Beside the murmuring stream, the boy clutched the small wooden sword in his hand, his gaze fixed upon the white-haired man who descended on a flying sword.

“Your innate talent is excellent. Would you like to come with me?” the white-haired man inquired.

Though young, how could he not see the beckoning landscape beyond the clouds? He was about to agree when a stubborn voice cut through the air, “Take me instead!”

The speaker was his playmate, the very one he had just defeated in their “sword fight.”

The boy knew well his companion’s stubbornness. This “sword fight,” for example, was but one of countless contests. His friend, having lost once before, would relentlessly seek to win back his honor.

*Perhaps we could go together,* the boy mused.

Many details had faded from his memory, but he vividly recalled the white-haired man’s eyes, clear as a mountain stream and vast as the sky.

The white-haired man looked at them both, two inseparable childhood friends, a faint, enigmatic smile playing on his lips.

“I only take one disciple,” the white-haired man stated.

He repeated, “You are both promising, but I will only take one.”

*What to do?* the boy wondered in that instant.

But that was all the time he had, for in the next moment, he was pushed into the river.

*Splash!*

Water exploded upwards.

His friend, the one he had played with since they were barely old enough to wear clothes, a mere child himself, had unhesitatingly pushed him into the water!

Through the rippling waves, he saw his “friend’s” expressionless face, and the white-haired man’s unwavering gaze.

Then, a frost-white sword light soared into the sky.

His companion and the white-haired man were enveloped in that glorious, dazzling radiance, like a bolt from the blue, appearing suddenly and vanishing just as quickly.

Like countless legends of immortals seeking enlightenment, they brushed past the pitiful, mundane lives of mortals.

Leaving behind only unresolved emotions, disbelief, and countless nightmare-ridden nights!

…

Jiang Wang opened his eyes. Pitch-black night enveloped him and everything around him. The dormitory was exceptionally quiet. Ling He and Du Yefu’s breaths were long and rhythmic, following a specific pattern.

Jiang Wang knew they were practicing basic breathing techniques. Though simple and fundamental, these were only taught to inner disciples, the foundational art of the Zhuang Country Dao Academy, unchanged for a century.

The selection of inner disciples at the Maple Forest City Dao Academy held few surprises. Ling He, Du Yefu, and Zhao Rucheng all became new inner disciples, their names inscribed on the jade tablets offered in the ancestral hall.

However, until they manifested their Dao Vessels, they could not be considered true Daoist initiates.

Opening Meridian Pills were incredibly rare and precious. Even the Maple Forest City Dao Academy, supported by the state, could not afford to distribute them freely to every disciple. Those chosen for the inner sect as the most outstanding of the outer disciples would typically spend at least a year accumulating enough merits to qualify for an Opening Meridian Pill.

Each year, the outer disciple with the highest contribution points could exchange them for one Opening Meridian Pill. This was a special incentive offered to the outer disciples. This year, with Jiang Wang’s emergence, no one else could replicate his path.

Even so, Jiang Wang had fought tooth and nail, shedding blood to accumulate enough merits to exchange for the Opening Meridian Pill. And now, within a hundred *li* radius of Maple Forest City, there was no other band of Western Mountain Bandits left to eradicate.

Entering the outer sect of the Dao Academy, diligently cultivating, defeating countless competitors to enter the inner sect, continuing to cultivate diligently while accumulating mission contribution, and finally being rewarded with an Opening Meridian Pill to step into the extraordinary – this was the normal path for cultivators in Zhuang Country, a well-trodden road to success.

However, compared to those born with manifested Dao Vessels, who directly entered the inner sect to begin practicing Daoist arts, these youths who advanced through the outer sect certainly wasted much time.

On the path of cultivation, one step behind meant being behind at every step. This was why Jiang Wang had risked his life to complete missions while in the outer sect, and why Fang Pengju could not suppress his greed. No one wanted to wait so many years!

Thus, Jiang Wang understood Fang Pengju’s eagerness but could not forgive his methods.

Warriors like Ling He or Du Yefu, who were exceptional, certainly possessed no less desire for the extraordinary than Fang Pengju. Yet, they did not resort to such despicable means.

Jiang Wang’s father once said: “A person is defined by their choices.” Jiang Wang deeply agreed.

And he himself had been caught in a difficult choice.

It was well known that cultivators were ranked from one to nine, with one being the highest and nine being considered the beginning of the extraordinary. The sign of achieving the ninth rank was the formation of the Dao Vortex, where Dao Essence spontaneously arose.

Cultivators had accumulated immeasurable history and conducted exceedingly detailed and in-depth research into this first step of the extraordinary.

The spine was regarded as the Great Dragon of the human body, and the Dao Vessel resided within it. After manifesting the Dao Vessel, cultivators could use their Qi and blood to nourish the Dao Vessel, thereby generating Dao Essence. Dao Essence was the foundation of all Daoist arts and the basis of the extraordinary.

Taking Jiang Wang’s Earthworm Vessel as an example, each time he mobilized the “Earthworm,” he needed to mobilize considerable Qi and blood, channeling it through the entire spinal Great Dragon to generate a single Dao Essence. At Jiang Wang’s level, he could, at most, perform meridian charging twice daily, accumulating two Dao Essence. It was not that he wasn’t trying hard enough, but that his body wouldn’t allow it. Excessive consumption of Qi and blood would damage his source and harm his spirit, making it entirely counterproductive.

After accumulating Dao Essence, the next step was to use the spirit to guide the Dao Essence, precisely arranging array nodes according to the foundational array diagram. Once the array was complete, the Dao Vortex would form.

As a cultivator who had already opened his meridian, the Maple Forest City Dao Academy naturally taught him the foundational array diagram: the common Reversion to Origin Array of Zhuang Country, consisting of eighty-one array nodes. In other words, if he could arrange the foundational array diagram without the slightest error, he would need at least forty-one days, almost a month and a half, to truly become a ninth-rank cultivator. (Jiang Wang’s previously accumulated two Dao Essences had been exhausted in battle.)

Before this, Jiang Wang had nothing to worry about, but now, having unexpectedly entered the Illusionary Grand Void Realm and inherited Zuo Guanglie’s Cave Heaven Blessed Land, unlocking the corresponding Sword Debate Platform and Art Demonstration Platform, he faced new troubles.

Yesterday, after obtaining the Reversion to Origin Array Diagram, he poured all 1850 of his merits into deducing the foundational array diagram to test the Art Demonstration Platform’s effect. In the end, he obtained the exceedingly complex Stellar Array Diagram of the Celestial Cycle. The entire foundational array diagram had three hundred and sixty-five array nodes!

Leaving aside the difficulty of arranging the Stellar Array Diagram of the Celestial Cycle, even if he could perfectly replicate the foundational array diagram, it would still take him at least half a year to generate the first Dao Vortex.

And later, to advance from the ninth rank to the eighth rank, he would need to establish three Dao Vortices, and from the eighth rank to the seventh rank, he would need to establish nine Dao Vortices.

Calculated this way, the time was too long!

The Stellar Array Diagram of the Celestial Cycle was undoubtedly stronger than the Reversion to Origin Array, but the long time required for its foundation was precisely what Jiang Wang was hesitating about. He needed to improve his cultivation as quickly as possible to catch up with those cultivators born with manifested Dao Vessels, but time waited for no one.

But after tonight’s awakening from his dream, he had made his choice.

Jiang Wang closed his eyes and activated the only Dao Essence he had generated from charging his meridians yesterday, slowly moving it within his spine. In the vague, perceptual world of controlling the Dao Essence, it was an immeasurably vast, boundless space.

Because the Great Dragon resided here, it was also called the Spinal Sea.

But in the oral tradition of cultivators, it had a more resonant name – the Heavenly Palace!

Penetrating the Heavenly Palace and opening the Gate of Heaven and Earth was the transition from a lower-level cultivator to a middle-level cultivator.

In the boundless Heavenly Palace, a single Dao Essence was as small as a speck of dust. But it did not drift with the tide. Instead, it firmly and stubbornly carried out Jiang Wang’s will, moving, moving, until it finally hovered in the ideal location.

That was the position of the Sun Star in the Stellar Array Diagram of the Celestial Cycle.

As the Dao Essence hovered there, Jiang Wang seemed to see the eyes of the white-haired cultivator from his childhood again.

He would never forget the moment he was pushed into the water.

Those eyes seemed to be saying to him –

“The path of cultivation is a struggle.”