Thirty years of spring and winter alternate to become an era, twelve eras rotate to form a cycle, thirty cycles make a Yuan, and twelve Yuan make an era. As eras and Yuan alternate, all energies surge, and with the beginning of a new Yuan, all phenomena are renewed!
In the unseen realm between heaven and earth, the sun, moon, and stars shift, mountains and rivers ascend, and the Primordial World is swept by new vitality across the four seas and eight directions.
And on Xi Mountain, the emerald spiritual light accumulated for tens of thousands of years, at this moment, surged into the sky.
Innumerable new vital energies of the world felt the call and gathered from all directions.
A colossal green vine shadow, a million zhang tall, stood vertically on Xi Mountain, as if merged with it.
Innumerable primordial energies converged between heaven and earth, the ground rose ten billion li, the profound yellow earth flower bloomed, the celestial dome teemed with ethereal new vitality, and the void opened with golden flowers.
Between the celestial and human flowers, was a human flower resembling an emerald lotus, blooming magnificently, its emerald energy filling the universe and sweeping across the six directions.
With the three flowers blooming before the sky-piercing giant vine, and the four energies of water, earth, wood, and metal crisscrossing behind it, a massive green snake spiraled upward from the base of Xi Mountain along the emerald vine, with the four energies flowing back into its body, leaving the fire element unseen.
A pressure comparable to that of a Taiyi Golden Immortal spread out, encompassing Xi Mountain.
Countless spiritual snakes raised their heads, gazing at the vast sky where a green vine pierced the clouds. As the sea of clouds churned, the golden sunlight of the rising sun illuminated the mountains and rivers, bathing the scales of the green python in a golden hue, sacred and mysterious!
The giant python coiled above the green vine. After a twist, it transformed into a being with a human upper body and a snake tail, the tail entwined around the top of the green vine, while the human torso surveyed the land.
Across the hundred billion li of the Eastern Wilderness, spiritual energy surged like a tide, even extending to the transitional zone between the three tribes outside the Eastern Wilderness, as well as the Thousand Mountains of the North, the Ten Thousand Islands of the East, and the southeastern lands of the Primordial World. Numerous powerful beings sensed this Taiyi aura, predicting a future Da Luo.
However, no powerful being intervened, for they knew that the guardian deity of the Dragon Clan's Azure Dragon Ancestor was none other than the Sacred Son of Xi Mountain, as proclaimed by the Dragon Clan.
Upon the green vine, Qing Ling opened his eyes, seeing the daylight for the first time in an era.
Across the vast land, countless spirits bowed towards Xi Mountain in worship, as if the Spring God of Xi Mountain, rumored through generations, had finally reappeared in their time.
Qing Ling lowered his head to look at the spiritual snakes below, and a smile bloomed, stirring a mighty wind across the heavens and earth. The spring breeze welcomed the myriad mountains and rivers. He unleashed the authority of the Spring God from his brow, and vitality enveloped the land, bringing forth abundant life and renewing the spiritual energy of heaven and earth.
The divine authority of a Golden Immortal was indeed extraordinary.
The spring breeze greened seven million li of Xi Mountain. Rising from the East, it then greened the four directions of the world. Countless spiritual snakes received the gift of life and were imbued with the essence of spring.
As the snakes reveled in the boundless spring breeze, the divine being had already departed from Xi Mountain in the distance. Only the green mountains remained, but not the lord, leaving behind only fading beauty like a deity.
On the Eight Xuan Mountains in the North, the old ape Shan Kun stared south in a daze, murmuring, "Golden Immortal Taiyi, Taiyi Golden Immortal, such a realm truly exists! This child, his path is promising!"
Qing Ling returned to Xi Mountain, re-entering the Hundred Springs Valley, and sat cross-legged to stabilize his Dao form.
The million-zhang green vine, supporting heaven and earth, was his Golden Immortal Dao form!
The Profound Sky Vine within his Dantian world had transformed into a ten-thousand-zhang giant tree. The sea of spiritual energy in his Dantian had vanished, replaced by a minuscule speck of dust.
Though the dust was tiny, it contained the spiritual energy sea that Qing Ling had cultivated for eons. Under the profound truths of the Golden Immortal Dao realm and the immense pressure of his Dantian, it had become a source.
A speck of dust, a world; within it, a realm of its own. This was Qing Ling's inner Dao realm.
Every Da Luo Golden Immortal who achieved Dao extreme would see the seed of a world, formed during their Taiyi stage, transform into a true world—the realm of their Da Luo Dao repository. Within the Da Luo realm, it was like a genuine world, capable of sustaining all forms of life, though most lacked creation, thus possessing no intelligence. Therefore, Da Luo Golden Immortals would immerse their consciousness into their Da Luo realms, where every being could be an emanation of the Da Luo Golden Immortal's will, hence the saying that Da Luo are immortal and indestructible.
However, this was merely theory; otherwise, Da Luo in the world would not fall.
Qing Ling already possessed the world's origin formed in his Taiyi stage. With diligent cultivation, infinite spiritual energy from heaven and earth, and insights into the Great Dao, it would infuse into this origin, gradually forming a world.
And among the insights into the Great Dao, if the three flowers could converge at the crown, and upon infusion of heavenly and earthly spiritual energy, the five energies could ascend to the source, one could then step into the Da Luo realm, achieve the extreme of Dao, transcend as a Da Luo, and summon a great power to open their inner world.
But the inner small world required infinite Dao principles and magical power. Unless the world was complete, there would be no surplus Dao principles or spiritual energy to condense the three flowers and five energies.
This was a vicious cycle, making Da Luo almost impossible to achieve. Only those with peerless talent, who comprehended supreme Dao and Dharma, could break the cycle, leap beyond the constraints of heaven and earth, and achieve Da Luo!
Therefore, every Da Luo Golden Immortal in existence was a miracle, a being who turned the impossible into the possible, and only such powerful individuals could be rightfully called "Great Ones."
Qing Ling gathered the infinite spiritual energy from the cave-heaven of Xi Mountain, filling his body and entering the dust mote within his Dantian world.
The speck of dust became a world again, a world composed of gold, wood, water, and earth, barren and incomplete in Dao and Dharma. The world's Dao and Dharma were not yet manifest, emerald and water energies mixed, gold and wood intertwined, without the manifestation of earth or vegetation; all seemed to be in a state of elemental composition.
Vast spiritual energy poured in, merely increasing the quantity of the four elements without altering their quality.
This was Taiyi; even meditating and cultivating for eons, one could only cultivate magical power, not Dao cultivation. No matter how strong the magical power, one would remain Taiyi.
Qing Ling's realm was in a state of vague and mixed conditions. He should have been in the early stage of Golden Immortal, yet he already possessed the Dao cultivation and magical power of Taiyi. In the Golden Immortal realm, his divine body had returned to completeness, and Dao and Dharma felt more natural and wielded with ease.
To call him a Golden Immortal was indeed true, as he had just entered the Golden Immortal realm. Yet, to call him Taiyi was also true, in terms of both Dao cultivation and magical power.
Taiyi among Golden Immortals, Golden Immortal among Taiyi, he could truly be called a Taiyi Golden Immortal, or a Golden Immortal Taiyi!
Within Qing Ling's body, the dust mote transformed into a world. The accumulation of emerald, gold, yellow, and blue elemental energies, centered around the Profound Sky Vine Dao form, was slowly merging with the world's phantom.
At the Xuan Guan point, the Golden Immortal Primordial Spirit, now a hundred zhang tall, had its three flowers rotating, drawing in the Great Dao of Wood, with the auxiliary Spring God authority guiding the Dao of vitality, descending into the Dantian world, and slowly merging the phantom world with the ten-thousand-zhang green vine into one.
Only when these two merged would he truly stabilize his Golden Immortal Taiyi realm.
This process would take considerable time, but with the assistance of the auxiliary Spring God authority, having already comprehended and manipulated the powers of heaven and earth, he found it effortless.
His divine consciousness fragmented into countless strands, each thread of consciousness spreading across the merging green vine Dao form and the elemental Dao realm. Although his world was merely an accumulation of elements, with time and his Taiyi Dao cultivation, he would undoubtedly transform it!
The Dao form and the Dao realm were slowly merging, while spiritual energy from all directions continued to pour into the elemental world, further accumulating its quantity.
Golden Immortal Taiyi, this path he trod was the first of its kind, a pioneer with no guide, venturing alone on a much longer journey!
(2080 words)