Cultivation: Fortune by Lots

Behind Lei Jun, the three-layer Altar manifested by the Celestial Master Seal was growing ever more turbulent and unstable.

On the other side of the Void Gateway, experts on the Sumi end were incessantly launching assaults.

The Vajra Division within Sumi clearly still had masters sitting in town to stabilize their foundation.

At the moment Lei Jun’s empowerment and control over the Celestial Master Seal was limited, and the illusory three-layer Altar looked as if it would soon be unable to withstand the enemy’s impact.

But Lei Jun’s mind was currently free of distractions, his gaze fixed on Zhao You’an, who was striking down from above.

The Master of the Three Springs Palace likewise focused on Lei Jun, yet he had no intention of wasting time entangling with him.

All around him in midair, layers of cloud and mist surged and rolled.

Zhao You’an’s figure flickered, then sank into the mist, like a divine dragon whose head is seen but whose tail is not.

This was the "Cloud Dragon Lost Track," a brilliant Taoist magic-martial art recorded in the Three Springs Palace classic, the Spring Dragon Hiding Scripture.

The so-called Three Springs are: Early Spring, Mid Spring, Late Spring.

They respectively correspond to the three great combat cultivation classics recorded by the Three Springs Palace: Spring Dragon Hiding Scripture, Mid-Spring Soaring Dragon Scripture, and Late Spring Dragon Battle Scripture.

Early Spring is the first month, the beginning of the year.

The bitter cold has yet to fully recede; all things lie deep in concealment, their vitality biding to burst forth.

The Azure Dragon hides its head, as though leaping within the abyss.

In that alternation of concealment and emergence, Zhao You’an sought to bypass Lei Jun and strike directly at the three-layer Altar, tottering above the Mount Sumeru Portal.

Right now, the cultivators of their Three Springs Palace and the Solitary Eagle Khanate were being pincered by Lei Jun and the Great Tang cultivators, attacked front and rear.

If they could first succeed in opening the Portal to Sumi and let the Vajra Division cultivators within Sumi charge out, then the situation of being attacked from inside and out would reverse, at least becoming far better than Zhao You’an alone slogging it out against Lei Jun and the other Great Tang cultivators.

Within Lei Jun’s twin pupils, the Heaven-piercing Earth-penetrating Taliscript silently revolved.

As his mana was greatly consumed, the black-red Tai Chi Diagram above his head temporarily vanished.

But the purple-green Tai Chi Diagram still burst forth with fierce radiance, precisely locking onto Zhao You’an himself within the clouds and mist.

Seeing this, Zhao You’an’s heart gave a slight chill, but his figure did not slow as he continued lunging toward the three-layer Altar.

The mist around his body suddenly grew denser, like heavy clouds that would not rain—immensely weighty, and at the same time utterly frigid and yin-cold.

The Three Springs Palace had split off from the Pure Yang Palace and did not cultivate schools of Pure Yang True Fire, but after generations of experts’ contemplation they had successfully created their own unique Yin Stream Frozen Cloud.

The Frozen Cloud was heavy and integrated offense with defense; now, focused to the extreme, its ponderous, chilling yin qi helped Zhao You’an withstand Lei Jun’s Dragon-Tiger Strike.

Yin Stream Frozen Cloud churned without cease under the fierce light.

Zhao You’an raised a hand, and the Yin Stream Frozen Cloud further compressed, all condensing onto his palm, with that one palm blocking the radiance erupting from the purple-green Tai Chi Diagram.

As the brilliance scattered, Zhao You’an’s figure paused slightly in midair, but very quickly once more pressed forward.

From afar, Mount Shu Elder Xu Duan and the Great Tang Great Princess Zhang Ying were closing in; having previously crossed blows with Zhao You’an, they knew he had already achieved Solidifying Spirit Qi.

This was a wondrous attainment possessed by Ninth Heavenly Layer Mahayana High Immortals of the Alchemy Cauldron Sect within the Taoist Sect, one of the Chaoyuan Five Qis: refining Bright Spirit Qi into one’s own Solidifying Spirit Qi, so that fleshly body and Spiritual Soul alike could resist the likes of Wind and Thunder, greatly reducing the threat posed by corresponding external damage.

Relying on the dual protection of Solidifying Spirit Qi and Yin Stream Frozen Cloud, Zhao You’an took Lei Jun’s Dragon-Tiger Strike head-on; yet he could not help secretly frowning, feeling his old injuries growing difficult to suppress.

Fortunately, he was already close to the illusory three-layer Altar; it would be reached in the blink of an eye.

However, in that instant, a distance of mere inches became a gulf of heaven and earth.

The distance that seemed to be attained in a flash could not be shortened at all.

Just behind Zhao You’an, an immense black sphere—beyond ordinary imagination—appeared.

On the surface of the sphere, countless sigil-lines flowed like orbital paths, endlessly coursing and interweaving.

From within came a tremendous suction force that fixed Ninth Heavenly Layer Mahayana High Immortal Zhao You’an in midair, further seeking to Capture and Seize him inside.

Zhao You’an recognized this as the Divine Court Superior Vista universe of an Eighth Heavenly Layer Perfection realm cultivator of the Talisman Sect.

Although compared to the External Scenery of the Divine Court, the Divine Court Superior Vista possessed the miraculous power of actively Capturing and Seizing opponents, under normal circumstances it would hardly be easy to seize a Ninth Heavenly Layer Taoist Sect expert such as Zhao You’an.

He once more unfurled his own Yin Stream Frozen Cloud, freezing and solidifying the surrounding void to block Lei Jun’s Divine Court Superior Vista from Capturing and Seizing him.

Yet within that dark sphere it was as if myriad celestial bodies were revolving together, resembling a true universe; from it came a power of suction far beyond Zhao You’an’s expectations.

It almost made Zhao You’an suspect that what he had read in ancient Taoist Scriptures regarding the Divine Court Superior Vista of Talisman Sect cultivators had been inaccurately recorded.

Or else he had misjudged: the cosmos unfolded by this tall Taoist was not the Divine Court Superior Vista of an Eighth Heavenly Layer cultivator, but the Great Vehicle Taoist Scene of a Ninth Heavenly Layer Talisman Sect cultivator.

Zhao You’an had no choice but to abandon the three-layer Altar, so close at hand, and instead throw his full strength into resisting Lei Jun’s Capturing and Seizing within the Divine Court Superior Vista.

Suddenly his entire body shuddered.

The sword wounds on his body could no longer be suppressed, and he spat blood anew.

Zhao You’an’s figure flickered once again, then vanished into that seemingly real-universe Divine Court Superior Vista.

Xu Duan and Zhang Ying drew near.

But the immense black sphere before their eyes had already fallen silent.

Within the black sphere, Zhao You’an’s expression was grave as he looked upon the deep, dark starry sky in the distance and the nearby vast sea of Profound Yellow Primordial Magnetic.

Lei Jun, as master of this Profound Yellow Universe, now stood within it with hands clasped behind his back.

In the palm of the hand behind his back he held a piece of pristine Precious Jade, a gift from his fellow disciple Chu Kun.

Vast Spiritual Power ceaselessly nourished Lei Jun’s fleshly body and Spiritual Soul, and together with his Dual Polarity Immortal Body helped him restore mana as quickly as possible.

Earlier, in order to avoid exposing the grand formation prematurely, he had manifested all five Dharmas at once and unleashed the twin dragon strike together, achieving an almost field-clearing effect in a short span.