Chapter 284: The Heavenly Court

Seeing the edited footage broadcast on the group screen, Meng Qi said in the group chat: "What do you call a powerhouse? This is a powerhouse!"

Yi Leina: "Your performance was terrifying, while I played a witch obsessed with a doll—alas, he's here, I'm going into the theater."

Su Lin asked back: "Why is there a crack on the second camera?"

The Eye of the Heavenly God in the hands of Yuan Shi Tianzun was actually a camera Su Lin had exchanged for.

Meng Qi: "Hehe, this was just a last-minute upgrade—I went a bit too hard, sorry sorry."

Su Lin: "I'll let it slide because of the cultivation techniques you sent over."

Most aren't profound scriptures, but their systems are worth studying and referencing; even if you don't pursue this path, methods like Hundred-Day Foundation Establishment, Qi Accumulation and Physical Strengthening, and various ways to open the body's secret stores can still provide cross-applicable insights.

For group members, unless they must specialize in one field, long stretches of time and years can turn knowledge from countless worlds into power.

Moreover

Su Lin looked at the jade token from the "protagonist," delivered as a courier, and its stored information—his gaze flickered.

《**Xuan Gong》

As compensation for the privilege to use the Tianqing Yu Xu Sword and the benefits gained from devouring and sealing it—even though Su Lin had said it was mutually beneficial, the other party still decided to offer something in return.

"**Xuan Gong." Su Lin felt its true essence and fell silent.

As something you've been immersed in since childhood, you ask if he wants to learn it? Heh.

Su Lin directly inner-saw his dantian and middle palace, seized the winged light figure and the cloak-wearing child representing his Nascent Soul, and tried to assert the authority of the head of household.

"Go over there! Give him a hug! Otherwise, I'll confiscate your basketball—no, your Jin Dan!"

The Jin Dan was the winged light figure's true form, yet even now that Su Lin had fully taken control of the Jin Dan, the winged light figure stubbornly refused to submit to Su Lin's "tyranny," clinging tightly to the Jin Dan.

Today! Must! Form! A Loving Family!

"Second son, come here too! Stop thinking about eating the Jin Dan—stay put in your middle palace!"

While others cultivated, Su Lin wasn't idle—he finally figured out why, despite being utterly incompatible, the cloak-wearing child always rushed toward the Jin Dan like "Fei Yangyang."

This guy wanted to devour the Jin Dan, and the winged light figure representing the Jin Dan would always beat the cloak-wearing child senseless every time.

"If you don't let me cultivate in peace, I'll wash you both out—got it?!"

Su Lin felt like he was holding two magnets of the same pole, trying to force them into intimate contact against the laws of physics.

My **Xuan Gong!!!

Beside him, Miss Kelaien saw Su Lin's eyes bloodshot, breath held, expression focused—he was about to ask what was wrong when his spiritual sense suddenly warned him.

Boom!!!

A dark shadow shot backward like a cannonball, smashing tables, chairs, and benches along the way, kicking up a cloud of dust.

Miss Kelaien's hat wobbled in midair before slowly drifting down; he reappeared from the air beside him, picked up the hat, and placed it back on his head, glancing strangely at the figure in the crater.

"Two rebellious brats! Damn it!"

Think you're impressive because you're from the West? Wait—I'll find a Buddhist spell and build two Five-Finger Mountains to crush you both!

"Yu Xu Palace."

Even reduced to ruins, its former glory remained visible: before the collapsed Xuanhuang palace gates stood nine ancient wells, deep and dark, their bottoms unseen, where chaos churned at the end of the darkness, leading nowhere known.

The railings were smooth and warm, the ancient wells deep, radiating an indelible silence of ten thousand ages; Qu Yanping surveyed the half-collapsed palace that flickered between reality and illusion, and abandoned the idea of exploration.

The staircase summoned by the token seemed endless; along the way, he saw grand structures, thirty-six ancient wells, and even immortal divine and demonic corpses standing and kneeling amidst the ruins.

Hard to imagine what brutal battle once occurred in the distant eon, when all realms converged, drawing even the mythical Yu Xu Palace into the conflict.

After wandering long within this Mystical Realm, the illusory staircase finally reached its destination.

The arched structure gleamed under sunlight, its white walls adorned with modern-style decor.

Qu Yanping stared at the token in his hand, puzzled—he had come here following its guidance, seeking the **Xuan Gong and all techniques related to Huangshan Zhenjun to draw closer to Yang Jian—so why was there such a place inside Yu Xu Palace?

It felt wildly different from the mystical architecture he'd seen along the way.

After hesitating, he stepped inside anyway; no matter what this powerful being intended, he was already trapped in this mire and unlikely to escape.

The big shots of Hengyu Realm probably never intended for him to grow further; as a demonic cultivator, he had few choices—even if he escaped alive, they'd silence him.

If so, since he was already a pawn, why not willingly serve Yuan Shi Tianzun? Perhaps a sliver of hope remained.

Yet this mission carried immense danger—fail once, and he'd face eternal ruin.

He must cultivate many techniques to draw closer to the legends of Huangshan Zhenjun, hunt immortal malevolent entities to bind his fate to the Hunt, and finally make contact with the body of the Hunt Star God, using it to slowly replace its existence.

But he was willing to stake everything on this gamble!

Qu Yanping pushed open a door and stepped inside.

Bright lamps illuminated rows of neatly arranged bookshelves; the interior was vast, stretching beyond sight, filled with countless scrolls piled upon shelves—like a mortal library?

"Someone's here?"

A low, hoarse voice came from above Qu Yanping.

His first instinct was to retreat toward the door, but the doorway twisted into a solid wall.

"Cough—that token—are you a disciple of Yu Xu?"

Like a dry throat clearing after waking, the voice then smoothed into a sweet feminine tone.

Qu Yanping's pupils flickered slightly, then returned to normal; his Eye of the Heavenly God glowed, seeking to uncover the truth.

He looked upward and saw countless overlapping, misaligned layers of chaotic space, at the center of which stood a pure-white cross hundreds of meters tall.

Voices from afar echoed endlessly, like the mournful cries of countless collapsing stars; a beam of light illuminated a long, lonely path through the void, its end the very cross.

Upon the pure-white cross, a stunning woman with gray hair, barefoot and clad in a simple classical robe, was pinned through the center by a crimson spiral spear.

The kaleidoscopic space, endlessly shifting and assembling into different enchanting beauties, was composed of countless dimensional realms.

Tick-tock.

From the woman's chest, where her heart lay, crimson blood dripped down the crimson spiral spear—but each drop, midair, fell like into a lake, rippling the void.

The woman seemed to have just woken, yet in her drowsy, deep-blue eyes glimmered a hint of joy; her lips curled into a proud smile:

"Three eyes? The Eye of the Divine?"

"Your fate is quite interesting, young man."

"Your future has been grafted, bearing a karmic debt not your own."

Qu Yanping froze, not only because of the woman's words, but because of her face—though subtly different, he seemed to.

Several years ago, shortly after arriving in this world, he had seen a demoness here at a cultivator gathering who looked nearly identical.

"You saw me in the outside world several years ago?" The woman frowned, then suddenly understood: "You saw the me born from the new world? How did she fare?"

'Can she peer into my mind?!' Qu Yanping felt a chill, then forced himself to stop thinking further, watching her with sharp wariness.

"Just mind-reading." The woman looked disappointed, as if she'd found the answer she expected: "So, you're not close to her, then."

"Senior, why are you here? Isn't this the Jade Xu Palace?" Qu Yanping asked respectfully; he only wanted to receive the inheritance—no, he couldn't think anymore.

He lowered his head further, yet remained alert.

"I'm not in your Jade Xu Palace," the woman with gray-white hair laughed: "I merely left a drop of blood here, so you can see me—look, just like this."

She made no effort to hide her desire to show off, lifting her pale, bloodless fingers slightly.

Desolation enveloped all—dark sky and black earth appeared; a few crows perched on withered branches, wings spread as if ready to take flight in the next instant.

At that moment, a chaotic-colored light shot out from the token at Qu Yanping's waist; everything around rapidly faded, returning him to the library filled with countless bookshelves.

"So you really are from the Jade Xu Palace," the gray-white-haired woman smiled, her arrogance undiminished as she looked down at him: "Feel free to look for whatever you want."

Qu Yanping was stunned by the woman's earlier feat—he had clearly sensed the space being reforged.

He didn't want to stir up trouble, and the woman, as if losing interest, closed her eyes, making no move to let him do anything else.

So he began searching through the library filled with countless cultivation techniques and secret scriptures.

"The Human Body Perfected," "The Philosopher's Stone," "Dragon Slaying Magic," "The Five Elements," "Aether Reforging," "The Corpse Feeding Ritual," "The Book of Yibon."

Why are all these books from a magic system?

Thump-thump—!

The sound of knocking on wood echoed; Qu Yanping turned to see the gray-white-haired woman standing before a wooden door that had opened from a space that had been cut apart—moments ago, that spot had been empty.

"Hey, over here," the gray-white-haired woman pointed inside the door.

Qu Yanping instinctively looked upward—on the colossal cross, the gray-white-haired woman still sat, eyes closed, returned to slumber.

"What are you staring at? This is the true inheritance of the Jade Xu Palace. Don't touch my treasures," the gray-white-haired woman snapped, her temper sharper than before: "If you're not coming in, leave quickly."

"Senior, wait a moment," Qu Yanping set down the book he held—its title, "The Secret Classic of the Xuan Jun's Seven Chapters," bore an Eastern flavor—and hurried toward her.

Since the token had worked just now, she likely meant no harm.

As he stepped through the open wooden door, the space behind sealed shut as the door closed; he glanced back, then focused on the woman before him—he saw she had a physical form and life, yet the Eye of the Divine showed only a floating drop of blood before him, its surface densely covered with countless tiny incantations and symbols.

So this is what "a drop of blood" means?

"What are you looking for?" the gray-white-haired woman asked.

"Aren't you able to read minds?" Qu Yanping asked.

"I'm just a drop of blood—I can't do that," the gray-white-haired woman admitted frankly: "But I guess you're here for the **Mystic Art, Manifesting Heaven and Earth, Primordial Nine Seals, and such."

"Senior, your insight is piercing." Qu Yanping flattered.

"Anyone with half a brain could guess that. Aside from these techniques, there's nothing else of value here." The gray-white-haired woman tapped the dark void three times—three golden lotuses emerged from the darkness, blooming with countless rays of light:

"How is the outside world?"

"There are two worlds—I'm not sure which you mean. One is dominated by technology, with cultivators..." Qu Yanping, though staring hungrily at the three golden lotuses, answered her question with utmost respect.

After he briefly described it, the woman yawned and handed him the three golden lotuses.

The instant he touched them, time seemed to freeze—he felt his soul rise, suspended in a mysterious void.

Not being, not non-being, not both being and non-being, not neither being nor non-being.

Infinite transformations, unfolding the myriad worlds—formless and formless, yet manifest and tangible; chaos first born, yin and yang divided.

But

Why did he feel he could not fully integrate these teachings? There was always a barrier—even if it didn't hinder his use of them.

Was it because his realm was too low?

With this thought, the three golden lotuses he had absorbed instantly transformed into pure cultivation energy and flowed into his body.

Spirit Transformation, Void Refinement, Body Union, Great Ascension, True Immortal, Earth Immortal, Heaven Immortal.

Golden threads of cultivation energy, like thunder, encircled Qu Yanping's body—he felt unprecedented power; sun, moon, and stars were now mere dust flicked away by a finger.

Even within him, chaos subtly spread, as if ready to cleave heaven and earth.

This?!

This is the inheritance?!

"Long ago, someone left some power within these three inheritances, as the price for allowing my drop of blood to remain in the Jade Xu Palace to escape the Heavenly Court's apocalypse. He asked me to pass on a message to anyone else who possesses the Eye of the Divine."

Before Qu Yanping could savor the ecstasy of this sudden ascension, the gray-white-haired demoness interrupted his elation.

"What message?" Qu Yanping's tone lost a touch of reverence—he sensed key words.

Heavenly Court apocalypse?

Someone else with the Eye of the Divine?

The gray-white-haired woman glanced at Qu Yanping's Eye of the Divine and said:

"The Eye of the Divine has been severed by him—no one in this world can ever master it again."

"All immortals and gods of the Jade Xu Palace have fallen to demonic paths and were slain by him within the River of Time."

"For the sake of all beings, do not become Yang Jian."

End of chapter