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In the years that followed, Xu Yunfan sank into complete seclusion.
Like an ancient pine rooted to Divine Sky Mountain, he remained utterly unmoving, pouring his entire heart and spirit into two crucial tasks.
The first task was to completely refine the hard-won Taiyin Nether Dragon Fruit.
Within his Dantian Cave Heaven, three forces collided and merged: the violet-gold fury of Divine Sky Thunderbolt; the scorching Pure Yang of the Light Leaving Flame Burning Red Sun Dao Fruit; and the Primordial Power of the Taiyin Nether Dragon Fruit, a power of Supreme Yin and Cold that, at its limit, birthed yang, embodying the cycle of Life and Death Reincarnation.
The process was fraught with peril; the slightest misstep would lead to the utter collapse of his Grotto Heaven.
Fortunately, he had long since cultivated the Divine Sky Nine Heavens Profound Vault Undying True Scripture to Perfection, granting him exquisite control over his power. Aided by the immense might of the Attribute Panel, which allowed him to perceive the most minute details, he managed to forcibly stabilize the situation. He guided the three distinct yet subtly interconnected energies to slowly form the beginnings of a dynamic equilibrium.
Once the initial danger had passed, all that remained was to proceed step by step, making minute adjustments.
Every circulation of Magical Power, every collision of Dao Rhyme, pushed this equilibrium toward a stable Minor Circulation.
He could clearly feel that as the refinement deepened, his Magical Power grew vaster and more immense, while his Divine Sense condensed and became as solid and imposing as a towering Divine Mountain.
The tremendous power bestowed by the three Dao Fruits—Thunder, Fire, and Yin—surged within him. He felt he was standing at the very peak of the Golden Core Initial Realm, seemingly just a single step away from the Mid-Stage Golden Core—the stage where one lifts their Grotto Heaven, suspends it high in the Purple Mansion, and achieves true Longevity.
The Daoist Cultivation Value on his Attribute Panel also soared during this continuous process of refinement and integration, approaching the staggering mark of ten thousand.
However, he was uncertain how to take that final step—how to fully lift his Grotto Heaven and suspend it in the void without it falling.
This critical threshold left him somewhat perplexed.
True Monarch Dong Ming had mentioned that the Mid-Stage Golden Core required one’s Grotto Heaven to be suspended high, lifted into the Taixu. True Monarch Pu Du had also spoken of lifting and suspending the Grotto Heaven, allowing the Dao Fruit to be nourished and grow until it could touch upon a secret of the Nascent Soul. However, they were both vague about the specific Dharma Gate.
Xu Yunfan knew in his heart that the Primordial Sect’s tradition was self-enlightenment on one’s path; the True Monarchs were reluctant to share their core secrets.
Furthermore, after the Golden Core Realm, everyone walked a different path. While the ultimate goal was to reach the Nascent Soul Realm, the methods for doing so were wildly divergent—a symphony of ten thousand different Daos.
There was another, equally important matter. He was deeply aware of the gravity of his secrets, especially the fact that he possessed three Dao Fruits. This was something that absolutely could not be discovered by others.
Therefore, his second major task was to delve into Cause and Effect Secret Techniques, striving to conceal his own aura to a state of utter perfection, ensuring any attempt to spy on him would be in vain.
To this end, he practically lived in the deeper levels of the Primordial Sect’s Scripture Pavilion, a place as vast as a sea of smoke.
Although the Primordial Sect had faced several crises that threatened its existence over hundreds of thousands of years, it had still collected countless scriptures and Secret Techniques related to Celestial Secret Calculation, causal entanglement, and fate concealment.
Using his Celestial-Eroding Netherworld Talisman, which he had already cultivated to Perfection, as a foundation, he continuously flipped through, compared, and comprehended those dust-covered Jade Scrolls, Beast Hide Scrolls, and Crystal Cores.
The ’Locking Tribulation and Calming Fate’ effect of the Green Dragon Thunder Pearl Locking Tribulation and Calming Fortune Technique was endlessly versatile.
The Turtle Breath Concealing God Technique from the True Martial Demon Suppressing Scripture allowed for the complete concealment of one’s aura.
He also studied and deconstructed the finer points of no less than twenty other arts, some profound and some superficial, all related to Cause and Effect, Concealment, and Disrupting the Celestial Secret, such as the Nine Netherworld Escape Technique, the Profound Yin Concealment Step, and the Primordial Star Orbit Technique.
From the perspective of his Divine Sky Golden Core, and combining it with the powerful analytical and deductive abilities of the Attribute Panel, he attempted to smelt the essence of these secret arts in a single crucible.
The process was tedious and arduous, and the toll on his heart and spirit was no less than that of refining a Dao Fruit.
But with the information prompts from the Attribute Panel, Xu Yunfan didn’t find it dull at all; in fact, he rather enjoyed the challenge and never grew tired of it.
Time slipped by quietly, marked by the thunderous roars of Divine Sky Mountain and the silence of the Scripture Pavilion. Nearly twenty years passed in the blink of an eye.
Finally, in a moment when his heart and spirit were immersed to their absolute limit, everything clicked into place. As if it were the most natural thing in the world, like a sudden flash of inspiration, all his deductions and insights were integrated by the Attribute Panel and became perfectly clear.
’You have fused the essence of the Celestial-Eroding Netherworld Talisman, the Green Dragon Thunder Pearl Locking Tribulation and Calming Fortune Technique, the Turtle Breath Concealing God Technique... and twenty-three secret arts in total. By building on the old to create the new, you have successfully pioneered a Secret Technique. Skill Level +100 (Current Tier: Initiate)’
As the prompt from the Attribute Panel silently materialized in his vision, the scene before Xu Yunfan’s eyes abruptly changed.
Gone were the ancient bookshelves of the Scripture Pavilion and the hazy Spiritual Light of its restrictive arrays. In their place were lines—dense, innumerable, and crisscrossing—filling his entire field of vision.
These lines were as fine as hair and nearly transparent, yet they contained an ineffable profundity.
They seemed to represent the connections between all things, the flow of energy, the trajectory of existence, the destination of cause and effect...
The entire world seemed to have been stretched and abstracted, transformed into a colossal web woven from innumerable Cause and Effect Lines.
It was millions of times more chaotic than hundreds of tangled balls of yarn.
This was precisely the causal vista one could only glimpse upon reaching the Great Perfection Realm of the Celestial-Eroding Netherworld Talisman. But now, empowered by his newly created Secret Technique, this vision had become clearer and more stable. He could even faintly perceive the strength and direction of the lines’ flow.
"Success!"
A tremendous sense of joy and accomplishment washed over Xu Yunfan.
This secret art integrated concealment, disruption, locking, stealth, and even the distortion of perception. It was his current magnum opus on the Dao of Cause and Effect.
Or rather, it was the result of nearly a hundred million combinations he performed with the help of the Attribute Panel, supplemented by all sorts of fantastical ideas.
Without the information prompts from the Attribute Panel, creating this Cause and Effect Secret Technique would have been utterly impossible.
He pondered for a moment. He thought of the ’Locking Tribulation and Calming Fate’ effect of the Green Dragon Thunder Pearl Locking Tribulation and Calming Fortune Technique; the way the Celestial-Eroding Netherworld Talisman could disrupt the Celestial Secret and cause and effect; and the characteristic of his own Divine Sky Thunderbolt to bring destruction to the Ten Thousand Laws. At last, he chose a name for this creation, born of his very heart and soul.
"It shall be called the Ten Thousand Tribulations Divine Sky Hidden Secret Technique! With this secret art, I will suppress my Destiny and lock down my fate, transforming myself into primordial chaos. Even if a True Monarch tries to perform a divination, they will not be able to find a trace of me!"
’The name "Ten thousand tribulations" is fitting,’ he thought. ’To master this technique, one would go through not just ten thousand, but tens of millions of tribulations. If it weren’t for the Attribute Panel, I’d guarantee that even a Golden Core True Monarch wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without being destroyed in the process.’
Once the name was set, he felt his Divine Soul lighten, as if an invisible shackle had been broken. At the same time, it felt as if an even thicker curtain had descended to envelop him.
He tried circulating the new technique. His aura instantly became hazy and indistinct, as if melting into the surroundings. Even the surging Thunder Spiritual Qi on Divine Sky Mountain seemed to look right through him, taking no notice.
In his causal vista, the numerous, slender Cause and Effect Lines connected to him—threads that potentially pointed to his past and future—grew faint and indistinct. They were shrouded, suppressed, and distorted by a hazy, violet-gray layer of lightning, making them nearly impossible to trace with any clarity.