Lu Changsheng slid down along the stone door and slumped onto the ground, staring blankly at the glowing stones on the ceiling of the cave dwelling.
He sat down just behind the stone door.
He refused to move another step.
He sat there for a full ten years.
For the mighty beings of the Primordial Land, who would casually enter seclusion for an entire epoch or sleep until the seas ran dry and the rocks crumbled, ten years was no more than a brief breath.
But for Lu Changsheng, whose heart was being tormented at that moment, this ten-year battle of wills had left him more exhausted than fighting someone with magic.
On one side was staying in the cave dwelling, safe and sound but with his cultivation forever stagnant, until he ultimately turned to ashes in some unknown Tribulation of Measure.
On the other was stepping outside, where he could lose his life at any moment, but where there was a sliver of hope to defy fate and gain merit.
The two thoughts clashed wildly in his mind, leaving him mentally and physically exhausted.
One day, at the end of the tenth year.
Lu Changsheng climbed to his feet. He raised his wings and slapped his cheeks hard, trying to clear his head.
He looked back at the empty cave dwelling.
"More than five thousand years."
He murmured to himself, his voice echoing through the empty passage.
From his muddled transmigration and his transformation into a living being after merging with that mass of Great Dao Merit, more than five thousand years had passed.
For all those years, he had been like a turtle hiding its head, cowering in the shell he had built with his own hands. He hadn't dared take a single step outside.
He had watched time pass, watched his cultivation remain stubbornly stuck at the early stage of the Heavenly Immortal realm, without the slightest sign of progress.
"Since spiritual energy is useless to me, and since my roots—formed from Great Dao Merit—mean I can't follow the usual path, then even if I hide away for another hundred thousand or million years, the outcome will be the same."
Lu Changsheng's gaze gradually cleared.
He forcibly suppressed the instinctive fear that had arisen at the thought of opening the door.
"Stick your head out and get chopped; keep it tucked in and get chopped all the same. Opportunities in the Primordial Land have never come from sitting at home and waiting for them to fall out of the sky!"
Once he had made up his mind, Lu Changsheng's decisive streak kicked in. But as someone who followed the Dao of Cowardice, his decisiveness usually took a different form—moving house.
Since he had decided to venture out and seek merit, he needed to sort out the belongings in the cave dwelling.
He turned and strode quickly toward the spirit field at the back of the cave.
He pushed open the stone door to the spirit field. As he looked at the dozen or so spirit herbs and trees he had tended with his own hands for more than five thousand years, his eyes filled with reluctance and indecision.
"I don't know when I'll be able to come back."
"And even if I do come back, what if some mighty being fights nearby in the meantime, or some passing beast breaks through the formations? Wouldn't these treasures be in danger?"
At that thought, Lu Changsheng made up his mind at once.
"Take them! Everything I can take comes with me. I won't leave a single blade of grass for anyone else!"
He immediately transformed into the most heartless farmer in the Primordial Land.
He didn't bother picking the Red Sun Fruits hanging from the branches. Instead, he rummaged through a corner, found a broken flying sword shard with a sharp edge to use as a shovel, and carefully began digging around the tree's roots.
"This Red Sun Fruit Tree is pitifully low-grade, and its fruit barely contains any spiritual energy. But it's been growing for more than five thousand years in this slightly spiritual soil. Its wood has long since absorbed a trace of Pure Yang Fire."
"I'll dig it up and carry it with me. If I ever reach some frigid place, I can use it for firewood to keep warm."
As he muttered, Lu Changsheng skillfully uprooted the entire Red Sun Fruit Tree.
Along with a huge clump of spiritual soil beneath its roots, he stuffed it all into the Storage Jade Box hanging around his neck.
"And this patch of Starlight Grass."
He walked to the other side and looked at the small plants whose leaves were shaped like stars.
"It's not much use, but when you're away from home, you never know when you might get a minor injury."
"I'll dig these up by the roots. If I get hurt, I can crush them and apply them to the wound. At least they'll stop the bleeding."
He didn't even spare the Nameless Vine in the far corner of the spirit field. He had picked it up on a whim years ago, and it had been half-dead, sprawled on the ground for thousands of years without growing much.
He simply yanked it up and wound it round and round the outside of the Jade Casket.
It took him a full half month.
The spirit field, once modest but at least brimming with life, had been scraped three feet deep by Lu Changsheng.
Not only had he cleared out every spirit herb and tree, but he had also taken all the spiritual soil he had nurtured for more than five thousand years. Anything with even the slightest ripple of spiritual energy had been packed away.
Now, all that remained in the spirit field was a pit several feet deep. It looked even more miserable than the places ravaged by Fierce Beasts outside.
"Done!"
Looking at the empty spirit field, Lu Changsheng patted the dirt off his wings with satisfaction.
Carrying all his worldly possessions, packed up and ready to go, he returned to the main hall of the cave dwelling.
As he walked, the battered magical treasures he had cobbled together beneath his feathers clanged against each other. He looked for all the world like a walking recycling depot in the Primordial Land.
Lu Changsheng went to the center of the cave dwelling and stopped before the white jade platform that served as the central formation eye.
"One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three layers of formations. I've already checked them over countless times, but before I leave, I have to inspect them thoroughly once more."
The compulsiveness of someone who followed the Dao of Cowardice made it impossible for him to charge outside on a whim.
He closed his eyes and sent out a wisp of divine sense, so faint it was barely perceptible. Following the formation eye, he probed the formation nodes on the outskirts, one by one.
The first layer, the core Spirit Gathering Array, was running smoothly, without any abnormalities.
The second layer, the Inverted Illusion Array, had a sturdy foundation, and its illusions flowed naturally.
The three-hundredth layer, the Five Elements Death Array, had ample spiritual energy stored, and its killing intent was concealed.
Inspecting formations was painstaking work that consumed immense concentration.
The tiniest break in a formation pattern or a disruption in the flow of spiritual energy through a formation base could cause a breach in the dam a thousand miles long.
This inspection alone took Lu Changsheng a full three years.
During those three years, he was like a tireless precision instrument. He repeatedly checked and verified every formation base in the one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three layers of formations.
Every formation pattern and every node through which spiritual energy flowed, he checked at least three times.
The moment he sensed even the slightest hitch, he would stop and use his own magic power to set things straight.
Only after confirming that not a single link was faulty—even if a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal happened to sweep the area with divine sense—
and would only take this place for an ordinary lump of rock—did he slowly withdraw his divine sense.
"Phew—"
Lu Changsheng opened his eyes, let out a long breath, and rubbed the spot between his brows, which ached from overusing his divine sense.
"At last, everything's foolproof. Even if I'm incredibly unlucky and someone takes over this Nameless Low Mountain, they'll never discover my cave dwelling unless they dig several thousand feet down."
After finishing all that, Lu Changsheng returned once more to the heavy stone door.
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