On the Path to the Great Dao

"However, those two are just children after all. In terms of scheming or intelligence, they fall far short of me."

Li Xiaozheng thought to himself.

He then felt a twinge of annoyance at himself. He was being ridiculous—a lofty provincial governor stooping to compete with two little kids. If word got out, people would mock him.

"

Once you enter the Ghost God Domain, you'll be affected by it. The stone ship's Ghost God Domain is particularly powerful in that it petrifies everything.

Li Tianqing looked toward the stone figures in the river channel and said, "Those are people who were petrified by the expanding Ghost God Domain.

Petrification means death.

These people died in the river channel after triggering the stone ship's Ghost God Domain time and again.

The instant the stone ship's Ghost God Domain activates, everyone within it turns to stone—unless their cultivation is strong enough to resist the Ghost God Domain!"

Chen Shi looked at Li Xiaozheng. Li Tianqing also turned to Li Xiaozheng. Li Xiaozheng finally felt a bit useful and wore a proud expression as he said indifferently, "I have achieved God Descent, just one step away from the God-Refining Void Refining Realm.

It's because of this that the Li family values me and appointed me as the governor of Xinxiang Province..."

Chen Shi interrupted him. "Governor, can you protect us and Blackie Pot from the Ghost God Domain and prevent us from being petrified?"

Li Xiaozheng hadn't finished speaking and felt a bit displeased inside, but he still replied, "I can't completely nullify the stone ship's domain effects, but I can greatly slow our petrification.

"How long can you slow it?"

Chen Shi pressed.

"Three quarters of an hour!"

Li Xiaozheng smiled faintly. "Don't underestimate three quarters of an hour—it's enough to save our lives."

Chen Shi nodded lightly. He took the boatman's token from Li Tianqing, examined it closely, and found nothing special about it. He handed the token back and said, "Tianqing, what's your cultivation level?"

"Golden Core Second Revolution. I'll be hitting Third Revolution soon.

What about you?"

"

"I'm also Golden Core Second Revolution. By autumn, I'll likely reach Fourth or even Fifth Revolution.

By the way, has Little Gold contacted you?"

"

"No.

Has she contacted you?"

"No.

Women are so heartless."

"Yeah."

The two boys shared a knowing nod, chatting as they walked forward.

Li Xiaozheng followed them with a smile on his face and said to Blackie Pot, "I became the governor of Xinduo Province not because of some reputation, but because my cultivation and strength are top-notch, and my methods are plentiful.

In the Li family, aside from the clan leader and a few elders, I'm second to none."

"Woof?"

Blackie Pot looked puzzled.

Li Xiaozheng smiled faintly and said leisurely, "So, I'm very useful—much more useful than you."

Blackie Pot tilted its head, puzzled, wondering why the governor was competing with it.

I'm just a dog. Why are you competing with me? it thought in bewilderment.

It trotted up to a stone figure, lifted a hind leg, and peed on the statue's leg. Then it looked back at the governor in a show of defiance before running off.

If the governor also peed on the statue, it would be a challenge—a bid to steal its position. It wouldn't forgive that!

It resolved inwardly: We must settle who's boss!

Li Xiaozheng didn't understand the dog's intent and caught up with Chen Shi and Li Tianqing.

Blackie Pot eyed him with some disdain.

This guy wants to compete for status but doesn't dare face me head-on.

Coward!

Chen Shi and Li Tianqing reached a spot not far from the stone ship. They climbed up the riverbed and gazed at it.

Where the stone ship was docked had once been a shipyard, but after so long, the shipyard had long decayed, leaving only a pile of rubble.

There were even more stone figures around the stone ship. They were posed in frantic flight, faces frozen in terror, as if they'd encountered something horrifying.

Quite a few were from the Quanzhou Li family, buried here. At that moment, many people were outside the ship, a dense crowd.

There had clearly been battles here—plenty of shattered stone figures on the ground. The major clans must have tried to monopolize this Ming treasure ship by eliminating the others.

But too many elite experts from powerful families had come. No single clan could claim the ship alone, so now they'd set aside their conflicts to explore it together.

Li Xiaozheng looked at the petrified corpses with a smile and said, "Xia, Yan, Zhang, Yang, Gao, Xu, Jiang, Fei, Zhai, Cui, Ma, Gu, and our Li family—these thirteen clans have nearly all sent people. So many dead will only boost my reputation."

He couldn't help feeling smug. The thirteen clans hadn't even boarded, yet a third had fallen—and that was thanks to his golden cicada ploy. Otherwise, why would those old foxes from the major clans risk so much to explore the ship?

On the outermost edge were over a dozen people whose carriages and horses had all petrified, but the people themselves were unharmed.

A massive bronze mirror hovered above their heads, weighing thousands of pounds yet floating unsupported in the air.

Dazzling light beamed from the bronze mirror, shining toward the stone ship.

From afar, Chen Shi vaguely saw people moving within the light.

Wherever the mirror light shone, people walked there.

"Such a clever spell!"

Chen Shi exclaimed in admiration.

On the other side, over a dozen people guarded an elder. The elder had white hair and brows, lying in midair fast asleep right by the stone ship.

Though he slumbered deeply, white mist streamed from between his brows, forming a white cloud. Four or five people climbed onto the cloud and floated toward the stone ship atop it.

The mist from his brow resembled incense smoke, endless, keeping the cloud intact.

Chen Shi, curious, asked, "Governor Li, with a great dream technique like that, if he's startled awake, will the spell break?"

Li Xiaozheng replied, "It would definitely break.

That's the Xu family's spell, called Cloud Dream Great Method. The one casting it is Xu Changsheng, a senior figure in the Xu family.

The Xijing Zhang family is the one with the bronze mirror—it's called the Void-Piercing Mirror. Once it locks on, people can walk in the void, immune to all spells and unharmed by anything.

Besides the Xu and Zhang families, the Yang, Gao, Cui, Fei, Zhai, Yan families, and other clans are using various treasures to protect their experts as they enter the ship to uncover its secrets.

Even several Li family experts have reached the ship."

Li Xiaozheng introduced them one by one. Each clan had God Descent or even Void Refining Realm experts leading—showing how determined they were to claim the ship!

Nearest the stone ship were the Xia family's Red and Green Elders. The Xia family had set up a simple altar by the ship, with a Sun-Moon Altar in the center. Ahead hung a suit of golden armor, with an incense burner in front of it, filled with sticks of incense.

To the left was a sword platform holding a gleaming treasured sword; to the right, a water platform with Hundred Families Water.

Flanking the sword and water platforms were altars each bearing seven Northern Dipper stones.

In front of the Sun-Moon Altar was another offering table laden with candles, fruits, and incense, with four black banners stuck into it.

The Red and Green Elders bowed and worshipped before the offering table, chanting incantations as if conducting a ritual.

Suddenly, light churned on the Sun-Moon Altar, waves of radiance surging outward like countless suns, dazzling the eyes. Chen Shi immediately sensed an unimaginable divine power descending onto the altar from somewhere!

As the light gradually faded, he saw a god-figure about two zhang tall on the altar, appearing over forty years old and burly.

Even from afar, the pressure it exerted on Chen Shi far exceeded Li Xiaozheng's!

"Like Young Master Xiao or Granny Sha! Much stronger than Little Gold!"

He felt a chill inwardly. But Young Master Xiao and Granny Sha were still alive in the mortal world, while this god on the altar was likely a primal spirit—its physical body dead, the spirit worshipped as a deity by the Xia family.

Such ancestral spirits refined into gods were called Ancestor Gods.

Just the primal spirit alone rivaled powerhouses like Young Master Xiao and Granny Sha—imagine how mighty it had been in life!

Li Xiaozheng whispered, "That's one of the Xia family's ancestors, Xia Zhenggong. He wasn't this strong in life—only reached Body Fusion Realm.

After death, thousands of years of incense worship refined this mighty magic power into him."

"Hah—"

The golden armor before the Sun-Moon Altar flew up, donning itself neatly on Xia Zhenggong. The four black banners from the offering table shot up, planting themselves on his back with a whoosh. The treasured sword from the left sword platform flew into his hand, while the jade bowl from the water platform floated before him.

Xia Zhenggong drank the Hundred Families Water, and flesh began to grow on him, gradually restoring a physical body. He stepped down from the Sun-Moon Altar.

Chen Shi clicked his tongue in wonder at the secret art.

Grandpa had taught him many talismans, but the world's spells were myriad, and great clans often held hidden techniques unknown to outsiders—like making an Ancestor God grow flesh. He'd never seen such a thing.

"This physical body is forged from the vital essence of common folk and can't last.

Li Tianqing, well-versed in all sorts of classics, said knowledgeably, "The key is that bowl of Hundred Families Water.

Someone must carry an empty bowl to different homes, begging just one drop of water per household. When the bowl fills, it's Hundred Families Water.

It contains the qi of a hundred families. Once that qi disperses, so does Xia Zhenggong's body."

With a physical form, Xia Zhenggong's magic power surged like a flood, shielding all the Xia family as they boarded the stone ship directly.

Chen Shi had observed this long enough to conclude Xia Zhenggong was the strongest. Just then, an incomparably terrifying magic power erupted from the stone ship—even more horrifying than Xia Zhenggong!

Boom!

It was as if peak powerhouses were clashing inside the ship. The dozen-plus Zhang family experts wielding the Void-Piercing Bronze Mirror suddenly spat blood in unison, their auras wilting. The horrific magic fluctuation had transmitted through the mirror light, nearly shattering it!

When the wave reached Chen Shi and the others, his Golden Core thrashed wildly inside him, nearly cracking, while his qi and blood churned violently, almost surging into his brain!

He hurriedly stowed his Golden Core in the Vermilion Mound to keep it from shattering, while activating the temple's small jujube to subdue the roiling qi and blood.

Only once his qi and blood calmed did he glance at Li Tianqing—and saw Li Xiaozheng standing behind him, helping suppress his qi and blood and stabilize his Golden Core.

Chen Shi checked on Blackie Pot, who was fine, and relaxed.

He was shocked and baffled. This terrifying aura was overwhelmingly powerful—the strongest he'd ever sensed from any expert!

"That's the talisman formation your grandpa left behind."

Li Xiaozheng whispered. "Looks like someone's reached the head of the stone shoal and triggered the talisman formation your grandpa set."

Chen Shi was surprised. Was Grandpa really that formidable?

A formation Grandpa laid ten years ago had this much power?

He struggled to connect the image of a frail old man with the one who'd set a formation to block elite experts from thirteen clans.

Li Xiaozheng clasped his hands behind his back, gazing at the stone ship with a half-smile. "These clans are arrogant and ignorant. They haven't yet recognized the talisman grand formation as the work of the Xijing Butcher. Heh, after all, the great massacre was ten years ago—long enough for many to forget.

This grand formation will remind them of plenty."

Chen Shi asked, "Is my grandpa really that amazing?"

Li Xiaozheng recalled the Xijing massacre, his face paling slightly as he chuckled. "Amazing? More than that. Back then, I was in my thirties, not yet forty, with cultivation at Soul Transformation Realm—I'd formed my primal spirit.

When your grandpa attacked Xijing, I was there on official duty. The pressure from his primal spirit terrified me soul-deep.

I fled the city, thinking to get as far as possible—never to encounter that killer god.

Heh, I'd just made it out when thunder roared from the sky, and a Li family elder's head dropped from above."

Fear flickered in his eyes. Even after a decade, recalling that scene filled him with deep terror and despair.

Outside the city, booms echoed as streams of light carrying shocking thunder bombarded the sky—that was the Three Great Camps' artillery, wielding Ninth Heaven Divine Thunder to blast the Xijing Butcher.

That night, the Three Great Camps were crippled, and the Cabinet suffered heavy losses.

"Many great families fled with me. They were all bold talkers in normal times, some even stronger than me, but they ran too.

Then, a streak of firelight swept past."

He shivered.

Right before him, a streak of firelight had swept past.

When it died, he saw countless charred corpses.

He'd been one step from stepping into it—luckily surviving!

Fortunately, the Xijing Butcher later focused on rescuing his grandson and caused no more trouble.

Fortunately...

He murmured inwardly.

Suddenly, another earth-shaking boom exploded like spring thunder in their minds! The Xu family elder Xu Changsheng jolted awake from his great dream by the thunder!

Awakening, he knew disaster had struck—the thunder had shattered his dream, dispersing the cloud mist it formed. The Xu experts would plummet onto the ship!

"Xu clansmen, retreat at once!"

Xu Changsheng shouted, shooting into the sky and fleeing outward at top speed.

The Xu experts circling to guard him scattered, sprinting away at maximum speed.

At the same time, many on the stone ship fought to rush outward, while those guarding outside ignored their kin on board and turned to flee.

A bizarre force erupted from the stone ship center, spreading in all directions with vibrant green vitality exploding outward. Then came thunderous water sounds from the parched river channel as the torrential De River waters surged in, devouring everything along the expanding Ghost God Domain!

The massive fish bones in the channel burst with astonishing vitality the instant they touched the Ghost God Domain, growing flesh and swimming joyfully in the river.

"

The De River has appeared! Governor Li, let's go!"

Chen Shi leaped up—not fleeing outward, but charging toward the stone ship. "Get on board and resolve the stone ship's domain!"