Red Heart Patrols the Sky

By the bubbling brook, the boy clenched the small wooden sword in his hand, firmly fixing his gaze on the white-haired man approaching on his flying sword.

"You have good potential, how about coming with me?" the white-haired man said.

Despite his youth, how could he be blind to the breathtaking views of the roaring azure sky? He was about to agree when he heard a stubborn voice beside him say, "Take me with you!"

The owner of the voice was his playmate, the one he had just "dueled" with and who had lost.

The boy knew well the stubbornness of his companion, like today's "duel"—he had lost count of how many they had had. But his friend, having lost once before, was fixated on winning back the victory before giving up.

The boy thought, then we can cultivate together.

He could no longer recall many details, but he still remembered the white-haired man's eyes. They were as clear as a stream and as distant as the sky.

The white-haired man regarded them with his eyes, watching the two inseparable childhood friends, a faint, inscrutable smile playing on his lips.

"I only take one disciple," the white-haired man said.

He repeated, "You're both good, but I will only take one."

What to do? the boy thought then.

But he only had a moment to think, the next moment, he was pushed into the river.

Splash!

The sound of water bursting open.

His friend, with whom he ran around bare-bottomed, still just a child himself, had pushed him into the water without hesitation!

Through the rippling waves, he saw his "friend's" expressionless face, and the ever-calm eyes of the white-haired man.

And then, a frosty white sword light soared into the sky.

His little companion and the white-haired man were both enveloped in that splendid and dazzling sword light, like a bolt of lightning on a clear day, arriving and departing abruptly.

Just like the legends of countless immortals seeking the Dao, brushing past the hapless and mediocre mortals.

Leaving behind a feeling of disbelief, unable to let go, waking from dreams night after night in a shock!

...

Jiang Wang opened his eyes, the pitch-black night enveloping everything around, as well as himself. The dormitory was extraordinarily quiet, with Ling He and Du Yehu's breathing long and with a unique rhythm.

Jiang Wang knew they were practicing basic breath control techniques. Though rudimentary, they were only taught to Inner Sect Disciples, a foundational practice unchanged for a century at the Zhuang Country Daoist Institute.

There was little suspense in the selection of Inner Sect students at Fenglin City Daoist Institute; Ling He, Du Yehu, and Zhao Rucheng all became new Inner Sect Disciples and had their names recorded on the jade tablets in the shrine.

It's just that they couldn't be considered official hemp-robed Taoists until their Dao veins manifested.

Channel-opening Pills were worth their weight in gold and even with the national offerings to the Fenglin City Daoist Institute, it was impossible to provide every disciple with one for free. Selected from the best of the Outer Sect to join the Inner Sect, they would also usually need to endure for at least a year, amassing enough merit to be eligible for a Channel-opening Pill.

The top contributor of the Outer Sect each year could exchange their merit for a Channel-opening Pill. This was the institute's special incentive for Outer Sect Disciples. Therefore, with Jiang Wang in this cohort, no one else could replicate his path.

Even so, Jiang Wang had to fight desperately, shedding blood and risking his life to accumulate the merit needed to exchange for a Channel-opening Pill. Nowadays, within a hundred miles of Fenglin City, there was no longer another Western Mountain Thief to be eradicated.

Joining the Outer Sect of the Daoist Institute to cultivate diligently, defeating countless competitors to enter the Inner Sect, and continuing to practice diligently after entering and accruing mission merits—to finally be granted a Channel-opening Pill and step into the transcendent, that is the path of a regular cultivator in Zhuang Country. It's also considered a visible, broad road.

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However, compared to those with Natural Dao Veins who directly become Inner Sect Disciples and start practicing the Dao, these youngsters who chose the route through the outer sect truly spend too much time in vain.

The path of cultivation is such that if one is slow in one step, they'll be slow in every step. This is why Jiang Wang risked his life to complete missions when he was in the outer sect, and also why Fang Pengju couldn't contain his greed. No one wants to wait so many years!

Thus, Jiang Wang understood Fang Pengju's cravings, but he could not forgive his methods.

Martial Artists like them, exceptional among men, whether it be Ling He or Du Yehu, who wouldn't have lesser desire for transcendence than Fang Pengju? Yet none of them resorted to such despicable actions.

Jiang Wang's father once said, "A person is defined by his choices." Jiang Wang deeply agreed.

And he was at that moment caught in a difficult choice of his own.

As everyone knows, there are nine grades of cultivators, with Grade-1 being the most revered and Grade-9 considered the beginning of transcendence. The hallmark of achieving Grade-9 is the formation of Dao Spinners, self-generating Path Origin.

Cultivators have undergone an extensively long history that is difficult to count, and there is naturally very thorough and profound research on this first step towards transcendence.

The spine is considered the great dragon of the human body, with the Dao Veins hidden within it. Once the Dao Veins emerge, the cultivator can use the power of Blood and Qi to feedback into the Dao Veins, thereby generating Path Origin. Path Origin is the foundation of all Dao and is also the base of transcendence.

Take Jiang Wang's Earthworm Channel as an example, every time he mobilizes "Earthworm," it requires a considerable amount of Blood and Qi Power to go through the entire spine before a Path Origin can be formed. And at Jiang Wang's level, he can usually perform Meridian Rush Practice twice a day, accumulating two Path Origins. It's not that he isn't working hard, but the body won't allow it. The consumption of Blood and Qi is too great, damaging the source and injuring the spirit, which is truly a loss outweighing the gain.

After accumulating Path Origins, the next step is to command them. Using a foundational formation diagram as a guide, delineate the corresponding formation points. Once the formation is complete, Dao Spinners emerge.

As a cultivator who has opened his meridians, the Dao Institute of Fenglin City naturally imparted a foundational formation diagram. It is the universally used Guiyuan (Return to Origin) formation of Zhuang Country, with a total of eighty-one formation points. That is to say, without the slightest error in laying out the formation diagram, he would need at least forty-one days, almost one and a half months' time, to truly become a Grade-9 cultivator. (The two Path Origins Jiang Wang had previously accumulated had already been exhausted in battle.)

Prior to this, Jiang Wang naturally had no difficulty, but now that he has unexpectedly entered the Taixu Illusion Realm and has inherited Zuo Guanglie's "Dongzhen Fortunate Land," unlocking the relevant Discussion Platform and Performance Platform, he's faced with new troubles.

Yesterday, after receiving the Guiyuan formation diagram, he tested the Performance Platform and invested all 1850 points of his effort into deducing the foundational formation. In the end, he obtained the extremely intricate Zhou Tian Xing Dou formation diagram. The entire foundational formation has three hundred and sixty-five formation points!

Let's not even talk about the difficulty of laying out the Zhou Tian Xing Dou formation; even if he could perfectly replicate the foundational formation diagram, it would still take him at least half a year to produce the first Dao Spinner.

And then, to ascend from Grade-9 to Grade-8, three Dao Spinners are needed, and nine Dao Spinners are needed to ascend from Grade-8 to Grade-7.

By that calculation, the time required is far too long!

There is no doubt that the Zhou Tian Star Dou formation is stronger than the Guiyuan formation, but the extensive time required for its establishment is exactly why Jiang Wang hesitated. He needed to improve his cultivation as quickly as possible in order to catch up with those cultivators with naturally manifest Dao Veins, yet time waits for no one.

But after waking from tonight's dream, he had made his choice.

Jiang Wang closed his eyes and activated the only Path Origin formed from yesterday's Meridian Rush, slowly moving it within his spine. In the vague world of perception where he commanded the Path Origin, this was a boundlessly wide and vast expanse of space.

Because the great dragon resided here, this place was also known as the Spinal Sea.

But among cultivators, it had a more resounding name—Tongtian Palace!

Traversing the Tongtian Palace, opening the Heaven and Earth Gate, marks the transition from an early-stage to an intermediate-stage cultivator.

In the boundless Tongtian Palace, a Path Origin seems as trivial as a speck of dust. But instead of drifting with the tide, it moved stubbornly and tenaciously with Jiang Wang's will, finally pausing at the desired location.

That was the position of the Sun Star in the Zhou Tian Xing Dou formation diagram.

The moment the Path Origin paused there, Jiang Wang seemed to see once again the eyes of the white-haired cultivator from his childhood.

He could never forget when he was pushed into the water.

Those eyes seemed to be telling him—

"The path of cultivation is, after all, a struggle."

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