Within the Jade Pool Ruins, Lu Chen had already used the Spirit-Communicating Divine Pagoda to capture the Earth Seal, an ancient and powerful Saint Art.
Before long, he arrived before another cliff face. Hundreds of stone carvings covered it, all depicting techniques and moves.
At first, he paid them little attention. Although there were many carvings, they depicted ordinary offensive techniques, mostly low-level methods widely circulated in the outside world.
But after the fortieth carving, the moves began to grow increasingly refined. Those farther along even seemed to turn decay into wonder.
He calmed his mind and focused, continuing to study and ponder the carvings. For several hours, Lu Chen remained wholly immersed in them, because he had realized what they were.
An ancient sage of the Jade Pool had once used certain legends to try to deduce the "Fight" Secret, one of the supreme Nine Secrets-the Battle Saint Method wielded by Divine King Jiang Taixu.
All the moves progressed from ordinary to profound, from simplicity to complexity, turning decay into wonder in an attempt to evolve a supreme offensive art. Unfortunately, the Jade Pool sage of that era had failed.
The Nine Secrets represented the highest achievements of the nine Heavenly Venerables of the Mythological Era in their respective fields. Each of their techniques had reached the utmost limit of the human path, beyond which no one could advance.
Even the Ruthless Great Emperor, whose talent ranked first throughout the ages, had merely created nine divine arts capable of contending with the Nine Secrets. She had not surpassed their heights.
The ancient sage of the Jade Pool Holy Land might have possessed breathtaking talent, but deducing one of the Nine Secrets out of nothing was utterly impossible for her.
Although the moves on the stone wall had failed to deduce the "Fight" Secret, they gave Lu Chen tremendous inspiration, elevating his use of offensive techniques to another level.
As far as he knew, the "Fight" Secret possessed endless transformations, progressing from simplicity to complexity without ever reaching an end.
The true "Fight" Secret required one to first possess the ultimate "one," then transform it into myriad techniques, reach the utmost end of complexity, and finally return to one-the so-called supreme simplicity of the Great Dao!
Only after pondering here for a long time and gaining considerable insight into techniques did Lu Chen leave the stone wall.
He flew several miles and entered a vast cluster of towering stone mountains. There seemed to be scarcely any life here, not a single plant in sight. Every mountain was bare, and the landscape was utterly desolate.
"If I'm not mistaken, this is where the Western Emperor comprehended the Dao and first drafted the Western Emperor Scripture." Although Lu Chen already possessed the ancient Solar True Scripture, he still longed to obtain other ancient scriptures.
Every supreme ancient scripture contained the Dao and methods of an emperor, giving it immeasurable value. Even those who later attained the Dao and became emperors would study ancient scriptures and countless methods to forge their own paths through the Great Dao.
Half an hour later, he discovered a faint carving of a sun on a stone cliff. It was only the size of a palm and looked like a natural pattern, with nothing remarkable about it. Without knowing the details, no one would ever realize that it was an ancient scripture left behind by the Western Emperor.
Lu Chen had neither a Bodhi Seed to enhance his comprehension nor the key to obtaining the Western Emperor Scripture-the Scripture Key.
But he possessed a spiritually aware, divine Immortal Gold Pagoda. It was through this heaven-defying Immortal Treasure that he had imprinted the Solar True Scripture and the Divine Phoenix Slash secret technique at Fire Demon Ridge, the birthplace of the Fire Clan's Saint Spirit.
At the Fallen King Tomb, where the first Source Heavenly Master had lived in seclusion during his later years, he had imprinted the Source Heaven Wonders.
At the Taixuan Sect's Clumsy Peak, he had imprinted the "All" Secret, one of the Nine Secrets.
Now that he was at the Enlightenment Ground where the Western Emperor had comprehended the Dao, he expected the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda would not disappoint him.
Sitting cross-legged on Mountain Cliff, Lu Chen summoned the crystalline Spirit-Communicating Divine Pagoda, wreathed in purple vapor. His mind became clear and empty, and his soul merged with the pagoda. Brilliant purple radiance enveloped him, making man and pagoda seem fused into one.
Ripples of purple light surged outward and sank into the natural sun mark on the cliff, probing, capturing, and inscribing the Dao Marks of the Western Emperor Scripture within.
Boom!
A moment later, dazzling golden light burst forth. A great sun rose from the mark on the cliff, and chanting seemed to echo through the void.
The Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda trembled, releasing a cloud of mysterious purple vapor. It drew the brilliant sun formed from Dao Marks into itself, where the sun became a profound passage of scripture imprinted within the pagoda-the Dao Palace Scroll of the Western Emperor Scripture.
"Just as I thought! Even without the so-called Scripture Key, the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda, with its ultimate mysteries unlocked, can forcibly capture the Dao Marks contained within!"
Joy spread across Lu Chen's face when the Divine Tower imprinted the Dao Palace Scroll of the Western Emperor Scripture. This meant it could imprint the entire Western Emperor Scripture.
The marks within the Jade Pool contained imprints of the Queen Mother of the West's comprehension of the Dao. Even after more than a hundred thousand years, they remained undying, enduring in the world.
Soon, he found another stone mountain bearing a mark. This one depicted a palm-sized piece of metal essence.
This time, Lu Chen handled the process with practiced ease. Before long, the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda captured another passage from the Dao Palace Scroll of the Western Emperor Scripture.
Silver radiance shimmered hazily, and the metal essence rang out, transforming into scripture that was imprinted within the Divine Tower.
The divine treasury of the lungs belonged to metal among the five elements. As the chief of the five organs, it was known as the canopy. The Dao power it contained possessed an oppressive sharpness, an edge none could withstand.
It drew upon vital essence and distributed it throughout the body, reaching outward to the skin and hair, breathing in and out the primal essence of heaven and earth and brimming with vitality!
Although Lu Chen would not cultivate the profound arts of the Western Emperor Scripture, merely contemplating them brought him great gains. His cultivation advanced considerably, and he would soon be able to enter the fifth heaven of the Dao Palace.
"Just as I thought, every ancient scripture created by a Great Emperor-level figure is unfathomably profound. They seize the fortune of heaven and earth and delve into the mysteries of the sun and moon. A lifetime is needed to comprehend them!"
Drawing upon these two portions of the Western Emperor Scripture deepened and clarified his understanding of the Solar True Scripture.
Everything that followed went smoothly. On three other stone cliffs, he imprinted the remaining three passages.
With that, Lu Chen had copied the complete Dao Palace Scroll of the Western Emperor Scripture, but he was not finished yet.
He continued searching the stone mountains. In the end, it took him half a month to obtain all the passages for the five great secret realms from the entire Western Emperor Scripture.
Even after obtaining the complete ancient scripture, Lu Chen was not satisfied. He began searching throughout the Jade Pool Ruins. After all, the Queen Mother of the West was not the only one to have comprehended the Dao here; who knew how many dazzling sages the Jade Pool Holy Land had produced afterward?
Surely some powerful sages' Dao Marks had survived the long passage of time.
Several days later, in a ruined Heavenly Palace, he used the Divine Tower to imprint a secret technique—the Star-Scrambling Finger.
Cultivated to its highest realm, this secret technique could knock a star from the heavens with a single pointed finger, dimming an entire starry sky. It was unquestionably a world-shaking Saint Art.
He did not know whether an ancient sage of the Jade Pool Holy Land had created it or whether it had been acquired from elsewhere. Nor did he know whether the present-day Jade Pool Holy Land still possessed this Saint Art.
Lu Chen had thought this would be the full extent of his gains in the Jade Pool Ruins, but an unexpected discovery still awaited him.
While he was using the Divine Mark Purple Gold Pagoda to capture Dao Marks on a mountain a hundred thousand feet tall, a strange scene appeared.
An extraordinarily majestic, martial man seemed to have crossed over from the Desolate Ancient Era. He practiced a fist technique atop the mountain. Though there was no earth-shaking divine light, his invincible fist intent seemed capable of destroying heaven and earth and shattering reincarnation.
It left Lu Chen breathless and horrified. In the end, the majestic man practicing the fist technique transformed into a divine mark and was imprinted within the immortal gold pagoda.
"This is...!"
When Lu Chen understood the supreme secret technique copied from the void here, his horror turned to wild joy. It appeared to be the invincible fist technique exclusive to the Sacred Body Lineage-the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist.
Legend held that the Sacred Body Ancestor had created this fist technique, a truly invincible divine ability. The man who had once practiced it here and left behind imperishable Dao Marks must have been the Queen Mother of the West's husband-a Great Accomplishment Sacred Body.
Only that Great Accomplishment Sacred Body could have left an imprint of the Six Paths of Reincarnation Fist in the Jade Pool Ruins that had endured for well over a hundred thousand years without fading.
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