Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 188 Earth Immortal
Liang Yu naturally preferred that the Celestial Venerable of Longevity give up ascension and focus on exploring this alternative path to immortality, while also contributing to the restoration of the human universe.

After all, this is the best choice for humanity and for future generations of those who seek enlightenment. Although the path to immortality paved by the Celestial Venerable of Longevity has harsh conditions and many restrictions, its results are truly extraordinary.

If the Celestial Venerable of Longevity could continue to perfect it, it should be able to open up a new path to immortality for future generations. However, if he entered the strange world, then this method would be difficult to pass on to future generations, since even immortals in the mortal world could not return from the strange world.

However, the Immortal Realm was, after all, the ideal of the Eternal Celestial Venerable for countless years, and Liang Yu couldn't simply ask him to give up. Moreover, from the perspective of the Eternal Celestial Venerable's personal cultivation, entering the strange world and the Immortal Realm was indeed easier than staying in the mortal realm. After all, to allow the Immortal Tomb containing immortality to grow, it was naturally more efficient in a world with longevity substances.

Before attaining enlightenment, Liang Yu had repeatedly survived near-death experiences thanks to the secret techniques of the "Zhe" character, and had even obtained a fragment of the Longevity Heavenly Art. After his enlightenment, the Longevity Heavenly Venerable joined his ranks, working together to conquer the forbidden zones. Therefore, if the other party still wished to ascend and go to the Immortal Realm, Liang Yu would naturally grant his wish.

Sending a person to a strange world is easy for them, but sending a celestial tomb there would likely be more difficult. However, if they could actually get there, this celestial tomb could serve as a mobile war fortress, a stronghold for the supreme beings of the mortal realm to unite, and might even become a true celestial tomb in the future, burying countless true immortals. Thinking about it this way, it doesn't seem impossible.

Of course, the human universe will indeed suffer a great loss after losing the Immortal Tomb, which Liang Yu and his group need to make up for to prevent the human universe from weakening further.

These losses will naturally cause some hardship for the strange world. Anyway, that world has few supreme beings, abundant longevity substances, and plentiful spiritual energy. Even if they extract more spiritual energy from the human world, it won't have a significant impact on it in the short term.

Furthermore, if all goes well, Liang Yu, along with the Celestial Venerable of Mortals, the Celestial Venerable of Spiritual Treasure, and the Celestial Venerable of Primordial Beginning, will become Immortals in the Mortal World in hundreds of thousands of years. At that time, they can directly enter the Immortal Realm. Once they enter the Immortal Realm, everything they have sacrificed in the strange world will be insignificant. Therefore, these are all necessary sacrifices that must be made for the sake of becoming immortals.

Having thought all this through, Liang Yu felt no psychological burden whatsoever, and simply awaited the decision of the Celestial Venerable of Immortality. Whatever his choice, Liang Yu had a backup plan.

Upon hearing this, the Celestial Venerable of Immortality, amidst the sea of ​​thunder, fell into deep thought. Throughout his countless millennia of life, his greatest ideal had always been immortality, as evidenced by his name and the secret character "Zhe".

However, to achieve immortality, one needs to become an immortal; to become an immortal, one needs to enter the Immortal Realm; and to enter the Immortal Realm, one needs to conquer the Path to Immortality. Therefore, the Celestial Venerable of Immortality was originally very attached to the Path to Immortality and the Immortal Realm.

It was because of this that when the Celestial Venerable of Immortality learned that he had no hope of opening the path to immortality, he fell into depression and even had the idea of ​​burying himself on the path to immortality.

But unexpectedly, things took a turn for the better. The very same Great Celestial Venerable who had shattered his dreams brought him a plan for ascension and reincarnation, giving him renewed hope. Therefore, the Celestial Venerable was very grateful to Liang Yu.

But even as one of the Nine Celestial Venerables, he had his pride. The Celestial Venerable of Immortality didn't want Liang Yu to carry him on his path to immortality; he needed to achieve something to repay Liang Yu before he could accept everything with a clear conscience.

Therefore, he embarked on this exploration at great risk. Now, the Celestial Venerable of Longevity is very confident that he has indeed obtained results that can help Liang Yu.

In other words, he had finally embarked on his path to immortality and repaid part of Liang Yu's kindness. Because of this, the Eternal Life Celestial Venerable experienced mental relaxation and a clearer mind, as if a golden rope had been broken and a jade lock severed, granting him great freedom of spirit. For the Eternal Life Celestial Venerable now, he didn't need to enter the Celestial Realm; he could achieve immortality while remaining in the mortal world. In fact, he could very likely continue on his path and ultimately achieve an alternative form of immortality. Therefore, the Celestial Realm was no longer a necessary destination for him.

Therefore, whether to choose the Immortal Realm or the Mortal Realm was no longer important to the Celestial Venerable of Immortality. However, reflecting on his countless millennia of wasted time and his inability to find the right path, he finally made his decision.

Although few descendants are destined to follow the path of the Celestial Venerable of Immortality—given the limited number of wondrous lands and numerous other restrictions and risks—his exploration and refinement at least provide future generations with a direction for reference.

Moreover, if he can continuously repair the human universe, perhaps after endless ages, the human world can produce longevity substances like the strange world or even the immortal realm? In that case, there would be no need to ascend to the immortal realm; the human world would be the immortal realm itself.

After despair was followed by renewed hope, and finally achieving his initial ideal of immortality, the Celestial Venerable of Immortality developed a sense of compassion. He was willing to do something for future generations, to give them hope. At the same time, he also developed a new ambition: to take on a new challenge and guide the human world towards the realm of immortals.

The Celestial Venerable of Immortality said, "I choose to remain in the mortal realm. I ask my fellow Daoists for your assistance."

Upon hearing this, Liang Yu felt a secret sense of relief. He was naturally pleased with the decision of the Celestial Venerable of Immortality, as repairing the human universe was also part of his future plans, and the Celestial Venerable of Immortality could perhaps be one of the key figures in this plan. He said loudly, "Since Fellow Daoist Changsheng has made his decision, we will definitely do our best to help you."

“Fellow Daoist Yuanshi, I would like to trouble you to activate the Heavenly Heart Mark to assist me and Fellow Daoist Mingzun.”

The Primordial Celestial Venerable nodded in agreement. His Great Dao aura surged forth, mobilizing the Heavenly Heart Mark to weaken the intensity of the lightning tribulation, and thereby began to influence the fundamental power of the universe.

Meanwhile, Liang Yu and the Underworld Lord joined forces to unleash Origin Techniques, and countless Origin Heavenly Divine Runes were imprinted in the void as if they were naturally formed, continuously penetrating into the core origin of the Great Universe.

Soon, they detected a trace of the origin of the universe. At the opportune moment, the Celestial Venerable of Longevity revealed the core origin and laws within his Immortal Tomb, which was now his true form, allowing Liang Yu, the Underworld Venerable, and the Primordial Celestial Venerable to use their great divine powers to combine the two origins.

At the same time, the Celestial Venerable of Longevity was also perceiving the origin of the human universe through his celestial mausoleum, attempting to retain his own unique self while merging with it. In other words, he wanted to establish a relationship with the greater universe that was one of obedience to commands but not dictates.

Finally, with the help of the reference answer of the human universe imprint, they achieved initial success.

Looking at the Immortal Tomb, or rather, the Eternal Heavenly Venerable, Liang Yu said, "Those who are in harmony with this wondrous place, like Fellow Daoist, and whose path to immortality in the mortal realm can perhaps be called Earth Immortals."

(End of this chapter)