Chapter 770

This was indeed Xiao Potian's heartfelt words; although he had founded the Xiao Clan, ten thousand years ago the Dou Qi Continent was in the Wild Wasteland Era, when the concept of family did not yet exist, and the cultivation system had not even been fully established.

Back then, people did not organize as families but as tribes; Xiao Potian was powerful, so many came to rely on him for protection against demons, ferocious beasts, and Poison Ants.

Among them were naturally women; driven by biological instincts of reproduction, a vast cluster formed, inheriting Xiao Potian's Bloodline and giving birth to the first tribe bound by bloodline—the later Xiao Clan.

Later, in pursuit of greater power, Xiao Potian departed beyond the heavens, constantly seeking opportunities outside, leaving the clan largely to its own devices.

"Ancestor, you have also given your all to protect the clan. I, on behalf of the current Xiao Clan disciples, thank you for all you have done for the Dou Qi Continent and the Xiao Clan." Xiao Yan bowed deeply before Xiao Potian.

Xiao Yan was no child; how could he not understand the sacrifices Xiao Potian had made for the clan? In ancient times, the Dou Qi Continent was even more chaotic, and the entire clan and tribes relied solely on Xiao Potian's strength.

"Go and pluck the Cycle Six Leaf Grass; after tens of thousands of years of cultivation, it should be ripe." A tender smile appeared on Xiao Potian's face—thankfully, his descendants were strong enough to prevent the Bloodline from being severed.

"It would be rude to refuse; descendant Xiao Yan accepts the order."

Xiao Yan no longer bothered with formalities toward his Ancestor; Zhu Kun was currently evolving, and no one knew how long it would take or whether he would succeed, and Xiao Yan himself needed time to condense his Supreme Body.

On the Ning Tian Continent, only Xun Er, Cai Lin, and Xiao Yixian remained, along with Gu Yuan and Ancestor Xiao Xuan; even with Gu Yuan's Nine-Pin Sovereign strength, it was uncertain whether they could protect it.

Xun Er had received a powerful inheritance, but only a portion of it; now, the Ning Tian Continent was at its weakest moment.

Xiao Yan turned, sat cross-legged before the Cycle Six Leaf Grass, and summoned his Dou Technique Body.

Suddenly, Xiao Yan seemed to remember something, turned his head, and asked Xiao Potian, who was watching him: "Ancestor, where does the Eternal Calamity Poison Body rank among the Ten Great Original Dharma Bodies?"

Xiao Yan had been in the Great Thousand World for some time and knew of the NinetyNineSupremeBodies; the top ten were the Ten Great Original Dharma Bodies. But five of them had been lost, even their names forgotten, so the current number one was the Eternal Unchanging Body created by the Immortal Emperor.

Hearing this, Xiao Potian smiled faintly and said: "The strength differences among the Original Dharma Bodies are negligible, almost imperceptible. But in the Great Thousand Palace, someone once ranked them; the Eternal Unchanging Body created by that Immortal was ranked fourth, while the Eternal Calamity Poison Body was in the top three."

Sssss!!! Xiao Yan's heart jolted instantly. He knew that five of the Ten Great Original Dharma Bodies were already lost, even their names vanished; thus, the Eternal Unchanging Body now ranked first on the NinetyNineSupremeBodies.

And yet the Eternal Unchanging Body couldn't even make the top three?!

"That surprises me," Xiao Yan admitted, slightly taken aback—the Eternal Unchanging Body, created by the strongest being in the Great Thousand World fifty thousand years ago, was only ranked fourth.

The Original Dharma Bodies were the original forms of the cultivation system.

Of course, this didn't mean the Great Thousand World was weak; it didn't have just one Original Dharma Body—it had five!

Overall, the Great Thousand World remained a supreme great world; five Original Dharma Bodies had emerged from its spiritual energy cultivation system, all originating from the same system.

Strictly speaking, the five Original Dharma Bodies together constituted the true Original Dharma Body of the Great Thousand World—the complete culmination of its cultivation system.

"What about the Dou Po Cangqiong Body?" Xiao Yan was naturally curious; if the Eternal Calamity Poison Body was top three, then two others ranked higher than the Eternal Unchanging Body.

Xiao Potian suddenly wore a profound smile and said: "Tenth."

Hearing Xiao Potian's words, Xiao Yan's lips curled slightly; he nodded silently and said no more, beginning to condense his Dou Technique Body.

It was fate—he had once been one of the Ten Heavenly Elders, and now the Dou Po Cangqiong Body he cultivated was ranked tenth among the Ten Great Original Dharma Bodies.

Xiao Potian smiled inwardly, murmuring softly: "Tenth is also Zero; condensing the Dharma Body is easy, but Dou Po Cangqiong is hard."

A hum sounded—suddenly, the Cycle Six Leaf Grass growing at the center of the Ning Tian Bamboo's extra-dimensional space glowed brightly.

The tender grass, resembling a branching shoot, seemed to burst forth with ultimate life force; though it lacked powerful spiritual energy, Xiao Yan clearly felt his Dou Technique Body surging with intense longing.

Xiao Yan's eyes flashed with unusual light—he had finally obtained it! Now he could possess a Supreme Body!

Even if the Burning Scripture had not fully evolved, after condensing the Dou Technique Body, Xiao Yan could return to the Emperor Realm!

He reached out and effortlessly plucked the six-leaf grass, holding it in his hand; gazing at the green herb, he smiled faintly, then without hesitation, tossed it into his mouth.

Xiao Yan did not ask whether condensing the Dou Technique Body was dangerous or what the success rate was; he only knew he must master it to gain a foothold in the Great Thousand World!

At this moment, the blurred Dou Technique Body behind him blazed brilliantly; Xiao Yan no longer held back or suppressed it, releasing all his Dou Qi.

A hum rang out—the Dou Qi within the Dou Technique Body, once released by Xiao Yan, caused the entire extra-dimensional space to tremble; Xiao Yan was an Emperor, and the Burning Scripture had evolved to the limit of Emperor Rank Cultivation Method—his Dou Qi's quality was beyond imagination.

Normally, Dou Qi transformed into Spiritual Energy meant a drop in cultivation realm, but not Xiao Yan. Due to his cultivation method, his Dou Qi's quality was nearly equal to Spiritual Energy, let alone that his Dou Qi was Flame Dou Qi!

Flame Dou Qi was the strongest Dou Qi on the Dou Qi Continent!

Sssss!!! A hissing sound arose as Xiao Yan pushed his Dou Qi to its limit; the brilliant light of the Dharma Body shone like sacred rays.

At that moment, a rumbling sound echoed—a emerald-green energy flowed through Xiao Yan's meridians: the Cycle Six Leaf Grass. Thump, thump!! A powerful, rhythmic heartbeat emanated from Xiao Yan's body.

When the Cycle Six Leaf Grass's energy fully flooded into Xiao Yan's heart, the long-dormant PusinHeart ignited like an engine fueled—beginning to pound violently.

At this moment, the tender green PusinHeart, having absorbed immense life force, throbbed powerfully; with each beat, it injected the Cycle Six Leaf Grass's power into the Supreme Body behind him.

Xiao Yan shuddered instantly; the blurred Supreme Body, as if nourished, seemed to undergo rebirth.

"PusinHeart—this is not something one gains merely by possessing power; it requires great Qi Circulation. It seems my descendant still enjoys the favor of the Dou Qi Continent." Although condensing the Dou Technique Body didn't require PusinHeart, possessing it made the process far more perfect and increased success rate.

It laid a solid foundation for the future Po Body.

"The Soul Trial of the Dou Technique Body is coming."

The next instant, Xiao Yan's spirit surged; he took a deep breath—and calamity descended. Yet Xiao Yan merely let out a long roar, remaining seated cross-legged, unmoving; a soul ripple appeared, and a figure identical to Xiao Yan flew out from his body, ascending into the heavens.

On the Dou Qi Continent, a Heavenly Realm Soul could separate its Soul Body, possessing combat power equal to its physical form; at the Emperor Realm, it could even replicate the Emperor's full strength.

Xiao Yan's Soul Body was wrapped in Nine Mysterious Golden Thunder; instantly, his Dragon Phoenix Bloodline erupted. In that instant, his Imperial Soul Body, wielding Nine Mysterious Golden Thunder and Dragon Phoenix power, confronted the Supreme Body Trial descending from the Nine Heavens.

Boom! Boom! Boom! At the very moment Xiao Yan's Soul Body flew out, from the deepest reaches of Space, endless Purple-Black Flame thunder erupted, cascading like an ocean, completely engulfing Xiao Yan.

"Gu Huang Bell!"

Xiao Yan mentally roared, unleashing all his Soul Force; here, since he could use Dou Qi, he could also use Dou Techniques.

Above Xiao Yan's head, his Soul Body formed a rapid hand seal—a massive bell covered in demonic Spiritual Energy Sealing Array Runes instantly appeared. Crackling! In the blink of an eye, the colossal Gu Huang Bell was submerged by the sea of lightning and Thunder Pool.

Instantly, Xiao Yan's Soul Body was engulfed in thick, colossal purple lightning and thunder; endless waves of purple lightning struck his Soul Body.

The Dou Technique Body, being the first layer of the Original Dharma Body—the foundation—faced a terrifying trial even fiercer than Zhu Kun's Divine Beast Trial; the monstrous thunder sea drowned the Gu Huang Bell and surged toward the Dou Technique Body.

Amid the engulfing purple lightning, the Dou Technique Body roared and tore wildly, as if going mad—but could not break free from the endless purple lightning.

Just as Spirit Refining and devouring Flame required refinement to fully complete, so too must the Supreme Body undergo tempering to solidify—and this step was excruciatingly painful.

The Supreme Body was equivalent to one's true form; enduring the Soul Trial would elevate it into a Supreme Manifestation, the power only Earth Supreme could wield—capable of commanding reality with a word, profoundly mysterious.

Although Xiao Yan was not aiming to become an Earth Supreme, the final step of the Dou Technique Body was to pass the Soul Trial and become a Supreme Manifestation.

The Soul Trial's power was boundless; under this trial, countless prodigies attempting to break into Earth Supreme were reduced to ashes, and it was the most feared obstacle for experts stuck at Nine-Pin Peak.

Yet now, Xiao Yan possessed not a single speck of Spiritual Energy—and yet he must endure the Soul Trial, making it immeasurably harder than a Nine-Pin Sovereign breaking into Earth Supreme.

Facing the Spiritual Tribulation, Xiao Yan's main body remained unmoved, while his Soul Body clone controlled the Nine Mystical Golden Thunder to continuously resist the lightning strikes of the Spiritual Tribulation.

"The Spiritual Tribulation has nine strikes, each more powerful than the last. This is merely the first—what follows will be far more difficult."

Watching Xiao Yan resist the Spiritual Tribulation, Xiao Potian smiled and said: "If you survive, you will be the first in fifty thousand years to successfully cultivate the Dou Qi Body, reviving the Dou Po Cangqiong Body in the Great Thousand World!"

At this moment, half a month had passed since Xiao Yan entered the extra-dimensional space left by Xiao Potian, and during these half-months, Ning Tian Continent had undergone wave after wave of transformation.

First, Ning Tian Continent no longer divided into the four regions of East, South, West, and North; all Sects were reshuffled. To everyone's astonishment, the territories once belonging to the Heaven Splendor Sect, Corpse Cloud Sect, Hungry Wolf Tu, and Volcano Kingdom remained under their control.

When Cai Lin and Xiao Yixian visited the four major Sects, they merely emptied their treasuries—they did not dissolve or absorb them, and allowed the four Sects to continue as before.

This approach was puzzling: in normal power struggles between major Factions, the victor would dissolve or absorb the defeated, seizing all their territories to strengthen themselves.

Yet, nothing happened.

This was not their fault—they came from the Lower Plane. Though each of them was immensely powerful, their numbers were far too few, and they needed to cultivate, so they were forced to leave these Sects untouched.

After seizing the treasuries, Cai Lin declared to the entire Ning Tian Continent that they would not interfere in any affairs of the continent—Ning Tian Continent would remain Ning Tian Continent.

Cai Lin did not strike at the four major Sects, but upon hearing this, other Sects and Factions sensed something unusual.

After all, the four major Sects had lost nearly all their top combat strength: their Sect Masters were killed, and many elite Disciples, Elders, and Guardians were instantly obliterated by Xun Er's Spirit Array. The four Sects existed only in name.

Soon after, the four major Sects were invaded by other Factions. Ning Tian Continent plunged once more into chaos, as every Sect and Faction sought to claim a share of the former territories of the four major Sects.

The Western Realm Alliance, led by Xin Zhangsheng and others, possessed four Supreme-level experts, and its overall strength was not much weaker than top-tier Factions—it naturally seized vast territories and became one of the two or three strongest Alliances on Ning Tian Continent.

Naturally, even though Cai Lin declared they would not interfere, no one truly believed her—they simply ignored the low-tier lands and resources, which they deemed unworthy of their attention.

At this moment, the landing site of the Heavenly Tomb. The Heavenly Tomb and Wan Zhu Lin had now become forbidden zones on Ning Tian Continent, for everyone knew that the mysterious Soul Sect had come from other continents solely to seize the blessings hidden within these two places.

Of course, this was only half-true—the Heavenly Tomb had always belonged to Xiao Yan and his allies.

At this moment, in the third level of the Heavenly Tomb, Cai Lin, Xiao Yixian, Gu Yuan, and Xiao Xuan sat at the head table, while Qiao Shihong reported the situation one by one.

"Guardian Xin and his team have been selling the Divine Art and Great Divine Art Scrolls acquired from the four major Sects, but due to the sudden flood of Divine Art-level Scrolls, no Supreme-level expert on Ning Tian Continent wants them—the sales are bleak."

"The Divine Weapons are much the same—very few sold at the auctions."

Hearing this, Cai Lin and the others frowned tightly. They needed not only Supreme Spirit Liquid for cultivation, but more importantly, higher-grade resources to break through.

Xun Er brought back vast quantities of Supreme Spirit Liquid from the Ningzhu Array Master's inheritance; it would be no difficulty for Gu Yuan to reach Ninth Rank Supreme Peak—he merely needed to cultivate his Supreme Body to prepare for breaking into Earth Supreme.

But no item capable of aiding a breakthrough into Earth Supreme existed on Ning Tian Continent, so they planned to travel to other continents to exchange Supreme Spirit Liquid for pills or Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures to assist their breakthrough.

The over one hundred million Supreme Spirit Liquid from the Ningzhu Array Master seemed vast, but it was actually very little. A quasi-Sacred Artifact for a Ninth-Pin Sovereign required ten to twenty million Supreme Spirit Liquid; the price of a pill to aid an Earth Supreme breakthrough neared one hundred million Supreme Spirit Liquid—nearly equal to a true Sacred Artifact.

Not to mention Xiao Yixian needed rare toxins to transform into an Eternal Calamity Poison Body, Cai Lin required massive Supreme Divine Beast blood, and they still needed to prepare for Xiao Xuan's resurrection, strengthen Xing Tian, and reforge the Xuan Chong Chi—turning both Xing Tian and the Xuan Chong Chi into Sacred Artifacts would require summoning a Divine-Star Forge Master, and the cost would be exorbitant.

That was why Cai Lin intended to sell off all the useless Divine Arts and Divine Weapons to acquire Supreme Spirit Liquid.

Qiao Shihong glanced at them, swallowed hard, and nervously said: "Your Excellencies, if you truly intend to exchange such massive quantities of Divine Arts and Divine Weapons for Supreme Spirit Liquid, you may need to go to Shang Zhi Da Lu."

Now, the five of them were the unseen rulers of the continent, having just reaped a great harvest—nearly ninety percent of all resources on Ning Tian Continent, counting the two inheritances, now rested in their hands.

"How far is Shang Zhi Da Lu from Ning Tian Continent?" Xiao Xuan asked.

"Your Excellency, I once traveled to Shang Zhi Da Lu. If using Teleportation Spirit Arrays to leap between continents, it would take three months. But with your strength, you may not need the Teleportation Spirit Arrays—it would be faster." Qiao Shihong explained.

"Three months? Then a round trip would take nearly half a year—that's too long," Xiao Yixian whispered.

"Xiao Yan, Xun Er, and Zhu Kun are all in seclusion—we don't know when they'll emerge. If we leave Ning Tian Continent for Shang Zhi Da Lu, we'll be short on manpower," Gu Yuan calculated and said.

After all, they were the vanguard force from the Dou Qi Continent—elites—and thus few in number. If Xiao Yixian or Cai Lin carried so many Divine Weapons and Divine Arts to sell, they risked attracting those with ill intent.

The items they held were not merely those found in the treasuries of the four major Factions; the mountain of Treasures Xun Er brought back from the Ningzhu Array Master's treasure hall was the real treasure—accumulated over the lifetime of a Great Perfection Earth Supreme, a colossal fortune!

"Your Excellencies, there is one more thing about Shang Zhi Da Lu. While inquiring about Supreme Divine Beast blood, I learned that in half a year, Shang Zhi Da Lu will host its once-in-a-decade auction, and rumors say a quasi-Supreme Divine Beast's blood will be auctioned!"

(End of Chapter)