Stealing the Secret from the Cover of Heaven

Chapter 459 The True Meaning of the Golden Age

In the supreme Taoist temple, the Immortal Mountain of Longevity and the Nameless Taoist Temple, Li Zhi and Emperor Ming sat under the Immortal Laurel Tree and discussed Taoism.

Ever since this ancient supreme being with a unique experience joined the temple, such discussions on the Dao have taken place no less than twenty times.

They would have a discussion almost every few months.

Either they talk about the practice of the great way, or they discuss the secret techniques and profound skills.

Emperor Ming Bai Shitong had extremely broad knowledge. Not only was he proficient in various ancient methods of cultivation, he was also extremely knowledgeable about various secrets and legends. It seemed as if he had spent his life as an emperor collecting various ancient scriptures and legends.

Although Li Zhi was not as knowledgeable as Emperor Ming, his understanding of the secret cultivation system of the human body was far superior to that of Emperor Ming. Every time he discussed the Tao, Emperor Ming would feel as if things were suddenly enlightened. Things that he had not noticed before, he gradually understood after Li Zhi's guidance.

I'm afraid that within a few decades, his Dao Fruit will be completely complete and he will return to the pinnacle of the Dao.

This kind of harvest is even greater than what he achieved during the long years of dormancy in the Immortal Mausoleum.

Emperor Ming could not help but sigh: "I thought I was a rare smart person in this world, but I never thought that the practice of the Tao is not about knowledge and memory but about the heart and nature of the Tao. No wonder some people can keep climbing to the top, while others completely lose their way after reaching a certain height."

Any great emperor in ancient times was the darling of the times. Not only was his cultivation talent the best in the world, he was also one of the few strongest people of that era.

However, after becoming emperors, without the reference of the myriad laws of heaven and earth, most people's amazing talents will reveal their true colors and their cultivation will stagnate.

The reason why they were successful in practicing Taoism was that their nature of relying on the environment of heaven and earth was undoubtedly exposed, and they did not have the ability to constantly open up a path forward in the fog.

Actually, it’s normal if you think about it.

Even in the ancient times of immortals, it was not an easy task for a cultivator to become the supreme being.

However, after the chaotic ancient times ended and a new era began, the number of supreme beings born was beyond imagination.

At the same time, the number of ordinary supremes (quasi-emperors) has reached an astonishing level.

This doesn't seem like a situation that could occur in a world where the origin of heaven and earth is flawed.

During the chaotic ancient times, the original ancient world was broken into nine heavens and ten earths. Each piece of heaven and earth was boundlessly large, but the number of supreme beings seemed to be less than those born in this period.

Even if there were factors of imperfection in the great way of heaven and earth during the turbulent ancient times, such an exponential gap in the number of supreme beings could not have occurred.

Although the current levels of heaven, earth and humanity are perfect, the number of quasi-emperors born in each era is indeed too many.

Li Zhi didn’t understand the reason before, but after discussing with Emperor Ming, he finally understood the real reason behind it.

Because the Heaven's Heart Seal was preserved by Emperor Huang Tian, ​​it did not disappear with the downgrade of heaven and earth, allowing the cultivators of this era to reach the pinnacle of the ultimate way with the help of the Heaven's Heart Seal.

And because of the existence of the Heavenly Heart Seal in heaven and earth, the difficulty of comprehending the laws of heaven and earth has been reduced by several levels compared to when there was no Heavenly Heart Seal.

Although the Heavenly Heart Seal is not visible to the world under normal circumstances, it is like an invisible world tree, influencing the practice of all beings.

As long as it exists one day, even if the origin of heaven and earth has become extremely thin, the laws of heaven and earth will still be perfect. The heaven and earth will not absorb the laws of the cultivator's body to supplement the deficiency of heaven and earth due to the weakening of the origin of heaven and earth.

As long as the Heavenly Heart Seal remains intact, the Supremes (quasi-emperors) and Ultimate Supremes (emperors) will continue to emerge in this world.

However, everything has two sides.

For the powerful emperor at the ultimate supreme level, it can be said that the Mark of the Heart of Heaven is the reason for his success or failure.

Because of the existence of the Heavenly Heart Seal, they can easily reach the pinnacle of the human realm, but once they lose the assistance of the Heavenly Heart Seal, they will be instantly beaten back to their original form.

If the auxiliary effect of the Heavenly Heart Seal is excluded, the number of supreme beings who have been able to reach the pinnacle of the extreme way since ancient times is not as many as imagined.

At least 70% of the emperors, after losing the assistance of the Heavenly Heart Seal, their Tao Fruition is not complete.

This result can be seen from the large number of forbidden zone supremes who need to cut themselves off.

If their Dao fruit is perfect, even if they cut off the Heavenly Heart Seal (the position of the Great Emperor), they should still be the perfect Great Emperor like the Green Emperor. Whether or not they have the position of the Great Emperor does not affect their Dao practice for the Supreme Beings who have truly achieved the perfect Dao fruit.

After excluding the number of fake people who have reached the pinnacle of the Dao among the Great Emperors, the number of cultivators who can truly reach the pinnacle of the Dao by their own strength appears much more reasonable.

In the chaotic ancient times during the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths, the number of cultivators who could reach the pinnacle of the Dao, even if the Nine Heavens and Ten Earths were added together, was extremely limited.

By the time when Emperor Huang Tian was born, except for those creatures living in the major forbidden areas, among the supreme beings that existed in the open, only the great elder Meng Tianzheng of the Tianshen Academy and the head of the Wang family, Wang Changsheng, had truly ascended to the pinnacle of the extreme way, while the other supreme beings were still far behind.

From this point of view, in this era, although the origin of heaven and earth is not as good as before, after the feedback from Emperor Huang Tian, ​​the practice of the cultivators in the human realm who practice the five secret realms does not seem to be affected by the environment of heaven and earth at all, and their practice speed is not even slower than those cultivators in the human realm who live in the fairyland and practice the immortal system.

Although the five secret realms of the human body also consume the essence of heaven and earth from the outside world, the most fundamental growth of the great way still requires it to be within.

The degree of dependence on the external environment is not as great as people imagine.

At least the consumption of heaven and earth resources is far less than that consumed by practicing the ancient method.

Think about how Emperor Huang Tian was only a cultivator at the divine fire level back then, and how much magical medicine he consumed in order to cultivate immortal energy.

Looking at the universe today, apart from the Immortal Elixir that became the Immortal Magical Medicine after being downgraded, there are no other real magic medicines in the world.

At most, it is just a semi-divine medicine.

If all living beings still practice the chaotic ancient methods, it may be difficult to give birth to a quasi-supreme emperor in a hundred thousand years, let alone an ultimate supreme emperor.

Discussing Taoism with Emperor Ming, who had once achieved emperor status, gave Li Zhi a deeper understanding of the role of the Tianxin Seal.

The existence of the Tianxin Seal has a much greater impact than he imagined.

The fact that he was able to reach the pinnacle of the highest realm without the assistance of the Heavenly Heart Seal had a shocking effect on Emperor Ming that far exceeded Li Zhi's expectations.

Originally he didn't think this was something worth being shocked about.

But after discussing with Emperor Ming, Li Zhi discovered that this was not the case at all.

The shock and impact of this incident on other forbidden zone supreme beings was far greater than the impact of someone becoming an emperor.

The reason why the Ancient Emperor Xuanwu and the Emperor Wanlong were willing to experiment with the Nirvana method for Li Zhi was not because they were really desperate, but because they realized how much help Li Zhi's method of reaching the pinnacle of the Dao without relying on the Heavenly Heart Seal could have on emperors like them who were lacking in Dao Fruit.

Li Zhi did not realize this before.

Now, after discussing with Emperor Ming, he finally learned the truth from him.

Theoretically, any cultivator who practices in a world where the laws of humanity are perfect will have the opportunity to learn from the world and cultivate the seed of Tao in their bodies into a flawless and perfect seed.

Of course, cultivating the innate Tao seed in the body into a flawless and perfect seed is extremely challenging for the cultivator's cultivation qualifications.

However, Li Zhi has now supplemented the deficiencies of this system, allowing cultivators to materialize the invisible Tao seed, and naturally be able to see whether the Tao is complete.

It is no longer a blind man groping in the dark to let all living beings rely on their own strength to reach the top of the extreme way.

Then, the two began to discuss various methods of achieving immortality.

Emperor Ming, as an old antique who has been dormant in the Forbidden Zone of Life for nearly a million years, is familiar with almost all the methods of longevity developed by the Supreme Beings in the Forbidden Zone.

However, Emperor Ming did not quite understand why Li Zhi seemed to be more interested in the method of immortality than the various ancient scriptures he collected. After reaching the pinnacle of the extreme Dao, shouldn't he be thinking about how to become a being above the Great Emperor?
Why do we still have to ponder these methods of longevity that have varying degrees of effectiveness?

Therefore, Emperor Ming asked directly: "Friend Li, you seem to be very curious about various methods of immortality. Can you tell me the real reason?" You know, by studying those ancient scriptures, he realized his own method of Nirvana and lived another life.

In his opinion, if Li Zhi wanted to become an immortal in the mortal world, he should first study various methods of Nirvana.

"To be honest with you, Fellow Daoist Bai, when I first started practicing, I had a plan for longevity in the mortal world. That was to collect various methods of longevity, and achieve nirvana through different methods of longevity, so that I could live in the mortal world for life after life, and finally achieve nine lives in reverse and become an immortal in the mortal world."

Li Zhi did not hide his purpose of collecting various methods of immortality. He originally wanted to emulate the mortal worldly immortal path that two generations of Heavenly Emperors had taken.

At the same time, he also knew that various methods of Nirvana could only be used once.

If one wants to live nine lifetimes in the mortal world, one must use different methods of Nirvana to achieve Nirvana.

In the past, Li Zhi did not know why different methods had to be used to achieve Nirvana. Now, Li Zhi has understood that if one wants to achieve perfection in Taoism, one must use different methods to achieve Nirvana.

Walking forward in the fog where the road ahead is invisible, you cannot walk the same road twice, otherwise you will end up in a ditch or on a dead end.

Different methods of Nirvana are actually the path to expand the path of monks.

Make your own road wider so that you don't fall into a ditch because the road is narrow.

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If the road is wide enough, even if there are ditches on the road, because the road is wide enough, some parts of the road can bypass those potholes, allowing people to continue moving forward.

After listening to Li Zhi's story, Emperor Ming suddenly realized and said, "No wonder, it is easy for cultivators like me to live another life, but it is suddenly more difficult to live a third or fourth life."

Since ancient times, there have been many emperors who have been able to live two lives because of the existence of the elixir of immortality.

There are emperors who can live for three lifetimes, because there are various methods of achieving immortality.

However, emperors who could live to the fourth life suddenly became rare.

It was extremely difficult for the Celestial Lords of the mythological era to live out a third life. Even a powerful celestial Lord like Changsheng, who created the secret of the character "zhe", only lived out two lives.

Lingbao Tianzun is suspected to have lived for four lifetimes.

In the mythological era, the Lord of Dao and Morality lived one more life with the help of the elixir of immortality, and was then buried on Earth. He lived another life with the help of the reincarnation seal method left by the Emperor of the Underworld. Laozi can be regarded as the third incarnation of the Lord of Dao and Morality.

There are many more examples like this.

“If you want to achieve immortality in this world without being affected by the passage of time, you must be able to live eight or even nine lifetimes in reverse. Therefore, collecting various methods of immortality is the key to survival,” said Li Zhi.

Emperor Ming suddenly realized and said, "I took the elixir of immortality and lived a second life, and used the Nirvana method to live a third life. If I can cultivate the Tao fruit to perfection in this life, won't I have a chance to use other methods of longevity to live another life?"

Li Zhi said: "In theory, this is true, but there is a prerequisite, that is, you must have the strength to break the Heavenly Heart Seal. Only those who can suppress the Heavenly Heart Seal can be free from the constraints of the laws of humanity. Otherwise, they are just wandering in the human realm. Just like those emperors who took the elixir of immortality and lived another life, even if they lived one more life, they still needed to rely on the Heavenly Heart Seal to maintain their own emperor's Dao fruit. And the life span did not exceed the life span that the emperor should have just because they lived one more life."

Without the power to suppress the Heavenly Heart Seal, even if one could live a few more lives, one would not be able to cultivate the fruit of immortality, and even the upper limit of one's lifespan would not be increased.

The starting point for achieving immortality is to surpass the Great Emperor, and then live through eight lifetimes above the Great Emperor.

Otherwise, he would be like Emperor Ming. Even after Nirvana and rebirth, he was still trapped in the human realm, and his life span had not increased compared to before. Even without the assistance of the Heavenly Heart Seal, he could not even reach the peak of the extreme way.

"It's a pity for the Immortal Grandma and others. Originally, they planned to wait for you to pass the tribulation and then come to visit you together. Unfortunately, you faked your death and escaped, which made them mistakenly believe that you had fallen under the tribulation." Emperor Ming said regretfully.

If more fellow Taoists could comprehend Li Zhi's method together, perhaps the gains would be greater.

"This life is really different. Not only do we have a genius like you who is exploring the essence of the cultivation system, but we also have the strongest holy body in ancient times. Even the Supreme of the Forbidden Zone was suppressed by him and the geniuses of the time and could not raise his head. In the end, one forbidden zone after another was destroyed by him." Emperor Ming sighed.

"This is the true meaning of the Golden Age." Li Zhi also echoed with a smile.

"Maybe. After all, even if the Lord of Heaven shouts out the Supreme of the Forbidden Zone, he cannot do whatever he wants in this era. A dragon has to coil up and a tiger has to lie down. The Supreme's supreme majesty has to be restrained in front of him." Emperor Ming was obviously dissatisfied with Ye Fan's successive destruction of the Forbidden Zone of Life.

However, because he was afraid of the powerful strength of Heaven, he had to choose to hide in advance and avoid the edge of Heaven.

In his opinion, the emperors of the time who respect the life restricted zone are actually respecting themselves.

Ye Fan's behavior of not taking the Forbidden Zone Supreme seriously will inevitably bring extremely bad effects to the Heavenly Court.

Once Ye Fan dies of old age, the power behind him will be completely destroyed by the forbidden area.

Don't look at it, there are many Tianjiao in the world, there is only one person who is really worthy of the fear of the Forbidden Zone Supreme, and that is Ye Fan from the Heavenly Court. He is not an emperor, but he has the same fighting power as the emperor.

Although no one knows how Ye Fan broke the limit of the Holy Body and sublimated his Tao Fruit to a level comparable to that of the Wuque Emperor.

But Emperor Ming could be sure that the sublimation of the holy body was definitely not the same as Li Zhi's perfection of Taoism and reaching the pinnacle of the highest Tao.

Otherwise, Ye Fan’s eldest disciple Ye Tong would not have tried to forcibly become an emperor several times in the past few years.

As for the geniuses that Ye Fan mentioned when he destroyed the Ruins of Gods and the Immortal Mausoleum who were able to rival the ancient emperor before his ultimate leap, Emperor Ming was dismissive of them.

If it weren't for Ye Fan, who could truly rival the Supreme, the others, even if their number was twice as many, would be nothing more than food in the mouth of the Supreme in the Forbidden Zone.

Just like Ye Fan pointed at Ye Tong and the Holy Prince and questioned the Forbidden Zone Supreme, asking, are they weaker than the Sun Holy Emperor and the Fighting Holy Emperor before their ultimate leap? There are many such people in this life.

But what does it mean if there are more people like Ye Tong and the Holy Prince?

Can they kill the ancient emperor head-on like Ye Fan did?
The answer is no, far from it.

If they faced the ancient emperor one-on-one, the final result would be to become the Supreme's food.

Except for a very few individuals who might be able to survive at the hands of the ancient emperors, most of them would end up dead.

If Ye Fan was not there, even if more geniuses appeared in this life, the situation would not be much different from the golden age that Emperor Wu Shi experienced more than 100,000 years ago.

The true meaning of this golden age is the birth of Ye Fan, a heaven-defying existence who can kill countless supreme beings in the forbidden area.

Without Ye Fan, this golden age will become an age of darkness, an age of crazy hunting by the supreme beings in the forbidden area.

Among those geniuses sealed away in ancient times, countless of them will eventually become delicious elixirs in the mouth of the Supreme Being in the Forbidden Zone.

In Li Zhi's mind, the true meaning of the Golden Age is the birth of an Emperor Ye Tian who can "cover the sky with a single leaf", and it is by no means that there are many geniuses in the world who can make the Supreme of the Forbidden Zone bow his head or be wary of him.

Apart from Ye Fan, have those forbidden zone supreme masters ever truly been afraid of other geniuses?
After talking about the true meaning of the Golden Age, the two turned their conversation back to the method of immortality itself.

After discussion between the two, they summarized ten feasible methods of longevity.

All of these methods of longevity can allow monks to live another life.

Emperor Ming was amazed at the longevity methods that were summarized and said, "There are so many longevity methods. If you want to understand them all, the requirements for the cultivator's qualifications are probably far greater than the requirements for whether the cultivator can achieve enlightenment and become an emperor."

“After all, it is the Nirvana and immortality above the Great Emperor. These Nirrvanas are for embarking on the path of immortality in the mortal world and cultivating the fruits of immortality. It is natural that it is a little difficult.” Li Zhi said.

"Fellow Daoist, you seem to be very confident in these methods of immortality. Why don't we discuss them in depth?" Emperor Ming said.

"That's exactly what I want." Li Zhi nodded.

Then the two began to discuss various methods of achieving immortality.

(End of this chapter)