Longzang

Chapter 1234 The Sage Shepherd
Wei Yuan was jolted awake by a rage, only to find himself still within the great formation, with the enormous ring slowly sinking.

Wei Yuan immediately manipulated the silkless fishing line to wrap around it and continued to lift it up. Then he separated a bit of his divine sense to examine himself and his surroundings. Seeing that there was nothing unusual, he consumed three million units of human energy and had a little enlightenment in his heart.

Whether it was a sudden impulse or a divine warning, it was a hint from the unseen world that a great danger was approaching.

Where would these troublemakers come from? Wei Yuan thought instinctively. But he immediately realized his thought was wrong, so he changed it to: Where would the enemy come from?
After careful consideration, Wei Yuan realized he had far too many enemies to count or even guess their identities. But not knowing didn't matter; true to Wei Yuan's nature, he simply needed to proceed methodically and strengthen himself. No matter how varied his enemies became, he would remain unmoved.

Wei Yuan looked at his seventh grotto-heaven, which was a blue dragon with a green back, slowly swimming and flying around the central continent.

The seventh orbit, which Wei Yuan couldn't even calculate in his death, has been gradually chipped away at by it over the past few years, seemingly through instinct. Now that the orbit is stable, the Seventh Grotto-Heaven has been officially established.

At this moment, the Azure Dragon was still shimmering with a faint light, but its accumulated spiritual energy was completely depleted. It was this energy that had triggered that strange dream.

This little dragon was very strange; after truly achieving the status of a celestial realm, it showed absolutely no spirituality. No matter how Wei Yuan tried to control it, it did not respond in the slightest.

However, its existence has raised the entire rank of the Mind Realm by one level, clearly indicating it's not just for show. Now, with its first activation, Wei Yuan understands that his previous methods were ineffective, partly due to insufficient accumulation of his inner world. Moreover, cultivating this inner world would likely require an unfathomable amount of energy.

The light shimmering on the little dragon gave Wei Yuan a strange sense of familiarity, as if it carried the aura of time. So, when it activated just now, was it sensing possible changes in the future?

Wei Yuan seemed to be deep in thought, then sent a message to Yu Zhizhuo, summoning him to discuss important matters. He then changed the priority order of the great formation, focusing all its power on attracting the ring, which was hundreds of feet in diameter.

This ring, like the remains of an immortal, is immortal and indestructible, clearly also a celestial artifact. With danger approaching, acquiring a celestial artifact would obviously play a significant role in turning the tide of the battle. Furthermore, powerful celestial artifacts are generally not part of the calculations; even if it's part of an immortal's scheme, it's still a variable.

The ring's ascent accelerated noticeably, but at that moment, countless black wisps rose from the depths of the ancestral mountain, coiling around the ring and attempting to pull it back to its original position. Faint roars echoed from the depths of the underground.

Wei Yuan's hand immediately felt heavy, the ring plummeting downwards and almost being pulled back to its original position. But instead of being surprised, Wei Yuan was delighted, a smile appearing on his face, and he said, "Finally caught you!"

Several immortal remains are piled together, accompanied by their immortal artifacts. Even though all their spirituality was annihilated and all karma was cleared when they perished, over time, evil spirits will be born here. If they escape to the outside world, they will immediately become a ferocious beast.

Wei Yuan had been digging for years without any movement underground, clearly indicating that the creature was cunning and unwilling to reveal itself. However, upon discovering the ring, it finally couldn't resist and began to fight with Wei Yuan for it.

Wei Yuan assessed the weight in his hand; it was roughly equivalent to two or three Perfected Realm cultivators struggling against the other side. This evil creature was quite powerful and rather… valuable.

While wrestling with it, Wei Yuan quickly consulted relevant materials and then regretfully discovered that the Taichu Palace did not seem to have any good ways of developing and utilizing evil spirits in its history.

But Wei Yuan was somewhat unwilling to give up, and felt that what the predecessors could not do, the people of today might be able to do as well. So he broadened his thinking a bit, generated a number of tasks, and then assigned them to others.

The task was distributed, and in the blink of an eye, the bustling world of all realms offered a choice: the immortal alchemy technique, "The Primordial Chaos Refining Treasure Mirror." This alchemy technique originated from the Xu family of the Eastern Jin Dynasty, and Xu Youyi was a master of this technique.

The methods of immortals are all about the profound and mysterious. The name of this alchemical text contains terms like "Primordial Chaos," "Myriad Transformations," and "Heavenly Refinement," which means that anything can be used as an ingredient for alchemy, and all living beings can be refined. As for what can be refined, it depends on the will of Heaven and one's own character.

Whether it was fate or his own character, Wei Yuan had little confidence. However, at least he had a viable refining method.

However, this alchemy technique is divided into four parts, and even Xu Henshui only learned the first two. He will only be qualified to read the last two parts when he truly returns to the Xu family and takes power.

However, there's no rush for now. This evil spirit can't be easily destroyed; we need to deal with it slowly.

However, this general outline of alchemy greatly inspired Wei Yuan. He realized that all things and living beings are useful; it's just a matter of how to develop them. Upon seeing this outline, Wei Yuan felt as if he had found a kindred spirit.

Now that he had tested the evil spirit's strength, Wei Yuan stopped wasting time and, with a wave of his hand, sent thousands of people flying down, casting them along the fishing line into the depths of the ancestral mountain. The evil spirit let out a deafening scream and slowly sank into the depths of the ground, never daring to show its face again. And the ring, under Wei Yuan's full force, finally detached from his finger bone and appeared out of thin air before him. The original hundreds-of-foots-long immortal ring transformed into a small circle and fell into his hand.

This ring is of a unique material and has an ancient design. The band is made of white bone, and it feels warm and smooth to the touch, like jade, yet it also exudes a chilling aura. Seven skulls are arranged in a row on it, but only the central one resembles a human, with high brow bones and a pearly sheen on its forehead. It exudes an aura of uprightness and peace, and its face is the most dignified. The three skulls on each side are from different races, lifelike and each with its own vitality, basically covering the main races of this world.

Over a thousand years have passed, and the ring's original spirit has long since disappeared. All seven skulls are damaged to varying degrees, with one nearly completely destroyed.

The moment Wei Yuan's divine sense made contact, Dao power poured out like flowing water, causing the overall level to drop slightly. At this moment, a dense array of runes lit up on the ring's body, one of which glowed faintly, indicating that it had been refined, while the remaining tens of thousands of runes remained completely still.

Wei Yuan's total Dao power at this time was extraordinary, even surpassing that of ordinary immortals. However, Dao power is not the same as immortal power, and the difference in rank meant that the divine effects were far inferior.

But at this moment, Wei Yuan has the blessing of the Seven Cave Heavens and the presence of the Six True Spirits. Various wonders have sprung up in his Dao power, which is no less than ordinary immortal power. How come he only refined one rune after investing a full ten percent of his Dao power?
Based on this, wouldn't it take Wei Yuan hundreds of years to refine this ring?
Wei Yuan calmed himself down and used another ten percent of his Dao power to refine the second rune.

This time he finally realized that each rune was a separate formation, several runes formed a higher-level formation, and then several higher-level formations together formed an even higher-level formation, and so on upwards, until the entire ring became a large formation.

As Wei Yuan's refined Dao power entered, it was dispersed and transformed layer by layer by the great formation. Most of it dispersed into the world, while a small portion was transformed into the primordial energy of heaven and earth and stored within the ring. Ninety-nine percent of Wei Yuan's Dao power was absorbed by the immortal ring, so he could only refine one rune at a time.

Wei Yuan immediately recognized the power of this grand formation. If attacked by immortal techniques, the formation could dissipate most of the power, then convert a small portion into his own magical power, which he would store within his ring. This single function alone made it a top-tier magical artifact for immortal combat.

To break this formation, one must first observe the changes in all the runes and deduce the miniature formation sealed within them. Then, one must deduce the relationships between the various levels of formations, reverse-engineer the formation diagram, and then break it. Breaking it is actually not difficult; the required knowledge of formations and mathematics is only three levels higher than Wei Yuan's current level.

The artificer who crafted this ring was so skilled in array formations that he would probably rank among the top immortals of his time.

However, Wei Yuan preferred to decipher formations that were ingeniously designed and demonstrated his mathematical prowess. Simple formations offered no challenge and did not showcase his skill.

So Wei Yuan sat up straight, placed the recording ball, and pretended to be deep in thought. After recording a short segment, Wei Yuan stopped the recording ball, and then a light of human fortune shone from his fingertip!

Countless people channeled their light into white streams, which, under their influence, caused the great array on the immortal ring to crumble and disintegrate layer by layer.

Wei Yuan had long discovered that while human luck wasn't very useful in other areas, it was exceptionally effective when dealing with immortal power. If the array on this immortal ring were to be cleansed by the luck of one's Dao foundation or Dharma form, the effect would probably only be half that of an equivalent amount of human luck.

The sea of ​​clouds formed from human energy in Wei Yuan's mental world surged and churned, visibly shrinking and thinning. Wei Yuan remained unmoved, continuing to wash over it. Finally, when the sea of ​​clouds was nearly half gone, the entire immortal ring suddenly shone brightly, and countless images appeared around it.

Humans were driven in droves, spreading across the mountains and plains, constantly being thrown into the battlefield, only to be swallowed up by the battle lines. Then, thick blood mist rose from the battle formation, with countless vengeful spirits appearing and disappearing within it. At this moment, an invisible hand descended from the sky, absorbing all the blood and souls in one palm.

Millions of Wu tribesmen sat on the ground, surrounding the nine sacrificial altars in the center. As the altars activated, nine pillars of light shot straight into the sky, piercing the heavens. At that moment, all the Wu tribesmen died, their souls leaving their bodies! A gigantic maw appeared in the center of the pillars of light, swallowing up hundreds of millions of souls in one gulp!

In the depths of the sea, countless bizarre sea creatures gathered, engaged in a fierce and desperate battle. At the center were the Sea Li tribe, numbering in the tens of millions. On the outer perimeter, at least dozens of other strange races, in countless numbers, were besieging the Sea Li tribe.

Every moment, countless corpses rise to the surface or sink to the bottom. And this sea is now a kaleidoscope of colors, indistinguishable whether it is the seawater or the blood of various races that makes it so.

……

Various scenes, different races, all equally breathtaking!
A sentence suddenly popped into Wei Yuan's mind:

All living beings are like ants, but the sage shepherds them.

(End of this chapter)