What Is the Great Dao Seed?

"Is this the Dao Seed? What kind of treasure is it, anyway? Was it worth these people fighting to the death over it, only for them all to perish together in the end?"

Lu Yuan examined it closely for a long while. Though he sensed a faint Daoist resonance emanating from the pearl, he couldn't detect anything else unusual about it.

Since he couldn't figure it out, he put it back in the box and looked through the two books he had taken from Bai Haihu.

One was a cultivation manual called Dragon Swimming Step. The other had no title, but judging by the quality of the paper, it seemed much older.

Its contents were a collection of diary-like notes, most of them concerning the Great Dao Seed.

There were over ten thousand words, but most were just rambling notes with little substance. The useful information was sparse.

As he read on, Lu Yuan suddenly understood. At last, he knew what the Great Dao Seed was.

There were three thousand Great Daos. A Great Dao Seed was the embodiment of one of them.

The Great Dao could take countless forms. A blade of grass, a stone, a saber, a sword, a tree—anything could be a Great Dao Seed.

According to legend, one had to possess a Great Dao Seed to become an immortal.

"Become an immortal!"

At that, Lu Yuan's heart gave a start.

He continued reading.

The book also mentioned that every Great Dao Seed represented a Divine Ability.

Divine Abilities varied in strength, but even the weakest was far more wondrous than any martial arts technique.

"Is this thing really a Great Dao Seed? And if it is, what Divine Ability does it contain?"

Lu Yuan stared at the pearl in the box, brows tightly furrowed.

According to the diary, the Bai Family had possessed this pearl for nearly a hundred years. Each generation had studied it, and Bai Haihu's grandfather had firmly believed that fusing with the Great Dao Seed would make one immortal.

By Bai Haihu's generation, however, they had grown doubtful. They no longer believed that the pearl their family treasured could make someone immortal.

He and Liang Guan had been close friends. One night, while drunk, Bai Haihu let the secret of the pearl slip to Liang Guan. Little did he know that his dear friend was a beast in human skin, bringing disaster upon his family.

"I can't tell anyone that this pearl might be a Great Dao Seed—not even Father or Big Brother. If word gets out, the Lu Family will surely be doomed!"

Lu Yuan silently warned himself.

He didn't know whether possessing a Great Dao Seed could make someone immortal, but he knew that the mere prospect of immortality would drive countless people mad.

"Seven Star Dragon Swimming Steps..."

The footwork wasn't especially profound. After reading it, Lu Yuan understood it completely. It was only a lower-grade technique, its essence lying in swift, ever-changing movements and the elusive passage of a swimming dragon, with forty-nine variations in all.

He moved the tables and chairs in the room aside, set his feet slightly apart, and reviewed the Dragon Swimming Step in his mind before beginning to practice, his feet tracing the Seven Stars.

His steps and figure shifted. At first, he moved as if out for a stroll, but after the first run-through, his pace began to quicken.

After a dozen or so repetitions, a string of afterimages trailed behind him. He was like a wisp of green smoke, darting around the room at a speed too fast for ordinary eyes to follow. Wherever he passed, fierce gusts howled.

[Seven Star Dragon Swimming Steps: Mastery (55%)]

That was how outrageous a genius's aptitude could be. He had only just learned the steps, yet his proficiency had already reached the Mastery level.

His figure came to an abrupt halt, his gaze flashing. "At last, I've made up for my final weakness!"

Learning the Seven Star Dragon Swimming Steps had increased his strength by at least thirty percent.

After checking out, Lu Yuan headed straight for Long'an County to attend the grand auction the next day.

The auction went off as scheduled, but there were no surprises. He spent two thousand five hundred taels on a saber technique.

The following day.

"This is the kidnappers' reply. They say the young master is safe. Once they have the fifty thousand taels, they'll release him immediately. But they've given us only one day. The exchange will take place tonight, and they'll inform us of the location later." Steward Shen handed the letter to Lu Longjing.

Lu Longjing glanced over it grimly. "Make the preparations."

That evening, they received the location. Zhang Zhi, Steward Shen, and more than a dozen others, all fully armed, left home with Lu Longjing.

They left the county town and traveled in silence, reaching an abandoned village more than ten miles away.

The village had once housed several hundred families. A drought more than a decade ago had starved many to death, and the rest had fled in search of food, leaving the village deserted. Now, broken walls and overgrown weeds filled the place. Some plants stood taller than a man, and the whole village lay in desolate ruin.

"You're here?"

A head suddenly popped up from beneath a broken wall, giving everyone a fright. They drew their sabers and went on guard.

It was a man wearing a green-faced ghost mask.

The Green-faced Ghost Mask Man gave a mocking laugh. "You're this jumpy? How do you expect to get by out there? Did you bring enough silver? If you did, follow me."

They followed him for over a hundred meters, arriving at the only building in the village that was still mostly intact. From its appearance, it seemed to be the village ancestral hall.

Faint, wavering firelight could be seen from outside.

A bonfire burned inside the ancestral hall. Two people in different outfits, both wearing ghost masks, sat beside it: one wore a black mask, the other a red one.

"Father... Uncle Zhang... Uncle Shen..."

Lu Cheng lay bound hand and foot off to one side. He wasn't injured, but his hair was disheveled and he looked rather wretched. His eyes were bloodshot, his voice hoarse. Seeing his father arrive with men to ransom him, he was happy and worried, and looked ashamed as well.

The Green-faced Ghost Mask Man leaned close to the Black-faced Ghost Mask Man and whispered something in his ear. The latter nodded slightly, then said with satisfaction, "Boss Lu, you're a clever man. You didn't bring any unnecessary people along. Otherwise, what you'd be looking at now would be your son's corpse."

Hearing this, Lu Longjing felt rather fortunate. He had considered asking someone else for help, perhaps Third Foot Zhou, which might have cut the price in half.

But for his son's safety, Lu Longjing had decided against seeking help.

To him, his son's safety mattered most. Money came second.

Money could be earned again.

Once someone was gone, they were gone for good.

Lu Longjing nodded to Lu Cheng, then cautiously asked, "May I ask who you three are? What has my Lu Family done to offend you?"

There were so many wealthy people in Lingbao County. Why had they chosen to kidnap his son?

He couldn't help feeling suspicious.

If it was just a coincidence, that would be best.

But if it wasn't...

"Are you trying to sound me out, Boss Lu?"

The Black-faced Ghost Mask Man spoke with a mocking air, his manner arrogant. "I'd advise you not to bother. We have no grudge against the Lu Family. We just heard that Boss Lu's business has been booming lately and got envious, so we thought we'd borrow some silver to spend."

"But it's quite a lot of silver, and we were afraid you wouldn't agree. So we invited Young Master Lu over as our guest."

Lu Longjing tamped down his fury and lowered his stance. "To be honest, my business is only doing so-so. You gave me just one day, and raising fifty thousand taels is too difficult. Could we come to an agreement? How about thirty thousand taels?"