Blood and signs of devastation lay scattered across the ground, telling the tale of what had just happened.
"Whew... that was close!"
"They shouldn't be chasing me anymore!"
Seeing that there was no more movement behind him,
Taiyi breathed a sigh of relief and stopped.
He had just used the Sun God Movement Technique at full power to flee.
The divine power within him was nearly exhausted.
Without hesitation, he hollowed out a cave nearby and blocked its entrance.
He plopped down and rested for a moment, then threw caution to the wind and swallowed the entire green spirit plant, with its shimmering colors, nine jade leaves, and unopened bud.
An astonishing surge of vital essence poured out without cease.
He hurriedly circulated the profound methods of the Sun True Scripture and began refining its immense medicinal power.
Boom, boom... Golden waves in his Bitter Sea battered the heavens, radiating scorching heat like a furnace.
Continually washed by that astonishing vital essence, his Bitter Sea, originally only the size of a pigeon's egg, kept expanding...
Chapter 6: The Life Spring Realm, Forging a Bell
Time flowed on.
Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
Taiyi sat cross-legged with his eyes tightly shut, as steady and immovable as a boulder.
Who knew how old that spirit medicine was? The vital essence it contained was truly astonishing.
It had actually expanded Taiyi's Bitter Sea to the size of an infant's fist.
Whoosh... whoosh... Amid flickering radiance,
one brilliant golden divine mark after another manifested.
There were dozens of them.
They intertwined there.
The sight was startling.
"Whew, what a windfall! I never imagined that immense medicinal power could expand my Bitter Sea this far!"
After an unknown amount of time,
Taiyi slowly opened his eyes, golden light flashing within them.
Sensing the changes in his Bitter Sea, he could not help smiling, his gaze burning bright. "And I condensed so many divine marks all at once..."
"I can finally forge my own 'weapon' using the ancient methods in the Sun True Scripture!"
Within the Sun True Scripture,
there was also a principle similar to the Dao Scripture's "One Weapon Breaks Ten Thousand Techniques."
In fact, the Dao Scripture was a supreme scripture left behind by the Virtue Heavenly Venerable, one of the Nine Heavenly Venerables.
Whether Ancient Emperors of the primordial age or Great Emperors of Desolate Antiquity, many who had proved their paths throughout history had obtained portions of the Dao Scripture and drawn upon them when creating their own Ancient Emperor Scriptures or Great Emperor scriptures.
Indeed, many scriptures created by Ancient Emperors and Great Emperors contained similar views, such as "One Weapon Breaks Ten Thousand Techniques." It was not exclusive to the Dao Scripture.
It was simply that different scriptures differed in the details and true meanings they expounded.
Thus, many Ancient Emperors and Great Emperors forged only a single Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon in their entire lives.
This was not merely because divine gold and immortal materials capable of becoming Extreme Dao Emperor Weapons were almost impossible to find. They also held fast to refining only one "weapon," a Dao weapon that would accompany them through a lifetime of battle and carry their Dao and techniques.
"But for now, I should strike while the iron is hot and use the remaining medicinal power to try breaking through to the Life Spring Realm!"
Two months
passed in a hurry.
Within a secluded cave in a primeval forest,
a nine-year-old child sat cross-legged, his entire body glowing like a sun god walking the world.
His dazzling Bitter Sea, too brilliant to look at directly, had expanded to the size of an infant's fist, radiant and resplendent, its vital essence flowing endlessly.
At the center of his Bitter Sea, clouds of radiance billowed upward like beacon smoke.
They no longer merely spread and swirled. It was as though an active volcano were erupting there, blazing with the heat of the sun.
Taiyi continually circulated the wondrous formulas of the Sun True Scripture. His golden Bitter Sea could no longer remain calm, surging ceaselessly as though about to connect with his Wheel of Life and release a divine spring.
Whenever he entered a state of ethereal clarity, waves thundered within his Bitter Sea. Faint sounds of surf emerged from his body, and sacred radiance enveloped him completely.
Moreover, unusual phenomena even appeared within his Bitter Sea. Its center erupted continually like an undersea volcano, and lightning frequently split the sky.
When he circulated the profound methods recorded in the Sun True Scripture, powerful fluctuations of life immediately arose within him, and his golden Bitter Sea shone as brilliantly as a sun.
Vital essence flowed without end.
It nourished all his limbs and bones.
His physical body grew extraordinarily powerful, far stronger than before.
On this day, rumbling echoes rang out.
Then an immense roar of tidal waves resounded through heaven and earth, accompanied by deafening peals of thunder.
Boom! At that very instant, a powerful aura erupted, and the hastily hollowed-out cave collapsed completely.
A golden figure shot into the sky.
Vital essence surged throughout Taiyi's body, and golden divine flame blazed around him.
Divine light shone in his eyes, as though two bolts of lightning had shot out.
Even in broad daylight, they were exceptionally brilliant.
"I've finally broken through to the Life Spring Realm!"
He smiled and transformed into a streak of golden lightning.
A blazing divine rainbow enveloped him, and he slowly rose into the air before darting back and forth.
The exhilaration of roaming the skies made him want to let out a long cry, so thoroughly delighted was he.
At that moment, an intensely blazing spring eye had appeared at the very center of Taiyi's Bitter Sea, connecting to his Wheel of Life. A divine spring bubbled forth, wreathed in hazy, multicolored mist.
The shimmering divine spring continually poured out boundless vital essence.
It brimmed with vitality, flourishing to an incredible degree.
The sight was utterly breathtaking.
Clang, clang... clink, clink...
Time flowed on.
Another month passed.
In the forest, Taiyi sat cross-legged inside a newly excavated cave, unmoving as a mountain.
His golden Bitter Sea had long since settled, no longer resembling an erupting volcano amid surging tidal waves and rolling thunder.
But his bubbling Life Spring, which poured forth endless vital essence and brimmed with life, still resembled a blazing furnace. Over a hundred brilliant golden divine marks gathered and intertwined above it.
A pitted lump, its shape barely recognizable as a "bell," bobbed up and down there.
That was the "weapon" condensed and forged from his divine marks.
Although no rare divine treasures or immortal materials had yet been added, and it could not be considered a powerful weapon-or even remotely a true magical artifact-
it exuded a peculiar, ancient Dao resonance.
It was quite extraordinary.
This was where Taiyi's ambition lay.
He aspired to walk the Emperor's Path and refused to remain ordinary.
He wanted to attain immortality and, one day, climb to the very pinnacle of the Great Dao.
He knew very well that the Path-Proving Weapon of his ancestor, the Sun Saint Emperor who had once overawed the ages with cultivation that reached through heaven and earth, was a Stone Pagoda of world-shaking might.
Yet he had no intention of following his example and choosing a pagoda as his weapon.
Instead, he chose a bell outright.
Of course, he had to admit that his choice of a bell rather than some other weapon had been influenced to a large extent by his own name.
Jin Taiyi was the name given to him by his grandfather, who had loved those ancient myths and legends while alive and had been his sole companion and support.
Because of that, his classmates had often teased him as he grew up.
They would call him "Jin Tailang," "Golden Sun," or "Jin Tai'er."
Or they would jokingly address him as "Eastern Emperor Taiyi," "Eastern Emperor Supreme God," "Eastern Emperor Majesty," "Eastern Emperor Lord," or "Taiyi Supreme God"...
Whether it was Eastern Emperor Taiyi in primordial-fantasy novels
or the supreme god Eastern Emperor Taiyi of myth and legend,
that indescribable realm and mighty power had undoubtedly filled him with longing.
He had even resolved to make that his goal, searching high and low in pursuit of the Great Dao.
He had chosen a bell as his weapon.
Naturally, this had been influenced by primordial-fantasy novels.
The Eastern Emperor Bell, also known as the Chaos Bell, was one of the legendary supreme treasures of creation.
When the Bell Waves rang out, the laws of the Great Dao surged forth in a vast torrent, returning all things to chaos. They could cleave heaven and earth apart, unstoppable in their might.
Such supreme divine power naturally filled Taiyi with longing.
"A great weapon truly is hard to forge, but at least it's begun to take shape..."
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