"This... is far too precious..."
"Not at all. They're merely gifts. Please do accept them, Elder Wu."
Chen Yu smiled and gestured for Wu Qingfeng not to decline. "Consider it my thanks for looking after my two friends all this time."
Looking at the piece of Source in his hand, Wu Qingfeng was somewhat speechless, truly at a loss for what to say.
Source was such a precious thing, yet in this man's hands, it was something to give away casually.
Just how wealthy was he?
What exactly was the background of this friend of Pang Bo and Ye Fan?
All sorts of thoughts flashed through Wu Qingfeng's mind.
In truth, his horizons were simply too narrow.
Something like Source was only relatively precious in a small place like the Yan Kingdom.
There was no need to look as far as the later stages. Even in the early stages, prices in the Holy City were already sky-high. Casually buying a divine stone in a stone gambling house cost tens of thousands of jin of Source.
Later, when the Sacred Body advanced to Four Extremes, the cost was even more terrifying, requiring a full ten million jin of Source.
Compared with that figure, the Source before him was mere child's play.
After Wu Qingfeng left, no one else came to disturb him.
Chen Yu settled quietly into the thatched cottage and resumed his cultivation.
During this time, Yan Ruyu occasionally returned to bring him the latest news.
As expected, the Azure Emperor Lineage encountered considerable obstacles in their search for the Demon Emperor's Tomb.
Breaking into a Great Emperor's mausoleum like the Qing Emperor's Tomb was extraordinarily difficult unless it opened on its own.
After all, this was a mausoleum personally arranged by a Great Emperor. Under normal circumstances, even a Quasi-Emperor who dared to force his way inside would perish in bitter regret, with no chance of survival.
Chen Yu reckoned that the Qing Emperor's Tomb had long since been set to open at a particular time, and would open automatically once that time arrived.
Ultimately, the Qing Emperor's Tomb should have been something the Azure Emperor arranged for the Road to Immortality.
It would open sometime before the Road to Immortality did. As long as someone obtained what the Azure Emperor left behind, with the Qing Emperor's Heart and the Azure Emperor's weapon in hand, they could attain the Dao as quickly as possible, just in time to catch the Road to Immortality on Flying Immortal Star.
And clearly, the time for it to open had not yet arrived.
Yan Ruyu and the others clearly had no intention of giving up. They were still working hard to try every method, hoping to open the Azure Emperor's mausoleum as soon as possible.
Chen Yu did not interfere, simply cultivating in silence.
In his spare time, he occasionally gave Ye Fan and Pang Bo some guidance.
"The Dao Scripture is indeed the best scripture for establishing a foundation. Calling it the foremost scripture of the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm wouldn't be an exaggeration. Unfortunately, it is incomplete."
Chen Yu shook his head. "Still, there are no real issues with using it for the early stages of cultivation in the Sea of Bitterness Realm."
He casually offered guidance, telling the two of them several key points.
"Teacher Chen."
Ye Fan hesitated for a moment, then stepped forward. "After Desolate Antiquity, did it truly become impossible for the Sacred Body to cultivate?"
During this time, he had been cultivating alongside Pang Bo. Pang Bo had already successfully opened his Bitter Sea, and divine power arose naturally within his body. His own Bitter Sea, however, remained as hard as divine iron, without the slightest stir.
The enormous contrast could not help but make him doubt himself.
"After Desolate Antiquity, the Sacred Body's path was severed, but that manifests more in the future."
Chen Yu smiled. "In the Sea of Bitterness Realm, however, there's no reason you should be unable to cultivate."
"The only reason you haven't been able to open your Bitter Sea is that what you've been using hasn't been enough."
As he finished speaking, he handed over a piece of Source. "Try using this."
"Source?"
Ye Fan did not refuse. He knew this little bit of Source meant nothing to Chen Yu. He simply committed this kindness silently to memory, then accepted the Source Stone.
With the piece of Source in his hand, the abundant Essence Qi within it began to dissolve and flow out. The Essence Qi of heaven and earth it contained was more than a hundred times stronger than that of Hundred Herb Liquid.
In mere moments, the Bitter Sea that had always remained as solid as divine iron, impossible to open no matter what method he tried, began to tremble.
Rumble!
A series of deep rumbles rang out, like peals of thunder resounding, sounding particularly majestic.
Within Chen Yu's perception, Ye Fan's Bitter Sea successfully opened, the speck of gold within it especially dazzling.
"It worked!"
At that moment, Ye Fan was extraordinarily excited.
So it was not that the Sacred Body could not cultivate. Its requirements for cultivation were simply too high.
Although opening the Bitter Sea was difficult for ordinary people, anyone with some aptitude could eventually manage it.
For those with the Sacred Body, however, their Bitter Seas were far too solid, and they needed sufficient power to assist them.
But Chen Yu considered this reasonable.
Given the formidable capabilities of a physique like the Sacred Body, it was entirely understandable that its early cultivation required more resources.
After all, being able to absorb more Essence Qi at the same realm was, in a sense, also a sign of immense potential. Its combat strength would inevitably far exceed that of other cultivators at the same level.
Even the so-called ten million jin of Source only seemed an enormous sum in this era.
Whenever the environment was even slightly better, who would care about those ten million jin of Source?
The severing of the Sacred Body's path manifested more in the process of breaking through to Four Extremes.
At that point, the Innate Dao Diagram would obstruct the path. That was the real problem.
Heavenly tribulation would descend, and the Innate Dao Diagram would block the path. Judging by the original story, resisting it required at least a Saint's cultivation, and even then, lingering problems would remain that needed Immortal Divine Medicine to heal.
A living Saint staking their life in the struggle, an Immortal Divine Medicine... let alone in the present, those conditions would have been difficult to meet even in past ages when the world's environment was at its peak.
That was the true reason the Sacred Body's path was severed.
Of course, there was no need to tell him any of this for now.
After all, as things stood, he had only just opened his Bitter Sea. Telling him would merely cause needless worry.
Time passed, bit by bit.
Chen Yu cultivated quietly inside the thatched cottage.
Strictly speaking, the environment here was not particularly favorable, but it was sufficient for him at present.
After all, he had only just advanced to Divine Bridge, and with sufficient Source and spirit medicines to assist him, he did not demand much of the external environment.
He cultivated here for several months, advancing further. The Divine Bridge within his body had reached full completion, and he had honed himself to the pinnacle of this realm.
The speed was so fast that, frankly, even Chen Yu himself was surprised.
He could only say that the combined blessings of a divine physique and an emperor's blood were too powerful. His aptitude had now risen to a level no ordinary person could compare with.
He had thought his days would continue peacefully until the Qing Emperor's Tomb fully opened.
On this day, however, a group of uninvited guests barged into the place.
"This is where those two wretches stay?"
Outside the thatched cottage, Han Feiyu arrived. He seemed to have thought of something, his reasonably handsome face looking somewhat twisted.
"Senior Brother Han, what are we doing here?"
A young man beside him spoke. "Weren't we going to make trouble for those two?"
"What do you know?"
Han Feiyu turned around. "Those two wretches' cultivation is unexpectedly high. We can no longer subdue them on our own. My uncle will have to act personally."
"But as disciples of our Spirit Ruins Paradise, as long as they remain inside the paradise, the rules prevent my uncle from taking action against them."
"But if we can find something to use against them, that's another matter entirely!"