Nine Transformations of the True Spirit.

Above the celestial realm, a vast sea of ​​clouds surges like snowy waves, its rainbow light shining brightly, supporting a magnificent continent.

At the edge of the floating continent, thirty-six thousand waterfalls cascade down. The water is neither spring nor dew, but rather condensed immortal energy that falls into the void, nourishing the endless realms.

Seventy-two white jade palaces are arranged in a staggered pattern and connected by a winding rainbow bridge. Below the bridge, clouds flow like water, and occasionally, the phantoms of blue phoenixes and colorful dragons fly by, coming from the void and going back to the void, leaving only a few twisted law runes that slowly dissipate.

The entire palace is shrouded in a hazy mist all year round. From a distance, it looks like green jade emitting smoke, while up close, one can see thousands of talismans flickering in the void. The flowing patterns on the palace walls are not carved, but rather wisps of floating light and colorful clouds.

In the center of the floating continent, a magnificent purple palace, hundreds of feet high, stands majestically. It has nine layers of flying eaves, with dragon heads raised high, and eighty-one wind and thunder bells hanging from the eaves, surrounded by wisps of purple energy.

Three hundred and sixty giant dragon pillars stand in the square in front of the palace. The jade dragon scales wrapped around the pillars are clearly visible, and the dragons hold an ever-shining bright pearl in their mouths.

Inside the purple hall, a hazy mist, formed from the purest immortal energy, enveloped a Tai Chi Yin-Yang Pool, where black and white were distinct yet intertwined.

At the yin-yang fish eyes in the pond, there is a nine-petaled golden lotus on each side. The primordial energy exhaled from the lotus heart transforms into the illusory images of wind, rain, thunder, lightning, sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, and lakes, which are ever-changing.

Before the Taiji Yin-Yang Pool, a person in purple sat cross-legged on a futon, his face shrouded in a hazy glow, his features indistinct and unclear.

He faced the sky with his five palms facing upwards, his body motionless, meditating with his eyes closed.

Suddenly, the eighty-one wind and thunder bells hanging from the eaves of the main hall trembled in unison, their clear chimes echoing into the hall. The swirling purple aura vibrated incessantly, disrupting the celestial mist within the hall.

A ripple spread across the Taiji Yin-Yang Pool, the eyes of the Yin-Yang fish twisted slightly, the nine-petaled golden lotus swayed uncertainly, and the natural phenomena formed by the primordial energy dissipated and converged towards the center.

The man in purple slowly opened his eyes, and the ethereal mist that had been swirling in the hall suddenly froze. The wind and thunder bells under the eaves fell silent in an instant.

His left eye seemed to contain countless stars, which flowed and died slowly along mysterious trajectories, their celestial phenomena evolving.

His right eye was a chaotic void, with wisps of primordial purple energy swirling around it, and a golden glimmer faintly appearing in the deepest part of his pupil.

But the next moment, the purple-clad man blinked, and all the strange phenomena disappeared, turning into a pair of ordinary, slightly bright black eyes. He looked at the Taiji Yin-Yang Pool in front of him, a hint of doubt flashing in his eyes.

The primordial energy flowed erratically, then condensed into a pair of jade pendants, one blue and one purple, which trembled gently.

A moment later, the purple jade pendant suddenly dispersed, transforming back into primordial energy, leaving only a cyan jade pendant that solidified completely.

The man in purple narrowed his eyes and whispered, "This treasure has been missing for millions of years, and now it has reappeared. It's a pity there's only one..."

He raised his hand and formed a hand seal, causing the Tai Chi Yin Yang Pool to rotate gently, the black and white colors blending together seamlessly.

Suddenly, the blue jade pendant became distorted and blurred, as if it were about to disintegrate.

A fierce glint flashed in the purple-clad man's eyes. He blinked, and an endless sea of ​​stars appeared in his left eye, while his right eye contained chaotic purple energy.

The next moment, an indescribable light shot out from his right eye, seemingly containing all the brilliance of the world, yet its color was indescribable; the three thousand great Daos seemed to be contained within it.

The spiritual light shone into the Tai Chi Yin-Yang Pool, and the black and white surface of the pool spun faster and faster.

The two nine-petaled golden lotuses spewed out endless primordial energy, enough to crush this boundless floating continent, but at this moment it all poured into that blurry and twisted little jade pendant.

The cyan jade pendant was still gradually dissipating, but at a rate that had slowed down by millions of times.

A beam of brilliant starlight shot from the left eye of the man in purple, plunging into the Taiji Yin-Yang Pool and exploding into countless stars, condensing into a star map.

The azure primordial energy that the jade pendant transformed into when it dissipated fell into this star map, causing the stars to rotate.

Until the blue jade pendant completely dissipated, the star map was set, flickering and intricate.

But the man in purple only glanced at it before nodding: "So this treasure ended up in the Xuanxiao Jade Capital Realm..."

He blinked, his eyes returning to normal. After a moment of contemplation, he suddenly raised his sleeve and flicked it, causing the star map to dissipate and the Taiji Yin-Yang Pool to return to its original state, becoming quiet once more.

The man in purple sighed softly, "This treasure is indeed wonderful, but its scope is too vast, making it difficult to pinpoint which of the tens of thousands of realms it belongs to, thus making it impossible to find..."

A voice, seemingly calm yet tinged with a hint of resentment, echoed in the vast, empty hall. The man in purple slowly closed his eyes and sat down to meditate again.

The main hall returned to its timeless tranquility, with only the two nine-petaled golden lotuses in the Taiji Yin-Yang Pool swaying gently, their primordial energy transforming into illusory images of all things in nature, constantly shifting and changing.

……

In another part of the immortal realm, a mountain range stretches for thousands of miles, with towering peaks thousands of feet high standing like a forest. Countless palaces and pavilions are nestled among the mountains, and cultivators move about like ants among them.

In the center of the mountain range, a majestic mountain soars straight into the sky, its height unknown, like a pillar supporting the heavens, disappearing into the clouds.

Thousands of colorful rays shimmered, like rainbow chains coiling and wrapping around this towering mountain.

At the summit of a giant mountain, deep within a sea of ​​clouds, sat a giant, his body towering over a thousand feet tall.

He wore a set of endlessly dazzling golden armor, its surface inlaid with countless intricate runes, as dazzling and radiant as a blazing sun.

The giant's eyes were slightly closed, and two hundred-foot-long cloud dragons at the tip of his nose breathed in and out. With each breath, a gale swept through, the sea of ​​clouds surged, and even the heavens and earth seemed to tremble. Suddenly, the giant stopped breathing, and the two cloud dragons at the tip of his nose dissipated.

He slowly opened his eyes, revealing two golden vertical pupils, flowing with brilliant golden flames, exactly like the eyes of a true dragon.

The giant raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and a purple jade pendant slowly emerged above his palm.

Compared to the giant who was thousands of feet tall, the purple jade pendant was only a few inches in size, as insignificant as dust.

But after the purple jade pendant appeared, thousands of rays of light suddenly descended from the sky, and even the blazing sun high in the sky sent out a brilliant beam of light that merged into the purple jade pendant.

After absorbing the radiance, the purple jade pendant trembled slightly, emitting a clear and melodious sound, revealing a hint of excitement and emanating an extremely ethereal aura.

The golden-armored giant stared blankly at the purple jade pendant, his deep voice booming like thunder: "I have waited for 13,920,000 years, and the other True Spirit Creation Jade Pendant left by my master... has finally appeared in the world!"

He suddenly closed his dragon eyes, carefully sensing the faint, elusive energy that seemed to emanate from an infinite distance.

But after only sixty breaths, the energy disappeared, and the purple jade pendant stopped trembling.

The golden-armored giant reopened his eyes, his bright golden pupils gleaming. He stared at the purple jade pendant in his hand and murmured, "There's no mistake, the other True Spirit Jade Pendant is in the Xuanxiao Jade Capital Realm."

"Sixty breaths... The person who obtained the jade pendant must be a Nascent Soul cultivator who used the power of the True Spirit Jade Pendant to draw upon the power of the stars in the heavens to refine his body."

"This person has already refined the blood of three kinds of true spirits; we must not allow him to cultivate to the Mahayana realm."

"The True Spirit Creation Jade Pendant left behind by my master can only be used by me. How could such a supreme treasure of the Great Luo realm recognize an ant from the lower realm as its master!"

The golden-armored giant's dragon eyes revealed endless killing intent, so solid it seemed tangible. The slightest leak of his aura caused the sea of ​​clouds to churn like waves for thousands of miles.

One after another, illusory figures of true spirits manifested beside the golden-armored giant, including true dragons and colorful phoenixes, vermilion birds and black tortoises, white tigers and golden crows... all of them lifelike.

Each phantom possessed an aura comparable to a true spirit, roaring and howling, its sound echoing for millions of miles.

The seven-colored chains of light that bound the colossal mountain beneath the golden-armored giant trembled violently, and rainbow light shot into the sky, spreading throughout the entire mountain range.

Countless cultivators who had been flying through the mountains hurriedly descended their escape lights, knelt down, and gazed at the towering mountain that had disappeared into the clouds in the distance, their faces filled with reverence.

After a while, the murderous intent in the golden-armored giant's eyes slowly dissipated, the vast sea of ​​clouds calmed down again, and the rainbow light of the seven-colored chains on the towering mountain faded away.

Halfway up the mountain, a dozen figures soared into the air, looking at the mountain peak above the sea of ​​clouds with surprise and uncertainty, but none of them dared to go and investigate.

The golden-armored giant lowered his right hand, and the purple jade pendant above his palm vanished into thin air.

He slowly closed his eyes, and a thunderous voice echoed above the sea of ​​clouds: "A few more times, and I'll be able to roughly pinpoint which realm you're in. You insignificant ant cultivator, how dare you control a Great Luo Treasure..."

……

In the Demon Burning Realm, atop a desolate mountain.

Chen Yuan put away the jade pendant, feeling the noticeable increase in his physical strength, and a smile appeared on his lips.

The power of the stars drawn down by the jade pendant was still only sixty breaths, but it was more than ten times more concentrated than it had been in the human realm and the Myriad Demon Continent.

The starry sky of the Demon Burning Realm is far more expansive than that of the lower realm. When Chen Yuan took out the jade pendant just now, the boundless sea of ​​stars shone brightly because of him.

Countless dazzling starlight of various colors converged and transformed into a silver beam of light only ten feet thick, which fell upon Chen Yuan.

This breathtaking sight left even Chen Yuan, who was used to being bathed in starlight, momentarily stunned.

The body-tempering effect of this silver beam of light is comparable to that of refining a body-tempering elixir made primarily from a five-thousand-year-old body-tempering herb, making it extremely effective.

If this continues, Chen Yuan's physical body will be able to break through the next bottleneck in just a hundred years, becoming comparable to a Void Refining Demon King.

Ordinary demon generals, even after a lifetime of arduous cultivation for tens of thousands of years, nourishing their bodies with the spiritual energy of heaven and earth day and night, and searching far and wide for spiritual objects to temper their bodies, could not achieve the body of a demon king.

In comparison, a hundred years is but a blink of an eye, enough to transform Chen Yuan's physical body.

He was now even more convinced that this jade pendant was a supreme treasure of the immortals and a sacred object for body refinement.

With the help of this jade pendant, Chen Yuan's attainment of Mahayana enlightenment within two thousand years, and the opening of the ascension passage from the human realm to the spirit realm, may no longer be just a dream.

He flipped his hand and took out a light green jade pendant, which shimmered with a faint spiritual light. It was carved with a pair of mandarin ducks with their necks intertwined. Judging from its aura, it was only a high-grade spiritual artifact.

He gazed quietly at the jade pendant of mandarin ducks given to him by Jing Shuhan, his fingers gently caressing it, feeling its warm and delicate texture, as if it were the skin of a beautiful woman, and his eyes softened.

After a long while, Chen Yuan gently exhaled, stored the jade pendant in his internal space, his eyes hardening once more. With a burst of light, he soared into the air and flew towards the Iron Wing Cave. (End of Chapter)