# Chapter 177: Divine Power Within Reach
The instant he stepped into the Tower Reaching Heaven, the Horn of the Azure Dragon that Jiang Wang carried dissolved back into white light, enveloping him.
No one else was around.
Within the tower, each person faced their own separate space once more.
Jiang Wang's first thought was that Wang Yiwu's threat was temporarily averted. Only then did he allow himself to relax and sink into that vast, boundless world within.
The human body contains four seas.
The spine is the first sea.
The Dao meridian rests along the spine, nurturing Dao essence, accumulating resources.
Before the Ascending Dragon stage, it overlapped and merged with the spinal sea.
In truth, the spinal sea at this phase could be considered identical to the Heavenly Palace. The Heavenly Palace was simply another name for the Dao meridian.
When the Gate of Heaven and Earth was pushed open, the Dao meridian immediately ascended like a dragon, entering the second sea—the sea of the torso.
The human body was an infinite expanse. Within the torso's sea, the five prefectures floated and sank.
Only by exploring the torso's sea completely with the dragon of one's Dao meridian—mastering its deepest secrets—could one knock open the five prefectures one by one and delve into the body's hidden treasures.
Each Inner Prefecture was a vast world unto itself. Whatever treasure one found within was the cultivator's gain.
And the most powerful Inner Prefecture treasure was known as—a divine power.
Now, having entered the Tower Reaching Heaven, Jiang Wang had used the Horn of the Azure Dragon's power to plunge into the sea before his dragon had even ascended.
In truth, every transcendent cultivator possessed the potential to discover a divine power seed. But the path was so arduous that not one in ten thousand succeeded.
The Tower Reaching Heaven was designed to grant cultivators countless explorations, letting them experience the process of grasping a divine power in advance.
After leaving the secret realm, one would forget everything that happened inside. But the divine power itself would be remembered by the body.
When the time came to knock upon the Inner Prefectures, it would naturally surface.
The Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm could be understood as a dream woven between reality and illusion. The experiences might be false, but the results were real.
In the Heaven-Opening Realm, the name referred to the fact that transcendent cultivators at this stage stood closest to the Gate of Heaven and Earth.
The Heavenly Palace's name represented the resources it bore—each cultivator's "path to heaven." It was the foundation of the transcendent path.
And the Tower Reaching Heaven within the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm meant reaching the heavens in a single step.
Time lost all meaning within the Tower. As Jiang Wang immersed himself in the sea of the torso, exploring the first Inner Prefecture, he felt no passage of time at all.
Only at this moment did he realize how precious the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm truly was.
As he wandered through the world of divine power, he finally understood the origins of the secret realm itself.
The entire Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm was a complete divine power seed—Mirror Flower, Water Moon.
The Old Man of the Heavenly Treasury had long since perished, his Dao extinguished. But this flawless, perfect seed of divine power had somehow survived, fusing with the mechanisms he had left behind to form and evolve into the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm.
Flower in the mirror. Moon on the water. All were dreams and bubbles.
Yet the Old Man's Mirror Flower, Water Moon reflected an entirely different world.
Everything experienced within felt both real and illusory—but death was truly final. The divine powers explored here would be remembered by the body, waiting to be awakened.
The Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm contained nine keys in total.
The five underwater Dragon Palaces encouraged competition and slaughter.
In the distant mountains and ancient forests, beyond competing with other cultivators, one also faced the secret realm's own perils—a fight where death was nine times more likely than survival.
And the river, in both directions, required an entire lifetime to reach its end—representing birth and death respectively.
The Old Man of the Heavenly Treasury had created this secret realm to find the greatest genius, the one who could seize all nine keys and inherit his life's work.
This condition required nine extraordinary geniuses to each obtain one of the nine keys. And among them, one genius had to surpass all others, standing alone at the summit.
But evidently, even Wang Yiwu—who had shattered mountains and stormed his way to the tower—was not the one the Old Man had sought.
It wasn't that the world of cultivation had grown weaker, that it could no longer produce the genius the Old Man required.
In terms of raw power, Wang Yiwu had already met the standard.
What the Old Man of the Heavenly Treasury hadn't anticipated was that as cultivation developed and the era evolved, his secret realm—though it retained its formidable allure—no longer offered enough reward relative to its danger to draw every top-tier genius.
The top prodigies of the current age had other, more cost-effective options.
Forget other nations far away—even within Qi, Wang Yiwu himself would not have come if not for Chongxuan Sheng. He had already been granted a divine power and had no need for a second.
The Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm might become an eternal regret.
Or perhaps, when the world of cultivation experienced its next leap forward—when even ordinary cultivators had the strength to survive the secret realm's trials—then the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm could truly be mastered.
But by then, the Old Man's legacy would likely be obsolete.
Still, at this moment, the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm remained a supreme treasure. Its value was simply hidden by the realm's unique nature, unknown to the wider world.
A single Horn of the Azure Dragon could help a cultivator lock onto one divine power in advance.
If someone gathered all nine keys, it meant they had the ability to achieve all five Inner Prefecture divine powers—the Heavenly Treasury!
And their five divine powers would be selected from a pool of nine—chosen with care.
A person who grew to the Inner Prefecture Realm with such power would be terrifying beyond measure.
Of course, knowing this now was of no use. After leaving the secret realm, he would forget. He might instinctively feel this place was precious, but the specifics would elude him.
The winners of this Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm had all fought well. But three keys were still missing.
The only one who had a chance of collecting more than five was Wang Yiwu.
And he had been stopped by the combined efforts of five.
For Chongxuan Sheng, this was the best possible news. He had achieved his original goal—securing a divine power Inner Prefecture—and had simultaneously halted a far more dangerous Wang Yiwu.
...
The light of the Full Moon Gate shimmered.
Jiang Wang, Li Longchuan, Xu Xiangqian, Chongxuan Sheng, and Zhang Yong appeared outside the Full Moon Pool.
They had already forgotten everything that had happened within the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm. But they all knew they had emerged as victors.
Chongxuan Sheng was content. Xu Xiangqian was brimming with poetic inspiration. Li Longchuan offered a faint smile. Jiang Wang was unmoved by fortune or misfortune.
Zhang Yong... amid his habitual timidity, there now glimmered a thread of confidence and resolve. It made sense. Having won the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm and secured a divine power Inner Prefecture, anyone would find a measure of confidence restored.
The only two who had come out before them were Lian Que and Shisi.
By past convention, they were the eliminated ones who had preserved their lives.
The moment Jiang Wang emerged, Lian Que's gaze locked onto him.
"My life token is in your possession."
"What?" Jiang Wang stared at the ugly face that had suddenly leaned close and blinked in confusion.
Everything that had happened in the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm—no one remembered.
But when he searched his pockets, he found a square, black metal token. He pulled it out.
As he did, someone gasped softly—clearly, this was something of great value.
Lian Que fixed his gaze on the metal token: "This is my life token. It means everything to me. Even death would not make me hand it over—unless, within the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm, I made you a promise."
"Give the token back to me," Lian Que said. "I'll forge a weapon for you personally."
Jiang Wang was about to respond when Chongxuan Sheng grabbed his hand.
Disregarding Lian Que's expression entirely, he turned directly to Jiang Wang: "Brother Jiang, you need to understand the value of this thing. Having Lian Que's life token means his life is in your hands. The Lian clan of Chiyang Commandery is the premier weapon-forging family in all of Great Qi—and Lian Que is the finest of his generation. The value of this token is far more than just a single weapon."
Setting aside what Lian Que's identity represented, simply possessing this token meant having a weapon-forging master capable of producing an endless stream of weapons. Its value was incalculable.
The calculation was simple.
Lian Que said nothing. He only watched Jiang Wang.
He did not remember what had happened in the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm. But giving away his life token could only have been his own choice. And if it was his choice, he bore the consequences.
Chongxuan Sheng spoke again: "Brother. Think carefully before you decide. With me here, you need not worry about pressure from the Lian clan."
Jiang Wang smiled, stepped forward, and placed the life token back in Lian Que's palm.
"You trusted me within the Heavenly Treasury Secret Realm. That tells me I am someone worthy of trust."
A simple truth. No more, no less.
Lian Que closed his fingers around the token and said nothing for a long moment.
Then he turned, and walked away without looking back.