"Everything is still unknown. They could be frauds stealing a name and deceiving the world by posing as the Stone Kingdom Ancestral Land. We need more evidence. Don't blindly trust outsiders, only to regret it after a cuckoo takes over the magpie's nest. If they really are the Ancestral Land, a powerful force capable of producing sacred medicine, why have we never heard so much as a whisper about them?" Shi Yi's faction was still making its last stubborn denials.
"What fraud would casually put up sacred medicine as a deposit? That is absolutely our Ancestral Land. Shi Hao and Aman have both been recruited by them, and Wu Gensheng is a top young prodigy from there. Naturally, the Ancestral Land has its reasons for remaining hidden." The rebuttal came swiftly and was difficult to refute.
Sacred medicine was simply too extraordinary. Any doubts were powerless before such sincerity.
As these reports emerged one after another and spread through the Stone Kingdom Imperial Capital and even farther afield, Shi Yi persuaded the Martial King to grant him permission to enter the palace and meet the Stone Emperor.
"A promise is worth a thousand pieces of gold. As long as they truly come from the Ancestral Land and seek the Supreme Bone on Shi Hao's behalf, I am willing to return it. I have looked with my Double Pupils. The young boy beside Wu Gensheng is indeed Shi Hao; there is no need to deny it. Even without the Supreme Bone, I will remain an undefeated bearer of Double Pupils, inferior to no one. What happened back then is spilled water that cannot be gathered again. It was driven by my elders, and that tide was not something I alone could stop."
"Double Pupils are already a road to invincibility. There is no need to borrow another's bone." Shi Yi's ringing declaration spread, shaking the imperial capital.
Shi Yi had actually said such a thing, acknowledging Shi Hao's identity and fully expressing his respect for the Stone Kingdom Ancestral Land.
Yet he had also diminished his own responsibility for the events of that year, presenting himself as an innocent swept along by his elders and forced to participate in their dark dealings. He fashioned the image of a young genius who had now begun to mature, confident and unburdened, capable of making his own decisions and opposing his elders' wrongdoing, someone who had grown from his past. The maneuver was executed to perfection.
The moment Shi Yi learned about the Stone Kingdom Ancestral Land, he knew that any struggle was meaningless. Whether they were genuine or not, he could not keep the Supreme Bone. Better to retreat in order to advance and leave a good impression on the Stone Emperor. At the same time, he could seize this opportunity to "cut ties" with the faction of elders behind him, whose incessant tantrums had made them look disgraceful, presenting himself to the outside world as someone who valued blood ties and had compromised with his elders, yet emerged from the mud unstained.
Earlier, after the trio had left the Void God Realm.
"Brother Yao, why did you stop? Give us a few more lines! I want to learn!" Shi Hao's face brimmed with excitement.
"No more! Your brother Yao has run out of ink." Chen Yao vigorously ruffled the young Desolate Heaven Emperor's hair.
"Besides, what's there to argue about? Let the Martial King Manor deal with the headache. We still have the Phoenix Precious Technique to study. Don't you want to learn it?" Chen Yao beckoned, and the Origin Rune wrapped in Immortal Qi immediately appeared.
Five-Colored Divine Light flowed, all its mysteries concealed within the outer crimson-gold flames. Countless profound runes linked together, forming every feather and every tongue of flame, becoming a phoenix clad in five colors that danced gracefully.
"Oh, right! A Ten Fiends Precious Art!" Only then did Shi Hao remember that they still had this to do.
"Right! Let them make their fuss. We'll learn the Precious Technique first!" Aman had already sat down with them, carefully studying the rune Chen Yao displayed before him. His mind soon sank deeply into it.
The three sat together beneath the Willow Deity, comprehending everything within the Phoenix Precious Technique. Flames flowed beneath the tree, and Five-Colored Divine Light shimmered in a radiant haze. A gentle breeze brushed the willow, peaceful and still.
The Ten Fiends could all battle Immortal Kings before becoming kings themselves, so the Precious Techniques they passed down were unquestionably Immortal King-level Dao arts. Even the True Dragon, who had already become an Immortal King, must have first earned renown as one of the Ten Fiends before attaining the rank of Immortal King. Otherwise, he could not have belonged among those described as "the Ten Fiends, whose ferocity can threaten true Immortal Kings," and should instead have been listed normally alongside the other Immortal Kings.
The Immortal Phoenix clan was the phoenix clan, known by names such as true phoenix, Heavenly Phoenix, immortal phoenix, Five-Colored Divine Phoenix, and Undying Divine Phoenix. But Chen Yao preferred simply calling them phoenixes.
Chen Yao activated Grand Luo Insight to its fullest, focusing on the changes within the phoenix's Origin Rune.
Unexpectedly, while the Immortal Phoenix King's Phoenix Precious Technique emphasized flame Divine Abilities and nirvana, its core mysteries lay in the five elements.
The lifelike phoenix released Five-Colored Divine Light that encompassed the five elements of heaven and earth. That five-colored radiance then withdrew into the crimson-gold flames, emanating vigorous vitality. It was like a flourishing world on the rise, its vitality surging upward and becoming undying flames.
Metal was called yielding and reforming, cleansing and contracting. Wood was called bending and straightening, sprouting and spreading freely. Water was called moistening and descending, cold and sinking. Fire was called flaming upward, hot and rising. Earth was called sowing and reaping, harmonizing and bearing. The five elements established the order by which all things operated, describing the different states of all existence.
Metal, plants, flowing water, flames, and soil were merely outward manifestations, symbols at most. They could not truly describe the five elements.
Wind and thunder both bent and straightened, possessing the qualities of sprouting and spreading freely. Spring winds awakened all things; spring thunder stirred dormant creatures, bringing everything to life. In these moments, wind and thunder belonged to wood within the five elements. Wood symbolized the explosive force that moved from nonexistence to existence, from stillness to motion, from silence to liveliness.
Rivers, lakes, and marshes gathered flowing water, displaying the qualities of sinking and contracting. Though materially water, rivers, lakes, and marshes could therefore be classified under metal.
The heart delivered vitality and was the place where life force flourished most strongly within the body. It matched the symbolism of flaming upward and belonged to fire.
From nonexistence to existence, from stillness to motion; flourishing and thriving, vigorously rising; balancing all things, bearing them with profound virtue; sinking and changing, turning from prosperity to decline; passing from existence to nothingness, returning in silence to the void. This was how all things operated beneath the cycle of the five elements, even encompassing a world's birth and destruction.
Wood, fire, earth, metal, water. Their mutual generation advanced the progression from life to death, while their mutual restraint could halt the momentum of destruction.
Through the generation and restraint of the five elements, birth and destruction proceeded in an orderly, unending succession, allowing the world to exist in stability.
The five elements were the order of all things. Their complete evolution could represent an entire world.
Within the Dao Seed Method, the flawless five elements seed was a Dao seed on the same level as the Yin-Yang seed, the World Tree, and the proto-universe.
The Ten Fiends Precious Arts contained both supreme mysteries and concrete Dao arts. Everyone who studied them would gain different insights. These might match the creator's, or they might develop in other directions upon the underlying mysteries. Their sole commonality was the ultimate mystery: different roads led to the same destination.
Chen Yao's gaze remained focused as his hands moved and revolved, Qi-State Origin-Flow evolving myriad arts. A single Qi divided into Yin-Yang: utmost yang became fire, utmost yin became water, lesser yin within yang became metal, lesser yang within yin became wood, and yin and yang united became earth. A taiji diagram of interlocking yin-yang fish appeared between his hands, and the five elements arose from it. Yin-Yang transformed, the five elements established order, and it seemed as though a world was about to be born within.
The yin-yang fish transformed into a five-colored wheel of light, with visions of all things evolving amid the cycle of the five elements.
The divine light swept outward, carrying the mysteries of the five elements, and the surrounding scene immediately changed.
Wood stimulated the vitality of seeds, which sprouted from deathly stillness and trembled as they grew, their explosive force from stillness to motion splitting stubborn rocks; plants touched by fire erupted with vitality, growing and spreading wildly; earth bore and harmonized, neither flourishing nor declining, neither increasing nor diminishing, all things peaceful; metal brought desolation, vitality contracting and sinking, trunks drawing back their life force as leaves and branches withered, fruits gathering vitality and falling to the ground one after another; water suppressed the cosmos, deep winter descended, heaven and earth fell silent, and all things concealed themselves.
The five elements cycled, and plants passed through reincarnation.
Then more illusory visions appeared.
From the reincarnation of plants to the shifting of mountains and rivers, from the evolution of stars to the workings of the universe, the five elements were present in them all.
This was the Phoenix Precious Technique Chen Yao had comprehended. Neither nirvana nor divine flame, it focused on the five elements order.
The Immortal Phoenix King used the five elements order to evolve a world, maintaining that world's upward progression to produce abundant vitality. That utmost-yang vitality became fiery radiance, yielding the nirvana divine flame, brimming with life and imperishable through myriad tribulations. This was her Dao, and perhaps the Dao of many fire phoenixes as well.
But it was not the Dao of every phoenix. Nor was it Chen Yao's Dao.
Among phoenixes, there were also Snow Phoenixes and Heavenly Phoenixes; all of them were phoenixes. It was simply that the previous phoenix had been a fire phoenix, and, as one of the Ten Fiends, had become the leading figure of that generation's phoenixes. Thus, her Ten Fiends Precious Art was treated as the authentic Phoenix Precious Technique.
At its most fundamental level, the mystery of the Phoenix Precious Technique was still the five elements. It had been passed down from the phoenix clan's ancestral founder to the present. Even as the clan gradually divided into different specialized attributes, the mysteries of the five elements had never been lost from the Precious Technique's core.
Chen Yao had little interest in phoenixes. His focus was on the mysteries of the five elements within.
The five elements order is hidden among all things and can encompass everything in the universe. With this move, combined with the transformations of my Heavenly Demon Tribulation and Qi-State Origin-Flow that seep through every opening, once I unleash Five Elements Divine Light, I'll break straight through every defense. Whoever I sweep will fall ill! Let's see who can escape the scouring of the five elements order.
Chen Yao had the heart of a backline support. Finding every possible way to inflict negative effects on his enemies was the proper path.
He would leave dealing damage to others. If they could not beat an enemy at full strength, surely they could beat a crippled one? If they still could not win with this much support, they might as well kill themselves.
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