'What is Brother Wuwang cultivating?'

After observing Wu Wang secretly for a long time, Ling Xiaolan couldn't help but harbor such doubts.

If he were entering seclusion for enlightenment, most of the time he should be meditating, immersed in the Great Dao. Yet Wu Wang seldom meditated. Instead, he was continuously pouring over scrolls and studying cultivation techniques and ancient texts. Strangely enough, Wu Wang's expression was quite focused, and occasionally the Dao rhyme around him would fluctuate, indicating some insights.

Could it be that Brother Wuwang is also perplexed, seeking his own path in the ancestral texts?

Ling Xiaolan pondered carefully and concluded that it must be the case.

However, she was unaware that Wu Wang was not searching for his own path to cultivation at this moment. The sole thought in the depths of Wu Wang's heart was...

Emperor Fuxi must have been so lonely.

Wu Wang followed Emperor Fuxi's relics and those texts supplemented by later generations, searching for the shadow of this Predecessor as he walked the world.

At that time, Suiren perished, and Heaven Palace counterattacked. The land of the Human Domain, hard-won by Emperor Suiren after countless years of battle, was almost instantly subdued by Heaven Palace. The Divine Spirits stood tall between heaven and earth, seeking to extinguish the human race's spark and reclaim the Dao of Fire.

It was then that Emperor Fu Xi stepped forward, merged with the Dao of Fire, and alone pushed back the Divine Spirits step by step out of the South Wilderness.

The River Diagram and the Luo Script perform the Eight Trigrams; Yin and Yang stand together, proving the emptiness of the universe. This Ancestor of the Human Domain, with his peerless talents, evolved the Great Dao and interpreted heaven and earth. He created systematic cultivation methods for the human race, allowing those with the aptitude to take the path of self-strengthening.

While Emperor Suiren established territories, carving out the expanse of the Human Domain, Emperor Fu Xi and his followers raised pillars of the heavens on this domain. They supported a realm where Human Immortals could stand tall and face the Divine Spirits directly. This forced Heaven Palace to resort to despicable measures, limiting the human race's lifespan and slowing the rate of their reproduction.

Even to this day, the cultivation techniques in the Human Domain have not broken free from the framework laid out by Emperor Fu Xi.

That Eight Trigrams Picture must indeed be something that kept Emperor Shun from restful sleep.

But in the end, Emperor Fu Xi was lonely.

He faced Emperor Shun across vast eons, backed by his kin who watched over him. He stood on the slowly revolving Eight Trigrams, beneath the vast expanse of heaven, but without a single companion by his side. Contemporaries of the human race could not keep up with this Ancestor's pace and were even unable to understand his vision.

What's more, the mysteries contained within the innate Eight Trigrams Picture remained largely unexplored by the Human Domain's successors. They instead used the Eight Trigrams as a sequence to create Formations, allowing the Formations to deduce the esoteric principles within.

If Wu Wang were merely the Young Master of the Northern Wilderness or a rising talent from the Human Domain of the South Wilderness, he too would not understand when looking at these; it would be like reading a heavenly script.

But Wu Wang had an advantage: the mindset he brought from his past life, as well as the concepts he had formed before coming to the Great Wilderness. This gave Wu Wang a much broader perspective.

Emperor Fu Xi did not wish to inherit the Dao of Fire; he intended to break through the darkness with his own Dao. But time was not on his side. To protect the human race, Emperor Fu Xi had to give up the quest for his own Dao and step forward in times of crisis, mastering the Dao of Fire to fend off the Divine Spirits and the Hundred Races. To Emperor Fu Xi, the Dao of Fire was just one state, just one of the Dao rules, merely the 'Li' trigram of the Eight Trigrams, explaining the degrees of change in things. Tragically, the Dao of Fire also became Emperor Fu Xi's shackle, resulting in his deductions of myriad Daos, yet he was never able to transcend.

Wu Wang found Dao patterns written in ancient language on the back of a stone tablet, which generally expressed the following:

What is the Dao?

How did heaven and earth come to be?

Where do heaven and earth ultimately reside?

Dao patterns can carry not just information, but also a faint trace of the emotions of the one who inscribed them. As Wu Wang's fingers brushed over the stone tablet, he heard a lonely and helpless sigh in the depths of his heart. It was as if he saw an old man with disheveled hair in sackcloth, seeking up and down the river of time, looking up to the heavens and delving into the earth in search of the truth.

In the darkness, behind Wu Wang, an elder in a loose robe with a haggard face seemed to appear, pointing a sword at the sky, drunkenly shouting:

"At the beginning of time, who transmitted the Dao?

Before the universe took shape, how can one inquire about it?" (Note ①)

Emperor Fu Xi never found the answer that could resolve all questions. Or perhaps he found it, but could not illustrate it with words, could not record it with Dao patterns, and could not depict it on the Eight Trigrams Disk. Before he vanished, all Emperor Fu Xi could do was leave the key to unlocking that endless treasury of the Dao with the human race, leaving this elusive path for later generations.

Having read through all the remaining texts of Emperor Fuxi in the top-level treasury of the Scripture Hall, Wu Wang did not ponder, did not feel, and didn't even know how long he had spent on this. He simply sat there, with a look of blankness in his eyes.

Looking again at the portrait in front of him, Wu Wang's heart was an empty expanse, like a silent starry sky. When a glimmer of light appeared in the starry sky, as if a faint illumination emerged spontaneously with the rise and fall, images started flooding in, and an Eight Trigrams Picture filled the Spirit Platform.

The flame of the Yan Emperor's order was shining, but this light paled in comparison to the Eight Trigrams Disk.

What Emperor Fu Xi thought about was never the Dao of Fire. What he sought was the ultimate truth behind heaven and earth! That was a truth that could depict all Daos, penetrate all Daos, and explain all Daos!

Did you really find it?

Wu Wang couldn't help but ask softly.

He gazed at the portrait of Emperor Fu Xi, yet it seemed as if he saw Emperor Fu Xi himself standing quietly in the midst of the stars, hands clasped behind his back, his lips curved into a smile of release. It was like when Emperor Suiren saw a wisp of green smoke rising from a withered log and smiled at the sight. Or like Senior Shen Nong, carrying his medicine basket, looking back at the path now sown with grains and herbs, his smile filled with fatigue.

Wu Wang closed his eyes, sitting there quietly feeling everything. He could no longer perceive the passage of time, feel the existence of the Great Dao between heaven and earth, or be submerged in the starry sky. He was like a lone bridge spanning an unnamed void, with faint glimmers of light twinkling on both sides.

At this moment, Wu Wang finally understood how precious his own view of this world, his angle of observation, his cognition, and the thoughts and concepts that lingered from his past life's memories, truly were. That was the glow of five thousand years, the brilliance nurtured by great rivers. It was the conflagration that turned the fields red at the borders, the spirit of sweeping the six unions with the sword, claiming to be the only one supreme. It was the leap of scholars who would embrace rocks and throw themselves into the river. It was the quest of Confucius, Mencius, Laozi, and Zhuangzi in stillness and movement.

In an instant, two seas of stars emerged before and behind Wu Wang. From the Star Sea ahead, three figures emerged, who were once the backbone of the Human Domain and still are. In the Star Sea behind, a series of phantoms appeared, merely standing quietly. Then an old man riding an ox moved slowly forward, chanting:

"The Dao that can be trodden is not the enduring and unchanging Dao. The name that can be named is not the enduring and unchanging name."

Wu Wang had already called for a stone tablet and, with a short dagger in his hand, began inscribing several scriptures onto a stone tablet left by Emperor Fuxi under the somewhat flustered gaze of Ling Xiaolan.

"In the beginning, there was the One. Heaven obtained the One and thus was clear. Earth obtained the One and thus was peaceful. The spirits obtained the One and thus were spiritual. Valleys obtained the One and thus were full. All things obtained the One and thus lived."

"The Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, and three gives birth to all things. All things carry the Yin and embrace the Yang, and through the harmony of these energies, tranquility is achieved."

"Perfect completeness seems flawed, yet its use is endless. Perfect fullness seems empty, yet its use is inexhaustible. Great straightness seems bent, great skill seems clumsy, great eloquence seems awkward."

At this point, the connection between his old home, Blue Star, and the Great Wilderness world was not important. Wu Wang only knew that if the Human Domain wished to survive at this moment, it needed to extend the cultivation philosophy of Emperor Fuxi. It needed to create a time of cultivation even more prosperous than the most glorious era of Emperor Fuxi!

At some point, Wu Wang came back to his senses. Before him was the portrait of Emperor Fuxi, with two stone tablets inscribed with several scriptures placed before him. Then, Wu Wang pulled over a third stone tablet, pondered for a short while, and began to write again.

"All methods eventually change, and all paths lead to the immutable. Heaven and earth were before divine spirits; the Great Dao stood before all living beings. For Heaven and Earth and the Dao were born out of nothingness, where Heaven and Earth are the summation of all events and things. Wind, frost, dew, and mist, mountains, lakes, clouds, and seas gather from the minute; all things under Heaven and Earth are never still. The Dao represents rules, laws, human principles, and thoughts. It is for living beings to understand why Heaven and Earth are thus, while the Dao and living beings all return to the realm of Heaven and Earth, losing their meaning without it..."

In a stream of hundreds of words, Wu Wang wrote down all his recent realizations. The cultivation system initiated by Emperor Fuxi was actually missing a 'Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two' as an overarching cultivation principle that reveals the ultimate path of the Dao Realm. Wu Wang's recent pursuits and readings were to find this missing link, to identify the bottleneck in the Human Domain's cultivation methods.

After Wu Wang stopped inscribing, he placed the three stone tablets before him and read them carefully. A wave of realizations arose deep within him, and a slight smile appeared at the corner of his mouth. At this moment, he knew that his efforts would not be in vain.

Feeling Ling Xiaolan's gaze, Wu Wang asked, "Fairy, how long have we been here?"

Ling Xiaolan answered softly from beside him, "Three years and nine months."

"That long?" Wu Wang was stunned, then sighed. "I thought only a few months had passed."

Ling Xiaolan, stepping on Immortal Light, came over. Her mesmerizing eyes were bright as she gazed at Wu Wang and whispered, "You've been in a state of Enlightenment this whole time, tinkering and writing... even writing on the stone tablets hand-inscribed by His Majesty the Former Emperor."

"This," Wu Wang suddenly snapped back to reality. Looking at the three stone tablets before him, he was speechless for a moment.

Would he be scolded by the seniors for damaging the relics of the Human Domain?

"What are these?" Ling Xiaolan blinked softly, looking at the words on the stone tablets. She bit her lower lip lightly, read a few sentences, and froze, deep in thought, savoring the meaning.

The words were not just laden with the profound principles of the Dao; they were also a reflection of Wu Wang's recent state within the Dao Realm.

Suddenly, Ling Xiaolan closed her eyes, standing still, surrounded by a faint Immortal Light.

Wu Wang smiled gently, feeling a wave of tiredness spread from the Spirit Platform. He uncontrollably yawned, walked to the corner, and sat down with crossed legs.

The high ranks of the Human Domain wouldn't really blame him for ruining the relics of the Former Emperor, right? It's not like he was scribbling aimlessly. What Emperor Fuxi didn't manage to convey to his descendants, he fortunately integrated with parts of the Tao Te Ching that interpret 'the Dao' in a comprehensive way; the viewpoints he added later were also meant to guide them to respect objective reality and address cultivation issues dialectically.

Well... The final effect would depend on whether the masters could gain any insights.

After a while, Ling Xiaolan opened her eyes, pursed her lips, flew to Wu Wang's side, gave him a Daoist salute, and then sat down with crossed legs. Immortal Light condensed into a cocoon of light around her. Ling Xiaolan, who had become an immortal just a few years ago, at this moment had profound new insights.

Wu Wang sat resting for a while, not knowing how much time had passed, when suddenly he was awakened by Liu Baiyi's voice.

"This! How could the enlightenment be directly inscribed onto the stone slab! My little ancestor, this is an original manuscript by Emperor Fuxi! What's written here? What is this? Dao gives birth to one, one gives birth to two, two gives birth to three, three gives birth to all things? This..."

Liu Baiyi suddenly furrowed his brows. His Dao heart quivered quietly as he stared at these characters. He couldn't help but look up at the portrait of Emperor Fuxi. In the heart of the Pavilion Master of the Benevolent Emperor Pavilion, the diagrams of Yin and Yang, the Four Symbols, and the Eight Trigrams spontaneously emerged, his mana surging and rolling like tides.

He hastily retreated and placed another Barrier around the three stone slabs.

Is this...

Liu Baiyi turned to look at Wu Wang, but saw that Wu Wang appeared exhausted, sleeping with his eyes closed; Ling Xiaolan's figure was trapped in an immortal cocoon on the brink of breakthrough. Even he, a Human Domain expert who had stepped into the Transcendent Realm for countless years and whose own Dao was infinitely close to perfection, felt a trickle flow from his once desolate Spiritual Spring.

He really wanted to pick up Wu Wang and give him a vigorous shake, to see what other surprises this Little Golden Dragon, referred to by the Human Emperor as a friend despite the age difference, could produce!

Liu Baiyi immediately sat down cross-legged, his spiritual mind stretched to the limit, yet he forced himself not to fall into the state of Enlightenment. For a master like him, once engaged in Enlightenment, scores and sometimes hundreds of years could pass. At the moment, he was pondering over those scriptures, contemplating the few hundred words written by Wu Wang. He extracted some of the embedded principles to spread in his heart, nourishing his own Great Dao.

A moment later, Liu Baiyi stood up with trembling hands, made a Daoist salutation to Wu Wang, turned, and left the Scripture Hall in haste, fully activating its Formation.

「An hour later.」

"Your Majesty, look!"

"Hmm," Shen Nong gazed quietly at the three sides of the character slabs. After a while, he burst into laughter, supporting himself with his wooden staff. He then erected a Barrier around himself and laughed heartily, unable to stop.

Liu Baiyi stood quietly by his side, his lips also curled in a faint smile.

「Half a day later, the top floor of the Scripture Hall was graced with dozens of figures.」

They observed the three stone slabs for a while, and then seated themselves in meditation close by. The top floor of the Scripture Hall gained one cocoon after another.

Wu Wang and Ling Xiaolan had already been moved away. With Senior Shen Nong taking action, they would not be disturbed in their sleep.

This 'non-Enlightenment' retreat of three years and nine months really exhausted Wu Wang; only after fourteen to sixteen hours did he finally open his sleepy eyes. He immediately leapt up alertly, because he found himself in a strange corner of a grand hall. But he turned his head and saw Senior Shen Nong meditating nearby, and his heart that had been lifted was released by more than half.

"Where's Fairy Ling?"

"In a quiet place undergoing secluded cultivation," Shen Nong slowly opened his eyes. The Dao rhyme around him retracted spontaneously, profound and inscrutable, his state unknowable.

Shen Nong suddenly asked, "Where does Dao come from?"

Wu Wang smiled calmly, sitting next to the low table in front of Shen Nong. "I was visited in a dream by Emperor Fuxi."

"Oh?" Shen Nong frowned for a while, watching Wu Wang with a complex expression, and sighed. "Truly, I don't know what to say. The Human Domain owes you a great debt, and now there is a twenty percent greater hope in confronting Heaven Palace."

"Twenty percent? That much?"

"Without reaching the Transcendent Realm, one cannot understand the meaning of the scriptures you wrote. The gate to all wonders, the Dao that cannot be spoken." Shen Nong's eyes brimmed with emotion. "Did you really gain it from a dream?"

"Look," Wu Wang spread his hands. "My own Dao Realm hasn't changed a bit. If these truths were something I had realized on my own, by now I'd at least be a high-ranking master at the level of the Heavenly Emperor."

"Indeed," Shen Nong nodded slightly, then continued to gaze at Wu Wang for a while. "Then why did Emperor Fuxi choose to visit you in a dream?"

"That's a matter of character and temperament."

"Don't speak frivolously. This matter relates to the future of the Human Domain and even the Great Wilderness, and it will have an immeasurably profound impact. Wu Wang, you should be aware of the effects that those scriptures will have on the Cultivation practices of the Human Domain."

Shen Nong looked at Wu Wang seriously. "I've asked Liu Baiyi and the others. They unanimously feel that you should be established as the successor to Emperor Fuxi's Dao..."

Wu Wang waved his hands repeatedly, smiling. "Let's not speak of that, and let's not spread this around."

"Afraid of being targeted by Heaven Palace?"

"That's one aspect. On the other hand, these insights are not something I've cultivated." Wu Wang gazed at Shen Nong, speaking seriously, "I'm just a carrier. It was Emperor Fuxi who visited me in the dream; these were the concepts he never managed to convey to you and the others, Senior. Don't you think so? The fundamental reason why there has been no significant advancement in the Cultivation practices of the Human Domain since Emperor Fuxi lies in the fact that everyone only follows without questioning. The Great Dao is ever-evolving, as is the world. If the cultivation philosophies of the Human Domain stagnate, disaster will surely come. Senior, consider those scriptures my gift to the Human Domain. In the same way, I also hope that if my Northern Wilderness ever faces a threat from Heaven Palace, the Human Domain, if capable, will come to its aid."

"Is this a covenant?"

"No, it's just a little hope."

"Good." Shen Nong nodded slowly, saying solemnly, "The value of these scriptures is enough to exchange for the unconditional protection of the Northern Wilderness by the Human Domain. If the Northern Wilderness is attacked, the Human Domain will not only engage Heaven Palace's combat power but also send experts to help the Northern Wilderness. This is the promise of the Human Emperor, and also the commitment of the Human Domain!"

Wu Wang stood up, his left fist clenched against his chest. "Thank you, Your Majesty the Human Emperor."

"No thanks needed. After all, I owe you a great favor," Shen Nong said with a smile, then continued, "Let's not speak of this matter for now; I will strictly order Liu Baiyi and the others to guard the secret and claim that the scriptures are remnants of Emperor Fuxi. Wuwang, what would you like as recompense for yourself?"

"Recompense is too strong a word," Wu Wang drew out the starmetal sword from his sleeve.

Shen Nong snatched it away, laughing. "Look at you, offering such great gifts to the Human Domain! I'm really feeling a bit embarrassed."

Wu Wang gritted his teeth. "Help me forge it using the Human Domain's weapon refining technique! Turn it into a top-tier celestial treasure! It would be best if it could amplify the Dao of Stars!"

Senior Shen Nong squinted his eyes with a smile, taking the ore sword. "It will take three months. I'll go find the first divine craftsman of the Human Domain to craft it for you."

"The first divine craftsman?" Wu Wang suddenly perked up. "Who?"

"What, planning to poach someone?" Shen Nong said with a proud smile, leisurely asking, "Anything else you want?"

"Let me see Jingwei!"

"Here," Shen Nong raised his hand and pointed. A cloud of mist appeared in front of Wu Wang; light flashed within it and quickly vanished without a trace.

Wu Wang raised his hand but could only sigh with an unsatisfied longing.

It would be another one or two hundred years before they could meet...

He asked, "Where is she?"

"That, I cannot say," Shen Nong spoke gently. "No need to worry, just focus on your cultivation. I will have Liu Baiyi teach you the best body cultivation techniques of the Human Domain. Apart from that, I've also given Liu Baiyi a portion of the Spirit Pills and Spirit Grass that I've treasured for many years. Your assistance to the Human Domain this time has truly been too significant; I've racked my brains and can only offer you these benefits."

Wu Wang chuckled. "No worries, these are all things I should do as a son-in-law."

"That's a separate matter!" Shen Nong said with a solemn expression. "Should the opportunity arise later, I will personally hunt other Evil Gods for you. You treat the Human Domain with honesty, and I will repay kindness with kindness. Even if it means using the Divine Power of Heaven Palace to empower you, I will make you an expert in your own right."

"Fine then." Wu Wang seemed dispirited, his gaze empty, as he felt a void at the bottom of his heart.

Shen Nong calmly added, "And to help you break free from the curse of the God of Fortune, to relieve you of your strange illness."

Instantly, a fiery blaze lit up in Wu Wang's eyes! He almost blurted out that he actually still remembered "Harmony with Light and Dust," "Supreme Goodness Like Water," "Utmost Void and Tranquil Steadfastness," "The Dao Behaves Naturally," and other sections that he could barely recite from memory.

Of course, he held back. Such treasures must be used sustainably. Showing too much to the Human Domain all at once could lead to indigestion among the domain's experts.

"Come," Shen Nong waved his wide sleeve. Several dishes and a pair of wine cups appeared on the short table in front of them. "Let us, grandfather and grandson, have a drink."

"Why stand on ceremony with me, father-in-law? You changed the wine cups?"

"These are fifty-thousand-year-old wine cups. I don't just use them for anyone."

"I think new items are actually fine, too… Goodness, how many people have used this?"

"Are you drinking or not? And who is your father-in-law? Young man, don't call out titles rashly."

"Drinking, drinking. We'll just keep to our own terms."

...

「Tianyan Xuan Nu Sect, a secret realm somewhere in the back mountains.」

Beside the misty immortal pool, Sect Master Jing Yue sat quietly, not moving an inch from the pool. More than a dozen old women sat silently beside her, completely surrounding the area. Not even a grain of dust could come within half an inch of the immortal pool.

Suddenly, an old woman arrived on a cloud, bowing from tens of meters away to report, "Sect Master, the Vice Pavilion Master from the Benevolent Emperor Pavilion has come with a scripture that must be personally handed over to you."

"Oh?" Jing Yue didn't open her eyes. A thread of Immortal Light rose from around her and condensed into another 'Jing Yue' behind her. It was her divine incarnation.

The incarnation left the heavy Formations of the place and rode a cloud towards the front hall of the Xuan Nu Sect, while the actual body of Jing Yue remained completely still.

In the pool, the misty Spirit Light had become much brighter than it had been years ago, faintly revealing the tiny human figure enveloped by a primordial membrane.

...

(Note ①: From Qu Yuan's "Heavenly Questions.")

(Note ②: These are chapters of enlightenment; they are not an internal view of the world. The bridges, two seas of stars that appear in the text are concrete writing techniques, and the worldview will be unveiled step by step later.)

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