Shi Feiyang decided not to destroy the Demon Sword. First, it reminded him of the bitter experiences of his own years as a nonhuman being, and he felt its pain as his own. Second, there were the Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations to consider.
What lay beyond form was called the Dao; what lay within form was called the instrument.
The Precelestial Dao Body was the foundation, while Postcelestial arts and instruments served as its applications. Cultivating immortality meant seeking the Precelestial, seeking everlasting life without aging, but immortals did not merely exist and live like minerals or plants.
One had to attain the Precelestial and employ the Postcelestial, attain the Great Dao and bring forth myriad arts. Only when the Precelestial evolved into the Postcelestial could it be called life; only through arts and instruments could the Great Dao exert its power.
Blindly valuing the Precelestial over the Postcelestial, exalting the Great Dao while despising arts and instruments, would only leave one with lofty ambitions and feeble hands, living in empty, ethereal fantasies divorced from reality.
Shi Feiyang had long since reached the stage of "Seeing the Dao" and was now on the road to "verifying the Dao" and "attaining the Dao." He could create cultivation methods suited to each individual, which counted as the most basic form of "the Dao giving rise to myriad arts," but he was still at a very rudimentary stage.
He had only just begun trying to complete the Two Forms, Six Directions, and Dust Array. As for comprehending the Thirty-Six Heavenly Transformations and the Seventy-Two Earthly Transformations, he had not even taken the first step.
He had originally intended to enter the mortal world this time and properly understand the wonders of the Seventy-Two Transformations. Now he had obtained the Demon Sword, yet still had