Su Yu murmured to himself, then his fingers formed fleeting shadows as he cast a seal.
With a hum, the Lihuo Divine Furnace rapidly shrank and flew into his hand. He gazed at the crystalline bronze furnace in his palm. It was Emperor Hengyu's weapon from years past, and it was extraordinary.
Yet when Su Yu tried to activate this wondrous object, he discovered something different: the divine might it unleashed was only at the Four Extremes Secret Realm. Moreover, in the original story, only Jiang Taixu had been able to activate the furnace.
Su Yu guessed that it was at least a Quasi-Emperor Artifact, and that it might even contain Extreme Dao divine patterns.
But with his current divine power, he could not truly activate this divine object at all. He could only set it aside for the future.
After putting the Lihuo Divine Furnace into his Bitter Sea, Su Yu breathed out a stream of true Qi, scattering the ashes. He took another look at the desolate, ruined Grotto-Heaven, then ripples spread through the void beneath his feet, and he left.
This time, he spent an entire day wiping out all the surrounding sects, obtaining a total of seventy thousand jin of Source. It seemed that the holy lands and great sects above them had taken the lion's share of the Source these minor sects acquired.
Remembering how the Lihuo Sect's leader had threatened him before dying, Su Yu smiled faintly. The Yaoguang Holy Land—he was all too familiar with them. They were all from the Ruthless One Lineage...
By the time he returned to the village, the roving bandits had been killed. It was not just the villagers from Fifth Master Zhang's village; the people within five hundred li had all learned of it. At the hands of these wretched people, the bandits had been tortured beyond recognition.
Su Yu left behind two Dao Palace artifacts and gave Fifth Master Zhang two cultivation manuals. They were all things he had acquired that day and were of no use to him, but to the villagers, they were worth more than any treasure.
He meditated and rested for a day, continuing to temper his Four Extremes Secret Realm.
Although he had absorbed quite a few cultivators this time, most of them were at the Dao Palace or Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm. He still had quite a way to go before he finished tempering his left leg.
The next day, he set out for Purple Mountain under Fifth Master Zhang's worried gaze. After Su Yu wiped out the bandits and nearby sects, Fifth Master Zhang had completely let down his guard around him and told him everything about his ancestors. He had also given Su Yu the stone blade, stone pendant, and star chart, hoping he would return safely.
The Stone Garment, stone pendant, stone blade, and stone star chart had all been carved from the old outer layer of Divine Source. They showed nothing unusual, yet possessed a spiritual nature. This was the treatment Ye Fan had received in the original story.
Fifth Master Zhang then told Su Yu about the terrifying fate that befell members of the Source Heavenly Master Lineage in their later years. He said that his ancestor had once roamed the Five Regions unchallenged, and even holy lands and great sects had honored him as a distinguished guest, yet he too had met that terrible fate in the end. He hoped Su Yu would retreat in the face of danger, rather than let Divine Source blind him and ruin his own bright future.
"Young man, with your talent, you could make a name for yourself through cultivation. Why must you go into that Demon Mountain?" Outside the village, all the villagers had come to see him off. Fifth Master Zhang was still singing the same old tune, earnestly urging him not to enter Purple Mountain.
"There's no need to say more. Elder Zhang, farewell. Farewell, everyone!" Su Yu turned and walked toward the vast mountains without looking back.
According to Fifth Master Zhang, anyone hoping to enter Purple Mountain would never find a route by searching outside it. Even if they did find one, it would be a dead end that trapped them in a hopeless situation.
There was something demonic about the mountain. It devoured the souls of those who entered, and no one could walk back out.
The only way to enter safely was to delve deep into one of the nine surrounding dragon veins and advance through the underground caverns until reaching the lower part of Purple Mountain, then cut into the mountain from below and enter its interior.
Su Yu chose the dragon vein due east, because the Zhang family ancestor had taken that route a thousand years ago, and Ye Fan had also advanced from there to reach the interior of Purple Mountain in the original story.
He was now at the Third Heaven of the Four Extremes, but he had yet to forge his own "weapon." The original owner's Four Extremes artifact was a small pagoda forged in imitation of the Silver Moon Jade Pagoda. To him, it was a chicken rib: tasteless to eat, but a pity to throw away.
Most of his present strength lay in his damaged Saint Weapon and the "clouds in the blue sky, water in the bottle" phenomenon. He had hardly ever used that Four Extremes artifact, and he also lacked materials for forging a divine weapon. In his storage bag was a piece of Azure Heaven Divine Jade as long as an arm, enough to forge a king-level divine weapon.
But he had not used that piece of Nine Heavens Divine Jade. Within the Primordial Ancient Mine, there was a piece of Phoenix Blood Red Gold left behind by Emperor Hengyu...
Purple Mountain's terrain was immensely vast and imposing. The ridges in sight rose high and majestic, like coiled azure dragons stretching across the path ahead.
The soil beneath his feet and the stones among the mountains had a pale purple hue. These great mountains were bare, with scarcely a tree rooted on them. They had clearly been affected by that Demon Mountain.
Su Yu soon found the dragon vein. According to Fifth Master Zhang, it had been mined empty long ago.
He summoned the chaos longsword, and the presence of the Indestructible Heavenly Art erupted in an instant. A vast saintly pressure enveloped him, and wrapped in chaos light, he stepped into the mine one pace at a time.
Chapter 24: Meeting Taixu at Purple Mountain
The long-abandoned mine was utterly silent. Su Yu was perfectly calm. With an intact Great Saint Weapon at his command, nothing short of a Saint reborn could stop him. The Ancient Clans in Purple Mountain were the Undying Heavenly Emperor's subordinates, and there were no Great Saints among them. Those ancient kings who had become Saints would not appear unless it was a matter of life and death.
Imagining the Heavenly Emperor's Son's Immortal Phoenix source, Su Yu showed a trace of anticipation. If he could devour the Heavenly Emperor's Son, it would be far better than Ye Fan's Sacred Body source.
The Undying Immortal Phoenix Race had been one of the Ten Fiends in the Perfect Era, with heaven-overwhelming might. The Undying Heavenly Emperor had been a pure-blooded Immortal Phoenix who fell into the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths through a rift in the Immortal Domain.
His offspring, though not a pure-blooded Immortal Phoenix, was in no way inferior to a Chaos Body or an Innate Sacred Body Dao Embryo in bloodline power. To Su Yu's incomplete Chaos Body, he was a supreme divine medicine.
Since he had embarked on the path of devouring sources, he had laid claim to that Immortal Phoenix. Even if he had to shatter the Quasi-Emperor Buddha statue, he would obtain him...
"Five-colored true blood, an immortal spirit body..."
His low voice echoed through the cavern. Suddenly, a dark, bone-piercing gust of Yin wind swept in. Su Yu had reached the depths of the Ancient Mine, where a thick layer of gray-white bone ash covered the ground and dense Yin Qi filled the air.
He took out the Stone Garment and put it on, then continued onward.
Treading over bone ash and withered bones, he heard only his own footsteps echoing through the deathly silent depths. It was eerily terrifying.
Here, the Ancient Mine was like a land of extreme cold, with blue-white icicles standing upright. Ordinary mortals could not enter at all. Ahead, Yin winds howled, and ghostly figures circled.
"Playing ghosts and gods."
Su Yu snorted coldly. The chaos longsword in midair emitted a ray of saintly light, and all the cold, baleful Qi among the withered bones melted away, like filth purified by divine light.
He crossed straight through the cavern and traveled more than forty li before a faint light appeared. As he walked, that point of light gradually grew larger.
After another few dozen steps, the view suddenly opened up.
Dense spiritual Qi washed over him as he entered a world of pure land. Soft light flowed through this immortal realm, within which countless immortal spirits lived.
Earth dragons stirred, immortal cranes cried out, and Immortal Phoenixes descended into the mortal world... Beings from the Immortal Domain appeared in this immortal realm. Primal Qi flowed and colors shimmered, a scene of incomparable beauty.
"A Divine Source vision!"
It was formed from the manifestation of the Qi emitted by Divine Source.
Su Yu walked on until he reached the Yin-Yang eye. Several corpses lay scattered there. One skeleton already had a silvery sheen; its owner had clearly reached the level of an Immortal Second Realm Mighty Figure, yet had died a miserable death here.
Source Qi and baleful Qi answered one another, naturally forming a great formation that could not be forced through.
Su Yu waited until Yin and Yang alternated and solitary Yang was reborn, then passed directly through the natural barrier wearing the Stone Garment. He then summoned his Saint Weapon and cut through the purple stone. Stone chips scattered, then slowly returned to their original state.
This was one of Purple Mountain's peculiarities.
With a tremendous crash, he saw a jade palace. He had finally entered the interior of Purple Mountain.
A line of characters was carved into a purple stone wall.
"Divine King Jiang Taixu entered the Demon Mountain by mistake and decided to investigate." The writing was vigorous and sharp, entwined with a distinctive Dao resonance that made it seem as though the presence of a deity still lingered. This was a distinctive quality of a fully developed Eastern Wasteland Divine Body.
Su Yu walked a few more steps forward, and several more lines appeared. At the end of the path, he saw the inscription left by the Zhang family ancestor.
"Left by Zhang Jiye, descendant of Source Heavenly Master Zhang Lin, before entering Emperor Mountain."
He took the saintly sword in hand and used it to carve directly into a purple stone wall beside him.
"Su Yu of the Chaos Lineage enters Purple Mountain for the first time."
A profound saintly Dao presence flowed through the inscription. The cuts penetrated three inches into the stone, making one's heart tremble.
Then another demonic sound reached him, but it was blocked out by the supreme Saint Weapon.
There were seven more jade-white skeletons of Great Powers. All their skulls had been broken and their divine consciousnesses severed, and only a trace of luster remained on their bones.
"Fellow Daoist, may we meet...?" A weak, raspy voice echoed through the passage.
Su Yu stopped to listen, his bright eyes gleaming as he looked ahead into the cave. He walked several dozen steps and came to a jade wall, from which the weak voice had emerged.
"Jiang Taixu, Divine King of the Eastern Wasteland?" Su Yu asked, though he already knew the answer.
Another incomparably weak voice sounded. Jiang Taixu within the jade wall had grown so feeble that his oil was nearly spent and his lamp about to go out.
"Indeed... Fellow Daoist, could you save me...? Taixu would be eternally grateful..."
That tone-is he taking me for a Saint? Su Yu glanced at the chaos longsword above his head, which was emitting powerful Saint Dao Laws, somewhat surprised. Then he reflected on Jiang Taixu's fate.
In the original story, Divine King Jiang Taixu had been trapped in Purple Mountain for over four thousand years. His source had been exhausted, yet he lived another lifetime, broke through the Eastern Wasteland Divine Body's bottleneck, and truly gained the bearing of an emperor. Unexpectedly, he later encountered the Dark Turmoil and sacrificed himself in blood to the Hengyu Divine Furnace.
He was a great cultivator worthy of respect.
Moved by righteousness, his heart brimming with feeling, without equal before or after...
Recalling the events that followed, Su Yu felt great admiration for this Divine King. "I never thought Divine King Jiang would find himself in such a desperate plight."
"I have... made a spectacle of myself... before you, fellow Daoist..."
The hoarse voice came again in fits and starts, this time with a trace of bitterness.
Su Yu did not point it out. He faced the purple jade wall before him, where a hazy radiance flickered over its smooth, lustrous surface. An Ancient Clans being was also inside the jade wall.
A single horn grew from the center of his brow. He had been born with six arms, two wings covered his back, and fine scales covered his body.
And through the Saint Weapon, Su Yu saw a withered figure behind the jade wall, so thin and frail that he resembled a skeleton.
Su Yu examined the two closely. It was not hard to deduce that four thousand years ago, Jiang Taixu, then a fully developed king, had been forced into the stone wall by this Half-Saint of the Ancient Clans and had been unable to escape.
There was quite some distance between the two.
Su Yu considered how to rescue the Divine King. After some thought, he took out the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid. Against a Half-Saint of the Ancient Clans, aside from the bronze Buddha statue he carried, only by activating an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon could he rescue the Divine King.
Countless halos immediately appeared around him, enveloping him. Chaos Qi circulated, and incomparably dense dragon Qi gushed forth as he formed a seal with his fingers.
Flying Immortal Power poured out, and the presence of the Indestructible Heavenly Art shook the void. Fine cracks appeared overhead in the cave.
In an instant, a hundred thousand jin of Source turned into divine power and poured into the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid. A white light illuminated all directions, the void was torn apart, and surging Extreme Dao emperor's might descended, blotting out heaven and earth.
The Ancient Clans Half-Saint was startled awake, but when he saw the Extreme Dao divine light striking toward him, terror appeared on his savage face. Before he could fully awaken, the supreme divine light smashed him to dust.
The thick purple jade wall was also pierced through. Jade powder filled the air and fell to the ground, then slowly returned to its original state.
This Purple Light Jade Marrow was also material for king-level divine weapons. An intact piece of purple jade could seal Divine Source and was even more astonishingly valuable.
After that single strike, Su Yu's divine power was exhausted. The color vanished from his face in an instant, leaving him deathly pale. That one strike had nearly sucked him dry with the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid.
It was only because the Half-Saint had sealed himself and was a living target in the fullest sense of the term. Otherwise, Su Yu would have run as far as he could. Even half an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon would not have helped; his opponent could easily have kept him at a distance and killed him.
At that moment, Su Yu forced himself to stay alert and stored the larger pieces of jade that had fallen to the ground in his jade purification bottle.
He then hurried to the nearby stone wall and cut it open with his sword.
The instant the wall broke apart, a flesh-covered skeleton wrapped in long hair fell out. Its flesh and blood had dried up completely, without a trace of luster, clinging dryly to the bones.
Su Yu caught the falling Divine King.
"Extreme Dao... divine might..."
Chapter 25: A Battle of Assault, Yang Yi, Holy Maiden of Yaochi
"There's no need to say more, Divine King. Restoring your divine body comes first."
Seeing Jiang Taixu hesitantly trying to speak, Su Yu held him, took a flask of Desolate Ancient Divine Spring from the Silver Moon Jade Pagoda, and slowly poured it into the Divine King's mouth. As the Divine Spring replenished him, his withered, skeletal form began to fill out.
Afterward, he took out all the Source in the space within his Saint Weapon and placed it on the ground, more than fifty thousand jin in total.