Important Matters Need Checking Thrice!

Lu Changsheng slid down against the stone door, collapsing onto the ground with his backside, his eyes staring blankly at the fluorescent stones on the ceiling of his cave dwelling.

He sat there, right behind the stone door.

He refused to move even a single step.

This sitting lasted for ten whole years.

To those Primordial Great Beings who often went into seclusion for an entire epoch, where a single nap could last until the seas dried and the rocks crumbled, ten years was nothing more than a fleeting breath.

But for Lu Changsheng, whose heart had been suffering through torment, this ten-year psychological battle had been more exhausting than any magical duel.

On one side was staying in the cave; though safe and worry-free, his cultivation would remain stagnant forever, eventually turning to ash in an unknown Great Tribulation.

On the other side was stepping out the door; he might lose his life at any moment, but it offered a glimmer of hope to defy fate and obtain merit.

These two thoughts clashed crazily in his mind, torturing him until he was mentally and physically drained.

On a day at the end of the tenth year.

Lu Changsheng climbed up from the ground. He raised his wings and slapped his cheeks hard, trying to wake himself up.

He turned back and took one last look at the empty cave dwelling.

"Five thousand years."

He muttered to himself, his voice echoing through the empty corridor.

From the moment he had muddled his way into this world and fused with that mass of Great Dao merit to take human form, five thousand years had already passed.

For these five thousand years, he had been like a shrinking turtle, hiding desperately inside this shell he had built with his own hands, not daring to step out even half a step.

He had watched time slip away, watching his cultivation remain stuck at the early stage of the Heavenly Immortal realm, without even the slightest sign of progress.

"Since spiritual energy is useless to me, and since my origin as a Great Dao merit manifestation dictates that I cannot walk the beaten path, then even if I hide for another hundred thousand or a million years, the ending will be the same."

Lu Changsheng's eyes gradually became clear.

The instinctive fear that had arisen from the thought of opening the door was forcefully suppressed by him.

"It's a blade if I stick my head out, and a blade if I pull it back. The opportunities of this Primordial world were never meant to be waited for at home!"

Once he made up his mind, Lu Changsheng's decisive nature took over. However, as a practitioner of the "Way of Hiding," his decisiveness usually manifested in one specific area—moving house.

Since he had decided to go out and venture into the world to seek merit, he had to properly handle the belongings in this cave.

He turned around, took a step, and hurried toward the spiritual field at the back of the cave.

Pushing open the stone door of the spiritual field and looking at the dozen or so spiritual herbs and trees he had tended to for over five thousand years, Lu Changsheng's eyes were filled with reluctance and hesitation.

"I don't know when I'll be able to return once I leave."

"Even if I could return, what if some Great Being happens to be dueling nearby, or a passing demonic beast forcibly breaks the formation? Wouldn't these treasures be ruined?"

Thinking of this, Lu Changsheng immediately made a decision.

"Take them! Take everything I can, not even a blade of grass left for anyone else!"

He instantly transformed into the most ruthless farmer in the Primordial world.

He didn't bother picking the Red Sun Fruit hanging from the branches; instead, he ran to the corner, dug out a sharp, broken fragment of a flying sword to use as a shovel, and began to carefully dig around the fruit trees to extract them roots and all.

"This Red Sun Fruit tree, although its grade is pitifully low and the fruit doesn't have much spiritual energy, it has grown in this soil for over five thousand years, and the wood has long since been imbued with a trace of Pure Yang fire."

"If I dig it up and carry it with me, I can use it as firewood to keep warm if I ever reach a place of extreme cold."

Lu Changsheng muttered to himself while skillfully pulling up the entire Red Sun Fruit tree by its roots.

He stuffed the whole thing, along with a large clump of spiritual soil from beneath the roots, into the Storage Jade Box hanging around his neck.

"And this Starlight Grass."

He walked to the other side and looked at the small grasses with star-shaped leaves.

"Although they aren't very useful, when you're out and about, no one can say for sure when they might suffer a minor injury."

"Dig these up by the roots; if I get hurt later, I can crush them and apply them to the wound to at least stop the bleeding."

He didn't even spare the nameless vine in the furthest corner of the spiritual field—the one he had picked up on a whim years ago, which had been lying half-dead on the ground for thousands of years without growing much.

He pulled it straight up and wrapped it coil by coil around the outside of the jade box.

It took a full half-month.

The spiritual field, which had been simple but at least vibrant, was thoroughly scraped clean by Lu Changsheng.

Not only were the spiritual herbs and trees swept away, but even the spiritual soil he had nurtured for five thousand years was completely cleared out, provided it had even the slightest fluctuation of spiritual energy.

Now, the spiritual field was nothing but a pit several feet deep, looking even more miserable than places ravaged by ferocious beasts.

"Done!"

Looking at the empty spiritual field, Lu Changsheng patted the dirt off his wings with satisfaction.

Carrying all his packed belongings, he returned to the main hall of the cave.

As he walked, the hodgepodge of scrap-metal magical treasures hanging under his feathers made a "clinking" sound; he was truly a walking recycling center of the Primordial world.

Lu Changsheng arrived at the center of the cave and stopped in front of the white jade platform that served as the hub for his formation.

"One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three layers of arrays. Although I have already deduced them countless times, I must conduct a thorough inspection before heading out."

The obsessive-compulsive nature of a man who walks the path of caution made it impossible for him to just rush out on a whim.

He closed his eyes and split off a trace of extremely subtle divine sense, following the array core to probe the outer array nodes bit by bit.

The first layer, the core Spirit Gathering Array, was operating smoothly with no abnormalities.

The second layer, the Inverted Illusion Array, had stable foundations, and the illusions flowed naturally.

The three-hundredth layer, the Five Elements Death Array, had sufficient spiritual energy reserves, its killing intent restrained within.

Inspecting arrays was a meticulous task that consumed a great deal of mental energy.

Any tiny fracture in an array pattern or any obstruction in the spiritual energy flow of an array base could cause a thousand-mile levee to collapse from an ant hole.

This inspection took Lu Changsheng three full years.

During these three years, he was like a tireless, precision instrument, repeatedly deducing and verifying every array base, every array pattern, and every node of spiritual energy flow for all one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three layers of arrays at least three times.

Whenever he discovered even the slightest hint of stiffness, he would stop and use his own mana to reorganize it.

Only after confirming that there was not a single flaw in any link—to the point where even if a Primordial Unity Golden Immortal were to inadvertently sweep their divine sense over this place, they would only mistake it for an ordinary boulder—did he slowly retract his divine sense.

"Hoo—"

Lu Changsheng opened his eyes, exhaled a long, stale breath, and rubbed his temples, which were throbbing from the excessive consumption of his divine sense.

Finally, it is foolproof. Even if I am truly unlucky and this Nameless Low Mountain is occupied by someone else, as long as they don't dig down several thousand feet, they will absolutely never discover my cave dwelling.

Having finished all this, Lu Changsheng once again arrived before that heavy stone door.