The Immortal Pool had returned to tranquility. Most of the female corpses had been destroyed, leaving its waters as clear as before, but a few indistinct figures still drifted through it, their black hair loose and their bodies clad in white as they glided past.
Qin Tian took the strange sight in stride and even greeted them with a smile.
"Thank you all for your help just now!"
The female corpses drifted with the ripples, looking almost as though they were moving on their own.
"Ah-ah-ah, are you saying I'm welcome?" Qin Tian stammered. Watching such a sight for so long had begun to give him the creeps, and his earlier composure vanished.
He hurriedly shut off his Temporal-Spatial Eyes and stopped looking at the bottom of the Immortal Pool.
Jade Pool truly deserved the name Immortal Pool. Qin Tian brushed the surface, sending up splashes as translucent as jade. Spiritual energy pressed against him, seeping into his body through his pores of its own accord.
Feeling the vital energy continually pouring toward him, Qin Tian narrowed his eyes in pleasure. "Mm, once I find the Western Emperor Scripture, I'll cultivate here in seclusion."
"There's a supreme Emperor Formation here left by Great Emperor Wushi."
"I refuse to believe they can find their way here."
"With that supreme Great Emperor involved, let's see which Heavenly Diviner dares to bristle. If they aren't afraid of being struck dead by lightning, they're welcome to divine my location."
Qin Tian spoke softly. Great Emperor Wushi had sealed this place and laid down an exceptionally terrifying Emperor Formation that concealed the workings of heaven. Even the Underworld dared not come here.
Otherwise, there was no way they would have passed up two imperial corpses, especially those of Wushi's parents.
Back then, Great Emperor Wushi had nearly overturned the Underworld, forcing them to flee far into the chaos. If they had a chance to glimpse the secret behind his strength, they would never let it slip away.
But clearly, they could not divine the whereabouts of Wushi's parents.
Qin Tian leisurely played with the water beside the Immortal Pool. Drawing upon the power of the curse earlier
had consumed a great deal of his energy. Fortunately, he had already undergone a transformation. Had he still been the Qin Tian from the mines, he would probably have become a golden-haired patriarch long ago.
Having the whole world as one's enemy was dangerous, but it was immensely beneficial to a living being's growth.
He had risen from a mere mining slave to his present level, where he could contend with a Divine King Body and even stood a very good chance of defeating one.
Much of that was thanks to the trials he had undergone during this time.
Those experiences had turned his existing foundations into combat strength, allowing him to make a tremendous leap.
But he could not use this method repeatedly. He also needed time to consolidate his gains and deepen his foundations.
During Desolate Antiquity, this pool had been renowned throughout the world. It was the Northern Region's most famous Immortal Pool, wreathed in spiritual energy so dense that Source had even formed within its waters.
Drinking its water over a long period could prolong an ordinary mortal's life, and its effects were even greater for cultivators. The sacred, otherworldly bearing of Jade Pool's women was connected to this: the water could slowly improve one's constitution until, after decades or a century, the body became flawless and unsullied.
Jade Pool's water was also the finest water for refining medicines. Some great sects and holy lands would even come specifically to request it when firing their furnaces to refine precious divine pills.
During the Mythological Era, the Immeasurable Heavenly Venerable had forged Big Dipper from a Chaos Body, turning its boundless Bitter Sea into the oceans surrounding the five continents.
Its Five Elements Dao Palace had become the Eastern Wasteland, Southern Ridge, Western Desert, Northern Plains, and Central Province familiar to the world, as well as a colossal Five-Colored Altar.
Its Dragon Transformation Secret Realm had become the former Ancestral Dragon Vein of the Central Province. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the Ruthless Great Emperor had shattered it with a single slap. Now fragmented, it had become numerous Dragon Veins occupied by the present four great Extreme Dao imperial dynasties.
And the Immortal Pool of Jade Pool before him was very likely that Chaos Body's Life Spring.
After all, a treasured land capable of nurturing a mass of immortal tear green gold was anything but ordinary.
Suddenly, Qin Tian felt a chill down his spine and whipped around. Behind him, female corpses had once again appeared in the first layer of the Immortal Pool, which had already been cleared. Their disheveled black hair thrashed wildly.
Abruptly, through a haze, he saw an unknown existence open a pair of dark, eerie eyes in a deeper layer of the Immortal Pool. Cold light shone through the piled corpses.
Qin Tian's mouth twitched. He had thought he was already used to this, but clearly, he had been wrong.
Things like ghosts and corpses made his hair stand on end, and even his calves began to tremble. He still vividly remembered the Half-Step Great Power's gruesome fate earlier. "Maybe I should reconsider and leave as soon as I get the Western Emperor Scripture?"
Qin Tian gritted his teeth. "What the hell am I afraid of?"
"I've got an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon! I wouldn't be afraid of them alive, let alone dead!"
"I'm staying right here!"
Despite his tough talk, Qin Tian quietly moved away from the Immortal Pool. He had been afraid of such things even in his previous life.
Ghosts, spiders, snakes-one look at any of them made his skin crawl.
Even after becoming a cultivator, he still panicked when he saw anything similar. In his previous life, when faced with a supposed ghost, he could at least convince himself that ghosts did not exist and that, after the founding of the nation, nothing anywhere in the world was allowed to become a spirit.
But in this world, if he encountered a ghost, it was a real ghost.
Qin Tian turned and left, passing through hall after hall. Graceful peaks rose in clusters, and many magnificent palaces still stood, undying even now. They contained profoundly intricate Dao Patterns that could preserve them for ages to come.
He redirected his attention toward finding the imprints left by the Western Emperor long ago, which depicted some of the mysteries of the Western Emperor Scripture.
Qin Tian searched bit by bit, passing through towering, expansive palaces. There was nothing inside them, only emptiness and the desolation left by time.
Not a blade of grass grew. Sheer cliffs and rocky mountains were everywhere, with no soil, only great expanses of stone.
Qin Tian searched all around. Although Jade Pool had been moved away in its entirety, leaving a huge pit,
not everything had been taken. The Jade Pool before him was one example, as were the traces left by the Jade Pool Holy Land's maidens as they demonstrated their arts.
"Mm, it should be somewhere around here!" Qin Tian said.
Rocky mountains crowded the surroundings, barren of grass. Their sheer cliffs looked as though they had been sliced with a blade, rising straight up and down. Lofty precipices stood together like successive steps of a stairway to heaven.
There was not a handful of soil or a single blade of grass in this region. Rocky mountains stretched on and on, interspersed with numerous stone forests. Some boulders resembled reclining oxen, others green bamboo shoots, each with a different shape-a truly wondrous sight.
After entering the mountains, Qin Tian surveyed his surroundings. This stony land gave him a very unusual feeling, as though a realm beyond the world lay stretched across this place.
Each mountain held its own realm, each stone its own scenery. It was as though someone had carved the naturally seamless trajectories of the Great Dao with grand, sweeping strokes. Every mountain and stone drew his gaze.
Qin Tian discovered that many carvings had become blurred beneath the erosion of wind, frost, rain, and snow, leaving only faintly discernible outlines.
The stone carvings recorded ancient events, along with depictions of scenery, birds, and rare beasts, all vivid and lifelike.
Farther on, Qin Tian found carvings recording various moves.
One was the Mountain-Embracing Seal. This time, Qin Tian walked very slowly, a different light flickering in his eyes. He activated his Temporal Eye and gazed into the past. The carvings worn away by time returned to their original state in his vision.
Qin Tian studied carving after carving, occasionally encountering novel moves. He absorbed these techniques into his heart, making up for his final shortcoming.
Great killing arts.
The only great killing art he had that was worth showing was the Kunpeng King Fist. In this regard, he lagged far behind the descendants of deeply established clans.
Qin Tian studied these great killing arts with ravenous eagerness. These moves were widely circulated, thoroughly ordinary techniques, yet they rose beyond the mundane when combined, turning decay into marvels and unleashing inconceivable power.
"More than a hundred ordinary moves combined can produce an entirely different kind of mighty power. Truly wondrous."
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