Even though Granny Hua Geng had reached the Taiyi realm, achieving the Da Luo Golden Immortal stage was still an impossible dream without tens of millions of yuanhui!
Within a million li of the Xishan tribal land, the tribespeople began their migration. The tribe was organized into five divisions, with the four side peaks handling all affairs. Only for major decisions was reporting to the Tai Chong Peak chieftain and elders required.
The Heavenly-tier tribespeople left on Tai Chong Peak were mostly younger members, along with those possessing exceptional talent, designated for focused cultivation.
Furthermore, a place for lecturing the Dao was established at the foot of Tai Chong Peak, where the numerous Earth-tier tribespeople were taught the essentials of breathing techniques, cultivating inner energy, transforming their beast forms, and breaking through realms. Without profound Daoist techniques, not only could they not explain them, but the tribespeople would also not understand.
Therefore, the lectures were kept simple and general, delivered by seasoned Heavenly-tier elders. It was a sharing of experiences, with no direct transmission of spiritual senses or divine abilities, nor any empty pronouncements of grand theories. It merely focused on solutions to various challenges encountered by the snake tribe in their survival and cultivation.
For the numerous rules within the tribe to change and become deeply ingrained required time and gradual assimilation. These nineteen policies were mostly established and conceived by Golden Immortal Venerables like Granny Hua Geng, though Qing Ling also contributed modern conceptual elements.
Another thousand years passed. The Xishan tribespeople noticed that the speed at which spiritual energy converged on Xishan was gradually increasing. Xishan seemed to be a spiritual abyss, voraciously consuming spiritual energy from all directions without end.
Initially, the tribespeople attributed it to the cultivation and breathing exercises of the tribe's masters. It wasn't until thousands of years of accumulation above Xishan, culminating in a vast black cloud of miasma after a period of rain, that they realized something was amiss.
However, when the tribespeople reported this to Elder Yu, he merely stated that it was due to the cultivation of the Great Beast Zhan Mu and that there was no need for concern.
The snakes in the tribe then relaxed, but looking at the ever-darkening and ever-thickening black clouds each day, they still felt a sense of unease.
Another hundred years passed, and the black clouds above Xishan had stretched for nearly three hundred thousand li, blanketing the entire Xishan mountain range.
On this day, the venerated Chi Li, who had been away, stood beside the still slumbering Great Beast Zhan Mu and said to Yu, "It seems it's finally about to happen!"
"Indeed. After fifteen thousand years of arduous cultivation, and not much more than a yuanhui, he has already reached the Golden Immortal stage. The future of our Xishan is truly boundless," Venerable Yu said with a gratified smile.
As they spoke, the massive black clouds spanning three hundred thousand li across the heavens suddenly began to stir. A colossal black silhouette shot out from within Xishan, a thousand-zhang black giant python ascending into the sky. Its head was triangular, its body blackish-brown, and its vertical pupils emitted a terrifying cold light.
The giant python soared into the sky, letting out a roar that whipped up powerful waves of air. A phantom emerged from within the python – a boundless black poisonous miasma!
The phantom miasma and the cloud miasma in the heavens slowly merged. A long sword shot out from the serpent's mouth, rising high into the firmament. It slashed towards the colossal sun in the east, its sword energy slicing through ten thousand leagues. With a single strike, layers of poisonous miasma poured down like rain, and with another strike, the heavens tilted, bringing forth myriad poisons.
The vast black miasma converged into the body of the giant python, and the sword re-entered its maw. A black mystic flower suddenly bloomed, drawing all the spiritual energy from the heavens and earth into itself. Its formidable aura pressed down upon all the snakes.
The serpent's shadow shifted and dispersed, leaving behind only a handsome, tall youth standing alone in the sky, facing the resplendent sun.
Below, the assembled tribespeople finally realized with a start that another Golden Immortal Venerable had been born on Tai Chong Peak of Xishan!
The snakes below offered their congratulations, and the Heavenly-tier tribespeople gazed at the figure in the sky with envy and longing.
The entire Xishan was filled with joy and excitement.
Meanwhile, in Baichun Valley, within a stone chamber, Qing Ling also opened his eyes and muttered with envy, "I knew Du might have a chance to reach the Golden Immortal stage, but I never expected it to be so soon."
He couldn't help but feel a sense of helplessness. Despite having a superior lineage, noble birth, and equal resources, others still outpaced him.
Even after fifty thousand years of secluded cultivation, Qing Ling had only managed to break through one minor realm, reaching the middle stage of the Heavenly tier!
Originally, with that ball of primordial energy, he had expected to cultivate to the peak of the Heavenly tier, but then an unexpected event occurred!
His Dantian world, already vast, had become even more expansive, so immense that Qing Ling doubted his own serpentine existence.
Even Golden Immortal Venerables did not possess a Dantian world a tenth the size of his. Even though his Dantian, as a congenital deity, had been opened far beyond that of ordinary beings, it was still not this monstrous.
What made him so freakishly immense was the God of Spring, who, during his breakthrough to the Heavenly tier, had directly expanded his Dantian tenfold with supreme Da Luo Dao power.
This was already astonishing, but even with a terrifyingly large Dantian, he still had confidence that he could fill it and cultivate to the peak of the Heavenly tier.
However, thirty thousand years ago, while he was cultivating, it began to rain heavily in his Dantian world. The Xuan Vine Dao seed was overjoyed, becoming increasingly active and restless. One day, it suddenly leaped into that "virtual sun."
Qing Ling was greatly alarmed. This was his Dao seed, and any adverse accident would be akin to utter ruin.
But to his astonishment, the Xuan Vine Dao seed, after leaping into the virtual sun formed by the primordial energy, began to absorb that virtual sun bit by bit!
That powerful and profound energy instantly allowed the Xuan Vine Dao seed to reach the stage of sprouting and growing leaves.
The Wood Dao seed merged with the primordial energy, and all wood and plants flourished as one. The beginning of the world and the genesis of all Dao profoundness.
The Great Wood Dao manifested in Qing Ling's primordial spirit space, forming a void world. The world was empty, yet only one thing existed.
After millions of years, the seed grew by absorbing the void, sprouting and branching out into a towering ancient tree. It then withered and fell, decomposing into a hundred trees on the ground. These hundred trees grew, flourished, and then withered. After death, countless trees appeared. A Wood world gradually formed in Qing Ling's heart. The Great Wood Dao was one of endless cycles of life, near life and near death. Between life and death lay withering and flourishing. The cycle of withering and flourishing was the cycle of wood, life and death, withering and flourishing, a hundred rivers and myriad trees, endless wood in the world, infinite wood in existence. Every wood had its life and death, every wood had its unique Dao. Within the Wood Dao, myriad Daos were born, and with the rise of one Dao, ten thousand Daos were connected. With the fall of one tree, myriad trees were born. His primordial spirit experienced the birth and prosperity of a world. He lived through tens of millions of yuanhui, even longer, within that wood world, while his physical body only experienced ten thousand years.
In that illusory world, Qing Ling had never comprehended the Wood Dao so deeply. He was close to the Dao, walked the Dao, and even became the Dao! This was an opportunity that even Da Luo ancestors would find difficult to obtain. At that moment, his primordial spirit broke through the constraints of heaven and earth, transcending the limitations of his physical body. He comprehended the Golden Immortal Wood Dao!
At that very moment, his physical body, still at the Heavenly tier, responded to this resonance, expanding tenfold. The already considerable lake of spiritual power within the Dantian world, now expanded tenfold, appeared extremely minuscule.
When Qing Ling returned from the Dao rhythm, his primordial spirit was bathed in a greenish glow. The golden Ten Thousand Snake Beginning Seal on his left palm remained still, while the Fu Chun Divine Seal on his right palm pulsed with great brilliance, granting him greater control over the authority of the Spring God!
But when Qing Ling's primordial spirit entered his Dantian, his mind went blank.
This... was this still his Dantian?
It was practically a world!
His previous Dantian had at least discernible boundaries, but now he could only sense them.
Was this still the Dantian of a Heavenly-tier cultivator?
He looked at the culprit, a verdant vine standing in the center of the world, on the lake's surface.
His Xuan Vine Dao seed had sprouted!
The vine roots were slender, and the leaves were tender and fresh, clearly newly born. Yet, it radiated not treasure light, but wisps of profound Dao rhythm.
The vine of the Wood Dao!
An object that was the concrete manifestation of a Great Dao, a supreme treasure!
Qing Ling was momentarily unsure whether to cry or laugh.
He possessed a Golden Immortal primordial spirit forged by the supreme opportunity of observing the world's genesis through primordial energy. He possessed magical power far exceeding the peak of the Heavenly tier, but his magical power was still far from what was required for his body to advance.
At this moment, he finally understood why Heavenly-tier powerhouses like Patriarch Hei Yun had emerged.
Because, at this moment, he could be considered a Heavenly-tier Golden Immortal!