AGM 472 – Vermilion Bird Immortal Palace
Qin Wentian drew in a deep breath, wanting to dispel the memories of what happened in the nightmare completely. His eyes flashed with sharpness, and gleamed with a terrifying resolution.
After experiencing the baptism, the state of his heart was even firmer compared to before. Nobody could block his path.
Standing up, Qin Wentian felt his entire body grew cold. Droplets of his perspiration doused his shirt, and as the light wind gusted past, the coldness seeped right into his body. However, his eyes were still staring determinedly ahead in the distance.
Right ahead in the distance,, there was an ancient emperor tomb. Not only that, it radiated a resplendent light, giving the feeling that this ancient tomb would never lose it’s luster.
His silhouette flickered, Qin Wentian walked to the edge of this dimension. He stared at the ancient tomb in front of him. In this dimension, there was only a single ancient tomb. The gravestone embedded before the entrance was shaped in the form of a human, it was evidently a statue of the peerless ancient emperor that was buried within.
“There’s words inscribed?” Qin Wentian gaze at the statue only to see that right in front of the statue’s chest, there was actually a monument with words engraved upon it.
“Xia Emperor’s Tomb!”
Qin Wentian’s heart violently clenched as he saw the words. The ancient emperor who was buried here, was none other than the Xia Emperor.
in Grand Xia, so many eras passed and numerous Emperors had appeared. Regardless of the Tyrant Emperor or the Blood Emperor, they could all be considered the overlord of Grand Xia. However, the real title of Xia Emperor, only belonged to one man.
The founder of Grand Xia, Xia Emperor!
This was none other than his tomb.
In front of the statue, there was an extremely long golden pathway with a countless number of puppet-like statues standing there motionlessly, clad in armor and wielding heavy spears, standing on the left and right side of the path. Also, even though they seemed motionless, a heavy killing intent could be felt emanating forth from them.
What made Qin Wentian astonished was that at the origin of this golden pathway, a majestic golden altar could be seen there. And right on top of it, some ancient-looking manuals could be seen.
Qin Wentian’s silhouette flickered, treading the air as he arrived at the origin place of the ancient path. He retrieve one of the ancient manuals and sat on the ground, flipping open it. Interestingly, to his surprise, this ancient manual contains detailed information regarding the Dao of Divine Inscriptions.
The first ancient manual before the ancient tomb of the Xia Emperor was actually a manual on Divine Inscriptions. This ancient manual contained some similarities when compared to the Gold-Element Ascendant manual Qin Wentian acquired before. However, there were many segments that were many times more profound in comparison. Naturally, other than Divine Inscriptions, detailed information on things like the Dao of Formations and Dao of Puppets were included within as well.
Could it be that the founder of Grand Xia, the Xia Emperor, was also a Divine Inscriptionist Grandmaster?
Qin Wentian flipped through the pages until one page made him sit up straighter in shock. The name of the Formation was actually the Vermilion Bird Formation.
This page contained detailed content regarding the Vermilion Bird Formation. This formation was the exact same one which was guarding the ancient kingdom of Grand Xia, the place where he fought the ranking battle for the Heavenly Fate Rankings.
“Vermilion Bird Formation.” Qin Wentian’s eyes glimmered with a sharp light. This was a peak-tier, fifth-ranked Grand Formation and was exceedingly enigmatic. Just from reading through it, Qin Wentian could tell how profound this was. Such a formation wasn’t something he could comprehend back then when he was inside the formation world.
However now, as he read through the information, his mouth was wide open with amazement. With the aid of the explanation, Qin Wentian could pierce things together with his current comprehension in the Dao of Divine Inscriptions and understand some rough insights from it.
Strangely enough, the Vermilion Bird Formation back then didn’t exhibit a power at the peak of the fifth-ranked. Seems like the passage of time have diluted some of its power, and the setup of the formation was so complex that the Divine Inscriptionists remaining in Grand Xia had no idea on how to repair it.
Qin Wentian placed the manual down and glanced towards the second manual. This ancient manual actually contained a set of cultivation art within. The Great Dream Immortal Art.
It was similar to the dream creation cultivation art which Qin Wentian had been practicing. The difference was that, the Great Dream Immortal Art was a cultivation art designed for the Heavenly Dipper Realm, he could also cultivate in his dreams, where by the absorption of astral energy would be increased as well.
The appearance of this Great Dream Immortal Art directly replaced the previous dream cast art he had been cultivating.
And as Qin Wentian flipped through the pages of the Great Dream Immortal Art manual, he was instantly drawn in, in a state of complete immersion, unable to extricate himself from it.
Before this, he had already experienced for himself how terrifying this Great Dream Immortal Art was. Even though the Xia Emperor has already been dead for countless years, the dreamscape he created caused Qin Wentian to sink within a nightmare, almost unable to awaken from it.
What was even more fearsome was that the snowman as well as the Sword Forest, were all created by the Xia Emperor. However, the first two dimension was a true reality, hence the breakthrough he had as well as his comprehension of the Seven Annihilations Swordplay wasn’t false. Whereas, the third dimension was a reality of his own making, trapping him within the nightmare from the demons in his heart.
The strength of that dream creation technique was so strong that people wouldn’t be able to tell illusory from reality. Or in other words, that dreamscape was formed from a mixture of truth and lies, if one submerged within, the dream would turn into a reality.
Only after a long period of time passed did Qin Wentian finally retract his perception and placed the Great Dream Immortal Art manual back in its original location.
And other than the strength of the dreamscape it created, there was another benefit to this Great Dream Immortal Art. The cultivator would find it easier to create his own techniques within the dream, perfecting it in his dreamscape.
After all, the stronger a Stellar Martial Cultivator grows, the innate techniques they mastered would eventually integrate with the power of their Astral Nova or Celestial Constellations. If one uses a technique of his own creation, the power unleashed would doubtlessly be many times higher as this was a technique that was tailored to their attributes and strength perfectly.
Qin Wentian then turned his attention to the ancient-looking scroll on the extreme right. This, was not a cultivation art nor an innate technique. Instead, it was actually a rolled up map.
A range of mountains was depicted on that map. The details were all incredibly vivid and lifelike, celestial qi drifted all about, permeating the atmosphere. And within the mist of celestial qi, there seemed to be a floating immortal palace over at a certain area. Above that immortal palace, the silhouette of a Vermilion Bird could be seen shimmering in and out of existence.
This map, actually was in fact a geographical location of where that immortal palace was.
“Could the reason why the totem beast of Grand Xia was a Vermilion Bird be because of this?”
Qin Wentian silently mused. If not, why would the Xia Emperor leave a map leading to the immortal palace behind?
Standing up, Qin Wentian turned his gaze onto that golden pathway. After which, he stepped forwards and the instant his feet landed, that incomparably heavy killing intent immediately surged forth, gushing over to him. Yet, as Qin Wentian continued forwards, stepping in seemingly random positions, the resplendent golden light of the ancient path, diminished.
In the centre of Qin Wentian’s brows, his third eye appeared. He naturally had already perceived that this golden path was none other than a path created by Divine Inscriptions. Those who stepped on it without knowing everything, would definitely die without a doubt.
The reason for the Xia Emperor leaving behind an ancient manual of Divine Inscriptions was undoubtedly because he hoped that there would the fated person who came here in the future, would be proficient in the Dao of Divine Inscriptions, and used the concepts gained from the manual to cross the golden pathway.
To Qin Wentian, this wasn’t a difficult task. With his perception, negating and breaking formations was something easier than inscribing them. As his steps landed, the Divine Inscriptions on the golden pathway shattered one after another.
Finally after he arrived at a certain point, the puppet-like statues on both sides began to move. An overwhelming pressure gushed forth from them, and an instant later, their silhouettes flickered, stabbing with their spears towards Qin Wentian at the speed of lightning.
“Stellar Transposition.”
Qin Wentian’s feet glimmered with astral light as he dodged and reappeared at the side of one of the puppets. Slamming down with his palms, a formless energy instantly bypassed the defenses of the puppet and shattered the divine inscription engraved at its core.
Qin Wentian had long already figured out how to reverse and negate inscriptions. Currently, with his cultivation base at the Heavenly Dipper Realm, along with his level of comprehension in the Dao of Divine Inscriptions, ordinary fourth-ranked puppets couldn’t even pose a threat to him.
In the blink of an eye, the puppets were destroyed one after another. Qin Wentian continued on the golden pathway, arriving in front of the statue. If the Xia Emperor was still alive, even he would have been astonished at the speed which Qin Wentian reached the statue.
And right now, at such a close range, he could make out another line of words engraved upon the statue. “If one arrives here, one is eligible to acquire the key in my hands!”
Shifting his gaze, Qin Wentian stared at the palms of the statue. And indeed, an ancient-looking key could be seen over there. Qin Wentian stretched his hands out, retrieving the key and an instant later, a multi-colored beam of light flashed as space around him started to warp. He had arrived in another dimension.
Over here, a range of mountains could be seen below as celestial qi permeated the atmosphere. The silhouette of the Xia Emperor stood alone in the air while right behind him, was actually the immortal palace depicted in the map Qin Wentian saw earlier.
“If you are here, it could either mean that Grand Xia has already fallen; or you have monstrous talent, able to light up all eighty-one of the stone pillars; or maybe, both scenarios I outlined happened. Regardless you are a descendent of my Royal Xia Clan or not, I hope that you would be able to protect Grand Xia.”
The Xia Emperor slowly spoke, Qin Wentian knew that this wasn’t the real Xia Emperor, it was merely a strand of his will that brought him here.
“I, am the Xia Emperor. Ages ago, because of lucky chances and good fortune, I arrived at the Vermilion Bird Immortal Palace and obtained the Great Dream Immortal Art as well as several other treasures. This stroke of good fortune allowed me to unite this region, and eventually, I found Grand Xia. However in the process, several of the treasures I acquired are all used up. The only thing left was the Great Dream Immortal Art which I always had on me. Even though the Great Dream Immortal Art is powerful, it couldn’t be considered an extremely valuable treasure in perspective of the immortal palace. The key I left for you can be used to open the doors of the Vermilion Bird Immortal Palace. This key, is also something that the hegemon of the other region, the Royal Sacred Sect of Grand Shang, yearned for even in their dreams.
“Because I once entered that, I knew that those who enter the immortal palace couldn’t lack either combat prowess or a resolute heart. If not, they wouldn’t be able to obtain anything. This was the reason why before you arrived at this point, you had to undergo the arduous trials. Only then would you be prepared, only then would you have the slightest bit of chance. Back then the treasures I acquired from the immortal palace was only a hair from nine oxen. There are too many grand formations within, every where is protected by scores of Divine Inscriptions. This was why I used the golden path as a test, as well as leaving behind the manual of Divine Inscriptions for you to comprehend. If your comprehension isn’t at a high enough level, you would never have been able to reached the end of the golden path, which means you would never be able to obtain the key to the Vermilion Bird Immortal Palace. Because even if you have the key, you would still return empty handed if you ventured inside the immortal palace! In that case, you might as well just be happy with the Great Dream Immortal Art I bequeath.”
As the Xia Emperor spoke to here, a smile lighted up his face, “However, I have to congratulate you on passing. Before I fall, I hope to leave behind my inheritance to descendants of my Grand Xia. I hope that you who arrived at this point, would be even more outstanding compared to me. Only then would my efforts not be wasted.”
As the sound of his voice faded, the Xia Emperor started to fade away. However, the smile on his face could still be seen clearly.
“Karma between us starts and ends here. Inheritor, the image you seen is the last strand of my will. From this moment onwards, the Xia Emperor will no longer exist in this world!” After speaking, the silhouette of the Xia Emperor gradually vanished into thin air. The last strand of his will completely dissipated as he completely disappeared from this world.