within the Heavenly Gate came the aura of a deity. He felt Dao power reaching right before him.
At the final moment, he stopped and looked back, gazing down into the distance. Waves surged across the vast sea, and clouds and mist swirled. It was not merely his Sea of Bitterness, but scene after scene of his past, a stretch of years. Everything had already become dust. He resolutely turned away and strode into the Dao Palace.
At the same time, a thunderous rumbling sounded within Lu Chen's body. The five energies converged upon their origin, and five-element immortal light rose into the sky like dragon-shaped smoke, manifesting in the outside world.
"Who is that? The Dao Palace's five-element energies pierced the sky and scattered the clouds... incredible!" Several cultivators searching for spirit medicine in the wilderness hundreds of li away saw this extraordinary sight from afar, their faces filled with shock.
"Such a phenomenon is rare under heaven. Even the great Holy Lords, when they were spirited youths breaking through their realms, probably never produced a sight like this." The cultivators exchanged looks and swiftly rose on streaks of rainbow light, hoping to see what extraordinary talent had caused it.
Unfortunately, they were too far away. They had barely taken flight before the five-element dragon smoke disappeared.
Lu Chen had advanced into the Dao Palace Secret Realm. Since the Solar True Scripture belonged to fire, he would first cultivate the heart's heavenly sun, nurturing a deity within the heart divine treasury.
The deity of the heart resembled an unopened lotus and had yet to assume human form, showing that it was still taking shape. To achieve immortality and endure forever without perishing, he had to begin here.
Life essence formed the human body. Upon entering the Dao Palace Secret Realm, the task was to transform essence into spirit and bring a deity into being.
This divine treasury was the sun among the deities. It employed yang energy to drive the circulation of life energy, preserving the body's immortality and sustaining its ceaseless renewal.
"The heart is the organ of fire, illuminating all things... the five great divine treasuries transform into the five elements..."
Only after a long while did Lu Chen rise to his full height and stride away, leaving the wilderness where the Fallen King Tomb lay.
Having advanced into the Dao Palace Secret Realm and evolved the five elements within his body, his cultivation and strength had increased tremendously. He felt that, vast as the world was, there was nowhere he could not go!
At this moment, he seemed at one with heaven and earth, bearing an air of the Dao following nature.
A gentle breeze blew, his white robes fluttered, and he rode the clouds like an immortal.
Having obtained the Source Heavenly Master's Source Arts at the Fallen King Tomb and advanced into the Dao Palace Secret Realm, Lu Chen headed to the Yan Kingdom. He intended to settle some karmic ties there-or, rather, repay a debt of gratitude that did not exist.
The Yan Kingdom stretched three thousand li from east to west and two thousand li from north to south. In the immense Eastern Wasteland, it was merely an insignificant little nation.
Yet it was quite famous, for within its borders lay the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land, one of the Seven Great Life Forbidden Zones.
Over the past two years, the opening of Qing Emperor's Tomb had also brought an endless stream of powerful cultivators from the Eastern Wasteland's holy lands and ancient families, making this little kingdom increasingly lively.
Of course, neither the Desolate Forbidden Zone nor Qing Emperor's Tomb interested Lu Chen. He knew that entering either place meant courting death.
He arrived at the Jade Cauldron Grotto-Heaven, one of the Yan Kingdom's six great grotto-heavens and blessed lands. Encircled by mountains and wreathed in mist, it looked from afar like an ethereal immortal sanctuary, a pure land beyond the mortal world.
Upon reaching the mountain gate, Lu Chen sensed a natural, peaceful atmosphere. Verdant peaks stood in rows, waterfalls cascaded, ancient trees towered, and spiritual energy pressed upon his senses. It was like a beautiful landscape painting.
At the Jade Cauldron Grotto-Heaven's mountain gate, a guardian beast resembling a yak, with a head like a qilin and a body nearly ten meters long, lay in a cold pool of clear green water. Its enormous eyes were slightly open, watching the gate.
When it saw Lu Chen approach, its enormous eyes abruptly widened. It rose to its feet and parted its great jaws, about to roar. But sensing the power of the man before it, fear entered its eyes, and it ultimately made no sound.
"Who are you, and what business do you have at the Jade Cauldron Grotto-Heaven?" Soon, the disciple guarding the mountain gate noticed him as well.
"May I ask whether Liu Yiyi and Zhang Wenchang are in your sect?" Lu Chen stepped forward and asked calmly.
"That useless old man... and Senior Sister Liu." The gatekeeper was a young disciple who had only reached the Bitter Sea stage.
From his tone alone, Lu Chen could tell that Zhang Wenchang and Liu Yiyi occupied vastly different positions within the Jade Cauldron Grotto-Heaven.
Although the gatekeeping disciple's attitudes toward the two differed greatly, he did not make things difficult. "Wait a moment. I'll have someone notify them."
Half a quarter of an hour later, a beautiful young woman who looked somewhat delicate emerged alongside a middle-aged man with graying hair and a haggard face.
The woman was naturally Liu Yiyi, and the middle-aged man was Zhang Wenchang. Looking at the supposed old friend their fellow disciple had mentioned, they found him unfamiliar and could not immediately recall who he was. Somewhat bewildered, they asked, "You are...?"
Lu Chen had appeared suddenly back on Mars. From then until they reached the Desolate Forbidden Zone, amid all the terror and tension, few of Ye Fan's classmates had paid him any attention.
Moreover, the Nine Wonderful Sacred Fruit had restored his youth, the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill had cleansed and renewed him, and cultivation had changed his bearing. Anyone who did not know him well would never recognize him.
"The person who jumped down from the dragon's head back then-Lu Chen." Having anticipated this, Lu Chen reminded them with a soft chuckle.
"Oh... so it's you."
With that reminder, Liu Yiyi and Zhang Wenchang immediately recalled him. Someone had suddenly appeared on the dragon's head back then, giving everyone a fright. Later, after the Desolate Forbidden Zone had stripped away their youth and they had fallen unconscious, he had disappeared.
"As the saying goes, when people from the same hometown meet, both their eyes brim with tears." Lu Chen made a lighthearted joke, then said, "Won't you invite me in for a seat?"
"Of course!" Liu Yiyi and Zhang Wenchang exchanged a glance, spoke to the gatekeeping disciple, and led Lu Chen into the Jade Cauldron Grotto-Heaven.
Of these two classmates of Ye Fan's, Liu Yiyi was gentle and kind. After marrying, she had suffered domestic abuse from her husband and had even wept in secret during the reunion. She was rather pitiful.
Zhang Wenchang, meanwhile, was naturally awkward and possessed mediocre talent-the very model of an honest man. In most settings, he was the sort others bullied. The Jade Cauldron Grotto-Heaven gatekeeper's attitude toward him offered a glimpse of that.
Of the thirteen Sacred Fruits in the Desolate Forbidden Zone, three should have been your opportunities. Yet I, an intruding visitor from another spacetime, took them away. This time, I'll repay that debt! Lu Chen silently spoke these words in his heart as he watched their figures.
For him, now in the Dao Palace Realm, repaying a debt to two people at the Bitter Sea stage was naturally effortless.
In doing so, he would also bring his own state of mind closer to perfection.
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