Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 474 Research
During these training sessions, the Heavenly Prince's Dao heart has been tempered considerably and is much firmer than before. Although it is still not a strong point, it is at least no longer a weakness.

Therefore, he is now only one hurdle away from attaining enlightenment, which is the Emperor's mark deeply imprinted within him.

The bloodline of the Immortal Emperor is the source of his power, but it is also his greatest limitation. If he wants to attain enlightenment, he must break through this limitation.

All princes and imperial sons face this dilemma. The reason why it is difficult for a single lineage to produce two emperors is twofold: firstly, it is difficult for later generations to surpass the paths of their predecessors, and secondly, it is difficult to break free from the imprints of their predecessors.

To avoid this problem, most ancient emperors and great emperors would try to avoid contact with their most outstanding children and seal them away for future generations before their own Dao imprints had a significant impact on them.

In this way, they can focus on how to break through the inheritance of their parents and forge their own path, and the influence of the bloodline imprint is reduced to a very low level.

The Immortal Emperor naturally took this into consideration as well. Therefore, when he was teaching the Emperor's son how to cultivate, he did not pass on his Dao and Dharma to the Immortal Emperor. Instead, like his own master, the Boundless Great Heavenly Venerable, he only taught him excellent foundation-building scriptures, allowing him to first walk his own path.

After the Emperor's son had his own path and methods, the Immortal Emperor passed on his scriptures and supernatural powers to him, allowing him to further his cultivation.

As for the Emperor's Mark, the Immortal Emperor deliberately did not separate it.

With his methods, separating the imperial mark that affects the prince would not be difficult, but this was a test he deliberately left to temper the prince.

The later Victorious Fighting Emperor had a younger brother, who was also the uncle of the Holy Prince, the Victorious Fighting Buddha. Although he was extremely talented, he was suppressed by his older brother's Great Dao Mark and remained stuck in the Great Saint Realm for thousands of years.

However, he ultimately succeeded in stripping the Great Dao Imprint of the Fighting Saint Emperor from his body, directly severing its influence on him, thus forming a Dao Body that manifested the form of the Fighting Saint Emperor, with almost the same combat power as his original body.

Having achieved this, the Victorious Fighting Buddha would no longer be influenced by his elder brother. If his lifespan and circumstances allowed, he could advance rapidly like other prodigies with the potential to become emperors, ultimately attaining enlightenment.

Therefore, if the Emperor's son wants to attain enlightenment, he should ideally also reach this stage.

However, the Undying Emperor is stronger than the Fighting Saint Emperor, so his Great Dao Imprint will be more powerful than the Fighting Saint Emperor's Imprint that the Fighting Buddha has to overcome.

Since his previous failure to attain enlightenment, the Emperor's son had been trying to figure out how to do it. However, the Emperor's mark was so deeply ingrained that he found it difficult to shake.

In this attempt to attain enlightenment, the Emperor's son not only hoped to successfully break through the mark, but also prepared to use the failure as an opportunity to pry open the Emperor's mark and try to peel it off.

The Heavenly Emperor took a deep breath, triggering the great tribulation of attaining enlightenment once again.

A sea of ​​lightning rolled down from the sky. It seemed that the human universe had a memory of the Heavenly Emperor's son, who had repeatedly tried to attain enlightenment and failed each time, and knew that other great calamities could not affect him.

Since the Heavenly Emperor's son wasn't bearing someone else's Great Dao imprint and wanted to break through all the myriad paths to prove his Dao, he couldn't directly trigger the highest-level Undying Medicine Immortal Tribulation. Therefore, this great tribulation didn't even go through the proper procedures and quickly fast-forwarded to the Undying Heavenly Emperor's imprint taking form.

As the Emperor's son and the Emperor's Mark in the sea of ​​thunder clashed, the Undying Heavenly Blade quietly reappeared.

The Immortal Emperor has been in Nirvana for nearly 100,000 years, but there is still no sign of him waking up. It will probably take tens of thousands more years before he can succeed.

Therefore, it was once again the Undying Heavenly Blade who came to look after the Heavenly Prince to prevent any accidents from happening.

Of course, the Undying Heavenly Blade itself is only barely a celestial weapon, so its own fully revived power is not enough. Therefore, if a real problem arises, it will still have to rely on the few divine abilities left behind by the Undying Heavenly Emperor.

Although the Emperor's son's tribulation was becoming increasingly grand, and his battle with the Emperor's Mark was earth-shattering, he only fared slightly better than before and failed to break through the Emperor's Mark. However, this time, the deity of the Undying Heavenly Blade was quite satisfied.

Although the Heavenly Prince still failed, he had overcome his problem with his Dao heart and had begun to truly embark on the path of enlightenment.

The original Emperor's Mark becomes more active and powerful than normal due to the Emperor's son's Dao heart problem, making it difficult for the Emperor's son to defeat it. This is also a kind of mental tribulation.

However, the Emperor's son no longer regards the Immortal Emperor as a god, but rather as his goal and guide. Therefore, the Emperor's Mark has returned to its normal state and is no longer invincible.

However, even with a normal Emperor's Mark, the Emperor's son was no match for the Immortal Emperor's former power, so he still failed this time.

However, through this great calamity, the Emperor's son finally managed to unlock the Emperor's mark engraved deep within his bloodline and origin.

In the years to come, he will gradually work his way up, stripping the Emperor's mark from his body, thus clearing away all obstacles to his path to enlightenment.

Seeing that the Heavenly Emperor's son was finally on the right track, the Undying Heavenly Blade quietly left without interfering in any affairs.

Although the Heavenly Emperor's son, who had fallen from the sky onto an abandoned ancient star, suffered even more severe injuries than before, his heart was filled with joy.

After two lifetimes, he finally saw a glimmer of hope for success.

So, the Heavenly Emperor's son, forcing himself to break through the void, returned to Purple Mountain and began healing and ascetic training.

Although the failure of the Heavenly Emperor's son to attain enlightenment was perceived by countless people, not many people knew that the person who failed to attain enlightenment was the Heavenly Emperor's son who had failed many times before, because there were not many powerful cultivators at this time.

Time flies, and more than a thousand years have passed in the blink of an eye. The nine-thousand-year-old Heavenly Emperor has repaired all his Dao injuries and recovered once again.

But as he himself predicted, his peak ended after he turned eight thousand years old, and he began to decline steadily.

Although the decline was not significant due to its celestial phoenix bloodline, it was still noticeable.

However, with the Nine-Turn Immortal Pill as a safety net, the Heavenly Emperor's son was not worried that he would never have another chance to attain enlightenment.

Right now, he needs to focus all his energy on how to separate the Emperor's mark from his body.

After the Crown Prince became engrossed in researching the Separation of the Emperor's Mark, time began to fly by once again.

Soon, another two thousand years passed.

The eleven-year-old prince had finally reached his twilight years and only had one or two hundred years left to live.

Although he repaired his Dao injury with the help of his bloodline and replenished himself with various rare and precious materials from the Divine Dynasty, he still inevitably lost nearly a thousand years of his lifespan, so he could not live to be twelve thousand years old.

However, at this point, he finally had a clear direction on how to separate the Emperor's mark.

(End of this chapter)