A Humble Home Beats a Palace of Gold

A thousand years later

Zhu Yin awoke from his enlightenment. His Taiyi Golden Immortal cultivation had completely stabilized, and his mana, divine sense, physical body, and divine abilities had all improved across the board.

Zhunti said from above,

"The thirty-thousand-year calamity is approaching. Jieyin and I are going to Purple Cloud Palace to hear the Dao. Cultivate well and wait for our return."

Zhu Yin watched the two elders depart, then returned alone to Immaculate Hall.

Farewell to Himself

Seated cross-legged in his room, Zhu Yin's expression was solemn.

Everyone believed that the vow he had made during the Lightning Tribulation had been a farewell to his "Low-Grade Spiritual Root self." Even Zhunti and Jieyin had thought so.

But only Zhu Yin himself knew that he had been bidding a complete farewell to his "past-life self" as Netherworld Bamboo.

The Suffering of His Past Life

The "endless sorrow" contained within Bitter Bamboo could plunge any living being into despair, ultimately driving them to suicide.

Only by enduring it could one see one's true nature and obtain the true Purity Dao.

When Zhu Yin devoured Bitter Bamboo, he was affected by that sorrow and dreamed of his past life...

In that life, he had been an ordinary man:

His parents had died young, his girlfriend had cheated on him, he had been swindled, suffered a car accident, become disabled, been deceived into marriage, lost his wife after remarrying, lost his son in middle age, and spent his final years alone... a string of tragedies.

Just as he was preparing to kill himself, a clear thought flashed through his mind. He suddenly awakened, shattered the illusion, broke free of sorrow, and attained complete enlightenment.

That was why he had been able to completely devour Bitter Bamboo's origin and transform from Netherworld Bamboo into Pure Bamboo.

Creating the Great Freedom Dao

Because of his experiences in his past life, his understanding of the Pure Dao rapidly improved, keeping pace with the Vitality Great Dao.

But if he could not determine which was primary and which was secondary, the Great Dao would fall out of balance.

In the end, he chose to fuse the two Great Daos and create an entirely new path:

The Great Freedom Dao!

My heart is free; life force is endless.

My heart is free; purity is boundless.

When the heart is free, even wind and rain are beautiful;

when the heart is restless, even sun and moon are hateful.

Six Thousand Years in Seclusion

Zhu Yin remained in seclusion for six thousand years.

During the first three thousand years, he remolded himself.

During the latter three thousand years, he remolded his Great Dao.

Now, he had completely become Pure Bamboo. He was no longer merely the spiritual root he had once been, but a truly new existence.

Six-Purities Bamboo

Zhu Yin took a treasure from his robes.

It was the Six-Purities Bamboo he had refined while devouring Bitter Bamboo...

As spiritual bamboos of the same kind, he and Bitter Bamboo were connected by bloodline. He quickly refined it into the embryo of a spiritual treasure.

He refined the embryo during the first three thousand years and nurtured it during the latter three thousand. It was finally born during his second Transformation Stage Lightning Tribulation and acknowledged by the Heavenly Dao as his companion spiritual treasure.

It was now a High-Grade Innate Spiritual Treasure, possessing thirty-six Innate Dao Restrictions!

He had only managed this by exploiting a loophole while the Heavenly Dao was still incomplete. If anyone tried it again in the future, they would receive not a reward, but Heavenly Punishment.

The three great divine abilities Zhu Yin had cultivated had finally taken shape.

The first was the Great Freedom Seal, which he had evolved from the phantom of Mount Sumeru. This seal technique not only retained its original power, but also incorporated the earth's heaviness and stability, raising its might to an even greater level.

The second was Great Freedom Divine Light, formed by fusing the light of purity with Vitality Divine Light. When the divine light flowed forward, it could purify all things in the world and cause all life force to flourish. When reversed, it could wither vegetation and make all living beings decay. It was terrifying beyond measure.

The third was the Great Freedom Nirvana Art, inspired by the idea of "a withered tree meeting spring." Once mastered, even if his physical body was annihilated, his Dao Heart collapsed, and his Primordial Spirit shattered, he could still be reborn as long as that "will of freedom" remained!

Although this technique had only just been created and was currently only at the introductory stage, its power was already astonishing. How far it could go in the future depended entirely on Zhu Yin's fortune upon the Great Dao.

Zhu Yin gathered his thoughts and sat cross-legged in Immaculate Hall. Borrowing the light of wisdom from the Supreme Bodhi Seed, he entered seclusion for another thousand years to properly digest his gains.

A thousand years later, Zhu Yin emerged from seclusion and came to the spiritual field.

The spiritual field was brimming with life, lush and green, with dense spiritual energy. Besides many innate spiritual herbs, there were also two precious spiritual root saplings.

He had planted more than a dozen fruit pits back then, but only these two had survived. All the rest had perished. Still, he was not discouraged. Cultivating spiritual roots was already extremely difficult; even if not a single one had grown, that would have been normal. Getting two was already exceptionally good fortune.

Moreover, he had been in seclusion during this period. Golden-Clothed Boy and White-Clothed Boy had watered, loosened the soil, and fertilized them day after day according to his instructions. He had barely intervened himself, so having two survive was an unexpected delight.

One was a Postnatal High-Grade Astral Fruit Tree, which bore thirty-six fruits every three thousand years. They contained stellar essence and could nourish the Primordial Spirit and increase mana. The other was a Postnatal Medium-Grade Purplegold Grape Tree, which bore twelve fruits every fifteen hundred years and could strengthen the physical body.

He carefully stored these spiritual plants away, took another batch of spiritual soil from Mount Sumeru, bade farewell to the two boy attendants, and departed on a ray of light.

Spirit Platform Mountain.

The mountain was rich in spiritual energy, and its vegetation overflowed with life force. Though it could not compare to the immortal paradise of Mount Sumeru, it was still one of the finest places in the Western Lands.

After opening the Mountain-Guarding Array, Zhu Yin descended on a streak of azure light and returned to his Dao Field.

Looking at the familiar mountain scenery and breathing in the familiar air, a smile rose to his lips. No matter how wonderful Mount Sumeru was, it could not compare to the sense of belonging he felt at Spirit Platform Mountain.

"A humble home beats a palace of gold."

He did not use magic to clean. Instead, he personally made a broom from Lingzhu and prepared to sweep the courtyard himself. To his surprise, the moment he started, Merit descended from the heavens, and the broom actually became a Low-Grade Merit Spiritual Treasure!

Zhu Yin was both startled and delighted. He hurriedly struck while the iron was hot, making an axe and a hoe as well. These two items also gained the Heavenly Dao's acknowledgment and became Medium-Grade Merit Spiritual Treasures.

He recalled that when he had first reached the Transformation Stage, he had tried to imitate the senior transmigrators and refine magical treasures to seek Merit, only to gain nothing. Now he finally understood... the Heavenly Dao did not acknowledge things made with mana. Only items personally crafted bit by bit had a chance of obtaining Merit.

Almost no one in the Primordial World had realized this. The spirit race relied primarily on mana, ordinary beasts lacked intelligence, and the Human Clan had not yet been born. Naturally, no one would manually craft such small objects.

He had stumbled upon a loophole in the Heavenly Dao by accident, but he could not do this too often. Once Hongjun merged with the Dao in the future, such "loopholes" would be patched. All he could say was that he had encountered a good opportunity.

These three Merit Spiritual Treasures each possessed remarkable effects:

Broom: It could sweep away inner demons, purify the mind, and even break certain techniques.

Hoe: It could improve the soil of spiritual fields more effectively than ordinary spiritual springs, making it suitable for cultivating spiritual plants.

Axe: A sharp weapon of attack, incomparably keen and immensely powerful. Killing enemies with it would not stain one with karma!

Zhu Yin did not place these treasures on a shelf. Instead, he truly used them for sweeping, reclaiming land, and farming. He believed that a treasure's value lay in being used. Leaving it unused was wasteful.

He scattered the spiritual soil into the medicinal garden, used the Merit hoe to open new spiritual fields, then carefully planted the spiritual herbs and the two spiritual roots, watering them with spiritual spring water and spreading spiritual fertilizer.

After handling all this, he also moved over the spiritual lake that had once been used to raise Bitter Bamboo. He merged it with the spiritual spring in the mountain, raising the spiritual energy of all Spirit Platform Mountain.

With the earth veins restored, spiritual vitality abundant, and the spiritual lake, spiritual roots, and his own spiritual aura adding their blessings, Spirit Platform Mountain was not far from reaching the rank of a Grotto-heaven Blessed Land.