Chapter 490: Chapter 410: Is the Primordial Dao Actually a Pitfall in Earth and Wood?!

As Su Yuan sat in meditation, ignoring everything, the secret realm returned to silence.

During his meditation, the intangible and formless Primordial Tribulation Qi within the secret realm slowly gathered toward Su Yuan.

As more and more Primordial Tribulation Qi gathered, a faint gray crystal, containing all the world’s colors and ultimately transforming into a shade of neither black nor white, appeared in front of Su Yuan.

This is the Primordial Essence. Although only the size of a grain of rice, the moment it was born, it actively twisted the surrounding Dao Rhythms, attempting to transform this place into its own domain.

Its domineering nature secretly amazed Su Yuan, who had facilitated all this.

With a thought, he integrated this grain of Primordial Essence into his body, merging it into his Dantian.

The Senluo Spirit Root moved swiftly, extending tendrils to bury the Primordial Essence deep within its roots, slowly refining it at a steady pace.

Relying on the refinement of the Primordial Essence, the nature of the spiritual power transformed by the Senluo Spirit Root exhibited subtle changes.

After a brief calculation, Su Yuan was pleasantly surprised to find that just converting all the Tribulation Qi within this tomb into Primordial Essence could fulfill half of his Essence of the Great Dao requirement for advancing to the Golden Core.

This trip was certainly rewarding.

However, he also understood that this secret realm was special, and the remaining Primordial Tribulation Qi in other secret realms would certainly not compare to this place.

He hoped that the Primordial Tribulation Qi contained in both the Jinhua Mountain Secret Realm and the Dragon King Secret Realm together would be enough for him to advance to the Golden Core.

With a slightly urgent feeling, Su Yuan accelerated his cultivation process.

But suddenly, a surprised voice echoed in his ears:

"Primordial Dao? You brat dare to walk the Primordial Dao?"

This voice was none other than that of the swindler from just now.

Su Yuan continued to act as if he hadn’t heard.

What’s the use of saying it, if you have the guts, crawl out of your grave and bite me!

If you really had the capability, you wouldn’t have had to deceitfully lure me into the tomb.

But at that moment, the tomb suddenly began to tremble violently.

Su Yuan was immediately startled by the scene.

Are you seriously coming back to life?

Under Su Yuan’s tense gaze, an extremely emaciated hand suddenly reached out from the darkness of the tomb entrance, clawing at the ground.

Then, accompanied by a chilling dragging sound, a withered corpse slowly crawled out of the tomb.

This dried corpse had extremely sparse hair, an incredibly aged face, and its clothes shattered with its movements, resembling a mummy desiccated for a hundred thousand years.

Fortunately, Su Yuan did not panic. Instead, he carefully examined the condition of this dried corpse, finding that its body was void of spiritual mechanisms, seemingly having lost all cultivation.

This allowed Su Yuan to let out a slight sigh of relief.

No matter if this corpse is the Decaying Celestial Monarch or not, it doesn’t seem to have the power to kill me with a single slap.

However, Su Yuan did not underestimate the other party and sincerely asked:

"Senior, who exactly are you?"

"As far as I know, the Decaying Celestial Monarch and the other thirty-five Divinity Transformation cultivators of the Human Race are all alive, so you can’t possibly be the Decaying Celestial Monarch."

Upon hearing this, the dried corpse let out a cold, mocking laugh from its gnarled mouth that exposed two rows of terrifying teeth:

"Alive and well? Ridiculous... Among those thirty-six Human Race Divinity Transformations, who really knows how many are true deities and how many are false?"

Upon hearing this, Su Yuan could not help but be shocked.

"False deities? What do you mean by that, senior?"

"Just the literal meaning; the entity that triggered the Immortal Tribulation secretly replaced some of the Divinity Transformation cultivators to sow division, using fake to replace the real."

"And that entity’s methods were too bizarre. Even as Divinity Transformation cultivators, we couldn’t tell whether our companions were genuine or false, leading to a breakdown in trust among the Divinity Transformations."

The dried corpse continued with a cold laugh, its tone carrying an indescribable complexity of emotions.

"Among the thirty-six Divinity Transformation cultivators, some are fake? Is this one of the key reasons the Human Race’s Divinity Transformations didn’t resist and defected directly?"

Upon hearing such a secret, Su Yuan could only feel a tingling at the back of his neck and a growing awe for the fearsome entity that initiated the Immortal Tribulation.

And his mind began to uncontrollably wander.

Could it be that the entity that initiated the Immortal Tribulation has already set the stage for another round of the Immortal Tribulation, secretly replacing one or a few of the Blue Star Federation’s Ten Great Celestial Monarchs?

If that’s the case, any talk of resisting the Immortal Tribulation would have been a doomed situation from the start!

While contemplating this, he heard the dried corpse say again:

"However, after suffering numerous severe losses and attempts, we finally discovered a way to identify false deities."

"It’s simple really, as long as one cultivates the Primordial Dao and brings the surrounding area under control, and replaces the Heavenly Dao in that area, they can use the Heavenly Dao perspective to identify true and false deities."

"The laughable thing is, even when the replaced false deities are exposed, they won’t realize they’re fakes."

After saying this, the dried corpse seemed to have exhausted a lot of energy. It paused for a long while before continuing:

"This is why I came out to see you at the cost of my energy."

"Child, you are a cultivator of the new era, and a rare individual with the hope of mastering the Primordial Dao."

"Thus, I wanted to quickly tell you the importance of the Primordial Dao so that you, the new generation of cultivators, don’t end up like us, too late for everything."

Su Yuan listened silently to the end. He could feel the sincerity in the other party’s tone, expressing the heavy expectations of an elder for the younger generation.

However, he did not let his guard down because of this, and instead asked in a steady voice:

"Since you already have a way to find the false god, why was it too late? What happened in between?"

The mummy remained silent for a few seconds, as if recalling something from a distant past.

After a long moment, he slowly spoke:

"In our era, which you refer to as the Ancient Era, more than two hundred thousand years had passed since the last Immortal Tribulation descended, and the Primordial Tribulation Qi remaining in the world had long been exhausted."

"Therefore, it was extremely difficult to cultivate a cultivator who had mastered the Primordial Dao."

"We put in all our effort and finally nurtured one person, whom we all called the Saint Heir, the Child of Hope."

"Unfortunately, just as he was about to begin his first investigation of thirty-six Human Race Divinity Transformations, he suddenly died."

"No one knew who was responsible for his death. When we saw his corpse, his chest and abdomen had a huge hole, the organs had been devoured by vultures from all directions, and bright red blood flowed all over the ground."

"From that point on, we completely lost hope of resistance."

Su Yuan listened, his mouth twitching slightly.

The predecessor who also cultivated the Primordial Dao died so tragically...

The Primordial Dao seems like a bigger pit than earth and wood!

Yet, considering the importance of this Dao for resisting the Immortal Tribulation, Su Yuan was unwilling to give up, only able to continue down this path to the end.

"So, the Decaying Celestial Monarch active in the outside world was actually replaced, and you are the real Decaying Celestial Monarch, therefore secretly suppressed here?"

Su Yuan pondered the tone as he asked.

"Correct."

The mummy slowly uttered two words.

Then he continued:

"I can feel that outside my tomb has turned into an ocean of decay."

"I wish to convert this power of decay into my own strength, to slightly recover some vitality. I wonder if you, young friend, agree?"

Su Yuan was silent for a while, then said:

"Senior, do you have the essence of the Path of Corruption or the Flesh and Blood Dao here? I want to use the Primordial Dao to embrace this Dao."

"Yes, of course."

The mummy lifted his hand without hesitation and beckoned into the tomb.

The next second, a piece of Dao essence the size of a palm, as brilliant as the world’s most magnificent red jade, flew out of the tomb and directly reached Su Yuan’s front.

"I am the Decaying Celestial Monarch, mastering the Path of Flesh and Blood and Corruption. Even though my cultivation has been exhausted over hundreds of thousands of years of suppression, some decent amount of Dao essence is still abundant."

The mummy’s tone carried a hint of pride, and also a touch of care for the younger generation.

Su Yuan meticulously examined this piece of Flesh and Blood Dao essence.

According to his estimation, once he fully refines this piece of Dao essence, the Corruption Divine Kingdom and the divine techniques related to the Flesh and Blood Dao would at least increase in power two to three times—compared to himself after condensing the Inner Core, not during the Foundation Establishment Stage.

This already far exceeds the amount of Dao essence generally required by cultivators for Core Formation.

"Thank you, senior."

Su Yuan solemnly nodded to the mummy.

The mummy’s rigid face moved slightly, as if smiling.

He opened his mouth, seemingly about to mention the absorption of the black sludge from the outside.

But Su Yuan spoke first.

"However, senior, I still cannot agree to your request."

The mummy was slightly stunned:

"Why?"

Su Yuan took a deep breath and slowly said:

"Because... you are not the real Decaying Celestial Monarch, you are a fake."

"This..."

Hearing this, the mummy was not too agitated, instead, he fell into contemplation.

Seeing the other party’s response not being intense, Su Yuan slightly relaxed, sincerely explaining:

"I possess divine techniques related to the Primordial Dao. Just now, I secretly used these techniques to control the will of this world and became the Heavenly Dao here."

"Through the perspective of the Heavenly Dao, I discovered your body is illusory, not tangible, thus guessing you are a counterfeit."

"Moreover, senior, you might want to seriously consider why your body regained certain mobility, instead of being tightly suppressed within the tomb?"

The mummy was silent for a moment before suddenly saying:

"I... I remember now, it’s that Crown of Corruption... it was the formation eye that suppressed me."

"After the Crown of Corruption was taken away, I gradually regained mobility."

Su Yuan nodded slightly:

"So, without exception, senior you should have been suppressed by the real Decaying Celestial Monarch, thus, I absolutely cannot save you."

The mummy fell silent again, and after a long while, he chuckled freely and said:

"In that case, you might as well kill me now."