Chapter 2928: Thousand Star String Formation Contemplation Diagram
On the rusty bronze plaque at the top of the black divine temple were two ancient characters.
Using spiritual power to analyze them, they read "Xing Huan."
"Could this be the true core main hall of the Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable Temple?" Chi Yao asked, puzzled.
Bai Qinger said, "That's not impossible. The four great disciples of Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable once fought a fierce battle in the Heavenly Venerable Temple, reducing it to ruins. It's entirely possible that the core main hall was taken away by the second disciple, Yu Chen, and placed underground in this temple."
"If that's the case, this place must be extremely dangerous. Any means left behind by a Heavenly Venerable would be more than we, as Heaven-Repairing Realm gods, can withstand."
Chi Yao looked at Zhang Ruochen, who was walking step by step up the stairs, and felt worried. She hurried after him.
Bai Qinger naturally understood the terror of a Heavenly Venerable's core main hall. Even a God Venerable would have to tread carefully here.
Now, they could only gamble that Zhang Ruochen had truly seen the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable.
If the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable had been here, with his Heavenly Venerable-level strength, he would have carved out a safe path. If they followed that path, they would be safe.
They entered the temple gate.
Inside the hall, there was no inner world—just a single great hall.
The hall was vast, stretching a thousand zhang deep.
A ball of eternal, undying light shone deep within the hall, illuminating the darkness, revealing dust floating in the air.
Zhang Ruochen saw the figure of the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable disappear near that light.
"Why is there nothing in this hall? Is this really a place where a Heavenly Venerable once stayed? But the divine qi here is very rich—it's a treasure land for cultivation."
"Clang! Clang!"
Chi Yao used the tip of her Blood-Dripping Sword to tap the walls, searching for hidden chambers or secret compartments.
Zhang Ruochen said, "Don't touch anything recklessly."
Chi Yao withdrew her Blood-Dripping Sword and said, "The material of this divine temple is very special. If refined, it could probably be forged into one's own divine temple. Using a Heavenly Venerable's temple to forge one's own would surely grant immense defensive power."
"There are murals on the wall," Bai Qinger said.
The walls were uneven, carved with ancient diagrams.
It was a starry sky!
Countless stars, like the sands of the Ganges River, and nebulae of all shapes and forms. Though merely stone carvings, they gave the illusion of a riot of colors.
Zhang Ruochen only glanced at it before his consciousness was pulled into a boundless starry sky.
In the starry sky, stars were neatly arranged in a line, stretching to the end of the universe, like a sword cleaving the heavens, or a divine dragon roaming the cosmos.
Before he could fully grasp the mysteries within, Zhang Ruochen's head throbbed with pain, and his consciousness returned to his body. He quickly averted his gaze, not daring to look at the stone wall again.
Chi Yao and Bai Qinger were both drenched in sweat, their faces pale.
"Were your consciousnesses also pulled into a starry sky?" Zhang Ruochen asked.
The two women nodded.
"What a formidable mural. In just an instant, it drained my spiritual power. I wonder what secrets it holds." Chi Yao swallowed a pill to restore her spiritual power, then sat cross-legged to recuperate.
Bai Qinger's spiritual power was stronger, and she recovered quickly. She observed the stone wall again.
This time, she was much more cautious, deliberately steadying her consciousness.
At the top of the stone wall, she found seven ancient characters, identical to the "Xing Huan" outside.
"Thousand Star String Formation Contemplation Diagram," she read aloud.
Zhang Ruochen saw those seven ancient characters and was greatly shaken. So this stone carving was actually a Heavenly Venerable divine ability—the Thousand Star String Formation.
What is a Heavenly Venerable's ultimate treasure?
This is it!
One must understand that if a divine ability of the heavens is cultivated to a certain level, combined with the power of esoterica, it can allow one to clash with divine artifacts barehanded.
For example, Xuan Yi's "Heavenly Desolate Flowing Light Finger" had reached an extremely high level of mastery. When infused with esoterica, its power was not much weaker than a divine artifact wielded by a god of the same realm.
Heavenly Venerable divine abilities are even above divine abilities of the heavens. The "Grand Void Divine Ability Manual" only lists twenty-two of them, each one unprecedented and unmatched. The combat power they unleash is definitely not inferior to divine artifacts.
In other words, the value of a single Heavenly Venerable divine ability can even exceed that of a divine artifact.
Because a divine artifact is unique, but a Heavenly Venerable divine ability can be cultivated by many.
However, cultivating a Heavenly Venerable divine ability to the point where it can clash with a divine artifact is as difficult as ascending to heaven. Even if the Heavenly Venerable himself were alive and personally teaching, he could not train many such individuals.
Divine artifacts, on the other hand, are much easier to control.
Since ancient times, the Kunlun Realm has passed down ten divine artifacts. But Heavenly Venerable divine abilities—only the "Wordless Sword Manual" and the "Heavenly Demon Stone Inscription" remain; all others have been lost.
The "Heavenly Demon Stone Inscription" is listed in the "Grand Void Divine Ability Manual," the "Taiyi Divine Skill Ranking," and the "Taibai Divine Artifact Chapter." It is the essence and inheritance of the Heavenly Demon's entire cultivation.
Unfortunately, no one has ever been able to cultivate all thirty-six stone inscriptions simultaneously.
Although it is a Heavenly Venerable divine ability and a Heavenly Venerable cultivation method, no one has been able to carry it forward.
Thus, the "Heavenly Demon Stone Inscription" is ranked last among the twenty-two Heavenly Venerable divine abilities in the "Grand Void Divine Ability Manual."
As for the "Time Sword Art" created by Xumi Saint Monk, it has not yet reached the level of a Heavenly Venerable divine ability. If Xumi Saint Monk had lived longer and become a Buddha, perfecting the Time Sword Art further, its power might have reached that level.
Although the Immovable Bright King Great Venerable was powerful, he left no peerless divine abilities for posterity. Perhaps, to him, there was no need to create such abilities. He himself was the strongest divine ability.
"What a pity we can't take it with us. This divine temple was fixed in this time and space by Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable's second disciple. This wall is made of an astonishing material—the ultimate divine substance, 'Heavenly Venerable Substance.' With our cultivation, we cannot separate it," Chi Yao said regretfully.
"We can make rubbings of it," Zhang Ruochen said.
A rubbing scroll and the mural itself are naturally worlds apart.
But having something is better than nothing. Chi Yao wasted no time and immediately made three rubbings.
She gave one each to Zhang Ruochen and Bai Qinger, keeping one for herself.
Bai Qinger took the rubbing scroll and watched Chi Yao's slender, graceful figure walking ahead. She suddenly felt that this empress wasn't so hard to get along with after all.
"Look, there's another mural on the opposite wall," Chi Yao said.
Zhang Ruochen stared at it for a moment and said, "It looks like some kind of formation. Such a profound formation, so complex. Why would Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable or his second disciple carve a formation diagram on the stone wall?"
Zhang Ruochen instinctively felt that this formation was no ordinary thing.
If it could be carved in a Heavenly Venerable's temple and placed alongside the Thousand Star String Formation Contemplation Diagram, how could it be simple?
Bai Qinger walked at the back. After examining the formation diagram, she fell into deep thought, her head bowed, completely oblivious to what Zhang Ruochen and Chi Yao were discussing ahead.
It wasn't until they reached the ball of eternal, undying light that Zhang Ruochen's voice startled her awake: "Who could this withered skeleton be?"
Bai Qinger looked closely and saw a ten-zhang-tall iceberg standing before them.
The iceberg emitted no cold air; it seemed like a solidified form of frozen space.
Inside the iceberg sat a gaunt, skeletal old man in a Daoist robe, his hair disheveled, his eyes sunken, his nose sharp, and his fingernails extremely long. The Daoist robe was stained with blood, which had flowed from his heart and dyed the ground red.
Though frozen in the iceberg, Zhang Ruochen could still feel the terrifyingly powerful aura emanating from within, seemingly even more fearsome than a God Venerable, suffocating.
He half-suspected that the skeleton might suddenly come to life, shatter the ice, and kill them like crushing three insects.
While Zhang Ruochen cautiously observed their surroundings, Chi Yao, without any restraint, circled around to the front of the iceberg, lowered her head to look, and said, "His heart has been gouged out! There... there is a divine source. Could this be a Heavenly Venerable divine source?"
Chi Yao raised her Blood-Dripping Sword, channeled her divine qi, and swung it down.
Zhang Ruochen immediately grabbed her wrist and pulled her back, saying, "You're too reckless! This place is eerie. Haven't you seen how Jade Dragon Immortal and the old corpse ghost inexplicably came back to life? If you break the ice, what if he also comes back to life?"
Chi Yao said, "It's fine! We haven't encountered any danger along the way, which clearly shows that the Great Venerable really was here and has eliminated all potential threats for us."
"Don't act rashly first! Even if we need to break the ice, don't be so crude."
Zhang Ruochen looked at the heart cavity of the Daoist-robed old man in the ice. There was indeed a huge bloody hole there, and inside the hole was a crystalline divine source.
The eternal, undying light that illuminated the temple emanated from this divine source.
"This is Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable's second disciple, Yu Chen," Bai Qinger said.
Chi Yao asked, "How do you know?"
Bai Qinger said, "Among Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable's four great disciples, only Yu Chen also cultivated the Dao. He wears a Daoist robe with a star chart embroidered on the collar. Who else could it be but Yu Chen?"
"How do you know so much about Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable's four disciples? These events happened two or three million years ago. Even those great gods and God Venerables who have lived for hundreds of thousands of years might not know," Chi Yao said.
Bai Qinger did not hide it from them and said, "Because the founder of the Goddess Twelve Pavilions was Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable's fourth disciple, Yu Chan. And my master is a descendant of Xinghuan Heavenly Venerable's eldest disciple, Yu Long."
Zhang Ruochen and Chi Yao exchanged glances, suddenly understanding.
No wonder the Starry Sea Angler took Bai Qinger as his disciple. There was such a connection between them.
Chi Yao said, "If this person is really Yu Chen, then the divine source stuffed into his heart cavity is most likely a Heavenly Venerable divine source."
She raised her sword again!
"Look, before he died, he used his blood to write the character 'regret' on the ground," Zhang Ruochen said.
In front of the Daoist-robed old man in the ice, there were fifteen characters for "regret," all written in blood.
Besides that, there were also four blood diagrams, drawn crookedly.
They were all simple and easy to understand at a glance.
The first blood diagram was drawn most carefully—it was a human figure.
The second blood diagram depicted a divine source.
The third blood diagram depicted a human skin.
The fourth blood diagram depicted a bracelet, with a ring of stars imprinted on it.
Chi Yao sighed emotionally, "Four disciples dismembered their master, committing the ultimate act of betrayal. It's rare that he could repent before death. The first blood diagram should depict the Heavenly Venerable's divine body."
"The second should depict the Heavenly Venerable's divine source."
"The third should depict the Heavenly Venerable's divine robe."
"The fourth... why is it a bracelet? Could the Heavenly Venerable's world have been sealed inside this bracelet?"
Just as Chi Yao was muttering to herself, puzzled, Bai Qinger raised her right hand. The bracelet on her wrist was identical to the one in the blood diagram. She had worn this bracelet since childhood and had never found anything remarkable about it.