Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 53 Yinghuo
As Liang Yu calculated the location of the ancient star, he began to walk, and soon he locked onto a location.

As countless galaxies receded, Liang Yu traversed a vast expanse of space and arrived before a star field. Although this place contained a great many stars, they were mostly devoid of life, with only two ancient, vast stars radiating an imposing aura and burgeoning vitality.

The smaller one, entirely red, is the ancient star Yinghuo, also known as Mars. The other, entirely blue, is the primordial ancient star, Liang Yu's destination, which is Earth in the world of the Shrouding the Heavens universe. This is also the hometown of the Emperor and Ye Fan.

Looking around, Liang Yu discovered that the ancient star Yinghuo was still quite prosperous, a stark contrast to its desolate state in later generations. Although it wasn't among the top-tier ancient stars with life, it wasn't bad in the universe. At least it was stronger than Ziwei Star before Liang Yu used his great supernatural powers to restore it.

The decline of the ancient star Yinghuo was actually the work of two celestial emperors.

First was the Emperor, who, after conquering Kunlun Immortal Mountain, used the Ninety-Nine Dragon Mountain with the Underworld Lord to refine the Origin Cauldron of All Things. Along the way, they absorbed the essence of countless ancient life stars, turning them into dead stars.

The ancient planet Yinghuo was among the last to be victimized, as its final destination was the ancient primordial planet, the home of the Emperor. One could only say it was simply because it happened to be located next to the ancient primordial planet.

However, these two ancient stars are so close together that the Emperor might have had dealings with the cultivators here in his early days. It's hard to say whether the Emperor did it on purpose.

They were neighbors after all, yet the Emperor showed no mercy. Well, he did show some mercy, since he didn't turn Yinghuo into a dead star outright; given enough time, it could be restored.

As the saying goes, misfortunes never come singly. This ancient star, Yinghuo, had not yet fully recovered from this great calamity when it attracted the Immortal Emperor.

He used the Immortal Bell and the Path to Immortality to instigate a massive ancient war of gods.

In this war of the gods, the ancient races suffered a great calamity and were severely weakened. The Emperor's Ascension Cauldron was shattered, and ancient artifacts such as the Human Emperor Seal and the Immortal-Slaying Gourd also suffered varying degrees of damage.

Even more tragically, in this process, ancient emperors who had sealed off their own forbidden zones perished, and supreme beings fell.

The Undying Emperor, hidden in the shadows, accumulated enough imperial flesh and blood during this divine war, allowing himself to undergo another rebirth and transformation. Although he left behind no immortal bell, he was already the biggest winner.

It can be said that this great battle severed the life of the ancient star Yinghuo, turning it into a completely dead star in the years that followed.

The original main body of the ancient star Yinghuo was sealed in a mausoleum, burying an era, and could only be entered through the North Sea Eye.

However, since the Emperor has not yet been born, the ancient star Yinghuo is still intact.

But Liang Yu sensed a familiar aura from the ancient star Yinghuo, which came from the Boundless Heavenly Venerable who had preceded him.

Why would the Boundless Heavenly Venerable set up an array here? Could it be that he comes from the ancient star Yinghuo? Or did he know that this place is relatively close to a strange world?
Liang Yu frowned. He decided to leave the ancient star of the Primordial Era aside for the time being and instead headed to the ancient star of Mars.

He opened his Mysterious Eye and Origin Heaven Divine Eye and looked into the depths of the void, where indeed, there were rays of Arctic Immortal Light hidden within. This was a node on the path to immortality.

However, Liang Yu didn't sense any aura of the strange world. Could it be because the strange world hadn't yet approached this place?
Liang Yu used the Desolate Tower to suppress the void and obscure the secrets of heaven. He punched the broken point, and a chaotic hole appeared, from which immortal light spread out. The Desolate Tower trembled, absorbing the scattered immortal light.

Liang Yu stepped inside and walked forward along the existing section for a while, and then he realized the reason.

This path to immortality is too short; it was almost a brief attempt before it ended. It's highly likely that the Immortal Emperor himself discovered a strange world nearby while exploring this path.

Therefore, if Liang Yu continues to explore along this route, he will be able to discover a strange world.

However, just to be on the safe side, Liang Yu still gave it a try. He condensed his power into a single point and, simulating the Heaven-Slaying Sword Technique of the Celestial Venerable Lingbao, created a tiny hole in the path to immortality. Liang Yu used his Mysterious Eye to observe through this hole and confirmed the existence of the strange world. In an instant, the hole healed and disappeared.

Indeed, forging a path to immortality is no easy feat. Although Liang Yu can conquer strange worlds, this process will inevitably generate astonishing momentum, making it difficult to conceal.

However, he didn't want to enter this place yet, so he quietly withdrew. With the desolate tower there, he didn't disturb anyone.

During this process, Liang Yu also sensed the aura of the Boundless Heavenly Venerable on the path to immortality. However, he obviously left after discovering that this path to immortality was just a failed attempt, without discovering any deeper secrets.

Liang Yu did not interfere further. Now that it was confirmed that this place was a gateway to the strange world, he could rest assured. Many of his ideas required this place to be realized.

Most importantly, this is also a fallback plan. If Liang Yu's path to immortality in the mortal world becomes unsustainable, he can retreat to the next best option and enter the strange world.

However, this was not the main point of his trip.

Liang Yu arrived at the blue ancient star next to the ancient star Yinghuo, which was his target this time.

At this time, the ancient star had not yet produced the Heavenly Emperor-level figure, Emperor Zun, but it already contained astonishing Daoist principles and laws. The territory of this ancient star was even more vast than the Big Dipper.

Liang Yu sensed three supreme auras from this ancient star, originating from different array patterns of the three Heavenly Venerables.

The first and oldest, and most powerful, formation belongs to the Celestial Venerable of Morality. Liang Yu, with a cursory glance, knew that this formation had likely existed for over a million years.

After all, the Celestial Venerable of Morality was a Celestial Venerable from a very early period in the mythological era, so the array patterns he set up were naturally ancient enough. However, even after so many years, Liang Yu could still see that his strength back then was absolutely extraordinary.

The second aura was also familiar; it was the Boundless Heavenly Venerable who had left traces on the ancient star Yinghuo, and who had also left his array patterns on the ancient star Honghuang.

Ye Fan, a man from a later generation, once speculated that Emperor Fuxi was a spirit communicating with the corpse of an ancient celestial deity. Now, the various signs that Liang Yu has seen seem to point to the Boundless Celestial Venerable as the candidate.

However, although Emperor Fuxi was not well-known and had few deeds, his path was completely different from that of Wuliang Tianzun, who proved his Dao through treasures. Therefore, Liang Yu was not sure about this.

But now it seems that this is indeed the most likely scenario. After all, of the three supreme auras on the ancient primordial star, only his whereabouts are unknown.

The last one also came from an acquaintance, namely Lingbao Tianzun.

Judging from his aura, the Lingbao Celestial Venerable who came to this place should only be in his first incarnation.

Considering that the ancient star was an excellent place to raise corpses, perhaps Lingbao set up the array patterns because he was afraid that the underworld would discover this place.

He might even have just been passing through and hadn't had time to examine the interior closely. After all, Lingbao Tianzun was indeed busy quelling the chaos caused by the corpse calamity at the time.

Perhaps that's why he didn't discover the true form of the Celestial Venerable of Morality, and even when he met Liang Yu, he still couldn't confirm whether the Celestial Venerable of Morality was alive or dead.

(End of this chapter)