Source of Dao

At the entrance of Spring River Restaurant.

Xie Yuan looked at the restaurant, shut tight and closed for business, and fell silent.

His gaze slowly swept across the signboard, doors, and glass windows, and his mind automatically reached a conclusion:

"It closed down three months ago."

This might have been called divination into the secrets of heaven, but here, it was more fittingly called reverse inference from information flow.

But whatever the method was called, Xie Yuan was extremely certain of this conclusion, with an error margin of no more than a few days either way.

Having obtained this exact date, he was even more speechless and shook his head.

An old man was still keeping watch outside the restaurant, so Xie Yuan went over and asked:

"Sir, may I ask why this place isn't open anymore?"

"Hm?"

The old man, who had been scrolling through short videos with his head lowered, swiped past a pretty young girl, looked up at him, and casually said:

"Oh, it's closed. He went home. Made enough money, I guess."

"...Is that what he said?"

Xie Yuan did not quite believe it.

The old man gave a snort:

"The boss himself said something about his mission being complete, that if he didn't leave now he'd run into bad luck again, that it was time to retire, all that nonsense. Wasn't it really just because he didn't lack money anymore? These rich people, always talking like normal human language is beneath them..."

"..."

If he did not leave, he would run into bad luck again...

Xie Yuan was somewhat helpless, but since Boss Wu did not wish to see him, he could only respect that.

Besides, even if he did not want to respect it, there seemed to be nothing he could do.

Even though he could now use scientific methods to wield many profound and mysterious means, he had no confidence whatsoever in finding Boss Wu.

Looking back, at several critical junctures in his life, Boss Wu's shadow had always lurked in the background.

Especially this last time—his return here seemed to have had a great deal to do with Boss Wu's intervention.

Perhaps without that mysterious restaurant owner, Xie Yuan would not have escaped Jade Serenity's chessboard and received another chance to begin anew.

He gave the Spring River Restaurant signboard one final look, solemnly cupped his hands in salute, then turned and left.

"You're going on a business trip? Where to?"

At home, Wang YaFang asked Xie Yuan in surprise.

Xie Yuan shook his head.

"I'll go to the neighboring city first. Then I need to inspect a few places, so I can't say for sure."

"Is that so... How long will you be gone?"

Wang YaFang asked with some concern.

If possible, she even wished her son would never leave the house again, lest he encounter another accident... But over the past few months, Xie Yuan's rate of growth had taken both parents by surprise. He even felt like a completely different person.

Xie Yuan had miraculously paid off all their external debts and left behind sound assets. His methods, knowledge, and way of handling matters were as practiced as those of a major entrepreneur. No matter whom he dealt with, he was watertight and at ease. Yet his bearing was nothing like that of a businessman. Instead, he had become increasingly serene and detached, as light as wind and clouds. He felt... like an enlightened master of twenty-five.

Wang YaFang had even briefly thought Xie Yuan was going to renounce the world at the Taoist Temple atop Heaven's Gate Mountain, but his active work these past few months made him seem anything but detached from worldly affairs.

So now that Xie Yuan said he was going out to inspect markets and expand the business, his parents had instinctive worries, but no reason to object.

"Come back early..."

His parents saw Xie Yuan, traveling light, into Wang Yibing's car. Even after the car had driven away, they kept waving from behind.

"Go to the high-speed rail station. Here, take this voice changer. I adjusted it a little. You could use it to pretend to be a girl and scam rich guys without any problem. Pretending to be me is even easier. You know how I talk. Oh, and remember to change the IP address sometimes... Don't let anything go wrong. Do it exactly as I told you before."

Xie Yuan instructed him in detail.

Wang Yibing accepted the voice changer. As a streamer, he was no stranger to the thing, though he still examined it curiously.

"You brat, you can even invent stuff?"

"Watch the road."

Xie Yuan said calmly:

"It's just some superficial mechanical principles."

Over the past few months, Wang Yibing had come to admire his good friend so completely that he would not find anything Xie Yuan did surprising. Still, he frowned.

"Xie Yuan, what exactly are you going to do? You're not heading to Ukraine to become a special forces soldier, are you? You've gone this far that you can't even let yourself call Uncle and Auntie to tell them you're safe... Or is there something wrong with your body?"

"Actually, I'm a secret agent for the national security department, and I'm about to carry out a top-secret mission. If you send me fifty yuan, I'll tell you more."

After saying that, Xie Yuan saw Wang Yibing actually pull out his phone and laughed as he scolded him:

"What are you doing?"

"I'd actually believe you if you said that. These past few months, it's like you've gone through a second puberty. You've been freakishly incredible! I've even wondered whether someone possessed your body."

Wang Yibing said seriously, then shook his head.

"Forget it. If you won't say it, then you definitely can't say it, and I won't ask any more. I believe you can handle it. Don't worry about Uncle and Auntie, and don't worry about the tutoring center either. I'll definitely look after it for you."

He was now the admissions director and new media operations director at the tutoring center Xie Yuan had opened, while dedicated professional managers handled the rest of the management.

The position suited Wang Yibing perfectly. He had spent many years in livestreaming and short-video work. Although he was already a washed-up minor internet celebrity, his experience remained, and using Xie Yuan's lecture videos for traffic promotion and operations posed no problem.

He had happened to hit a bottleneck in his career. Now that he had come to Xie Yuan's tutoring center, Xie Yuan was paying him even more than he had earned at his peak. The rest depended on traffic and admissions—the more he worked, the more he earned. Financially, it would absolutely surpass his former life by far.

When Xie Yuan had lain in the ICU, Wang Yibing had transferred more than seventy thousand yuan into Xie Yuan's hospital account.

It was an uneven amount, not a dream.

Xie Yuan had mentioned repaying him once, and Wang Yibing had cursed him out fiercely, so he never brought it up again.

Xie Yuan had directly given Wang Yibing the most important position of admissions director, along with some dry shares.

Whether Wang Yibing looked after the tutoring center well or not did not matter much to Xie Yuan, and he did not even mention it. His management experience was actually far richer than anyone imagined. For such a small team, he had already chosen several reliable people. Even if fortune turned against them again, the fixed assets alone would bring in enough rent for his parents to live well.

And Xie Yuan felt he would not be gone for long.

After boarding the high-speed train, Xie Yuan arrived at Heaven's Gate Mountain Scenic Area four hours later.

He did not hesitate. He directly bought a cable-car ticket and rode all the way to the summit.

The cable car swayed gently in the mountain wind. Xie Yuan rested his chin on one hand against the side rail, staring blankly at the Mountain Forest and strange rocks beneath him.

"Mommy, will this cable car fall down? I'm scared..."

A little girl across from him spoke in a delicate voice.

Though she was somewhat afraid herself, the young mother hurriedly comforted her:

"It's fine, it's fine. The wind is normal. This cableway is very safe, definitely... Look, the wind stopped, didn't it? Mm, we're almost at the summit. Once we get up there, we'll buy a candied hawthorn skewer!"

"Yay!"

Among the string of swaying cabins on the cableway, the only steady one reached the summit.

Xie Yuan stepped out of the cable car, glanced at the plain Taoist Temple, and walked straight inside.

At a glance, he spotted the Old Taoist Priest dozing behind the only empty old wooden table amid the stream of visitors in the Taoist Temple.

Xie Yuan slowly walked up to the table. Before he could speak, the Old Taoist Priest opened his eyes and slowly said:

"You're here."

"Greetings, Senior."

Xie Yuan solemnly cupped his hands in salute.

Who knew that the Old Taoist Priest would blow out his beard in dissatisfaction?

"Haven't you read Gu Long? Do it again!"

"..."

Xie Yuan's expression stiffened somewhat, but seeing that the Old Taoist Priest was actually serious, he could only walk through it again. Then, after the Old Taoist Priest said, "You're here," he replied:

"I'm here."

The Old Taoist Priest did not continue the act any further. He merely beamed, thoroughly satisfied.

"I've wanted to act out this scene for ages."

"Senior likes Gu Long very much?"

Xie Yuan asked.

The Old Taoist Priest nodded, then shook his head.

"To be precise, I like everything here very much. On our side, we don't have such interesting things."

Xie Yuan lowered his eyelids to conceal the sharp gleam within them and asked:

"May I ask how I should address you, Senior?"

"You may call me... the Heavenly Dao."

The Old Taoist Priest chuckled.

Then he sighed somewhat wistfully:

"Though that was before. After that fellow drove me out, this old Taoist is now merely an ordinary Taoist Priest on Heaven's Gate Mountain."

Xie Yuan's pupils contracted. Even though he had already made many guesses, hearing the Old Taoist Priest say it still left him unable to control his expression.

The Heavenly Dao... had been driven out?

What an alien statement. Even though Xie Yuan had comprehended True Law and set foot on the immortal path, he still found it hard to imagine.

Seeing Xie Yuan's shock and confusion, the Old Taoist Priest said leisurely:

"Let me tell you a story.

"Countless years ago, chaos first opened, yin and yang divided, and only then did the universe and the myriad worlds come into being.

"Each of these worlds had its own rules, and what governed those rules was the Heavenly Dao.

"The Heavenly Dao originally had no consciousness. It merely represented the origin and truth of the world. In that realm, the world evolved under the Heavenly Dao's governance for countless years—from innate gods ruling the world to the rise of mankind, from Gods and Devils existing side by side to humanity reigning supreme, from a hundred schools contending to..."

He paused and said:

"To the birth of the Martial God."

"The Martial God?"

Something stirred in Xie Yuan's heart. He had never heard that name, but this was clearly an extremely important figure.

"The martial path was not originally the most flourishing among the hundred paths of cultivation. Although martial arts could be mastered quickly in the early stages, they possessed innate shortcomings in their methods. By the time one reached the peak of seeking the Dao, progress became exceedingly difficult, far inferior to great paths such as the divine path and the immortal path.

"Yet precisely because the martial path had declined for too long, an exception like the Martial God was born.

"As the saying goes, the Dao of Heaven diminishes the excessive and replenishes the deficient. At that time, I had neither knowledge nor awareness. I merely followed the laws, reducing the other great paths by one portion and adding that portion to the martial path, giving it all to him.

"He was born bearing innate fortune, with martial spiritual essence from birth. Master one method, and master ten thousand methods. Among all martial skills, throughout all ages, none could surpass him. Before long, he was invincible beneath the heavens and was honored as the 'Martial Saint.'

"Had it ended there, it would have been nothing more than the ordinary operation of the Heavenly Dao, a recurrence of what had happened throughout the ages.

"But where there was a Heavenly Dao, there were heavenly tribulations. And he happened to be born at the time when a heavenly tribulation was due, becoming its incarnation.

"Relying on the fortune I had apportioned to him from the other great paths, he suppressed an entire age, vigorously practiced the path of man, and truly gathered the fortune of the world unto himself. He became a supreme powerhouse unprecedented throughout all ages, calling himself the Martial God.

"Afterward, he trod the nine heavens, shattered Ling Xiao, and struck down my symbol—the Heavenly Book—seeking to seize the Source of Dao of the Heavenly Dao. In truth, he had already succeeded. It was only before he could completely devour me that I developed a trace of intelligence and escaped from the main body of the Source of Dao."

Xie Yuan listened with his heart reeling, as though towering waves had risen upon the lake of his heart.

The truth behind that ancient legend—the Heavenly Book falling to earth, the birth of the Black Heaven Book, heaven and earth changing color, rivers and seas flowing backward, the earth collapsing... was it actually caused by the Martial God's attempt to devour heaven?

He steadied his emotions and said hoarsely:

"So, the current Heavenly Dao is..."

"It is the former Martial God, Wu Wudi."

The Old Taoist Priest said slowly:

"After that, heaven and earth rebuilt their order, but only the martial path remained complete. Everything else was cut off.

"I escaped to this neighboring world. Influenced by this side, I gradually completed my intelligence and was able to roam freely between heaven and earth.

"And the Martial God was always missing a small part of the Source of Dao, unable to become complete. Yet he had already become the Heavenly Dao over there and could not pursue me here.

"So, he came up with a method.

"Previously, I had naturally scattered the Source of Dao throughout the world, and when I fled, I had no time to retrieve it all.

"To gather those imperceptible fragments of the Source of Dao, he sealed heaven and earth, cut off spiritual opportunities, restricted the growth of the people, and allowed them only to practice martial arts.

"Those who could become Great Grandmasters in such an environment were surely spiritual beings carrying a trace of the world's Source of Dao. He harvested them as spiritual medicine, slowly nourishing his incomplete Source of Dao. Over tens of thousands of years, the True Spirits of countless Great Grandmasters after their deaths had gone to him as provisions.

"This was the cage he set for martial artists. He left only the martial path in the world, giving no opportunity to the other great paths. And no matter how far the martial path was cultivated, none could ever become his opponent. Thus, the entire world became his own medicinal field.

"But if this continued, the world would remain incomplete and slowly become unable to hold itself together. Judging by him, he did not care. In the end, he would only drain the world dry, use it as a springboard, pursue me here, and repeat his old deeds, becoming the devourer of the myriad worlds."

"He... may come here?"

Xie Yuan frowned tightly.

He had long guessed that Heaven's Gate Mountain was the Two Worlds Gate, but he had never imagined that the Martial God, who had nearly devoured one world and turned all people beneath heaven into provisions, might pass through the gate connecting the two worlds and come to his homeland.

If that Martial God truly came here, then regardless of whether he could seize the Heavenly Dao of this world and replace it, this world would suffer a devastating blow. Just as on that side, countless living beings would meet their end—including his parents, the family and friends he cared about, and everyone else.

The Old Taoist Priest nodded.

"He definitely will come, whether for me or for the Heavenly Dao here. He has already embarked upon this road.

"So I have chosen many people to try and break all this. By the time it came to you, you were the last one."

Xie Yuan clenched his fists. After a moment of silence, he nodded heavily.

"I understand. I will go stop him. But... Senior, if he truly is as powerful as you say, and has already completed the incomplete Source of Dao, how am I supposed to deal with him?"

"Who said he completed the Source of Dao? That method may be useful, but its effects are extremely slow. Long before it could complete it, it had already provoked resistance from the awakened ones. And even if he did complete it, it still could not compare to the true Source of Dao—

"The thing upon you."

Xie Yuan's eyes slowly widened.

The Old Taoist Priest chuckled.

"The Supreme Purity Moral Scripture, the source of all laws between heaven and earth—or, in terms you might better understand, the panel. Or the comprehension and talent that let you swiftly learn everything. In the end, all of them are this same thing. I gave it to you long ago, and by now, you have completely mastered it.

"So do not ask me how to deal with him. That is your task, while I am now merely an ordinary Old Taoist Priest.

"Now, are you ready?"