If the Dao could make white bones bloom and the dead resurrect, then those with desires in their hearts would surely turn toward the Heavenly Dao, kowtowing to achieve their wishes.
If the Dao is incomplete and Heaven is lacking, then the gap between Mortals and Immortals will be an insurmountable chasm... "Old Devil Gu Yuan, today is the day you die!"
Jun Yichen, the Sect Master of the Great Spirit Sect, stood upon his sword, Sword Qi surging around him. Behind him were countless Righteous Path Cultivators dressed in varying Daoist robes. The Magic Treasures in their hands glittered with cold light, their killing intent surging like a tide.
Gu Yuan, the great Devil Head who once made the entire cultivation world tremble, stood alone on the Peak of a steep cliff.
His black robe flapped loudly, his ink-black hair danced wildly, and his weathered face was filled with defiance and ruthlessness.
Being at the half-step Ninth Stage Heavenly Immortal Realm, he was only one step away from the legendary Peak Realm. This, however, attracted the siege of countless Righteous Path forces, as no one knew what state the world would be thrown into if Gu Yuan achieved the legendary Realm of the Heavenly Immortal Venerable.
"Just with you lot?"
Gu Yuan curled his lip into a mocking arc, his eyes full of disdain. With a lift of his hand, the power of the Path of Time and Space moved as he willed. Many Cultivators around him felt their Lifespans rapidly decreasing and couldn't help but retreat repeatedly. Only the Cultivators of the Upper Three Sects remained resolute, refusing to take a single step back.
Righteousness and evil clashed. For a moment, the sound of colliding Magic Treasures was deafening, and the light of Spells rose and fell in quick succession.
Gu Yuan charged left and right through the enemy ranks, wielding the Path of Time and Space to its extreme. Wherever he went, blood rained and winds roared, yet the Righteous Path Cultivators poured in like a tide, endless to kill.
As time passed, Gu Yuan coldly snorted, "Ants truly cannot be killed or cut down completely."
And the person who had previously claimed to be the Sect Master of the Great Spirit Sect was now severely wounded, Death Qi swirling around him, with most of his Lifespan already drained away.
"So be it. Now is the perfect time. Let me see who can stop me from achieving this supreme Ninth Stage Realm!"
Immediately, he no longer hesitated, retreating into his cave dwelling, sitting cross-legged on the ground, and fully circulating the spiritual energy within his body, attempting to break through that restriction and step into the Ninth Stage Immortal Venerable Realm!
In an instant, the world changed color. A terrifying aura erupted from Gu Yuan, causing the surrounding space to begin twisting.
The Righteous Path Cultivators outside were all panicking. If such a Devil Head achieved the Ninth Stage, wouldn't the world fall into utter chaos!
At this moment, Jun Yichen, the Sect Master of the Great Spirit Sect, mobilized his Immortal essence, actually attempting a Breakthrough alongside the Devil Head Gu Yuan!
Unfortunately, Jun Yichen's injuries were too severe. Under the successive Heavenly Tribulations, his protective Immortal essence disintegrated, and he turned into a wisp of ash amidst the Immortal tribulation!
Gu Yuan's cultivation was heaven-defying; ordinary tribulations could no longer stop him!
"If I succeed, I will ensure this world never knows peace again!"
Just at the critical moment of his impending Breakthrough, an incomparably powerful force descended from the sky—it was the pressure of the Heavenly Dao!
That Immortal essence was incredibly tyrannical, more vicious than the Immortal arts of any Immortal Gu Yuan had ever seen, making it impossible for him to resist.
In that unseen place, a certain figure seemed to let out a long sigh.
Gu Yuan coldly snorted, his eyes full of coldness as he looked towards the existence above the firmament. Finally, he sighed, "So be it, so be it."
"It's an ancestor's contingency plan!" "That Devil Head has suffered a backlash! Quickly, take his head!"
Gu Yuan's Breakthrough was ruthlessly blocked by the Heavenly Dao. Seeing this, the surrounding Righteous Path Cultivators were ecstatic and swarmed him once more... At this moment, as the strongest Devil Head in the world, Gu Yuan was out of options, yet he would not allow these so-called prestigious Righteous Path sects to control and manipulate him.
"My plan failed because my strategy was lacking. Looking back on this life, I have many regrets, but no resentment. If there is a next life... I will definitely walk the path I came on again and kill every obstacle that stands in the way of my becoming a Venerable one more time..."
Just as the Righteous Path forces lunged at Gu Yuan, he bravely self-destructed, intending to obliterate the entire Eastern Continent!
A generation's peerless Devil Head thus fell... "Gu Yuan, look quickly! You really did get first place on the literary ranking list this time!"
"That's outrageous! You must have cheated! Otherwise, how could you possibly have clinched the top spot on the literary ranking list?"
The surrounding clamor made Gu Yuan, who had been peacefully accepting death, suddenly open his eyes and regain his senses. The unfamiliar environment made him momentarily stunned.
Several Students around him were chattering, asking the people in front to move so they could see the stone tablet. Gu Yuan, standing right at the front, looked at the huge stone tablet before him. On the tablet were rows of unfamiliar names and corresponding scores, and the top position clearly displayed the words "Gu Yuan."
Gu Yuan lowered his head, looking at the bouquet of bright red flowers clutched in his hand and the small carving knife in his right hand. Memories accumulated over many years suddenly flooded his mind.
He... had returned to the past?
Wasn't this the moment when he first won the top spot, earning the chance to attend the banquet with the academy beauty? At this time, he was still a Mortal, but he was the grassroots individual whom everyone considered the most likely candidate to become a Cultivator Seed.
Sensing the Five Elements Mixed Spirit Root, which shimmered with pale gold and earthy yellow, in his empty Dantian, it was quite ordinary—a Spiritual Root where the Gold and Earth elements were slightly stronger, though it looked somewhat unstable... A smile unconsciously spread across Gu Yuan's face.
The people around saw Gu Yuan's expression fluctuating, sometimes smiling, sometimes looking confused.
Those who didn't know he was Gu Yuan thought he had gone mad, but those who did know him assumed he was overjoyed because he had won the top spot and earned the chance to share a banquet with the most beautiful academy Student of the Wuxin City Mortal Cultivation Academy in a decade.
Gu Yuan quickly composed his expression, making sure not to reveal any flaws.
Although he didn't know what reason allowed him to return to the past—perhaps it was the feedback from cultivating the Path of Time and Space to its extreme, allowing his Soul to be Reborn and Transmigrate after death, or perhaps it was a trick of the Heavenly Dao.
But regardless of the reason, since he had returned to a time a thousand years ago, before he officially became a Cultivator, he would start working hard again from this moment. Armed with a thousand years of information, Gu Yuan firmly believed he could return to the Peak.
Perhaps... even surpassing his thousand-year-later self!
At this moment, Gu Yuan's heart was as calm as a bright mirror.
At the final juncture of his Breakthrough, his Realm had already completed its transformation; logically speaking, he had already stepped into the category of a Venerable.
But that voice that appeared above the firmament at the very end, that existence the Righteous Path called the "Heavenly Dao"... In this life, he would surely accumulate power so that none of those fellows could ever stop him again.
However, many Legacies and Magical Artifacts should still be unearthed, and the structure of the Four Domains and Two Realms should not yet be broken by the Upper Three Sects... Some of his knowledge needed to be corrected first, and... the most important turning point was also fast approaching.
Thinking of this, Gu Yuan knew he could not continue wasting time here.
Ignoring the shouts of the few people behind him, Gu Yuan walked toward another grove by himself. If he remembered correctly, those two individuals should be right here at this time!
As he walked, Gu Yuan recalled.
This was the Eastern Continent, one of the Four Domains. Besides the Eastern Continent, the other three Domains were the Northern Region, the Western Desert, and the South Sea.
This place was Wuxin City, a Mortal town under the jurisdiction of the Tianyan Martial Sect, one of the Lower Eight Sects under the Upper Three Sects in the Eastern Continent.
As the only "academy" in the town, it recruited a large number of Mortals with Spiritual Roots every year, teaching them Qi Refining Cultivation Techniques.
Cultivators, in total, could be divided into one through nine stages.
First Stage Qi Refining Realm.
Second Stage Core Formation Realm.
Third Stage Golden Core Realm.
Fourth Stage Nascent Soul Realm.
Fifth Stage Divided Soul Realm.
Sixth Stage Dao Integration Realm.
And above the Seventh Stage, that was already the scope of an "Immortal."
As for the Ninth Stage, that was an existence unrivaled in the world and difficult to find even after a millennium. In today's cultivation world, only two individuals have ever stepped into this Realm, and the forces left behind by these two Venerables after their passing are the "Upper Three Sects"...
These things were too distant and too remote for ordinary people. For most people in the academy, being able to open their Dantian and circulate True Qi within six years, thus having the potential to become a First-Rank Cultivator, was already a matter of bringing glory to their ancestors, and such people were called "Cultivator Seeds."
Gu Yuan was one of them. As a grassroots Disciple who had been recruited, Gu Yuan did not receive guidance from a Cultivator mentor, relying only on his own continuous efforts. It took him nearly three years to barely reach the threshold of a First-Rank Cultivator.
That book on Breathing could be said to have been nearly worn out by Gu Yuan.
Recalling his past self, Gu Yuan wished he could slap himself twice.
Back then, all his attention was focused on pursuing Xiao Mei, the academy beauty. Not only did he waste his time staying up all night tutoring her several times before the literary exam, but sometimes, when she merely acted coquettishly, he would foolishly transmit True Qi to her.
It was only later that Gu Yuan learned from others that every time Xiao Mei asked him to transmit True Qi, it was superficially about cultivating together and improving, but in reality, it was a special cultivation method of the Cultivation Technique she practiced, the "Yang Essence Plundering Technique."
It relied on plundering the True Qi of others to strengthen herself, and the targets could only be male. If a male practiced it, he would later need to find someone of the same gender to transmit True Qi to each other.
His naive past self had only thought this behavior was intimate and was thus tirelessly delighted by it... Little did he know, his foundation had almost been completely hollowed out.
Just recently, Xiao Mei had even made an agreement with Gu Yuan: if he could win the top spot in this literary exam, she would agree to share a banquet with him. To everyone, this was a rare opportunity to get close to Xiao Mei and gain her favor.
But what the crowd didn't know was that Xiao Mei was already the exclusive property of Lin Ao, the academy's top scholar, and would not tolerate interference from others.
Gu Yuan's repeated misfortunes and accidents were something he had only attributed to bad luck at the time, but in reality, he had been secretly "cared for" by Lin Ao.
But in this life, he already knew the relationship between these two! How could he allow them to manipulate him again!
Thinking of this, Gu Yuan's steps quickened. At this very moment, those two should be right there.
Passing through the dense grove and avoiding crowded and conspicuous areas along the way, Gu Yuan relied on his rich experience in evasion to smoothly arrive at the depths of the dense woods. Although he had only heard rumors in his previous life, seeing it with his own eyes still made him click his tongue in surprise.
Deep within the dense woods, the former goddess of the academy, Xiao Mei, was snuggling in Lin Ao's arms like a lapdog. The two of them were actually carrying out illicit activities within the academy's grove.
If this scene were to be spread, it would likely shatter the illusions of many people.
Gu Yuan chuckled. When the Death Prison descended, none of the current Cultivator Seeds in the entire academy were spared; they all met their demise in that Death Prison.
And the only survivor was Gu Yuan himself.
Therefore... you two should enjoy your last moments of revelry here. Gu Yuan's heart was already extremely calm; he hadn't come here to watch the excitement.
In this life, Gu Yuan only wanted to make up for the regrets of his past life and step into the "Venerable Realm" that was just one step away!
To achieve a great feat that others dared not even imagine!