Perhaps the Red-Haired Patriarch had been pecked by a crow as a child in real life, and that was why he held a grudge against the race.
After looking around, Su Yu found no divine treasures such as medicine kings in this small world. Apart from the divine streams and waterfalls, there were no living things, only a stretch of primeval wilderness. The entire mountain range was sacred, with a faint crimson hue and a sacred presence.
Waterfalls thundered among the mountains, surging with mist and spray. What flowed through them was not spring water, but vast rivers mixed with Chaos Qi, cascading from the cliffs in a boundless expanse of ever-changing splendor.
The mountain range was magnificent, its towering peaks extraordinary and majestic. Thousands of feet high, they pierced straight into the clouds.
The peaks stood side by side, enclosing an immortal valley and surrounding the cultivation ground. Spiritual Qi swirled within, and countless rays of rosy light rose through it, making the place especially sacred. The spiritual Qi here was far denser than in the outside world, making it a sacred place for cultivation.
"So much spiritual Qi, yet no spirit medicines?"
Su Yu was puzzled. By rights, such an environment should have produced plenty of spirit medicines, yet, contrary to all expectations, there was not a single medicine king here.
The only possibility was that the Sword Qi overhead had covered this land, preventing younger spirit medicines from growing. As for those ten-thousand-year-old spirit medicines, they should have been wiped out by the empress's sword strike.
Su Yu spread his divine sense into the sky. He could feel that he was ignoring the sword-path killing intent overhead. More precisely, thanks to the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid, his divine sense was not attacked by the Sword Qi.
Suddenly, Su Yu's expression tightened. In a ruined palace above the dome, he discovered a shattered corpse, split in two and a glaring, vivid red. Killing intent filled the surroundings, and the corpse was horribly broken. The boundless murderous intent made his soul sting, and he hurriedly withdrew his divine sense. A searing pain shot through his eyes, and tears streamed out.
A moment later, the burning sensation faded, and Su Yu barely managed to recover. "This is Emperor Qi, but it isn't as vast and profound as that of the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid. Could it be a Quasi-Emperor's corpse?" he murmured.
The moment the thought appeared, his expression grew eager. With a Quasi-Emperor's corpse here, he wondered whether there might be Quasi-Emperor Weapons in the other palaces.
He truly would never complain about having too many treasures like these. Better yet, they could fill his Bitter Sea and Dao Palace.
Su Yu assumed an opening stance. In an instant, divine power surged out, and the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid rose into the sky. Three thousand streams of dark light descended, sheltering him within, and his figure grew somewhat indistinct.
He used the Emperor Weapon to protect his soul, then searched the other ruined palaces again.
The seals on these palaces had all been broken, and the palaces themselves had been split in two. Together with the shattered Quasi-Emperor's corpse...
He could almost see what had happened here hundreds of thousands of years ago: a group of cultivators led by a Quasi-Emperor had been struck down by another supreme being with a single sword strike, unleashing a calamity of slaughter that reached the heavens.
Despite the passage of ages, the fierce Sword Qi still had not faded.
Unfortunately, after Su Yu searched, he found no divine weapons in the other palaces. The only thing left was the Quasi-Emperor's corpse. As for his weapon, it might have decayed; there was no trace of it.
This was the Heavenbreak Mountains, once a sacred land of the Saint Spirit Race!
Before Desolate Antiquity, an Imperial Saint Spirit had lain dormant here, making this a Life Forbidden Zone.
Later, the Great Accomplished Saint Spirit was slain by the Ruthless Great Emperor. The Emperor-level Saint Spirit's blood dyed hundreds of thousands, even millions, of miles of mountains and rivers red. Countless heavenly palaces and jade halls containing immortal hoards and divine treasures were shattered by a single blow from the empress and reduced to ruins. More than two hundred thousand years had passed since then.
The Emperor-level Saint Spirit's corpse, which should have been even more certain to remain, had probably been taken by the empress herself. As for any Quasi-Emperor Weapons that might have survived, there were none. After searching for a while, Su Yu gave up.
He glanced at the bone fragments and dust around him. In his estimation, the Quasi-Emperor's weapon had probably also been shattered by the empress's sword strike. The broken Quasi-Emperor Weapon had then been eroded by time and turned to dust.
He picked up a bone fragment and sighed. All the essence within it had already been lost, leaving it of little great use.
In the end, Su Yu collected some of the better-quality bone fragments and placed them in the Saint Weapon's storage space.
Although most of the saint bones' essence had been lost, the material alone was still a rare resource for crafting weapons. It could be used to craft weapons, make talismans, and inscribe array patterns... It had many wonderful uses.
Su Yu gazed across the cultivation ground. If he disregarded that strand of Sword Qi, this was an excellent place to cultivate.
Unfortunately, time waited for no one. The day the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin set out would be the beginning of the golden age!
On the surface, the present rulers of the Big Dipper were the leaders and holy lords of the great sects and sacred lands, a group of mighty figures at the second heaven of the Immortal Platform.
Yet with the golden age's arrival, many ancient emperors' children would emerge, and the ancient races would appear in droves. Soon, it would be a world ruled by Great Saint-level beings. Trying to advance his realm by sitting in bitter cultivation would be meaningless.
Su Yu took the corpses out of the storage bag, cut stone from the mountain with his sword, and fashioned stone coffins. He gave his predecessor's family a proper burial, then paid his respects with great solemnity.
"I have seen you to your graves and settled this karma.
"Today I bury others. I wonder whether anyone will bury me someday. An immortal's death is like a thought scattering; in this life, there is no return. In this world, there is no reincarnation. Death is the end of everything."
Su Yu gazed at the three earthen mounds. He did not erect gravestones for them, and his once-stirred emotions finally settled into calm.
He dispersed his predecessor's emotions. Now, he was a being from another world.
"With that, my worldly ties are severed. There's no one else left in this family line, which makes things simpler." Su Yu spoke to himself, then took a step and strode forward.
With his present cultivation, he could not retrieve the Quasi-Emperor's corpse. It was far more dangerous than a Quasi-Emperor Weapon. Although he could lift it with the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid, he would need to be at least at the Saint level to wield the lid to that extent.
Bones and flesh lay strewn inside the palace, and the Quasi-Emperor's presence filled the heavens and earth. His body would be crushed into a bloody pulp before he could reach it, and his divine sense could not approach it either...
Su Yu walked and pondered. Beyond this small world lay the Heavenbreak Mountains, which were located in the Central Region of the Eastern Wasteland. The famed Undying Mountain Forbidden Zone was also in the Central Region.
As for the burial site in the Cloudbreak Mountains, he needed to pay attention to it. It would soon be found by Duan De, the reincarnation of the Tribulation Crossing Heavenly Venerable, and a vicious dog was eyeing it covetously. For now, however, Su Yu had no ability to conceal and seal that cultivation ground...
Chapter 8: Cultivating with the Essence of Stars and Moonlight
Stars filled the sky above thousands of miles of wilderness. This world, too, had the alternating sun, moon, and stars.
Beneath the night sky, countless strands of soft starlight streamed down, making the vast heavens dazzlingly beautiful. Thousands of stars glittered among them, radiating boundless light like diamonds set into a black curtain.
Su Yu traveled by cloud, exploring the world as he went. He also wanted to find a place rich in spiritual Qi, where he could enter seclusion a few more times and consolidate his cultivation...
Pale white mist swept across the sky, tracing a long line of cloud. He raced like wind and lightning, covering a thousand miles. Riding the clouds like this exhilarated Su Yu; the last time he had felt so relaxed was when he came ashore after enduring hardship.
At this moment, the starry river arched over his head, and an endless green wilderness stretched beneath his feet. Under the starlight, it took on the dim hue of mist, hazy and wreathed in vapor, looking utterly dreamlike.
After flying for half an hour, Su Yu found a treasured spot where life essence Qi was exceptionally dense and settled on it as his place of seclusion.
It was a verdant peak, with hazy clouds and mist coiling among the mountains. Its vitality was boundless, but it had neither the lush ancient trees he had imagined nor elegant pavilions and towers.
Mountain springs washed over rocks at the summit. An ancient pool rippled at the top, with flowing springs, cascading waterfalls, and drifting white mist. It truly was a fine place.
Several halls also stood there, but they had long since crumbled into ruins. At Su Yu's lightest touch, they vanished, leaving only drifting ash as a trace of the years gone by.
At this moment, countless stars wheeled across the sky. This was an environment utterly different from Earth: the path of immortal cultivation led upward into the heavens, and one could shroud the heavens with a flick of a finger.
Su Yu looked up at the sky, his heart growing calmer. The swelling pride his sudden windfall had brought him had also diminished considerably.
He was alone and without support on the Big Dipper, with many enemies. Even with half an Emperor Weapon, he had to act carefully.
Using his divine power to clear the dust and red lotus root from his robes, Su Yu built a campfire and took some food from his magic artifact. His predecessor had prepared thoroughly for everything; clearly, he too had known how to enjoy himself.
He even found honey and spirit-medicine juice for seasoning inside. After grilling the meat, Su Yu spread the seasonings over it, and the aroma instantly wafted in every direction. He satisfied his appetite; it had been a long time since he had tasted meat.
At this point in time, those opportunities from the original story were too far away from Su Yu. With his current cultivation, the only one he could obtain, the Source Heaven Book, was in the Northern Region of the Eastern Wilderness, countless tens of thousands of miles from here.
To get there, he would have to use a Domain Gate, but that was far too difficult.
If those great sects and sacred lands discovered him, even death would be a luxury...
After resting briefly, Su Yu took out Source Stones, chose a flat slab of bluestone, and began cultivating. As he cultivated, he failed to notice a wisp of purple light curling around him. Together with the drifting strands of life essence Qi, it made him look like an immortal descended into the mortal world.
Beneath the purple light, Su Yu unconsciously sank into the deepest state of Dao comprehension. The scriptures and secret arts of the Indestructible Heavenly Art began circulating on their own, shedding immortal radiance. He grew ever more transcendent, as though he had torn through space and time from the past, present, and future.
A world in a grain of sand, a Tathagata in a leaf.
Under the laws of space and time, worlds were endless. The particles within the human body were endless too, as were its hidden treasures.
Nourished by the purple light, Su Yu's forehead grew translucent. He joined with heaven and merged with earth, giving a sense of heaven and earth becoming one, of the Dao following nature.
Under the moonlight, countless streams of divine power crisscrossed the sky. Holding Mount Sumeru within a mustard seed, he actually brought forth three hundred and sixty-five silver vortices around himself. They were dazzling, gathering essence Qi from all directions and absorbing and expelling the essence of the sun and moon, and the essence Qi of plants from all directions.
Earthly Dragon Qi, starlight, and lunar essence all gathered like water and flowed into the three hundred and sixty-five silver vortices, forging that chaos-colored figure.
As his cultivation reached its height, the entire verdant peak glowed. Layer upon layer of life essence Qi descended like curtains, enveloping Su Yu. The spiritual Qi around him was so dense it was nearly liquefying. This truly was an astonishing treasured place, worthy of being the ancestral land of the ancient Saint Spirit Race.
A Dao image of "clouds in the blue sky, water in the vase" also appeared above him. Sea and sky merged into one color, the heavens like sapphire and the blue waves like a clear mirror. A wisp of chaos cloud drifted between them, and a Great Dao Treasure Vase, black as ink and dotted with dewdrops, rose from the sea. Like a black hole, it was deep and vast.
A gentle breeze passed. Clouds hung in the blue sky, and a vase rose from the black water. Terrifying ripples of the Great Dao spread, making it seem as though one had arrived at the beginning of creation. Even a hazy presence of chaos appeared.
Small worlds appeared one after another behind him, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. They clustered around his body, giving rise to Dao resonance and forming intricate patterns, like an exiled immortal descended into the mortal world.
He felt that he could become one with heaven and earth. The Great Dao of the entire world was actively merging with him, and his comprehension of the Indestructible Heavenly Art's secret techniques grew ever deeper. His soul also became increasingly flawless and translucent, incomparably sacred.
Boom!
No one knew how much time had passed before the sound of rocks shattering rang out within the Grotto-Heaven. The mountain forest shook, and the heavens hummed softly. The cultivation method created by an ancient Heavenly Emperor held endless mysteries. The Great Dao descended, and laws manifested one after another.
He had reached minor accomplishment in the Three Thousand Worlds.
A deity appeared in the void, murmuring as he recited boundless scriptures. The scriptures seemed capable of luring out inner demons, drawing forth the darkness and degradation in people's hearts...
This was the Deity-Deliverance Art!
Years and clouds drifted by, the sun and moon passing overhead. In the blink of an eye, another three months had passed. Su Yu ended his cultivation with a long cry and expelled the turbid Qi in his chest. That strange wisp of purple light also vanished into the void without a trace.
This time, he did not break through to the Second Heaven of the Four Extremes. However, he made considerable progress in several secret arts, and his soul benefited greatly as well. His presence grew even more sacred.
This was a characteristic of the Indestructible Heavenly Art. Those who cultivated it would gradually transform into a Chaos Body. Their bodies would conform to the world's laws, a misty immortal air surrounding them, and their bearing would become ever more extraordinary.
Since he had begun this time, everything had been going well: an Emperor Weapon and a Great Saint Weapon had come one after another...
Refreshed and invigorated, Su Yu rose from the bluestone. As he walked, azure Qi streamed around him, and a chaos cloud actually formed around his body, making him look utterly otherworldly.
For some time afterward, he continued exploring this small world of chaos. He felt certain that a great secret remained undiscovered here.
After wandering several thousand miles through this world, Su Yu returned to the cultivation ground at its center.
Everything was empty. Only this place gave him a strange feeling he could neither describe nor explain.
"There's definitely something unusual here!" Su Yu narrowed his eyes, unwilling to return empty-handed from this trip.
He began retracing Duan De's path, exploring everywhere with the Devouring Heaven Demon Lid over his head, hoping to draw something out...
At last, Su Yu succeeded!
Using half an Extreme Dao Emperor Weapon as a wedge, he activated an ancient array pattern.
In an instant, it was as though a mysterious place had opened. Countless rays of divine light burst from the cultivation ground, radiance cascading like waterfalls. Clear light illuminated the entire small world of chaos, then gathered into solid form, reflecting across the vast world.
Chapter 9: The Pursuit of Death on the Divine Path, a Leap Between Life and Death
The brilliant, crystalline haze transformed into a strange illusion: an ancient, mottled mural wreathed in hazy light of chaos.
In the desolate darkness of space hung an aqua-blue planet, seemingly as old as the vast universe itself. A great sun and several other planets were also present in the scene.
"Is that... Earth?"
Countless thoughts arose in Su Yu's mind at once, along with many questions. He found it incredible.
Big Dipper · Eastern Wasteland · Central Region · Heavenbreak Mountains · cultivation ground in the world of chaos, the site of the Ruthless Inheritance.