The Ancient Heavenly Dao

The heavenly light within the Dao Comprehension Ground was vast and boundless. Fang Ruoyao stepped inside, and her gaze immediately trembled.

Chu He, whom she had thought was the one who had sensed the Heavenly Book, stood at the edge of the Dao Comprehension Ground clutching his chest, looking as though he had suffered a grave blow.

The young lady Lu Qingqiu pinched the corner of her skirt, lightly biting her thin lips, her eyes filled with tangled emotions.

Both their gazes were fixed on Ji You.

Ji You was seated toward the western side of the grounds, heavenly light surging around him. He seemed to have entered some profound and wondrous state, a faint furrow between his brows as Mystic Light flickered in and out of sight.

That very frown pierced the heart like a sharp sword.

If his face had been full of bewilderment, it would only mean that he had seen nothing. But that frown meant he was learning—and still learning!

A fellow cultivator's bewilderment could lull me into peaceful sleep, but a fellow cultivator's frown would leave me tossing and turning all night. Such was the reality of the cultivation world!

"Ji You..."

"The one who sensed the Heavenly Book was Ji You..."

Fang Ruoyao murmured, frozen where she stood.

Just then, at the summit of Mount Ni, spiritual light suddenly flickered from two great halls hidden amid the clouds. They shot into the sky, trailing long tails of flame behind them.

The next moment, an elderly Daoist clad in a robe embroidered with dark cloud patterns in golden thread appeared on the Dao Comprehension Platform, accompanied by a middle-aged woman with flowered hairpins and an eight-paneled gauze skirt.

Some disciples immediately recognized them as Inner Court Hall Masters Zuo Qiuyang and You Yingqiu, and hurriedly bowed in greeting.

Celestial Academy had five great sacred halls: Freedom, Auspiciousness, Longevity, Dustless, and Desireless. Zuo Qiuyang oversaw Freedom, while You Yingqiu oversaw Auspiciousness.

They supervised the cultivation of the Inner Court disciples. Other than during the entrance ceremony, they rarely came to the Outer Court. Only when an Outer Court student sensed the Heavenly Book would they be drawn here.

"How long has it been?"

Ban Yangshu respectfully replied, "Three quarters of an hour already."

Zuo Qiuyang frowned. "How long?"

"It has indeed been three quarters of an hour."

You Yingqiu was slightly startled and turned to look at Zuo Qiuyang.

After pondering for a moment, Hall Master Zuoqiu spoke to Ban Yangshu again. "Were you beside him when he sensed the Heavenly Book?"

"Reporting to Hall Master, this disciple was present."

"Tell me everything in detail."

Ban Yangshu recounted Ji You's sensing of the Heavenly Book in detail, including how heavenly light had continued to pour down upon him even though he was not in a state of Dao comprehension.

After hearing this, Hall Master Zuoqiu showed no expression. He exchanged a glance with You Yingqiu, and the two vanished from where they stood.

In the next breath, they had returned to the summit of Mount Ni and entered the depths of the boundless sea of clouds.

"In recent years, sensing the Heavenly Book has become incomparably difficult. It has been a long time since any disciple was able to observe the book for so long."

"Junior Sister You, have you not noticed? Time is not even the greatest problem. His state is."

Zuo Qiuyang clasped his broad sleeves behind his back, his brow deeply furrowed. "How could he sense the Heavenly Book without being in a state of Dao comprehension? Could it be that the Heavenly Book sensed him? This concerns the inheritance of the Dao lineage. I cannot shake the feeling that this is no good thing."

You Yingqiu was just about to discuss it with him when she suddenly stopped and respectfully bowed ahead.

Zuo Qiuyang paused in surprise, then immediately bowed alongside her.

"Master Sect Master."

Upon a black mountain cliff overlooking forests and a sea of clouds, an old man stood with his hands behind his back. His grayish sleeves whipped about in the mountain gale.

This old man was the Celestial Academy Sect Master, who had remained in the Immortal Approaching Realm for more than two hundred years without ever ascending.

You Yingqiu could not help wrinkling her nose slightly. Catching the scent of alcohol, she was somewhat surprised. "Master, have you been drinking?"

"Only a small pot."

"Did you not say you would never drink again?"

The old man looked at them with a smile. "What has happened in the Outer Court?"

Zuo Qiuyang immediately said, "An Outer Court disciple sensed the Heavenly Book without being in a state of Dao comprehension. It is exceedingly strange. Junior Sister and I were just about to report it to you. Should we keep close watch over him?"

"No need, no need. He merely sensed the Heavenly Book. Why make such a grand fuss over it?"

"Is it not strange to sense the Heavenly Book outside a state of Dao comprehension?"

The old man stroked his long beard and let out a wine-scented belch. "Earlier, I summoned an image of the Heavenly Book. That lad merely had exceptional fortune and caught the moment when the Heavenly Book was easiest to sense."

Zuo Qiuyang suddenly understood. "No wonder it happened like this. It was not his own ability, but Master's doing."

You Yingqiu frowned at those words. Hadn't Master just said he had been drinking? Why was he now saying he had summoned an image of the Heavenly Book? How strange.

Master was the longest-lived human immortal in the world. After his old friends had passed into the heavens, he had clearly said he would never drink again...

Ji You had no idea that the Inner and Outer Courts had already been thrown into chaos because of him.

Following a burst of Immortal Light, he had entered a dark void that was vast and winged, hollow and unfathomable.

After passing through a long stretch of nothingness, he slightly opened his eyes in his Divine Sense state and gradually made out everything before him.

It was an endless mountain standing in the middle of a wilderness. All around it lay ignorant darkness, while wind, rain, thunder, and lightning intertwined at its summit. The phenomena were incomparably chaotic, like a world utterly without order.

And the evolution of the Heavenly Dao seemed close enough to touch.

Feeling the vastness and greatness within that madness, Ji You was deeply shaken.

It was an indescribable sensation, striking straight at his Divine Sense.

The Heavenly Dao...

So what the Heavenly Book recorded was the most ancient Heavenly Dao.

Because it was primal, because it was ancient, it was also the most powerful Heavenly Dao in the world.

Yet just as he was lost in awe, a fleeting glance revealed that he was not alone.

At the foot of the mountain stood a woman in a flowing immortal dress of crimson mist and gold embroidery. Beneath her skirt were a pair of bare, snow-white, delicate jade feet. Her long hair was unbound, falling loose to her waist, and she too was watching the mountaintop.

As though sensing someone behind her, the woman withdrew her gaze and slowly turned around.

Amid her loose hair was an exquisite, fair oval face. Her red lips were soft and thin, her willow-leaf brows slender, and beneath her curled lashes rested a pair of eyes like deep, secluded lake waters.

She was not very old, seemingly about Ji You's age. Yet that blood-red gauze dress lent her a cold, resplendent air.

Just as Ji You was struggling to understand what was happening, those slender, rosy jade feet suddenly touched the ground lightly.

Then, amid faint spiritual light, the woman's red skirt gently swayed as she drifted down before him.

Had he not been in his Divine Sense state, Ji You felt that a fragrant breeze would surely have brushed across his face.