The Sage's Favor, a Near-Dao Place

A Sage's methods transcended the mundane. That Nine Heavens Origin was the manifestation of Sect Master Tongtian's Great Dao, carrying his understanding of the Heavenly Dao.

The strand of origin Xuan Yin had received was the Primordial Origin. It contained the cultivation methods of the Shangqing Lineage, the Tai Xiao Divine Thunder evolved from Sect Master Tongtian's insights into the Dao of lightning, and a Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruit.

He was an Innate Human Race member, created by Empress Nuwa, and had been born with a Heavenly Immortal Body. Yet because Empress Nuwa had not passed down any cultivation method, he initially lacked the ability to condense Magic Power.

It was only after the Grand Pure Sage established the Human-Establishing Sect and attained Sainthood, passing down the Golden Core Great Dao, that he gained a rudimentary understanding of cultivation and became qualified to travel to Mount Kunlun to seek a teacher.

Yet neither a Heavenly Immortal Body nor condensed Magic Power counted as a complete Heavenly Immortal. Only by forming a Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruit could one fully develop a Heavenly Immortal Body and attain the realm of a true Heavenly Immortal.

Of course, when the Grand Pure Sage had transmitted his teachings, Xuan Yin had considered taking advantage of his proximity and directly acknowledging the Grand Pure Sage as his teacher.

Even becoming a Registered Disciple would have been enough!

Unfortunately, the Grand Pure Sage's Dao emphasized purity and inaction. Xuan Yin's desire for gain was too strong, so the Grand Pure Sage had not regarded him highly.

Indeed, among the vast Human Race, only one person had caught the Grand Pure Sage's eye and been accepted as a Direct Disciple, receiving Xuandu as his Daoist title.

It was only in order to find a powerful patron and a renowned teacher who could guide him that Xuan Yin had embarked on his journey to Mount Kunlun to acknowledge Sage Tongtian as his teacher!

"There's no use overthinking it!"

Recalling everything he had experienced along the way, Xuan Yin could not help shaking his head. "That Merit and Destiny may have helped me catch a Sage's attention, but if I want to establish myself in the Primordial World, I still need to raise my cultivation as much as possible! Otherwise, no matter how much Merit and Destiny I have, it will be nothing but flowers in a mirror and the moon in water!"

After transmigrating, it was not as though he had never considered accumulating merit and gathering Fortune-Tide Dao. Yet in the unseen depths, he had sensed a great terror that could descend at any moment.

For example, at the start of his transmigration, he had wanted to imitate Suirenshi and drill wood to make fire. But the instant he tried, thunder had exploded within his mind.

It was as though that opportunity belonged exclusively to Suirenshi. The moment Xuan Yin put it into practice, an invisible hand would erase him from this world.

Thus, he could only settle for the next best thing. He no longer considered stealing the opportunities of the Three Ancestors of the Human Race and instead offered them some assistance while they carried out their deeds.

When Suirenshi drilled wood to make fire, he fanned the flames nearby. When Youchaoshi built houses, he took the initiative to gather deadwood and dry grass for him.

And when Ziyishi sewed clothing, it was Xuan Yin who had polished the bone needles for her.

However, after the Three Ancestors completed their respective destined deeds, the Heavenly Dao did not bestow merit upon them. They merely gained the recognition of many Innate Human Race members.

That was rather different from what Xuan Yin had imagined.

Only now, after Sect Master Tongtian bestowed the Primordial Origin upon him along with much common knowledge of cultivation, did he begin to glimpse part of this world's essence.

What benefited heaven and earth was called merit; what benefited all living beings was called virtue. The deeds of the Three Ancestors offered little benefit to the vast Primordial World and only benefited the Human Race, so naturally the Heavenly Dao would not bestow merit.

Yet where people's hearts turned became the greater tide. Since the Three Ancestors' actions benefited the development of the Human Race, once they gained the recognition of many humans, unseen Humanity Dao Merit and Destiny naturally gathered around them.

And because Xuan Yin had participated, he had also received a share of Humanity Dao Merit and Destiny.

As for that unseen terror, Xuan Yin now had his own guess.

Once one attained Grand Unity Golden Immortal, one remained so forever. The Three Ancestors of the Human Race had likely become Grand Unity Golden Immortals in the future, and the deeds they performed were their acts of establishing their Dao.

Naturally, they could not allow Xuan Yin to steal them!

But merely riding their coattails without affecting the future greater tide should not have been a problem!

After all...

Though Grand Unity Golden Immortals possessed supreme might and could perceive the past and future, above them stood the Heavenly Dao and the several Sages whose primordial spirits were entrusted to the Heavenly Dao.

So long as it did not concern the fundamentals, they could not violate the order of the Heavenly Dao and cross the ages of time and space to erase a tiny anomaly like Xuan Yin.

As for the Heavenly Dao, it encompassed all phenomena of the great thousand worlds. Naturally, it could accommodate a single anomaly.

"Heavenly Immortal, True Immortal, Mystic Immortal, Golden Immortal, Taiyi, Grand Unity... The path of cultivation is long. I have only just stepped through the door!"

Thanks to Sect Master Tongtian's transmission, Xuan Yin now had a much clearer understanding of the Primordial World and its current cultivation system.

He began quietly breathing in and out, absorbing the Innate Spiritual Qi within the void as well as the scattered Sage's Dao Charm, silently awaiting the preaching of the Dao a thousand years later.

The Path of Heavenly Immortals involved the secrets of the dimensions of time and space. As the Ancestors of Heavenly Immortals, the Three Pure Ones Sages had developed the characteristics of the Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruit to the utmost limit.

Even among Heavenly Immortals, there were vast differences. The gap between them was no smaller than that between a small mound of earth and Mount Kunlun, which stretched across countless universes.

Ordinary Heavenly Immortals possessed only divine abilities and Magic Power, but the Heavenly Immortals under the Three Pure Ones could reflect their own Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruits across all realms.

They could even rely on Other-Self Incarnations to become the Heavenly Dao of a small world.

The Heavenly Immortals under the Three Pure Ones could use the Dao of the Cosmos Heavens to perfect their Dao Fruits. They could even rely on their karmic connection with a Sage to leave an imprint within the Great Luo Heavens opened by that Sage. Even if they died, the Sage could retrieve their True Spirits from the endless River of Time and Space.

It could be said that joining a Sage's sect was equivalent to receiving a death exemption token personally issued by a Sage, so long as one was not drawn into a calamity.

"No wonder so many people want to join a Sage's sect!" After seeing through everything, Xuan Yin felt fortunate about his choice once more. Then he sighed. "No wonder those beings who failed to join a Sage's sect were so dejected before leaving Mount Kunlun!"

Cultivation knew no passage of time, and the methods Sect Master Tongtian had passed down had been condensed from True Script of the Great Dao. Xuan Yin had only made a preliminary attempt at cultivating them.

A thousand years was not enough for him to advance by leaps and bounds in this realm. For the preaching of the Dao a thousand years later, he had not attempted to use the mysteries of the Heavenly Immortal Dao Fruit to enlighten an Other-Self and seek opportunities throughout the myriad worlds.

After all...

The greatest opportunity was right before him. Even across All Heavens and Myriad Realms, across the endless ages of the Primordial True Realm, opportunities comparable to a Sage personally preaching the Dao were exceedingly rare.

Enlightening an Other-Self and exploring the various realms were things he could do at any time. Why should he do so at the very moment his own teacher was about to preach the Dao?

Which was more important?

Xuan Yin could still tell the difference!

"What a clever little fellow!"

The matter of Xuan Yin opening a Cave Abode on Upper Clarity Peak naturally could not be hidden from Sect Master Tongtian.

However, he did not stop him!

A Sage was one with the heart of heaven and the embodiment of the Dao. Wherever a Sage resided was a Near-Dao Place, naturally containing endless opportunities and good fortune.

Even ordinary grass and trees, growing beside a Sage and nourished by the Sage's Dao Charm over time, would become spiritual herbs containing the blessings of heaven and earth.

"I never expected that this youngest disciple of mine would be the sharpest among all my disciples!"

Every movement of a Sage accorded with the greater tide of heaven and earth. Sect Master Tongtian had merely cast a glance in secret at the Cave Abode Xuan Yin had opened, yet the spiritual aura around it instantly grew several times denser.

Of course, such fortune was merely the Sage acting on a whim, nothing worth telling outsiders about!

After all...

Though the Jie Sect he had established emphasized education for all, seizing a sliver of vitality from heaven and earth for all living beings, every being had their own fate. Whether they could seize their own opportunity still depended on their own choices.

Only thus was it the proper Dao of heaven and earth!