Chapter 146: Immortal Platform

"The crisis is already very obvious!"

Zhang Xuan stood atop this heavenly palace, a gentle breeze blowing through his robes and his hair dancing in the wind, making his bearing appear all the more transcendent, as if he might ascend to become an Immortal at any moment.

"This land already holds countless crises."

Zhang Xuan stood above the sky, looking down at the entire Shenchen; even in the depths of night, it was extremely brilliant, with flowing light flickering everywhere.

These were one successful cultivator after another, traveling through the air, centering themselves around Shencheng and expanding outward, searching everywhere for Source Stone.

The most massive lights among them basically came from the Holy Land, aristocratic families, and the imperial clan; their light stretched in a continuous line toward the Taichu Ancient Mine and other mineral-rich regions—not into the interior of the Taichu Ancient Mine, of course, but to its edge regions.

It was not easy to walk into the interior of the Taichu Ancient Mine alive, let alone walk out alive; although the interior possessed the richest mineral deposits and treasures in the whole world, or even the whole Universe, no one could take them out.

"Isn't it said that the Immortal Path will only open in several hundred years? The true crisis should be hundreds of years away..."

Kongque Wang was somewhat puzzled; he had lived for two thousand years and had seen all the prosperity of the Human World. Now, there was nothing he could not accomplish, and his only lingering obsession was to kill the Saint Master of the Yaochi Sacred Land.

Judging by the current pace, it would not be long before he could accomplish it.

With his current cultivation, he could roam freely across the world without much danger; he did not understand why a person like Zhang Xuan, who possessed infinite knowledge and had a terrifyingly fast cultivation speed, still felt anxiety about the future.

Moreover, Zhang Xuan had asserted that a huge crisis would arrive before long.

If anyone else had said this in front of him, he would have laughed out loud, but since Zhang Xuan arrived at the Demon Race, none of his words had failed to come true, and the things he brought out were supreme treasures that could make even a Saint feel tempted.

Therefore, he could not treat it with a normal heart; he had to carefully weigh every single word.

"Is the danger not obvious enough now?"

Zhang Xuan looked down at this land, especially watching the major Holy Lands and aristocratic families constantly moving like ants, transporting Source Stone back from the edge regions of the ancient mine.

Within those Source Stones, it was very likely that one terrifying Ancient King after another, or even more formidable existences, were sealed.

"I don't quite understand."

Zhang Xuan did not explain it directly or clearly; even if he explained more to the current Kongque Wang, Kongque Wang would not have a profound realization, as he lacked deep experience.

Only those Saints who were sufficiently strong in power and realm, and who had lived for long enough, had a clear understanding of all this.

After sighing for a moment, Zhang Xuan turned to Kongque Wang and said: "You have already gained a considerable amount of insight into the cultivation points within the Demon Emperor Scripture. Now that your Qi and blood have returned to a more youthful state, it is not too difficult to make another breakthrough with your current condition. Strive to break through, while that crisis and turmoil have not yet arrived..."

As he spoke, he looked at Kongque Wang carefully, and a trace of a smile appeared on the corner of Zhang Xuan's mouth.

"With your current state, you are already able to break through to the peak of the Immortal Second Realm. As for severing the Dao, you will have to rely on yourself; others cannot help much. I have already explained the key points of this hurdle in the Demon Emperor Scripture to you clearly..."

After finishing, without waiting for Kongque Wang to react further, Zhang Xuan moved his body.

Infinite power surged into his body, mixed with many Great Dao Fragments, and on the surface of Zhang Xuan's body, there were twenty-seven ancient characters from the Great Emperor Scripture suppressing his body; Kongque Wang felt a shock in his heart after one glance.

Among them were nine ancient characters he could identify; they belonged to the top-tier inheritance of the Demon Emperor Scripture, containing the Great Emperor's lifelong experience and accumulation.

And the other eighteen ancient characters clearly came from two other ancient scriptures.

These twenty-seven ancient characters alone indicated that Zhang Xuan possessed the inheritance of three Great Emperors, which was simply incredible.

What made him feel even more shaken was that Zhang Xuan was using these twenty-seven characters to suppress himself, not to help him break through, but rather to suppress his current state.

With Zhang Xuan's current accumulation, he could soar directly into the sky and rush into the Immortal Platform Realm.

But he used the characters from the ancient Great Emperor Scripture to suppress his own state, preventing himself from going to the next level.

Yet, at the same time, a continuous stream of power was being nurtured within his body; with just one look, Kongque Wang understood Zhang Xuan's intention—he wanted to use this suppression to build a supreme foundation.

The more severely one suppresses, the stronger one becomes when breaking through in the future, but ordinary people simply cannot use such a method; if one's own foundation is not deep enough, one's background is not powerful enough, and one's physique and bloodline are slightly inferior, the result of such forced suppression is to explode and die on the spot.

Only a person like Zhang Xuan, whose physique and bloodline were unknown but even more special and terrifying than a Divine Body or King Body, could use this to make his own foundation stronger.

This was a method that ordinary people could not use at all.

Seeing that Zhang Xuan had already begun to cultivate, Kongque Wang sighed, set up a powerful array around him, and instead of leaving directly, he used communication methods to summon the heads of several Demon Race factions and then passed down the instructions Zhang Xuan had just given.

"Go find Gai Jiuyou and that descendant of the Cai Family. Remember, there must not be the slightest negligence. Report back immediately after finding them; if you are discovered by them, do not panic..."

Kongque Wang calmly issued various orders; at this moment, he finally had the true demeanor of a King, and the Demon Race figures left immediately after receiving the orders, not daring to linger for a second.

Watching the departing Demon Race, Kongque Wang stared deeply.

Zhang Xuan had not been very explicit about this, but a heavy shadow had already been cast over his heart.

"The future crisis... it has already reached the point where we need to find people who have lived for eight or nine thousand years to come forward..."

Zhang Xuan had not spoken very clearly, but Kongque Wang himself could estimate how vast the scope of this matter would be and how terrifying it would be.

Needing to find an Ancient Saint to come forward meant that what followed would definitely be the center of a storm in heaven and earth.

At the same time, Kongque Wang could not help but think of the Immortal Path that would open in several hundred years; originally, he had no suspense about the Immortal Path, as he knew his own weight.

When the Immortal Path opened, he feared he did not have the qualifications to compete alongside the peak figures of several eras with his own ability.

But now that his years had become youthful again and his Qi and blood were boiling, the heroic ambition of his youth rose in Kongque Wang's heart once more.

"Why can't I? Of course, I must go and try."

With the various cultivation insights Zhang Xuan had explained to him, Kongque Wang became increasingly clear about his own cultivation path; he felt he was already standing at the very peak of the Immortal Second Realm and would soon be able to go out to undergo the tribulation and seek a breakthrough.

At this very moment, standing in the palace, he was also silently cultivating, but he had not been cultivating for long before he felt a faint oppression in the surroundings; he immediately broke out of his seclusion, and sure enough, it was as he had expected.

Zhang Xuan stood tall, his aura having reached a point where it could no longer be suppressed.

Nodding toward Kongque Wang, Zhang Xuan instantly turned into a stream of light and rushed out of the Holy City.

Kongque Wang paused for a moment, then followed far behind Zhang Xuan; he watched as Zhang Xuan flew thousands, even ten thousand miles, to find an uninhabited area.

A crimson lightning bolt over a thousand zhang long struck down from the firmament without the slightest hesitation, its power terrifyingly peerless.

Even with Kongque Wang's strength, he felt a sense of trepidation; even with his current physical body, he would face terrible pressure and even sustain injuries in that terrifying lightning.

But the figure standing in the lightning did not change in the slightest, not even putting up a decent defense; the lightning struck his body, only causing his hair to dance wildly, not even piercing the skin on his body.

"This physique alone already surpasses an ordinary King Body or Divine Body; I wonder how far he has walked in this realm."

Kongque Wang's eyes flickered, his heart even more shocked.

He knew Zhang Xuan was strong, but he had not expected him to be this strong.

How long had he known Zhang Xuan? He had already broken through repeatedly, ascending to the heavens.

Anyone in the Cultivation World would feel inferior in front of Zhang Xuan; although his strength and realm had not yet reached the level of being invincible, this speed of breakthrough could truly be recorded in history.

Beneath the vast lightning, Zhang Xuan looked up at the firmament, yet he sighed silently.

He was barely satisfied with his current cultivation speed, but a slight sense of crisis still lingered in his heart.

"The Origin of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body remains is about to be drained dry by me; even the Divine Power and essence within this indestructible Saint Body are about to be swallowed clean by my Indestructible Heavenly Art..."

Judging by his current cultivation progress and speed, under the requirements of suppressing himself with all his might and laying an invincible foundation, the remains of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body could likely support his cultivation up to the Great Power realm, which is the Immortal Platform Second Layer.

At the current speed, it would not take many days to consume, and by then, he would be without cultivation resources again.

Although the remains of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body could still last for a while, Zhang Xuan had already developed a corresponding sense of crisis.

"After it is completely consumed, I must find Gai Jiuyou as soon as possible. After letting him recover to his youthful state, it would be best to have him make a trip to Sheng Ya to retrieve the Secret of 'Row', and at the same time, find a way to have him bring down the corpse of that Great Accomplishment Saint Body."

After possessing a Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, and a Desolate Ancient Sacred Body that had reached the Saint level, Zhang Xuan had a profound understanding of the power of the Desolate Ancient Sacred Body, and he also had a strong craving for this kind of Origin. With the Indestructible Heavenly Art, cultivating by such means was truly like riding a rocket; this feeling was truly addictive.

"If possible, I could even trick Gai Jiuyou into going to Earth to help me retrieve that peerless Immortal treasure from the Kunlun Mountains..."

Zhang Xuan was still daydreaming when a terrifying bolt of lightning suddenly shot down from above his head, striking him so hard he sprawled onto the ground, making him unable to help but curse at the sky.

Beside him, Kongque Wang's face twitched. That bolt of lightning just now had turned a mountain peak into ash, but when it landed on Zhang Xuan, it didn't even singe his hair, merely causing Zhang Xuan to stumble.

This was simply unreasonably strong, almost inhuman.

"Forget it, forget it. Even a figure possessing the aura of the righteous path died an unnatural death within the formations of the Kunlun Mountains. If I trick Gai Jiuyou into going, I fear that without the correct map, even Gai Jiuyou would die inside. Alternative Enlightenment does not mean one is invincible!"

Besides, Gai Jiuyou is not my subordinate; how could he possibly listen to me wholeheartedly?

Zhang Xuan sighed, and the lightning around him grew even more terrifying.

His thoughts finally stopped wandering; between his brows, his vigorous and terrifying spiritual power communicated with heaven and earth, imprinting the various traces of this world.

He finally began to deal with this terrifying lightning tribulation in earnest.

While confronting it head-on, various terrifying Divine Arts were also unleashed from his hands, and at the same time, during this process of confrontation, Zhang Xuan had inexplicable insights in his heart.

"This lightning tribulation can be said to be the essence of heaven and earth, with the myriad Daos of the heavens manifesting within it, and then attacking me in the form of lightning. When an Ancient Great Emperor achieves their status, they must face the test of heaven and earth; it can be said to be the most perfect experience of the Great Dao of heaven and earth."

For the many figures of this world, they have their own Daos to walk, so these myriad Daos of the heavens are merely a reference for them. But for me, who is simultaneously cultivating the Eight-Nine Profound Art, this Dao displayed directly before me counts as a shortcut, or rather, an open-book exam, with the answers to the Great Dao of heaven and earth written directly before me..."

At this moment, Zhang Xuan was moved in his heart.

Unlike the methods of the Zhetian World, which do not emphasize comprehension in the early stages and only speak of violent advancement, the cultivation methods of the World of the First Sovereign, whether in the early or late stages, are very particular about comprehension, especially the comprehension of the Great Dao of heaven and earth.

The more and faster one comprehends, the faster one cultivates.

And Zhang Xuan's comprehension of the Great Dao of heaven and earth has always been slightly lacking in this regard.

After all, he needs to rapidly increase his strength to ensure his own safety, so for a long time, he has been using all kinds of resources to brute-force his strength.

Therefore, the cultivation methods of the Zhetian World are the fastest to cultivate, and Zhang Xuan's focus has always been on the methods of the Zhetian World.

At this moment, bathing in the endless lightning, his primordial spirit and body simultaneously sensed the various rules of the Great Dao of heaven and earth within the lightning.

An inexplicable, peculiar realization arose in Zhang Xuan's heart, and the Eight-Nine Profound Art, which had not had much movement since reaching the Outer Realm Third Layer, broke through once again to reach the Outer Scene Fourth Layer.

The shape of the primordial spirit in his mind became increasingly complex and unpredictable.

The endless heaven and earth above his head had all its rules being imprinted and absorbed by him.

Boom!

Before Zhang Xuan could sense it in detail, more and more of the Great Dao manifested in the firmament, and a magnificent heavenly palace even appeared above the sky.

That was the imprint of powerful beings from the past within the heavenly tribulation, displaying the magnificent Great Dao of the Zhetian World. Usually, such a situation is the most dangerous moment, but facing this, Zhang Xuan could not help but reveal a trace of joy on his face.

"Cultivating between such heaven and earth, the Eight-Nine Profound Art is truly a marvelous technique, with the Great Dao of heaven and earth fully displayed before me as a test."

(End of this chapter)