Three Truths Secrets, After the Sky Fell

[You took the martial arts manual Innate Skill from the hands of your honored master, Liu Jinchan.]

[This book was no ordinary martial arts classic. It was the supreme true martial transmission of the Three Truths Sect. Aside from the development of its doctrine, all the sect's martial arts had sprung from this book.]

[Only disciples who had undergone the Three Truths Sect's rigorous selection and obtained the qualifications for the Daoist true records could glimpse its true face and comprehend its profound martial path.]

[There were many disciples within the Three Truths Sect, as many as eight hundred. However, the disciples truly qualified to cultivate Innate Skill numbered fewer than one hundred.]

[And those who could truly grasp the basics were only four or five.]

[Those who learned Innate Skill possessed the potential of a grandmaster and were outstanding among their peers.]

[Once they truly began cultivating, their cultivation speed far surpassed their peers.]

[You carefully cultivated according to the circulation route in the manual. However, that innate qi seemed to be separated from you by an uncrossable chasm, leaving you unable to grasp its essentials no matter what.]

[You let out a soft sigh, lamenting the difference in talent.]

[Your master Liu Jinchan said, "Innate Skill was left behind by the patriarch of the Three Truths Sect. In his life, the patriarch left behind only two martial arts treasures: Innate Skill and Empty Clarity Fist."]

["All other martial arts were deduced from these two treasures. Even this Great Yellow Court was improved upon from the foundation of Innate Skill by a stunningly brilliant patriarch of the Three Truths Sect."]

[You delved deeply into cultivating Innate Skill once more, but still found it difficult to sense that strand of innate qi, as if an invisible barrier blocked the connection between you and it.]

[In the end, it still would not work, so you asked your master Liu Jinchan, "Master, the cultivation method you practice is?"]

[Liu Jinchan smiled faintly and replied, "What I cultivate is Great Yellow Court."]

["The martial path requires piling up deep reserves before releasing them in a sudden burst. You cannot rush for quick success. Shenzhou, you need only cultivate patiently, and one day you will comprehend its meaning."]

[Just then!]

[Lu Yu pushed the door open and entered. With a trace of confusion on his face, he asked directly, "Master, weren't you learning Innate Skill?"]

[The moment these words came out, a trace of awkwardness swept across Liu Jinchan's face. He rubbed his nose, as if caught somewhat off guard by the question.]

[You, however, smiled without minding it. In your heart, you knew that your master had only been comforting you. Those capable of reaching the grandmaster realm were absolutely true martial arts geniuses.]

[Liu Jinchan had already been in the grandmaster realm at fifty.]

[At this moment, your master Liu Jinchan slowly recounted to the two of you an ancient secret of the Three Truths Sect.]

["It is said that in the distant past, three thousand years ago, the world was filled with true cultivators. They rode swords across great rivers, flying swords beheaded flood dragons, and those who attained the Dao enjoyed four hundred autumns in the mortal world. It was an era when cultivation was possible." Liu Jinchan's tone was full of yearning and remembrance.]

["Immortal masters stood high above, and mortals were like servants."]

["But one day, the sky collapsed!"]

[When you heard this, your puzzlement carried a trace of awe. "The sky collapsed?"]

[Liu Jinchan nodded slightly, his eyes revealing a trace of vicissitude and heaviness. "Yes. The patriarch of the Three Truths Sect clearly mentioned in his life records that on that day, the true sky collapsed. It was not the exaggerated words of the common people, but the real and solid collapse of the vault of heaven, making the entire world tremble for it."]

["From then on!"]

["The world underwent a tremendous change and lost something of utmost importance." He paused, his gaze profound.]

["That was the spiritual energy of heaven and earth."]

["This spiritual energy was the foundation of cultivators' practice," Liu Jinchan slowly explained. "Once it was lost, the cultivation of all cultivators beneath heaven became like a boat halted in stagnant water, unable to advance even an inch."]

["All manner of divine wonders were also lost."]

["The immortal masters shut their mountain gates tight, issuing commands from within the mountains and fully enjoying the incense offerings of the mortal world."]

["They thought themselves extraordinary, boasting that they had transcended the mortal world, holding the secrets of heaven and earth in their hands and looking down upon all living beings, like gods above the clouds."]

["However, worldly affairs are hard to predict. One day, an ordinary mortal suffered humiliation and, in fury, struck back. He beat a lofty immortal master to death, yet miraculously escaped the calamity of life and death."]

["This matter was hard to believe. To defy an immortal should have been a road to certain death."]

["However, more and more truths gradually surfaced. Those immortal masters who had been worshiped like gods were merely empty shells."]

["Even the most powerful immortal masters appeared to lack strength when facing the combined resistance of a hundred mortals."]

["For thousands of years, mortals oppressed by immortal masters finally awakened and rose up in resistance. A single edict spread throughout the land: when the mortal realm loses virtue, all beneath heaven shall drive it out together."]

["Countless mortals swung axes to fell mountains, destroyed temples and expelled immortals, dragging those lofty immortal masters down from the clouds."]

["From then on, there were no more immortal masters in the world."]

["At the same time, however, capable people gradually revealed their talents and began to claim kingship and hegemony in the mortal world, establishing secular dynasties."]

["They ushered in a Spring and Autumn and Warring States era that lasted three thousand years, continuing until now."]

[You pondered for a moment, and a complex emotion could not help surging up in your heart.]

[Now that spiritual energy was reviving, how would the world evolve? Where would the future go!]

[Lu Chen had long since passed the news of the spiritual energy revival into Liu Jinchan's ears.]

[Liu Jinchan let out a long sigh, deeply worried. "With the revival of spiritual energy, fortune and disaster are hard to tell. Who can glimpse even a little of it?"]

[Curiosity rose in your heart, so you asked, "This spiritual energy of heaven and earth, Master, can you sense it?"]

[Lu Chen was also drawn in by this question, and his gaze turned over.]

[Liu Jinchan pondered for a moment, then slowly spoke. "Though I cannot directly touch the substance of spiritual energy, the restraints between heaven and earth seem to be quietly fading."]

["If I can break through the great grandmaster realm, then the revived spiritual energy will surely be sensed by me."]

["However, the great grandmaster realm is as difficult as ascending to heaven."]

[A trace of helplessness flashed through Liu Jinchan's eyes. "In the entire Great Qing martial world, there are only four great grandmasters, all of them talents who overshadow the age and far surpass the world."]

["Foolish Monk and I are of the same generation, and we once exchanged martial arts. He had already become a great grandmaster at thirty, but his temperament is detached, and he does not concern himself with worldly affairs, so few know of him."]

["Within Great Qing, aside from that demon master who disappeared many years ago, whose true strength cannot be guessed, Foolish Monk can be called number one. With his aptitude, perhaps he has long since sensed the revival of spiritual energy. What realm his cultivation has actually reached is truly hard to imagine."]

[The reason Liu Jinchan was filled with emotion was that after the revival of spiritual energy, he discovered that the gap in strength between himself and Lu Yu had become increasingly vast.]

[In the past, when Lu Yu was at the great grandmaster realm, he could still exchange dozens of moves with him.]

[Yet now, even if Lu Yu deliberately held back, Liu Jinchan could only last a mere few moves before Lu Yu. This made him deeply feel his own powerlessness.]

[Lu Yu, however, calmly pointed out, "I can feel that spiritual energy is constantly growing stronger. In the future, there will surely be more people who can sense its existence."]

[You could not help thinking that more and more people would become immortal masters.]

[Liu Jinchan nodded slightly. A great age was about to arrive.]

[When you heard this, you understood in your heart that to sense the spiritual energy between heaven and earth, one truly needed to reach the great grandmaster realm.]

Yu Ke saw up to this point.

His face also carried a look of contemplation. In the Kun Void World, cultivation had actually been possible three thousand years ago.

It had once truly possessed spiritual energy!

Cultivators, upon attaining the Dao for four hundred autumns, could live for four hundred years.

In the world Yu Ke was currently in, one could live for four hundred years upon stepping onto the third ladder, at the time of Foundation Establishment.

But three thousand years ago, an event in which the sky fell had occurred in the Kun Void World.

After spiritual energy disappeared, cultivators disappeared.

The differences between people also disappeared along with it.

Mortals began to rise. They no longer relied on the power of cultivation, and established noble clans and dynasties in the mortal world.