Daoist Arts!

The graveyards around the Capital had all undergone special guidance. The terrain and Feng Shui had been altered so that Netherworld energy would not accumulate and cause Netherworld Ghosts to run amok.

Chen Mu could now see through Feng Shui formations as well. After nodding slightly, he knew it was certainly the work of the Daoists from the Directorate of Celestial Observation, and he did not pay it much mind.

After paying respects to Geng He's wife, he left.

Meanwhile.

Not long after he returned, Wu Peng came home from outside. From Geng Rong, he learned that Chen Mu had paid a visit and given them one hundred Gold Notes. His brows immediately furrowed.

After carefully examining them for a while and determining that there was nothing wrong with the Gold Notes, Wu Peng still remained silent, his brows knitted together.

Only after a long time did he hand the Gold Notes to Geng Rong and say in a deep voice, "If you see that man again, let me know. If I'm not here, find some way to keep him here until I return."

"...Mm."

Seeing Wu Peng with his brows tightly furrowed, Geng Rong said worriedly, "Why has my husband been so troubled these past few days? Did something happen?"

"No. Don't ask so many questions."

Wu Peng shook his head and said no more before walking out.

He went all the way back to his inner room. After locking the door, he carefully took a wooden tablet from beneath a hidden floor tile, then clasped his hands together in prayer and bowed with vacant eyes.

"Disasters arise one after another."

"The end times are nigh."

"Heavenly Born Protection."

"Rebirth Extremely Blissful."

Xuanguo Estate.

Chen Mu returned to his residence.

He had given Geng Rong Gold Notes, paid respects to Geng He's wife, and even seen Geng Rong and Wu Peng's son—the grandson of Geng He. After all that, Soul Points had come pouring in without pause.

The fewest Soul Points came from giving Geng Rong the Gold Notes: only twelve. He gained the most from briefly investigating the physical condition of Geng He's grandson, receiving thirty-five Soul Points.

Finally, there were the gains from paying respects. Altogether, Chen Mu had obtained a full sixty-five points!

Even more than he had gotten from Xiao Qingshan!

With such a harvest, Chen Mu naturally put everything else aside. Once he returned to his residence, he directly summoned the system interface.

Name: Chen Mu

Age: 16

Martial Strength: Four Horses Strength

Soulmind: Initial Spirit lv9 (+)

Soul Roaming (Netherworld)—Available

After checking the state of the courtyard and calming the distracting thoughts in his heart, Chen Mu took a deep breath and consumed Soul Points to raise his Soulmind to the next level!

In the blink of an eye, without any notification appearing, golden light flashed, and the level of his Soulmind directly crossed over from Initial Spirit lv9 to Initial Spirit lv10!

Hot.

Scorching hot.

Fiercely scorching hot!

The heat welled up from the deepest part of his heart, like a heartflame that ignited his entire Soulmind in an instant, making it seem as though Chen Mu's Soulmind had begun to burn.

Needle-like pain spread throughout his body, causing Chen Mu to tense up all at once. Yet that tension was utterly useless, because everything existed only on the level of the Soulmind.

"...Hiss."

Chen Mu could not help hissing.

But the pain did not last. Very soon, the needle-like agony gradually transformed into comfort as he adapted to it.

He could feel the impurities within his body being expelled bit by bit beneath the tempering of the heartflame. Each time a trace of impurity was driven out, a wave of pleasure spread through both body and mind!

Finally.

When the heartflame spread throughout his body and tempered his entire Soulmind, driving out every last impurity from his soul-body, a refreshing sensation swiftly spread through him.

It was a pleasure and comfort he had never experienced before. Every distracting thought vanished, and even his filthy desires disappeared. He seemed almost to have escaped the mortal world, transcended all things, and stepped beyond it all.

However, that feeling lasted only a very short time.

Chen Mu's consciousness soon recovered.

And as the heartflame rapidly faded, a strange sensation suddenly surged into his heart, causing the world before his eyes to change dramatically.

What he saw was no longer his bedroom, but a pure, flawless world. White was the only color in this world; apart from that, there was nothing else.

The world was extraordinarily strange, yet Chen Mu's thoughts had never been clearer.

Here,

was the deepest part of his heart!

As Chen Mu's thoughts stirred, the white world immediately began to change.

Boom!

In an instant, heaven and earth overturned. A scorching flame swept across the sky, covering all the white and making this world of the heart seem to transform into the source of fire.

Rolling magma flowed beneath his feet. Volcanoes emerged from thin air one after another, spewing thick smoke.

"..."

Chen Mu slightly furrowed his brows.

As his thoughts shifted, everything changed.

Crack!

The erupting volcanoes abruptly froze in place. All the magma beneath his feet lost its vitality, while dark-blue ice spread from the center of Chen Mu's consciousness in every direction.

In the blink of an eye, the entire world became the depths of winter, and everything froze into ice!

"This is..."

"Mm, so that's how it is?"

By this point, Chen Mu vaguely understood.

After being tempered by the heartflame, the deepest part of his heart had become a single point of utter purity and flawlessness. Put simply, it was a blank sheet of paper upon which he could write whatever words he wished.

It sounded somewhat obscure, but once one connected it to a Daoist's realm, it became easy to understand.

Fifth Rank Daoist Arts!

Yes.

Daoist Arts were the evolution of the Soulmind. Whatever the heart inclined toward would naturally evolve into that kind of Daoist Arts!

Ordinary Daoists became Fifth Rank the moment they awakened. Most of them did not advance through the tempering of heartflame, so the direction of their Daoist Arts became fixed at the instant of awakening.

But Chen Mu was different.

Now, the deepest part of his heart had been tempered into a pure, blank sheet of paper. With a single thought, he could turn this world of the heart into rolling magma, or into a winter that froze ten thousand miles!

"This can't remain pure and flawless for long. I have to choose a direction. In other words, I must decide my own Daoist Arts and determine the direction of my future."

Chen Mu murmured inwardly.

As his thoughts shifted, the entire world immediately began to change like the winds and clouds.

In an instant, torrential rain poured down. All the ice melted into an endless ocean. Then the seawater vanished into thin air, transforming into terrifying hurricanes that tore apart the sky and earth.

At times, the raging winds scattered, and thunderbolts crashed down from the heavens. The entire world was dyed purple, while endless thunder seemed to shatter everything.

And in the very end.

All of it disappeared.

The entire world returned to pure white.

The only difference was that at the very center of that pure white, a sword had appeared—a sword without color, without form or shape, yet undeniably present.

The sword was not large, seeming to be only three feet long. It simply hovered there.

Suddenly, winds rose and clouds stirred. Scorching magma emerged once more, gales howled, and lightning flashed and thunder roared. The sky turned pitch-black, and stars blossomed across the heavens. Then an extreme cold came from afar, freezing everything.

But in the next moment.

That shapeless, formless sword moved lightly.

With that single, gentle motion, a beam of sword light spilled down like the Milky Way cascading from the Ninth Heaven—vast, boundless, and impossible to resist. It tore apart the gales, flattened the thunder, crushed the molten rock, shattered the darkness... and cleaved down the stars filling the heavens!

Nothing changed again. The blank world gradually collapsed inward, finally returning to a single point that existed and yet did not exist.

Chen Mu had made his choice.

In reality,

inside the bedroom.

Chen Mu abruptly opened his eyes. Deep within his pupils, a phantom sword light flickered in and out of existence.

"I have One Sword that can sever all things beneath heaven!"