Chapter 334 - 182: One Yuan Chen Golden Seal
"The One Yuan Chen Golden Seal!"
Chang Su’er had mentioned this magic treasure before, telling Mi Yuan Dao to pay special attention to it. Thus, the sudden mention of its name instantly drew everyone’s focus.
Mi Yuan Dao’s gaze sharpened. "So this is the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal?"
Cen Fenghong frowned deeply, thinking, ’Just watching through the mirror, I can feel its overwhelming might. I wonder if Brother Xu... can he withstand it?’
Chang Su’er asked doubtfully, "Senior Brother, you’ve seen this magic treasure before?"
Although she knew the name of the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal, she was unfamiliar with the details. Sima Zongfa, however, had named it without hesitation, showing he clearly knew much more than she did.
Sima Zongfa’s gaze was dark and profound. He said softly, "According to the sect’s records, Ancestor Grandmaster Yuanjun once plucked a star from the void and refined all the gold-attribute qi within it in an attempt to forge a world-shaking magic treasure..."
"The One Yuan Chen Golden Seal!" Chang Su’er exclaimed. "To think such a magic treasure is in Jin Yuanzai’s hands!"
"The magic treasure’s power didn’t fully meet the Grandmaster’s expectations," Sima Zongfa said, shaking his head. "But even so, it carries the weight of an entire star’s gold-attribute qi! When Jin Yuanzai poured all his Magical Power into it, he could only activate it once, let alone control its weight or size at will."
"That’s precisely why he couldn’t control it properly. A single strike collapsed a corner of the continent, causing a heaven-shaking disaster..."
At this, Sima Zongfa let out a heavy sigh. "Now that Jin Yuanzai has brought out this seal, and since Xuzhuang couldn’t evade it in time, I’m afraid the outcome is already decided."
Although his words were quite certain, the onlookers heard them and didn’t know how to refute them. They could only feel a shared sense of unease.
—
Jin Yuanzai had already cultivated to the third layer, his Nascent Soul fully formed. His cultivation base had multiplied exponentially. The days when he could only activate the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal once with all his might were a thing of the past.
That was why, even after expending more than half his Magical Power, he could still bring out this treasure to suppress Xuzhuang in one fell swoop!
The One Yuan Chen Golden Seal swelled in the wind, covering the entire area in a mere instant. It then trembled slightly and struck down with ferocious power.
In that moment, it was like a meteor striking the earth, an apocalyptic force capable of filling the seas and shaking the heavens!
Before the seal even landed, a vast shadow had blotted out the sky above Xuzhuang. The immense pressure crashing down was enough to nearly snap the spine of any living thing below. Even the Innate Jade Tree and the branches of the Spirit Root were forced to bow their heads.
And yet, between heaven and earth, Xuzhuang alone still held his head high.
His disposition wasn’t normally sharp, but under this immense pressure, it revealed a brilliant edge, like a Flying Sword waiting to pierce the sun and moon, gleaming with radiant light.
Not even the threat of death could make him bow his head, let alone a mere magical duel.
Xuzhuang roused his spirit and gathered his qi. With a great shout, his Gangyun blazed with light. The aura around him surged violently as if to roil the very clouds and wind. In that brief moment of brewing power, his true qi reconverged.
At this critical juncture, he still chose the Divine Technique he was most confident in, the one he had mastered most deeply, the one he relied on most: the Innate Tai Su Qi Grand Capture. He thrust it out violently, straight toward the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal, his fingers spread wide to seize it!
Time seemed to slow to a crawl. Every moment of contact between the pure-white, clearly-textured hand and the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal was seemingly visible to the naked eye—until the palm caught the body of the seal, and the five fingers clamped down upon it.
The One Yuan Chen Golden Seal seemed to have stopped.
Shock appeared on the faces of both Xuzhuang and Jin Yuanzai. But just an instant later, Jin Yuanzai breathed a long sigh of relief, while the look in Xuzhuang’s eyes changed.
After a brief moment of stagnation, the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal shattered the Innate Tai Su Qi Grand Capture with a deafening roar. Its power seemingly undiminished, it continued its downward strike!
And in that fleeting instant, Xuzhuang finally understood what kind of magic treasure this was.
Utterly pure, singularly focused on power. A single strike held the weight of untold millions of tons. Beneath the golden seal, everything was to be crushed into dust!
Even Xuzhuang’s Innate Tai Su Qi Grand Capture, a technique capable of uprooting mountains and overturning seas, couldn’t stop it in the slightest. He couldn’t even maintain the capture and pour in more Magical Power to resist it.
Fortunately, however, he didn’t have to resign himself to fate just yet.
Xuzhuang held his breath and focused his mind, channeling his technique with all his heart. He shouted in a deep voice, "Rise!"
The true qi that had dispersed had not been destroyed. As Xuzhuang operated his Divine Technique, the formless yet substantial might of the Innate Tai Su Qi Grand Capture swept forth once more, surging up to support the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal.
Inch by inch, hair by hair, fraction by fraction, the momentum of the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal’s descent began to slow. The effect was almost imperceptible, but it was there.
Astonishment showed on Jin Yuanzai’s face once again. Xuzhuang wasn’t just contending with half of his Magical Power, but with the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal, forged by the Grandmaster from a refined star! No one understood its terrifying nature better than he did.
To resist it even a fraction was simply inhuman. A thought couldn’t help but surface in Jin Yuanzai’s mind: ’If Xuzhuang also reached the third layer and achieved a perfected Nascent Soul, just how immense would his Magical Power be? Throughout the entire cosmos, would anyone be able to compare?’
At least, in the vast Eastern Celestial Realm, within the great Taiyi Palace, there was likely no one.
’But even so, it’s a futile struggle.’
The One Yuan Chen Golden Seal pressed down inch by inch. Xuzhuang pushed the power of his Innate Tai Su Qi Grand Capture to its absolute limit. In that instant, he even seemed to have a sudden insight into the many mysteries of the Divine Technique, achieving a breakthrough in the heat of battle.
Despite this, he still couldn’t truly halt the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal’s advance. But for the first time, a blazing divine light erupted from his eyes.
He didn’t stop channeling his Divine Technique. Instead, with a great effort, he shook his shoulder, and a Daoist who looked identical to him stepped out. The only difference was that behind this Daoist unfurled five rays of divine light, sharp as swords and shaped like feathers!
The moment the Three-Element Dharma Body separated from him, it too shook its shoulder. Five colors merged into one, primordial qi flowed, and a colossal beam of divine light suddenly tore through the sky, sweeping toward the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal!
A magic treasure forged from the refined gold-attribute qi of an entire star was still subject to the five elements. Even though its myriad traces of gold and qi had been fused into one by a supreme Magical Power, making it perfectly whole and revealing not a single trace of its origin, Xuzhuang had ultimately discovered its true nature.
The Five Elements merged into Truth, the Primordial Divine Light! As long as something existed within the five elements, there was nothing it could not suppress.
When the Five Elements Divine Light swept over the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal, it instantly erupted in a boundless, brilliant glow. Xuzhuang’s expression changed slightly as he felt his Magical Power drain away like a great river bursting its banks, vanishing in an instant!
In just a moment, his reserves were nearly depleted. But in the next, the golden light retracted, and the incomparably mighty, singularly powerful One Yuan Chen Golden Seal vanished, having fallen into the Five Elements Divine Light.
The shadow disappeared, revealing Jin Yuanzai’s figure once more. He couldn’t hide the look of utter disbelief on his face.
The One Yuan Chen Golden Seal had finally fallen prey to the five elements.
Xuzhuang withdrew his Divine Technique, and the divine light that reached from heaven to earth instantly contracted, returning to his back.
However, the very next moment, Xuzhuang’s dharma body burst like a bubble with a soft POP, and the golden seal shot out from within, flying through the air.
Suppressing that golden seal within the Five Elements Divine Light was like shouldering the Celestial Pillar with a mortal body; a broken spine was the inevitable result.
If Xuzhuang hadn’t used his Dharma Body to cast the technique, it wouldn’t have just been the Dharma Body that shattered—he himself would have been wounded by the backlash.
Fortunately, after this back-and-forth, the power of the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal was finally exhausted. It reverted to its original form, and just as Jin Yuanzai was about to recall it, Xuzhuang let out a great shout like a clap of thunder: "ZHA!"
For a Nascent Soul Cultivator, spirit and qi are one. Under the force of this shout, backed by Magical Power, Jin Yuanzai—already completely drained of his own—felt as if a heavy hammer had struck his skull. His concentration instantly broke.
In the next instant, a Sword Rainbow shot out from a place where the Gang Wind had long since dispersed. It coiled around Jin Yuanzai’s neck, stirring a flash of divine light, then wrapped around his body and tore him away through the air.
Xuzhuang’s entire body went limp as a strange exhaustion crept into his mind.
This duel hadn’t involved much cunning or strategy, just a few simple but ferocious exchanges, yet Xuzhuang had been forced to use nearly all of his strength.
It had to be said that this duel with Jin Yuanzai was perhaps the closest he had come to defeat since achieving his current level of cultivation. Perhaps with just one mistake, the situation would have been entirely different—
But in the end, he was still the victor.
After just a few breaths, Xuzhuang had already shaken off his fatigue and restored his spirits. With a beckoning gesture, a square golden seal with a qilin carved on top flew into his hand.
He never would have thought that this magic treasure, which was hundreds, even thousands of times heavier than a mountain when unleashed, could be so exquisite once its power was restrained. Held in his palm, it was as light as a feather.
Xuzhuang toyed with it for a moment, then shook his head and smiled. "A pity."
The power of this golden seal was indeed terrifying, and truth be told, it was quite compatible with his own attributes.
But even so, it wasn’t enough to make him covet it.
After a moment of thought, Xuzhuang put the One Yuan Chen Golden Seal aside for the time being. ’That commotion just now was huge,’ he thought. ’I should leave this place first.’
After all, because of this duel, he had destroyed his Dharma Body and his true self had consumed a great deal of Magical Power. He urgently needed to recover.
He gave his sleeve a gentle shake, and a Flying Palace fell out. It pulled Xuzhuang inside without growing any larger. Instead, in the blink of an eye, it shrank to the size of a dust mote and vanished.