511: Taoist tablets leave words, immortal Tao imprints

The soul of the thunder dragon dissipated, and the celestial lightning filling the sky returned to silence.

Deep within Nirvana Valley, that hundred-zhang-tall black Dao Tablet stood silently before Shen Yuanmo like an eternal tombstone.

On the body of the tablet, the two characters 'Jiu Xuan' were carved with strokes that exuded a domineering intent, looking down upon all eternity and treating all living beings as straw dogs.

Shen Yuanmo walked up to the Dao Tablet but did not rush to touch it, merely observing it calmly.

His Divine Thought spread out silently like mercury, attempting to penetrate the interior of the stone tablet.

The moment his Divine Thought touched the tablet's body, a vast and majestic consciousness seemed to cross time and space, exploding directly within his Sea of Consciousness.

"Comer, leave your imprint."

That voice contained no emotion, as if it were a proclamation of the Heavenly Dao Rules—cold, mechanical, yet carrying an unquestionable tone of command.

Immediately after, a stream of information surged into Shen Yuanmo's mind.

This Dao Tablet was established by Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries to filter for those destined.

Every Cultivator who could reach this place was qualified to leave their own Great Dao Imprint on the Dao Tablet.

The Dao Tablet would judge based on the intensity and purity of the imprint's dao rhyme.

Only those who met the standard could begin the next stage of the trial and obtain the qualification for the Heavenly Venerate's Legacy.

At the end of the information stream was a severe warning.

If one's Great Dao comprehension was mixed and impure, or if its intensity was insufficient, yet they forcibly attempted to leave an imprint...

Their Divine Soul would suffer a backlash from the supreme Immortal Might contained within the Dao Tablet, leading to their Dao being destroyed and their death in an instant, resulting in Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering and eternal damnation.

This was an extremely rigorous, even cruel, screening process.

Imprinting the Great Dao Origin upon it was no different from exposing one's core Dao nakedly before an outsider to be judged.

The slightest mistake would result in the destruction of both spirit and form.

Had it been any other arrogant Mahayana Saint Lord, they would likely have had their competitive spirit ignited at this moment.

They would desire to leave a profound mark on this Dao Tablet to prove their own Dao.

However, not a hint of desire for challenge could be seen on Shen Yuanmo's face.

His eyes were as calm as an ancient well, and a faint sneer even escaped the corners of his mouth.

"Screening?"

"No, it's collection."

Under the perspective of Insight into Origin, the operating mechanism of this jiu xuan dao tablet had nowhere to hide from his eyes.

The so-called screening was, from beginning to end, a beautifully packaged scam.

The core of this stone tablet was not some judgment mechanism at all, but an incredibly exquisite Great Dao Rubbing Formation.

Any imprint left here by a Cultivator would have its Great Dao comprehension rubbed, absorbed, and stored by the stone tablet without a single drop being missed.

These stolen Great Dao comprehensions would, on one hand, become nourishment for the stone tablet itself.

On the other hand, they would plant an extremely subtle Karma mark originating from Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries upon the intruder.

This mark usually showed no signs of abnormality and could even subtly assist a Cultivator's cultivation, making them mistakenly believe it was a "gift" from the Heavenly Venerate.

But once a specific time arrived, Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries's hidden move would be activated.

At that time, all Cultivators planted with the mark, no matter where they were or how high their cultivation, would become Great Medicine waiting to be harvested.

As for the so-called Divine Soul backlash, it was even more of a nonsense. That was merely an energy rampage caused by Dao conflict after a failed rubbing.

"What a Heavenly Venerable of Nine Mysteries, what a Predecessor," Shen Yuanmo thought to himself.

"To arrange things so meticulously, calculating against all who come after him—this is truly a grand scheme."

Unfortunately, he had met Shen Yuanmo.

A monster who, from the very beginning, did not play by the rules.

Shen Yuanmo did not choose to directly destroy this Dao Tablet.

Since this thing could store Great Dao Imprints from countless millennia, it was a rare supreme treasure in itself.

He decided to beat them at their own game.

"You want to collect my Dao?" Shen Yuanmo looked at the Dao Tablet, a hint of playfulness flashing in his eyes.

"I just wonder if you can swallow it."

He extended his right hand, pressing his index and middle fingers together, with a wisp of the most primal chaotic airflow lingering at his fingertips.

He did not directly imprint his Chaos Great Dao upon it; doing so would certainly overload the Dao Tablet, but it would also expose his own Foundation, which was not the best strategy.

Within his Sea of Consciousness, Perfect Deduction operated frantically at an unprecedented speed.

What was Shen Yuanmo doing?

He was creating a brand-new Great Dao Imprint on the spot!

Using the immortal dao runess parsed from the rule tides earlier as a skeleton, and the immortal dao rules fragments refined from countless Aberrant Demonic Creatures as flesh and blood.

Then, using his own understanding of the Daos of Devouring, Destruction, and Termination as the soul... a brand-new rune that belonged solely to Shen Yuanmo, yet was perfectly disguised as an ancient Immortal Dao Legacy, rapidly took shape in his Sea of Consciousness.

It was an extremely complex rune, filled with a contradictory yet unified beauty.

It possessed the loftiness and immortality of the Immortal Dao, contained the dominance and plunder of the Demonic Path, and even held a trace of the true meaning of Chaos Return to Ruins.

A moment later, Shen Yuanmo's fingertips condensed.

Using his fingers as a brush and the chaotic airflow as ink, he began to draw upon that black tablet surface, which was as smooth as a mirror.

His movements were not fast; one could even say they were somewhat slow.

But with every stroke that fell, it seemed to trigger a resonance with some supreme rule between heaven and earth.

The entire Nirvana Valley trembled because of it, and even the light of the blazing white sun in the sky dimmed by a few points.

Finally, the last stroke fell.

A Pseudo-Immortal Dao Rune with a complex structure and an ancient, vast dao rhyme, emitting an aura of endless destruction and devouring, was successfully imprinted upon the jiu xuan dao tablet!

Buzz—!!!

The moment the rune took shape, the entire jiu xuan dao tablet—

No, the entire Nirvana Valley erupted with an unprecedented vibration.

The jiu xuan dao tablet burst forth with billions of zhang of brilliant golden light, the intensity of which was so great—

That it even pierced through the gray canopy of the Burial Ground of Immortals and shot straight into the clouds.

Upon the body of the tablet, countless ancient dao runess emerged on their own, surrounding the rune Shen Yuanmo had imprinted and emitting bursts of humming as if in submission.

It was as if this rune were their true master.

Inside the Dao Tablet, that cold and majestic Messenger's Will, after being silent for eternity, showed violent emotional fluctuations for the first time.

First was extreme confusion, followed by uncontrollable ecstasy.

"This... what kind of supreme Dao is this! It surpasses the Heavenly Venerate, surpasses everything in this world!"

It went mad.

Following its core instructions, it desperately wanted to absorb and rub the supreme dao rhyme of this rune.

However, in the next moment, a scene occurred that caused its Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering.

The moment its rubbing Formation came into contact with that rune.

Far from being able to absorb even a bit of dao rhyme, it was instead as if a bursting flood had found an outlet.

An indescribably terrifying devouring force surged back out from that rune.

This Pseudo-Immortal Dao Rune had never been a passive imprint from the start.

It was a living black hole, a bottomless vortex cloaked in the guise of an immortal dao runes!

"No! How can this be!" the Messenger's Will let out a scream of terror.

It discovered that not only was its own rubbing power being devoured.

Even the Great Dao Imprints from those fallen Prodigies that the Dao Tablet had accumulated over countless millennia—

Were now being frantically pulled and devoured by that rune.

Outside the Dao Tablet, Shen Yuanmo watched the stone tablet as it vibrated violently and its light flickered, a faint smile appearing on his face.

"Now, it's my turn to harvest."

With a thought, he fully activated that Pseudo-Immortal Dao Rune.

The devouring power of the Pseudo-Immortal Dao Rune suddenly surged!