Shanghai City.
Some people who had just finished dinner were walking along the streets to help their food settle.
The roads teemed with traffic, shop after shop blazed with light, and neon signs atop the high-rises flashed without pause. The city was bustling with life.
It was just like any other day.
Magic City radiated its unique charm. People lived here, enjoying the conveniences of a big city, while drawing in newcomers from every corner of the country.
"Daddy, Daddy, I want that candied hawthorn."
On a small street, a little girl of five or six, her hair tied into two buns,
stared at the man selling candied hawthorn not far away and pleaded with her parents.
The young couple exchanged a glance, smiles tugging at their lips.
Her father picked her up, his voice full of affection. "All right, all right. Daddy will buy you some right now."
"You're always spoiling her," her mother said, though there was no real displeasure in her voice. She followed them over and picked out the sweetest skewer for her daughter.
The little girl took the candied hawthorn, unwrapped it, and put it straight into her mouth, happiness shining in her eyes.
Scenes like this could be found all along the streets.
But before long,
the little girl, who had been looking up for stars and the moon, suddenly spoke. "Mommy, look! There are two moons in the sky."
"Don't be silly. How could there be two moons?"
Her mother heard her and was about to correct her.
But when she raised her head too,
her face froze.
"What's wrong? Don't tell me there really are two moons?"
Her father laughed, thinking the mother and daughter were teasing him. Then he looked up at the night sky.
In that instant, his smile vanished, disbelief etched across his face.
There, in the sky that night,
hung two full moons.
They were extremely close together. Though it should not have been the time for a full moon, they shone like jade disks, casting strands of bright moonlight down upon the earth. Looking closely, one could even make out a faint, eerie red tint in the light.
It was astonishing. There really were two moons in the sky.
And it wasn't just this family of three.
Everyone on the streets had seen them.
The two moons were flawless and white. Beyond them, countless stars glittered brilliantly across the sky.
The stars gathered together, linking into what looked like a long, endless river of stars.
They filled the sky, impossible to miss, flickering on and off without pause.
Normally, one could not see such a sight in the night sky above a major city.
But these stars were simply too bright.
They were utterly unlike anything seen before.
And this strange spectacle appeared in every corner of the world.
Even countries in different time zones instantly fell into night, displaying the same scene.
Rumble!
The next instant,
a blood-red bolt of lightning appeared, splitting the entire sky and stretching for who knew how many miles.
Its thunder was deafening, and along with it came a mysterious aura that manifested before everyone.
In an instant, the people, already unsettled by the succession of major events in recent days, fell into complete panic. For people in the country especially, strange celestial signs meant either great fortune or great calamity.
Everyone could feel it: the world seemed on the verge of a tremendous upheaval.
But ordinary people reacted differently from
the great powers that already held secrets, such as Wuzhou Group, Chang Sheng Gene, and Tianshen Technology.
When they saw this spectacle, each and every one of them grew excited.
They knew their own new era had finally arrived. At once, the leaders of the various factions issued orders, setting their plans into motion.
As for those like Zhou Yunqiong, who already possessed mysterious bloodlines, they immediately entered seclusion.
They could clearly feel an utterly unprecedented power within their bodies.
It was like a volcano, about to erupt.
And this
was the source of their power to surpass humanity and obtain strength worthy of myth.
Meanwhile, as time continued to pass,
beyond humanity,
a Golden Eagle flew out of the deep mountains. Its body rapidly grew, its wings stretching a thousand meters wide, golden light flowing across its feathers.
In a stream, an Ancient Python that had lived for who knew how long leaped out of the water. A pair of dragon horns sprouted from its enormous head, beams of light spilling from them. It seemed on the verge of transforming into a flood dragon.
On the earth, an ancient tree grew at a frenzied pace, its canopy blotting out the sky and every leaf glittering like a star.
Besides these, weeds, vines, and all manner of plants underwent mutations at that very moment.
All spirits began to evolve and awaken.
In some cities,
roads split open, and the earth stretched out. Distances that had once been only a few hundred meters now spanned several kilometers.
In some small towns, mountain after mountain also thrust up from the ground, rising thousands of meters high and stretching without end, forming ranges steeped in a primeval aura.
That night, Longhu Mountain, Jiuhua Mountain, Mount Tai, and the Qinling Mountains were all illuminated by dazzling divine lights of every color.
It seemed that in the next instant, they would become immortal mountains, transformed into legendary realms of myth.
Everything, everything had changed.
Everyone was caught up in it.
Tonight
was destined to be a sleepless night.
And while the outside world was undergoing earth-shaking changes,
Lu Yuan remained seated in the courtyard of his villa on the outskirts of Shanghai City.
Above him hung two full moons.
"It's begun?"
At the sight, his expression shifted slightly. Even though he had seen it once before, he still couldn't face it with complete calm when experiencing it again.
Of course, Lu Yuan knew this was only the beginning. The true changes would come after midnight.
That was when September first officially arrived.
So
he made no move, simply watching the Bodhi Ancient Tree before him.
Legend said that the Buddha, Sakyamuni, had attained enlightenment beneath this tree. There was nothing in this world more wondrous than it.
And so, time continued to pass.
Nine o'clock.
Ten o'clock.
Eleven o'clock.
Exactly midnight!
Buzz, buzz, buzz!
At that very moment, the mysterious aura grew even denser in the sky and across the earth.
The world itself seemed to shudder, and something difficult to name seemed to enter everyone's heart.
And in the villa's courtyard,
the Bodhi Ancient Tree finally began to change.
Radiant light streamed from every emerald leaf.
Look closely, and one could see patterns appearing on the leaves. Each pattern seemed to depict an enlightened monk in thought, as if it contained endless mysteries, capable of revealing the laws of heaven and earth.
Golden markings flowed over the trunk, profound beyond measure.
Behind the crown, rings of light appeared one after another, as dazzling as the sun, illuminating the entire area.
At that moment, the Bodhi Ancient Tree seemed to have attained the Dao, about to transform into a Buddha and journey toward the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, the realm of wisdom.
Lu Yuan watched, astonishment in his eyes.
He had lived a second life,
yet this was the first time he had seen the Bodhi Ancient Tree after its mutation. It seemed that merely standing beneath it could help someone think through countless questions they had never been able to solve.
Not only that, but the divine treasures around it also radiated different lights, floating in midair with wondrous splendor.
"Now it's my turn!"
Lu Yuan rose and walked over, one step at a time. He reached out his right hand and pressed it against the Bodhi Ancient Tree.
My Supreme Path begins on this day.
Before you continue