Chapter 197 - 190: Innate Qi
Deep within Xinglin, mottled light and shadow played.
Nan Dou Master lowered his gaze, calmly looking down at the young Daoist before him. The young man stood tall and straight, his face still holding a touch of youthful inexperience.
This was the Secret True Cultivator he had personally chosen, the one in whom he had placed such high hopes.
He had once been the top candidate, the one most likely to achieve Primordial Heaven, but due to sabotage from Black Mountain, he had lost the all-important achievement of the First Certificate.
With his fated opportunity stolen and his path obstructed, anyone else would have found it impossible to accept, even if they didn’t fall into despair.
However, not even Nan Dou Master had expected that this boy, who appeared so reserved and unassuming, would possess a Heaven-Striving Heart at his very core.
To abandon the safe and reliable path of Primordial Heaven and instead turn toward Daluo, a path that had consumed countless geniuses...
He watched Qi Yun in silence, his gaze as deep and still as an ancient well, as if trying to peer through this calm facade and see the restless, fervent Dao Heart hidden within.
Qi Yun felt the weight of that almost tangible gaze but did not shy away. He merely lowered his head slightly, his posture reverent as he awaited his orders.
After a long while, Nan Dou Master made no comment on his choice, offering neither encouragement nor warning. He simply turned around slowly, gave a light wave of the verdant Bamboo Staff in his hand, and spoke in a detached tone:
"Come with me."
"Yes!"
Qi Yun replied with a single word and said no more, dutifully following behind the stooped figure that nevertheless seemed capable of holding up the heavens. His gait was firm and steady.
After passing several gnarled and ancient apricot trees, the scenery before him suddenly opened up.
The gurgling of water grew distinct. A verdant cliff, dozens of feet high, came into view. A waterfall like a silver ribbon cascaded down, feeding a crystal-clear pool below.
However, the waterfall’s stream was not clear and transparent, but instead possessed an ash-grey hue, as if the sediment of eons had settled within it.
As the water churned, a faint and mysterious Dao Rhyme circulated within it, a clear sign that this was no ordinary mountain spring.
"From this day forward, you will cultivate here."
The Bamboo Staff in Nan Dou Master’s hand first pointed toward the waterfall and pool, which glowed with an ash-grey luster. Then, the tip of the staff shifted to one side.
There, a stone stele stood, about the height of a man.
The stele was entirely jet-black and smooth, with no text or patterns carved upon its surface. Yet it naturally exuded a vast and ancient aura, as if it carried the ultimate principles of Heaven and Earth.
"The Foundation Establishment Method for Daluo is on this very stele."
Nan Dou Master’s voice remained as impassive as ever.
"The Venerable Dao Foundation is without peer in this world!
Therefore, the Daluo that each person comes to comprehend is unique.
The experiences of your predecessors are not only useless to you; they could become a hidden danger, shackling and misleading you."
He paused, his gaze sweeping over the jet-black stele.
"What this stele holds is the most primordial, the most authentic version.
Unaugmented, unreduced, unbiased, and true.
Whether you can comprehend it... will depend on your own Creation and ability."
Having explained these crucial matters, Nan Dou Master took one last look at the young Daoist beside him, who was now curiously observing the waterfall, the pool, and the stele.
The ash-grey water reflected in the depths of his calm eyes, and the jet-black stele mirrored in his focused pupils.
Just like the twenty-three geniuses who had come before, who had lingered in this place only to eventually depart in dejection or perish entirely...
’He seemed no different at all.’
Nan Dou Master retracted his gaze and lingered no longer. Holding his Bamboo Staff, he turned with a shuffling gait and slowly vanished into the depths of Xinglin, leaving this piece of Heaven and Earth, a place of both infinite possibility and infinite peril, to Qi Yun alone.
Qi Yun slowly approached the waterfall and pool with their flowing, ash-grey water.
Even before he drew close, he could feel an ancient aura wash over him, an aura from the very dawn of Heaven and Earth.
This aura was pure and primordial. It resonated faintly with the True Qi he had cultivated himself, yet the two were as different as clouds and mud.
His expression tightened, and a flash of astonishment crossed his eyes. He muttered to himself in a low voice,
"This is... Innate Qi?"
The Innate Qi contained in this waterfall and pool was by no means the same concept as the "Innate Qi True Qi" he produced by cultivating the Innate Qi Heart Method.
The True Qi he had so painstakingly cultivated was, in essence, a mere imitation, a counterfeit that only simulated a trace of the Dao Rhyme from the genuine Innate Qi.
It was a "counterfeit" produced through Acquired means.
But what filled this waterfall and pool was the genuine article, the very substance of Innate Qi, birthed from Heaven and Earth itself!
The difference between the two was like that between common dirt on the roadside and immortal metal forged by the Creation of Heaven and Earth. They were completely incomparable, separated by a fundamental chasm.
"Could this be... the Foundation Establishment Object required to build the Daluo?" Qi Yun’s gaze burned as he stared at the ash-grey stream, and he couldn’t help but click his tongue in amazement.
’I knew the Holy Sect had profound resources, but I never imagined they ran this deep!
Such a vast quantity, and of such pure Innate Qi.
If word of this were to leak, it would be enough to drive the entire Northwest Cultivation Realm... no, even the titans from more distant lands, into a frenzy!’
After a moment of awe, he forcibly suppressed the shock in his heart and turned toward the jet-black stele standing to one side.
The stele’s surface was as smooth as a mirror, dark and glossy, reflecting his own figure and the faint glimmer of the waterfall in the distance.
Qi Yun focused his attention, observing it closely. He even sent out his Divine Sense to scan it meticulously, only to find that the stele bore no text or patterns whatsoever.
He couldn’t perceive even the slightest scratch or carving.
It was like a common, unworked stone, born perfectly smooth. It stood there in silence, as if mocking all who came after it, trying to extract some secret from its form.
Qi Yun stood before the stele, hands clasped behind his back, as motionless as a statue.
Time trickled by. The only sound in Xinglin was the ceaseless rush of the waterfall into the pool.
After a long time, he let out a long, slow breath. The exhale created a nearly inaudible whisper of wind in the silent grove.
Gazing at the despairingly smooth surface of the stele, Qi Yun’s lips twisted into a smirk of either resignation or excitement. He whispered softly, as if speaking only to himself:
"Starting out on Hell difficulty, are we?"
’No guidance, no prior experience, even the ’problem’ itself is hidden behind an endless fog.
The only clue is this blank stone stele.’
"Fine, then. Let Qi see just how difficult this legendary Venerable Dao Foundation truly is!"
...
Not rushing to sit down, Qi Yun stood before the stele with his hands clasped behind him, his posture as straight and unyielding as a pine tree.
At first, he simply used his naked eyes.
His gaze was like a blade, scraping across every inch of the stele’s surface, missing no possible subtle indentation or difference in color.
Yet the stele remained as flawless as black jade, reflecting his determined figure and the dancing shadows of the Xinglin grove behind him.
Several hours later, he slowly closed his eyes.
His Divine Sense extended from his Ancestral Acupoint Sea of Consciousness like the gentlest of tendrils, carefully enveloping the entire stone stele.
This time, what he "saw" was no longer its simple physical structure.
Instead, he tried to perceive the "principle" held within, to sense the possible, imperceptible flow of Dao Rhyme.
Time flowed on in the silence. The sun rose and the moon set.
Apricot blossoms bloomed and fell, dusting his shoulders with their faint, clean scent.
His brow would sometimes furrow, then smooth out again.
Within the perception of his Divine Sense, the stele was no longer a featureless "void."
It was as if it had transformed into the "cosmic egg" from the dawn of Heaven and Earth, containing infinite possibilities while also representing absolute stillness.
Occasionally, in that profound silence, a nearly nonexistent "fluctuation" would flicker across his Divine Sense, like a pebble dropped into an ancient well, creating an imperceptible ripple.
But the sensation was fleeting, gone too fast for him to grasp, let alone comprehend.
He tried countless methods.
He tried using his Innate Qi Heart Method to stimulate a reaction, but his True Qi vanished upon approaching the stele as if a clay ox had entered the sea, leaving it completely unmoved.
He visualized the various forms of Magic he had learned, attempting to resonate with the stele, but it remained as indifferent as ever, offering no response.
He even used a sliver of the probing power from the Blood-Drawn Profound Mechanism, only to be met with a piercing pain in his Divine Soul. The stele stood unmoved, but the backlash caused his face to pale for a moment.
It was as if this stele was isolated from all methods in the world, rejecting every known path.
An unknown amount of time passed. Perhaps a day, perhaps a month.
Qi Yun still stood with his eyes closed, but his aura slowly began to change.
He was no longer "scanning" with his Divine Sense. Instead, he allowed it to spread out slowly, like a thin mist, gently blanketing the stele.
In this state of profound concentration, where he had forgotten both himself and the world, in a certain instant—
DONG...
It was not a sound that rang in his ears, but a Dao-tone that seemed to hail from the Primordial Chaos, exploding without warning directly in the depths of his Divine Soul!
Qi Yun’s entire body convulsed, and he snapped his eyes open!
Before him, the surface of the jet-black stele, once as smooth as a mirror, remained utterly unchanged.
But in his "perception," the surface of the stele was now covered with countless, infinitesimally fine, unimaginably complex... Dao-runes, seemingly woven from the very trajectory of the Great Dao itself.
These Dao Traces were not static. They were constantly created and destroyed, flowing and reforming, playing out the evolution of the Great Dao and the rise and fall of the Ten Thousand Laws.
Reflected in Qi Yun’s pupils was this boundless, ever-changing, invisible sea of Dao Traces.
His face instantly turned pale, and fine beads of sweat broke out on his temples.
Merely "viewing" and comprehending this outermost layer of information was nearly enough to rupture his Qi Refining Ninth Layer Divine Soul.
Yet his eyes shone with an unprecedented light—the shock and utter exhilaration of one who has glimpsed a Supreme truth.
’I understand.’
’This primordial version of the Foundation Establishment Method for Daluo was never meant to be "read."’
’It’s meant to be "observed," to be "imprinted"!’
’One must visualize the trajectory of the Great Dao and brand it upon the Divine Soul.’
’Then, using oneself as the paper and the Ten Thousand Laws as the ink...’
’...one must paint, within the framework of that trajectory... their very own Daluo Myriad Skills!’
"So... that’s how it is..."
He murmured to himself, his voice trembling slightly but filled with unshakable resolve.
Without further hesitation, he stabilized his trembling Divine Soul and once again immersed his entire Heart and Spirit into the stele.
His path to attaining the Dao.
Now, it had truly begun.
...