Wen Qingye, of course, paid Hankong no mind. He gazed at the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele before him, which emanated an endless divine charm. A trace of curiosity and a stir of his spirit showed in his eyes.
Everyone was scrambling and vying with one another; almost no one was paying attention to Wen Qingye.
If the crowd could see Wen Qingye now, they would be utterly aghast. He had actually managed to get this close to the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele. Aside from Huang Zhentian, who had died upon it, he was the only one.
He gradually came to stand before the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele. Aside from a splash of crimson, it exuded a primitive, boundless aura. The stele before him seemed to tower between heaven and earth, a supreme pressure washing over him.
His heart skipped a beat as his Primordial Spirit slowly drifted out of his body. The incomplete Primordial Spirit floated in the air, looking somewhat ethereal.
WHOOM!
Wen Qingye’s hair was bound in a gem-inlaid Purple Gold Crown. His jade-white robes were embroidered with a vivid five-colored cloud pattern, and a faint smile graced the corner of his lips.
He slowly walked toward the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele, as though he were walking right into it.
Everything before his eyes seemed to change, becoming bewildering and incomparably strange.
In the Primordial Chaos of Heaven and Earth, the ages flowed past.
A vast blue-green mist unfurled before his eyes, with countless peaks soaring into the clouds. The Primordial Qi in the surrounding world was so dense it seemed on the verge of solidifying. Atop one of the highest peaks sat an enormous palace hall, its roof laid with glazed tiles and inlaid with green trim. At its center was a flaming pearl finial, from which eight iron chains stretched out to anchor the precious roof.
The two foremost pillars were each entwined with a Golden Dragon. Inside the hall, the ceiling was covered in Sanskrit script and adorned with a caisson depicting subduing dragons.
The path leading to the great hall was a wide platform that seemed to stretch on without end. A stone stele stood in its center.
This stone stele was the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele.
Then, countless people gathered around the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele and began to practice their Swordsmanship. Not only was their cultivation extraordinary, but their Swordsmanship was also exquisite and unparalleled, possessing a remarkable divine charm.
The swords in their hands were broad greatswords, heavy and steady, exuding a domineering and intimidating aura. Yet, their sword forms were held motionless for a time.
After an unknown amount of time, something stirred in Wen Qingye’s heart. His lips parted as he watched in astonishment.
Ages gradually passed. The disciples here were replaced, generation after generation. One genius after another appeared, their fame spreading far and wide. They achieved Divine Communication with their swordsmanship, and there were some whose skills even Wen Qingye couldn’t help but admire.
As time flowed on, it seemed as though centuries, even millennia, had passed. Watching them practice, Wen Qingye wondered, ’Could this be a branch of the Immortal Slaying Sect in the Lower Realm? And are these people cultivating the Slaying Immortal Sword Dao?’
The Three Thousand Great Dao. To achieve enlightenment, one must choose one of these paths. This was something no one could avoid.
Wen Qingye cultivated the Dao of Longevity, which ranked one hundred seventy-third among the Three Thousand Great Dao. Its power wasn’t exceptionally high, but it was a path of moderation with its own unique strengths.
He had once considered achieving enlightenment through the Sword Dao, but he lacked a proper cultivation path for it, and the journey was fraught with difficulty. Even with his already superb Sword Technique Cultivation, he would still be constrained when facing a true Sword Immortal.
Moreover, the ordinary Sword Dao was ranked in the five hundreds among the Three Thousand Great Dao, far lower than the Longevity Dao. But the Slaying Immortal Sword Dao before him was different. It was legendary in the Immortal Realm, though long since lost. It ranked eighty-seventh, surpassed only by the Lifeless Sword Dao and the Eternal Life Sword Dao.
Wen Qingye’s expression grew solemn. As he watched the crowd’s continuous practice, he seemed to be grasping the Magic Technique for cultivating the Slaying Immortal Sword Dao.
The Slaying Immortal Sword Dao was full of profundities. Wen Qingye’s comprehension was astonishingly fast. From the unending display, he gradually grasped the Inner Shock Law—a Law of the second level of the Human Dao Realm—as well as the Overlord Law. As for the rest, he would need time to slowly digest it all.
When these Laws gradually solidify and combine, reaching a realm above the Celestial Dao, they can then evolve into one’s own Dao.
The only Dao Wen Qingye had achieved a breakthrough in was his Dao of Longevity. It granted him abundant and solid Primordial Qi, allowing for rapid recovery from injuries, as well as a long Lifespan. These advantages would only gradually reveal themselves over time, unlike a path of slaughter like the Sword Dao, which showed its ferocity from the very beginning.
’I wonder what Dao I will cultivate in this life,’ Wen Qingye thought to himself, watching the Immortal Slaying Sect change through the ages below.
At this moment, Wen Qingye possessed three Daos: the Dao of Longevity, the Sword Dao, and the newly learned Slaying Immortal Sword Dao. The most powerful of the three was the Slaying Immortal Sword Dao, but he had only just begun to cultivate it. His Sword Dao had reached the Heavenly Dao Realm but was stuck at the final layer, unable to break through. His Dao of Longevity had also broken through to the Heavenly Dao Realm, making it difficult to advance further for the time being.
The Celestial Profound Sect also possessed its own path among the Three Thousand Great Dao, but it was an absolute top secret within the sect. Only True Disciples could likely hope to learn a fraction of it.
And these Three Thousand Great Dao were the only true paths to final enlightenment.
In the rolling river of time, the Immortal Slaying Sect continuously evolved and transformed before his eyes.
It gradually prospered. The sect’s disciples numbered in the tens of millions, and its geniuses shone like the stars in the heavens. Its influence spread far and wide.
But extremes beget their opposites, and great prosperity leads to inevitable decline. This was the law of nature.
Slowly, the Immortal Slaying Sect fell into decline. Its disciples became fewer and less capable, and the Sect itself fell into ruin.
In the end, only the Ancient Stele that stood before its gates remained, appearing to have recorded the Martial Arts left behind by countless Immortal Slaying Sect disciples during their cultivation.
The river of time could swallow a person’s mind. How could an ordinary person’s lifetime compare to the long history of an entire sect? They would surely become lost in the endless ages. But Wen Qingye was different.
BOOM!
Everything before his eyes suddenly dissolved into phantom images and vanished completely.
Wen Qingye’s Primordial Spirit finally returned to his body. He opened his eyes and looked at the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele, which was now exceptionally, mesmerizingly bright.
Slowly, the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele began to shrink, its light retracting. However, a phantom image of the stele remained in its place; only its physical form was changing.
The physical stele slowly floated toward Wen Qingye and shot directly into the space between his brows. A flash of golden light shone from his glabella before slowly fading away.
Wen Qingye thought, ’This Great Wilderness Ancient Stele is truly extraordinary. Once refined, it would be a decent Magical Artifact—it should be Immortal Grade. It’s just that with my current cultivation, I’ll have a very hard time wielding it.’
The phantom of the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele remained, as did the Martial Arts Auras. From this day forward, however, the real Great Wilderness Ancient Stele would never again appear in the Eastern Profound Domain.
.....
In the central region of the Eastern Profound Domain, atop a Celestial Platform of the Daoist School of Non-action.
An old man sat cross-legged on a prayer mat, when for some unknown reason, his eyes suddenly snapped open.
"Master, what is it?" a young man beside him asked with a curious frown.
This old man was Ascendant Shangxuan, the foremost expert of the Eight Trigrams Inference Skill in the Daoist School of Non-action. He was also the one who had predicted the location where the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele would appear.
Ascendant Shangxuan raised his head to the sky and said slowly, "How did the aura of the Great Wilderness Ancient Stele suddenly vanish? Strange... I can’t sense even a trace of it now. Wait a moment, I will perform a divination."
With that, Ascendant Shangxuan ignored the hesitant look on the young man’s face and closed his eyes again. His fingers began to blur, pinching and calculating.
The time it takes to burn an incense stick passed, but Ascendant Shangxuan showed no reaction.
A moment later, the young man saw his master’s face turn pale, and he grew frantic with worry.
"PTUI!"
Ascendant Shangxuan spat out a mouthful of blood, his face a mask of horror. "Who is it? Who in the world is it? Who is this person... They’re too terrifying!"
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