At last, the sun sank in the west, and with a sigh, the whole land fell into night.
The tiny Earthworm in the Heaven-Connecting Palace had finally completed its long journey and spat out a smooth, plump bead of Dao Essence.
The best times to cultivate in a day were at sunrise and sunset. The sun was gentle, neither fierce nor scorching, and especially for beginners, it could protect their Dao Veins. There had been more than a few cases of people cultivating at midday, only for the Sun True Fire to stir their inner fire and burn their bodies and veins to ashes.
This was what they meant by gathering purple qi at dawn and drawing in rosy clouds at dusk.
Even Jiang Wang, whose body had been tempered by martial arts since childhood, could feel his vital energy being squeezed to its limits. Any further would damage his vitality. The Earthworm in the Heaven-Connecting Palace was looking rather listless, too.
Of course, even at this limit, his body did not feel weak. The Dao Essence nurtured in the Heaven-Connecting Palace was like a row of tiny hearts, pumping out strength without pause.
All this gave Jiang Wang a profound understanding of what he had been taught in class: the transformation from vital energy into Dao Essence was an elevation of power, the very foundation of humanity's transcendence.
He had heard that true Martial Dao cultivators did not nurture Dao Essence. They simply tempered their bodies and refined their vital energy—a completely different path.
In this age, the lords had risen in number, sects stood everywhere, a hundred schools contended, and the Great Dao was boundless. It was a golden age of cultivation. But for Jiang Wang, living in the Zhuang Kingdom, there was no other choice.
Jiang Wang carefully maneuvered the Dao Essence through the Heaven-Connecting Palace, filling in the Celestial Star Formation Map he had long since memorized by heart. It was no easy task. A person's mental power, like their vital energy, had its limits at every stage.
For a cultivator like Jiang Wang, who had only just set foot on the path to transcendence, moving Dao Essence twice a day was already the limit. Any more would leave him mentally drained, and in severe cases, might even damage his mind.
Jiang Wang knew the Foundation Array Diagram he had chosen would take a long time to complete, so he dared not waste a moment. He proceeded as if walking on thin ice. The slightest mistake would force him to start over.
And he had no time to start over.
He had only two chances each day to lay out the array points, and he could not afford to miss either one! Not even though the Celestial Star Formation Map was far more complex and difficult than the Return to Origin Formation.
Suppose someone began cultivating alongside Jiang Wang and chose the Return to Origin Formation Diagram as their foundation. If they laid out every array point perfectly, they were bound to progress much faster than Jiang Wang.
Jiang Wang did not know whether he had made the right choice. But once he had chosen, there was no turning back. He could only press forward and do his very best.
Fortunately, he was doing well enough. By the time he finished his final Pulse-Opening session of the day, dozens of beads of Dao Essence were hovering in the Heaven-Connecting Palace, each plump and full, like ripe rice in an autumn paddy, exuding the scent of a bountiful harvest. These would all be the provisions he needed to "reach Heaven."
But Jiang Wang had one more important matter to attend to.
The dormitory was empty. Ling He and Du Yehu had both gone out on missions. Having already joined the inner sect, they naturally craved Vein-Opening Pills even more.
Jiang Wang sank his mind and entered the Great Void Illusion Realm.
It was the fifteenth day of the seventh month, the monthly challenge day. If nothing unexpected happened, the master of the Green Jade Altar would challenge him today. He would smoothly—get demoted.
The familiar scene appeared: the boundless starry sky.
Jiang Wang sat cross-legged, silently watching the Sundial's phantom as he waited for the challenge to begin.
He wanted to see for himself the strength of the truly powerful in this world. Though he had "heard" such fierce clashes in Huanzhen Temple, he had never witnessed one with his own eyes. When Dong A had made his move, his opponent had been utterly powerless to resist.
Sitting beneath this expanse of stars, he felt his own heart grow open and vast.
The moment humanity first looked up at the starry sky, history began its charge. Compared with the boundless Star River, everything in the mortal world seemed so small and illusory.
After an unknown stretch of time, five black characters appeared on the Sundial's phantom: Challenger forfeited.
Jiang Wang felt relieved, though he was also inexplicably disappointed.
He had kept the Merit produced by the True Insight Ruins Blessed Land this month, but perhaps that was only because its previous owner had inspired such awe. That blazing figure named Zuo Guanglie!
Those who entered the Great Void Illusion Realm generally concealed their identities in the Present World. Apart from themselves, no one knew what sort of reputation they had earned in the realm. So few knew that the master of True Insight Ruins in the Great Void Illusion Realm was Zuo Guanglie, a Great Chu prodigy in the Present World. Now, no one would know—not even those who had once made accurate deductions from his fighting style, for all such conclusions had to be overturned.
Ordinarily, when someone in the Present World died, their identity in the Great Void Illusion Realm disappeared as well. But Zuo Guanglie had forcibly driven the power of his Zhurong True Form, nearly searing a hole through space and time. A powerful obsession had also bound itself to him, and all these factors tangled together to create an accident. The Great Void Illusion Realm had failed to reclaim the Void Key in time, allowing Jiang Wang to imprint it. Thus, he had inherited everything Zuo Guanglie had possessed in the realm.
Blessed Land Number Twenty-Three, True Insight Ruins! Merit produced this month: 1,850 points.
"Dao Evolution Platform," Jiang Wang silently said.
A Green Bamboo Desk appeared out of thin air before him, yet it did not look the least bit out of place. It seemed as natural as crops sprouting from the earth, though the process had been skipped.
The bamboo desk was bare save for an open Jade Book, its pages completely blank.
Jiang Wang had done this once before. All he needed to do was visualize the cultivation art he wanted to derive, then invest the corresponding Merit. The resulting art would appear in the Jade Book. The Foundation Array Diagram, the Celestial Star Formation, had previously been derived from the Return to Origin Formation.
Now, the Foundation Array Diagram was unfinished, and his Dao Vortex had yet to form. Every bead of Dao Essence he used was one less for later. Deriving a Daoist Art was naturally out of the question. Even Jiang Wang had only ever simulated one in his mind; he had never actually practiced a Daoist Art. After all, Dao Essence was far too precious in the early stages of cultivation.
But that did not mean he should leave his Merit unused and save it for later. On the path of cultivation, if you did not advance, you fell behind. No one knew whether tomorrow or the unexpected would come first. The only right course was to make yourself as strong as possible at every stage.
After a moment's thought, Jiang Wang chose one of the sword arts he knew best—a fierce and aggressive style—and began to derive it.
The Merit he chose to spend was 1,850 points!
Throughout the Zhuang Kingdom, the prevailing attitude was to value Daoist Arts and look down on martial arts. But Jiang Wang had no choice at this stage. With his foundation unfinished, he would not dare use even the most powerful Daoist Art.
Since he had chosen to improve his swordsmanship, he would give it everything he had, holding nothing back.
A flood of words appeared on the Jade Book atop the Green Bamboo Desk. They were from the ordinary swordsmanship Jiang Wang had learned as an outer disciple at the Maple Forest City Daoist Academy—fierce, but otherwise unremarkable. Yet the number of Merit on the Sundial's phantom kept falling, and the words in the Jade Book began to shift wildly.
Jiang Wang watched intently. The words seemed to transform into figures, drawing their swords and dancing. They moved faster and faster, until at last they blurred into one.
Jiang Wang could not help narrowing his eyes. He almost felt the sharpness pricking them!
When he blinked and looked again, the words on the Jade Book had settled. Before him lay an abstruse sword art he had never seen before, one he had never even been able to imagine!
Back at the outer sect, Jiang Wang had been widely acknowledged as the best swordsman. But as he leafed through this sword art, he suddenly felt that everything he had practiced before had been little more than farmhand tricks, fit only for working the fields!
The number of Merit on the Sundial's phantom had dropped to zero, yet Jiang Wang let out a satisfied sigh.
It had all been worth it!
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