On the Path to the Great Dao

This couplet on the door was full of charm. Chen Shi couldn't help taking a few more glances at it.

"Heaven's forms and earth's signs are all reflections of my own. Seeking gods and ghosts is no match for seeking oneself. When will the mortals struggling in this dusty world reach this stage? Reaching this stage would mean transcendence, wouldn't it?"

He climbed the steps and entered this strange ancient temple.

The temple itself had a sandy texture, making it feel somehow unreal, as if it might shatter at the slightest touch.

A faint scent of incense lingered inside the temple. He looked around and saw two plain pillars holding up the beams—no carvings or decorations on them. The floor was ordinary blue brick, the side walls were brick plastered with lime, and there were no murals.

He reached out to touch the wall, and his hand passed right through it.

The pillars and floor were the same.

"This temple isn't a real temple—it's some kind of illusion. Strange, how did I end up inside an illusion?"

He wondered in his heart. Had he really run into something evil?

Directly in front of him stood an incense burner, two feet tall and four feet wide. There was no incense, just piles of ash. In front of the burner was a vermilion gate tower built against the wall, six feet high and about five feet wide.

The gate tower stood empty, housing a Divine Shrine.

The Divine Shrine was completely bare, with no divine image.

"This Divine Shrine is just like mine. I have no Divine Embryo, and it has no image."

Chen Shi looked around left and right but saw nothing else.

"How do I leave this bizarre place?"

The thought had just crossed his mind when his vision blurred. Unknowingly, he had left the mysterious little temple and returned to his body.

Chen Shi opened his eyes and saw that he was still standing under the tree, unmoved.

He was astonished and looked around. The temple he had just seen didn't exist—it was like a dream.

"Little Ten, were you spacing out?"

Scholar Zhu asked doubtfully. "You were standing here without moving. Light another incense stick... Wait, why is there a temple behind your head?"

Chen Shi's heart jolted. "There's a temple behind my head?"

"There's really a temple! A lone little temple with only a main hall and two pillars out front!"

Scholar Zhu was amazed. "It's right where you used to keep your Divine Shrine! Wait, where's your Divine Shrine? It's gone!"

Chen Shi was even more shocked. The temple Scholar Zhu described was exactly the one he had seen in the illusion!

And now the temple had taken up the space of his Divine Shrine—where had his Divine Shrine gone?

Scholar Zhu hurriedly said, "Turn around slowly so I can take a look!"

Chen Shi did as told, turning to let him examine the temple closely, his heart filled with unease.

He couldn't help feeling some regret. He had only come home this time to offer incense to Grandpa, Godmother, Scholar Zhu, and the others, then visit Granny Sha and the rest. He hadn't expected something like this to happen!

He was already lagging behind others by lacking a Divine Embryo Realm cultivation base. If his Divine Shrine was gone too, wouldn't that mean he was missing two whole realms?

Without two realms, how could he compete with his peers?

Scholar Zhu let out a breath and laughed. "Your Divine Shrine is still there—it's inside the temple... Wait, why am I inside the temple? Why am I sitting on the Divine Shrine?"

He cried out in succession.

Chen Shi's eyes widened even more. Scholar Zhu, who had been hanging from the crooked-neck tree, had vanished, leaving only an empty noose dangling!

And Scholar Zhu's voice was coming from behind his head!

Scholar Zhu panicked. "Little Ten, get me out quick! This temple is too weird!"

"I don't know how to get you out either." Chen Shi was a bit panicked too. He had never encountered anything like this.

Suddenly, inspiration struck. He tried activating the little temple just as he would his Divine Shrine. The small temple lit up, divine light swirling around the Divine Shrine inside. Scholar Zhu bathed in it, his tongue lolling out three to five zhang long, scaring Blackie Pot—who had been lounging under the tree—out of its wits. The dog leaped up and fled with its tail between its legs.

Chen Shi jumped at the sight of that tongue and quickly stopped activating it.

Only then did Scholar Zhu feel like his body was his own again. He broke into a cold sweat and hurriedly said, "Little Ten, now that I'm sitting on the Divine Shrine in your temple, what do you feel?"

Chen Shi focused and sensed carefully. "It feels like I've gained another me—like another version of myself sitting behind my head, helping me regulate my true qi and circulate my techniques!"

He activated the Meridian Evil-Slaying Sword, forming the sword seal with his hands. Scholar Zhu cried out and involuntarily formed the sword seal too.

Chen Shi channeled his sword qi, and Scholar Zhu followed suit. The sword qi's power surged, whistling through the air to a hundred zhang away!

Chen Shi was stunned. This sword qi's range was twenty percent farther than before!

Its power had increased by twenty percent too!

With power like this, who needed to sacrifice a golden core?

Not only that, with Scholar Zhu guarding the Divine Shrine in the little temple, his true qi flowed even more smoothly and steadily than before, without the previous ferocity.

But when his qi and blood erupted, the explosive force was even more terrifying!

This situation was like...

He was searching for an apt analogy when Scholar Zhu suddenly said, "It's like having a Primordial Spirit behind your head, helping you regulate true qi, stimulate qi and blood, refine your golden core, cast spells—is that right?"

Chen Shi said, "I haven't cultivated to the Primordial Spirit stage yet, so I don't know what a Primordial Spirit can do."

Scholar Zhu sighed. "What I just described is exactly the wonder of a Divine Embryo. When a true god descends and bestows a Divine Embryo, the cultivator gains the true god's blessing. Having a Divine Embryo is like having an extra Primordial Spirit at lower realms—it regulates qi, balances blood, refines cores, and improves spellcasting, making everything far easier than before. Both mana and technique power become much stronger too."

Chen Shi murmured, "So a Divine Embryo is that powerful..."

"The true gods' blessings grant cultivators Divine Embryos, helping them charge to higher realms in short time. Their contribution is immeasurable."

Scholar Zhu's voice came from behind his head. "Gaining a Divine Embryo is a crucial step toward great achievements in cultivation. But..."

His tongue slid out of his mouth again as he muttered, "Don't true gods only bestow blessings? How did I become a Divine Embryo?"

He felt utterly absurd. What kind of logic was it to bestow oneself and turn into someone else's Divine Embryo?

He had been hanging perfectly fine from the tree—how had he become someone else's Divine Embryo?

"Scholar, don't panic first. Let me think of a way!"

Chen Shi's eyes lit up. He took out three incense sticks, lit them swiftly, and said, "I remember there's an incense burner in the temple. Since there's a burner, it must be for offering incense! Stick these three in the burner, and maybe you'll come out!"

No sooner had he spoken than a large hand reached out from the little temple and grabbed the three sticks—it was Scholar Zhu's hand.

Blackie Pot watched from afar as a hand suddenly protruded from Chen Shi's occiput. It scared the dog silly, thinking its young master was about to reveal his true form, and it didn't dare approach.

The scene was indeed quite frightening.

Inside the temple, Scholar Zhu had only meant to grab the incense, but he saw his arm stretching longer and longer. From his perspective, it extended several zhang in an instant.

This change puzzled him greatly. All he could say was that the little temple was eerie.

He didn't dwell on it and inserted the three incense sticks into the burner. Wisps of fragrant smoke drifted toward him.

Scholar Zhu inhaled the incense scent and immediately felt refreshed, his spirits multiplying. It was far more comfortable than hanging from the tree and smelling incense.

Even more, he sensed the incense power rapidly transforming into extraordinary power, coalescing in his body and shaping his true form!

He was astonished—this was the legendary god-forging!

God-forging was different from shaping a spirit with extraordinary power.

Extraordinary power took form under the people's faith, creating various images.

These images had form but no substance—invisible to the naked eye, intangible, with mana but unable to manifest sanctity.

But god-forging divinized a spirit on that basis. For example, in ancient times on Huaxia Divine Continent, there was a mortal named Nezha who died tragically young. His mother pitied him and sculpted a golden body and god statue for him, allowing his spirit to attach and accept the people's incense. Over time, Nezha gained divinity.

That was god-forging.

The prerequisite for god-forging was an edict of enfeoffment.

Such edicts came in two forms: imperial decree, where the emperor enfeoffed a god; or celestial decree, where other immortals or gods did so.

Only these two counted as true god-forging.

But how could a tiny little temple possess the means for god-forging?

Did this little temple hold imperial authority, or command immortals and gods, to forge one?

Scholar Zhu was truly baffled.

Chen Shi asked, "Scholar, can you come out now?"

Scholar Zhu tried to stand from the Divine Shrine but felt his body heavy as a mountain—he couldn't budge, especially after absorbing the incense power. It was like his buttocks were glued to the shrine.

"Still no!"

Scholar Zhu said, "Were you spacing out earlier because you entered the temple too? How did you leave?"

Chen Shi said, "I just had the thought of leaving, and I was out. Try it."

Scholar Zhu willed it repeatedly but couldn't move an inch from the Divine Shrine. Suddenly, inspiration struck. "Could it be that you need to will it for me to leave?"

Chen Shi tried willing it. The crooked-neck old tree shook suddenly. Chen Shi looked quickly and saw Scholar Zhu hanging from the noose again, his body swaying as if freshly hanged.

Chen Shi breathed a sigh of relief.

Scholar Zhu did too. "Little Ten, where did this temple of yours come from?"

Chen Shi said, "I don't know either. I had just offered incense to Godmother and was about to ask you for pointers when suddenly..."

At that, he froze and hurriedly turned to look at Godmother's stone stele. It was still half-buried in the old willow's roots, unchanged as ever.

Incense smoke wafted before the stele, drifting toward it.

But in the past, whenever Chen Shi offered incense, azure light would flow along the characters like "Mother" and "Only." This time, there was no azure glow—as if the stele's long-accumulated power had suddenly been depleted.

"Could it be that Godmother bestowed this blessing on me?"

Chen Shi stood stunned. He had been worshiping Godmother for over two years, and the stele had always been inert. Now it suddenly gave him a little temple—had Godmother manifested?

He placed his hand on the stele, trying to sense Godmother's spirit, but all he felt was vast emptiness—no other consciousness.

"Scholar, do you know Godmother Stele's origins?" Chen Shi asked, looking up.

Scholar Zhu shook his head. "No. When I came here in despair and hanged myself from the tree all those years ago, the stele was already here. It hasn't moved."

"How many years ago was that?" Chen Shi asked.

"About a millennium, I suppose." Scholar Zhu wasn't sure.

Chen Shi was stunned. He had thought Scholar Zhu had been dead only a few decades, not that he had died a thousand years ago!

That meant this crooked-neck old willow and the Godmother stele beneath it had existed for a millennium already!

So, how long had the crooked-neck old willow and the stele truly been there?

Chen Shi looked at the yellow earth ridge underfoot.

Could it be that even in the True King's era, this tree and stele had already existed?

The yellow earth ridge was kaolin clay, used specially for firing porcelain. This slope dated back to the late True King era.

If the True King had piled the kaolin here for building the Kiln Works, why not right next to the Kiln Works?

The Kiln Works site was closer and more convenient for digging clay.

"Why did the True King pile the kaolin here? What was he hiding by burying it? Why, in thousands of years, has no one tried to excavate this earth slope?"

Chen Shi gazed toward Qianyang Mountain, this ancient mountain range of towering peaks. How many ancient secrets still lay buried there?

"Godmother gave me this little temple for a reason— it must be important!"

On the way back to the village, Chen Shi ate a watermelon he had swiped from Old Lady Wuzhu's field and pondered, "But with my Divine Shrine hidden inside the temple, after the proclamation and the great god-descent ceremony, can a true god still bestow a Divine Embryo on me? My knowledge is shallow; better ask Granny Sha. Maybe she'll know."

He rode in the wooden cart left by Grandpa, called Blackie Pot over, and man and dog drove to Gangzi Village. But Granny Sha wasn't home—who knew where she had gone.

Chen Shi headed into the mountains and asked Granny Zhuang. Her knowledge was even less than Scholar Zhu's; she couldn't explain it. "I just sense a sacred, extraordinary aura—solemn and majestic. But I've never seen a temple like this."

Chen Shi asked the great serpent Profound Mountain. The serpent's gaze was deep as it stared at the little temple behind his head. After a long while, it said, "Its origins are vast and ineffable."

Chen Shi pressed, but Profound Mountain clearly knew something and said not another word.

All along the way, Blackie Pot stayed silent, seemingly afraid of the little temple behind his head.

Chen Shi found Blackie Pot acting odd but didn't think much of it.

The place wasn't far from the Mountain Lord Temple. The masons had already finished repairing it. Chen Shi simply drove the cart there to check if the Mountain Lord's divine image had formed in the temple.

The soul-confusing talisman he had left still hung outside the main hall. Chen Shi removed it and entered. The extraordinary power in the temple had grown extremely faint, while the divine image in the Divine Shrine had formed mostly—a bull-headed human body seated on a yellow tiger. But both the image and tiger were blurry, as if they might collapse at any moment!

"The extraordinary power in this temple isn't enough to fully condense the divine image!"

The thought had just crossed Chen Shi's mind when the divine image and yellow tiger in the shrine before him vanished!

Chen Shi froze, then realized. He rushed to the wooden cart and rummaged through it, pulling out a mirror.

He looked into the mirror and saw the little temple floating behind his head, incense smoke rising faintly. Vaguely, a bull-headed figure sat in the Divine Shrine, with a fierce tiger at its feet. The tiger suddenly leaped down from the shrine with a thunderous roar!

Chen Shi steadied his mind.

"Oh no, I've got a Divine Embryo!"