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

When Gu Changjin opened his eyes again, three years had passed outside the cave.

Three years is not a short time for ordinary people.

For a Nascent Soul cultivator, it's just a slightly longer period of seclusion.

Deep within the mountain, dozens of arrays continued to operate silently. Occasionally, demonic beasts would pass by above the desolate mountain range, but they would only see a barren ridge shrouded in malevolent energy year-round, completely unaware that a cave dwelling was hidden beneath.

Gu Changjin raised his right hand, and a gray-white sword light flew out from near the Dao Fruit, hovering above his palm.

It was the Taiyi Xuandu Sword.

After three years of nurturing, this immortal sword has become completely connected with his soul.

The moment a thought arises, the sword light can move at will.

Gu Changjin gently pointed his finger forward.

The immortal sword was not truly drawn; it only revealed a slight glint of its sharpness. A thin line silently cracked open in the cave wall ahead.

The cracks ran through dozens of protective formations.

He only stopped slowly after he withdrew his thoughts.

"good."

The sword light flickered slightly.

A blurry figure dressed in a black dress flashed by.

Although the demon fairy has lost her true immortal body, her intelligence has been completely integrated into the Taiyi Xuandu Sword.

Over the past three years, if she hadn't taken the initiative to adjust the immortal runes and clear away all the refining traces that originally belonged to the Xuandu Taiyi Sect, it would have been almost impossible for Gu Changjin to master the immortal artifact so quickly.

Having control over something is one thing, but actually activating it is another.

With his current fully integrated magical power, even if he were to drain himself dry, he could only barely unleash a single sword strike.

Its power is naturally far inferior to that of the celestial sword that once shone brightly across the nine provinces.

After all, it is a low-grade immortal artifact. One must reach the Mahayana stage to have any hope of using it as a regular tool.

Gu Changjin wasn't in a hurry. He already had the item, and there would be a time when he could use it.

Compared to mastering the Immortal Sword, the truly important thing in these three years was accumulating the Dao Yuan of Returning to the Dao.

When the Dao Fruit enlightens the Demon Immortal, the Three Paths Return to One, along with a large amount of the Return to One Path Yuan, is drained all at once.

Gu Changjin could have immediately entered the next world of "others and me".

Even if his/her descent fails, it doesn't seem to cause any damage to the original body for the time being.

However, it seems that this is only temporary.

Without ever truly failing, who can be sure there won't be any consequences?

Gu Changjin never gambles on such things.

If you're 90% sure, you won't try something with only 80% certainty.

If all preparations are made, there's no need to take risks just to get things done a few years earlier.

He got to where he is today not because of a momentary impulse.

To live a peaceful and stable life, and then gradually become stronger, that is the true way.

Over the course of three years, he had almost completely drained the source of all the strange phenomena suppressed in the Blue Star Void Realm.

A large amount of Dao Yuan is constantly being generated. The source that has been consumed is slowly restored under the rules of the world. As some is restored, more is extracted.

After several attempts, the Dao Fruit finally accumulated enough power to deal with unexpected events.

"That's about it."

Gu Changjin closed his eyes.

Deep within the sea of ​​consciousness, the Dao Fruit slowly rotated, and the myriad Dao marks on its surface lit up simultaneously.

The purple-gold pattern extracted from the origin of the main world also emitted a faint light at this moment.

The illusory projection unfolded behind the Dao Fruit, and the cities of Blue Star, the continents and oceans of the Martial Spirit World seemed to be separated by a layer of mist, slowly rotating in the endless darkness.

Gu Changjin's consciousness gradually sank into the Dao Fruit, and the familiar feeling of weightlessness reappeared.

It was as if one's entire being had been detached from the main world and was falling into the depths of the heavens along some unseen path.

The outline of an unfamiliar world appeared before me.

With a slight tremor, the Dao Fruit revealed the long river of destiny belonging to this world before Gu Changjin's eyes.

The scene shifts very quickly, and the first thing to appear is an endless black mountain range.

Deep within the mountains, a six-armed ape demon roared to the sky, its terrifying demonic aura bursting through the clouds, thus becoming the Great Sage of Demons.

On the same day it broke through, the three northern states of the human race fell simultaneously, hundreds of cities became demon lairs, and countless people were kept in captivity to become food for demons.

Immediately afterwards, a thousand-legged centipede that had been entrenched in the river and sea shed its old shell, devoured the entire river vein, and entered the realm of the Great Sage.

Seven counties along the river were submerged by floods overnight, and monsters in the water floated downstream.

Before the human court's demon-suppressing army even reached the front lines, half of its generals secretly defected to the demons and opened the city gates along the way.

A breakthrough by a demon saint means the fall of a human territory.

Such scenes appeared one after another, faster and faster, and more and more frequently.

Gu Changjin tries to find a person in the long river of fate who has such great fortune and can turn the tide.

No, there are no teenagers who suddenly rise from the ashes after hitting rock bottom.

There was also no chosen one who received ancient inheritances and led the human race in a counterattack.

There was no human ancestor who had been asleep for countless years and suddenly awoke at the brink of extinction.

With nothing to show for it, the human race was defeated step by step.

At first, some sects resisted the imperial court, but later, more and more powerful families chose to side with the demons.

Some surrendered their cities and people, hoping only to preserve their bloodline.

Some accepted the infusion of demon blood, voluntarily transforming themselves into half-human, half-demon monsters.

Some members of the royal family believed the promises made by the demons and personally slaughtered cultivators loyal to the human race, thinking that this would allow them to continue sitting on the throne.

In the end, there was no difference.

Once most of the human powerhouses had died, those aristocratic families who had sided with the demons were devoured as food.

The demon worshipped by the royal family entered the palace and swallowed all the royal bloodline in one gulp.

Those humans who voluntarily became demons completely lost their minds and became the lowest-ranking cannon fodder in the demon army.

At the end of the river of fate, the last mighty human city was submerged by a black tide of demons.

The city walls collapsed, the flags burned, and one after another, demonic sages stood atop mountains of corpses and seas of blood, dividing up the entire world.

There were no miracles or reversals; the general trend of this world was clear from the very beginning.

Demons and monsters will rise, and humanity will perish.

Gu Changjin's consciousness continued to sink along the river of fate.

Countless figures swept past me.

Ultimately, an extremely ordinary fate was intercepted by the Dao Fruit.

A sharp pain shot through the depths of my mind, and unfamiliar memories flooded in.

Heishi Town, under the jurisdiction of Qinghe County, Yunzhou, in the Great Liang Dynasty.

When Gu Changjin regained his body, he was standing in a dilapidated courtyard.

He was wearing a fairly new black outfit, with a standard-issue longsword from the Demon Suppression Division hanging at his waist.

He's not very old, just turned twenty.

I passed the assessment just three days ago and became an ordinary demon-suppressing guard in the Blackrock Town Demon Suppression Division.

Today, he has just received his first assignment.

Gu Changjin raised his hand, with a mission document in his palm.

The contents of the document were very simple.

Sixty li east of Heishi Town lies Xiaohe Village.

The entire village of 173 people disappeared overnight, suspected to be haunted by demons. The newly appointed Demon Suppression Guard, Gu Changjin, was ordered to immediately go and investigate.

If the existence of demons is confirmed, they must be eliminated on the spot. Only one person is allowed to go at a time, and no backup is permitted.

After reading the mission document and sensing the faint life force of the body, Gu Changjin couldn't help but remain silent for a moment.

A newcomer who had only joined the Demon Suppression Division three days prior.

Let him go alone to annihilate a demon that could devour an entire village.

This is no longer about assigning tasks.

This is so bad that they can't even be bothered to act.

Gu Changjin suddenly remembered a lame joke he had heard in his previous life.

The superior pointed at the enemy troops and said:

"I order you to divide your forces into three groups."

"Surround the entire enemy legion."

Now it seems that the Blackrock Town Demon Suppression Division's arrangement is quite similar to that of their superior.