Solitary Cultivation Questions the Heart

In the vast northern reaches, the snowfields stretched without end, heaven and earth seemingly veiled beneath a heavy white gauze, silent to the point of deathly stillness. The gale cut like knives, sweeping blizzards through the air with shrill howls. In the distance, a shattered mountain range lay across the horizon like the spine of some colossal beast. Its slopes had collapsed, and traces of thunderfire scorching remained in the charred black rock layers, as though gods and demons had once fought a great battle here.

Yang Jun walked across the snow, his steps light yet steadfast. He carried the Shennong Hoe over his shoulder. Its ancient handle was plain and unadorned, while the Ice Thunder Power dripping from its tip traced fine patterns across the snow, like the first rumble of spring thunder awakening the slumbering earth. With every step he took, faint green shoots quietly emerged beneath the snow, signs of life stirring back to life beneath the ice.

Suddenly, he stopped and frowned slightly.

Ahead, a massive fissure stretched across the snowfield for hundreds of zhang, bottomless and endless. Its edges were charred black as coal, and the power of thunderfire had yet to fully disperse. The air was thick with the scorched scent left behind by exploded Soul Power. At the center of the fissure lay the enormous corpse of a soul beast—a fully grown Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon. It was over thirty zhang long, its scales shattered, its dragon horns broken. A black rift had pierced through its chest, its Soul Core extinguished. Its dragon blood had frozen into ice, scattered across the snow like red gemstones.

Beside the corpse, a figure knelt on the ground, clothes stained with blood, both hands buried deep in the snow. It was as though he were fighting heaven and earth for his life, or perhaps questioning the heavens themselves.

"Yu Xiaogang." Yang Jun spoke softly. His voice was like the wind, yet it pierced through the blizzard and reached the man's ears.

The man slowly raised his head. It was Yu Xiaogang. His eyes were bloodshot, his face covered in weathering and bloodstains, his hair disheveled. The cloth wrapped around his left arm had long been soaked through with blood. In his hand, he tightly clutched a cracked jade pendant. The jade was warm and lustrous, faint dragon patterns visible upon it, but it was incomplete.

"Father... I came too late..." he murmured hoarsely, his voice filled with endless remorse and grief. "The family's last guardian... also fell here... I... am unworthy to be a descendant of the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon."

Yang Jun approached. His gaze swept over the dead Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon before settling on Yu Xiaogang. "If you keep kneeling there, the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon truly will be extinguished."

Yu Xiaogang abruptly raised his head, fury blazing in his eyes. "What do you understand? I could not even take part in the final battle! I could not even fulfill Father's last wish! What right do I have... to speak of revival?"

"Right?" Yang Jun sneered. His voice was not loud, but it struck like a thunderclap. "You think revival depends on bloodlines? On a jade pendant? On that dead dragon?"

He swung his hoe. The Shennong Hoe plunged into the snow, thunderlight exploding as the entire snowfield trembled. The ice layer cracked apart, and Earth Vein Power surged like a rushing river. Ice and thunder intertwined, becoming a thousand glowing patterns that spread in every direction.

"Revival depends on—those still alive, and hearts unwilling to bow!"

Yu Xiaogang froze, as though those words had pierced straight through his soul.

Yang Jun looked down at him, his gaze like a plow cutting into the heart. "If you live only for the past, then you are already dead. If you fight for the future, then you are the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon's—new soul."

He extended a hand, palm facing upward. "I will not teach you soul skills, give you Soul Bones, or avenge you. But I can give you one chance—to use the Path of Solitary Farming to forge your Dragon Soul anew."

"The Path of Solitary Farming?" Yu Xiaogang murmured.

"Heaven and earth are cruel, treating all things as straw dogs." Yang Jun looked toward the sky, his figure in the wind and snow like an unshakable mountain. "Yet I insist on using a hoe as my brush and the earth as my paper, writing the word 'life.' What I till is not land, but fate; not soil, but the Dao."

He paused, his voice low but thunderous. "If you are willing to walk this path, then follow me into the Thunder Farming Trial. Within three days, if your Heart Fire remains unextinguished, your Dragon Soul may be reborn. If your will collapses, your soul will shatter, and you will never be reborn."

Yu Xiaogang remained silent for a long time. At last, he reached out and clasped Yang Jun's hand.

In an instant, the Shennong Hoe blazed with thunderlight. Ice Thunder Power surged into Yu Xiaogang's body like rivers flowing backward. His martial soul—the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon—trembled in the lightning, shattered, and reformed! The dragon phantom wailed, its scales peeled away and its dragon bones broke, as though it were being cut apart by a thousand blades. Yet amid that ultimate agony, a faint light ignited within the dragon's heart.

That light was defiance, obsession, and—the Flame of Rebirth.

Thunderlight became a prison, shrouding the snowfield. Yu Xiaogang sat cross-legged beneath the Shennong Hoe, his soul tempered by thunderfire. His meridians felt as though they were being sliced by blades, his organs as though they were being burned by flame. Yang Jun stood before him, his voice like the voice of heavenly law, echoing in the depths of his soul:

The first question: "What do you fight for?"

Yu Xiaogang growled, "To avenge my family! To clear my father's name! To restore the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon's honor!"

"Wrong!" Yang Jun shouted, his voice cracking like thunder. "Those who seek vengeance will ultimately be consumed by hatred. If you fight only for revenge, you are no different from Spirit Hall's dogs! You will become another tyrant, not a protector!"

The thunderlight suddenly intensified. Yu Xiaogang screamed as his Dragon Soul nearly collapsed and his consciousness blurred.

"I... I fight to protect!" He gritted his teeth and roared, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth. "So that no more families will be destroyed as mine was! So that no more children will lose their parents! To... protect fairness and hope on this continent! So that every soul master may stand tall and never be trampled because of their birth!"

The thunderlight eased slightly, and the faint glow of his Dragon Soul reappeared.

The second question: "What do you rely on to become strong?"

"My martial soul, my bloodline, my family's inheritance! The Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon's thousand years of glory!"

"Wrong!" Yang Jun shouted again, his voice shaking the heavens. "Bloodlines can end, inheritances can vanish, sects can fall. Only—an unyielding will is eternal strength!"

Thunderlight turned into blades, cutting through his soul. Yu Xiaogang's entire body convulsed as his Dragon Soul fractured inch by inch.

"I rely on my heart!" He threw back his head and howled, his voice shaking the snowfield. "On my will that refuses to bow! On my belief that I will shoulder responsibility for others! On my solitary courage to carve out a path, even if I stand alone!"

In that instant, the Dragon Soul reignited. The thunderlight became a seed, and a glowing core containing the power of ice thunder and the Dragon Soul was quietly planted deep within his sea of souls.

The third question: "Why do you not give up?"

Yu Xiaogang fell silent. Tears slid from his eyes, mingling with blood as they dripped into the snow.

"Because... I still have a mission unfinished. Because... I cannot disappoint Father. Because... if I fall, no one will remain to restore the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon's name. Because... if I give up, then no one in this world will believe that—the righteous path can endure."

Yang Jun finally nodded. "There is no wrong answer to this question. But remember—you do not live for your father. You live for Yu Xiaogang. You are not a slave to your bloodline, but the master of your will."

Three days later, the wind ceased over the snowfield, and morning light broke through the clouds.

Yu Xiaogang slowly rose to his feet, his aura utterly transformed. His martial soul—the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon—now had scales gleaming with thunderlight, regenerated dragon horns, claws like plows, and a tail wreathed in Ice Thunder Power. It seemed capable of tearing apart the heavens while also nourishing the earth.

He looked at Yang Jun, then bowed deeply. Dropping to both knees, he pressed his forehead to the snow. "You did not teach me a single move, yet you gave me a new life. You did not call me your disciple, yet you lit a lamp to guide my way. Yu Xiaogang will never forget this grace."

Yang Jun shook his head. "You lit that lamp yourself. I merely brushed away the dust upon your heart. The true light has always been within you."

He turned, picked up the Shennong Hoe, and lightly tapped the snow with its tip. A green sprout broke through the snow and grew against the wind.

"My road lies ahead. Your road should also be walked by you alone."

"Solitary Cultivator Yang Jun..." Yu Xiaogang raised his head. The Dragon's roar rang out again, resounding through the skies. "If the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon rises again one day, we will establish the Solitary Cultivation Hall, enshrine your Dao stele, and pass down your path of the Farming God."

Yang Jun smiled and walked away through the snow. His figure gradually faded into the blizzard, leaving behind only a furrow like a dragon's winding trail, carved into the snowfield as though writing—heaven and earth as the scroll, solitary farming as the brush, the Dao among humankind.

Yang Jun continued onward, but a new understanding had arisen in his heart.

He was no longer the youth who knew only how to bury his head in farming. The path he walked was not merely one toward godhood, but one that opened a road of survival without dependence or submission for countless ordinary people.

His encounter with Yu Xiaogang was not to take a disciple or form an alliance, but to use his own path to illuminate another lost soul.

This was the true meaning of the Farming God—not merely tilling fields, but tilling hearts; not merely defeating enemies, but breaking through delusion; not merely becoming a god, but—establishing the Dao.

Amid the wind and snow, he softly said, "Next... it is time to go to Sea God Island. Tang San's Divine Tribulation is near, and my hoe should also plow a fissure of—a new order into this world."

He raised his head toward the sky. A seam opened in the dark clouds, and a ray of sunlight fell upon the Shennong Hoe on his shoulder. The Ice Thunder Power dripping from its tip unexpectedly bloomed into an ice lotus upon the snow.

That lotus symbolized—an undying will and the hope of rebirth.