Wu Ming paid no attention to the White Bone Demon God’s minor antics, after all, these crystals were specially left behind for it.
“If you want the horse to run, you must feed it grass,” he naturally understood this principle.
Glancing again at the White Bone Demon God, which was still resentfully rummaging through the dry bones on the ground, he couldn’t help but feel both annoyed and amused:
“There’s no need to search anymore. Lead the way ahead for me, and I naturally will reward you!”
“Hehehe!”
The White Bone Demon God was overjoyed. Although the sinister aura here was detrimental to living creatures, for it, this place was nothing more than nourishment—almost akin to a paradise—causing the ghostly flames in its eyes to burn even more intensely.
Upon hearing Wu Ming’s promise, it immediately patted its head and walked toward the corridor behind the tomb’s gate.
“Hmm… this demon has thick skin and sturdy flesh, making it an excellent living shield!”
Wu Ming followed behind, idly playing with the Shang Dynasty’s Imperial Jade Seal and the Mandate Amber seal: “These two items seem to have some restraining effect on dragon spirits, which is fortunate for me!”
The corridor was long; although it was an emperor’s tomb, there were not many burial goods.
This confirmed Wu Ming’s suspicions.
After all, Ji Yi would have been a fool to move the previous dynasty emperor’s burial goods intact.
Gold and jade cannot satisfy hunger or provide warmth, yet they are essential to the national economy and people’s livelihood. Rather than letting them rot underground alongside the dead, it would be better to unearth them to benefit the living.
After passing through the corridor, they arrived at the main burial chamber.
The chamber had multiple doors, subtly aligning with Daoist formation principles, immediately informing Wu Ming that the emperors buried here numbered not just one, but over a dozen!
The dragon spirit’s malevolent aura had even formed a thin layer of mist, pervasive and inescapable, threatening to transform Wu Ming into something monstrous.
“Tsk tsk…”
Wu Ming briefly examined several chambers, finding them all empty, with shattered stone coffins and vanished corpses.
Examining several other chambers further back, he found the coffins intact, but the emperors’ remains had long since decayed.
“Even if they wanted these bones to serve as vessels for the dragon spirit, a pile of skeletons won’t do… It seems then, of the more than fifty emperors of the Shang Dynasty, nineteen met the requirements and were moved here, while several others lacked sufficient foundation and were completely corroded, failing to transform.”
“Judging by this success rate, it’s safe to estimate that at least ten dragon spirits are wandering this entire tomb…”
“Of course… there’s still the final ancestral dragon!”
Wu Ming arrived at one of the chambers. The surrounding decorations were simple and unadorned, with a shattered stone coffin in the center, scattered in pieces.
“Hehe… a formation from the Jade Clarity sect…”
Needless to say, the Jade Clarity Daoist priest had driven a hard bargain last time, leaving the Jade Clarity sect with practically no secrets from Wu Ming now.
Even if they were hidden well, with his Heavenly Eye ability, a few moments of quiet observation and calculation were enough for him to find the weakness.
“Go!”
Wu Ming pointed at the wall. The White Bone Demon God cackled with glee, stepped forward, and swung its skeletal fist fiercely, delivering a heavy blow!
Bang!
Boom!
The thousand-jin force sent immediate cracks spider-webbing across the wall.
Bang! Bang!
The White Bone Demon God threw a few more punches, smashing a large hole in the wall, revealing a passage behind it.
“Roar! Roar!”
The commotion was naturally quite loud, drawing two dark shadows.
“Hehehe!”
The White Bone Demon God was delighted, seeing the two dragon spirits and preparing to pounce.
“Wait!”
However, Wu Ming suddenly stopped it, raising the Xuan Niao Blood Seal in his hand.
This was the Shang Dynasty’s Imperial Jade Seal, carved from Xuan Niao blood jade, infused with several portions of malevolent and dragon essence from previous golden figures, and even a trace of imperial essence for suppression—it was no ordinary item!
“Roar! Roar!”
A layer of crimson light emerged from the seal, accompanied by a dragon’s roar. At the same time, the Xuan Niao Amber in Wu Ming’s other hand emitted a clear cry, as if its wings were ready to take flight.
Invisible ripples spread outward. The two dragon spirits’ faces showed signs of struggle. Suddenly letting out a strange cry, they turned and fled.
“It seems the Shang Dynasty’s heavenly mandate and imperial essence are still quite effective at intimidating people, huh?”
Wu Ming smiled slightly, entering the passage with the somewhat disappointed White Bone Demon God, arriving at a wall.
This wall was connected to a massive stone behind it, metallic in sheen, with a thickness of no less than ten feet—completely impervious to the White Bone Demon God.
At the center of the wall was a luminous pearl, about an inch in size, radiating light that illuminated a line of text beside it.
“Following Heaven’s will and conforming to the times, I receive this divine decree… The mandate of Heaven has its end, and fortune its bounds. Here I seal the ancestral dragon of the Shang Dynasty, preserving its auspicious fortune. Should future generations prove unworthy and the nation encounter disaster, it may be invoked… Written in my own hand by Ji Yi!”
Below the text was a large seal imprint, exuding heavenly majesty and dominion over all beings.
The Shang Dynasty’s Imperial Jade Seal in Wu Ming’s hand immediately resonated, emitting a crimson glow, seemingly eager to challenge it.
“Hmm… this is the Zhou Dynasty’s imperial seal imprint, imbued with Ji Yi’s ancestral dragon essence. Although the Zhou Dynasty has declined, it hasn’t fallen completely, and even a Grand Daoist Master would find it hard to break through!”
Wu Ming then turned his gaze to the luminous pearl: “Moreover… it also contains Jade Clarity restrictions, which together can keep even ordinary Earth Immortals at bay!”
“This restriction…”
His right hand, covered in a layer of clear light, touched the pearl, immediately causing its glow to flicker, as if a vortex appeared, with starlight twinkling within: “Hmm… never seen before, yet bearing traces of Jade Clarity techniques. It must be something the Jade Clarity old Daoist cultivated after establishing his blessed land!”
Seeing the power of this restriction, Wu Ming’s face showed not alarm but delight.
Because the Jade Clarity Daoist could at most be just a step ahead, and Wu Ming knew his techniques thoroughly. The other’s insights, incorporated into the restriction, were akin to personally demonstrating and explaining the profound mysteries beyond the blessed land stage to Wu Ming.
“Excellent!”
Joy gleamed in Wu Ming’s eyes. He ordered the White Bone Demon God to guard him, his body shimmering with clear light, seemingly communicating with the pearl, quietly comprehending its secrets.
Even the Jade Clarity Daoist could never have imagined that this restriction would reveal so many of his secrets.
To accomplish this, one must first hold a sufficiently high rank—at least at the fifth level. Those of lower ranks wouldn’t comprehend it, while those of higher ranks would disdain it. Only someone like Wu Ming, who had reached the Earth Immortal stage but had yet to cultivate his own blessed land, would take such an interest. Secondly, one must have a thorough understanding of the Jade Clarity Daoist’s techniques—a knowledge that, apart from Wu Ming, few others possessed.
Most importantly, Wu Ming had the resources and insights from the Main Shrine, allowing him to analyze the restriction layer by layer.
If it were someone else, even meeting the first two conditions, they would still trigger the restriction’s counterattack, turning cleverness into folly.
“The essentials of Dao cultivation… wealth, companions, techniques, and location! This ‘location’ refers specifically to a blessed land, which is extremely important… Even if not following the Immortal Dao, other schools of thought, including divine and demonic paths, at the fifth level will also possess domain abilities—’blessed land true seeds’…”
“The true seed relates to techniques and cultivation paths, but the most important factor in a blessed land is the chosen auspicious location!”
“In the myriad worlds across the cosmos, worlds are categorized as Great Thousand, Middle Thousand, and Small Thousand… only then do we consider caves and blessed lands. Even the lowest-level Small Thousand world ranks higher than caves and blessed lands, because caves and blessed lands must rely on worlds to exist, periodically drawing upon the primal energies of the earth… the richer the earth’s energies in the chosen auspicious location, the more the blessed land can expand, eventually evolving into a cave heaven…”
Relying on the information leaking from the restriction, Wu Ming’s eyes flickered with thought: “A blessed land can evolve into a cave heaven… Could it be that beyond the fifth level, the key to cultivation lies in developing one’s blessed land, advancing one’s personal cultivation through the evolution of the blessed land?”
Reaching the sixth level, mastering the primal forces of the world, one could be called a Great Sage with Supernatural Powers—the greatest watershed in the cultivation system.
In fact, in Wu Ming’s view, although a fifth-level Earth Immortal was already extraordinary, below the sixth level, all were mere ants!
“According to my previous classification, True Men at the third level, Grand Daoists at the fourth, Earth Immortals at the fifth, and sixth-level beings would be Heaven Immortals… At the sixth level, one might achieve permanent existence and attain immortality?”
Wu Ming pondered: “If so, there must be a trace of purple within the inner fortune of Heaven Immortals!”
Fortune can be divided into three layers: innate fortune, inner fortune, and outer fortune.
Outer fortune is borrowed fortune, while inner fortune reflects one’s own strength. In the first five levels, pure and single-colored fortune signifies stable rank.
However, beyond the fifth level, one enters the realm of the world.
Beyond the sixth level, no matter how powerful the techniques or treasures, they are merely minor paths! What truly matters is one’s understanding of the world’s rules, the amount of primal forces one can wield, and ultimately, the world rank one attains!
And in Wu Ming’s observation, the primal force of this world was purple!
In fact, dragon essence was also of this color, gathered from the people’s will, existing in outer fortune, not inner fortune, ultimately not the orthodox path.
“The Dao has three thousand paths, all leading to the same destination!”
A surge of exhilaration filled Wu Ming’s heart as he broke through a threshold, his thoughts flowing freely, his Dao heart seemingly advancing another level: “What fortune, what dragon essence—they are all merely outward manifestations of the world’s primal forces!”
Purple is based on the five elements and five colors, yet transcends them. At this stage, whether the primal forces of this world or dragon essence, purple is valued, just as in fortune-telling observations.
“But in reality… it should be a progression from white, red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and indigo—seven colors merging into purple as transcendence… the ultimate form would be… returning to simplicity and purity!”
Wu Ming immediately thought of the Main Shrine, that eternal light representing transcendence!
The merging of seven colors, breaking through the purple qi, integrating into the light of transcendence—that was the path the Main Shrine followed!
This further solidified his confidence. Even the mighty Zhou world, whose primal essence was merely purple, indicated that this world still had room for advancement!
“I once heard someone say that when one’s ambition grows, the world shrinks… indeed so!”
Previously, the Zhou world seemed vast, but now in Wu Ming’s eyes, it was nothing extraordinary.
How can shallow waters nurture dragons? If he truly wished for eternal transcendence in the future, confining himself to the Zhou world would be impossible.
Only the Main Shrine, connecting the myriad worlds across the cosmos, was the true path to transcendence!
“Of course… I have not yet reached that level, and this world is indeed suitable for now!”
Wu Ming’s eyes shone brightly: “This comprehension today brings benefits beyond imagination!”
With a flick of his sleeve, the pearl’s glow flickered. Within the swirling starlight and azure radiance, thin layers were peeled away, revealing a golden speck at the center.
Boom!
The heavens collapsed and the earth split!
As the pearl rotated, the thick stone wall began to move. From within Ji Yi’s imperial decree inscribed on the wall, a golden dragon soared forth, fierce and roaring.
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