Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 131 Each Person's Cultivation
Liang Yu sighed, “I once traced the past atop Mount Tai and saw the figure of the Desolate Emperor. At that time, he may have already become an immortal. His aura was unlike that of an ordinary person, as if he had been untouched by the years and was truly immortal.”

The Underworld Lord pondered, "After all, the Desolate Heavenly Emperor was the last known immortal to achieve immortality. It's not surprising that he ascended to immortality by defying the natural order. In our universe, perhaps the only path we can take is continuous transformation. However, this path is as difficult as ascending to heaven."

The Supreme Lord of Morality said, "Therefore, this ascension plan is truly meritorious, giving hope to countless future Daoists."

With successful predecessors to guide them, they relaxed considerably. So they continued to discuss and expound their teachings, exchanging ideas and sharing their insights on longevity and transformation.

During this time, the Celestial Venerable of Morality also entrusted the Celestial Venerable of Longevity with the secret method of preserving his true spirit after his death, hoping that he could also preserve his true spirit.

After the discussion, everyone went their separate ways. Liang Yu said, "The reincarnation plan is estimated to take another 30,000 to 40,000 years to begin, so there's no need to worry about it."

"Next, I would like to trouble you all to take some time out of your cultivation to search for those forbidden areas. Once we have found them all, we will join forces to annihilate them all, officially launch the Ascension Plan, and usher in a new era."

By now, once Kunlun Immortal Pool has recovered to the point where it can be used as a reincarnation pool, the lifespan of Lingbao Tianzun and Daode Tianzun in this life will probably come to an end, since their lifespan is probably around 40,000 to 50,000 years.

As for the Underworld Lord, theoretically he is unlikely to live to that time in this life, but because of the Underworld Scripture, he can also greatly delay aging in the Underworld, so the time requirement is still met.

Upon hearing this, Lingbao Tianzun's eyes flashed with a hint of coldness. He cupped his hands and said, "That's exactly what I was thinking. I just hope these supreme beings don't hide their true power too well."

The Celestial Venerable of Morality nodded in agreement.

After that, everyone went their separate ways.

After thinking for a moment, Liang Yu separated his Daoist body and remained in the Immortal Mausoleum. After all, the path to immortality was one of the directions he had been researching all along, and he naturally didn't want to miss it.

Moreover, during the recent discussion, Liang Yu thought of two more people: the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor and the Azure Emperor.

The former partially transformed himself into the ancient imperial weapon, the Phoenix-Winged Golden Halberd, using his primordial spirit to merge with the weapon, becoming a special life form to prolong his life. However, during this process, his consciousness was constantly sinking, and his moments of clarity were few. If this continued, he would likely become a weapon entirely.

The latter is a significant step forward. The Azure Emperor directly dismembered himself, and his primordial spirit entered the immortal artifact, the Desolate Tower, where he created a small immortal realm, intending to evolve a true immortal realm within it.

However, during this process, he still faced the same predicament as the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor, losing consciousness. If his heart hadn't remained in Ye Fan's body, and his essence blood hadn't transformed into a green lotus, ultimately awakening his true form, he might have simply fallen asleep and died.

The current situation of the Celestial Venerable of Longevity is actually quite similar to that of the other two, but more complicated. After all, they used artifacts, while the Celestial Venerable of Longevity uses a wondrous place naturally formed in the universe. However, their situations are still somewhat similar.

However, thinking of the fates of the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor and the Azure Emperor, Liang Yu couldn't help but feel worried for the Eternal Heavenly Venerable.

But precisely because of this, a new idea began to emerge in his mind. If these wondrous places were used as the foundation to develop special secret realms that could grant immortality, wouldn't that improve the cultivation environment in the human world from another perspective, and even allow other cultivators to obtain a completely new path to immortality? And wouldn't the Celestial Venerable of Longevity, who was in charge of all this, be able to obtain different Dao fruits?
Moreover, Liang Yu also thought of the scripture in the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin, most of which contained methods for evolving and repairing the Immortal Realm. If the Azure Emperor of later generations had this ancient scripture, he might have been able to survive for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands more years, going further on the path of evolving the Immortal Realm, although he would ultimately still fail.

In comparison, the current Celestial Venerable of Immortality is much luckier. After all, Liang Yu plans to use this ancient scripture to exchange ideas with the Celestial Venerable of Immortality, helping him to advance further.

Although the Azure Emperor's idea of ​​creating an immortal realm ultimately failed, it may not have been without merit. After all, he did live for over 100,000 years longer in the Desolate Tower, and his strength and cultivation had greatly improved.

After their utter defeat, the Azure Emperor and Ye Fan, who reappeared in the world, were hailed as the two most powerful figures of antiquity. While this may be an exaggeration, it illustrates that the Azure Emperor at that time was not far behind Ye Fan in his later years of the fourth incarnation, perhaps even nearly equal. The Azure Emperor before entering the Desolate Tower most likely did not possess such strength. If the Eternal Celestial Venerable had continued down this path, even if he ultimately failed, the results he achieved would have been extraordinary, enough to allow him to go much further on the path of immortality.

As for his true form, he naturally returned to the Wuji Immortal Mountain to focus on studying the rebirth and transformation of the Chaos Green Lotus.

Only after grasping the essence of the Great Dao of Chaos will he transform into the most perfect Chaotic Body. This is also the end of the path of physical evolution.

However, since he was the one who spearheaded the plans for eliminating forbidden zones, reincarnation, and ascension, he naturally couldn't shirk his responsibility. Therefore, he created another part of himself, specifically to conceal his presence and travel throughout the universe to find the remaining forbidden zones.

The Celestial Venerable of Morality and the Celestial Venerable of Spiritual Treasure disappeared into the depths of the universe. On one hand, they wanted to revisit their old haunts, and on the other hand, they wanted to search for forbidden zones. Most importantly, they each wanted to find their next path to immortality.

Meanwhile, in the underworld, the King of Hell awoke and found the Lord of the Underworld: "Fellow Daoist Lord of the Underworld, the method of Fellow Daoist of Immortality has greatly inspired me. I wish to emulate him and coexist with the underworld. I wonder what your opinion is?"

The Underworld was sought by the Underworld Lord, and the Netherworld Palace was also created by him. Most importantly, the Underworld Lord's Netherworld Scripture has now been cultivated to an extremely high level, to the point that he is even somewhat subject to others. Therefore, this matter does indeed need to be discussed with the Underworld Lord.

Upon hearing this, the Underworld Lord was taken aback and said, "Fellow Daoist Zhenyu, you are too kind. There is nothing wrong with this."

Then he pondered and said, “Fellow Daoist Zhenyu, there is no need to worry. This Netherworld Scripture is just one of the extra gains on my path to immortality. It will vanish in the next life. Fellow Daoist, after the end of this life, you will be the new Lord of the Underworld, and I will never come back.”

Upon hearing this, the Prison King was greatly surprised. He looked at the Underworld Lord and found that the other's eyes were indeed full of sincerity.

He said, “Fellow Daoist Mingzun, I am deeply grateful and will not thank you enough. If you ever need my help in the future, I will definitely do my best to help you.”

The Underworld Lord laughed and said, "As long as you take good care of the few Source Spirits I left behind and ensure their safe birth, that will be fine."

The Celestial Venerable of Longevity achieved this by cultivating the Ancient Scripture of Burying Immortals to an extremely high level, and then coexisting with the Immortal Tomb through the transformation into a Holy Spirit. For the Prison Suppressor Emperor to achieve the same result, he would need to cultivate the Netherworld Scripture to an even higher level, and he would also need to transform himself into an ancient corpse.

Of course, this doesn't mean he should die now and then communicate with spirits. Rather, it means that he should enter into extinction like the Taoist deity, leaving only a trace of undying spiritual light in a state of apparent death. Although this situation will not create a reincarnation mark, it is enough for him to coexist with the underworld.

The original plan of the Underworld Lord was threefold: first, to refine the Heavenly Underworld Treasure into a celestial artifact, or at least make it infinitely close to one; second, to further perfect his own Dao; and third, to find a suitable location so that he could bury this life and begin the next, while also searching for various forbidden zones.

Now that he has the Prison Suppressor King as an excellent example, his cultivation will naturally be smoother, which is why he is happy about it. However, this means he seems to have less time to travel outside.

But the Underworld Lord still really wanted to visit the ancient primordial star, after all, it was the number one corpse-raising ground in the universe, as Liang Yu had described. Perhaps it would be better for him to be buried here in his next life. Besides, everyone else was going to explore the forbidden zone, and it wouldn't be right for him not to go.

After thinking for a moment, the Underworld Lord separated several divine thoughts and sent them to various parts of the universe.

This is a secret technique from Liang Yu, which has been mastered by the Underworld Lord.

He even made some improvements to this, allowing these divine thoughts to attach to well-preserved corpses, thus possessing the body and forming his own clones to live in the human world for a long time.

(End of this chapter)