Shrouding the Heavens: Starting by joining the Holy Land of Yao Guang

Chapter 79 Phoenix Blood Crimson Gold
The moonlight was like water, the earth was empty and silent.

The red sand beneath our feet, the large rocks hundreds of feet away, and the stone mountains further in the distance were all shrouded in a hazy, misty moonlight.

After figuring out that the problem was caused by the field, Li Yao relaxed.

Because once he understands the patterns of the field, he won't feel like he's wandering in a maze like he did at the beginning.

Li Yao began walking along the edge of the ancient mine. As he walked, he used the Origin Scripture to deduce and calculate, and soon he figured out the operating rules of this area.

"Buzz!"

Suddenly, a tremendous suction force occurred at the Primordial Ancient Mine, instantly draining the starlight from the sky, leaving it pitch black and so dark that one could not see their own hand in front of their face.

The ground was like a giant black hole, capable of swallowing everything.

The Primordial Mine, at specific times, seems to breathe, absorbing the essence of heaven and earth, including light.

A few breaths later, the starlight fell again.

Taking advantage of this time, Li Yao began to retreat.

Of course, the so-called retreat is to turn left and right, constantly changing direction, rather than moving forward in a straight line.

Li Yao constantly calculated and deduced according to the source text, even paying attention to the timing of his footsteps.

This was a winding and circuitous journey; it was almost like taking three steps forward and two steps back, shifting left and right unpredictably.

Occasionally, Li Yao would stop, mentally calculate, carefully assess and compare the surrounding terrain, and then choose the direction to proceed.

During this process, muffled sounds came from behind from time to time. A huge black hole, like a whale sucking up water, devoured the essence of heaven and earth, as if an ancient ferocious beast had opened its mouth to swallow the sky.

Whenever the world is plunged into complete darkness, Li Yao would stop, afraid that he might make a mistake if he was not careful.

Half an hour later, after walking and stopping like this, feeling as if he had traveled thousands of miles, he finally left this strange region and appeared 150 miles away.

"Finally, we've made it out!" Li Yao breathed a long sigh of relief, his heart finally settling back into place.

If it weren't for his extraordinary mastery of Origin Techniques, Li Yao felt that he would definitely have been sealed inside and would have had almost no chance of escaping.

After resting for a while, Li Yao set off again. This time, because he had mastered the laws of the field, he walked very easily and almost never felt like he was walking through a maze as before.

The silver moon hung high, its light bright and soft, as Li Yao strolled through the forbidden zone of life.

At this moment, the tension in my heart finally eased to some extent.

Now, as long as he doesn't fall into a deadly situation, there's almost no danger in the Primordial Ancient Mine.

Soon, Li Yao had traveled more than sixty li when he came across a pine forest lying across his path.

The bright moon shines among the pines, and the clear spring flows over the rocks—this is a true depiction of the present moment.

The pine forest sways, the clear spring gurgles, the moon reflects in the stream, serene and bright.

Such scenery seems somewhat strange in a place like the Primordial Ancient Mine.

"It's actually here!" Li Yao was somewhat shocked. He remembered this place and walked straight in, because there was an opportunity inside.

Since he was already there, he naturally wouldn't miss it.

After entering the pine forest, Li Yao wandered through it and eventually found an ancient temple. He gained a lot from it, including a great technique left behind by the fourth Yuan Tian Master, some long-destroyed divine iron, a piece of broken Immortal Tear Green Gold, and a green jade turtle.

Among them, the great method left by the Source Master was very helpful to him. Although the Source Scripture may not be inferior to the Source Book in terms of source techniques, it is far inferior in terms of the use of source techniques.

Because the Origin Book was not created by one person, it has been passed down for a long time, and every Origin Master has annotated it, adding new techniques to varying degrees, such as the Six Seals of Immortal Suppression and the Method of Observing Qi and Observing Momentum.

These are not found in Li Yao's Source Scripture, so the great methods left by the fourth generation Source Master are very important to him. When he deduces the Source Scripture later, he can use them to obtain all the great methods in the Source Book. Moreover, this is considered to be a supplement rather than a creation, which can save him a lot of Source.

Then there's the Green Jade Turtle, which is even more extraordinary. It contains the body of a quasi-Emperor, which is now rotten and can be completely refined into a forbidden artifact.

The putrid aura emanating from the corpse of a quasi-emperor, once refined into a forbidden artifact and released, would be an absolute weapon of mass destruction. Moreover, because it is a forbidden artifact, one does not need to consider cultivation level when using it.

If used properly, it can wipe out large groups of powerful beings, making it a rare and powerful weapon.

"Now that we're here, I'm afraid I'll be unwilling to leave without going to Falling Sun Ridge."

Li Yao initially didn't plan to go to Falling Sun Ridge because the Primordial Ancient Mine was too dangerous. But now, he had arrived at the ancient temple where the fourth generation Source Master had stayed, which was really close to Falling Sun Ridge.

Things are different now than yesterday, and his thinking has changed. It would definitely not be appropriate to keep searching in the Primordial Ancient Mine. But right now, there is a fist-sized piece of Phoenix Blood Crimson Gold right next to us!

"I'll risk it all. We almost got into the Primordial Ancient Mine Center, so what's one more Fallen Sun Ridge?" Li Yao made up his mind.

If God does not take it, he will suffer the consequences!
Li Yao left the ancient temple and then followed the Yuan Tian patterns left by the fourth generation Yuan Tian Master to leave this place.

It was already late at night. Li Yao concealed his aura and walked slowly. After passing a group of ruins, he saw his destination.

A crescent moon stained with blood, embodying utmost yin and gentleness, this is the legendary Crimson Moon Cave, beneath which lies a demonic land of utmost yin and gentleness.

Just ahead, all was silent. If you didn't look carefully, you wouldn't notice anything at all. But if you calmed down and sensed carefully, you would soon discover the strange phenomenon.

On the ground, there is a blood moon, echoing the bright moon in the sky, drawing in a sky full of clear light, but after entering the ground, it turns crimson.

It was a crescent moon stained with blood, exuding an aura of extreme yin and softness; the more one looked at it, the more terrifying it became.

Falling Sun Ridge is as famous as Crimson Moon Cave, and they sometimes grow together. Now that Crimson Moon Cave has appeared, he will soon be able to see Falling Sun Ridge.

Sure enough, after traveling less than two miles, he saw a black, blazing sun, extremely yang, but it was no match for the extreme yin of the Crimson Moon Cave.

Because of Emperor Hengyu's weapon-forging, Fallen Sun Ridge was almost completely drained, and it has not recovered even after hundreds of thousands of years.

Fallen Sun Ridge, according to legend, was formed when the son of the sun fell to earth, and is an extremely yang and fierce place.

Phoenix Blood Crimson Gold, extremely yang and intense, indestructible, reaching the extreme of perfection, if one wants to refine it into an ultimate weapon, Fallen Sun Ridge is undoubtedly the first choice.

Because of the arrival of Emperor Hengyu, Falling Sun Ridge was completely wiped out. Now, this place is almost the safest place in the entire Primordial Ancient Mine. Li Yao quickened his pace and entered.

This ruin has long been decayed, with broken walls and crumbling ruins that turn to dust at the slightest touch, even the stone pillars are no exception.

Ahead, all is peaceful, the ruins have turned to ashes, and if you sense with your heart, you can see a blurry black sun on the ground.

It is only a few hundred feet in circumference, much smaller than the Crimson Moon Cave, and even after hundreds of thousands of years, its yang energy is still insufficient.

Beside the black sun, there stands an ancient building, towering and unyielding, with a plaque above it inscribed with the words "Hengyu".

This was the former residence of Emperor Hengyu. Although it is covered in dust, it still stands tall, with a Daoist aura flowing through it.

This building is constructed from massive piles of Originium, making it extremely magnificent and giving people a sense of the vastness and unattainability of the Dao. This is the "Dao" of Emperor Hengyu.

Li Yao walked towards the residence of Emperor Hengyu. Behind the building, he saw skeletons piled up into a small mountain.

Even though hundreds of thousands of years have passed, those bones are still shimmering with light. There are at least a hundred of them, most of them humanoid, but they are clearly not human.

These beings were all incredibly powerful, but unfortunately, they were utterly insignificant in front of a Great Emperor and were easily wiped out by Emperor Hengyu.

Li Yao couldn't help but feel a sense of longing. This trip to the Primordial Ancient Mine made him realize his own weakness.

He cultivated to the point of establishing a Dao Palace in a year and even opened two. It would be impossible for him not to feel proud of this. He is a human being, and as such, he is bound to have emotions and desires, and pride is inevitable.

Besides the good things he gained from his travels, Li Yao felt that he also gained something invaluable: he realized his own weakness and developed the motivation to become stronger.

"The road ahead is long and arduous, but I will persevere in my pursuit," Li Yao told himself before stepping into the ancient building.

The main hall is very old, very tall and spacious, giving a sense of endless grandeur.

There was a lot of ash on the ground, pitch black. Next to the ash was a pitch black stone, about the size of a fist. Li Yao walked straight over, placed his hand on the stone, and used his divine power to pick it up.

The first thing I noticed when I picked it up was its weight. It's only the size of a fist, but it weighs tens of thousands of kilograms!
Li Yao squeezed his palm hard, cracking the stone skin slightly. Instantly, a dazzling red light shot out, brilliant as a rainbow, extremely blinding, and impossible to look directly at.

Phoenix Blood Crimson Gold, a sight rarely seen even in thousands of lifetimes, shines brilliantly, as red as phoenix blood, exquisitely beautiful, and naturally possesses divine phoenix patterns.

This is a sacred object exclusively belonging to the Great Emperor. Ordinary people cannot even glimpse it, let alone obtain it. For tens of thousands of years, it has remained like a dream.

Its value is immeasurable. Such a large piece of immortal gold would cause a sensation in the outside world, and countless people would want to snatch it.

If the divine mark purple gold that Li Yao cut out in the Holy City had been this large, the Supreme Saint lineage would never have given up so easily. Even with Rising Sun Island and Sunset Mountain, they probably wouldn't have been able to stop them, because they would have gone completely mad.

Li Yao resealed the stone and then put it away to prevent the essence of the sacred object from being lost.

The piece of celestial tear green gold in the stone temple was ruined because it lacked a stone skin to seal it, causing its divine essence to dissipate. The fist-sized piece of celestial gold was simply rendered useless.

God knows how heartbroken Li Yao was when he saw that scene.

The dazzling light faded, and the hall returned to darkness.

After Li Yao walked out of the ancient building, he looked back at the plaque. The two characters "Hengyu" on it were vigorous and powerful, with an aura of soaring into the sky.

Looking at the plaque that still retained its Daoist charm even after hundreds of thousands of years, Li Yao couldn't help but summon the Divine Mark Purple Gold Furnace to see if he could capture the scriptures.

Unfortunately, this plaque only bears the aura of Emperor Hengyu, but he did not leave any scripture imprint. Naturally, even the Divine Mark Purple Gold could not capture the profound meaning of the scripture.

Of course, it could also be because too much time has passed.

Li Yao put away the Divine Mark Purple Gold Furnace, gazed at the Hengyu Ancient Building for a while, and then turned and left.

We were very close to the edge of the Primordial Ancient Mine. Li Yao proceeded cautiously, slowly moving away from this desolate place.

The distance stretched out into a vast emptiness, almost detached from the primordial forbidden zone.

At this moment, Li Yao was no longer worried or afraid. He quickened his pace and traveled another dozen miles before soaring into the sky and flying into the distance.

Li Yao arrived outside the Primordial Forbidden Zone, his mood completely relaxed, finally free from the Demon Realm.

It was now the very end of the night; the world was silent, the moonlight was like water, and it was very desolate.

The moonlight shone down, and the reddish-brown earth stretched as far as the eye could see, a vast and distant expanse.

His gains from this trip were immense, equivalent to the total gains of many cultivators with extraordinary luck throughout their lives.

This is not an exaggeration, but the truth. In the Yaochi Ancient Land, he obtained the Douzi Secret, the fragment of the Western Emperor Scripture, and later in the Primordial Ancient Mine, he obtained a Source Technique, a Green Jade Turtle, and even the Phoenix Blood Crimson Gold, a sacred artifact exclusive to the Great Emperor.

Each and every one of these items is an extraordinary treasure, its value immeasurable, yet he acquired a whole collection of such gems.

Under the cold moonlight, Li Yao changed his appearance and transformed into a young man before leaving the place.

This matter is clearly not over yet; he has not forgotten how he entered the Primordial Ancient Mine.

"I don't know what's gotten into the ruthless lineage, that they're chasing me like this." Li Yao wondered.

He possessed a secret book, rendering divination and similar methods completely useless against him. In other words, they relied entirely on a thorough, exhaustive search.

The Northern Region is so vast that a carpet search would be like finding a needle in a haystack. Besides, he has already changed his appearance, so how did the other party recognize him?

This puzzled Li Yao greatly. The man in gray clearly recognized him, otherwise he wouldn't have attacked him so decisively.

"The Ruthless lineage must have something in their hands. Even if I change my appearance, they can still recognize me, but there must be a limit, otherwise they wouldn't have sent just one person."

If nothing unexpected happens, the limitation should be distance, but what exactly allows them to recognize him? His appearance and even his demeanor have changed, so what else is related to him?

Li Yao couldn't rest easy until he figured this out. He racked his brains, and finally, a flash of inspiration struck him.

"It's the aura, it's the aura. Although my figure and appearance have changed, my aura has not changed. They must be identifying me through my aura." Li Yaoming understood the reason.

This is easy to deduce. He just never imagined that the Ruthless Clan would go to such lengths to hunt him down.

Li Yao stopped, stroked his chin, and began to think.

“Physical form, appearance, and even temperament can change, but how can one change their aura?”

A person's aura is the sum of their cultivation methods, origins, and many other factors. Unless they change to other cultivation methods and break one of these links, their aura cannot be altered.

"Change is unrealistic, and I won't change to other scriptures now. I will definitely create my own Chaos Immortal Scripture later, but for now, the Yao Guang Emperor Scripture is the most suitable for me."

Li Yao pondered.

"If the aura cannot be changed, can it be concealed or hidden?"

He changed his approach and realized that this was feasible. Changing one's aura was unrealistic, but concealing it was something that could be done.

"It seems we need to deduce the Origin Book." Li Yao thought of a method.

In the Book of Origin, there is a secret technique called "Six Seals of Immortal Forbiddenness," which is a supreme Origin Technique. It can not only seal the source, but also seal mountains and rivers, and seal unparalleled masters.

Of course, sealing one's own aura is very simple for a sixth-level Immortal Seal, even to the point of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

After finding a place in the Gobi Desert and carving out a cave halfway up the mountain, Li Yao recorded the Origin Technique he obtained from the ancient temple into the page belonging to the Origin Scripture.

Then, with a wave of his hand, he took out a pile of sources, let the Heavenly Book absorb them, and then deduced the Source Scripture.

As he smashed down 30,000 jin of source energy, the light of enlightenment suddenly shone, and he entered the realm of creation.

Three moments later, Li Yao regained consciousness. At the same time, a lot of complex information appeared in his mind, including his observations and experiences of various mountains, rivers, and strange objects.

These are all annotations by the five generations of Yuan Tian Masters. There are also some annotations by their descendants. There were only five Yuan Tian Masters, but that does not mean that only five people inherited the Yuan Tian Book.

Besides the five Source Masters, their descendants also inherited the Source Book. Although they did not eventually become Source Masters, they at least reached the level of Source Earth Masters.

In total, there were more than a dozen people explaining the source techniques, as well as some strange terrains they had seen and heard about, covering a wide range of topics that dazzled the reader.

Aside from these annotations, there are the great laws in the Source Heaven Book.

The new method of transforming the world, which combines the Heavenly Book and the Scripture of Origin, is more profound and mysterious than the original.

Then, the Observation Technique, the Midas Touch, the Origin Heaven Divine Sense, the Earth Vein Dragon Transformation Technique, the Six Seals of Immortal Forbiddenness, the Origin Heaven Yin-Yang Array...

All of the above-mentioned techniques are essential skills for Yuan Tianshi. There are also many secret techniques that Yuan Tianshi created and then added to.

After a long period of contemplation, Li Yao felt that his source techniques had improved considerably.

The current Origin Scripture not only possesses the Origin Techniques from the Origin Heaven Book, but the scripture itself has also changed.

This was the first time Li Yao had combined and deduced two scriptures. The Origin Scripture and the Origin Heaven Book each had their own advantages, and by combining them, a new Origin Scripture was born, which reached the level of a Great Sage.

"Let's test the effect now and see how it goes." Li Yao began to use the Immortal-Sealing Technique from the Six Seals of Immortal Sealing. Instantly, a powerful sealing force acted upon him.

At this moment, Li Yao felt that as long as he had a thought, everything about him would be sealed off—his divine power, divine consciousness, and origin could all be sealed off.

Of course, he wouldn't idly seal off his cultivation; he only sealed off his aura.

The new Origin Scripture, derived from the fusion of the Origin Scripture and the Origin Heavenly Book, not only has become stronger, but all the Origin Techniques have also been elevated to a higher level.

The Six Forbidden Immortal Seals in the New Origin Scripture are definitely a cut above the Six Forbidden Immortal Seals in the Origin Heaven Book.

(End of this chapter)