Chapter 199

Chapter 199: Alternative Initiation

Chen Ansheng was in a state of panic.

Run!

He ran randomly into the withered vine forest behind him.

“This Spirit of Control is way too abnormal, it really turned me into an ordinary mortal!”

After running for a long time, Chen Ansheng gasped for breath, hiding in the bushes, the shouts and clamor behind him had already faded away.

Through the gaps in the leaves, he could still see rays of light scattering down.

Buzz.

At this moment, Chen Ansheng received a piece of information in his mind.

The Spirit of Control announced that the assessment had begun!

Every being in the mortal realm could cultivate, and those who broke through the cultivation threshold would receive rewards.

Rewards included techniques, resources, weapons, food, and more.

Moreover, every breakthrough in realms afterward would earn corresponding rewards, until the great battle three years later.

Overall, the content of this assessment was very simple: everyone was turned into mortals and had to start cultivating from scratch to see who could break through the fastest.

It was evident that this was a test of everyone’s comprehensive cultivating aptitude.

“Phew, this is simple. I have the cultivation techniques from the Celestial Realm; I can’t be worse than them.”

After grasping the information, Chen Ansheng couldn’t help but smile.

Just wait until I achieve success in cultivation and deal with you minions.

But in the next moment, he couldn’t smile anymore.

“The Spirit Gathering Technique is ineffective!”

Just as Chen Ansheng was about to begin cultivating, he realized that the laws of heaven and earth in this spiritual realm had quietly changed; his Spirit Gathering Technique simply did not work.

“Damn it! I really have to start from scratch!”

Chen Ansheng grumbled in frustration, realizing there was not even a single loophole to exploit.

“Well, everyone’s starting point is the same, so it’s fair.”

Calming down, Chen Ansheng reflected that he had never been treated fairly in his entire life. This assessment was a chance to see exactly how capable he was.

“The primary task is to find a place rich in spiritual energy!”

Now that the laws of heaven and earth had changed, the entire spiritual realm had turned into an ordinary space, and suitable places for cultivation were scarce.

Based on Chen Ansheng’s understanding, those deep mountains and rivers were often the places richest in spiritual energy.

Whoever found it first would have the opportunity to break through the cultivation threshold first and thus receive rewards.

As long as he seized the initiative, everything would surely go much smoother afterward.

After wandering around in the wilderness for several hours, a sudden muffled sound echoed in the sky.

Chen Ansheng looked up and saw a golden page of a book hovering beneath the clouds.

“Whoosh!”

That golden page hovered for a moment before flying eastward.

In that instant, everyone received a piece of information in their minds—someone had entered the Dao!

“Damn it!”

Chen Ansheng’s initial excitement was instantly doused.

Only a few hours had passed, and someone had already entered the Dao?

Where is the justice in that? The person who entered must have been in a place rich in spiritual energy since the assessment began!

What incredible luck!

However, Chen Ansheng also understood that just having rich spiritual energy wasn’t enough; one needed excellent comprehension as well, to deduce the breathing method under the rules of this spiritual realm, to draw the energy into one’s body and step into the threshold of cultivation.

“I hope it’s not my enemy.”

Chen Ansheng sighed and quietly continued forward.

Seven days passed. During these seven days, Chen Ansheng finally emerged from the mountains and came to a tranquil lake.

“I’m so hungry.”

These days, he had relied on wild fruits and roots from the mountains to stave off hunger. Not only was he unsatisfied, but his mouth had also dried up.

Reaching the lake, Chen Ansheng jumped in and drank the sweet lake water heartily.

After thoroughly washing off the dirt, Chen Ansheng came ashore and wove a basket from reeds, planning to catch some fish using bugs as bait.

During this period, he received several more messages indicating that a few more lucky individuals had entered the Dao.

Chen Ansheng ignored them; his most pressing desire now was to eat fish.

But the entire afternoon passed, and he didn’t catch a single fish.

Starving, he lay on the lake shore, feeling utterly exhausted.

As night fell, the cold moonlight bathed the earth, and ripples danced across the clear lake surface.

“It’s so quiet, it’s like going back to my childhood.”

Unable to sleep from hunger, Chen Ansheng stared wide-eyed at the stars above.

His hometown was located in the Celestial Realm, in the poorest village of the Weiyang Domain.

The inhabitants of that place lived at the bottom of the celestial realm, hardly different from mortals, relying on the mountains and rivers for sustenance.

There was warmth and harmony among the neighbors, but also petty dramas in daily life.

At that time, since Chen Ansheng was an adopted orphan, he was often isolated and bullied by the other children in the village.

When he had nothing to do, he liked to run alone to the lakeside at the eastern end of the village, often sitting there for half a day, doing nothing but daydreaming.

Only when night fell and the stars appeared in the dim sky, making the surroundings quiet enough to frighten him, would he run back home.

“It’s been years since I last went back. Before heading to the Slaughtering Dragon Sea, I must go back home and take a look.”

Chen Ansheng felt he had struck it rich now, and the villagers wouldn’t even be able to guess how many celestial crystals he had.

He thought that if he returned now, it would surely be a grand affair.

Back when he first started working with the village elders, Chen Ansheng’s greatest dream was to save enough celestial crystals over a lifetime to buy a low-level cave dwelling and marry a wife to live with.

The so-called low-level cave dwelling was actually just a low-level spiritual land, one of the tens of thousands of small cave dwellings separated out.

That was the ultimate dream of those at the bottom of the celestial realm.

As he lay there quietly, scenes kept flashing in Chen Ansheng’s mind of the village elderly, tearful with joy after receiving a few celestial crystals. He imagined those childhood companions who had bullied him, now grown up and too shy to look him in the eye, with silly grins on their faces.

And there was the fierce dog from Widow Wang’s home at the eastern end of the village, which always chased him and bit him; this time he would definitely give it a few hard hits.

And also his ancestor who secretly fed him meat, he would send some elixirs to the old man, who might recover from his lameness.

“Huff, breathe, huff, breathe…”

Chen Ansheng was completely lost in the fantasy of returning to his village, and his heart became more peaceful than ever.

He didn’t even notice that with each breath, the moonlight was being absorbed and expelled repeatedly.

“Eh? Why am I not hungry at all?”

After a long while, Chen Ansheng not only felt no hunger or fatigue, but instead felt invigorated, as if he had absorbed celestial energy, full of vitality.

Buzz!

Suddenly, a jolt ran through his mind as he received a message from the Spirit of Control.

“You have entered the Dao; I bestow upon you half a volume of the ‘Sunlight Celestial Scripture.’ I hope you will continue to strive.”

This brief message made Chen Ansheng spring up from the ground.

“I entered the Dao? What’s happening?”

In his surprise, under the bright full moon, a ball of light suddenly flashed and flew into his mind.

“It really is the ‘Sunlight Celestial Scripture’!”

Chen Ansheng quickly checked its contents; the scripture wasn’t lengthy and was easy to understand.

But as long as he cultivated it, he could absorb the essence of the sun and gain spiritual power to elevate his cultivation realm.

Then, Chen Ansheng looked up at the bright moon and suddenly realized how he had entered the Dao.

“I must have absorbed the essence of the moon to enter the Dao! The Spirit of Control gave me half a volume of the Sunlight Celestial Scripture, intending for me to follow the path of absorbing the essence of the sun and moon for cultivation!”

Chen Ansheng couldn’t help but feel immense joy.

In his understanding, the ability to absorb the essence of the sun and moon was something only those monstrous, defying the heavens, could possess. He had never heard of any human cultivator having such an ability.