Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 202 The Road to Immortality Begins
In the blink of an eye, hundreds of years have passed.

The path to immortality actually follows a pattern, but this pattern is the relative operation between the mortal universe and the fragments of the immortal realm. Every few hundred thousand to several million years, the immortal realm will approach the mortal universe once.

At the moment when the two worlds are closest, some paths to immortality will end in connection with, or at least be close to, the Immortal Realm. Therefore, this path to immortality is the correct location. And the timing of this brief proximity between the mortal realm and the Immortal Realm is the correct time.

This pattern is difficult to fully grasp; the same path to immortality will be at different distances from the immortal realm at different times.

The Path to Immortality has appeared twice in the mythological era, and this is the third time. However, when the Path to Immortality opened the first two times, there were no contemporary cultivators who had attained enlightenment; only some self-destructive supreme beings rushed into it. Of course, they all failed, and even triggered terrible dark turmoil.

The path to immortality was supposed to open three times in the mythological era, but only twice in the primordial era, and not once in the desolate era. It wasn't until the post-desolate era that two true paths to immortality were opened in succession.

This is, of course, because the mythological era lasted the longest. After all, the three major eras—the mythological era, the primordial era, and the ancient era—have actually been constantly shortening, and this change is due to the continuous decay of the universe.

But the core reason is that most of the so-called paths to immortality in the mythological and ancient eras are like this one—they seem very close, but in reality, they are impossible to traverse. You can see this from the fact that even the Taiyin Human Emperor and the Demon Emperor, both stronger than ordinary cultivators in the ancient era, failed.

The reason for this is that although the Immortal Realm is close to the mortal realm, there is still a slight distance; it is not the closest it can get. This is tantamount to an insurmountable chasm for those who seek enlightenment in the human realm.

The two paths to immortality in the post-ancient era were the closest the immortal realm was to the mortal world. This was because the path to immortality on Flying Immortal Star directly connected to the immortal realm, and the path on Big Dipper Star even stated that any peak cultivator of the time could enter.

Therefore, this path to immortality is merely a mirage. However, the supreme beings of the forbidden zones and other cultivators in the mortal realm are unaware of the details, so they remain full of enthusiasm and high spirits.

In the original timeline, perhaps it was from this path, and the difference between the two paths to immortality in the primordial era, that these supreme beings in forbidden zones roughly determined that there are differences in the paths to immortality, and not all of them are correct. That's why they hesitated in later generations, and even when the paths to immortality opened, only a small number of people would be born. As a result, a considerable number of supreme beings directly missed the true path to immortality that they also had a chance to take, the Flying Immortal Star.

The current second incarnation of the Primordial Celestial Venerable has already passed through 20,000 years, yet his aura remains at its peak, showing no signs of decline. In fact, the Great Dao imprint covering all paths has become increasingly terrifying. Even the opening of the path to immortality cannot overshadow his aura, as if he intends to rival the Immortal Realm.

This is why more and more people believe that Yuanshi Tianzun can become an immortal, and it has gradually become a consensus among cultivators all over the mortal world. Even those supreme beings in forbidden zones who have already awakened and are preparing to break through the path to immortality are filled with envy and jealousy towards Yuanshi Tianzun.

The Primordial Celestial Venerable, who was comprehending the Dao-Merging Flower in the Kunlun Sacred Realm, never expected that he would be chosen to become an immortal without even trying.

Therefore, over the years, a vast and boundless power of faith, like the Milky Way, has continuously flowed from afar and merged into the Origin Cauldron of All Things. It can be said that these hundreds of years, during which the path to immortality was about to open but had not yet opened, were actually the hundreds of years in which his power of faith increased the fastest. This truly made the Primordial Celestial Venerable, who had been in seclusion and had not paid attention to the outside world, somewhat amused and exasperated.

At this time, Liang Yu's fourth incarnation had reached the age of 50,000. Although he was considered old, he was still far from being exhausted. Perhaps, it was uncertain whether his incarnation or that of Yuanshi Tianzun would end first.

And now, the time he had been waiting for, reclusive for fifty thousand years, had finally arrived. At this moment, the enormous rift that stretched across the cosmos began to tremble, expanding thousands upon thousands of times in an instant, as if even stars could pass through it. Boundless immortal energy surged forth, and dazzling immortal light illuminated the boundless universe.

If it weren't for the fact that the Primordial Celestial Venerable had set up array patterns near this rift hundreds of years ago to stabilize the starry sky, countless more stars would have shattered. Of course, over the years, all the ancient stars and realms with life near the rift have been moved away. This place is now only occupied by some stubborn cultivators who consider themselves to have considerable cultivation, as well as some old cultivators whose lifespans are nearing their end, who have come here for a desperate gamble.

But under such terrifying force, if it weren't for the array patterns of the Primordial Celestial Venerable, many of them would probably have died. However, it was this moment that made them realize that the Primordial Celestial Venerable had indeed not lied to them.

Therefore, some of the monks who realized this simply stayed away and chose to observe from a distance.

Then, celestial light surged again from the crack, and over several days, three ancient corpses from countless years ago fell from it and turned to ashes.

After witnessing this scene, almost no cultivators lingered near the Path to Immortality. After all, they had already identified the three ancient corpses as supreme beings who had attained enlightenment millions of years ago. Since even supreme beings could die among them, they naturally had no choice but to stay away.

Even as countless streams of immortal energy, enough to prolong life and grant enlightenment, dissipated, and countless rays of divine light emerged from the North Pole, few people dared to approach them again.

Then, countless immortal spirits and palaces formed from the laws of immortality faintly appeared, but quickly vanished, leaving only a huge immortal gate formed from the convergence of laws.

The path to immortality has finally truly begun.

At this moment, Liang Yu rose from Wuji Immortal Mountain and stepped into the starry sky. Yuanshi Tianzun, Daode Tianzun, Lingbao Tianzun, Mingzun and others also emerged from seclusion. They gathered together, ready to set off, and began to pay attention to the major forbidden zones in the universe.

For them, this path to immortality is not a path to immortality, but a lure, a bait that will lure them into the last forbidden zone they have yet to reach, a bait that Heaven has caught.

This time, they were not disappointed.

In the depths of the universe, an immense power manifested, followed by several other auras appearing one after another.

That's how Liang Yu finally pinpointed the location of the Celestial Realm. With that, they had complete control over the whereabouts of all the forbidden zones of life.

(End of this chapter)