Entering the Dao

Before the palace hall, Su Mo stood alone in the center, the eyes of the surrounding crowd flickering!

Su Mo smiled and shook his head. After gently setting his Tribute Graduate ceremonial cap beside his feet, he raised his hands again to undo his Tribute Graduate Robe.

"Didn't you want to know my answer to the examination question?"

Su Mo loosened his sash, and his robe fell open, revealing the pristine white undergarment beneath...

"Actually... a predecessor gave me an answer. I thought it was very fitting. It spoke to my heart!"

Su Mo spoke in a low voice, then gently placed his Tribute Graduate sash beside the ceremonial cap.

Beside him, Liu Feng frowned. "What are you doing?"

Su Mo did not answer. Instead, he continued speaking to himself, as though immersed in his own world.

"Since you've asked, I'll tell you..."

Su Mo took off his Tribute Graduate Robe, revealing his slender frame to everyone.

His slight figure looked so frail, like a blade of grass trying to stand upright against raging winds and torrential rain.

Su Mo smiled, as though remembering something, yet also as though finding release:

"To establish a heart for heaven and earth..."

As those words fell, a cultivator's aura involuntarily awakened within Su Mo...

To establish a heart for heaven and earth...

The assembled officials froze at his words... What a magnificent ambition!

Upon the imperial throne, the emperor's gaze flickered!

Su Mo continued speaking as he laid the Tribute Graduate Robe before him and gently folded it...

"To establish a destiny for the people..."

The cultivator's aura around him grew stronger. Even the spiritual power before the hall began to tremble faintly as his aura spread...

To establish a destiny for the people...

Some officials began to look at Su Mo a little differently.

Watching the changes in Su Mo's aura, one official murmured curiously, "He actually practiced cultivation before?"

Another official briefly sensed his aura, then dismissed him with contempt. "A mere little Qi Refining cultivator!"

Su Mo swept his gaze around. Under everyone's eyes, he smiled again, his smile bitter and desolate:

"To... carry on the lost teachings of past sages!"

To carry on the lost teachings of past sages...

Every civil official before the hall froze!

An elderly civil official suddenly looked as though a thunderbolt had struck him, his expression blank. "To carry on the lost teachings of past sages... to carry on the lost teachings of past sages... it was actually... to carry on the lost teachings of past sages..."

"To establish a heart for heaven and earth, to establish a destiny for the people, to carry on the lost teachings of past sages... what have I been doing?"

Su Mo gently placed the neatly folded Tribute Graduate Robe beside the ceremonial cap and sash at his feet...

His cultivation revealed itself, and the spirit sea within him surged involuntarily.

Within Su Mo's spirit sea, an uncanny, seductive figure watched its churning waves and rolled her eyes. "Little brat, you've whipped up such monstrous waves over this trifling nonsense... hopeless..."

Yet a trace of anticipation and curiosity slipped unwittingly into the eyes of that uncanny, seductive figure...

Su Mo stood still, his gaze turning toward the imperial throne, toward the emperor of Great Hua!

The emperor's gaze flickered as he stared intently at Su Mo. The two faced each other across the distance...

"To..."

"...usher in peace for ten thousand generations!"

Boom!

Thunder cracked, and the winds and clouds changed!

In an instant, winds rose and clouds surged across ten thousand miles of clear sky. Rain clouds swallowed that vast blue expanse, pressing down so heavily that it was difficult to breathe!

The woman in red looked up at the sky, which had suddenly changed, her face full of bewilderment:

"How did the weather change... even faster than my moods...?"

The old man in green lowered his hands after finishing his spell and looked up at the sky.

The golden light unleashed by the formation had barely shot into the heavens before the ink-black clouds swallowed it...

"The sky's edge splits, the sea's corner appears..."

"The Heaven and Earth Consciousness!"

"The Heaven and Earth Consciousness is showing signs of awakening!"

The old man in green shook his head and sat down where he stood.

Watching his strange behavior, the woman in red pursed her lips. "What the hell? All this mystical mumbling..."

The old man in green rolled his eyes at her words and said helplessly, "You're not the one running things, so you don't know how much pressure that brings! All the pressure is on me alone. What happens if I'm gone? Which of you will step up?"

"The eldest, obviously!" the woman in red replied as though it went without saying.

The old man in green exploded, "The eldest is a pig who knows nothing but sleeping! What use is he?"

"Then the Second Senior Brother!" The woman in red still looked as though the answer were obvious.

"The Second Senior Brother only knows how to raise birds. When something happens, sending his birds would be more reliable than sending him!" The old man in green ground his teeth.

"Then..." The woman in red faltered... The fourth and fifth spent all day thinking who knew what, and the Sixth Senior Sister only knew how to eat... that left no one. In her thoughts, she automatically skipped herself!

"Then... let the Seventh Senior Brother do it!" Her red robes fluttered, and she had not a shred of shame.

The old man in green's hands shook with anger. "Are you even human? The Seventh Senior Brother hasn't even begun Entering the Dao... huh? It looks like he's close!"

"Then let him do it!"

"That works too..."

To establish a heart for heaven and earth,

To establish a destiny for the people.

To carry on the lost teachings of past sages,

To usher in peace for ten thousand generations...

This was Su Mo's answer!

Everyone before the hall looked as though lightning had struck them, their gazes trembling slightly as they stared fixedly at that frail figure in the center...

What breadth of spirit and ambition was this?

Liu Feng's expression went blank for a moment. He was trapped in Su Mo's words, unable to pull himself free.

He could feel the sincerity in Su Mo's words. It was not feigned!

He truly believed this!

In an instant, Liu Feng's Dao heart fell into utter turmoil, and his blood surged!

Seeing Liu Feng's condition, Liu Cheng instantly appeared behind him and circulated his spiritual power to quell the rampaging spiritual power within Liu Feng.

Su Mo glanced at Liu Feng, shook his head, and smiled.

Liu Cheng turned toward Su Mo, his gaze piercingly cold.

Su Mo looked around at these officials, these Immortal Cultivators who stood above ordinary mortals, then looked at the dazed emperor upon the imperial throne and burst into laughter...

"I, Su Mo..." His voice rang out boldly!

Su Mo lowered his head to look at this body of his, a trace of apology in his gaze.

"Will no longer become an official..."

Become an official! That had been the obsession of this body's former owner, Su Mo.

But you had your obsession.

And I have my own convictions... I'm sorry!

"Since studying is useless... and there is no path to immortal cultivation..."

"Then I will..."

"Sing to voice my aspirations..."

"Write to carry the Dao..."

"Through writing... carry the Dao of Su Mo!"

His spirit sea erupted, and an aura burst forth from its depths.

An aura of entering the Dao thundered into being around Su Mo-refined, mysterious, and tinged with something uncanny and profound.

Within Su Mo's Earth Spirit Sea, the uncanny, seductive woman stared, dumbfounded, at an object taking shape there.

It was a book...

The pitch-black book was wreathed in an uncanny aura. Amid streams of dark light, three blood-red characters stood starkly emblazoned upon its cover.

The uncanny, seductive woman stared at those three large characters, lost in a daze.

The three large characters reflected in her eyes read:

"Book of Life and Death"