The Prodigies War

Yunzhou City was extremely vast, so Lin Xun and Xia Zhi only had a brief walk before they teleported away.

The natural dao vein of the Qing Dynasty was located in its imperial capital. To get there from Yunzhou City, one would have to endure a long journey across one hundred and thirty-six cities. Even if Lin Xun and Xia Zhi did nothing but teleport the whole way, it would still take them a full day.

However, Lin Xun was in no rush. Each city in the Qing Kingdom was covered with a different Heavenly Cycle Dao Law. Therefore, they each had a very different lifestyle. As Lin Xun and Xia Zhi flew past, what they saw and felt about in different cities were all different.

Due to the differences in the Heavenly Cycle Dao Laws, the way the citizens reacted to life, old age, sickness, death, love, hate, resentment, and fear were also very different. As such, there were huge disparities between what they deemed good or bad, black or white, and right or wrong.

Along the way, Lin Xun's brows furrowed a little. Every difference in the Dao Laws led to different impacts on the living beings. He sighted cases where a city was covered by over a dozen Dao Laws. Due to the differences in the rules and ways of conduct the citizens followed, there were a great deal of conflicts, disputes, and even bloodshed that resulted in gruesome deaths.

It gave the impression of different civilizations and ethnic groups clashing and slaughtering each other, and it got him thinking.

A big number of Heavenly Cycle Dao Laws isn't necessarily a good thing... If there is only one type of Heavenly Cycle Dao Law that sustains the entire Mortal Transformation Zone, then there shouldn't be so much violence and conflict among the billions of beings in the forty-nine kingdoms, right?

Furthermore, such a Heavenly Cycle Dao Law can merge the various civilizations here into one where everybody honors the same teachings and follows the same rules. In this way, the world would be unified!

But, since I can think of this, how could the many great predecessors not think of it? In that case, perhaps this is the exact reason why those like us have been fighting in the Dao Competitions of this Mortal Transformation Zone!

Lin Xun began to understand something.

For countless moons, all the great experts who had arrived at the Mortal Transformation Zone had aimed to crown their dao merits as the sole parameter of this heaven and earth, thus becoming the sole educator of all living beings.

In order to achieve it, they had to first prove to be better than the rest on the cultivation path, and this might be the fundamental reason for the emergence of the Dao Competition.

One day later, at the imperial capital of Qing...

When Lin Xun saw this city from afar, his eyes couldn't help but narrow. In the sky above the imperial capital, there was only one Heavenly Cycle Dao Law that resembled the auspicious violet qi from the east. It was thick, infinite, and magnificent, truly something divine.

He had passed a whole hundred and thirty-six cities and witnessed many different kinds of Heavenly Cycle Dao Laws, but none of those laws was as powerful as the violet law shrouding the imperial capital. Their difference was that between a small stream and an ocean!

Only an almighty expert can have this kind of merit power.

As Lin Xun was thinking this, he noticed something noteworthy. From the various citizens of all shapes and sizes, there was not only the rolling energy of red dust but also some terrifying auras mixed in it—the power belonging to Immeasurable Eternals!

“No wonder we've only seen a handful of fellow cultivators along the way. It turns out they're all hiding in this imperial city.”

Lin Xun had a feeling that an unpredictable storm was awaiting once he set foot into the imperial city.

“Xia Zhi.”

“Hm?”

“This imperial city is nothing less than a dragon lair. I'm afraid we must be ready to fight.”

Upon hearing this, Xia Zhi's eyes lit up like the feeling of boredom had left her. In her clear and crisp voice, she asked, “Is the Dao Competition going to start?”

Lin Xun nodded. “It has already started.”

The duo entered the imperial city as they chatted. Like usual, the mortal citizens were utterly unaware of their presence. Lin Xun, on the other hand, could clearly see and feel the abundant energy rising from the center of the imperial capital. It was right before the Qing royal palace, the aura of a Heavenly Cycle Dao Law!

Without a question, that was where the natural dao vein belonging to the Qing Kingdom was located.

In front of the palace was a huge square. Further from there were streets that ran in all directions, with various business buildings on both sides such as restaurants, teahouses, etc. The area was busy and prosperous.

On the way over, Lin Xun and Xia Zhi spotted many Immeasurable Eternals. There was a young man sitting cross-legged in the air above a teahouse, his robe the color of snow and his sword placed across his knees.

There was an old man with unkempt hair, squatting in front of a restaurant with a huge red gourd of wine in hand. As he drank from the gourd, his eyes were kept on the bustling affairs of the varied mortals.

There was a man clad in divine armor. He stood proudly in the clouds with his hands on his back like a war god on a patrol.

There was a youthful woman in a rainbow-colored dress. She mingled in the crowd of a wine bar, listening with great interest to the storyteller telling legendary tales of chivalrous heroes.

There were over a dozen of those terrifying existences scattered around the palace, each doing their own thing without interfering with one another. When Lin Xun and Xia Zhi came into view, many of their gazes landed on them.

“Oh? We finally have some new friends.”

“Do any of you recognize those two fellow daoists, the man and woman over there?”

“Not at all, they’re both unfamiliar faces.”

Bursts of conversations exchanged through intent resounded between those terrifying existences. Although Lin Xun and Xia Zhi couldn't hear them, they could feel the gazes on them.

Xia Zhi's delicate brows slightly furrowed. Lin Xun smiled. “Just ignore them.”

The two kept walking on their determined course, but as they were about to enter the huge square in front of the palace, a voice as mellow as a spring breeze suddenly rang out, “If I have to guess, Fellow Daoists, the two of you have only recently come to this zone from the Sea of Fate?”

The speaker was a scholarly, middle-aged man with a long, fluttering beard. Wearing a wide-sleeved robe fastened with a wide belt and holding a green bamboo slip, he exuded a noble spirit.

“Indeed.” Lin Xun stopped walking and looked over. “Anything you would like to enlighten me on?”

The middle-aged scholar smiled and clasped his fist. “I wouldn’t say enlighten, it's just that, since you're new here, I reckon there are still things you don't know about the Qing palace. If you'd like, I can explain to you what I know.”

After a stunned second, Lin Xun clasped his fist back. “I would appreciate that, yes.”

The middle-aged scholar swept his gaze at the Immeasurable Eternals scattered all around and said, “The fellow daoists present, a total of seventeen of us, are here to wait for no more than two things: One is the one who must be killed, and two, a worthy competitor.”

Lin Xun couldn't help but ask, “What is the one who must be killed?”

The middle-aged scholar laughed. “You’ll know after you condense your respective Jade Book of Merits later.”

He stopped speaking entirely after that. Looking around at the others, they likewise had no intention of opening their mouths.

Lin Xun decided not to delve into it and stepped into the huge square with Xia Zhi. At that instant, they intimately felt the power of the natural dao vein surging from deep underground like molten lava. When he operated his cultivation base and extended his right hand, immediately, countless rays of light appeared. Like being pulled, they converged on his right palm and gradually formed a strange, illusory jade book.

In Lin Xun's mind, a series of unimaginable scenes started to play.

He saw hundreds and thousands of merit forces, originating from different areas of the boundless Mortal Transformation Zone, transform into Heavenly Cycle Dao Laws. They then permeated the sky of the zone and influenced the billions and billions of living beings in the forty-nine kingdoms.

One took the form of a lofty mountain range. One took the form of a sword monument that stood tall in a certain kingdom. There were also auspicious clouds, scrolls and books, weapons, grasses and trees... All were scattered in different places.

Although their forms differed, they were all manifestations of the dao merits of mighty ones who had obtained Chaos Dao Fruits and had crossed the heavenly gate of the Mortal Transformation Zone. Lin Xun even saw the temple located in the mountainous depth that was transformed from the dao merits of King Qiyu. He even saw Nie Ting dueling it.

He instantly came to a realization. What he was seeing were the dao merits scattered in the Mortal Transformation Zone, and it was these dao merits that had become the one thousand odd Heavenly Cycle Dao Laws.

The various things they took the forms of were called dao manifestations! In other words, the ‘temple’ transformed from the dao merits of King Qiyu was a dao manifestation.

Soon, the scene in Lin Xun's mind changed. Countless figures of all shapes and colors appeared, distributed like dots of light in the Mortal Transformation Zone. These were clearly the auras of the powerhouses in this realm! There were roughly ten thousand of them!

At this moment, the illusory jade book on Lin Xun’s palm solidified a little. Reading it with his spirit sense, he saw the locations of the one thousand odd dao manifestations and of the ten thousand mighty experts across the different territories of the Mortal Transformation Zone!

When he located the Kingdom of Qing in the jade book, he counted nineteen cultivators, including him and Xia Zhi, in the imperial capital! Moreover, there were also three dao manifestations in this city: an imperial seal hidden in a secret place of the royal palace, a bronze furnace in front of a Taoist temple, and an old tree rooted before the eastern gate of the city!

Lin Xun was inwardly shaken by what he learned. With this jade book, wouldn't it mean one could easily pinpoint all the competitors in this world? In a nutshell, this jade book was a live map. It reported the locations of the dao manifestations transformed from Heavenly Cycle Dao Laws, as well as that of the great experts in the Mortal Transformation Zone!

“So, one cannot run from a determined enemy here. There's nowhere to hide at all...” Lin Xun immediately found the problem with this jade book.

It allowed one to learn the location of one's rivals and likewise gave one's location to one's rivals! It was both a benefit and a drawback.

“So, this is the mystery of the Jade Book of Merits?”

Lin Xun recalled what Nie Ting had told him, that having a Jade Book of Merits was the only way to gain the qualifications to partake in the Dao Competition.

First of all, one would be able to locate other competitors in the Mortal Transformation Zone. Furthermore, if one's dao merits got included in the Heavenly Cycle Dao Laws during the competition, then one would be able to attract a Chaos Dao Fruit with the jade book’s help!