Chapter 1201 - An Unexpected Reward
The spirit sparrow’s sparkling eyes turned perfectly round.
He dares say that not even Venerate Flooding Heavens could affect his mental state?
How arrogant!
How impudent!
How brazen!
The sparrow took a deep breath, then raised one of its feet and pointed at the Heart-Inquiring Stele. It said coldly, “I don’t want to hear you brag until you’ve taken first place!”
“....”
Su Yi picked up his jug of wine and took a sip. “Then let’s set that aside for now. Might you tell me just how many levels there are to this path of trials?”
The spirit sparrow’s voice regained its former indifference. “The first trial tests the heart. The second trial has you perceive the profound. The third has you illuminate the stars, while the fourth hinges on destiny.”
“Perceiving the profound” was a test of his powers of comprehension.
“Illuminating the stars” tested his control of the Grand Dao.
And the fourth and final test was the most mysterious of all. It all came down to fate.
Su Yi thought for a moment, then asked, “Just what kind of good fortune do those who pass all four trials receive?”
The sparrow said, “In ancient times, a group of legendary experts led by Venerate Flooding Heavens each left their legacies here to await those fated to receive them.
“Furthermore, those who overcome the trials can enter the Sea of Chaos to cultivate.”
The Sea of Chaos!
An ocean condensed entirely out of the chaos source of the Dark and Gold Star Realm!
In other words, the so-called “Sea of Chaos” was actually the chaos source power left in the Graveyard of Fallen Immortals in ancient times! Su Yi’s eyes lit up. This was the reason he’d come to the Graveyard of Fallen Immortals.
The sparrow snorted coldly. “Don’t get excited prematurely. Over the years, not one person has ever made it through the path of trials!”
“Not even one?” exclaimed Su Yi.
“That’s right,” said the spirit sparrow. “Never mind passing all four trials; despite all these years, no one has ever so much as made it to the fourth trial. Everyone’s journey stops in the third trial, if not earlier.”
Here, it paused, then said slowly, “So don’t be too arrogant. You’d best keep a low profile. Otherwise, when you fall flat on your face, you’ll make a complete fool out of yourself.”
Su Yi laughed. He could tell that the sparrow had something against him! Still, he naturally wouldn’t argue with a little sparrow manifested out of the area’s Laws.
“Right, there’s one more thing,” said Su Yi. “A group of experts from outer space arrived recently, right? Are they currently undergoing trial?”
He’d already learned from Meng Changyun that of the group who’d arrived in the Graveyard of Fallen Immortals from outer space half a year ago, four had already gathered enough Dark and Gold Tokens to enter the path of trials.
A Libationer of the Studio of the Heart, the Second Warden of the Nine Heavens Pavillion, the Palace Master of the Celestial Palace of the Church of the River of Stars, and a high elder of the Primordial Unity Daoist Sect!
The sparrow couldn’t help but look Su Yi up and down. “First, answer me: has your heart truly not been influenced at all this entire time?”
“Do I look like my heart’s been influenced?” said Su Yi.
He’d only just said this when the Heart-Inquiring Stele moved. Misty light flowed, followed by a burst of glittering golden radiance!
Only now did the sparrow dare say with certainty that Su Yi’s heart hadn’t been affected, and that he wasn’t just talking nonsense. Otherwise, his results couldn’t possibly have appeared on the stele, much less in the top forty-nine!
“Not long ago, four World Kings from outer space did indeed enter the path of trials.” The spirit sparrow said, “Of the four of them, three were in the late-stage Heavenly Longevity Realm, while one was in the early-stage Oneness Realm.
“Two already washed out in the second trial.
“The remaining two are undergoing the third trial as we speak. It’s been close to a month, but it seems to me that they’ll wash out too in the end.”
Su Yi nodded. He then went on to ask various other questions.
So long as the spirit sparrow knew the answers, it held nothing back.
Before long, Su Yi had learned some interesting information.
Washed-out trial-takers weren’t all treated equally!
Even after washing out, those from the Dark and Gold Star Realm could become Servants of the Dao, provided they were willing and an Officiant approved them. Servants of the Dao could oversee the forbidden ground at the heart of the Sea of Chaos.
Those trial-takers from the stars beyond the Wilds weren’t so lucky. They could only leave the secret origin grounds.
Furthermore, almost all of these foreign trial-takers died.
The reason was simple. Numerous perilous, forbidden zones were dispersed throughout the secret origin grounds.
Never mind ordinary World Kings; even Oneness experts were all but doomed.
This was differential treatment.
From this, it was clear how flourishing the Dark and Gold Star Realm was back then. They didn’t take World Kings from other star realms seriously at all.
The place Servants of the Dao protected was where that mysterious catastrophe had first broken out, deep in the Sea of Chaos.
Alas, the sparrow wasn’t willing to discuss it further.
However, it did tell him that over the years, over a hundred experts had become Servants of the Dao.
Most of them arrived here as Emperors, but after becoming Servants of the Dao, they cultivated in the Sea of Chaos day and night. By now, almost all of these former Emperors had become World Kings! Only about thirty hadn’t broken through.
This revelation left Su Yi unwittingly stunned. Over a hundred Servants of the Dao, including over sixty World Kings!
That was a terrifying number!
But before long, Su Yi learned that of these Servants of the Dao, only thirteen were still alive!
The others had fallen over the course of countless years of opposing the power of that mysterious catastrophe.
Even Su Yi was stunned. The power of that mysterious catastrophe has yet to dissipate even now? Truly unbelievable!
Time slipped by. Soon, a full six hours had passed.
Su Yi’s rank had soared to the top of the Heart-Inquiring Stele. He was solidly in first place!
The spirit sparrow was already numb. There were no words to describe its astonishment or confusion.
“You’re already in first place. You can leave,” said the spirit sparrow, sounding a bit depressed, indignant, and frustrated.
“Wait a while longer,” said Su Yi. His wounds were not yet fully healed.
“Right, my reward?” Su Yi suddenly recalled that those who made it into the top three received an additional reward from Venerate Flooding Heavens!
The sparrow pointed at the Heart-Inquiring Stele. “Approach and carve your name in the first-place position. Then, you can receive your prize.”
About ten minutes later, Su Yi’s wounds had fully knit back together, and his cultivation base had returned to peak condition.
Furthermore, he could clearly sense that after overcoming that bitter struggle, he’d fully awakened his latent potential, and his Imperial Apex cultivation was now completely flawless, greater than ever before.
So long as he willed it, he could prove his Dao and become a World King whenever he pleased!
Su Yi rose, then walked up to the Heart-Inquiring Stele. He raised his fingertip and carved a name at the top.
Su Yi!
It was just two characters, but the handwriting was fierce as a whirlwind, relaxed and unrestrained.
Misty light instantly rose from the Heart-Inquiring Stele. A moment later, a rain of immortal light surged forth, then lifted a sealed bronze box.
There was no doubt about it. This was the reward Venerate Flooding Heavens had left him!
Su Yi flicked his fingertip across the bronze box, destroying its seal. He then opened it and saw a bright red immortal peach lying inside.
It was glittering, crystalline, and about the size of a fist. An enticing fragrance permeated the air around it, and a rain of light poured from its skin, transforming into all manner of strange and wondrous phenomena.
Jade towers as numerous as trees in a forest, immortals feasting together, divine turtles beating drums, heavenly maidens scattering flowers, and golden lotuses surging from the depths of the earth...
Su Yi couldn’t help but exclaim, “Don’t tell me this is an immortal peach of legend?”
The spirit sparrow was dumbstruck too, and it seemed to find this difficult to believe. It murmured, “So, it was real all along. Venerate Flooding Heavens really did leave this unparalleled immortal medicine behind as a reward for the trial of the heart...”
It was obviously astonished, even dazed.
There was no doubt about it. Before this, not even the spirit sparrow had dared say with certainty whether or not Venerate Flooding Heavens had left this treasure here!
A moment later, the spirit sparrow said, “This is immortal medicine. You could indeed call it an immortal peach. It’s a Xiantian Divine Lifeform Venerate Flooding Heavens plucked from within the chaos source of the Dark and Gold Star Realm in ancient times. Its value is inestimable; any World King would drool over it.
“According to Venerate Flooding Heavens, this peach is useful for tempering the heart and strengthening the soul. If you eat it while breaking into a new realm, you can even forge foundations in the Grand Dao comparable to the ‘Root of Heaven and Earth!’”
Even Su Yi couldn’t help but be impressed.
An ancient text stated, “The spirit of the divine valley is called the mother of the profound. And the doorway of the mother of the profound is called the Root of Heaven and Earth!”
Forging a Root of Heaven and Earth during the Three Realms of Heaven’s Ascension was something every World King dreamed of day and night!
And this peach could help cultivators establish their own Root of Heaven and Earth. It was easy to imagine how extraordinary it was!
“There’s only one?” Su Yi couldn’t help but ask.
The spirit sparrow rolled its eyes. “An immortal peach like this was a rare and precious treasure even in the ancient era of the Dark and Gold Star Realm. You could only encounter something like this by chance, and it practically only existed in legends. Obtaining even one is worth more than eight lifetimes of accumulated karmic merit!”
The bird paused, then said, “Even I could never have expected Venerate Flooding Heavens to leave such a treasure in the trial of the heart. It’s simply... argh...”
For a moment, the sparrow just didn’t know what to say.
“More than eight lifetimes of accumulated karmic merit?” Su Yi laughed. A flat peach, that’s all. It really is rare and precious, but just enough to make modern World Kings drool over it, that’s all.
“The second trial is perceiving the profound. When—if—you pass it, I’ll naturally appear before you again.”
With that, the sparrow beat its wings and disappeared into thin air.
Heaven and earth abruptly transformed. The Heart-Inquiring Stele disappeared, and a rain of immortal light circulated, lifting Su Yi into the air and carrying him across the arc of light that was the path of trials.
Along the way, time and space seemed to shift. Light and shadows flitted past, and the stars shifted.
After just a few breaths of time, the scenery abruptly transformed. A divine mountain appeared before him, traversing the void of outer space.
It was utterly grand and enormous. Stars orbited around it, and its enormous slopes emanated a dense, chaotic aura.
The Divine Mountain of Perceiving the Profound!
A path went from the foot of the mountain all the way to the peak.
Along the way, there stood a total of three thousand Chaos Dao Monuments, each representing a different Grand Dao.
Every Chaos Dao Monument was emblazoned with the mysteries of a different Law.
Trial-takers who wished to overcome this trial had twenty-four hours to perceive the mysteries of at least ninety-nine Chaos Dao Monuments!
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