The Eastern Emperor of all Heavens did not wish to become a Buddha.

Chapter 111 The Sacred Body of Mars Awakens in the Divine Furnace of the Departing Fire
The Northern Region is vast and boundless, with the Primordial Ancient Mine at its core, and is filled with endless source minerals.

For cultivators, Origin Stones are as precious as money for ordinary people, or even more so.

As a result, the entire Northern Region is frequently embroiled in deadly battles over Originium, resulting in a fierce and ruthless populace, with various bandits and thieves roaming the area.

However, apart from some of these thieves who were cultivators from various parts of the Eastern Wilderness, many of these bandits were secretly supported by certain forces to do things that they could not do openly.

The Li Huo Sect is a small sect in the Northern Region. The strongest member of the sect is only at the third level of the Dao Palace.

However, it is one of the top powers in the surrounding thousands of miles.

This sect also secretly supported many bandits who carried out various looting and killings within a radius of over a thousand miles, even targeting ordinary mortals.

But on this day, the sect encountered the greatest crisis in its history.

Boom boom boom

A series of booming sounds rang out, and the once tranquil and beautiful Li Huo Sect mountain gate was now filled with booming sounds and screams.

A handsome young man, resembling a ferocious humanoid beast, rampaged through the Li Huo Sect.

Throughout the entire Li Huo Sect, neither elders nor disciples could withstand a single blow from him.

All the disciples of the Li Huo Sect looked at the young man who was killing and injuring people in their sect with horror, as if they were looking at a young demon king.

This young man was none other than Ye Fan.

Outside the Li Huo Sect, Zhong Xu did not interfere in Ye Fan's battle, but instead looked at a bronze furnace in his hand that he had taken from a Supreme Elder of the Li Huo Sect.

The bronze censer is simple yet grand, with a gleaming lid. Although it is made of bronze, the body of the censer is almost transparent, like colorful glass, allowing you to see the raging fire inside, and even vaguely a fire phoenix flying around.

Looking at the bronze furnace in his hand, Zhong Xu recalled the Sun God Furnace, or rather the Eternal Universe Furnace, that he had encountered when he was undergoing the Four Extremes Heavenly Tribulation.

Although the two auras were vastly different in intensity, they gave him a similar feeling.

"The Divine Furnace of Departing Fire"

As he examined the four Daoist inscriptions on the bronze furnace, Zhong Xu activated his Heavenly Eye, countless black and white star lines swirling within his eyes, carrying the power of truth that dispels illusion, and began to explore the essence of this divine furnace.

boom

In an instant, the scene before him changed; the concealment on the surface of the bronze furnace disappeared, revealing its true nature.

Countless Dao patterns constantly changed and recombine, forming an incomparably profound array, as if it had come to life in an instant, like a divine phoenix spreading its wings and soaring into the sky.

At the deepest part of the divine furnace are nine true Emperor's Inscriptions, containing the laws and great principles of an Emperor, which became the core of this divine furnace.

This is a quasi-Emperor weapon!

Zhong Xu himself often studied the laws and great Dao contained in the Chaos Green Lotus, an ultimate imperial weapon, to improve his own understanding of the Great Dao. He was extremely familiar with imperial laws and imperial formations, so he could naturally see that this bronze furnace, which did not seem to have a very strong aura on the surface, actually contained a part of the laws and great Dao of a great emperor, and was a quasi-imperial weapon.

After realizing the true nature of the bronze furnace, Zhong Xu understood that he had not made a mistake; this was exactly what he was looking for.

This Divine Furnace of Departing Fire was the weapon used by Emperor Hengyu before he became emperor. It grew up alongside him and contained some of his laws and the Great Dao.

However, the material of this furnace itself is not very good, so it cannot become a true supreme imperial weapon.

It was precisely for this reason that after Emperor Hengyu became emperor, he collected enough Phoenix Blood Crimson Gold and used this furnace as a reference to forge the Hengyu Furnace, an ultimate imperial weapon.

If we trace its origins, this Divine Furnace of Departing Fire can be considered the predecessor of the Eternal Universe Furnace.

However, this divine artifact has been neglected. For some unknown reason, this quasi-Emperor level divine furnace ended up in the Li Huo Sect, a small sect whose strongest member was only at the Dao Palace level, and became the sect's treasured divine furnace.

No one in the Li Huo Sect truly recognized this quasi-Emperor weapon, nor did they know how to activate the power of this bronze furnace; they simply regarded it as a decent spiritual weapon.

"The Divine Furnace of Departing Fire"

Looking at the extremely complex imperial patterns contained within the bronze furnace, Zhong Xu could sense that once the power of this bronze furnace was fully unleashed, it would probably be a small-scale version of the Sun God Furnace.

It was precisely for this reason that after arriving in the Northern Region, Zhong Xu immediately went to the Li Huo Sect and acquired this quasi-emperor weapon, which had grown alongside Emperor Hengyu and contained a portion of the emperor's Great Dao.

Seeing how much Zhong Xu valued the bronze censer in his hands, Yan Ruyu, who was standing nearby, asked him curiously.

When he heard that this bronze furnace was actually a weapon used by an ancient emperor and had grown alongside him, making it a quasi-emperor weapon, he was completely stunned.

It's unbelievable that a small sect, whose strongest members are only at the third level of the Dao Palace, possesses a quasi-Emperor weapon as its most prized treasure.

It should be noted that in the entire Eastern Wilderness, apart from a few major powers such as the Ji family and the Jiang family, most of the sacred lands' treasured artifacts are nothing more than a legendary sacred weapon.

On the other side, Ye Fan also dealt with most of the disciples of the Li Huo Sect and swept away all of the Li Huo Sect's treasures, including tens of thousands of catties of source.

Although he was still far from the ten million jin of source energy he needed to break through to the fourth level, it gave him hope.

When Ye Fan arrived in front of Zhong Xu and learned that the bronze furnace in his hand was a quasi-Emperor weapon, he was instantly stunned and immediately felt that the source he had just obtained from the treasure vault of the Li Huo Sect was no longer fragrant.

If he sells this, he'll probably never lack resources for his future cultivation.

Of course, this thought only briefly appeared in Ye Fan's mind before disappearing instantly.

He's not stupid; he certainly wouldn't actually sell a quasi-Emperor weapon.

Ignoring Ye Fan, Zhong Xu was comprehending the Dao principles contained within the Divine Furnace of Departing Fire. Countless pieces of information flowed through his eyes, and a look of enlightenment appeared on his face.

As the weapon used by Emperor Hengyu before he attained enlightenment, the Divine Furnace of Departing Fire contains a portion of Emperor Hengyu's Great Dao. For Zhong Xu, even disregarding the power of this quasi-emperor weapon, this portion of imperial principles alone is an extremely precious item.

After all, he also cultivates the "Eight-Nine Arcane Arts," a peerless divine skill that can accommodate all changes.

This divine skill was created by the Primordial Celestial Venerable based on the idea that the nascent Dao Fruit needs to comprehend all the Great Daos of the myriad worlds to achieve the nascent form of his own half-step Dao Fruit. The cultivation process is known for its complexity, requiring one to encounter different techniques or paths, using the countless acupoints throughout the body to correspond to different universes, each containing the true meaning of different techniques, evolving different heavens and earths, and ultimately understanding one's true self amidst the changes, returning all things to one, and achieving the Dao of Limitless Chaos.

Therefore, in the process of cultivating the "Eight-Nine Arcane Arts", countless cultivation manuals and scriptures are needed as resources in order to make rapid progress.

It can be said that this is a peerless divine skill where the more extensive one's knowledge and experience, the faster one's cultivation speed.

This is also why few people in the Six Paths of Reincarnation choose to cultivate this peerless divine skill; the required resources are too great, and the cultivation process is too difficult.

For Zhong Xu, this is a huge advantage.

After all, he can traverse the heavens and witness the different cultivation systems of each heaven, which can greatly promote the evolution of the Eight-Nine Arcane Arts' path of accommodating change.

Whether it's the imperial scriptures like the "Dao Jing," "Qing Di Jing," and "Xu Kong Jing," or the peerless divine skills like the "Mo Fo Xuan Gong," "Ren Huang Jin Shu," and "Tai Yi Jin Zhang," they can all become resources for the "Ba Jiu Xuan Gong" to accommodate the path of change, allowing Zhong Xu to quickly complete the evolution of his major acupoints.

Furthermore, the cultivation resources in the Shrouding the Heavens universe are relatively more abundant than those in the World of One World, so Zhong Xu's current cultivation speed far exceeds the imagination of ordinary people.

This was just as he had anticipated. Whether it was after the Four Extremes of the Secret Realm Technique or after the Outer Realm of the One Lifetime Technique, the focus was more on comprehending the laws of heaven and earth and the true meaning of one's own cultivation techniques. External resources were still necessary, but they were no longer the primary consideration. As the Divine Furnace of Departing Fire was once Emperor Hengyu's companion weapon, the imperial laws contained within it could naturally serve as resources for the evolution of Zhong Xu's own cultivation techniques.

Various insights kept surfacing in his mind. Just then, Zhong Xu felt a slight tremor in his heart, as if he had sensed something.

With a wave of his hand, the Divine Furnace of Fire transformed into a streak of flame and entered his Sea of ​​Wheels Secret Realm.

After appearing in the Sea of ​​Wheels Secret Realm, the Divine Furnace throbbed, moving away from the fragments of the Eastern Emperor Bell and the Chaos Green Lotus, and instead arriving at the very center of the Zhongxu Bitter Sea.

Here lies a thin, strip-shaped object resembling scrap metal—the very same divine artifact, the Emperor's Sword, now covered in dust.

The divine furnace circled the Emperor's Sword for a moment before landing beneath it, its flames swirling within, resembling a phoenix spreading its wings.

The Emperor's Sword twitched, but instead of expelling the Fire God Furnace, it remained asleep, seemingly unconcerned.

However, as it stayed beside the Human Emperor Sword and was influenced by its aura, the Fire Divine Furnace seemed to be undergoing a silent transformation.

Sensing the changes in the Sea of ​​Wheels Secret Realm, a hint of surprise appeared in Zhong Xu's eyes.

However, he didn't care too much, since he couldn't truly use the Emperor's Sword anyway.

Thinking this, Zhong Xu withdrew his mind from the Sea of ​​Wheels Secret Realm and sank into the ocean of his own mind.

Just now, he sensed that the Martian Holy Body was about to awaken.

Within the vast ocean of the mind, the golden Buddha, formed from the true meaning of the "Buddha's Palm," still resides at the very center, solemn and sacred, like the source of the Great Dao.

A slightly ethereal golden figure stood beside the Buddha, its aura constantly shifting, carrying a sense of reality, as if it had stepped from illusion into reality. This was none other than the Martian Holy Body, about to awaken.

Just then, a small, lustrous jade Buddha appeared in Zhong Xu's mind, like a sleeping Buddha. It was the small jade Buddha that Crown Prince Zhao Qian had given him.

Buzz

A peaceful Buddhist light shone forth, carrying a sense of dreamlike emptiness, somewhat similar to the first move of the Tathagata Palm, "I Alone Am Supreme," yet also somewhat different.

In an instant, a clear and brilliant light emanated from the Martian Holy Body, as if a layer of dust had been removed, faintly carrying a sense of purity and immortality.

The next moment, the Martian Holy Body opened its eyes, its eyes filled with Buddhist light, compassionate and peaceful.

"Amitabha!"

A Buddhist chant rang out from the Martian Saint Body. He looked at the small jade Buddha, a look of enlightenment on his face, and said with a faint smile, "So this is the true 'self'!"

At this point, he turned his gaze to Zhong Xu and said with a light laugh, "Young friend, you truly have a deep affinity with Buddhism!"

He is now increasingly convinced that this young friend is the Buddha undergoing tribulation, the source of Buddhism.

"Ha ha."

Upon hearing the words of the Martian Holy Body, Zhong Xu did not refute them, but instead chuckled dryly and said, "Senior, you flatter me."

The Demon Buddha, the Buddha, and now clearly Amitabha Buddha has been added to the list. With so many Buddhist bigwigs betting on him and bearing so much Buddhist karma, Zhong Xu has now come to terms with it, feeling somewhat like "the more lice, the less itchy; the more debts, the less worried."

Thinking about all this, Zhong Xu asked curiously, "Senior, are you alright?"

As he spoke, Zhong Xu looked at the small jade Buddha beside him and pointed at it gently, as if sensing something.

The next moment, the small jade Buddha emitted a slightly illusory light, carrying a dreamlike and empty feeling, as if everything in the world was empty.

The Great Dao is emptiness, all realms are emptiness, everything is emptiness!

Under the Buddha's light, Zhong Xu's mind entered a state of clarity, and he vaguely gained new insights into the first move of "I Am the Only One" and some new understanding of Buddhism, as if he had just had a beautiful, illusory dream.

He didn't know how much time had passed before he came to his senses, feeling as if his mind and spirit had been cleansed, becoming clearer than ever before.

A strange feeling arose in Zhong Xu's mind, making him vaguely realize something.

At this moment, in the vast ocean of his mind, in addition to the original golden Buddha, there was another reclining Buddha, as if he had fallen into a deep sleep.

This is yet another completely new lineage of true meaning, but it is not yet possible to comprehend it.

The Martian Holy Body sat cross-legged before the two Buddhas, its body radiating Buddhist light, and it subtly resonated with both Buddhas.

Seeing that Zhong Xu had come to his senses, the Martian Holy Body wore a compassionate smile and said softly, "May Buddha have mercy. It seems that you are indeed the destined master of Buddhism!"

Before Zhong Xu could speak, the Martian Holy Body continued, "Now I have realized my true self. Although my true nature and spirit have not yet returned from the acquired to the innate, I have gained some understanding and can temporarily retrieve my past life's Dao fruit and restore my peak combat power without easily dissipating."

"real!"

Upon hearing this, a hint of joy appeared in Zhong Xu's eyes.

The previous Martian Holy Body was merely a manifestation of a wisp of obsession. Although it regained its memories and original insights through the true meaning of the "Buddha's Palm," it still could not escape the essence of obsession.

Once he retrieves his past life's Dao Fruit and recovers his peak combat power, he will dissipate before long.

But now, influenced by that old monk, although he has not yet fully sublimated his true nature and attained Buddhahood, he has gained some immortality and is no longer a one-time combatant.

Thinking of this, Zhong Xu recalled the feeling he had just experienced and subconsciously looked at the reclining, sleeping Buddha.

'Amitabha.'

In the outside world, Ye Fan, Yan Ruyu, and the others looked at the figure surrounded by Buddhist light, carrying a dreamlike and ethereal aura, and couldn't help but reveal a hint of bewilderment in their eyes.

At that moment, they seemed to have grasped some of the principles of Buddhism, and their minds became clearer and more serene.

Coming to his senses, Ye Fan looked at the figure surrounded by Buddhist light before him, a hint of emotion appearing in his eyes:
The master's true identity is indeed that of a Buddha!
Yan Ruyu looked at the figure in front of her, whose aura had become compassionate and peaceful, like that of a virtuous monk, and a trace of worry appeared in her eyes.

Could it be that their Demon Emperor has truly renounced worldly life and entered the Buddhist order?
Buzz

Just then, Zhong Xu slowly opened his eyes, and a beam of Buddhist light shone forth, making everything around him seem somewhat illusory.

He subconsciously turned his gaze toward the direction of the Western Desert, and vaguely felt as if the sleeping Buddha in the ocean of his mind had trembled.

'It seems I really do need to make a trip to Mount Sumeru, but...'

Thinking of this, Zhong Xu turned his gaze and looked into the distance.

Before going to Mount Sumeru, he needed to make preparations, at least to deal with the Victorious Fighting Buddha, who was now the apparent leader of Mount Sumeru, and he happened to know about the monkey's entanglements.

(End of this chapter)