Chapter Forty-three: The Vein of Mystic Gold

The external avatar had more or less finished assimilating the Primordial Yellow Purifying Water. For now, the constraints of the Three Flowers and Five Qi prevented him from fully unleashing the water’s utmost potential, but this was only a matter of time. Once the task was complete, he could return to Kunlun Mountain and seek guidance from the Lord of Primordial Beginning; it likely wouldn’t take long before he achieved perfection. At present, the pressing matter was to claim the Primordial Yellow Bowl.

The Primordial Yellow Bowl was a supreme treasure of heaven and earth, exceedingly rare. Missing this opportunity meant he might never encounter it again. Naturally, Qingxu would not let it slip by. As for the karmic repercussions of damaging the earth’s veins, it might once have been a troublesome headache, but now, far from harming him, it would actually benefit him greatly, providing a perfect chance to enhance his Grand Art of Causality.

Innate spiritual treasures possessed their own prohibitions. Without great supernatural power, even if one stumbled upon such an item, it would only be a futile longing. For Qingxu, who had only reached the mid-stage of the Earth Immortal realm, the idea of taking the Primordial Yellow Bowl was pure fantasy. But now, with his Earthly Branch avatar, things were different. At the early stage of the True Immortal of Taiyi, his powers were vast—he could shatter stars and shake the cosmos with a mere gesture. To use such might to seize the Primordial Yellow Bowl was just right.

“This is truly a stroke of luck! If I hadn’t helped the Giant Spirit race, I could never have obtained even this last drop of Primordial Yellow Purifying Water. Without it to bolster my avatar’s cultivation, even if I found the Primordial Yellow Bowl, I’d have no means to take it. It seems my fortune isn’t bad at all!” Qingxu mused with a touch of satisfaction, but soon gathered his thoughts, focusing intently on the task of claiming the spiritual treasure.

Whistling sounds filled the air, followed by a booming crash.

“To think that just the initial stage of the Five Qi Returning to Source is already so terrifying—at its peak, it must be a thousand times stronger!” Sensing the formidable might of the unified Five Qi, even Qingxu was taken aback. It was far beyond his expectations, but that was only because his own realm lagged behind; how could a mid-stage Earth Immortal fathom the depths of a True Immortal of Taiyi?

It was as if mountains crumbled, seas surged, and hurricanes raged, carrying the force to obliterate all obstacles. The divine light of the five elements coalesced into a giant hand, dozens of yards wide, reaching straight for the Primordial Yellow Bowl.

Just as the giant hand of divine light drew within three feet of the bowl, a membrane of yellow radiance suddenly materialized out of thin air, blocking its path. Though the hand was overwhelmingly powerful, the yellow membrane proved unyielding, impervious to Qingxu’s sudden bursts of force, rippling only slightly but never breaking.

“So this is the innate prohibition of the Primordial Yellow Bowl—truly formidable. I was careless, forgetting about the special nature of Primordial Yellow Qi.”

The Primordial Yellow Qi was born of Pangu’s opening of the primal world, a reward of the Dao itself, impossible for later generations to reproduce. Even the creation of humanity by Nuwa, or the transformation of the Six Paths by Houtu, were in vain by comparison. Because it was of the primal Dao, Primordial Yellow Qi was impervious to all magic, repelling all evil, and thus conferred upon its bearer an innate, unassailable defense.

In his previous life, Qingxu had read the “Investiture of the Gods,” where, in the battle of the Four Sages against Tongtian, the Supreme Elder Lord revealed the Primordial Yellow Pagoda. Even the Immortal-Slaying Four Swords, known as the greatest weapons of slaughter, could not shake it. In terms of defense, only the Chaos Bell among the Three Supreme Treasures of Creation could compare. Though the Primordial Yellow Bowl fell short of the Primordial Yellow Pagoda in grade, it was on par with the innate Five Element Spirit Banners, and its innate prohibition was accordingly astounding in its defensive strength.

Having understood this, Qingxu’s true body did not remain idle. He summoned the Jade Void Palace Lamp. The central Xu Branch Apricot-Yellow Banner was primarily a protective treasure, with little offensive capability and thus of no use in the present situation.

Violet flames surged forth from the Jade Void Palace Lamp. As one of the seven great spiritual lamps of heaven and earth, and with half of its innate prohibitions already refined, even with just Earth Immortal cultivation, he could unleash unimaginable might. It bolstered the divine light of the five elements, exerting tremendous pressure on the yellow membrane. For a moment, the membrane seemed on the verge of collapse, but to Qingxu’s frustration, every time it appeared about to break, it tenaciously held firm, guarding the final line of defense.

“Damn it! Time to go all out!” Qingxu grew increasingly anxious, knowing the longer he tarried, the more perilous things would become. With no immediate danger around, he steeled his resolve, bit his tongue, and spat out a mouthful of blood, its crimson hue mixed with decades’ worth of magical power and immortal essence.

Infused with his lifeblood, the power of the Jade Void Palace Lamp soared more than tenfold. In an instant, the beleaguered yellow membrane shattered, dissolving into countless points of yellow light that faded into nothingness. The giant hand of five-element divine light, long poised to strike, swept forward unimpeded and seized the Primordial Yellow Bowl.

The moment Qingxu claimed the bowl, the altar beneath his feet instantly collapsed; the ground shook, stones and dust raining down from above, threatening imminent cave-in. Fortunately, the talismans left by generations of Giant Spirit Kings still lent their strength, allowing the place to hold for a while longer. But the earth’s veins had been damaged, spiritual energy was dissipating, and the source of the talismans was cut off. In a short time, the magic would fade entirely.

“This place is no longer safe. I’ve done what I came for—best to leave quickly. If Zhu Rong were to arrive, even ten thousand of me wouldn’t survive. It’s a pity I don’t have time to examine the Giant Spirit clan’s remnants. But seeing how easily those giants departed, I doubt anything of real value remains. If there were, surely they’d have lingered a bit longer to retrieve it, no matter how urgent their flight!” A flash of insight crossed Qingxu’s mind as he reasoned this out. Without hesitation, he placed the Primordial Yellow Bowl into the first level of the Qingxu Pagoda, merged his avatar back into himself, and prepared to depart. Just then, a streak of golden light flashed from a fissure where the bowl had rested, arousing his curiosity.

He sent his spirit forth to investigate and instantly saw through the mystery.

“Profound Gold? Unexpected! Because of the Primordial Yellow Bowl’s presence, over countless years a sizable vein of Profound Gold has formed below.” Profound Gold was a rare material for crafting magical artifacts, though not particularly coveted by Qingxu. Yet the discovery of an entire vein sparked a new idea. He was about to help humanity drive away the Four Great Fiends; if he extracted this Profound Gold and forged thousands of divine weapons for the human race, it would be a great act of merit. Though the immediate benefits might not be obvious, in the grand tide of history, as the era of the witches and demons faded, humanity—guided by the hidden hands of the saints—would inevitably rise to become the protagonists of the world, wielding the vast fortune of the cosmos. By forming such a karmic bond, he could gain a share of humanity’s auspicious destiny. In the future, even when facing powerful enemies, just that sliver of fortune would be enough to make them wary.

The way of Fortune was ethereal and mysterious—unseen, intangible, yet undeniably real. For cultivators, to be blessed by fortune was to turn misfortune to blessing, to find auspicious outcomes in peril, and to find the road of the Dao smooth before them. For mortals, fortune meant rising to become emperors and kings, or perhaps even stumbling upon a mountain of gold on a stroll—just like the luck stat in a game.

“The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors owe their immortality not to anything else, but to the fortune of humanity. Now that it’s right before me, would I not be a fool to let it go?” Qingxu thought, wasting no time as he began to extract the Profound Gold vein beneath the earth.