Lingtai Square-Inch Mountain, fifth floor.
Inside the Dao Comprehension Chamber.
There were no unnecessary furnishings, only a bluestone meditation cushion.
The four walls were smooth as mirrors, yet reflected no one. Only the subtle Dao rhythms of calm and clarity flowed across them.
Ji Yuan sat cross-legged on the cushion, steadily holding the pitch-black Dao-Watching Stone in his hands.
He drew a deep breath and slowly channeled the Nascent Soul spiritual power from his Dantian into the Dao-Watching Stone.
The instant his warm spiritual power touched the black stone, it flashed with dark light.
An indescribable pull emanated from it.
It traveled along his fingertips, straight into the depths of his Sea of Consciousness.
Ji Yuan did not resist in the slightest. He let his Divine Sense pour into the Dao-Watching Stone.
In the blink of an eye, his aura withdrew and his eyes gently closed. He sank into an utterly profound state of Dao contemplation.
Every sound and presence in the outside world was completely shut away from him.
His consciousness seemed to be drawn into a long river of time.
His more than two centuries of cultivation and every life-or-death battle unfolded before his eyes with startling clarity.
He saw the bewildered yet stubborn boy who had just entered the Qi Refining Stage, beside a lakeside market on the Cangluo Continent.
He saw the danger of his first time controlling a flying sword and fighting a Demon Beast on Mist Island in Cloud-Rain Marsh.
He saw his resolve in the Sea Ruins, when he fled the pursuit of the Black-and-White Fiends and Mei Zhuang with Star-Treader beneath his feet.
He saw himself deep in the Nine Nether Rift, cutting down a Nascent Soul powerhouse on the knife-edge between life and death.
He saw himself outside Taiyi City on