Longevity, starting from being a chicken raising servant Chapter 2498: 235: The Grand Vow (Part 3)

A shock swept through him, profound and sudden.

A thought took root in his mind as he approached the shelf, his eyes scanning the few volumes resting there.

As his gaze fell upon the first book, his body began to feel as though it were being ripped apart by mere proximity; he could not even make out the characters on the cover.

His heart hammered against his ribs, and he jerked his eyes away, gripped by a sudden terror.

Internal turmoil surged as he thought:

"What kind of grimoire is this? Just one passing look felt as if my True Spirit were scattering into nothingness!"

Looking down, he watched as his physical form turned blurry and ethereal.

He swifly downed an Elixir to force his form back into stability.

With lingering trepidation, he shifted his attention to another volume.

This time, prepared for the backlash, he pulled his gaze away the moment the stinging sensation began.

Refusing to tempt fate, he consumed another Elixir, allowed a moment to pass, and focused on the next item.

The sequence continued across several books; while no others threatened his True Spirit, a flicker of dissatisfaction grew within him.

"Have I miscalculated?"

He refused to yield and finally turned his focus to the final book.

The previous agony did not materialize this time.

Though the volume possessed a dazzling aura, he endured it through sheer will.

Four characters were etched upon the cover; he could not decipher the script directly, yet their meaning imprinted itself upon his mind.

"Records of the Realm Sea."

Wang Ba voiced the title aloud, then reached out with guarded caution to claim the tome.

To his astonishment, there were no barriers protecting it.

As he lifted the thin volume from the shelf, it struck his palm with the crushing weight of a mountain!

He felt his physical shell near the point of collapse.

He quickly swallowed another Elixir.

Seizing his chance, he carefully unfurled the pages.

Immediately, an ocean of boundless meanings rushed into his consciousness!

An entire cosmos unveiled itself before his eyes; in some quarters, dense mists obscured the view, in others, visions were half-revealed, while some were etched with exhausting clarity...

After a duration, he snapped the book shut, his form flickering like a wind-blown candle, his heart in a state of utter shock:

"This is a chronicled travelogue of the Second Realm Sea..."

Though labeled a travelogue, it contained everything, encompassing nearly the entire span of the Second Realm Sea.

It was vast beyond comprehension, an impossible endeavor to witness in full.

Much of its knowledge strained the threshold of his True Spirit, keeping its secrets veiled.

However, even the smallest fragment was enough to broaden his horizons.

Glimmers of the power dynamics within the Second Realm Sea began to coalesce through the text...

The Immortal Sect Twelve Palaces stood as the pillars, representing the twelve Taoist factions such as Zi, Chou, Yin, and Mao.

The 'Chen Palace,' home to Immortal Monarch Lu He, was one of these twelve institutions.

Beyond the realm of the Taoist powers existed entities like the Demon Dao, the Ghost Path, the Demon Path, and Buddhism, each brimming with strange figures and bizarre occurrences.

Presently, the Taoist, Demon Dao, and Buddhist forces were at their zenith, with constant friction between the Taoist and Demon factions. Buddhism maintained the appearance of a bystander while quietly entrenching itself in the affairs of others.

Additionally, the hierarchy of power for immortals in the Second Realm Sea was notably more streamlined than that of the Third Realm Sea.

They were categorized into five Great Realms: Human Immortal, Profound Immortal, Heavenly Immortal, True Immortal, and Golden Immortal.

Every Great Realm was divided into nine distinct stages.

A Mahayana Cultivator, after weathering the Thunder Tribulation during Cultivation Ascension, would emerge as a Human Immortal once they arrived in the Second Realm Sea.

Those who successfully navigated the Guiding Thunder Tribulation typically settled into the Second or Third Layer of the Human Immortal stage.

A select few, gifted with extraordinary talent, would reach the Human Immortal Third Layer upon their very arrival.

Naturally, although this was the base of the five Great Realms, in reality, the Second Realm Sea remained home to a vast multitude of mortals and cultivators below the Mahayana rank.

Therefore, the Human Immortal Realm acted as a foundational pillar, representing the largest demographic of immortals within most factions.

Only those who had attained the Profound Immortal stage truly possessed the strength to traverse the Second Realm Sea.

The Heavenly Immortal served as the face or figurehead for a major Sect.

True Immortals were the heavyweights, forming the bedrock of great powers, with the most exceptional among them honored as Immortal Monarchs within the Twelve Palaces—rarely making an appearance unless critical circumstances demanded it.

As for the Golden Immortals, these were titans beyond compare; perhaps due to some unspoken taboo, the “Records of the Realm Sea” left their names obscured, mentioning them only in passing.

Wang Ba was taken aback to find he knew two names listed in the True Immortal Registry within the volume.

The first was 'Lu He,' the Immortal Monarch of the Chen Palace, and the second was 'Tibo,' a Buddhist Bodhisattva.

Both were identified as Bodhisattvas, yet those of the Third Realm Sea could not hold a candle to those of the Second Realm Sea. In truth, only a status equivalent to Tibo's warranted the title of 'Bodhisattva.'

In the registry, Wang Ba also observed that Immortal Monarch Lu He and Tibo were both marked with the status of 'suspected fallen.'

Driven by curiosity, Wang Ba consumed a handful of Elixirs and navigated his memory to locate the entry for Lu He.

He began to study the account of the Immortal Monarch's life.

Alas, it seemed as if a restriction gated the information; Wang Ba was unable to stare for long without suffering intense pain, leaving him only a fleeting notion of Lu He’s abilities.

The text recorded: "His Essence mastered all techniques, leaving none unknown or unrefined, a chieftain among the old guard of the Immortal Sect Twelve Palaces, especially profound in the art of Swordsmanship, wielding seventy-two Innate Cloud Forbidden Dao Swords, 'Hidden Void'..."

Wang Ba could not stop his mind from drifting back to the sword sheath he had claimed from the immortal mansion adrift above the sea.