Volume One: The Cloudy Immortal Palace Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Radiant Sun Palm

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Great Radiant Sun Palm

Night had fallen on Yunfang’s immortal mountain, where a small blue lake nestled quietly. Zhou Hao, bare-chested, reclined in the soothing water with his eyes closed, a look of contentment on his face, as if all the troubles of the world had melted away in this one bath. His head rested against the bank, beside which lay a jet-black stone tablet.

“Ah, this is wonderful. A good soak is truly the height of comfort. I haven’t indulged like this in twenty years—I’ve missed it so much.” Zhou Hao slowly opened his eyes to a sky bursting with stars, the cold moon shining like frost.

“What a beautiful night. But I don’t have time to enjoy it—Yu Nan is practically haunting me, always plotting how to trip me up. It was only after sparring with Fei Ling that I realized I’m still no match for her. I need to train even harder!” Zhou Hao clenched his fists, his mind filled with the mocking faces of Yu Nan and the others, their jeers and their hatred for his master.

The sneers, the biting words, and their cold indifference all cut deeply into Zhou Hao’s heart. Now, having risen in a single leap to defeat opponents once thought insurmountable, all the disciples had miraculously changed their tune and began to praise him. Though Zhou Hao cared nothing for their opinions, it made him understand all the more clearly: in the Immortal Domain, strength is everything.

Yes, only by becoming strong could one earn respect, accomplish their own goals, and protect those dear to them!

With this thought, Zhou Hao immediately stood up and leapt from the lake. The water on his body vaporized in an instant. With a casual gesture, his white disciple’s robe floated up from the ground and wrapped itself around him. He then picked up the jet-black stone tablet and began to study it.

“The Guardian said even the Hall Master couldn’t unravel the Great Radiant Sun Palm. This immortal art is supposedly impossible to cultivate. I want to see what makes it so extraordinary.”

Zhou Hao channeled his immortal power into a beam of light, illuminating the stone tablet as he tried to decipher its cultivation method. Yet the tablet remained inert; the golden immortal script on it did not so much as flicker in response to his power.

Tools that recorded immortal arts required the cultivator to use their own immortal power as a medium, resonating with the script inscribed upon them to unlock the complete cultivation method. But Zhou Hao’s power could not communicate with the script on this tablet, and thus he could not cultivate the Great Radiant Sun Palm.

“As I thought, this tablet is truly remarkable. It must have sealed the inscribed script, preventing any resonance with the outside world.” Zhou Hao stopped, deep in thought.

What was he to do? Faced with such a challenge, Zhou Hao had no solution. If even the greatest immortals could not overcome it, what hope did a mere junior disciple have?

“If there’s no good method, I’ll just try every method!” Suddenly, this thought flashed through Zhou Hao’s mind.

“Yes, I’ll try everything!”

But then, he was stumped again. Try—how, exactly?

“Smash it!”

With a series of bangs, Zhou Hao smashed the tablet against a large rock. Sparks flew, but nothing changed.

“Soak it!”

He placed the tablet in the lake and let it soak for a long time before taking it out again. It was only wet, like any ordinary stone, unchanged.

“Burn it!”

He summoned a blazing flame and refined the tablet in the fire for two full hours, but it didn’t even redden. Next, he used the Fire Essence Pool that Yunfang had gifted him, submerging the tablet in the boiling crimson liquid for another two hours, but the result was the same—failure.

“Strike it with lightning!”

A crackling blue arc shot from Zhou Hao’s fingertips, ten bolts of lightning lashing the black tablet and sending smoke curling from the ground, but still there was no effect.

...

“It’s no use! I’m exhausted. I’ve tried so many things—couldn’t you at least glow a little, show some sign of change? Are you trying to drive me mad?” Zhou Hao collapsed at the lakeside, staring at the black tablet, nearly driven to insanity.

Dawn was approaching; the eastern sky was already tinged with pale gray. The summit of the immortal mountain became clearer, the outline of lush bamboo groves emerging. The early breeze rustled the bamboo leaves, and beneath them stood a few quiet, rustic bamboo houses.

“Is there really no way to cultivate the art recorded on this tablet?” Zhou Hao sighed softly.

“Maybe I should ask my master…” He glanced toward the bamboo houses.

“Forget it. Any answer from him would be the same as the Guardian’s. A meal you’ve cooked yourself, you have to eat no matter what!” Zhou Hao shook his head.

Another hour passed, but Zhou Hao still could not think of any other way to communicate with the script inside the tablet. It seemed as though the tablet was indeed bound by some kind of prohibition, making the cultivation method impossible to access. To him, it was just a useless stone.

Was it truly nothing more than an unusable black rock?

At that moment, the dim sky was suddenly flooded with the blazing radiance of ten suns. The world seemed to awaken in this light, everything brimming with vibrant energy. The spiritual aura on the mountain grew thick and rich; even without meditating, Zhou Hao could feel the essence of heaven and earth pouring into him like a spring.

Morning, akin to spring in the cycle of seasons, brimmed with the energy of life; the body was at its most active, and thus, cultivating the immortal way at this hour yielded twice the result with half the effort.

In the eastern sky, ten suns rose, their orange-red light casting billions of rays over the land. The scenery leapt into vivid relief; belts of white cloud draped the mountainsides, adding an ethereal beauty. Each immortal mountain, soaring or low, was majestic and graceful. The highest peak, Cloudmist Immortal Mountain, pierced the heavens like a pillar, wreathed not only in mist but in rising purple qi—a true treasure for immortal cultivation.

“I’m out of options. It’s almost time for sword training.” Zhou Hao stood, frustration written all over his face.

But just then, the tablet suddenly began to glow. Or rather, it was not the tablet itself, but the immortal script engraved upon it.

Great Radiant Sun Palm! Only these four golden characters adorned the unadorned black stone, but now they swayed before Zhou Hao’s dazed eyes as though alive.

It felt as if he had traversed countless lifetimes. Staring at those four characters, Zhou Hao’s spirit was drawn into an endless mental realm—a dimensional space, with chaos above and a coordinate grid below. He stood at the origin, at the very starting point.

A deep hum resonated.

In the real world, Zhou Hao’s eyes began to bleed; the four golden characters forced his eyes open so wide they tore at the corners, a terrifying sight. But what was even more shocking was the transformation of his eyes: his pupils overlapped, one large and one small, like concentric circles.

Zhou Hao had developed double pupils!

Blood streamed from both eyes, each drop falling directly onto the stone tablet. At that same moment, changes occurred in his spiritual world. Lines of golden immortal script appeared in the void, hanging like golden banners. This was Zhou Hao’s first time seeing such a thing, though he’d heard Yunfang and Cao Shuang mention it: “A mustard seed can contain Mount Sumeru”—many vessels inscribed with immortal arts would draw the cultivator’s spirit inside, where the method would reveal itself and imprint upon the mind.

“Did I…succeed?” Zhou Hao was both thrilled and amazed.

In his mental realm, though his eyes bled in reality, here they remained as double pupils. Gazing on the golden script in the void, he found that he could memorize them with a single glance. Though there were six hundred characters in all, just a cursory look was enough for him to recite them backward and forward, which struck him as odd.

“What’s going on with me today? Just one look and I’ve memorized all the script here. I know I’m smart, but this is too fast. It’s as if the script isn’t being read by me, but is forcing itself into my eyes, branding itself into my mind.”

“Well, no matter. Since it’s like this, all the better—I’ll start learning now!” Zhou Hao was ecstatic.

“Wait, that won’t do. I still have sword training. Better to come back and cultivate the Great Radiant Sun Palm later.” Shaking his head, Zhou Hao decided that since he already knew the cultivation method, there was no need to rush.

“But…how do I get out of here? Even Master Cao Shuang never taught me that.”

Only now did Zhou Hao realize that entering was easy, but leaving was another matter. He was still a newcomer, ignorant of many things.

“Right, everything among immortals is done with the mind. In this spiritual world, getting out must also require the use of spiritual power.” Zhou Hao thought for a moment, then closed his eyes.

“Return!”

Sure enough, he was right. In the next instant, his consciousness returned to the real world.

The golden script on the black stone tablet still glowed. Zhou Hao picked it up and placed it inside his bamboo house, then mounted his sword and flew toward Cloudmist Immortal Mountain.

Sword practice field.

Cao Shuang spotted Zhou Hao at a glance among the crowd (of course, Zhou Hao always practiced in the same spot). With a broad grin, Cao Shuang approached him. “Junior Brother, I’ve truly obtained a marvelous method! I haven’t even started cultivating the Rescuing Yin True Scripture, and already I can hardly restrain myself!”

Suppressing the urge to smack this man, Zhou Hao forced a thin smile. “Oh, really? Then congratulations, Senior Brother.”

“Heh heh, you have no idea, Junior Brother. This immortal art is truly unprecedented—the very foundation of its kind! In all my years of worldly experience, I’d say its creator is a genius, a true prodigy—he’s gone far down the path of…well, you know!” Cao Shuang rambled on, his admiration for the eccentric author plain on his face.

Zhou Hao was left speechless. He hadn’t realized that this chubby fellow could be so lewd in conversation. But given his situation, could he really make anything of it?

“Zhou… Zhou Hao.”

Just then, two figures appeared before Zhou Hao. The speaker took him by surprise.

Never in all his years in the Immortal Domain had Zhou Hao expected Yu Nan to address him like this. The ever-proud Yu Nan, who’d never shown a trace of ladylike demeanor, now stood demurely before him.

She still wore the white disciple’s robe, but the arrogance had vanished from her expression. Walking alongside Xiao Shanshan, her eyes darted about nervously, especially when she caught Zhou Hao’s slightly puzzled gaze.

Even Yu Nan herself didn’t understand why, after just two days, she felt this inexplicable emotion toward this new disciple. Was it Zhou Hao’s stubborn defiance, his refusal to stay down despite his injuries and his bold challenge to her? Was it his meteoric rise after twenty years? Or had she never truly disliked this young man?

This strange feeling, for some reason, filled her with a subtle, unexplainable excitement.

“Senior Sister Yu, are you here to challenge me?”