"For example, let's say there is a peerless sword technique with eight styles. Although everyone believes there are eight styles, only seven are listed on the scroll used to pass the technique down. Hence, the practitioner has to rely on the first seven styles and their own intuition to create their custom-made eighth style," Song Shuhang guessed.

Although he hadn't seen a cultivation technique of the Ninth Stage, he had read a lot of cultivation-related novels, fantasy novels, and watched many movies! Song Shuhang felt that he was very knowledgeable in this field.

"..." After a short pause, the powerful senior said, "Forget it, pretend I didn't ask that question."

Afterward, he flipped through the pages of the invisible book and started to read the text aloud—since Song Shuhang already knew about the book, there was no need to hide it anymore!

"..." Song Shuhang.

Senior, you were too direct. I came up with that answer with great difficulty, and you dismissed it like that… you hurt my feelings!

"Cough. Cultivation techniques can't go past the Ninth Stage Tribulation Transcender Realm because the Ninth Stage is already the limit of cultivators. If the Will of the Heavens didn't have a wielder already, all Tribulation Transcenders would fight among themselves to decide who would carry the Will of the Heavens!

Amongst them, only the one capable of defeating all the others, becoming unparalleled in the world, would be able to carry the Will of the Heavens and become the new Wielder of the Will, eternal and everlasting. In other words, after the Ninth Stage, one could only become the Wielder of the Heavens' Will itself!

But here comes the problem… what if there was already another Wielder of the Will present? In that case, since only one person at a time could carry the Will of the Heavens, the others could only stop at the Tribulation Transcender Realm. Although a cultivator of the Ninth Stage was already incredibly powerful and could live up to tens of millions of years, they weren't immortals; they would die once their time was up!" the powerful senior said vehemently. Song Shuhang believed that he would have been already drowning in saliva if the senior wasn't wearing a mask.

Senior, you're only reading a book! Still, it's praiseworthy that he can get so excited while reading something he's probably read countless times already!

Although he was thinking this in his heart, Song Shuhang had a very excited expression on his face and even clapped his hands—dignity was useless after all. You could easily throw it away if there was a need to.

As the saying goes: If it's dignity, you can recover it after a good sleep.

Speaking of sleep, Song Shuhang shot a glance at Nine Lanterns.

Nine Lanterns had a solemn expression on her face as she was sitting on the golden lotuses; she looked holy and beautiful in that white dress. However, Song Shuhang could see that her eyes lacked focus and drool had started to leak from her mouth.

This was the wondrous trash-level skill—Open Eyes Sleeping Technique. At this time, Nine Lanterns was sleeping soundly.

When she held my head earlier and made me nod forcefully, she was trying to send me into a trap, right? She even told me to clap my hands so that she could peacefully sleep while I was keeping the powerful senior busy...

Song Shuhang had made an unexpected discovery...

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Meanwhile, after seeing that Song Shuhang was clapping his hands, the powerful senior got even more excited.

"Therefore, all those ancient Tribulation Transcenders started to look for a way to increase their realm of one step and become 'immortals'. Their object wasn't to become eternal and everlasting like the Wielder of the Will, but to reach immortality and obtain an unlimited lifespan.

In the end, those ancient Tribulation Transcenders researched many ways and those that were extremely powerful and capable of carrying the Will of the Heavens found their own way to immortality. In normal circumstances, all these extremely powerful Tribulation Transcenders would have fought amongst themselves to become the embodiment of the Will of the Heavens! One of those people would be my old friend Scarlet Heaven. In my life, I've only seen a small number of people that were strong and talented enough to carry the Will of the Heavens, and he's definitely one of them. When he was still an Eighth Stage Profound Sage, Scarlet Heaven had already found his way to immortality. Unfortunately, the methods developed by these extremely powerful Tribulation Transcenders to reach immortality were suitable only for themselves."

After saying this much, the powerful senior closed the invisible book and prepared to give the final speech.

"As for me… my talent couldn't be compared to that of those people, and even after spending God knows how many years trying, I wasn't able to find my own way to immortality. At last, I set my eyes on the Heavenly City.

After hearing this much, you might have started to realize it. The Heavenly City was precisely the Heavenly Emperor's way to reach immortality! The Heavenly Emperor created the whole structural frame of the city by merging countless natural treasures with an illusory reality. Afterward, many powerhouses of the Seventh Stage Venerable Realm and above that had pledged allegiance to the Heavenly Emperor used their illusory reality to help him complete the structural frame of the city.

With the illusory reality, you can create the illusion of an object. However, this object is also at the same time somewhat real. After the structural frame of the Heavenly City was completed, it became an existence separated from the rest of the world; it became an independent realm that wasn't influenced by the Will of the Heavens. After cutting off the interference of the Will of the Heavens, the Heavenly Emperor finally finished developing his way to immortality. But he wasn't the only one to benefit from it; all the powerful cultivators that had pledged allegiance to him also had the opportunity to come in contact with the secret of immortality and gained the qualifications to reach the Immortal Realm in the future. To be honest, the Heavenly Emperor really deserves to be known as the Number One cultivator throughout the ages besides the Wielder of the Heavens' Will himself. His way to reach immortality wasn't limited only to himself, but it could also be shared with others. He and the Heavenly City were like one entity. The greater the number of powerful cultivators that joined the Heavenly City, the greater would become the strength of the Heavenly Emperor himself!"

After saying this much, the powerful senior caressed the white rabbit in his hands and sighed deeply.

"They all had the opportunity to come in contact with the secret of immortality?" Song Shuhang couldn't help but shoot a glance at the powerful senior.

The powerful senior looked at Song Shuhang and laughed. "You listened carefully. Anyway, I was indeed a dweller of the Heavenly City a long time ago, and I was lucky enough to come in contact with the secret of immortality when I was a Seventh Stage Venerable. After all, the Heavenly City was destroyed overnight—as a consequence, many denizens of the city weren't there at the time and managed to avoid the calamity and survive. I'm precisely one of them. However, none of us knows how the Heavenly City was destroyed."

Song Shuhang nodded in understanding.

Since he was previously a denizen of the Heavenly City, it wasn't strange that this senior would try to carry out the incredibly difficult task of rebuilding the city after getting his hands on one of the fragments.

At this time, Nine Lanterns wiped the drool from the mouth and said, "Is the explanation over?"

"Did you sleep well?" the powerful senior said. However, he copied Song Shuhang's voice while saying so!

Song Shuhang couldn't help but touch his throat. If not for the fact that he didn't even open his mouth, Song Shuhang would have really thought that it was him speaking.

"Hm, I had a good sleep," the sleepy Nine Lanterns unconsciously replied after hearing Song Shuhang's voice.

But after replying, she returned to her senses.

She quickly turned her head just to see Song Shuhang touching his throat with a strange expression on his face. Nine Lanterns expression immediately turned ugly and she turned her head, looking at the powerful senior with a pitiful expression.

"Hehe, too late." The powerful senior laughed lightly.

Then, he just flickered his finger, and a bullet of invisible energy hit Nine Lanterns.

"Aaaaah~" Nine Lanterns called out pitifully as she was sent flying at high speed. Her figure quickly disappeared from the ancient bronze palace.

"This girl always forgets she is not allowed to sleep during my lecture! She never learns from her mistakes," the powerful senior muttered.

Song Shuhang secretly swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Alright, young man. The lecture is over, and it's time for you to leave the island." The powerful senior stood up and picked the white rabbit up. Soon after, he took out a scroll with rune-like writings on it and gave it to Song Shuhang.

After receiving the scroll, Song Shuhang asked, "Is this the technique to seal one's memories?"

In the instant he took the scroll, a bright light flashed on his face.

The runes on the scroll split into many smaller runes that rushed inside his head. The combination of these runes would give birth to the memory sealing technique. However, these were currently awaiting activation, and only after Song Shuhang personally activated them would they seal his memories.

"These runes will allow you to seal your memories. There is also a special condition incorporated that will allow you to undo the seal. Anyway, after you activate the technique, you'll forget all the matters regarding the Heavenly Island," the powerful senior explained. "As for whether you'll be able to satisfy the necessary condition and undo the seal, it's mostly up to fate.

Lastly, here is a reward for listening to my lecture for so long. Give me the snakeskin of the Little Finger Snake, I'll personally make a small size-reducing purse for you," the powerful senior said with a laugh.

After hearing this much, Song Shuhang's eyes immediately lit up.

He finally received a reward after listening to the lecture of this senior for so long. Although he had obtained the shed skin of the Little Finger Snake, looking for someone that was capable of manufacturing a size-reducing purse wasn't an easy matter. Moreover, he would need to spend a lot of money for it. Hence, he was unlikely to get his hands on a size-reducing purse in the near future.

Therefore, he was very happy when the powerful senior offered to solve this problem for him.

Song Shuhang quickly took out the case Nine Lanterns gave him and handed it over to the powerful senior.

The powerful senior took out the shed skin of the Little Finger Snake and joined his palms together.

Then, the white rabbit with long fur spat out some material from its mouth that merged together between the palms of the senior.

Magic runes flashed in the palms of the senior one after another.

Soon after, the powerful senior stretched his hand out, and a cute rabbit-shaped purse appeared on his palm.

"It's had been a long time since I've created these kinds of low-level magical treasures; I'm a bit out of practice." The powerful senior gave the rabbit-shaped purse to Song Shuhang, his face very satisfied. "There is a formation on its left ear, and if you hold it and pour qi and blood energy inside, you'll be able to shrink all the object you touch with the purse."

Song Shuhang took the purse with his trembling hands.

"Senior… why does it have the shape of a rabbit?" Song Shuhang asked cautiously. If possible, he wanted to exchange it for a crocodile-shaped purse.

It wasn't a problem for a man to go around with a purse; the problem was to go around with a cute rabbit-shaped purse!

"Because rabbits are very cute and I like them," the powerful senior said solemnly.

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In the East China Sea, above the huge whale.

"I've finally found some clues!" Venerable White's eyes suddenly lit up.