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

Xuanming Guixu Cave Heaven.

Gu Changjin sat cross-legged beneath the Blackwater River.

Deep within the sea of ​​consciousness, the golden crack in the center of the Dao Fruit slowly expanded.

Beyond the crack, there was no spiritual light, nor any runes that signified new supernatural powers.

There was only a hazy world, the earth was illusory, the stars were dim, and a blue planet hung in the boundless darkness, its surface entwined with streaks of crimson blood energy.

The accumulation of millions of years by the Heart-Image Sect, the extraordinary foundation extracted from Blue Star, the authority of the Heavenly Venerable, and the origin of the seven Twisted Sources are all intertwined in that planet.

As Gu Changjin's consciousness entered the space, a sudden realization naturally arose in his mind.

"World Species"

This is the seed of rules that remains after all living beings, matter, and history have been removed from a world.

The extraordinary path of Blue Star has disappeared, but those things that disappeared have not truly vanished into nothingness.

They were taken away by the Dao Fruit, remelted, and finally condensed into the extraordinary rule seed of this world before us.

Gu Changjin slowly opened his eyes. Instead of rushing to break through, he raised his right hand with his five fingers slightly spread.

The next instant, a wisp of crimson blood energy rose from his palm.

This wisp of blood energy did not come from the power within his own body, but from the Blue Star Realm Seed within the Dao Fruit.

hum!

Within a thousand feet of Gu Changjin, the world suddenly paused for a moment.

The Xuanming Black Water was still flowing, and the Guixu Vortex had not stopped, but the rules of heaven and earth that originally belonged to the main world in this area seemed to be temporarily separated by an invisible veil.

The spiritual energy no longer operates in the same way as the main world, and the laws of the grotto-heaven can no longer directly fall into it.

In its place are the unique heart image, blood forging, and world authority of the Blue Star.

Behind Gu Changjin, the phantom of a blue star suddenly unfolded.

Billions of vital energies traverse the planet, and countless images of the heart flicker in cities, mountains, rivers, and the starry sky.

At that moment, Gu Changjin transformed back into his final self on Earth.

He was not an ordinary Heaven and Earth Venerable, but a World Lord who had devoured all the extraordinary foundations of Blue Star, held power over a realm, and swallowed seven sources of distortion.

His perception instantly filled the entire space, and every wisp of spiritual energy, every grain of dust, and even the subtle ripples produced when the Xuanming Black Water flowed by were all under his control.

He simply raised his hand, and the space in front of him collapsed inward.

No power or magic was used.

Gu Changjin believed that space should collapse in this area covered by the Blue Star Realm Seeds.

So it collapsed.

Take a breath.

Two breaths.

Three breaths.

boom!

The phantom of the azure star vanished instantly.

The rules of the main world, which had been temporarily separated, were reinstated.

The blood energy in Gu Changjin's palm extinguished, and the surrounding world returned to normal.

Only that space that was forcibly distorted is still slowly repairing itself.

Gu Changjin was silent for a moment, then smiled with satisfaction.

"interesting."

In those three breaths just now, the strength he was able to unleash far exceeded his current late-stage Nascent Soul form.

It's not even something that ordinary people who return to emptiness can reach.

Gu Changjin, in his final moments on Blue Star, was based on the entire world.

If we only consider the world's authority and instantaneous bursts of power, it has at least reached the level of integration.

However, he dealt a severe blow to the extraordinary foundation of Blue Star itself.

What has been formed so far is merely a World Seed.

In the main world, a place with extremely complete rules of heaven and earth and a very high level of world hierarchy, it can only invade the vast expanse of heaven and earth.

Even at its peak, it can only last for three breaths.

But that's terrifying enough.

Three breaths is very short, but for cultivators of their level, it is enough to destroy an area within a radius of ten thousand miles.

More importantly, the realm seed is not fixed within the body; it resides in the Dao fruit.

And the Dao Fruit will descend upon each of his other selves along with his consciousness.

What does this mean?

It means that I will be here again.

Even if that body of his was just a mortal bedridden, about to breathe his last.

If Gu Changjin is willing, he can still instantly activate the Blue Star Realm Seed.

His physical body is merely an anchor point; the World Seed is the true power he brings with him.

If one were to descend into a world devoid of spirits, where the rules do not even permit cultivation, where spiritual energy does not exist, and where the Golden Core, Nascent Soul, and Grotto Heaven are not recognized.

So what?

As the world expands, local areas will be influenced by the rules of the blue planet.

Is there no spiritual energy here?

Then redefine the rules and let it exist.

Is it impossible to cast cultivation spells here?

Then let the land covered by the World Seed temporarily become Gu Changjin's world.

The main world's level is too high; the Blue Star Realm Seed can only cover a thousand feet and last for three breaths.

What if it were a lower-level world with looser rules?

A thousand miles? Or ten thousand miles? It's even possible that it could gradually infiltrate the entire world.

Gu Changjin doesn't need to adapt to the other world at all; he just needs to bring his own world with him and then let the other world adapt to him.

"What a magnificent transformation of self and other."

The smile in Gu Changjin's eyes grew wider and wider.

In the past, he brought back cultivation, techniques, bloodlines, and Dao traces from all the heavens and other beings.

Now, as long as he leaves a deep enough causal relationship in a world and obtains enough world origin, he can take away the core rules of that world as well.

The realm seed is just the beginning; above the realm seed, there should be the virtual realm, the real realm, and the true realm.

The rules of the world are born from the seeds of the universe; the virtual world evolves into heaven and earth; and the real world transforms the virtual into the real.

And the True Realm...

Gu Changjin's divine sense landed on that azure star.

If one day, this world possesses true mountains, rivers, sun, moon, life, death, and reincarnation, and is even able to spontaneously generate civilization.

Then what he carries is no longer a supernatural power, but a real world.

Gu Changjin let out a soft breath.

The greatest gain from this trip to Blue Star was never the seven sources of distortion, nor the Ancient Dao Scripture.

Rather, it was a true step forward in realizing the fundamental principles of one's existence.

However, now that the seed of the realm has been formed, the remaining harvest should be returned to its rightful place.

"Come."

As Gu Changjin's thoughts settled, the Dao Fruit trembled violently, and the seven distorted sources suppressed deep within it simultaneously emitted silent hissing.

Their consciousness had long been obliterated, and the remaining essence was continuously transformed into the Dao Yuan under the refinement of the Dao Fruit.

One strand. Ten strands. A hundred strands. The quantity increased wildly.

Soon, the thousand strands of the Dao of Returning to One compressed each other, transforming into a purer strand of the Dao of Returning to One.

Gu Changjin did not wait any longer, and the vast Dao Yuan and Dao Yuan of Guiyi were simultaneously poured into his physical body.

boom!

His heart pounded violently, the sound not like a heartbeat, but more like a star rumbling and shaking in the cave.

Ancient blood patterns appeared on Gu Changjin's body, spreading from his chest to his limbs and finally climbing up to his brow.

The bloodline of the Cuban snake was completely boiling!

Above the cave, the illusory image of the Bashe snake, which had been coiled in the sea of ​​blood, slowly opened its eyes.

Unlike in the past, this time, the serpent is no longer surrounded by black water and mountains.

Instead, it is a complete blue star, with a massive serpentine body encircling the planet.

As the scales of the stars opened and closed, the clouds and oceans on the surface of the stars rose and fell accordingly.

The physical body of the Blue Star, which he had cultivated to the Blood Realm, began to completely merge with the main body of the world.

It's no longer about simply increasing qi and blood, but about giving the physical body the qualifications to bear the weight of a world.

Bones are like mountains, blood is like rivers, and the acupoints throughout the body are like unlit stars. The physical body is the boundary, and qi and blood are the sky.

Gu Changjin suddenly understood the path of physical cultivation leading to emptiness.

The so-called "returning to emptiness" refers to the practice of cultivating the celestial realm by illuminating emptiness from reality.

Body cultivation, on the other hand, allows the physical body to gradually transform from a purely fleshy body into a being capable of bearing the rules of heaven and earth.

Boom!

The phantom of the Bashe roared to the sky, its body coiling around the blue star before suddenly contracting inward and finally disappearing entirely into Gu Changjin's body.

His body did not grow taller, nor did his vital energy continue to leak out; instead, he instantly became calm.

But beneath this silence, every drop of blood seems to weigh down a towering mountain range, and every bone seems to stretch across a vast ley line.

Physical cultivation leads to the return to emptiness!

Gu Changjin looked down at his palm and gently clenched his fingers.

The cave space suddenly emitted a deafening roar, as if it were about to collapse under the strain.

He nodded in satisfaction, then turned his gaze to the Xuanming Guixu Cave Heaven.

Having already made a breakthrough in physical cultivation, one naturally cannot lag behind in magical cultivation.

The chapter on returning to emptiness in the Ancient Dao Scripture unfolds in the sea of ​​consciousness.

Countless ancient Daoist texts flowed through the air. Gu Changjin used the Dao of Returning to the Dao as fuel and the Dao of Illusion and Reality of Blue Star as bone, and also incorporated all the "Mysterious Netherworld Devouring Heaven Scripture" and "Blood River Returning to Ruins True Scripture" that he had cultivated along the way into it.

The originally complex cultivation method was continuously stripped away and recombined under the deduction of the Dao Fruit.

In the end, only the purest two words remained.

The Tao Te Ching takes the Tao and its fruits as its foundation, the various selves as its branches and leaves, and the various realms as its resources.

Gu Changjin sat cross-legged, and the Dao Source of Guiyi slowly descended.

The next instant, the entire Xuanming Guixu Cave Heaven suddenly vanished.

The Blackwater Heavenly River and the Void Whirlpool had disappeared, and the black-robed Taoist who suppressed the cave heaven seemed to have never existed.

Gu Changjin sat alone in a pure white void.

There was no up or down, no four directions, no substance, yet all the rules of the grotto-heavens were clearly imprinted in his heart.

A thought suddenly occurred to him.

Black water flowed from nothingness.

One more thought.

The Void of Return emerged from a place that never existed.

The Taoist in black robes sat down again in the center of the world.

First, transform the real into the abstract, and then return the abstract to the real.

The real and the virtual give rise to each other, in an endless cycle.

At this moment, the Xuanming Guixu Cave Heaven was no longer just a real space created by Gu Changjin.

It can exist between heaven and earth, or it can disappear into nothingness; it can transform into real mountains and rivers to suppress powerful enemies.

It can also transform into invisible rules, directly invading the enemy's inner world and primordial spirit.

Gu Changjin slowly opened his eyes.

The Xuanming Guixu Cave Heaven returned to tranquility, without any earth-shattering phenomena or immense pressure. Yet, although his figure was clearly sitting there, it seemed to exist simultaneously between reality and nothingness.

You can see it, you can feel it, but if you actually reach out and touch it, it's as if you can only touch emptiness.

Through Dharma cultivation, one can achieve the state of returning to emptiness!

Gu Changjin stood up and took a step down.

The grotto and the void trembled simultaneously.

Cultivating both the physical body and the Dharma, both lead to the state of returning to emptiness!

He looked up at the Blue Star Realm Seed slowly rotating within the Dao Fruit, and a gentle smile returned to his face.

"This time, the harvest was quite substantial!!"