Eternal Life: I Can Control My Essence Qi-Chapter 259 - 195: When the Dust Settles (Part 2)

"On the contrary, after I obtained the inheritance of the Five Elements Wanderer, I gained a tremendous advantage. Even if I encounter him again in the future, I will certainly be stronger than him!"

Zhang Yao was still very confident in his heart.

The road of cultivation is all about striving forward step by step. Now that he is ahead of Yu Wen Tai, he has the confidence to leave him permanently behind.

"Hoo..."

Zhang Yao took several deep breaths and, after calming his mental realm, slowly turned around and left the main hall.

Regarding the magical treasure of the Three Mountains Ancestor, he doesn’t plan to deal with it in the short term. He’ll wait until he achieves the Golden Core, since it’s trapped in the small world and can’t escape.

The entire Five Elements Secret Realm has been completely sealed by him, making it impossible to enter or exit.

The numerous treasures scattered across the various small worlds are indeed a huge fortune, but for Zhang Yao they are secondary.

Now, he is about to inspect his most important spoils of war.

"Creak."

The ancient redwood door was slowly pushed open, revealing a hall sealed for two thousand years.

Zhang Yao stepped slowly inside and saw the interior was very simple. On the left and right were cabinets, each holding three items.

"Dusty for a thousand years, it’s finally time to use them..."

Zhang Yao went to the left cabinet and picked up a delicate jade bottle, stroking it.

Upon entering this hall, he knew what was stored inside: the most precious treasure of the entire Secret Realm, the cultivation resources prepared by the Five Elements Wanderer for future generations.

The left cabinet held a jade bottle, a storage bracelet, and a brocade box.

Inside the jade bottle was sealed a drop of Heaven and Earth Treasure ’Earth Milk’; the storage bracelet contained materials for three sets of refining ’Qianyuan Solidification Pill’; while the brocade box contained a piece of ’Thunder Soul Crystal.’

"With these things, coupled with the strong accumulation of the Path of Array Refining and Body Integration, the probability of achieving the Golden Core is as high as ninety percent!"

Zhang Yao thought of this, showing a hint of a smile:

"Just by closing off for decades, there will be no obstacle to ascending to the Golden Core Realm!"

The three treasures on the left are for achieving Golden Core, while the three treasures on the right are for post-Golden Core cultivation of Divine Techniques and engraving the Grand Array.

These treasures are extremely precious, but only by matching them with the arrays of the Secret Realm’s cave can the maximum effect be realized. Therefore, Zhang Yao did not take them away early and only came to inspect after winning the Secret Realm battle.

Not just him, Yu Wen Tai in the past also did not take these treasures early because he never thought he would lose control of this Secret Realm. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

But ultimately he was one move short, leading to even his former inheritance being compensated to Zhang Yao.

"Not bad, very good."

Zhang Yao played with each item one by one, revealing a satisfied look, and then turned to leave the hall.

He returned to the Cultivation Quiet Chamber of the cave’s master, took out the sealed Soul Thought Aura, with a slight hint of regret in his eyes:

"Without the Blood Sacrifice Soul Melting step, its quality is ultimately a bit lacking."

"However, using it to construct the ’Array of Ten Thousand Souls’ Thoughts’ is more than sufficient, and its effect will definitely be much better than the Grand Array in Yu Wen Tai’s Divine Soul!"

At this thought, Zhang Yao sat cross-legged, regulating his energy, calming his mind, and preparing to engrave the last array of the Foundation Establishment Stage.

...

Meanwhile.

At the mountain base of Prison Gate Mountain, outside the Secret Realm Gate.

True Yang Ancestor and others were silent, their faces livid, the atmosphere dead and tense, oppressively heavy.

Suddenly:

"Whoosh!" "Whoosh!"

Two streaks of light broke through the air and fell into the hands of True Yang Ancestor and Dugu Tianyi respectively.

The return of the magical treasures finally eased their expressions slightly, although their brows were still furrowed, at least they didn’t have the look of death.

Only the Three Mountains Ancestor’s face grew increasingly unsightly.

Their three people jointly deployed Soulless Incarnation and jointly sent magical treasures into the Secret Realm, resulting in True Yang Ancestor and Dugu Tianyi’s returning, but his Ten Thousand Mountains True Seal was trapped inside.

"..."

Three Mountains Ancestor didn’t speak, feeling a bleed in his heart.

Losing an heirloom powerful magical treasure, what a huge loss is this? Moreover, without the main battle treasure, his strength will also be significantly reduced, causing a series of disastrous consequences.

Strength is the voice; not retrieving the Ten Thousand Mountains True Seal means he can’t lift his head in front of True Yang Ancestor and Dugu Tianyi, and in the future the Shanhe sect’s voice and interest distribution will also be weakened.

The Cultivation Realm is this realistic and ruthless.

"...What about Yu Wen Tai?"

Three Mountains Ancestor remained silent for a long while, before speaking in a low tone.

"Ran away."

Dugu Tianyi shook his head and sighed:

"That person is extremely cunning, making the path exit at the deep underground. Our consciousness residing in the magical treasure couldn’t stop his escape."

"But now he’s just a stray dog, not worth worrying about. Instead, it’s Lord Qingxu entrenched in the Secret Realm who is the real enemy for us..."

True Yang Ancestor showed a thoughtful expression:

"It seems we haven’t noticed some hidden truths."

"This Yu Wen Tai and Lord Qingxu are obviously from the lineage of the Five Elements Wanderer, most likely cultivating the ’Scripture of All Transformations and True Nature’, and are extremely familiar with the Secret Realm, even able to directly enter its core."’

"Looking at it now, Yu Wen Tai is probably really dead once, so he used some method to seize the body of the Realm Breaker."

"Right, judging from the dispute between him and Lord Qingxu, perhaps his original body was killed by Lord Qingxu, and thus the mystery of the previous Celestial Treasure Tower blood case can be solved."

"Indeed, Lord Qingxu is likely the real culprit behind the Celestial Treasure Tower blood case, deliberately faking death to mislead us, and previously..."

The three discussed a few sentences and quickly clarified many truths with a few words.

But things have come to this point, discussing these after-the-fact truths is already meaningless.

Over a hundred years of painstaking planning, all sorts of efforts, even going as far as to incite a war among the Five Sects, and driving off the Fuhai Sect, only resulted in no gains at all.

Laboring year after year in vain, making wedding clothes for others.

If it was only a wasted effort, that would be acceptable, but unfortunately their loss is indescribably huge, even shaking the foundations of their rule.

"This time, returning home, I don’t even know how to face the upcoming situation..."

True Yang Ancestor sighed heavily, exchanging glances with Three Mountains Ancestor and Dugu Tianyi, each seeing the bitterness in each other’s eyes.

As Golden Core Ancestors, their ability to accept reality was strong; they weren’t crushed by the brutal reality.

But the problem is:

The previous Sea Overturning War had already killed many Foundation Establishment Cultivators, and coupled with this time’s natural calamity in the Secret Realm, nearly three hundred Foundation Establishment masters died, equating to a massive disaster.

Almost eighty to ninety percent of the Foundation Establishment cultivators within the Da Li Territory were lost, equivalent to a generational gap.

The resulting series of upheavals and disturbances, even True Yang Ancestor and the other Golden Core cultivators felt extremely troublesome and headachy.

"If not for the sect having a few Foundation Establishment Perfection masters, I might have despaired."

True Yang Ancestor sighed heavily.

This time, the Foundation Establishment masters who didn’t enter the Secret Realm, besides a few with poor background unwilling to join forces, were only some who had already cultivated to Foundation Establishment Perfection, focused on preparing to impact the Golden Core Realm.

And these Foundation Establishment masters who have prospects of achieving the Golden Core, are in a sense the hope of major Golden Core influences, they are the true mainstay.

"...What should we do about Lord Qingxu in the Secret Realm?"

The Three Mountains Ancestor couldn’t help but speak:

"My Ten Thousand Mountains True Seal is still in the Secret Realm!"

"What can we do?"

Dugu Tianyi replied with a question:

"Lord Qingxu and Yu Wen Tai are on the same path; they probably wouldn’t come out unless they break through to Golden Core in the Secret Realm."

"But they’re suspected to be cultivating the ’Scripture of All Transformations and True Nature’. Once they achieve the Golden Core Realm, can we withstand them?"

This soul-searching question directly left the Three Mountains Ancestor speechless.

Actually, he understood this reasoning, but his heart refused to give up, still thinking about his heirloom magical treasure.

"Perhaps we should..."

True Yang Ancestor suddenly proposed:

"In the coming days, let’s take turns guarding here. When Lord Qingxu emerges, we’ll..."