Bu Ju had now fully understood who Lan Xiaobu was. Initially, he had intended to threaten him, but now he decisively discarded that idea. No matter how powerful his backing was, it probably wouldn’t make a difference whether he spoke or not. Lan Xiaobu clearly wasn’t someone who could be intimidated. Even if Bu Ju told the truth, it wouldn’t help his current situation.
“This is the location of the Four Realms Stone Boundary Flag. After I arrived there, I couldn’t take the Four Realms Stone Boundary Flag with me, so I stripped away part of its Charm of the Dao. The reason I put this boundary flag up for auction on Sage Island was mainly because Sage Island suddenly held an auction, and nearly half of the sage-level powerhouses from the Eternal Life Realm and the surrounding domains gathered here…” As he spoke, Bu Ju tossed a crystal ball to Lan Xiaobu.
In Bu Ju’s mind, if anyone could obtain the Seven Realms Stone Boundary Flag, it would surely be a powerhouse above the quasi-sage level. With so many quasi-sages gathered here, using this fake array flag as bait might actually succeed.
And he wasn’t wrong—someone here had indeed obtained the Seven Realms Stone Boundary Flag. However, when Lan Xiaobu acquired it, he hadn’t yet stepped into the quasi-sage realm.
Lan Xiaobu caught the crystal ball and scanned it with his divine sense. Sure enough, it contained a void positioning map.
This guy had some skills. He hadn’t stripped the Charm of the Dao from the Seven Realms Stone but had actually extracted it from a real boundary flag. Lan Xiaobu had found the location of the odd-numbered Seven Realms Stone Boundary Flags in the same place. Perhaps the spot indicated by Bu Ju’s crystal ball held all the even-numbered Seven Realms Stone Boundary Flags.
Lan Xiaobu pocketed the crystal ball and raised his hand, delivering a slap. Though Bu Ju didn’t beg for mercy, Lan Xiaobu still spared him, sending him into reincarnation—but with all his reincarnation memories stripped away.
Just as Bu Ju had suspected, if he had tried to threaten Lan Xiaobu, he wouldn’t have even had the chance for reincarnation.
After dealing with Bu Ju, Lan Xiaobu extended his divine sense outward, intending to locate the third-turn sage who coveted the Seven Realms Stone Boundary Flag. That third-turn sage was so fixated on it, there had to be something amiss.
But Lan Xiaobu quickly sensed that the third-turn sage had already left Sage Island. Though he knew the direction the sage had fled, Lan Xiaobu couldn’t be bothered to pursue. He needed to use the Heart of the Universe here to break through to the fourth-turn sage realm as soon as possible.
If it took him a hundred years to advance one turn using the Heart of the Universe, leaving this place might require a thousand years or more to achieve the same progress.
…
Sage Island quieted down once more, but unlike before, it was now devoid of its two sage island masters and several powerhouses capable of rivaling them. Everyone felt a sense of freedom.
The upside was that no one cared anymore if you took something from here or fought on Sage Island.
The downside was that it was no longer the peaceful haven it once was—everywhere was filled with plunder and slaughter. Sage Island had always been rich in treasures, like top-tier divine herbs and even Dao fruits. While beings like Lan Xiaobu and the Reincarnation Sage might scoff at them, the island teemed with quasi-sages and pseudo-sages, for whom these were priceless.
Lan Xiaobu paid it no mind. He had fully secluded himself. His cave dwelling was surrounded by all manner of lethal arrays—anyone daring to cause trouble near it might not even need his intervention; the arrays alone could eliminate them.
In just a few days, Lan Xiaobu felt the benefits of Bu Ju’s cave. He suspected it sat directly atop the Heart of the Universe. As his Eternal Life Technique circulated, he could clearly sense the aura of the primal Dao laws. Immersing himself further, he even perceived the slow process of the universe’s creation.
The dense divine energy and the primal aura of the Heart of the Universe were swept up by Lan Xiaobu. Combined with the blessing of the Great Dao’s fortune, his Charm of the Dao grew ever clearer, and his understanding of the sage realm deepened. The Great Dao of Eternal Life became increasingly complete, mirroring the universe’s creation he sensed—from nothing to something, from minuscule to vast, from simple to profound…
In cultivation, time flies. A hundred years passed in the blink of an eye.
Sage Island no longer resembled its former self—ruins and wreckage littered the landscape, and even the Golden Sage City had been blasted to pieces. Were it not for the protective array around Sage Island that no one could break, it might have been shattered long ago.
Whenever there was a grudge, fights could break out anywhere on Sage Island at any time.
But no matter how fierce the battles on Sage Island or in the ruined Golden Sage City became, there was one place no one dared approach.
That was Lan Xiaobu’s secluded cave, because everyone knew it belonged to a monk—a seventh-turn sage. Disturbing this seventh-turn sage meant certain death. Rumours claimed this sage had effortlessly crushed two sage island masters and driven them off the island.
Of course, there was another rumour—that the cave didn’t house the monk, but a powerhouse who’d killed him.
Whether it was the monk or someone who’d slain him, it all pointed to one thing: the occupant of that cave was terrifying.
…
Lan Xiaobu had reached the peak of the first-turn sage realm. At this moment, all the Dao laws he comprehended shifted vividly within the space around him.
He wanted to ascend to the second-turn sage realm but didn’t know how to prove his path. It wasn’t that he couldn’t ascend to the second turn—it was that he didn’t know what to choose. His cultivation was sufficient, his comprehension was sufficient, his resources were sufficient…
When he’d ascended to the first turn, he’d done so through fortune. That worked because fortune was indeed on his side. When he became a first-turn sage, the Eternal Life Realm’s fortune was still rich—though it had stopped growing, it remained at its peak. With the Dao Lord Seal on him, ascending to the first turn was a natural step.
Now, as he faced the second turn, Lan Xiaobu hesitated. He’d originally planned to use a primal divine ability to prove his path to the second turn. But after a hundred years of secluded comprehension, he felt that using a single primal divine ability might not be as effective as continuing to use fortune for the second turn.
He discarded proving his path through karma or faith. Though he knew both would be easy for him—he’d founded the Immortal Court of the Five Universes and established the Dao Court of the Great Desolate Divine Realm, making faith readily available—
Lan Xiaobu didn’t want others to venerate him for incense power. He had no intention of becoming a god; he’d rather remain an ordinary person with a normal heart, no matter how high his cultivation rose. He also knew he was no longer truly ordinary.
As for proving his path through karma, that was even less appealing. Whether good or evil karma, Lan Xiaobu felt neither suited him.
It was said that proving one’s path through merit was the true Great Dao. If he could use merit for his second turn, that would be ideal. But he had no merit, did he?
The Fortune Array Disk was a treasure of merit, but unfortunately, it was currently suppressing the fortune of the Great Desolate Divine Realm. He couldn’t just take it out, could he?
Thinking of this, Lan Xiaobu suddenly pulled out the Dao Lord Seal. The seal had been condensed after he became the Dao Lord of the Great Desolate Divine Realm, with the Fortune Array Disk anchoring its fortune. Perhaps this seal contained some merit power. Regardless, his original intent in establishing the Great Desolate Divine Realm wasn’t for power, but for its peace and development.
As he took out the Dao Lord Seal, under the stimulation of his near-second-turn Eternal Life Charm of the Dao, the ordinary seal abruptly transformed. Strands of purple Charm of the Dao aura were vividly captured by Lan Xiaobu, and a vast, boundless power churned within the seal.
Lan Xiaobu stared at the Dao Lord Seal in shock. Could all this be merit power? If he didn’t use this merit to prove his path, would it build up to a point where the seal exploded?
Whether the seal would burst or not, Lan Xiaobu began attempting to absorb the merit within it, seeking to comprehend his second-turn sage Great Dao.
Boom! As his intent merged with the Dao Lord Seal, boundless merit power swirled around him. The Dao laws surrounding him grew clearer, and his aura became increasingly robust and powerful.
He continually comprehended various Dao law auras, deriving even more laws of the Great Dao.
Lan Xiaobu didn’t know it, but the Heavenly Dao of the Great Desolate Divine Realm hadn’t overlooked his deeds. The realm’s stability was due to his establishment of the Great Desolate Dao Court. Though he’d been absent from it for a long time, as long as the Dao Court endured, as long as he remained its Dao Lord, and as long as his subordinates kept managing it, the merit power of the Great Desolate Divine Realm would continuously flow into the Dao Lord Seal.
…
Eternal Life Sage City.
After Lan Xiaobu established this city, he’d never returned, always staying elsewhere. Yet Eternal Life Sage City stood as steady as Mount Tai, because it housed two true sages. One was the second-turn sage Tifo, and the other was Lan Xiaobu’s loyal subordinate, Puhe Divine Emperor. Puhe had already stepped into the first-turn sage realm. With both of them present, few dared to casually stir trouble in Eternal Life Sage City.
To faithfully carry out Lan Xiaobu’s orders, the vast area outside Eternal Life Sage City had long formed a massive market cluster. But settling within the city wasn’t so easy.
First, your cultivation had to be sufficient. Second, you had to be loyal enough to the Great Desolate Dao Lord. Third, you needed to have made significant contributions to the Great Desolate Divine Realm or Eternal Life Sage City. And finally, you had to pledge that as long as you lived, the Great Desolate Dao Court lived; if it fell, you’d fall with it.
Lan Xiaobu had only instructed Tifo to allow qualified individuals to settle in Eternal Life Sage City, not to demand loyalty to him personally. But in Tifo’s view, to survive in the city, one first had to be loyal to the Great Desolate Dao Court’s Dao Lord Lan Xiaobu, then to the Dao Court itself, and finally to the Great Desolate Divine Realm.
After advancing to the first-turn sage realm, Puhe Divine Emperor would periodically patrol Eternal Life Sage City. But today, as he approached the Dao Lord Mansion, he heard a terrifying rumble in the void. Then, to his shock, he saw the space around the mansion collapsing, and the area began undergoing dramatic changes, as if something was being born.
Puhe Divine Emperor’s expression shifted. The Blue Dao Lord wasn’t present, but the Dao Lord Mansion couldn’t afford any mishaps. He immediately sent out several messages.
