With Countless Qualities Bestowed Upon Me, I Shall Ultimately Become Immortal-Chapter 524 - 482: A New World, Baxia Form, Destruction and Rebirth!
Meng Chuan murmured to himself, waiting for his consciousness to stabilize, then observed his surroundings.
As everything settled, he suddenly noticed a salty fishy smell permeating his nostrils.
His body was enveloped in the icy touch of seawater, his vision filled with the murky deep blue.
"The underwater world? Is this the realm of Baxia or Xuanwu?"
At this moment, he too discovered it.
This realm brought by the Xuanwu’s mark was entirely different from the human world.
No need for him to use his "gills," normal breathing sufficed.
Could it be that this is the Dharma Realm of the mighty Xuanwu?
But as he entered, he felt the touch was entirely different from previous entries into the Dharma Realm.
This place felt more like a real "world," both seen and touched felt more genuine than in the Dharma Realm.
The seawater roared as Meng Chuan observed.
In the distance, several chains stood straight in the seawater.
The top of the chains was out of sight, but the very bottom...
He slowly sank and suddenly, a shadow like a mountain range spread before his eyes.
"This is too big..."
His naked eye couldn’t see the full scope.
Even with spiritual perception, he could only glimpse the tip of this "mountain."
This was merely a piece of turtle shell.
With perception from top to bottom, it looked like a towering city.
From the side, it resembled a dark-purple towering giant mountain.
This was just one of hundreds of scales, the head, tail, and limbs were nowhere to be found.
The size of this creature was so vast, beyond Meng Chuan’s understanding.
He could only guess, this must be what the Cultivation Technique referred to as "Baxia."
"Different from the appearance of Xuanwu seen in the True Martial Dharma Realm, it must indeed be Baxia."
Meng Chuan was uncertain how it intended to impart teachings to him.
After standing there for a long time, he hadn’t noticed any movement from it...
Continuing to sink, he swam near one of the chains, moving downward along it.
Calling it a chain was merely based on its shape.
Upon closer inspection, he discovered.
This thing was impossibly thick.
It was nearly a hundred meters wide, with the length impossible to measure, extending out of sight, unable to perceive its entirety.
And these chains, Meng Chuan could sense several others around.
"What are these things used for? Suppressing Baxia?"
As he pondered, he approached the base of the chain.
He also noticed, getting closer to the shadowy mountain range formed by countless "giant cities" below.
After a long time, Meng Chuan finally stood on the seafloor.
He looked at the giant object before him, from the bottom up, even the belly was clad in layers of dark purple armor.
With each breath, its belly armor slightly swelled, stirring undercurrents.
Alive, not dead.
Seeing Baxia unresponsive to his approach.
Meng Chuan maneuvered through the water, moving closer to its underbelly.
The water here was much more turbulent than above.
Like chaos, churned into whirlpools, the currents fierce and aggressive.
Luckily, his swimming ability had been specially enhanced, along with his robust physique, allowing him to slowly approach against the currents.
Upon closer inspection, he suddenly noticed the chains wrapped around Baxia’s belly.
Massive black iron chains as thick as sky pillars extended from here to its limbs.
Then pierced toward the heavens, extending to unknown reaches.
The mythical creature once known for subduing the seas now appeared as a prisoner.
Meng Chuan’s gaze shifted, analyzing but unable to derive anything.
Decidedly, he changed direction, slowly swimming toward Baxia’s head.
He could feel that with his arrival.
This world seemed to be undergoing an accelerated time flow, speeding up immeasurably.
It seemed as though... it was being demonstrated to him.
The passing seaweed withered and regrew within a single breath.
Dense clumps of waterweed quickly died and sprouted.
Cyclically experiencing destruction and rebirth.
On his journey to Baxia’s head.
The surroundings seemed to undergo untold changes, but he and Baxia remained eternal.
Time slowly passed, and Meng Chuan finally made it to the side of the giant’s head.
He scrutinized it, from the side it looked like a colossal jagged rock peak.
Sharp serrations protruded from the crevices, whiskers stirring the water.
Meng Chuan also noticed a single horn atop its head.
Inky black covered in spirals, like the shackle chain binding its neck, pointing toward the sky.
Seeing no reaction from it upon his arrival.
He continued to approach Baxia’s head, parting the increasingly turbulent waters, struggling to swim over.
...
Unknown how much time had passed.
"The folds on Baxia’s eyelid are larger than my body..."
Meng Chuan was now face-to-face with it, standing atop Baxia’s brow.
Looking around, it felt like being on the moon’s surface, craters everywhere.
"Buddy, wake up?"
Meng Chuan knocked, unsure of which part of Baxia’s face he hit, feeling an incredibly hard texture.
He had come all the way here, yet Baxia remained unresponsive to his presence.
"If you’re going to test me, hurry up...
Just give it to me, stop dawdling..."
His spiritual power is limited. Although the consumption rate here is extremely slow, far slower than when entering the Dharma Realm of the Immortals and Buddhas.
But it will eventually be depleted. If Baxia still doesn’t pass on the skill by then, this opportunity to activate the mark will be wasted.
At that time, I’ll have to ask Sect Leader Chen to send me into the "Xuanwu Dharma Realm" again.
To find the Great Xuanwu and ask what exactly this "little" Baxia is about.
This time, the process of receiving the skill through the mark feels entirely strange.
Completely unlike the swift and decisive manner when Grandmaster Luo Fang imparted his teachings.
Meng Chuan fiddled around for a long time, and seeing that Baxia still had its eyes closed, he was at a loss.
So he simply sat down, waiting while idly looking around.
If the Baxia Heaven-Supporting Skill is practiced like this.
He could start to comprehend just by observing Baxia’s body now.
Meng Chuan couldn’t help but complain:
"Who could learn this? Even if it’s a Divine Skill, the entry method shouldn’t be this abstract..."
On the whole Wudang Mountain, Zhang Jingshi was not the only one who learned the Baxia Skill.
He had inquired about the others before.
They all, like receiving an epiphany, imprinted Baxia’s form in their heart spirit, visualizing to grasp the entry method.
It was only Uncle Master Zhao who mentioned that Zhang Jingshi’s experience of entering was similar to what he was going through now.
Unfortunately, the other party was not around. Had he been at Wudang Mountain, he could have inquired earlier and felt more at ease now.
He pondered in his heart:
"My accomplishment in hard training is not worse than Sect Leader Zhang’s at the time.
The only difference might be in spiritual power..."
Apart from him, the "exception," others who cultivate to become a Martial Arts Celestial King.
All possess a natural aptitude, comprehension, and talent, with no weak points.
Sect Leader Zhang’s spiritual power talent is certainly not lacking.
Idle as he was, he ended his speculative thoughts.
Meng Chuan continued to watch the changes around him, the rise and fall of the sea and mountains.
While quietly contemplating the relationship between the Baxia Skill and the Baxia being in front of him.
Suddenly, a thought struck him.
"Baxia Heaven-Supporting... Could these chains not be shackles that bind Baxia, but his tools for supporting the heavens?"
Perhaps he was preconceived before.
Who said supporting the heavens can only be done with a shell? Using chains to pull is not erroneous either...
"And looking at this fellow’s size, moving a world probably isn’t a big problem for him..."
Meng Chuan suddenly recalled a term, used to describe the great Baxia under his feet.
"Star-Beast..."
He climbed to the tip of Baxia’s horn, gazing into the distance.
Time seemed to have lost its anchor point here, changing swiftly.
Meng Chuan couldn’t tell how long had passed.
He sometimes stood firm on Baxia’s horn, sometimes wandered around it.
He stayed at the seabed for countless ages, watching coral grow into cliffs, then be washed into fine sand by the current.
Watching the fish schools around change thousands of times, the countless remains afar decomposing into soil, becoming nutrients for other life forms.
Meng Chuan had become numb; if not for his steadfast will, he would have "left" long ago.
If Zhang Jingshi Daoist Lord went through the same grinding to obtain this tradition.
It could only be said that the other party was ruthless as well...
The meaningless passage of time is the most uninteresting.
Practicing martial arts here is futile since only the spiritual power came in.
Fist skills and heart methods require exchange with the "vital energy" of the mortal world to make progress.
Hard skills and body techniques are the same, he tried them all.
No changes happened on the panel, no proficiency increased.
He only figured out several issues present in his martial arts practice before.
When he goes out, by converting through practice, he might indeed progress significantly.
Thinking more about martial principles can also prevent his mind from rusting away in aimlessness.
After all, his mind was in the seabed, always in a "waterlogged" state...
That day, Meng Chuan returned to Baxia’s side again.
Gazed at the "old friend" which remained still with unopened eyes.
Patting the big turtle head, he returned to sit atop the horn, contemplating martial principles.
Let it be... He roughly estimated that, by real-time calculation, he had been here for over a week.
The surroundings continued undergoing the rise and fall of the sea and mountains, nearly a second a day.
Or even a second a week, or a month, Meng Chuan couldn’t discern.
He could only roughly deduce this result based on the speed of spiritual power’s consumption.
"I might be able to stay for another month, no, perhaps just one or two more weeks.
The erosion of the reefs is accelerating, time might also be speeding up..."
Meng Chuan had a vague premonition that this change would culminate before his spiritual power is exhausted.
After sensing the accelerated flow of time, he had an intense feeling of such premonition.
A major change is probably approaching...
...
Meng Chuan also rose to the surface to have a look, but there was really nothing much to see.
This place is like a giant aquarium.
Only the sea, no land, no people.
Today, he surfaced again, observing all around.
This time, as soon as he exposed his head, he instinctively sniffed, and his brow furrowed sharply.
The sea breeze came, but he suddenly caught a whiff of an odd scent.
Rotten, putrid, like decaying fish scales mixed with rust.
