The moment the five gods of his Dao Palace returned to their places, the Dao sounds flowing around Li Qingshan quietly faded.
He slowly opened his eyes. Five-colored divine light flashed through them and vanished, while the Divine Seed trembled gently in his sea of consciousness.
"Something's strange about this place."
As soon as Li Qingshan spoke, Xiaobai, at his feet, suddenly reared up, its snow-white body drawn taut.
A lustrous white glow appeared on the jade horn atop its head, and its gaze locked on the valley on the western slope.
That was the area they had deliberately detoured around earlier because of the strange fluctuations from its formations.
Li Qingshan followed its gaze, and the Divine Seed instantly spread out its senses. Sure enough, it caught a familiar fluctuation coming from deep within the valley:
It shared the same source as the Sun True Scripture on the red jade divine stele, but was more ancient and profound, a supremely yang Dao resonance that seemed to have settled over the ages since antiquity.
"Let's go."
Divine power surged gently around him, and he pushed off with the tip of his foot, darting past towering ancient trees. The wind stirred up by his robes shook the morning dew from the leaves;
Xiaobai followed close behind like a streak of white lightning, weaving nimbly through the forest, its jade horn flashing from time to time in warning of the lingering might of formations hidden nearby.
The closer they drew to the valley, the hotter the air became, but this was no ordinary rise in temperature.
It was the pressure of some lingering supremely yang power, as though a miniature sun lay sunk at the bottom of the valley.
Even the surrounding rocks had taken on a faint crimson-gold hue.
Li Qingshan stopped at the valley entrance and brushed his fingertips over a charred rock. His divine sense seeped into it and touched a few traces of wind blades that had yet to dissipate.
"Remnants of the Heavenly Wind Soul-Rending Formation?"
He murmured to himself. The heart-fire divine treasury in his Dao Palace warmed slightly, and the wind-blade formations hidden in the void
had nowhere to hide from his Qi perception.
"Follow my steps."
When he finished speaking, he placed every step in a gap between the formations. The scorching heat grew clearer with each step forward.
When he passed through the last invisible barrier, the sight before him made Li Qingshan's pupils contract:
A colossal sundial, half buried in yellow earth, occupied the center of the valley. Its blue-black stone body was covered in a web of cracks.
Yet it still radiated a majesty that looked down upon past and present.
The sundial's surface was carved with intricate patterns:
The outermost layer bore a complete chart of the stars, their positions matching the sky overhead exactly;
The middle layer bore flowing Sun True Fire patterns, their golden-red lines writhing like living things;
The central pointer had long since broken, yet thunderbolt Dao resonance still lingered at the break, which pointed due south.
"A sundial!"
Li Qingshan slowly approached and pressed his palm against the stone surface.
With a boom, the Divine Seed trembled violently, and a supremely yang, supremely forceful presence poured into his body through his palm.
It resonated powerfully with the heart-fire divine treasury in his Dao Palace, producing a humming Dao sound. Even the crimson-gold Qi and blood surrounding him boiled in response.
Xiaobai circled the sundial three times before stopping in front of a raised pattern at its southwestern corner. Its jade horn trembled as it hissed softly at the runes.
Li Qingshan looked toward the sound. It was an incomplete set of runes.
The Dao resonance in their strokes came from exactly the same source as the passages of the Sun True Scripture on the red jade divine stele, though it seemed more ancient.
"I'll try activating it with solar divine power."
He closed his eyes. Red light surged within his Dao Palace, and a wisp of solar divine power, condensed to the utmost, slowly entered the runes.
In an instant, the stone surface lit up with a scarlet glow, and the solar patterns that had lain dormant for ten thousand years seemed to awaken like living things.
The light raced along the patterns, illuminating the entire valley as brightly as day.
"Hum."
At the broken pointer in the center of the sundial, a hazy image slowly coalesced. The figure of an old man in crimson-gold robes appeared within it.
His face was indistinct, but he radiated a majesty that looked down upon the ages, and his voice carried a weight that pierced through eternity:
"I am the seventeenth-generation high priest of the Sun Sacred Clan."
Li Qingshan's heart tightened, and he stood solemnly. He could clearly sense that this was not a remnant consciousness.
It was only a projection formed by an imprint of power, yet it still carried the Sun Sacred Clan's supreme foundation.
"This junior, Li Qingshan, greets the high priest."
He bowed slightly, his manner respectful. Xiaobai curled up at his feet, its eyes full of reverence and fear, not daring to make the slightest movement.
The old man of light did not respond. He simply continued speaking to himself, his voice echoing through the valley:
"This is my clan's supreme treasure, the Nine Yang Sundial.
First, it measures the timing of heaven; second, it tempers the divine body; third, it draws down heaven's might."
As he spoke, the image abruptly changed, revealing a magnificent scene of ancient forebears cultivating around the sundial:
Dozens of bare-chested men sat cross-legged, their Qi and blood rising into the sky like columns of beacon smoke.
The Nine Yang Sundial cast countless rays of golden light, which flowed into their bodies like waterfalls.
Faint golden flames sprang up over each man's skin, and the bones and meridians beneath their flesh became clearly visible.
They were using Sun True Fire to temper their bodies, and even the air was filled with the crackling sounds of their flesh transforming.
"Our clan cultivates the Sun True Scripture, using fire to temper the heart and yang to forge the body."
The old man's voice continued, and the scene within the light changed with it.
"Bringing the five gods of the Dao Palace to perfection is merely the foundation for the mortal body to become divine; the Four Extremes Secret Realm is the key to communing with heaven and earth."
Li Qingshan's gaze sharpened. This was precisely his current realm, and he quickly held his breath and focused, engraving every word the high priest spoke into his sea of consciousness.
Another scene appeared in the light:
A cultivator stood atop a mountain, brilliant golden light bursting from every limb and bone as the power of heaven and earth gathered toward him like a tide.
He was on the verge of breaking through to the Four Extremes Secret Realm.
But in an instant, dark clouds gathered overhead, and purple lightning slithered through them like dragons and serpents.
A heavenly tribulation bolt as thick as a bucket struck down. The cultivator was caught off guard, and his body shattered on the spot, leaving only a wisp of his remnant soul to dissipate in the wind.
"Heaven and earth impose shackles, while the Four Extremes commune with heaven and earth.
Since ancient times, when heaven's favored geniuses break through to the Four Extremes, they are certain to incur heaven's envy and be struck by heavenly tribulation, surviving only one time in ten."
The old man's tone was tinged with regret. The scene in the light changed again, this time showing a cultivator standing at the center of the Nine Yang Sundial.
Dark clouds gathered overhead, and the thunderbolts were even more violent than before.
"The Nine Yang Sundial can calculate the timing of heaven and find the day when thunderbolts gather;
It draws the thunder of the nine heavens into the body, using thunderbolts to temper it, withstand the Four Extremes heavenly tribulation, and lay an imperishable foundation."
When his voice fell, the Nine Yang Sundial projected a pillar of light that precisely guided the thunderbolts filling the sky into the cultivator's limbs. Golden light and lightning intertwined over his body.
Though his flesh was scorched by the thunderbolts, it rapidly healed under the nourishment of Sun True Fire. At last, golden light burst ten thousand zhang from the cultivator's body.
"To draw thunder without drawing disaster, one must use the Nine Yang Sundial's Lightning-Attracting Mark to guide it."
The old man pointed to a set of special runes at the edge of the sundial. The runes were silver-violet,
utterly different from the surrounding solar patterns and imbued with the violent Dao resonance of thunderbolts.
"This is the complete Lightning-Attracting Mark. Inheritors of later generations must commit it to memory, without missing or mistaking a single stroke."
Li Qingshan fixed his gaze on the runes, and the Divine Seed recorded them swiftly.
He engraved every stroke and every trace of Dao resonance in the Lightning-Attracting Mark into his sea of consciousness, not daring to make the slightest error.
Just then, Xiaobai suddenly stirred at his feet:
A lustrous white glow rose around its body, and golden patterns appeared on the jade horn atop its head.
The bloodline within it seemed to have been awakened by the Nine Yang Sundial's supremely yang power.
Its body also quietly grew half a chi, and its scales became an even more lustrous white, shining like jade.
"Hmm?"
"The inheritance has been passed on in full."
The figure of light began to blur, and the old man's voice grew fainter.
"Fated one of a later generation, if you can restore the Sun Sacred Clan..."
Before he could finish, the projection vanished completely, and the red glow on the Nine Yang Sundial's surface began to fade rapidly.
Just then, a violent tremor shook the valley!
Li Qingshan's expression changed drastically, and his divine sense swept across the surroundings:
The cracks in the Nine Yang Sundial were widening rapidly, and its blue-black stone body had begun to crumble.
Fine, web-like cracks appeared in the surrounding space, and the ground was collapsing faster and faster.
Broken stones tumbled down like raindrops, mingled with Sun True Fire that had yet to dissipate, scorching the air with a sizzling sound.
"This place is about to collapse!"
He snatched up Xiaobai, divine power surging around him. Crimson-gold Qi and blood enveloped his body like a shield as he retreated swiftly.
Xiaobai coiled tightly around his wrist.
"I haven't finished copying the Lightning-Attracting Mark!"
Li Qingshan glanced over the Nine Yang Sundial and gritted his teeth, stopping in his tracks.
He took an ancient beast hide from his Bitter Sea. He had found it earlier at the divine tree ruins; the material was tough and could bear Dao resonance.
He also took out a fragment of a broken sword containing Great Luo Silver Essence. Pouring divine power into it and using it as a brush, he rapidly inscribed the Lightning-Attracting Mark on the beast hide.
Every stroke contained supremely yang Dao resonance, and every line matched the runes on the Nine Yang Sundial exactly.
He dared not make the slightest mistake. The Divine Seed operated at full force, ensuring that his copy of the Lightning-Attracting Mark was complete and flawless.
Rumble!
The Nine Yang Sundial suddenly split apart, its blue-black stone body breaking into several pieces that crashed toward the ground, wreathed in Sun True Fire.
The ground throughout the valley collapsed in an instant, forming a vast, deep pit. Even the void trembled, as though it might be torn apart by the force.
"Go!"
Li Qingshan put away the beast hide and drove his divine power to its limit, becoming a streak of crimson-gold light that fled the valley.
An earth-shaking crash came from behind him as the entire valley collapsed completely.
Yellow earth and broken stone surged forward like a flood, burying the fragments of the Nine Yang Sundial entirely and leaving only supremely yang Dao resonance filling the sky,
proof of the glory the Sun Sacred Clan had once left here.
Li Qingshan hovered over a mountaintop outside the valley, looking down at the valley covered in yellow earth, his heart full of shock. This journey to the Nine Yang Sundial
had not only revealed the key to breaking through to the Four Extremes, but had also given him the inheritance of the Lightning-Attracting Mark. It could be called the greatest opportunity of his trip.
He looked down at Xiaobai on his wrist. The faint golden light around its body had yet to fade.
"Let's go. It's time to return and stabilize my Dao foundation, then prepare to break through to the Four Extremes."
Li Qingshan spoke softly, then turned into a streak of light and vanished into Kunlun's sea of trees.