The Prodigies War

To have one’s cultivation inscribed into the Heavenly Cycle Dao Laws of the Mortal Transformation Zone and pass through the heavenly gate into the Calamitous Zone was no small feat. It was something far beyond the reach of ordinary Immeasurable Realm cultivators.

In the eyes of those present, Du Canzhao’s strength was already among the finest among this realm. He stood only a step away from the threshold of the Immeasurable Dao Lord. Despite that...he had been defeated by a single palm.

The shock that rippled through the crowd was impossible to conceal. When their gazes fell upon Lin Xun again, something subtle shifted in their expressions.

“Fellow Daoist, my apologies.” Lin Xun stepped forward and extended a hand, helping Du Canzhao to his feet.

Du Canzhao’s face darkened briefly. Then, after a moment, he let out a wry laugh and returned the gesture with cupped hands. “I overestimated myself.”

He paused, casting a glance at Xia Zhi before adding, “In the future, don’t keep this young lady waiting so long.”

Lin Xun smiled and nodded. Then he turned slightly, “Xia Zhi, let’s go.”

Xia Zhi gave a quiet nod. Together, they walked toward the distant mountain shrouded in mist, the Test of Past Life.

A stir passed through the surrounding mighty beings. They’re going to attempt it now?

Their eyes followed the pair in unison. The towering mountain loomed beneath drifting grey mist. All along its winding path stood countless cultivators, motionless like statues carved from clay. Some had stood there for who knew how long.

This was the Test of Past Life. To step upon this mountain was to tread the path of one’s former life. The mind and body would be drawn into the current of reincarnation. Through the ages, countless cultivators had been trapped here, and countless had perished!

When Lin Xun and Xia Zhi stepped onto the mountain, both of their figures paused ever so lightly. An obscure, unfathomable force enveloped them. The aura felt familiar to Lin Xun. It was identical to the aura of the Reincarnation World contained within his Nirvana profound meaning!

At the same time, Xia Zhi felt it as well. In her previous life, she was the Eternal Night Divine Emperor. In a sense, she herself was already a being who had been reborn. When she sensed the aura, she felt an unexpected familiarity stir within her. It was the breath of reincarnation!

Lin Xun and Xia Zhi exchanged a glance. Without a word, they continued upward. Step by step, they climbed the mountain path. The aura of reincarnation thickened within the drifting mist, surging again and again against their minds.

The higher they climbed, the more overwhelming that aura became, like a vast torrent cascading from the summit, crashing down without end. Any other Immeasurable Realm cultivator would likely have buckled under such pressure. However, it failed to hinder Lin Xun and Xia Zhi in the slightest.

By the time they reached the mountainside, the aura of reincarnation had swelled into a howling storm, tearing through the mist with terrifying force! Then, Lin Xun flicked his sleeves. Boundless radiance surged forth, transforming into a vast abyss. Amid thunderous rumbling, it swallowed the oncoming storm of reincarnation whole, leaving not even a trace behind.

Xia Zhi glanced at him in mild surprise. “Are you using this to comprehend the profundities of reincarnation?”

Lin Xun shook his head slightly. “The power contained within this Test of Past Life is only a fragment of reincarnation law. It cannot compare to the Reincarnation World within the mysteries of Nirvana. There is nothing here worth studying.”

As they spoke, they continued upward. Before long, they reached the summit, and their figures vanished from sight. Not far from the foot of the Test of Past Life, Du Canzhao and the other mighty figures stood frozen in place.

They have simply drifted away?

There had been no struggle, no hesitation, and no visible resistance. It had not looked like breaking through a deadly trial at all, but instead like a casual stroll through mountain paths, light and unhurried.

“That was the Test of Past Life...” an old monster muttered blankly. “How could it fail to shake them even in the slightest?”

Everyone present knew all too well just how perilous the path of past life truly was. However, who could have imagined that someone could cross it so effortlessly, as though it were nothing at all?

“Worthy indeed of the successor of Fangchun Mountain,” someone sighed with emotion. “In these past hundred years, his name has shaken the entire Mortal Transformation Zone!”

“What? He’s Lin Xun?” Du Canzhao stood there in a daze. Only then did it dawn on him who had defeated him with a single palm strike. In that instant, all his composure shattered.

Lin Xun had only arrived in the Mortal Transformation Zone in recent years, yet his cultivation had already reached such terrifying heights. Before such talent, how could these old monsters, who had cultivated for endless ages, keep their composure?

......

After passing the Test of Past Life, Lin Xun and Xia Zhi stepped into a hazy, gray world. Primal chaos qi permeated the air, ancient, boundless, and exuding an aura that seemed to predate heaven and earth. Within the swirling haze, streaks of brilliant radiance shimmered faintly, like stars suspended in the depths of chaos.

On closer inspection, they were not light at all, but the figures of mighty beings! They stood scattered across the vast expanse, each radiating an overwhelming dao aura. Before every one of them hovered a great dao world!

The dazzling, multicolored dao light illuminating this gray, primordial expanse all emanated from those great dao worlds before them. It was this radiance that infused the chaos-veiled heavens and earth with streaks of magnificent color.

This was the Test of Dao Building! Anyone who arrived here had to rely on their own cultivation to draw upon the primordial chaos power permeating this realm and forge a great dao world of their own.

Only when the great dao world they built resonated with the primal chaos origin of this realm, transforming into an imprint and fusing into the fabric of this place, could they depart. Having learned of this trial back in the Mortal Transformation Zone, neither Lin Xun nor Xia Zhi showed any surprise. In essence, Dao Building was the act of creating an entire world governed by the laws of the heavenly dao.

What truly stirred Lin Xun’s curiosity was that it was said that when a cultivator passed the Test of Dao Building, the great dao world they forged would not dissipate. Instead, it would be nurtured within the origin power of the Fortune Dominion and eventually manifest as a true cultivation world within a future epochal civilization!

If that were true...it would be nothing short of astonishing.

In the All-Wonder Dominion, a great dao world created by an Immeasurable Realm being could draw upon the origin power of the Fortune Dominion and ultimately become a real world within an epochal civilization. What unfathomable mysteries must lie behind such a transformation?

Lin Xun could not help but wonder whether the cultivation worlds he had once traversed, the Ancient Nebula Road, the Great Thousand Worlds, and the Eternal True Realm, had originally begun as great dao worlds forged by powerful beings during this Test of Dao Building.

Then, he soon shook his head. “No...even if that were true, the great dao worlds forged by those mighty beings created would only be seeds. The true key lies in the nurturing of the origin of Fortune Dominion. Without that nourishment, such a seed could never take root, never sprout, and never break through the earth...”

Lin Xun fell into quiet contemplation. He himself had grasped the Principles of Fortune, and understood the mysteries of its origin. The Fortune Dominion could be said to be the mother nest of epochal civilizations, possessing the power to gestate and bring forth creation.

A great dao world forged by even the most extraordinary cultivator could never directly transform into a true cultivation world within an epochal civilization. What truly astonished Lin Xun was the All-Wonder Dominion itself.

This discovery confirmed a conjecture he had formed many years ago: the four dao dominions were not isolated realms existing independent of one another. There was, without question, some deeper connection binding them together.

Within the Fortune Dominion flowed the river of time. Within the Return Dominion stood the five mountains. Within Kunlun Dominion lay the Sea of Fate. And within the All-Wonder Dominion resided the primal chaos origin.

There must be a profound connection liking the origin powers of the four dao dominions. The power of those cultivators who perished in Kunlun Dominion would ultimately manifest within the core land of the Return Dominion.

Those who crossed the Sea of ​​Fate in the Kunlun Dominion could arrive in the All-Wonder Dominion. The epochal civilizations born from the Fortune Dominion also corresponded, one by one, to the various epochal worlds within the Sea of Fate.

Now, even this Test of Dao Building was linked to the Fortune Dominion, like a seed waiting for the nourishment of soil. All of this unmistakably confirmed the conjectures Lin Xun had formed long ago.

Buzz—

Just as Lin Xun was lost in through, a subtle fluctuation ripple through the primal chaos world, like the tremor of creation itself. In the far distance, a snow-haired old man stroked his beard and laughed, his voice ringing with triumph. “After thirty-three thousand six hundred years...I have finally forged my own great dao world!”

Before him, the world he had constructed burst into dazzling divine radiance. It rose like a newborn star, pierced the gray firmament, and vanished into the deepest reaches of primal chaos.

“Congratulations, Fellow Daoist!”

Voice echoed across the vast expanse. The old man cupped his hands in salute to all directions. In the next instant, his figure dissolved into light and disappeared. He had passed the Test of Dao Building.

Envy flickered across the faces of many mighty beings in the surrounding regions, but they soon suppressed it and turned back to their own great dao world.

Xia Zhi watched the scene and murmured softly, “More than thirty-three thousand years to pass this trial...is it truly that difficult?”

Before Lin Xun could reply, a deep, aged voice drifted over from not far away, “Young lady, whether dao building is difficult depends on the individual. Some, blessed with extraordinary talent, can succeed and break through in less than a century. Others have remained here for hundreds of thousands of years, yet still not close to succeeding.

“The fellow daoist earlier spent only a little thirty-odd thousand years. Among all the cultivators who have attempted the Test of Dao Building since ancient times, that is already considered swift.”

The one who spoke was a young man clad in black robes. Though his appearance was youthful, his tone carried the weight of countless ages. Beside the black-robed youth were several mighty figures. Unlike the others, who were wholly absorbed in forging their dao worlds, these few had been drinking and conversing earlier, and had already taken notice of Lin Xun and Xia Zhi upon their arrival.

“Why are you not seizing the time to build your dao?” Lin Xun asked.

The black-robed youth smiled faintly. “Building one’s dao is no simple matter. Besides, what use is there in haste? In the end, the world one constructs depends entirely upon one’s own strength. There is no need to rush. Most exhaust themselves striving to pass this trial, to cross the nine heavenly gates, and to traverse the Dao Slaying Path to reach the Realm of Myriad Wonders. But for us...we would rather savor the journey along the way.”

The black-robed youth then asked, “And you, Fellow Daoist?”

“Me?” Lin Xun paused briefly, then smiled faintly. “I am not like you all. For me, even pausing to rest is a luxury.”

The black-robed youth nodded slowly, as though he understood at once. “The Immeasurable Realm is said to be a realm of great freedom and boundless ease. But when one truly reaches it, one discovers that there are still many things in this world beyond one’s control. There are burdens of grudges and enmities, the fetters of karma, and the weight of responsibility and duty. Beneath such burdens, stopping to rest is anything but easy.”

Lin Xun smiled. “Fellow Daoist speaks with profound insight.”