Shrouding the Heavens: Starting by joining the Holy Land of Yao Guang

Chapter 167 Archeology
Nangong Qi and the others handed over 1.5 million jin of source material in a humiliating manner, their faces full of resentment.

The source is a minor matter. 1.5 million catties of source might be an unattainable sum for an ordinary cultivator, but for the four Grandmasters of Source Techniques, each of them could easily produce more than 300,000 catties of source.

What they truly couldn't bear was the fact that they had lost the duel itself; the blow to their reputation was far more serious than the loss of over 300,000 jin of resources.

For the Source Masters, reputation is their status, and it is for this reason that the various holy lands treat them as honored guests.

Ye Fan was very particular about his actions; he returned the divine source he had cut from the Yaoguang Stone Workshop to Li Yao.

This was his initial plan; he only intended to win the bet of 1.5 million jin of ore.

But Li Yao did not accept it. The stone shop was open for business; there was no reason to return something that had been cut.

As a disciple of the Yao Guang Holy Land, he never considered handing over the treasures he found in the stone workshop.

Some things have nothing to do with personal relationships; just follow the rules.

Moreover, apart from the Holy Prince and the Divine Silkworm Princess, the items that Ye Fan and those other Source Technique Masters cut out were mostly Divine Source, worth around a million catties of Source, which wasn't considered particularly precious.

"Thank you, fellow Daoist." Inside the Yao Guang Stone Workshop, Ye Fan put away the four and a half human-head-sized pieces of divine source and sincerely expressed his gratitude.

He is indeed lacking in resources right now. He has reached the fifth level of the Dao Palace. Next, he will break through the Four Extremes Heavenly Barrier.

The Sacred Body is a huge consumer of resources; breaking through to the Four Extremes Secret Realm requires tens of millions of kilograms of resources, which is simply outrageous.

Such a huge amount is beyond the reach of most holy sites and major religions, at least not in the short term.

Ye Fan has only managed to gather three million jin of source material so far, and the goal of reaching ten million jin is still a long way off.

"No need for that. You bought the source stones, so whatever you cut out should be yours anyway," Li Yao said casually, waving his hand.

Ye Fan remained silent, having already formed his opinion of Li Yao: an upright and principled person.

After chatting for a while, Ye Fan took his leave and left Yaoguang Stone Workshop with Li Heishui.

"Holy Lord, when the Holy Prince took away the Primordial King, he said he would come to you in a while to ask about his uncle." After Ye Fan left, Liu Yang came over.

"After the battle, he just ran away. I thought he didn't care," Li Yao chuckled.

"The Fighting Holy Ape clan, though warlike, are not fools. In that situation, they would definitely try to escape first. After all, an uncle who only exists in words is not enough to make some ignorant people back down." Liu Yang could understand the Holy Prince's actions.

Li Yao nodded in agreement. Some people might be wary, but there are also those who are truly courting death, and there are probably quite a few of them.

He didn't think too much about it; after all, it wasn't his concern. He'd rather spend that time cultivating himself.

He gained a lot from this battle with the Holy Prince. The Holy Emperor's battle aura greatly improved his state of mind, bringing him to a state of perfect harmony with his body and mind, which significantly enhanced his combat power.

Firstly, the divine barrier no longer requires him to meet those prerequisites; he can enter it on his own.

Moreover, after entering the forbidden realm of gods, one can stay there for a period of time, which is a qualitative leap.

Although he could enter the forbidden realm of gods in the past, he could only stay there for a moment and had the power to strike once, which was not enough to support a major battle.

If the Divine Forbidden Strike can defeat the enemy, then everyone will be happy. But if the Divine Forbidden Strike is blocked, then things will get really messy.

In a major battle, endurance is still very important. The difference in combat power between striking with a divine barrier and staying in a divine barrier for a period of time is like heaven and earth.

Having resided in the Forbidden Domain for an extended period, he could defeat not only a supreme Saint Lord, but even a Dao-Slaying King.

After sorting out his own situation, Li Yao began to comprehend the Dao and cultivate, but after only a short while, he clearly felt the gap, which was incomparable to comprehending the Dao through the Creation Domain.

"Unfortunately, we need to attack Purple Mountain next, so we can't enter the realm of creation to comprehend it."

Once someone gets used to comprehending the Dao from a higher-dimensional perspective, they might feel like they've become less intelligent when they try to understand and cultivate the Dao on their own.

In fact, with Li Yao's current mastery of the Great Dao, even relying solely on his own cultivation, he is in no way inferior to Wang Teng's level.

However, some things are most afraid of comparison. Although he was not slow in his own cultivation, the gap was immediately apparent compared to cultivating using the Creation Domain.

Li Yao's mind was clear and lucid; this emotion appeared only for a moment before being severed, and he began to cultivate calmly.

This is one of the benefits of having a strong mind; one is not affected by external things and can stabilize one's emotions as quickly as possible, thereby achieving the best state of cultivation.

Five days passed in the blink of an eye, and the day to attack Zishan arrived. Li Yao left the palace and went to Jiangjiafang.

This time, he was invited by the Jiang family to attack Zishan, so he was alone and did not bring any experts from the Yaoguang Holy Land.

The Jiang family is different. Besides the Jiang family patriarch, there are five powerful figures, a group of elders, and countless strong individuals. Among them, there is a group of people who are very conspicuous. They are very powerful, but they are too old and have almost no chance of survival.

Li Yao sat in an ancient war chariot arranged for him by the Jiang family, looking curiously at the Holy Master of the Jiang family beside him, and asked, "Holy Master Jiang said that besides us, there are other people. I wonder who they are?"

"Besides you and me, there is also the Holy Lord of the Ji Family, the Great Xia Dynasty, and the Ancient Hua Dynasty," the Holy Lord of the Jiang Family replied.

Li Yao was slightly surprised: "These people were all invited by Holy Lord Jiang."

"That's not it. Although Fellow Daoist Yaoguang is not interested in the inheritance of the Great Emperor Wushi in Purple Mountain, the Ji family and the Great Xia Dynasty are extremely interested. I just went to persuade them, and they immediately expressed their willingness to participate. After all, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

The gathering of five imperial weapons is indeed a rare occurrence, and this is the best opportunity to break through Purple Mountain. Everyone else thinks so, so many forces have come together.

The Holy Lord of the Jiang family only mentioned the most powerful ones. In addition, there are quite a few other holy lands in the Eastern Wilderness and various schools of thought in the Central Plains.

The ancient chariots rumbled and rolled across the sky at great speed, leaving the endless mountains and rivers quickly disappearing behind them.

Soon, they encountered other people. Holy lands such as Zifu, Wanchu, and Dayan had all participated in this operation, wanting a share of the spoils.

In addition, there are the Yin-Yang Sect, the Extreme Yang Sect, and the Northern Darkness Sect in Zhongzhou, among others, with numerous masters.

Of course, the most eye-catching are the four extreme forces: the Jiang family, the Ji family, the Gu Hua family, and the Great Xia Dynasty.

On this day, the Northern Region was shaken. Countless bandits obediently hid underground, watching in astonishment as the ancient war chariots passed overhead.

The sky was rumbling; such a massive ancient chariot formation was pressing down on the heavens and earth, as if billions of thunderbolts were exploding.

Ancient events have faded with time, and the dust of history has been buried beneath the earth. This is the truest depiction of the Northern Regions.

As time went by, the once vibrant land became desolate, and the people of yesteryear became nothing but historical relics.

Today, the northern region is nothing but endless emptiness and desolation. As far as the eye can see, there is nothing on the boundless land except for a monotonous reddish-brown color.

Purple Mountain is entirely purplish-brown, as if it were polished from dull purple gold. It is heavy and solemn, reaching a height of four thousand meters. It is extremely steep, and ordinary people simply cannot climb it.

There are many knife marks and sword holes on the mountain, almost weathered and worn away, and can only be seen by careful observation.

Li Yao looked down at the land and gazed into the distance, discovering a mountain range in every direction.

"Nine mountains surround the center, forming a terrain where nine dragons guard a single pearl, a place where the creation of heaven and earth is seized!"

"Indeed extraordinary. In the previous two attacks, one of which even used half of an imperial weapon, this mountain was clearly severely damaged. Yet today's Purple Mountain is no different from when I first saw it." The Holy Master of the Jiang family was also somewhat shocked.

Li Yao was also very curious about this and wanted to understand the terrain of Zishan, so he immediately used his Origin Technique to observe it.

Under his divine eye, the nine dragon veins came to life, spewing out endless dragon energy, as if there were really nine great dragons breathing dragon energy, guarding a dragon pearl.

"A broken dragon?" Li Yao's expression shifted as he discovered that the abdomens of all nine dragon veins had been hollowed out. The dragon veins, which should have been separate entities, had now been gathered together to nurture the dragon pearl in the center.

The dragon vein in the due east direction has a black line on its belly, which clearly shows signs of damage and has disrupted the original terrain.

"What's wrong?" the Holy Master of the Jiang family asked curiously.

“A remarkable master of Origin Arts once came to this place and opened up a route that leads directly to the depths of Purple Mountain,” Li Yao said.

"What? There's a way to get into Purple Mountain!" The Holy Master of the Jiang family was shocked.

The two attacks on Zishan resulted in heavy losses for the various holy sites, and neither could gain entry. But now, Li Yao claims there is a road that leads directly to Zishan.

“That person’s mastery of Origin Arts is probably even greater than mine. The dragon vein he chose is the weakest point of the Nine Dragons Guarding the Pearl.” Li Yao said, while guessing in his heart whether this passage was made by the Origin Master or by his descendants.

There are essentially two ways to enter Purple Mountain: one is to break through Purple Mountain with overwhelming strength, and the other is to use this shortcut.

Given Master Yuan's strength, he could have simply broken through Zishan Mountain to enter without digging a tunnel. Therefore, that passage was most likely created by Master Yuan's descendants.

Of course, all of this is just speculation. Perhaps, Master Yuan wanted to enter Zishan through an easier method.

Unable to remain calm, the Holy Lord of the Jiang family left the ancient war chariot and informed the other Holy Lords of the news.

Now that there is a new option, directly attacking Zishan has become a bad idea, because to break through Zishan, one must use an ultimate imperial weapon, and once an imperial weapon is used, it will definitely collide with the Wushi Bell.

The Jiang family's Holy Lord was present during the previous two attacks on Zishan and experienced the power of the Boundless Bell. If there were any other way, he really didn't want to experience that feeling again.

Soon, everyone was shocked. They had no doubt about what the Holy Master of the Jiang family had said. "Besides his powerful cultivation, Dong Yaoguang is also a Grandmaster of Origin Arts. Finding mountains and rivers and dragon veins is as easy as eating and drinking for him. Since he said so, it must be true."

The holy lands of Zifu, Dayan, and Wanchu were devastated. They had participated in the two previous attacks on Zishan and suffered heavy losses. If they had known there were other routes, perhaps such losses could have been avoided.

"Fellow Daoist Yaoguang, where is that passage?" asked a sect leader.

The Holy Lord of the Ji Family, the Great Xia Royal Family, the Ancient Hua Emperor, and others also looked at Li Yao with great curiosity.

"Come with me," Li Yao said, then left the ancient chariot and flew towards a dragon vein.

Seeing this, the others quickly followed in Li Yao's footsteps.

The mountains are majestic and imposing, like a coiled dragon stretching across the horizon.

The tall, bare stone ridge is reddish-brown, devoid of vegetation, and tinged with purple, resembling the purple mountain.

This is the dragon vein in the due east direction. Li Yao led many powerful figures to this place and discovered an ancient mine.

"There are actually mine shafts here?" someone exclaimed in surprise.

“Let’s go, the passage is down below.” Li Yao said, and jumped into the ancient mine first.

The ancient mine shaft was very deep, descending a full three thousand meters before reaching the bottom of the mine.

The pitch-black ancient mine, carved out hundreds of thousands of years ago, is filled with the aura of time, and is extremely quiet here.

Li Yao moved his feet gently, without using his divine power, and advanced step by step, carefully sensing everything around him.

The others followed closely behind him, making little noise and carefully keeping watch over their surroundings.

Although the ancient mine was shrouded in darkness, everyone present was an exceptionally powerful individual who could discern the direction as they approached Purple Mountain.

And so, the group walked silently for several miles, and the ancient mine grew ever darker.

"What is that?!" someone suddenly shouted.

The sudden commotion startled everyone. The sound of flapping wings came from ahead, and a humanoid creature could be vaguely seen flapping its wings and rushing towards them.

"An ancient race?!" someone exclaimed in surprise.

This was indeed a humanoid creature, about two meters tall with a wingspan of four meters, swooping down from the depths of the ancient mine.

Its claws were sharp as knives, gleaming coldly, and at the same time, it emitted strange vibrations from its mouth, making one's eardrums buzz.

"Looking for death." A powerful figure sneered disdainfully, pointing out a finger. A sword beam shot up, dazzling like lightning, illuminating the dark ancient mine.

"puff"

Blood splattered as the humanoid creature's head was pierced, causing it to collapse to the ground, lifeless.

"It's not an ancient creature, just a kind of demonic bat," a Holy Lord said calmly, recognizing the creature lying on the ground.

Legend has it that when bats become spirits and attain great power, their offspring, after dozens or even hundreds of generations, gradually lose their blood and, if they fail to improve, will degenerate into demonic bats.

Many ancient texts record that wherever demonic bats appear, it is a place of great misfortune and evil.

Without hesitation, the group continued forward, and after traveling more than ten miles, they encountered hundreds of demonic bats.

For ordinary cultivators, this might be troublesome, but for those present, these were just trifles, easily annihilated.

Soon, they traveled another thirty miles or so, proceeding slowly and steadily. On the cave walls, they saw many stone carvings, all left by the ancient people's knives and axes.

The very simple pattern records the various aspects of the excavation back then. The people did not find it boring, but patiently looked at it carefully.

After all, Zishan is an extremely inauspicious place. If we can learn more about it, we can definitely avoid a lot of dangers later on.

This is also an advantage of the cultivators in the novel "Covering the Sky". They are very good at archaeology, so many people know a thing or two about ancient things. Some of their knowledge comes from ancient history, but more often it comes from engravings like these.

There are many stone carvings. Initially, they were all very trivial things. Later, many more corpses appeared in the carvings, and all the figures were lying on the ground.

Soon, a carving caught everyone's attention: a creature with a single horn between its eyebrows appeared, dug out of the mine by the ancients, nearly wiping out all of them.

This person, with horns between his eyebrows, six arms, and a pair of wings, looks down upon the world. In the picture, he roars to the sky, the earth cracks, mines collapse, and underground magma gushes out.

"This is the true ancient race, and it even originated from a royal family."

"The ancient creatures sealed within the divine source were awakened, and thus killed everyone in the ancient mine."

The engravings that follow are even more chilling: the humanoid creature with horns between its eyebrows is kneeling on the ground, bowing to a huge source.

"Such a powerful creature, yet it trembles and bows to others?!" Countless people were shocked.

There were many old monsters present who were well-versed in various classic texts. They speculated that the one-horned creature was probably even more powerful than a supreme being.

But this person actually kowtowed to others!

"Is that divine source sealed with an ancient king?"

Everyone eagerly looked at the next engraved image, wanting to see what the creature in the peerless divine source looked like and why it possessed such power.

In the next engraving, the creature from the peerless divine source did not appear; it remained a hazy blur.

Although it has not yet been born, the surrounding area is filled with endless corpses, and countless people have fallen, stretching far into the distance.

"What exactly is inside that source?" Everyone felt a sense of dread.

Even before it was born, it was already causing endless slaughter. According to the engravings, the number of people who died was countless, numbering in the tens of thousands.

Several engraved images showed divine sources lying there, with no living beings emerging. They only showed that the surrounding bones were piling up like mountains, many of them belonging to cultivators.

The blood gathered into a real river, meandering into the distance, like a scene from hell.

The creature with a single horn between its brows, six arms under its shoulders, and wings on its back knelt devoutly beside the divine source from beginning to end.

In the next engraving, the peerless divine source remained very hazy, with no creatures appearing, only human corpses piling up more and more.

"This is……"

The long inscriptions all depict the contents of that peerless divine source, each one vastly different. The only difference is that the mountain formed by the piled-up bones grows ever higher.

It wasn't until the very end, when a powerful human being shrouded in a halo descended from the sky, that everything began to change.

Its appearance was obscured, and it was impossible to determine whether it was male or female. Its entire body was surrounded by auspicious colors, with only the character "帝" (Emperor) inscribed above its head.

The next inscription depicts that person making a move, directly slamming the peerless divine source into the earth.

That aura was overwhelming, and the ancients, with their simple strokes, managed to capture a bit of the soul, expressing the supreme power of that emperor.

The clouds in all directions vanished, the aura pierced the rainbow, and the stars and moon trembled—this was the might of the Great Emperor!
He suppressed the humanoid creature with his very first move.

In the engraving below, he directly attacked the divine source, but unfortunately, the ancient mine wall was broken and the pattern was fragmented, making it difficult to see the result.

Skipping over this part, everyone continued to look back, feeling as if they had returned to the desolate land of hundreds of thousands of years ago, and felt the supreme demeanor of that great emperor.

The being within that peerless divine source was clearly terrifying, so powerful that the Great Emperor unleashed his weapon—a massive bell, as tall as heaven and earth, which pressed down and covered the divine source.

"The Beginning Bell!"

Upon arriving here, the identity of that emperor is self-evident: the most powerful emperor in human history. That bell is clearly his ultimate weapon—the Boundless Bell!

Li Yao was speechless, feeling that his understanding had been challenged.

The Great Emperor Wushi used the Wushi Bell to suppress his enemy, and the target was someone who was about to attain enlightenment?!

Is this a joke? It's no exaggeration to say that if Wu Shi simply raised one hand and placed it there, it would be enough to make the other person kneel on the ground, unable to even get up.

"What the hell is this!"

He suppressed his inner complaints and continued looking down. In the end, the only engraving was the image of the being being suppressed by the Boundless Bell.

"I see. This is not the Daoist temple of the Great Emperor Wushi. He came to suppress the turmoil, but the enemy was too strong, so he stayed here."

Li Yao turned to look at the eloquent Lord Jiang and couldn't help but ask him if he was serious.
As expected of the family left behind by Emperor Hengyu after he left for the Central Plains, they truly have no rivals when it comes to abstract art.

(End of this chapter)