489: General principles of cultivation techniques, profound mysteries of immortality

Outside the Tongtian Pagoda.

"Pfft!"

Another mouthful of purple-gold saint blood sprayed uncontrollably from the mouth of the Purple Cloud Holy Lord.

His face, which should have been majestic and peerless, was now alternating between deathly pale and bruised purple, looking pathetic to the extreme.

The mountain-shaking, sea-tsunami-like ridicule from below—every word was like a red-hot steel needle, ruthlessly stabbing into the depths of his Dao Heart.

He had lost.

He had lost utterly.

He had lost in a way that defied explanation.

He had lost and become the laughingstock of the entire Central Continent Divine Land.

Resentment, madness, and despair intertwined, eventually coalescing into a hysterical curse.

"This seat... even if I die! I will wait for you!"

"Wait for you to fail your tribulation, and for your soul and body to be extinguished!!"

"This seat will stay right here and watch with my own eyes as you die under the Heavenly Tribulation!!!"

His voice no longer held the majesty of a Mahayana Saint Lord; it was only the final, impotent roar of a gambler who had lost everything... Inside the Tongtian Pagoda.

The eighty-first floor.

This place was a Realm of pure void where even the Laws no longer manifested.

Shen Yuanmo sat cross-legged in the center of the void, completely deaf to everything outside.

His entire mind was immersed within his Dantian Sea of Qi.

That chaos dao embryo, which shared his face, had now expanded to its absolute limit.

Upon it, profound and mysterious Divine Dao Markings were densely packed, covering its entire body.

Ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-eight... ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine!

When the final divine marking was thoroughly branded upon it, the entire chaos dao embryo shook violently.

Perfection.

It had reached the theoretical limit.

The torrent of Myriad Dao Laws poured in by the Pagoda Spirit seemed to hit an invisible dam, unable to merge even a fraction more.

An unprecedented sense of fullness emanated from the depths of Shen Yuanmo's Divine Soul.

It was as if a world had been nurtured to its limit within his body and was about to be born.

And at that very moment.

Within Shen Yuanmo's Sea of Consciousness, the supreme fundamental technique he had personally created and continuously refined, the Chaos Myriad Dao Returning Origin Scripture, underwent a transformation.

The cultivation scriptures he had painstakingly deduced to explain the mysteries of the Myriad Daos began to disintegrate one by one.

They did not dissipate; instead, they turned into the most primitive and pure Chaos Runes, suspended in the firmament of his Sea of Consciousness.

At the same time.

The ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine Law Charms that had been swallowed, analyzed, and accommodated by the chaos dao embryo.

They also rose from the dao embryo, turning into a sky full of stars that echoed those Chaos Runes from afar.

In the next instant.

The two collided violently!

There was no earth-shattering roar; only collision, annihilation, and reorganization... the two types of supreme runes representing the technique and the Dao underwent an inconceivable evolution within Shen Yuanmo's Sea of Consciousness.

It was like the singularity of the Big Bang, or the Grandmist before the heavens and earth were opened.

Ultimately, all the Chaos Runes and all the Law Charms melted away completely.

In their place was a brand new general outline that could hardly even be called a Cultivation Technique.

It consisted of only a single character.

An ancient, vast, supreme Dao character that seemed to contain all the beginnings and ends of the Universe.

Yuan!

"Boom!"

The moment the 'Yuan' general outline of the technique took shape, it was branded directly onto the glabella of the chaos dao embryo within his Dantian Sea of Qi.

Buzz—

The eyes of the chaos dao embryo, which had been tightly closed for a long time, suddenly snapped open.

What kind of eyes were those?

There were no pupils, no whites, only a depth of Chaos to the extreme.

It seemed that a single glance could make one's Divine Soul fall into the eternal Return to Ruin.

At the moment it opened its eyes, a terrifying suction like the creation of heaven and earth erupted from within the dao embryo.

The barrier that stood before Shen Yuanmo, which had blocked countless peerless Prodigies and was hailed as an insurmountable chasm—the cultivation Bottleneck between Dao Conjoining and Mahayana.

It failed to offer even a moment's resistance.

It shattered with a bang!

Shen Yuanmo's cultivation began to transcend the scope of the Great Perfection of Dao Conjoining.

But this was only the beginning.

Shen Yuanmo's aura did not pause for a second, soaring frantically at a speed a hundred times more terrifying than when the Myriad Daos were being poured into him.

After breaking through the Great Perfection of Dao Conjoining, his cultivation launched a fierce assault directly toward the Mahayana Realm.

"...So that's how it is."

"Using the Myriad Daos as fuel to smelt oneself, eventually returning everything to One."

The ancient will of the Pagoda Spirit, filled with unprecedented praise and shock, echoed in Shen Yuanmo's heart.

"You are already walking on the correct path. All the Law Origin accumulated by this spirit over billions of years has been gifted to you."

"As for how far you can go next, that will depend on your own fortune."

After a brief pause, the Pagoda Spirit's will spoke again, this time revealing the true ultimate secret of this Tongtian Pagoda.

"The significance of the Tongtian Pagoda's existence is not just for selection, but even more so for guidance."

"What it guides is the key to the path of the True Immortal."

"To become a True Immortal, one must reach the true Great Perfection in one or more Laws they cultivate while in the Mahayana Realm."

"Then, using that as a Foundation, fuse your own Dao to condense your unique Immortal Dao Profound Truth."

While frantically assaulting the Realm, Shen Yuanmo diverted a wisp of his mind to digest this massive amount of information.

True Immortal?

Immortal Dao Profound Truth?

The Pagoda Spirit's will continued to sound, answering the doubts in his heart.

"Immortal Dao Profound Truths are also divided into grades. From low to high, there are nine grades, with the first grade being the highest."

"The grade of the condensed Immortal Dao Profound Truth is closely related to the number of Laws the Cultivator fuses, as well as the strength of the Laws themselves."

"The more powerful the Laws and the greater their number, the higher the grade of the resulting Immortal Dao Profound Truth will be. Future achievements will also be limitless."

"With your Foundation, if you only fuse one Law—even if it's a supreme Law like Chaos, Space-Time, or Reincarnation—at most you could only achieve a second-grade Immortal Dao Profound Truth."

"But if you can fuse all ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and ninety-nine Laws, perhaps the legendary first-grade Immortal Dao Profound Truth, which has never appeared before, could be born!"

The Pagoda Spirit's will was full of anticipation.

After hearing this, Shen Yuanmo understood.

His Chaos Great Dao was meant to accommodate the Myriad Daos and return them to himself.

This path coincided perfectly with the first-grade Immortal Dao Profound Truth mentioned by the Pagoda Spirit.

He calmly sent a Divine Thought to the Pagoda Spirit's will.

"Thank you."

"As a reward, when I succeed, I shall grant you the chance to take human form and attain the Dao."

Once the words were spoken, they were set.

“!!!”

The Pagoda Spirit's will, which had been as steady as an abyss, surged with the most violent fluctuations it had experienced in eons.

Taking human form and attaining the Dao!

For an artifact spirit like itself, that was an ultimate luxury beyond its wildest dreams.

It was the supreme fortune of breaking free from the body of an object and becoming a truly independent living being.

It had thought that gifting all its Origin was already a massive investment.

It never expected that the other party's reward would be so earth-shattering.

"...Thank you... Honorable One!"

The Pagoda Spirit's will bowed deeply with unprecedented excitement and respect.

Shen Yuanmo paid it no more mind.

He withdrew all his thoughts and focused entirely on taking that final step.

Under his will, his Divine Soul, Physical Body, and magic power began their ultimate Fusion and sublimation, centered around the 'Yuan' general outline.