Chapter 1 Zhang Yuanqing's Instructions

Zhang Yuanqing summoned Little Doubi and the Ghost Bride, instructing,

"You two guard this place. If anyone breaks in, attempting to steal the key, notify me immediately."

This was a necessary precaution. In case someone tried to seize the jade plate while they were in Takamagahara, Zhang Yuanqing would be alerted by his spirit servants and could return using the teleportation jade talisman to stop them.

Once the gates of Takamagahara closed, the teleportation jade talisman would become ineffective.

Because the teleportation jade talisman was a Saint-level item, and the space of Takamagahara was clearly superior to the Saint level.

The Ghost Bride cradled the infant spirit and said softly,

"Husband, be careful. Your concubine will guard the gate for you."

If only the Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace couldn't understand the communication of spirit bodies... Zhang Yuanqing looked back at the graceful Palace Master.

He had softened his heart and didn't pursue the matter of the Snail Emperor and his father's relics.

On the private jet to the Bird Country, Zhang Yuanqing had originally intended to put on a cold face, but the Palace Master was too good at being witty, saying some delicious sweet words, and coaxed the iron-hearted Zhang Yuanqing. Zhang Yuanqing didn't usually fall for this, saying coldly,

"I understand Elder Le's abilities. Spare me the act, Palace Master. Save it for other men."

The Palace Master rested her cheek on her hand, gazing at him adoringly.

"But I only want to use it on you."

Zhang Yuanqing surrendered.

Sweet words were Elder Le's unique skill. They could always soften a man's heart and steel-like will with their gentle voices.

Xie Lingxi was also skilled at this, able to put herself in the position of a pitiful little thing in a subtle way. Elder Le's passive ability played a crucial role.

Zhang Yuanqing suspected that the Palace Master had secretly played matchmaker for them. Otherwise, with Lord Tianzun's decisive nature, how could he be so engrossed in beauty?

But he had no proof.

"Let's go in," he said.

Without waiting for the Palace Master to nod, he stepped through the gate of light first.

In the next second, he was back in the dark, starless, moonless space—Takamagahara.

"This is a dead Blessed Land, without spiritual energy, without life, and even the oxygen is very thin." The voice of the Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace came from behind. She surveyed the silent darkness ahead with interest.

"I'm curious why Takamagahara wasn't taken away by the Lingjing," Zhang Yuanqing said.

The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace said, "There are two possibilities. One, for some reason, the Lingjing deliberately avoided this space. Two, there are items here of such unimaginable quality that the Lingjing can't take them."

"I lean towards the former because the power of the Lingjing is beyond our imagination. Little clever one, give us some light!"

Zhang Yuanqing took out the Yin-Yang magic robe, draped it over himself, and raised his hands to the sky.

"Whoosh..."

Flames rose, piercing the darkness, a ball of fire ten meters in diameter floating above their heads.

The surrounding hundred meters were dyed with a layer of flickering orange.

Countless red threads sprang from the Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace's back, like saffron stamens, clinging to the fireball and lifting it to dozens of meters in the air.

Zhang Yuanqing took the opportunity to step back, looking at the Palace Master's back, seeing the slender and dense red threads extending from her skirt.

As expected, this gorgeous and delicate ancient dress was a magic item, and its level was definitely not low. No wonder she had always worn it. Zhang Yuanqing's long-standing question was answered. "Let's go!"

The Palace Master didn't notice his little action and went straight up the stone steps.

They didn't run deliberately, but climbed the mottled and cracked stone steps at a swift, steady pace.

Every few minutes, Zhang Yuanqing would look up at the dazzling fireball, a question rising in his heart: How could it burn for so long?

The fireball needed spiritual energy to sustain its burning. Having left the Yin-Yang magic robe, who was providing it with spiritual energy?

Although the Palace Master was a Main Attributor, Elder Le didn't have fire control skills.

"The core skill is resurrection, which can bring back the dead, restore damaged Dao artifacts, and even skills that have dissipated, allowing them to be used again." The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace saw his doubts and explained,

"This kind of low-level skill, I can keep resurrecting it, never extinguishing it until my spiritual energy is exhausted. The Musician is indeed the strongest support, bar none!"

"Are there any restrictions?" Zhang Yuanqing asked.

"Targets beyond my level cannot be resurrected. Resurrection is temporary, and one resurrection can only last for ten minutes." The Palace Master frankly stated the limitations of her skill, smiling.

"Hmm, this Palace Master loves you so much, revealing my heart and soul to you."

A woman's mouth is a deceiving ghost! Zhang Yuanqing chuckled inwardly. Without further ado, they passed through the Qin Dynasty buildings located on the mountainside and climbed for another half an hour, finally reaching the summit.

A clear copper divine tree, like a pillar supporting the sky, stood on the top of the mountain. In comparison, the ten-meter diameter fireball was like a tiny firefly.

When the firelight passed through hundreds of meters and shone on the bronze trunk, it only left a faint yellow glow. The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace stared at the divine tree in front of her, her bright eyes flashing with excitement, joy, and other emotions.

Like a devout believer, seeing a god on a pilgrimage.

She didn't hide these emotions, and Zhang Yuanqing saw them.

She knew the meaning of the clear copper divine tree, and she had a deep understanding of the bronze divine tree. Before I told her about Takamagahara, the Palace Master might not have known about the Leaving Heaven Wish and the bronze divine tree, but she knew a lot about the Snail Emperor. When I told her that there was a bronze divine tree left by the Snail Emperor here, she guessed the symbolic meaning of the bronze divine tree.

Zhang Yuanqing made an interpretation in his heart.

"Give me the Double Dragon Jade." The Palace Master stretched out her fair, exquisite little hand. Zhang Yuanqing handed it over almost without hesitation.

She took the Double Dragon Jade and rose into the air, her skirt fluttering, like a beautiful red butterfly, floating towards the bronze divine tree.

The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace stopped in front of the divine tree, her fingertips exerting a slight force. With a soft "pop," the Double Dragon Jade shattered, and two lifelike five-clawed divine dragons turned into powder, leaving only the ruby in the center.

She caught the crystal-clear ruby and extended it to the tree trunk carved with patterns.

The moment the ruby touched the trunk, it melted.

A dark red streamer traveled along the trunk's patterns, like pushing over dominoes, spreading rapidly, lighting up the trunk, lighting up the branches, and finally lighting up the entire bronze divine tree.

This process lasted a full twenty minutes. It was so huge that the tallest building in human history was only a third of its size.

The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace dispersed the lighting fireball, and the red light from the bronze divine tree illuminated the entire Takamagahara, covering the world with a soft red glow.

"It's alive! The Snail Emperor's divine blood has activated this climbing tree!"

"So magnificent!" Zhang Yuanqing said in a low voice.

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard a deep, heavy "rumbling" sound coming from inside the bronze divine tree.

Immediately, the tree trunk, like a city wall, slowly cracked open, revealing the interior.

The bronze tree was huge, but the space inside was very small, as small as the mountain cave where a reclusive expert would cultivate.

The interior was a tender red, and the ground and walls were not stone or bronze, but wriggling flesh walls, with faint blood vessels visible.

Zhang Yuanqing stood at the entrance of the cave, cautiously scanning the scene inside. The previous guess was correct, this bronze divine tree was not a sculpture, but alive. It really was a tree, but it had nothing to do with a tree. The outer shell was bronze, and the inside was flesh and blood. The cave was not big, and directly opposite the entrance was a bronze bed, three meters long and one meter wide. There were no pillows or quilts on the bed, only a bronze pot covered in verdigris.

The tilted spout of the bronze pot glowed with a golden luster, and a drop of golden liquid hung like a dewdrop at the mouth of the pot.

The drop of water formed a shallow puddle on the ground, and the golden liquid in the puddle was almost dry. Besides these, scattered around the bronze bed were pieces of bronze plates, piled up in a mess.

Zhang Yuanqing suddenly remembered the pool outside the bronze tree and could confirm that the immortal spring in the pool was caused by the liquid overflowing from the pot.

But for some reason, the liquid in the pot had been exhausted, and the pool outside the tree had therefore dried up.

The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace breathed heavily, quickly stepped into the bronze tree cave, bypassed the puddle, stopped by the bronze bed, and picked up the small and exquisite bronze pot.

She lowered her head and stared at the bronze pot, her fingertips caressing it, and murmured:

"It's really here. This is where the Snail Emperor cultivated in ancient times."

Zhang Yuanqing asked curiously: "What is it?"

The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace thought for a while and said:

"It has a name, called the Demon Refining Pot. In myths and legends, it possesses incredible power, able to create life and refine evil spirits."

"But its true face is the most fundamental power of the Musician profession, a treasure that demigod-level Musicians dream of."

The most fundamental power of the Musician profession? Zhang Yuanqing suddenly thought of the Lunar Source Fragment in his character card.

Could the bronze pot in front of him be a celestial-level power?

"A demigod-level treasure?" He looked at it curiously, but the bronze pot looked ordinary and unremarkable.

"No, it's more advanced than a demigod." The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace's eyes shone brightly, and her lips curled into a smile:

"With it, demigods can enter a higher stage. Unfortunately, it is sleeping, and I cannot truly possess it yet, but at least I won't lack the elixir of life in the future. If you need the elixir of life in the future, just come to me. When I figure out its other functions, I will tell you."

A higher stage... There were still realms above demigod. Zhang Yuanqing didn't care about the elixir of life and the other functions of the Demon Refining Pot, and asked: "What is the higher stage? How do you know these things?"

There were still ranks in the demigod stage. He had vaguely guessed this in his heart, but even the elders of the official organization might not know the information about the Demon Refining Pot and the Snail Emperor.

How could the Palace Master, with her Main Attributor level, know these secrets? The Palace Master of the Zhisha Palace held the bronze pot, turned her gaze, and looked over with glistening eyes, sighing, "Your father told me. The Tong Yao organization is more terrifying than you think. The four of them were the first to unlock the secrets of the Lingjing, and that's why none of them had a good ending. Yuan Shi, I will tell you later, but not now. I don't want you to repeat the same mistakes." After speaking, the haze and sadness in her eyes disappeared, and her emotions changed a hundred and eighty degrees, as she cheerfully laughed like a little girl,

"So much divine liquid, let's divide it up!" She opened the bronze lid and gently patted the pot, and the elixir of life gushed out, pouring into the [item name].

"These don't seem to be the elixir of life?" Zhang Yuanqing said.

He didn't sense any vitality. The power of these liquids was restrained, without any leakage.

"Of course not. The elixir of life is the diluted version of them. Or rather, these liquids are the real elixir of life, the source of Nuwa's creation of life. A demigod-level Musician can only condense a few taels of it each year. It can revive the dead and regenerate life in corpses, even reviving a Ming corpse, and I mean physical resurrection. With these elixirs, I can heal damaged spirit bodies," she said happily,

"I won't be crazy anymore! After I heal my spirit body, if there's any left, I'll give it to you." She seemed very happy, talking to herself a lot.

Zhang Yuanqing felt a pang of inexplicable pity in his heart, thinking, forget it, I'll just give it all to you. Then, he looked at the puddle. Although the golden elixir of life had been taken away, there was still a layer of pale golden flesh and blood substance in the puddle. This was because the tender red flesh and blood had been soaked for a long time and dyed golden.

The Palace Master took out a silver knife. The next moment, she rolled up her sleeves, her fair white hand held the knife, and carefully scraped them off.

"I took the Demon Refining Pot, so I'll give you this treasure," she said. "Don't underestimate these things. They require the accumulation of the elixir of life over a long period of time to form. In myths and legends, Nuwa created humans by kneading earth, and she used these essences."

While speaking, she dug out the soft and rotten golden mud, and her skillful little hands kneaded it into an ugly little clay figure.

Raising her eyes, she smiled and said, "Does it look like you?"

Nuwa and I were both speechless. Zhang Yuanqing directly asked, "What's it for?" The Palace Master said naturally,

"The day you are killed, as long as you protect your spirit body, it will be another body for you. Hmm, it's not you yet. Drip your blood on it and throw it into the bronze pot to refine for forty-nine days."

As she said that, she took the liberty of grabbing Zhang Yuanqing's hand, using the knife stained with golden sludge to cut open his fingertip, and dripped a drop of blood on it.

Then, she uncovered the bronze pot and stuffed the clay figure into it, happily saying, "Okay!"

"Does that mean I have another life? That's indeed better than obtaining the elixir of life, after all, the elixir of life can only heal and can't defend against enemies, while the clay figure can resurrect me." Zhang Yuanqing was satisfied, and suddenly asked, "Then if I die and come back to life, will the items in my inventory still be there?" Zhang Yuanqing looked at her, and she looked at Zhang Yuanqing, neither of them speaking. "Okay, you don't know either." Zhang Yuanqing walked towards the bronze bed while saying, "I met the president of the Merchant Guild yesterday. He told me that among the Shadow Twins, one is a Night Wanderer, and the other is not clear."

"I plan to check with the official organization. What do you think?"

"Okay," she nodded gently. "Remember to look for me if you encounter danger or difficulties." As she spoke, Zhang Yuanqing took out a bronze plate and stared at it. Carved on it was a painting, the content of which was a group of ancestors worshiping a gentle and benevolent woman.

The woman's features were somewhat blurred, but her charm was full, allowing Zhang Yuanqing to recognize her as Nuwa at a glance.

"This should be a bronze plate used to record events in ancient times, similar to our books. Being left in the tree hole by Nuwa, it may involve secrets from ancient times. Let's sort out the bronze plates and take a look," Zhang Yuanqing said.

Together, the two of them laid the messy bronze plates flat on the ground and looked at them intently. The bronze plates were carved with paintings.

One of the bronze plates recorded something that caused Zhang Yuanqing's pupils to contract.

"The sky was filled with rolling dark clouds, and countless meteorites pierced through the atmosphere, burning with raging flames, descending to the earth...?"

"I plan to check with the official organization. What do you think?"

"Okay," she nodded gently. "Remember to look for me if you encounter danger or difficulties."

As she spoke, Zhang Yuanqing took out a bronze plate and stared at it. Carved on it was a painting, the content of which was a group of ancestors worshiping a gentle and benevolent woman.

They picked up stones from the pit and raised them high, cheering like boiling water.

From then on, they obtained divine power, learned to manipulate flames, control rivers, move mountains and rocks, and drive animals...

They were worshiped by humans and became gods.