Chapter 80: Elder ‘Lei Zhen’ of the Sea God Palace

The space within this silver bracelet is a vast thirty meters in length, width, and height—essentially a massive warehouse. Previously, Dongbo Xueying had acquired a storage ring that measured three meters in each dimension, which was already worth nearly a million gold coins. So how valuable must this silver bracelet be?

“Perhaps for transcendents, gold coins have already lost their significance. They can easily obtain mundane wealth and power,” Dongbo Xueying mused inwardly. He then carefully examined the other items within the silver bracelet. The space inside was vast and mostly empty, containing very few items, yet each of them exuded an aura of extraordinariness.

The most eye-catching item was a piece of black inner armor. It shimmered faintly with starlight and emitted an aura so powerful that Dongbo Xueying felt nearly suffocated.

So powerful!

Another highly noticeable item was a long red polearm. The entire weapon was a deep crimson red, and its aura was equally formidable.

There was also a large pile of seemingly dull, grayish stones. They were stacked over a person’s height, yet these seemingly ordinary “stones” exuded a rich aura of primordial power.

Besides these, there were only scattered miscellaneous items—several books, some gold notes, and coins.

“Hmph.”

Dongbo Xueying walked to the side and with a wave of his hand, pulled all the items from the silver bracelet, letting them scatter onto the floor of the grand hall. He ignored the other treasures and immediately approached the pile of books.

“The Treatise of Heavenly Waters,” Dongbo Xueying murmured as he sat cross-legged and picked up a book. As he flipped through it, curiosity surfaced on his face. “A cultivation manual of transcendental Aura of Rivalry?”

Among mortals, the cultivation manuals of Aura of Rivalry, whether low-grade, high-grade, or even supreme-grade, could only lead one up to the transcendental stage.

As for what lay beyond transcendence, no one knew.

“Only after stepping into transcendence does one truly begin the path of cultivation.”

“This path is arduous and perilous, filled with dangers at every step. Only by advancing steadily can one reach the end of transcendence—the attainment of divinity!”

This manual briefly described these concepts before delving into the detailed Aura of Rivalry cultivation techniques.

Yet even those few simple sentences deeply Astonishinged Dongbo Xueying.

In many legendary tales, there were mentions of deities.

Longshan Emperor was one such deity!

“So this is the ultimate goal of the transcendental path—divinity? No wonder Longshan Emperor was able to unify the world,” Dongbo Xueying mused inwardly. He then briefly skimmed through the manual. Being a water-element Aura of Rivalry manual, it was unsuitable for him. However, he now had a general understanding of the hierarchical divisions of the transcendental path.

After finishing this manual, Dongbo Xueying picked up another thick book—The Illustrated Compendium of All Things.

He flipped through it briefly. It was an introduction to various transcendental artifacts, each more miraculous than the last.

However, none of these were what he currently needed. He picked up another book.

“Hmm?” Dongbo Xueying’s eyes lit up. “Found it.”

This book was bound in golden foil, and its cover bore no title.

The first passage read:

“I, Elder Lei Zhen of the Sea God Palace, have lived for fifteen hundred years and now approach the end of my life. This time, I enter a death-sealed retreat. Either I shall perish in this ‘Black Wind Palace,’ or I shall breakthrough and ascend to the Half-God stage!”

Dongbo Xueying was momentarily stunned.

Sea God Palace?

It must be some transcendental faction. To live for fifteen hundred years—what an extraordinary lifespan.

“He seeks to breakthrough to Half-God?” Dongbo Xueying thought inwardly. “Previously, the Aura of Rivalry manual I read divided the transcendental path into three major stages from lowest to highest: Flying Heaven, Sage, and Half-God. It seems this Elder of the Sea God Palace has already reached the Sage stage. Could a Sage truly live for fifteen hundred years? And if one breakthroughs to Half-God, could their lifespan be extended even further?”

Dongbo Xueying had many questions. After all, his understanding of the transcendental world was extremely limited.

He continued reading the book.

The following sections were relatively fragmented, recounting the major events of this transcendental cultivator, Lei Zhen.

“Xinhuo World? Demon God Society? Witch Temple? Entering a small world?” As Dongbo Xueying read through Lei Zhen’s memoirs, he glimpsed fragments of the transcendental world.

He soon reached the final pages.

“In my lifetime, obtaining the ‘Oceanic Realm Stone’ was already a stroke of great fortune. Future seeker… this time, I have sold or exchanged nearly all my treasures to acquire resources for my breakthrough. What remains is but a handful of items—only a top-tier Saint-grade protective inner armor and a barely serviceable low-tier Saint-grade polearm. If my breakthrough fails, what use are these powerful weapons?”

“Future seeker, if you, like me, have entered here by chance, these treasures I left behind may be of some help to you.”

“But if you have defeated the guardians and now control the entire Black Wind Palace, then these treasures of mine would be insignificant to you. Only the Oceanic Realm Stone would be worthy of your attention. By the way, the Oceanic Realm Stone lies within that octagonal pond.”

Dongbo Xueying turned his gaze toward the octagonal pond.

From Lei Zhen’s memoirs, he now understood how precious the Oceanic Realm Stone truly was. It was the most valuable core treasure born from a small world, the best artifact that Lei Zhen, a Sage-level cultivator who lived fifteen hundred years, had ever obtained through sheer luck. It was not a weapon, but an aid for cultivation, greatly assisting in breaking through bottlenecks.

Such cultivation-enhancing treasures were regarded as lifelines by transcendents.

“That pile of stones…”

Dongbo Xueying looked at the large stack of grayish stones beside him. “So they’re called Origin Stones!”

Before entering his death-sealed retreat, Lei Zhen had sold off many treasures, even his commonly used top-tier Saint-grade weapon, exchanging them all for various resources. Among these, the most acquired were Origin Stones!

Origin Stones were fragments of the primordial essence of vast worlds. They contained the most fundamental cosmic power, had no elemental attributes, imposed no burden on the body, and allowed for extremely rapid cultivation. Normally, transcendents were reluctant to use Origin Stones for cultivation, reserving them only for critical moments of bottleneck breakthroughs. Lei Zhen, during his death-sealed retreat until his end, had still left behind a massive pile of Origin Stones.

“Future seeker, if you, like me, have entered here by chance, I wonder which path you took to get here. I have left behind a map of my route, which may be easier than yours.”

“I have studied it carefully.”

“Climbing down or up the valley walls is the most direct method, but also the most difficult. You must evade the guards! Moreover, you must stay far enough from the cave palace because the closer you get, the more heavily guarded it becomes. It is utterly impossible to enter the palace head-on. If you have enough luck and patience, perhaps you might escape through the valley bottom. I once sent several weak alchemical creatures to slowly climb up. I sent fifteen in total, but only one successfully reached the top of the Black Wind Cliff! From that creature, I learned the full details of its journey. The guards were indeed extremely tight. This covert path is simply too difficult.”

“The other path is the one I took to enter. Back then, I pursued a high-ranking expert from the Witch Temple into an underground river of magma, where I finally succeeded in killing him. Near the underground magma river, I discovered a crack in the rock. Upon sensing it, I found it incredibly deep and strangely eerie. I transformed into water and slipped into the crack, traveling through it for over a thousand li before finally reaching a fissure in the wall of the Black Wind Palace and entering it.”

“The Black Wind Palace was constructed by an extremely powerful ancient cultivator from the past—’Old Ancestor Black Wind.’ He was a Half-God, and not just any Half-God, but the strongest Half-God of his era! To this day, no transcendental has managed to break into the Black Wind Palace head-on and claim his treasures. This alone speaks volumes about his might!”

“This is one of the underground halls of the Black Wind Palace. My power is weak; I cannot occupy the entire palace. I can only access a very small portion of it.”

“As for the map leading out and the maps of the Black Wind Palace that I have explored, they are all attached at the end of this book.”