Chapter 306

【After careful observation, your understanding of the spiritual root has deepened.】

【After careful observation, combined with the Dao of Mediating Creation, you discovered the existence of the spiritual root.】

"The spiritual root is this kind of thing?!"

Zhang Taixuan reached out and seized one, and a four-colored lotus flew from the Jin Guang Elder's dantian and landed in his hand.

The four colors were white, green, black, and red, corresponding to the Jin Guang Elder's four spiritual roots: metal, wood, water, and fire.

The four colors rotated slowly, absorbing the surrounding spiritual energy.

Zhang Taixuan was slightly astonished.

In his original hypothesis, the spiritual root should have been merely a talent tied to meridians, soul, or physique—he never imagined that in the mortal world, the spiritual root could manifest as a physical object.

Of course, to manifest as a physical object, one must at least master the Dao of Mediating Creation.

Ordinary people could never observe it, let alone pull it out.

The reality before him overturned his previous hypothesis.

Looking again at the Jin Guang Elder, now that his spiritual root was gone, the spiritual energy within his body suddenly lost its anchor and gushed out uncontrollably; in an instant, his strength vanished entirely, leaving him a mere mortal.

Zhang Taixuan's gaze sharpened; he actively gathered spiritual energy and surrounded the Jin Guang Elder.

Then, using the Devil's Art, he manipulated the Jin Guang Elder to practice his original cultivation method—but when the spiritual energy entered his body, it vanished instantly, like water poured into a bamboo basket.

Zhang Taixuan's mind stirred again; he tried practicing with the Immortal Martial Art instead—yet the result was the same.

"It seems the problem lies with the mortals themselves: without a spiritual root, neither the Immortal Martial Art nor the cultivation path can be practiced."

【After careful observation, you discovered that the spiritual root is a tool of the Dao of Mediating Creation, primarily controlling spiritual energy affinity, attributes, and absorption efficiency—without a spiritual root, celestial spiritual energy cannot remain within the physical body.】

【As for the positive correlation between talent and the spiritual root, the reason is simple—the stronger the spiritual root, the greater the spiritual energy affinity. It is well known that spiritual energy nourishes the soul. Those with strong spiritual roots have their souls nourished daily by spiritual energy, naturally developing higher talent than those with weak roots.】

"But something doesn't add up! If one cannot cultivate without a spiritual root, how did Li Feiyu achieve success in martial cultivation?"

Zhang Taixuan frowned, confused.

He opened the chat group and told Han Paopao to bring over several mortals without spiritual roots.

Han Paopao: "No problem. There are plenty of ruffians here—wait a moment."

Moments later.

Several ruffians were delivered by Han Paopao.

Zhang Taixuan gazed at the group of ruffians, waved his hand to put them all to sleep, then activated the Dao of Mediating Creation and observed closely.

Suddenly, he reached out and seized one.

The next instant, a phantom five-colored lotus rose from each of them and landed in his hand.

"They all have spiritual roots?"

"No, this can't be the spiritual root. Spiritual roots are one in ten thousand—how absurd would it be if Han Paopao could randomly grab a few ruffians and find several spiritual root possessors?"

As he pondered, Zhang Taixuan used the Heavenly Demon Art to manipulate the ruffians to practice their methods, running various experiments.

Eventually, he discovered that when the ruffians lost the phantom five-colored lotus, they could no longer practice the Immortal Martial Art.

When he returned the phantom five-colored lotus, they could once again practice the Immortal Martial Art.

But the cultivation path still didn't work—not because they couldn't absorb any spiritual energy at all, but because their absorption efficiency was abysmally low.

At that efficiency, even a hundred years of cultivation wouldn't get them into Qi Refining Stage One.

【After careful observation, you discovered that spiritual roots are universally present in the bodies of mortal-world beings; beyond the obvious types like Heavenly Spiritual Roots and Dual Spiritual Roots, you uncovered the existence of Hidden Spiritual Roots.】

Hidden Spiritual Root: A widely present spiritual root with limited function, akin to a recessive gene (acei)—its effect on cultivation is nearly negligible, but it permits practice of the Immortal Martial Art.

【After careful calculation, combined with the characteristics of spiritual roots, you discovered that the spiritual root is the heavens' mechanism to limit the number of cultivators: visible spiritual roots permit cultivation; hidden spiritual roots do not.】

【The world can consume and convert chaotic energy into spiritual energy, but this conversion efficiency has an upper limit. In ancient times, when spiritual energy was abundant, the Dao imposed no restrictions, and all beings could cultivate.】

【But as the number of Gao Jie cultivators increased, the world's ability to convert spiritual energy could no longer keep pace. Without limits, the world would inevitably face spiritual energy depletion and civilizational collapse. It was at this point that the spiritual root appeared!】

【With the spiritual root as a limit, the Dao could control the number of cultivators, maintaining a relative balance between the world's spiritual energy output and the number of cultivators—allowing the cultivation civilization to flourish while keeping celestial spiritual energy above a certain threshold.】

"But why can the Immortal Martial Art absorb spiritual energy so freely?" Zhang Taixuan wondered. "I can't possibly be so powerful that even the pinnacle of the Grand World bends to me."

Maintaining spiritual energy at a certain level is critical to the development of mortal-world civilization.

This is the lifeline of a Grand World.

He didn't believe he had such influence that the Grand World would sacrifice its survival for him.

Combining cause and effect, carefully calculating the heavenly patterns, he soon reached a conclusion.

"The mortal-world Dao hasn't concealed this heavenly secret at all!!!"

After his calculations, Zhang Taixuan was stunned.

Isn't this supposed to be a cosmic secret?!

【The emergence of the Immortal Martial Art is also a mechanism to balance the heavens. As the Immortal Martial Art rises, the cultivation sects and myriad races will not stand idly by—eventually, the myriad races will wage war, further reducing the number of high-level cultivators and myriad race elites, greatly benefiting the heavens' maintenance of spiritual energy.】

【Moreover, the strength of the Immortal Martial Art will hone the cultivation civilization, pushing it to even greater heights. This benefits the mortal world.】

"The Dao intends for the Immortal Martial Art to act as a blade, further reducing high-level cultivators and honing the cultivation path. This is an open strategy—any doctrine that rises will compete for resources, influence, and heavenly authority, and will inevitably fight. This is why the heavens do not conceal this heavenly secret!"

This also explains why martial cultivators in the mortal world cannot reverse their primordial state and enter the cultivation path.

Simply put, mortal-world martial arts are not strong enough to qualify as the Dao's blade—they lack the right to absorb spiritual energy on a large scale.

【After careful calculation, you discovered that heavenly tribulation and the rise of the myriad races are also the Dao's blades.】

Heavenly tribulation: In the mortal world, heavenly tribulation is brutal—just look at how, over a million years in a spiritual realm, only two beings ascended, one of whom was the cheat Han Paopao.

You can see just how cruel this heavenly tribulation is.

Myriad races: The myriad races are extremely powerful, a sharp blade limiting human development.

And human strength is a sharp blade limiting the myriad races.

One could say the conflict between humans and the myriad races is manipulated from behind by the Dao.

No, "manipulated" isn't quite accurate.

Because the Dao of Heaven merely strengthened the Ten Thousand Races slightly.

Once the Ten Thousand Races grew stronger, they naturally would not sit idly by while the Human Race grew powerful; competing for resources, they would inevitably clash… and then, the Dao of Heaven's goal of reducing high-tier cultivators and conserving spiritual energy would be achieved.

Heavenly tribulation, the Ten Thousand Races, and spiritual roots—these are the three trump cards the Dao of Heaven played to pursue sustainable spiritual energy development.

Now, there is one more card—Tai Xuan Immortal Martial Dao.

"No wonder the Dao of Heaven allowed me to establish a lineage in the mortal world—with rights but no obligations. So this is where it was waiting for me," Zhang Taixuan sweated profusely.

The Dao of Heaven is indeed formidable; had he not been cautious, he might have stepped into it without even realizing.

"This scheme looks suspiciously like the script of the Lord of Tongtian."

With one flash of insight, all his past doubts cleared up: "First, you spread the Great Dao widely; then, the divine slaughter—everything vanishes into smoke!"

"Was the Divine Ascension not born from this? On the surface, it appears to be a struggle over lineages, but in truth, it may be Hong Jun's hidden effort toward sustainable spiritual energy development."

The Primordial Chaos is vast, with limitless spiritual energy.

But the Primordial Chaos had too many powerful beings.

At its peak, Jin Xian were as common as dogs, Great Arhats walked everywhere, and only True Saints could tremble with power.

This situation placed an enormous burden on the Primordial Chaos.

"No wonder the Two Western Saints became the ultimate victors of the Divine Ascension—the Western Sect most revered the path of faith and incense. The so-called 'incense refining Golden Body' was invented by this sect."

"Not touching the heavenly and earthly spiritual energy, Hong Jun naturally opened the gates wide—do whatever you want."

"As for his own direct disciples suffering a little? Hehe—before the authority of heaven and earth, not even direct disciples, but even one's own son could be cut down!"

He opened the chat group and posted his revelations.

Han Paopao: "I'm numb. No wonder my ascension here is so difficult—it's due to heavenly restrictions. Three trump cards, now with a fourth—danger has intensified."

Su Xiao: "That doesn't make sense. If heaven and earth can limit the number of cultivators with spiritual roots, why use heavenly tribulation, the Ten Thousand Races, and Tai Xuan Immortal Martial Dao as knives? One spiritual root alone could completely cap the number of cultivators."

Ye Hei: "That sounds somewhat reasonable, but I still feel something's off about your claim! 【Scratching head】"

Hu Yifei: "Competition. Without competition, how can civilization develop?"

Zhang Taixuan: "Yifei sees clearly. Indeed, limiting the number of cultivators isn't the goal—it's a means. The ultimate goal is to maintain the prosperity of the cultivation civilization."

Zhang Taixuan: "For a civilization to flourish, competition is essential. Otherwise, if you simply capped the world to only a few cultivators, spiritual energy would be conserved—but civilization would stagnate, even regress. The purpose of conserving spiritual energy is to sustain civilization; if such restrictions destroy civilization instead, isn't that putting the cart before the horse?"

Ye Hei: "After the Dao Jun and Professor Hu spoke, I finally saw the flaw in Su Xiao's argument. Civilization—what matters most to the world is civilization. All these restrictions on cultivators aren't meant to exterminate it, but to use competition to elevate the cultivation civilization to a higher level."

Yuki Yukino: "In modern society, many industries impose restrictions without outright bans. So restrictions are truly meant for sustainable development!"

Su Xiao: "【Hehe】 I clearly missed the key point again."

Zhang Sanfeng: "They say the Dao of Heaven is heartless—truly, it is. To ensure civilization's prosperity, it turns heaven and earth into a chessboard and all living beings into chess pieces. Who knows how many lives will be lost?"

Lin Fengjiao: "Sigh. As a human, seeing through the logic behind the Dao of Heaven is truly terrifying."

Ying Zheng: "Indeed terrifying. I never imagined even the Dao Jun nearly became the Dao of Heaven's blade."

Huang Rong: "Husband, what will you do? Will you restrict the Immortal Martial heritage in that world, or face the challenge head-on?"