At the summit of Mount Tai stood the Jade Emperor Temple.
Wisps of incense smoke drifted straight upward, entwining with the mountain mist like an Impassable Barrier that shut out the clamor of the mortal world.
Within the temple, all was tranquil and secluded. Only the mountain wind occasionally stirred the wind chimes beneath the eaves, their lingering notes echoing endlessly through the valleys.
A young man in a green Daoist robe sat upright in a quiet corner of the temple, his sleeves fluttering gently in the breeze.
His features were clear and refined, his face like finely carved jade. His eyes were lively yet profound, and an otherworldly, immortal aura naturally emanated from his body.
On the stone table before him lay an ancient copy of the Dao De Jing. Its pages had yellowed slightly, showing that it had been read countless times.
"Time and space truly are unpredictable..."
Lin Yu could not help but sigh.
He had once been an ordinary young man on Earth, yet he had been utterly obsessed with mysticism and mythical legends. One day, while climbing a mountain on an expedition, he accidentally fell into a mysterious cave.
Inside the cave, light flickered erratically. A strange radiance suddenly enveloped him, and when it faded, he found himself in a boundless Chaos Void.
Thick Chaos mist surged and rolled around him, sometimes gathering into enormous whirlpools and sometimes racing like raging tides.
Lin Yu looked around in terror, his heart filled with fear of the unknown as he desperately tried to determine where he was.
At that very moment, a tiny golden figure emitting a soft golden glow appeared out of thin air. It was no larger than a palm, yet it radiated a mysterious and powerful presence. Its eyes shone like brilliant stars as it silently watched him.
Before Lin Yu could react, the golden figure suddenly flew out of the Chaos mist, transformed into a streak of golden light, and shot straight toward the center of his brow.
In an instant, Lin Yu felt a burning sensation between his brows as the golden figure merged into the depths of his soul.
The moment his consciousness connected with the golden figure, an immense flood of information poured into Lin Yu's mind like crashing waves, making his head feel as though it were splitting apart.
It was a mysterious cultivation technique formed from countless words and wondrous diagrams—the Divine Elephant's Prison Technique!
The cultivation method described within left Lin Yu utterly shaken:
"Guide the divine with qi, form the elephant with the divine. With every gesture comes the strength of a giant elephant. The human body is composed of eight hundred and forty million particles. If their potential is awakened, every tiny particle possesses the strength of a giant elephant. Once all are awakened, one rivals a Divine Elephant—able to Overturn Rivers and Seas, roar down the stars, pluck the moon and swallow the sun, all within a single thought..."
Such a grand cultivation concept was like a door opening before him, leading into a transcendent world.
However, the impact of that vast torrent of information was too great for him at the time. Lin Yu felt a sharp pain in his mind before falling unconscious.
When he awoke again, he was already in this unfamiliar world, an orphan with no one to rely on. Fortunately, an old Daoist priest from Mount Tai Jade Emperor Temple took him in, allowing him to settle down in this temple.
Time flowed on, and a month ago, as Lin Yu continued to grow and his soul gradually strengthened, memories from his previous life came flooding back like a tide.
"I never imagined that transmigration would happen to me." Lin Yu had never expected that something found only in novels would truly happen to him.
As he sorted through his memories, Lin Yu was suddenly startled. This world was also called Earth, and its history and many other aspects were roughly the same. The only difference was that this world had once borne traces of cultivators, giving its development a greater air of myth.
He discovered that in the distant past, their lineage had once been filled with talented people and numerous cultivators.
Relying on profound Daoist arts, those ancestors had slain demons and exterminated devils, saved the world and its people, and earned fame far and wide.
However, as the Era of Dharma Decline quietly descended, the spiritual energy between heaven and earth grew ever thinner, and cultivation became increasingly difficult. Though their ancestors did everything they could, they were still unable to stop the gradual decline of their lineage.
By now, the once-glorious cultivation inheritance had almost completely vanished from the Jade Emperor Temple. Only he, an outwardly ordinary Daoist, remained to guard this ancient temple and its few surviving scriptures.
Looking at the temple, Lin Yu felt both countless emotions and profound helplessness. During the day, people constantly came and went outside the Jade Emperor Temple, making it bustling and lively. Tourists wandered among the various halls, either praying devoutly or looking around with curiosity.
They marveled at the temple's magnificent architecture and felt the mysterious atmosphere atop Mount Tai. Yet only cultivators like him understood the loneliness hidden within.
When night fell and the bustle faded, he was left alone with the old scriptures, with no one to share his understanding of cultivation.
The grand scenes of his ancestors discussing the Dao had long faded away. Now the inheritance was difficult to continue; he was like an island unto himself, with no one who understood him and no one to walk beside him. This loneliness followed him like a shadow.
Over the past month, Lin Yu had worked hard to learn about this world through the internet. Unfortunately, deeper information remained shrouded in a layer of mist.
"If only I had learned hacking before my memories awakened." Lin Yu could not help but grumble inwardly.
Based on the information he had received from his master, this land was transforming toward the Era of Dharma Decline. The environment was worsening by the day, while spiritual energy grew increasingly scarce.
During a period of upheaval a hundred years ago, their lineage had lost its inheritance in that calamity. Even the master who had taken him in could only barely preserve Mount Tai Jade Emperor Temple through a few worldly connections. As for any true cultivation inheritance, it had long since disappeared.
At that moment, Lin Yu once more immersed himself in thoughts of the Divine Elephant's Prison Technique.
This supreme divine art had been created by the Supreme Ruler of the Saint King Chaos Universe to advance into the Boundless Realm. Yet for some unknown reason, it had drifted into the Chaos Void and, by a twist of fate, fallen into his hands.
From the very beginning, cultivating this supreme technique required vast amounts of energy to open up Giant Elephant Particles. Even Yang Qi, the world's protagonist, had only condensed a Thunder Divine Elephant within his body after being struck by lightning.
Each time he circulated his qi, a portion of that Divine Elephant would melt into his body, allowing him to progress at an astonishing rate. A single day of cultivation was worth more than ten years of another person's bitter effort, and that was how he first stepped onto the path of cultivation.
Lin Yu could only try to find a place atop Mount Tai where spiritual energy gathered, hoping to use that meager energy to begin cultivating. As for his progress, it was truly "nowhere in sight."
"Did Heaven send me to this Era of Dharma Decline just to torment me to death?"
In the Era of Dharma Decline, spiritual energy was scarce. Forget the Divine Elephant's Prison Technique—even ordinary cultivation was incomparably difficult, and Lin Yu had once fallen into despair.
Who knew how long passed before Lin Yu was still immersed in the world of cultivation. Suddenly, a burst of noisy commotion came from outside the temple. It shattered the temple's usual peace and pulled Lin Yu out of his cultivation state.
He frowned slightly, puzzled. Ever since his master had passed away and he had taken over the temple, the Jade Emperor Temple had always received worshippers, but he had never heard such a commotion before.
Lin Yu slowly rose, straightened his Daoist robe, and decided to go outside to see what had happened...
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