Chapter 925: Unlocking the First Seal of the Sun

Reading the time from the sun was a luxury only the subjects of the Dynasty of the Sacred Fire could enjoy; it was a meticulous task that required regular maintenance, and with the fall of that realm, the sun's capacity to display the hours vanished.

In the past, whenever Yun Zhi came to the sun, she would be barred by the immortal chains left by Wu Yao, but this time was different.

Yun Zhi turned her palm over as the rhyme of the Great Dao surged, causing ripples across space as if the void itself had come alive, while Lu Yang and Yun Mengmeng caught the faint, ethereal echo of a celestial melody from the horizon, pure and unfathomable.

An invisible force condensed within Yun Zhi's palm, gradually shaping itself into a long-handled key.

Sensing the presence of the immortal chains, the key flew out of its own accord, drawing near to resonate with them.

The immortal chains rattled, and Wu Yao's voice rang out, so robust that even the vacuum of the cosmos could not suppress it: "I swear to **** *********"

It was a barrage of ceaseless maternal profanity, exceedingly unpleasant to hear.

It was so foul that had Wu Yao dared to show his face before Yun Zhi, he would have earned a prompt punch to the jaw before any words were spoken.

Had she known that breaking the seal would provoke such a spectacle, Yun Zhi would never have brought Lu Yang and Yun Mengmeng along.

Yun Mengmeng thought these outsiders truly were something else, possessing a vocabulary of curses that never repeated, unlike herself, who could only utter "you are a rotten peach" when pushed to her absolute limit.

Sensing that this torrent of abuse would not end anytime soon, Yun Zhi had no choice but to place another protective barrier over Lu Yang and Yun Mengmeng, shielding the three leaders of the Immortal Lineage from the racket.

The profanity finally ceased, and the immortal chains grew dim before vanishing entirely into nothingness.

The solar power that had been sealed for two hundred thousand years erupted, sending waves of heat rolling and flames shooting toward the heavens as the true solar fire leaped remarkably high; even an expert at the Tribulation Transcendence Stage would be reduced to ashes before such solar might.

Those pioneers of the Radiant Sun Sect who surrounded the star, though long tested by fierce flames, ultimately failed to survive this final trial and were incinerated into absolute nothingness by the bursting solar power.

As the solar force diffused outwards, countless cultivators throughout the world could feel the impact of this energy.

Yet those who felt it most profoundly were the cultivators who specialized in solar energy, as they could clearly perceive the sudden, dense abundance of power radiating from the sun, causing their techniques to operate automatically to greedily absorb the force, expanding their meridians and drenching their bodies.

Some cultivators even seized this opportunity to break through their bottlenecks, ascending to higher realms in a single bound.

Meng Jingzhou’s body trembled as if he were losing control, and only after being drenched in barrels of ice water brought from the depths of the Far North did he temporarily suppress the burning desire in his heart.

"What in the world is going on?!"

Meng Jingzhou could feel his Bachelor Spiritual Root greedily absorbing the solar power, driving his inner passions higher and higher.

"Brother, stop absorbing it, I really cannot take any more if you keep going."

Meng Jingzhou wept without tears, wondering why he never encountered such bizarre occurrences while at home, yet ran straight into them the moment he returned to the sect.

The sun had suddenly unleashed boundless solar power to nurture the Bachelor Spiritual Root, a phenomenon none of its past possessors had ever encountered, so why did it have to happen to him?

Admittedly, the strengthening of his spiritual root provided an all-around enhancement, solidifying his early Soul Transformation stage, increasing the capacity of the spiritual pool within his dantian, and transforming his meridians, vital energy, mental strength, and primordial soul.

"But I do not bloody need this!"

Meng Jingzhou quickly sat in meditation, silently reciting Buddhist mantras to view female beauty as mere skeletal illusions, gradually taking on the demeanor of an eminent monk.

...

Wu Yao's seal had only restricted the solar power without affecting the sun's temperature, so even with the seal undone, the summer would not grow hotter, nor would the glaciers of the Far North melt.

"Immortal Senior, can you sense the Ninefold Immortal here?" Yun Zhi asked, thinking that perhaps the Ninefold Immortal was hiding inside the sun.

.

"Ninefold, are you in there!" the Immortal Sect Master shouted toward the sun.

Aside from the rattling of the chains left by the Central Heavenly Emperor, there was absolutely no response.

The Immortal Sect Master frowned, as the chains of the Central Heavenly Emperor completely blocked out sound, preventing any voice from penetrating within.

"In that case, we shall wait until we find the Central Heavenly Emperor and have him undo the first seal before discussing this further," Yun Zhi said, having anticipated this outcome and merely holding a trial mindset.

"By the way, Eldest Senior Sister, since only the Central Heavenly Emperor's seal remains now, does it mean that cultivators can obtain the full solar power simply by praying to him?"

Yun Zhi shook her head: "It will not work; perhaps because enough power of faith has already been gathered, or for some other reason, the Central Heavenly Emperor no longer absorbs faith and has removed the pathway of obtaining solar power through prayer."

"The current chains serve purely to seal the sun, nothing more."

Yun Mengmeng remained silent throughout, feeling that the topics discussed by the Eldest Leader, Second Leader, and Little Zhi were far too profound for her to comprehend.

As expected, there was a reason she could only be the Third Leader; her knowledge was simply too lacking.

Thinking of this, Yun Mengmeng seemed to find her future goal, asking the Immortal Sect Master with excitement: "Eldest Leader, if I study hard and make great progress, do I have a chance to become the Second Leader?"

The Immortal Sect Master glanced at Yun Mengmeng: "If you harbor such treasonous thoughts again, you will be demoted to the Fourth Leader."

"Oh."

...

After dropping Lu Yang and Yun Mengmeng off at Heaven's Gate Peak, Yun Zhi informed no one and journeyed alone to the Imperial City to find the Emperor of Xia.

"Are you saying you want a few death row convicts for an experiment?" the Emperor of Xia looked at Yun Zhi in surprise, as this was the first time she had ever made such a request of him.

"Just one for now, to verify a suspicion."

With a wave of his hand, the Emperor of Xia issued a decree to the Ministry of Justice, ordering them to select a death row convict for Yun Zhi, while adding that she could have as many as she pleased in the future.

Yun Zhi sealed the convict's cultivation and rendered him mute before taking him out of the Imperial City to a thatched hut on a nearby hill.

Setting the convict down, Yun Zhi kindly shared some historical knowledge with him: "Do you know of the Dynasty of the Sacred Fire?"

She spoke for about fifteen minutes, but the person she expected did not arrive, so she had no choice but to leave the utterly bewildered convict in the hut and depart.

Concealing her aura, she waited on the mountainside, then at the foot of the hill, and then at a great distance, yet that person still did not appear.

An hour passed, and when she returned to the thatched hut, a large hole had been blasted through it, and the convict directly beneath it had been pulverized into ash, leaving the air thick with the scent of death.

Yun Zhi fetched a second convict from the Ministry of Justice and, following the old method, left him in the hut while explaining the same piece of history.

She waited in the hut for two hours, but still no one came, so she had no choice but to leave.

When Yun Zhi returned to the hut once more, a second large hole had appeared, and the second convict was dead as well.

"Even concealing my aura is useless; she can still perceive that I am hiding nearby?" Yun Zhi murmured softly to herself, casually bringing back a third convict from the Ministry of Justice.

To prove her hypothesis, she kept the method unchanged, and after sharing the history, she hid in the dark without making a sound.

When she left the hill and returned once more, she found the hilltop had been completely leveled to the ground; the hut and the convict had vanished entirely, leaving behind nothing but a small note.

"Are you ever going to end!"