He hauled over one enormous boulder after another, separating himself from the great fire.
He blocked off the outer entrance to the cave.
Moreover, the cave, originally pitch-dark, no longer required his phone's flashlight.
His entire body glowed. Standing there, he resembled a small humanoid sun, illuminating his surroundings.
It was not quite as bright as day, but he could see clearly.
"Damn it, if I run outside like this, there's no way I won't attract attention and get dragged off by some powerful cultivator to be studied."
Taiyi's lips twitched. He was rather speechless.
He made up his mind: until he successfully opened his Bitter Sea and could use the methods in the Sun True Scripture to rein in and conceal the conspicuous "ball of light" surrounding him,
he absolutely would not leave these mountains.
Then he sat cross-legged inside.
Following the scripture that had manifested in his mind,
along with the methods taught by the mysterious Golden Little Man, he began sensing his Wheel of Life.
Although the opening section of the Sun True Scripture was not universally acknowledged as the strongest foundation-building method, as the Dao Scripture was,
it could not have been more suitable for Taiyi, a descendant of the Sun Saint Emperor whose bloodline had reverted to its ancestral state.
For in the exceedingly distant Primordial Era, the Sun Saint Emperor, a supreme sovereign of humanity, had possessed the legendary Sun Physique.
The Sun True Scripture he created was not something only those with a Sun Body could cultivate, but strictly speaking, it had been tailor-made for special physiques like theirs.
Naturally, cultivating it yielded twice the results with half the effort.
The opening section for the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm contained only a few thousand words.
Yet every sentence held profound meaning, encompassing endless wondrous principles and expounding the true essence of cultivation to its fullest, with extraordinary subtlety.
"There is endless dust in the world, and every grain of dust is a world."
"The human body is the same. Nothing can be seen, yet it contains endless 'gates,' as numerous as the grains of dust between heaven and earth."
"A seemingly insignificant body contains countless 'gates.' Constantly opening these gates and discovering the 'true self' is cultivation."
Taiyi sat cross-legged, calming his mind and casting aside his tangled thoughts.
Rather than rushing straight into cultivation, he studied and contemplated this profound scripture repeatedly, striving to understand it as thoroughly as possible without overlooking even the slightest important detail.
During this process,
it should have been dull and tedious.
Yet, surprisingly, Taiyi seemed utterly enthralled, completely immersed in it.
He seemed to gain insights and benefited greatly.
Three days passed in a flash.
He sustained himself on mountain spring water and the bear meat.
Aside from eating, drinking, relieving himself, and sleeping, he spent each day earnestly reciting and studying the opening scripture of the Sun True Scripture.
He dared not be careless, knowing full well the importance of his foundation, which allowed no room for error.
Although he felt there were no major problems left and that he was unlikely to have overlooked anything,
he did not rush to attempt opening his Bitter Sea.
He strove for perfection, working hard to solidify his foundation.
Even in his sleep, his body glowed.
The spot between his brows shone even more brilliantly, as though a ball of fierce fire lay there.
Every night, a golden little man appeared in his mind and taught him cultivation.
Without being aware of it, he instinctively followed the methods in the Sun True Scripture and the golden little man's instructions in his dreams, sensing his own Wheel of Life.
This process involved no great setbacks or difficulties.
Taiyi, whose Bitter Sea had already been activated after the Sacred Fruit's cleansing had established his foundation,
soon displayed his astonishing talent.
Without any mishaps, he precisely sensed the existence of his Wheel of Life.
He naturally moved straight into the next stage, preparing to try guiding his own vital essence to open his Bitter Sea.
"It's time!"
That day,
he did not hesitate.
Straight from his backpack,
he took out a spirit herb of an unknown variety that he had previously gathered in the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land.
Like someone swallowing jujubes whole, he chomped it down without ceremony, swallowing even its roots.
Immediately, he felt a surging current of vital essence pour into his body.
Within his faintly perceptible Wheel of Life, a vast wellspring of divine power seethed.
Eagerly, he followed the methods in the Sun True Scripture, beginning to guide this vital essence to batter his dormant Bitter Sea.
Who knew how old that spirit herb was? Its immense vital essence seemed about to swell his entire body to bursting, nearly gushing nonstop from every pore.
"Hum..." His entire body glowed, every inch of his flesh shining brilliantly, an astonishing sight.
Yet he remained motionless as a statue, sitting quietly cross-legged in the cave.
He continuously followed the formulas recorded in the Sun True Scripture, guiding vast quantities of vital essence to strike his Wheel of Life.
"Boom..." After an unknown length of time, brilliant light suddenly flooded the cave, and bursts of sound like roaring tidal waves erupted. Endless divine radiance surged from Taiyi's Bitter Sea, dazzling beyond compare.
It shone there like a brilliant sun.
Had anyone else been present, they would likely have been stunned speechless.
Above Taiyi's blazing Bitter Sea, ten thousand rays of divine light shone, dazzling as rainbows. Golden waves surged, accompanied by flashes of lightning and peals of thunder. A violent tidal storm raged there, its waves crashing into the sky!
Everything seemed like a dream, the rumbling waves sounding like thousands of soldiers and horses charging forth.
At that moment, he seemed to be not inside a cave, but on a shore, facing a vast, heaving ocean.
Taiyi sat cross-legged without stirring. Divine radiance bloomed within his Bitter Sea, dazzling to behold. At that moment, the roar of waves rang ceaselessly, golden light flashed, lightning slashed and danced, and terrifying billows towered into the sky.
Normally, before the Bitter Sea connected with the Wheel of Life, vital essence could only hover above it. The Bitter Sea itself remained barren and still, without the slightest fluctuation of life, either dark green or pitch-black.
Taiyi's Bitter Sea, however, was exceedingly special, unlike any other.
As the possessor of a Sun Sacred Body, rare throughout history, he bore some resemblance to the legendary Desolate Ancient Sacred Body: the Bitter Seas they opened were both golden.
Yet in truth, the two were entirely different. The Bitter Sea newly opened by a Sun Sacred Body resembled a blazing sun, radiating eternal brilliance.
It was like a true furnace,
carrying a scorching, fierce aura.
Not only the cave's interior, but even its exterior became unbearably hot.
As though seared by roaring flames, the heat was intolerable, making it impossible to approach.
It was a sight shocking beyond words.
"Rumble..."
Above the churning Golden Bitter Sea,
incomparably brilliant radiance dazzled too fiercely to look at directly.
Blazing heat filled heaven and earth. Sea and sky joined, and brilliant golden light shone everywhere, extraordinarily dazzling.
Throughout this process, Taiyi seemed to feel nothing at all. He remained utterly silent, quietly circulating the profound methods recorded in the Sun True Scripture.
Only after several full hours did the golden light slowly recede and the roar of tidal waves gradually diminish.
Another full hour passed before the cave finally grew quiet and that scorching aura gradually dissipated.
Taiyi's Bitter Sea settled into stillness, its radiance withdrawing inward and the sound of its waves vanishing.
He had successfully opened his Bitter Sea.
It was not very large, however, currently only about the size of a peanut.
"I finally did it!" Before long, he awakened, divine light shining brightly in his eyes and his entire body gleaming.
The instant he stood, he seemed considerably more vibrant.
He had gained an aura of the immortal path.
Chapter 4: Walking the Great Wilderness, Two Beasts Clash
Time hurried by.
Three months passed in the blink of an eye.
In an inconspicuous cave within the primeval mountain forests outside the Desolate Ancient Forbidden Land,
an exceptionally handsome boy of about nine sat cross-legged with his eyes closed.
Every inch of his skin glowed, as though a true Sun Deity had descended into the mortal world, making it impossible to dismiss him.
Above his radiance-wreathed Golden Bitter Sea, some twenty brilliantly shining, deeply mysterious divine marks intertwined in intricate patterns.
"Boom..." Golden waves surged, great billows churning.
An exceedingly mysterious pattern rose from the Bitter Sea, flickering in and out of sight.
Finally, it gradually condensed into tangible form, manifesting there with a brilliant glow.
It intertwined with the twenty dazzling golden divine marks already there.
"Have I finally condensed another divine mark?"
An unknown amount of time had passed.
Before you continue