Lord of the True Insight Ruins

The Dao Vein is the foundation of cultivation.

This "Dao" does not refer to the Daoist Sect's Dao, but rather the Dao of the Great Way. Regardless of whether one follows Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, military strategy, Mohism, or any other school, every cultivator must manifest their Dao Vein as the first step on the path of cultivation.

In ancient times, so-called cultivation seeds were those born with naturally manifested Dao Veins. But the human race does not judge a lifetime by innate talent; the Vein-Opening Pill is one method for resolving the issue of cultivation aptitude.

By borrowing the power of the pill, one can manifest the Dao Vein within the human body. It can also draw forth the vitality of heaven and earth to nourish the flesh. Qi and blood feed back, thereby gestating Dao Essence and setting foot on the path of cultivation.

Comparatively speaking, next to the tools and instruments Zuo Guanglie had destroyed in the explosion, a Vein-Opening Pill could hardly be considered precious.

But for this beggar trapped at the end of his rope, it was the only key to unlocking the treasure within his own body.

Through the ages, the hardest thing is merely death; when life reaches its dead end, one begs heaven for grace!

Now, the beggar had grasped his key to hope.

He was so devout.

With trembling hands, he held the jade bottle, pressed his quivering lips to its mouth, and tilted his head back to swallow!

Beside him stood a silent, dilapidated temple; in the distance lay the corpses of the beggar band; at his side were shattered bones and flesh.

At this moment, the setting sun cast its dying light, clouds scattered across the sky. Corpses littered the wilds, and the sick beggar swallowed the pill.

The Vein-Opening Pill rolled across his tongue, turned into a warm current sliding down his throat, and then dispersed into his limbs and bones.

The beggar half-closed his eyes, and in that instant, a thousand images flickered through his mind.

Training through cold and heat, practicing the sword through spring and autumn.

Pursuing great bandits, fighting vicious outlaws.

In the end, he walked down from West Mountain, where bandits gathered, alone with his sword, his body drenched in blood.

Only then had he earned a single Vein-Opening Pill.

How many years had he spent trying to approach the Transcendent world?

He had strained with all his might, struggled and pushed forward every moment—how had he reached this point?

His mother died early, and later his father's illness drained away the last of the family's meager wealth.

He was alone, his own sole support.

He passed the fiercely competitive examinations to enter the Dao Academy, stood out among the cutthroat outer disciples, and only then grasped the key to the Transcendent for the first time.

But right after that...

came poison, came an ambush.

He fought desperately to carve out a path of survival, and to avoid the search, he blended into a crowd of beggars.

He had planned to wait for an opportunity, but his body could no longer hold on.

He grew weaker and weaker, until at last he could only lie hopelessly on a pile of straw, waiting for death.

He dragged his sick body out to search the battlefield, driven only by a heart that refused to give up—but he never expected to actually find a Vein-Opening Pill!

Why someone as powerful as Zuo Guanglie would carry a Vein-Opening Pill on him—that reason had already vanished along with the end of his legend, known to no one.

But the beggar's story, because of this, had been given a new chapter.

Nothing is more unpredictable than fate.

The beggar pulled his mind back, feeling the indescribable changes within his body.

He sensed a warm power emanating from every corner of his body, "swimming" through him in a way he could not understand, eventually converging toward his spine.

This process was slow yet clear.

After an unknown amount of time, a faint force rose from his tailbone, climbing upward along the line of his spine, upward and upward. It felt like an earthworm swimming upstream against a river's current.

The process was arduous, but the warm power from every part of his body continuously supported it... The "little earthworm" finally swam through the long journey, pierced through the spine's line, and shot straight to the crown of his head!

A miracle occurred.

He seemed to see light within his body.

Warmth burst forth from his limbs and bones, from every corner of his flesh.

He no longer felt cold, no longer felt weak, no longer felt pain.

The Dao Vein had manifested, and life force nourished him.

The beggar opened his eyes, his gaze sharp and bright.

He felt strength surging through his body; he had finally seized control of his fate once more!

His Dao Vein had manifested, and although the true spirit of his Dao Vein was merely the lowest kind of tiny earthworm, it still meant he could officially step onto the path of the Transcendent.

Soaring through the sky, diving into the earth, entering the azure void—these were no longer distant, unreachable dreams!

One day, Gongyang Bai, Mo Jingyu, and even Zuo Guanglie, Li Yi... those thunderous names, those great figures—what they could do, he could do too!

The beggar stood up, gazing down at the pile of shredded flesh beneath his feet.

Life stared at death, the beginning linked to the end.

He buried Zuo Guanglie and those beggars outside the ruined temple. Even though his Dao Vein had just manifested and he was brimming with energy, it was not until the moon hung high in the sky that he finished.

This was perhaps a trivial matter of no use, yet it was the principle he upheld.

Those beggars, though they had chosen to abandon him when danger came, had not cast him out into the wilderness during his dying days before that. Though they could not fetch him a doctor or medicine, they had at least given him a few sips of water.

For that alone, when he had the strength to do so, he ought to see them buried in peace. So that they would not suffer in this life, and remain without support in the next.

People believed that only when buried could one find peace. In the boundless, vast, and merciful embrace of the earth, the departed soul could finally rest.

At last, the beggar stood before Zuo Guanglie's grave.

"He who buries you is no nameless nobody—Zhuang Kingdom, Qinghe Prefecture, Maple Forest City..." Under the moonlight, the beggar stood before the small grave, his body filthy and his hands caked with mud, yet he straightened his back and spoke his name with utter frankness: "Jiang Wang."

The tiger has yet to grow its stripes, but already bears the spirit to devour an ox.

"You did not die in an unknown place either. This place is called Huanzhen Temple. Though the broken plaque's inscriptions are hard to make out, and it has no renown, it will surely become known to the world because of you!"

Having said these words, Jiang Wang bent down and bowed earnestly: "May your spirit in heaven find peace."

This bow was not only for the Vein-Opening Pill Zuo Guanglie had left behind, but also for the compassion, integrity, and valor he had shown.

A man like Zuo Guanglie deserved every respect.

That night happened to be a full moon, its silvery light shining upon the new grave.

In the unseen, it seemed a faint breeze stirred.

Jiang Wang saw, drifting out from Zuo Guanglie's grave, specks of silver light rising slowly in the moonlight, coalescing into a small, silver crescent moon. It floated above the new grave, within arm's reach, appearing mysterious and noble.

"This is..."

A flash of insight struck Jiang Wang.

He reached out and grasped the silver crescent moon.

His vision went dark.

In the nearly boundless darkness, a gentle voice sounded. This voice seemed to contain the ultimate principles of heaven and earth, the profound mysteries of the Dao—hearing it cleared the mind and brightened the spirit.

"Greetings to the master of the True Insight Ruins Blessed Land!"

In the next instant, a single point of light appeared, then countless points of light.

Countless lights overwhelmed his sight. When Jiang Wang regained his vision, he saw, in the vast darkness before him, a surging, brilliant river of stars!

And before that river of stars stood a youth.

This person had clear, bright eyes, a high, straight nose, and an expression so gentle it seemed utterly harmless, only the slightly pursed lips revealing a trace of stubbornness. Aside from a Daoist robe of an unidentifiable material, he wore no other adornments.

Jiang Wang was stunned.

Because this youth was himself. Though dressed differently and far cleaner and neater than his current self, how could he mistake his own face?

And he was, from some angle he could not yet comprehend, in a non-visual sense, "looking at" himself.

"Insufficient Dao Essence feedback. Dao Evolution Platform, nineteen layers sealed."

That gentle voice sounded again in the vast starry sky.

"Dao Evolution Platform, eighteen layers sealed."

"Dao Evolution Platform, two layers sealed."

Each time this phrase appeared, the river of stars before him dimmed a little.

Jiang Wang tried to understand all that he was observing, and then heard:

"Third-rank Sword Discussion Platform sealed."

"Fourth-rank Sword Discussion Platform sealed."

It continued in the same manner until "Eighth-rank Sword Discussion Platform sealed," where it stopped.

Jiang Wang did not understand the meaning of this, but he supposed it had to do with his own low strength. The so-called "master of the True Insight Ruins Blessed Land" must have been Zuo Guanglie, not him.

At the same time, he noticed a line of text floating within his field of vision, a script he had never seen before.

This writing was completely different from the Zhuang Kingdom script he had learned, utterly foreign to him, yet he could clearly perceive its meaning.

"Merit: one thousand eight hundred fifty points."

As Jiang Wang pondered this, the version of himself he "saw" suddenly stepped forward and merged with him.

This process was so brief it could almost be ignored. Jiang Wang moved his limbs—everything was as he wished. In this mysterious world, he finally had a kind of tangible form.

And in the next moment, the stars in that vast void suddenly churned, and the entire brilliant river of stars surged toward him!

He was engulfed in the starry river.

Time seemed to lose all meaning. When Jiang Wang came to his senses, he found himself in a space filled with swirling immortal mist, and a flood of information streamed through his mind.

This was the world of the Great Void Illusion Realm. The True Insight Ruins Blessed Land he occupied was enveloped within this world.

The silver crescent moon he had grasped was called the Void Key, the key to entering this place. It used the power of the lunar star to pull the host's spiritual consciousness into the Great Void Illusion Realm.

Here, everything was simulated to be real. Aside from causing no harm to the host's physical body in reality, everything was identical to the real world.

The Dao Evolution Platform is a place for deducing techniques and Dao arts, and the consumption required for deduction is "merit."

The Sword Discussion Platform is dedicated to traversing the Great Void Illusion Realm to spar and compete with other cultivators.

"Merit" is mostly generated from combat—victory in same-realm battles adds merit, defeat deducts it. Cross-realm challenges come with corresponding bonuses.

Beyond that, there are other methods. For instance, corresponding Cave Heaven Blessed Lands periodically produce "merit."

Among the Seventy-Two Blessed Lands, the lowest-ranked East Sea Mountain Blessed Land produces one hundred merit per month. For each rank increase in the Lower Thirty-Six Blessed Lands, output rises by ten. For each rank increase in the Upper Thirty-Six Blessed Lands, output rises by one hundred.

The True Insight Ruins Blessed Land, occupied by Zuo Guanglie, ranks twenty-third and produces one thousand eight hundred fifty merit per month.

This is Jiang Wang's current resource.

Though he still doesn't know the specific effects, Jiang Wang can already hear his own fierce heartbeat.

This place... this place!

This world of brilliant stars seems to conceal enormous secrets.

Even just the Dao Evolution Platform and Sword Discussion Platform it reveals unfold a vast and surging world.

To evolve the Dao in a Blessed Land, to discuss swordsmanship among the stars—how magnificent!

And before today, Jiang Wang had never even heard its name.

His emotions churned, hard to calm, until he cast his gaze upon a sundial shadow and saw this line of text:

The Blessed Land's master will, in thirty days, accept the challenge from the master of the twenty-fourth Blessed Land, Green Jade Altar.

Failure will result in demotion.

Those five characters were pitch-black like ink, each word weighing a thousand jun.

"Through the ages, the hardest is the sole death; when fate reaches its end, beg heaven's grace." The original line was "Through the ages, the hardest is the sole death; heartbroken, how could it be only Lady Xi?" I changed the second half.