Reverse flow of the Yellow Springs

As dozens of golden-armored generals stood on either side of the gate, the previously tightly closed palace doors slowly opened, revealing countless strange lights radiating from within.

The palace gates stood tall, and two enormous jade doors slowly opened, revealing endless mystery and solemnity. The doors were carved with auspicious patterns of dragons and phoenixes amidst swirling clouds, so lifelike that they seemed ready to take flight and soar into the heavens at any moment.

Seeing this, Li Yelai was stunned for a moment.

"Is this an invitation for me to come in?" Li Yelai asked in the language of the Void Realm beasts.

"Perhaps," Mountain Lord replied. "Some palaces have entry requirements. I remember the last time the Jing family discovered a celestial palace, only certain females could enter, and males were kept out. The Jing family obtained some recipes for spiritual herbs there. Unfortunately, they only had the recipes."

"And you may have fulfilled this condition through the battle just now."

"You mean, the condition for entering this palace is to defeat eight golden-armored generals?" Li Yelai asked.

If that's the case, then the conditions for this celestial palace aren't actually that demanding.

Although Li Yelai was struggling, mainly because he was badly struck by lightning, even a slight penetration of its power caused him considerable suffering.

However, if they team up with their teammates, even just the two captains working together, they can defeat these eight divine generals relatively easily.

“That’s not how it’s calculated,” Mountain Lord replied. “I come from the Forbidden Zone, Immortal Ruins, and according to the Jing family, it shares the same origin as the Immortal Palace here. In my opinion, the challenge is determined based on your strength.”

"So, I am a Level 5 psychic, and there's only one of me. That's why I dispatched eight golden-armored generals?" Li Yelai murmured. "What if a Level 6 psychic came to challenge me?"

“The number will be even greater.” The Mountain Lord glanced at the dozens of golden-armored generals and felt a chill run down his spine.

With so many war puppets, even a hegemon would perish!
Li Yelai also understood the difficulty of the challenge posed by this celestial palace.

If one person challenges, eight war puppets will be dispatched; if the other is unaware of this, the entire army will be mobilized.

This vine is probably about to release all the golden peas.

To forcibly take over this palace would likely come at an extremely heavy price.
At the same time, Li Yelai also noticed the eight battle puppets that had fought with him earlier; their wounds were healing.

With such restorative abilities, even the method of using wheels becomes useless.

"Phew, this was quite an accident," Li Yelai murmured. If he hadn't been challenging it alone, he might not have discovered this.

Then, Li Yelai walked towards the gate. Now that he had conquered a palace, he naturally wouldn't leave empty-handed.

"Let me see what good things are inside this palace. Although, I don't have high hopes."

Li Yelai muttered to himself as he stepped over the golden vines and entered the palace gate.

The moment Li Yelai entered.

The two rows of golden-armored generals transformed back into golden peas and returned to the golden vines.

At the same time, the gate slowly closed.

"I see. So, only I completed the challenge and am qualified to enter. Anyone else who wants to enter has to challenge it again?" Li Yelai pondered. "That means... when I'm alone in the Celestial Palace, I don't need to worry about outside hostility. They'll have to deal with these divine generals to get in."

"So, if I use face paint here, the monsters I attract will also be considered challengers and attacked by the Golden Armored General?"

Li Yelai felt he had discovered an interesting idea.

The entire celestial palace is home to many extraordinary beings. This is also the main danger that humanity will face.

By inevitably encountering powerful enemies and luring them all over with various 'accidents,' can we efficiently harvest extraordinary creatures?

The more extraordinary beings die, the safer the official allies scattered throughout the Celestial Palace will be.

"I'll try again when I'm about to come out, just in case something unexpected happens," Li Yelai thought to himself.

He entered the palace and saw a forest of jade pillars, tens of meters high, supporting the dome of the entire hall.

These jade pillars are also carved with exquisite patterns, so lifelike that they seem to rise up from the pillars at any moment.

However, some jade pillars were shattered, and the celestial palace seemed to have suffered some terrible blow, with huge cracks in the dome. But it was wrapped and repaired again by golden vines.

Li Yelai approached a broken and somewhat dim jade pillar and reached out to stroke it.

It felt quite nice, smooth and delicate, yet also very hard. Li Yelai picked up a fragment of the jade pillar and tried to break it apart with force. He barely managed to break it open.

"It's really hard. I wonder what kind of material it is," Li Yelai muttered. Dismantling the pillar was probably out of the question. The golden vines would likely erupt in fury.

Moreover, the intact jade pillars were brighter, unlike the dull ones that were broken.

It seems to be imbued with some kind of protective power. Without exploiting its weaknesses to see through it, I probably can't use it.

But Li Yelai accepted the broken fragments.

As a voter of the Ark, he loved moving things. With a simple touch, he could put items that met the requirements into his storage space. It couldn't be easier.

If it's in the church's treasury, this efficiency will increase.

After placing the broken jade pillars into the Ark's storage space, Li Yelai continued forward, heading deeper into the main hall.

The entire palace was empty and quiet, as if no one had visited for hundreds of years. The jade stones that were once ethereal were now covered with a layer of dust, making it look extremely desolate.

Behind the main hall were several smaller rooms, which appeared to be the residences of the palace's owner.

Unfortunately, there wasn't anything good in the room.

Of course, perhaps there were some, but they have turned to dust over the long years.

Li Yelai continued forward, only to find a tightly closed door. Unlike the white jade walls of the rest of the palace, this door was made of some kind of black gold, and it looked extremely heavy.

Indeed, Li Yelai placed both hands on the door and used all his strength, but he could only push it open by a small gap the width of a thumb.

Without using Li Yuanba's facial makeup, it would take a while to open the door.

So Li Yelai spoke up: "Mountain Lord."

"Understood." Shan Jun chuckled, and in the next instant, a huge black tiger phantom appeared.

It's fortunate that the palace is big and tall enough.

Otherwise, given its size, it really wouldn't fit.

The tiger's claw, the size of a millstone, landed on the gate, and then its muscles bulged with all their might.

Slowly push the door open.

Then, what came into view was a large number of translucent jade pillars that resembled cultivation chambers.

Inside the jade pillar were the bodies of several golden-armored divine generals, but unlike the divine generals they had fought before, these divine generals' bodies were not fully developed.

Some were even just half a body, with golden fibers filling the body of the divine general.

"This is where divine generals are made?" Mountain Lord's eyes widened. "A divine general factory?"

“No, this small-scale facility is more like a research lab.” Li Yelai walked into the room and looked back from the first semi-transparent jade pillar.

This shows how a single golden pea transforms into a divine general step by step. This thrilled Li Yelai; he had shattered the pea to create an army!
If the giant city were to acquire the technology of turning beans into soldiers, what restricted areas would it need to worry about?
They frantically produced golden peas, creating thousands upon thousands of golden armored war puppets. If they didn't utterly destroy the forbidden zone, they would consider themselves clean!

Li Yelai took out a camera from his storage space and photographed each of the jade pillars.

Some of the jade pillars are also engraved with ancient and obscure characters.

Although the characters were completely unfamiliar, Li Yelai was able to understand their meaning.

'Successfully developed, the 152nd model of the mimicry space soldier'

'The Celestial Soldier Furnace is now complete, and the production speed of the mimicry Celestial Soldiers has increased dramatically.'

"It's done! This immortal has succeeded!"

The large amount of disorganized text doesn't resemble a research log; it's more like a diary.

There are some texts that I really can't understand.

This phenomenon is not unfamiliar.

Not to mention someone like Mr. Shadow.

In the great oracle of the Church's headquarters, the God of Struggle does not speak human language, yet his meaning is understood by the chosen ones from all over the world.

Hongzhuang had also told Li Ye that when the Mad King and the King of the Forbidden Zone were being sarcastic, they could understand each other's meaning.

This is because after reaching a certain level, living beings break free from the constraints of language, and can make the listener understand the meaning even with words they have made up.

Even though they are different species, they can all listen to what the other has to say.

"Could it be that the creature that inscribed these characters was also a king or even a more powerful being?" Li Yelai wondered. "Just what level of existence is an immortal? How many immortals are there?"

At the very back of the jade pillar, Li Yelai saw the inscriptions again.

But unlike the previous writing, it's somewhat hasty.

Fortunately, the power contained within it was something that Li Yelai could understand.

'Weapons are being consumed too quickly, the Heavenly Demon's reserves are running low, and the Heavenly River defense line is in grave danger. We must enhance the effectiveness of the Heavenly Soldier Furnace!'

The Heavenly River defense line has been torn apart, the Eastern Heavenly Palace has fallen, and the War Immortal has returned severely wounded.

'The Celestial Palace has been shot down, and we no longer have enough materials to create the mimicry celestial soldiers.'

'It's time for me to head to the battlefield.'

Hopefully, the stove can be preserved.

That concludes the text.

"Mountain Lord, what is a Heavenly Demon?" Li Yelai asked.

The Mountain Lord responded, "Within the Immortal Ruins, the beings there refer to creatures of the Void Realm as Heavenly Demons."

"Weapon reserves. Heavenly Demons, Void Realm creatures?" Li Yelai frowned, then felt a chill run down his spine: "Does this Heavenly Palace use Void Realm creatures as weapon materials?"

Upon hearing this, Shan Jun remained silent for a moment, then spoke up: "Don't you humans use us as weapon materials? You even use your own psionicists as materials, so what right do you have to complain?"

"That's true," Li Yelai nodded. "There's really no right to complain about this."

But what kind of technology would it take to forge immortal, ethereal beings into weapons?

From a psionicist's perspective, Void Realm creatures are like natural enemies. They are powerful and cannot be completely killed; the only option is to banish them.

Many psionic families have been targeted by creatures from the Void Realm. Three or four generations of them have suffered terribly.

The fact that these natural enemies of psychics were captured and used as weapon material demonstrates the power of the 'Heavenly Palace'.

The text suggests that there were many immortals.
If the Heavenly Palace were to reappear, it would probably be able to suppress all the giant cities and forbidden zones, right?

However, even such a powerful Tiangong civilization was defeated.

The remaining palaces collapsed, part of which formed the Immortal Ruins, and part of which formed the Divine Chosen Immortal Palace.

Indeed, the more you learn, the more you realize how insignificant humanity is.

Li Yelai exhaled a breath of stale air, calming his mind. Then, he walked deeper into the area.

Sure enough, in the last room, Li Yelai saw a large furnace that was more than two meters tall.

Unsurprisingly, this is the 'Heavenly Soldiers' Furnace' mentioned in the text.

The so-called 'mimicry heavenly soldiers' are the golden peas that Li Yelai saw. The golden armored battle puppet was forged in this furnace.

"This is absolutely fantastic!" Li Ye grinned, his melancholy fading considerably.

The stove is large in size, with three heavy legs, and its whole body gleams with a pale golden light. The stove body is thick and heavy, with smooth and steady lines, revealing a sense of solemnity that has been weathered by time.

With this, the authorities should be able to conduct research and reverse-engineer the manufacturing method of the 'mimicry heavenly soldiers'.

As Li Ye approached the stove, he suddenly felt a surge of heat.

Even though countless years have passed, the furnace still contains intense heat, and Li Yelai can even see a purple flame dancing inside.

This greatly surprised Li Yelai, who actually sensed a sense of danger from the purple flames.

Then, in the brilliant purple flames, Li Yelai vaguely saw the figures of his family. They were waving, wanting Li Yelai to come closer, even closer.
Li Yelai and Shan Jun's clone stared blankly at the purple flames.

A hint of confusion appeared in their eyes, and then the two approached the furnace, seemingly wanting to touch the beautiful flames.
The next second, golden light burst forth in Li Yelai's eyes, and the sound of a dragon's roar resounded in his mind.

The golden defense of the Mimicry Divine Dragon Soul was triggered, startling Li Yelai out of his dazed state.

"Mountain Lord, come back!" Li Yelai immediately stopped and shouted in the language of the Void Realm beasts.

This startled the mountain lord, who was originally close to the furnace, and he immediately turned into black smoke in terror and returned to the ring-pommel sword at Li Yelai's waist.

"I almost... I almost touched it." Shan Jun was a little scared. The power of this flame was terrifying. If Liu Jue had been touched, he would probably have been instantly ignited and destroyed.

"It even has a bewitching effect. Is it a forbidden object?" Li Yelai pondered. Using a forbidden object as the fire source for a furnace, the Heavenly Palace is really bold. Aren't they afraid of being bewitched? Or is it that for a civilization of their level, forbidden objects are nothing more than that?

"This is good stuff. With this kind of power, it's perfect for burning animals," Li Yelai exclaimed.

"Are you still carrying this stove around?" Shan Jun complained, thinking that the flames were hard to control and he could easily burn himself if he wasn't careful.

Li Yelai, on the other hand, reached out and touched the handle of the halberd on the stove.

The next second, the furnace was placed into the Ark's storage space.

"Otherwise what?" Li Yelai chuckled. (End of Chapter)