Cultivation Begins From The Desert-Chapter 796 - 779: Surprises One After Another [Thanks to the book friend Lingtiao Pavilion Qingyuanzi for becoming the 5th Alliance Leader of this book]

"This shell is indeed a rare top-grade battle armor refining material. In the future, when my artifact refining skills improve further, I might attempt to use it with other materials to refine a top-grade battle armor!"

At the bottom of the Celestial Pit, Zhouyang collected all his magical artifacts and looked at the only remaining carcass of the Thousand-legged Earth Dragon left in the world, his eyes filled with undisguised admiration and appreciation.

They had all witnessed the defensive power of this carcass during their previous encounters.

Initially, Zhouyang released all three Celestial Thunder Pearls he refined, detonating them together, yet still failed to break it apart.

Even when he attacked with the Purple Gold Qiankun Ruler, he could only leave a shallow dent on the massive shell, unable to break its defense.

It was precisely because Zhouyang witnessed the powerful defensive strength of the Thousand-legged Earth Dragon's carcass that he changed his original plan. All of them unleashed methods to suppress and imprison the Thousand-legged Earth Dragon, then used the external incarnation to activate the Tier Seven Immortal Artifact for the final strike.

In fact, although the power of the Vermilion Bird Fan successfully killed the Thousand-legged Earth Dragon, it still couldn't completely destroy this carcass, indicating just how tough this thing was.

"Generally, even the carcasses of the Demon Race below the True Spirit cultivation level, no matter how tough, cannot withstand the burning of the Fire of Law."

"The shell of this Thousand-legged Earth Dragon being an exception is likely because it has lingered here for a long time, its body nourished by the power of the world origin that dissipates, causing some mutation, allowing a trace of the power of the earth attribute law to unknowingly merge into the most important shell of its body!"

Lan Daoist continued Zhouyang's words with an indifferent tone, explaining from a more professional perspective the reason behind the extremely strong defense of the Thousand-legged Earth Dragon's shell.

"The power of the world origin, is it?"

Zhouyang's eyes flashed with brilliance, looking intently at a certain spot at the bottom of the pit.

There stood an ancient-looking round altar. Despite the fierce battle they had just fought here, it did not suffer any damage from the magical combat turbulence throughout, indicating its extraordinary nature.

At this moment, after observing the round altar for a while, Zhouyang retracted his gaze and waved to everyone, saying, "Let's rest for a while. We can proceed with the next plan after we have fully recovered."

Then he collected the shell left behind by the Thousand-legged Earth Dragon and began meditating on the spot.

Several days later, feeling fully recovered, Zhouyang walked straight to the round altar, flicked his fingers, and placed as many as thirty-six top-grade spirit stones into various spiritual stone slots around the altar, then chanted and cast a complex and mysterious spell onto the altar.

This spell was passed to him by True Monarch Donglai back then, enabling him to activate the altar and open the spatial entrance where the Innate Five Elements Jade was located.

The spell was extremely intricate and mysterious and consumed a significant amount of magical power, taking Zhouyang nearly half an hour to fully cast and activate the altar.

Humming!

As soon as the spell was fully cast, faint white light emerged from the bronze-colored round altar, rapidly consuming the spiritual power of the top-grade spirit stones in the spiritual stone slots.

Before long, a white light gate, capable of allowing only one person to pass through, formed from the altar, stabilizing in place.

Seeing this, Zhouyang glanced at Lan Daoist beside him and nodded slightly before leaping into the white light gate.

Almost half an hour later, the white light gate on the altar suddenly shook violently, ejecting Zhouyang like an old clam spitting out sand, then exploded with a "boom."

Looking at the ejected Zhouyang, his aura was fluctuating, his expression a mix of joy and worry as if faced with a difficult decision to make.

"Fellow Daoist Zhou's expression seems to be a mix of happiness and concern; could it be that the situation inside has changed from what was initially expected?"

Lan Daoist initiated the inquiry, rarely showing a hint of curiosity.

In a matter involving a Returning Void Stage True Monarch, even someone with such a prominent background like him couldn't remain indifferent.

"The situation inside is indeed a bit unexpected; the space is already half the size of a typical Pocket Secret Realm, and the spiritual qi is extremely abundant."

"The Innate Five Elements Jade seems to have merged with the space inside. If taken by force, it might immediately cause the entire space to collapse!"

Zhouyang revealed the situation he discovered in a complex tone.

Originally, the possibility of space collapse due to extracting the Innate Five Elements Jade was not beyond his expectations. After all, True Monarch Donglai initially created this space to store the Five Elements Jade, this spiritual object.

The problem is that after ten thousand years, this originally temporarily created small space has mutated due to nourishment from the power of the world origin, becoming something akin to a Pocket Secret Realm, a cultivation treasure that even Nascent Soul Stage Cultivators would break their heads to compete over.

In this case, if Zhouyang extracts the Innate Five Elements Jade, leading to the collapse of this Secret Realm space, it would indeed be too much of a waste.

However, if he doesn't retrieve the Innate Five Elements Jade, and lets it continue absorbing the power of the world origin inside, the revival of life in the Boundless Desert Sea Cultivation Realm would become an impossibility.

It's precisely this dilemma of having to choose between two equally important things that put Zhouyang in an extremely complex state of mind, not knowing what choice to make.

"If that's the case, there might actually be a solution."

When Zhouyang was feeling conflicted, not knowing what choice to make, Lan Daoist suddenly spoke, bringing him a surprise.

"Oh, does Fellow Daoist Lan have a way to resolve this?"

He looked at Lan Daoist with a face full of surprise and eyes full of expectation.

Under his expectant gaze, Lan Daoist nodded slightly, saying, "I can only say I have some ideas, but for the specific situation, I still need to go in and observe before I can provide Fellow Daoist Zhou with a definite answer."

"Then I'll immediately cast the spell to activate the array again."

Said Zhouyang eagerly, promptly replacing the spirit stones on the altar, casting the spell to reactivate it.

Soon, as the white light gate formed again, Zhouyang and Lan Daoist entered it one after the other.

Inside the white light gate's secret realm world, it was a barren desolation; except for the yellow-brown soil, there was nothing else on the ground.

No, that actually isn't entirely accurate.

Because in the central region of the secret realm world, on a hill, stood a towering multi-colored giant stone, emitting spiritual light visible from hundreds of miles away.

After landing near this multi-colored giant stone and observing it closely, Lan Daoist and Zhouyang couldn't help but nod slightly. "Jade forms within stone; the Five Elements Jade originally emerged from the Five Elements Stone, and now post-celestial returns to innate, experiencing this process once again!"

Zhouyang was not concerned about how the [Five Elements Jade] came to be, nor did he have any intention of claiming the [Innate Five Elements Jade] within this Five-Colored Giant Stone.

What he cared about now was how to continue maintaining the existence of this space while extracting the [Innate Five Elements Jade].

He looked expectantly at Lan Daoist and asked, "How about it? Fellow Daoist Lan, is there a way to implement what you mentioned before?"

"There is indeed a way, but I'm not sure if Fellow Daoist Zhou would be willing to do it!"

Narrowing his gaze away from the Five-Colored Giant Stone, Lan Daoist replied calmly to Zhouyang.

Zhouyang's brow furrowed immediately as he showed puzzlement, "What do you mean by that, Fellow Daoist Lan? What does Zhou have to be willing to sacrifice?"

"To go with Lan's plan, Fellow Daoist Zhou needs to sacrifice two things: firstly, the stone shell nurturing the [Innate Five Elements Jade]; secondly, Lan would need to stay here and oversee it, unable to go out and help Fellow Daoist Zhou fend off external enemies."

After explaining his plan, Lan Daoist waited calmly for Zhouyang to make a decision.

Upon hearing this, Zhouyang's expression changed, his face turning grim.

It wasn't that Zhouyang was reluctant to part with the stone shell nurturing the [Innate Five Elements Jade], though it was indeed an exotic treasure and excellent artifact-refining material.

What he valued was Lan Daoist.

Ever since Lan Daoist followed him, having such a capable assistant who could fight and offer insight was truly like having everything go smoothly.

Now, leaving Lan Daoist here to sustain the secret realm space operation would undoubtedly be a huge loss for him.

"Fellow Daoist Lan, could you elaborate on why you must remain here for the space to exist?"

After his face changed expressions several times, Zhouyang couldn't help but softly inquire about the detailed situation.

Lan Daoist didn't hide anything and promptly replied, "The reason is simple, the reason why Lan can easily perform Five Elements Magic is because this body incorporated quite a few [Five Elements Jade] as refining materials during its creation, in certain aspects, Lan could also substitute the [Innate Five Elements Jade] within the Five-Colored Giant Stone to anchor the space."

"Moreover, Fellow Daoist Zhou can rest assured, even if Lan can substitute the [Innate Five Elements Jade] to anchor the space, since the innate spiritual object has been extracted, the power of the world origin can't completely flow here anymore, your plan to revive the Desert Sea's vitality won't have additional variables due to Lan's presence."

"Of course, Lan has his own selfish interests in doing this, the place's origin power is dense, the Five Elements Stone nurturing the [Innate Five Elements Jade] is also considered half an innate spiritual object due to the nourishment of origin power, if Lan could seal himself within it and absorb its essence, it would greatly benefit Lan's future growth."

It was indeed like that!

Looking at Lan Daoist, whose expression was calm, Zhouyang felt a doubt in his heart was resolved.

When he first saw Lan Daoist mastering various Five Elements Magic, he was puzzled about how the other accomplished it; later, seeing the other greatly increase his powers after consuming top-grade stones of different attributes, his doubts deepened.

Now, through Lan Daoist's admission, he finally understood the cause.

[Five Elements Jade] is originally one of the top-grade spiritual objects in the Cultivation Realm, rarer even than spiritual objects like [True Sun Gold].

Zhouyang successfully formed his Nascent Soul six or seven hundred years ago, yet he had never heard of anyone possessing such a spiritual object, indicating its rarity.

In ancient times, it was mostly used to help great divine cultivators refine external incarnations.

Incarnations refined using [Five Elements Jade] were inherently complete in the five elements, able to easily cultivate and perform five-element magical techniques, with pure combat power often surpassing many cultivators' main bodies.

Because of its great use, it had been searched and used completely by those great divine cultivators in ancient times, and even if occasionally left behind, it was quickly used by those who obtained it.

After hearing Lan Daoist's explanation, Zhouyang hesitated for a while and then sighed with regret, "Since it concerns Fellow Daoist Lan's future path, Zhou here cannot be selfish, let's do it."

Lan Daoist bowed in gratitude, "Then Lan thanks Fellow Daoist Zhou beforehand."

Zhouyang waved his hand, indicating there was no need for courtesy and seriously asked, "Besides Fellow Daoist Lan himself, is there anything else needed for this matter? If any other materials are needed, fellow Daoist just say so."

"If Fellow Daoist Zhou could provide a batch of [Profound Crystal Stone] and some array materials, Lan could set up several space-still arrays to help anchor the space, and also establish another teleportation array leading here."

Not holding back, Lan Daoist promptly reported some valuable array materials to Zhouyang and explained their usage.

Hearing that an alternate teleportation array leading here could be established bypassing the outside altar, Zhouyang agreed immediately.

To this day, with Zhouyang's influence and the Zhou Family's resources, obtaining some [Profound Crystal Stone] was not difficult, and the same applied to other array materials.

After settling everything, Zhouyang asked Lu Xuewei to lead the Cyan Flood Dragon Green Luo to inform the Zhou Family to gather materials, while he, his Dao Companion Xiao Ying, and Qin Yue'Er entered the secret realm space for cultivation.

Previously, due to time constraints, Zhouyang had only learned that cultivating within this secret realm space was greatly beneficial to Nascent Soul Stage cultivators.

Now, as he calmed himself for cultivation, he found that cultivating here wasn't just beneficial for Nascent Soul Stage cultivators, but immensely so!

Due to the convergence of the world origin power here, the Spiritual Qi was not only abundant and pure, but also contained Five Elements Origin Qi that could be directly absorbed and refined to advance cultivation.

One day of cultivation here compared to a month of cultivation at Profound Sun Peak, a Tier Six Top-Grade Spirit Mountain.

Although this situation couldn't last indefinitely as the effect would decrease due to excessive absorption of origin Qi within the space, it was still overwhelmingly delightful and thrilling.

To Zhouyang, the most surprising aspect was that due to the convergence of world origin power, he could easily observe the trajectory of law operation when calming his mind here.

Compared to seeing the trajectory of law operation outside, which was hazy like looking at a mountain through thick fog.

Here, it was like clearing away the fog to see the sun, directly witnessing the clear trajectory of law operation.

This meant that his effectiveness in comprehending and researching the law here was tenfold, even tens of times greater than outside!

"Even the effect at the Spiritual Eye location in those upper realm Immortal Spirit Veins is just like this!"

This was the evaluation made by Lan Daoist himself.