Heavenly Treasure, Heavenly Treasure.
The words meant exactly what they said: a treasure from heaven.
At its core, it was the fundamental source of the rules governing the world—or, to put it in broader and more profound terms, the source of the Dao.
Ever since extraordinary powers had appeared in the world, individuals had wielded strength enough to split mountains and rivers, burn the sky and boil the seas. Great Supernatural Beings could even directly command the rules, attacking with the power of heaven and earth.
After countless years of conflict,
heaven and earth had been shattered and remade countless times. The source of the Great Dao had been shaken in battle after battle, scattering fragments of Dao Source.
These scattered fragments of Dao Source,
after growing on their own over a long stretch of time, formed Heavenly Treasures—strange and varied, each possessing all manner of wondrous, utterly unreasonable powers.
Mending a mortal's path to the extraordinary
was child's play for a Heavenly Treasure. Many Heavenly Treasures from legend had this ability, though each manifested it differently.
Some allowed people to command natural energies such as metal, wood, water, fire, earth, wind, and lightning. Others could transform people into ferocious beasts or giants, let them control all things, or steadily strengthen their bodies. Their varieties were endless, with no particular limits.
Most importantly,
Heavenly Treasures could not be seized. Once their Treasure Owner died, they dispersed and returned to the Great Dao.
Besides that,
some top-tier Heavenly Treasures even possessed powers that could only be called "conceptual."
For example,
immortality—the dream of countless people.
According to legend,
there was a Heavenly Treasure called the Undying Fire. Whoever obtained it could live as long as heaven and earth. Even if killed, they would keep coming back to life.
From the moment its owner obtained the Undying Fire, their life and death were linked to the Great Dao. It was practically impossible to counter.
Pretty ridiculous, right?
Wu Dao thought so too.
But even more ridiculous was what he heard later: a Heavenly Treasure so absurd it took the cake—
the Nine-Colored Flower!
Ancient tales said that the flower had nine petals, each a different color, and whoever obtained it could make one wish!
That was right!
A wish!
As long as it was within the power of the Great Dao, it would definitely come true!
Could you even imagine it?
Wu Dao couldn't.
After all, wishes were far too open to interpretation. Someone clever could condense countless desires into a single sentence.
If such a monstrous treasure really existed,
what would become of the world? It would be nothing but one life-form's private plaything.
Still,
this also showed, from another angle, just how utterly unreasonable the powers of Heavenly Treasures could be.
When he first heard about them,
Wu Dao had even wondered if his Attribute Panel was one of the Heavenly Treasures.
But after thinking it over, he decided that was impossible.
Because there was one fundamental difference between the Attribute Panel and a Heavenly Treasure—
active versus passive.
The Attribute Panel required its owner to kill and devour anomalies before it could advance and grow. And there was even a prerequisite: its owner had to learn an extraordinary cultivation method first.
Far too many restrictions.
Still, although Wu Dao didn't have a Heavenly Treasure,
he could make one up to conceal the things about himself that didn't make sense, and hide his trump cards and secrets.
The Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique was perfect material—
a Heavenly Treasure that made people stronger just by practicing it!
Wu Dao wasn't worried about anyone seeing through the lie.
After all, Heavenly Treasures were absurd by nature. Their essence reached straight to the source of the Great Dao, and they couldn't be seized. Unless someone stood shoulder to shoulder with the Great Dao itself, no one could expose Wu Dao's lie.
The reason Wu Dao wanted to conceal the existence of the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique
wasn't that he feared someone might learn it and surpass him. He wasn't so petty; if that were the case, he wouldn't have made Stealing Heaven public in his previous life.
It was a far more practical problem—
a struggle over the Dao!
This world wasn't like the Age of Dharma Decline from his previous life, where everyone yearned for the extraordinary but had no way to reach it, leaving the people at the top of the pyramid desperate to learn Stealing Heaven.
This world had an extraordinarily long history of extraordinary powers.
Since the Primordial Era, a community of vested interests centered around the Three Innate Organs had taken shape. The class structure had long since hardened, immovable.
Under these circumstances,
a system of extraordinary cultivation that fell outside the Three Systems suddenly appeared. Even mortals could practice it, and it threatened the interests of those at the bottom of the entrenched hierarchy.
What did you think the Great Supernatural Beings who ruled the world would do?
Ignore it and let you spread your teachings?
Think you were heaven-sent and rush to take you as a disciple?
No!
They would crush you in their hands without hesitation!
And wipe away every trace left by the Stealing Heavenly Secrets Breathing Technique in this world!
Your position decided your perspective.
Wu Dao wasn't some street thug.
In his previous life, he had stood at the Peak of Human Extreme. He had seen and experienced far too much, and knew exactly what those in power were thinking.
If you might threaten the interests of the people at the top of the class pyramid, you'd better have the strength to back up that threat.
If you didn't,
yet still thought yourself exceptional and jumped around making a fuss,
then you'd better wash your neck and wait to die.
Without absolute power,
don't try to change an entrenched class system. Otherwise, you wouldn't be welcomed—you'd be hated.
Five days after the battle at Canyun Mountain,
Wu Dao quickened his pace toward the White Whale Martial Arts Hall.
He'd heard from a few wanderers of the martial world
that, for some unknown reason, the White Whale Martial Arts Hall had suddenly started distributing Recruitment Notices throughout the martial world and holding a Hero Assembly, offering lavish rewards to recruit heroes and champions.
The basic standards for accepting disciples had also been lowered again and again. They were beginning to resemble the Giant Whale Sect of old, when it accepted students without regard to background.
And it wasn't just the White Whale Martial Arts Hall.
These days, within Guangqing Prefecture,
the Four Seas Gang in the south and the Fangcun Sword Hall in Pingliang City, the prefectural capital, were also making their moves.
Each was pulling out every trick in the book to expand its influence, making quite a racket.
For a time,
the martial world of Guangqing Prefecture was in an uproar, with rumors flying everywhere. Everyone could sense that something big was about to happen. Armed wanderers, blades and swords glinting in the light, were active on every road. It was as if the mountain winds were about to sweep in and fill the towers.
This made an already troubled age even more turbulent.
Ordinary people lived in fear.
When the martial world fell into chaos, life became even harder for those at the bottom of the food chain.
The chivalrous martial world
existed only in tales and popular stories.
The real martial world was steeped in viciousness. People were slaughtered to the last, entire families wiped out, at the slightest provocation.
A blade in hand stirs the urge to kill.
With superior strength came the bullying of the weak.
Few could keep their desires in check and refrain from evil after gaining power beyond that of ordinary people.
Not to mention,
in this lawless age of chaos,
killing someone over a disagreement, robbing a passerby, stealing money, seizing women, abducting people...
What was the big deal?
It was all perfectly ordinary.
Most importantly,
as the world grew more and more chaotic, terrifying rumors of Mountain Spirits and Ghosts grew more and more frequent. They killed people at every turn and devoured flesh and bone.
In such a dark age,
without some martial strength to protect them, ordinary folk didn't dare travel far. Once night fell, they wouldn't even leave their homes, afraid some villain or ghost might leap out of the darkness and take their lives for nothing.
But in truth,
those who still had a home were among the lucky ones.
Feudal society.
Food was the people's heaven, and food came from the land.
Land made a home; without fields, there were no people.
But now that the imperial court's rules no longer held the land in check,
local parasites, gangs, powerful families, and wealthy landlords were grabbing land without restraint, seizing it by force, fattening themselves on the people and forcing them into servitude. Those who couldn't become slaves had no choice but to abandon their homes.
Over the past few days, Wu Dao had passed through many places. Along the way, he'd seen countless crowds of displaced people, never knowing where their next meal would come from.
Starving, freezing, falling ill, getting seized by bandits or gangs...
The fates of these unprotected refugees
were mostly tragic beyond words.
Every day, Wu Dao saw piles of bones on the road, gnawed clean by wild beasts. Sometimes he even came across people who had swollen to death from eating dirt, or families who had eaten their own children...
It was a world where heaven wouldn't answer their cries and earth wouldn't heed their pleas.
A living hell.
Why didn't they rise up in rebellion?
What a joke.
This was a world of the extraordinary.
Those who controlled the rules were always the extraordinary ones.
These refugees, who could barely keep themselves alive and had no weapons to defend themselves—
even if a thousand or ten thousand charged into a city to seize food and money, the local gangs wouldn't let them off, never mind the imperial court. They wouldn't stand by while their own interests were threatened.
Forget about anyone stronger.
A martial artist who had achieved Great Success of Divine Strength could slaughter refugees with barely a scrap of flesh on their bones. Send a thousand, ten thousand—it wouldn't make much difference.
In moments, he'd butcher a hundred of them!
Who wouldn't lose their nerve?
Who would still have the courage to shout and fight?
This injustice came from the difference in their very levels of life. It wasn't something a person could change with a heart full of passion, a cry of "Are kings and generals born to their station?", and a crowd gathered around them.
Wu Dao watched these dark, chaotic scenes with cold indifference.
The more turbulent the world, the bigger the waves.
The more society's rules bent toward the primitive, brutal law of the jungle, the more opportunities there would be for a Heaven Stealer.
In an age of peace,
the iron chains of rules held you fast at every turn, making it hard to grow strong.
So...
Wu Dao was very fond of the chaotic age he now lived in. The madness, savagery, and cruelty that filled the air made him feel refreshed with every breath.
Even if a gale rose from flat ground, I'd ride the wind and smash through ten thousand miles!
Still,
sometimes he got pretty annoyed.
Because there were always a few fools with a death wish who wanted to make trouble for him!
Before you continue