Outside of the entrance to the Yellow Mausoleum, Tianyi's eyes opened from inside his palace. ''Hun Jusang, we were originally allies, but who told you to touch someone you shouldn't? Not even the Nihility Sect will be able to protect you.'
To an outsider, Tianyi's body trembled imperceptibly, but only for an instant. Without close observation, no one would have been able to tell that Tianyi replaced himself with a weak conduit. It possessed the combat ability of a true immortal, but that was it. After all, the conduit's primary purpose was to act as a portal to and from the Nine Heavens Universe.
As for Tianyi's true body, it reappeared several thousand kilometers away in the direction Jiang Chunye and Hun Jusang secretly traveled. He chased after their tracks concealed by the folds of space.
However, it seemed that the heavens were protecting them. Whenever Tianyi thought he would catch up to them, their traces would disappear, and Tianyi would have to spend more effort searching for them.
Months later, he finally reached the edge of the Earth Continent, but he couldn't even find a hint or shadow of Jiang Chunye or Hun Jusang. Tianyi wanted to curse. Actually, he wasn't even sure that the two had left the continent from this spot.
"Count yourselves lucky," Tianyi muttered as he teleported back into the Concealed Palace in front of the entrance to the Yellow Mausoleum. After calming his anger, Tianyi settled down and resumed comprehending the worldly laws.
Inside the Mausoleum, Tai Wuling frowned as he crouched on the ground. His hands sifted through the black sand as he detected the deathly aura contained within them. He wasn't the only one attracted by the unique fluctuations.
Other immortals were also doing the same, investigating the truth behind the changed land. All of them tactically agreed on a truce, and no one interfered with the other.
Some immortals guessed that it was the birth of a unique treasure. Others said that it was the result of a battle, but few agreed. Tai Wuling could see why most would reject the theory.
It didn't look like the end result of a battle between immortals. It appeared closer to a natural disaster than anything man-made, but Tai Wuling's gut told him that it was the result of a battle. He closed his eyes and focused on his senses. 'This...is the Law of Death. Did Jiang Daoyi battle here? The only one I know who comprehended the Law of Death is her, so she should be one of the participants. I doubt she is capable of unleashing this much devastation, so she must have a powerful treasure.'
Tai Wuling's brows twitched. 'This is the Law of Darkness. For two people to cause so much damage, their strength isn't below mine. Now, there are three people at the level of peak immortal lord. Jiang Daoyi, the other unknown participant, and the Divine Flame Lord. The Holy Cloud Saintess shouldn't be at the same level anymore since she lost most of her Polar Profound Umbralwater.'
Speak of the devil.
Tai Wuling's eyes snapped open, and he glanced at two new arrivals. At the same time, one of the two also looked over. Lightning flashed between them as the tension rose.
He was none other than the Divine Flame Lord, Yan Nie. After a few seconds, the two disconnected their gazes and returned to doing their own thing. Tai Wuling glanced at the woman beside Yan Nie, the Holy Cloud Saintess, Yun Xialan.
'No wonder,' Tai Wuling thought. He narrowed his eyes as he noticed the paper-thin distance between Yanie and Yun Xialan. No wonder Yun Xialan was so against him so it was because she was involved with Yan Nie. She wanted to kill Yan Nie's enemy, him.
Tai Wuling snorted. What was so good about Yan Nie? If the two fought now, he had the confidence to defeat Yan Nie. Maybe not kill, but he would obtain that sooner or later.
However, now was not the time to fight the two. Even if Yun Xialan's combat prowess decreased, Tai Wuling didn't have the confidence to defeat the two of them together. More important was the implication of what the relationship between the two meant.
Did the Anti-Heaven Alliance want to ally with the Anti-Earth Alliance? If so, it added an additional reason for Yun Xialan's killing intent toward him. Or maybe it was just the Cloud Goddess Cult's intent. Maybe they wanted to use Yun Xialan to seduce Yan Nie for information.
The thought that Yun Xialan genuinely fell in love with Yan Nie never crossed Tai Wuling's mind. He just couldn't see it. What was so good about Yan Nie that would cause a girl to abandon everything her force stood for?
He admitted that Yan Nie was good-looking enough to be called handsome, but that's it. What good was beauty worth in this world? Only strength was most important. If in terms of beauty, then Xi Tianyi was the most attractive man Tai Wuling had ever seen, but his personality was the worse.
Tai Wuling pitied Yun Xialan. She was just a little girl tricked by Yan Nie's good lucks. Luckily, Yang Linyin wasn't shallow like Yun Xialan.
He turned around and left using Earthwalk. No one except Yan Nie and Yun Xialan noticed Tai Wuling's departure.
Tai Wuling continued to travel to the core of the Yellow Mausoleum. Only a small percentage had noticed the battle between Daoyi and Jiang Chunye because the rest were too far. Some of them fell to the earth beasts or the insidious schemes of their fellow immortals, but no matter what, they didn't forget their purpose here.
After entering hundreds of thousands of kilometers, Tai Wuling stopped. He saw a barrier that stretched endlessly and extended to the sky. Tai Wuling placed his hand on the barrier and felt the dense earth essence.
He pushed but felt the barrier spring back into him. No matter how hard Tai Wuling tried to force himself through the barrier, he had not even an inkling of success. Since he couldn't use strength, there had to be another way.
Next, Tai Wuling attempted to absorb the earth essence into his body. The moment he did so, he could feel his body creak in protest under the mighty force of the essence.
There was a reason only those in the Origin Immortal Realm could produce essence. All those not in the Origin Immortal Realm were too weak to withstand the power of essence. In the Seamless Immortal Realm, while the immortal would merge his qi with the five elements, it would also temper their body at the same time.
Despite Tai Wuling possessing the qualifications to immediately become a peak immortal monarch upon entering the Seamless Immortal Realm, the current him was still a true immortal whose body hadn't been tempered by the five elemental qi.
Just as Tai Wuling was about to try another method, the black sphere in his sea of consciousness started to vibrate. The earth essence became extremely docile and entered Tai Wuling's body. It flowed from his hand all the way to his head, where his sea of consciousness existed.
The black sphere greedily absorbed the earth essence, and Tai Wuing didn't sit around doing nothing. The whole process didn't need his input, so he focused on the Law of Earth. He could feel the wool over his eyes clear as the black sphere absorbed more and more earth essence.
Tai Wuling didn't know how long he stood there, but by the time he awakened, he felt that he only needed a little bit more, and his understanding of the Law of Earth would become complete. He no longer had a bottleneck, and it was only a matter of time.
He smiled and observed the barrier again. Compared to before, he noticed that it had become extremely thin and weak, but it was still an unsurpassable moat to most true immortals. It was even translucent, allowing Tai Wuling to see a massive city wall in the distance. Behind the walls was a giant golden mountain.
Tai Wuling pushed. Unlike before, the earth essence barrier bent under his power, but it didn't break. Considering that he also cultivated the martial way along the spiritual way, Tai Wuling had confidence in his body's brute strength, but he still couldn't break through after it weakened.
He guessed not many possessed the ability to enter even if the barrier reached the point of near collapse. Still, he wasn't entirely clueless about the path to take. Tai Wuling began to circulate his comprehension of the Law of Earth, and the earth essence barrier began to change. Not long later, a hole opened up, and Tai Wuling passed through. The hole closed immediately after.
"I should be the first one to pass through the barrier, right?" Tai Wuling said to himself. His thoughts weren't without reason. Of the three people who could compete with him, only he comprehended the Law of Earth to the final point. Of course, he didn't discount the fact that someone might have a powerful artifact or talisman to aid them.
Tai Wuling soon reached the city walls, but it was like a fortress. He couldn't scale it at all. Left with no choice, he searched for the gate, and he found it a month later.
The gate was over two hundred meters tall, far larger than the human body. He was like an ant in comparison. After walking in and seeing the magnificent city, Tai Wuling soon discovered why. Most of the doors were tailored for beings that had an average height of twenty meters.
Tai Wuling had no doubt that this city was once a magnificent divine city inhabited by countless immortals and likely several divinities. The thought of breaking and entering the houses to see what treasure he had crossed his mind, but he quickly stamped it down.
Instead, he stared at the mountain at the center of the city. Whatever goods these houses should not compare to what he could find at the center of the mountain. He ran toward the mountain at his fastest speed. He would have used Earthwalk, but he discovered that some sort of restriction or rule prevented him from doing so.
Tai Wuling took over half a year to reach the foot of the mountain. In front of him was a wall-less gate engraved with words not from any language he recognized. Despite that being the case, the meaning of the world appeared out of nowhere in his mind.
Allearth Path
Tai Wuling immediately entered a daze upon reading the word. He could sense the infinite mysteries related to the earth. The boundless might that surpassed the complete Law of Earth struck Tai Wuling like a mountain to the face.
A smile graced his lips—Law of Earth, one hundred percent comprehension. Tai Wuling knew that the Law of Earth and likely the other laws could go further, but he didn't know how. Still, that was enough for the current him. What he needed to do now was to focus on comprehending the Law of Water, the Law of Wood, and the Law of Metal.
After the feeling of happiness from fully comprehending his second worldly law faded, Tai Wuling opened his eyes, but his heart shook.
No longer was he standing before the divine mountain. Instead, he now sat on a golden throne in a golden palace with numerous powerful beings kneeling to him. His gaze pierced the palace walls and settled onto the divine city at the base of the mountain. Having experienced it once, Tai Wuling knew that he was experiencing another memory.
Strangely, instead of experiencing the unknown godfiend's encounter with Pangu, Tai Wuling seemed to have become another being, this time the Yellow God. Was he wrong, was the godfiend not the original owner of the black sphere?
Tai Wuling didn't have much time to think as a sorrowful emotion filled his heart. This was the emotion the Yellow God felt as he closed his eyes. Despite the glamorous palace and city, there was no life. It was nothing but the vestige of former greatness.
The Yellow God suddenly laughed. It was an uproarious laugh filled with ridicule and despair. "Pawns! It turns out everyone one of us were pawns! Oh Pangu, what good calculations you have!"
