"I'm such a fool!"
"Truly!"
"I had a treasure trove of fortune right before me and never realized it. Instead, I clung to the Dao Principles in the Void, where they were so hard to comprehend, and sighed over them!"
"Every grain of sand here, every speck of dust, even the courtyard walls..."
"...were actually all condensed from Dao Principles!"
At that moment.
Yang Mei was speechless.
His voice was thick with disbelief.
But the facts were right before him.
He had no choice but to believe them.
Yang Mei took a deep breath, trying to calm himself.
Only now.
Did Yang Mei truly understand what kind of place he had come to.
It was even more incredible than anything he had imagined before coming in!
Every brick and tile, every stone and tree here, was solidified Dao Principles. Even the courtyard walls and the mountain gate were the same!
The only difference between them and the pebble was that the pebble contained Spiritual Light.
Without Spiritual Light.
The pebble would simply be part of the courtyard.
So.
If someone asked what the pebble's origin was, its origin was the "Dao" itself!
At once.
Yang Mei was astonished again.
Wasn't it just a Chaos Demon God?
Of course.
To be precise, it should be a "weakened version" of a Chaos Demon God.
But in essence, they were the same.
Because Chaos Demon Gods, like this pebble, were all forged from the "Dao"!
And as for beings like this pebble...
A rough sense of the place told him...
There were quite a few of them!
So.
His earlier guess had been completely wrong.
And not just a little wrong, either.
He would have to reassess his understanding of this Small Courtyard.
It wasn't that some Chaos Demon God had survived.
In a sense.
It was more like countless Chaos Demon Gods had survived—or, rather, been "reborn" here.
"Great Dao above!"
"Could it be that I've..."
"Come to a place where the Great Dao is manifest?"
The Small Courtyard was extraordinary. Not only was perception different inside and out, but its ability to suppress cultivators was terrifying as well.
Though Yang Mei had touched upon Hunyuan and mastered the Dao of Space.
Here, he was no different from an ordinary person.
He had little power at his disposal.
Even his Primordial Spirit couldn't sense very far. That was why he needed the pebble to remind him before he realized what was going on.
There was no helping it.
This place was forged from the "Dao" itself. So what if he had mastered the Dao of Space?
In a place filled with Dao Principles.
Someone who had mastered Dao Principles wasn't really anything special.
It was like...
A top scholar from some place getting into the highest academy. He might have been the best where he came from, but at the highest academy, there wasn't much to say about him.
Because there were plenty of top scholars at the highest academy!
That was Yang Mei's situation right now.
Was he special?
Special!
But only by the standards of the Primordial Wilderness.
What about by the standards of this Small Courtyard?
He was no different from a mortal!
So.
Even an "ordinary" pebble could trip him up and make him suffer a serious loss!
As a result.
Yang Mei's theories about the Small Courtyard changed again and again.
Each new one was more difficult to imagine than the last.
At first.
Yang Mei had been outside the courtyard.
He had thought this place was left behind by a Chaos Demon God who had escaped the Kaitian Tribulation.
After entering.
He had abandoned that idea.
He had thought Pangu had been reborn.
Who would have thought...
That idea had been wrong too!
After witnessing the Small Courtyard's true wonders, he couldn't help guessing that this was where the Great Dao had manifested!
Otherwise, how could he explain the solidified Dao Principles?
One had to know.
Elsewhere, even laws were formless. They were elusive signs that had to be comprehended before one could grasp any of them.
Take the Primordial Wilderness, for example.
But here, even the "Dao," which was a level above laws, could condense into bricks and stones.
So much so that the entire courtyard.
Had been built from the "Dao"!
If someone said this had nothing to do with the Great Dao, Yang Mei would never believe it.
He even...
Went so far as to guess that this was where the Great Dao had manifested itself in the Primordial Wilderness!
That was why...
Beings like the pebble, who seemed like Chaos Demon Gods, had appeared!
This time.
Yang Mei believed his guess had to be right.
However.
He had barely finished exclaiming when a voice came from nearby.
And slapped him in the face once more.
"Hm?"
"Isn't that Fellow Daoist Yang Mei? What are you doing here? And..."
"Why are you in the form of a Dao Body?"
The voice came from a rock.
On the rock.
A Spirit Beast about half a person tall, shaped like a "puppy," was the one speaking.
Its voice was full of puzzlement.
Fellow Daoist?
Did the owner of this voice know him?
What did it mean by that?
For a moment.
Yang Mei was confused.
Still puzzled, he looked over.
Then.
He was stunned the moment he saw it.
At that moment.
The "Little Beast" within his perception looked unfamiliar at first glance.
Only after looking closely.
Could he make out something familiar.
Connecting it with what it had just said, Yang Mei ventured a guess.
"Fellow Daoist Shi Qilin?"
The Little Beast lifted its head and declared proudly.
"That's right! It's me!"
Yang Mei froze.
He couldn't help exclaiming again.
"Fellow Daoist Shi Qilin, it really is you!"
"Why are you here, and how have you touched upon Hunyuan?"
"Didn't you sacrifice yourself to Heaven?"
At this, the Little Beast gave a soft snort, still haughty.
Standing atop the rock, it looked down at him and said,
"Hmph!"
"Why can't I be here?"
"Not only me. Zulong and Yuanfeng are here too!"
"In fact..."
"Quite a few of the Daoist friends who fell in the Dragon-Han Calamity are here!"
Yang Mei was dumbfounded.
He realized his deduction might have been wrong again.
Then.
Before he could think it through.
The voice from the pebble rang out once more.
It just sounded a little...
Mocking?
"Huh?"
"So you're Yang Mei!"
"No way! You're that weak? I could knock you flat with just two swings! Something must be wrong!"
"Or maybe..."
"This Smashing Holy Stone is just too powerful?"
Hearing that, Yang Mei was both astonished and helpless.
He wanted to argue.
But the facts were right before him.
He had been tripped up without noticing, then knocked over without noticing...
And then he heard what the pebble called itself.
Striking Saint Stone!
Did "Saint" mean a Sage?
He had to admit.
That was a rather arrogant name.
But this stone really did have the ability to back it up!
Just then.
Another voice rang out.
"Shi Qilin must have mistaken the person. This fellow must be an impostor. Didn't Yang Mei say he was one of the great cultivators of the Primordial Wilderness? How does it feel like he can't even block a single Sword Light from me?"
The voice came from.
A small blade of grass with twelve slender leaves.
The grass was short, only slightly higher than an ankle.
But it was extraordinarily sharp.
Just the edges of its leaves seemed capable of piercing through anything—including Space-time and even Karma!
Yang Mei focused his gaze.
He was instantly startled.
Indeed!
This was actually formed from two Dao Principles, along with a trace of Spiritual Light.
One was the Dao of Sharpness.
The other was the Sword Dao!
With these two Dao Principles layered together, it was entirely possible that he, Yang Mei, truly could not even block a single Sword Light.
For a moment.
Yang Mei felt deeply depressed.
Who could have imagined that a dignified Hunyuan cultivator like him would actually be unable to defeat a blade of grass?
That was simply absurd!
But there was nothing he could do. It was not as if he could argue, right?
He still had to acknowledge his identity.
Yang Mei gave a bitter smile and said,
"This old man... is indeed Yang Mei!"
"Oh!"
"So it really is you!"
That Sword Grass swayed for a while, clear disbelief in its tone.
Then came a burst of emotion.
"So, that means that with my current strength, if I appeared in the Primordial Wilderness, I could say that... I have no opponents?"
Yang Mei fell silent for a moment.
He did not refute it.
He did not know whether Hongjun could defeat this Sword Grass.
In any case...
He could not.
But that was precisely the problem.
Why were there so many Hunyuan powerhouses in this courtyard?
Even the dead Shi Qilin had been resurrected!
Besides.
There was another question that left Yang Mei deeply puzzled.
"Fellow Daoists, since you possess such strength, why don't you leave?"
"Even if you don't go to the Primordial Wilderness, you could go somewhere else!"
As soon as he finished speaking.
Yang Mei knew that he had said the wrong thing.
Because whether it was the look in Shi Qilin's eyes or the conscious fluctuations from the Striking Saint Stone and the Sword Grass, they all conveyed the same meaning.
Then.
The three of them spoke in succession.
"Are you stupid?"
"No wonder you call yourself 'this old man.' You really are a rotten log!"
"I was just thinking of using him to test the Sword Dao and see whether he could be carved. Since he's a rotten log, forget it! Rotten wood cannot be carved!"
In the end.
Shi Qilin could not stand it any longer.
He spoke up.
"Fellow Daoist Yang Mei, what were we struggling and vying for in the Primordial Wilderness before this?"
Yang Mei pondered briefly before saying,
"To Prove the Dao?"
"Exactly!"
Shi Qilin nodded. "It was to Prove the Dao! But if that is the case, why go anywhere else? Isn't it good to stay here? Every part of this place is not merely close to the Dao—it is the Dao itself!"
"What place could possibly be better for cultivating the Dao than this?"
"Leave? Look around. Is there a single fellow Daoist here who would be willing to leave? If I hadn't recently entered seclusion to gain insights and encountered a slight bottleneck, I would not have come out temporarily, and you would not even have seen me!"
"And furthermore..."
"We are all part of this courtyard. We can only leave if Lei Jun Tianzun permits us! Of course, no one is willing to leave anyway!"
Shi Qilin's words resolved some of Yang Mei's doubts.
Although he was still puzzled.
Many points of confusion had nonetheless been cleared up.
For example, the most crucial one.
This place...
Whose Dojo was it?
Lei Jun Tianzun's!
Wasn't this the former "Heavenly Dao"?
At that moment.
Even if Yang Mei had been any more foolish, he would have understood.
He understood.
What the so-called opportunity was.
Then.
A choice was placed before him.
Should he continue traveling through Chaos?
Searching for another opportunity that he might spend his entire life seeking without ever finding?
Or...
Should he become part of the Small Courtyard, like these fellow Daoists?
Before long.
Yang Mei reached a decision.
Unlike his hesitation when entering the courtyard, he was now incomparably decisive.
With a thought.
His true form manifested.
In an instant.
A towering Green Willow appeared in the Small Courtyard.
As for Chaos and all that...
Forget it.
Gaining insights into the deeper levels of the Dao of Space here.
That was clearly far better!
As for the possibility that staying here might be somewhat uncomfortable...
Had he really been comfortable in Chaos?
At that moment.
Yang Mei abandoned his human-shaped Dao Body and took the form of his true body, the Space Green Willow, rooting himself in the Small Courtyard.
Immediately.
His comprehension of the Dao of Space rose sharply!
"Just as I thought!"
"I made the right choice!"
Before you continue