Seeking the Dao at the Gate of Life and Death

The Gate of Life and Death was where successive sect masters of the Misty Cloud Sect assumed their office, and where its former sect masters passed away in meditation.

Legend had it that this was where Yun Potian had passed into eternal rest. The rule requiring every former sect master of the Misty Cloud Sect to die here in meditation had also been established then.

Yun Potian... venerable elder, are you really dead? Yun Congxin asked inwardly.

Now that he had returned, he readily sensed a resonance between himself and the entire Gate of Life and Death.

"Truly miraculous..." Yun Congxin marveled, closing his outstretched hand as he felt the resonance between the Dou Qi within him and the Gate of Life and Death.

It was a wondrous sensation, as though this entire space had come alive, every wisp of energy dancing along with Yun Congxin's thoughts.

Although Yun Congxin had never seen the Gate of Life and Death described in the text, he had witnessed its inheritance in Yun Shan's memories. He knew that Yun Shan had only experienced this remarkable resonance when receiving that inheritance.

Yet now, upon returning, he had felt a resonance far stronger than what Yun Shan had experienced back then, the instant he entered. This puzzled him.

Is it something about me? Or did Yun Potian make other arrangements for descendants who broke through to Dou Zong?

With those questions in mind, Yun Congxin pushed open the door to the Gate of Life and Death's first trial.

The combat puppets he had expected never appeared. Instead, frequent, staggered spatial fluctuations caught him off guard.

He hurriedly tried to stabilize the space around him, only to discover that he could not move!

What is this?! Didn't Yun Potian only have Dou Zong strength? Is this something a Dou Zong can do?!

Yun Congxin roared inwardly, struggling with all his might to break free of the spatial restraints. Yet every time he was just about to grasp the space, it slipped away like a startled little fish!

No, it isn't slipping away... this is...

My own hand is letting go!

"Impossible!"

The horrified Yun Congxin was sucked into a spatial rift and fell into a strange space.

In the distant Central Plains, deep within the heart of Sound Valley—a mighty power ranked among the Two Sects, Three Valleys, and Four Pavilions—the Grand Elder of Sound Valley abruptly opened his eyes in the midst of secluded cultivation.

A nearly tangible gleam stirred ripples in the space before him. In a voice filled with disbelief, he said, "The inheritance left by our ancestor... has opened?!"

"Where the hell did this dump me... am I still inside the sect?"

Yun Congxin scrambled awkwardly to his feet. Looking around, he discovered that he was standing on a cramped platform.

It was a small, square platform constructed from exceptionally sturdy otherworldly material. Beyond it raged wild spatial turbulence. Yun Congxin could sense the savage energy it contained; an ordinary Dou Emperor who fell into it would likely be torn to shreds in an instant.

At the platform's center stood a three-meter-tall support pillar. Strange reliefs were carved into both its upper and lower ends, resembling clouds and the rising sun, yet giving off an eerie aura.

"How did I get in here?" Yun Congxin looked at the spatial turbulence, his heart pounding with fear.

"What is the Dao?" A voice came from every direction.

"What the hell? Who's talking?!"

"What is the Dao?!"

Could this be the trial Yun Potian left behind?

Yun Congxin thought it over. Rather than offer some profoundly mystical explanation—mainly because he feared he would be unable to make it hold together—he began explaining in plain, accessible terms.

"The Dao? The Dao is a method, a mature system developed to solve a problem. It encompasses the approach to solving that problem, the tools, the specific procedures, and the theoretical foundations. Its ultimate purpose is to establish a reproducible path: if those before us could walk it, those after us can too. That is the Dao!"

"Therefore, cultivation methods are the Dao, Dou Techniques are the Dao, alchemy is the Dao, and Dou Qi is also the Dao!"

After a brief silence, the voice sounded again. To Yun Congxin, its words were like a thunderbolt that shattered stone and startled the heavens.

"...Methodology. You aren't from the Dou Qi Continent!"

Dun! Dun! Dun!

Never in his wildest dreams had Yun Congxin imagined that he would one day hear the word "methodology" in this world, much less that someone would use it to determine that he was not a native of the Dou Qi Continent!

"What are you talking about, senior? I don't understand." Yun Congxin decisively chose to play dumb.

"Whether you understood, whether you are or aren't, one test will tell!"

Before the words had finished ringing out, the enormous support pillar actually uprooted itself and swung through a great arc, smashing down at Yun Congxin!

"Myriad Wind Binding!"

Yun Congxin shouted, and dozens of pale-blue ropes howled forth in an instant, wrapping around the massive club and forcibly halting its momentum!

"Who the hell went and spread my X-in-the-middle technique around? How am I supposed to show my face after this?!" The voice immediately grew louder, seemingly flying into a rage. "Kid, where are you from?"

"This junior is Yun Congxin, from the Misty Cloud Sect, a descendant of Yun Potian." Almost instinctively, Yun Congxin gave his real name.

"Yun Potian? Did I use that alias too..." The puzzled voice sounded as though the mysterious man lurking in the shadows had fallen into thought.

...Alias? Is he a transmigrator too? Yun Congxin blinked, muttering inwardly.

"Too? See, I told you you weren't from the Dou Qi Continent." The voice sounded again.

"You... can hear my thoughts?"

"No shit! Aren't you listening to mine too?!"

Yun Congxin gave a wry chuckle. By now, he was all but certain that this hot-tempered fellow was not only another transmigrator, but most likely came from the same place he did...

"Little Silver, it's time to go!" A gentle woman's voice sounded, apparently calling to the mysterious man.

"Coming!" After shouting his reply, the man said to Yun Congxin, "I have to go. I'll keep this short."

"We aren't communicating within the same stretch of spacetime right now. I suspect this little space was created by a powerful being from beyond the Dou Qi Continent, and it can interfere with the waterfall of time! Study it carefully. Even the tiniest scrap of insight will benefit you greatly."

"This world isn't all there is. Other worlds exist beyond the Dou Qi Continent. Legend says that all the Dou Di vanished overnight back then. They must have sensed something and gone beyond the Dou Qi Continent to wage war! They took the continent's accumulated reserves with them and sealed the passage leading outside this world. I suspect that's why it's become so difficult for another Dou Di to arise here."

"Keep that club safe. It was forged from a strange material from beyond the Dou Qi Continent and can suppress and temper Dou Qi. With it, you can confidently gulp down pills to push up your cultivation level, without ever worrying about your Dou Qi becoming unstable and insubstantial."

"I can sense that something is missing from this world. It must be the key to breaking through to Dou Di!"

"So I sought another path. If I succeed, let's meet again downstream in the waterfall of time!"