There is a progress bar in my cultivation of immortality

In the southern sea of ​​Zhongzhou Star, above an unnamed island, Wang Ping appeared silently with Yu Lian. He first looked up and gazed in the direction of Yuqing Sect.

"It's Yueyang who's getting promoted. After he succeeds, will you have to cleanse Xuanqing of the pollution in his body?" Yulian asked, leaning on Wang Ping's shoulder.

Wang Ping nodded. A thought suddenly came to his mind, but he suppressed it, gently stroked Yu Lian's little head, and landed on the island.

Then a bright green light flashed past Wang Ping and disappeared into the ground of the island. It was a 'transfer talisman' that Wang Ping had conjured. It was carried by the wood spirit energy that existed in the world and disappeared into the sea in less than ten breaths.

Without shifting his gaze from the talisman, Wang Ping's primordial spirit sensed every inch of the underground land at an extremely fast speed. Soon, he captured the core of an underground magic array, which was still a palace of the demon race.

Immediately, the teleportation talisman appeared at the edge of the palace, and Wang Ping disappeared on the island with Yu Lian, reappearing in the underground palace.

The moment Wang Ping appeared, the heavy aura of the earth veins around him pressed in like a tide, but with Wang Ping's current cultivation level, he could completely ignore this pressure, unlike his previous disheveled state.

Before them was still darkness, with a faint yellowish-brown halo outlining the general shape of this underground space. This space, buried thousands of feet underground, was forcibly supported by the heavy power of the earth's veins, and its area stretched for nearly thirty miles in length and width.

In the central area stands a palace, its structure rugged and magnificent, built entirely of some kind of dark blue-green boulders. The stone walls are carved with long-faded demon totems, from which one can vaguely see ferocious beast heads, coiling giant pythons, and winged fierce birds. Every line they outline exudes the fierce aura of the demon era.

The entire palace was not still, but trembled slightly with the flow of the earth's veins, looking like some kind of giant monster that had merged with the earth.

Furthermore, the surrounding rock walls were not inanimate objects, but rather shaped into flowing barriers by the power of the earth's veins, slowly undulating like living flesh and blood. Occasionally, the earth's vein energy would gather into a yellowish-brown torrent, rushing past the palace and emitting a deep rumble, as if the entire earth was breathing.

Wang Ping's primordial spirit easily probed into the palace's interior. The space inside was vast, with the dome shrouded in darkness. Countless tiny crystals could be roughly seen, emitting a faint green glow. The ground was not a smooth stone slab, but an uneven natural rock layer covered with a layer of blood that had turned black.

In the center of the floor is a deep pit with irregular edges, and inside the pit is an even more intense earth vein energy.

Wang Ping had already brought Yu Lian to the top of the pit, but his eyes reflected the damaged murals on the walls of the hall. This was obviously a common method used by the demon race to record history. Unfortunately, most of these murals were destroyed, with only one picture of a peacock chasing the sun remaining.

In this dimly lit underground palace, the surviving mural exudes a breathtakingly beautiful splendor.

The peacock spread its tail feathers, which covered the sky, and each feather was outlined with colorful light. Even after a long time, it still shimmered with a faint spiritual light. Its posture was not static, but presented a dynamic of flapping its wings as if it was about to break through the constraints of the mural at any moment.

The crimson sun that the peacock chases is not a simple circle, but is composed of countless fine fire patterns, and you can vaguely feel a scorching heat. The trajectory of the sunlight is depicted as a flowing golden river, winding between the peacock's feathers, adding a sacred and majestic artistic conception to the whole picture.

Several sharp scratches remain on the edge of the mural, as if someone had tried to destroy this masterpiece but hesitated at the last moment, perhaps because the peacock's posture was too breathtaking.

"Is this Yaoxi?" Yulian asked with longing, her mind unconsciously conjuring up the image of the Demon Emperor's domineering and arrogant demeanor back then.

Wang Ping surveyed the layout of the hall and said, "It's highly likely that this mural is located beneath the throne at the front of the hall."

Yu Lian said, "Back then, he was truly supported by the demon race; otherwise, it would have been impossible to place his portrait under the throne in the main hall of such a private palace."

Wang Ping nodded subconsciously, his gaze still fixed on the exquisite mural. After a long while, he forced himself not to pay attention to it and then focused his gaze on the deep pit in the center of the hall.

This deep pit seemed to have been impacted by some terrifying force. The thick earth vein power inside formed countless gravity barriers. Inside the barriers was a long passage. The earth vein energy emanating from the passage wove together dense earth vein patterns, pulling the entire palace together and turning it into a tool to suppress some kind of being.

With Wang Ping's current cultivation level, he couldn't possibly be as disheveled as before, not even daring to enter. He subconsciously reached out and stroked Yu Lian's little head, then his concealed figure arrived at the passage enveloped by the gravity barrier along with his primordial spirit consciousness.

Everything here is the same as the cave where Ao Hong was rescued. The first thing you see is an earthy yellow halo that illuminates a huge cave that stretches for more than twenty miles. The cave's dome, walls, and floor are covered with dense earth spirit magic arrays. The earthy yellow halo emitted by the magic array runes is also faint, but it can illuminate the entire cave.

At the edge of the magic array, there were also some humanoid metal puppets patrolling. This time, Wang Ping could see clearly that they were driven by the earth vein energy and had a terrifying energy in their core, storing spells that were enough to destroy most fourth-realm cultivators.

At the core of the magic array, there is also a confinement area surrounded by dense energy vortexes that pull at all matter in this space. However, this time, Ao Hong is not imprisoned there; there is only a pile of freshly refined bone fragments.

Wang Ping paid no attention to the pulling force here, and ignored the puppets patrolling around him. He walked to the core confinement area. The puppets could not detect his presence at all, and the confinement energy could not interfere with him.

“I didn’t find the twisted flesh and blood from before in this palace, but I sensed that the flesh and blood beneath this magic array are even more spiritually potent!” Yu Lian whispered.

Wang Ping pondered for a moment, then formed a fixed hand seal with his left hand. He instantly closed his eyes, opened the 'Heavenly Eye' between his eyebrows, and scanned every corner of the area. After a few breaths, he cast a green halo from his right hand to his left, and the surging earth vein formation here immediately stopped.

The next moment, the patrolling metal golems seemed to be activated by some kind of consciousness. They stopped patrolling and neatly formed a hand seal. The sound of gears clicking echoed, and the edges of the cave continued to shrink, soon creating a huge pit.

As expected, the pit was filled with writhing flesh and blood like mountains.

They were not inanimate objects, but rather twisted and expanded like living organisms, their surfaces covered with dark red blood vessels, emitting a chilling, sticky sound. Occasionally, cracks would appear between the flesh and blood, revealing the stark white bone spurs inside, or a murky eyeball would suddenly open, only to be quickly swallowed up again by the surging waves of flesh.

What is most unsettling is that this flesh and blood is not simply rotting matter, but contains extremely strong spirituality. This spirituality is drawn by the earth vein array above and merges into the earth-yellow runes, becoming the nourishment that maintains the operation of the array.

Deep within the pile of flesh and blood, several remains of demons, not yet completely dissolved, could be vaguely seen. Some retained their enormous beast heads, with black chains wrapped around their fangs; others had only half a wing remaining, with faint lightning still dancing on the feathers. They were forcibly fused together by some force, their flesh corroding each other, their spirits devouring each other, ultimately becoming the energy core of this great formation.

Yu Lian's scales flared slightly, and she could clearly sense that the remaining demonic consciousness within this flesh and blood was still struggling.

Wang Ping's expression remained unchanged. He gently stroked Yu Lian's head, comforted her, and then used his 'Heavenly Eye' to observe the origin of the flesh and blood. After more than ten breaths, he sighed softly.

"They are demons?" "Yes, and all of them are great demons who have cultivated to the fourth realm. After Yao Xi's fall, they rebelled against the True Lords and were originally imprisoned deep within their respective palaces. Later, when the True Lords wanted to repair Zhongzhou Star, they thought of them..."

Wang Ping didn't continue speaking. His primordial spirit, through the twisted flesh and blood connecting the earth veins below, quickly captured a powerful earth vein aura. As his consciousness emerged in an instant, his figure disappeared from the spot with Yu Lian.

After he disappeared, the metal golems thoroughly inspected the deep pit that imprisoned the flesh and blood of the demon race. Finding no problems, they closed the open floor, and the earth vein array quickly regained its previous vitality.

Wang Ping brought Yu Lian to the deepest part of the earth, which seemed to be another continent, with a huge mountain range supporting this continent in the middle.

"They really have the heart to do that. Those are their own people, aren't they?" Yu Lian was referring to the demons who had been imprisoned underground.

Wang Ping simply nodded, but his attention was more focused on observing this area and the towering mountain that supported it. First, he noticed the halo; the light here was very faint, with only a yellowish-brown halo formed by the condensation of earth elemental energy.

The towering mountain was entirely bluish-black, its surface covered with layers of rock armor, each plate as large as a mountain, its edges gleaming with a metallic cold light. The mountain was not still, but rose and fell slightly with a long, rhythmic breathing, as if a sleeping behemoth was swallowing the heavens and earth in its dream.

Several ridges stretch for hundreds of miles from the mountain ridge, like the limbs of a giant tortoise lying on the ground, with two steep peaks at the front piercing the sky above this world.

"This...is the Earthly True Lord?"

After Yu Lian finished criticizing the True Lords, she sensed a powerful life force from the earth's veins. Following Wang Ping's gaze, she saw the towering mountain and subconsciously uttered those words.

Wang Ping used his spiritual consciousness to explore the surroundings, without disturbing the giant mountain. After more than ten breaths, he said to Yu Lian, "Try casting an illumination spell."

He didn't use any magic himself because he was worried that there might be some monitoring array in the area that could detect his presence.

Yu Lian immediately understood Wang Ping's idea. She didn't act too impulsively. Hidden within the wood spirit aura beside Wang Ping, she flicked her little tail and cast a 'lighting spell'.

A blinding light suddenly rose into the sky above this area, illuminating the majestic mountains in Wang Ping's view.

The mountain is barren, covered with dense leyline runes, traces left by the power of the earth's veins over the years. Each stroke contains the rhythm of the earth, and an earthy yellow halo flows between the runes.

This almost made Wang Ping unable to resist using his primordial spirit to investigate. In fact, for a moment just now, he even considered using his 'Heavenly Eye' to observe the past of the Earthly True Lord.

But in the end, reason prevailed, and he entered a state of self-discipline. He then approached the giant mountain with Yu Lian. When they were a hundred feet away from the giant mountain, an invisible pressure suddenly struck. It was invisible and unintentional, appearing out of thin air. It was the "life and death light curtain" of the underground cave gate, only it was presented in a more exquisite way here.

If a cultivator who has not reached the fifth level of cultivation were to fall into this place, their physical body would likely be destroyed in an instant, and their primordial spirit and consciousness would be devoured by the surging earth vein energy, leaving not even a trace.

Sensing the danger, Yu Lian immediately darted into Wang Ping's left sleeve.

Wang Ping first sensed the transfer talisman set up outside, but still cautiously refrained from using his primordial spirit to investigate. Instead, he used his wood spirit energy to slowly approach the towering mountain, following the flow of the earth's veins.

He was now certain that the mountain was the Earthly True Monarch, because he saw the earth elemental energy gathering here within the great net of rules.

As they got closer, Wang Ping witnessed an even more shocking scene.

Deep within the crevices of that majestic tortoise shell, flowed earth-yellow spiritual veins, continuously injecting the earth's energy into the ground.

Following this force downwards, Wang Ping soon saw a huge vortex-shaped cavity covered by the heavy aura of the earth's veins, filled with churning crimson lava—the core of the Central Continent Star.

The earth spirit of the Earthly True Lord intertwined with the molten core of the earth, and each contact would ignite a brilliant spark.

After deducing for more than ten breaths, Wang Ping confirmed that there was no danger. He then probed part of his consciousness into the core and quickly observed all areas of it.

He could confirm that the core of Zhongzhou Star had already been repaired.

Then, he looked up and continued to gaze at the physical body and consciousness of the Earthly True Lord. The Earthly True Lord's physical body and consciousness were drawn by the magic arrays that spread throughout the underground of Zhongzhou Star, and he could not wake up from his slumber.

While observing the core of Zhongzhou Star, Wang Ping discovered that the five elements and yin-yang rules of this starry sky were converging in a certain pattern. This is the place where Zhongzhou Star nurtures all things, and it is also the key for the True Lords to protect it.

Because if this place is damaged, the balance of rules in this starry sky may be disrupted, and it may even be impossible to form an orderly cycle.

Yu Lian peeked out from her sleeve, speechless with shock at the sight before her. Then she said uncertainly, "He's absorbing energy from the Earth's core?"

"That's right!"

Wang Ping nodded slightly. After repairing the Earth Core, Diwen Zhenjun was using the Earth Core of Zhongzhou Star for cultivation.

His gaze was fixed on the reverse-flowing energy. Every time a portion of the Earth Vein Power of the Earth True Monarch flowed into the Earth Core, the Starry Sky Rules would feed back two portions of Earth Spirit Energy from the Five Elements Yin-Yang Energy gathered at the Earth Core of Zhongzhou Star. This was not a simple equivalent exchange, but rather a 'reward' from the Starry Sky Rules for his repair of the Zhongzhou Core.

Wang Ping suddenly understood why the True Lords were willing to go to such lengths to repair Zhongzhou; it was not only about redemption, but also an unprecedented cultivation journey. (End of Chapter)