Chapter 60: Heaven-Earth Root, Primordial Source Qi, Distracting Thoughts Arise Again

Seeing the Xuanhuang Shanhai Diagram smoothly merge into the world's radiance, Chen Daoxuan gave a slight nod.

Eyes slightly closed, he took control of the Void True Realm—akin to his second flesh Dharma Body—and of Yuanling Realm, this Returning to Void Dao Field.

Chen Daoxuan began his first cultivation at the Returning to Void Stage.

……

He circulated the Returning to Void cultivation method he had comprehended from the Yin-Yang Great Transformation Immortal Scripture—the Yin-Yang Chaotic Cavern Fusion Art.

Relying on Yuanling Realm, this Returning to Void Dao Field, his flesh Dharma Body, his Great Dao Primordial Spirit, and those one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred Void Apertures, all vibrated in a peculiar, orderly manner as the Yin-Yang Great Dao flowed through them.

And amid this vibration of the Void Apertures, connecting above to Yuanling Realm and below to the Void True Realm, merged as one cavern, there was a certain resonance in the unseen.

One month later.

"Crack!" Suddenly, within the Void True Realm, it was as if an invisible, formless, mysterious passage had been pierced open, and a wisp of Yin-Yang spiritual mechanism surged forth from within.

Thereafter, this spot was as if a Yin-Yang spring eye had been born, and Yin-Yang spiritual mechanism began to emerge continuously without cease.

Seeing this, Chen Daoxuan rejoiced slightly in his heart. This mysterious passage was the 【Heaven-Earth Root】, also known as the 【Primordial Source Qi】.

In Heaven and Earth, it is the 【Heaven-Earth Root】.

In living beings, it is the 【Primordial Source Qi】.

This is the foundation of all the myriad realms of the cosmos.

Including those endless void cosmoses where the Three Thousand Great Daos are faint and chaotic and disordered.

From the great realms above down to the Mortal Realm, from the endless void cosmoses down to the smallest, all possess these Heaven-Earth Roots.

It can be said that only with the Heaven-Earth Root do worlds exist, and only with it does this spacetime realm that bears the endless void come into being.

The Heaven-Earth Root born within the Void True Realm caused Yin-Yang spiritual mechanism to gush forth like a spring.

First it merged into the Void True Realm, circulated through it once, and after a slight baptism of the Void True Realm, it flowed out from within the True Realm and spread throughout Yuanling Realm.

With this change, Chen Daoxuan could clearly sense that, though incomprehensibly faint, it had begun to return to Heaven and Earth, to return to this spacetime realm.

……

At the same time.

In Chen Daoxuan's flesh Dharma Body and Great Dao Primordial Spirit, a single Void Aperture likewise simultaneously birthed a Heaven-Earth Root—that is, a wisp of Yin-Yang Primordial Source Qi.

And it directly merged with the Void Aperture.

In an instant, pure and flawless Yin-Yang spiritual mechanism emerged endlessly within this Void Aperture, merging into flesh body and Primordial Spirit, naturally increasing his cultivation realm.

The three sub-stages of Returning to Void: Peering into Void, Refining Void, Dissolving Void.

The birth of this wisp of Yin-Yang Primordial Source Qi and its merging with the Void Aperture signified that Chen Daoxuan had formally entered the Peering into Void sub-stage.

……

In a flash of thought.

The Heaven-Earth Root within the Void True Realm, under Chen Daoxuan's control, merged with Yuanling Realm.

Immediately.

The speed at which this Heaven-Earth Root birthed Yin-Yang spiritual mechanism increased explosively.

Tenfold, hundredfold, thousandfold……

In an instant, it directly skyrocketed a Myriad-Myriad-fold—that is, a hundred millionfold.

And this also signified that the speed at which Chen Daoxuan returned to Heaven and Earth had skyrocketed a hundred millionfold.

Moreover, this seemed not yet to have reached its limit, and was still slowly increasing.

Faced with such a situation, even though Chen Daoxuan had long been mentally prepared, he was still shaken by the augmentation provided by Yuanling Realm, this Returning to Void Dao Field.

Because even a Void True Realm at the extreme limit of Myriad-Myriad Zhang, having refined the finest Heaven-Grade Cave Heaven of the great realms into a Returning to Void Dao Field, could only increase the return speed by ten thousandfold.

An ordinary Returning to Void practitioner generally achieved a hundredfold.

Yet his was directly a hundred millionfold, and still not at its limit.

Chen Daoxuan understood that the reason he possessed such a Heaven-and-Earth-returning speed was that he had completely transformed Yuanling Realm, this Xiao Lingjie, into a Returning to Void Dao Field.

Under normal circumstances, even a Void True Realm at the extreme limit of Myriad-Myriad Zhang would only be some six hundred thousand li or so. It would be utterly impossible to transform the entirety of Yuanling Realm into a Returning to Void Dao Field.

Chen Daoxuan calculated briefly—at this return speed.

He would still need a hundred million years to complete the return.

At this, Chen Daoxuan nodded in satisfaction.

Right now there was only one Heaven-Earth Root. Once, taking the one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundred Void Apertures of his flesh body and Primordial Spirit as the foundation, he opened up and birthed the same number of Heaven-Earth Roots within the Void True Realm.

When that time came, his current hundred-million-year return time would be shortened by more than one hundred twenty-nine thousand six hundredfold—that is, to less than a thousand years.

……

Thoughts flowing, Chen Daoxuan continued to circulate the Yin-Yang Chaotic Cavern Fusion Art.

Thereafter, for every additional month of cultivation, the Void True Realm would birth one additional Heaven-Earth Root.

His flesh body and Primordial Spirit would gain one additional Void Aperture that birthed and merged with a wisp of Primordial Source Qi.

A year's time slipped by in a flash.

With the twelfth month, twelve Heaven-Earth Roots were birthed at once within the Void True Realm, bringing the total to seventy-eight Heaven-Earth Roots. Under the augmentation of Yuanling Realm, they birthed vast, boundless Yin-Yang spiritual mechanism, returning to Heaven and Earth.

In his flesh body and Primordial Spirit, twelve Void Apertures were birthed and merged with Primordial Source Qi, bringing the total to seventy-eight Void Apertures merged with Primordial Source Qi.

Sensing an unseen rejection that hindered his cultivation, Chen Daoxuan only then withdrew from his cultivation.

"For now I can only sustain one year of cyclical change!"

One xun (ten days), one month, one season, one year, three years, twelve years, half a jiazi cycle.

These are the seven layers of cyclical change in cultivation at the Returning to Void Stage.

The longer a single cultivation session, the better its effect.

……

He stopped cultivating.

He sensed the mysterious rejection that would take at least several years to fully dissipate.

He thought that there were only a few decades left until Junior Disciple Zhang Mingye's Dao Lu ceremony.

Wealth and rank not returned to one's hometown are like wearing brocade robes in the night.

Chen Daoxuan prepared to communicate with the Kunlun Mirror and return to the Great Universe to wrap up his mission. Before attending Junior Disciple Zhang's Dao Lu ceremony, he would first gather with the senior and junior disciples of the same lineage he had not contacted for over a thousand years, as well as those old friends, to catch up and renew their bonds.

The identities of Secret Inheritance Disciple and Reserve Dao Child must not be revealed, but the identity of Lineage Master of the Guiyuan Lineage could be displayed!

……

Just as he was about to communicate with the Kunlun Mirror, a stray thought surfaced from deep within his heart. "No rush, I'll cultivate a while longer before deciding!"

In an instant, the look of anticipation on Chen Daoxuan's face froze.

He stood still on the spot, carefully savoring this stray thought that had risen from the depths of his heart.

And he recalled the stray thought that had changed his mind nearly twenty years ago, when he had just slain the last Dao Thought Body and was preparing to wrap up the mission and leave the Xuanwu Mie Xian Zhen.

"Something's off. Could this be a spiritual premonition!"

He was no mere mortal; he would not lose control of his heart and let his thoughts run wild.

Under normal circumstances, when his state of mind was not undergoing any major change, unless his heart was clouded by dust, only his true nature would guide him — following his original heart — and not a single stray thought would arise.

Yet in the short span of nearly twenty years, with no danger whatsoever, he had twice experienced stray thoughts rising in his heart precisely when he was about to act in accordance with his true nature.

As his thoughts flowed, Chen Daoxuan recalled the various records in the Shanhai Immortal Sect concerning premonitions in living beings.

The various premonitions of living beings were not limited to sudden inspirations, sensing crises, or touching the workings of heaven.

There were also spiritual premonitions like the two stray thoughts he had experienced — unfelt and unheard, yet with a subtle stirring of the heart that altered one's choice, thereby weakening or even averting certain crises.

And according to the records, the appearance of such a spiritual premonition was generally an omen of some enormous crisis that had not yet begun but would be difficult to change or prevent.