Ancient Jade Earns Merit, Lesser Heavenly Secret Technique!

After leaving the Xiao Family, Xiao Yao once again set out on his own journey.

He flew through the sky, his figure becoming a faint streak of golden light that cut across the heavens, while he conversed with Grandpa Lu in his heart.

"Kid, what are your plans next?" Grandpa Lu's voice slowly echoed in his mind, carrying a hint of urgency. "The people from Soul Hall suffered such a huge loss at your hands. The next time they come, it probably won't just be some mere Dou Zun avatar. Though that one was still just a small fry, you need to raise your strength quickly! I won't remind you next time we fight. That bastard actually dared covet me, Grandpa Lu. Next time, personally beat up his true body!"

"You needn't tell me. I certainly will." Xiao Yao nodded. "Earn merit, raise my cultivation, and gather Heavenly Flames! These three complement one another and are bound by cause and effect. Increasing my strength is the fastest path toward attaining the Dao and immortality!"

"I can clearly feel that I have already reached the utmost perfection of the Refining Essence into Qi realm. I only need one final push to pierce through that paper-thin barrier. Perfect. I'll head to the sand-filled Tagor Desert and search for the Green Lotus Core Flame, ranked nineteenth on the Heavenly Flame Ranking. I'll use it as an opportunity to trigger the first of the Three Calamities, overcome the Calamity of Yin Fire, and break through to the Refining Qi into Spirit realm in one stroke!"

Just then, Grandpa Lu's curious voice suddenly rang out. "Kid, take out that broken jade of yours and let me have a look. For some reason, I keep feeling that thing is a little strange. It seems to contain an aura... one that even makes me feel very comfortable."

At his words, Xiao Yao willed it into being and slowly held the Tou She Ancient God Jade in his palm. It felt warm and smooth to the touch, was entirely black, and bore profound, mysterious patterns.

Grandpa Lu's vast and majestic divine sense probed toward it like an exquisitely precise instrument.

"Buzz—!!!"

The instant his divine sense touched the ancient jade, a faint yet incomparably pure, boundless, and powerful aura suddenly spread from within it, carrying even a trace of sacred fire-element essence!

"This is... the sensation of multiple flames merging!" For the first time, Grandpa Lu's normally carefree voice revealed genuine astonishment!

"This jade is no simple thing!" he said in surprise. "Kid, you've struck gold! It isn't merely a token that stores soul power! Its material itself is a rare material for refining divine-soul artifacts, and it has been tempered over countless years by numerous Heavenly Flames from this world!"

"More importantly!" Grandpa Lu's voice carried unprecedented gravity. "It also bears a trace of the Heavenly Dao Merit power left behind when this world's final Dou Di, Tou She Ancient God, transformed himself into this realm and completed the laws of heaven and earth!"

Almost at the same moment, the Daoist Immortal System that had remained silent in Xiao Yao's mind suddenly trembled and issued an urgent notification!

[Ding! An ownerless 'Heavenly Dao Merit Source' has been detected. Absorb and convert immediately?]

"Yes!" Xiao Yao answered without hesitation!

[Ding! Heavenly Dao Merit Source absorption has begun... Converting... Conversion successful! Congratulations, Host. Merit Points obtained: 1000!]

"Ha ha ha ha! I searched everywhere without finding it, yet it came to me without any effort!"

Xiao Yao's heart was instantly flooded with immense delight! He never would have imagined that this ancient jade, which had merely served as a key to open a cave dwelling in the original story, concealed such a heaven-shaking secret!

A thousand Merit Points! A windfall from heaven!

Without the slightest hesitation, he immediately brought up the system store and found the divine art in the Divine Ability exchange section that he had long coveted!

[Exchanging for 'Lesser Heavenly Secret Technique' requires 1000 Merit Points. This technique is a great Dao Sect divination Divine Ability. It calculates cause and effect, perceives heavenly secrets, observes fate, and peers into the Three Realms. Confirm exchange?]

"Exchange!"

"Boom—!!!"

The instant he confirmed it, a vast and terrifying torrent of information beyond all description erupted from the system. It transformed into countless golden runes glittering with infinite mysteries and violently surged into the depths of his Sea of Consciousness!

Predict heavenly secrets! Divine the future! See through fate! Peer into past and present!

Countless profound and endlessly wondrous truths poured into his Sea of Consciousness like a bursting galactic river, threatening to completely burst his soul apart!

"Urgh—!"

Xiao Yao let out a pained groan he could not suppress! He felt as though his head were being forcibly crammed full of all-encompassing threads of karma! The soul-rending agony was unbearable.

Yet he hurriedly clenched his teeth, pressed his tongue against his palate, and frantically circulated the Ming Xin Jian Xing Jue personally passed down by his master, Taishang Laojun. He kept his spiritual platform clear, standing like an unyielding rock as the torrent of information wildly washed over, tempered, and compressed his divine soul!

No one knew how much time passed. It seemed like a mere instant, yet it also seemed as though ten thousand years had gone by.

When the final golden rune had completely merged into the origin of his soul.

Xiao Yao suddenly opened his eyes once more!

"Buzz!"

Two substantial beams of golden divine light shot from his eyes!

Within those eyes, it was as though suns, moons, and stars revolved, appeared, and vanished, bearing witness to the passage of time! An ancient, weathered, detached, all-seeing divine bearing flashed through his gaze before returning to normal.

Under the inheritance empowerment of the Lesser Heavenly Secret Technique, the bottleneck in his soul realm shattered, and he broke through once more!

From the peak of the Spirit Realm, he leaped into the Heaven Realm in one stroke!

At that moment, the world in his eyes became completely different!

He could clearly "see" threads of karma, thick or thin, bright or dim, entwined around all things! Mountains, rivers, plants, birds, beasts, insects, fish, even the passing wind and drifting clouds—all possessed their own "tracks of fate"!

He could even sense that if he upgraded it to the Great Heavenly Secret Technique, he would be able to easily manipulate those tangled, complex threads and thereby alter the course of events to a certain extent!

This feeling of standing above all beings like a god, overlooking the masses, grasping heavenly secrets, and seeing through cause and effect!

"This heavenly secret divine art truly is... terrifying!"

He took a deep breath and forcibly calmed his agitated heart, which still surged from his sudden increase in power. Then he began attempting his first divination with this Divine Ability.

What was the thing he needed most next?

He slowly extended his right hand, his slender fingers forming an incomparably profound hand seal in the air.

Somewhere in the unseen, it was as though a grand yet ethereal voice crossed the barriers of the void and gave him an answer in his heart.

"Tong Zhen Qi Ling Pill..."

At a thought from Xiao Yao, all the information regarding this pill from the Dan Dao Origin Book, which he had long since fully absorbed, instantly surfaced in his mind.

The Tong Zhen Qi Ling Pill was a rare spirit pill even within the Dao Sect! It possessed no effect of raising one's cultivation. Its sole purpose was to target disciples with special innate constitutions, unlocking the source shackles of their bloodlines, stimulating their potential, and allowing them to perfectly control the power they were born with!

According to the corresponding weakened version in the True Explanation of Alchemy, it was equivalent to a high-tier Seventh Grade pill!

"So that's how it is..." Xiao Yao instantly understood what the heavenly secret was pointing toward!

He could not help but smile, his expression filled with understanding and a trace of anticipation.

"When I go to the sand-filled Tagor Desert to subdue the Green Lotus Core Flame, I'll encounter Queen Medusa, who is plotting to transform into a Seven-Colored Heaven Swallowing Python, as well as an adorable little girl who possesses the Triple Jade-Green Snake Flower Pupils without knowing it. She is a little maid from my Xiao Family!"

"And this Tong Zhen Qi Ling Pill is precisely the best catalyst to awaken their bloodlines and help them set foot on the path of the strong!"

"Cai Lin and Qing Lin? Just what I wanted!"

"Ha ha ha ha! This providence, this karma—it truly is immensely fascinating!"

Xiao Yao no longer hesitated in the slightest. Laughing loudly, he flashed forward and transformed into a golden bolt of lightning several times faster than before, racing toward the sand-filled Tagor Desert, a place brimming with endless charm!