Chapter 843: The Path of Cultivation

Yan Buji tightened his grip on the Murderer's Sword and took his first step toward the north. The lapis flame on the blade intertwined with the deep blue glow of his left eye, casting a strange shadow on the snowfield.

The shadow sometimes resembled a human, sometimes a deer, and occasionally shifted into some older form.

As he moved forward, Yan Buji found his memories slipping away.

He remembered he needed to find Bei Chuan's Zhenbing, yet couldn't recall why; he recalled the third pattern on the sword's hilt was important, but forgot why. Only Jian Fan's face grew clearer—the ever‑mischievous girl whose eye corners bore the same golden mark as his.

"Is this the price?" Yan Buji forced a bitter smile and wiped away his nosebleed. The Murderer's Sword suddenly emitted a clear deer call, and its tip automatically pointed somewhere.

Beyond the blizzard, a faint ice‑blue pillar of light pierced the heavens and earth.

"Is that the entrance to the Youming Jie?"

Yan Buji's pupils contracted.

He suddenly understood something, pulled the bronze bell he always carried from his chest. He had obtained it from an ancient tomb years ago; its tongue was long rusted and broken. Now, under the sword's radiance, tiny script appeared on the bell's inner wall:

"When a vessel bears twin forces, the Youming Zhenbing will turn to tears."

Yan Buji burst into laughter, his mirth scattering the few remaining cold crows on the snow plain.

All the clues finally linked together; the Heavenly Demon King sought not the Murderer's Sword itself, but a vessel that could contain both the aberrant Dao Mark and the Minglu bloodline.

And Jian Fan, that seemingly aloof girl, had planted the seed of reversal three thousand years ago.

"Now I'm truly a pawn," Yan Buji laughed helplessly.

In the wind and snow, the bronze‑colored figure receded. The sword's radiance and his left eye's deep blue flickered alternately, leaving a trail of glowing footprints across the desolate snowfield.

The footprints sometimes resembled human steps, sometimes deer hooves, and eventually vanished deep within the northern blizzard.

The Sect Master of Xuanmen, Chu Shanhe, arrived before the mountain gate of Fa Tian Sect. He made no grand entrance, merely taking a side path, crossing a Nine‑turn Immortal Array, and reaching a spot on the mid‑mountain.

Looking at the thatched cottage built on the mid‑mountain, Chu Shanhe inhaled, bowed, and said, "Xuanmen disciple Chu Shanhe, I pay respects to the founder."

"What are you doing here? You have to bring Huan Zhen over, right?" an old woman's voice came, sounding extremely displeased.

Chu Shanhe's face twitched; his posture grew even more deferential as he said, "Disciple acknowledges the mistake, but now the Eight Dao realms have all settlements and buildings destroyed. Our human Qi fortune merges with Heaven and Earth, and part of the Martial Dao Qi fortune has been allocated elsewhere; I fear the future…"

"What does this have to do with me?" the old woman stormed out, leaning on a dragon‑head cane, glaring at Chu Shanhe: "If you damn well bring Huan Zhen over, I'll get a beating!!"

Chu Shanhe: "......"

Even the saints of Xuanmen cannot defeat Huan Zhen Daozhang; it seems the saints of the other three Dao are also…

Although Chu Shanhe vaguely sensed this, he did not expect reality to be so helpless.

Chu Shanhe fell to his knees with a thud and asked, "Founder, Nan Ting has suppressed human Qi fortune for tens of thousands of years; after great effort it finally stabilized. Now, with the human‑demon races' war likely to sweep the five realms from Zhong Tian Zhi Yu, what should we do?"

"What good is asking me?!" the old woman snapped, "If I dare go out, will those beasts be allowed to commit crimes?"

Your words are indeed quite self‑righteous.

"Because Huan Zhen Daozhang spoke up, you and the other saints…"

"Even together we cannot defeat him. Who do you think expelled the Three Primal Gods of the Wild? They treat this world as a testing ground; would they care about our lives?" the old woman said helplessly.

"That Huan Zhen Daozhang…"

The old woman's face twitched: "He wishes the birth of that Existence even more than the Three Primal Gods."

Ah?

Chu Shanhe was a bit confused, but it is said the founder once traveled with Huan Zhen Daozhang and was his disciple, so he might know some hidden secrets of heaven and earth.

He asked out of curiosity, never expecting the Xuanmen saints to speak so bluntly.

That would mean…

Chu Shanhe's complexion darkened: "Founder, you mean… that Existence is about to be born?"

"Don't you know about the matters of Zhong Tian Zhi Yu?"

"Is it truly that Primordial Seed?"

"If you know, stop asking such nonsense," the old woman sighed. "I speak out because no one can stop this from happening."

Chu Shanhe frowned; he was considering the Nan Ting Mountain Region and the human race's future, but as the founder said, everything is for that Existence's birth.

What happens after the birth?

The old woman looked at the silent Chu Shanhe, frowned, and said, "Do you know how the first cultivators practiced?"

Chu Shanhe was startled, bowed, and said, "Please, founder, enlighten me."

"Although our human race was the earliest sentient life in this world, we knew nothing of cultivation. As the environment grew harsher and our living space shrank, a natural prodigy emerged."

The old woman sighed, "He learned by mimicking every move of the powerful beings, eventually discovering the flow of blood‑Qi and the changes of spiritual Qi, thereby establishing the human race's first cultivation method."

Chu Shanhe's eyes widened: "Martial Ancestor?"

The old woman nodded, "The Martial Ancestor received the Mandate of Heaven, followed human hearts, and in that era forged a bloody path for humanity, but was later slain by the Three Primal Gods of the Wild."

"Eh?" Chu Shanhe's expression changed.

"Subsequently, the Human Emperor arose. After twelve generations of emperors' efforts, humanity stood firm despite losing the Martial Ancestor. Then Martial Dao cultivators rose, followed by the rise of Magical Cultivation… a total of 3,600 epochs; this is the history of the human race."

"3,600 epochs… according to the earliest human records, that's only 30 million years. From the Wild era to the Human Emperor era, isn't that over 400 million years?" Chu Shanhe's face turned strange.

He wasn't unaware of the Wild and Human Emperor eras; he just didn't expect the human history's gaps to be so absurd.

Modern cultivators know that few people from the ancient age remain, let alone events from hundreds of millions of years ago.

As the Sect Master of Xuanmen, Chu Shanhe certainly knows more than ordinary people, yet the past remains enigmatic.

The old woman waved her hand: "I'm not here to give you a history lesson; do you understand what cultivation is for?"

"To… become stronger?"

"Yes, that's the essence. But they want not a simple cultivation, nor a path they have seen or tested; they seek an entirely new road." the old woman sighed.

"A brand‑new road?"