Chapter 399: Supreme Treasure

Seeing Yaoguang stay silent for a good while, the Penglai Dao Lord asked hurriedly, "Is it not enough? I can make another trip to the demon race."

"T-The demon race..."

Yaoguang sifted carefully with his psychic thought and, sure enough, found that many of the materials were specialties of the demon race's territory. Plenty came from human lands as well; some even still bore the sect crest of the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion.

"It's enough," Yaoguang said. He put the storage treasure away. "I'll begin the preparatory work at once. Within a hundred years, I can prepare the Dao Artifact's embryonic form, and then I'll ask for your help during the refinement."

"A hundred years? There's no need for such haste. Judging by past cycles, the opening of the Gate of the Immortal Realm should be five or six hundred years off at the soonest, and it could even drag out to a millennium or two if it's short. As long as it's finished a century before the gate opens, giving me a hundred years to grow accustomed to it, that will do," the Penglai Dao Lord said gently.

She had every confidence in her Dao Contest to begin with. Looking back across the last hundred thousand years, the Dao Lords of the Great Dao of origin numbered only four or five in total, and not all of them would necessarily come to the North Sea Star to vie for this ascension slot.

Moreover, she judged that the divine abilities she would command a thousand years from now could defeat any one of those four or five.

With a top-tier Dao Artifact amplifying her combat strength on top of that, she would be a tiger with wings. It was no wonder her state of mind had suddenly become incomparably calm.[1]

"I know what I'm doing." Yaoguang gave a slight nod.

"By the way, shall I contact the Central Heaven Dao Lord for you?" The Penglai Dao Lord's eyes smiled. "With your ability to forge top-tier Dao Artifacts, you just need to refine one suited to the Central Heaven Dao Lord, and he'll make you the Heavenly Dao Sect's sect master on the spot."

Yaoguang did not doubt her. The Dao Lords cared far less about their sects than he had once imagined.

If he could show himself useful to the Central Heaven Dao Lord's Dao Contest, that Dao Lord would crush every objection to seat him firmly on the Heavenly Dao Sect's throne. All the more so when the one speaking for him would be the Penglai Dao Lord, reputed to be the strongest being on the North Sea Star.

However inflated that title might have been, her Great Dao of origin and the Central Heaven Dao Lord's Great Dao of truth had no conflict, and there would be no Dao Contest between them; the two were natural allies from the start.

Even without his gift for forging top-tier Dao Artifacts, if the Penglai Dao Lord merely offered the Central Heaven Dao Lord an alliance, he would accept her proposal to make Yaoguang sect master without blinking.

As for Zong Wenxian and the others' earlier insinuations that Yaoguang, backed by the Penglai Dao Lord, meant to play the cuckoo and hand the Heavenly Dao Sect's nest to the Penglai Immortal Sect? That was nothing but information warfare waged for their own interests.

Set against the stakes of the Dao Contest, even an outright merger of the Heavenly Dao Sect and the Penglai Immortal Sect might not be beyond the Central Heaven Dao Lord's tolerance.

"Better to wait a while," Yaoguang said. "Unlike you, Dao Lord, I've never had any dealings with the Central Heaven Dao Lord. I don't know what sort of man he really is, so..."

Watching him, the Penglai Dao Lord already understood his thinking. Distrust of the Central Heaven Dao Lord was one reason. The other...

This little Void-Shattering cultivator doesn't want to owe me, a Dao Lord, a favor? Heh. Other Void-Shattering cultivators aren't even qualified to beg favors from me. Still, considering his ability to forge top-tier Dao Artifacts, he has earned the right to be treated as an equal.

"Fine. And in truth, the fewer Dao Lords who know you can forge top-tier Dao Artifacts, the better. A flat ten or twenty percent boost in combat strength would let a Dao Lord shake off a crowd of rivals in the Dao Contest. Plenty of them would throw away all dignity to seize you for it. Yes, the fewer who know, the better." The Penglai Dao Lord nodded in understanding.

She produced a bracelet and handed it over. "This is my token. To see it is to see me. With it you can mobilize all the manpower of the Penglai Immortal Sect. Beyond that, my face still counts for something on the North Sea Star. If any Dao Lord tries to bully you, show this. I expect few Dao Lords would dare keep pressing."

Yaoguang readily believed that. The Penglai Dao Lord's fearsome name had been earned in battle.

Relations among the Ten Great Immortal Dao Sects were quite good, and when the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion fell to her assault, its Dao Lord had called for help from two neighboring Dao Lords who happened to be deep within the North Sea Star rather than off training in the outer stars.

In the end, three Dao Lords together had failed to do anything to the Penglai Dao Lord, managing at most to preserve the Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion's orthodoxy from being completely destroyed.

The price? The Heavenly Sea Sword Pavilion sealed its gates from that day forward, forbidden to emerge until the Gate of the Immortal Realm opened. With a record like that, no Dao Lord on the North Sea Star dared refuse to give her face.

"Into this bracelet I've refined an origin-type Dao Technique called the Grand Void Dragon Transformation Technique. It can transmute your life origin from human into a Grand Void True Dragon. I won't claim it gives you the power to fight a Dao Lord, but until its origin is exhausted, eight or ten Void-Shattering cultivators won't be able to touch you. And while it's active, I will feel it, and I will come to your aid at once." The Penglai Dao Lord smiled faintly. "From this day on, I am your protector, waiting for the day you achieve integration and forge an immortal artifact and an immortal array for my sect."

Yaoguang accepted the bracelet without hesitation. The Penglai Dao Lord was taking a great risk in trusting the blank check of "immortal artifact and immortal array" he had written, but he knew in his own heart that as long as he kept growing step by step and did not die halfway, the day would come when he could meet his end of the deal.

"I'm off."

With her business concluded, the Penglai Dao Lord waved a hand and vanished from the Hundred-Refinement Peak, feeling rather satisfied. Even watching with his own eyes, Yaoguang could not make out how she had actually left.

"Dao Lord!" Yaoguang turned the words over on his tongue, unable to keep his heart from racing toward it.

A Golden Core cultivator was a being on the scale of a star system, free to range across one, a territory of one to ten light-years. Cultivators in the three Void realms could travel across an entire galaxy; a hundred thousand light-years were theirs to roam.

But a Dao Lord already stood at the scale of the universe itself. The Great Dao power they wielded was the very laws from which the universe was built, containing all the secrets of its operation.

"Fifteen to twenty Void-Shattering targets... That would have been troublesome before. But now..."

Yaoguang beckoned, and the Limitless Sword dropped into his hand. The next moment, the blade vanished, merging into his body.

And as this top-tier Dao Artifact became one with him, Yaoguang felt as though he could pierce the veils of the void just like a Dao Lord, summon the resonance of the Great Dao of void, and clothe himself in the Great Dao's power.

It was only a feeling, yet in that profound state, his attunement with the Great Dao of void climbed to an unprecedented peak.

Every motion, every word seemed to carry traces of the Dao resonance of the Great Dao of void. If the world had contained a realm called "quasi-Dao-integration," his current state would have been regarded as such.

"So this is the might of a top-tier Dao Artifact... Unbelievable."

Yaoguang sank into the state. A top-tier Dao Artifact was no longer really an artifact at all, but rather a projection of the Great Dao; the sword was merely its outward form, something needed for others to understand it. People could never grasp the true workings of a star system without diagrams to picture it, and the Dao Artifact's outward form was just like one of those diagrams.

Yaoguang immersed himself in the changes the Limitless Sword brought for a long while. Then he brought out the storage treasure again.

The Dao Artifact materials inside were worth a hundred billion, what the entire Heavenly Dao Sect earned in thirty years.

As for saving up a hundred billion, forget a hundred years. Many of these materials were ingredients for top-tier Dao Artifacts, strategic reserves of the great sects, priceless because no market sold them.

Yaoguang picked through the trove, selecting out the materials usable for void-type Dao Artifacts, warming and nurturing them with the Spirit Nurturing Technique, then working them into the Two-Realm Ruler and the Heaven-Sealing Stele with the Treasure Refinement Technique.

At once, the two artifacts' growth surged. Under his careful nurturing over the past years, both had already begun to evolve into high-grade Dao Artifacts, and the materials he was feeding them now were worth a hundred million apiece...

"Five years! In five years, both will fully transform into high-grade Dao Artifacts!" Yaoguang calculated.

Something occurred to him then, and he sent word directly to Li Hanqiu. Soon, Li Hanqiu came streaking through the air.

"Deputy Sect Master? You called?" Li Hanqiu asked, all smiles. Ever since the southern domain's crisis had lifted, his spirits had been excellent.

"What's your progress on the Nine Refinements of Star Ring?" Yaoguang asked.

"Thanks to the fact that we're not lacking resources, I've reached the seventh refinement. If all goes smoothly, I'll complete the Nine Refinements and attempt conversion into a true Void-Piercing cultivator in a hundred years," Li Hanqiu said.

"A hundred years." Yaoguang considered briefly, then pointed a finger through the air, and the Limitless Sword materialized before him. "Absorb this Dao Artifact into your body. It will help enormously with your comprehension of the Dao of void."

Li Hanqiu did not understand, but his faith in Yaoguang's word had always been unconditional. He immediately did as instructed.

The moment he activated the top-tier Dao Artifact, he felt like the Great Dao was laid out before his eyes, making him go wide-eyed with shock.

"T-This is..."

"Don't ask, and let no one know. Absolute secrecy," Yaoguang said.

A top-grade Dao Artifact was all but a projection of the Great Dao; Yaoguang had already sensed its wonders for himself. Cultivating with its aid was even better than receiving personal guidance from a Dao Lord who had no talent for teaching.

Li Hanqiu nodded again and again, but the astonishment in his eyes would not be suppressed. In that moment, he even felt that a Dao Lord's Dao integration could hardly be more than this.

"Refine and master the Limitless Sword, then throw everything into comprehending the Great Dao of void and practicing the Nine Refinements of Star Ring. Bring the Nine Refinements of Star Ring to perfection in five years. Can you do it?" Yaoguang said.

"Yes! Absolutely!" Li Hanqiu answered with force.

"Good. The artifact is yours for five years. In five years, I'll be waiting for good news." Yaoguang smiled.

"I won't disappoint you, Yaoguang."

Li Hanqiu knew exactly how high the value of such a Dao Artifact ran. And yet Yaoguang would still lend him a supreme treasure like this. How much trust did that take?! Whatever it took, he could not fail.

After Li Hanqiu departed, Yaoguang's gaze returned to the Two-Realm Ruler and the Heaven-Sealing Stele.

"Five years," he said. "Once both artifacts finish their transformation, everything will be ready. And then... it will be time to return to the Heavenly Dao Sect."

1. Tiger with wings is a Chinese idiom used to describe adding more strength to someone/something already strong. ☜