On the Path to the Great Dao

Yan Hanqing drove the carriage, following the refugees as they fled into the distance.

The sky was filled with birds, fluttering and flying back and forth—this was a transformation technique released by the talisman masters of Red Mountain Hall. They used Transformation Talismans to turn talismans, talisman objects, magic treasures, and the like into flying beasts for surveillance.

After years of development, the Red Mountain Hall Talisman Master Association now boasted many experts.

Chen Shi had transported almost all the texts from the True King's treasury into the association, and with the Instructor passing down teachings, in just a few years, many within the association had cultivated to the Emptiness Refining realm and Body Unification realm.

Cultivators at the Spirit Transformation realm and Divine Descent realm were even more numerous, beyond count.

Yan Hanqing carefully sensed his surroundings. The strongest cultivator nearby was at the Spirit Refining realm.

A Spirit Refining realm cultivator was already an impressive Grandmaster in the martial world. Aside from the freeholders, such powerful beings were rare.

Even for the Thirteen Great Clans, the Spirit Refining realm was remarkable. In a major clan, only twenty or thirty people could cultivate to this level.

But for Yan Hanqing, a Spirit Refining realm cultivator wasn't worth mentioning.

Even if all the talisman masters of Red Mountain Hall in Liuzhou Province were combined, they wouldn't be enough to face him.

He was a Great Ascension realm existence, standing at the peak of cultivation levels. Red Mountain Hall's accumulated strength was far from sufficient—aside from Chen Shi, there wasn't a single opponent who could match him.

Yet he dared not act recklessly.

Although the talisman masters of Red Mountain Hall couldn't detain him, Red Mountain Hall had other forces in Liuzhou Province—and those forces were terrifying.

Namely, the Chinese deities revived by Chen Shi!

These deities had sheltered the people during the era of calamity. Now that the calamity had ended, they had not disappeared.

This time, as Chen Shi made his move against the Yan Family in Liuzhou, the talisman masters of Red Mountain Hall all carried incense offerings from different temples.

These talisman masters lit the incense and stuck it into their hats. As the incense burned, it connected them to the deities enshrined in their respective temples.

If they encountered a powerful enemy, the deity's power would descend immediately, either helping the talisman master defend against attacks or slaying the opponent.

Yan Hanqing recognized this, so he was extremely cautious.

If he made a move, he could certainly kill these talisman masters, but he would also be exposed, alerting all the deities across Liuzhou.

With the gods all attacking, even someone like him would likely meet his end in bitter defeat!

What was even more terrifying was that it wasn't just Liuzhou. Across all fifty provinces of the Western Ox New Continent, there were Red Mountain Hall Talisman Master Associations everywhere—and everywhere, there were deities revived by Chen Shi!

This was the foundation Chen Shi had laid over the past four years!

This was also why Sect Leader Yan Shihai had repeatedly ordered that they must conceal their identities.

Without changing their names and hiding their identities, they couldn't survive in the Western Ox New Continent!

"If the Thirteen Great Clans don't join forces, they can't oppose the tyrant Chen Shi in the mortal world!" he thought to himself.

Not far away, another battle broke out. A group of Yan Family disciples had been discovered, and the talisman masters of Red Mountain Hall were pursuing and encircling them.

Yan Hanqing looked into the distance. Many Yan Family disciples were killed. Of the survivors, some fought back while others knelt and begged for mercy.

"Did you ever show mercy to others?" someone asked angrily.

Those begging for mercy were also killed. A voice said indignantly, "Sucking the blood of the people! None of you are innocent!"

Yan Hanqing's eyelids twitched. His carriage moved forward unhurriedly, not intervening.

Three or four groups of talisman masters stopped them, asking for their names, their native place, where they lived, where they were going, and what position they held in the Yan estate.

Yan Hanqing answered calmly. These talisman masters then questioned Yan Shaoxuan and Fang Zhenxiu about their names, native place, and background.

Fang Zhenxiu was just a child. Yan Hanqing was worried he might slip up, but fortunately, the boy's answers were flawless.

They encountered another group of inspecting talisman masters. Yan Hanqing stopped the carriage and said with a flattering smile, "Good sirs, you've already checked us many times. How many more times must you inspect us?"

The talisman master who inspected them was easygoing and said amiably, "Orders from above. We have no choice but to obey."

Yan Hanqing asked, "When you find members of the Yan Family, how do you deal with them?"

"Orders from above: any Yan Family member, kill without mercy."

Hearing this, Yan Hanqing and Yan Shaoxuan both felt a chill run down their spines.

Just then, a voice rang out: "Step back. I'll inspect them."

The few talisman masters saw the newcomer and respectfully bowed before retreating.

Yan Hanqing recognized that voice. His heart trembled, and his grip on the reins tightened involuntarily.

The newcomer was a young man who looked no more than twenty-something years old, yet he possessed a calm and composed demeanor as if neither thunder nor collapsing skies could shake him.

He was dignified in appearance, with steady steps. Yan Hanqing couldn't help but recall the time when he himself had traveled to the Western Capital to take the metropolitan and palace examinations and first met this man.

Back then, the man was still a youth, full of ambition, determined to claim the top scholar title and then return home to inherit the position of Sect Leader. But unexpectedly, during the metropolitan examination, he encountered this man.

Even then, this man looked the same as he did now. Decades had passed, yet his appearance had hardly changed.

They had clashed several times: once during the metropolitan examination, twice afterward, and once during the palace examination.

In the metropolitan examination, he and this man had fought to a draw. After the exam, dissatisfied with the draw, he sought out the man again and challenged him. Again, it was a draw.

Even more furious, he challenged the man a third time—and once more, it was a draw!

He was deeply angered, feeling that this man hadn't shown his true strength and was holding back for him.

But during the palace examination, this man had lost to him.

For many years afterward, Yan Hanqing often wondered: during that palace examination, had this man truly been inferior to him, or had he simply dared not show his true strength to claim the top scholar title?

However, as more years passed, Yan Hanqing gradually stopped thinking about it. Backed by the Yan Family, he had received a sea of resources and wealth to support his cultivation, allowing him to break through and reach the Great Ascension realm.

Meanwhile, the man who had once haunted him was merely a minor clerk in the Ministry of Revenue, his cultivation level still stuck at the Emptiness Refining realm.

He and that genius were no longer in the same league.

He lacked nothing, while that genius had to worry about food, clothing, and official duties. Even with heaven-defying talent and aptitude, it would all be wasted on the mundane grind of daily life and political infighting, gradually making him indistinguishable from the masses.

They were never from the same world to begin with.

The imperial examinations had merely brought them together, allowing them to compete in the same exam hall.

Once they left the exam hall, they were still from two different worlds.

Yan Hanqing climbed down from the carriage, his aged face breaking into a smile as he called out the man's name: "Chen Tang. Long time no see."

Chen Tang stopped, also smiling. "Hanqing, it's been nearly twenty years since we last met."

Yan Hanqing tapped the carriage door with the reins in his hand. Yan Shaoxuan opened the door, saw the reins, and paused briefly before taking them and sitting on the driver's seat.

"Grandfather..."

Yan Hanqing waved his hand, cutting off Yan Shaoxuan's words. He smiled and said, "Take your little brother and go first. I've run into an old acquaintance. I can't leave."

Yan Shaoxuan's heart tightened. She clenched her jaw, struggling to hold back her tears. They swirled in her eyes before finally spilling over, sliding down both sides of her nose and dripping onto her lips, wetting her red lips—salty and bitter.

She shook the reins fiercely and urged the horses to drive the carriage away.

Yan Hanqing didn't look at them. His gaze remained fixed on Chen Tang as he said with a smile, "Twenty years? Time flies like a white horse passing through a crack. Before we know it, we've both grown old. Thinking back to the True King's era, cultivators could live for thousands of years, and those at the Ascension realm could even live for tens of thousands of years. Yet we, who have reached the pinnacle of the mortal world, can only live for a mere century. Truly lamentable."

Chen Tang's gaze passed over him, landing on the departing carriage. He said calmly, "My lifespan is a thousand years, unlike yours."

Yan Hanqing's pupils constricted.

He had just noticed that Chen Tang looked far too young and had assumed it was due to some beauty-preservation technique. He never expected Chen Tang to have a thousand years of life!

How unjust was heaven.

He had lived to sixty, feeling his body begin to age, so he resigned as Sect Leader and passed on the position.

During this escape, he had disguised himself as an old carriage driver.

But for Chen Tang, his lifespan hadn't even reached one-twentieth of his life. He still had a long, long time to enjoy life, make further breakthroughs, and never be affected by aging!

Yan Hanqing laughed. "Chen Tang, back during the palace examination, you held back and preserved my Yan Family's dignity. I've always been grateful."

Chen Tang replied, "At that time, I was weak in cultivation and had no background. I had no choice but to yield. You don't need to thank me. Even if it were members of another clan, I would have done the same."

Yan Hanqing chuckled. "True. Back then, no matter who you fought, it was always a draw. You never hurt anyone's feelings. I could see that you were very cautious, afraid of offending others. That's why you earned a nickname: Draw Chen."

Chen Tang looked surprised and shook his head. "I've never heard that name before."

Yan Hanqing said, "We called you that behind your back, never to your face. Since you drew with every provincial graduate and presented scholar, that made you the top scholar. You had the talent to be top scholar, but when faced with the Thirteen Great Clans, you could only yield. So you controlled your results and only scored fourteenth place. Chen Tang, do you hate us, the Thirteen Great Clans, for that?"

Chen Tang's expression remained as calm as ever. "Yes."

Yan Hanqing paused, intrigued. "Since you hate us, how were you able to control your state of mind in those clashes and make every fight end in a draw?"

He was deliberately stalling for time, hoping Yan Shaoxuan could take her brother farther away.

Chen Tang was silent for a moment, then said, "My father gave me life but didn't raise me. When I was very young, he abandoned me at home. He rarely came back. From a young age, I was insecure. I trained hard and studied all kinds of knowledge diligently. Others thought I was self-reliant, but they didn't know that I was afraid of dealing with people and used studying to cover up my fear. Compared to me, my father loved Chen Wu more. I was jealous of Chen Wu and wanted to prove that I was stronger than him. So I went to take the imperial examinations. I wanted to win the top scholar title to tell him: I am the top scholar, the best in both civil and martial arts in the Western Ox New Continent. I took the exams just hoping he would come home more often and look at me more, that I hadn't let him down."

Yan Hanqing sighed. "But when you arrived in the Western Capital, you discovered that the power of the Thirteen Great Clans was beyond imagination. You're a sensitive person. Under the pressure of the Thirteen Great Clans, you had no choice but to compromise and score fourteenth place. That's why you hate me, the Yan Family, and the Thirteen Great Clans so deeply."

Chen Tang said, "I did hate you for that at first. But later, when I became an official in the Ministry of Revenue, I met more people like me. Their talent wasn't inferior to mine, and some even surpassed me in aptitude and comprehension. Yet they were eliminated in the Literary Test, killed in the Martial Test, or failed in the palace examination. Seeing so many such people made me hate you even more."

Upon hearing this, Yan Hanqing knew immediately that he couldn't use their past camaraderie to make Chen Tang spare him. There was only one way to survive: fight to determine victory, defeat, life, and death.

"Back then, you yielded to me, so we were equally famous. Later, I was able to take the position of Sect Leader because you didn't defeat me outright; otherwise, I would have lost the qualifications to compete for the position."

Yan Hanqing chuckled. "Back then, I really was no match for you. But that was then. When I returned to the Yan Family, I cast aside all pride, reflected deeply, and trained a hundred times harder. Finally, I broke through and reached the Great Ascension realm. But over these twenty years, you've lived a cautious life, buried in paperwork and scheming. A cultivator who is too cautious loses their boldness and the drive to push forward. Now, can you still achieve a draw?"

A mocking smile spread across his face. "Draw Chen?"

This nickname had once been a compliment, but in his mouth, it was filled with derision.

Back then, Chen Tang had been careful, striving to maintain a draw with everyone. In the eyes of Yan Hanqing and the other Thirteen Great Clans' disciples, this wasn't a gentleman's restraint—it was the cowardice of the lower class.

So, when they called him Draw Chen, it was always laced with mockery and irony.

They mocked his caution, mocked his talent that he dared not use, mocked him for being a top scholar who could only score fourteenth place, mocked his hard cultivation that only served to pave the way for them.

Chen Tang's expression shifted slightly. He gripped the hilt of the Xuanwei Sword.

Yan Hanqing sensed the subtle change in his mindset and laughed heartily. In an instant, he pushed his cultivation to its peak!

He cultivated the supreme art from the Lingshan Hall Collection, called the Twelve Heavenly Demon Gods. The Twelve Meridian Demon God Technique was one of its branch techniques.

This technique required first stripping other cultivators of their Golden Cores, refining twelve such cores, forging twelve Nascent Souls, and cultivating twelve Primordial Spirits.

Before the Spirit Transformation realm, cultivating this technique was extremely slow. If it took someone a year to break through one realm, the Twelve Heavenly Demon Gods would take twelve years. It was arguably the hardest technique among The Ten Books of Cultivation to master.

But at the age of thirty-seven, Yan Hanqing had already cultivated it to the Spirit Transformation realm. In the history of the Yan Family, only three people had managed to cultivate this technique to the Spirit Transformation realm at thirty-seven. He was the third.

Elated with his achievement, he had traveled to the Western Capital to take the imperial examinations, wanting to test his cultivation. But he never expected to encounter Chen Tang there, which nearly crushed his spirit.

After the Twelve Heavenly Demon Gods reached the Spirit Transformation realm, it was as if twelve people were cultivating together, making the cultivation speed over ten times faster!

After the palace examination, Yan Hanqing returned home to cultivate in seclusion. In just over ten years, he advanced from the Spirit Transformation realm to the Great Ascension realm.

Now, he split himself into twelve forms. Twelve thousand-zhang Primordial Spirits—some with three heads and six arms, some one-eyed, some serpent-headed with human bodies, some with a thousand arms, some covered in eyes, some with eyes on their palms—looked like twelve demon gods. They formed a formation called the Twelve Demon God Great Array.

As the array activated, a series of cracking sounds rang out. In an instant, twelve layers of the Realm of Emptiness descended, pressing down with such force that the surrounding ground rumbled and sank continuously, while the terrain around them rose rapidly, forming small hills!

The twelve layers of the Realm of Emptiness stacked together. Stars filled the sky, forming a brilliant galaxy that crammed the heavens, leaving no gaps.

Beneath the galaxy, dozens of suns and moons covered the sky, radiating boundless fiery power.

Yan Hanqing channeled the magical power of his twelve Primordial Spirits together, as if breaking through the limits of Great Ascension realm power, vaguely touching upon another realm!

He was faintly sensing the edge of the new method's Dao Unification and Ascension realms!

Among the techniques in The Ten Books of Cultivation, it was hard to rank them, but the Twelve Heavenly Demon Gods was recognized as the strongest, the technique closest to an immortal art!

"Chen Tang, can you still fight me to a draw today?" came the thunderous voice of the twelve Yan Hanqings.

"I can give it a try!"

Chen Tang drew his sword. The Xuanwei Sword instantly illuminated the heavens, lighting up the twelve layers of the Realm of Emptiness.

The sun, moon, and stars couldn't rival that dazzling sword light.

Chen Tang merged with the sword, becoming one with it. The man disappeared, and the Xuanwei Sword vanished as well. The Realm of Emptiness, sun, moon, and stars all faded away, leaving only a thousand-zhang sword light that tore through the Twelve Demon God Great Array and shot up into the sky.

In that moment, he finally raised his cultivation to the Great Ascension realm.

The sword light moved.

The stars fell.

The galaxy danced like a dragon.

Starlight rained down from the sky like a fiery downpour, brilliant beyond compare.

The sun and moon in the sky were pierced through.

Following that was the breathtaking sword light as it fell. The light split into two, then four, then eight. In the next moment, the thousand-zhang sword light multiplied beyond what the eye could count, striking from all directions.

"Human-sword unity? Chen Tang, let's see how much skill you've been hiding!"

Yan Hanqing roared. His twelve bodies each pushed their Primordial Spirits to the extreme. The twelve demon gods faced outward, spinning like a whirlwind, each unleashing their full capabilities. In an instant, they unleashed tens of thousands of attacks, blocking and shattering each sword light!

Suddenly, countless fragments of sword light burrowed into Yan Hanqing's true body through the pores of his eyes, ears, nose, and mouth.

Yan Hanqing froze.

A massive sword energy coalesced inside his body, bursting out from within!

Chi!

His body was cleaved in two.

The sword light flew out, standing between heaven and earth. It shifted from flat to three-dimensional, reverting to Chen Tang's figure.

He held the Xuanwei Sword, its tip pointing toward the ground.

"Brother Yan, this time, there's no need for me to draw with you. You've conceded."