Chapter 2: Lord of the Dongzhen Ruins

The Dao pulse is the foundation of cultivation.

This "Dao" is not the "Dao" of the Daoist sect, but the "Dao" of the Great Way. Regardless of whether one is a practitioner of Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism, Legalism, Mohism, or any other school, the manifestation of the Dao pulse is the first step of cultivation.

In ancient times, the so-called seeds of cultivation were those born with naturally manifested Dao pulses. However, the human race does not define a life by innate talent alone; the Pulse-Opening Pill is one of the methods to resolve the issue of cultivation aptitude.

By borrowing the power of the pill, one can manifest the human body's Dao pulse. It can also trigger the vitality of heaven and earth to nourish the physical body. Through the feedback of qi and blood, one can gestate Dao essence and embark on the path of cultivation.

Compared to the instruments destroyed in the explosion caused by Zuo Guanglie, the Pulse-Opening Pill should not be considered precious.

But for a beggar trapped in a dead end, this is the only key to unlocking the treasures of the human body.

The greatest hardship through the ages is death; when life reaches its end, one begs for heaven’s grace!

Now, the beggar has grasped his key of hope.

He is so devout.

His hands, holding the jade bottle, are kept as steady as possible. His trembling lips draw near to the sharp-edged, broken pill bottle... he tilts his head and pours!

Beside him is a silent, ruined temple; in the distance lie the corpses of the beggars; at his side is flesh and blood like red mud.

At that moment, the setting sun casts its lingering rays, the clouds in the sky disperse, and corpses litter the wilderness... while the sick beggar swallows the pill.

The Pulse-Opening Pill rolls onto the tip of his tongue, transforms into a warm current that flows down his throat, and disperses into his limbs and bones.

The beggar closes his eyes slightly; at this moment, thousands of images flow through his mind.

Studying hard through winter and summer, practicing the sword through spring and autumn.

Chasing down great thieves, battling fierce bandits.

In the end, he walked out of the Western Mountains, where the bandits gathered, alone with a single sword, his brown clothes dyed red.

Only then did he earn a single Pulse-Opening Pill.

How many years had he spent trying to approach the world of the extraordinary...

He had exhausted all his strength, he had struggled and pushed forward every moment—how did he reach this point?

His birth mother died early, and his father, who later passed away from illness, had exhausted almost the last of the family's wealth.

He was all alone, his own support.

He passed the entrance exam to the Dao Academy from a competition of one in a thousand, stood head and shoulders above the rest in the fiercely competitive outer courtyard, and only then did he finally grasp the key to the extraordinary for the first time.

But immediately following that...

Came the poisoned drink and the ambush.

He fought desperately to carve out a path to survival, and to avoid the pursuit, he hid among the beggars.

He had intended to wait for an opportunity to act, but his body could no longer hold on.

He grew weaker and weaker, until finally, he could only lie hopelessly on a pile of straw, waiting for death.

He dragged his sick body out to search the battlefield only because of a heart that refused to give up, but he never expected to find a Pulse-Opening Pill!

Why someone as strong as Zuo Guanglie would carry a Pulse-Opening Pill on his person is a reason that has faded with the end of his legend, known to no one.

But the beggar’s story has, because of this, begun a new chapter.

Fate is unpredictable; nothing is more so than this.

The beggar regains his composure, feeling the whistling changes in his broken body.

The warm power radiating from every tiny corner of his body "swims" through him in a way he cannot yet understand, finally converging toward the "Great Dragon" of his spine.

This process is slow yet clear.

I do not know how much time passed, but a faint power rose from the coccyx, moving up along the spine, and up again. It felt as if an earthworm were swimming upstream in a riverbed.

The process was arduous, but the warm power coming from every part of his body continuously supported it... the "little earthworm" finally swam through the long journey, connected the spine, and rushed straight to the crown of his head, like a carp leaping over the Dragon Gate!

A miracle occurred.

He "saw" light within his body.

The sensation of warmth appeared... from his limbs and bones, from every corner of his flesh.

He no longer felt cold, no longer felt weak, no longer felt pain.

The Dao pulse had manifested, and vitality nourished him.

The beggar opened his eyes, his gaze bright and spirited.

He felt this body was filled with power, and as he clenched his fist... it was as if he had grasped his fate once more!

The Dao pulse had manifested; although the true spirit of the Dao pulse was only the lowest-grade little earthworm, it meant he could officially step onto the path of the extraordinary.

Soaring through the skies, entering the blue void—these were no longer unreachable dreams!

One day, Gongyang Bai, Mo Jingyu, and even Zuo Guanglie, Li Yi... these thunderous, great figures—what they could do, he could do too!

...

The beggar stood up and stared at the pile of minced meat at his feet.

Life gazed upon death; the beginning connected to the end.

He buried Zuo Guanglie and the beggars outside the ruined temple. Even though his Dao pulse had manifested and he was full of energy, he did not finish until the moon was high in the sky.

This was a small, perhaps useless task, but it was a principle he practiced.

Although that group of beggars chose to abandon him when danger arrived, they had not left him to die in the wilderness during his final days. Although they could not provide him with medicine or doctors, they had at least given him a few sips of water.

For this alone, within his power, he should let them be laid to rest. So they would not suffer in this life and remain helpless in the next.

People believe that only in the embrace of the vast, thick, and compassionate earth can the dead souls find peace.

Finally, the beggar stood before Zuo Guanglie’s grave.

"The one who buries you is not a nameless person; from Fenglin City, Qinghe County, Zhuang Kingdom..." Under the moonlight, the beggar stood before the small grave, his body dirty and greasy, his hands covered in mud, yet he straightened his back and stated his name with absolute composure: "Jiang Wang."

The tiger is not yet fully patterned, but it already possesses the spirit to devour an ox.

"You did not die in a nameless place either; this place is called Huanzhen Temple. Although the characters on the broken plaque are hard to distinguish and it is unknown to the world, it will surely be known to the world because of you!"

After saying these words, Jiang Wang bent down and bowed earnestly: "May your spirit in heaven find peace."

This bow was not only because of the Pulse-Opening Pill Zuo Guanglie left behind, but also because of the compassion, openness, and courage he had displayed.

Such a person is worthy of any respect.

Tonight happened to be a full moon, and the bright moonlight shone upon the new grave.

In the darkness, it seemed as if a breeze stirred.

Jiang Wang saw tiny specks of silver light drifting out from Zuo Guanglie’s grave, rising slowly in the moonlight and gathering into a small, silver crescent moon. It floated above the new grave, within Jiang Wang’s reach, appearing mysterious and noble.

"This is..."

Jiang Wang felt a sudden flash of inspiration.

He reached out and grasped the silver crescent moon.

Everything went black before his eyes.

In the almost boundless darkness, a gentle voice rang out. This voice seemed to contain the ultimate truths of heaven and earth and the mysteries of the Great Way; hearing it made one’s mind clear and bright.

"All things are illusions; when will you seek the truth! Welcome... Master of the Dongzhen Ruins!"

A point of light appeared in the void, and countless specks of light emerged.

A sea of light drowned his vision, leaving only loneliness and melancholy. When everything became clear again, Jiang Wang saw—in that vast darkness, a brilliant galaxy was surging!

And before the galaxy, a young man stood suspended.

This person had clear, bright eyes, a high and straight nose, and an expression so gentle it seemed to have no aggression, save for his slightly pursed lips which revealed a hint of stubbornness. He wore only a Daoist robe of unknown material, with no extra ornaments.

Jiang Wang was stunned.

Because this young man was none other than himself. Although his clothes were different and he was much cleaner and fresher than his current state, how could he fail to recognize himself?

And he was "looking" at himself from an angle he could not yet understand, in a non-visual sense.

"Dao essence feedback insufficient, sealing the nineteenth layer of the Dao-Performing Platform."

The gentle voice rang out again in the vast starry sky.

"Sealing the eighteenth layer of the Dao-Performing Platform."

...

"Sealing the second layer of the Dao-Performing Platform."

Each time this sentence appeared, the galaxy before him dimmed by a fraction.

Jiang Wang tried to understand everything he was observing, and then he heard

"Sealing the third-grade Sword-Discussing Platform."

...

"Sealing the eighth-grade Sword-Discussing Platform."

Jiang Wang did not understand the meaning of this, but he assumed it had to do with his low strength. The so-called "Master of the Dongzhen Ruins Blessed Land" should have been Zuo Guanglie, not him.

At the same time, a line of strange characters floated in his vision.

They were not the Zhuang Kingdom characters he was familiar with, yet he understood their meaning upon seeing them—

"Merit: 1,850 points."

Just as he was pondering this, the "self" he was "seeing" suddenly stepped forward and merged with him.

The process was so short it could almost be omitted; Jiang Wang clenched his fingers into a fist, feeling that everything was as he wished. In this mysterious world, he finally had a physical form in some sense.

The next moment, he suddenly raised his eyes, and the stars in the vast void churned and boiled; the entire brilliant galaxy surged toward him!

He was submerged in the galaxy.

Time seemed to lose its meaning, and when Jiang Wang came to his senses, he was already in a space filled with immortal energy, with many messages flowing through his mind.

This was a world called the "Taixu Illusionary Realm," and the Dongzhen Ruins Blessed Land he was in was enveloped within this world.

The silver crescent moon in his palm was called the Void Key, the key to entering this place. It used the power of the Taiyin star to pull the host's spiritual consciousness into the Taixu Illusionary Realm.

Everything here was simulated; except for the fact that it would not cause damage to the host's physical body in reality, everything else was a replica of reality.

The Dao-Performing Platform was a place to deduce cultivation techniques and Dao arts; the consumption required for deduction was "Merit."

The Sword-Discussing Platform was used specifically for traveling through the Taixu Illusionary Realm to spar and compete with other practitioners.

"Merit" was mostly generated from combat; in battles between those of the same rank, winning added Merit, while losing deducted it. Challenging those of a higher rank had corresponding bonuses.

Besides this, there were other ways. For example, corresponding blessed lands would periodically produce "Merit."

Among the seventy-two blessed lands, the lowest-ranked Donghai Mountain Blessed Land produced one hundred Merit per month. For every level the lower thirty-six blessed lands rose, Merit increased by ten. For every level the upper thirty-six blessed lands rose, Merit increased by one hundred.

The Dongzhen Ruins Blessed Land occupied by Zuo Guanglie was ranked twenty-third and could produce 1,850 points of Merit per month.

This was Jiang Wang’s current resource.

His heart drummed louder.

The universe grew quieter.

This brilliant world of flowing galaxies seemed to hide a great secret.

The Dao-Performing Platform and Sword-Discussing Platform alone revealed a vast and stirring world.

To deduce the Dao in a blessed land, to discuss the sword in a galaxy—how magnificent!

And before today, Jiang Wang had not even heard its name.

His heart was restless, until he cast his gaze upon a phantom of a sundial and saw this line of text—

"In thirty days, you will face a challenge from the master of the twenty-fourth blessed land, the Azure Jade Altar."

"Failure will result in a demotion."

These characters were as black as ink and weighed more than a thousand jun. One after another, they pressed down on his heavy heart.

"The greatest hardship through the ages is death; when life reaches its end, one begs for heaven’s grace." The original line is "The greatest hardship through the ages is death; who but Lady Xi would be heartbroken." I changed the second half.