Tai Wuling awoke from his vision with a gasp. Sweat coated his entire body as he recalled what he had just seen. That massive and overwhelming figure, that raw, unbridled power. There was no doubt the human from his vision was Pangu, the almighty divinity that created the primordial world.
He checked the black sphere inside his sea of consciousness. It no longer bore its previous appearance of an unassuming black ball but now sported glowing violet-blue runes. Occasionally, it would release bursts of light.
Every time it did so, Tai Wuling felt like something was brushing against his thoughts. It was like the sensation of recalling something on the tip of the tongue. He closed his eyes and felt his sense toward the Law of Water become invigorated, even in the Yellow Mausoleum.
Tai Wuling recalled what Yun Xialan, the Holy Cloud Saintess, used against him that triggered the change. That dark cloud was terrifying, even with his martial body. It must be some sort of miraculous truewater, water with special properties, to have that effect.
Polar Profound Umbralwater
Just as the words popped into his head, Tai Wuling immediately knew what it was. Polar Profound Umbralwater was one of the most powerful liquids in the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System. When the Primordial World had still been whole, it could only be found in the deepest abyss in the Darknorth Sea. The umbralwater could break down the structure of any object that touched it and dissolve it into more Polar Profound Umbralwater.
After the Primordial World shattered, Polar Profound Umbralwater should have all but disappeared. It seemed that the Cloud Goddess Cult should not be underestimated, as expected of the sect led by the sole divinity of the Huang Realm.
Yun Xialan must have used a diluted version of the umbralwater. He would have immediately died if she possessed the pure Polar Profound Umbralwater. Perhaps her method of turning it into a cloud also played a hand in the weakened effect.
Tai Wuling frowned. How did he know of Polar Profound Umbralwater? Few people should have heard of it, even among immortals of the hegemonic sects. The only reason he could think of would be the black sphere inside his sea of consciousness.
It seemed that the origin of the black sphere was much more prominent than he had thought. At the very least, it should belong to a being that had been born before the primordial era.
Tai Wuling closed his eyes and recalled the legend. Before the world was born, the five elements existed, yin and yang existed, there was only chaos. From the chaos, three thousand godfiends were born. These godfiends were law incarnate, far more powerful than any immortals.
The last of these godfiends to be born was Pangu. Pangu slew the rest of the godfiends and created heaven and earth, the Primordial World, but the foundation was insufficient. So, Pangu sacrificed his body to complete the new world.
His breath turned into the wind and clouds, his voice turned into lightning and thunder, his left eye transformed into the sun, his right eye transformed into the moon, his limbs and torso turned into the five regions, his blood turned into rivers, his meridians transformed into roads, his muscles formed fertile lands, his hair shifted into stars in the night sky, his fur became the vegetation, his bones turned into minerals, his marrow turned into precious jewels, and his sweat turned to rain.
Tai Wuling had always thought of it as a legend, just a fancy fairytale parents told their kids. After all, if Pangu really slew all other life in the chaos and sacrificed himself, who could pass down the feat?
It seemed that he had been too naive. Although Pangu slew the godfiends, their artifacts might have survived. Perhaps a shred of their soul escaped into these artifacts, or maybe a few godfiends survived. Tai Wuling only saw the portion of the memory until the godfiend he possessed met Pangu after all.
He felt as if he had peered into some great secret of the Three Thousand Immortal Realms System. Perhaps, it might also contain the reason why the Primordial World was shattered. Was it all planned from the beginning?
Tai Wuling cleared his thoughts. No matter the origins of the owner of the black sphere, the current him was too weak to explore. If he guessed correctly, to unlock more memories, he would need something on the same level as the Polar Profound Umbralwater.
He didn't want to collect any more special water but other types of material from the five elements. If just absorbing the Polar Profound Umbralwater increased his talent in the Law of Water, then it should be the same if he offered the same level of fire, wood, earth, or metal element materials.
Although he didn't have any information, that didn't mean the Eight Pillar Sect wouldn’t have some. If a first-rate sect had the Polar Profound Umbralwater, surely a hegemonic sect would have something of similar value. The problem would be the price.
Tai Wuling's eyes sharpened. It seemed that he needed to pour efforts into exploring the Yellow Mausoleum. Who knows, maybe he could kill two birds with one stone and discover some earth-related material on the same level in this pocket dimension. It was a fragment of the Primordial World after all.
First, Tai Wuling restored himself to his peak strength. He didn't bother comprehending the Law of Water now. If he cultivated inside, he would gain half the results with twice the effort, better to comprehend the Law of Water once he left the Yellow Mausoleum.
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Next, he left his hiding spot, a cave whose opening was only large enough for a rabbit to pass through. Tai Wuling didn't use Earthwalk and directly smashed through the opening and inhaled the fresh air. Compared to the damp and musty air of the cave, it was absolutely lovely.
Tai Wuling started to travel again. The fragment of the Law of Earth in his possession had disappeared. Either he had lost it in his escape, or the black sphere had absorbed it. He leaned toward the latter.
Six months later, Tai Wuling sat under an osmanthus tree. Its yellow petals and leaves seemed to shimmer as golden dust floated down it and merged into Tai Wuling's body. His eyes were closed and in between his hands was a gaseous yellow orb. With each passing moment, it grew dimmer and fainter until it was finally all gone.
He exhaled a yellow mist. When he opened his eyes, rumbling continents and surging oceans reflected from his pupils. "My comprehension of the Law of Earth has reached a bottleneck. No matter how many law fragments I absorb, it wouldn't help anymore."
Tai Wuling's accumulation in the Law of Earth was extremely vast. What he lacked was an epiphany, which was solved thanks to the fragments of the Law of Earth.
He turned his gaze toward the core of the Yellow Mausoleum. The closer he got to the core, the denser the earth qi and essence he sensed. In correlation, the environment became filled with more earth monsters and true immortals fighting those monsters.
Tai Wuling had also been ambushed and fought with the true immortals of the Anti-Earth Alliance and members of forces from outside the Earth Continent. Most of the time, he won, but a few rare times, he had to flee.
Strangely, he never encountered the Holy Cloud Saintess Yun Xialan again. The one good point for Tai Wuling was the number of kills he racked up on the immortals from the Buzhou Immortal Sect.
Although there were a few young true immortals, Tai Wuling noticed that most of the true immortals present from the Buzhou Immortal Sect were old and likely to self-terminate in a century or two. Infuriatingly, the young immortals full of potential always traveled in groups, preventing him from finding a chance to eliminate them.
Tai Wuling crushed the neck of a true immortal from the Buzhou Immortal Sect. Just his luck, he found a group of true immortals fighting an earth beast. Although only two of them were from the Buzhou Immortal Sect, the rest were from the Anti-Earth Alliance.
He turned toward his prize, the law fragment. When he grabbed it, Tai Wuling didn't absorb it. Instead, he communicated and began resonating with it. The gaseous substance dispersed and covered him in a yellow haze. Now, the earth monsters would recognize him as one of them. Well, the mindless ones at least. He still couldn't be sure if there were any intelligent monsters.
Tai Wuling's figure disappeared as he slipped into the ground. As he traveled, he suddenly felt the law governing the Yellow Mausoleum change. It was as if something had torn off the curtains hiding them.
Not long later, his face paled, and he immediately jumped out of the ground. He could sense the existence of the earth veins when he couldn't before, but that wasn't good news at all. Normally, he shouldn't have been able to detect them at all unless he was at the center of the vein.
Something had forced the earth veins to reveal themselves. And judging by the tumultuous reaction and energy running rampant, something had damaged the earth veins, causing a chain reaction.
Not just the earth veins but the sky started to shake and fracture too. Next, the trembling ground transformed into earthquakes. Tai Wuling couldn't even use Earthwalk anymore. Since he had to merge with the land, if the ground split, his body would split too.
"Just what is going on?" Tai Wuling asked aloud. Just who in the world has the ability to destabilize the Yellow Mausoleum?
Tai Wuling immediately discounted the possibility of an immortal monarch entering. If an immortal monarch really entered, although their presence would bring harm to the pocket dimension, the rejection would kill them too. In his eyes, only someone on the level of an immortal emperor had the ability to cause such a drastic change.
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A month before the occurrence, Jiang Daoyi roamed the Yellow Mausoleum. A black film formed of immortal qi cloaked her entire body. Even if she walked up to another person, they would subconsciously ignore her, as if she was a dead thing. The only surefire way to sense her was to use immortal sense, which the earth monsters lacked.
Daoyi glanced ahead and saw a group of immortals fighting an earth beast. She turned to a different direction and continued on her way. Two days later, she saw another earth beast, but this time, no one had discovered it yet.
She walked up to the earth beast. Daoyi's steps were neither rushed nor slow, like taking a walk in a garden, but the monster didn't react at all and continued to wander around. Her slender hand reached out and easily pierced the earth beast's chest like dipping hands in water. Before the monster could even react, she had already pulled her hand out, and in her grasp was a yellow sphere.
Daoyi found a secluded location and began to absorb the fragment of law. Although she didn't have much talent in the Law of Earth, learning one more law wouldn't hurt. Even if she couldn't, mastering a few more concepts was at least possible.
As she absorbed the law fragment, the ground Daoyi sat upon began to turn black with her at the center of it all. The farther away from Daoyi, the less dark it looked until the dirt only appeared slightly darker than normal six hundred meters away from her.
Daoyi opened her eyes with satisfaction. She had mastered the Concept of Burial and the Concept of Blacksoil. However, she quickly saw the changes in her surroundings and decided to leave.
Less than an hour after Daoyi left, a woman dressed in cloud-patterned robes appeared. Yun Xialan frowned as she inspected the area. "This is the aura of death?"
Yun Xialan's brows creased even more. According to the information from the Eight Pillar Sect, the only one confirmed to have comprehended portions of the Law of Death was Jiang Daoyi.
Fighting spirit erupted in the Holy Cloud Saintess's eyes. If she could cull Jiang Daoyi before she entered the Seamless Immortal Realm, it would be of great benefit to the Cloud Goddess Cult.
She could feel the death aura evaporating, and judging by the rate, Yun Xialan judged that Jiang Daoyi couldn't have left more than a few hours ago. The cloud she used for transportation soared through the skies, intent on finding the Sword Sovereign's disciple.
Unaware of Yun Xialan's thoughts, Daoyi stood at the base of a mountain. She could sense the dense earthly aura emanating from the mountain. Compared to the mountains she passed, this one was obviously superior.
Mimicking Tianyi, Daoyi held her chin by her fingers and began to weigh the pros and cons. After a few minutes of deliberation, her hands reached for the Mountains and Seas Pendant on her waist.