Clang!
Within the Ancient World beneath the Mars Sea Eye, the moment Yuangeng lifted the lid of the stone coffin, a mighty toll came rolling toward him. Vast majesty filled the sound, setting the ocean spanning millions of miles across this world trembling.
Yuangeng stood with his hands behind his back, quietly waiting for the lingering waves of sound to disperse. Though this world's Immortal Artifact could awaken on its own, that was the extent of its abilities. Without a powerful cultivator driving it, the strength it could unleash was not particularly formidable.
"Alas!"
A moment later, the Immortal Bell's Dao resonance ceased. A faint sigh emerged from its golden body, and a pair of eyes opened amid an illusory haze. A slender human figure took shape and actually cupped his hands toward Yuangeng of his own accord.
"Greetings, fellow Daoist."
Without question, the speaker was the spirit of the Kunlun Immortal Bell. He had witnessed almost the entire battle between Yuangeng and the Undying Heavenly Emperor and knew how formidable Yuangeng was. He was both straightforward and courteous.
"I have long admired you."
Yuangeng sat cross-legged before the Immortal Bell, setting the coffin lid beside him. This bell was quite capable. Even Emperor Venerable had failed to capture it when he personally made a move back then, and Yuangeng was a little worried it might flee.
"Was leaving the Kunlun Remnant Clan all those years ago truly your own choice?"
That was his question.
"Yes. Back then, the Heavenly Emperor brought me with him to strike at Emperor Venerable. He lacked neither strength nor boldness, and I admired him greatly. Afterward, he began entertaining certain intentions. I went with the current and chose him."
Surprisingly, the Immortal Bell's spirit sat cross-legged atop the great bell and freely admitted what he had done back then. Yuangeng understood. The Undying Heavenly Emperor had indeed won his approval. Immortal Artifacts possessed sentience; without their own consent, no one could easily control them.
"Do you truly not care about the Kunlun Remnant Clan, fellow Daoist?"
Yuangeng continued questioning him, finding the Immortal Bell's thinking somewhat difficult to understand. For an artifact, loyalty to its homeland should have been the norm.
"I once cared. After all, the Kunlun Immortal Land nurtured both this body and this spirit. The Kunlun clan revered me as their Ancestral Artifact, and I protected them throughout the entire Mythological Era. For millions of years, that clan stood at the very pinnacle of history. I owe them nothing."
The Kunlun Immortal Bell's spirit sat cross-legged atop the bell. Images of boundless mountains and rivers and myriad beings bowing in worship lit up across its surface, yet his voice remained indifferent.
"In the battle against the Heavenly Court, Kunlun's immortal blood ran dry, and our bond ran its course. So I left. From then on, we had nothing more to do with one another."
Yuangeng pondered this. According to the original story he knew, the Kunlun Immortal Bell had spent a very long period without anyone wielding it. Though the Immortal Artifact possessed sentience, it had never returned to the Kunlun Remnant Clan. That seemed to reveal something.
Viewed from another angle, the Kunlun Remnant Clan truly was beyond salvaging. They possessed an immortal ascension ground like Kunlun and wielded an Immortal Artifact like the Immortal Bell, yet throughout the entire Mythological Era, they had not produced a single renowned expert bearing a Heavenly title. Emperor Venerable, who had yet to become an immortal, had beaten them to the brink of collapse, and even Kunlun itself had been carried away. The Immortal Bell's disappointment was understandable.
"What a pity about the Undying Heavenly Emperor. His bloodline and aptitude were clearly unmatched throughout the ages. I once thought he could surpass Emperor Venerable, yet he took the wrong path. His Phoenix blood made him, but it also bound him. This death may perhaps be an opportunity for nirvana."
The Immortal Bell's spirit continued speaking. It seemed he rarely had the chance to converse with a being like Yuangeng, and he expressed regret over the Undying Heavenly Emperor's fate.
"Do you still intend to stand up for the Undying Heavenly Emperor?"
Yuangeng narrowed his eyes. The Immortal Bell thought much as he did: neither believed the Undying Heavenly Emperor had perished completely. A True Phoenix could undergo nirvana. Even if this was merely a Phoenix at the pinnacle of the human Dao, he would not pass into oblivion so easily.
"Our bond has run its course. This calamity was his fate. I aided him with all my strength, yet still could not turn back the heavens. Whether he returns in the future or not, it will be difficult to renew this bond."
At those words, the Immortal Bell spoke softly. He was the spirit of an Immortal Artifact, enduring through the ages. Though he too possessed the emotions of living beings, his disposition differed greatly from that of ordinary creatures.
"If you travel with me, fellow Daoist, will there also come a day when our bond ends?" Yuangeng asked.
"In the rolling tides of the mortal world, where a bond begins, it must naturally end. The day you ascend and depart, fellow Daoist, our bond will naturally reach its end."
The Immortal Bell rang softly in the heavens. Laws converged, forming an intricate character. It seemed cast from the purest immortal gold and radiated a warm, harmonious glow like jade.
"Affinity!"
Yuangeng raised an eyebrow. This character from the Mythological Era was far from simple. It contained a wealth of information, a kind of covenant with exceptionally loose terms, meant to govern the conduct of both the Immortal Bell and himself.
"Following the course of affinity-you ought perhaps to be a Buddhist treasure." He could not help laughing, but still tapped a fingertip against the void. A drop of crimson Dao blood flew out and merged into the character for "affinity."
Clang!
Once all this was done, the Immortal Bell released another lingering Dao note. It flew into Yuangeng's brow, intending to settle upon his Immortal Platform, only to discover that he had not opened it at all. That region was chaotic and utterly barren. The bell could only change direction, shrink to the size of a palm, and land in his hand.
"One matter settled."
Seeing this, Yuangeng finally exhaled. He held the Immortal Bell steadily in his hand, and his divine power flowed into it without the slightest resistance. Only after a while did he open his eyes, a trace of a smile appearing on his face.
Since awakening in this era, he had finally gained command of a complete Immortal Artifact.
As one of the three most renowned treasures of the immortal Dao throughout the ages, the Immortal Bell was unlike Yuangeng's coffin. Its uses were far broader. A thousand immortal Daos were inscribed upon its body, allowing it to manifest myriad transformations. Not only could it defend, attack, and suppress, but its immortal Dao mysteries had many other uses as well.
With this in mind, Yuangeng activated the Immortal Bell, allowing the golden Dao bell to cleanse his primordial spirit. It soon helped him dispel the many distracting thoughts left after his battle with the Undying Heavenly Emperor. His mind became clear and empty, without a speck of dust remaining.
Then his mind sank into complete stillness. His spiritual awareness entered his Sea of Bitterness, and he began evolving this human body secret realm anew, once more tempering the Sea of Bitterness cultivation method he had created for himself.
In the sky, that boundless, pitch-black bitter sea silently appeared. Within it, a divine bridge formed from the life spring stretched toward the heavens. Lunar essence power surged sky-high, and obscure runes continually rose and sank within every drop of seawater.
He had set himself a very clear goal: he would cultivate each human body secret realm to its utmost limit before beginning cultivation of the next.
This was a process of ceaselessly tempering the flesh. The Sea of Bitterness was the source of the human body's vitality. Whenever Yuangeng inscribed runes within his own Sea of Bitterness, they manifested in his physical body as well. It was a wondrous sensation, one that filled him with tremendous enthusiasm for cultivating the human body secret realm method.
He had no shortage of time. So far, only a little over a year had passed in his second life. By Yuangeng's calculations, even without relying on this world's longevity substance, living for tens of thousands of years in this life would present little difficulty. Thus, he felt no urgency.
Every year thereafter, besides devoting most of his time to cultivating his human body secret realms, Yuangeng also set aside time to practice the ancient methods inscribed upon the Immortal Bell. The Qilin Emperor visited often, bringing Yuangeng some enlightenment tea leaves. The two discussed the Dao and chatted, passing their days in leisurely ease.
Occasionally, Yuangeng also went to inspect the Chaos Cave that constituted the Road to Immortality. The proper time had yet to arrive, and the laws there were exceptionally violent, but this did nothing to dampen his enthusiasm. Each time, he extracted a considerable amount of longevity substance and infused it into this Ancient World.
Before he knew it, three thousand years had passed in the mortal world.
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