Chapter 397: From Nothing to Something

"Passed?"

Lin Chuan was surprised.

"Strange little child, you have a special aura, and your Immortal Soul bears many differences."

"Perhaps this inheritance of mine suits you well."

"Take it."

"I understand, even if you ultimately make that choice, you are not one who would bring calamity to the world."

An ancient voice echoed through the trial ground.

Lin Chuan smiled; he hadn't expected this trial ground to be so humane.

"Thank you, senior."

Lin Chuan lifted the ancient book, "Senior, rest assured; now that I've received the inheritance and accepted this Karma, the junior will certainly make it work."

"At least keep this inheritance from fading."

After putting away the ancient book, Lin Chuan bowed with clasped hands.

A new passage opened ahead.

Lin Chuan stepped inside.

At the end of the passage lay darkness; nothing existed, spiritual energy was gone, no light could be felt, and the Dao of Heaven and Earth had vanished.

Only occasional sounds rang in Lin Chuan's mind.

"Mediating Creation, transcending the principles of Heaven and Earth, creating something from nothing, evolving all things."

"…"

The Mediating Creation method is the first gate of the Thirty‑six Tian Gang Methods.

Lin Chuan had once grasped this move in Bai Li Ming's hand; if not for his uniqueness, he would have been defeated by it.

The Burial Spirit Domain, which none of his peers could penetrate, was his signature domain.

All were shattered by Mediating Creation.

It was then that he experienced what it means to transcend the principles of Heaven and Earth, to create something from nothing, and to evolve all things.

But his understanding of these was still far insufficient.

"So I must sit here, comprehend Mediating Creation, comprehend from nothing to something?"

Lin Chuan remained calm.

But he also deeply realized how difficult this matter was.

"From nothing to something."

Lin Chuan sighed, "The difficulty…"

If forced to draw an analogy.

What Lin Chuan could think of was the scene in the Ancient God Absolute Realm where the Human Ancestor created the Human Race.

Of course, he was far from needing to reach that step.

He only needed to grasp Mediating Creation and leave here; at minimum, he must understand the simplest profound truth and know how to achieve from nothing to something.

What followed was endless attempts.

Here, Lin Chuan could not sense the passage of time; fortunately, he had grown accustomed to this solitude, and another person would likely have been driven mad.

"No wonder throughout ages, few have ever comprehended Mediating Creation; the difficulty is too great."

"From nothing to something?"

"Is it truly from absolute nothing to something?"

Lin Chuan thought the phrase was not an absolute 'from nothing to something'; even in this environment, he could not perceive the Dao of Heaven and Earth nor any existence of things,

yet this particular environment itself was 'existent'.

When the Chaos Universe first opened, it was also called from nothing to something.

"From nothing to something should be relative; the so‑called nothing refers to what I cannot sense."

"If one can capture this nothing and reflect it into reality, it breaks the principles of Heaven and Earth, penetrates all things, and that is Mediating Creation."

Lin Chuan began to settle his thoughts.

To comprehend this nothing and how to turn it into something was destined to be a long process.

"Activate Dream‑realm Training Space."

Just the comprehension would have the same effect within the Dream‑realm Training Space.

【You entered the Dream‑realm Training Space once again.】

【This time, you did not refine your soul, but pursued the ethereal void of the universe.】

【Year one, you gained nothing.】

【Year two, the same.】

【The first ten years, you passed through unruffled solitude.】

【Another ten years, you grasped something, but soon realized the direction was wrong.】

【Year twenty‑one, you changed your approach and began to comprehend in another direction.】

【Year thirty, you found the path you were on was still wrong.】

【Year thirty‑one, you switched your approach again.】

【Repeated attempts, time flew, a hundred years passed in a blink, and you seemed to catch a spark of insight.】

【You began to follow that spark's Guidance, moving forward constantly.】

【This pursuit lasted a hundred years.】

【You cannot perceive the existence of the Dao, you have grown used to its absence, yet you vaguely sense that besides the Dao, another thing exists.】

That is something that transcends the principles of Heaven and Earth, something beyond Daoism.

If you capture it, you will be able to comprehend the true meaning of mediating Creation.

You continue the pursuit.

Until the five‑hundredth year, you sensed its existence, or rather, it had always been there, but you only now perceived it.

Between you and it remains only a thin barrier; break through it, and it will be within reach.

You are missing only a sliver of inspiration.

You realize that in the realm of souls, you are never a complete being; to grasp the process from nothing to something, you must return to the Chaos Universe.

In the five‑hundred‑and‑first year, you left the dream cultivation space.

Returning to the real world, five hundred years of soul insight converge at this moment, Lin Chuan gains a brand‑new understanding of mediating Creation.

"Great Path fifty, Heaven's Extension forty‑nine, Humans one that escapes."

The sentence surfaces in Lin Chuan's mind.

During the pinnacle era of the Human Race, this sentence became the pursuit of countless cultivators and beings; humans were praised as the Great Path Form.

Why do cultivators of all races in the world all seek to become human‑shaped?

Because they believe that only the human form can align with the Great Path, allowing them to ascend to the summit in the future and transcend beyond the Great Path.

Only the "one that disappears" can in the future be free from the Great Path's constraints.

Beyond humans, all are the forty‑nine beneath the Great Path, destined never to become the strongest between Heaven and Earth.

Such a theory spreads widely between Heaven and Earth; the Human Race is the Heaven's Mandate.

But at this moment, Lin Chuan feels that the one that disappears may not be a human; perhaps it could be something else.

The Chaos Universe is boundless, and Shikong changes endlessly.

All races and beings are insignificant before the Chaos Universe and the endless river of Shikong.

If humans truly are the Heaven's Mandate, they should have been the masters from the start, not suppressed for such long ages before they could rise.

Before humans, did the Dragon, Phoenix, Qilin and other races not also claim to be the Heaven's Mandate?

The one that disappears should be that elusive destiny.

Only by aligning with destiny can one become that which transcends beyond Daoism; perhaps the birth and rise of the Human Race is the process from nothing to something.

The spark of insight in Lin Chuan's mind grows brighter.

"I understand."

Lin Chuan's eyes flash, and in an instant he grasps the one that disappears, that thread of ever‑changing destiny.

Even if it is only a moment.

But this moment already completes the process from nothing to something.

Lin Chuan can clearly feel that within this void environment, an extra wisp of spirit energy has appeared.

"Success."

Lin Chuan, delighted, sees his surroundings shift again, and the same ancient tome appears before him.

It is the formula of the Daoist Tian Gang Thirty‑six Methods First Gate.

Mediating Creation Method!