Inside the cave, all was silent except for the faint sound of Lin Yu turning the pages of his book.
At first, he read very quickly. Thanks to the knowledge accumulated from the four floors of the Scripture Pavilion, Lin Yu was able to quickly comprehend the contents.
But as Lin Yu continued to look behind him, his speed gradually slowed down.
His brows furrowed slightly, and a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.
As Lin Yu delved deeper, he even began to mentally simulate the knowledge from the book.
Suddenly, a strange phenomenon occurred: the paper book in his hand seemed to be activated, and began to emit a faint light.
A Daoist charm emanated from the book, rippling through the air.
"The Gu Dao, the Gu Dao..."
"Gu worms are also a manifestation of the Great Dao."
Lin Yu muttered to himself as he absorbed the Daoist principles within the book.
After he uttered those words, blurry, strange phenomena composed of countless lights and shadows began to appear and swirl around him.
At that very moment, the Tao took shape.
Some of them are like flames, exuding intense heat just by looking at them.
Some resemble a drop of water that remains still and flows.
Some resemble beetles, but their backs are half mountains and seas, and half sun, moon and stars.
Some even exuded an aura of deathly stillness, making the moss and vegetation in the caves appear to wither.
What accompanies deathly silence is often life itself, soothing the wounds caused by the deathly aura.
But these powerful phenomena surrounded Lin Yu like subjects paying homage to a king during court sessions.
Gradually, Lin Yu's eyes closed, and his Divine Sense was guided by the Dao to roam the vast void.
To confront what the true Tao is.
Here, Lin Yu seemed to be in close contact with the Gu worms, living alongside them.
He seemed to have witnessed the growth process of some Immortal Gu.
And his body was also undergoing some unknown change.
When Lin Yu confronts the Dao directly, the Dao is often right beside him.
This change was also clearly visible on his exposed skin; some mysterious runes flashed by, and upon closer inspection, they resembled the imprints of the rules of heaven and earth.
At the same time, the spiritual energy of heaven and earth within a radius of dozens of miles was no longer flowing slowly; as if summoned, it transformed into a surging torrent, rushing towards the cave with a roar.
A massive vortex of spiritual energy gathered in the sky above, continuously surging into the strange phenomena surrounding him, as if it were doing its utmost to support their manifestation.
The trees surrounding the cave were also nourished by the spiritual energy and grew wildly, their branches stretching out and their green leaves gleaming with a lustrous sheen.
The commotion had already alerted people far away.
Even though it was night at Flower Bamboo Village, the Nightscape could not conceal the strange phenomena in the sky.
A Lan, who was standing next to her, tugged at her sleeve and looked up to ask, "Ayi, why are the clouds in the sky keeping turning? Is it going to rain heavily?"
A Lan innocently pointed to the swirling clouds in the sky.
"Yes..." Ayi looked at the strange phenomenon in the sky with some worry. Lin Yu had been gone for several days, and she didn't know where he had gone.
As for Lin Yu, his extraordinary phenomenon, which was almost directly pointing to the origin of the Great Dao, could no longer be concealed in the narrow cave.
Thousands of miles away in the Ninth Palace, Bai Cang and the gray-robed elder were discussing how to track down the book thief in the Scripture Pavilion. However, when the Daoist aura stirred up by Lin Yu spread over, the two froze on the spot, their faces full of disbelief.
"Uncle, can you feel it?" Bai Cang's voice trembled. He had lived for decades and had never seen such pure Gu Dao charm.
"Moreover, the source of this Daoist rhythm seems to be near our Ninth Palace!"
At this moment, his natal Gu, a dazzling, unpredictable Gu worm, named A Dream of Nanke, suddenly emerged from between his eyebrows.
Suspended in mid-air, it trembled slightly in the direction from which the Daoist aura emanated, like a subject paying homage to his king.
"This..." Bai Cang looked at his Gu worm with disbelief. You should know that his natal Gu worm is an eighth-rank Gu worm, and its potential can even reach the ninth-rank or even the Immortal Gu.
Now he's showing signs of fear.
The gray-robed old man's eyes flashed with a sharp light. He sensed it more clearly than Bai Cang. This was not just a simple Daoist charm, but the Daoist charm of Gu.
At this moment, not only the Ninth Palace, but also the other eight palaces in the entire Hundred-Thousand-Li Mountains were all startled by this Daoist aura.
In a secluded stone chamber within the ancestral grounds of the First Palace, an elderly man with white hair and beard, exuding an intense aura, slowly opened his eyes.
He was on the verge of death, but upon sensing this Daoist aura, his eyes instantly blazed with intense light. His withered fingers slowly rose, and his voice trembled. "The origin of the Gu Dao... Someone can actually touch the origin of the Gu Dao! I have no regrets even in death!"
Inside the Gu Refining Hall of the Second Palace, several elders stopped their work and looked eastward in unison, their eyes filled with awe. "Such Daoist aura has probably surpassed that of all the previous patriarchs. Could it be that Gu Immortal has descended to earth?"
The entire Hundred-Thousand-Li Mountains of Southern Border was shaken by Lin Yu's sudden enlightenment.
Lin Yu, inside the cave, was completely unaware of this. His Divine Sense was still wandering in the void, and the Dao before him was becoming increasingly clear.
Gu is not a tool, nor a poison, but a manifestation of the great Dao of Heaven and Earth, the ultimate embodiment of life and death, yin and yang, hardness and softness.
When he fully comprehended this, the strange phenomena around him suddenly erupted, transforming into countless points of light that merged into his body.
Even the rock walls of the cave began to show faint patterns of the Great Dao of Gu.
But just as he realized he was about to climb higher, it came to an abrupt end.
Because the scriptures in front of him had been turned to the end, and the subsequent contents were missing, Lin Yu's enlightenment was incomplete and disjointed.
Lin Yu slowly opened his eyes, a lingering sense of bewilderment from his previous ethereal journey still present. He stared blankly at the tattered scroll before him, his heart filled with regret. "So close..."
He shook his head, trying to dispel the lingering Daoist aura, but suddenly found that the cave had already changed its appearance.
The once bare rock walls were now covered with lush green vines, and unknown flowers and plants grew on the ground. Even the cracks in the rocks in the corners sprouted tender shoots, and the entire cave seemed to have transformed from a desolate place into a vibrant little world.
"This is...?"
Lin Yu reached out and touched the vines beside him, feeling a warm, vibrant life force emanating from his fingertips. But before he could think about it, a strong sense of crisis suddenly surged into his heart, just like the intuition he had when the guardian of the Scripture Pavilion investigated him.
This thought urged him to leave quickly, as if some crisis was about to befall him.
"Not good!" Lin Yu dared not delay. This time, the sense of crisis was even stronger than last time. Obviously, if he didn't leave now, he wouldn't be able to leave later.
Without hesitation, he put away the "True Understanding of the Gu Dao" and the pottery jar containing the Crimson Flame Centipede. A phantom image of Kunpeng flashed behind him, and his figure, like a ghost, darted out of the cave and instantly disappeared into the depths of the forest.
Almost the instant Lin Yu left, several powerful auras descended upon the cave.
Leading the group were the gray-robed elder of the Ninth Palace and Palace Master Bai Cang, followed closely by the elders from the other eight palaces. Even the old man from the ancestral land of the First Palace, who was on the verge of death, appeared in the crowd, leaning on a cane engraved with patterns.