Long story short, the Swelling Water God Palace’s method was so lame it was laughable compared to the Palace of Absolute Beginning.

Wei Yuan continued to rant internally as he stepped inside the secret passage. At the end of the passage was a stone door with, thankfully, no mechanism on it. Behind it lay an underground hall.

The underground hall was fairly small in size. There was a rock the size of a water jar in the center of the room, and at the far end stood three deity statues. The middle statue depicted a male cultivator with a rather handsome appearance and a kind, gentle expression. To his left stood a female cultivator who looked like she was a charm incarnate, and to his right was a young girl between five and six years of age. Fair as jade and cute as a button, she was clutching a white snake in her hands.

The entire stone chamber was brimming with the power of incense prayers. Literally, it had condensed into a swirling gray fog from how thick it was.

Wei Yuan recalled what he read about the mission. If he wasn’t mistaken, the male cultivator was probably the Founder of the Swelling Water God Palace. Nothing was mentioned about the woman and the girl, but he reckoned that they were his family.

Did Yun Xihe establish a sect so he could crown himself as a deity? Did he make his disciples, grand disciples, and the commoners who attached themselves to the sect worship him as a god?

Wei Yuan could not help but ridicule Yun Xihe internally. Was he sick in the head? Who in their right mind would want to attain godhood through the physical body at this day and age?

The Dao of incense prayer and divine worship was miraculous in many ways, but attaining godhood through the physical body definitely brought more harm than good—it was the kind of path from which there was no turning back as well. This point had been thoroughly explored from various angles during his Fortune Theory, Dao Foundation Theory, and Techniques Theory class. Barring a truant who had skipped all the classes, there wasn’t a single disciple of the Palace of Absolute Beginning who would ever consider pursuing such a path.

Yun Xihe was a disciple of the Palace of Absolute Beginning, so why in the world would he do such a thing? Did he secretly read novels instead of paying attention during class? Surely not.

Wei Yuan was right. When a class was in session, forget holding a physical book, one could not even read a book they had visualized in one’s consciousness. The teachers would instantly find out and punish them on the spot. Their perception was way, way stronger than a student’s after all.

They knew many ways to teach their students a lesson they wouldn’t ever forget either. For example, Big Senior Sister Liuli knew how to whip one’s primordial spirit directly. It did not matter how powerful your physical body was, she was still going to whip the shit out of you. Of course, it was only pain. Her method did not inflict even an iota of damage. That was why the muscleheads in the Bright King Hall feared Ji Liuli more than anyone.

The only reason Wei Yuan was so familiar with the Dao of incense prayer and divine worship was thanks to the centralized learning curriculum. It was the first year it had been implemented as well. In the past, each hall had their own curriculum, and more often than not, the students learned solely from their Masters. It was only during major occasions that their grandmaster or founder would emerge to give lectures, and they usually did not care if the students could understand what they were saying.

Alas, human effort has its limits. Not even the greatest teacher in the world could possibly know everything there was to know. For example, Zhang Sheng was a master of history, an innovator of the sword, and perhaps even a trailblazer of Dao in the future. However, his fengshui was just okay, his attainment in poisons and curses were superficial, and his ability to calculate the orbit of a planet was equal to nil.

It was only now Wei Yuan realized just how much he had benefited from the centralized curriculum.

After he was done ridiculing the Founder of the Swelling Water God Palace, Wei Yuan scanned the whole room once but could not find anything particularly noteworthy. The three statues on the incense burner table were perfectly ordinary. There were several books on the incense altars and shelves on either side of the room. When he picked one up and flipped through it, he discovered that it was a cultivation method of the Dao of incense prayer and divine worship. That was probably the case for all of them. The techniques described in the book involved numerous blood sacrifices and animal offerings; just reading about it left him feeling gruesome and eerie.

Finally, Wei Yuan’s gaze settled on that large rock. By itself, it was completely unremarkable. The only unusual thing about it was the fact that its surface was covered in countless tiny pores. It was because it was basking in the power of incense prayers day and night. He subconsciously wanted to walk around the rock and check elsewhere when suddenly, a thought crossed his mind: Why do I keep trying to avoid it?

Wei Yuan felt a chill run down his spine. Having spent the past two days fishing and engaging in a battle of wits against Yun Feifei, he had become highly attuned to both fortune and the power of prayers. Yet, despite the large rock being one of the most conspicuous objects in the whole room, he had repeatedly overlooked it for no good reason. Clearly, something was influencing him just like how he had been influencing Yun Feifei’s Big Senior Brother and Little Junior Brother into ignoring him unconsciously.

Wei Yuan immediately cycled Outlawed by Heaven and Earth and imbued himself with a sliver of fortune. He was already stepping past the rock, but as soon as the fortune took effect, he was able to stop in his tracks and turn around. This time, he truly saw the rock for what it was.

A grayish dark aura was crawling all over the rock like swarms of insects. It was also crawling in and out of the tiny pores on its surface as well.

The grayish white power of incense prayers on the three statues had turned grayish black as well. It flowed toward the rock like streams and circled around it a couple times before returning to the statues.

When he activated the Qi Viewing spell, he noticed that every wisp of power in the room had turned grayish black. This meant that most of the people performing the prayer were in a state of sorrow, despair, and weakness. Their prayers were filled with decay, annihilation, brutality, and deep hatred as well.

This array....

A thought crossed Wei Yuan’s mind as he examined the flow of the grayish black power carefully. Slowly, he began to formulate a theory. Is he... using the decaying and destroying power of prayers to erode the imprint on this rock?

Wei Yuan walked over to the rock and tried to grab it with his bare hand. The grayish black power of prayers immediately boiled up and stopped him, but he simply exerted more strength. The final wisp of advanced fortune in his sea of consciousness abruptly disappeared, and an endless stream of clear qi burst out of his palm and dispelled the grayish black qi surrounding the rock completely.

Finally, Wei Yuan’s hand made contact with the rock. His vision blurred, and an entire world suddenly invaded his perception!

A scream suddenly broke out in his sea of consciousness. Not only was it excruciatingly painful and utterly frenzied, a torrent of chaotic information surged through every corner of his mind as it erupted. The scream spanned a hundred li in radius, shattering countless rocks on the surface and even inflicting minor cracks on the jade hill!

Wei Yuan hit the ground on both knees with a thump. He clutched his head with both hands and rolled around the floor in agony.

Another scream broke out, and more cracks appeared on his jade hill. But at the same time, Wei Yuan also discovered the source of the scream. It was a grayish silhouette that looked like it was bound to something. It was screaming in indescribable agony again and again.

The situation was urgent, and there was no time to think through everything. Wei Yuan immediately mustered his full strength to flip his Dao Foundation around. He was going to bring forth an entire continent on the grayish entity!

The continent did not budge an inch. How could anyone possibly move an entire continent? Wei Yuan was the first person in history who could not control his own Dao Foundation.

That said, the intent got through. A powerful gale abruptly rose from the edges of the continent and poured toward the center. They reached the jade hill in just the blink of an eye, and by that point, they were walls of wind that connected the sky and the earth!

The wind represented the full power of Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation, and they pressed down on the gray entity with unrelenting force. Try as it might to break free, the invisible shackles pinning it in place were stronger. The few remaining fortunes in his sea of consciousness merged with the walls of wind, drastically increasing its strength and allowing them to compress the entity layer by layer. In the end, the entity transformed into a grayish ball and landed beside the jade hill.

Slowly, Wei Yuan climbed to his feet and wiped away a head of cold sweat. It was quite the harrowing experience to say the least.

He finally understood what the power of incense prayers were eroding. An extremely high level divine thought was sealed within the rock. Judging from the bits and pieces of information he managed to piece together, the divine thought’s original self had really passed away thirty thousand years ago. Despite being dead for thirty thousand years and continuously eroded by Yun Xihe’s power of incense prayers for several centuries, it still managed to wound Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation with a scream. That was how high an existence it was.

Enduring the remnant pain ravaging his primordial spirit, Wei Yuan took a few moments to sort out the chaotic torrent of information blasted all over his consciousness after every scream. Finally, he found out that the divine thought’s original self was an immortal!

For whatever reason, the immortal had passed away and left behind a wisp of divine thought in the rock. The divine thought was overflowing with the immortal’s pain and madness prior to his demise. Just getting close to it was enough to kill any ordinary cultivator instantly. If Wei Yuan did not possess a peerless Dao Foundation and a potent primordial spirit, if he didn’t have a stock of fortune he could expend to protect himself, the two screams alone could have shattered his sea of consciousness.

Meanwhile, the rock had finally regained its original appearance. It was light blue in color and half-translucent. Countless landscapes were floating up and down within the rock. It was as if it contained countless miniature worlds.

Again, Wei Yuan figured out its origin from the scattered bits of information.

It was the ancient realm stone—Qingming!

Right now, the realm stones issued by the Palace of Absolute Beginning and other sects were all crafted from dissected blocks of Empty Nether Stone. Generally, they could be upgraded to the third tier. A top-grade realm stone was crafted from special Empty Nether Stones that possessed various unusual properties, allowing them to be upgraded to the fifth tier.

However, Qingming was crafted from an entire block of raw Empty Nether Stone by the hands of an immortal. It could be upgraded to the seventh tier.

Moreover, Qingming started right off the bat as a second tier realm stone. It could transform a hundred li of land right now if activated.

Finally, Wei Yuan had a rough understanding of the entire sequence of events. A long time ago, an immortal sought to expand the human realm and went through great lengths to forge the immortal artifact, Qingming. However, he was besieged by powerful enemies and fell in battle. On his deathbed, the immortal commanded Qingming to flee Beyond. In the end, it landed here. 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Tens of thousands of years passed, and the humans gradually expanded their borders to this place. While traveling, Yun Xihe accidentally discovered Qingming but decided to misappropriate it for himself instead of reporting it to the sect. Alas, this was not a treasure Yun Xihe could claim even though he was already an Avatar at the time. The Immortal Lord level divine thought imbued in the realm stone especially was beyond his ability to destroy.

Wei Yuan’s Dao Foundation was peerless, and his sea of consciousness was boundless. His primordial spirit was already on par with an Avatar’s, not to mention that he was protected by a stock of otherworldly fortune. Despite this, it still cost him an advanced fortune to suppress a divine thought that had been continuously eroded by the power of incense prayers for centuries. If this was several hundred years ago when the divine thought was still in its prime, Yun Xihe would die the instant he made contact with it.

During Yun Xihe’s era, fortune was just beginning to grow in number. People with fortune were still few and far between. According to the Palace of Absolute Beginning’s records, Yun Xihe most likely wasn’t a bad of great fortune. At most, he possessed a speck of destiny.

Suddenly, Wei Yuan understood why Yun Xihe had chosen the Dao of incense prayers and divine worship; specifically the path of attaining godhood through the physical body. He must have intended to use the power of incense prayers in place of fortune to erode the Immortal Lord’s divine thought and compel Qingming to acknowledge him as its master.

Unfortunately for Yun Xihe, for whatever reason, he passed away just fifty years after he had founded the Swelling Water God Palace. Thus, the sect and the ancient realm stone were left behind to the latter generations.

Having figured out everything, Wei Yuan placed his hand on Qingming and tried to establish a connection using the method he had picked up from the scattered information the divine thought had left behind. The method to activate a realm stone back then was completely different from how it was now. First, the cultivator had to construct a corresponding array in his sea of consciousness. Then, they had to use it to activate the realm stone. This requirement alone was enough to deter most Dao Foundations and a small fraction of Truemen. Yun Xihe did not know about the activation array back then, nor did he dare to clash against an Immortal Lord’s divine thought head on. That was why he could only erode it slowly with the power of incense prayers.

Luckily for Wei Yuan, although the activation array left behind by the Immortal Lord was complex and slightly incomplete, he had actually quite familiar with the principles that it was based upon. The principles of ancient arrays were part of the syllabus of the Foundational Studies of the Path to Immortality, and the teacher was none other than Feng Chutang.

Using his learnings, Wei Yuan easily completed the array and activated Qingming without trouble. A wealth of information instantly flooded into his brain.

Just a cursory look at the information was enough to astonish Wei Yuan.

Realm Stone Qingming: Upgradeable to the seventh tier. Currently at the second tier.

Special Property 1: Unknown.

Wonder 1: Unknown.

Wonder 2: Badly damaged.

Wonder 3: Missing.

As it turned out, Qingming possessed one special property and three wonders in total! Back then, Wei Yuan had checked out the Life Nurturing Stone and the Infant Fire Stone in the merits hall. The Life Nurturing Stone only possessed one function, and the Infant Fire Stone one special property. Both were only upgradeable to the third tier. Despite this, they cost a whopping five hundred thousand merits. On the other hand, Qingming possessed three wonders after its special property! Not function, not special property, wonders!

In fact, the terminology for important artifacts such as realm stones was pretty strict. Function was function, special property was special property, and wonder was wonder. Special property was a much more potent function, and wonder was a stupidly potent function that could also undergo a qualitative transformation.

The reason the special property and the wonder’s description was unknown was because Qingming hadn’t accepted a master yet. He might possess the activation array, but Qingming was the creation of an immortal. It made sense that there was still a big hurdle called acknowledgement that one had to overcome.

Forged by the hands of an immortal, Qingming was sapient from the moment it was born. Later, it had existed alongside the immortal’s divine thought for tens of thousands of years. Today, it was practically a masterpiece of nature. To become its master, he must first obtain its acknowledgement.

Wei Yuan tentatively gave it a go and was flatly rejected. He could even sense a wave of disdain from it. The bluntness of its refusal was akin to a wealthy young lady being courted by a man of lowly station; a swan encountering a toad seeking to marry into her family.