Riding the Wind in Troubled Times

Heavenly Treasure, Heavenly Treasure.

Literally speaking, it is a treasure of heaven.

Its essence is the fundamental source of the rules that govern the operation of heaven and earth, or to put it more profoundly and broadly, it can be called the source of the Dao.

Ever since extraordinary powers appeared in the world, individual martial prowess has been capable of splitting mountains and rivers, burning the heavens, and boiling the seas; Great Supernatural Beings can even directly grasp the rules and attack using the power of heaven and earth.

After countless years of conflict.

Heaven and earth have been broken and reconstituted countless times, and the source of the Great Dao has been shaken in successive wars, causing some Dao Source to scatter.

These scattered Dao Sources.

After long periods of autonomous growth, they formed strange and varied Heavenly Treasures that possess all kinds of incredible, unreasonable powers.

Helping mortals continue on the path of the extraordinary.

To a Heavenly Treasure, this is a piece of cake; many legendary Heavenly Treasures possess this ability, though the ways they manifest it differ.

Some allow people to master natural energies like metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning, while others allow one to transform into a ferocious beast or giant, control all things, or continuously strengthen one's physique. The types are numerous and have no specific limitations.

The most critical point is.

Heavenly Treasures cannot be plundered; once the Treasure Owner dies, the Heavenly Treasure will dissipate and return to the Great Dao.

Beyond this.

Some top-tier Heavenly Treasures even possess various powers that can be called "conceptual" in level.

For instance.

The immortality that countless people dream of.

According to rumors.

There is a Heavenly Treasure called the Undying Fire; whoever obtains this fire can live as long as heaven and earth, and even if they are killed, they will continuously resurrect.

Because from the moment one obtains the Undying Fire, the life and death of the Treasure Owner are linked to the Great Dao, which can be described as unsolvable.

It sounds absurd, doesn't it?

Wu Dao also thinks it is absurd.

But what is even more absurd is that he later heard of a Heavenly Treasure that is absurd to the extreme—

The Nine-Colored Flower!

Ancient legends say that this flower has nine petals of nine colors, and obtaining it allows a person to make a wish!

Yes!

A wish!

One that is guaranteed to come true as long as it is within the bounds of the Great Dao!

Can you even imagine it?

In any case, Wu Dao dares not imagine it.

After all, the concept of wishing has too much room for manipulation; someone with a good brain could condense countless desires into a single sentence.

If such a perverse treasure really existed.

What would the world become? It would completely turn into the personal plaything of a single living being.

However.

This also illustrates from another angle just how unreasonable the power of a Heavenly Treasure truly is.

When he first heard of them.

Wu Dao even suspected that his Attribute Panel was a Heavenly Treasure.

But thinking about it carefully, that is impossible.

Because there is an essential difference between the Attribute Panel and a Heavenly Treasure—

Active versus passive.

The Attribute Panel requires one to kill and devour anomalies in order to evolve and grow, and it has a prerequisite: the owner must learn an extraordinary technique before they can evolve.

There are too many restrictions.

However, although Wu Dao does not have a Heavenly Treasure.

He can fabricate one to cover up the unreasonable aspects of himself and hide the secrets of his trump cards.

The Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique is a great subject for this—

A Heavenly Treasure that allows one to continuously grow stronger just by practicing it!

Wu Dao is not afraid of being exposed.

After all, Heavenly Treasures are inherently absurd; their essence points directly to the source of the Great Dao, and they cannot be plundered. Unless one is on par with the Great Dao, no one can expose Wu Dao's lie.

The reason Wu Dao wants to hide the existence of the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique.

It is not because he is afraid that someone will learn it and surpass him, or that he is narrow-minded; if that were the case, he would not have made the Stealing Heavenly Secrets public in his previous life.

It was a very realistic problem—

The struggle for the Dao!

This world was not the Age of Dharma Decline like his previous life, where everyone yearned for the extraordinary but had no path to follow, leaving those at the top of the pyramid thirsty for knowledge of the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique.

The history of the extraordinary in this world was extremely long.

Ever since the Primordial Era, a community of interests had formed with the Three Innate Organs at its core, and the class structure had long since solidified, becoming unshakable.

Under these circumstances.

If an extraordinary system suddenly appeared that existed outside the Three Systems, one that mortals could also practice and that could shake the interests of the bottom layer of the solidified class structure.

Guess what those Great Supernatural Beings who controlled the world would do?

Ignore it and let you spread your martial arts?

Be amazed by your talent and scramble to take you as a disciple?

No!

They would absolutely crush you to death in an instant!

And they would erase every single trace left by the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique in this world!

Your position determines your perspective.

Wu Dao was no street thug.

Standing at the Peak of Human Extreme in his previous life, his life experience was incredibly rich, and he clearly understood what those in power were thinking.

When you have the potential to threaten the interests of those at the top of the class pyramid, you had better actually possess the ability to threaten them.

If you don't.

And you still act conceited, jumping around and making a scene.

Then wash your neck and wait for death.

Without absolute power.

Do not harbor delusions of changing a solidified class structure, otherwise, what awaits you will not be acceptance, but hatred.

Five days after the battle at Canyun Mountain.

Wu Dao quickened his pace toward the White Whale Martial Arts Hall.

He had heard from some travelers in the martial arts world that for some unknown reason, the White Whale Martial Arts Hall had recently been widely distributing recruitment notices across the martial arts community, hosting a Hero Assembly, and offering heavy rewards to recruit heroes and men of exceptional talent.

The basic standards for accepting disciples had been lowered repeatedly, possessing a bit of the atmosphere of the Giant Whale Sect's old philosophy of teaching without discrimination.

And it wasn't just the White Whale Martial Arts Hall.

Currently, within the territory of Guangqing Prefecture.

In addition to the White Whale Martial Arts Hall in the north, the Four Seas Gang in the south and the Fangcun Sword Hall in the prefecture capital, Pingliang City, were also making their own moves.

Each was using every means at their disposal, expanding their influence aggressively, and creating quite a stir.

For a time.

The martial arts world of Guangqing Prefecture was in an uproar, with everyone speculating and sensing that something major was about to happen; everywhere, there were martial arts travelers moving about with blades and swords in hand, a clear sign that a storm was brewing.

This made an already unstable world even more unsettled.

The common people were filled with fear and anxiety.

Because once the martial arts world fell into chaos, their already difficult lives at the bottom of the food chain became even harder to endure.

A martial arts world of chivalry and justice.

After all, only existed in storybooks and legends.

The real martial arts world was filled with malice, where people would often kill everyone in a family over the slightest grievance.

He who carries a sharp weapon will soon harbor a desire to kill.

Those who possess superior martial arts often bully the weak.

Few people could control their desires and refrain from doing evil once they possessed power that surpassed that of ordinary mortals.

Not to mention.

In these chaotic times where laws were effectively non-existent.

Killing someone, robbing a road, stealing wealth, stealing women, kidnapping people over a simple disagreement...

It was no big deal.

It was practically normal.

Most importantly.

As the world became increasingly chaotic, more and more terrifying rumors about Mountain Spirits and Ghosts emerged, often harming lives and consuming human flesh and bone.

Such a dark world.

Without some martial strength to rely on, ordinary commoners wouldn't dare travel far, nor would they even step out of their homes after dark, fearing that some villain or specter might leap out from the shadows and claim their lives for no reason.

But in truth.

Commoners who still have a home are the lucky ones.

Feudal society.

People view food as their heaven, and grain is produced from the land.

Only with land can there be a home; without fields, there are no people.

But now, the constraints of the imperial court are gone.

Local parasites, gangs, powerful families, and wealthy tyrants are recklessly engaging in land annexation, seizing property by force, fattening themselves on the people, and enslaving them; those who cannot be slaves are forced to leave their homes.

Wu Dao has passed through many places these past few days, and what he saw along the way were mostly large groups of displaced refugees living on the brink of death.

Starving to death, freezing to death, dying of illness, being plundered by mountain bandits and gangs...

The fate of these refugees, who fall under no one's protection, is mostly miserable.

Every day on the road, Wu Dao sees skeletons picked clean by wild beasts, and occasionally he sees those who have bloated to death from eating dirt, or instances of people swapping children to eat...

It is truly a case of calling to heaven with no response, and crying to the earth with no answer.

A scene of a living purgatory.

You ask why they don't rise up and revolt?

Are you kidding me?

This is a supernatural world.

Those who control the rules are always the transcendents.

As for these unarmed refugees living on the brink of starvation.

Once they dare to storm a city to seize grain or money, never mind the imperial court, the local gangs alone would not spare them for the sake of their own interests.

To say nothing of the high-level ones.

A martial artist with the Great Success of Divine Strength, when dealing with refugees who don't have an ounce of fat on them, would be unstoppable even if a thousand or ten thousand of them came.

In a matter of moments, he could slaughter a hundred!

Who wouldn't be terrified?

Who would still have the courage to shout about fighting and killing?

This is an injustice caused by a gap in life levels; it is not something that can be changed just because you have a head full of hot blood, shout a slogan, or gather a crowd.

Regarding these dark and chaotic phenomena.

Wu Dao has always watched with cold eyes.

The more chaotic the world, the greater the storms.

Only when social rules lean toward the primitive and cruel competition of the jungle will the opportunities for a Heaven Stealer increase.

If it were a prosperous age.

The iron laws of the rules would bind him, leaving him constrained everywhere and making it difficult to grow strong.

Therefore...

Wu Dao quite likes the chaotic era he is currently in; the chaos, madness, cruelty, and barbarism filling the air make him feel invigorated with every breath he takes.

Even if a gale rises from the flat ground, I shall ride the wind for ten thousand miles!

However.

Sometimes he still finds it quite annoying.

Because there are always some things that don't know the meaning of death and want to bring him some displeasure!