Above the Great Dao

"Moving Qi-Blood around is indeed magical!" Chen Shi exclaimed with excitement, focusing his thoughts on his palm. He watched as his right hand swelled up like a balloon, filled with an infinite strength.

He picked up the rock he'd chipped off earlier, and with a forceful squeeze, the rock actually cracked and crumbled with a few rubs, turning it into dust.

He grabbed another rock and smashed it down onto his hand, feeling no pain under the full surge of Qi-Blood!

"As long as the place is filled with Qi-Blood, it can become bigger and thicker without any sense of pain!"

Thinking of this, Chen Shi immediately concentrated on moving his Qi-Blood to various parts of his body, testing the effects of the Qi-Blood filling different areas.

He found that when he concentrated on the tendons and fascia of his arm joints, his arms could extend several inches in an instant!

If the Qi-Blood filled his spine and strengthened the fascia, a sound of bones crisscrossing would emanate from his body, and he would instantly grow half a foot taller!

Chen Shi was hit by a sudden urge to urinate and whimsically moved his Qi-Blood down there, watching as it quickly inflated. He couldn't help but get excited and howled, "I can piss farther now! No one in the whole village can piss as far as me!"

He then moved the Qi-Blood to his neck, and his neck thickened considerably.

"In the future, if someone wants to strangle me, I'm afraid it will be quite troublesome for them!"

Chen Shi pumped his Qi-Blood towards his head, but suddenly everything went black, and he collapsed straight down, passing out.

After an unknown period of time, Chen Shi finally awoke, his eyes wide open and his mind a blank slate.

After a long while, he blinked and slowly remembered his attempts at moving the Qi-Blood.

He dared not try moving the Qi-Blood to his head again.

The brain was the most important of the six Yang organs; a careless transfer of Qi-Blood there could cause fainting, hallucinations, or even a cerebral hemorrhage—extremely dangerous.

Chen Shi was exploring cultivation on his own without a complete Cultivation Technique, inevitably encountering such dangers.

"Without the complete Three Light Righteous Qi Technique, it's no good. I simply don't know the taboos of cultivation; a small mistake can lead to spiritual deviance. But with my current strength, I still can't finish reading the Stele in front of the True King's Tomb."

He was about to continue his cultivation when suddenly he saw the sky outside turn a deep red, flames stretched across the sky for thousands of miles, creating an exceptionally magnificent sunset.

Chen Shi's heart skipped a beat—this was the phenomenon formed when the Outer Heaven True God closed his eyes, and flames surged from beneath his eyelids, igniting the sky above eighty miles from the ground!

The appearance of this phenomenon signaled that night was approaching!

After dark, evils roamed the wilds!

"I'm afraid I've been unconscious for a long time, I must hurry home."

Chen Shi immediately got up and went outside. Just as he exited the temple, he saw the sky growing darker, the heavenly fire about to extinguish.

With his current speed, he had no chance of getting home before dark, and he probably wouldn't even reach the foot of the mountain before the night fell.

"The best choice now is to stay in the temple overnight."

Chen Shi hesitated for a moment before making up his mind, "Staying in the temple might give me a chance to survive, but leaving would mean certain death."

He was well aware of how dangerous the moonlit wilderness could be.

Chen Shi secured all the doors and windows and moved several large rocks to barricade the entrance. He had brought his book box with him, which contained some Peach Talismans.

—His grandfather knew that he was coming to the desolate temple to cultivate, so he insisted Chen Shi bring the Peach Talismans.

Chen Shi hung the talismans behind the doors and windows and then climbed onto the temple roof to hang talismans where it was broken. There were several large holes on the roof, which he had patched with planks, but it was still draughty.

Chen Shi jumped down, found some firewood, made a fire to warm up some dry food, and wolfed it down.

Before he finished eating, thunder rumbled in the sky, rain began to patter down, extinguishing the campfire.

Chen Shi hurriedly moved aside to dodge the raindrops.

But the rain grew heavier, pouring down like buckets, quickly flooding the temple, with only a few spots left to stand on.

Sleeping was hardly possible now.

"I'll find a roofer to fix up this old temple when the rain stops tomorrow. That way, it will be more convenient to cultivate here in the future," thought Chen Shi.

The bright moon outside was now obscured by dark clouds, and the sky grew increasingly black.

Without the moon, even evil spirits wouldn't emerge.

Since he couldn't sleep, Chen Shi simply continued to cultivate.

He activated the Three Light Righteous Qi Technique, and starlight, sunlight, and moonlight all flowed towards him. The surrounding light twinkled as the three kinds of light converged into one, transforming into seven stars in the formation of the Big Dipper, refining his body.

After an indeterminate amount of time, Chen Shi suddenly noticed the broken temple became gradually bright. He looked around for the source of the light, stunned.

In the pitch-black night, outside was a torrential downpour with occasional flashes of lightning, while inside the temple, a ray of sunlight fell from the roof!

Chen Shi rubbed his eyes and looked up—indeed, a ray of sunlight was shining down!

He looked outside the temple.

It was pitch black outside, with heavy rain falling, visibility was so low one couldn't see their own hand, and the sound of the rain was loud, with distant thunder sounding somewhat muffled.

Chen Shi then turned back to look inside the temple.

Inside, the sunlight was bright like broad daylight, even though the roof was still leaking.

The rain fell through the sunlight, hitting the ground.

This was utterly ghostly!

No, for him, ghosts and gods were too common, found everywhere.

But he had never seen something like this before!

"Inside and outside the temple, there actually seems to be different dimensions!"

Chen Shi suppressed his excitement, he had harbored such suspicions; now this ray of sunlight confirmed his guess.

He followed the sunlight and saw another patch of azure sky.

Clearly, that sky wasn't the same as the one over the West Bull New Continent!

He also saw another sun in that patch of sky.

It was golden yellow and not very large, resembling a golden disc.

Yet the sunlight from this sun could be used for cultivation!

Accompanying that glimmer of sunlight, his Three Light Righteous Qi Technique operated even more smoothly, and the efficiency of the Beidou Refining increased!

He could feel the speed of the Beidou Refining improve by thirty to forty percent!

How marvelous!

"Could it be that this sun is the real sun? The Three Light Righteous Qi Technique also draws in moonlight, which comes from that space-time. Could it be that the moon from that space-time is also the real moon?"

He couldn't help but give rise to some wild speculation. Do the sun and the moon in the Three Light Righteous Qi Technique refer to the sun and the moon of this space-time?

The ancestral forebearers of West Bull New Continent, the sun and the moon they faced, could they be from this space-time? That is why they created terms like sunrise, sunset, the waxing and waning of the moon.

Then, what happened that caused the sun and the moon to disappear?

What happened that made the Outer Heaven True God replace the sun and the moon?

Where did the sun and the moon go?

Why can this broken temple connect with the sun and moon, allowing sunlight to shine through?

Who was worshipped in this temple before?

Why did it rise from the ground at this time?

Could it be related to the darkness that came a quarter hour earlier a few days ago?

"What a pity grandfather isn't here. With his broad knowledge, he certainly... certainly wouldn't know! He would only say to double the dosage of the medicine at night!"

Chen Shi continued to cultivate, no longer pondering these bizarre issues; thinking about them wouldn't yield any answers, after all.

Gradually, he entered a peculiar state, neither asleep nor awake, breathing long and steady, the Three Light Righteous Qi Technique still operating methodically, and the Beidou Refining continually progressing, with seven stars slowly revolving around his body.

The heavy rain lasted all night and only stopped in the morning. Chen Shi had cultivated for the entire night, feeling not the slightest fatigue but rather more spirited than ever, feeling that a single night of cultivation was more than ten times better than before.

"I haven't returned all night; grandfather must be worried to death!"

Chen Shi ended his cultivation, moved the stone that blocked the temple door, and walked out. Outside, a mist still hung in the air, thick with moisture.

"Woof woof!"

A large black dog stood outside the temple, affectionately barking twice at him—it was Black Pot.

Chen Shi hurried over and asked with a smile, "Black Pot, did grandfather send you to find me? He must be very worried, right? How long have you been here?"

Black Pot wagged his tail and moved closer with a happy expression, circling around him twice.

Man and dog quickly descended the mountain. Despite the slippery mountain path after the rain, Chen Shi felt light and agile, as if walking on even ground everywhere.

"This time when I go home, I need to ask grandfather for some money. I plan to hire some masons to refurbish the broken temple. I want to cultivate there more often."

Chen Shi spoke to Black Pot as they walked, "I have saved a lot of silver at grandfather's. Do you think he will give it to me if I ask for it?"

Black Pot's tail spun like a windmill, barking, "Woof!"

Chen Shi laughed, "You're wrong, Black Pot! Grandfather said that money is set aside for my future wife. If I ask for it, he will definitely give it to me."

"Woof woof!"

"You mean to say that grandfather has spent it all? Impossible!"

"Woof, woof woof!"

"Don't talk nonsense, grandfather wouldn't steal a child's money!"

...

Chatting as they went, man and dog left the desolate mountains, heading towards Huangpo Village.

It was at this moment, the sky suddenly became exceptionally bright; Chen Shi and Black Pot looked up and were stunned.

A blazingly bright light streaked across the sky, possibly a burning stone from beyond the heavens, tearing through the firmament and heading straight for this place!

That celestial outsider zoomed past overhead, trailing miles-long dense smoke, and the next moment, it struck a desolate hill several miles away, right atop the broken temple!

Flames shot into the sky, accompanied by huge chunks of stone raining in all directions.

In Chen Shi's view, the mountain that had grown from the ground was now sheared off by dozens of feet!

Black Pot quickly threw himself onto Chen Shi, knocking him down, and they tumbled together into a deep ditch by the road.

"Whoosh—"

A gale, sharp as a knife, swept across the ditch with a suffocating heatwave, instantly igniting the trees on either side, turning them into giant torches.

Fortunately, after a night of rain, there was water in the ditch. They dove underwater, sparing them from being reduced to ashes by the heat.

"Boom!"

The roar of the explosion echoed, the earth incessantly trembling, reaching into the waters, nearly enough to make Chen Shi and Black Pot cough up blood.

Then, pebbles rained down, as though a stone rain had begun.

Thankfully, they were hidden underwater; the stones had lost much of their force upon impact with the water.

After the stone rain subsided, the shaken Chen Shi and Black Pot surfaced, waiting to ensure there were no more disturbances before crawling back onto the road.

Chen Shi stood up unsteadily, drenched, while Black Pot vigorously shook his body, spraying water everywhere.

Chen Shi looked around to see trees fallen chaotically, some still flaming, others scorched by the hot winds, reduced to bare, blackened trunks emitting wisp of grey smoke.

And the crops in the fields lay flattened in every direction, with huge boulders penetrating the earth and carving paths before coming to a stop.

Where the boulders had traveled, the crops were ploughed under, as if giants had used the fields as canvases, clumsily sketching deformed lines with sheer force.

Chen Shi turned towards the distant desolate hill; only half of the hundred-foot mountain remained, with a jagged, dog-bitten appearance.

That mysterious little temple had been reduced to ruins!

The hill that had emerged from the ground was nearly razed to the ground!

"Why, why?" Chen Shi murmured.

He looked up at the sky, where the bright sun shone.

The two suns were like the Outer Heaven True God's two giant eyes, watching over the land, every detail stark and clear.