Dao Equaling the Heavens
Chapter 355 - 1: Entering the Cultivation World

Chapter 355: Chapter 1: Entering the Cultivation World

Spring arrived with the chirping of cicadas, as Lingzhi mushrooms sprouted from the ground.

A Daoist sat cross-legged among them, surrounded by myriad spiritual medicines, each breath he took resonating with the heavens and earth.

Suddenly, light radiated from the white jade bracelet on his wrist, casting a bright glow onto the ground that took root and rapidly grew into an ancient tree, which within the blink of an eye, stood over ten meters tall.

The roots transformed into feet, the branches into arms, the green leaves into hair, and the trunk into a body.

A graceful woman descended to the ground, her immaculate soles stained with mud as she gazed at the man in blue before her.

His Daoist robe, woven from some kind of spiritual silk and Miracle Method, had turned to a common item after eight hundred years of transfiguration. Its color had dulled and the once fine fabric had roughened and frayed, yet the skin of the person it clad was as white and luminous as jade.

He had not perished, nor was it possible for him to die again.

The woman silently beheld him, having waited thus far without the slightest intent to strike.

As day rose and fell and rose again, Gu Wen eventually slowly opened his eyes to regard the woman who had once gone by ’Qing Rui.’

They looked into each other’s eyes, their gaze marked only by calmness.

Qing Rui said, "In just eight hundred years, you’ve changed a great deal."

Becoming tranquil, no longer carrying the vigor of youth.

Gu Wen calmly replied, "By the measure of humans, eight hundred years would suffice for three dynastic changes and the aging and death of dozens of generations. I very much agree with a saying from my master; one should not judge everything by its length."

"These eight hundred years..."

He paused for several breaths, then slowly exhaled, his vital energy pressing down on the Jianmu incarnation before him as if it were a Divine Mountain.

"Very long."

Qing Rui’s eyes flickered slightly, her head aching as she held her forehead and said,

"You still have a million years ahead; relative to that, these eight hundred years of silence are quite short."

"Even Little Saints have only a million years?"

Gu Wen picked up on the key information; he could no longer sense the end of his own life, but death still loomed.

Jianmu replied, "All things are born and perish; calamities are endless. Even heaven and earth themselves have a time of annihilation. However, the lifespan of heaven and earth is measured in eons, with one eon equaling one hundred and twenty-nine thousand six hundred years. To witness the destruction of heaven and earth, we may have to endure nine thousand eons."

"Immortals face calamity every hundred thousand years, maybe twenty or thirty times, but cannot escape the cap of hundred thousand. Little Saints face a calamity every million years and so it is. In the past, the Emperors would have nine million years, and had they not become Saints, they would be dead by now."

Gu Wen asked, "And what of Saints?"

"Saints live as long as heaven and earth, which still have nine thousand eons."

"In the end, there has been no complete transcendence."

Gu Wen chuckled lightly but also found it to be reasonable.

Transcendence is relative; those not yet Immortals struggle within the ’Red Dust.’ A cultivator’s lifespan is often several thousand years, which is considerable, but they spend the vast majority of their lives in Qi Cultivation and retreat. Ninety-nine percent of a cultivator’s life is centered on cultivation.

Just as mortals toil their entire lives, how many days of leisure do they truly have?

Immortals, however, are different; they theoretically possess an endless lifespan. They need not labor, need not desperately cultivate Qi to break through; they luxuriously enjoy tens of thousands of years of time.

But if one wishes to become a Saint, Immortals too must toil incessantly.

This pose, when observed by Qing Rui, prompted her to say, "You’re still as arrogant as before, not even considering Saints worth your regard."

"I’m simply treading a path that is far longer than yours."

Gu Wen shook his head, leaving Qing Rui all the more perplexed.

Being a Little Saint herself, how could he speak of outpacing Saints?

Gu Wen didn’t continue the topic and instead asked, "Have you come here today to seek death?"

"To settle a karmic debt."

"Can you kill me?"

Gu Wen countered. He could now see through Jianmu’s depth; this meant the other was at least his equal.

To this day, he had never met a being who could defeat him at the same level.

"If you were physically present in Jianmu, I might be able to kill you, but clearly, that is not possible," Qing Rui shook her head and admitted, "I’ve come to cooperate. I’m willing to merge my body with your great Dao, thus achieving Saint status without worry for countless generations."

Gu Wen was somewhat astonished; he had been prepared for a fight, not expecting Jianmu to suggest peace before battle.

To merge with my Dao—this seemed no different from becoming a slave to it or, perhaps, a trap.

Seeing his concern, Qing Rui continued, "Together we attain Sainthood, and there shall be no more bloodshed. Conflict would mean both defeat and injury, especially since your master is already half crippled."

With those words, the heavens and earth became dim.

A trace of coolness crept onto Gu Wen’s serene countenance as he said, "Are you foolish, or simply ignorant?"

Qing Rui charged ahead heedlessly.

"She ventured deep into the Earth Realm to see the Lord for your sake, then her vitality suffered immensely. Four hundred years ago, when I led an army to invade the Human Race, she fought against eight Devil Ancestors with her weakened body to defend an eight-thousand-league territory. Had it not been for a few ’insects’ causing interference, she might already be dead."

The sky grew even duskier, her bewitching features losing their color, and this incarnation seemed as if it had fallen into a frigid abyss.

Ordinary beings would realize that peace was not negotiated in this manner. But Jianmu, being a Heaven and Earth Spiritual Root, neither human nor beast, naturally divine, considered everything with reason.

For cooperation is based on deterrence, not pleading.

"As well as the woman you care for, she is already dead."

Murder flashed in Gu Wen’s eyes as he looked up to see the sky awash with blood red.

Immortals possess the power to move mountains and rivers; Little Saints have the power to influence heaven and earth with their will.

He grew increasingly calm yet colder as he said, "You seek death."

"No, what I mean is that everything could be resolved in an instant if you were to merge with my Dao. And me, being rooted in the Cultivation World, to destroy the tree would mean the end of the world."

Qing Rui extended her hand, but in the next moment, a hand reached out and grasped her white neck. Gu Wen lifted her a foot off the ground.

"Then I shall create a new world."

Having spoken, his fingers clenched, and the graceful woman transformed into a Spirit Pill in his palm.

Swallowing the Spirit Pill, he looked inward to his Qi Sea, where there was no longer a Golden Core or Divine Soul—only a crystal clear, tiny person without facial features fitting in his palm.