Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 727 Second Generation
At the age of five thousand, Emperor Yuan reached his peak. Apart from those reclusive powerhouses who had embarked on the path of immortality in the mortal world and a few earth immortals, he was virtually invincible.

But Emperor Yuan was not complacent; on the contrary, he felt a great sense of urgency. In his more than two thousand years of cultivation, he had become even more aware of the difficulty of the path to transformation.

Although he devoted most of his energy to developing his own clan and making the Primordial Lake lineage grow stronger, he still spent a lot of time and energy comprehending the Primordial Immortal Scripture and the mysteries of this gourd vine.

Emperor Yuan even conducted some research on the immortal transformation method that the ancient celestial venerable had once tried.

During this process, Emperor Yuan fully realized that the difficulty of achieving immortality was indeed something that only those of them who had attained enlightenment could accomplish by exerting all their strength.

Therefore, Emperor Yuan quickly left the Primordial Lake and returned to the Primordial Ancient Mine to further his cultivation. After all, he could only succeed in comprehending the Primordial Immortal Scripture within the Primordial Ancient Mine.

Moreover, if this gourd vine can take root in the Primordial Ancient Road and grow continuously with the help of the primordial power of this wondrous place, then the Primordial Emperor can also use the power of the Primordial Immortal Scripture to resonate with the primordial power absorbed by it, thereby comprehending the mysteries within the gourd vine more quickly and further deducing methods to advance himself to a higher level.

And so time flew by, and in the blink of an eye, ten thousand years had passed, and the lifespan of the first Emperor Yuan came to an end.

Fifteen thousand years—this is the maximum lifespan that the Primordial Emperor could achieve without relying on the power of the Primordial Ancient Mine to replenish himself. Among ordinary Dao Proving beings, this lifespan is actually considered quite remarkable.

During this period of cultivation, Yuanhuang further perfected his Dao and Dharma, completed the cultivation of the Primordial Immortal Scripture, and also made some progress in comprehending the gourd immortal vine.

This Immortal-Slaying Gourd, which far surpasses ordinary supreme imperial weapons but could not unleash its full power due to the lack of a deity, was continuously repaired by the Yuan Emperor and began to regenerate its own deity, becoming the Yuan Emperor's weapon.

Perhaps it was because he resembled that ancient celestial being, or perhaps it was because of his research on the gourd vine and his experience in refining his own gourd; in any case, the Immortal-Slaying Gourd almost became another of Emperor Yuan's natal magic treasures.

Everything seemed to be moving in a better direction, but Emperor Yuan did not feel relieved; instead, he felt even more urgent.

In his later years, Emperor Yuan did not use the Primordial Immortal Scripture to draw upon the power of the Primordial Ancient Mine to prolong his life. Instead, he relied on the divine medicine, the Gourd Immortal Vine, to live a second life before leaving the Primordial Ancient Mine.

After returning to the Primordial Lake after a long absence, Emperor Yuan immediately perfected the Imperial Dao Array Patterns he had left behind, and also left behind his further improved Yuan Emperor Scripture and some other secret techniques he created afterward.

After that, he summoned the current patriarch of the Primordial Lake lineage.

Ten thousand years ago, when he left the Primordial Lake, he ordered the Primordial Lake lineage to do its utmost to find the various legends left behind by the Gourd Immortal Vine, and to find out where the other gourds that grew on the vine were located.

Inspired by that ancient celestial being, and having also conducted in-depth research on the Immortal-Slaying Gourd and refined it into his own magic weapon, one of his goals was to gather the other six gourds so that his Yuanhuang Gourd could also undergo an evolution similar to the Immortal-Slaying Gourd.

Furthermore, if he could gather all seven fully mature gourds nurtured by this immortal vine over countless years and study and refine them, he could use this to advance his research on the gourd vine itself. Naturally, the Primordial Lake lineage did their utmost to obey the orders of their ancestor, who was now the emperor of the era. They searched tirelessly for millennia, eventually finding the whereabouts of three of the gourds. The others remained either unclear or difficult to locate.

However, only one of the three gourds was unclaimed, sealed in an ancient tomb of unknown age. It was obtained by breaking open the tomb with a secret artifact left by the Primordial Lake lineage's Emperor Chiyuan. The other two gourds were owned.

As members of the current royal family, in this situation, all we need to do is offer them an irresistible deal to exchange for their goods; even murder and robbery are not out of the question.

However, Emperor Yuan was a person with a relatively high moral standard, so he specifically ordered the Yuanshi Lake lineage to only investigate the whereabouts of such individuals and not to contact them without authorization.

After all, when faced with the imperial family under the protection of the Yuan Emperor, few dare to refuse, no matter what conditions they offer.

After obtaining all the information gathered from the Primordial Lake lineage, Emperor Yuan felt a sense of relief. This result had far exceeded his expectations.

With this information, unless these gourds are also in some kind of ancient mine, he could deduce the whereabouts of all the other gourds in a very short time by using the aura of the gourd vine and his own gourd.

The first Emperor Yuan did not search for these gourds, mainly because he did not want to waste time. Now, he has a very deep understanding of gourds and gourd vines, and with the various information gathered from the Primordial Lake lineage, he can easily find their whereabouts, saving a lot of time.

Moreover, even if the previous Emperor Yuan found these gourds, he would have had little time and energy to refine them. Now, although his time is still tight, refining these gourds has become part of his cultivation, so he can now manage both.

Then, Emperor Yuan began to deduce the whereabouts of the other five gourds. Fortunately, although some of these gourds had already been refined, they had not become supreme imperial weapons. As long as Emperor Yuan cleansed them, he could restore them to their original form, thus facilitating his cultivation and refinement.

After giving a detailed sermon at the Primordial Lake, the Emperor Yuan traveled to various parts of the universe to collect the five gourds.

Emperor Yuan naturally offered generous rewards to the two gourds that already had owners, thus successfully acquiring them.

As for the other three gourds, one was in an ancient battlefield, long since lost without a trace, and was obtained entirely through the deduction of the Yuan Emperor; the other accidentally fell into a chaotic divine land that was already on the verge of extinction and was retrieved by the Yuan Emperor.

The last gourd floated in the void and was obtained by the Yuan Emperor.

The origin of this gourd is quite peculiar. Yuan Huang could deduce its whereabouts, but he could not deduce how it appeared. Recalling some inside information he had obtained from the Immortal Emperor, Yuan Huang immediately thought that it was very likely that this gourd originally belonged to a great supernatural being in the human universe, who knew that he was searching for this item and specially gifted it to him.

So the Emperor bowed to the void and said, "Thank you for your kindness, senior."

(End of this chapter)