Chapter 3: The Fifth and Sixth Banners of the Plain Yellow Flag

  For over a thousand years since his rebirth, Emperor Jiang had made no progress in either his magical powers or his primordial spirit. His spiritual realm remained at the initial stage of the Heavenly Immortal Realm, and his physical body was still at the peak of the Golden Immortal Realm. This left Emperor Jiang feeling perplexed. The lack of progress in his primordial spirit was understandable, as he had not cultivated any techniques related to it before. However, the fact that his physical body had made no progress whatsoever was puzzling, especially since he had previously broken through to the Great Luo Golden Immortal Realm. Logically speaking, he should not have encountered a bottleneck. Could it be due to the reason of having a pre-heavenly Dao body? Emperor Jiang thought about this and felt that it was highly likely. The shape of his pre-heavenly Dao body (which was human-shaped) was far superior to its previous spherical shape, so naturally, his cultivation and insights would be different. His previous breakthroughs to the Great Luo Golden Immortal Realm were now useless, and encountering another bottleneck was only normal.

  It seems that I have to go out and travel a bit. Cultivating and cultivating, when encountering bottlenecks, it's natural to go out and walk around, besides, having been here for so long, I should also take the time to understand this world better.

  Emperor Jiang exited his cultivation state and looked back at the eleven brothers and sisters still trapped in the Blood Group, a faint smile on his face. At this rate of cultivation, they should all be able to transcend within 600,000 to 700,000 years. Unfortunately, they couldn't withstand the homogenization of the Heaven-Opening Evil Energy, causing their souls, bodies, and evil energy to merge into one. Like the ancestral witches he had encountered in his past life, they could only cultivate their physical bodies, not their primordial spirits. Once their physical bodies were destroyed, it meant death, with no chance of escaping with their primordial spirits to preserve their lives. The only advantage of merging souls, bodies, and evil energy was that their physical bodies became even more resilient, surpassing Emperor Jiang's own body, which had only merged with the Heaven-Opening Evil Energy, by a significant margin.

  Without bidding farewell to them, Emperor Jiang arrived alone at the foot of Mount Buzhou. After cultivating in Mount Buzhou for over 900,000 years, this was his first stop on his journey.

  As expected, it was indeed the spine of Pangu that had transformed. Emperor Jiang carefully sensed it for a moment and felt an overwhelming aura approaching him. He looked up and saw that Mount Buzhou was so high that its peak was invisible, as if it pierced the sky. However, Emperor Jiang knew that Mount Buzhou was not directly connected to the Thirty-Three Heavens at present, with a massive piece of chaotic debris in between. This piece of chaotic debris would soon evolve into the Heavenly Court.

  Unbeknownst to him, Emperor Jiang had been trekking on Mount Buzhou for two thousand years. The mountain was desolate and barren, with hardly any plants or animals in sight. If there were any, they would likely be some innate spiritual roots or innate demonic gods. The first batch of acquired spiritual roots and acquired demonic gods were still gestating, not to mention the lower-level plants and animals. Emperor Jiang gazed at the bare and lifeless Mount Buzhou, unable to help but lament that he had been born too early.

  I don't know how the two future great gods, Nüwa and Fuxi, are doing now. I suppose they are also gestating in the essence of some Chaos Demon God like their siblings. Walking on the barren Mount Buzhou is really boring, Emperor Jiang couldn't help but let his thoughts wander.

  Just as Emperor Jiang was thinking about whether the Three Pure Ones were competing for who was the oldest, he suddenly felt like he was deeply trapped in a swamp, with every step feeling extremely heavy. Emperor Jiang's thoughts returned, and he couldn't help but be shocked and pale, realizing that he had unknowingly walked into an array formation. The earth spirit energy within the array was thick and heavy, which should have been recorded in the inherited memories as the Earth Trapping Array, mainly used to encircle and slow down the speed of people within the array.

  Could it be that some leftover Chaos Deity is plotting against me? Is it Yang Mei, Luo Hou or Hong Jun?

  Di Jiang didn't dare to stay for long, and activated the power of Jin Xian Dian Feng to rush out of the formation. However, after flying for tens of thousands of miles, he was shocked to find that he was still inside the formation. It turned out that the rolling yellow sand in the Tu Xing Trap Formation could affect his sense of direction. Although it seemed like he was flying in a straight line, he was actually just circling around within the formation.

  The power of this formation is actually so strong, and Emperor Jiang slowly calmed down with surprise. It seems that he wasn't being calculated by others, but rather he had rashly walked into a pre-existing Earth Element Trap Formation. Otherwise, during the previous chaotic charge, he would have been ambushed several times already. Thinking about this, he couldn't help but reveal a wry smile - his luck was indeed poor.

  This innate earth-trapping array is indeed extraordinary, able to confine a Golden Immortal like myself. I wonder how the other four arrays compare in power. Unfortunately, I don't understand the principles of array formation, so I can only rely on brute force to break it. Emperor Jiang thought to himself, and then he took out the Hongmeng Quantian Ruler, grasping it with one hand, mimicking the motion of Pangu chopping open the sky. He ceaselessly hacked at the surrounding yellow sand and the muddy swamp beneath his feet. Every strike created a spatial shockwave, causing the yellow sand to fade away bit by bit. After 49 years, the earth-trapping array finally collapsed under the pressure. Emperor Jiang stood tall, grasping the ruler, feeling quite pleased with himself.

  The chaotic yellow sand finally dissipated, and the muddy swamp underfoot transformed back into the solid ground of Mount Buzhou. The surrounding view also returned to normal. Emperor Jiang felt a surge of exhilaration in his heart, as after forty-nine years of non-stop chopping, the Golden Immortal Peak seemed to have shown signs of breakthrough. Amidst the excitement, he suddenly sensed a strong spiritual energy fluctuation behind him. Turning around, he saw a small yellow triangular flag floating in mid-air, surrounded by dense earthy spirit energy.

  "Central Wu Ji Apricot Yellow Flag!" Emperor Jiang recognized this top-grade pre-heavenly spiritual treasure at a glance, and was momentarily stunned that such a legendary artifact from the era of sealing gods would appear before him. The pre-heavenly earth-element trap array he had just broken open should have been generated to protect this very treasure, but unexpectedly, he had inadvertently destroyed it and obtained the treasure by chance.

  The Emperor Jiang didn't say a word, and with a wave of his hand, he put the Wu Ji Xing Huang flag back into his primordial spirit. He was afraid that if he delayed, it would run away.

  It's not that the Emperor Jiang didn't take this seriously, but the Wu Ji Xing Huang flag is part of the Hun Dun Qing Lian. In the past, before Pangu opened up the sky, the Hun Dun gave birth to five treasures: the Hun Dun Pearl, the Hun Dun Ding, the Hun Dun Qing Lian, the Pangu Axe, and the Cang Hua Yu Die.

  When Pangu opened up the sky, his power was immense, causing the five treasures to shatter. The Pangu Axe turned into three pre-heavenly treasures: the Pangu Fan, the Taiji Diagram, and the Hun Dun Bell. The Hun Dun Ding split into two parts, a large one that became the pre-heavenly treasure Qian Kun Ding, and a small one that became the top-grade pre-heavenly spirit treasure Cang Hua Ding.

  The Hun Dun Qing Lian shattered and turned into nine top-grade pre-heavenly spirit treasures. Five of them were flags made from five flower petals: the central Wu Ji Xing Huang flag, the eastern Qing Lian Bao Se flag, the southern Li Di Yan Guang flag, the western Su Se Yun Jie flag, and the northern Xuan Yuan Kong Shui flag.

  The other four were lotus platforms made from four lotus seeds: the Ye Huo Hong Lian, the Gong De Jin Lian, the Mie Shi Hei Lian, and the Cang Hua Qing Lian. The Cang Hua Yu Die shattered into many spirit treasures, including several top-grade pre-heavenly spirit treasures.

  These included the He Tu Luo Shu, the Shan He She Xi Tu, the Hong Xiu Qiu, and the Tian Di Ren San Shu (the Tian Shu was the Feng Shen Bang and the Da Shen Bian; the Di Shu was the Tian Di Mo Tai; the Ren Shu was also known as the Ming Shu, which included the Sheng Si Bo and the Pan Guan Bi).

  The remaining part of the Cang Hua Yu Die was obtained by Hong Jun. The Hun Dun Pearl shattered the most thoroughly, turning into many pearl-shaped or space-attribute pre-heavenly spirit treasures. The most famous among them were the twenty-four Ding Hai Shen Zhu.

  Although each one was only a lower-grade pre-heavenly spirit treasure, when gathered together they formed an extreme-grade pre-heavenly spirit treasure that could attack, defend, and trap.

  The primordial spirit in the midst of the Wuji flag quietly stayed within, Emperor Jiang was overjoyed beyond measure, and casually found a mountain cave to start refining, layer by layer breaking open the seals.

  It's still better to have one's own congenital spiritual treasure, Hongmeng Liang Tian Chi is good. Once obtained, it can be fully utilized and operated with ease.

  As the seal of Wujixinghuang Flag was broken, Yuan Shen seemed to enter a strange state. The spiritual energy poured into it like a whale swallowing water, and then slowly expanded along a specific trajectory. At the same time, the fragmented memories of Hunyuan Qinglian Jue were being supplemented and deduced. Emperor Jiang was overjoyed, not expecting that Wujixinghuang Flag still retained some of the Tao contained in Hunyuan Qinglian. These Tao mutually verified and deduced with the Hunyuan Qinglian Jue in the inherited memories, actually perfecting it to the Golden Immortal realm. It's reasonable to think about it, Pangu's Hunyuan Qinglian Jue was originally created by contemplating Hunyuan Qinglian, and Wujixinghuang Flag is a part of Hunyuan Qinglian, so it's normal that it can repair some of the techniques.

  In the blink of an eye, six thousand years have passed, and the Wujigong Huang flag has been refined completely. The yuan Shen has also successfully broken through to the early stages of Xuanxian due to obtaining a part of the Hunyuan Qinglian Jue. Unfortunately, the Hunyuan Qinglian Jue is incomplete, with only the part that can be cultivated up to the Jin Xian realm. To complete the latter part, it's likely necessary to find another four Wuji flags or the four lotus platforms transformed from the four lotus seeds born by the Hunyuan Qinglian. Of course, one could also directly ask Sanqing for them, but this path is equally difficult and long.

  Emperor Jiang stood up and looked at the unchanged Mount Buzhou, with a hint of interest in his eyes. It seemed that the barren Mount Buzhou was not entirely useless after all, as it still had many innate spiritual treasures. Emperor Jiang took a step forward, continuing to explore Mount Buzhou, but this time his focus shifted to searching for treasure.