What met his eyes was endless darkness.
However, unlike the darkness of the Dark Void, the darkness currently entering Lu Yang's vision lacked any tranquility or stability; instead, it was filled with surging malice.
Just where exactly is this place?
Lu Yang furrowed his brows tightly. The eight trigrams pattern in his hand practically sparked from the collision, yet it consistently failed to form a clear hexagram, as if his deductions were being obstructed.
Lu Yang immediately increased his spiritual power.
Not only that, the [Arctic Exorcism Court] abruptly collapsed, turning into a grain-sized speck of light that merged into his glabella, further elevating his stature!
At this moment, although Lu Yang's cultivation was still at the second step of a Great Perfected Lord, the peak of Dao Integration, his essence was no different from having stepped onto the Immortal Bridge.
Under the augmentation of this level of stature, he finally managed to gradually part the darkness before his eyes and saw a faint but tangibly existing cluster of light. And when he used all his strength to bring his divine sense close to that light cluster, the intermittent sound of crashing waves suddenly echoed in his ears.
The [Sea of Bitterness]...?
Lu Yang froze, his mind racing. No, it's not the [Sea of Bitterness], it's a Dao Fruit. What I'm seeing is the main body of a Dao Fruit located within the [Sea of Bitterness]?
Is it [Pomegranate Wood]?
That's not right. If what I'm seeing is [Pomegranate Wood], then what is this dark place I'm in? Why is it connected to [Pomegranate Wood]?
Lu Yang examined the light cluster before him more seriously, while the fundamental profound wonder of [Pomegranate Wood] he had seen in the Dao Fruit scripture flashed through his mind: Mending the heaven's flaws... it can mend gaps and omissions, bringing objects and phenomena back to perfection... That's not quite right. This profound wonder doesn't match the [Pomegranate Wood] itself.
What was [Pomegranate Wood]?
Pure metal yet belonging to wood, rigid in nature yet appearing clumsy. It governs an abundance of offspring, a radiant household, and even holds concepts of adding fortune, increasing lifespan, and elevating destiny.
This was clearly problematic.
The concepts of the Dao Fruit itself actually don't align with its ultimate profound wonder. No wonder no one can attain [Pomegranate Wood]; there's a problem at its very root.
However, the question arose: what exactly did the first-generation Master of Heaven-Mending Peak do?
The other three first-generation Peak Masters all concerned themselves with major matters affecting the entire Light Sea. Yet when it came to the first-generation Master of Heaven-Mending Peak, she dropped the ball and just changed a Dao Fruit's profound wonder?
Impossible, absolutely impossible!
Lu Yang calmed his mind and stopped trying to contact the [Pomegranate Wood]. Instead, he began to observe the darkness he was in, attempting to deduce its true appearance.
Suddenly.
From the distant past, the memories of his lifetime as an immortal spirit were dug out of his mind—specifically, the scene he had witnessed when he first refined a blessed land.
...Pits.
At that time, he had refined the [Xuandu Blessed Land] and used it to observe the mortal world, only to discover that all the Dao Fruits of the Immortal Nexus were, in essence, one pit after another.
Back then, my perspective was too low to see the clues, and the guesses I made were too naive. So much so that later, when my cultivation was higher and I learned the main body of the Dao Fruits were in the [Sea of Bitterness], I tossed it to the back of my mind and stopped thinking about it... But looking at it now, those guesses from back then might not have been completely unreasonable!
The Five Elements Dao Fruits might have been dug out from the Immortal Nexus by the Dao Lords.
That's why they left behind one pit after another, digging the heaven and earth full of holes. To some extent, this is also a method of sealing the Ancestral Dragon.
Then here comes the problem.
Am I currently inside a pit?
No, that's not right, it's not a pit!
In an instant, Lu Yang felt suddenly enlightened, his divine sense trembling violently. It should be a tunnel! One end of the tunnel connects to the excavated Dao Fruit, so what about the other end?
—The Ancestral Dragon!
Holy shit, could that fellow Bu Tianque, the first-generation Master of Heaven-Mending Peak, have relied on the Dao Fruit to smuggle herself in this way, entering the Ancestral Dragon's seal?
Did the Saint Sect's Ancestorfind out?
Probably not... This is not a normal path. Only someone like the first-generation Master of Heaven-Mending Peak, who researched [Heaven and Earth] to the absolute limit, could walk it!
Even for him, the reason he could sense the existence of this tunnel out of thin air through karmic deductions was because he had cultivated the [Penetrating the Void and Pacifying Karma Jade Scripture]. If it were the Saint Sect's Ancestor, he would probably only wonder why the first-generation Master of Heaven-Mending Peak simply vanished like that after filling the Dao Fruit with her body!
That was why he had to keep an eye on Pomegranate Wood.
What exactly went wrong with [Pomegranate Wood], and what the first-generation Master of Heaven-Mending Peak did—this question was likely a mystery to the Saint Sect's Ancestor as well.
And precisely because of this—
The first-generation Master of Heaven-Mending Peak modified the profound wonder of [Pomegranate Wood], making the profound wonder incompatible with its concepts, precisely to prevent anyone from attaining the Perfected Lord stage of this Dao.
Even with the support of a Dao Lord, no one can attain it!
This Dao Fruit has been locked dead!
That's why in my immortal spirit lifetime, the Saint Sect's Ancestorlooked forward to me attaining [Pomegranate Wood], and even wanted to communicate with me after I achieved the Perfected Lord stage...
Understood, it all makes sense now!
However... so far, this is all just speculation.
Lu Yang whipped his head around, no longer looking at [Pomegranate Wood], but looking at the endless darkness behind him. I still need conclusive evidence.
With this thought, he violently pushed his divine sense.
Going all out!
It was difficult to grasp directions in the dark place, but the [Pomegranate Wood] behind him was the best guiding light. He just had to head in the opposite direction.
Just like this, an unknown amount of time passed. Even with Lu Yang's current realm, he couldn't help but feel "fatigue." Just when he was about to give up, he finally seemed to see a faint gleam in the darkness... It was very fragile, but it truly existed, instantly capturing his gaze.
It's really there?
Lu Yang immediately mustered his last surge of strength and advanced toward that faint gleam. Like drawing back a curtain, he finally saw the object emitting that faint light.
It was a Great Dao.
Inside the [Nourishing Life Master], Lu Yang's body cracked open without any warning. Even though it was an out-of-thin-air deduction, the formless power of suppression still surged over through the connection!
Such suppressive power was merely the aftershock dissipating from the main body of the seal. It didn't even count as scraps for the entire seal, yet it still crushed Lu Yang's body. His intuition told him that if he continued to maintain the connection, he would be directly ground into fine powder by this suppressive power!
In a flash of lightning, Lu Yang decisively opened his palm.
"Bang!"
The next second, the eight trigrams divine sense in his hand shattered directly, causing his face to first flush red, until he spat out a mouthful of blood and it rapidly turned deathly pale.
But he saw it.
The moment the suppressive power swept over him, he also successfully witnessed the main body of the seal.
That is... the [Five Elements]! It's the Great Dao commanded by the Ancestral Dragon!
The Great Dao was like a towering divine mountain. Azure, yellow, red, white, and black—distinctly arrayed colors spread all the way up from the base of the mountain, penetrating the rocks. Finally, at the end of the Great Dao, at the peak of the mountain, they condensed and merged into a boundless sea of chaos. And directly above this sea of chaos—
Lu Yang saw something familiar.
A mountain.
Mountains beyond mountains. Endless Great Dao talismanic characters circulated around that high mountain standing upon the sea of chaos. The higher it went, the more microscopic and difficult to see it became.
[Paramita]!
Lu Yang lowered his eyelids. Intense forbidden knowledge assaulted his mind, making his skull vibrate as if it would directly explode in the next second.
Fortunately, right at this moment, the [Arctic Exorcism Court] settled above his sea of consciousness, firmly locking down that terrifying taboo that almost made his head explode and force a restart. Its radiance flickered brightly and dimly as if breathing, cycling repeatedly. Only after a long while did it finally return to calm, allowing him to let out a long breath.
That was the Ancestral Dragon's seal.
The Immortal Nexus is just a facade. What truly suppresses the Ancestral Dragon, what presses down upon the Ancestral Dragon, is [Paramita]! By the same logic, the Ancestral Dragon is also the cornerstone of [Paramita]!
Not only that.
Lu Yang felt that he might have guessed what the first-generation Master of Heaven-Mending Peak wanted to do.
Did she also want to smuggle herself through?
The Ancestral Dragon's [Five Elements] Great Dao connects to the bottom of [Paramita] at its end. As long as one's methods are profound enough, could she actually use it to smuggle through and climb onto Paramita?
(End of Chapter)