Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 170 The Late Years of Yuanshi
Time flies, and seventeen thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye. The Great Dao Imprint of the Primordial Celestial Venerable finally began to fluctuate, exuding an aura of decay and corruption, as if it were about to dissolve into the Dao. Thousands of Daos wailed throughout the universe, and the oppressive atmosphere grew increasingly intense, as if the end of the world was about to arrive.

In total, Yuanshi Tianzun has lived for a full 18,000 years in this lifetime. Although this lifespan is not as long as that of Wuji Tianzun's 22,000-year lifetime, it still surpasses that of other previous Dao-proving beings.

After all, the lifespan of most Dao-proving beings is less than 15,000 years. Even the Longevity Celestial Venerable, who created the secret of the character "Zhe," only lived for about 15,000 years in his first life.

In fact, even the Primordial Celestial Venerable was still at a disadvantage in this respect due to his physical constitution. There was nothing that could be done about it; a sufficiently powerful special constitution would inevitably have some advantages in certain aspects. In his first life, Liang Yu had pushed his divine bloodline to its limit, transforming it into a supreme divine bloodline second only to the Chaos Body, which was why he had a lifespan of 22,000 years in his first life.

The Primordial Celestial Venerable's near-top-tier mortal body was actually not much different from that of the Supreme Divine Blood during his cultivation. After undergoing continuous development through the seven extreme realms of cultivation, it was in no way inferior to the Supreme Divine Blood. However, in terms of lifespan, the Supreme Divine Blood still had a significant advantage.

After all, no matter how high the physical attributes of a mortal are, they are still a blank slate without any special enhancements, and their lifespan cannot compare with that of a special physique. Therefore, the Primordial Celestial Venerable has now entered the later years of this life.

Although Yuanshi Tianzun spent the most time active on the ancient primordial star, he also traveled to other regions of the universe many times and left behind a great deal of legacy.

Therefore, the later years of Yuanshi Tianzun still evoked a strange feeling among many cultivators.

With an aura of decline and disheveled white hair, Yuanshi Tianzun began to wander through the universe, as if, in the final moments of his life, he wanted to take one last good look at this world and this universe.

Of course, cultivators who knew the details weren't so worried. After all, there were still the Elixir of Immortality and the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill that could save them.

Although tens of thousands of years ago, the supreme beings of those forbidden zones collected and destroyed a large amount of these main ingredients to prevent Liang Yu from refining the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill, the universe is so vast that it is still possible to gather enough materials, although the difficulty of searching has increased. Moreover, the time span of tens of thousands of years is enough for new alchemy materials to be born in the universe.

Of course, the Celestial Venerable of Primordial Beginning's trip this time was not to find the elixir of immortality, nor to find materials to refine the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill, but to go fishing.

Since Liang Yu had already told Yuanshi Tianzun about his intention to eliminate the Supreme Beings of the Forbidden Zones, this trip was like Liang Yu's in the past, as he traveled the universe in his later years, hoping to lure out one or two restless Supreme Beings.

Of course, Liang Yu didn't actually expect to draw out any Supreme Beings by having him do this. Firstly, these Supreme Beings were wary of the methods he had left behind and dared not venture out; secondly, they had all recovered considerably using the secret techniques created by the Carefree Celestial Venerable, and hadn't reached a point where they absolutely had to take the risk. Therefore, the probability of them appearing was very low.

Liang Yu simply wanted to use this opportunity to find out the locations of these restricted areas so that he could capture them all in one fell swoop.

Over the years, Liang Yu, as well as the Celestial Venerable of Morality, the Celestial Venerable of Spiritual Treasure, the Celestial Venerable of the Underworld, and the Celestial Venerable of Primordial Beginning, have all been cultivating while searching for the hidden places of the remaining forbidden zones. In fact, they have made remarkable progress over the years.

The whereabouts of the remaining forbidden zones of life, except for Yuhua Island and Shangcang Island (also known as Zangtian Island), have all been discovered.

The former is simply well-hidden, or perhaps there are some secrets hidden within this divine island; in any case, it's difficult to find for the time being. However, once the mark of the human universe is established, this island will eventually be discovered.

As for the latter, this immortal island from the chaotic ancient era, which is the upper half of Mount Tai, manifests the shape of nine dragons pulling a coffin, a truly wondrous sight. Moreover, this celestial being seems truly absent from the mortal realm; even with the imprint of the mortal universe, it remains elusive. This is most likely due to the peculiar nature of this forbidden zone. After all, among these forbidden zones of life, the Celestial Being and the Primordial Ancient Mine are perhaps the most unique and mysterious.

During the Celestial Venerable's tour, Liang Yu and the others closely monitored various movements in the universe, hoping to detect the activities of these two forbidden zones. Once they were located, they would swiftly and decisively annihilate them.

After all, there are five of them now. Even the weakest of them, Yuanshi Tianzun, possesses strength far exceeding that of ordinary Dao-proving individuals.

Those supreme beings from the forbidden zones awoke again, but their auras remained firmly locked by the Heaven-Deceiving Array Pattern, preventing any leakage. They communicated only through the Heavenly Secrets Scroll.

“Yuanshi has entered his later years. Should we try to kill him? After all, the path to immortality will appear in about 20,000 years. Considering that his life is 18,000 years, even if he doesn’t undergo a metamorphosis, he can live until then with just the elixir of immortality and the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill. If that’s the case, we will be competing with a flawless Heavenly Venerable.”

“But we’re in good shape right now, so it seems like it would be a waste to just come out into the world now. Even if Yuanshi really does come back to life, there are so many of us, we don’t need to be afraid of him.”

"The momentum when Yuanshi underwent his tribulation was no weaker than that of Wuji back then. If he really does live in reverse, then it's hard to guarantee that he won't be as strong as Wuji in his second life. In that case, how will we compete for the path to immortality?"

"Since you mentioned Wuji, you should know that he likes to use this kind of behavior to lure us out of the world. Yuanshi Tianzun is still so high-profile in his old age. Don't tell me that he has been living in peaceful times for too long and has no sense of vigilance at all."

"Are we just going to watch him become an obstacle?"

"Stop arguing, let that fellow Daoist speak."

These supreme beings fell silent upon hearing this. After all, their current plan to become immortals was proposed by this very person.

"My advice is, you'd better not go looking for your own deaths. Even if Wuji didn't leave any other means, as long as Yuanshi has control of those immortal artifacts he left behind, it will be enough to leave us helpless. In that case, every few of us who go out will die. After all, we can't all move out now." That harsh and sharp voice rang out again.

"Then what do you think we should do?"

"Let's wait until the Path to Immortality opens, then we'll all mobilize and negotiate directly with Yuanshi. If he doesn't interfere with our attack on the Path to Immortality, we won't launch the Dark Rebellion. With so many of us, he can't possibly manage everything alone. Besides, we might even be able to cooperate then. Compared to becoming an immortal, everything else is trivial."

"Then we will do as you say, fellow Daoist. We hope your plan is as good as you say."

Having said that, these supreme beings fell into a deep sleep once more. Unbeknownst to Liang Yu and the others, these supreme beings gradually began to unite and devise a plan.

(End of this chapter)