Chapter 499

498. Chapter 493: The Divine Source Lands

After helping Hearing Ku Lu heal, Ding Huan left Hearing Ku Lu beside Brother Xingpan and went to find a place to enter seclusion.

The Immortal Court was preparing for total war, and he had no business—and no desire—to get involved.

For Ding Huan, with all the resources he now possessed, not using this chance to advance his cultivation would make him a Bai Chi.

What could he even do on the battlefield with his current level of cultivation?

Brother Xingpan gave Ding Huan the Du Yue Mountain, once belonging to the Du Yue Star Lord, urging him to seclude himself there for cultivation—but Ding Huan dismissed it.

The Immortal Court's immortal qi was already abundant; he had no need to go to someone else's dao field.

At this moment, Ding Huan was in the Divine Source Lands.

The Divine Source Lands bordered the Divine Clan's territory, where immortal qi was slightly scarce—though still superior to many regions of the Great Immortal Realm.

The main reason was the violent fluctuations in the celestial rules here, making this place unsuitable as a dao field for Immortal Court cultivators and unwelcome to lone cultivators.

Ding Huan felt this place was perfect for his seclusion.

Though he now called Brother Xingpan brother, Brother Xingpan couldn't follow him everywhere—there were too many people in the Immortal Court who wanted him dead.

His seclusion site had to be hidden, unknown to outsiders.

After completing the first defensive immortal array, Ding Huan's array art finally advanced to the Seventh-Level Immortal Array King tier.

Besides defensive and trapping-killing arrays, Ding Huan set up numerous spirit-concealing arrays, spirit-gathering arrays, and spirit-binding arrays.

He implanted eight high-grade immortal spirit veins.

Looking at the dense immortal qi here—so thick he could almost grasp it—Ding Huan was satisfied; this was true cultivation ground.

He immediately boiled a pot of supreme-grade immortal spirit rice.

Wu Shang the Emperor couldn't walk away from immortal spirit rice—he was obsessed, proving the grain had real benefits.

Last time he ate high-grade immortal spirit rice; now he'd try supreme-grade.

High-grade immortal spirit rice had a rich aroma, and even as it was just cooked, its dense immortal qi could be felt.

This time, the supreme-grade immortal spirit rice had little aroma—but the grains, faintly marked with golden veins, made one's mouth water just to look at them.

He scooped up a spoonful and put it in his mouth; it dissolved instantly.

Ding Huan closed his eyes and sensed—yet felt no significant immortal spiritual energy.

Could this supreme-grade immortal spirit rice be fake?

He had grown these grains himself; they couldn't be fake.

He ate another bite—still unremarkable. Aside from excellent taste and instant dissolution, only a lingering fragrance remained on his lips and teeth.

Nothing else seemed to happen.

Forget it—he never expected much from this rice anyway.

Wasting food was a bad habit; Ding Huan devoured every grain at top speed.

After clearing away all clutter, Ding Huan resolved: he would not emerge from seclusion until he shattered the Great Luo Immortal realm.

The Great Cosmos Technique began to circulate. As soon as the first Zhou Tian completed, Ding Huan felt his body ignite as if set aflame.

Boom!

Violent immortal source energy surged through every meridian in his body—in an instant, he felt his flesh burning from within outward.

This was a completely different kind of immortal source force.

Normal cultivation absorbed immortal qi from the spirit veins—external to internal—but this immortal source energy erupted from within, then rapidly spread through all meridians.

At this moment, Ding Huan finally realized he'd overdone it—the supreme-grade immortal spirit rice had a delayed effect, and what a powerful one.

The Great Cosmos Technique spun wildly; every meridian in his body—including his consciousness's Great Dao Universe—joined this cultivation.

Only now did Ding Huan truly feel the power of supreme-grade immortal spirit rice.

The dao rhythms and laws within his consciousness's Great Dao Universe continuously multiplied; previously vague dao rhythms rapidly sharpened into clarity.

Great Yi Immortal Layer Three, Great Yi Immortal Layer Four…

At this moment, Ding Huan felt advancing felt as simple as drinking water or breathing.

…

The Immortal-Beast Battlefield.

It had been two years since Brother Xingpan the Emperor became the Heavenly Emperor.

Though Brother Xingpan the Emperor fully supported war against the Beast Clan, every Immortal Sect's patriarch gave their all, and Immortal Court officials no longer dragged their feet—everyone contributed strength or strategy.

Humanity could barely hold the Immortal Court from falling—achieved only at the cost of countless human cultivators' lives.

Too many early advantages had been lost; now they lacked heavenly timing, earthly advantage, and human unity.

Even Brother Xingpan the Emperor came to the battlefield himself—yet still could not alter the overall situation.

The Beast Clan and Demon Clan refused to abandon the Great Immortal Realm, a land so valuable; in their eyes, it was the key to ascending to the next level.

Once they tasted victory, even if a blade lay at their throats, they would not retreat an inch—instead, they grew ever more numerous.

Now, it had become an unstoppable wildfire.

Brother Xingpan, exhausted, stared at the battlefield where blood surged like a storm—he felt for the first time how impossibly hard it was to reclaim the Great Immortal Realm.

If reclaiming the Great Immortal Realm was this hard, how much harder would it be to restore order to the Pangu Great World?

In these two years, one Immortal Court Star Lord's physical body was shattered, two Immortal Officials were killed, and eleven of the seventy-two Regional Lords perished.

"Ding Huan was right," Brother Xingpan murmured.

He shouldn't have rushed so desperately to reclaim the Great Immortal Realm.

Even if he, Brother Xingpan, was the strongest, he was still only one man.

Not even the Beast Clan's Beast Emperors—just their two Chief Protectors—were any weaker than him.

"Your Majesty, should we summon the Great Immortal Overseer?"

Standing beside Brother Xingpan, Ji Mi's aura was also listless; he had lost an arm not long ago, and though it had just regenerated, his blood and qi were still depleted.

He had always greatly admired Ding Huan, but this time Ding Huan had become Grand Inspector while he was only Deputy Inspector, lacking the authority to order Ding Huan to accompany him.

Brother Xingpan shook his head; he knew Ding Huan had far more methods than he did.

But he could not trouble his brother Ding Huan.

"Emperor Jinhe, I think we've moved too hastily. Let us first stand our ground and then seek other solutions," even Emperor Jinhe came over to say.

Brother Xingpan nodded; they could no longer advance.

Each attack cost the human race tens of thousands of lives.

If this continued, wouldn't the human race be wiped out?

They meant to exterminate the other races—not to be exterminated by them.

……

Ding Huan stood up, his Great Yi Immortal realm at the twelfth layer, fully perfected.

He could now attempt to breakthrough to the Great Luo Immortal realm.

Ding Huan had no intention of changing locations for his Tribulation Crossing; this place was the Divine Source Land, where no one would come.

Though not far from the Divine Clan, it was sealed by the Great Heavenly Array, making it impossible for any Divine Clan member to come here.

After two years of seclusion, Ding Huan's accumulation was sufficient.

Not only had he fully replenished the heavenly and earthly immortal qi here, but he also occasionally ate immortal rice to supplement his energy.

Moreover, Ding Huan never used pills in his cultivation, so his body contained not a trace of pill poison.

As the first Zhou Tian of his Great Luo Immortal breakthrough passed, eighteen arcs of Lei Jie crashed down.

Ding Huan immediately activated his body-refining art; his body-refining art was still incomplete.

Primarily because he had not yet found a suitable place for body refinement.

Now that the Lei Jie had arrived, Ding Huan naturally continued refining his body-refining art.

As he discovered one Zhou Tian after another, by the time the fifth wave of Lei Jie fell, he shattered his Great Yi Immortal realm and ascended to the Great Luo Immortal realm.

After completing the Great Luo Immortal Lei Jie, his body hadn't even broken a single patch of skin, let alone damaged tendons or bones.

Ding Huan silently marveled: if he had known body refinement could make Tribulation Crossing so effortless, he should have created this body-refining art long ago.

The sixth and final wave of Lei Jie brought eighteen arcs; Ding Huan completed the final Zhou Tian of his body-refining art.

Letting the heavenly and earthly immortal qi pour down to stabilize his cultivation, Ding Huan remained still, still organizing his body-refining art.

His body-refining art consisted of exactly thirty-six Zhou Tian, matching the number of the Heavenly Gang.

Ding Huan knew well that his body-refining art was still incomplete.

But it didn't matter; at least below the Immortal Emperor level, his body-refining art was sufficient.

With so much foundational Dao knowledge in his mind, backed by the Great Cosmos Art, whenever his body-refining art proved insufficient in the future, he could refine it at any time.

After circulating his body-refining art through several more Zhou Tian, Ding Huan grew even more satisfied.

His current physical body should be at the fourth level of Immortal Body—quite formidable.

Immortals generally do not refine their bodies because body refinement harms the Dao Body, and harming the Dao Body means the Dao cannot ascend to higher levels.

Second, body refinement damages the mind and the spiritual sea; the mind and spiritual sea are the most vital parts of a cultivator, and once harmed, the cost outweighs the benefit.

Third, body refinement requires immense time; for a Dao cultivator, cultivation time is already insufficient—who would waste it on body refinement?

Besides, even without body refinement, one can still use treasures to endure Lei Jie—why waste time and cultivation resources on it?

Aside from these points, the most important one is the absence of body-refining arts.

The best body-refining arts are held by the Wu Clan or the Beast Clan.

Neither the Wu Clan nor the Beast Clan would ever give their body-refining arts to human cultivators.

For Ding Huan, none of these were problems.

He took out a jade slip and casually carved his newly created body-refining art onto it, naming it: Nirvana Scripture.

When he crossed the Great Yi Immortal Lei Jie, it felt like Nirvana; though his power surged after Nirvana,

during Nirvana itself, he could be obliterated by Lei Jie at any moment.

Now that he had the Nirvana Scripture, it meant he would never again fear any Lei Jie.

Ding Huan's mood was extremely pleasant.

The area, ravaged by Lei Jie arcs, could still be tidied up and used for further cultivation.

As Ding Huan raised his hand to fill in the massive crater carved by Lei Jie, he sensed a series of peculiar Dao rhythms and laws.

Could this be why the Divine Source Land was unsuitable for cultivation?

The Dao rhythms and laws of the Divine Source Land sometimes fluctuated wildly, making cultivation extremely difficult.

Ding Huan had chosen this place for seclusion precisely because of this—he didn't care, as his Great Cosmos Art ignored such fluctuations; he cared only for heavenly rules and heavenly earthly immortal sources.

Ding Huan pulled out a stack of teleportation talismans and began descending.

Two days later, Ding Huan found himself surrounded by emptiness.

He stared in shock at the scene before him: a colossal underground Shenhe, stretching at least a million li.

It was called Shenhe because Ding Huan had studied Divine Clan cultivation arts.

The Dao rhythms and law fluctuations of this river perfectly matched the Divine Clan's cultivation methods.

Could this be how the Divine Source Land came to be?

Immediately, an uncontrollable suspicion arose in Ding Huan's mind: the Shenhe of the Divine Source Land was the very foundation upon which the Divine Clan survived.

If he severed this Shenhe, what would happen to the Divine Clan?

To be honest, Ding Huan had long resented the Divine Clan, let alone now that they had taken advantage of the chaos, invading the Immortal Clan alongside the Beast Clan and Demon Clan.

The moment the idea of severing the Shenhe surfaced, it could no longer be suppressed.