467: Retreat for decades

A stream of light shot up from the Wind Capital Imperial Palace, tearing through the clouds and directly piercing the nine heavens.

At this moment, Xiao Zhuo was already hundreds of millions of miles away, deep within a ten-thousand-zhang ice mountain in the extremely cold northern lands.

Here, silence reigned for eons, with only eternal cold and howling winds.

He sat cross-legged on profound ice, with the three-legged "heaven-opening cauldron" silently suspended before him. The strange characters on the cauldron's body flowed incessantly, projecting a vast Cultivation Technique composed of these peculiar characters, which slowly rotated before his eyes like a star map.

In Xiao Zhuo's eyes, countless tiny Spiritual Root Runes seemed to be born, perish, deduce, and combine. Gradually, a hint of understanding and an uncontrollable joy spread across his lips, finally erupting into a hearty laugh. The sound waves echoed within the sealed ice cave, causing ice shards to fall like rain.

"Marvelous! Simply ineffable!"

This Heaven-Opening Inheritance, totaling over six thousand characters, each character contained a type of Spiritual Root structure!

And what constituted these structures were the Spiritual Root Runes.

One only needed to diligently analyze them to comprehend the new Spiritual Root Runes contained within, one by one.

Just from an initial glance, he had already discovered dozens of Spiritual Root Runes he had never seen before.

With his current profound accumulation in Spiritual Root Runes, comprehending these, though time-consuming, was by no means impossible.

He even conceived a startling conjecture—this Saint Legacy might already encompass all Spiritual Root construction methods and all Spiritual Root Runes in the Nirvana Realm!

This meant that even if he no longer sought to plunder others' Spiritual Roots, merely by deciphering this cauldron, he could master all the Spiritual Root Runes in the world and then comprehend this Saint Cultivation Technique.

A Saint Legacy must be Divine-Grade!

This was the highest-level Cultivation Technique he had obtained in his cultivation so far.

This item alone made the journey to the Nirvana Realm worthwhile.

He immediately immersed himself in it, with single-minded devotion.

After expending all the Attribute Points he had previously accumulated, several months later, he had pushed the Spiritual Root Runes he had fully mastered to two thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.

Moreover, his analysis of the entire Legacy allowed him to glimpse the outlines of a full three thousand Spiritual Root Runes!

"Three thousand Spiritual Root Runes... secretly aligning with the three thousand Great Dao of the World Sea," Xiao Zhuo murmured, an unprecedented admiration for the unseen Saint welling up in his heart. "To create all the Spiritual Root Runes in the world by one's own power, what an astonishing and brilliant feat is that?"

With his Attribute Points exhausted, he did not stop.

The deeper his understanding of Spiritual Root Runes, the more he realized a fundamental connection between them and the three thousand Great Dao of the World Sea.

These Spiritual Root Runes seemed to be the seeds of the Dao rules, the keys to leverage the Law. Thoroughly mastering them would drastically reduce the difficulty of comprehending the Great Dao.

Although his The Way of Freedom could control all Dao, if his understanding of the Great Dao of the Heavens deepened, its power would undoubtedly undergo a qualitative leap.

By completely comprehending these three thousand Spiritual Root Runes, his Dao would also ascend to a whole new height.

Thus, he cast aside external distractions and, relying solely on his Comprehension Ability, began the most arduous yet fulfilling ascetic practice in absolute silence.

Time flew by, seasons changed, and the snow outside the ice mountain blew and ceased, then ceased and blew again. In a blink of an eye, thirty-four years had passed.

On this day, a violent roar and energy fluctuation, like a giant stone thrown into a calm lake, abruptly broke the decades-long silence, startling Xiao Zhuo awake from his deep Dao comprehension state.

He suddenly opened his eyes, a flicker of displeasure at being disturbed passing through his profound gaze.

Thirty-four years of arduous cultivation had allowed him to fully comprehend all three thousand Spiritual Root Runes, and he had even used this to deduce several nearly perfect Space-Time Spiritual Root structures.

He was only short of the Time Spirit Root corresponding to the Space Spiritual Root, or sufficient Origin power, to finally achieve it.

"Alas, since the Opportunity has arrived, to force it would be to fall to a lower path," he sighed softly, his figure shifting slightly. The next instant, he appeared like a ghost on the glaringly sunny, wind-swept Peak of the ice mountain.

Dozens of miles away, immortal Qi raged violently, and roars shook the heavens, clearly indicating that powerful cultivators were engaged in a fierce battle.

His Divine Sense spread out like mercury, instantly projecting the battlefield scene clearly into his mind.

The combatants were two youths.

One, dressed in black, was surrounded by surging Devilish Qi, with a ferocious black Dragon coiling around him, roaring and tearing.

The other, dressed in snow-white, had a cold and aloof demeanor. A Flying Sword like an ice crystal danced nimbly, showering the sky with chilling Sword Qi, blocking all of the black Dragon's attacks.

Both were Quasi-Immortal cultivators, and their bone age was extremely young, definitely not exceeding a hundred years!

Such talent could be called a top Prodigy in all the Heavens and Myriad Realms.

What made Xiao Zhuo's gaze narrow slightly was that the appearances of these two youths gave him a vague sense of familiarity.

After a brief thought, a playful arc curved on his lips.

"Zhou Duo! Today... I will kill you!" The black-clad youth's face was contorted, his eyes filled with madness and grief. His attacks grew even more ferocious, the Devilish Flames spewed by the black Dragon scorching and melting the surrounding ice.

The white-clad Sword Cultivator, Zhou Duo, had a solemn expression. His Sword moves remained calm but gained a hint of sharpness: "Liang Long, I told you, Jiang Ziyu was not killed by me!"

"Bullshit!" Liang Long roared, his emotions agitated, causing his aura to surge again. "In the Illusory Moon Secret Realm, only you and Yu'er were left in the end! I personally saw you emerge with her corpse! If not you, then who else could it be?!"

The ferocious claw gauntlets on his hands burst forth with dazzling black light, instantly unleashing hundreds of terrifying claw shadows that tore through the Void Realm.

A hint of helplessness and impatience flashed in Zhou Duo's eyes.

Three months ago, during the contest in the Illusory Moon Secret Realm, he, Liang Long, and the Jiang family Prodigy, Jiang Ziyu, together entered the final True Immortal Legacy ground.

In the final illusion trial, Liang Long failed first and was eliminated, leaving only him and Jiang Ziyu.

When he broke through the illusion, he found Jiang Ziyu lying on the altar, her Divine Soul gone, already having perished.

Out of camaraderie, he brought her corpse out, but was instead branded as the murderer by Liang Long, who pursued him relentlessly.

Zhou Duo, as the foremost young generation expert of the Qingmu Imperial Dynasty, was already at the Peak of the Quasi-Immortal Middle Stage. After obtaining the Secret Realm Opportunity, his cultivation advanced further, fully entering the Late Stage. How could Liang Long, who had just entered the Quasi-Immortal Middle Stage and whose Dao Heart was damaged, be his match?

Had it not been for his apprehension regarding the Liang family's influence, he would have already delivered a killing blow.

At this moment, being pushed to this extent, anger also surged within him.

"Liang Long! If you continue to pester me, don't blame my sword for being merciless!" Zhou Duo coldly shouted. The ice crystal Flying Sword in his hand vibrated with a clear hum, and vast immortal power poured into it. A giant ice Phoenix phantom suddenly condensed on the sword body, and terrifying cold Qi instantly spread, as if even space itself was about to be frozen.

"Stop with the nonsense! Die!" Liang Long had already lost all reason, even going so far as to form hand seals at any cost. The coiling black Dragon let out a mournful cry, then suddenly coiled back and forcefully drilled into his chest!

"Roar—!"

Amidst the roar of pain and power, Liang Long's appearance drastically changed!

His black hair wildly surged, black Dragon horns grew on his forehead, and his entire body was covered in dense black Dragon scales. His aura surged madly, instantly breaking through his Bottleneck and entering the Quasi-Immortal Late Stage, even slightly stronger than Zhou Duo!

"Dragon Demon Overlord Body! Die!"

Liang Long, transformed into a half-Dragon Demon creature, his speed greatly increased, turning into a black flash that tore through the cold Qi, charging straight at Zhou Duo.

Zhou Duo's gaze turned completely cold, no longer holding back. He drew a Sword art: "Ice Phoenix Slash!"

The hundred-zhang ice Phoenix phantom let out a long cry, completely merging into the Flying Sword. The ice crystal Flying Sword instantly swelled into a hundred-zhang giant blade. The Phoenix patterns on the sword body were clearly visible, carrying an extreme coldness that could freeze all things, and it met the incoming black flash head-on!

Before the Sword Qi even arrived, the bone-chilling coldness had already caused Liang Long's surrounding Devilish Qi to circulate sluggishly, and his speed plummeted.

Boom—!!!

Claw and sword violently collided!

A terrifying energy shockwave exploded in a ring, instantly leveling the Peaks of over a dozen surrounding ice mountains!

Ice shards flew everywhere, like a diamond dust storm.

Liang Long roared, his claws desperately pressing against the giant ice Phoenix blade, but his body was continuously forced backward by the unparalleled immense force and cold Qi, crashing fiercely towards a distant, towering ice mountain!

"This place is an extremely cold desolate region, and the power of my Ice Phoenix Sword Intent is doubled! Even if you transform into a Dragon Demon, you are no match for me today!" Zhou Duo stood suspended in the air, his robes fluttering, his tone cold and confident.