The crimson jade divine stele stood in silence, its ancient scripture like golden flames, seared deep into Li Qingshan's heart.
Every character weighed as heavily as a thousand jun and contained the supreme mysteries of the Solar Great Dao.
He rose to his full height and cast one last glance at the remains of the battle puppet, now utterly silent, without the slightest fluctuation,
and at the grand altar that bore the emperor scripture. There was not a trace of reluctance in his gaze, only resolve and anticipation.
Fine as this place was, with an emperor scripture hidden within, it was no place for secluded cultivation.
His earlier battle with the puppet had caused violent energy fluctuations. There was no guarantee they would not attract the attention of other unknown beings deep within Kunlun.
He had to find an absolutely safe place as soon as possible to digest this earthshaking windfall.
His figure stirred, and like a faint streak of golden light, he sped back along the path he had taken,
his formidable divine sense spreading like quicksilver over the ground, carefully sweeping every inch of land, alert to the slightest disturbance.
Before long, the stone forest filled with dark red, strangely shaped rocks came into view again, with a gigantic charred, dead tree standing at its center.
"Hiss, hiss!"
Xiaobai's spiritual senses were keen. Sensing his presence at once, Xiaobai slithered swiftly from the crevice where he had hidden, like a flash of white lightning,
and nimbly circled him at high speed, jade-green eyes full of unmistakable concern and inquiry.
"Everything's fine."
Li Qingshan stopped, a hint of relaxed amusement in his voice, and reached out to stroke Xiaobai's cool, delicate scales.
"I got what I came for, and took apart a piece of scrap metal that was in the way.
Come on, take me to the safest cave abode you know best. I need to enter seclusion immediately."
Hearing this, Xiaobai affectionately rubbed his little head against Li Qingshan's fingers and gave a soft, pleased hiss.
Then he turned, tapped the ground with the tip of his tail, and signaled for Li Qingshan to follow.
Xiaobai had lived in this stone forest for a hundred years and knew full well which places were hidden and safe, and which were dangerous and deadly.
Man and snake moved swiftly through the jagged, strange rocks, soon arriving beneath a steep cliff at the edge of the stone forest.
At the base of the cliff, an inconspicuous fissure was completely concealed by dense, dark green vines. Without a careful search, it was easy to miss.
Xiaobai slipped behind the vines first.
Li Qingshan pushed the vines aside and discovered a hidden space within: a small natural cave barely a zhang across.
The entrance was narrow, but the interior was quite dry and tidy, with air circulating freely and no stuffiness.
Rarest of all, deep within the cave, an extremely faint but steady stream of earth-vein essence Qi seeped out.
Though far less abundant than in Kunlun's core region, it was lasting and stable, making this a rare fine place for secluded cultivation.
"Very good. This place is excellent."
Li Qingshan nodded in satisfaction. The place was sufficiently hidden, and its surroundings were quite good as well.
He bent down and entered the cave, while Xiaobai settled himself just inside the entrance,
raising his little head and scanning the outside world warily with jade-green eyes, looking every bit the faithful guardian standing watch over him.
Li Qingshan sat cross-legged in the center of the cave but did not immediately begin cultivating.
Instead, he first held his breath and concentrated, completely smoothing out the slight fluctuations in his breath left by the great battle,
bringing himself to a peak state unlike any he had reached before.
Then he took out several pieces of jade material he had obtained while exploring the ruins earlier, their power not yet exhausted, along with several hard bone fragments from vicious beasts.
Divine power flickered at his fingertips, condensing into a blade that moved swiftly across the materials, carving one intricate, mysterious rune after another.
These runes contained faint Dao power for isolation, calming the mind, and protection.
With a wave of his hand, the rune-carved materials sank precisely into the ground and stone walls around the entrance, vanishing from sight.
A barely perceptible transparent curtain of light flashed and disappeared, almost completely isolating the cave entrance from the outside world in both presence and sound.
It also possessed simple illusory and protective effects.
This was a simple formation he had arranged by combining the rudiments of formation Dao contained in the Sun True Scripture with his formidable divine sense, which far surpassed others at the same level. It was enough to deal with ordinary disturbances and prying eyes.
Only after doing all this did he truly settle his mind, eyes on his nose, nose on his heart.
In his mind, the text of the Wheel Sea Scroll of the Sun True Scripture flowed ceaselessly like a golden river of stars.
Every word was a pearl, containing supreme mysteries and expounding the essence of the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm.
The Wheel of Life, sinking into the Bitter Sea, crossing the Divine Bridge, reaching the Other Shore...
His understanding deepened.
*The cultivation method of this world places first importance on opening the hidden divine treasures of potential within the body, treating oneself as a world and a universe, and unearthing endless possibilities.
It is utterly different from the Guoshu I cultivated before, which unearthed the potential of blood, Qi, and physique,
and from Great Emperor of the Cosmos, which draws in spiritual power from the outside world. Yet it is more fundamental!*
He possessed a body at the level of See the Gods, Indestructible, and had long since cultivated his flesh to the utmost limit of his current realm.
He could perceive the finest details within his body, his blood and Qi were as vast as a dragon, and his life essence was incomparably abundant. He was perfectly suited to this path!
This filled him with confidence for the cultivation he was about to begin.
The time has come. Today is the day!
Li Qingshan made up his mind, his eyes shining brightly, and hesitated no longer.
Following the supreme method of the Sun True Scripture,
he began directing all his strength to draw in the essence Qi of heaven and earth around him, as well as the unseen, omnipresent Solar Sacred Force.
The moment he set the technique in motion, an astonishing change occurred!
"Rumble..."
Though there was no thunder inside the little cave, the vast, deafening sound of a tsunami erupted out of nowhere!
The sound did not come from outside, but from the Bitter Sea in Li Qingshan's dantian!
The abundant essence Qi that Kunlun Immortal Land had accumulated over countless ages seemed finally to have found an outlet through a breached dam.
It converged on him madly, forming a vortex of milky-white spiritual mist visible to the naked eye, so dense it had almost become liquid,
enveloping and engulfing him in layer after layer.
There were also strands of supremely refined, supremely pure Solar True Force, bearing a scorching heat, that pierced through the thick mountain rock.
Ignoring every obstacle, they descended from the unseen void and entered his body like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea.
His body was now like a bottomless black hole, greedily and efficiently devouring all the energy pouring into it.
The Sun True Scripture was one of the Mother Scriptures of the Human Race, supremely yang and supremely forceful, its domineering might unmatched.
The phenomena it stirred up in heaven and earth during cultivation surpassed those of ordinary techniques by an incalculable degree.
Li Qingshan felt his dantian tremble violently. That deathly silent place, regarded as the starting point of cultivation and sealed by divine iron,
where the Wheel of Life and Bitter Sea lay, was now being struck madly by vast essence Qi and supreme Solar Sacred Force.
The barrier, so solid that it had driven countless cultivators to despair, began to shudder violently, groaning under the strain.
"Crack!"
In the unseen depths, a crisp shattering sound seemed to issue from the most fundamental source within his body, resounding through the depths of his soul!
It was not a physical sound, but the sound of the Great Dao!
Immediately afterward,
"Boom!"
Boundless, dazzling crimson-gold divine light burst from his dantian,
instantly illuminating the entire dim cave as brightly as day, as though a miniature sun had been born there!
The light blazed, containing unimaginable vitality and heat,
along with a domineering will to split open chaos and crush everything!
The Bitter Sea had opened!
If cultivators in the outside world saw the sight of this Bitter Sea, it would leave any so-called genius dumbstruck and cause their Dao hearts to falter!
When ordinary cultivators first opened their Bitter Seas, they were no larger than grains of rice, murky and lifeless.
It took countless years and resources to expand them gradually.
But the moment Li Qingshan's Bitter Sea opened, it was vast and boundless, golden light and crimson radiance surging and intertwining.
The waters churned, enormous waves towered into the sky, and a deafening roar rang out.
Its sheer expanse and the immensity of its divine power made it look nothing like a newly opened Bitter Sea. It seemed more like one that had long since reached completion!
More astonishing still, all manner of inconceivable innate phenomena had appeared above this newborn Bitter Sea!
Golden lightning danced wildly like dragons and serpents,
tearing through the towering crimson waves,
as if reenacting the creation of heaven and earth!
Chaos Qi hung hazily over the sea, and indistinct Innate Dao Patterns rose and fell among the waves, flickering in and out of sight.
They appeared and vanished with the surging waves, stirring the sound of the Great Dao into a rumble,
as if expounding the ultimate truths and mysteries from when heaven and earth first opened.
Where sea met sky, faint images of golden lotuses could even be seen blooming, while a vision of gods and demons bowing their heads flashed past!
How was this a Bitter Sea in which cultivators struggled to survive?
This was clearly a crimson divine sea in the midst of evolution, nurturing boundless vitality! It was a supreme sacred land where the Great Dao had just begun!
Th-this is my Bitter Sea?
Even with Li Qingshan's state of mind, he could not help feeling stunned as he looked inward at the terrifying sight in his dantian.
The Sun True Scripture was indeed a supreme emperor scripture, but from what he had understood before,
it did not seem to describe such astonishing phenomena appearing when the Bitter Sea was first opened.
My physique...
Understanding dawned on him in an instant, and a brilliant light flashed in his eyes.
*I'm no ordinary mortal! Back in the Dragon and Snake World, See the Gods, Indestructible allowed me to sense the hidden divine treasures and shackles within my body.
Now it seems the secret hidden in this body of mine is far greater than I imagined!*
He recalled how, from childhood, he had been able to sense the world's "silence" and "scarcity,"
and had sensed five enormous "shackles" within his body.
Now that his Bitter Sea had opened amid such earthshaking phenomena, it had finally confirmed that he was no ordinary mortal.
As for exactly what kind of powerful physique he had, there was too little information to determine it yet.
But there was no doubt that this physique was incomparably suited to cultivation, close to the Great Dao and possessing limitless potential!
The moment the Bitter Sea opened, the sensation of a leap in his level of life suddenly swept over him.
He felt the most fundamental, heaviest shackle within his body break!
Vast, endless divine power was born from that immense Bitter Sea, surging and roaring
as it swept through his limbs and bones like a flood bursting through a dam. Every inch of flesh, every bone,
and even every cell greedily absorbed this newborn energy, filled with Solar Sacred Force,
undergoing profound refinement and strengthening.
His body became even more crystal clear, shimmering with a faint, precious glow. Building on the foundation of See the Gods, Indestructible, the strength of his flesh took another great step forward.
His five senses and six perceptions became keener than ever before. The strength of his divine sense soared, and its range expanded dramatically.
His ability to sense and absorb the essence Qi of heaven and earth also improved severalfold.
My Bitter Sea... has actually reached completion directly?
Looking inward at the magnificent Bitter Sea, which circulated on its own and already covered the entire area below his dantian without any need for further deliberate expansion,
Li Qingshan murmured to himself.
This saved him the painstaking effort countless cultivators would have needed years, decades, or even longer to complete.
Good! The thicker the foundation, the wider the road ahead! The time I've saved can go toward breaking through to a higher realm!
His resolve was firm. After his delight came absolute calm and concentration.
With an environment like Kunlun's, one rarely found in countless ages, and an emperor scripture in hand, how could he waste a single moment?
He continued to circulate the profound technique madly, absorbing the abundant Kunlun essence Qi and Solar True Force around him like a great whale drawing in water,
constantly consolidating the astonishing results he had achieved with his Bitter Sea.
At the same time, he immersed his mind in the subsequent methods of the Wheel Sea Scroll of the Sun True Scripture, reaching out to the Wheel of Life to draw forth the Life Spring!
The Wheel of Life lay in the deepest part of the Bitter Sea. It was the core of life's vitality and the very foundation of the source of all divine power.
Ordinary Life Spring cultivators had to use the divine power of their Bitter Seas to slowly nourish and sense it, like water dripping through stone.
Only then could they laboriously draw out a strand of the Wheel of Life's essence Qi and transform it into a Spring of Life. The process was slow and arduous.
But for Li Qingshan, this step presented almost no bottleneck!
The divine power of his boundless, supremely refined and pure Bitter Sea was reinforced by the Solar Sacred Force drawn in by the immemorial mother scripture, making it incomparably domineering.
After spending just one day slightly consolidating the seething divine power of his Bitter Sea,
he directed that endless crimson divine power without hesitation, like a river of stars flowing backward,
and like a heavenly sword cleaving down, smashing into the point at the deepest part of the Bitter Sea where life originated!
"Hum!"
Another violent tremor followed, even fiercer than when he had opened his Bitter Sea!
At the center of the Bitter Sea, the point representing the origin of life suddenly erupted with golden light of the utmost brilliance, like the blazing sun!
The next moment,
"Boom!"
An immensely thick Divine Spring, as though cast from crimson gold,
erupted like a primordial volcano that had slept for countless ages and amassed all its strength!
The column of the spring was thick as a dragon, dazzling and brilliant, blazing like the sun.
It contained vast, endless life essence Qi and immense divine power,
and burst straight through the surface of the vast Bitter Sea, shooting upward as though it would reach the heavens!
Pure and violent divine power, mixed with the essence of life, gushed forth from it,
flowing into the Bitter Sea in a ceaseless cycle, seemingly without end, never to run dry!
The Life Spring was formed!
And this was no mere trickle, nor an ordinary spring.
This Life Spring was immensely thick, its erupting power violent and astonishing, its divine power of the highest quality, pure and scorching,
bearing the supreme majesty of Solar Sacred Force and shining so brilliantly that it could not be looked at directly.
Its scale and imposing force had reached the peak of the Life Spring Realm!
The instant the Life Spring surged, Li Qingshan's entire body shuddered violently. He felt as though the very source of his life had been set ablaze!
A boundless sense of power filled every corner of his body, more than ten times stronger than when he had been in the Bitter Sea Realm!
Vigorous life essence surged through him. He could even clearly feel that his own lifespan had invisibly increased by a tremendous amount.
As divine power from the Life Spring poured madly into the Bitter Sea below, towering waves rose amid flashes of lightning and crashes of thunder.
The various phenomena of heaven's creation grew clearer and more vivid, while that crimson sea continued to expand and solidify.
Like a tireless divine pump of heaven and earth, the Life Spring gushed without cease,
soon reaching a stable peak, its source of divine power flowing on endlessly.
"Life Spring Peak!"
Li Qingshan's eyes snapped open, and two rays of seemingly solid golden divine light flashed through them and vanished,
like two miniature suns rising and sinking in their depths, illuminating the dim cave in an instant.
A powerful presence spread from him involuntarily, only to be quietly blocked by the formation's curtain of light at the cave entrance.
He slowly clenched his fists, feeling the immense divine power within him, far greater than before, as though he could punch straight through a mountain.
A powerful confidence welled up within him. The air between his fingers was easily crushed, bursting with a low sonic boom.
Power! Real and tangible, mighty divine power that could cleave mountains, sever rivers, and bring down cities and strongholds!
It was unlike the exquisitely subtle force techniques of Dragon Snake Guoshu,
and unlike the ever-changing, unpredictable mental force of the Great Emperor of the Cosmos.
This was a more direct, more immense supreme power, born from the source of life and blazing like the sun!
The first two realms of the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm came so naturally, like water forming a channel.
He felt a rush of satisfaction, but he also understood more clearly:
This was possible only because my accumulated foundation was so profound, my physique extraordinary, and the Kunlun Immortal Realm and the Sun Emperor Scripture unparalleled.
The secret realms that follow, such as the Dao Palace and Four Extremes, require drawing upon the laws of heaven and earth to temper the five viscera and four limbs.
At the cave entrance, Xiaobai seemed to have been startled by the occasional wisp of supreme yang that escaped Li Qingshan's control and leaked from the cave, along with the oppressive force of his life.
Both awed and curious, Xiaobai cautiously poked a little head inside, green eyes blinking as Xiaobai gazed at Li Qingshan, who was shrouded in crimson-gold divine light.
Li Qingshan restrained the presence escaping from his body, smiled faintly at Xiaobai, and beckoned.
Xiaobai hesitated for a moment, then mustered the courage to slither inside.
The closer Xiaobai came, the more keenly Xiaobai could feel the blazing, vibrant blood Qi and divine power inside Li Qingshan, like a roaring furnace.
Li Qingshan held out a finger, and an extremely tiny amount of Life Spring divine power, refined and condensed to the utmost, gathered at its tip,
giving off a warm, peaceful presence that nourished all things.
This was supreme yang divine power tempered by the Sun True Scripture, and it would normally suppress a spiritual creature like Xiaobai, whose nature leaned toward cold.
But Li Qingshan's control was minutely precise. He drew only on its most fundamental essence of life, making it incomparably gentle.
Xiaobai sensed the immense vitality contained in that tiny speck of golden light, a vitality that made Xiaobai's very bloodline leap with excitement. Those green eyes lit up at once.
Unable to hold back any longer, Xiaobai cautiously approached and gently drew in a breath at the speck of divine power.
Threads of golden radiance flowed into Xiaobai's body like a warm current. Trembling slightly with pleasure, Xiaobai narrowed those eyes.
The pure white scales covering Xiaobai's body seemed to grow more lustrous and glossy, and Xiaobai's presence also grew faintly stronger.
"Keep a good watch. Once I've fully emerged from seclusion and stabilized my realm, you'll get your share of benefits."
Li Qingshan smiled, in an excellent mood.
Xiaobai affectionately rubbed against the hem of his robe, let out a cheerful hiss, and slithered back to the cave entrance.
Xiaobai's body seemed to have grown slightly thicker all around. Head held high and chest out, Xiaobai carried out the duty of guarding him even more conscientiously.
Li Qingshan closed his eyes again, the smile fading from his face and giving way to absolute calm.
Although he had formed both the Bitter Sea and the Life Spring and reached the peak, with his power having soared, he needed all the more to settle his mind and stabilize it until he could wield it as easily as his own arm.
He did not let his rapidly advancing realm go to his head and rush to break through to the more complex Dao Palace Secret Realm.
Instead, he calmed his mind and circulated the profound method of the Sun True Scripture over and over, refining and condensing his divine power,
contemplating the many mysteries of the Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm and tamping down this world-shaking foundation, rarely seen through the ages, until it was incomparably solid and unbreakable.
Inside the cave, the vast roar of tsunamis and thunder gradually subsided,
finally becoming a deep, powerful, rhythmic resonance.
It was as though a true sun were rising, sinking, and breathing within his Bitter Sea,
its pulse and rhythm faintly in step with the ancient pulse of the Kunlun Immortal Land.
Crimson-gold divine light enveloped him like a cocoon. His bearing was solemn and dignified, his blood Qi like a dragon.
In seclusion on an immortal mountain,
in one day, the Bitter Sea shook the world, and wondrous phenomena appeared in profusion;
in one day, the Life Spring surged to its peak, its divine power vast.