The Incomplete Map

Dao Master Qingwei sat opposite him, her green skirt trailing across the ground, her fingertips rolling a withered leaf that had drifted down from the corner of the courtyard.

The leaf slowly spun between her fingers. With every turn, a faint green sheen appeared on its surface.

This was a sign of the Azurewood Longevity Art circulating naturally. Clearly, the "Greenwood True Seal" she had obtained in the ruins had already begun merging into her Dao foundation. "Ten years is short," Dao Master Qingwei said softly, "but for us, it is enough."

Dao Master Leihuang squatted on a stone stool, hugging a wine jar as he took a huge gulp.

He wiped his mouth with his sleeve and grinned. "Isn't it just the third step? Brother Chu can even handle law battle puppets. Finding an anchor point should be as easy as taking something from his pocket, shouldn't it?"

Chu Ming shook his head and set down his teacup.

"It's different."

He rose and walked beneath the old locust tree in the courtyard.

Its bark was rough and cracked, carrying beneath the touch a texture steeped in the passage of years.

The instant his fingertips touched the trunk, the [Chaos Order Realm] stirred faintly in the depths of his Dao heart.

Within the realm, the fern growing beside the lake gently swayed its leaves, as though responding to that touch.

"The Dao Stele's revelation was very clear." Chu Ming turned around and leaned against the tree trunk. "The third step, becoming real, requires anchoring the realm to a node of real-world laws. That node determines the future upper limit of the realm's growth and the direction of its traits."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over Qingwei and Leihuang.

"Choose wrongly, and at best the realm will grow slowly. At worst,