Primordial Opportunity, A Moment of Contention

Literary Heart pulsed steadily. Thread after thread of Literary Qi continuously sprang forth; though still weak, it had already formed its own self-sustaining cycle, flowing on without end.

The embryonic Rune imprints of several Confucian Dao divine abilities were branded deep within the Literary Heart, like dormant seeds waiting only for rain and dew to nourish them before they could break through the earth.

Wanhua's consciousness was clearer and more resolute than ever before.

He was no longer merely an artifact spirit trapped within a book, but a seeker of the Dao with his own path and power.

Yet he remained trapped within this fold of space-time. The true body of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome was still the sturdiest of cages, cutting him off from the vast Primordial World.

The accumulation of Literary Qi was despairingly slow. At this rate, to gather enough to shake the restrictions on the Tome's true body—or even merely manifest a trace of power in the outside world—

would likely require long ages measured in yuanhui.

He could not wait that long. The Primordial World moved too swiftly; Great Powers emerged in endless succession, while calamities lurked in the shadows.

If he, this butterfly that had blundered in by chance, could not beat his wings soon, he feared he would never have the opportunity to stir up a storm.

Then, amid this anxious accumulation and waiting, at a certain moment, an unprecedented, vast, supreme pressure—

swept across the entire Primordial World like a tide. It pierced through the barriers of space-time as well, clearly sensed by the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome and felt by Wanhua!

It was neither a sound nor a sight, but an "omen," a "resonance."

It was as though the law-veins of the entire Primordial World were trembling at an unprecedented frequency, converging toward a certain central point in worship!

Jade Capital Mountain! Hongjun!

The inheritance information of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome surfaced on its own, corroborating this heavenly phenomenon.

Wanhua understood in an instant.

Daoist Hongjun, this supreme Great Power who held a fragment of the Jade Disk of Creation and had long since severed the Three Corpses, had already adjusted himself to his peak. His alignment with the Heavenly Dao had reached its critical point.

He was about to take that final step, invoke Heavenly Dao merit, and become a Saint where he stood!

The Primordial Dao Fruit—the first Saint Position between Heaven and Earth—was about to gain its master!

All beings in the Primordial World, regardless of cultivation or location, were struck silent beneath this invisible pressure, their minds trembling.

Some longed to observe and learn; some were consumed by envy and resentment; others watched with detached indifference.

But no matter what, every living being understood that one era was about to end, and another—an era ruled by Saints—was about to begin.

Yet for Wanhua, trapped within the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome, this pressure sweeping through Heaven and Earth was like the first ray of dawn piercing the clouds in the darkness!

"An opportunity! This is my opportunity!" Wanhua's consciousness surged violently within his Literary Heart.

He keenly sensed that, at the moment Hongjun became a Saint, causing the Heavenly Dao Laws to fully manifest and bestowing merit—

the established Order and rules of the entire Primordial World would reveal an extraordinarily brief yet incomparably clear "gap"—or rather, a "shift in focus"!

It was like a boulder cast into a still lake: ripples spread outward, while the center would instead become a momentary "vacuum"!

At that instant, most of the Heavenly Dao's "attention" and "power" would be focused upon Hongjun.

Focused upon the act of "acknowledgment" and "empowerment." Its suppression of other laws and rejection of alien existences would fall to their lowest point!

This was his only chance!

A chance to disregard the restraints of the Innate Supreme Treasure's true body, forcibly commune with Heaven and Earth through his own Confucian Dao Laws, break free of this cage, and even... point directly toward the Primordial Dao Fruit!

The risk was immense. This was snatching food from a tiger's jaws—getting a head start right beneath the Heavenly Dao's nose!

If he failed, the backlash of the Heavenly Dao and Hongjun's wrath would surely follow. Having body and soul wiped out might even be the best possible outcome.

But if he succeeded...

"My Dao is one of self-reliance and self-strengthening. How can I remain trapped here forever?

How can I be content to lag behind others, especially... behind the Dao Ancestor destined to merge with the Heavenly Dao and, to a certain extent, stifle the potential of all things?"

Wanhua's Literary Heart pounded with unprecedented force, radiating a searing light.

All hesitation, all weighing of gains and losses, were cast behind him at this moment. There was only forward motion, only contention!

"That very moment! The instant after Hongjun invokes merit, before he has fully aligned with the Saint Position!" He fixed upon that fleeting opening.

Transformation! It had to be carried out at that same moment!

He could not prove the Dao in the form of a "book." He needed a "Dao body" capable of bearing the Primordial Dao Fruit, walking the Primordial World, and spreading the Confucian Dao!

This shell of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome was his foundation and his source, but it should not be his shackle.

His consciousness sank completely into the Literary Heart, connecting tightly with the origin of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome.

He began to mobilize all the Literary Qi he had accumulated, not to strike at the restrictions—

but to follow a secret art he had deduced himself, one that fused body-tempering methods from countless worlds with the mysteries of Primordial World transformation, and begin remolding his "self"!

It was an exceedingly painful process, yet one filled with hope.

With the Literary Heart as its core, it frantically drew upon the chaotic primordial qi amassed within the Tome and the Literary Qi it had produced, transforming them into the most fundamental power of creation.

This power no longer imitated any known form. Instead, guided by Wanhua's own will and by the Confucian Dao ideals of "humanity as the foundation" and "standing tall between Heaven and Earth," it began to construct.

The first thing to condense was a spine, straight and upright like a pillar holding up the heavens.

Upon every vertebra, natural characters of the Great Dao seemed to flicker, bearing "integrity" and "unyielding resolve."

Next came the limbs and skeletal frame, their channels clearly defined. Faint literary patterns intertwined across the bones—not the brute sense of raw power, but a resilience containing "the power to act" and "the tenacity to put principles into practice."

The five viscera and six bowels began to form. The heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys were no mere organs; each corresponded to the core concepts of the Confucian Dao: "benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and faith."

They faintly resonated with each breath.

Flesh and skin gradually covered the body, fine and lustrous. Looking closely, countless tiny, flowing characters seemed to rise and sink beneath the skin, expounding the mysteries and principles of the body.

Finally came the face. Its blurred features gradually sharpened beneath the power of creation: sword-like brows, star-bright eyes, a straight nose, and at the corners of his mouth, a faint, almost imperceptible calmness and resolve born of seeing through the ways of the world.

Long black hair grew from his scalp, stirring without wind. Between the strands, stars seemed to rise and perish, while principles flowed and turned.

This entire process of transformation was neither as wild as a demon absorbing the essence of sun and moon, nor as naturally harmonious as a deity born and nurtured by heaven and earth.

It was more like a master painstakingly carving an artwork that expounded his own Great Dao!

It brimmed with the feeling of a deliberate, wise, orderly creation!

The instant that perfect Dao body, fully conforming to human form, roughly seven feet tall, suffused from head to toe with chaotic literary radiance, with a Literary Heart mark faintly appearing between its brows, finally condensed into being—

Outside, in the direction of Jade Capital Mountain, Hongjun's aura had already climbed to its peak, and the Clear Light of the Jade Disk of Creation fragment blazed brilliantly.

It resonated most intensely with the Heavenly Dao hidden in the unseen! Heavenly Dao merit was about to descend, and the Saint Position was about to be bestowed!

Now!

Wanhua's newly born Dao body, still closely connected to the origin of the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome, abruptly opened its eyes!

Gone was Wenhua's gentle refinement from his gaze. In its place shone a sharp, unsheathed-sword brilliance, a resolute light that sought to cleave through every shackle!

He felt the Literary Qi within him, now many times greater because his transformation had brought him into closer accord with the Literary Heart and the Celestial Tome's origin.

He sensed the "cracks" in the laws that had appeared outside as the Heavenly Dao's focus shifted.

He drew in a deep breath—not air, but that intangible opportunity.

The next moment, he gathered all his will, all his Literary Qi, and all his understanding of and faith in the Confucian Dao.

Toward the vast Primordial Era, toward the position of "first" that Hongjun was about to claim for himself, he issued a world-shattering declaration of his own!

"I, Wanhua, establish my Dao here today!

"Taking the Myriad Dao Celestial Tome as my foundation, the methods of the Confucian Dao as my path, I shall gather the wisdom of All Heavens and Myriad Worlds and evolve my own Primordial Dao Fruit!"

"Literary Dao, arise!"

There were no flowers raining from the heavens, no Golden Lotuses Springing from the Earth.

Yet a vast power unlike any existing system, dependent on no recognition from the Heavenly Dao, arising purely from his own principles and will—

Mixed with the aura of a newly born Primordial Zenith, it erupted thunderously from that newborn Dao body, from within the chaos-colored Myriad Dao Celestial Tome, and shot straight toward the skies of the Primordial Era!

At this moment, he had not only successfully transformed, but had also launched the fiercest charge toward the supreme realm of the Primordial Zenith Heaven Golden Immortal!

It stood needle against needle with Hongjun's opportunity to become a Saint, with not a hair's breadth between them!