Compared to the Sea of Bitterness section of the Dao Scripture, which he had no idea when he could piece together, Qin Tian felt that the Void Scripture was clearly better suited to him.
"Die!" Ji Haiyue roared, an ancient mirror hovering above his head and a black banner gripped in his hand.
With a sweep of the banner, an ice storm enveloped a hundred-mile radius, freezing space itself and encasing the mountains, rivers, and rocks in ice.
The once-scorching peaks shattered one after another and slowly collapsed as ice and fire clashed, forcing them to expand and contract.
Their surroundings transformed. Snow stretched white and boundless to the heavens, reaching into endless distances. The wind cut to the bone, and limitless ice and snow materialized in the void.
Qin Tian remained unhurried. His future self was reflected in his eyes, while the Five Palace Deities chanted scriptures for his present self, enhancing his wisdom and comprehension. Countless flashes of inspiration arose, and everything from his past surfaced in his mind.
He had not spent his three years of mining doing nothing. He had broken down every kind of primal energy within the earth veins, turning that knowledge into a foundation hidden within his heart.
Now, that accumulated foundation surged forth. In the midst of battle, he threaded it all together with inspiration. Qin Tian kept moving both hands, insights welling up within him:
"The Dao has clarity and turbidity, motion and stillness; heaven is clear and earth turbid, heaven moves and earth rests; man is clear and woman turbid, man moves and woman rests. Descending from the root and flowing to the branches, it gives birth to all things. Clarity is the source of turbidity, and motion is the foundation of stillness. If a person can remain clear and still, heaven and earth will all return to him."
"Replace heaven's heart with my own, reflect the transformations of primal energy, reverse their origin, and turn the miraculous into decay!"
Heaven and earth were reflected in Qin Tian's eyes. His heart became one with their pulse, and the structures and workings of primal energy surfaced within his mind. Seizing the common threads in the movement of primal energy throughout the world, he developed a supreme divine art.
Qin Tian raised his hand and scattered Ji Haiyue's great offensive art. The wind and snow filling the sky stopped abruptly, reduced from a divine art to the most fundamental primal energy.
The primal energy of wind and snow settled onto the ground and hid among the mountains, adding a touch of coolness to the scorching range.
"What art is that?" Ji Haiyue asked.
Qin Tian said calmly, "My own method. I call it Divine Spirit!"
Drawing on his comprehension of the Great Dao and his control over earth veins and primal energy, Qin Tian had created a Secret Technique, which he named Divine Spirit.
Its effects were remarkably similar to Divine Spirit from the comic The Outcast in his previous life.
It stripped supreme divine arts of their miracles, cast them into decay, and reduced them to the most fundamental primal energy.
It achieved much the same result as the Myriad Transformations Sacred Art through a different approach.
The Myriad Transformations Sacred Art, however, altered the arrangement of an opponent's great offensive art, turning decay into miracles and miracles into decay.
Qin Tian's method instead targeted the most fundamental primal energy. It scattered the divine power forming a Secret Technique and removed the enemy's essence, qi, and spirit, restoring that divine power to the most basic primal energy. The great offensive art woven from that divine power would then naturally collapse.
Killing intent surged in Ji Haiyue's eyes. After more than ten years of cultivation, he had yet to comprehend a single Secret Technique of his own. What right did a mud-footed peasant have to do so? "Fine! I refuse to believe your method can unravel an emperor's art!"
Ji Haiyue roared, "Innate Grand Void Astral Energy!"
Innate astral energy burst from his mouth. It had initially been only about three feet long, but the moment the ancient mirror shone upon it, it transformed into Grand Void astral energy that filled heaven and earth, warping space and engulfing the skies in every direction as it swept toward Qin Tian.
"I want to try it too. Though I feel I'll fail... without failure, where would success come from?"
Qin Tian unleashed Divine Spirit again. Sure enough, when it touched the Innate Grand Void Astral Energy, the latter merely trembled slightly.
The divine power constructing the Innate Grand Void Astral Energy remained firm and instead crushed Divine Spirit.
"As expected of Emperor Dao's great offensive art. Its laws and order are arranged tightly enough to intertwine with divine power, even mingling with essence, qi, and spirit. Separating them is difficult."
Qin Tian was filled with emotion.
Facing Emperor Dao's great offensive art firsthand gave Qin Tian new insights. He already understood how to improve Divine Spirit next.
Since persuasion had failed, he would use the most brutal method instead, striking at the points in its divine-power structure to knock them down and destroy that structure, reducing it to the most fundamental primal energy.
For now, however, Qin Tian had no time to improve his Secret Technique. That stream of Innate Grand Void Astral Energy, filling heaven and earth and blotting out the sun and moon, was already before him.
Qin Tian had missed his opening, but he remained unruffled. He had long since prepared for Divine Spirit's failure.
After all, if he could break Emperor Dao's great offensive art so easily, he would truly have doubts about the caliber of those contending in the Emperor Road Contention.
"Dao! Dao! Dao!"
Qin Tian shouted "Dao" three times in succession. The five-element formation diagram within his Sea of Bitterness shuddered, drawing upon the Great Dao of heaven and earth. Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth transformed into five Innate Dao Diagrams.
In an instant, the innate formation diagram imprinted on the divine mark purple gold emerged from Qin Tian's body, carrying the five Dao Diagrams with it. In the blink of an eye, they formed a supreme formation that pressed down with the tangible trajectories of the Dao.
The Dao Diagrams collided with the Innate Grand Void Astral Energy.
Rumble!
Their collision unleashed a deafening explosion. Terrifying radiance erupted, engulfing them both and creating a horrifying spectacle of utter annihilation.
Everything seemed to have been crushed. That place became a land of destruction where nothing remained, and no one could see through it.
The terrifying current of extreme cold destroyed everything in its path. Nothing could stop it.
Great fissures split the mountains and rivers, spreading into the distance in a terrifying sight. Any tangible substance in their path was reduced to dust.
Rumble!
A vast expanse of white mist surged before him like an ocean, as terrifying as a tsunami.
Bloody tears streamed from Qin Tian's left eye, but the battle's aftershocks quickly swept them away, concealing them.
The once-silvery radiance was now tinged with blood as the power of time was driven to its limit.
During battle, cultivators clashed with one another, and their essence, qi, and spirit mingled.
Seizing this opportunity, Qin Tian's left eye transformed into the Eye of Time, peering into the traces of Ji Haiyue's past.
Without anyone knowing, Qin Tian's gaze had already turned toward the past.
An eye slowly opened in a past time and space, shimmering with a silvery halo.
There stood a vast immortal palace, swirling with mist. As the core of a supreme formation, it had transformed its surroundings in the era after Desolate Antiquity into an environment approaching that of Primal Antiquity.
Essence energy was almost tangible, forming white mist that rose to knee height.
At the very center of the palace, a mirror hovered high in the air, ancient and majestic. Myriad streams of chaos energy cascaded from it, and hazy immortal light shrouded its surface, which seemed cast from divine bronze.
A wisp of Extreme Dao Emperor Might descended, a haze of light both holy and noble. Even observing that ancient mirror across the ages, Qin Tian felt a wave of pressure.
But that was only Qin Tian's experience. To those bearing the Ji Family's bloodline, the aura emanating from the ancient mirror was like a spring breeze brushing their faces.
A group of children was observing the ancient mirror. They were not expected to comprehend the profound mysteries of the void; the aim was merely to heighten their spiritual awareness and give them a little assistance in their future cultivation of the Dao of the void.
After all, once they had witnessed the ultimate expression of the void, they would always unconsciously follow the correct path in their future cultivation.
This was how a supreme imperial family cultivated.
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