Chapter 318: The Twelve-Character Dao Seed

Because one can find the "Meditation Flower" and the "Spirit Platform Flame Star Stone," the Nether Flower Black Swamp is an important place for training and treasure hunting, and many sect disciples travel back and forth along the path.

They come in groups of three or five, mostly traveling in company.

Li Youyi and his two companions did not want to expose their tracks, so they put on masks.

Li Youyi questioned the returning disciples, wanting to buy fragments of the Spirit Platform Flame Star Stone from them on credit.

All attempts ended in failure.

These Rice Sect disciples were very cautious, guarding against them like thieves; they either stayed far away or claimed they had found nothing.

If not for the strong enemies in pursuit, Li Youyi would have liked to use his identity as a Son of God to stop them and check their boundary bags one by one.

The five-hundred-mile road was rugged and difficult to traverse, with many forks, and they would occasionally encounter special zones that required detours. By the time they actually finished the walk, they had trekked nearly a thousand miles.

The black mud swamp before them emitted a pungent stench, the soil was soft, and water pools were everywhere.

The air was filled with miasma that had not dissipated for tens of thousands of years, severely affecting vision.

In the swamp grew a large number of glowing plants, and glowing fierce insects flew past from time to time, so it was not completely dark.

"The Nether Flower Black Swamp, according to the records in the books, is a thousand miles wide and was a place of a great battle during the ancient Po Jialuo Sect period. Once, this place was extremely glorious, and it was beaten into this state during the fighting."

"Under the mud swamp lie countless buildings and corpses. There are many dangers and strange occurrences; even after a thousand years, it has been impossible to clean it up."

"Within a hundred miles is considered a relatively safe area. Beyond three hundred miles is a place that must absolutely not be stepped into."

……

Li Youyi recounted the information from the book to the two: "We will search separately. If we encounter danger, we will notify each other with whistles. I have a Spirit Movement Talisman I drew myself; one for each of you."

"Sikong Jingyuan and Yizhou Xue, and perhaps other enemies, should discover they have been tricked before long, and sooner or later they will find their way here. You must be careful and cautious."

"Old Qi, your cultivation base is a bit weaker, so take this Grade Four Hundred-Character Artifact invisibility cloak and wear it first."

This invisibility cloak was given by An Xianjing.

The three of them scattered and charged into the Black Swamp of Underworld Flowers.

Tuoba Butuo and Qi Xiao were powerful, and having survived the Hidden Dragon Lantern Festival, they did not lack intelligence or the ability to save their own lives, so they were fully capable of holding their own. Therefore, Li Youyi was not very worried about their safety.

After Li Youyi rushed into the swamp, he restrained his aura, changed direction, and headed toward a remote and peripheral area. After going ashore, before him was a mountain range over a thousand meters high.

The mountain range was pitch black, devoid of vegetation, with peaks standing like giant dragons lying on the east side of the Nether Flower Swamp.

Li Youyi walked for half a day, found a cave in the mountains, and after confirming that no one had been there for many years, he walked inside.

On the stone walls of the cave were carved statues of Buddhas, covered in dense ice-silk spider webs.

After slaying the pair of spiders that occupied the cave, Li Youyi claimed the spider nest for himself and used a giant rock to seal the entrance tightly.

Still not feeling at ease, he took out the Huang Long Sword and dug a hundred meters into the ground.

Standing in the pitch-black depths of the earth, he could not hear any sound from the surface.

Li Youyi finally felt at ease and sat cross-legged to meditate.

"Whoosh!"

The center of his brow lit up.

Particles of spiritual light, like a swarm of fireflies, flew and drifted in the underground, illuminating the dark passage.

These glowing particles surged toward the two fish eyes of the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish.

One represented the Lesser Yang Star, and the other contained the power of time. Li Youyi wanted to know, if both were activated together, what would happen?

Would he return directly to Earth?

"Click, click!"

The Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish slowly rotated.

After rotating three times, distant chanting and Daoist titles rang in Li Youyi's ears, becoming clearer and louder, as if another world were approaching.

The space around him became distorted.

The scene underground gradually blurred.

"Whoosh!"

Countless Daoist texts and Buddhist scriptures flew out from the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish, flying around his body, dense and everywhere.

These Daoist texts and Buddhist scriptures were extremely profound, turning into two oceans of text, floating above his head and beneath his body, rotating like a Taiji.

Everything else disappeared; Li Youyi felt as if he were sitting in the void of the universe, roaming among the endless Great Dao.

It was shocking!

His heart was stirred, difficult to calm, and he stood up, walking in the ocean of scriptures. With every step he took, the scriptures beneath his feet trembled.

Li Youyi reached out, wanting to grab a Daoist text, but it slipped through his fingers.

He could not keep it.

He pondered for a moment, then performed the Jade Void Breathing Method; his mind gradually calmed, his spirit became clear, and he slowly raised his arms, performing the first style of the Twelve Scattered Hands of the Chan Gate: "Heaven-Turning Palm Seal."

Then came the second style, the third style...

He practiced over and over again.

Twelve tall divine shadows of combat intent appeared in the twelve directions of the ocean of text.

Their bodies were as large as mountains, sacred and majestic, with extraordinary bearing; their eyes were full of spirituality and wisdom, as if they possessed life, not just twelve shadows.

Li Youyi opened his eyes and looked around, feeling that standing before them, he was as small as dust.

"Could it be that the twelve people in the legends of the Chan Gate truly exist?"

"Their auras are more terrifying than those who are transcendent. If they once appeared on Earth, where did they go later?"

"Why would they leave legends on Earth?"

At this moment, Li Youyi did not have the previous shock and palpitations; he was able to face the gazes of the twelve divine shadows with a calm state of mind that he himself found strange.

"Is this still my combat intent?"

Li Youyi extended his right hand, his five fingers spread, reaching toward one of the divine shadows—a crane-haired, youthful-faced figure riding a celestial beast—wanting to collect him into his Divine Palace.

"Haha!"

A vast, ear-shaking laughter rang out, shaking the heavens and the earth.

That divine shadow had actually "come alive," stroking his beard and laughing: "The Jade Void waves its hand to break ten thousand laws; one palm turns the heavens to suppress the mountains and rivers."

He struck out with his palm, and immediately, a divine seal countless times larger than Li Youyi's body appeared, descending from the sky with thunder and lightning, causing space to collapse.

Li Youyi's expression changed drastically, and not knowing where the courage came from, he was not frightened to the ground. Instead, his hands took a posture of supporting the heavens, and he actually steadily held up the divine seal.

It was a difficult support, but he could hold it.

Very strange!

From within the divine seal, countless Great Dao symbols flew out, condensing into scriptures.

Li Youyi looked at the scriptures floating before his eyes; although he had never seen them before, they were like words he had learned since childhood, very familiar, yet he could not understand them—it was so frustrating!

"They must be the Dao I touched while practicing the Heaven-Turning Palm Seal. I must understand them to make them my own and condense them into a Dao seed."

"Boom!"

The divine seal above Li Youyi's head was slashed away by a familiar sword.

It was the Huang Long Sword!

The divine shadow holding the Huang Long Sword said aloud: "The crane shadow flies alone outside the clouds; the Dao heart is inactive, laughing at the red dust. Since you cannot understand his Dao, then use my Dao to cast the Dao seed."

The Huang Long Sword slashed over, ten thousand dragons flying together.

"Awoo!"

Li Youyi fought with the ten thousand dragons, but he could not win at all, so he had to perform the Huang Long Ascending to Heaven, escaping toward the firmament.

"The Taiyi Divine Sword slashes karma; subduing demons and monsters reveals compassion."

A divine shadow above his head slashed down with a sword, coming like an opening sea.

Li Youyi already understood that everything before him was not real. He was not fighting those twelve people, but contending with their Dao.

He had practiced the Twelve Scattered Hands of the Chan Gate for many years and possessed the ability to communicate with twelve types of Dao.

"I cannot dodge; whatever style they strike with, I will use the same style."

"I must observe! This is a rare learning opportunity; their styles are infinitely miraculous, perhaps even more powerful than Imperial Arts."

Li Youyi's will was firm, fearless, and he drew the Huang Long Sword, performing the Taiyi Opening the Sea, heading straight for the firmament.

With one sword slash, he broke the sword coming from above.

A golden scripture fell into his body and floated in his Divine Palace.

Li Youyi looked inside his Divine Palace and discovered that he could actually understand this scripture; it was like the traces of a sword move, like a route for Qi circulation, and also had a mysterious feeling he could not describe.

"My sword move is stronger than his, so I obtained the Great Dao symbol, which condensed into a scripture that can directly plant the Dao."

Li Youyi's brain was clear; he knew the reason was that he had spent the most effort on the "Taiyi Opening the Sea" move, having performed it many times in danger, so he understood it more thoroughly and could easily pluck the Dao seed.

"Since that is the case, then come! I want to collect all of your Dao."

Li Youyi rushed rapidly toward the next divine shadow, his aura rising step by step, his mind active and his fighting spirit boiling.

……

…………

Time passed in one observation and battle after another.

Li Youyi stepped on the light and shadow of the Jade Tripod, crushed the Jade Tripod flying from the opposite side, and harvested the twelfth scripture.

The whole world quieted down.

In Li Youyi's Divine Palace, the twelve scriptures rotated and flew rapidly, causing the liquid magic power to form a vortex. The vortex spread throughout his body, pulling all the magic power from the seven Qi seas into the Divine Palace.

The magic power condensed, like a continuous drizzle, turning into liquid.

Gradually.

In the liquid magic power, the twelve scriptures condensed together, wrapping into a ball, forming a crystal-clear Dao seed, instantly illuminating the pitch-black, empty Divine Palace even further.

Where the light shone, there was only magic power mist.

What surprised Li Youyi was that as this twelve-character Dao seed rotated, Taiji patterns and Swastika light shadows appeared and disappeared, with countless Dao marks.

The Divine Palace Dao planting was successful, and the spring eyes below were covered by liquid magic power.

"Condensing the Dao seed absorbed all seven of my Qi seas. I wonder, if I directly mobilize the liquid magic power in the Divine Palace to perform martial arts moves and Daoist techniques, will the power be stronger?"

Li Youyi put away his thought power, and immediately, the ocean of Daoist texts and Buddhist scriptures flew back into the Dao Ancestor Taiji Fish.

The distorted space around him returned to normal, and he reappeared in the underground cave.

The feeling of emptiness coming from the seven Qi seas made Li Youyi extremely uncomfortable, more painful than being hungry for ten days. Thus, he separately activated the Buddha Relic fish eye, entered the blood mud space, and went to the Tang Gu Sea.

On the sea surface, he performed the Jade Void Breathing Method, absorbing the magic power between heaven and earth.

In his breathing, magic power came from outside, circulating and condensing around the twelve-character Dao seed in his Divine Palace.

Li Youyi clearly felt that the level of magic power condensed in his Qi seas had improved significantly, and his physical body was also undergoing further transformation.

His Ancestral Field and Wind Mansion both expanded again.