Chapter 523: Hongmeng Giant‑Head Dao Fruit Attains Dao

In the deepest part of the Hall of Longevity, the door of the secret chamber that had been sealed for ten years opened silently.

A figure dressed in a dark royal robe, wearing a purple‑gold crown, with a heroic and distinguished visage, stepped out slowly.

With each step he took, the aura around him grew stronger.

When he emerged from the secret chamber and stood on the plaza of the Hall of Longevity,

his cultivation had firmly settled at…

the peak of an Ordinary Immortal King!

Just one step away from entering the realm of the Absolute Peak!

The newcomer is none other than the Gu Family patriarch who has been in seclusion for ten years—Gu Lin Tian!

He felt the unprecedented, overwhelming power within his body, and a hint of emotion flashed in his eyes.

That Hongmeng Giant‑Head Dao Fruit truly lives up to being a supreme treasure that even giants go crazy for.

In ten years, not only did he break through to the Immortal King Realm, but his cultivation was also propelled all the way to the apex of an Ordinary Immortal King.

This saved him tens of thousands of years of arduous cultivation.

More importantly, it paved his path to the summit, toward becoming a Giant‑Head Immortal King!

……

"Congratulations, Patriarch! Congratulations, Patriarch!"

The figure of Wan Yao Divine Lord was the first to appear on the plaza.

He looked at Gu Lin Tian at that moment, feeling the sea‑deep aura, his face filled with excitement and pride.

The Gu Family has finally welcomed its fourth Immortal King!

Four Immortal Kings in one lineage!

Looking around many places, this is also a unique honor.

"Wan Yao Senior, you're being modest," Gu Lin Tian said to Wan Yao Divine Lord, nodding slightly.

He did not linger on his own cultivation; his divine thought swept directly over the entire Gu Family Divine Island.

In the next moment, his brows furrowed slightly.

"How come there are so many True Immortals in the clan now?"

Within his divine perception,

the entire Gu Family Divine Island, aside from him and the ancestral founder far in the rear mountain, surprisingly harbored the auras of over a hundred True Immortals!

Although most of these True Immortal auras were somewhat insubstantial and unstable,

they are still True Immortals!

In just how many years has the clan's strength undergone such an earth‑shaking change?

"Return, Patriarch."

Gu Gong also arrived; hearing Gu Lin Tian's question, he stepped forward and respectfully replied, "All of this was arranged by the Young Master."

"Yuan'er?"

Gu Lin Tian was momentarily stunned.

He instantly recalled Gu Yuan having asked Wan Yao Divine Lord to fire the furnace and forge the Hongmeng Immortal‑Creation Pill.

It must be that this item will help the Gu Family youths collectively breakthrough their realms.

"Yuan'er, where are you now?" Gu Lin Tian asked.

"The Young Master refined a great world over ten years ago and then entered seclusion again, and has not emerged to this day," Tu hurriedly replied.

"Secluded again?"

Hearing this, Gu Lin Tian felt a surge of complex emotions.

There was pride, there was satisfaction, but more than that, an indescribable… pressure.

As a father himself, he had toiled in seclusion for over a decade, only just breaking through to Immortal King.

Meanwhile, his son was refining worlds and mass‑producing True Immortals, causing a commotion far larger than his own.

This left the newly‑minted Immortal King with no sense of achievement.

"What about the ancestral founder?"

"The ancestral founder… knows you have finished seclusion and wants you to go to the rear mountain for a visit,"

Gu Lin Tian nodded, his figure flickered, and he vanished from the spot.

……

Rear mountain, bamboo forest.

Gu Cangsheng, still dressed like an old farmer, hands tucked in his pockets, humming an off‑key tune, was holding a bamboo pole and idly poking at a bird's nest.

"Have you emerged from seclusion?"

He didn't turn his head, apparently having anticipated Gu Lin Tian's arrival and thus emerged early.

"Hmm."

Gu Lin Tian walked behind him, gazing at his father's silhouette, and for a moment didn't know what to say.

"Now that you've become an Immortal King, how does it feel?" Gu Cangsheng asked.

"It's fine," Gu Lin Tian replied succinctly.

"Not bad, you haven't become arrogant."

Gu Cangsheng finally turned around, surveyed his son from head to toe, and nodded approvingly.

"Your foundation is solid, and that Dao Fruit you refined was thorough."

"Father."

Gu Lin Tian fell silent for a moment, then said, "Do you know about the matters within the clan?"

You know, it's just over a hundred bogus True Immortals—what's the big deal?

Gu Cangsheng waved his hand nonchalantly, making Gu Lin Tian's eyebrows jump wildly.

"Bogus? Those are over a hundred True Immortals—they're the backbone of my Gu Family!"

"Backbone, my ass!"

Gu Cangsheng snorted, sat butt-first on the nearby stone, and pulled out another handful of melon seeds.

"Lin Tian, you've been the family head for so many years—how are you still this naive?"

"Do you think True Immortals are like cabbage? You can't just stack them up with pills."

"I admit, the pills that kid Yuan'er concocted are indeed heaven-defying, but all they can give is cultivation."

"State of mind, experience, means of dealing with enemies, decisiveness in slaughter—these are things pills can't give."

Gu Cangsheng looked at his own son, his gaze turning solemn.

"Do you know how many of those True Immortals forced up in recent years have died?"

"A full twenty percent!"

"That's still thanks to Old Man, Wan Yao, and Tu Tamen repeatedly stepping in to save the day; even with Old Man and others acting, the death rate remains twenty percent."

Gu Lin Tian fell silent.

How could he not know this principle? Yet the shortage of the family's top combat power has always been a thorn in his side.

Now that he finally has so many True Immortals, he instinctively wants to protect them as the family's foundation.

"Women's benevolence."

Gu Cangsheng pinpointed the thought in his heart with a single sharp remark.

"In a greenhouse, you can't grow towering trees. To let them truly become talented, you have to throw them onto the fiercest battlefield, to see blood and risk their lives."

"Only those who survive are elite."

"Those who died can only be said to have deserved such fate."

Gu Cangsheng's words are harsh yet realistic.

Gu Lin Tian took a deep breath and nodded.

"I understand."

"You understand jack shit."

Gu Cangsheng glared at him: "If you truly understood, you wouldn't have come to me."

He stood up and patted Gu Lin Tian's shoulder.

"Alright, when the nest is overturned, no egg stays intact—that's all we can do."

"Right, Dad."

"Yuan'er has opened up one hundred twenty-three immortal meridians—do you think he..."

He wanted to ask whether Gu Yuan could truly reach the step of Immortal Emperor.

"The path is his own to walk."

Gu Cangsheng's gaze grew deep.

"All we can do is, when he needs it, clear away the obstructive stones on his path."

"As for how far he can ultimately go, that's his own business."

He patted Gu Lin Tian's shoulder, shifted the conversation, and his gaze turned sharp:

"Alright, stop worrying about the juniors' affairs. Tell me about yourself—based on that Hongmeng Giant Head Dao Fruit, you, a newly promoted Immortal King, surely have more power than what shows on the surface, right?"

"Show me—let this old man see what big move you've managed to conjure up over these ten years."