Hermit in the Mountains

Gu Changsheng withdrew his gaze, raised his right hand and gently drew a sword-like line in front of his eyes.

"The Dharma Eye...opens..."

In the blink of an eye, Gu Changsheng's left pupil turned grayish-brown and his right pupil turned emerald green, with a mysterious Dao seal faintly visible rotating deep within the pupils.

Under the gaze of the Dharma Eye, Gu Changsheng could clearly see the evenly distributed spiritual energy particles between heaven and earth, the destiny plate within his own origin space, the growth cycle of the plums and vegetables in the vegetable garden outside the house, and the illusory earth spirit root and destiny plate within the green ox in the cowshed behind the wooden house.

He could also clearly see a gray dotted line connecting the top of the blue ox's head to the top of his own head.

This dotted line is the legendary causal line. In the past, he could only roughly sense the existence of the causal line. As his realm improved and his innate supernatural powers condensed, he was finally able to see the causal line above the heads of living beings. Unfortunately, he could only see it; he could not manipulate the causal line, let alone sever it.

The solidity and thickness of the cause-and-effect lines can indicate the depth of cause-and-effect relationships.

Above Gu Changsheng's head, there were several dotted lines of cause and effect, and one line of cause and effect.

He could sense that the only causal thread was related to him by blood, but this causal thread was only one percent the length of a hair, lifeless, and could break at any time.

Following the cause-and-effect line, he could roughly sense the direction of the other end of the cause-and-effect line, which pointed eastward in the darkness. The name of a city, "Magic City," popped into his mind.

Looking at the lifeless lines of cause and effect, he realized that his blood relatives were probably no longer alive.

Seeing that he was destined to make a trip to Shanghai to sever his ties with the mortal world, he realized that the cause and effect story was ultimately intertwined with his past.

Other causal dotted lines include Yang Dashan, Yang Mancang, and Yang Xiaoshan from Xiahe Village. He has few entanglements with other villagers and does not form a causal relationship.

There are Zhang Yuanfu and his son outside, and the people who cooperate with Zhang Yuanfu cannot yet form a causal relationship with him.

His previous choice was correct: selecting one or two spokespeople to handle external affairs reduced unnecessary complications.

The dotted lines representing cause and effect, from thickest to thinnest, represent: Dahuang, Qingniu, Dahong, Yang Dashan, Zhang Yuanfu, Yang Xiaoshan, Yang Mancang, and Zhang Dafu.

The three pets had the deepest connection to him, since he raised them as spirit pets and considered them half family.

As stated in "Yangming's Philosophy of Mind":

Avoiding fate and karma, all sorts of shackles bind the true self;

By following the will of Heaven and accepting the consequences of karma, I finally know who I am today.

Once you attain enlightenment and see your true self, what fear is there of the old shackles of the past?

The shackles of this world are but a dream, formless, shapeless, and without self.

Gu Changsheng wasn't deliberately avoiding cause and effect, but rather that there were some causes and effects that he didn't need to be associated with.

He follows the path of "egoism," and he is willing to interfere in the cause and effect of others as long as it is worthwhile.

For example, rhubarb is used to guard the house, red ox is used to tell the time, and blue ox is used as a steed; this is their value.

Yang Dashan was responsible for guarding the mountain, Yang Mancang was responsible for the villagers' thoughts, and Yang Xiaoshan was the subject of observation.

He guessed that Yang Qingshan's spiritual root attribute was most likely the same as Yang Xiaoshan's, so he gave up observing Yang Qingshan.

Zhang Yuanfu and his son were responsible for external affairs, including resource trading and intelligence gathering.

As for Zhang Tianhu of the National Spirit Bureau, he will at most maintain a cooperative relationship with the other party, and Zhang Yuanfu, as the middleman, does not plan to have much contact with the other party in the future.

Zhang Tianhu's backing is too complex, with intricate relationships; too much contact will only negatively impact him.

Gu Changsheng dispelled his divine eye powers, cleared his mind of distractions, closed his eyes slightly, and emptied his mind to enter a meditative state.

Before long, a thin layer of mist enveloped Gu Changsheng, and the wisps of water and wood spiritual energy were absorbed by his Dao root.

Gu Changsheng began to analyze his gains and refine the "The Dao Scripture of Withering and Flourishing".

The fundamental method adds a technique called "The Ultimate Method of Life and Death," which is a secret method for enhancing potential and solidifying the foundation of one's Dao between life and death.

Innate spells evolve into innate divine abilities, whose power increases with cultivation level.

After advancing to the Dao Root Realm, one possesses four divine abilities: the Withering and Flourishing Eye, the Withering and Flourishing Tribulation Armor, the Root of Heaven and Earth, and the Origin Dao Guide.

General Outline: Dao-Concealing Realm (Incomplete), Nine Transformations of Dao Seed, Dao-Root Realm (Incomplete)

The Dao-Gathering Realm remains incomplete because there is no second person cultivating the "Natural Dao Seed Method," making it impossible to complete this section.

The Dao Seed Realm requires nine cycles of withering and flourishing, which can be called the "Nine Transformations of the Dao Seed".

Gu Changsheng had just completed the tenth cycle of withering and flourishing and stepped into the Dao Root Realm. He could not predict how many cycles of withering and flourishing would be required to reach this realm, hence the Dao Root Realm was an incomplete chapter.

Gu Changsheng has already integrated the three techniques in the Techniques Chapter—the Taiyin Gathering Spirit Technique, the Taiyin Spirit Rain Technique, and the Rain Gathering Technique—into the "Gathering Word Technique."

The Techniques section contains only two techniques: the "Gathering Word Technique" and the "Sound Transmission Technique".

Gu Changsheng stared into thought as he looked at the two auxiliary spells, realizing that he didn't even have an offensive spell.

After he reorganized and improved the "Ku Rong Dao Jing", he spent the next few days focusing most of his energy on deducing attack techniques, apart from cultivation.

In the afternoon, Gu Changsheng determined the type of attack spell: a spell that combines single-target and group attacks, with the "Withering and Flourishing Mana" as its core. He hoped to deduce a universal attack-type Dao Seal.

Gu Changsheng was already very familiar with the construction of spell patterns and Dao seals, and the Dao seals were interconnected.

The outer ring of the "Gathering Word Technique" identifies and guides Dao patterns that can be incorporated into attack spells and Dao seals. These Dao patterns can be used to temporarily borrow the spiritual energy of heaven and earth for one's own use.

Within an hour, Gu Changsheng completed the identification and reconstruction of the Dao patterns. In order to speed up the formation of the technique, the patterns on the new Dao patterns were more intricate, enhancing the identification and traction power.

Time passed slowly, and five days later, Gu Changsheng finally deduced the first version of the attack spell seal.

In the living room of the wooden house, Gu Changsheng slowly opened his tightly closed eyes, his gaze sharp as a wisp of sword energy.

He slowly raised his right hand, spread his five fingers, and with a thought, a Dao seal with a gray-brown base and emerald green patterns appeared in his palm.

The new Dao seal in his hand has a different outer, middle, and inner arrangement than the "Gathering Character Technique" Dao seal.

The new Dao Seal is arranged in three layers: upper, middle, and lower.

Gu Changsheng's right hand suddenly transformed into a sword finger, with the Dao seal floating vertically in front of the sword finger.

"Wooden sword technique... begin..."

The Dao patterns behind the Dao Seal began to rotate rapidly, and the surrounding wood elemental particles began to converge towards the Dao Seal, eventually flowing into the Dao patterns behind it.

Wood-elemental energy particles entered the emerald green patterns, and the energy seemed to flow wildly into the central Dao pattern as if entering an accelerated conduit.

After the wood elemental energy enters the central Dao pattern, it accumulates spiritual energy according to the specific pattern.

After borrowing the wood elemental energy, Gu Changsheng channeled a wisp of withering and flourishing magical power into the Dao patterns in front of him.

In an instant, a miniature spiritual energy sword slowly emerged from the very center of the Dao Seal.

The core of the magic sword is composed of a wisp of withering and flourishing magic power, and the magic power is surrounded by a sword shape formed by wood spirit energy.

Gu Changsheng did not unleash the spiritual energy sword, but instead continued to infuse it with wood spiritual energy to make it grow larger.

"big-"

At Gu Changsheng's command, the sword pointed forward, the Dao seal grew larger, and the spiritual energy laws grew accordingly.

"Big... big... big..."

A semi-transparent Dao seal, one meter in diameter, floated in front of Gu Changsheng, with a pale blue spiritual energy sword, one meter long and three fingers wide, floating in the center of the Dao seal.

The limit that a wisp of withering and flourishing magic power can bear is to condense a one-meter-long, three-finger-wide spiritual sword.

Gu Changsheng pointed his sword at the bamboo forest a hundred meters away and gently gestured forward, "Go—"

With a "whoosh," the spiritual energy sword transformed into a pale blue stream of light and shot away.

Once the spiritual energy sword detached from the Dao seal, Gu Changsheng lost control of it and could only rush wildly in the predetermined direction.

In less than three seconds, the pale blue sword light disappeared into the bamboo forest.

Suddenly, crackling sounds of bamboo bursting from the bamboo forest filled the air.

Inside the house, Gu Changsheng watched as the bamboo in the bamboo forest in front of him fell down. His face twitched, and he quickly got up and ran towards the bamboo forest. He wanted to see the power of the spiritual energy sword with his own eyes, and also see how much bamboo he had ruined.