Beneath the Tree of the Great Dao, Wei Yuan's true body suddenly felt bursts of itching across his skin. Curious, he looked down to see raised patches forming over the surface of his body, their tips bearing a familiar faceted shape.
Having cultivated to this stage, Wei Yuan had long attained complete mastery over his body; such spontaneous, uncontrolled growth should never have occurred. Curious, he examined his internal state closely and discovered an invisible power steadily seeping in from the Sea of Chaos. It was indistinct, yet wherever it radiated, growth arose of its own accord in a distinct pattern.
At the same time, within his sea of consciousness, the three previous dragon guards broke down under the influence of this radiant power, each resolving into a dragon claw. After being thoroughly absorbed, the Buddha Child gradually formed a long, serpentine torso, yet it was only the rear half of a body, still lacking the front half and the dragon head.
Until he saw the complete form, Wei Yuan could not say with certainty what kind of creature this was.
Wei Yuan suddenly felt an odd sensation in one of the hands at his back. Bringing it before him, he saw it had transformed into a massive five-toed claw, densely covered in scales that gleamed with a faint, eerie luster. Three other hands had undergone a similar mutation, though each possessed only three toes.
With his five-toed claw, Wei Yuan gently pinched up the egg. After a moment's thought, he buried it beneath the Tree of the Great Dao to nurture and warm it with the vitality of the entire world, intending to see what it truly was once hatched.
Although the Buddha Child had changed vessels, the bulk of his Pure Land cultivation resided within his divine soul. Thus, while his cultivation appeared grievously depleted, he had in truth retained seventy percent of his peak strength. Given Wei Yuan's current scale, devouring him provided immense nourishment, causing his Dao depth and cultivation to surge across the board.
The Buddha Child had originally intended to bide his time while playing the pig to eat the tiger. Anyone who underestimated him simply because of his new fleshly vessel would have suffered a disastrous loss.
Unfortunately for him, Wei Yuan had arrived bearing the karma of the dragon scions, seeing through the Buddha Child's true state at a single glance. Wei Yuan had then patiently maneuvered against him, whittling down his strength bit by bit and crushing his will without affording him the slightest chance to turn the tables. The Buddha Child had painstakingly prepared numerous contingency measures, but Wei Yuan simply refused to underestimate his foe; not only was he himself as steady as an old hound, he had even brought Zhang Sheng to hold the line.
Upon seeing his former master, the Buddha Child had been overcome with mixed emotions, thereby squandering his final sliver of an opportunity to escape.
Before Wei Yuan, a patch of brilliant light hovered, within which blazed fierce flames calcining and refining a pool of flesh and blood. This was no ordinary fire, but the flame of a true dragon, endowed with ceaseless vitality. In the past, when Wei Yuan devoured a dragon scion, a single swallow was all it took. But the Buddha Child possessed an extraordinarily deep accumulation; without the dragon fire sealed inside the beast-claw pendant, Wei Yuan could not digest it at all.
The pool of flesh and blood was still squirming sluggishly. When Wei Yuan swept it with his divine sense, he discovered a lingering speck of obsession inside that refused to disperse. Spurred by curiosity, Wei Yuan reached out and tapped lightly with a finger, extracting the obsession. A fair-featured study page appeared in midair, weeping tears of joy as he threw himself to the ground and called out loudly, "Master above, please accept this disciple's bow!"
The boy repeated this action over and over.
Light flashed upon Wei Yuan's shoulder, and Zhang Sheng appeared. "So this was his obsession," she said.
"It appears so. What do you plan to do?"
Zhang Sheng's expression was calm and detached. "He seems pitiable, but in truth he brought this upon himself. Dying beneath the karma of the dragon scions was far too lenient a fate for him. Of those who sought to tamper with my destiny back then, Anuonan has already been slain, but an Arhat and a Bodhisattva still live. Every last one of them must die before this karma can be put to rest."
Wei Yuan nodded. Dao power gathered in his hand, condensing into a crystal that sealed the boy's obsession within. He then inscribed a karmic luck formation on the ground before him, placed the crystal inside, and infused a vast amount of human luck into it. "Let's cast a lure first and see if we can fish them out."
Zhang Sheng nodded. She glanced at the extraordinarily busy world beyond the heavens, then looked behind Wei Yuan. Wei Yuan's true body sat cross-legged on the ground, but from among his numerous arms at his back, many shadowy black ribbons had sprouted, their ends constantly sinking into the Sea of Chaos and emerging again.
These black ribbons of light, wavering between substance and illusion, had formed after absorbing the Buddha Child, vastly increasing Wei Yuan's efficiency in converting primal chaos. By now, the expanse of the Land of Vitality had broadened, fully covering and transforming that mountain range.
Having manifested from illusion into reality, the mountain range had turned into the skeletal remains of a colossal beast—its skull gigantic, its rib cage jutting out proudly and defiantly, yet severed at the waist. Wei Yuan continued guiding the Land of Vitality, extending it toward the mountain range formed by the beast's rear half.
Observing Wei Yuan's appearance, Zhang Sheng frowned slightly. "Acting like this, wouldn't you end up merging into one with this world? How will you ever achieve liberation in the future?"
Wei Yuan sighed. "I have no other choice. If I don't develop quickly enough, I won't survive the next round of attacks. You don't need to worry about me. I already have a plan. Once this world has developed sufficiently, I will have my own way to extricate myself."
Zhang Sheng nodded. "As long as you know what you are doing. Just remember one thing: no matter how dire the crisis, you must never merge your body with heaven and earth. If a day comes when you cannot control yourself, I will forfeit this body of mine and slash this world back into nothingness!"
Surprised, Wei Yuan looked at her and asked, "Why do you say that?"
Zhang Sheng said, "Heaven and earth have their own selfish desires; they too seek survival. Right now, this world relies entirely on you. I suspect it won't willingly let you go. It will try every possible way to entice you into merging with it."
Wei Yuan frowned slightly. "What basis do you have for this?"
"When I forged the Qingping Sword, my sword heart became crystal clear, illuminating heaven and earth, and this thought suddenly came to me," Zhang Sheng said.
Wei Yuan was naturally well aware of the Qingping Sword's might. The moment the sword was completed, Zhang Sheng had possessed, for a fleeting instant, the power to fathom heaven and earth. A spontaneous premonition at such a time required no further evidence.
Wei Yuan looked inward, then examined his own thoughts, even casting his gaze back into the past, before saying, "Yet I haven't felt anything amiss. This world possesses only vitality, not sentience."
Zhang Sheng pondered as well, saying, "You opened this world, and you have nurtured it all the way to this day. That may be why you noticed nothing strange. But there is another possibility..."
Zhang Sheng glanced at the Tree of the Great Dao before continuing, "...that it views you as a maternal host. It needs you to protect and nurture it, so it found a way to blind you to the danger, leaving you knowing only how to love and protect it, even to sacrifice everything for it. And when it fully matures in the future and absorbs you, you might genuinely believe that you are merging with the Heavenly Dao."
Wei Yuan's brows knit tighter. "Among the immortals of this age, not even the Venerable Master could deceive me. Could it truly achieve something like that?"
"Perhaps because you let down your guard against it," Zhang Sheng said.
Wei Yuan sank into deep contemplation for a long, long time. Suddenly, he asked, "Could the Ancestral Shaman have been eaten?"
Zhang Sheng slowly nodded. "It is possible. I could only figure this out while here; back in our realm, such a thought would never have crossed my mind. Furthermore, the instant I forged the Qingping Sword, I discovered that heaven and earth seemed to be altering and guiding me."
Wei Yuan mused, "So heaven and earth might possess a will of their own, only..."
Wei Yuan was quite proficient in mathematics as well, even if he could not rival grand geniuses like Ronglong or Wen Guantian. From a mathematical perspective, he instantly conceived dozens of possibilities. One of them was that the conscious activity of heaven and earth was simply too vast—a single thought far exceeded the perceptual limits of living beings, and thus, in the eyes of all beings, heaven and earth appeared devoid of consciousness.
Wei Yuan suddenly recalled what his mother had once told him: he was a seed conceived before this world's destruction and cast into the myriad realms so that an opportunity to restart heaven and earth might one day arise. This clearly proved that before its ruin, this world possessed a will of its own.
Since returning to this world, from planting the seed of vitality to fiercely battling the immortals beyond the heavens, nurturing and building all along the way, he had never once stopped to ask why he was doing so.
Within the Splendor of the Many Realms, countless thoughts arose and perished, manifold voices intertwining in harmony and dissent.
Wei Yuan suddenly looked down at himself. After devouring the Buddha Child, his true body had long exceeded ten thousand zhang in height, towering into the clouds; with a wave of his hand, mountains shook and the earth trembled. Yet his current form felt alien even to himself. Could he still be considered human?
The numerous avatars remaining in the home realm had given him the illusion that he still retained his humanity. Only now, awakened by Zhang Sheng's words, did he suddenly realize: if he wished to return to his home realm, how would this true body return? All those avatars put together were not even as large as a single finger of this true body. Could they truly pull the true body back? And in what form would he return?
If this continued, his true body would likely be forced to remain in this world, with nowhere else to go.
The Tree of the Great Dao grew quietly, emanating a lustrous glow—unrestrained, limpid, serene, as though utterly oblivious to all of this.
Looking toward the Tree of the Great Dao, Zhang Sheng repeated once more, "If he merges with heaven and earth, I will destroy heaven and earth and cast you back into primal chaos."
Upon hearing these words, an indescribable agony suddenly surged in Wei Yuan's heart, as if the thing he cherished most was about to be destroyed right before his eyes. Under the influence of this extreme anguish, hatred toward Zhang Sheng even welled up within him!
A flicker of killing intent crossed Zhang Sheng's face, and an azure immortal sword emerged between her brows. Immortal light rose from Wei Yuan's many palms, driven by an overwhelming impulse to strike Zhang Sheng dead with a single blow. A dark crimson hue flared across the myriad pupils in his eyes, killing intent surging like churning subterranean fire.
Zhang Sheng turned a blind eye to Wei Yuan's anomaly and took another step toward the Tree of the Great Dao. At that moment, Wei Yuan suddenly spoke: "That's enough."
Zhang Sheng halted. "What did you find?"
The dark crimson in Wei Yuan's eyes faded, replaced by clarity. "I've found the source."
Countless slender tendrils appeared around Wei Yuan. Most reached into the void, while a few penetrated deep into the Land of Vitality; some even extended into the trunk of the Tree of the Great Dao, and others were entangled with the tree's root system.
These slender tendrils were Wei Yuan's threads of divine sense. At first glance, they looked startlingly like the roots of a great tree.
Wei Yuan said, "No wonder I never noticed anything wrong before. The connection was established by me, so its thoughts were mistaken for my own. If it hadn't harbored killing intent toward you, I might never have detected the issue."
Zhang Sheng raised an eyebrow. "Why couldn't killing intent toward me be your own thought? What if, one day, I wanted to kill you?"
Wei Yuan replied, "Then I would let you kill me."
Zhang Sheng said, "Dying by my sword means nothing remains. You won't even be able to enter reincarnation."
Wei Yuan said, "If there's no reincarnation, so be it. It's nothing to fuss over."
Zhang Sheng stood in silence for a moment before asking, "No anomalies?"
Wei Yuan shook his head. "None. It seems it doesn't care whether I live or die; as long as no one threatens to kill it, it won't react."
"It appears it possesses a will, but still a very primitive one. That is likely because this heaven and earth was newly born."
Wei Yuan said, "Don't worry. Now that I have identified the problem, I naturally won't fall for it again."
Among the countless tendrils on Wei Yuan's body, those connected to the Land of Vitality and the Tree of the Great Dao all turned red. From now on, any thought originating from them would alert him immediately.
"Very well. I will go cultivate in seclusion."
After Zhang Sheng departed, Wei Yuan took another look at his true body. After a long period of contemplation, he murmured to himself, "This method isn't bad at all."
Upon deeper analysis, Wei Yuan realized that the method the newborn world had used to manipulate him was remarkably ingenious, offering many insights to draw from. For instance, with slight modifications, it could serve as a supreme angling technique. And the applications of such an angling technique seemed to go far beyond simply luring someone into a trap.
***
In Qingming, overnight, all Nascent Soul cultivators were summoned to the nearest castellan's manors to undergo comprehensive evaluations, followed by private interviews conducted by designated personnel.
Only after entering the secret chambers did these cultivators discover that the ones interviewing them were none other than Baoyun, Ji Liuli, and other senior figures. When the two-hour discussions concluded, some of the Nascent Soul cultivators still could not believe they had been able to converse for so long with cultivators of such stature.
Three days later, the analysis of all the gathered information was completed. In the end, three Nascent Soul cultivators were summoned to Qingming Immortal City. This time, an avatar of Wei Yuan personally met with them for an in-depth, half-day discussion. Afterward, the three Nascent Soul cultivators returned home, settled their affairs, bid farewell to their families, and arrived at the immortal manor.
Another day passed, and all three Nascent Soul cultivators appeared in the world beyond the heavens. Naturally, they could not see the true scenery of that world, but only endless immortal clouds. Wei Yuan walked out from the clouds, handed each of them a Dao manual, and said, "For the next century, you will cultivate here in seclusion. If you break through sooner, you may emerge early."
The three fell to their knees in unison, saying in excitement, "This is an immense opportunity! We thank the Realm Lord for his nurturing!"
Wei Yuan nodded. "Open them and read through once. If there is anything you do not understand, ask now."
The three Nascent Souls opened their Dao manuals, holding their breath. Inscribed on the inner pages were several prominent characters: *Method of Shattering the Nascent Soul to Transform into God*. Their hearts surged with excitement in an instant—this was a new Dao realm beyond the Nascent Soul!
The three quickly read through the manuals and asked about their doubts. After Wei Yuan answered each question, immortal clouds drifted in, and they could no longer see one another; in this world, each felt as though only they remained.
All three were standouts among Nascent Souls, and they immediately began cultivating, hoping to become the foremost person in the realm to achieve God Transformation.
At this moment, before Wei Yuan's true body, there was a small cluster of clouds and mist within which the three Nascent Souls could be seen sitting in meditation. Then, a green-backed azure dragon appeared and coiled around the cloud mass, causing the swirling mist within to accelerate wildly.
This cloud mass was a small secret realm established by Wei Yuan, using his authority over time to accelerate the flow of time within. While the three Nascent Souls cultivated inside for a hundred years, only three years would pass in the outside world.
Chapter 1467