Leaving the immortal sect, Dao Tian didn't know where to go next.
He gazed toward the setting sun and decided to head west.
As he walked, he took out the book the old man had given him and started reading.
"So, cultivation requires resources. The Body Tempering realm is the starting stage. If I can find cultivation resources, perhaps I can step into the Body Tempering realm," Dao Tian muttered to himself, feeling a flicker of longing in his heart.
But this was incredibly difficult. Most cultivation resources were already claimed. Even if he was lucky enough to find some, he would need to become an alchemist to refine them into pills.
And with his useless talent, he would consume a huge amount of resources just to make a breakthrough. That's why the old man had said that even a hundred years might not lead to any significant achievement.
"Sigh... I'll just go with the flow, I guess. Just do my best... who knows what might happen?" Dao Tian said, as if comforting himself.
He, too, felt that the future seemed hopeless. Unless he was extremely lucky and stumbled into a place overflowing with unclaimed cultivation resources.
He kept walking while reading the book until the sun disappeared below the horizon.
At that moment, mist began to appear from somewhere, growing thicker and thicker. Within seconds, Dao Tian could no longer read the book.
"What's going on? Where is this fog coming from?"
He squinted, trying to get his bearings, but everything was blurring at an alarming rate.
His face paled, and all the muscles in his body tensed as if on high alert. His experience traveling far and wide told him this wasn't normal. Definitely not man-made.
Dao Tian began moving forward step by step, cautiously. As he walked, he used his hands and feet to feel for obstacles and check the terrain ahead.
Suddenly, a brilliant light, as bright as the midday sun, flashed before him, blinding his eyes.
Squinting, he tried to make out what it was and saw a large, glowing yellow arrow with the words:
Go Straight 300m
???
A suspicious object appearing in the mist... It didn't look trustworthy at all.
Dao Tian was about to head in the opposite direction when he suddenly hesitated.
"What if... it's a massive cultivation opportunity?" he muttered to himself, feeling this was also a possibility.
After all, such a bizarre scene had to be caused by something extraordinary.
Fortune and misfortune are intertwined. If it's fortune, it's not disaster. If it's a disaster, you can't avoid it.
"All right! 99% of gamblers quit right before a big win. If I don't play, I can't win!" Dao Tian muttered, pumping himself up.
Did he have nothing to lose? Not exactly. If he lived an ordinary life, he'd likely still have a few decades left.
This trip might gain him nothing, and he might not even keep his life.
The risk here might be even higher than gambling. At least in normal gambling, you only lose money, not your life.
His legs trembled, partly from fear and partly because his muscles had been tense for so long. It was only three hundred meters, but right now it felt like walking dozens of miles.
He didn't know how long it took before another stream of light appeared.
Moving closer, Dao Tian realized it was another arrow. This one pointed to the right, with the words:
Turn Right 600m
At this point, there was no more room for hesitation. He followed the instruction and turned right.
The further he walked, the lighter his mood became. Though still alert, he had unconsciously relaxed quite a bit. It was like hearing gunfire for the first time. It's scary at first, but you get used to it after a while.
Six hundred meters passed quicker than the first three hundred had. Soon, a third arrow appeared before Dao Tian.
Turn Right 900m
This time, Dao Tian didn't overthink it. His pace had almost returned to that of a normal walk.
He walked on for a while, but this time, no light appeared from above. Instead, on the path ahead, small glowing arrows lit up along the ground.
Where the arrows ended, a hole appeared in front of him. It's just big enough for one person to jump into.
The hole was bottomless. Jumping in meant there was no coming back up. And if it were too deep, he'd probably be smashed to pieces.
Dao Tian swallowed hard, his trembling gaze fixed on the hole. It had no halo, no light. Just like an ordinary pit.
"Jump… or not?" he muttered to himself, utterly conflicted.
Suddenly, he saw a line of small text appear in front of the hole:
Inside is the number one cultivation cave in the world
These brilliantly golden characters had an oddly powerful pull on him.
"Since I've come this far, there's no reason to stop now... Jump!" Dao Tian closed his eyes and leaped straight into the hole.
A strange sensation flowed through his entire body. He felt as though his form was twisting and warping endlessly, like a strand of noodles.
This bizarre feeling lasted a while before he felt solid ground beneath his feet. Only then did he slowly open his eyes.
Majestic mountains, winding rivers, clouds drifting lazily. It was as if he were in a celestial paradise.
At the heart of it all stood a small house. In front of it lay a messy mountain of books, yet not a single one gave off an ordinary feeling.
Nearby, there was a vast garden so large that "a crow flying over it would break its wings." Countless bizarre spirit herbs could be seen growing there.
"This place..."
Dao Tian stared without blinking, his heart pounding so hard he couldn't form a complete sentence.
Even without prior knowledge, anyone could tell this place was a treasure trove. The immortal sect he had visited earlier couldn't hold a candle to this.
Scanning his surroundings, he realized there was no path leading here. It was as if he had suddenly appeared out of thin air.
Looking further into the distance, beyond the rivers and mountains lay a dense layer of mist, as though it marked the boundary of this place.
"Does this place have no exit?" He scratched his head, trying to find a way out.
As good as this place was, if he couldn't leave, could it truly be called freedom? Having power but being bound forever to one place wasn't what he wanted.
After searching for a while without any promising results, Dao Tian reluctantly gave up.
"Forget it, I'll focus on cultivating first. I hear immortals have very long lifespans. So, for now, I'll just concentrate on cultivation."
---
Approximately seventy thousand years later...
Dao Tian sat cross-legged, his gaze vacant as he stared at the sky. His hair was dry, brittle, and streaked with silver, his face was gaunt as if his body had reached its limit.
"Why did I even come here?" Dao Tian squinted at the artificial sky and sighed softly, unconsciously reminiscing about his younger self.
To him back then, cultivation was the top priority. He wanted to become an immortal, to roam freely across sky and earth.
This top-tier cave dwelling truly lived up to its reputation, the spiritual energy was extremely dense. It allowed even a waste of talent like him to cultivate to an extremely high realm.
Moreover, there were countless ancient manuals, alchemy methods, cultivation techniques... one could say it had everything needed to reach the pinnacle.
But as time passed and he approached the limit, he realized that the so-called "pinnacle" recorded in these texts wasn't the true pinnacle after all.
He was just one step short, but this single step was longer than a lifetime of effort. Tens of thousands of years had passed, and he still hadn't found a clue. Just has a vague, flickering sense of it.
"Even though this was my choice back then... damn it, what have I ended up becoming? A cultivator who can't even leave a tiny area?" Dao Tian huffed angrily.
"It's just one step I'm missing. Every ancient text here mentions nothing about a tenth realm, yet I clearly feel it right in front of me." He gritted his teeth, his once-feeble gaze now burning with raging flames.
But after a few breaths, he sighed again. There was no one here to answer him. The endless passage of solitary time had made him forget which year, which month it even was.
"Whatever, I'm going to die anyway. Let me try one last time. At least... I have to get out of this place."
Dao Tian slowly stood up, his eyes filled with determination as he resolved that this would be the final moment of his life.
Zzt, zzt, zzt…
Bolts of lightning crackled from all over his body, growing stronger and stronger until they coalesced into a majestic lightning dragon.
He placed a hand on his chest and pulled out a long staff, as if drawing out a divine weapon.
He twirled the staff a few times. The colossal lightning dragon coiled around it, forming streaks of black lightning brimming with destructive power.
The surrounding space trembled, crisscrossed with web-like cracks. Yet, the outermost barrier didn't show even a single scratch.
"Sigh, even though I've become this strong, it still feels like a grasshopper trying to topple an elephant." Dao Tian let out a sigh, feeling somewhat ridiculous about his current self.
Contrary to his words, his hand still gripped the staff tightly, not loosening for even a moment. This was his final, desperate gamble against his goal.
Judgment of the Storm Dragon!
Dao Tian clenched both hands and swung the club forcefully. The majestic lightning dragon shot straight toward the sky.
The destructive black lightning, accompanied by an ear-piercing roar, shattered the surrounding space. The invisible barrier that had stood firm for countless years now began to show web-like cracks.
His eyes widened in disbelief at the bizarre scene unfolding before him. He had tried many times before. Thousands, tens of thousands, so many he couldn't even remember... but never once had he caused any damage.
"Hahahaha... I have to shatter this broken barrier!" Dao Tian roared, his teeth clenched. Surging spiritual power poured out uncontrollably from him.
A smile that hadn't appeared for who knows how many years finally resurfaced on his face.
This time, he had to succeed. At the very least, he had to feel the freedom of the outside world once more.
Crack... Crack!
The cracks spread, and then the entire barrier shattered into pieces. The surrounding space, already ravaged beyond recognition, could no longer hold.
In this terrifying environment, forget about life. Even matter would be torn into its smallest components the moment it entered.
"Hahahaha... I've smashed this tattered fence." Dao Tian laughed heartily, his arms now hanging limply at his sides.
His body, already nearing the end of its lifespan, had been pushed to its absolute limit this time, causing his remaining time to slip away even faster.
'If only I had another chance to live...' The final thought flashed through his mind. He still had regrets in this life.
His consciousness faded, and his eyes quickly turned hollow. His frail body, unable to withstand the violent shockwaves from earlier, was torn apart and scattered into the void.
From within his remains, a dazzling light suddenly erupted. A strange, glowing object floated amid the emptiness.
Its form gradually became clear... it was an ancient metal orb, continuously absorbing the minuscule fragments of his disintegrating body.
---
'Am I... not dead yet?' The thought flashed through Dao Tian's mind, followed by a strange sensation that something was different.
He couldn't open his eyes, nor could he move. His entire body felt as if it had turned into a stone statue.
His weak soul force spread throughout his body, checking its current state.
'How... how is this possible? How did I turn into a lump of metal?'
Dao Tian was stunned, unable to immediately adapt to this bizarre situation.
'But why does this feel so familiar?'
Memories flashed through his mind, recalling the earliest days when he first entered that space.
Among the cultivation resources and materials, he had accidentally discovered a lump of metal.
At first, he thought it was some kind of treasure, but after realizing it could do nothing except be extremely hard, he deemed it useless and completely forgot about it.
'Haha, damn it. Never thought I'd get to keep living because of this thing.' Dao Tian thought to himself.