Chapter 568

Humanity, proliferating and thriving, generation after generation, bloodline unbroken.

A voice sounded behind the Yin-Yang Daoist: "Look at my Wu clan's youths, each like a dragon—how splendid is that?"

At some point, five heavy stone coffins appeared behind the Yin-Yang Daoist.

The dark stone coffins were massive in size, their surfaces polished to extreme smoothness, carved with countless strange talismans and star charts of the sun, moon, and stars, as well as patterns of wind and cloud, sea waves, fire, and lightning, and countless images of divine beasts and birds.

The five stone coffins, arranged according to the five phases, formed a small five-phase array, silently hovering behind the Yin-Yang Daoist.

A tremendous power was brewing in the central stone coffin, and that sharp voice also came from within it: "Friend, your evasion technique is impressive; we approached close yet failed to detect any trace of you. May you reveal yourself and meet us five immortals?"

The Yin-Yang Daoist startled, revealing his form; from his eyes shot a black and a white strand of divine light, swiftly sweeping over the five stone coffins.

"Strange, I, the poor Daoist, ask myself I left no trace; may I ask, how did you five find this place?"

On the surface of the central stone coffin, countless star charts lit up simultaneously, and an extremely terrifying aura emerged within a radius of several zhang, like an iron cage locking down, firmly imprisoning the Yin-Yang Daoist's body.

Inside the coffin, the sharp voice then said: "Although we failed to detect any trace of you, friend, our Wu clan is not so inept… The Grand Wu Sacrificer guarding the ancestral temple suddenly felt inspired, spat three mouthfuls of old blood, yet still could not ascertain your whereabouts."

"This matter has alarmed us old immortals; twelve of us, equal in cultivation to myself, joined forces, cooperating with the Grand Wu Sacrificer to break open heaven and earth's yin and yang, reverse the chaotic five phases, and forcibly from the fate's trajectory, found a trace of you, friend."

"This year, this month, this day, this hour—right now, here, in the courtyard of my clan's little gray descendant, atop the branches of this broad-leafed jue tree, an outsider has intruded."

The brilliance of the star charts on the coffins intensified by more than double, and the pressure pressing upon the Yin-Yang Daoist grew ever more massive.

Inside the coffin, the sharp voice calmly said: "This is enough; we merely need to wait for the right time, pinpoint the location, arrive a little late, and naturally we will be able to block you here, friend. It seems the Grand Wu Sacrificer made no mistake, and the effort expended by us old folks was not in vain."

The Yin-Yang Daoist sighed, nodded: "Divination? The trajectory of fate? Hmm, it seems one must cultivate the One Qi Transforms into Three Purities technique to perfection, sever the three corpses, only then can one truly transcend the five phases, leave the three realms, and completely free oneself from the river of fate."

He pursed his lips in a smile, the Yin-Yang Daoist's body trembled, taking the form of Wu Tie when he was ordered to leave years ago, and he enthusiastically waved at the five stone coffins: "Five elders, long time no see? Hehe, your bit of effort was wasted."

The terrifying aura building within the five stone coffins suddenly stalled, then violent coughing erupted from within each coffin, and the Yin-Yang Daoist even heard the sound of an old fellow spitting blood.

Being able to evade the senses of the guardians of the Wu domain, to sneak secretly into the Wu domain's core, or to guard the ancestral temple, relying on the power of the ancestors, the Grand Wu Sacrificer, possessing boundless might and supreme spiritual awareness, suddenly felt inspired, thus unleashing a tremendously powerful and costly reckoning technique, finally predicting the trajectory of the 'strong enemy'.

Before us, it was not merely five Divine Realm elders joining forces against the foe; farther away, many more Wu clan elders had secretly laid out Wu formations, preparing to surround and attack en masse.

Even farther, the Wu clan mustered an astonishing number of Embryonic Storage realm elite warriors, likewise forming Wu formations, coordinating with dozens of clan-protecting Wu treasures, preparing to sacrifice rather than yield, ready to detonate three to five of those clan-protecting Wu treasures at any moment, just to leave behind this terrifyingly powerful, astonishing strong enemy capable of sneaking into the Wu domain's core.

The entire Wu clan, aside from the Wu Zhan family, had nearly all its elites poised and ready.

Not only in this first Wu domain, but in the other colossal stone caverns occupied by the Wu clan, all Wu warriors had already slept with their weapons at hand, ready to respond to any sudden external assault. The several passages leading from the Wu domain to the outside world were even more densely packed with heavy troops, who knows how many vicious, ruthless killing moves lie in ambush.

Apart from a few ancient monsters still asleep, the Wu clan can be said to have mobilized its entire nest, preparing to face the strong enemy.

Good, very good, exceedingly good.

Everyone was holding their breath, ready for the enemy to fight desperately… The 'ferocious, terrifying, horrifying, heretical, possessing unfathomable means' 'strong enemy' before them suddenly transformed, turning into their own gray descendant!

"Damn!" The lids of three stone coffins blasted off with a 'Boom!' and flew far away.

Three ancient, withered old men, gaunt yet with astonishingly sturdy frames, shot out of the stone coffins and rushed up to the Yin-Yang Daoist's face. They vigorously twitched their noses, assessing his aura, trying to discern via bloodline aura whether this fellow was indeed the gray descendant they knew.

The Yin-Yang Daoist is an emanation severed by Wu Tie using the One Qi Transforms into Three Purities technique, aided by the innate treasure Yin-Yang Two-Qi Vessel.

This severed emanation, besides relying on the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Vessel to achieve a doppelganger, also incorporated a portion of Wu Tie's soul and a strand of his essence blood. Thus, regardless of Dao arts or divine abilities, regardless of the potent origin gained from relying on the Yin-Yang Two-Qi Vessel, speaking solely of this body, from soul to bloodline, it is entirely identical to Wu Tie himself.

The Yin-Yang Daoist is Wu Tie.

Wu Tie, however, is not the Yin-Yang Daoist.

That is the principle.

The Yin-Yang Daoist chuckled, his finger lightly sliding over his left wrist pulse, a strand of fresh blood flowing down.

Within this strand of fresh blood lay Wu Tie's own bloodline aura, his unique bloodline imprint, and hidden within were the essence-blood auras of five Divine Realm great divine-ability masters!

When Wu Tie left the Wu domain to carry out the secret mission given by Wu Yu and Xi Bu Bai, the Wu clan's five elders had condensed their own divine essence blood, leaving him fifteen beads of divine essence blood bearing the five phases' attributes.

Having absorbed the divine essence blood of those five elders, Wu Tie's blood naturally carried a trace of their aura.

This cannot be faked in the slightest.

Even among Divine Realm beings, the Wu clan's five elders are not weak; even if faced with gods greater than them, forging their essence blood would be impossible.

"It's our little Iron returning." The three old fellows carefully examined the Yin-Yang Daoist's aura, laughed 'hahaha,' extended their gaunt, fan-like large hands, and gently stroked his head.

The three old fellows were more than twice the height of the Yin-Yang Daoist; their palms were extremely broad and hot, and when they stroked his head, it truly felt like an adult patting a child.

From afar came the hoarse voices of elders each clutching their natal Wu treasures, already ready to risk their lives, the Wu clan's old monsters cursing as they barely manifested in the distant midair, nodded toward this side, then spoke rudely, pointing toward the ancestral temple, greeting the incumbent Grand Wu Sacrificer.

Afterward, those old monsters vanished one by one, unknown where they went, burrowing into their own stone coffins to continue sleeping.

The atmosphere in the Wu domain suddenly relaxed; seeing the nearby and distant dwellings, large troops of Wu clansmen in heavy armor scrambled out rather embarrassedly, each giving a begrudging glance this way, shaking their heads and sighing as they shouldered their weapons and turned to leave.

A clear jade chime rang out, and far away, relay after relay transmitted it.

All alerts across the Wu domain were lifted; the stationed warriors all returned home, while the elders and ancients stationed in various places, one after another, grumbled as they gradually eased the power they had mobilized to the extreme.

Including Wu Yu, the five elders encircled the Yin-Yang Daoist, staring at him, now returned to a gentle, refined Daoist appearance, like spectators watching a monkey show.

The Yin-Yang Daoist's visage bears eighty to ninety percent resemblance to Wu Tie's original features, yet being born of Yin-Yang qi, with its endless changes, he appears far more beautiful and ethereal than Wu Tie himself; slight adjustments to his facial contours make him look, at first glance, like a completely different person from Wu Tie.

"This body is still the Wu clan's bloodline body, yet there is something odd… Hmm, relying on a bottle, forcibly turning into an independent-thinking doppelganger… this method, it seems…" Wu Yu pinched the Yin-Yang Daoist's cheek flesh, pulling and muttering to himself: "This method, this divine ability, I… in the ancestral founder's closed-door cave, on the wall, I seem to have seen it."

"I practice One Qi Transforms into Three Purities… huh, correct, in the ancestral founder's closed-door cave there is this relief carving. It was personally carved by the founder, no mistake. Beside it is the founder's left verdict; the founder also regrets, saying he failed to learn such supreme Dao art, otherwise back then the founder could at least have dealt with several strong enemies."

Wu Yu stared fixedly at Wu Tie: "Fate, fate, I and Xi Bu Bai that black-hearted ghost once said, don't pick the so-called Xi clan's meticulously cultivated geniuses and elites; if you pick, pick those with good fortune, good luck, ample blessings—in short, blessed children."

Wu Yu laughed until his eyes narrowed to slits, his hands firmly pulling the Yin-Yang Daoist's cheeks, he laughed loudly: "Little Iron child, you've been safe out there, I can rest easy, I can rest easy… the Xi clan these years have at least three thousand-plus carefully selected children; once they leave, there's no movement, no sound—perhaps dead, or perhaps a fate worse than death… I, too, worry!"

"You can return, good, very good, excellent, superb! Well, never mind your father for now; let's go to the ancestral temple, join a bunch of old folks, and tell us what you've done these years… and, your evasion technique—how does it work? Simply unreasonable… with your Embryonic Storage cultivation, you actually managed to hide from us old timers."

"Totally unreasonable, hurry and tell us."

Wu Yu bared his teeth, grabbed the Yin-Yang Daoist's shoulder in one grasp, and with a 'Whoosh' turned into a howling gust of wind.

The four old fellows cackled 'ge ge,' likewise whipping up a gust of wind, driving their several stone coffins, they flew hurriedly toward the Wu clan's ancestral temple.

After an hour, the Yin-Yang Daoist sat upright in the center of the ancestral temple's sacrificial hall, surrounded by twenty-plus Divine Realm Wu clan elders, while unseen numbers of old fellows of unknown strength listened from afar by various means.

The Yin-Yang Daoist spent an hour recounting to those Wu clan old monsters everything he had done over the years, in full detail.

Afterward, for a full half-quarter hour, the sacrificial hall was utterly silent, not even a sparrow's chirp.

After a long while, a long while, Wu Yu finally gave a dry chuckle: "What did I say again? What did I say again? Seek a blessed child… seek a blessed child… look, just a few years of effort, ancestors and ancestral spirits above… a whole prefecture!"

The twenty-plus elders seated in the hall swayed slightly, their withered faces faintly flushed, moisture rising in their eyes.

A prefecture's land, its territory stretching tens of millions of li, bathed in the light of sun and moon, enjoying the universal shine of the stars, with blue sky and white clouds, with wind, frost, rain and dew; the fertile soil is thick—just scatter seeds, no effort needed, and you can reap abundant fruit—such fertile land.

There are myriad flowers, green grass, legendary towering trees, legendary herds of beasts galloping, myriad birds soaring, countless aquatic species freely swimming in shallow and deep waters… the legendary terrestrial world.

For countless years, the subterranean peoples have sought to obtain a small living space on the surface, yet no one has ever succeeded.

The Xi Clan, the Wu Clan, and other vassal tribes of the Xi Clan have, generation after generation, sent out countless elite youths to sneak onto the surface in secret; some bore important missions, others simply wished to carve out a living space for their kin on the surface.

But they all failed.

Not a single message returned, and not even half a person came back safely.

Year after year, each clan continued to dispatch its finest youths outward, yet year after year, there was not a whisper of news.

Only this time, Wu Yu, who insisted on employing Wu Tie, sent back an avatar severed by supreme Dao arts, which accurately informed their ancestors—right here in the surface world, in one of the Three Divine Nations, the Great Jin Divine Nation, in the core region of the Great Jin Divine Nation, in its most fertile and rich land, Wu Tie dominates a prefecture, being the lord of a top-grade prefecture.

"One prefecture's land… children raised under sunlight and dew will have innate cultivation talent averaging thirty percent stronger than the clan's children."

An ancestor even older than Wu Yu sighed deeply: "Xiao Tie, now that you've returned, do you have any requests for the clan? Just speak up, and we old fogies will see it done, even if we have to risk our lives."

The Yin Yang Daoist solemnly gazed at these Elders of his, he pondered for a moment, then slowly nodded.

I will impart the One Qi Transforms into Three Purities Technique to you Elders; I dare ask you Elders, with the utmost speed, using your strongest Wu treasure, to sever an avatar and follow me to the surface.

I, the grandson, lack sufficient foundation; now the Great Jin's situation shifts unpredictably, I, the grandson, must have sufficient strength to cope… or rather, have sufficient strength to stir this pool of muddy water into chaos, from which to gain sufficient benefit… benefit, which is the future living space for our Wu Clan people.

The Elders' avatars will not be dispatched lightly; only at the most critical juncture will the grandson dare not use them—Elders, just focus on your cultivation.

What the grandson needs most is a batch of reliable brothers.

Brothers who fight tigers together, I need the help of my clan brothers… help me fully control Jade Prefecture, control the Imperial City Military Command, control the Four Palaces Twelve Guards Forbidden Army, control everything I now possess.

「For this, the grandson's true self is currently preparing identity documents for all you brothers that can withstand any investigation…… enough to ensure absolute safety. 」