Reverend Rizzsanity

The path of understanding the great dao was not the same for every gu master and gu immortal. Each person took their own road, cultivated fiercely, and deepened their comprehension of the great dao. The ‘paths’ such formation, refinement, strength, wisdom, fire, water, metal, sword, and others were just that—a method. One’s method of comprehending the great dao could consist of one path or several paths. But all these roads led to the same destination.

Lo Jik spent some time experiencing this feeling. It was hard to describe to others because attainment could only be felt and not explained. While it was hard to contain great dao with words, he certainly felt the differences of each attainment level.

The great dao was like an inexplicable source of light. It was the truth signifying the rules of the world. Gu worms were a part of this rule. Human existence was also a part of this rule. Water and its characteristics were also part of this rule. Life and death also followed certain rules.

Great dao encompassed everything and anything. It encompassed humans born in this world as well as otherworldly demons like Lo Jik and Leylin. It had the secrets of all the paths that were discovered and found by others and also the paths that were innovated by talented legends. It was not a thing of rigidity. It was also a rule but fluid like water. What it may not include did not imply its inability to embrace future changes.

And attainment levels were like a staircase. This staircase was inverted in the sense that the first step was the smallest and the last step infinitely near this source of truth was long and massive.

The first step was none other than becoming a master in one path.

One could stand on this small step and enjoy the grace of the great dao. This light would fill the gu master or gu immortal with a great intuition towards their corresponding paths. After all, these steps—the steps of a number of different paths—were none other than one’s effort in understanding the great dao. Becoming a master was like stepping into the range of the great dao’s light. One felt more connected to this truth. But the step in this staircase was too small.

One built themselves up by cultivating and accumulating. After this step was another step. It was significantly larger and taller. A talented master might take decades before stepping on this particular stair.

This step signified one’s understanding turning richer—one’s advancement into a grandmaster.

The light of the great dao would be more intense at this stage. One did not merely generate intuition as a grandmaster. The broadness of this stair indicated a grandmaster’s ability to use one’s own path to comprehend other paths!

What was a dao? It was a part of the great dao.

Fire dao was not different from the great dao. Similarly, water dao was not a separate entity either. As such, fire and water dao were also interconnected despite the obvious conflict of their nature.

A water path grandmaster could use their understanding of water dao to comprehend the secrets of fire, sword, metal, lightning, refinement, and many other paths. What did this mean? It meant that a water path grandmaster was comprehending the great dao.

And only a handful of experts among the grandmasters could successfully take another step forward.

Great grandmaster!

This stair was the largest and infinitely close to the light of the great dao. It was simply too broad and massive, far surpassing anything comparable to a grandmaster. It was like comparing an elephant to an ant—it was the difference between heaven and earth.

A great grandmaster enjoyed such a grace of the great dao that they became aware of many truths of the world. They could comprehend several secrets at a glance and attune themselves with the feeling of natural dao marks itself. They far surpassed sages and saints; their words filled with certain essence of the great dao. They did not just comprehend the secrets of the other dao but also encompassed the entirety of their own path.

Each great grandmaster stood to understand one entire aspect of the great dao. Lo Jik, a human path great grandmaster, could display outstanding feats of cultivation due to this attainment. He might not know every secret of the great dao or human path, but with time, he could uncover them all with much ease.

However, there was another realm beyond the great grandmasters.

Every venerable was publicly recognized as supreme grandmasters of their corresponding paths. There were also the Three Olds, the three legendary refinement path supreme grandmasters.

This staircase, however, ended at the realm of great grandmasters. What about supreme grandmasters?

Lo Jik knew the truth.

The truth was right before him.

Beyond this step was the source itself, the great dao.

Great grandmaster attainment signified understanding a certain path to its entirety. It was the comprehension of an aspect of the great dao to the present date.

But a supreme grandmaster?

Such a monster could not be contained in this staircase. Such a figure was right there, becoming part of the grace of the great dao itself!

To become a supreme grandmaster, one must innovate beyond the limits of the world.

A supreme grandmaster’s every innovation was an advancement of the great dao itself. At that stage, a person was no longer enjoying the grace of the great dao but progressing and nurturing it instead!

There were no secrets a supreme grandmaster could not understand.

Being a formation path quasi-supreme grandmaster, Lo Jik was merely a step away from becoming that source of supplement for the great dao. He was extremely close but this tiny gap was the difference between heaven and earth.

Yet, this feeling was already amazing.

Lo Jik did not have any delusion of somehow becoming a formation path supreme grandmaster. While he was also taken by the beauty of formation path, especially the construction of gu houses, he understood that becoming a supreme grandmaster—to innovate something beyond the limitations of the gu world—was a challenge too difficult for him.

He was satisfied with his current attainment because formation path, in essence, was a path of killer moves. Every formation was a formation path killer move. It was the number one path in terms of the number of killer moves, with gu houses representing the peak of formation path.

“The materials are all prepared, master.”

Old Man Desolate communicated respectfully as Lo Jik stood up.

He had a different view about Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven after his formation path attainment skyrocketed to this stage.

Lo Jik left the grand hall and moved towards the center of the grotto-heaven. He saw the same white hall where Old Man Desolate set up the formation using Space Connect Immortal Gu Worm.

‘This grotto-heaven has several immortal gu worms. I need to detail a reconstruction plan that modifies these formations and replaces the immortal gu using immortal materials.’ Lo Jik thought. He had already done this with Soul Claw Immortal Gu, Lotus Armor Immortal Gu, and Water Strength Immortal Gu. To the current him, the entire grotto-heaven felt quite poorly managed.

He landed besides the hall and noticed all his craftsmen clones setting up several mortal materials and gu worms.

This hall itself was the grotto-heaven’s headquarters and connected with the grotto-heaven’s immortal aperture origin core. Every immortal aperture had an origin core, the source of one’s immortal essence and vitality. A damaged immortal aperture origin core would cause the immortal aperture’s vitality to dissipate. Life inside a blessed land or grotto-heaven will perish and the space might even shrink due to the damage.

Old Man Desolate, different from other heavenly spirits, constructed a sub-formation connected with the immemorial desolate core beast, Wish Dragon.

Rank 8 Imperial Essence Formation.

It allowed Old Man Desolate to produce beads of white litchi immortal essence.

A rank 6 immortal aperture produced green grape immortal essence.

A rank 7 immortal aperture produced red date immortal essence.

A rank 8 immortal aperture produced white litchi immortal essence.

And a rank 9 immortal aperture produced yellow apricot immortal essence.

Over the years, Old Man Desolate saved up a huge sum of white litchi immortal essence. He survived the calamities and tribulations on his own, but Lo Jik could not risk it any further.

Back then, Leylin’s tribulations were several times more severe than the ones experienced by Old Man Desolate even before becoming a rank 8 gu immortal. Lo Jik knew the true reason behind this event and realized how precious Divine Concealment was to someone like him.

Leylin might still be alive and an absolute overlord of a region if he had acquired Divine Concealment.

Lo Jik arrived here to establish a new formation. Fortunately, he did not need to dismantle Imperial Essence Formation for this task.

With the boost of his attainment, his craftsmen clones worked with outstanding precision.

They activated several mortal gu worms or tossed in mortal materials, creating a dense fog. Several gu worms hid inside the fog while countless theft path mortal gu worms flew around it. Initially, Lo Jik designed a theft path formation. However, to achieve his goals, he lacked several crucial theft path immortal materials. Nothing could be done about it. Theft path was rare and not widely spread. The person who developed it the most was none other than Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable. Few theft path gu immortals rose to prominence after his disappearance but none were quite as famed and skilled as the demon venerable himself. Consequently, theft path was not developed at the same pace as other paths nurturing several gu immortals.

Now?

Lo Jik modified this formation. He wanted to use one of the supreme theft path materials. In fact, it won’t be strange to call this a rank 9 immortal material.

Himself.

Lo Jik’s own soul.

This great material was none other than Divine Concealment.

Earlier, the formation deduced by Lo Jik and Xin Cheng could not make a complete use of Divine Concealment. But Lo Jik could not deal with this issue rather skillfully.

‘Amazing!’ Old Man Desolate observed everything and realized that Lo Jik surpassed him in matter of deducing and creating formations.

A formation path master worked no different from an artist. Their actions boasted beauty and elegance.

A formation path grandmaster could replace immortal gu with immortal materials. Why? Because a formation relied on the coordination of dao marks itself. It didn’t matter if this coordination was achieved through immortal materials or an immortal gu. The only difference between an immortal material and an immortal gu was the fact that the former’s dao marks would eventually be expended by the formation while the latter had no such issues. The latter’s dao marks formed a unique fragment of the great dao.

A formation great grandmaster achieved an even greater realm of mastery. One could create immortal formations using the natural dao marks present in one’s environment!

Lo Jik currently only used mortal gu worms and mortal materials. He was number one person in the gu world when it came to acquiring rare and extinct mortal materials. In fact, no mortal material was extinct for him! So, he possessed a great many theft path mortal materials.

And where was this location?

Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven.

This small world was a haven for formation path. It had countless formation path dao marks. Even more incredible was the fact that Lo Jik had full support of Old Man Desolate. A formation path great grandmaster usually requires a lot of deductions to create an immortal formation through the dao marks present in the nature. Ordinarily, a formation was designed for one’s need. An expert deduced formations for particular purpose and added gu worms and materials accordingly.

But making use of the natural dao marks severely limited the prospects of the formation because the dao marks in the nature, though immense in quantity, were not under the formation expert’s control. Instead of drawing a formation chart tailored for their needs, an expert would take into consideration the natural dao marks and what worked best with these dao marks as a foundation.

𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

The same wasn’t true for Lo Jik inside Immemorial Desolate Grotto-Heaven.

Lo Jik constructed a mortal formation and employed the dao marks of the grotto-heaven, which the heavenly spirit could control with ease.

‘It’s time.’

Lo Jik stepped inside the formation and took control of the entire thing.

*Bam*

His body shook slightly as an invisible force constricted him. This force was overbearing and started extracting the dao marks on his soul.

Divine Concealment was like a silk robe around his soul.

It started fluctuating intensely under the effects of the formation. Countless specks of light emerged from Lo Jik’s soul as this silk garment grew smaller and smaller.

One of Divine Concealment’s greatest suit was its self-regeneration. However, the speed of the extraction of the dao marks far surpassed its rate of recovery.

*Whoosh*

A storm of light grew from the center of the formation and reached the sky. All the dao marks suddenly mingled with the border of the grotto-heaven.

*Tremble*

The ground of the entire grotto-heaven shook as Old Man Desolate continued cooperating with a nervous expression.

It wasn’t long until his expression changed.

The storm of light dissipated and the fog around Lo Jik vanished.

Inside Lo Jik, around his soul, was a tattered garment of dao marks. It had already started regenerating. But the pace of its recovery was quite slow.

‘Oh?’ Lo Jik felt surprised before understanding a new aspect of Divine Concealment. ‘I see. The more dao marks it has, the greater its power. Currently, my actions forced Divine Concealment to the extreme. With time, its rate of recovery would grow.’

Lo Jik nodded before shrugging.

Ordinarily, that would be problematic because others could burden Divine Concealment by constantly deducing him and weakening the immortal killer move. Divine Concealment could handle most issues but it wasn’t infallible. It was ‘perpetual’ only because of self-regenerative nature. If pushed to the extreme, even the constant deductions of a rank 6 gu immortal may cause it to fail and dissipate.

That would be quite pitiful.

After all, Divine Concealment was a true rank 9 immortal killer move!

So, the craftsmen around Lo Jik built another formation. This formation did not connect with the dao marks of the grotto-heaven and boasted the rare few theft path immortal materials in Lo Jik’s stock.

Several theft path dao marks instantly supported Divine Concealment’s recovery inside this formation. It wasn’t long until Divine Concealment escaped its critical state with Lo Jik expediting the regeneration process.

‘Perfect~!’

He stood up and let the craftsmen return to their tasks.

“This is amazing, master! I can already sense that the grotto-heaven won’t suffer from a tribulation for the next eighty years!” Old Man Desolate gushed. “This formation is truly amazing! Hahaha! This production of immortal materials in this grotto-heaven will increase by several times without constantly being destroyed by calamities and tribulations!”

Lo Jik smiled faintly.

“That’s right. I’ve extended the effects of Divine Concealment to this grotto-heaven. But I’m not at the same level as Thieving Heaven Demon Venerable. This effect will only last for 80 years based on this grotto-heaven’s flow of time. Meaning, I have to use Concealed Paradise Formation every four years based on the main continent’s flow of time.”

“Concealed Paradise… truly, this grotto-heaven will become a grand paradise!” Old Man Desolate’s dwarven form shuddered with excitement. His beard and thick eyebrows trembled greatly.

Lo Jik only chuckled and left for the main hall. Concealed Paradise was the first step in eliminating one of the greater threats towards him and his lovers. He could singlehandedly deal with the dangers of calamities and tribulations as long as he refines Conceal Paradise a bit more.

Formations were inflexible. They could be either refined into gu houses or killer moves to achieve greater flexibility. As far as Concealed Paradise was concerned, Lo Jik believed it was better to polish it into a killer move. The current Concealed Paradise relied on a dense number of formation path dao marks. Formation path gu worms and immortal gu worms could be used to replace these dao marks. The same could be done with theft path immortal gu worms instead.

There was another matter.

Dream Creation was a huge success!

He acquired the entirety of Immemorial Desolate Immortal’s attainment.

‘Alas, time is too short to test Dream Summoning immortal killer move. Before researching methods to make dream exploration more effective, I should spend more time deducing more food and dream path killer moves for offensive, defensive, movement, and other aspects.’

The more he improved, the better his chances of maximizing the gains from sneaking inside Lang Ya Blessed Land.

He also revised all his earlier plans and kept on making improvements. After all, such a huge jump in formation path attainment caused a qualitative improvement in his over-all understanding of the great dao. His comprehension towards all the other paths improved greatly. Again, his refinement path attainment also showed notable signs of development.

But at this time his expression changed.

Something occurred inside his blessed land.

‘What?’ He nearly jumped from shock. ‘Emperor City is a painting path inheritance ground?!’

***

Alternate Title: Heaven’s Will as it watches Lo Jik use Divine Concealment on all his treasures and lovers: Pedro Pascal crying meme; Other venerables to Heaven’s Will: It’s over, brother; A step away from being radiance itself; Theft path formation; A great rank 9 immortal material; A paradise; Heaven’s Will about to launch air strike on the entire black heaven just for a chance of hitting Immemorial Grotto-Heaven; 80 years of freedom; Recovering immortal killer move; Preventing Divine Concealment’s disappearance; Lo Jik’s next target… Femboy Genesis Venerable?; Emperor City’s shocking secret; Another venerable inheritance ground; Lo Jik discovering venerable methods way before the fated war

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