Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 307 The Method of Nirvana
For the Immortal Emperor, who stands at the pinnacle of the universe, time seems to be passing by faster and faster. Every time he opens his eyes and gazes upon the cosmos, he discovers that the world has undergone significant changes.

Beside him, the nine dragon veins near Purple Mountain were originally guarded by the Seven Divine Generals tribe, the Blood Phoenix clan, and the Phoenix Bird clan of the Phoenix Maiden. Every time the Undying Emperor opened his eyes, he found that the guards would change.

Everything was changing. He himself seemed unchanged, yet he also seemed to have changed. What remained unchanged was his self; what changed were his long, flowing, pale hair, his dry, rough face with deep etched lines, his declining vital energy, and the unstable and turbulent marks of the Great Dao.

Four thousand years have passed, and the Immortal Emperor has finally reached the end of his first incarnation. In other words, he lived for a full twenty-five thousand years in his first life. This achievement is nothing short of astonishing; if not the greatest in history, it is close, and at least in the mythological era, no one could compare to him.

In the mythological era, even the Celestial Venerable of Longevity, who created the secret of the word "Creator," only had a natural lifespan of 15,000 years in his first incarnation. As the saying goes, there are only wrong names, not nicknames. The Celestial Venerable of Longevity was named Changsheng (meaning "longevity"), so his lifespan was naturally the upper limit for ordinary enlightened beings.

If we were to compile statistics, the natural lifespan of the vast majority of those who attained enlightenment in the mythological era in their first incarnation would be between 13,000 and 15,000 years.

Of course, if special methods of prolonging life are employed, this lifespan might be extended further. However, for those who have attained the Dao, prolonging life is extremely difficult, and prolonging life while maintaining their perfect state is even more challenging. After all, they are too powerful; even the Immortal Source cannot be sealed.

Therefore, this range can basically cover the first incarnation of the vast majority of enlightened beings.

Throughout the mythological era, there were actually very few Daoists who could break this limit in their first incarnation. Even the first incarnations of the Moral Celestial Venerable and the Spiritual Treasure Celestial Venerable did not exceed 15,000 years, let alone those Daoists who were not as good as them.

In the mythological era, only three people truly broke through this limit: the Underworld Lord, the Limitless Heavenly Lord, and the Primordial Heavenly Lord.

The Underworld Lord was originally the ancient corpse of the Tribulation-Transcending Heavenly Lord, so although his lifespan exceeded 15,000 years, it was a special case and difficult to calculate.

Apart from the Underworld Lord, the first lifespan of those who attained enlightenment in the mythological era was only 22,000 years for the Limitless Great Heavenly Lord and 18,000 years for the Primordial Heavenly Lord, exceeding this limit.

The current Undying Emperor, with a bloodline and physique clearly surpassing that of the Limitless Heavenly Venerable and the Primordial Heavenly Venerable, and with personal talent not far behind, directly reached the Heavenly Emperor level in his first incarnation. Naturally, the lifespan of his first incarnation also exceeded that of everyone in the mythological era, setting a new record.

Aside from Emperor Ye Fan, whose life spanned 26,000 years, few could surpass the Undying Emperor's achievement, even in later generations. Even the Great Emperor Wushi might not have surpassed him, let alone the first incarnation of the Ruthless Great Emperor before she transformed into her chaotic form.

Therefore, considering only the first incarnation, the Immortal Emperor's achievements were indeed enough to impress everyone, including Liang Yu.

The universe was silent. The aura of the Undying Emperor was becoming increasingly overwhelming, and everyone was awaiting a resolution. However, for the Undying Emperor, who possessed the Divine Phoenix Elixir of Immortality, this outcome was, in fact, predetermined.

After all, not everyone is like Wuji Tianzun and Yuanshi Tianzun, who have the elixir of immortality but choose not to use it, opting instead to challenge the difficult feat of reversing death.

Over these years, the Immortal Emperor had deeply explored the methods of Nirvana, gaining considerable insight and reaching an extremely high level. Therefore, he had essentially determined his future direction. The Immortal Emperor desired Nirvana, and there were two different directions he could explore: one was to seek it inwardly, and the other was to seek it outwardly.

Seeking within oneself means undergoing a rebirth solely through one's own efforts, much like how others experience a reverse transformation. This method is naturally more difficult, and even with the combination of phoenix bloodline and phoenix techniques, the difficulty cannot be reduced much, but the results are also greater.

Seeking external support is simple; he just needs to find enough nourishment to support his transformation.

In the original timeline, the Immortal Emperor actually underwent rebirth on his own, not always relying on the flesh and blood of the Imperial Path. For example, the birth of the Divine Soul Pool was a product of the Immortal Emperor's own transformation.

But who can blame them when the method of imperial flesh and blood rebirth is so easily replicated and has such a high success rate?
The reason why the flesh and blood of the Emperor could serve as nourishment for the Immortal Emperor's Nirvana was because this flesh and blood not only contained powerful life force but also the Dao fruits they had attained in their respective fields. In essence, they were human elixirs comparable to the elixir of immortality. The Immortal Emperor's Nirvana method perfectly absorbed the medicinal power of these elixirs, allowing him to achieve Nirvana himself.

As for why this method can be used multiple times, it is naturally because the bloodline and constitution of each deceased supreme being, emperor, and great emperor are different, the Taoist methods they cultivate are different, and the nutrients contained in their flesh and blood are also different.

In other words, because they are all different types of human drugs, the drug resistance they develop is not enough to render these human drugs ineffective. As long as there are more types and more quantities, they can ignore these drug resistances and take effect.

Therefore, the immortal emperor's rebirth is equivalent to constantly relying on different kinds of immortal medicines to achieve rebirth. Although the difficulty is much lower, the effect is also much worse.

Eager to return home, the Immortal Emperor weighed the pros and cons of exploring other Nirvana methods versus constantly replicating this one. In the end, he backed down and chose to play it safe.

In other words, starting from the Ancient War of the Gods, the Undying Emperor fell into path dependency, essentially abandoning the exploration of other methods of Nirvana. This may have been the beginning of his falling behind.

Taking shortcuts comes at a price. The Undying Emperor had already lowered the difficulty by using the power of his bloodline, but he still had to artificially lower the difficulty himself. Therefore, it was naturally difficult for him to keep up with the likes of Emperor, Ye Fan, Emperor Wushi, and Emperor Ruthless in the Mortal World.

In this timeline, the Immortal Emperor discovered the path to Nirvana in his first incarnation. To ensure stability, the first incarnation of the Immortal Emperor also chose the less difficult method of relying on external aids.

In this life, the reason why the Immortal Emperor first refined the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill to prolong the lives of the Seven Divine Generals and others instead of directly giving them the Elixir of Immortality was because the Immortal Emperor was using this opportunity to research a method to amplify the medicinal properties of the Elixir of Immortality.

The immortal elixir refined from the elixir of immortality that the Immortal Emperor had the Seven Divine Generals, the Immortal Empress, and others use thousands of years ago was actually his initial achievement.

He intends to use the Divine Phoenix Elixir of Immortality, combined with various divine treasures from the human universe, to refine a Nirvana Elixir exclusively for his own use, as nourishment to support his first Nirvana.

(End of this chapter)