Dinner was held at a restaurant on Changda's campus named Miyue. The food there was not particularly expensive—hardly different from the restaurants outside—yet its flavors were outstanding, earning it quite a reputation among the faculty and students.
When the trio arrived at the restaurant, quite a few young students were already seated inside. Feng Zechun found a corner table with practiced ease and ordered eight dishes: braised beef brisket with potatoes, sponge gourd with clams, dry-pot pork intestines, sizzling squid, minced pork baked eggs... Most of them were hearty fare, albeit heavily seasoned, which Xu Kaizhi, being a native of Su Province, found slightly hard to stomach.
Still, having lived in Gan Province for a long time, Xu Kaizhi could tolerate the salt and spice to some extent; he simply had to drink water constantly, drawing a good round of teasing from Feng Zechun.
After dinner, the three parted ways. Huang Tian hailed a taxi outside the campus to return to his apartment. As for the manuscript, it would not be submitted immediately, as Feng Zechun still needed to help polish the formatting.
One of the most irritating parts of submitting a paper was that reviewers often nitpicked minor issues in formatting and phrasing. Even when the mathematical work was flawless, a manuscript would be bounced back for revisions. Feng Zechun was an editorial board member for a domestic journal himself, so he could not have been more familiar with such details. Once he smoothed it over, it would be virtually impossible for anyone to find fault with the format or writing.
Returning to his apartment, Huang Tian washed up quickly, sat down cross-legged, and shifted his consciousness back to the late Han world.
Luoyang, inside a chamber of the imperial palace.
Huang Tian slowly opened his eyes. A profound sense of consummation welled up in his heart. His expression shifted, and turning his vision inward toward his sea of consciousness, he found that the purple sphere of light was radiating an harmonious, natural resonance.
*Eight months have passed since the four provinces of Jing, Yang, Yi, and Jiao surrendered to the Daoist Court in name,* Huang Tian reflected. *Over these eight months, all thirteen provinces across the realm have truly been unified under the Daoist Court. No wonder this orb of light has reached consummation...*
*Time to see what it truly is!* he thought.
The moment his consciousness gently brushed against the purple orb of light, an immeasurable purple radiance erupted with a roar, engulfing his entire sea of consciousness like a surging, tempestuous sea.
Huang Tian's vision blurred. A seed inscribed with arcane runes leapt forth from his sea of consciousness, swirling in midair with a faint purple shimmer. Then the seed burst open with a sudden crack, transforming into a stream dozens of li long. The stream grew ever longer and wider, its waters roaring, until it finally surged into a vast river stretching hundreds of millions of li, churning with endless white foam.
Huang Tian felt as if his form had grown millions of feet tall. Like the Jade Emperor of heaven, he sat cross-legged above the boundless river, head lowered, quietly observing everything within the waters.
He watched as the river surged ceaselessly, figures and scenes surfacing one after another.
The first to appear was the memory of Huang Tian imparting the Dao and teaching techniques to Zhang Jiao and the other nine disciples. Then came Huang Tian overcoming his tribulation and "ascending," departing this world amidst the respectful farewells of countless people.
After his departure, Zhang Jiao, as Huang Tian's sole nominal direct disciple, cultivated while governing the realm using the knowledge Huang Tian had left behind. In a mere sixty years, the Daoist Court's techniques in iron smelting, papermaking, gunpowder, animal husbandry, and other fields underwent immense advancement.
Farmers across the realm could afford iron tools, the use of iron plows and oxen grew increasingly widespread, and paper was no longer a luxury reserved only for the nobility, gradually making its way into the homes of common folk.
Zhang Jiao's governance bore tremendous fruit. By this time, however, he was nearing a hundred and twenty years of age, tottering with decrepitude, yet he remained unable to cross the threshold between the ninth layer of Qi Refinement and the Dao Foundation realm.
This could hardly be blamed on a lack of effort. Taking sixty years to reach the ninth layer of Qi Refinement had completely exhausted his vital essence and mental vigor. Crucially, before Huang Tian had ascended, he had only passed down the first six layers of the Qi Ingestion Chapter of the *Mountain-Suppressing Spirit Scripture*; the final three layers were missing entirely!
Consequently, over the decades, all cultivators in the world inevitably hit a wall upon reaching the sixth layer of Qi Refinement.
And when there was no path forward, what could they do?
They had no choice but to blaze one!
Numerous cultivators gathered in Luoyang, laboring day and night to explore, decipher, and debate the follow-up cultivation methods for the *Mountain-Suppressing Spirit Scripture*. It took them a full twenty years to barely piece together the first nine layers of the Qi Ingestion Chapter, and Zhang Jiao was delayed by twenty years as a result.
Aged and nearing his end, and with capable successors emerging in the Daoist Court's governance—Zhuge Kongming, Zhou Yu, He Ting, Qin Xun, Xun Yu, and others serving together in the Court of Administration, all endowed with exceptional statecraft—Zhang Jiao could rest easy. He decided to stake everything on a breakthrough to the Dao Foundation realm!
The outcome came as no surprise.
He failed.
His spiritual energy dissipated, his meridians snapped, and his internal organs withered. Yet Zhang Jiao broke into hearty laughter, ordering his attendants to record all the insights from his attempt so that future generations might benefit.
Following Zhang Jiao's death, his younger brother Zhang Liang assumed the mantle of Great Virtuous Teacher. However, he served for only ten years before passing the position to He Ting, wishing to spend the final stage of his life attempting a breakthrough to the Dao Foundation.
He Ting was the youngest son of the qushuai He Yi. Naturally clever, he could recite poetry by the age of seven. After being taught immortal cultivation methods, he devoted his heart to cultivating, only to tragically discover that his aptitude was abysmally poor. In his dejection, he threw himself into studying strategies of statecraft, achieving considerable success.
After taking over the mantle of Great Virtuous Teacher from Zhang Liang, he worked diligently and conscientiously to inaugurate a new era. Scholarship and culture flourished across the realm, the imperial examination system completely replaced the recommendation system derived from the Filial and Incorrupt system, and the Daoist Court's avenues for selecting talent became far broader and more comprehensive...
In the cultivation world, however, Zhang Liang, Zhang Bao, He Yi, Huang Shao, Tian Feng, Lu Zhi, and many others all collapsed before the chasm of the Dao Foundation realm. Countless more with lesser aptitude never even had the chance to behold that chasm.
Amidst this universal desolation, Zhuge Kongming, already past the age of one hundred, read through the notes and reflections left behind by Zhang Jiao, Zhang Liang, Tian Feng, and others after their failed breakthroughs. Deeply stirred, his spirit touched the profound depths of the unseen. He sat motionless through the night, and as the morning light broke, he let out a long, resounding cry. He had broken through to the Dao Foundation realm, becoming the world's very first Dao Foundation Patriarch!
After his breakthrough, Zhuge Kongming did not hoard his knowledge. He gave sermons and expounded the Dao in Luoyang, benefiting countless listeners. Ten years later, Zhou Gongjin broke through smoothly to become the second Dao Foundation Patriarch. He likewise gave lectures and taught the Dao in Luoyang, winning the realm's acclaim as people hailed Zhuge Kongming and Zhou Gongjin together as the two peerless luminaries of the age.
Thanks to the experiences handed down by these two, more and more people broke through to the Dao Foundation realm over the next three hundred years. Diverse cultivation techniques and Daoist arts gradually proliferated: Xie An compiled the *Water Origin Wondrous Scripture*, Tao Yuanming created the *Spirit Wood Azure Blossom Scripture*, Liu Yu founded the *Great Derivation Sharp Gold Qi*...
Of course, the one who created the greatest number of cultivation manuals, Daoist arts, and immortal crafts was still Zhuge Kongming: the Heavenly Derivation Eight Trigrams Formation, the Spirit Puppet Mechanism Technique, the Spirit-Sealing Grand Formation, the Minor Art of Summoning Clouds and Rain, the Elementary Exposition of Talismans...
It was fair to say that Zhuge Kongming had, by his own strength, pioneered more than half of this world's cultivation system. Regrettably, no matter how brilliant his talent, he ultimately fell before the wondrous realm of the Golden Core.
Over several centuries, none among the generations of cultivators succeeded in breaking through to the Golden Core. The notes and scrolls they left behind filled several palace chambers...
Until one day, an old man named Wu Daozi brandished his brush and painted the work future generations would call an immortal masterpiece: *Portrait of Zhonghuang Taiyi Descending as the Divine Infant Who Loves Humanity*. Entering the Dao through painting, he attained the Golden Core on the spot!
On the day he formed his Golden Core, cultivators across the realm gathered in Luoyang to offer their congratulations. Wu Daozi sat high upon the clouds, his breakthrough painting unfurled beside him. A pure, resonant sound carried for dozens of li, and radiant clouds eclipsed the sun, manifesting like an immortal or god...
A wave pushed through the long river of time, and more than two hundred years passed. The arcane Dao flourished: the world boasted five Golden Core Grand Masters, around a hundred Dao Foundation Patriarchs, and over ten thousand minor Qi Refinement cultivators.
Together, they authored numerous wondrous arts and profound scriptures: nine Golden Core Chapters, three hundred Dao Foundation Chapters, and countless Qi Ingestion Chapters...
Chapter 44