Crossover: In Little Garden, Becoming a God Through Once Proven, Forever Proven

"Great-grandfather, don't be angry. I think martial uncle is right. Let's sit down and talk this through, talk it through."

"Martial uncle, don't be so stubborn either. Let's take it slowly, slowly. Don't you dislike arguing? Come on, sit down and talk it through."

Lu Lin stood between the two of them, doing his best to mediate. Nervous sweat was beginning to bead on his forehead. He felt that one wrong move and the two would start fighting!

"Lu Lin, this isn't an argument. Ever since Master passed away, your great-grandfather has had too much weighing on his heart. He can't shoulder it alone."

"When I became Master's disciple, I said that since I had learned the Three-One Sect's art and made use of your great-grandfather's connections, I would help him shoulder that responsibility."

"Now it's time for me to keep that promise. Step aside, kid, and watch carefully how the Threefold Reversal is actually used."

Qin Qi put a hand on Lu Lin's shoulder. Without any apparent effort on his part, Lu Lin flew backward and landed outside.

"Huh?!"

Lu Lin stood there, completely dumbfounded. What had just happened? How had he suddenly flown so far?

"Senior brother, come on. Attack me. I'll prove to you that what I said is right."

Qin Qi looked at Lu Jin. He neither argued with him nor grew angry, but simply stated the facts calmly.

"Then here I come! I'll show you what the true Threefold Reversal is! If you lose, behave yourself and cultivate step by step!"

"No more thinking about that jumble of nonsense!"

As soon as Lu Jin finished speaking, his whole body turned white, and the power of dragons and tigers erupted in an instant. He stamped on the ground, which exploded beneath his foot, and charged forward.

Qin Qi stood still, watching Lu Jin rush right up to him and swing a fist at him.

He took the blow without moving, and then his entire body exploded and vanished without a trace.

"J-junior brother!"

"I... I didn't mean... I didn't!"

The sight instantly extinguished the anger in Lu Jin's heart. He stared at his hands, stunned. He had killed his junior brother!

"Martial uncle! Great-grandfather!"

Lu Lin couldn't help shouting, as though he couldn't believe his great-grandfather had really struck so ruthlessly.

"I didn't... I didn't aim that punch at a vital spot. I... I didn't mean to! Junior brother, I..."

Lu Jin's voice trembled. He didn't know what had happened. When he heard that Qin Qi wanted to alter the Three-One Sect's cultivation art, his anger had immediately become uncontrollable.

He hadn't wanted to fight, but the demon in his heart had controlled him and made him strike. Now... he regretted it!

"Senior brother... the Three-One Sect's guiding principle is to stay calm, not get angry, and not let rage rule your mind."

"Look at you. You can't even think calmly now. I'm very afraid of dying, so how could I die so easily?"

Qin Qi's body began to reassemble in midair, returning to human form from the state of formless, colorless Qi.

"M-Master!"

Lu Jin looked at Qin Qi in midair. For an instant, he felt as though he had returned to the Three-One Sect of old and seen Zuo Ruotong again.

Those unruffled eyes, that expression as though nothing could shake him, and the Threefold Reversal that could gather and disperse at will!

"Senior brother, it's my turn. Brace yourself."

Qin Qi moved swiftly, appearing behind Lu Jin in an instant. He pressed down on Lu Jin from behind, forcing him straight to the ground.

At the same time, the Power of Spin in his palm continued to activate. Under his conscious control, it was like a black hole.

It devoured Lu Jin's Qi in a continuous stream. In the blink of an eye, Lu Jin was forced out of his Threefold Reversal state.

His Qi was exhausted. He had lost! He had been defeated in a single move.

"I... lost?"

Lying on the ground, Lu Jin looked back at Qin Qi in disbelief. His Reversal had been broken in just one move.

Qin Qi clearly had an easier way, but he hadn't used it. Instead, he had defeated Lu Jin through sheer brute force.

At that moment, Lu Jin truly felt that he had lost. Not only in strength, but in his state of mind as well.

"Senior brother, come on, get up."

Qin Qi reached out a hand to Lu Jin on the ground and spoke.

"Junior brother."

Lu Jin hesitated, but eventually grasped the hand and let Qin Qi pull him up. At that moment, he seemed like a true old man.

He looked utterly weak and helpless. What he had clung to had been shattered, and so had his obsession!

Qin Qi said nothing and supported Lu Jin as they walked step by step into the cave.

"Junior brother, I can't. I can't go in."

"Senior brother, no one is stopping you from going in, and no one says you can't. Don't limit yourself."

"Come in with me."

Qin Qi led Lu Jin inside, step by step. They passed the gravestones one after another, seeing each familiar name.

At last, they came to Zuo Ruotong's grave. In that instant, all of Lu Jin's strength left him.

"Lu Lin, wait outside. I have something to say to your great-grandfather."

Qin Qi sent Lu Lin outside. It was better not to let Lu Lin see his great-grandfather looking helpless at a time like this.

"All right, martial uncle."

Though Lu Lin was very worried, he turned and left, obediently going outside to wait.

"Senior brother, you said before that changing the Threefold Reversal would be digging up the Three-One Sect's roots. Then let me ask you, what is the Three-One Sect?"

Qin Qi asked Lu Jin, who was kneeling before Zuo Ruotong's gravestone.

"The legacy, of course! The cultivation art!"

Lu Jin said.

"Legacy is right, but what is passed down isn't the cultivation art. It's the spirit. I don't know about the Three-One Sect of the past, but the Three-One Sect of today comes from Master, and what it passes down is his spirit."

"Just like your Lu Family. You don't pass down a cultivation art, only the backbone and rules handed down through your line."

"As long as the people remain, the Three-One Sect remains. When the people are gone, so is the Three-One Sect, even if someone still knows the Threefold Reversal."

"It would no longer be the Three-One Sect of old. Once the spirit is gone, a method is just a method."

Qin Qi's voice wasn't loud, but every sentence shook Lu Jin to his core, leaving him unable to refute it.

"When I read the sect's inherited manual, I saw something Master had written in it."

"'These annotations are the insights I gained through cultivation. Those who come after may use them to explore the road ahead, but this is not your only answer. Disciples of future generations, remember that the road lies beneath your feet.

Everyone has their own path. Never blindly imitate others.-Written by Zuo Ruotong himself.'"

"Master said from the beginning that we should continue to blaze a trail along the paths of those before us, and never take the path he studied to be everything."

"Master encouraged us to forge our own paths. What I'm doing now also follows his will."

"The Threefold Reversal has to change. Only then can the spirit of the Three-One Sect be passed down."

It wasn't that Qin Qi simply had to change the Three-One Sect. It was that only by changing could the Three-One Sect continue to be passed down.

"Then... what if you're wrong too?"

Lu Jin looked at Qin Qi. He opened his mouth, but said nothing. After a long silence, he finally forced those words out from the depths of his heart.

"Then I'll leave it to those who come after me to find my mistakes, correct them, and create a third version of the Threefold Reversal."

"If they can do that, I'll be very happy."

Qin Qi smiled, not caring in the least whether someone would overturn his cultivation art in the future. If someone could overturn it,

that would prove they had developed something more perfect. At that time, Qin Qi ought to be happy for the Three-One Sect.

Lu Jin looked at Qin Qi, at that smile, and thought of when Master had been about to pass away. Master was no longer young; he had grown old.

He had sat in his chair in silence for a long time, but Lu Jin had seen clearly that Master's lips were moving, as though he were muttering something soundlessly.

In the end, Master had smiled. He had said he couldn't treat those disciples as straw dogs. He wasn't a sage, and his smile had been carefree.

"Master... so this was what you were talking about back then!"

Tears streamed down Lu Jin's face as he looked at Qin Qi. In that moment, he seemed to see Master's figure behind Qin Qi.

Those once-silent words had now been spoken through Qin Qi's mouth. The Three-One Sect wasn't afraid of being wrong; if it was wrong, those who came later would correct it!

Generation after generation, until it was refined and made perfect. The Dao gave birth to one, one to two, two to three, and three to all things!

That was the Three-One Sect!

"Senior brother, rest here for a while. I'll head out."

Qin Qi said nothing more and left, letting Lu Jin stay there alone in peace for a while. Lu Jin... it was time for him to rest too.

After Qin Qi left, Lu Jin sat there for a long time, perhaps half a day. Then he suddenly stood up.

"Master... I was incapable. I failed to inherit your spirit, but now I've found someone who can."

"He never met you, but he understands your thoughts better than I do. His state of mind is stronger than mine, and his cultivation is greater."

"I only know how to follow in your footsteps, step by step, while he has forged something new and pushed the Three-One Sect to new heights."

"Perhaps he's what they call a grandmaster who appears only once in a hundred or even a thousand years."

"Master, I'm leaving. I'll help junior brother rebuild the new Three-One Sect. When the time comes, I'll bring your new disciples and their disciples to pay their respects to you."

"Then you'll once again see the sects, great families, and independent cultivators of Yanhuang gather at the Three-One Sect to celebrate for us!"

Lu Jin's gaze grew calm. He bowed three times, then turned and left. He had more important things to do now.

Lu Jin emerged from the cave.

"Junior brother... this is for you. Now it's time for you to write your own name in it."

Lu Jin took out the Three-One Sect's inherited manual. It contained notes left by their predecessors through the generations, including Zuo Ruotong, the most dazzling among them.

"Mm..."

Qin Qi looked at the manual, thought for a moment, and raised his hand to write a few lines.

[Nothing in this world is absolute. Do not lock our predecessors upon a divine pedestal. Let it be said that those who come later shall have their freedom. Upon the great Dao, you and I are all fellow travelers.-Qin Qi.]

"Those who come later."

Lu Jin looked at the words Qin Qi had left for a long time, then sighed. He fell far too short.

He had only thought about finishing everything himself, while Qin Qi was already thinking of many years in the future. In the end, people had to rely on themselves.

[Over the time that followed, you taught the new Threefold Reversal to Lu Lin and Lu Jin, letting the two of them help refine and modify it.]

[The Reversal First Stage is now divided into an internal art and techniques. The internal art is the method you extracted specifically for cultivating nature, life, and oneness.]

[It is responsible for improving cultivation of nature and life and serves as the foundation. The techniques, meanwhile, are the Reversal state. Both the first stage's skin and flesh and the second stage's sinews, bones, and internal organs are included in the new version's first stage.]

[Perfecting the first stage means uniting nature and life, reaching a state in which the soul can leave the body. The second stage completely reconstructs the physical body.]

[It becomes a state in which only the soul and Innate Primordial Qi remain. At this point, the physical body has no weaknesses, leaving only the soul as a vital point.]

[When the second stage is perfected, the soul and physical body merge and can also gather and disperse at will. At that point, the soul is no longer a weakness either.]

[However, because it lacks your talent, there are many things you can do that the current new version of the Threefold Reversal cannot.]

[For example, precisely controlling every unit of life energy and distributing consciousness among them requires special talents, a Stand, and Once Proven, Forever Proven, so only you can do it.]

"Junior brother, why isn't there a third stage?"

After reading it, Lu Jin found that the new version was harder, but no longer complicated. Moreover, it seemed it really could allow the physical body to achieve Reversal.

"Because I haven't mastered it myself. I've only perfected the second stage, so how could I possibly develop a third?"

Qin Qi spread his hands. He had only perfected the second stage, and he hadn't even figured out how to reach the third himself, so naturally he couldn't write it down.

"What if those who come later think there's no third stage and stop cultivating after perfecting the second?"

Lu Jin was somewhat worried that, in the future, others would cultivate step by step just as he had, and the second stage would become their limit.

What if everyone thought they had reached the end of the road and stopped developing and researching it?