Yuan’s Ascension

A hazy, earthy-yellow radiance emanated from Wu Yuan, spreading in all directions and enveloping an area hundreds of li wide.

Whoosh! The thunder beasts' bodies were torn apart by an invisible force, releasing crystalline stones that gleamed with a watery luster.

Under the manipulation of Wu Yuan’s domain, these stones flew towards him and orbited around his body.

Thirty-two Thunder Beast Stones. Wu Yuan reached out and grasped one of them.

It was an entirely purple crystal, with mysterious Dao patterns faintly visible on its surface. If one observed carefully with Soul Force, one would notice flashes of lightning within the stone.

What a magical stone. Wu Yuan mused inwardly, sensing the power contained within. It was as if a bolt of lightning was trapped inside.

These Thunder Beast Stones were a specialty of the Thunder Marsh World. They were used in a wide array of applications, from crafting lightning talismans and ethercrystal weapons, to constructing arrays.

A single third-grade Thunder Beast Stone from an ordinary thunder beast was worth over a thousand catties of ethercrystal.

A second-grade Thunder Beast Stone from a thunder beast elite was worth ten million catties of ethercrystal. It was quite precious, enough to drive any Amethyst Cradle/Shambhala cultivator mad with desire. A thunder beast elite's strength was equivalent to the sixth-stage Elysian Field phase at least.

There were even legendary first-grade Thunder Beast Stones produced by thunder beast kings whose power rivaled Earth Immortals. A single one was worth over a hundred billion catties of ethercrystal, making it one of the top treasures in the entire Thunder Marsh World. Even Earth Immortals would covet them.

Of course, given Wu Yuan's wealth which surpassed many High Immortals, even first-grade Thunder Beast Stones weren't particularly enticing to him.

Still, these thunder beast life forms are quite peculiar. Wu Yuan mused to himself, gazing into the distance.

The corpses of the thunder beasts, originally tens of zhangs long, were rapidly dissolving. Soon, no trace would remain.

According to the reports, thunder beasts are special life forms without intelligence, born from Thunder Beast Stones. These Thunder Beast Stones are the core of each thunder beast.

This type of special life form was something Wu Yuan had never encountered before. Normally, even after death, life forms would leave behind corpses. These thunder beasts felt more akin to warrior puppets in Wu Yuan’s perception.

Curious, Wu Yuan carefully examined the Thunder Beast Stone in his hand, probing its interior with his Soul Force to uncover its secrets.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Three streaks of light rushed toward Wu Yuan.

"Childe Shadow Blade."

"Thank you for saving us, Childe." The three rescued Longstar Immortal Sect disciples flew over, bowing respectfully to Wu Yuan.

Their gazes couldn't help but drift to the dozens of Thunder Beast Stones orbiting Wu Yuan, a glimmer of envy flashing in the depths of their eyes. With their strength, obtaining dozens of Thunder Beast Stones would be extremely difficult. Usually, they could only hunt them one by one.

How could they match Wu Yuan's effortless feat?

Of course, they understood that given the power Wu Yuan had just displayed, he could likely rival true Elysian Field powerhouses. Defeating opponents of higher phases? The entire Longstar Immortal Sect couldn't produce a single genius of this caliber.

“Haven't you encountered people from other sects?” Wu Yuan asked casually as he waved his hand to put away the Thunder Beast Stones.

Out of the nearly twenty thousand immortal cultivators entering the Thunder Marsh World, the Longstar Immortal Sect only accounted for one-sixth of the total number. Logically, the chances of them meeting should be relatively low. Yet they all happened to be from Team 3.

"Childe Shadow Blade," the only female disciple among the three smiled, "Our token auras are similar, so even with random teleportation, we'd mostly be sent to the same region of the Thunder Marsh World. Thus, encountering each other early on is a normal occurrence."

"This allows disciples from the same sects or teams to quickly gather in one place. Otherwise, why bother dividing into several teams beforehand?" the purple-robed man in the lead also explained with a smile.

Wu Yuan nodded, understanding now.

"While traveling here, did you create a map of the region?" Wu Yuan inquired.

"Yes, we did."

…

The Thunder Marsh World was vast and boundless. According to Longstar Immortal Sect’s intelligence, it was divided into three major regions: the Outer Region, Inner Region, and Core Region.

The closer to the center, the more dangerous it became, with a higher chance of encountering thunder beast elites or even thunder beast kings. However, the probability of finding treasures also increased correspondingly.

Time passed.

Although Wu Yuan's strength was astonishing, he wasn't in a rush. As they journeyed onward, they encountered numerous Longstar Immortal Sect disciples along the way. Most of them were from Team 3.

After exchanging information, these disciples generally chose to follow Wu Yuan. They also encountered disciples from other sects from time to time, but everyone tacitly agreed not to fight.

Killing wasn't forbidden in the Thunder Marsh World, and the world array made ordinary immortal continent-wide or immortal nation-wide voidrealms inaccessible. Individuals could only communicate via the Greenridge Immortal Voidrealm, thus ordinary disciples couldn't send messages out.

But without major treasures at stake, large-scale killing rarely broke out. As for the occasional thunder beasts they encountered? They were mostly slain by the Longstar Immortal Sect disciples. Wu Yuan couldn't be bothered with the occasional lightning-type treasures they found, such as spiritual plants or special ores. He let the sect disciples take them all.

Four days passed.

They traversed thirty million li through winding, undulating mountain ranges, though the total displacement was probably only millions of li.

On a grass plain.

"Daoist Shadow Blade, judging by your strength, you probably won't be content with just exploring the Outer Region. Bringing along these burdens has slowed our pace considerably," the handsome youth in white robes, Yun Ya, transmitted his voice.

Beside him was his Dao companion, Yun Ling.

"What do you suggest, Daoist Yun Ya?" Wu Yuan responded.

Yesterday, the team led by Wu Yuan encountered Yun Ya and Yun Ling, and they decided to travel together.

"Based on the map information we've gathered so far, we're currently in Area 163 of the Outer Region," Yun Ya said. "If we continue forward, we should soon see this area's stone wall Dao patterns. After crossing a mountain range, we can enter the Inner Region."

"The Inner Region is where things will become truly life-threatening for us. At that point, we could team up to proceed," Yun Ya smiled, appearing quite sincere.

Team up? Inner Region? Wu Yuan nodded with a smile. "Let's wait until we reach the stone wall Dao patterns and observe them before deciding."

"Alright," Yun Ya agreed.

He understood Wu Yuan's thoughts. Like them, most trial participants from other immortal continents had come for the stone wall Dao patterns.

Stone wall Dao patterns? Anticipation rose in Wu Yuan’s heart.

Besides the numerous thunder beasts and lightning-type treasures, why did the Thunder Marsh World attract countless powerhouses over millions of years? It was because of the stone wall Dao patterns scattered throughout the world! They were left behind by that Astral Monarch.

According to the intelligence I've gathered, that ancient Astral Monarch Wan Lei was extraordinarily powerful, definitely among the top Astral Monarchs. Wu Yuan thought to himself.

The Thunder Marsh World he painstakingly created is very special.

Wu Yuan had the guidance of two Sovereigns, both of whom stood at the peak of the macrocosm, and their strength far surpassed Astral Monarchs. But they weren't necessarily superior in every aspect.

Take the Space Dao, for instance. Most Sovereigns relied on 'shattering laws with brute force' to match the speed of Astral Monarch Hou Qu and Astral Monarch Huo Cang in higher spatial dimensions. In terms of their understanding of the Space Dao, they fell far short.

Most importantly, these Thunder Beast Stones alone are quite special. A large portion of Wu Yuan's soul consciousness constantly observed the dozens of Thunder Beast Stones he had stored within his internal shambhala.

Since obtaining them days ago, Wu Yuan had studied them carefully, even using his vital ether to pulverize these Thunder Beast Stones.

When all the lightning spiritual qi dissipated, what remained were only incomplete, complex, and mysterious Dao pattern diagram fragments formed by the power of lightning, emitting mysterious fluctuations.

Within his internal shambhala, the Boundary Tree's branches spread wide, its leaves lush. Little Black sprawled lazily on a massive tree trunk.

Wu Yuan's soul avatar sat in lotus position beneath the tree, silently deciphering the thirty-two fragments of Dao pattern diagrams floating in the void before him.

Thunder! They're all Thunder Dao cryptic patterns. Wu Yuan carefully analyzed them.

Since his qi refiner self’s soul had evolved to a Yuan Soul, he had unknowingly gained some insight into various other Daos. Although his understanding was shallow and he had never intentionally contemplated them before, discerning some of their profundities was not an issue.

No, it's not just Thunder, there's also... Fire. The profundities of the Law of Fire are present, albeit few. Wu Yuan pondered, his confusion deepening.

Each Dao pattern diagram before him was crude, yet unfathomably profound. These qualities were not mutually exclusive.

Thunder and Fire... perfectly fused together. But why do these core Dao patterns of the Thunder Beast Stones seem somewhat similar to the Life Dao patterns? Wu Yuan shook his head slightly.

This was precisely why Wu Yuan, after initial analysis, placed such great importance on these Thunder Beast Stone patterns, and even looked forward to the stone wall Dao patterns. They felt somewhat familiar to him!

Whoosh! An enormous silver sphere materialized beside the Boundary Tree, covered in countless cryptic patterns.

In terms of complexity, the core Dao patterns formed by these Thunder Beast Stones were not even one-millionth as complex as the cryptic patterns on the surface of the silver sphere!

The most fundamental profundities of the Dao contained within each was entirely disparate.

One involved Thunder and Fire. The other combined Earth, Wood, and Space. Yet when compared, they inexplicably gave Wu Yuan a strange sense of similarity, as if they shared a common origin. Naturally, this astounded Wu Yuan.

This shouldn't be possible. Neither the intelligence I've gathered nor Master Kua Chi's guidance can be wrong. Wu Yuan furrowed his brow. The Life Dao is composed of the three Intermediate Laws of Longevity, Celestial Body, and True Domain.

It had no connection to the Greater Laws of Thunder and Fire.

But where does this feeling of similarity come from? Wu Yuan pondered. But unable to find an answer, he suppressed his doubts.

He continued to observe, seeking to find commonalities in an attempt to comprehend the profundities of Life. After all, the threshold of the Life Dao was incredibly difficult to step through. Even now, Wu Yuan had yet to find any opportunity to reach the initiate threshold of the Law of Life.

These thirty-two crude Thunder Beast Stone Dao patterns were an exciting discovery for Wu Yuan. He naturally didn't want to miss any potential chance to comprehend the Law of Life.

It was worth noting that Wu Yuan originally had no interest in the Thunder Marsh World.

No need to rush. Take it slow. Wu Yuan had ample patience.