Chapter 868: A Nascent Dao (Patreon)

A/N

I can’t remember which chapter it’s been addressed before but I think there’s still some confusion why elder Chen Yong was able to examine the blue sun energy and not be corrupted, while Wei Lin was corrupted when he absorbed it from the shapeshifter.

So I thought I’d make another note about it because I probably didn’t explain it too well.

The Genesis Seed continuously purifies whatever is in Ke yin’s world or whatever is connected to it (starhaven realm), this is why his two sun energies are ‘pure’.

However as soon as they leave Ke yin’s body, there’s a small chance the corruption will return now that there is no constant source of purification. Also, remember the two suns have a link to the Two Suns World, which Ke yin uses to world walk there at will, this connection gives the corruption chance to return.

In the Tournament Arc, Ke Yin would absorb any remnant two sun energy from environment after having used it because he was paranoid. An example from the top of my head is when he gained access to his inner world in the Slumbering Scholar Sect and there was a massive explosion of his energies, he quickly reabsorbed it and it’s explained why in that chapter.

Analysing the energies without absorbing them isn’t an issue, but if someone absorbed them, there is a slight chance that the corruption will return and infect their inner world.

The question is now that the Two Suns World has no corruption, and the connection that links the 3 suns to the Two Suns World is now completely clean, does this still apply?

I won’t answer that, you guys can theorise if you’d like, but Ke Yin will have to find out for himself.

As for Wei Lin, he absorbed it from the remnants of shapeshifter explosion, the dao of envy shapeshifter wasn’t able to copy the purifying aspect of the Genesis Seed.

I hope that clarifies things, but lmk if I should add this explanation in the story (sometimes I think I've added something but in reality I just wrote it in my head lol).

Chapter 869: A Nascent Dao

Before I got ahead of myself, there was something I needed to make clear to the elder because I felt like he was overestimating me.

"Elder Lin," I said. "You should know that I don't have a single Stellar Realm technique to my name. I actually went to the meeting to get one, but instead I left with a duel, so I'm not sure what we'll be training for the next hundred and forty days."

"Mm."

That was the only response I got as his head sank deeper into the pillow.

Realising that I wasn’t going to get an answer from him anytime soon, I tried to figure out a solution myself, and honestly the situation wasn’t as bleak as I made it out to be. I mean, I had four Stellar Realm souls living in my inner world, and I was pretty sure that between an alchemist, a calamity absorber, a blacksmith, and a sentient pill, at least one of them had to remember something that fit my combat style.

But the longer I thought about it, the less I believed it would change anything because I couldn’t prepare like a normal disciple, who would focus on sharpening their arts or pushing Stellar Realm energy through their old techniques while naively hoping it’ll be enough to defeat a cultivator who had lived for nearly a thousand years.

No, what I needed to do was focus on my advantages, and there was definitely something that the old man had never encountered before, and that was the energies of the Two Suns World. As much as I was trying to advance my combat prowess as a qi cultivator, I could only do that if I actually acquired the techniques, which meant I would need to fight as a hybrid Skybound-Lightweaver.

If I was facing a normal Stellar Realm cultivator, I could probably win by relying on my Rank 4 Skybound runes, which had levelled up alongside my Skybound cultivation and was equivalent to Stellar Realm. And if that wasn’t enough, the addition of manifesting a domain using blue sun cultivation would be.

I knew that Stellar Realm cultivators relied heavily on their domain during battle, and with my Lightweaver cultivation, I had the Forest of Endless Growth, the Thornveil Labyrinth and the Sanctuary Grove to choose from compared to my opponent’s single domain.

However, for a Peak Stellar Realm cultivator, I knew that wouldn’t be enough. The only thing that would assure my victory would have been manifesting Sect Master Yuan as my Dharma Vessel. Sure, summoning a Civilisation Realm powerhouse seemed overkill for a duel, but that would have been my only option.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible because when I had manifested Sect Master Yuan as my avatar, it had only succeeded because the Eldest Tree and Elder Thorn had been pouring sun energy into me the entire time. And even then, the avatar had been falling apart while I used it. Without a golden sun battery, I could only rely on my reserves, which was only Rank 5. This meant it’d even be difficult to manifest a drunken Life Realm elder, who would be able to end the battle with one scribble.

"You're doing it again," Lin Youran said without lifting his head. "You're thinking so hard that I can hear it from here. Don't waste the effort. I already did the thinking for the both of us."

"When?" I asked. "You were snoring the entire trip here."

"I can do both at the same time," he said. "Why do you think I sleep so much?"

Azure snorted.

"So what's the plan?" I asked, folding my arms. "What are you going to teach me?"

"When I released my dao in the hall," he said, "it passed over everyone in that room, including you, and even though I didn’t target you, I felt something try to push back. It was faint, half-formed, and very stubborn, but it was the beginnings of a dao. But since you haven’t committed to it yet, it can’t fully form."

"It's a big decision," I said, nodding. "Whatever dao I commit to is going to decide the rest of my cultivation journey, so I don’t want to rush and regret it later."

“Sometimes I forget you haven't even lived through your first century,” he laughed through his nose. "Then you open your mouth and say something that young, and I remember."

I raised an eyebrow at him, since taking care over the most important decision of a cultivator's life seemed sensible to me.

"You keep talking about choosing," he said, opening his eyes properly, which told me how serious he was being. "Yet it is dao that picks the cultivator. The cultivator’s job is to open himself to it when the time comes, but all that careful thinking of yours is the reason yours is still stuck."

Honestly, I didn’t know what to believe because there were different schools of thought about the dao.

Some believed that it was solely the responsibility of the cultivator to choose the dao and then walk that path no matter how much they needed to change their personality and their life to do so. This supported what I’d read back on Earth, how the protagonist would stand on a mountain peak, declare to the heavens that he would walk the Dao of the Sword, and the sky would answer with thunder.

But others argued that every individual was naturally inclined to a dao, and that the dao would find them. All they needed to do was accept it. From what Lin Youran was saying, he clearly followed this school of thought.

I personally thought it could be a mix of both, a cultivator was probably naturally inclined to a dao, but the final choice rested on their shoulders, and if they truly desired, they could follow a dao which didn’t suit them. It would probably be counterproductive, but it was possible.

Yet looking at the man lying on a cloud with a pillow under his head, who had mastered the dao to a very high level for a Stellar Realm cultivator, he was clearly doing something right. And if I was being honest with myself, since I woke up in this body, I had linked worlds through the Genesis Seed, brought the Leech-kin, the Lithari and other souls to my inner world. Hell, I even built a Dharma Vessel that drew its strength from the people I cared about.

So, it seemed that Lin Youran was right.

The Dao of Connection had been there the whole time, I just had to open myself up to it, but that was easier said than done. The mere thought made the back of my neck prickle, because there would be no turning back. Changing cultivation methods was difficult enough, I seriously didn’t want to find out what changing daos entailed.

"What if I open myself up to it and it's the wrong one?" I asked.

"If it picked you, it's the right one," he mumbled. "Enough talking. Talking is tiring. Before I can help you awaken your dao, I need to see what I am working with. Do not hold back."

With that, he tapped the control panel, causing a list of opponents to appear, and the elder picked the one at the very top without even reading a single name.

"Wait, anyone except him—"

"He's already saved," Lin Youran murmured, already getting comfortable in his pillow. "Making a new one would take more taps."

Before I could say anything else, the miniature Martial Stage grew outward until it filled the entire room. Everything changed around us. The grey walls faded into a pale blue sky, the tiers of empty stone benches rose on every side of us, and I swear I could hear the low background noise of cheering.

This was now a proper arena.

At the far end, specks of light gathered out of nothing and built a pair of embroidered boots, then purple silk robes stitched with golden clouds, then a jade crown sitting on a head of perfectly combed hair.

By the time the face finished forming, it was mid-sneer.

"Which fool let a mud-footed peasant onto this young master's stage?" Cao Yu drawled, snapping open a folding fan whilst looking me up and down. "Look at you, with a foundation that pitiful, you should be on your knees thanking the heavens that I'm even willing to look in your direction. Go on, kneel and kowtow three times, perhaps then this young master will only break both of your legs."

Last time, his insults had made me laugh, because they had come from a peak Elemental Realm puppet that collapsed onto its knees the moment I raised a golden hand.

This time, I didn't even smile because as his aura spread out, I could sense the turning of a complete star system, with every star and moon ready to empower his techniques. This was without a doubt a Peak Stellar Realm Arrogant Young Master.

A/N

We'll be having a time skip soon, but we'll cover the important parts of the training period. That should help with pacing. But if there is anything specific you'd like to see, just comment below and I'll see if it makes sense to include it

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