Shrouding the Heavens: The Ultimate Daoist Venerable

Chapter 732 Divine Punishment
From this perspective, it seems that Yuanhuang's method, apart from not using a special Dao imprint but rather an imperfect divine embryo nurtured by the essence of immortality, is not much different from the method used by the Daoist Celestial Venerable to generate a divine embryo through the Bodhi tree. However, Yuanhuang's method actually contains other mysteries.

Ultimately, the Yuanhuang's method still largely referenced the methods of the Earth Immortals and the method of the Yuanshen Merging with the Dao. Therefore, the Yuanhuang's method is not simply about relying on the gourd vine to help his divine embryo grow; this is only the first stage.

After the divine embryo of the Yuan Emperor is conceived and formed, he will maintain this state and continue to improve himself according to the laws of the gourd vine. At the same time, he will consciously evolve the gourd vine according to what he has gained, making it stronger than before, so as to achieve mutual benefit and common progress.

Therefore, the gourd vine only serves as a converter and transfer station, and can only function as a tool vine during the period before the Yuanhuang Divine Embryo completes its growth.

Of course, during this process, the Primordial Emperor's Divine Embryo cannot absorb all the divine power to evolve itself. Some divine power will remain, so the Gourd Immortal Vine can still benefit from it and continue to evolve, just at a slower pace.

Even so, this efficiency is far superior to it taking root in the Primordial Ancient Mine and absorbing its primordial power itself. Therefore, even in the most disadvantageous first stage, the gourd vine can still gain significant benefits.

It can only be said that Emperor Yuan was indeed a kind person. Even with the divine medicine, which was not very intelligent and could hardly be considered a highly intelligent life form, he still maintained a mutually beneficial attitude and did not completely exploit it.

After the Emperor's condition stabilized, his Immortal-Slaying Gourd and God-Destroying Gourd no longer guarded the array patterns surrounding him, but instead came to the gourd vine and connected with it.

Although according to the transformation method envisioned by Emperor Yuan, he should not be at risk of exploding and dying, just in case, and most importantly, not to disturb the cultivation of the Undying Emperor, Emperor Yuan specially arranged multiple array patterns, with the Immortal-Slaying Gourd and the God-Destroying Gourd each guarding one side, to seal him and the gourd vine within.

However, after Emperor Yuan succeeded, the two gourds naturally completed their mission and could proceed according to Emperor Yuan's original plan.

The Seven-Colored Gourd Immortal Vine has extremely special properties. When it first bears fruit, these small gourds are no different from divine medicines. As long as one refines them, one can live for a lifetime. A maximum of seven gourds can grow on the vine, after which it will stop bearing fruit.

However, this also means that it takes ten thousand years for the gourd vine to produce a gourd, instead of the five thousand years required for a normal immortal elixir.

If someone picks the seven gourds that the gourd vine has produced, it will continue to bear fruit until it has seven. However, if no one picks them within 100,000 years, the seven gourds will gradually lose their medicinal properties as divine medicine and instead become increasingly solid until they completely lose their medicinal properties and become refining materials comparable to immortal gold. Only then will the seven gourds fall off.

For these gourds to transform from divine medicine into excellent materials for refining weapons, they would require hundreds of thousands, even millions of years of accumulation to fully mature. Furthermore, even at this stage, the immortal vine would not bear any new fruit until all seven gourds had fallen off.

Therefore, it is evident that even a million years might not be enough for this gourd vine to successfully produce seven complete gourds.

Both the Immortal-Slaying Gourd and the God-Slaying Gourd are special treasures formed by collecting and fusing all seven gourds that the Gourd Immortal Vine once produced into one. Furthermore, they have undergone the refinement of the Immortal Emperor's primordial immortal fire, which possesses the power of Nirvana. Therefore, they have once again formed an extremely close connection with the Gourd Immortal Vine.

Under the various methods of the Primordial Immortal Scripture used by the Yuan Emperor, the two gourds naturally became closely connected with the Primordial Ancient Mine. Under these two connections, even though the two gourds had been separated from the gourd immortal vine for countless millennia, they could still connect with the immortal vine through the Yuan Emperor's methods, evolve together, and form a symbiotic relationship.

Thus, the transformation of the Yuan Emperor was now complete. After that, with the accumulation of time, he could emerge from it and be reborn as a human.

Under these circumstances, Emperor Yuan naturally did not expect that an old karmic debt would come back to haunt his descendants. When Liang Yu had previously exterminated the ancestral land of the Holy Spirits, Xuanqiong Divine Mountain, he did not eradicate all the Holy Spirits, but only killed those with high cultivation who had committed evil. Several Holy Spirits who had not yet been born were taken away as a result and disappeared without a trace.

By this time, most of these Holy Spirits had completely perished, leaving only three. Because those Holy Spirits who had died for various reasons had not caused any trouble, Liang Yu's murderous intent remained unmoved.

When the Yuan Emperor attained enlightenment, the most powerful of the three holy spirits emerged, attempting to seize the Yuan Emperor's Dao fruit. However, it was instead suppressed and killed on the spot, thus establishing the Yuan Emperor's supreme prestige.

The other two Holy Spirits were not yet fully realized at that time, and therefore did not come into being.

But now that the Yuan Emperor has passed away, these two Holy Spirits can no longer make any progress. So they emerged one after another and joined forces to attack the Primordial Lake. Although they are not as powerful as the Holy Spirit who was suppressed by the Yuan Emperor, they are definitely supreme-level combatants, no weaker than a typical Great Perfection Undying Golden Body.

They came for three reasons: first, to avenge their compatriot who was killed by Emperor Yuan; second, to obtain further methods from the various resources left to their descendants by this special emperor; and third, to obtain the supreme imperial weapon left by Emperor Yuan.

Amidst this life-or-death crisis, three sons of the Yuan Emperor were born. Each of them was a near-peak ninth-level Dao cultivator, possessing immense strength and extraordinary potential. However, facing two Holy Spirits whose combat power was comparable to that of a nascent, alternative Dao cultivator, the three of them were still unable to contend with them.

However, the Yuan Emperor had left behind not only the Supreme Imperial Weapon, but also other forbidden artifacts, imperial array patterns, and other means. These three Yuan Emperor princes took out these treasures and engaged in a great battle with him, ultimately forcing him to retreat.

The three princes joined forces, using their bloodlines as a catalyst to activate the remaining Yuan Emperor imprint within the Azure Gold Gourd, unleashing a Yuan Emperor Dao Sword strike comparable to that of a first or second generation Yuan Emperor. A dazzling sword light flashed past, instantly injuring the two Holy Spirits.

After that, the three princes used up most of their accumulated power and unleashed several more divine abilities of the Yuan Emperor, but they could only severely injure the two holy spirits and could not kill them.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the two holy spirits actually moved towards the ancient star with a large number of life, wanting to devour a large number of holy spirits to replenish their own strength, and then turn around to fight them. The first to bear the brunt was the Big Dipper.

Seeing this, the three princes could not bear to see the suffering of the people, and they wanted to burn their lives to summon the Great Dao Imprint of the Yuan Emperor back to suppress the Holy Spirit.

But unexpectedly, at this moment, a rumbling thunder echoed through the endless void. The killing intent that Liang Yu had released when the Yuan Emperor attained enlightenment finally came into play. He used his immortal thunder magic to create two bolts of lightning from the void, which flashed past in an instant, directly turning the two holy spirits into ashes, leaving them powerless to resist and annihilating them completely.

One of the princes, gazing at the scene in the distance, was momentarily dazed: "They're dead, which means we don't have to fight anymore."

The second prince, looking somewhat dazed, asked, "What happened?"

The third prince said, "Perhaps it is divine retribution."

(End of this chapter)