There were grand scenes of the Ancient Ancestors offering sacrifices.
There were also lifelike totems of all manner of savage beasts, including Taotie, Qiongqi, and Taowu...
Above the Bitter Sea, a shimmering seven-colored bridge spanned endless clouds and mist, leading straight to the Other Shore.
This was a pure land, wreathed in ethereal five-colored radiance and suffused with auspicious light.
"Boom..."
High in the sky, amid the rumbling.
A Heavenly Gate stood tall, and was forced open.
Farther above, a vast, ancient Dao Palace could just be seen.
The legendary Dao Palace corresponded to the chest region of the human body, where five deities resided. All manner of strange phenomena would occur when cultivating this secret realm.
The valley spirit never died; this was called the mysterious female. The gate of the mysterious female was the root of heaven and earth.
The five deities nurtured the five elements. The five energies were pure and subtle, communicating with heaven and connecting with earth, flowing without end and giving rise to Dao power.
The Five Dao Palace Heavens.
Each corresponded to one of the body's Five Great Divine Treasures.
They had to be cultivated one by one, with each divine treasury representing a single heaven.
"The liver belongs to wood, the heart to fire, the spleen to earth, the lungs to metal, and the kidneys to water..."
Taiyi murmured to himself, "The innate five elements are metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. The heart is the source of strength, so I should proceed against their innate order... for the first stage of the Dao Palace, I should cultivate the Heart Divine Treasury directly!"
He did not deliberate for long.
He chose to begin cultivating the Heart Divine Treasury at once.
"Hum... hum..." The sublime tones of the Great Dao echoed as Taiyi's chest shone.
The five organs of the Dao Palace corresponded to the innate five elements. The first to bear their force was the Heart Divine Treasury, which he was cultivating by channeling vast quantities of divine power and vital essence into it.
"Boom..."
Crimson radiance blazed, as though boundless flames were burning.
The light was fiercely brilliant, too dazzling to look at directly and unbearably hot.
A magnificent, ancient crimson temple even flickered in and out of sight within it.
Yet even after he used that vast supply of vital essence to cultivate the Heart Divine Treasury to perfection, no deity was born.
"As expected, in the Dao Palace Secret Realm, the Sun Sacred Body is extremely similar to the Sacred Body. It doesn't cultivate deities; all its Dao power goes toward nourishing itself!" Taiyi understood, though he was not particularly surprised.
There was a reason the Sacred Body was so powerful.
It was said to be capable of directly challenging a Great Emperor upon reaching full mastery, so naturally, it was anything but ordinary.
Moreover, after breaking through to the Dao Palace Secret Realm, others still needed considerable time and effort to cultivate their deities.
But as someone with the Sun Sacred Body, he was just like those with the Sacred Body in the Dao Palace Realm. Given enough resources, he could accomplish everything in one go and reach the fifth Dao Palace heaven in the shortest possible time.
"Boom!" Taiyi's blood and vital energy surged like a dragon, his flesh unmatched.
He threw a punch, blasting the mountain apart, then soared into the sky.
"Thinking about it, nearly two years have passed since I came here, before I even knew it!"
Taiyi stood suspended in the air.
He examined himself.
After nearly two years of change.
His actual height had increased considerably again.
He now looked eleven or twelve, no longer like a nine-year-old child.
But he still found it difficult to get used to, and hoped he could "grow into an adult" sooner.
Light shone all over him, and his entire appearance changed, returning once more to the young man he had once been.
This was a Secret Technique recorded in the Sun True Scripture-the Heaven-Stealing Sun-Swapping Art. It allowed him to freely alter his appearance, bones, physique, and more, concealing the Sun Sacred Body's innate aura.
In a sense, it achieved much the same wondrous effect as the Great Art of Changing Heaven and Earth.
Over these past days, his cultivation of this Secret Technique had advanced considerably again.
If he deliberately concealed his aura, then as long as he did not truly unleash his full strength and expose the Sun Sacred Body's innate aura, even a mighty expert might not easily notice anything unusual.
Then he rode a divine rainbow into the distance.
For more than half a month.
Taiyi ventured into an uninhabited stretch of the Great Wilderness, leaving the Yan Kingdom far behind.
He traveled thousands of miles without seeing any trace of people.
Until he entered a desert.
He stopped, having discovered a strange purplish-black copper fragment.
He dug the rust-covered fragment out of the sand.
"Purple copper divine iron?" Taiyi examined the purplish-black fragment in astonishment.
Such precious material was exceedingly rare in the world.
It could be used to forge a Saint Lord-level Weapon, or even a King Divine Weapon.
Unfortunately, too many years had passed. The vital essence within had dissipated, reducing it to scrap copper.
On a whim, he spent several days digging there, and indeed uncovered more copper fragments one after another.
And although they could not be pieced together.
Their divine essence had dissipated, and the Dao patterns within had long since been worn away.
He unexpectedly discovered that this incomparably precious purple copper divine iron-a fist-sized piece of which would tempt even a Saint Lord-level figure-was merely an insignificant remnant of a building.
"Boom!" For ten-odd days in a row.
Unwilling to give up, Taiyi.
Continued digging deeper.
He turned this entire area over again and again.
He did find a great many architectural remnants, along with other rare divine materials.
But without exception, their essence had already dissipated.
At last, he unearthed an Ancient Stele covered in cracks and marked by the passage of ages.
It was entirely black, yet oval in shape, a very regularly formed stone made of some unknown material.
Faint, indistinct markings could be seen on the black Ancient Stele.
Not only was it engraved with densely packed writing, but it also bore strange, intricate human-shaped diagrams he had never seen before, striking all manner of inconceivable, peculiar poses.
They were profoundly complex and utterly obscure.
Without realizing it, he became absorbed in them, studying the diagrams and writing on the Ancient Stele intently.
Those ancient characters resembled symbols shaped like flowers, birds, fish, and insects. They were not the writing of this era, yet their meaning could be understood directly.
They formed a cultivation formula, not particularly long, but exceedingly profound.
Within moments, Taiyi's mind was immersed in it.
"Hum..."
Suddenly.
The Ancient Stele before him.
Sent out ripples of the Dao, strand after strand.
Around it, they wove into mysterious, profound patterns that could naturally resonate with the Dao.
"Whoosh..." A strange light of the Dao engulfed Taiyi, shrouding him in a hazy glow.
He felt only that his mind was clear and tranquil. The resonance of the Dao flowed around him, while divine radiance as fierce as the sun wreathed his body.
The intricate patterns before him shone brilliantly, so dazzling that tears threatened to spill from his eyes.
His Bitter Sea, golden and extremely similar to that of the Sacred Body yet blazing like a furnace, surged. Divine power coursed through his body, and his hands unconsciously followed the human-shaped diagrams, assuming all manner of marvelous, bizarre poses as he practiced that mysterious Dao Trajectory.
"Rustle... rustle..." Strange characters came together to form a world-shaking scripture.
Like a gently flowing stream, it poured into his heart and etched itself into his memory.
Time passed.
Taiyi's gaze grew ever more brilliant.
His hands moved ceaselessly, tracing the profound, intricate trajectories of the Great Dao.
"Boom..." Divine light surrounded him as his body moved with the wondrous art, executing its opening stance.
At that moment, his divine power boiled, and a powerful fighting spirit rose within him uncontrollably. He wanted to punch through the heavens.
Everything stemmed from this supreme Secret Technique. Even his bearing transformed, as though a god of war had possessed him, and tremendous combat power suddenly surged forth.
The entire desert, already dug into a chaotic, unrecognizable mess by his repeated excavations.
Was blasted into collapse.
Chapter 22: Nine Secrets: Dou, Advancing by Leaps and Bounds
"This is... Nine Secrets: Dou!?"
Coming back to his senses, Taiyi stared blankly.
Legend held that the last Heavenly Venerable of the Mythological Era had abandoned all his arts and Dao in his twilight years, disappearing from the mortal world.
When he appeared again, he had become an infant, drawing in the vital essence of the universe and all eight reaches, attaining supremacy at the ultimate pinnacle.
He had lived a life of dazzling glory. Even the Extraterrestrial Deities had to bow in awe, and no one could hinder him by even half a step. He called himself Emperor Zun and founded the great power known as the Heavenly Court.
Before you continue