Chapter 607: Chapter 297: Zhenwu Jade Scroll, Five on Dragon Tiger Mountain! The True Sequence of Time

Late at night, Zhang Fan lay on the bed of his hotel room. The faint moonlight seeped through the sheer curtains, falling upon him, while Li Miaoyin’s words echoed repeatedly in his mind.

"Pure Yang Treasure, Zhenwu Jade Scroll!"

Zhang Fan touched his chest, where there lingered a faint mark, an arc like a heavenly scar, cradling a perfect circle, suffused with a dim golden radiance.

Zhang Fan knew how immeasurably important the Zhenwu Jade Scroll was, but he never imagined that it was actually the Pure Yang Treasure of Zhenwu Mountain.

Ever since he suffered tribulation on Zhenwu Mountain and, by a twist of fate, fused with the Zhenwu Jade Scroll, this thing had never displayed any further phenomena—there wasn’t even the slightest reaction.

Li Miaoyin said, "A divine artifact conceals itself; only those with fate may obtain it."

Pure Yang Treasures are connected to the heavens, endowed with spirit; if one lacks the destined affinity, it is but an ordinary object, without any divine marvel, and indeed, with insufficient fortune, it may turn and devour its bearer.

Just like the Xu Family’s [Dragon-Slaying Sword], which after Ancestor Xu’s era, was worshipped by generation after generation of the Xu Family, incense offerings never ceased, yet among later descendants almost no one could wield this treasure or earn its recognition.

To the Xu Family, the symbolic meaning of this Pure Yang Treasure far exceeded its practical significance.

"Zhenwu Jade Scroll..."

Zhang Fan murmured softly, then sprang up with a carp flip, sitting cross-legged, entering meditation and stillness upon the bed.

At once, at the Spirit Platform between his brows, his Primordial Light erupted—fivefold layers stacked, utterly wondrous and mysterious.

In the Inner Scenery of his Primordial Spirit, the Great Night was not bright; all was enveloped in confusion, with only faint lights momentarily flickering in and out of view.

Buzz...

Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit explored the depths of Inner Scenery; for him, this place was a world unto itself, boundless and without end—even he himself could not fully perceive its entirety.

Cultivation is to know the Primordial Spirit, to find the supreme True Nature within this unknown world.

Clang... Clang... Clang...

Just then, a heavy sound of chains clashing rang out from the depths of the Primordial Spirit’s Inner Scenery. It was filled with mystery and hints of frenzy, intangible ripples sweeping through every corner of this world.

"Three Corpses Primordial Pill!"

Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit suddenly halted, gazing at the shapeless darkness, his eyes suffused with deep dread.

The Three Corpses Primordial Pill was a product of the Three Corpses Daoist cultivating the Minor Divinity Splitting Technique; its essence was to refine it from fragments of Primordial Spirit, containing every memory, experience, and emotion possessed by the cultivator at the forging of the Primordial Pill.

By rights, the Three Corpses Primordial Pill was somewhat like a data backup, but the one Zhang Fan had devoured was different, especially after that day at the Imprisoned Immortal Temple, when it was suffused with incense, as if it was no longer merely a muddled consciousness.

"You seek to lay hands upon the Zhenwu Jade Scroll."

A cold voice echoed from the depths of Primordial Spirit Inner Scenery, accompanied by the clanging of chains.

"You’re becoming less and less like a mere piece of consciousness," Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit said coldly.

"I can help you."

"Help me? You’ve already helped me enough. You passed to me the Divine Demon Holy Embryo, guided me in cultivating the Divine Splitting Technique..."

"What exactly do you want?"

Although Zhang Fan was still within the Great Night Not Bright, ever since merging with the Evil Gods, he had begun to recall many things.

His Divine Demon Holy Embryo was inherited from the Three Corpses Primordial Pill.

His Divine Splitting Technique was also cultivated from this source.

"The Nine Techniques are passed down, but no matter the fortune, one can only gain a single one."

"Moreover, you should know that in a single lifetime among the Nine Great Inner Elixir Methods, only one may perfect it. My father achieved the [Divine Demon Holy Embryo], yet you still passed me this technique—what is your true intention?"

Now, Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit was gradually restored, his realm profound. Naturally, his insight was different, even broader and deeper than before he fell into the Great Night Not Bright.

"Only one may achieve it, but you have succeeded."

The chilling voice echoed from the depths of Inner Scenery, the clanging chains growing ever more intense.

Zhang Fan fell silent.

Indeed, he had achieved it—becoming, in this life, the second person to cultivate the Divine Demon Holy Embryo; and yet, his Divine Demon Holy Embryo seemed somewhat different from others’.

"You are not the Three Corpses Daoist. You are merely a piece of consciousness, a backup... I do not know what your motive is," Zhang Fan said in a deep voice.

"I am helping you break through tribulation!"

"Break through? If I hadn’t cultivated the Divine Demon Holy Embryo, if I hadn’t practiced the Divine Splitting Technique, I wouldn’t have had any tribulation at all." Zhang Fan’s voice was icy cold.

If he hadn’t cultivated the Divine Demon Holy Embryo, he would never have been trapped in the Great Night Not Bright.

If he hadn’t cultivated the Divine Splitting Technique, to this day his Primordial Spirit would not be incomplete, Evil Gods would not have encountered tribulation.

"Man’s greatest tribulation is simply being within this Red Dust!"

Rumble—

With the cold voice, a thunderbolt rent the firmament, reverberating within his Primordial Spirit’s Inner Scenery.

The number one tribulation in the world is to be caught in Red Dust.

All things under heaven, the countless living beings, are enmeshed in this tribulation, all traversing it.

Clang... Clang... Clang...

Soon, the heavy chain-clash sounded again, like metal striking stone, stirring faint sparks that expanded continuously in the depths of the Inner Scenery.

In a daze, a golden light soared upwards—like a heavenly scar cradling a perfect circle; within the illusory haze, a Xuanwu with a Spirit Snake coiled, instantly reversing yin and yang’s constant course.

"Zhenwu Jade Scroll!?"

Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit could not help but be moved—after carrying this treasure through countless days, at last he beheld its form once more.

Rumble—

The golden radiance grew ever more dazzling, accompanied by strange sounds, as if giant beasts were howling, all living things crying out.

In the next instant, the resplendent golden light shattered, dispersing into the vast Great Night, like the stars scattered across the sky.

Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit seemed to be standing beneath an endless starry sky, basking in the eternal, undying radiance of the stars.

Each beam of that light leapt like a talisman, each containing a skill, holding a technique, concealing the Dao within itself.

"The lifeblood of Zhenwu’s legacy, the incense of a whole lineage wavering..." Zhang Fan’s Primordial Spirit could not help but be lost in thought.