After living out a new life, Xiao Ping'an made a circuit of the starry sky before returning to the Tyrant Body Ancestral Star and the Heavenly Pillar Mountain Ancient Cave.
He continued swallowing several of the Ginseng Fruits he had stored, stopping only when he felt they no longer had any effect. He did it all to live a few more years in his second life.
He had exchanged with the other Dark Supremes for eight kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine, and he swallowed them all as well.
Taking so many kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine together was not as effective as refining them into a Nine-Turn Immortal Pill, but the results were still astonishing.
Having swallowed so much Immortal Divine Medicine, Xiao Ping'an was confident he could live to thirty thousand in his second life.
He had ample time to comprehend the method of longevity.
He had laid a solid foundation in his first life. The long lifespan of his second life would surely allow him to make a new breakthrough in his research into the method of longevity.
He had read the trilogy, so naturally he did not have to grope about in the dark like a headless fly as others did.
Nor had he offended those Dark Supremes. He did not have to struggle desperately like Ye Fan, surviving nine deaths for every life, only to encounter calamity even in his later years.
He believed that as long as he kept accumulating longevity Immortal Essence in his body like Ye Fan, he would surely be able to nurture an Immortal Fetus and live out a third life.
He sat cross-legged in the Heavenly Pillar Mountain Ancient Cave, comprehending the Dao and cultivating.
He constantly pondered various methods of longevity and tested them.
While those Dark Supremes were still snoring away in the forbidden zones, Xiao Ping'an had already forged boldly ahead on the path of the Red Dust Immortal.
After several periods of seclusion, time flew by. In the blink of an eye, Xiao Ping'an was already thirty thousand years old.
He stood in the sky, looking down at the vigorous youths. Their tender faces were full of longing for cultivation and hope for the future. They cultivated diligently, beginning with the weakest Sea of Bitterness Secret Realm. Even in this age after the golden age had ended and the Great Dao no longer manifested, there were still people striving to cultivate.
Entering the Immortal Platform Secret Realm and becoming an Immortal Second Realm Mighty Figure was already an extraordinary dream in their hearts.
Xiao Ping'an seemed to see himself when he was weak, full of youthful vigor and striving to advance.
He still looked like an eighteen-year-old youth, incomparably young. His vitality was even more abundant, and his strength had grown greater.
He traveled through the mortal world, watching young men and women embark on the path of cultivation, make their names known across a region, and then pass away into the Dao. It was like a cycle.
As the years passed, similar stories played out again and again.
Xiao Ping'an carefully immersed himself in the mortal world, sitting cross-legged above the nine heavens and looking down upon it. He sat there for more than two thousand years.
He seemed to have grasped certain profound truths of longevity and reincarnation, catching the faintest traces of their paths.
When Xiao Ping'an was thirty-five thousand years old, his hair was still black, and he still looked like a youth in his prime.
His two beloved companions, the two Great Accomplishment Sacred Bodies, however, were struggling to hold on.
Although they had once taken an ageless immortal flower and still retained their ageless beauty, their life force was truly fading.
During their second lives, Xiao Ping'an had also given them several kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine. They had managed to live to twenty thousand in their second lives, but they too were struggling to hold on.
And Xiao Ping'an had yet to succeed with the method of longevity he had been researching and testing.
His two beloved companions had not succeeded in their own research either, and they were also struggling to hold on.
Xiao Ping'an had originally wanted to seal them in Immortal Source, but they refused, worried that they might not be able to restrain themselves and would one day become Dark Supremes.
They planned to return to the Sacred Body Ancestral Star and pass away there, further strengthening the star's foundation so that more beings with Sacred Body bloodlines could be born upon it.
After some thought, Xiao Ping'an decided to have them follow the example of the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor in a later age. He would first refine two Extreme Dao Weapons for them from Phoenix Blood Red Gold, then have them become the weapon spirits within.
According to the original text, after the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor became the weapon spirit of an Extreme Dao Weapon, he slept inside it, waking only occasionally.
He had never once unleashed a Dark Turmoil and devoured countless living beings in his lifetime.
Relying on his own research and his race's innate gifts, he had managed to live until the Road to Immortality opened on Flying Immortal Star.
Although he had allied himself with those Dark Supremes and turned against Ye Fan over a place on the Road to Immortality, he truly had never unleashed a Dark Turmoil.
He had become the weapon spirit of an Extreme Dao Weapon and lived through millions of years. It was unquestionably a method of longevity worth studying.
Since his two Dao companions were unwilling to become Dark Supremes, Xiao Ping'an decided to use the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor's method.
That way, they could live on.
This method had another advantage.
The longer they spent as weapon spirits, the more likely they were to sink into a muddle and become true weapon spirits.
But the process could be reversed. If they really felt something was wrong, they could be reborn from their forms as weapon spirits, return to their origins and live again.
Moreover, they were Great Accomplishment Sacred Bodies who had achieved Alternative Dao Attainment, so they did not need to sever their own cultivation as the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor had.
They could return directly to their origins and become Great Accomplishment Sacred Bodies again.
Xiao Ping'an felt that this method was a godsend for the Sacred Body and Tyrant Body Lineage.
With that thought, he set to work at once.
Using the Phoenix Blood Red Gold he had found and accumulated in the starry sky over the years, he immediately refined a mirror and a Jade Ruyi.
Both were refined from Phoenix Blood Red Gold, and both were made into Extreme Dao Weapons.
Then, following his own deductions, Xiao Ping'an succeeded in making the two sisters the weapon spirits of the Phoenix Blood Red Gold mirror and the Jade Ruyi.
Ordinarily, they slept like the weapon spirits of normal Extreme Dao Weapons. When needed, they would come alive to fight, just as an Extreme Dao Weapon's spirit awakened.
This method was simply perfect.
Xiao Ping'an thought it over. He could pass this method down to his descendants, to his three sons and one daughter.
He had originally thought that once he became a Red Dust Immortal, he could help them break through the Heavenly Heart Imprint and forcibly prove their Dao as emperors.
He would guide them onto the path of the Red Dust Immortal.
Now, it seemed that sealing them away so early back then might have been a mistake.
He should have let them start cultivating early, become Great Accomplished Tyrant Bodies as soon as possible, then become the weapon spirits of Extreme Dao Weapons and sleep in the Heavenly One Pillar Mountain Ancient Cave.
Once Xiao Ping'an succeeded in his cultivation, he could awaken them at any time, allowing them to return to their origins and prove their Dao as emperors.
Perhaps these substandard Heavenly Emperors, who had attained their status with Xiao Ping'an's help, would not be as powerful as those like Xiao Ping'an or Ye Fan, who had broken through the Heavenly Heart Imprint themselves. But they would definitely be stronger than ordinary Great Emperors.
After all, they would have proven their Dao with Tyrant Bodies.
The more Xiao Ping'an thought about it, the more excited he became. He felt he had found another new path for Sacred Bodies and Tyrant Bodies.
Looking at the two women who had already become Extreme Dao Weapon spirits, Xiao Ping'an hugged the two Extreme Dao Weapons and slept soundly.
Perhaps when they woke again, they would be surprised to find that Xiao Ping'an had already become a Red Dust Immortal.
He hoped he could reach that point.
Before his two wives fell asleep, Xiao Ping'an awakened his three sons and one daughter from the Immortal Source.
They were all overjoyed to see their parents.
"Father, Mother, we really missed you." "Father, why are you still so young? Have we only been asleep for a few years?"
"We don't want to be sealed away. We want to go out and play."
"Mother, take us out to play."
Yun'er and Weiwei awakened again from their weapons. Together with Xiao Ping'an, they each held one child, while Xiao Ping'an held two.
Although the children had all cultivated to the Immortal Platform Secret Realm and reached adulthood, they took on the forms of little babies again so their parents could hold them. They did it for no other reason than to have all the fun they wanted and let their parents make up for the time they had spent apart.
Xiao Ping'an, Yun'er, and Weiwei smiled at one another, then took the children out.
The Overlord Heavenly Venerable set out to travel across the universe, leaving jaws on the floor.
Many people were astonished, learning for the first time that Xiao Ping'an actually had four children.
They also marveled at how lucky the four children were to enjoy their parents' love.
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Looking at his children and his women, Xiao Ping'an felt happy and warm.
After their travels, Xiao Ping'an sealed his three sons and one daughter away again. They were his hope for the future, and the future hope of the Tyrant Body Ancestral Star.
Then Xiao Ping'an personally sent Yun'er and Weiwei into their deepest slumber and sealed them in the Heavenly Pillar Mountain Ancient Cave.
Time flowed swiftly by like water.
Xiao Ping'an watched generation after generation of heavenly prodigies rise to fame throughout the world, then grow old.
In the blink of an eye, he was forty thousand years old.
In the days that followed, he traveled throughout the starry sky, surveying mountains, rivers, and dragon veins, searching for places of heaven-defying fortune and carefully cultivating and deducing the Source Heaven Great Dao.
Many people mistakenly thought he was searching for a place where a dragon could soar into the heavens to serve as his tomb.
They also remarked that it seemed the Overlord Heavenly Venerable did not intend to sever his own cultivation and become the master of a forbidden zone.
But if he did not become a Dark Supreme, he would eventually die.
Many people predicted that the Overlord Heavenly Venerable had only two paths ahead of him: die when his lifespan ended, or become a Dark Supreme.
After all, Immortal Divine Medicine would no longer help him in this life.
Xiao Ping'an searched the starry sky and the Cosmic Frontier for places where Saint Spirits were nurtured, so that he could use the Saint Spirit method to live out a new life in the future.
He also searched for the Undying Mountain and the Primordial Ancient Mine. Both wondrous places were well suited to serve as Life Forbidden Zones.
Even if he had no use for them himself, he could leave them to his descendants or even let Great Emperors and ancient emperors with whom he was on good terms use them. They could all share.
He thought of how, in later ages, a great number of Dark Supremes lurked in the Undying Mountain and the Primordial Ancient Mine. There were especially many hidden in the Primordial Ancient Mine.
If the two Life Forbidden Zones were under Xiao Ping'an's control, then so many Dark Supremes would not be able to survive.
For countless living beings, that might well be a blessing.
Of course, throughout those long years, Xiao Ping'an also deduced methods of longevity and accumulated longevity Immortal Essence in his body bit by bit.
Xiao Ping'an carefully studied them all: the Undying Heavenly Emperor's method of nirvana, the future Buddha Ancestor's Power of Faith longevity method, the Divine Silkworm Ancient Emperor's method of nirvana, the Saint Spirit method of longevity, and even methods of longevity that had yet to appear or succeed.
As the saying went, being prepared averted disaster. Since he knew such paths existed and had nothing else to do for the moment, of course he would draw on the strengths of them all and carefully deduce them.
He also searched for traces of Wang Bo, the Chaos Body. Whether Xiao Ping'an could become a Chaos Body and live out a new life depended on him.
At the same time, he searched for new Immortal Divine Medicines, because the original text clearly recorded that more than thirty kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine had appeared in this age.
They were destroyed one after another in the flames of war, and by Ye Fan's era, only a dozen or so kinds remained.
It was truly a great pity.
Even so, Xiao Ping'an had only seen or heard of a dozen or so kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine.
Clearly, nearly twenty kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine had yet to be discovered.
In any case, of the eight kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine Xiao Ping'an had exchanged for with the other Dark Supremes, some were recorded in later ages and some were not. After making his deductions, he had taken them without hesitation.
He had felt full of vitality and utterly refreshed after taking them.
The years flew by, and Xiao Ping'an's second life lasted all the way to more than twenty-nine thousand years.
Then Xiao Ping'an exchanged with others for some new Immortal Divine Medicines he had not taken before. Previously, he had been unable to obtain them because they had not yet matured or for other reasons.
This time, Xiao Ping'an also traded for the same eight kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine he had obtained and taken before.
Then he exchanged for the fruits or juices of three new kinds of Immortal Divine Medicine and swallowed them all in one go.
As a result, he lived all the way to thirty-two thousand.
His second life lasted thirty-two thousand years, two thousand longer than the thirty thousand he had expected.
Adding the twenty-six thousand five hundred and fifty years of his first life, he had lived an astonishing fifty-eight thousand years and more.
"The Overlord Heavenly Venerable truly is a supreme deity."
"The Overlord Heavenly Venerable can truly be called an undying Heavenly Venerable."
Many people cried out in astonishment at the sight of the Overlord Heavenly Venerable.
With such a long lifespan, Xiao Ping'an could be said to have thoroughly deduced how that old tortoise had lived out a second life.
He had also nurtured a great amount of longevity Immortal Essence in his body. Living out a third life was now all but assured.
By comparison, others might risk their lives trying to live out a third life and still fail.
After transmigrating into this world, Xiao Ping'an had handled every trouble with great caution, and he was about to enter his third life with everything secure.
Looking at those transmigrators weighed down by bitterness and hatred, then looking at himself, Xiao Ping'an felt good. He felt he was living well.
A life of fighting and killing all day was not what he wanted. If someone came knocking at his door to fight, he would naturally strike back without mercy.
But if others did not dare come after him, he would stay put and not provoke them.
Take the many Dark Supremes, for example. He would not go and kill them all simply because he had nothing better to do.
He was not that arrogant.
As long as his descendants and clansmen could live well, everything was wonderful.
He hoped those Dark Supremes would not be blind enough to provoke Xiao Ping'an.
Xiao Ping'an was very powerful indeed.
(End of chapter)