From Celestial Official to Great Celestial Venerable

Chapter 67 Change
"Fellow Daoists heading to Perfect World, please prepare to board the ship—"

A long, drawn-out horn sound echoed in the void, the Dongsheng language alternating with an ancient language, the lingering echoes condensing around the Ship of Creation. Qin Chuan followed behind True Person Xuanji, joining the academic group as they boarded this divine artifact capable of traversing chaos.

He calmly surveyed his surroundings. Besides their group, there were over a hundred Daoists from different celestial realms. Most of them appeared to be human, but a few stood out—some had fine scales between their brows, while others were entwined with savage totems.

"Where do these come from?" Qin Chuan pondered to himself.

The myriad realms and seas are vast and boundless, and this ancient Dao Domain alone contains more than three hundred known worlds. Myriad races coexist, each possessing intelligence, and have established their own civilizations and kingdoms.

Everyone took their seats on the designated prayer cushions in turn.

The interior of the flying boat was surprisingly spacious, resembling a floating temple, with hundreds of prayer cushions scattered throughout.

"Welcome aboard the Ship of Creation. This journey will take thirty-six hours from Dongsheng Tianxia to Wanmei Tianxia. We will arrive at the Divine Court of Wanmei Tianxia in the afternoon of three days from now. We wish you a safe journey."

As Qin Chuan's clear voice rang out in the cabin, his palm had already quietly pressed down on the deck beneath him.

As if responding to something, the Heavenly Furnace emitted a faint light.

[Object: Cross-Border Flying Boat - The Boat of Creation]

This is a supreme treasure crafted with all the effort of the Nine Heavens Cloud Sect of Perfect World. It can traverse the Chaos Realm and is the most outstanding flying vessel creation in all the heavens today. It contains 365 Heavenly-level arrays, including the Great Void Hun Tian Array, the Myriad Realms Dao Marker Pattern, the Small Universe Qi Array, the Chaos Returning to the Void Guide, the Spacetime Anchor Talisman, the Myriad Realms Mimicry Shell, the Creation Source Furnace, and the Mysterious Light Mirror Image Technique.

The Dharma nature of thirty-six profound Taoist techniques and methods, including "Starry Qi Guiding Technique," "Nine Revolutions Golden Body Technique," "Immaculate Heart Dao," "Momentary Thousand-Year Observation," "Ten Thousand Machine Resonance Technique," "Zhou Tian Calculation Diagram," "Walking Through the Great Void Chapter," "Mustard Seed Dust Observation," "Two Elements Harmony Technique," and "Breaking Boundaries and Ascending Chapter."

It can be refined one by one, or it can all be recycled into fifty million Dharma essences.

Fifty million Dharma essences—this number is almost sixty times that of the flying boat in the Eastern Heavenly Court's cave, and the difference in the level of their Daoist teachings is self-evident.

Without hesitation, Qin Chuan chose to refine each item and sort them according to the required time.

The results made him raise an eyebrow slightly: the longest time-consuming one was the "Chaos Returning to the Void" array, which served as the core power source for the flying boat, requiring a full thirty years; while the shortest one, the "Mysterious Light Mirroring Technique," also required a year.

"Thirty years and one year make no difference to me, who only has three days."

His gaze was calm, and he had already made up his mind:
"Since that's the case, why not go straight to the source and start with this most precious 'Chaos Return to Nothingness Guide'? According to Master Gu Yuan, this is the most cutting-edge 'source energy' technique of our time. If we can comprehend even a little bit of it, whether we submit it to the Heavenly Court or use it for our own cultivation, it will be an unparalleled opportunity."

With his mind made up, he immersed himself in the vast array patterns and began to refine this wondrous array of heaven and earth called "Chaos Return to Ruins".

Just as Qin Chuan began to comprehend this great formation, the Creation Ship trembled slightly and activated.

A soft yet resilient halo appeared on the surface of the airship, enveloping the entire vessel like flowing water.

“This should be the ‘Tai Xu Hun Tian Formation’,” Qin Chuan thought to himself. “It’s the protective formation for the flying boat, used to resist the erosion of chaotic energy.”

hum-

With a deep resonance, the flying boat slowly rose from the Zhenshui Station of Dongsheng Tianxia. Everyone in the cabin looked out in unison, and saw that the layers of clouds were easily penetrated. In a short while, they were in the boundless starry sky.

Qin Chuan and the others looked down and saw the entire Dongsheng World displayed so clearly for the first time—a magnificent and ancient continent quietly floated in the sea of ​​stars, with the sun and moon orbiting in the east and west respectively. Behind them were 365 main stars and 48,000 stars recorded in the Daoist scriptures. All the stars were slowly rotating around Dongsheng Divine Continent according to some mysterious trajectory.

Although he already knew from Taoist texts that this world was based on the concept of "a round heaven and a square earth" and "the earth's center," Qin Chuan was still awestruck by the magnificent sight before him, witnessing a cosmic landscape so different from his previous life. "Is this the Eastern Continent of Victory where we are...? From this angle, it is truly breathtaking." A woman's soft sigh came from beside him, her voice filled with fascination.

Qin Chuan turned his head and saw that it was the woman named Yuan Siyao, who was sitting next to him on a prayer mat.

Noticing his gaze, Yuan Siyao turned around, and the two looked at each other.

Qin Chuan did not look away, smiled slightly, and bowed, saying, "I am Qin Chuan, from Jiuchuan Nongling Temple. It is a great honor to be able to accompany the esteemed students of Xiaoxiang Dongtian Academy on this trip."

"Nongling Temple?" Yuan Siyao was somewhat surprised that he had taken the initiative to speak, and that he was different from her impression of him being taciturn yesterday. She was even more surprised by his self-introduction: "Aren't you Daosheng from the academy?"

They had only heard that Xuanji Zhenren's spot had been taken by someone else, but they didn't know who that person was. Now, hearing that Qin Chuan was just a low-level Nongling Daoist in the county, Yuan Siyao was both surprised and curious—how could a low-level Nongling Daoist get this spot?

"I studied at the Taoist Academy in Jiuchuan County. After passing the examination to become a Taoist priest, I took a position at Nongling Temple," Qin Chuan answered frankly, without the slightest hint of inferiority.

Being born into poverty is not a disgrace; he is full of confidence in his future—who can say that an unknown person today will not become famous in the future?
"Are you really just a Taoist named Nong Ling? Then... how did you get a spot with Master Xuan Ji?" Yuan Siyao was even more shocked.

"I was fortunate enough to pass the Five-Colored Spirit Valley assessment by the real person and meet the requirements," Qin Chuan replied.

“Five-Colored Spirit Valley? That’s the batch of ‘future immortal food’ that Teacher Xuanji used for experiments? You mean… you made those seeds sprout?” Yuan Siyao asked incredulously.

Seeing Qin Chuan nod in confirmation, her gaze towards him became even more serious. She had initially thought he was a privileged young man from a powerful family who had jumped the queue through connections, but it turned out he was actually from a humble background yet possessed extraordinary talent!

Even among the disciples of the Farmer's School, very few could make Master Xuanji's Five-Colored Spirit Valley sprout and reach the required standard.

At this moment, the slight prejudice Yuan Siyao held against Qin Chuan quietly dissipated.

"To gain the approval of True Person Xuanji, you must have achieved the state of balance of the five elements. Such a standard cannot be achieved by external means. It seems that what you are cultivating is undoubtedly the Great Dao of the Five Elements."

Yuan Siyao focused her attention on Qin Chuan's aura—seventh level of Qi Refining, and judging from his bone structure, he was no more than twenty years old. If he truly came from the bottom of the social ladder, he should have entered the Dao at the earliest, around seventeen or eighteen years old. At such a young age, he had actually cultivated all five elements of magic into true qi, and even reached the seventh level of Qi Refining… Such talent was extremely rare, even in the Xiaoxiang Cave Heaven Academy.

She suddenly felt relieved—those senior brothers and sisters in the academy who narrowly lost were not entirely wronged.

"I've heard that Fellow Daoist Yuan is a leading figure among the younger generation of the Spirit Origin Dao in Dongsheng." Qin Chuan revealed his interest in the Spirit Origin Dao at the right moment—after all, he was currently comprehending the most advanced Origin Technique Array in the Perfect World.

"I can hardly be called a master; Master Gu Yuan is the true grandmaster in this field."

Upon hearing Qin Chuan's praise, Yuan Siyao quickly waved her hand:

"The reason I was able to accompany you this time is because one of the topics discussed in the Daoist discourse coincided with the direction of my deduction. It is the 'Source Master Daoist Discourse' to be held by the Perfect World's 'Celestial Academy'. At that time, Qi Cangming, the most renowned 'Source Celestial Master' in all the heavens today, will personally give a lecture."

Qi Cangming—a pioneer in the field of Origin Dao, whose Daoist name is "True Lord of Qiankun Yiqi"—was once the sect leader of a sect in the world of myriad laws. Later, he went to the world of Perfection to cultivate Dao in seclusion and is now a highly respected Daoist master in the country.

Seeing Qin Chuan's genuine interest in the Origin Dao, Yuan Siyao opened up completely:
"The Dao of Origins can be considered the study closest to the origin of the Heavenly Dao. If the problem of spiritual origins can be fundamentally solved, many difficulties in cultivation will be easily resolved, and 'everyone becoming a dragon' will no longer be just empty talk. Currently, the academic community values ​​the hypothesis of 'chaotic spiritual origins' the most."

Qin Chuan pressed on, "Before boarding, Master Gu Yuan mentioned that this Creation Ship could already draw upon primordial chaos energy. Could it be that Perfect World has made a breakthrough in the realm of primordial chaos energy?"

(End of this chapter)