96: Dao patterns

“The Ten Thousand Dao Secret Realm is opening in one day. Fellow Daoists, please ascend the mountain early. I wish you all success in obtaining what you desire!”

A grand voice resounded throughout Ten Thousand Dao City.

Hearing this voice, all the great Cultivators of the Body Integration Stage soared into the sky, tearing space apart and flashing into it.

In less than a few breaths, countless spatial rifts appeared above the mountain peak, and hundreds of thousands of Cultivators streamed out from them.

Ye Ming was among them, acting as an ordinary Body Integration Cultivator. He planned to become stronger once he entered the Secret Realm!

In the Spirit Realm, only those at the Body Integration Stage or above can tear space. This is also why a Tribulation Crossing Heavenly Venerate can cross star rivers in a single step.

From Body Integration to Undergoing Tribulation, the length of space that can be torn and crossed differs for these three Realms.

A Body Integration Cultivator can cross ten thousand to ninety thousand li in one step, a Mahayana Cultivator can cross one hundred thousand to nine hundred thousand li, and a Tribulation Crossing Cultivator can cross over one million li.

Some Tribulation Crossing Heavenly Venerates, powerful to the extreme, can cross at least thirty million li in one step. This distance is incredibly terrifying, considering that the area of each major continent is only about ten million li.

And each Spirit Domain has over a hundred major continents, meaning that a powerful Tribulation Crossing Heavenly Venerate can reach every corner of the Spirit Domain in just dozens to a hundred steps.

This is also why these last three Realms become increasingly difficult to advance through. Each Realm is like an insurmountable chasm, bringing dozens of times the increase in power.

Ye Ming was very much looking forward to how powerful he would be when he reached the Tribulation Crossing Stage.

While thinking this, Ye Ming had already landed steadily somewhere on the mountain peak. There were few people here; most Cultivators were gathered before an unformed vortex.

Upon reaching the mountain peak, Ye Ming found a random spot, sat down cross-legged, and began to eat his roasted meat with great relish.

“Hey, look, there’s a Late Stage Body Integration Loose Cultivator over there. He seems quite steady. Should we invite him to join our team?”

“Let’s go, let’s go ask him!”

At this moment, three Cultivators also noticed Ye Ming. Seeing that he was alone without teammates, they discussed it and decided to invite Ye Ming to join their team.

Ye Ming’s eyebrows twitched slightly, clearly aware that someone was looking for him, but he ignored them and continued eating his roasted meat.

The three also walked up to him at this time.

“Fellow Daoist, would you like to join our team? If we find dao runes, we can split them evenly!”

“Yes, join us. With four people, we can look out for each other. Fellow Daoist should also know that obtaining dao runes in the Secret Realm is not simple!”

“That’s right, that’s right. With the three of us, you’ll rarely get less than two dao runes!”

The three of them spoke one after another, as if joining a team was incredibly important.

But Ye Ming ultimately shook his head and politely refused them.

“No need. Wherever I go, I’m always alone. You should look for other Fellow Daoists!”

A low voice came from Ye Ming’s mouth, and his weathered face seemed to be filled with stories.

“Alright then, we won’t bother Fellow Daoist any longer. Farewell!”

Seeing Ye Ming’s resolve, the three could only leave in disappointment. It was such a pity that such a good tool-person wouldn't join them.

Watching the three leave, shaking their heads, Ye Ming’s expression remained unchanged. He merely observed all the Cultivators on the mountain peak from time to time.

He was formulating a plan: how could he snatch the dao runes from this group of people? Should he forcefully seize them, or stealthily steal them?

Forceful seizure would quickly be known by everyone in the entire Secret Realm, while stealthy theft wouldn’t be known as quickly, as it would be taken without others’ knowledge.

Ultimately, Ye Ming chose both: he would use both hard and soft approaches!

Having decided on his plan, Ye Ming quietly awaited the opening of the Secret Realm.

Soon, a day passed.

The next morning, the Secret Realm entrance formed, and everyone entered immediately.

A strong sense of weightlessness enveloped them.

Moments later, Ye Ming’s eyebrows twitched, and he slowly opened his eyes.

“Roar~”

Suddenly, a beast roar came from nearby. Ye Ming turned slightly, and his entire body instantly vanished from his spot.

“Bang!”

A Yao Beast pounced on the spot where Ye Ming had just stood. Its powerful demonic energy created a large pit in the ground, causing the surrounding several li to tremble violently.

On a tree not far away, Ye Ming’s figure suddenly appeared, expressionlessly looking at the Yao Beast that had ambushed him.

This Yao Beast resembled a pig but wasn't quite a pig, mainly because its pig head had two brown curved horns, and its tail was rather thick. However, there was no such creature in the Spirit Realm.

Its aura was that of a Sixth-Tier Yao Beast!

On its body was a unique white rune, which was the dao rune.

In this Secret Realm, there were four ways to obtain dao runes: first, by killing a Yao Beast that possessed a dao rune. After the Yao Beast died, the dao rune would automatically fly to the killer’s body.

Second, by finding a rare Heaven and Earth Spirit Fruit that contained a dao rune. Eating the fruit would grant the dao rune, which could then be refined.

The third method was to wait until the last month, when the remaining unfound dao runes would erupt from the center of the Secret Realm. At that time, whoever snatched them would claim them.

The last method was to snatch them, specifically from others who hadn't refined them and only if they voluntarily surrendered the dao runes. If someone was killed, the dao rune would disappear.

Therefore, deaths were rare in this Secret Realm, but only rare, not nonexistent.

However, Ye Ming had a method to secretly take dao runes from others without their knowledge.

That was by relying on the Divine Concealment Art, using its invisibility ability to approach others, and then using the Yin and Yang Law to reverse and absorb the dao runes from their bodies!

However, this method was still in the experimental stage and had not yet been implemented. Whether it would work still needed to be tested on a lucky individual.

The aforementioned were the five current methods to obtain dao runes. The first two appeared randomly, the middle two were fixed, and the last one was something he had just thought of on the spot.

Random, just like Ye Ming now: as soon as he entered the Secret Realm, a Yao Beast carrying a dao rune ambushed him.

At this moment, the Yao Beast had already discovered that the human beneath its feet had fled. It began sniffing nearby with its nose, trying to find Ye Ming.

Its talent was its sensitive nose; otherwise, how could it have detected Ye Ming at the first instant?

However, just as the Yao Beast made a new discovery, it was struck dead by Ye Ming’s palm.

After this Yao Beast died, the dao rune on its body flew out and actively entered Ye Ming’s arm.

At this time, Ye Ming could choose to refine it or store it for later.

If he were to refine it, with his current strength, it would still take half an hour to refine the dao rune.

As for other Body Integration Cultivators, they would probably need half a day to refine one.

Ye Ming didn't want to waste time, so he chose to store it, then followed his intuition to search in a certain direction.

Each time the Secret Realm opened, dao runes appeared randomly, so trying to find them using old methods wouldn't work. It was better to rely on one's intuition.

Those with good luck could simply walk around and find dao runes.