Xiao Ping'an forcibly ground away and refined the soul that had awakened within the corpse. The True Immortal-level remains, wrapped in boundless Power of Faith, appeared ready to undergo Dao transformation beneath the burning flames of the mortal world's night fire.
The fire of Dao transformation had actually ignited.
A True Immortal-level corpse was immensely precious. Both the essence it contained and the remains themselves were priceless.
Yongsheng needed that precious essence, while the True Immortal-level remains could be refined into an Immortal Artifact, or at the very least an Extreme Dao Weapon. They could not be wasted like this.
As one of the Ten Great Heavenly Venerables, Xiao Ping'an possessed the Nine Secrets: Ba. With one hand, he could sever time; with the other, he could sever space. He naturally had a way to deal with the fire of Dao transformation.
His presence soared in an instant, his vitality, Qi, and spirit rising to their peak as an ineffable divine charm of the Great Dao radiated from him.
Emperor Venerable watched the mysterious presence flowing around Xiao Ping'an, his face filled with shock and anticipation.
Though he had created the Nine Secrets: Jie, Xiao Ping'an had also created the Third Supreme Technique, which was no weaker than the Nine Secrets: Jie and might be even stronger.
He had heard of it, but had never witnessed it.
He fixed his blazing gaze on Xiao Ping'an.
Xiao Ping'an did not disappoint him.
In the blink of an eye, Xiao Ping'an seemed to merge with heaven and earth. A time rune appeared in his right hand and a space rune in his left.
He brought his hands together, and a terrifying, world-shaking divine light burst forth.
The light transformed into a Flower of the Great Dao, surpassing everything in the world. It even contained some immortal Dao runes, causing Emperor Venerable's Immortal Ascension Cauldron to tremble.
With a pfft, the Flower of the Great Dao struck the God-Devouring Insect's corpse.
The immensely dense light of Dao transformation was shattered in an instant. Everything there seemed to return to its original state, to the moment before Dao transformation had begun.
Emperor Venerable was startled. Xiao Ping'an's Great Dao was so extraordinary that it already touched upon the two supreme laws of time and space.
Xiao Ping'an casually collected Emperor Venerable's immensely dense Power of Faith. Emperor Venerable didn't want it anymore anyway.
The enormous corpse of the God-Slaying Insect returned to the form of a hornless True Dragon, drifting up and down in the chaos.
Even without the soul that had awakened within it, the corpse still radiated the might and pressure of a True Immortal.
Emperor Venerable and Xiao Ping'an stood in the starry sky, studying the corpse closely.
"Overlord Heavenly Venerable, your mastery truly rivals creation itself. You can even shatter the light of Dao transformation. I admire you and must admit I cannot compare," Emperor Venerable said with a smile.
"Nothing but a petty trick!" Xiao Ping'an replied modestly.
"This God-Devouring Insect's corpse truly is extraordinary. After we study the immortal Dao runes within it, let's divide it according to our original plan."
"I'll take his essence, and you take his remains," Xiao Ping'an said.
Emperor Venerable smiled and nodded. "Mm, let's do as Overlord Heavenly Venerable says."
Hummm.
Xiao Ping'an made his move.
His body shuddered, and a black Great Dao Treasure Bottle appeared above his head. At first it was indistinct, but in the blink of an eye it solidified into a black treasure bottle.
"This is..." A strange expression appeared on Emperor Venerable's face, but he said nothing more.
Strands of dark light streamed from above Xiao Ping'an's head, forging a Great Dao Treasure Bottle there.
Dark light flickered across it, flowing with a distinctive divine charm of the Great Dao. It looked ancient and natural.
The Great Dao Treasure Bottle looked simple, yet it was like a vessel for the Great Dao itself, unfathomably mysterious, as though it could suppress all the heavens and myriad worlds.
A sudden chill of alarm gripped Emperor Venerable. Xiao Ping'an had forged the Great Dao Treasure Bottle from his own Great Dao and vital Qi, and had actually cultivated a mysterious Great Dao to such a level.
Emperor Venerable had never felt anything like it before.
He had always thought that the Nine Secrets: Ba, which Overlord Heavenly Venerable cultivated, was his Great Dao, separate from his Spacetime Great Dao.
Now, Emperor Venerable realized at once how shallow his understanding had been.
Xiao Ping'an had comprehended a mysterious Great Dao to an extraordinarily profound level. Using the Great Dao Treasure Bottle as its vessel, he condensed nearly boundless magical power.
Dark light flowed, forging the Great Dao Treasure Bottle as it floated above Xiao Ping'an's head.
Rumble.
The cosmic sea boiled, and all of heaven and earth shook violently.
Law after law of the Great Dao descended, shooting out from the mouth of the Great Dao Treasure Bottle.
They plunged straight into the God-Slaying Insect's corpse.
Strands of the purest essence gathered from the God-Devouring Insect's body and entered the Great Dao Treasure Bottle.
Emperor Venerable naturally knew some methods of extracting essence as well, but they were clearly nowhere near as efficient or thorough as Xiao Ping'an's. Besides, he did not know how to use that essence.
Instead, he thought that lower-grade essence might contaminate his own higher-grade essence.
Moreover, Emperor Venerable believed only in the present life, not the past or the future. In this respect, he was somewhat like Ye Fan.
Thus, seeing Xiao Ping'an continuously extract the essence, he did not know what Xiao Ping'an intended to do and simply stopped thinking about it.
Xiao Ping'an thought this was a fine quality of Emperor Venerable's: he respected boundaries.
He knew what he should and should not ask.
This knockoff Heaven Devouring Demonic Art, or rather, the Black Hole Heavenly Art, was tied to a whole series of Xiao Ping'an's plans and to whether Yongsheng could truly take that step.
Now that he had revealed the Great Dao Treasure Bottle, Xiao Ping'an was certain that Emperor Venerable still could not deduce what he was doing.
The extraction of essence from the True Immortal God-Slaying Insect's body was soon complete.
All that brilliant golden essence flowed into Xiao Ping'an's Great Dao Treasure Bottle.
Xiao Ping'an looked inside the bottle. The ball of brilliant golden essence swam about within it, just like a lifelike God-Slaying Insect.
The God-Devouring Insect looked like a golden dragon a little over a meter long. It had no horns, and its body was covered in densely packed golden scales.
It probably wasn't wrong to call him a dragon. Wasn't he simply a dragon without horns?
Emperor Venerable took a look, then shook his head. With a wave of his hand, he put away the True Immortal God-Devouring Insect's remains.
While extracting the essence, Xiao Ping'an had also taken the opportunity to record all the immortal Dao runes within the True Immortal God-Slaying Insect's body, imprinting them onto his Overlord Heaven Bell.
Such immortal Dao runes certainly could not be wasted.
Afterward, Xiao Ping'an used the white bone saber in exchange for a chance to examine the immortal Dao runes on the Immortal Ascension Cauldron.
The two studied the Great Dao Runes on each other's Immortal Artifacts.
Xiao Ping'an soon copied all the immortal Dao runes on the Immortal Ascension Cauldron, imprinting them onto the white bone saber and the Overlord Heaven Bell.
After a period of study, Emperor Venerable said to Xiao Ping'an, "There is an urgent matter I would like to ask of you, Overlord Heavenly Venerable."
Xiao Ping'an cupped his hands. "You're too courteous, Emperor Venerable. Whatever it is, please tell me."
Emperor Venerable laughed heartily, seemingly very pleased with Xiao Ping'an's attitude.
After a moment, Emperor Venerable said, "You must have heard of Netherworld Venerable and the Underworld he founded."
"Before you lived your third life, Netherworld Venerable and I used earth-shaking Source Arts throughout the Nine Heavens and Ten Lands to refine the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains."
"After nurturing the Immortal Ascension Cauldron and the Heaven-Penetrating Nether Treasure into Immortal Artifacts, he buried himself."
"Before he buried himself, he asked me to look after the Underworld. He has been buried for many years now, and he still hasn't returned."
"Matters in the Underworld are complicated. Without a supreme expert holding down the fort, trouble can easily break out."
"I've been busy refining the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill and inviting the Dark Supremes to discuss opening the Road to Immortality and entering the Immortal Domain. I simply can't manage everything."
"So you want..." Xiao Ping'an said, somewhat delighted.
"Yes, I want you to take charge of the Underworld!" Emperor Venerable said.
"No problem. Leave the Underworld to me. I guarantee I'll keep everything in perfect order and everyone in line," Xiao Ping'an said, almost thumping his chest.
Well now, a rat had gotten into the rice jar. Wouldn't he eat until he burst?
The descriptions of the Underworld in the original work, with its endless corpses, had led Xiao Ping'an to make a bold conjecture when he read it.
He thought the Underworld was the ideal place to cultivate the Heaven Devouring Demonic Art.
Those corpses came from who knew how many eras. What kind of corpse couldn't be found among them?
In particular, the corpses of powerful experts, whether Great Emperors, ancient emperors, True Immortals, or mighty figures of the Immortal Platform Secret Realm, were all buried there.
Of course, some had been brought there by the Underworld's Yin soldiers and Yin Generals, rather than going of their own free will.
In any case, those remains had set Xiao Ping'an's imagination running wild.
Back then, the Dark Supremes of the Underworld had thought only of collecting the true blood of myriad beings and refining it into a Chaos Body.
It had never occurred to them to learn the Heaven Devouring Demonic Art or the Indestructible Heavenly Art. Using such a method to devour the essence within corpses was far better than forcibly killing those top experts and peerless prodigies to extract their true blood.
In any case, devouring the essence of corpses to forge an Acquired Chaos Body was a truly practical method.
How long had Xiao Ping'an even known Emperor Venerable?
Yet he had already obtained a block of Heaven's Mandate Orange Gold from Emperor Venerable.
He had also obtained the essence of the True Immortal-level God-Slaying Insect.
In that respect, Emperor Venerable could be called Xiao Ping'an's treasure-hunting rat, or rather, his benefactor.
If he cooperated with him more, he might obtain even more treasures.
After all, Xiao Ping'an still intended to wait for the Heavenly Court to collapse before seizing the White Tiger Divine Medicine and the Humanoid Undying Divine Medicine.
He also very much wanted to snatch away the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountains in the Mount Kunlun Secret Realm.
As for the countless heavenly materials and earthly treasures in the Heavenly Court, those made Xiao Ping'an drool as well.
There was also a Fortune Source Eye in the Heavenly Court that Xiao Ping'an coveted greatly.
A total of six and a half Fortune Source Eyes had appeared in the original work.
Six had fallen into the Undying Heavenly Emperor's hands, while half had fallen into Ye Fan's.
The Heavenly Emperor's Son had used one Fortune Source Eye, and the Heavenly Emperor's Second Son had used five.
Xiao Ping'an now had three sons and a daughter, sealed inside Immortal Source.
He had always wanted to gather all the Fortune Source Eyes in this world for himself, to nurture even stronger physiques in his descendants.
When he had searched for the Nine Dragons Pulling a Coffin, the Primordial Ancient Mine, and Undying Mountain, he had also been looking for Fortune Source Eyes.
When he had told Emperor Venerable of his wish to find Fortune Source Eyes, Emperor Venerable had mysteriously told him that he still had one, which he had left in the Kunlun Secret Realm. If he had no use for it in the future, he could give it to Xiao Ping'an.
Emperor Venerable had also told him why his Immortal Ascension Cauldron was called the Cauldron of the Source of All Things: when he had refined the weapon, he had found twelve Fortune Source Eyes and forcibly refined them into the Immortal Ascension Cauldron.
When Xiao Ping'an had heard Emperor Venerable recount this himself, he had truly felt a pang of regret.
It was a shame for such treasures to have been wasted like that.
If they had been used to nurture prodigies, they might have produced twelve Supreme-level experts.
To refine them into a weapon like that, when it wasn't as though the weapon lacked materials, was truly a terrible waste.
Emperor Venerable had also told Xiao Ping'an that there was a Fortune Source Eye in the Underworld, which he could give to Xiao Ping'an as well.
Of course, any wrangling with Netherworld Venerable in the future would be Xiao Ping'an's own concern.
Xiao Ping'an thought, How is that any different from giving it to me for free?
After all, Netherworld Venerable had never returned to the Underworld after vanishing at the end of the Mythological Era.
Thus, Xiao Ping'an already considered the Fortune Source Eye in the Underworld as good as his.
As for the one in the Kunlun Secret Realm, he was determined to obtain it too.
He also remembered that there seemed to be a Fortune Source Eye on Purple Mountain on the Big Dipper, though the Heavenly Emperor's Son had used it in a later age.
Xiao Ping'an had already made a trip around Purple Mountain on the Big Dipper, but had found nothing.
He did not know whether it had yet to emerge, or whether the Undying Heavenly Emperor would later bring it to the Big Dipper from the starry sky.
In any case, those three Fortune Source Eyes were the ones Xiao Ping'an was most likely to obtain in this era.
As for the other Fortune Source Eyes, he would certainly have to search elsewhere.
But since they had fallen into the Undying Heavenly Emperor's hands, they were very likely wondrous places born from the great upheaval of heaven and earth after the end of the Mythological Era.
With those six Fortune Source Eyes added later, wouldn't he have nine?
If he used them on his descendants who possessed Heavenly Tyrant Body bloodlines, wouldn't he have nine Tyrant Body Heavenly Emperors on his side?
Then, with ten Heavenly Emperors in one family, wouldn't the people of the entire Nine Heavens and Ten Lands die of envy?
The more Xiao Ping'an thought about it, the happier he became. Emperor Venerable really was his treasure-hunting rat-no, his benefactor.
And it looked as though Emperor Venerable would give him a Nine-Turn Immortal Pill in the future too. If Emperor Venerable had been a beauty, Xiao Ping'an would have felt the urge to pull him close and kiss him a couple of times.
But Emperor Venerable was a man, so Xiao Ping'an couldn't do that.
Xiao Ping'an agreed so readily and looked so delighted and eager to go that even Emperor Venerable was somewhat dumbfounded.
Seeing how enthusiastic Xiao Ping'an was, Emperor Venerable couldn't help saying, "Do you know that the Netherworld Soil is dark and boundless, a place of year-round cold and darkness? Even with your mastery rivaling creation itself, it is no good place to cultivate and comprehend the Dao."
"Even Netherworld Venerable couldn't stand that place. Although he founded the Underworld, he's more or less dropped the burden now and stopped looking after it."
"You must think carefully before you go. I need you to stay there for at least two thousand years," Emperor Venerable said solemnly.
Xiao Ping'an smiled. "At my level of cultivation, what place could still attract me?"
"The Underworld is an extraordinary divine nether land, a place cut off from heaven and earth. For me, it is absolutely the best place to cultivate and comprehend the Dao."
"I've long wanted to visit the Underworld."
"I'm truly curious about how Netherworld Venerable died in the Underworld and then, as a corpse, attained the Dao once more there. If I visit the place where he transformed and contemplate it, I might gain something."
Xiao Ping'an had long planned to quietly bring Yongsheng into the Underworld once he arrived, so that Yongsheng could devour the essence of the corpses there.
He also intended to comprehend the Great Dao left behind by Netherworld Venerable, Duan De. Perhaps in the future, he could have Yongsheng follow a path like Netherworld Venerable's, awakening as a corpse.
Perhaps he could try to complete a reincarnation transformation in the Underworld and form a Reincarnation Seal.
This path looked relatively safe.
Although Netherworld Venerable might take control of him, with a powerful original body like Xiao Ping'an keeping watch, if Netherworld Venerable could still refine Yongsheng into a puppet under those circumstances, Xiao Ping'an could only say he admired him.
Of course, Xiao Ping'an also knew that Earth was the true place for nurturing corpses, the place in the entire Nine Heavens and Ten Lands where a corpse could awaken and produce a Reincarnation Seal in the shortest time.
He had yet to decide which path Yongsheng should take, but Yongsheng would certainly study various methods of transformation in the mortal world.
Of course, Yongsheng also knew of Xiao Ping'an's experience transforming in the mortal world. Xiao Ping'an would not hide anything from him.
After all, Yongsheng's primordial spirit had itself been born from a strand of Xiao Ping'an's true spirit.
Though Xiao Ping'an had painted a splendid picture for Emperor Venerable, he still had no intention of telling him his true purpose.
(End of chapter)