Yuan’s Ascension

Chapter 1249: Surviving Great Peril Heralds Great Fortune (2)

Within the Eldritch Court Voidrealm, inside the Eldritch Progenitor Hall, Wu Yuan had prepared an elaborate feast in his personal temple. Rare delicacies from across the cosmic sea adorned the table, their aromas mingling in the air.

“True Saint Qi Guang, this marks your first visit, does it not? Please, make yourself comfortable.” Wu Yuan said, gesturing toward the seat of honor with a warm smile.

“Indeed, it does! I’ve been wanting to come visit you, True Saint Wu Yuan, but the opportunity eluded me until now.” True Saint Qi Guang’s white robes draped over his round, plump frame. His face, beaming with a smile reminiscent of Maitreya Buddha, radiated goodwill. [1]

Yet Wu Yuan knew better than to underestimate his guest. True Saint Qi Guang ranked top five among the thousands of True Saints in the Eldritch Court, his formidable strength further amplified by a Chaos Treasure. On the True Saint Rankings, he held the sixteenth place and was the mightiest powerhouse stationed by the Eldritch Court in the Ninth Chaos Void.

The white-robed figure tilted his head curiously. “The True Saint’s true self that has become the talk of the Ninth Chaos Void recently…Is that you, Wu Yuan?”

“It is,” Wu Yuan replied with a simple nod. Through the Eldritch Court’s vast intelligence network, he knew his interventions over the recent years had gradually caused his reputation to spread across the region.

“Truly?” Qi Guang’s eyebrows rose in genuine surprise. “I received word from the Eldritch Progenitor that you would be coming to the Ninth Chaos Void, but I never imagined you would send your true self.” He shook his head in amazement. “You sure are brave!”

Wu Yuan couldn’t help but smile. Though Qi Guang’s true self resided in the Ninth Chaos Void, he rarely revealed himself, wary of potential traps laid by the Immortal Court.

Eldritch Progenitor Hou Tu knew he had sent his ether body, but such a momentous secret would naturally not be carelessly divulged.

“I simply wished to temper myself through experience,” Wu Yuan explained. “Though the dangers are real, I am the Creation Dao Master after all. Revival isn’t difficult for me.”

“Wielding the Authority of a Great Dao is truly enviable,” Qi Guang sighed, his admiration sincere.

For Standard True Saints, even with sufficient accumulation, reviving twice in rapid succession marked their absolute limit. And each revival exacted a heavy toll.

But Dao Masters were different. Should they fall, they could swiftly resurrect themselves, the cost minimal. The price of a Dao Master’s revival was largely borne by the Great Dao’s essence itself.

“Still, caution remains warranted. Even if you can revive, the many treasures you carry would be lost to plunderers should you perish.” True Saint Qi Guang continued.

“If you ever face trouble, don’t hesitate to send word to me or other True Saints for aid. Your cultivation time remains relatively brief, after all,” he added with genuine concern.

“I understand,” Wu Yuan nodded, appreciating the sentiment. “Should I encounter true danger, I’ll certainly call upon you all for assistance.”

After conversing a while longer, Wu Yuan finally saw his guest off.

This True Saint Qi Guang means well, though Eldritch Progenitor Hou Tu likely hasn’t informed him of my true capabilities. Wu Yuan mused silently.

He could sense the genuine solidarity of the Eldritch Court.

It wasn’t just Qi Guang. Of the nearly twenty True Saints stationed by the Eldritch Court in the Ninth Chaos Void, several had personally visited through the Eldritch Court Voidrealm. The rest had sent messages to Wu Yuan, welcoming him sincerely.

Their unity warmed his heart.

However, this apparent solidarity might stem from the attention my arrival has garnered. If an ordinary True Saint were to enter the Ninth Chaos Void, they might not receive such goodwill. Wu Yuan smiled faintly.

Personal strength was the foundation of respect. With sufficient might, kindness followed naturally.

…

Within the Ninth Chaos Void, the black battleship continued its voyage.

Nearly ten thousand years have passed. Wu Yuan muttered, reviewing star charts projected before him. Some gains, but fewer than I’d hoped. He shook his head slightly. Once I pass through the sixty-seventh spacetime corridor, I will finally approach the region where our Eldritch Court powerhouses frequently operate.

Spacetime corridors existed throughout the Nine Chaos Voids and the endless cosmic sea beyond. They were sometimes called wormholes, tunnels, or vortexes. These were passages that allowed travelers to bridge vast distances in a fraction of the time it usually took.

The Ninth Chaos Void contained countless such corridors, though most remained unstable. New ones formed occasionally, while many others collapsed.

As Eldritch Court powerhouses explored, they diligently reported their findings, ensuring the Court’s vast intelligence archives remained up to date. Over thousands of years, Wu Yuan had contributed his own observations, updating mapped regions as he traveled.

Each powerhouse could explore only a limited area, contributing fragments to the whole. Yet when these fragments merged, they formed an ocean of data, one of the greatest advantages held by the major factions.

Wu Yuan exhaled softly as he gazed into the distance. The sixty-seventh spacetime corridor.

Before him stretched an unfathomably dark region where spatial distortion warped reality and time flowed at varying rates. At first glance, it resembled a colossal vortex, yet it lacked the overwhelming pressure and chaos typical of such phenomena. Instead, it exuded a subtle but unmistakable aura of danger.

According to reports, this spacetime corridor formed less than ten billion years ago, so it shouldn’t collapse. Wu Yuan muttered, reviewing the data. Had it existed for a trillion years, he wouldn’t have risked entering, as such ancient passages could disintegrate without warning.

Once a corridor collapsed, there was no predicting where or when a traveler might emerge.

If I choose not to take this corridor, my journey will take tens of thousands of years. Wu Yuan calculated. Meanwhile, it will take less than a year if I use it. The efficiency was undeniable.

Let’s go. His decision made, Wu Yuan piloted the Umbral Cosmic Ark, unleashing the battleship’s full might before plunging headlong into the shadowy void.

A rush of invisible fluctuations swept past, instantly engulfing the battleship and severing all external sensory connections. Waves of spacetime fluctuations hammered against the Umbral Cosmic Ark as it traversed the pitch-black corridor. Occasional hairline spacetime rifts shimmered in the darkness.

Yet Wu Yuan’s power easily resisted these rending forces as he pressed onward.

Spacetime corridors are relatively safe. He reminded himself. Generally, anyone with Saint-level power can navigate them…

The journey was uneventful, and over half a year passed in what seemed like moments. Just as Wu Yuan believed they would emerge safely from the corridor—

Without warning, a thunderous rumble shook the vessel. In the shadowy void ahead, a colossal spacetime rift suddenly tore open, violently sweeping toward him like a tidal wave.

It was as if a small boat sailing on calm seas had suddenly found itself facing a hurricane of gigantic proportions.

Wu Yuan’s eyes flew open, his focus shattered. A spacetime tide? Disbelief was etched across his features.

How could he be this unlucky?

His heightened senses immediately registered the deterioration of the once-stable spacetime corridor. Terrifying waves of distortion surged toward him; not gentle ripples, but massive, reality-warping tsunamis gathering momentum with each passing moment.

This was the infamous spacetime tide of the Nine Chaos Voids, a phenomenon that haunted the nightmares of even the mightiest eternal beings.

Whoosh! A figure in pristine white robes materialized at Wu Yuan’s ether body’s side. His mana body had responded instantly, seizing control of the Umbral Cosmic Ark.

Charge! His mana body’s consciousness stretched outward, senses probing the chaotic distortions ahead. Without hesitation, he steered the battleship directly into what appeared to be the most violent part of the currents. Like seasoned sailors facing a tempest, sometimes the path through the heart of danger offered the only chance of survival.

Retreat! His mana body abruptly reversed course, guiding the massive vessel leftward with a series of calculated pauses and backward maneuvers. The normally cumbersome battleship responded with great agility.

In matters of controlling spacetime, Wu Yuan’s qi refiner aspect still maintained superiority over his body refiner self. Yet it didn’t help his current situation much.

Boom! Horrific spacetime waves crashed against the Umbral Cosmic Ark. The vessel shuddered and groaned under impacts that rivaled Dao Zenithel-level assaults. The force bypassed the battleship’s outer defenses, hammering directly into Wu Yuan’s physical form.

However, he endured.

Over the past 100 million years of seclusion, Wu Yuan’s mana body had cultivated the Eternal Matter Body to a small degree of mastery. Combined with his Xiantian Instrument battle armor, his physical resilience was extraordinary. These spacetime impacts, while brutal, remained within his threshold of endurance.

Crack!

Wu Yuan’s expression tightened as he detected countless microscopic fissures spreading across the Umbral Cosmic Ark’s hull; one could only imagine the unfathomable fury of the spacetime tide raging beyond.

No wonder the legends claimed that even a Full True Saint caught in its core faced certain annihilation.

The spacetime corridor has collapsed completely. Wu Yuan muttered, assessing his situation. I’ve been swept into the spacetime tide itself. I must avoid being pulled into its core at all costs. Survival is the only objective now.

Retreat was impossible.

Advancing blindly was equally futile. All sense of direction had been obliterated by the tide’s chaotic currents. His sole option remained desperate resistance. This was a battle for survival!

…

Thirteen grueling days later, in a remote region of the Ninth Chaos Void.

The void split with a thunderous boom, and a battered battleship emerged, its once-proud hull now marred by gaping holes.

Finally… I’m out. Inside the vessel, the vital auras of both Wu Yuan’s mana body and ether body had been severely depleted, reduced to less than half.

I’ve survived.

Relief washed over Wu Yuan’s face.

A nightmare! These thirteen days had undoubtedly been the most harrowing period Wu Yuan had experienced since he’d first entered the Ninth Chaos Void. No, they might well have been the most terrifying ordeal he’d faced throughout all his journeys across the vast cosmic sea.

To be drawn into the core of a spacetime tide and emerge alive. Wu Yuan marveled silently. If not for the Robe of Creation, I would surely have died within that maelstrom.

For the first six days, his mana body had piloted the battleship, struggling desperately to break free from the tide’s grasp. But the violence of the spacetime tide had ultimately proven too powerful, dragging Wu Yuan into its core region. The Umbral Cosmic Ark simply couldn’t withstand such strain, forcing Wu Yuan to send his ether body out.

He had no choice but to endure with his physical body alone! Though Wu Yuan’s ether regeneration capabilities were extraordinary, and he had mastered the Eternal Matter Body to a large degree, those razor-sharp blades of fractured spacetime still steadily eroded his vital aura.

Fortunately, the Robe of Creation had elevated Wu Yuan’s physical defenses to truly terrifying heights. Each impact inflicted only the tiniest fraction of damage, allowing him to persevere through five excruciating days before being ejected from the spacetime tide’s core.

Several more days of struggle had passed before Wu Yuan finally seized an opportunity to break free entirely.

Had my mana body ventured here alone, it would certainly have been destroyed. Wu Yuan reflected. No wonder those True Saints dare not let their true selves wander carelessly through the Ninth Chaos Void.

This ordeal had been nothing less than a life-or-death crisis.

Wu Yuan had been phenomenally unlucky, stumbling into a spacetime tide while traversing what should have been a stable corridor, with no opportunity to avoid the collision.

However, Wu Yuan’s extraordinary physical resilience had allowed him to endure conditions of the spacetime tide’s core that would have annihilated numerous others.

If news of this feat ever spread, it would undoubtedly cause a tremendous commotion throughout the realms.

This Umbral Cosmic Ark will require complete reconstruction. Wu Yuan murmured regretfully, waving his hand to store the damaged vessel away.

With another casual gesture, he summoned a high-grade Xiantian artifact battleship. It was serviceable, but far more ordinary than its predecessor.

Where have I been transported to? He wondered, his gaze sweeping the void. I hope I haven’t strayed too far from my intended path.

Suddenly, he froze. A gleam of recognition flashed in his eyes, followed by a faint smile.

There, at the very limits of Wu Yuan’s vision, rose a majestic purple mountain peak, likely spanning several light-years from base to summit. Yet the mountain had been cleaved precisely down its middle, as though some unimaginable powerhouse had split the colossal formation with a single strike.

The Twin Purple Mountain? To think I’d be transported here? I’m not certain if this is a catastrophic misfortune or extraordinary luck.

Like the Nine-Star Celestial Tree, the Twin Purple Mountain stood as a legendary landmark within the Ninth Chaos Void, an immovable anchor point in the Ninth Chaos Void.

Just as sighting the Nine-Star Celestial Tree indicated that one was close to the region frequented by powerhouses from the Nine Desolations Megaverse, the area surrounding the Twin Purple Mountain marked a spacetime region habitually visited by the Immortal Court’s forces, who regularly scoured its vicinity for treasures.

It is said that the Immortal Court’s temporary stronghold in the Ninth Chaos Void lies somewhere inside the Twin Purple Mountain itself. Wu Yuan mused, a cryptic smile playing across his features. How ironic. After searching far and wide, I find myself delivered right to their doorstep.

I had assumed it would require tens of thousands of years to reach this location. Who could have predicted that the spacetime tide would transport me here directly, thrusting me into the very heart of the Immortal Court’s territory?

Time flowed onward.

Wu Yuan wisely refrained from hasty action, instead retreating to a secluded pocket of void to cultivate in isolation. A full year passed before both his mana body and ether body fully recovered to peak condition.

Whoosh! With his strength now fully restored, Wu Yuan prepared to select a direction and begin reconnaissance.

Suddenly, in the distant reaches of the void, a series of terrifying spacetime fluctuations erupted.

Spacetime split with a thunderous rumble. An enormous mountain materialized within the void, its surface glittering with golden light that shed a dazzling brilliance across the darkness. An aura of immense power radiated outward, saturating the surrounding space.

A Chaos Orichalcum vein? And one this massive? Wu Yuan’s eyes widened with barely concealed astonishment, gleaming with the reflected golden light. This is enough to forge an entire Chaos Treasure. Is it truly real?

In such a short span of time, Wu Yuan had narrowly escaped certain death, only to stumble upon the emergence of a grand treasure trove beyond imagination.

Perhaps the words of the ancients were true: surviving great peril truly did herald the arrival of great fortune.

This ore vein is mine. Without a moment’s hesitation, Wu Yuan surged forward.

1.

buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/8775/why-is-budai-often-associated-with-the-future-buddha-maitreya

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