Chapter 462: In Place
"The Void Heart isn't bad at all. If I take the earth immortal path in the future, I could remodel my grotto-heaven into a blessed grotto-heaven, then find some place of clear hills and clean water in the Immortal Realm and let a grotto-heaven bearing the Void Heart merge with the heaven and earth there. That alone would give me the foundation needed to become an earth immortal."
Yaoguang sensed the state of his grotto-heaven, which was completely different from that of other Void-Shattering cultivators. "Then I'd find an innate spirit root with enormous potential to nourish the blessed land, and actually stepping onto the earth immortal path would follow naturally."[1]
The core of the human immortal path required three immortal artifacts or immortal treasures to carry essence, qi, and psyche. The core of the earth immortal path was land and a spirit root.
The five immortals were often ranked in a definite order: ghost immortal, human immortal, earth immortal, psyche immortal, and heavenly immortal. But why was that?
It wasn't because an earth immortal was stronger than a human immortal, but because a human immortal had to borrow three external things while an earth immortal needed only two, making the latter's advancement one-third easier.
Advancing more easily naturally meant securing a greater share and, consequently, stepping into an even higher realm.
As for the psyche immortal, the only external thing borrowed was one's own Great Dao. The heavenly immortal relied entirely on the self.
That was the reason the five paths were ranked one before another, one above another.
The thought lingered in Yaoguang's mind for a moment before he pushed it aside.
"In the end, I simply have too many options, so other ideas keep surfacing, and my thoughts wander off and never want to come back. Unlike other Dao Lords, who'd be overjoyed just to have one complete path and one complete art." He smiled self-mockingly.
He made a few small adjustments to his grotto-heaven, then began inscribing the Ten Hells Dragon-Imprisoning Array, which he had chosen long ago, into the Void Heart. As the array took shape, the whole grotto-heaven seemed to shift slightly.
"Using the Void Heart as the array's vessel to trap a Dao Lord... If this goes badly, the Void Heart will be destroyed. Then again, walking the human immortal path requires loading essence, qi, and psyche onto three immortal artifacts or immortal treasures in the first place. Once I pour the essence, qi, and psyche that make up the grotto-heaven into immortal artifacts, the grotto-heaven will have nothing left to sustain it and will collapse anyway. Even if the Void Heart is destroyed, it will go away with a burst of brilliance before I attempt Dao Integration."
Having decided, Yaoguang dismissed his remaining doubts. One Dao Artifact after another went into the space around the Void Heart, strengthening the Ten Hells Dragon-Imprisoning Array even further.
While laying out the array, he didn't neglect refining the Eight Desolations Mirror and the Horizon Diagram.
One of these top-tier Dao Artifacts would serve as the life-bound Dao Artifact carrying Yaoguang's psyche; the other was the payment he had promised the Penglai Dao Lord for her help against the Unchained Dao Lord, so naturally he gave it everything he had.
While Yaoguang poured his focus into the two artifacts, the North Sea Star appeared calm on the surface, even as waves spread beneath it.
Many Void-Refining and Void-Piercing cultivators had begun leaving with their whole households, and warships and flying vessels filled the starry sky beyond.
Not just that, but the first few Dao Lords had returned.
The Taiyi Immortal Sect's Sovereign Radiance Dao Lord, the Heaven-Reaching Sect's Azure Firmament Dao Lord, and some others even made public appearances.
Among those returning was the Light Divine Venerable, whose presence put some pressure on Yaoguang, and he showed up within the Light Divine Race's territory as well.
Besides, this divine venerable seemed to have quietly formed an alliance with the Yin Lunar Sect's Black Lunar Fiend Sovereign and the Nine Demon Race Lineages' Jade Scale Demon Paragon, aimed squarely at countering the Penglai Dao Lord.
That development forced the southern domain forces, who had already absorbed most of the Yin Lunar Sect's territory, to visibly scale back their movements.
Were it not for the Void End Perfected Lord and the others leading the vanguard, Yaoguang would have started considering a withdrawal.
After all, neither the Heavenly Dao Sect's Central Heaven Dao Lord nor the Golden Crow Sect's Azure Crow Dao Lord had returned to the North Sea Star yet.
If not for the Penglai Dao Lord's deterrence keeping those Dao Lords from moving too far from their home bases or appearing alone, the southern domain's push into the Yin Lunar Sect and the Golden Crow Sect's push into Light Divine Race's territory would long since have turned precarious.
In that tense atmosphere, sixty years went by.
As his technique constantly improved, Yaoguang's last two top-tier Dao Artifacts reached their final critical stage. With the Penglai Dao Lord's help, an unbroken stream of Dao resonance flowed into the two artifacts.
At last, upon reaching a certain threshold, both transformed, radiating endless Great Dao fluctuations in every direction.
"Done."
The Penglai Dao Lord reached out and took the Horizon Diagram, while Yaoguang swiftly grabbed the Eight Desolations Mirror.
Because they were crafted from different materials, the two artifacts, though completed at the same moment, clearly differed in quality.
The Penglai Dao Lord didn't mind at all and was full of admiration instead. "Even Dao Lords well versed in artifact refinement usually spend several centuries on a single top-tier Dao Artifact, and the slower ones over a thousand years. You refined two in sixty. That kind of efficiency is truly breathtaking."
"Part of it is that my refining method differs from the conventional one. And part of it..." Yaoguang stroked the Eight Desolations Mirror in his hand and smiled. "Is it possible those Dao Lords were slacking off? Or that they deliberately quoted longer times to show just how much time and effort a top-tier Dao Artifact really takes?"
The Penglai Dao Lord blanked for a moment, then nodded, entirely convinced. "It certainly looks that way."
The two of them were, of course, doing those Dao Lords an injustice.
A Dao Lord refining at full effort could really shorten the time needed for refinement enormously. But the materials for a top-tier Dao Artifact were worth no small sum, and even a Dao Lord would ache at wasting them.
Most of the time, Dao Lords refined for someone else, and the person who could request a top-tier Dao Artifact was usually another Dao Lord.
Under those conditions, caution and steadiness naturally became key to the whole process. With all those factors in mind, taking several times longer than strictly necessary was entirely reasonable.
Besides, Dao Lords had their own affairs to handle. None of them could do what Yaoguang had done these past years and abandon cultivation almost entirely just to forge Dao Artifacts.
"So the next step is to execute the plan, luring the Unchained Dao Lord into acting?" the Penglai Dao Lord asked.
"Yes." Yaoguang nodded. "Decades ago I had the Void End Perfected Lord quietly make contact with the Unchained Dao Lord. Cautious as he is, he wouldn't have believed a single word. But the Void End Perfected Lord's words were a seed. They told the Unchained Dao Lord there was a way for him to obtain a semi-immortal artifact and vastly improve his odds of taking first place in the Dao contest. After several decades, that seed should have sprouted. All that's left is for it to flower, bear fruit, and finally be harvested."
The Penglai Dao Lord nodded. Often enough, when desperate criminals with nowhere left to turn seek to rob others in a bid to seize a sliver of a chance at survival, the first people they think to target are actually those closest to them.
But if at that moment someone were to mention another person, however unimportant that person might be, as long as they had a certain amount of wealth, the criminal would immediately switch targets.
"Then all we need is the right occasion for you to leave the array coverage of the Heavenly Dao Sect and the southern domain. It has to look entirely natural," the Penglai Dao Lord said.
Yaoguang smiled. "In ten years our sect's Central Heaven Dao Lord will return to the North Sea Star, and I'll lead a party out into the starry sky beyond to receive him in person. Does that reason hold up?"
The Penglai Dao Lord was a little surprised. "Central Heaven is finally arriving?"
"Yes." Yaoguang nodded. "And he's coming back with several other Dao Lords. Any Dao Lord with decent sources could even find that out for himself."
He waved an empty hand, and maps of the North Sea Star and the starry sky beyond spread out before them. "From the Heavenly Dao Sect out to the starry sky, at our speed, an hour is plenty. That means I'd be outside the Heavenly Dao Sect's range for only an hour, and at the end of it the Central Heaven Dao Lord would arrive, along with several friendly Dao Lords. On top of that, I'd have several Void-Shattering cultivators traveling beside me. By any reading, it looks about as safe as it could possibly be."
He looked up, smiling. "So for me to travel under those conditions..."
"Completely reasonable," the Penglai Dao Lord said with a smile. "The Heavenly Dao Sect signed a strategic alliance with the Taiyi Immortal Sect, and the Sovereign Radiance Dao Lord seems to endorse it. Once the Central Heaven Dao Lord is back, you'll effectively have three Dao Lords guarding you. That lineup may not fully extinguish the envy and murderous intent of the other void Dao Lords, but it's enough to keep ninety-nine percent of them from acting rashly. In other words, this will be the Unchained Dao Lord's last chance to move against you."
"And he still believes I don't know anything, that he's completely hidden in the dark. Even if this operation carries a degree of risk, the fact he assumes I won't be expecting the attack will paper over it," Yaoguang said.
The Penglai Dao Lord nodded. "Then over these ten years, both of us should get thoroughly used to the artifacts in our hands and prepare for the battle."
She gave Yaoguang a look. "I really am curious how you plan to trap a Dao Lord for some time."
"You'll see, Dao Lord," Yaoguang said with a smile.
After a little more discussion, the Penglai Dao Lord departed, and Yaoguang told the Heavenly Dao Sect's higher-ups they would be receiving the Central Heaven Dao Lord on his return and should make the necessary preparations.
As sect master, issuing that order was entirely normal and drew no objection or suspicion.
With the order given, Yaoguang returned to Heaven-Forsaken Valley.
"All three top-tier Dao Artifacts are complete. Since I haven't integrated with the Dao yet, I still can't walk the true human immortal path, but simply doing the corresponding cultivation, refining all three into my essence, qi, and psyche, should give my strength an enormous leap!" Yaoguang drew a deep breath.
The step ahead of him was the most important link of all, the moment his combat power would finish its transformation and reach a level rivaling existences like the Golden Book Venerable!
1. In wuxia/xianxia novels, the innate spirit root refers to an item formed of heaven and earth since the beginning of time and has immensely pure spiritual qi. ☜