Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 901: Later Years
After successfully attaining enlightenment, Duan De did not choose to display his divine power in public, but instead consciously began to erase as many traces of himself as possible.

Although he is not yet clear about his past, he already knows how to walk his path to immortality in the mortal world.

In this life, Duan De has made too much of a splash, and it may have already been circulated as a secret by many people, which will inevitably have a great impact on his future lives.

After all, his path to immortality in the mortal world was stable, but that was only under the condition that there were no unexpected situations and no one interfering; it was only relatively stable from the perspective of cultivation.

The biggest problem with Duan De's path to immortality through reincarnation lies not in himself, but in the tribulations of human existence. Over such a long period of time, Duan De's path to immortality in the mortal world will inevitably face many unavoidable crises. If he fails to achieve great success in any of his incarnations and is killed by someone, or if his origins are exposed and he is captured for research, then his path to immortality in the mortal world will very likely be interrupted and difficult to continue.

This is why Duan De would go into hiding in each of his lifetimes after his cultivation level gradually increased. Exposing himself when his cultivation was low was not a big deal, since few people could see through his secrets and no one would be able to record his existence.

However, once his cultivation level becomes strong, if he exposes his strength and secrets too much, he will inevitably be remembered by those with ulterior motives as a secret, which will greatly increase the risk of his identity being exposed in his later lives.

In this life, Duan De also hoped to do this: only show his face when he was at a lower level, and hide himself as much as possible after his cultivation level was high.

However, because Duan De in this life was influenced by Yuanshi Tianzun, he was not very lucky. His various tomb raiding plans were always discovered by others due to various accidents. The curse power in his body also forced him to hone himself, revealing even stronger talents and strength. Therefore, his presence was too strong.

He has already successfully attained enlightenment in this life, so there is naturally nothing to worry about. However, in the next few lives, without his memories and strength, his risks will greatly increase.

Considering his cultivation in the next few lifetimes, Duan Decai decided to never reveal his true form in the human world again, and even took the initiative to erase some traces of himself.

Furthermore, with the passage of time, it is only possible for him to avoid being discovered when he is reborn next time, thus preventing people from realizing his connection with this life and even previous lives.

Of course, in the process of eliminating his own traces, Duan De also relied on his powerful strength after attaining enlightenment to explore various ancient tombs in the human universe.

It was during this process that he found the ancient tree of life that he had personally placed into the human universe years ago, and he took possession of it again.

Under Duan De's conscious intervention, as time went by, the traces of his existence gradually became thinner and thinner, and almost no one knew what he had done back then, or what methods he had used and what his face looked like.

Therefore, Duan De finally felt relieved and began to focus on himself again.

Originally, his plan was to achieve a different kind of enlightenment comparable to that of a Daoist, but in this life he has successfully attained enlightenment and has more powerful strength and a wider space for development. Naturally, he will no longer be satisfied with his current state and will try to go to the extreme.

Moreover, the power of the curse has not disappeared yet. Duan De dares not gamble that the power of the curse will disappear and never erupt again in this life after he attains enlightenment.

Even in order to resist the even more terrifying curse power that may be faced in the future, he needs to continue to make breakthroughs and improvements in his current state.

Thus, this mysterious Emperor of Calamity almost vanished, disappearing from the annals of history, never to be seen again, and all his deeds were quickly lost to the passage of time.

Since he was unaware of his past memories, neither Yuanshi Tianzun nor Liang Yu appeared, but waited for him to return in his later years to see him off. Thus, the once thriving human universe suddenly fell into an unusual calm.

After Duan De attained enlightenment, a sigh echoed from the underworld. This sigh naturally came from the current ruler of the underworld, the Underworld Emperor.

Thanks to the fact that everything about the Underworld Lord's past has disappeared into the long river of time, no one in this life has ever been able to detect that this Tribulation Emperor actually has countless connections with the Underworld Lord and even the Tribulation Transcending Heavenly Venerable.

But for the Underworld Emperor, Duan De's identity was naturally no secret. From the moment of his birth, the Underworld Emperor had a sudden urge to sense that he was about to be reborn.

From that time on, he began to pay close attention to the movements of the human universe, especially focusing on those powerful seeds of enlightenment, and Duan De naturally came into his view.

The moment the Underworld Emperor saw Duan De's true face, he was certain that this was the return of the Underworld Lord.

However, considering that he and the Underworld Lord were no longer the same person, he did not rashly approach them.

Later, as Duan De continued to grow, the Underworld Emperor became more aware of the differences between them.

After Duan De attained enlightenment, the Underworld Emperor finally understood from his various actions that the former Lord of the Underworld was no longer there, and that his entrustment of the Underworld to him was indeed a farewell.

After all, Duan De in this life did not show any behavior related to the Underworld Lord, and did not even have any strange feeling about the Underworld. It was completely unfamiliar to him.

Upon witnessing this scene, the Underworld Emperor relinquished his long-held obsession with the Underworld Lord, stopped paying attention to Duan De, and sincerely wished him success in navigating his own path to immortality in the mortal world.

After all, from the current perspective, only when it reaches that stage will it be possible for a portion of the former Underworld Lord to return.

And so, as time went by, Duan De reached the end of his life at the age of 25,000.

With a lifespan of 25,000 years, Duan De's achievements in this lifetime were indeed comparable to those of the Heavenly Emperor, and were equivalent to the first lifetime of the Immortal Emperor and the God Emperor.

If it weren't for the terrifying power of this curse, Duan De could have endured this life for a while longer, since his physical body was indeed extraordinary.

Over the past 20,000 years, due to the ever-increasingly dangerous curse power within him that flared up once every few thousand years, Duan De constantly refined his Dao and Dharma to resist the curse power.

Although Duan De ultimately failed to weaken the power of the curse, due to the catalysis of the curse and his own continuous efforts, his own state became extremely powerful and even more perfect.

Duan De sensed his own condition, but instead of immediately finding a place to bury himself to begin his second life, he began to prepare for a special transformation to make himself stronger in this life.

(End of this chapter)