Dao Xuan's Decision: World-Proving Dao

"So this was Fangzhang Island." Dao Xuan quickly found the boundary stele of the immortal island, where the two large characters "Fangzhang" were engraved.

Just as before, Dao Xuan immediately began searching the island for treasures.

Likewise, in the center of Fangzhang Island, Dao Xuan found a tea tree. It was none other than the supreme-grade innate spiritual root, the Enlightenment Tea Tree.

Though it was not among the ten great spiritual roots, its ability to aid enlightenment was unmatched in the Primordial World. It was one of the few innate spiritual roots that could even benefit Saints.

However, Dao Xuan's expression soon darkened.

Because the moment his divine sense touched the Enlightenment Tea Tree, a sleeping consciousness within it awakened.

Well then, the Enlightenment Tea Tree had actually developed its own consciousness.

Moreover, this consciousness was far stronger than the Gourd Vine's and could even communicate with Dao Xuan in simple ways.

"Don't worry. Since you are also a spiritual root, I won't erase your consciousness." Sensing the fear radiating from the Enlightenment Tea Tree's consciousness, Dao Xuan reassured it.

Although he would not erase its consciousness, Dao Xuan still made an agreement with the Enlightenment Tea Tree, just as he had with the Gourd Vine.

After it took human form, Dao Xuan would not stop it if it wished to leave. In exchange, however, all the tea leaves it produced during that period would belong to Dao Xuan.

The Enlightenment Tea Tree had no objections and agreed.

After all, it was not really in a position to disagree! If it dared object, Dao Xuan would have a genuine excuse to erase its consciousness.

Its leaves would still belong to Dao Xuan then.

After this experience with the Enlightenment Tea Tree, Dao Xuan was not in a very good mood. But after thinking it over, he soon accepted it.

After all, it was perfectly normal for a spiritual root like the Enlightenment Tea Tree to develop its own consciousness.

Spiritual roots inherently possessed innate intelligence. If even they could not develop consciousness, then no other innate spiritual roots could hope to do so.

Dao Xuan continued searching Fangzhang Island.

Yet to Dao Xuan's surprise, he found twelve pearls. Each was round and the size of a fist, with faint five-colored radiance flowing over its surface.

These twelve pearls were precisely the Sea-Calming Divine Pearls.

Legend had it that the Chaos Pearl had been destroyed when Pangu opened the heavens, while fragments of its core became the thirty-six Sea-Calming Divine Pearls.

Each of the thirty-six Sea-Calming Divine Pearls was merely a low-grade innate spiritual treasure when used alone, not particularly powerful.

But when gathered together in groups of twelve, their power could stack continuously and become extraordinarily terrifying.

For instance, twelve Sea-Calming Divine Pearls could rival a high-grade innate spiritual treasure. Twenty-four Sea-Calming Divine Pearls possessed the power of a supreme-grade innate spiritual treasure.

As for all thirty-six Sea-Calming Divine Pearls together, their power could even rival an Innate Supreme Treasure.

As Dao Xuan looked at the twelve Sea-Calming Divine Pearls, even his breathing unconsciously grew heavier.

The twelve Sea-Calming Divine Pearls were simply too precious.

Without a doubt, these were the twelve Sea-Calming Divine Pearls that had originally gone missing.

Together with the twenty-four that fell into Zhao Gongming's hands during the Investiture of the Gods, all thirty-six Sea-Calming Divine Pearls would be complete.

However, that was not what truly concerned Dao Xuan. Within every Sea-Calming Divine Pearl was a small space containing the embryonic form of chaos.

If those embryonic chaos spaces were opened up, each would become a Lesser Thousand World.

Originally, after Randeng obtained the twenty-four Sea-Calming Divine Pearls from Zhao Gongming, he opened them into the Twenty-Four Heavens and greatly increased his strength as a result.

Now, although Dao Xuan had obtained only twelve Sea-Calming Divine Pearls—

Their usefulness to him was simply too great.

He had considered before whether he should take the path of World-Proving Dao. But first, World-Proving Dao had its drawbacks, and cultivation that consumed vast resources would place immense pressure on him.

Second, if he chose World-Proving Dao and opened up a world within his body, the danger would be extremely high. Dao Xuan was not very confident of succeeding.

But now, he had found these twelve Sea-Calming Divine Pearls.

This greatly increased his chances of success.

So, should he do it?

Dao Xuan grew increasingly tempted.

The twelve Sea-Calming Divine Pearls floated in the air, their five-colored radiance shining over his face as light and shadow shifted.

Yet in the end, Dao Xuan took a deep breath and forcibly calmed himself.

He could not act rashly!

"Let's first see what the last island, Penglai Island, has to offer!" Dao Xuan decided to give himself time to think calmly.

With a wave of his hand, he put away the twelve Sea-Calming Divine Pearls.

Then Dao Xuan returned to the boundary stele and refined Fangzhang Island's boundary stele as well.

Of the three immortal islands, Dao Xuan now controlled two. Once he found the last island and refined its boundary stele, he would be able to merge all three immortal islands into one.

That way, the combined immortal island would naturally become an even finer blessed land and grotto-heaven.

After refining the boundary stele and gaining control of Fangzhang Island, Dao Xuan left the island and headed toward the last one, Penglai Island.

Following his connection to Penglai Island, he reached it even faster this time.

Moreover, the spiritual energy on Penglai Island was clearly richer than that of both Fangzhang Island and Yingzhou Island.

Clearly, Penglai Island was the foremost of the three immortal islands. This also meant that its treasures would be better than those on Fangzhang Island and Yingzhou Island.

Having gained experience from the first two islands, Dao Xuan was even more direct this time and headed straight for the island's center.

There, as Dao Xuan stared at the spiritual root before him, his whole mind went blank.

"World Tree?"

"No! This is Jianmu. Heaven-Piercing Jianmu!!"

Once he realized it, Dao Xuan's heart was filled with shock.

He had never imagined that the spiritual root on Penglai Island would be this one. Heaven-Piercing Jianmu! This spiritual root had originally been a chaos spiritual root known as the World Tree.

But because Pangu opened the heavens, it was damaged and degenerated into a top-tier innate spiritual root, becoming this Heaven-Piercing Jianmu.

It could be said that, if the Twenty-Four-Petal Creation Green Lotus was excluded, Heaven-Piercing Jianmu was likely the only spiritual root stronger than the ten great spiritual roots.

And most importantly—

Dao Xuan no longer needed to hesitate over the World-Proving Dao he had considered earlier after seeing this spiritual root.

With this "World Tree," if he did not take the path of World-Proving Dao, would he be worthy of the opportunities he had received?

He had to pursue World-Proving Dao!

Dao Xuan truly settled on his path.

That was World-Proving Dao!

Unlike the Primordial World's three mainstream methods of Dao-proving—Merit-Proving Dao, Three-Corpse-Slaying Dao-Proving, and Law-Proving Dao—World-Proving Dao meant evolving a complete great world from oneself and entrusting one's Dao to the origin of a world one had personally opened. One would become the creator of that world, with one's Dao fruit firmly bound to the world's origin. The stronger the world became, the higher one's cultivation would rise. So long as the world remained undying, one would remain unbreakable through countless tribulations.