Heaven and Earth Dao Patterns

Evening.

In the mountain village, the bonfire crackled.

Li Qingyue sat hugging her knees, utterly quiet, with a book spread open in her palm.

It was the Dao Scripture Opening Chapter she had obtained from the bandits' stronghold.

Yet despite sitting in the firelight, she gave off an air of profound loneliness and coldness.

As though she belonged to a different world from everyone else.

Yang Wuzheng and Yan Wushuang sat nearby, watching the girl in silence.

They had not left, instead helping Li Qingyue roast as much meat as they could.

They watched her eat the entire mountain deer, mouthful by mouthful, leaving nothing behind.

They had no idea how that flat stomach could hold so much food.

Still less did they know how to describe the scene they had witnessed.

They merely glanced at Li Qingyue now and then, their eyes filled with tangled emotions.

She had eaten it raw, still bloody.

Yet the girl had not even knitted her brows. Every movement had been so practiced that it made their hearts ache.

They hardly dared imagine what sort of past this fairy-like girl had endured.

Even thinking about it felt unbearable, painful.

And suddenly, they felt that it was no accident that a girl like her had survived, that she had lived longer than others.

"Are you reading the Dao Scripture?"

Yang Wuzheng rose, walked over to the girl, and spoke softly.

He wanted to help this stubborn girl.

Never before had that urge been so strong.

At the very least, he wanted to set her on the path of cultivation, to let her live a decent life.

Otherwise, he feared he would never find peace for the rest of his days.

That scene had struck him far too deeply.

"Yes. I found it in that stronghold."

Li Qingyue answered, her voice somewhat frail.

She knew she should not have let the two of them witness that scene, but she could not bear to let so much venison go to waste.

In a mountain village, it could save lives. It could fill the bellies of countless children.

And it could make her stronger.

She would seize any chance to grow stronger, however slight. She would never let one slip away.

Whether it tasted good had never mattered to her.

"That stronghold!"

Yang Wuzheng's expression shifted slightly, his pupils abruptly contracting.

A bandit stronghold possessing the Dao Scripture was hardly ordinary. It was very likely backed in secret by the Feathered Divine Dynasty.

When the Dao Scripture had emerged all those years ago, countless powers had flocked there.

They had seen the Dao Scripture manifest in the void with their own eyes, its radiance illuminating the ages.

But the Dao Scripture was profoundly abstruse. Ordinary people could likely remember only its opening, never the entire text.

Even some mighty cultivators, Half-Saints, and Saints could not do so.

Though many powers could produce the Dao Scripture Opening Chapter, the first one that came to his mind was the Feathered Divine Dynasty.

Only ten thousand years had passed since the Feathered Great Emperor's death, and his might still cowed the great powers of the human race.

Nearly two-thirds of the Central Province lay under the Feathered Divine Dynasty's control.

It commanded the Central Province, and none dared disobey!

Such was the Feathered Divine Dynasty.

Only by joining forces could the Central Province's remaining two Holy Lands, one Immortal Gate, and hundreds of affiliated clans barely protect themselves.

Over the years, the Feathered Divine Dynasty had been searching for people with all kinds of constitutions.

Those bandits were clearly tools it used to find them.

Yet he had never imagined that a mortal girl like her could wipe out a bandit nest that included cultivators.

Recalling the girl's expression when he had first seen her, and the blood covering her body, his heart suddenly clenched in pain.

"Can you... understand it?"

Only after speaking did Yang Wuzheng realize that his voice had grown slightly hoarse.

Li Qingyue raised her head to look at Yang Wuzheng and gently shook it. With a trace of dejection, she said, "I have a waste body. What good would understanding it do?"

"A waste body!"

At those words, Yang Wuzheng jolted, his hand clenching tightly beneath his sleeve.

He realized that he had no way at all to help this stubborn girl.

A waste body could not cultivate. That was an iron law no one had broken throughout the endless ages.

For someone with a waste body, the Fate Wheel and Bitter Sea were as though buried beneath an abyss ten thousand fathoms deep.

No one could cross that ten-thousand-fathom abyss to open the Bitter Sea.

And so, they could never cultivate.

"A waste body..."

Yan Wushuang murmured in a daze, the girl's words suddenly surfacing in his mind: "If I eat a little more, I'll have a little more strength, and a little more chance of staying alive."

He abruptly turned his head, unable to look at her.

He felt as though those words had pierced his heart once again.

It was a feeling he had never experienced before, even as someone with a Sacred Body.

Yes, a waste body was inferior even to a mortal body. To gain strength, she had only the most primitive method available.

Eat, then temper her strength.

But how much food could a mountain village girl possibly get?

At that moment, he suddenly understood why the girl cared so much about food.

If she wanted to live, she had no choice but to eat.

Yan Wushuang drew a deep breath, turned back, and feigned a lighthearted tone. "Miss Qingyue, are you hungry?"

"Grrr..."

At the mention of food, Li Qingyue's stomach betrayed her and growled again.

As the Kunpeng Swallowing Technique grew steadily stronger, she consumed food at an ever-increasing rate.

"Perfect. I'm hungry too!"

With that, Yan Wushuang turned into a streak of light and rushed into the depths of the mountains.

Beside her, Yang Wuzheng drew a deep breath. Seemingly moved by the girl as well, he said, "I'll explain the scripture to you."

He felt he had to do something.

Even knowing the scripture was useless to her, he still wanted to do it.

"Thank you!"

Li Qingyue's gaze softened, and she lifted her hand to offer Yang Wuzheng her copy of the Dao Scripture.

Yang Wuzheng did not take it. Instead, he turned his hand over and produced a book.

It was the Dao Scripture's Sea of Bitterness Chapter, something the Nine Saints Gate naturally did not lack.

Indeed, most people from many other powers cultivated this chapter as well.

That was precisely why the Dao Scripture's Sea of Bitterness Chapter was reputed to be the finest cultivation method for the Sea of Bitterness realm.

Of course, that claim owed more to the fact that no one had ever obtained the complete Dao Scripture.

Nor did anyone know its other chapters for the Dao Palace Realm and beyond.

"I have it here. Yours isn't complete!"

Yang Wuzheng sat beside Li Qingyue, not too close, leaving a body's width between them. He settled his mind and said slowly, "The Four Sea of Bitterness Realms mark the beginning of cultivation."

"The first step is to sense the Bitter Sea, then use essence and external power to open it."

Li Qingyue's eyes filled with anticipation. "What exactly is the Bitter Sea?" she asked.

Yang Wuzheng paused briefly. Even he could not explain that, but he did not want to disappoint Li Qingyue, so he kept turning the question over in his mind.

After a moment, Yang Wuzheng raised his head. "I don't know either, but the sect's instruction elder once said that the Bitter Sea is a world."

"The world itself is a Bitter Sea!"

"There's also a saying: the world is like a sea of suffering, and all living beings struggle to cross it."

"I think the Bitter Sea must be a peculiar world, and the Fate Wheel is like the sole living being nurtured within it. It's much like the world we inhabit."

"The only difference is that the Bitter Sea and Fate Wheel are a person's origin, while to the world, each of its countless living beings is a Fate Wheel, rising and sinking in the Bitter Sea as they struggle to cross it."

Li Qingyue's eyes brightened at his words, and she asked, "How is divine power different from life essence?"

Yang Wuzheng fell silent again. Had the girl before him not asked these questions, he would never have thought about them.

"I think the Fate Wheel's divine power must be nurtured by a world. It can become life essence, or divine gold and divine iron. It can also carry the world's laws and manifest mystic arts."

"Life essence, however, is nurtured only by life. Perhaps when a living being grows as powerful as a world, its life essence will transform as well!"

Li Qingyue fell silent upon hearing that.

That was the gulf between true qi and divine power.

One was nurtured by a world; the other was essence she obtained by eating and digesting the flesh and blood of Fierce Beasts.

Even though she could now devour the Heaven and Earth Essence, the process was far too slow.

Worse, the Bitter Sea she could not sense intercepted most of the Heaven and Earth Essence she swallowed.

And... this was the Age of Declining Dharma. Only the Flesh Grotto-Heaven Method passed down by the Desolate Heaven Emperor all those years ago could be cultivated.

Only it offered a path forward.

Cultivating through true qi, relying on this heaven and earth, was destined to lead nowhere.

Perhaps she could succeed if she lived for a thousand years, or ten thousand, but she had only a hundred years, perhaps not even that.

She had to make a change.

The Bitter Sea is a world!

A world...

At that thought, Li Qingyue raised her head slightly. With little disappointment in her expression, she calmly asked, "How can I come to understand the world?"

Seeing her calm expression, Yang Wuzheng fell silent.

Within that calm expression, he saw determination and persistence.

And in her voice, he heard stubbornness-a stubbornness born in her very bones, impossible to describe.

It made his heart ache all the more.

To keep pressing forward despite knowing there was no path would only leave her covered in wounds.

Yet he did not want to disappoint those clear, bright eyes.

After a moment's thought, he turned his palm over and took out another book.

"This might help!"

Li Qingyue focused her gaze.

"Heaven and Earth Dao Patterns?"

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