Chapter 265: The Path of Devouring

Gu Yuan fell silent for a moment.

He did not deny it.

In the battle to relocate Sanqian Zhou, he, with his Tenth Realm cultivation, forcibly stirred the world will of over forty major states, and using 【Borrow False Cultivation】 he borrowed his grandfather's half-step Giant attack, blasting the top-tier Immortal King Li Hentian away with a single palm.

He had repeatedly borrowed Immortal King-level power and endured the consciousness of the major states.

He felt his soul's strength increase to an extraordinarily terrifying degree.

But after a year of secluded cultivation... his cultivation remained at the Tenth Realm Void God.

It wasn't due to insufficient spirit energy, lack of resources, or limited talent.

It was the realm itself that would not advance any further.

During that year of seclusion, he repeatedly deduced and discovered a phenomenon that defied common sense.

His dantian world continued to expand, the World Tree kept growing, the Chaos Singularity operated stably, and the perfect world prototype within him—formed from the remnants of the Immortal Realm's origin, Chaos Spirit Stone fragments, and the Heart of the Myriad Medicines Realm—was constantly becoming more perfect.

But the barrier of the Tenth Realm and the threshold of the Eleventh were, to him, not a wall but a blank expanse.

He could not find where that wall was.

With no wall at all, how could he break through?

"Do you know where your problem lies?" Gu Cangsheng asked.

"I don't know." Gu Yuan answered honestly.

"Come on, follow me."

…

Grandfather and grandson arrived at the rear mountain.

Behind the mountain there was a bamboo grove, Gu Cangsheng's favorite place to stay.

In the center of the bamboo grove lay a flat blue stone; Gu Cangsheng plopped down on it, pulled out a handful of melon seeds from his bosom, and began to crack them.

"Sit."

Gu Yuan sat on the stone opposite him.

"Show me the world inside you."

Gu Yuan nodded, activated his dantian, and projected the full appearance of the inner world prototype.

A miniature world floated between the two of them.

Mountains, rivers, cloud seas, stars... all five viscera were present.

The Xirang continent stretched boundlessly, spirit energy condensed into liquid lakes, the World Tree took root at the continent's center, its trunk and branches like heavenly pillars supporting the firmament, and seven-colored rosy light showered down in all directions.

The Chaos Singularity rotated silently at the World Tree's roots, with each inhalation and exhalation the forces of creation and destruction maintained an exquisite balance.

Gu Cangsheng ate two melon seeds, leaned in, and took a look.

"Wow."

The old man's tone drew out slowly.

"Not bad. Last time I saw it, it was only the size of a palm." He gestured, "How many li in radius must it be now?"

"Three thousand two hundred thirteen li."

Gu Yuan gave an exact number.

"And the Dao?"

"All Three Thousand Dao have been introduced, but they are only at the level from Supreme to Heavenly Emperor; among them, Alchemy Dao and Formation Dao have reached True Immortal. The world's Dao system is initially self-consistent, capable of operating on its own to give rise to all living beings."

"Mm-hmm."

Gu Cangsheng nodded, tossed the melon seed shells onto the ground, and said, "Do you know what your world lacks?"

Gu Yuan frowned slightly. "What does it lack?"

"It lacks a master."

Gu Yuan startled.

"Am I not the master?"

"Not that kind of master." Gu Cangsheng, with a finger stained with melon seed fragments, pointed at the center of the world projection.

The top of the World Tree.

"Your world has mountains and rivers, Dao, and the prototype of living beings, but as its creator and sole sovereign, your 'self' has not merged into it."

He lifted his gaze to Gu Yuan.

"You have always treated this world as a cultivation tool. You absorb origin to strengthen it, use the World Tree to sort the Dao, borrow the Chaos Singularity to transmute energy; it serves you, you feed it, and your relationship is that of host and instrument."

Gu Cangsheng raised a finger, his expression rarely turning solemn.

"You need to plant your 'self' into it."

Gu Yuan furrowed his brows, digesting those words.

"Plant it in?"

"Hasn't he already planted the World Tree in his dantian?"

"Not a tree."

Gu Cangsheng shook his head,

"It is your Dao. Your cognition, your complete understanding of heaven and earth, your true comprehension of the Three Thousand Dao—is it really yours? All the paths you have walked from birth to death, all the choices you have made, all the things you have believed in—these constitute 'you'."

"Turn this 'you' into the heavenly Dao of this world."

"When you reach that step, you are no longer cultivating within the world; you are the world itself."

The bamboo grove fell silent for a long time.

Wind passed over the bamboo tips, making a rustling sound.

Gu Yuan slowly worked out a thread.

He recalled every step he had taken on this journey.

First realm condenses a million divine radiance; second realm opens 360 apertures, seizing the creation of heaven and earth; third realm, the apertures unite into one.

Fourth realm condenses True Immortal spirit; fifth realm forges Immortal King bones; sixth realm contemplates the Three Thousand Dao; seventh realm ignites myriad Dao lamps; eighth realm borrows longevity; ninth realm refines a lesser immortal domain as territory; tenth realm forges a half-step Immortal King soul.

Every step is about taking outward.

Take from heaven and earth, take from the system, take from enemies, take from the world.

The things taken pile up inside the body, the more piled, the more numerous, the more mixed, the dantian world grows ever larger—

But what about the core?

What is the core of this world?

Is it the chaos singularity?

No.

That is merely an energy source.

Or the World Tree?

No.

That is merely a tool for sorting out the laws.

The core—should be him.

"Grandfather's meaning is that I must make myself become... the Heavenly Dao of this world?"

"Close, but you also don't need to become the Heavenly Dao."

Gu Yuan was confused by his grandfather's words.

One moment he says to 'plant' it in, the next he says you don't need to become the Heavenly Dao.

What exactly does this mean?

Gu Cangsheng spat out the melon seed husk from his mouth and slowly explained: "What I mean is that what lies before you is actually two paths."

"The first path is a shortcut. If you choose the shortcut, you forcibly implant your own self into it, completely replacing the nascent will of this world. Once implanted, you can instantly command all the power of this continent within your body as easily as moving your limbs. The larger the world evolves, the stronger your power becomes. But if you take this path, your Dao will become pure devouring."

Gu Yuan understood.

This path.

It has pros and cons.

The advantage is rapid growth.

Just let the world devour and it's done.

Whether it's the Profound Heaven Continent, the Twilight Divine Realm, or even just a tiny planet.

All can be devoured.

Nourish the inner world.

And the larger the world, the more perfected its rules, the stronger the power one can wield.

When the world can grow to be as vast as the Primeval Immortal Realm...

Then his realm... might have far surpassed the Immortal King stage.

And the drawbacks are equally obvious.

Born for devouring, perhaps also to perish by devouring.

Once the world reaches its bottleneck, it becomes his bottleneck as well.

Moreover, when that time comes.

Because the inner world will be deeply bound to him.

To break free of this binding is almost indistinguishable from rebirth.

Gu Yuan gazed at the miniature world projection: "What about the other path then?"