Your Spell Version is Too Low!

When Situ Huaji blurted out those shocking words, "Reincarnation True Monarch."

Qi Yun looked at the expression on his face—a mixture of shock, awe, and the certainty of someone who believed he had uncovered a heavenly secret.

For a moment, he was at a loss for words.

’This kid... Did the Buddhist Cultivator’s Grand Array fry his brain?’

Shaking his head, feeling slightly exasperated, Qi Yun didn’t pursue the topic.

"Let’s get to the point.

The Celestial Court’s Relics you just mentioned—where are they, exactly?"

Seeing that Qi Yun had no intention of dwelling on the matter, the natural aloofness and transcendent air about him only served to further convince Situ Huaji of his "Reincarnation True Monarch" theory.

Putting aside everything else, who could sprint from the Qi Refining Stage to the Great Master Realm in just a few decades?

Other than a True Monarch reassuming his high station, he couldn’t think of any other way.

Not daring to ask further, Situ Huaji quickly composed himself and replied respectfully:

"Master, that place... is hidden within a Sea Eye deep in the East Sea.

The Sea Eye itself is concealed by a natural illusory array and spatial turbulence, making it extremely difficult to find.

If I hadn’t chanced upon a fragmented map in my youth and spent decades of painstaking effort to extrapolate from it, I would have never been able to determine its location.

If the Master wishes to go, I will lead the way for you at once."

His posture was extremely deferential and his tone sincere, but his mind was racing.

’This "Senior" before me is unfathomable.’

’The Celestial Court’s Relics are indeed an immense temptation.’

’But in my current, heavily injured state, exploring it alone would be suicide.’

’If I can enter with this Senior’s help, even if I only get a few scraps, it’s far better than guarding a Treasure Mountain I can’t enter.’

Qi Yun heard this, but he didn’t agree immediately.

His gaze lingered on Situ Huaji’s face for a moment before he suddenly spoke:

"That won’t be necessary."

Before the words had even faded—

Behind him in the void, the halo of Chaos Color light, which had been so faint it was nearly nonexistent, suddenly solidified!

The Daluo Realm of Ten Thousand Laws thundered into existence!

A stream of Chaos Color light, only a few feet wide yet as heavy as if it carried the Celestial Vault, descended silently toward Situ Huaji.

Situ Huaji didn’t even have time to react; he only felt his entire body sink.

The space around him instantly solidified into the hardest amber, and he was but an insect trapped within.

The Fierce Demon Blood Qi surging in his body, the manifestation of his Battle Dao Foundation that he struggled to maintain, and even the faintest ripples of his Divine Soul—

all were forcibly suppressed by a mighty Daoist Intent that surpassed his comprehension, rendering him completely immobile!

Just as terror appeared in his eyes, Qi Yun strode to stand before him.

They were no more than three feet apart.

Situ Huaji could clearly see his own terrified, frozen face reflected in Qi Yun’s deep, pool-like eyes.

He tried to struggle. His Fierce Demon Dao Foundation roared instinctively, his blood qi rampaging wildly.

But under the suppression of that stream of chaos, all his resistance vanished like a clay ox in the sea, failing to stir even the slightest ripple.

The Status of a Great Master exerted an almost absolute suppression over someone at the Foundation Establishment Middle Stage.

Not to mention that Qi Yun’s Dao Foundation was a Venerable one that stood above the Ten Thousand Laws.

Qi Yun’s expression was unchanged. He raised his right hand—his five fingers long and slender, his knuckles distinct—and slowly pressed it toward Situ Huaji’s forehead.

There was no flash of light, no grand display of power.

But just as his fingertips were about to touch the other’s skin, Situ Huaji felt the gate to his Purple Mansion Sea of Consciousness being thrown open by an invisible yet irresistible will!

Soul Search!

"Senior! I..." Situ Huaji’s spirit trembled violently. He was shocked and furious, wanting to struggle but not daring to.

Because he wasn’t sure if his mutually destructive technique, Jade and Stone Burn Together, would even work on a Reincarnation True Monarch.

In the next instant.

The vast, chaotic memory fragments of Situ Huaji’s nearly one-hundred-year life surged like a bursting dam toward Qi Yun’s open Divine Sense.

His childhood in the Northwest Wilderness, a time of famine and slaughter.

The half-volume of the Fierce Demon Fighting Scripture he had stumbled upon, and his struggle to cultivate amidst mountains of corpses and seas of blood.

The imprisonment and despair in the Underground Blood Pool of the Yellow Springs Marketplace.

The desperate battles after his escape, comprehending the workings of the Dao on the brink of life and death, and forging his Fierce Demon Dao Foundation.

Traveling far Overseas, plundering for his Cultivation, and making countless enemies.

Being targeted by Buddhist Cultivators just as he was about to reach the Sea Eye, and falling into their encirclement...

Countless images, sounds, emotions, and insights came flooding in.

Qi Yun’s Divine Sense was like an eternal Bright Mirror, reflecting everything yet remaining unmoved.

He precisely bypassed all the irrelevant entanglements and trivialities, heading straight for all information regarding the "Celestial Court’s Relics."

Sure enough.

Deep within those memories, a cocoon of light, wrapped in layers of malevolent blood qi and flickering with strange silver patterns, was bobbing up and down.

Sealed within the cocoon of light was a fragmented Treasure Key, neither gold nor jade, with an ancient and unadorned design.

Using a ruthless Secret Skill, Situ Huaji had "sewn" this item deep into his Divine Soul Origin in a manner almost akin to a Dao Trace!

The key and his Divine Soul were symbiotic.

If anyone tried to forcibly extract it, or if Situ Huaji willed it with a single Heart Thought, the key would be annihilated along with that part of his Divine Soul, completely thwarting anyone else’s designs on it.

"Quite the ruthless one."

Qi Yun retracted his hand, and the stream of chaos dissipated along with it.

Situ Huaji staggered back several steps, his face as pale as paper. Cold sweat beaded on his forehead as he gasped for breath.

The feeling of having one’s Divine Soul forcibly rummaged through was far from pleasant, especially when one’s deepest secret had been laid bare.

The way he looked at Qi Yun was now tinged with unconcealable terror and a hint of dejection.

Qi Yun, however, acted as if he had done something trivial. His gaze fell on Situ Huaji’s face, a hint of surprise in his eyes:

"To forcefully refine the vault key into your own Divine Soul... ’A commoner is innocent, but possessing a treasure makes him a criminal.’ You seem to understand this principle well."

Situ Huaji barely managed to steady his breathing and said hoarsely:

"I... my Cultivation is low. Without this method of self-preservation, I would have died countless times already."

"No wonder that Buddhist Cultivator Arhat didn’t just kill you outright, but went to the trouble of setting up an array for Enlightenment... He must have sensed that the key was linked to your Divine Soul and wanted to use Buddhist Skill to bring you to Enlightenment, making you hand it over willingly."

"Alright."

Clasping his hands behind his back, Qi Yun turned to gaze at the boundless sea and sky to the East, his voice calm:

"On account of your disposition and ruthlessness, lead the way.

If there truly is a divine treasure in that place, you will certainly not be denied your share."

Hearing this, a flush of color returned to Situ Huaji’s pale face, and his eyes erupted with intense hope.

He forced his weak body upright and bowed solemnly.

"Thank you, Senior!

I will do everything in my power to lead the way for you!"

...

「East Sea, Yiwei Sea Eye.」

There were sixty Sea Eyes in the East Sea Territory, all named after the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.

The earlier their name in the sequence, the deeper they were located in the vast ocean.

An eerie silence permeated the sea and sky around this particular Sea Eye.

At the edge of sight, where the Celestial Vault met the sea’s surface, the light was distorted into a blurry vortex, as if an invisible giant eye were slowly spinning there.

That was the outward manifestation of the Sea Eye.

A massive, slowly rotating ocean vortex with a diameter of over ten thousand li.

The center of the vortex was bottomless, rumored to lead directly to the Nine Netherworld, the place where all waters return to the ruins.

"Senior, this is the place."

Situ Huaji pointed toward the distorted vortex of sea and sky in the distance, his expression grave.

"The entrance isn’t on the vortex’s surface, but in a ’void fissure’ three thousand zhang below it.

It can only be briefly opened at a specific hour, using the Talisman Key as a guide at the precise moment when the Sea Eye’s tidal forces reach a delicate balance."

Qi Yun stood in mid-air, his Deep Blue Daoist Robe perfectly still in the eerie silence. With his eyes slightly closed, his Divine Sense had already extended like invisible tentacles, spreading deep into the massive vortex.

As expected.

At the bottom of the seemingly chaotic and violent deep-sea vortex, the spatial structure exhibited an extremely complex and unstable, layered state.

’Celestial Court...’ Qi Yun mused.

’Such a feat is by no means something an ordinary person could accomplish.’

’I fear that even several True Monarchs working together would be needed to create such a vast and mighty power.’

’The Celestial Court was jointly founded in ancient times by several top-tier True Monarchs whose accomplishments rivaled Creation itself. Its purpose was to gather the wisdom of the masses, explore the origin of the Great Dao, and deduce a higher Realm beyond the limits of this world...’

’It seems now that this was no empty boast.’

’To be able to leave behind such a relic, the beings who founded the "Celestial Court" must have possessed a Realm and perspective that far surpassed the common understanding of the term "True Monarch" in the present age.’

"When is that point of balance?" Qi Yun asked.

Situ Huaji looked up at the sky, then felt the grand, slow rhythm of the Sea Eye’s vortex below before saying thoughtfully:

"According to my calculations... in about nine and a half months, when the undersea tidal forces form the ’Celestial-Terrestrial Convergence,’ there will be an opening of about three breaths."

He paused, then added hesitantly, "It’s just that... in my current state, I’m afraid I won’t be able to grasp that three-breath opportunity with precision, and I’ll also need to divide my Heart and Spirit to stabilize the Talisman Key..."

"No matter."

Qi Yun cut him off, his tone calm and steady:

"You only need to tell me the specific location and the tidal node. When the time comes, just activate the Talisman Key. The rest... leave it to me."

Hearing this, Situ Huaji’s heart skipped a beat, and he dared not say more.

Gazing at the Sea Eye before him, a Chaos Color light flowed through Qi Yun’s eyes as his Daluo Dao Foundation silently began its calculations.

Nine months passed in a flash.

Night fell quietly.

In the night sky over this stretch of sea, the stars were exceptionally large and bright, as if within arm’s reach.

Below, the rotation speed of the ink-black Sea Eye vortex also seemed to be undergoing an extremely subtle change.

A pulsation originating from the Deep Sea Earth Vein and immeasurable Water Essence began to resonate with the Starlight from the Celestial Vault, gradually forming a grand and obscure resonance.

Midnight was approaching.

Qi Yun suddenly raised his hand and swiped gently at the empty space beside him.

A slender spatial rift, its edges flowing with chaotic energy, silently opened.

"Get in," he said.

Situ Huaji froze for a second, then understood.

He was being temporarily placed in a stable, independent space to prevent his poor condition from holding them back.

Without another word, this notorious Demon Daoist Master from the Northwest rubbed his head and stepped into the rift.

Qi Yun stood alone beneath the night sky, above the Sea Eye.

Heaven and Earth were silent, but the Star Sea was boiling.

At a certain moment—

The immeasurable Water Essence at the bottom of the sea erupted with a ROAR.

A surge of pure, vast, Supreme Yin, and utterly cold Gui Water Elemental Power shot toward the sky like an ink dragon leaping from the abyss!

Two streams of the Power of Heaven and Earth, completely different in nature yet equally majestic and vast, violently collided at a point above the center of the vortex!

Rings of transparent ripples, visible to the naked eye and distorting both light and space, spread out silently in all directions from the point of impact.

At the very instant the Power of Heaven and Earth collided!

A Heart Thought crossed Qi Yun’s mind.

Situ Huaji understood instantly. The silver Talisman Key sewn into his Divine Soul Origin suddenly flared with brilliant light!

The Talisman Key trembled, emitting an ancient, desolate hum.

Phantasmal chains of silver, formed from countless minute Dao Patterns, emerged from Situ Huaji’s Divine Soul, pierced through the barrier of the independent space, and shot forth!

These silver chains of Dao Patterns plunged precisely into the most central, most chaotic point of the spatial ripples ahead.

Like a key sliding into a lock.

"CLICK—"

There was the faint sound of turning.

The ever-expanding rings of spatial ripples suddenly froze and contracted!

At the very center of the collision between the Star Power and the tide, a "gateway" just large enough for one person to pass through, its edges flowing with rich silver light, slowly solidified and opened.

An ever-shifting, chaotic vista composed of countless Broken mirrors and flowing Dao Traces appeared, its details indistinct.

One could only faintly sense a vast, ancient, and transcendent aura of detachment, completely different from this world.

The gateway to the Celestial Court’s Relics was open.

Qi Yun’s eyes were serene. He took a step forward, and his deep blue figure disappeared into the chaos of flowing silver light.

Behind him, the Star Power gradually faded, the tide receded, and the spatial ripples subsided.

The silver gateway flickered a few times and closed without a sound, as if it had never been there at all.

Only the Sea Eye’s vortex continued its slow rotation.

The black sea was silent, the starry sky wordless.

...