The Jade Tome's Heretical Path

Although the Pure Yang Creation Fruit had finished remolding him, Wang Ding still did not relax in the slightest. He continued to sit in meditation with his eyes closed, waiting until he had accumulated star power to perfection, so he could break through the Meridian Opening Stage in one go and step into the innate realm.

The hallmark of the innate realm was to transform all essence into a strand of Innate True Qi, then blast open the Mud Pill Palace and gather the divine soul, reaching the state where one could look inward upon all the apertures and meridians throughout the body. From outside to within, one would come to understand one's own fleshly body more deeply. At that point, by using Innate True Qi to stimulate the apertures and meridians, one could reach the realm of "Primordial unity, essence and qi drawn inward, free and unfettered as one wills, master of life and death."

More than half an hour passed. Wang Ding's entire body trembled, and he knew his essence had absorbed its fill of star power and begun to transform. At this moment, in Wang Ding's dantian, a silver star appeared within every drop of essence, producing waves of resonance with the Heavenly and Earthly Stars beyond the heavens. As time flowed on, the resonance grew greater and greater, until Wang Ding suddenly felt the star cores inside his dantian ignite.

At this moment, the star cores within his essence seemed to turn into tiny suns, emitting silver flames. His essence began to be slowly refined, and wisps of bluish-purple smoke rose from the refined essence, attracting one another and merging into a single strand.

Time passed slowly. The essence and star cores inside his dantian were also gradually shrinking, while that strand of bluish-purple smoke grew larger and larger, turning into a ribbon that drifted through his dantian.

At last, the essence and star cores were completely exhausted, and the silver star-flames went out. Only a foot-long strand of innate qi remained in his dantian. Sensing the innate qi, Wang Ding did not hesitate in the slightest. He circulated it and sent it charging toward the Mud Pill Palace at the top of his head. He heard a thunderous boom ring out beside his ears, then his consciousness blurred, and in the next moment, his awareness arrived at a certain place.

This was a gray sea, boundless and without end. When Wang Ding came back to himself, he saw that his entire body was transparent and radiating azure light as he floated above the sea.

The surrounding scenery entered Wang Ding's eyes. A huge bluish-purple band of light leapt into view, and at this moment, the band of light was circling a purple fragment as it danced. Wang Ding immediately realized that his current body was his divine soul, while the bluish-purple band of light was the innate qi he had refined.

Wang Ding tried to move, and discovered that as long as his consciousness thought of it, he could move anywhere. Wang Ding carefully looked at the fragment encircled by the innate qi, and his expression froze. He cried out, "Isn't that the jade shard I picked up from the back mountain behind my house on Earth? How could it be here? No way. Don't tell me it was what brought me here."

Wang Ding immediately flew over in excitement and reached out to grab the purple fragment.

The instant he seized the fragment, Wang Ding felt countless pieces of information pour into his divine soul. Countless runes appeared out of thin air and wrapped around his divine soul, wave after wave of information battering it. After an unknown length of time, the runes finally slowly vanished, revealing Wang Ding's divine soul. At this moment, Wang Ding's face was full of smiles, and he was so excited he could not contain himself.

It turned out that the fragment Wang Ding had seen was a remnant shard of the Jade Plate of Creation from the universe he had come from. Before heaven and earth were opened, three thousand demon gods were nurtured within the infinite chaos. The great god Pangu stood upon the World-Creating Green Lotus, with twenty-four pieces of the Jade Plate of Creation above his head and the Heaven-Opening Divine Axe in his hand, drawing the other demon gods to rise up and attack him together. Yet after one great battle, the great god Pangu unleashed the Forty-Nine Heaven-Opening Forms, cleaving open the chaos and slaying countless Gods and Devils. The Jade Plate of Creation and the World-Creating Green Lotus were both shattered. Afterward, when Pangu saw the split chaos evolve into heaven and earth, his heart stirred, and he understood his own path. Thus there came to be the later legends of opening heaven and splitting earth.

Hongjun obtained the remaining twenty-three fragments of the Jade Plate of Creation, on which were recorded the methods of attaining the Dao for the three thousand Great Daos and eight hundred side doors. In order to cultivate all the methods to completion, Hongjun chose the path of merging his body with the Dao and completing the Heavenly Dao.

As for the remaining piece, it turned into several fragments and hid itself between heaven and earth. What was recorded upon it were methods of attaining the Dao that were inferior to the Great Daos, mainly divided into three parts: first, the arts of unorthodox paths; second, the arts of evil paths; and third, the arts of divine paths.

In the universe of his previous life, the so-called unorthodox paths, evil paths, and divine paths that had been passed down were all nothing but tiny shrimps; there was not a single mighty expert among them. Even in the famous War of Investiture, the so-called gods merely existed by relying on the Investiture of the Gods. They had no possibility whatsoever of attaining Primordial Unity, and did not even possess the fundamental methods of cultivation. The fragment Wang Ding had obtained recorded precisely the Dao-attainment methods of the unorthodox path.

"Heaven has eyes! It actually allowed me to obtain the Jade Plate of Creation. From now on, attaining the Dao is within reach—within reach!" Wang Ding was overjoyed to the extreme. Suddenly, the Jade Plate of Creation in Wang Ding's hand let out a series of cracking sounds. Wang Ding's heart gave a thump, and he looked toward the Jade Plate, only to see a small piece break off from it. His heart went cold, but before he could react, the small broken piece of the Jade Plate released a burst of purple light and transformed into an incomparably complex, profound great talisman, which shot into his divine soul in an instant.

The purple great talisman hid deep within Wang Ding's divine soul. Countless runic branches spread out from the great talisman, extending throughout every part of Wang Ding's divine soul. Only after Wang Ding carefully recalled the information in his mind did he learn what had happened. It turned out that all unorthodox-path arts borrowed external things to attain the Dao, seizing a single thread of vitality between heaven and earth; it could be done once, but not again, and only one person between heaven and earth could use it to attain the Dao. Moreover, to cultivate this method, one had to obtain the Great Dao rune transformed from the Jade Plate of Creation that recorded that great art. This was because unorthodox-path arts stole heaven and exchanged the sun, and were not tolerated by heaven and earth. Without the Great Dao rune transformed from the Jade Plate of Creation as the foundation of cultivation, it was absolutely impossible to cultivate successfully.

Now Wang Ding had obtained one of those great arts, called the Mysterious Yellow Undying Great Art. It was a method that pointed straight to Primordial Unity. What unorthodox-path arts proved was still one of the three thousand Great Daos, only by taking a clever shortcut. This cultivation method stole the destiny and merit of living beings, then used the Mysterious Yellow Great Talisman transformed from the Jade Plate to refine Mysterious Yellow Qi and cast an undying body. As long as he still had one strand of Mysterious Yellow Qi within himself, he would be in no danger of falling, all the way until he finally condensed enough Mysterious Yellow Qi to attain Primordial Unity.

Wang Ding ended his inner sight. His consciousness returned to his body, and after circulating the innate qi throughout his whole body and returning it to his dantian, he properly calmed the excitement in his heart.

Ending his cultivation, Wang Ding rose and walked out of the room. At this moment, the sky had just grown bright, and the sun was just rising. Wang Ding's heart was filled with confidence in the future. Perhaps before, he had still felt confusion and fear toward what lay ahead, but now he had no misgivings whatsoever. With the Mysterious Yellow Undying Great Art in hand, Wang Ding had the confidence to surpass every so-called genius in the world.

"Now that I've broken through to the innate realm, just in terms of physical strength alone, I already possess the power of ten flying dragons. Among those in the Qi Transformation Stage, I can be called invincible." When Wang Ding had originally been at the Meridian Opening Stage, he already possessed the power of five flying dragons. When he broke through to the innate realm, that had doubled again. Now he possessed the full power of ten flying dragons, and his fleshly body had awakened boundless blood vitality and essence, becoming terrifying like a precious body. Even a top-grade magic artifact could not possibly break through his fleshly body now.

"I'll first go test exactly how much battle power I have now. After that, I'll have to plan for a new future." With that thought, Wang Ding returned to his room, packed up his things, then left the inn and headed out of the city.