Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 199 The Growth Pattern of the Dao-Merging Flower

There are three wondrous flowers in the human universe, each a unique treasure, like the elixir of immortality. These three flowers are the Demon God Flower, the Divine Flower, and the Dao-Harmony Flower.

The Demon God Flower is only effective on young demons. It can refine their bloodline, spirituality, and bones, allowing them to undergo a complete transformation and laying the foundation for becoming a demon god. This flower blooms once every 50,000 years. The Demon Emperor of the Primordial Era in later generations consumed the Demon God Flower, greatly compensating for his disadvantage as a snow rabbit and establishing his invincible foundation.

The Divine Flower is a wondrous flower, the epitome of beauty in the mortal universe, containing a special law. Most cultivators who see this flower will have their primordial spirit damaged, some even turning to ash and becoming mere walking corpses. Even cultivators who have just achieved initial enlightenment will find their primordial spirit unstable if they gaze upon it for too long. Only those who have attained the Dao can view it at will. This flower blooms only once every 100,000 years or more.

Even after Ye Fan achieved the feat of defeating the reigning emperor without becoming one himself, he could still benefit greatly from the Divine Flower, increasing his cultivation. The fact that the Ruthless Emperor seemed to recognize the flower suggests that the Ruthless Emperor himself had also admired it.

The last type, the Harmony Flower, is naturally the most precious of the three wondrous flowers. Legend has it that it can enable one to achieve harmony with the Dao, directly becoming a Dao-proving being.

In the original timeline, the Harmony Flower actually only appeared twice. Once in the mythological era, leaving behind legends, but the details are completely unknown. Later generations' understanding of the Harmony Flower comes from this appearance.

On another occasion, naturally in the ancient era, the Dao-Merging Flower originated in Kunlun and was obtained by the Ruthless Great Emperor, who placed it in the Nine Dragons Coffin. Later, Xiao Song, whose cultivation was completely destroyed by the Undying Emperor and who was reduced to an ordinary squirrel, regained his imperial throne thanks to the Dao-Merging Flower.

However, Liang Yu is currently in the mythological era, yet he only knows the legends. Even the Celestial Venerable of Morality, a very early Celestial Venerable of the mythological era, has only heard of him, but never seen him. That means the first appearance of the Harmony Flower might have been in the early mythological era, and it's unknown whether the Celestial Venerable of Tribulation saw it. But the Underworld Venerable has no memories of his past life, so they have no way of knowing either.

Liang Yu had considered searching for this flower, but ultimately gave up. After all, the Dao-Harmony Flower wasn't a necessity for him, and spending so much time searching for it wouldn't be worthwhile.

The Celestial Venerable of Primordial Beginning wanted to find the Flower of Harmony for two reasons. First, it was for the purpose of exploring the path to immortality in the mortal world. After all, the mysterious laws within the Divine Flower could greatly benefit those who sought enlightenment, so the Flower of Harmony, being an even more precious and wondrous flower, should naturally also contain secrets that could greatly benefit them.

Moreover, they could transform their lives by studying the elixir of immortality, and the Harmony Flower was a rare flower comparable to the elixir of immortality; there was no reason why it wouldn't contain some extraordinary mysteries. Therefore, if this flower could be found, Liang Yu, Yuanshi Tianzun, and even others might benefit from it, and perhaps even find a way to transform their lives.

Secondly, it was out of personal motives. After obtaining Kunlun Immortal Mountain from the Underworld Lord, he had a vague idea to cultivate that girl in pink, who was a cultivator with mediocre cultivation, into an Earth Immortal.

To achieve this, the first step is to help her attain enlightenment. Clearly, she lacks this talent. This is where the Harmony Flower comes into play. If the Primordial Celestial Venerable can find the Harmony Flower, he can naturally help her attain enlightenment and then personally teach her to become an Earth Immortal, achieving immortality.

As for why Liang Yu was asked for help, it was mainly because everyone else was busy. The Underworld Lord was already in his twilight years and was currently helping the Prison Emperor become an Earth Immortal; the Spirit Treasure Heavenly Lord was still missing and was accumulating for his next transformation; the Moral Heavenly Lord should have been free, but Liang Yu had invited him to research and refine the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill.

Therefore, in this world, only Liang Yu truly has the time and ability to help him. Upon hearing this, Liang Yu said, "Finding this thing is like searching for a needle in a haystack. The last time this flower appeared was millions of years ago, in the earliest days of the mythological era. If it didn't grow but was just a seed, then we probably wouldn't be able to find it either."

He could roughly guess what Yuanshi Tianzun was thinking. However, the Dao-Merging Flower was theoretically useful to him. He had already researched the Elixir of Immortality quite a bit, but he hadn't seen the Dao-Merging Flower yet. Its mysteries should be of some use. He probably still had several thousand or even tens of thousands of years left, so it wasn't impossible for him to spend some time researching it.

Yuanshi Tianzun said, "In the course of my exploration over the years, I have discovered the growth pattern of the Dao-harmonizing Flower in some ancient books and relics from the early mythological era, and even the previous era."

"The growth period of this flower is uncertain, but it must be at least a million years, and it is also related to the changes in heaven and earth. Or rather, the great changes in heaven and earth and the changing of the times have greatly accelerated its growth. The last time the Dao-Harmony Flower bloomed was in the early period of our era, which is also because it has gone through the end of the Chaotic Ancient Era and the current era.

"Now, Fellow Daoist Wuji can also sense that the time of great change in the world is coming soon, and our era may be coming to an end. After such a long period of accumulation, we are about to usher in a new era. The Harmony Flower should have already begun to grow."

"Of course, the most important thing is that I found the soil where the Dao-Harmony Flower took root last time it appeared, and there is still a trace of the Dao-Harmony Flower's aura in it. With this aura, we can track its location."

As he spoke, the Primordial Celestial Venerable took out a piece of celestial essence, within which was sealed a small handful of yellow earth. This earth had no divine properties whatsoever; it had likely completely lost its divinity over the long years and returned to being mortal soil. But even so, Liang Yu still sensed a trace of Daoist charm within it, which shared the same origin as the Great Dao of Heaven and Earth in the vast universe, and was even somewhat similar to the aura within the Heavenly Heart Imprint.

The statement by Yuanshi Tianzun is indeed very reasonable. The changing of eras in the universe of "Covering the Sky" may seem to be man-made, but it is actually an iteration of the greater universe.

The failure of the Battle Saint Emperor to transform into a Battle Immortal exacerbated the changes in the world, leading to the premature end of the Primordial Era. The Post-Ancient Era began 100,000 years before Ye Fan, as can be seen from the description of the Azure Emperor as the only Dao Prover in the 100,000 years since the Post-Ancient Era.

However, Emperor Wushi attained enlightenment approximately 120,000 to 130,000 years ago and disappeared 80,000 years ago. In other words, the transition between the Ancient Era and the Post-Ancient Era occurred during the reign of Emperor Wushi.

These two events illustrate that the universe itself is constantly updating, a process that would occur even without the influence of certain special individuals. A few exceptional people may drive the changing times, but they do not alter the fundamental nature of this continuous evolution.

The conclusion of the Primordial Celestial Venerable is that the Harmony Flower needs more than a million years of accumulation to grow and can only fully mature after going through the changes of the times.

(End of this chapter)