Just as the old patriarch forced me to my death, I achieved the unity of Dao and fruition.

Gu Changjin stepped into the temple gate, and the white mist behind him immediately closed in.

The suspension bridge, the solitary peak, and the bottomless abyss have all vanished.

All that remained before me was a small, dusty Taoist temple.

The temple is not large. Directly in front is a clay Taoist statue whose face is not clearly visible. The paint on its body has long since peeled off, revealing large patches of mottled cracks.

There are four cushions on each side, covered in dust, clearly indicating that no one has sat on them for many years.

Several rotten scriptures were placed against the wall, but the paper was so badly rotten that the writing on them was illegible.

Gu Changjin looked back.

The gate was still there, but the white mist outside was no longer the one that had greeted them; instead, it was pitch black.

The hoarse voice that had led him in had also disappeared.

The entire Taoist temple was eerily silent; there wasn't a sound.

Gu Changjin, however, was not particularly flustered.

The connection with the outside world was severed, and the true spirit of the Ten Thousand Demons Sect was no longer able to sense anything.

But the fruit of the Tao is still there!

If you encounter something you can't resist, you can simply abandon this physical body and return to the main world along the Dao traces.

It's just a matter of losing some time.

Compared to fear, Gu Changjin felt more excitement.

"This place doesn't seem like something that these cultivators of the Mind Realm could create."

After all, this level of sophistication is clearly not simple.

A mind-manipulator can distort reality with fear.

The Thousand Realms can even plunge an entire city into a realm of fear.

But the space before us is no longer simply a distortion of reality.

It's more like a piece of land that was forcibly cut off from the real world.

Or perhaps, it wasn't even in this world to begin with.

Gu Changjin walked slowly forward, his gaze sweeping over his surroundings.

The Reverse True Society can find the method of sacrificing the world in ancient books.

They can arrange twisted pillars and sacrifice the entire world in exchange for so-called heavenly blessings and life ascension.

These things don't seem like something a cultivator with a lifespan of less than a hundred years could deduce out of thin air.

You've never tried sacrificing the world.

What makes you so confident that you can guarantee success?

You don't even know what extraterrestrial life is.

And how do you know that after the sacrifice, the other party will bestow blessings instead of eating you up in one bite?

Unless, someone actually did it before and left a complete record.

Gu Changjin looked up at the clay statue of the Daoist.

"It seems the answer lies here."

The voice just fell.

The cracks on the surface of the clay sculpture suddenly began to spread gently.

Click.

The next instant, the entire small Taoist temple shattered.

It didn't collapse, but rather seemed to be wiped off the painting by an invisible hand.

The clay statues, prayer mats, walls, and scriptures all turned into white mist, spreading in all directions.

Gu Changjin's vision turned completely white again.

There is no heaven and earth, no up and down.

As far as the eye could see, there was only endless white.

He stood in it and couldn't even feel his own weight.

"Um?"

Gu Changjin looked around.

There was nothing there.

But for some reason, he always felt that there was something above his head.

He looked up.

Deep within the white mist, there was a faint, extremely indistinct black mark.

It looks like a character, or like a plaque hanging high up.

With a thought, Gu Changjin stepped back.

step.

One hundred steps.

Thousands of miles.

Wanli.

There are no precise distances in this space.

He didn't even know how long he had been retired.

The black mark gradually revealed its complete outline.

Gu Changjin finally saw clearly what the boundless white world he had previously thought it was.

Those are two pillars.

Two unimaginably large white jade pillars.

The pillar in the sky is carved with countless dragon patterns, celestial birds, and profound Taoist diagrams.

A wisp of mist fell from the edge of the pillar, which, in Gu Changjin's eyes, appeared as an endless white sea of ​​clouds.

Between the two pillars, an ancient plaque hangs high.

The three characters on the plaque seem to have been written by the road itself.

Gu Changjin only glanced at it before feeling a sharp pain in his soul.

Ancient Taoist court.

"Ancient Taoist Court?"

Gu Changjin uttered these three words in a low voice.

next moment.

The two towering white jade pillars trembled slightly.

The dragon pattern seemed to come alive, with countless divine dragons opening their eyes in the sea of ​​clouds, their ancient and indifferent gazes falling on Gu Changjin.

The pressure was terrifying. Even with his late-stage Nascent Soul cultivation, he felt like a speck of dust standing before the endless sky.

Gu Changjin stared intently at the plaque.

I want to see more.

But the sea of ​​clouds all around had already begun to rotate.

The world was turned upside down.

All the scenes collapsed in an instant.

When Gu Changjin opened his eyes again, he was already standing on the back mountain of Xuanzhen Temple.

The suspension bridge, the isolated peak, and the ancient Taoist temple have all disappeared.

There was only a bare mountaintop underfoot, with a few pebbles scattered around.

It was as if everything that had just happened was just a hallucination he had.

But Gu Changjin knew.

This was not an illusion, because at that moment, a new scripture appeared in his mind.

The scriptures are formless and intangible; the cover only has three ancient seal characters.

The Ancient Dao Classic.

Gu Changjin focused his divine sense on the scripture.

Just trying to turn to the first page felt like my soul was being crushed by a mountain.

The Dao Fruit within his body trembled slightly.

Only with the power of the Dao Fruit was it possible to barely open the first few chapters.

Qi Refining Chapter, Foundation Building Chapter, Golden Elixir Chapter... Mahayana Chapter...

Moreover, each realm is not a single cultivation method.

It is surprisingly divided into many different paths such as Qi Refining, Body Refining, Spirit Refining, Incense Burning, Mind Refining, Dream Path, and Array Path.

All rivers flow into the sea; though their paths differ, they all lead to the same destination.

As for Mahayana Buddhism, the scriptures still contain content.

No matter how Gu Changjin tried to activate the Dao Fruit, he couldn't turn even half a page.

"I've made a fortune!"

Gu Changjin's eyes lit up.

This is definitely not an ordinary martial arts technique.

It is more like a general outline, an ancient scripture that records the fundamental principles of cultivation in all realms.

He wouldn't be completely at ease if he were to practice directly according to the instructions.

But one has one's own Dao Fruit, and by dismantling, deducing, and recombining the Dao Yuan, one can completely transform the part that is most suitable for oneself into one's own use.

Especially the Return to Emptiness chapter, that's what he lacks most right now.

Gu Changjin suppressed his joy and continued to receive the fragmented information attached to the "Ancient Dao Scripture".

This world was once far more powerful than it is now.

The Path of Mind and Image first emerged in this world.

At its peak, there was even a powerful force called the Mind-Image Sect, which used the mind to reflect the heavens and turn illusion into reality.

They went beyond their own world into other worlds, conquering and spreading their teachings.

They even sacrificed the world to plunder the source and strengthen their mental constructs.

The sacrificial methods mastered by the Reverse True Society are remnants left over from that time.

Kexin Xiangmen eventually ran into trouble.

They rely too much on their minds.

They do not cultivate their physical bodies, nor do they value reality.

If the will is strong enough, falsehood can become reality.

But once a crack appears in the heart, all power will instantly backfire.

Later, when they sacrificed a part of the world, they attracted some kind of incomprehensible pollution.

That pollution specifically erodes the mind and cognition.

The stronger a cultivator is, the more profound the influence they will be.

A large number of cultivators have fallen into depravity, their minds twisted.

Ultimately, it became the source of what is now known as the Twisted Seed and the indescribable extraterrestrial entities.

The Heart-Image Sect suffered repeated defeats and could only retreat to its original world, sealing all passages and transforming the entire world into a spiritless place, waiting for a new path to emerge.

According to the original destiny, tens of thousands of years later, a chosen one will be born.

This person cultivates both the mind and the body.

The body carries the soul, and reality restrains illusion.

Ultimately, the true balance between the two must be found, the pollution cleaned up, and the gates reopened.

When Gu Changjin saw this, he finally understood.

"No wonder this world, though lacking in spiritual energy, is exceptionally suitable for body tempering."

"We didn't take the wrong path."

"It's another path that someone deliberately left behind."

As for that chosen one, it was naturally Zhou Jingming.

The world's origins, ancient traditions, and sealed places left behind by the Heart-Image Sect will gradually be unlocked as he grows.

This allowed him to make rapid progress and ultimately save the world.

Gu Changjin's smile grew even more gentle.

The layout is excellent, and the destiny is arranged very well.

Unfortunately, he came.

"The Heart-Image Sect conquered all realms; surely they left behind a considerable amount of the world's essence?"

"Now that I'm already involved..."

"Then these things should naturally have a new owner."