After consuming a hundred drops of dragon marrow, Xiao Chen sat cross-legged on the summit. Occasionally, his body gave off the vast and immortal voice of a True Dragon.
Refining the dragon marrow required some time. The elders that came to watch the excitement knew this, so they shook their heads and sighed as they left.
The voice of a True Dragon echoed around the peak for ten days before it slowly died down.
Xiao Chen’s bones had now transformed into something very close to dragon bones, extraordinarily strong.
His external appearance did not seem to have changed. However, it felt like if he had to endure that powerful strike from Di Wuque from that day, he would not end up in a state where he lost his combat prowess.
Even without Ao Jiao around, he was confident of fighting him again.
“Myriad Heaven Divine Fist, Deities Descending!”
Divine light encased Xiao Chen’s body as he circulated his Vital Qi. Dragons roared, and ten heavenly dragon images appeared behind him. This was him with twofold combat prowess.
He continued to circulate the Martial Technique and increased its potency. From ten Dragon Force, it rose to twenty Dragon Force—fourfold combat prowess. Nothing was wrong with his body; he had plenty of resilience to spare.
“Boom!”
Feeling confident, Xiao Chen steeled himself and directly raised his combat prowess to tenfold. Fifty heavenly dragon images appeared, roaring in unison.
He had yet to punch. This was only the aura, but it already roiled space into waves that looked like they would rip at any moment.
Tiny cracks appeared on Xiao Chen’s bones, and he felt some pain. Then, he withdrew his fist, and the heavenly dragon images disappeared. His face glowed with elation.
From his earlier test, his body should be able to endure fifty Dragon Force. As long as he did not use it continuously, he would suffer only minor injuries, which would be no problem for his physical body.
A look of ferocity flashed in Xiao Chen’s eyes as he muttered, “Fifty Dragon Force. If I meet a quasi-Emperor, I can be confident of receiving their killing move. I will not face any pressure when trying to protect myself.”
Just how powerful was fifty Dragon Force? One Dragon Force was five thousand tons of force. Ten Dragon Force meant fifty thousand tons of force. In that case, fifty Dragon Force would be two hundred and fifty thousand tons of force.
Xiao Chen was confident of killing even a peak great grandmaster-level Martial Sage like Han Qinghe, who had already started to refine his Heavenly Sage Laws into Heavenly Laws, with one punch and exploding him. At this point of Xiao Chen’s cultivation as a great grandmaster-level Martial Sage, he was already infinitely close to being unrivaled among great grandmaster-level Martial Sages.
No matter what kind of great grandmaster-level Martial Sage it was or what Cultivation Technique they cultivated, as long as they were not quasi-Emperors, Xiao Chen felt confident of defeating them.
After refining all one hundred drops of dragon marrow, Xiao Chen took out the Beautiful Mountain and River Painting, which was damaged Immortal Equipment.
A regular cultivator would need to spend a lot of time and effort to refine it into a Secret Treasure. Only then could they allow their Mental Energy to improve and use it as they pleased.
Xiao Chen, however, did not have to go through all that hassle.
Magic Energy saturated his sea of consciousness. He could directly send in his Spiritual Sense and leave a Spiritual Mark, and then he could immediately use it.
When Xiao Chen unfurled the Beautiful Mountain and River Painting, he saw mountains and rivers. White clouds drifted in the sky. There were rivers, creeks, and many mountains all within the painting.
He extended his Spiritual Sense, entered the inner world of the painting, and found the Spiritual Mark that the previous owner left there.
It had already been more than one hundred thousand years since the end of the Immortal Epoch. However, while the Spiritual Mark in the painting flickered and looked like it would be extinguished at any moment, it had not dissipated yet.
Its existence clearly showed how strong the previous owner of the painting was.
After an Immortal Cultivator reached the Yuanying Stage, there was still Nascent Transformation, Soul Transformation, Great Multiplication, Void Training, and Tribulation Tiding. After those, they would become an Immortal Lord and ascend to the Immortal Realm.
Even though this Spiritual Mark before Xiao Chen already survived one hundred thousand years, it still had a spiritual light. Immortal souls did not perish. The previous master of this painting was probably an Immortal Lord.
Even the weakest Immortal Lord had been as strong as a Sovereign Martial Emperor. Such a person surpassed reincarnation, existing as long as heaven and earth. Immortal, undying, and inextinguishable.
Of course, with the end of the Immortal Epoch and the destruction of the Immortal Dao, the paths of reincarnation broke. These Immortals lost the ability to live forever without dying.
With the arrival of the Martial Epoch, there were no longer any Immortals in the world; the martial way reigned. Even if an Immortal Lord were revived, he would not be able to deal with the peak strike of a Prime Martial Emperor.
This Spiritual Mark looked like an old man giving off an immortal air. Its light was weak, and its spirituality was long gone. With a casual move, Xiao Chen would be able to wipe it out and place his own Spiritual Mark.
“Zeng!”
Just as he was about to make his move, the old man before him suddenly opened his eyes. A strand of tyrannical Spiritual Sense came out from the old man’s eyes; then, following the trail left by Xiao Chen’s Spiritual Sense, it entered Xiao Chen’s sea of consciousness.
“Hahaha! It’s been one hundred thousand years. This old man did not expect that a random move I made ended up being a backup plan, allowing me to survive another Epoch.”
This Spiritual Sense was extremely tyrannical. Fear and horror stirred in Xiao Chen’s heart as the other party consumed his Spiritual Sense bit by bit. He felt like he could not do anything to retaliate.
Why did this happen? I’ve never heard that the Spiritual Mark left in Immortal Equipment could gain spirituality.
With the destruction of the Immortal Dao, all the Immortals already died. The Spiritual Marks those Immortals left lost their spirituality as their masters died.
Even if these Spiritual Marks did not get destroyed, one hundred millennia should be enough to wear down the spirituality of any Spiritual Mark.
This sudden development was simply incredible and flabbergasting.
“Even if you are an Immortal Lord, you can forget about trying to swallow me up. Scram!”
Immortal lightning, eternal will, inextinguishable saber soul, unparalleled sharpness!
In this crisis, Xiao Chen remained calm. The Lightning Talisman hidden in his sea of consciousness charged out.
The immortal will of thunder and the peak Great Perfection saber soul instantly surged with electric light, illuminating the entire sea of consciousness.
“The Thunder Immortal Ancestor’s Ruin Lightning Talisman! Wait, that’s not right. It is a copy. However, it is still sufficient to destroy my remnant spirit. Damn it!”
Sharp miserable shrieks resounded. The electric light containing a boundless saber intent slowly dispersed the old man’s strong invading Spiritual Sense.
Just as the old man was about to dissipate completely, Xiao Chen suddenly stopped. This was an antique from the Immortal Epoch; he contained a lot of secrets on him.
This was a rare opportunity. Despite the risk, Xiao Chen wanted to gain some information from this old man.
The agonized shrieking stopped. The old man’s Spiritual Sense turned into a human figure trembling weakly in a corner of Xiao Chen’s sea of consciousness.
Xiao Chen said coldly, “Tell me what I want to know, and I will spare you, allowing you to live for another lifetime.”
“Hahaha! Live another lifetime? You are overthinking. It is hard to oppose fate. No one can live for another Epoch. That is impossible, so there is no need for you to threaten me. After all, I will vanish like smoke soon.”
The old man had lost his strong desire for life entirely when he saw Xiao Chen’s Lightning Talisman, as if he submitted to fate.
He muttered, “It is hard to oppose fate, it is hard to oppose fate!”
Xiao Chen said in confusion, “Since your spirituality is still present, I can just help you find an ordinary person without Mental Energy for you to enter. That should still be possible.”
“It is hard to oppose fate. Do you think that this is a coincidence? After waiting for one hundred thousand years, I finally got a person with Magic Energy to enter this Beautiful Mountain and River Painting.
“Despite that, the person happens to be someone who grasped the Ruin Lightning Talisman. Even if it were another person, there would be all sort of surprises leading to failure. This is fate. It is too difficult to oppose.
“What a joke. I thought that the Immortal Blood that I coincidentally left here would allow me to live for another lifetime. So, I waited bitterly for one hundred thousand years. This is extremely laughable.”
This old man’s voice was feeble, which made him sound even more aggrieved.
“Take this Beautiful Mountain and River Painting. Lots of King Grade Immortal Equipment back then were destroyed in the Great Tribulation. Unexpectedly, this trinket that I did not care much for ended up being preserved for so long.”
Xiao Chen noticed that the light of the old man continued to fade. He could not help but ask in a hurry, “Senior, being able to meet is fate. Will you let this junior know something? The Immortal Epoch was so strong, Immortal Lords could live forever, Immortal Ancestors could pick the stars and the moon, Immortal Kings could oppose the heavens and change fate. Why did the Immortal Epoch end?”
“Being able to meet is fate? Haha! You are just a Yuanying Cultivator. What is the point of asking this?
“There is a saying, ‘At the extreme of flourishing is decline.’ Life and death move in an endless cycle. There is nothing in the world that can flourish without declining. This is the Dao of heaven, the fate for all. No one can change it.
“The Kunlun Immortal Realm was once so vast and mighty, ruling the universe, the origin of the three thousand great realms. So what? In the end, it could not escape the Tribulation, the Immortal Realm destroyed. Kunlun also became an abandoned land…”
[TL Note: There is a concept in Taoism, which is also reflected in Traditional Chinese Medicine, that when something reaches its extreme, it turns into the opposite. So when Yang reaches an extreme, it becomes Yin, and vice versa.]
The old man’s voice kept weakening. Eventually, it died out.
The old man had not said much. However, the information that he revealed was startling, kicking up gigantic waves in Xiao Chen’s heart that lingered for a long time.
The three thousand great realms that the old man referred to were definitely not the same ones that Xiao Chen knew. The Sky Dome Realm that he came from was merely an Immortal’s dwelling. Beyond the Kunlun Realm was an even vaster world.
The Kunlun Realm was originally the center of the universe, the origin of it, yet it became an abandoned land.
The old man’s figure slowly turned illusionary, leaving only faint green light.
Xiao Chen extended his hand, and a suction pulled the green light over. Then, he swallowed it up. There was no other information in the green light aside from that related to the Beautiful Mountain and River Painting.
The experts of the Immortal Epoch had already all disappeared. There was no record of them remaining in the Martial Epoch.
After setting his Spiritual Mark, Xiao Chen retracted his Spiritual Sense from the Beautiful Mountain and River Painting. Then, following the old man’s method, he left a blood imprint of his palm.
The Beautiful Mountain and River Painting quickly shrank and entered his left palm, which immediately had mountains, rivers, and creeks, automatically forming a vast small world.
With a thought, the mountains and rivers disappeared, and his palm returned to normal.
When Xiao Chen burned his Magic Energy, the Beautiful Mountain and River Painting appeared. With a thought, he could move the mountains and rivers in it and cause lightning to flash and thunder inside.
He could not help but reveal joy on his face. If he trapped someone in this Beautiful Mountain and River Painting, then that person would not be able to escape his palm.
Xiao Chen’s Magic Energy drained with dizzying rapidity. Not daring to use the Beautiful Mountain and River Painting recklessly, he put it away carefully.
He could only treat the words left by the expert in the Beautiful Mountain and River Painting as an incident in the process of subduing the Immortal Equipment. He still had to do what he had to do.
Regardless of whether the Kunlun Realm was an abandoned land or the so-called Great Tribulation, these were all too remote for Xiao Chen. They were like myths, entirely too abstract.
He still needed to fix his feet firmly to the ground and slowly raise his cultivation.
One day, when he had climbed to the peak, all these mysteries would naturally resolve themselves.
Following that, Xiao Chen took out the Sea Monarch Crown that Yao Yan gave him. His expression turned complicated.
This was a complete Emperor Grade Secret Treasure—even more precious than the Beautiful Mountain and River Painting. After all, the latter was just damaged Immortal Equipment. Its attraction for Martial Cultivators was not as strong as that for an Emperor Grade Secret Treasure.
Yao Yan gave this Emperor Grade Secret Treasure to him out of goodwill. However, it also brought considerable trouble as well. Perhaps a Martial Emperor might not care for it, but every quasi-Emperor would feel tempted.
