Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 173 An Alternative Method to Become an Immortal

Before the Boundless Dao Stele could even boast about its achievements to the other immortal artifacts, it found that the scenery before its eyes had changed, and an immortal pool came into view.

It turned out that Liang Yu had woken up from his seclusion at some point and had taken it in his hand.

Wuliang Daobei hurriedly said, "Great Heavenly Venerable, I did not mean to disturb your seclusion. Please forgive me this time."

Liang Yu shook his head and said, "No, you didn't affect me. I just wanted to see you."

As he spoke, his gaze pierced through the celestial artifact body of the Boundless Dao Stele, revealing all its inner secrets.

The Boundless Dao Stele was secretly alarmed. Even as a celestial artifact, it was still powerless against the Boundless Great Celestial Venerable. This Boundless Great Celestial Venerable was far too terrifying.

Liang Yu said, "Now that you have become a celestial artifact, do you have any plans?"

The Boundless Dao Stele said, "I wish to continue the path of Lord Boundless and prove that his path is not wrong. Please, Great Heavenly Venerable, guide me."

Upon hearing this, Liang Yu couldn't help but sigh, "Although the Boundless Heavenly Venerable has already passed away, he can rest in peace knowing that he has a successor like you."

The Boundless Dao Stele was suddenly overcome by a surge of divine sense, a complex emotion mixed with sadness and joy welling up within it. If it were a living being, this single sentence would probably have brought it to tears on the spot.

After all, even the Boundless Heavenly Venerable who created it completely abandoned his original path and placed all his hopes on the new life beneath Thunder Swamp that had abandoned everything.

Since he abandoned his former path, it also meant abandoning the Boundless Dao Stele, his highest achievement. In other words, the Boundless Heavenly Venerable himself did not recognize it, or rather, never even considered it as his successor.

But now, the Boundless Heavenly Venerable has recognized it and even called it the successor of the Boundless Heavenly Venerable.

This greatly alleviated the existential crisis of the Boundless Dao Stele. After all, it had previously only been propped up by an indomitable spirit, wanting to prove that it could also achieve immortality by continuing the path of the "Soldier's Secret," hence its urgent desire to become a celestial artifact. This is precisely why it lost its composure so quickly after its initial success.

On the surface, it seems to be merely negating the final decision of the Boundless Heavenly Venerable, like a rebellious child, but in reality, it is reaffirming the meaning of its own existence. However, no matter what it does, the Boundless Heavenly Venerable will not come back to life or acknowledge it.

Although Liang Yu is not the Boundless Heavenly Venerable, he is the first person in this era at least millions of years ago, so his recognition is naturally of high value and enough to soothe its soul.

The Boundless Dao Stele said, "Great Heavenly Venerable, without you, I would have had no hope of success. Your kindness to me is like giving me a second life."

Liang Yu said, "It's not really true. After all, I've gained a lot of different insights from you, and it's a win-win situation for both of us. You just asked me how to continue the path of the 'Military Secret' of the Boundless Heavenly Venerable. I have two ideas."

"Firstly, you can detach yourself from the immortal artifact and transform into human form. Then, by re-cultivating the Boundless Heavenly Technique and the Secret of the Art of War, you can derive new methods to prove the Dao again. For example, you can refer to the method of the Boundless Heavenly Venerable in refining the Dao Embryo to refine your body using the method of refining artifacts, so as to continuously strengthen yourself; you can even inscribe array patterns in your body to cultivate the five great secret realms."

This idea naturally originated from Yu Feng, who was born from the spirit of the Origin Cauldron of All Things and was one of the six members of the second generation of the Heavenly Court in the original timeline.

It's unclear whether this is due to the unique nature of the Myriad Origin Cauldron or simply the extraordinary nature of all immortal artifacts of this level. In any case, Yu Feng, born from the spirit of the Myriad Origin Cauldron, was able to achieve Dao despite the suppression of the Heavenly Heart Mark. This is a characteristic originally reserved for Chaotic Bodies, yet Yu Feng possesses it as well. Even those with innate Sacred Bodies, Dao Embryos, the transformation of the Elixir of Immortality, and true Immortal Phoenixes do not possess such abilities.

Even more remarkably, Yu Feng could compete with Wang Bo, a Chaos Body cultivator who had undergone a complete rebirth, and the two fought until they were eight hundred years old before ending in a draw.

To be able to fight to a draw with a Chaos Body, especially one that had been rebuilt after becoming an Emperor, is an absurdly impressive feat.

Therefore, Liang Yu had originally considered transforming these immortal artifacts into humans, creating several immortal embryos comparable to the Chaos Body, but they might not be willing. After all, this involved transforming immortal artifacts into mortals with finite lifespans.

Although the Boundless Dao Stele has only recently become a Celestial Artifact, it still has considerable room for growth. Once Liang Yu spends tens of thousands of years assisting it in further evolution, it may not be weaker than the Celestial Bell, the Desolate Tower, or the Bronze Celestial Palace.

As for how to transform into human form, it can only be said that the Boundless Dao Stele, which is almost like an alternate life form, is much easier to transform into human form than other immortal artifacts. This is not a problem for Liang Yu.

At that time, with the great boost brought by this innate talent, the Boundless Dao Stele may be able to surpass the Boundless Heavenly Venerable, truly taking his path to a whole new height and giving rise to unprecedented changes, such as the method of using the body as a weapon that Liang Yu mentioned.

Seeing the Boundless Dao Stele deep in thought, Liang Yu continued, "Secondly, you can maintain your current form and continue to evolve, exploring a completely new method of cultivation to become a higher-level immortal artifact, or even a new species of immortal artifact."

If the Boundless Dao Stele wants to explore a new and complete evolutionary path in its own evolutionary process, then perhaps the ancient scriptures of the Evolved Immortal Realm obtained from the Nine Dragons Pulling the Coffin can serve as its reference. As long as it can find the parts of these ancient scriptures that can be used for its own evolution, it may be able to truly create an evolutionary method belonging to its special type of immortal artifact.

At that time, it might even truly become a magical artifact life form, forming its own race, and eventually evolving into a higher-level immortal artifact, truly immortal.

The Boundless Dao Stele said, "Then, according to the Great Heavenly Venerable, how should I choose?"

Liang Yu laughed and said, "Of course, I want them all."

Yes, the two opinions put forward by Liang Yu can actually be reconciled. As long as the spirit of the Boundless Dao Stele first takes human form, and then continues to cultivate and prove the Dao, and does its best to reforge its old stele into its own treasure for proving the Dao.

Then, through the method of merging the primordial spirit with the Dao weapon, or some other method, it combines its current human body with the monument body of its previous life to form a completely new and special life form, and creates a cultivation method suitable for this kind of special life form, evolving the ultimate divine weapon into a celestial artifact.

Flesh and blood are weak and frail, but magical treasures ascend to immortality! This can be considered an alternative way to become an immortal.

Moreover, if it can achieve this, it will not only prove that the Dao of the Boundless Heavenly Venerable has merit, but it may even create an alternative method of becoming an immortal.

After all, the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor of later generations once used the method of merging his primordial spirit with the Dao weapon to transform himself into a special life form, but he would face the dilemma of his consciousness sinking and turning into a weapon.

If the method created by the Boundless Dao Stele can solve this problem, perhaps beings like the Blood Phoenix Ancient Emperor can truly become such special life forms to avoid the problem of consciousness sinking, and continuously cultivate through this alternative method of becoming an immortal, becoming an immortal artifact, or even an artifact of a higher level.

In this way, future Dao-proving cultivators might be able to primarily refine Dao-proving treasures during their cultivation. After achieving Dao, they could merge with these treasures, transforming their primordial spirit into a special life form. Through this method, they could continuously evolve into magical artifacts, becoming truly immortal immortal weapons, thus achieving immortality in a different way.

(End of this chapter)