Chapter 2167.4: Seeing Dao

Lu Yun first shook his head, then nodded solemnly.

Situ Yun smiled. “It looks like your reputation of a bumbling prodigal who knows nothing is the furthest thing from the truth.”

“Bumbling? Prodigal? Know nothing? That’s a load of nonsense from other people,” Lu Yun curled his lip. “Brother Situ, you can’t possibly think that a mere Lu Yun could be the downfall of the mighty Lu Clan?”

Situ Yun nodded solemnly without missing a beat.

Lu Yun rolled his eyes and didn’t want to talk to the prince anymore. It was.. true.

....

Night, the Lu residence.

Lan’er was asleep. As he watched her, Lu Yun felt that she reminded him of someone. A name that shouldn’t exist popped into his mind.

Wanfeng.

The name flashed through his thoughts and dissipated upon the night air. Lu Yun was sitting in his yard and thinking over a few things from the day.

“Mo Qiyue is much stronger than Ouyang Shengtian and Situ Yun. His methods are beyond the world of cultivation.” Lu Yun frowned, finding the Mo Clan a bit mysterious.

He was familiar with Situ Yun’s strength because his grandfather had taught the prince. Of crows, he’d further studied the genius prince because he wanted to locate a strong backer for himself.

“The Mos.. I hope you’re not what I think.”

The Lus had enemies and their enemies came from a strong background. His parents had died to those enemies. When Mo Qiyue struck earlier in the day, the energy ripples coming from him had made Lu Yun’s heart sink. It wasn’t the strength that a cultivator from a third rank empire should possess.

Lu Yun was even beginning to suspect that the Mos had something to do with his family’s enemies, or if they’d been infiltrated by the enemy.

“Oh?” His lips curved upward as a large surge of goodwill came from the south. The Seal of the Multitudes exploded with scintillating light, converting the enormous sum of goodwill into Hongmeng true qi. The converted energy surged into the “dao” character of Lu Yun’s dantian.

“I am now peak first turn and a half step away from second turn.. What a pity that I didn’t break through,” Lu Yun exhaled after twenty breaths of time. “Bloodbath has finally truly given his allegiance to me. If goodwill still hadn’t sparked from him after this time, there would be nothing for me to do but kill him and take his head to collect the bounty.”

He stood up and looked to the south.

Goodwill carried the emotions of their originator, enabling Lu Yun to confirm if the other was truly loyal to him or building a relationship under false pretenses.

These methods.. were so similar to the tree of his subconscious.

After robbing the Ouyang trading headquarters earlier in the day, Lu Yun spent the afternoon refining a pill from a large sum of looted ingredients and gave it to Bloodbath.

The elder’s wounds began healing after he took it, which was why he’d generated so much goodwill. He was genuinely thankful to Lu Yun from the bottom of his heart.

If his injuries had taken a turn for the better, but he still wasn’t grateful to the Lu young master, that would mean he was a heartless wretch who could very possibly stab the young man in the back at any time. After all, he’d sworn fealty to Lu Yun, but he was yet to do anything for the young man.

If it was Lu Tianling or Lu Xiaochi in Bloodbath’s position, neither of the two would be grateful to Lu Yun. They were family, so whatever action was taken was only to be expected.

Bloodbath was once a combination powerhouse. The higher the cultivation level, the stronger the goodwill. Just his alone was sufficient to bring Lu Yun to the brink of breaking through.

“It’s up to me to actually ascend.” Lu Yun wasn’t in a hurry to seek out the elder. He knew that his pill was sufficient to reconnect meridians and restore Bloodbath’s freedom of movement. It could even help his true origin operate again, but it couldn’t address the root of his injuries.

A paramount rank spirit stone appeared in Lu Yun’s hand and he slowly closed his eyes. The amount and quality of qi contained within a paramount rank stone was far in excess to an upper rank stone.

Dense qi flooded his body and assimilated into the Hongmeng true qi. The first turn of the Seeing Dao chapter operated furiously, pulling him in a state of zen.

Lu Yun’s mind and heart were free of all thought. An extremely profound ripple grew in all directions and he felt that his mind and body were fully clear.

“Is this dao?” He felt that he was floating in the cosmos and among the brilliant splendor of the stars. In this moment, he seemed to see the dao that countless cultivators and living beings yearned for.

Such was the meaning of the first of the Nine Chapters of Dao—to see dao.

It was an indescribable presence that could not be put into words, as if all of the meaning of life was contained in that paradoxical dao.

Dao was dao, but it was not eternally dao. Lu Yun was proceeding down this path step by step. His ultimate goal was to become heavenly dao. He would cultivate the heavenly dao as a living being, then become the guardian of all existence and battle the will of the nothing.

Thus, he had to forget his past for now and devote himself to becoming dao. He possessed his own daos in the past. He’d mastered the nothing and reincarnation—these were completely different paths with heavenly dao and great dao.

Unexpected consequences would arise if he remembered everything from before, to say nothing of the heavenly dao expelling him.

Rumble!

A radiant star burst in his mind and his eyes shot open. A meter of brilliance shot out, dismissing the illusions in front of him. His Hongmeng qi churned and charged in another direction, setting off a chain reaction that gradually solidified the ethereal energy.

The second turn of Seeing Dao.

Lu Yun remained seated and summoned another paramount rank spirit stone into his hand. His Hongmeng qi circulated furiously as he absorbed energy from the stone.

Hummm!

A ponderous will came from Lu Yun’s mind as five ripples wavered in and out of sight in the five carnival directions. The Connate Great Dao of the Five Elements.

The second heavenly dao combat art of the Seeing Dao chapter had appeared. It differed from the previous Petrification art as the latter came from the character in Lu Yun’s dantian. The Connate Great Dao of the Five Elements came from heaven and earth—a vastly different concept.

Petrification required the user’s own Hongmeng qi as the base and consumed an enormous amount of energy. The Connate Great Dao of the Five Elements, however, required no Hongmeng qi and needed only intent.

The stronger one’s mind was, the greater the power behind this combat art.

Lu Yun suddenly reached toward the south and materialized a dancing red flame in his palm.

“This is connate fire origin,” he murmured to himself. He probed the north and collected a sample of glistening water origin energy. “Another familiar combat art.. I seem to have commanded something like this before. It’s more comfortable to use than that Petrification.”

As he muttered to himself, he knew that this was a combat art once controlled by his sealed memories.

“My cultivation is too weak at the moment. Even though Hongmeng qi isn’t needed for the Connate Great Dao of the Five Elements, I’m still limited in how much connate origin energy I can retrieve.” He dismissed the two samples of connate energy with a clap of his hands.

“But the Connate Great Dao of the Five Elements should be different from the one sealed in my memories. It’s just the same basics. I can borrow the five elements, but I can’t use them in any art.” Lu Yun cocked his head in thought. “And yet, that’s enough. The connate five elements are not to be trifled with. I need to coalesce my nascent soul first before I can use the connate elements as a foundation for some simple arts.”

He regained his cool and sat cross-legged, consolidating his new cultivation level of second turn Seeing Dao.

“I’ve finally established my foundation and can get rid of that restriction for second uncle. But I still need to make some preparations. Establishing the foundations for immortality is a very crucial step of cultivation.” Lu Yun swallowed a pill from his storage ring and grasped in the southern void, summoning a ball of fire origin into his hand.

He slowly refined it, strengthening his spirit root—a fire spirit root.

The cultivators of the world of cultivation were categorized by spirit roots of the five elements. During foundation establishment, they refined the appropriate element to enhance their spirit root. Someone like Lu Yun who refined the connate five elements during his foundation establishment was likely unheard of.

“I wonder how the Ouyangs will respond to me plundering their trading headquarters. The formations and restrictions have been erased and Ouyang Shenghe has turned into an idiot. They won’t dare take any brash action, will they?

“It’s the Yuwens’ turn next tomorrow, even if I fall flat on my face.”

etvolare's Thoughts

So that's what he did to Ouyang Shenghe.